A castle appeared in the fields near Canterlot City, the humans within the city unaware of what had happened. The Lord of the Castle walked over to a window of his throne room from a high tower, looking down upon this land that he hadn't seen in one hundred years. "A Gleam is down there, I can tell. The cursed bloodline of my former friend is always stopping me from enslaving humanity and bending them to my will," he stated, baring fangs from behind pale orange lips. He had become a Vampire over a thousand years ago to rail against their gods for taking the life of his beloved, his friend became the first human to kill him and it was a constant struggle between the two bloodlines. He was determined to end his former friend's bloodline this time, as he had always been. Yet they had always seemed to best him.
The Vampire Lord turned to his generals, "Go, cause chaos in the city and draw the Gleam out. They will not be able to resist defending the populace," he ordered.
As the monsters from Equestria left his throne room, he smiled. He was confident that his conquest of this world was going to succeed this time. He was sure of it.
Within Canterlot High School, a dark blue skinned woman with faded yellow hair stood in front of her class, teaching them about the different literary movements. However, something sent a chill down her spine. She couldn't explain it, she felt like something was rubbing ice against her back. "You look a bit uncomfortable, Ms. Gleam. Are you sure that you don't want to take a break," Sunset Shimmer asked.
"I'm fine."
Truthfully, she wasn't fine and all it would take is a look outside the classroom window to confirm her fears. Umbral Shadow had returned, his castle was outside the city and his forces were approaching the school. She looked at her students and then closed her book, "Class is dismissed until further notice. I would recommend leaving the classroom about now and..."
She wouldn't get the chance to finish her statement as a Gargoyle swooped through the window, shattering it. The literature teacher swiftly moved out of the way and grabbed the tail, yanking on it. This caused the creature to scream out in pain and turn towards her. "Students, stay where you're at for now. I'll handle this, and don't tell Principal Celestia," she told them.
Moonlight Gleam stared the Gargoyle down and then smirked, motioning towards it for it to come towards her. It was more than happy to oblige and it lowered its head, roaring and rushed at her with the intent on impaling her on its horns. The teacher jumped on her desk to avoid this and watched as it slammed into another window. "You know, you have to stop causing property damage, those windows aren't exactly cheap," she taunted.
Her students didn't know her secret, but the monsters that Umbral Shadow had sent after her did. There wasn't much sense in hiding it anymore, she concentrated all of her magic into her hands, which started to glow with an energy that no one had seen before. Everyone in the class room gasped as the Gargoyle got back up, but their teacher picked up a shard of glass that was laying on the floor. "I won't need anything more than this," she stated as she cast a spell to increase the durability of the glass shard so it wouldn't shatter on the hardened skin of the gargoyle that was attacking her.
The two of them stared at each other as the shard in her hand glowed. The creature was smart enough to know that a Gleam with any kind of weapon was dangerous and figured that it would need a way to stop her from attacking it. Unfortunately for it, the gargoyle also made the mistake of going after one of the students. Moonlight Gleam didn't bother rushing towards it, she threw the shard as hard as she could at where the monster's neck was going to be. Her aim was true and it stuck in, causing the creature to fall over and just burn away as she had read in so many depictions that her ancestors had written in their journals. "Go! Now! Get to shelter before more come! I'm leaving to draw them away from you all!" she barked at her students.
All of the students got up out of their chairs and left the classroom as Principal Celestia walked in, "What's the commotion about, Moonlight?" she asked.
The Vampire Hunter didn't give an answer, "I'm taking the rest of the week off. Dock my pay if you got to, but I'll need that week," she stated.
The pale yellow haired woman grabbed her leather jacket and put it on, jumping out the window that had been smashed, leaving her boss at a loss for words. She climbed onto her motorcycle and placed her helmet on. She was going to go back to her house, in a secret room, she had the things she would need to take on the castle's defenders and Umbral Shadow himself.
A pale blue human wearing vestments sat in a church. Something told him that something was wrong, but he was looking for a sign. A priest, the man was and a well respected one for being the son of a High Wizard. He was a bit bored at the moment though as it wasn't a Friday and he couldn't preach to a congregation. He enjoyed seeing the different people and getting to talk to them one on one. It was the best part of his job.
However, much to his surprise, there was a crash through the wall as a Minotaur with an axe barreled through. Barely missing him with a swing of the axe, the Minotaur roared at him. "Be careful what you wish for, eh?" he asked as he tore off his damaged vestments revealing his clothes underneath.
The monster swung its axe mightily and the priest moved out of the way, "Father Lux, can you retrieve my weapons for me," he asked.
Another priest nodded and started to run off as the creature before him tried to cleave the first priest in two. Sunrise Standing wasn't about to let himself be killed and cast a spell that granted him strength. It was known as Celestia's Strength in his congregation and he caught the axe in both of his hands, stopping it before it reached him and he started to push it back. "I ain't a regular priest, of course, you'd know that if you bothered to come to church regularly!" he grunted as he struggled against the might of the Minotaur.
The wooden haft of the axe couldn't take the stresses and snapped, leaving the martial priest with the double bladed head of an axe and the Minotaur with a broken haft. Without a monster holding the weapon, there weren't any opposing energies for him to not be able to sanctify the weapon that he had in his hand. He started to silently recite a prayer to the goddess Celestia, the monster however wasn't going to wait for him. It tried to skewer him on the end of the broken haft, but because Sunrise didn't close his eyes, he saw this coming. The orange haired human used the head of the axe as a shield and continued to sanctify the weapon.
A glass vial entered the peripheral vision of the Martial Priest and slammed into the face of the Minotaur that he was struggling against. A bloodcurdling scream was unleashed from the beast as the liquid contained started to burn its flesh and start to cause steam to rise up. The force against his improvised shield stopped and he completed the spell. With a mighty swing, he cleaved through the beast and it caught fire and burned away.
"This is just like the scrolls that we have down there, this means that Umbral Shadow has returned. You'll need more than just the weapons, you'll need the full equipment of a martial priest if you're going to go out and fight him. We'll go with you as well," the priest that went to retrieve the weapons stated.
Sunrise Standing placed the weapon he was holding down and turned his head towards the priest in question, "No, you all stay here, we'll need martial priests to defend the city. I know I'm young and not the most experienced, but we need our most experienced leading the defense of the city. Alert the Wizard's Guild that Umbral Shadow has returned, we're going to need their help," he stated.
The priest nodded and Sunrise went to go change into the combat attire of the martial priest. He was going to meet up with Moonlight Gleam and the two of them would discuss how to continue from there.
A white skinned human with graying sky blue hair looked over the students practicing in the Wizard's Guild. The man was in his sixties and had the command over magic that everyone in the guild yearned to one day have. His skills were second to none as was his power. He stroked his beard and watched as everyone practiced their spells. It was a daily routine for them.
What was not a daily routine was a winged four armed bear with a stinger crashing through their wall. This caused a panic amongst the students, but the High Wizard quietly gathered magical energy in his hand. Not a word was spoken, not a single taunt. A large fireball gathered in his hand and her threw it at the unsuspecting creature. The Bugbear seemed to be able to sense it and tried to move out of the way, but Cloud Runner moved his hand to control the fireball. It changed directions on a dime and continued to fly towards the creature in question. He allowed himself a smile and expanded his hand, causing the ball of flame to expand.
It engulfed the Bugbear, an ear piercing shriek emanated from the creature as it was instantly incinerated, leaving nothing left. This alerted the old wizard to the nature of this creature as the old tomes told stories that the followers of Umbral Shadow were the only creatures to do this sort of thing. A pit formed in the bottom of his stomach and he looked at the wizards-in-training down below, "You are all to return to your rooms and stay here in this building, I'm going to go call a meeting among the council!" he ordered.
The elderly man walked through the corridors and cast a spell that would send a message to the other members of the council. He arrived at the meeting room and the other High Wizards walked in. "We all know, Umbral Shadow has returned, Cloud Runner," one of them said.
This let the youngest of the High Wizard Council get straight to the point, "We're going to have to defend the city. I don't know how well I'll do, but I'll go into the castle myself and try to fight this threat. I just hope the latest of the Gleam family, Moonlight Gleam hasn't been taken out. Knowing my adoptive son, he'll be going there too. I think with the three of us, we'll have a chance of defeating this Vampire Lord," he stated.
The other members looked at each other and then at him, "We will order the Wizards to help the Martial Priests in the defense of this city, brother Runner," the eldest and leader of the council stated.
This left Cloud Runner with a smile on his face, they left the meeting and he walked to gather some magical items to help him in his quest before heading out into the monster infested streets of the city. He was going to have to fight his way through the monsters.
All three humans unknowingly were heading towards the same spot in the city. Moonlight Gleam carrying the Radiant Sun sword on her back as she rode her motorcycle. Sunrise Standing with the armor and weaponry of a Martial Priest driving through the city in a car. And the High Wizard, Cloud Runner, fighting his way on foot through the monsters. Destiny had called all three of them to that spot for a reason. But what reason, they wouldn't find out until they had arrived.
