A pleasant surprise got all of them reunited in a single place. Lightning Dash was dragged by Rainbow Dash, which claimed to be joining a party of somepony called Pinkie Pie, being helped by nopony other than Ice Sapphire, which was enchanted by the dress she received from Golden Breeze. Rarity, the one to make said dress, was now talking with Fluttershy, whom refused to leave Scarlet Boulder’s side, even when she was talking with Applejack, who had insisted in bringing Shadow Blaze as a form of paying him back. Shining Armor in the end was there by pure luck, as he was looking for some book to read and was greeted by a party for Twilight Sparkle being welcomed in the city.

It was a shame that Twilight Sparkle herself, after a very little time, had got upstairs and locked herself in where would be her room.

When the six Knights of Harmony joined to trade some of their information, though, Golden Breeze’s wings were tingled by a magic presence. Very faint, she judged as it being too far away or being really too small, but she quickly dismissed that one since it would never make it across so many magical presences if it was a weak magic.

“They started moving…” Golden Breeze whispered.

“So soon?” Lightning Dash said worriedly.

“Guess we have no more time to play around…” Shadow Blaze said.

Lightning Dash felt a hint of doubt in Shadow Blaze. Ice Sapphire then brought him back from his thoughts, “We better get moving then. If we take too long, Pinkie Pie will notice us missing. Better we go as soon as we can.”

They all nodded and moved outside the large tree where the library was built inside. Golden Breeze looked up and noticed the moon. “We better hurry. It’s almost time for the sunrise.”

With a nod, all the six of them dashed towards the forest surrounding the town, following Golden Breeze’s lead. However, as they set their hooves in the forest, they knew something bad was about to happen. It sent a chill down all their spines.

Not giving up to their fears, though, they marched into the dark forest ahead of them. After about ten minutes of them walking and nothing out of ordinary happening, Shadow Blaze turned to Golden Breeze, “Are you sure they started moving?”

“More likely they were inviting us,” Golden Breeze answered. “You see, like a trap or something.”

“And explain me, why are we falling for a trap?” Ice Sapphire asked.

“Because if we don’t, the ponies of Ponyville can be harmed…” Shining Armor said.

“And that’s what makes you, self-proclaimed heroes, so foreseeable…”

All six of them quickly placed themselves in a circle, looking for the owner of the voice. They all easily recognized her as Night Cloud, and the unicorn was, surprisingly, lying over the branch of a tree, without a care for the world. Suddenly, the unicorn chuckled.

“I can’t believe you forgot that I can hear your thoughts…” Night Cloud answered. Her silvery coat was mostly covered by a dark blue armor and the golden mane and tail left free. “Come to think of it, I couldn’t expect too much of you as well… However… I’m curious about how the likes of you could defeat Midnight Rose…”

“Easy when you underestimate us,” Scarlet Boulder said.

Night Cloud smiled, “I won’t let them get--”

Before she could say anything else, she felt the whole three shaking hard and Night Cloud only haven’t fall for being quick and jumping to a nearby tree. She then looked down curious, “What the!”

Scarlet Boulder looked at her from the three she just tackled and smiled, “Hard to read the mind of somepony who just reacts?”

Night Cloud snorted, “I admit that you managed to surprise me once. However, I’m now rea--” with a new shaking on her tree, Night Cloud this time haven’t reacted fast enough, falling from it and struggling to fall upon her hooves, quickly jumping out of a giggling Scarlet Boulder’s reach. “You can’t be serious! You’re not thinking before acting?”

“She tends to do that…” Lightning Dash smiled and placed a hoof on Scarlet’s shoulder. “We’ll keep moving then. Can you handle her alone?”

“Easily done, Boss!” Scarlet Boulder said with a smile saluting him quickly and seeing the other Knights of Harmony running deeper into the forest.

“I won’t let you!” Night Cloud quickly summoned his magic, and cast a simple teleportation spell.

As soon as the unicorn mare appeared in front of the group, though, she was tackled down by Scarlet Boulder, barely intertwining in the other Knights’ path. Night Cloud looked at Scarlet Boulder, now furious.

“How dare you! How could you not think and still know where I am?”

Scarlet Boulder, though, smiled, “As an earth pony, I have a deep connection with the earth. In my case, it goes deeper, as the earth becomes an extension of my body. I can feel anything in a rather large range.”

Night Cloud’s eyes widened at that, “but that’s…”

“Geomancy!” Scarlet Boulder then stomped strongly in the ground. Instead of attacking her opponent, it only made a dust cloud rise and slowly covers her body completely, only to fall and reveal a copper-colored armor with plenty of silver and dark gray spiky edges. “Yeah, I know!”

Taken aback by the armor, Night Cloud jumped back and got ready to fight, already angry with a mare that didn’t do much more than react at anything thrown at her. All of a sudden, Night Cloud darted towards Scarlet Boulder, a dark cloud of magic forming around her hoof as she punched squarely into the bright red pony’s chest.

Much to her surprise, Scarlet Boulder was pushed about a meter back, the punch being a lot stronger than she actually thought. She looked at Night Cloud curiously.

“Oh! Finally you’re thinking eh?” Night Cloud asked. “Don’t you dare go thinking that only reacting at me will give you the edge on this battle!”

Night Cloud darted at Scarlet again. The earth mare, though, jumped to her side and prepared to punch on Night Cloud's side only to have her teleport just before being hit. Slamming her hoof into the ground, Scarlet threw herself upwards, avoiding an attack from Night Cloud and with a spin, she managed to kick her in the face. As the unicorn mare took a couple steps back, Scarlet touched the ground again and darted against her.

The dark armored unicorn managed to avoid Scarlet’s next attack by ducking almost to the ground, and then she rose with a strong uppercut right into the red mare’s chest, throwing her up. Scarlet Boulder noticed from the air that the unicorn was preparing a magic blast and quickly placed her fore hooves in front of her face. When the blast hit Scarlet’s armor, Night Cloud was surprised by how easily it was deflected, flowing as water on a duck’s feathers.

Scarlet Boulder dissipated the magic opening her forelegs wide and punched strong at the ground. Night Cloud wasn’t so dumb to stay under an earth pony’s punch, much less one with as much power as this, and jumped backwards. However, Scarlet’s objective wasn’t hit Night Cloud, but the ground itself. And with that, a large amount of earth shot from around the impact area, hitting the unicorn still in mid-air, and punching her squarely in the chest.

Using the same boulder that hit her as a platform, she jumped backward and with a back-flip landed softly on all four hooves. Both mares stood there, facing each other in their defensive instances: Night Cloud full of anger and hate, Scarlet Boulder with a smile in her face, ready to the next round.

****

While they were still running inside the forest, a strong magic presence appeared out of nowhere about two hundred meters from their position. As the only one to easily see where that presence might have come from, Golden breeze took flight above the canopy of the forest and took a look around. Soon she found where that presence came from: the ruins in the middle of the forest, the old Pony Sisters’ castle. That was kinda obvious, I think… she thought. Where else they would summon back the sister of Celestia?

She started to glide back down to her friends when all of a sudden, she felt a powerful punch in the middle of her back accelerating her descend a lot more until she all but crashed against the floor.

“BREEZE!” all other called, Lightning Dash already taking his position between them and where his friend was hit.

“Damn… got my guard down…” said Golden Breeze.

“Oh? Are we alive yet?” a deep male voice echoed through the trees. When they looked in the direction of the voice, they noticed a distortion in the environment. Only after a couple seconds that this distortion slowly dissipated, revealing a pegasus in what they now knew to be a Nightmare Shadow’s armor. Onyx Star looked at them and smiled. “I have to assume you’re tougher than I thought.”

Lightning Dash was about to go at him when Golden Breeze called out, “Your destination is a castle at northwest of there. Seems like they started the ritual to bring Nightmare Moon back already…” Onyx Star’s face quickly lost its smile, looking right at Golden Breeze. “I take him.”

“You alone? How will you fight… what you can’t see?” and then he disappeared again.

Everypony there looked around, trying to identify where the attack would be coming from, but for Golden Breeze. In a blink, the yellow pegasus mare darted in front of Shadow Blaze, both hooves holding the attack of an invisible Onyx Star, which startled the male pegasus enough for him to fly backwards a bit and dissipate his magic again.

“How…”

Golden Breeze then flapped her wings and a strong gust of wind made her opponent hit strongly against a tree on his back. She never took her eyes from him while yelling, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GO!!”

Suddenly all other four members of the guards darted towards the direction Golden Breeze had given them. The Nightmare Shadow pegasus recovered himself and looked deep into Golden Breeze's eyes.

“You have quite a few tricks, pretty...”

“Please, I haven’t given you any intimacy,” she said serious.

“Summoning strong gusts won’t cut it though!”

He all but dashed against her again, ready to punch her in the chest, just to feel a gently breeze surround her body and suddenly she was gone. After his surprise, though, he felt Golden Breeze just behind him, ducking just quick enough to avoid a strong kick.

Flapping his wings to gain some distance between them, he looked her in the eye. “That was teleportation, right?”

“Wind variant. For now I can only use it on myself, that’s why we were running through the forest,” she answered.

“How comes a pegasus can use magic?” he asked curious.

“Ironically how is a pegasus actually asking me that…” she then closed her eyes and the wind started rushing strongly around her. As her mane lifted from the strength of wind, a bright and frail-looking armor with lime green color most evident, reddish brown lining the smooth curves at the edges and light brown randomly placed curves all over the main plates. Her four hooves covered in leaf-like plates, and her head with a reddish brown tiara supporting a lime green emerald finished the main aspects of the armor. And as Golden Breeze opened her wings, they were like plenty of autumn leaves ready to fall at any moment.

Onyx Star was taken aback by that armor, looking straight at the cutie mark in front of it. “You… can’t be serious…”

“I’m very serious!” Golden Breeze flapped her wings once again and created another gust of wind against Onyx Star.

“You fooled me once already!” he pressed himself against the tree behind him now to avoid being pushed by the wind.

“Make it twice then!” With her second flaps, though, golden shards were also thrown against Onyx Star.

Noticing his mistake, the nightmare pegasus bucked strongly on the tree to the point his hind hooves locked there and then pulled himself down against the strength of Golden Breeze’s wind. The shards she threw, though, shattered the tree where he was just now. Freeing himself, he flew straight at the pegasus mare’s side preparing a strong punch right in her face, just to have she disappear then.

Turning around to look Golden Breeze in the eye, he said dryly, “You’re gonna give me a lot of trouble…”

“Good! That was the idea from the very beginning…”

****

“River ahead!” Ice Sapphire called. Instead of reducing the speed, she, Shadow Blaze and Shining Armor ran faster to get enough impulse. Lightning Dash was to flying above the river and helps them with a gust of wind. However, movement in the water called Ice Sapphire’s attention.

As they jumped, though, Ice Sapphire’s gaze was kept down and it paid out. Three dark tendrils erupted from underwater and where about to reach them when she used her magic to control the river’s water and push all of them further towards the other side. They barely avoided the trap when, from the river, a female earth pony got out looking at them.

“That was definitely a graceful way to avoid my trap.” Only then they noticed she was still dry and wearing a Nightmare Shadow’s armor. Recognition hit Ice Sapphire then, so night Poet continued, “And judging by your manners, it must be the mare with you. Hmmm… Now that I came to think of it, wasn’t there two other mares in your group?”

“I will--” Shadow Blaze started but was cut by Ice Sapphire.

“March on! This girl’s mine. Look, there’s still Dusk Shield that I suspect have magic as powerful as Shining Armor’s. And besides, you and Lightning Dash are the most powerful of our group!”

“Oh, so the little girl is sacrificing herself so her friends could reach and stop our Mother?” Night Poet smiled at her. “That’s something that would make a very passionate history… albeit one without a too much happy end for you…”

Much to everypony’s surprise, four dark tendrils appeared from Night Poet’s back. However, they were met halfway by Ice Sapphire’s ice shield. And as if the shield wasn’t there, Ice Sapphire crossed right through it, looking straight into Night Poet’s eyes. Not able to break through the frost shield, the three stallions quickly resumed their march towards the ruins.

Night Poet watched them go for a little, “I swear I was going to kill them quickly… Our dear younger sister will not be as gently as I. I actually feel quite bad for letting such beautiful stallions go face such a sad end…” And with a smile, she added, “Specially the pegasus on--”

Before she could finish her phrase, she was hit in the face by Ice Sapphire, the mare looking her with anger not previously there. Even before she could get up, Night Poet saw the unicorn mare rushing towards her with a primal rage scream ready to punch again and, before connecting the attack, the Nightmare Shadow was enveloped in a dark shadow and suddenly disappeared.

Ice Sapphire though, turned around and punched again, this time right into her enemy’s chest. After being thrown a couple meters backwards, Night Poet smiled and looked at her with delighted eyes, “Such pain, such power, such fury…” When the poet pony raised her head again, she held a rather maniac expression, a wide smile in her face, a wish to kill in her eyes, “Yes… Now I’m even more interested in that pegasus… After I’m done with you, he will be all mine!”

Ice Sapphire’s eyes also filled with a wish to kill. The only difference between them, actually, is that she didn’t had a smile in her face, but both ponies rushed against each other, both ready to battle till death, even if for somewhat different reasons.

****

It was the final sprint, the three stallions running at their top speed towards the ruins until a large gorge appeared ahead of them. Shining Armor looked at the pegasus.

“Dash! Take Blaze and go to the ruins! I’ll take the bridge and meet you there!”

“Right! Blaze, ready?”

Without a single second of delay, Shadow Blaze jumped above the gorge so Lightning Dash could easily grab him and keep him on air as they crossed the gap in their path. Shining Armor though didn’t have that much luck. As he approached the bridge, a powerful magic blast was shot against him. Bringing up his most powerful shield, he was only thrown back a few meters before looking closely at his opponent.

“Dusk Shield,” he said seriously. “So it comes to a battle between two barrier specialists?” Shining Armor asked already charging his magic.

“So it seems.”

And without a single word more between the two of them, two powerful magical blasts met exactly halfway between them. Shining Armor’s pinkish magic found its match against Dusk Shield’s dark purple magic. Tring to take the concentration of each other, both keep shooting offenses and moving themselves in random directions. In the rare occasion something got between them, that got instantly turned into magical dust due to intensity of the blasts.

And both ponies had a lot of magic to play this for a really long time.

****

Once inside the ruins, Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash looked everywhere for the damn ritual in order to stop Nightmare Moon’s return.

When they got to what were once the dining hall, Lightning Dash turned away in order to look at one direction, and just then Blaze noticed something else. Suddenly, the earth pony turned towards Lightning Dash and jumped against him. The pegasus, though, was still emotionally bounded to the earth pony and readily ducked the attack, flying backwards.

“Blaze! What the--” Lightning Dash’s eyes widened enough to be mistaken with two dishes. Sitting at the head of the dining table was a black alicorn, her cyan eyes had slit pupils and her smile wasn’t warm at all, maybe because the murderous intent her eyes were passing. Right then, she wore only some regalia, as a helmet, a torc and four ponyshoes, but nothing for battle. “Nightmare Moon…”

The pegasus’ attention was then brought back to Shadow Blaze, which attacked him again. With a quick spin, Lightning Dash avoided his partner’s attack and looked him in the eye. “Blaze! What are you doing?”

“It seems that my Mother and I share the same destiny of being overshadowed. However, it’s the last time such a thing will happen!”

“Overshadowed? Blaze! Listen to yourself! She’s just poisoning you!” Lightning Dash screamed.

“She is my MOTHER!” and with a burst of fire from his four hooves, Blaze jumped towards Lightning Dash, his armor forming over his dark brown coat as he tried to hit the pegasus.

Not standing idle, though, Lightning Dash used his wings to block the attack, already summoning his own armor in a burst of electricity. The attack of the earth pony made him fly a little higher, but he only back-flipped and with a flap of his wings dashed against Blaze trying for a full body tackle. The earth pony jumped over him and before the pegasus could be targeted even, he rolled aside. Both of them stopped to look eye in eye.

“That will be interesting…” Nightmare Moon said aloud, a cursed smile on her lips.

Author's Note

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND Chapter 12 is out. A preparation for the battles to come and a bit more in the feelings and personalities of our main characters. For those which were surprised, wait! There's a couple more surprises you are still to find out! Both in personalities and in relationships that affects the whole group! Well, see you nex time!