Chapter IV
Shadows Vs. Darkness.

Great Master East Wind always woke up early to take care of her residence. Her first chore everyday was to make breakfast for everypony in her home. Of course, her tenants helped her too, taking turns to help her. Once breakfast was ready, everypony got together and they ate breakfast.
Again, East Wind’s residence was famous because it included an abundant breakfast every day.

The group of tenants chatted happily among them, or simply read the paper in a corner without bother or being bothered. But despite that, everypony always get along just fine. East Wind didn’t tolerate fights at her property, so one of the basic requirements to live there was to get along with the other residents.

That day the group was having a nice breakfast, when out of sudden, a pony jumped excitedly over his seat as he read the paper. “Hey, check this out! The Princess wants to set a dialogue with the Great Master!”

Everypony turned to him. The so-called Great Master had become a celebrity among Canterlot. The authorities wanted to get her as soon as possible, but the people, mostly students, considered her a hero. An important figure who came to change the system, no matter what.

“What does it say?” asked East Wind excitedly. Everypony turned to her, as she shrugged. “What? I am a fan!”

The pony with the paper chuckled, and began to read:

“Princess Twilight Sparkle published a letter to her. Ehem,”

Dear Great Master:

First of all, let me introduce myself. I am the youngest of all Princesses of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. Surely you have heard about me as I’ve heard about you.
Well, you and I have a lot in common. Both of us consider that there’s nothing more important than education. That’s why I think I am the most qualified to try to understand your cause.

You serve to a noble purpose, but the way you’ve been doing things is simply not right. To come and challenge us to fight, trying to change the system by force is wrong, don’t deny it.
You break into universities and steal the knowledge that ponies have fought for, those aren’t acts of a hero. But, instead of taking advantage of what you’ve taken, you give it to others freely, so I see there’s still hope for you. Great Master, I need you to understand the system works for a reason. Imagine that you put a dangerous spell to the reach of somepony with bad intentions. To the reach of somepony who can’t handle it, and hurts itself trying to replicate it?

Also, all this knowledge you’ve given to everypony is worth nothing without a guide, a guide that can only be found at the universities you target. So, in the end, this fight of yours will be pointless.

I think your intentions are pure, and I respect that. But your way to do things is far too dangerous for the students.

So I’m asking you to talk to me front to front. I would love to finally meet you, without hidden tricks or anything. I just want us to talk like equals, and finish this battle of yours before anypony is hurt.

For this entire week, from seven p.m. to ten p.m. I’ll be waiting for you, where all this started. The park in front of the Academy for the Gifted Unicorns. With no guards or anything, just me and probably my friends. I hope you show up, Great Master, no matter if we come to an agreement or not, I’ll be honored to meet somepony as passionate about education such as yourself.

Sincerely yours,

Twilight Sparkle.”

East Wind smiled satisfied.
Twilight Sparkle, why didn’t she go to her on the first place? Celestia was a lost cause, but maybe a young Princess could understand.

The pony smiled happily, as she visualized a glorious future. This was the chance for her ideas to get listened, and change the damn education system for good. Maybe could even negotiate a place to teach Shadow Magic freely.

East Wind wasn’t the only one who was happy. Princess Celestia had been worried since she realized how much she underestimated this ponies. They were able to infiltrate in more academies that she could imagine. Celestia sighed, she should have arranged a meeting after the first encounter. But now she and the Great Master were far from good terms.

But Twilight was young, and she may communicate better with the Great Master. The conflict would end that night. “The direct approach was the best option from the very beginning. Now Twilight and her friends would handle the situation, and everything will solve.

As for the Bearers, nopony would complain that their forced stay in Canterlot would end soon. They happily helped Twilight to think a quick solution to this problem with the Knights of the Silence.
In the end, for everypony’s annoyance, the solution was the simpler one.

“Let me see if I get this right, a meeting with them?” asked Rainbow Dash. “This was obvious from the beginning.”

“I know, I know,” said Twilight. “But I couldn’t figure a way to approach to the Knights of the Silence. But now I have figured it. a letter on the newspaper.”

“But are you sure isn’t this a bit dangerous?” asked Fluttershy.

“Unlike the other foes we have faced, the Knights of the Silence are not evil, they are just followers of a dangerous ideology. Pretty much like Starlight.”

The others nodded, and hurried to the newspaper office, when they bumped into Princess Celestia who was crossing the hallway.
She smiled at the group as usual, happy to see them.

“Twilight! I am so proud of you! You managed to find an easy solution for our current problem.”

Twilight blushed as she bowed. “Thanks Princess. But how did you know?”

“What you mean? I just read it on the paper this morning.”

The girls exchanged a confused look.

“Princess Celestia, I haven’t published the letter. Precisely the girls and I were on our way to the editorial to leave the letter.”

Celestia shook her head, and showed the mares the letter. “Twilight, the paper published a copy of the letter, and I would recognize your hoof-writing anywhere. And Luna is about to rise the moon so I thought you were on your way to meet the Great Master.”

“This doesn’t have any sense!” said Rainbow, looking at the letter. “This is indeed Twilight’s hoof-writing, but she hasn’t given the letter to the paper yet.

Fluttershy gasped in fear when she put all the pieces together. “Who did this haves Twilight’s hoof-writing because she IS Twilight. Or, it was.”

The girls froze when they finally understood too. They all ran outside he palace praying to stop this before somepony was killed.

At East Wind’s students’ residence, the earth pony was putting on her tunic, he long cape, and finally the smiling mask.

“I see you are ready, Great Master.” said Emerald Horn, as he got inside the room.

“Yes, thank you.” said East Wind, looking at her disciple. “Why are you wearing your uniform? Are you coming too?"

“Yes, and me too.” said Cream Cone. “Princess Twilight Sparkle is saying her friends will join her, right? So we’re coming too. As friends.”

The Great Master shook her head in disbelief, but she smiled. “I think you are right.”

Emerald bowed before East Wind, and then he hugged her gently. “Teacher and student. Master and disciples, but firstly, friends.”

In the end, the Great Master smiled to her disciples. “Thank you guys. I was thinking that Sparkle is more accessible than Celestia, but you’re right. It is always a good time for the company of a good friend.”

The three Knights fused with their shadows, and moved around the streets of Canterlot.

But, halfway to the park, something gave the chills to Emerald Horn.

Hey, I left my lucky charm at the residence. Said Emerald telepathically.

So what, moron? Asked Cream Cone.

Oh, come on! I always carry it the most important days of my life, and, it have never failed me. For example, the day dean Deep Knowledge rejected me. But then I met the Great Master. This can’t be a coincidence. Come on Cream. Come with me. Great Master, do you think you can handle this without us?

The Great Master rolled her shadow-eyes, but sighed. Fine, that was my original plan anyway. But hurry guys.

The two shadows separated from the main one, as she arrived to the park.

It was seven with fifteen minutes. A bit late.

The Great Master was nervous, but optimistic. However, there was nopony to be seen. “Princess Sparkle? Are you here? It is me, the Great Master of the Knights of the Silence.”

A sound of hoofsteps called the Great Master’s attention.

“I was waiting for you, Great Master.” said a sinister voice in the dark.

The Great Master turned where the voice was coming, only to be received by six pairs of red eyes that glowed in the dark. Behind the eyes, there were six silhouettes that moved slowly, and threating.

East Wind shivered, feeling the malicious aura from this creatures.

In the meantime, Emerald unfused with his shadow, materializing a couple of blocks away from the park.

“Dude, what’s up with you and the lucky charm?” asked Cream, materializing too.

“I lied. I had a feeling that something bad is going to happen, and we need the element of surprise.”

Cream Cone smiled warmly at her friend. “Emerald, do you actually think this is a trap? But the Princesses would never do something like this.”

“I’m not sure if we’re dealing with the Princesses.”

Cream didn’t say anything, but she trusted her friend’s judgment.

“Fine, I’ll believe you. But how are we going to know when to join in?” asked Cream.

Right at that moment, they felt an explosion of Shadow Magic. Not like a friendly demonstration, but a desperate attack.

“Now!” they shouted, fusing into the shadows.

…

“You are not Princess Sparkle.” said the Great Master, walking backwards.

“Yes and no, is a long story. I was, like three thousand years ago. I lost the count, right when I stopped caring. Still, that remains in the past. A past that would never be because of time travel. What you’re about to experience, is the result of changing history.”

The Great Master threw her cape, preparing to fight.
She was no fool, and clearly watched how the other five shadows moved around her, cutting her all the possible escape routes.

“So, you are Twilight Sparkle from an alternate future, an apocalyptic future or something like that.” said the Great Master, trying to make sense to this monstrous apparition.

“I’m not worthy of that name since I turned into his.” she sighed. “Anyway, I am getting tired of this nonsensical conversation, so I’ll get right to the point. Your stupidities will endanger Equestria at some point. I know, I was there. So we’re here to stop you before you and your little group become too powerful to be stopped.”

“Less talking, more killing!” said Undash, pulling out a 40-centimeters-long needle and throwing it to the Great Master.

East Wind teleported away right on the last second, and the needle went inside Midnight’s eye.
The undead leader sighed, and pulled out the needle, and her eye. But a new one grew on its place.

She was smiling. “What are you waiting for? There’s a nice carnage waiting for us.”

The Undead Knights ran after the Great Master, who began to run as fast as she could, looking for a chance to fuse with the shadows. She did, but before she could get lost in the shadows of the city, who was Pinkie Pie forced her out of the shadows and tried to stab her with a giant knife.
The Great Master solidified the knife’s shadow to block the attack, coming right at her throat.

“Who taught you how to use Shadow Magic?” gasped East Wind.

“You, of course, Great Master!” laughed the monster known as Pin-Kill-Die. “The Great Master always encouraged us to keep improving, until we died, of course.”

She disappeared in the shadows, immobilizing the Great Master with her non-physical body. “Time to meet your Creator.”

Jack the Reaper appeared from the shadows, taking a huge knife. “A’ would love to do this with mah’ own fangs, but yer’ nothing but an idiot. Not one of the real threats to our land.”

The Great Master struggled against Pin-Kill’s hold, as the evil Fluttershy, Fleshy Smile, heated an iron bar with some help from Gothic, formerly Rarity. Usually, Knight Terror did all the heating stuff, but he was at the ‘headquarters’. Still, the idea was the same: to cauterize all the wounds that the Reaper would make to the Great Master.

“But why?!” cried the Great Master.

Midnight grinned. “In the not so distant future, your little ideology would bring us trouble. Have you heard of Blood Hooves? Of course you haven’t, because he hasn’t even born yet. But he was formerly known as Cotton Hooves, and worked as a cotton farmer. He was a stupid earth pony, an earth pony who never accepted that his kind couldn’t do magic. And instead of accepting his nature, he joined you. Then he took everything you taught him, and since now everypony was free to use magic, unicorns weren’t necessary anymore. He started a genocide that gained a lot of followers.”

“He was just one of the many problems we’ll save to Equestria once we finish you.” said Gothic. “Shall we end this?”

The Great Master struggled, but careful for not to use her full strength. This things loved to talk, apparently, and she wanted to know more. Still she had to figure out a plan, and soon.

“Before you kill me, do you promise you’ll leave my Knights alone?”

Jack the Reaper laughed happily. “Yer’ Knights? Don’t make us laugh, sugarcube. Every single one of yer’ kind will die, except for the Great Master. She haves to answer to Princess Luna.”

“What?” asked East Wind, shocked.

Midnight nodded. “And I quote, ‘As much as it hurts to say it, Tia is acting like an idiot. I know she fears you, and with good reason, but this is a resource that cannot go to a waste. Undead Knights, I know you’ll start killing as soon as we leave this castle. So all I ask is that you bring me the Great Master, alive’.

The Great Master gasped. “What?”

Midnight nodded slowly. “You are going to die, child. Blame your Great Master, Irish Coffee. She used you to protect her skin.”

Jack the Reaper smiled. “Enough talking, just thank Faust yer’ dead will be quick!”

The Undead walked towards the Great Master, who stared at her.
Out of sudden, Jack the Reaper froze.

“Hey, Jackie, what’s up?” asked Pin-Kill-Die.

With her trademark agility, Jack the Reaper jumped over Midnight, slashing her throat with her knife.

As she planned, the Great Master used the few moments of general shock to send a beam of shadows to her captor, forcing her back to her physical form, and finishing the monster with a kick to the jaw.

Pin-Kill-Die laughed happily, as she licked the blood coming from her gums. It was black and rotten, just perfect. Then she took the iron rod she had to throw it to the Great Master.
East Wind managed to solidify the weapon’s shadow to block the attack.

Undash charged against the Great Master, when Jack the Reaper tackled her right on time.

The Great Master nodded slowly. “Manipulate those who have dark hearts, one of the many tricks of our Order.”

Without warning, Pin-Kill-Die found herself hold by her own shadow, as the Great Master looked at her to the eyes, with her great power.

The dark version of Pinkie Pie laughed hysterically, and stabbed Fleshy Smile with a knife, over and over.
The yellow pegasus didn’t seem to care, as she simply pushed away Pin-Kill-Die and chopped her head off with her own knife.

“Useless.” said Fleshy-Smile. “You cannot win this, there is no way to defeat an undead.”

The Great Master gulped, but she fused with the shadows to run away.
That woke up the two undeads under her spell. It was a short-range spell after all.

Midnight laughed cruelly, as she aimed a hoof, and threw a shadow attack to the Great Master’s shadow. “There’s no way to run. Surrender already.”

The Great Master materialized, coughing blood.

“You are dead, darling.” whispered Gothic, raising her knife.

Gothic’s own shadow retained her hoof. Confused, the dark unicorn turned to her shadow that revealed to her and prevented that her to attack her opponent.

“More Shadow Magic?” asked Gothic. “Don’t you get it? There is nowhere to run.”

Cream Cone jumped, creating a flash of light with her magic. “Great Master!” she cried.

“Guys!” smiled the Great Master, smiling to her students.

“I told you, didn’t I?” asked Emerald Horn, sending several magic beams against the Undead Knights. “My lucky charm have never failed me.”

The six creatures received the attacks with open hooves, seeming mostly bored.

“Why don’t you surrender?” asked Midnight. “All you’re going to get is more blood spilled for tonight.”

“We will never surrender, we will never give up!” cried Cream Cone. “We owe everything to the Great Master. She showed us that education is for everypony.”

Emerald nodded firmly. “Whatever happens, we’ll be at the Great Master’s side”·

The Great Master smiled to her students, and bravely stood in front of them.

“You may be more, and a monstrosity unknown to ponykind. But no matter what, we’ll stay together.”

The Undead Knights shrugged, and advanced against the trio of Knights, when a sudden trot called their attention.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” shouted Twilight Sparkle.

She and her friends, AKA, the living versions of the Undead Knights, ran toward the creatures, calling from the bottom of their hearts the Rainbow Power.

“Dang it!” said Jack the Reaper, as the Power of Harmony hit them directly.

The six friends, joining around the six undead, who were sleeping peacefully.

“What we do now, Princess Celestia?” asked Twilight to her mentor.

The Princess of the Sun stared at the group of Undead monsters, and sighed. “There’s a spell used to seal this creatures for undefined time. No matter how much they fight, they would never be able to escape.”

“If that’s true, why are you looking so worried, Princess Celestia?” asked Fluttershy, unsure of the Ruler’s expression.

Celestia frowned. “Because, the spell works only for regular undead. Creatures without the ability to think, guided by the dark desire of murder, murder, and more murder. But this things can think, and they have magic. One of them is even an alicorn. I don’t know if this is enough to stop them for good.”

“Not to mention they are us.” mumbled Applejack.

“Princess, what’s the spell?” asked Twilight.

“I must use it back at my Castle, where the prison for undead creatures is.” She turned to the Knights of the Silence. “Are you okay, my little ponies?”

The Great Master nodded. “Yes, thank you. I am not going to ask what are those things. However, you made very clear that none of you want a long-term change for education. As for us, we’re going not.”

She turned to both of her friends, who prepared to fuse with the shadows.

“Wait, Great Master!” called Twilight. “Midnight maybe outsmarted me, but I do wan tto discuss your ideology. Your goals, your ideology. Maybe we can come to an agreement, finishing this conflict once and for all!”

The Great Master sighed. “My goal is simple: you have to change the education system, forcing every single academy to accept anypony without discrimination, without entrance exams, without questions. Knowledge is for everypony, period. You have no right to monopolize it.”

Twilight shook her head. “Great Master, exams exist to determine if a pony is ready for knowledge.”

Emerald laughed. “That’s not for you to decide, but for the apprentice. And what about us, who get nervous during the entrance exam?”

“Yeah, but that …” began Twilight.

“Not all the ponies are made for the same thing!” intervened Fluttershy. “When I found out I couldn’t fly…”

“But you decided it for yourself, not because somepony told you that you weren’t capable of.” said he Great Master. “Entrance exams are bullshit, the decision should be on the students’ choices, not because teachers say so.”

Twilight couldn’t answer the Great Master, realizing that she was speaking with truth.

“But what if you use your knowledge for evil?” asked Dash.

“That’s not the teacher’s duty. A teacher should limit to transmit knowledge, not judgement.·

Celesia sighed. “You don’t understand, right?”

“No, it is you who don’t understand!” said the Great Master. “Here you are, defending an unfair system, and that’s something we cannot tolerate. You either change it, or we will.”

“At our own way!” said the Great Master!

They fused with their shadows, and teleported away.

“How could they survive this long?” asked Celestia, still in shock.

Author's Note

This is another chapter, so, what do you think? The first encounter between the Evil Mane 6 and the Knights of the Silence. I hope you liked it, and, as always,

Read ya’ later!!