Chapter V:
The expansion of the Shadows

The first one to open her eyes was Midnight, as she let escape a moan of satisfaction. “Aw, sleeping, one of the simplest and more enjoyable joys of life.” She giggled. “Maye we should provoke our counterparts more often.”

“I had a dream about Angel.” said Fleshy Smile. “I was his pet, and he was feeding me with little Diamond Dogs. Alive. I chased them to kill them before eating them alive, as I made the others watch. I loved it. It is a shame that we can only sleep when we are hit by the Elements of Harmony.”

Jack the Reaper yawned, snapping her neck left to right. “They wanted to stop us A’ guess. Where are we anyway?”

They turned around, only to see an interesting group of ponies.

All of them were moaning, and groaning, hitting a wall with hooves, horns, wings, and heads. Every impact was so strong that the monsters’ limbs got destroyed each time. But all the damage was instantly restored, and they continued as nothing happened. Even a few unicorns charged against the wall, in an effort to stab it with their horns.

Under the group of monsters there was a growing mass made of rotten blood, flesh, fur, hair, and other fluids. So thick and old that some of the ponies had their hooves stick to it, but they didn’t care as long as they could continue hitting the wall.

A repulsive sight.

All of the monsters shared the same features that the Undead Knights: red eyes and long fangs.

Midnight rolled her eyes. “So, we are in our little suite in Canterlot.”

Pin-Kill-Die giggled happily, as she bounced around, greeting the other Undeads.

“Hi there, Bright Eyes! Have you lost weight? Looking great! Hey, isn’t that you, Bubble Bath? I see you have a new haircut! Oh, and Sunflower, I just love your new perfume, is it imprisonment and rotten meat? One of my personal favorites, but I like Fearless’ more. It is like coagulated blood, and infected feathers. It’ll put any mare at his hooves, especially after you beat her to death, hahahahahahahahahaha!”

Gothic sighed. “Darling, shall I remind you that we traveled to the past? Our ‘old roommates’ doesn’t know us yet.”

Pin-Kill-Die shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, they don’t care.”

Undash stretched her limbs and wings, as she looked around. “Whatever, as comfortable as our suite is, we still have a lot to do.”

“Yes, the ‘Pest of the Silence’” said Midnight. “Let’s focus, and get out of here.”

The Undead Knights got together, concentrating their magic. Ironically, it was Shadow Magic, or Magic of the Silence as it would be known all over Equestria.

In the surface, in Canterlot Castle, the Bearers of Harmony were eating something light, along with Princess Celestia, who seemed to be really tired.

“Princess, if you don’t mind me asking,” said Fluttershy softly. “How can you sleep so calmed knowing that there are a bunch of undead creatures under the castle? I would move as soon as I could.”

Luna entered to the room, as she smiled to the yellow pegasus. “You don’t understand, Fluttershy. The reason we sleep calmed is because we know that if the creatures manage to escape their cell, we would be near to react on time. Luckily those things can’t think, and they are easy to lead to a trap.”

“Is that true?” asked Rainbow Dash. “How?”

“Undead creatures are sensitive to life, and they’ll go wherever they feel It.” explained Celestia. “You always know where they’re going. But that’s the only advantage we have against a monster who can regenerate from all kinds of damage.”

“Unfortunately it won’t work with Midnight.” said Twilight, remembering her other self. “She is really powerful, and, remember the army of skeletons she summoned to keep us busy as they killed Starlight?”

Celestia sighed. “Yes, I seriously doubt her knowledge of necromancy would help her in the current situation. However, I’m sure they would find a way out. What scares me the most is that they’re still able to use the Magic of Friendship despite their condition of monsters.”

The girls felt a chill, when suddenly Spike ran inside the room, and hugged Twilight.

“Spike what are you doing here?” asked the alicorn, hugging back the little dragon.

“I received your letter, you said that you had an encounter with the Undead Knights.” Said the dragon, refusing to let go his adopted mother. “Are you okay? Didn’t they hurt you? do you need my help with something?”

Twilight smiled at Spike, and let him hug her for a little longer.

“Easy, easy partner” giggled Applejack, gently slapping Spike on his back. “Remember those things respect pony life.”

Spike nodded, a little ashamed. “Yes, I’m sorry. But I can’t help but worry.”

“Ehem, Spike.” called Twilight. “You can release me already.”

The dragon gasped, and slowly separated from Twilight, when out of sudden he embraced her back, and kissed her deeply, with his long tongue invading Twilight’s mouth and throat.

“SPIKE!” shouted Celestia, using her magic to separate the dragon from the smaller alicorn. “What are you doing? SHE’S YOUR MOTHER!”

“Also is too early for you to have a heat!” mumbled Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy flew toward him, using the Stare. “Tell me, what are you thinking?”

Spike laughed cruelly, and grinned. “I was comparing. And I’ve decided that I prefer the temperature of a dead body.”

Fluttershy looked at the dragon, astonished, as Twilight shot a magic beam to Spike.

A hole appeared on the dragon’s chest, but the wound closed immediately. Night Terror laughed, and deactivated his illusion spell, revealing his true self. A monster five heads taller than Celestia, with big muscular arms, giant black wings, and red eyes.

A cruel laugh was heard all over the room, followed by the sound of hoofsteps.

“Glad to see you are having fun, Night Terror. What are you doing here anyway?” said Midnight, tilting her head.

The undead dragon took a letter from inside his shadow. “I intercepted a message that your living-self sent to mine, and I thought you may need reinforcements. But I see you’re okay.”

“Yes, they gave us the usual suit, darling!” exclaimed Gothic. “As cozy and charming as always. It is a shame you can’t fit in there, maybe you should try to do some exercise, and maybe a diet.”

Night Terror smashed the white unicorn, turning her into a red paste.

Gothic laughed, as she regenerated completely and smiled to Rarity, her past-self. “Can you believe that he used to have a crush on me? Now he crushes me entirely at least once a day!”

The dragon groaned. “If you weren’t so insufferable, I wouldn’t have to!”

Gothic laughed. “Nighty-Tighty, you are so cute when you do this tantrums, like a child!”

The dragon roared, and smashed her a second time.

And at this point Midnight better blew up Night Terror’s head with her magic. “Stop it you two! Seriously!”

The two monsters regenerated, and shrugged.

“Let’s go already!” protested Undash.

But before they could even turn to the door, a combined blast from Celestia, Luna and Twilight reduced them to ashes, but they regenerated instantly.

“Seriously?” asked Jack the Reaper.

“See? This happened because of your stupid fights!” said Fleshy Smile.

“Yeah, let’s go already. We still have to kill the Knights!” said Midnight.

Night Terror destroyed a wall with his tail, and allowed Midnight to climb on his shoulders.

“It was nice to see you, let’s meet again sometime!” said Midnight

With that, the Undead Knights escaped,

The Bearers and the Princesses looked at the monsters leave. “Shall we go after them, and use the Elements again?” asked Twilight.

Celestia shook her head. “No, I wanted to measure their power, and now I have a general idea. And I must say, I am impressed. Also, Twilight Sparkle, maybe you should stop using Spike’s flame channel, it isn’t as safe as it used to be.”

In the meantime, Night Terror looked at Midnight. “So what? Shall I return to headquarters?”

“Yes, but I’ll call you any second now. Unfortunately, because the interference of our other-selves, the Knights are now aware of our existence. Things are only going to get harder.”

Undash, flying aside Midnight and Night Terror simply shook her head.

“It is a shame, I really wanted to kill that pony since it wasn’t the Great Master.”

Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Now that I think about it, maybe our living-selves did the right thing by stopping us before we killed that pony. We were about to make a huge mistake, and kill the Great Master instead of capturing her for Princess Luna.”

“What? But that pony was not the Great Master Irish Coffee.” said Fleshy Smile.

“No, but remember we traveled back to the past.” said Midnight, thoughtful. “And Irish wasn’t always the Great Master. This pony was her predecessor. I wasn’t sure until the other two came to rescue her.”

Jack the Reaper, on Rainbow’s back, nodded. “Okay, she is the Great Master. So what?”

“I think we may need a plan to keep our other selves busy, you know, to avoid being hit by the Elements of Harmony and sealed again.” said Night Terror. “It can’t do anything to us, but it’s a huge waste of time every time.”

“You are not that stupid all the time, right?” said Gothic from Fleshy Smile’s back, impressed. “You do have moments of smartness as unbelievable as it sounds!”

Night Terror moved fast, biting her upper half and chewing it, to then spit it to the ground.

Midnight rolled her eyes, but let that pass. “Anyway, Night Terror is right. We must prepare a new strategy. In the meantime, we must stay hidden. Night Terror, you go back to the headquarters. We will stay here to observe.”

“Understood, my lady.”

Next day, at East Wind’s residence:

The Great Master East Wind smiled to her students, but she seemed really tired and scared. It was only logical after their encounter from last night, but she did her best to offer her best smile to Emerald and Cream.

“After what happened last night, I came to a conclusion, my Knights of the Silence. I have nothing left to teach you. Each of you had come far enough to walk for your own in your path to knowledge. Also, you proved you are brave and ready for everything when you saved me last night.”

Emerald Horn frowned. “Still, we didn’t do anything in the end. It was the Bearers of Harmony who saved you.”

“I know.” Said East Wind sweetly. “But still you jumped to the face of danger despite the overwhelming advantage they had over us. That is called compromise, that’s why from now on…”

She made appear two new robes for Cream and Emerald.

The pegasus and the unicorn took the robes, and looked at them. They were slightly different from theirs, but still pretty much the same.

They looked at the Great Master, who nodded. “Yes, my dears. From now on, you are not novice apprentices anymore. No, you are now official Knights.”

They both bowed to the earth pony, who smiled pleased.

“Raise your heads.”

The knights did as they were told.

East Wind made a small approving nod, and asked, “Tell me, young Knights, do you swear to expand knowledge, teaching everypony with no exception?”

“We swear!” they said in the unison.

“And what if you meet with a pony who you can’t teach? What would you do?”

“To improve our teaching methods until we find an answer for this pony!” said the two knights.

The Great Master nodded again, raising a hoof, surrounding the robes with her shadow aura. Emerald and Cream got rid of their old robes as the Great Master dressed them with the new ones with her power.
Finally, she put them their masks.

“You have finished your training, and pronounced the oath. Now, I name you real Knights of the Silence.

“What shall we do now, oh Great Master?” asked Cream Cone.

“We must move.” said the Great Master. “As long as she was setting us a trap, Princess Twilight’s doppelganger haves a point. Without guidance, the knowledge we have provided to the youth is useless. The problem would be that we cannot use the same place twice. As Knights of the Silence, we are willing to risk our lives, but we cannot risk our students’.”

“And, what we must do, Great Master?” asked Cream.

“Cream, I need you to teach magic to the non-unicorn population. Start by the Magic of Silence, and then move to basic unicorn magic. Emerald, you must teach advanced spells to the young unicorns, and with time, Cream will send you her most advanced students. Are you up for your tasks?”

They nodded. “Whatever you ask us, Great Master.”

East Wind sighed. “As for me, when the right time comes, I’ll teach those who are willing to become real Knights of the Silence. Those who are willing to teach everything they know no matter what. But in the meantime, I must leave.”

“Great Master?” asked Emerald.

“I must find information about those creatures who attacked us.” explained East. “What they are, and how to stop them. They won’t get us off-guard again. It is my duty as Great Master to protect my Knights, and the students.”

“And how shall we proceed to start teaching?” asked Emerald.

“You have the skills, the magic, the intelligence to figure out for yourselves.” Said East Wind firmly. “The only advice I can give you is to read carefully the souls of everypony who comes to you. I don’t want to become exclusive but…”
“We must make sure it isn’t a spy from the Crown, or the monsters who attacked us, we understand.” said Cream. “So, where are you going first, Great Master?”

…

Young Star Shine was patrolling the hallways of the library, as he tried to practice the spells that the Great Master have gave him. But he still had trouble mastering them.

“If only I had some help or something!” sighed the pony.

A shadow moved right behind him, and Star Shine turned excitedly. “Great Master!”

“Sorry, I’m not.” said the shadow, revealing itself as a male unicorn, about Star Shine’s age. “Are you Star Shine?”

“Yes, I am. Are you a Knight of the Silence?”

Emerald nodded. “Yes, and, I can see why the Great Master chose you, your soul is hungry for knowledge. Anyway, it is time to move. Do you have a shift tomorrow?”

“No, thanks Faust!” said Star Shine. “Neither classes. I can sleep the whole morning, and get ready for the night. Because the Great Master will teach us, right?”

Emerald nodded. “Yes and no. Yes, tomorrow night, the teaching will begin. But the Great Master won’t intervene until you are ready. Until then, I’ll be your teacher.”

“Okay, fair enough. Where?”

“Do you know that small forest at the end of the residential district?”

“The one right behind all the luxury condos? Yeah.”

“That’s the place, we’ll start at ten o’clock. Education is for Everypony.”

Said that the unicorn fused with the Shadows, leaving Star Shine really excited.

Cream Cone’s approach was gentler.
She moved around the academies that had nothing to do with magic, like the Academy of Superior Musicians, the Military Academy, or her own school, the Academy for the Gifted Confectioners.
Cream liked to move around inside the shadows, reading soul by soul, and when she detected a potential apprentice, she dropped a letter in their saddlebags or their clothes. She looked for those non-unicorn ponies who desired to learn magic, and those that she knew that won’t call the Royal Guard on her.

In order to avoid unwanted attention, she and Emerald decided to split. As he would teach at the forest near Canterlot, she would do it at the abandoned industrial district. A place that once was a group of successful and productive factories reduced to a memory after an economic crisis. A place avoided by many as a symbol of shame, the perfect place for those who depended on the shadows.

That night in her Castle, Celestia woke up with a shiver. It was a feeling, from deep inside her heart that warned her that something have changed.

“The Knights have made their move. The Shadows are expanding.”

Cream Cone finished her duty, proud of herself.
She located a few ponies with potential to become great Knights, including a member of the Royal Guard. A pegasus, bodyguard of Prince Shining Armor, determined to learn how to make the very same shield as his boss in order to impress a certain lavender Princess…
Or an earth pony whose name was Irish Coffee. Cream felt great potential in her, the future of the Knights could be in her hooves one day.

Author's Note

So this is it, the new chapter where the Knights of the Silence have made their second move. I try to portray them as good guys, despite the odds. Anyway I hope you liked it and as always:

Read ya’ later!!!