Looking at the assembled coterie, Luna nodded. "Tonight, thou hast a mission to complete. It seems that a group of fanatics calling themselves "The Cut of the Shadowed Blades" hast captured several foals with the intent of their sacrifice to some dark force. Foremost, thou art to saveth the foals. 'Tis thy top priority." At this, the lined ponies nodded in agreement.

"Secondly, We dost not accept such deplorable activity. We can'st not allow this to continue. Needless to say, these are not innocent ponies by ANY stretch of one's imagination." Luna's serious expression deepened. "Feel free to draineth them dry if thou wishest to."

The group grinned as one, showing their fangs briefly.

"Also, thy equipment." Luna said, conjuring forth an assortment of items. Among them were weapons like hoofblades and wingblades, as well as armour. There was also an assortment of potions in a case to keep them safe. Fluttershy took this willingly. She was still eager to get in on the action, so she placed that in her Pocket.

Twilight tilted her head slightly at that. "Fluttershy? Since when could you do that?"

Fluttershy blinked. Then blinked twice. "Can't everypony?"

Twilight sighed. "Show of hooves."

Pinkie and Rarity also raised their hooves. So did Luna, not that it was necesssary.

"Figures." Applejack muttered.

Luna continued. "Before thou goest, for a finishing touch, needs must thy clan have a name."

Twilight thought for a moment. "Amicita.(1)"

Luna nodded. "Fitting." She then hoofed out a set of compass-like objects.

"Those compass devices will point thee to thy objective. Ye'll know thy target when thou dost see it. When thou dost, teacheth them to fear the darkness. Oh. And while thou art on mission, stick to thy aliases. Merry part."

The newly named clan of Moonkissed bowed to the princes. "Until we merry meet again." they said as one, taking to the air shortly thereafter.

The newly dubbed Amicitas clan flew for several hours.

Va;eria (Applejack), Alexandri (Rainbow Dash), Venatrix (Fluttershy), Fascina (Rarity) Valentina (Pinkie Pie) and Luminita (Twilight) followed their compasses to their target.

Due to the draconic blood within them, they tired not a bit, and made pretty good time, too!

Naturally, Alexandria could go much MUCH faster, but was reluctant to leave her clan behind.

Eventually, they managed to get to Manehattan.

"Question!" Alexandria put out.

"Yes, Alexandria?" Luminita responded.

"Are we THERE yet?!" was the impatient query.

Luminita looked at her compass, which pointed straight down. "Actually... yes!"

Right below them was a cathedral of sorts. On the outside, it looked reasonably decent. It was a beautiful reddish colour that made the church distinct....

Until you got closer and found that the outside was painted with fresh blood. They could sense that there were several coats of it, of various ages.

Valeria commented under her breath, "They couldn't be less subtle if they put out an ad in the newspaper."

The rest of the clan nodded their agreement.

They entered the cathedral, only to find a perfectly normal, empty area.

"Something's off, here." Venatrix stated the obvious, starting to search carefully.

"Venatrix?" Luminita queried, "What are you loo-"

She didn't get any farther, as Venatrix pulled a hanger on the coat rack sideways, causing a secret passage to open, leading downward.

"Nnnnnneeeever mind." Luminita said.

Due to her new nature, Venatrix was able to notice the smallest of details, and follow a scent like a figyrative and literal bloodhound.

Venatrix led the coterie of vamponies downward, keeping a watchful eye out for traps that might be around.

The stairs going down led to a long corridor. Venatrix held out a hoof, stopping the progression. From her Pocket, shhe brought out a spraycan. giving the corridor a generous spritz, several lasers were placed at various angles.

After a good look, she said, "Follow my lead." and started doing some impressive acrobatics. She did a flip, landing on her hind hooves, flipped over another, slid under a set of four, backflipped with a full twist and landed on all fours. She then spritzed the hallway again for her clanmates' benefit.

Fascina was next, following the movements exactly. At the shocked faces she saw, she said, "Well, i'm not just a pretty face, you know."

Luminita was next, only stumbling slightly as she made her movements.

Alexandria was next. She just flew over the low ones, dodging the angled ones. she landed with an aerial backflip, landing hard.

The ones on the other side of the laser grid felt a tap on their withers. Turning around, they saw Valentina, already on the that side. Nopony questioned how.

Valeria went last, making embellished movements as she went. Nothing fancy (such wasn't her style), just enough to reach the other side without incident.

With everypony accounted for, they proceeded.

The hallway led to another ceremonial chamber, but this was FAR more like what they were looking for. The chamber was large, with at least 20 sets of pews. It was also stained red on the walls, coated with blood similarly to the outside. In the dark robed gryphon bishop's claws was a nervous foal. She was so afraid that she had forgotten how to cry. And rightly so!

As the dark priest was about to make the sacrifice, the Amicita clan leapt forth, Luminita shouting, "STOP!"

As the whole procession turned to look at them, Luminita said, angrily, "Put her down."

The bishop did so, surprisingly, the fol running back to the others.

"What have we here?" the bishop queries rhetorically, "Vamponies? How did you even enter this holy place?"

As one, the vamponies snorted. Valeria replied, "This place is ANYTHING but holy. Also, someone reads too many vampire stories."

"How DARE you mock our sacred place of worship!"

"How dare YOU sacrifice the lives of the innocent to powers dark and yet feel the right to call yourself a priest of any caliber?!" Luminita growled.

The dark preacher asked, "Who are you, anyway?"

"We are Amicita. We are retribution for the lives that you've taken, the souls that you've damned."

"SLAY THEM!" the bishop said without further ado. The cultists began to rise from the pews.

"Everypony:Fpormation Delta 3!"

The vampiric ponies gathered in a loose half-circle. Then they charged forward. The clash was about to commence!

Weapons were bared and liberally used.

Valeria used her brute strength to slam her targets to the hard floor. Alexandria darted back and forth, slashing oncoming cultists, occasionally stopping to feed from every third or fourth target. Venatrix used her Protean ability to effectively beast out and tore her targets to shreds. Fascina created a dazzlng light show with her magic and weilded loose pews as improvised giant clubs. Luminita used her blood magic to fire bullets of blood at their foes. Valentina bounced from tatget to target, causing them to attack each other in their attempts totakke her down.

At length, the leader shouted, "ENOUGH! I have had it with you cut-rate vampires!"

Turning to the obligatory statue behind him, he began incanting in a forgotten language. As he chanted, a portal opened, only to admit.....

"No way!" Alexandria commented in awe.

"Well, well. Fancy meeting the six of you again."

"Nightmare Moon?!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Just a piece. A small piece. But it's all i'll need. This cult is a wjp;e gaggle of my followers. Here, I am at the height of my power. This fight will NOT be like the last.:

Luminita said, "You're right. We're stronger than we were then. Don't expect us to go down with any amount of ease."

Round 2 was about to begin.

Author's Note

And suddenly, a wild cliffhanger appeared!

Sorry about that, but this is all i've got for now.