Knuckles was currently walking through the city of Baltimare with the Guardians and the main characters of Frozen and they were looking for clues on anything that could tell them the location of the Pony of Shadows or Pitch Black or both. He said "We must find something in this city that could show us the location of the Pony of Shadows or Pitch. This city is very large and a lot of ground to cover, so we must keep our eyes peeled."

Kristoff asked "Pardon me Knuckles, but what exactly is the Pony of Shadows? I know he's a bad guy, but we honestly don't know anything about him."

Jack also voiced similar concern and said "Yeah, we need to know what exactly we are looking for in this pony villain."

Knuckles nodded and said "Of course. I do not have the greatest knowledge of the Pony of Shadows, but from what I know, he was originally a pony that brought all of the Pillars of Equestria together and somehow turned evil because his supposed "friends" cast him out after catching him trying to "steal" artifacts. However, I think there is something deeper going on. For one, they did not even give him a chance to explain himself and just made judgement based on what they saw, which was really stupid on their part. And secondly, I find it incredibly rich that the Pillars believed that the Pony of Shadows was trying to steal artifacts from them when they did the exact thing to my tribe and that got swept under the rug somehow."

North could sense the bitterness in his voice and asked "What exactly makes you hate them so much, Knuckles? It's clear that you don't have a very favorable view of them."

Knuckles sighed and said "It is a very long story, but to put it simply, not only did they steal my artifact from my tribe years ago to defeat the Pony of Shadows thousands of years prior, but Starswirl in particular did something to me that I never thought he would ever do considering how favorable our relationship was at the time."

Tooth raised a brow and asked "What was it?"

Knuckles sighed again and said "It is not important at the moment. My question for you all is how exactly did Pitch get into this world? I was in the middle of a disagreement with Starswirl and I watched him all of a sudden rush through an open portal like a Buffalo stampede with you guys right behind. I am sure you can care to explain."

North sighed and said "Well, after we initially defeated Pitch and he got swallowed up by his own black horses, we thought that was going to be the end of it. It turns out we were dead wrong about that."

Jack said "Apparently, some sort of evil force revived him and he quickly got back to work in order to return to power. He tried to take over the world again by starting in the Kingdom of Arendelle, but all of us put a quick stop to it before he could do serious damage. However, that was not the end of it. He decided it would be a good idea to invade my wedding when I was supposed to get married to my wife Elsa and he made sure to get a big head start before any of us could respond. It didn't help that people were in a massive panic because Pitch feeds off of fear and that causes us to lose our powers over time. It scared poor Elsa to death and what makes me the most angry is that he did it as a way to get revenge because I told him that he would always be part of the darkness which is true, but he didn't seem to view it that way."

The thought completely angered Knuckles and he wanted to destroy Pitch just solely for that reason. Who does that?! Invade someone's wedding day just because they said something you didn't like? That's completely pathetic and there is absolutely no excuse for that.

Elsa nodded and said "I was so excited to get married to my husband that day, but when Pitch decided to invade my kingdom all as a way to get back at Jack, it made my blood boil. It caused my ice powers to become more powerful, but I was only doing it in order to defend both my family and my kingdom and not out of fear like it had been in the past. I couldn't simply let the kingdom of Arendelle fall just because Pitch decided to get back at Jack for insulting him."

Knuckles could easily understand that. Even when his relationship with the Mane Six was very rocky, he was willing to put his life on the line if it meant he wouldn't have to be under the rule of a tyrant, which he opposed greatly because history has shown that system of government has failed and the nation always ends up even worse than before it started. Also, Pitch sounded a lot like King Sombra in his mind because they both gain power from fear and he didn't exactly like Sombra. He was never around to see those events, but he knew that if he was there, he would have kicked his you know what. He wanted to hate Sombra just as much as Starswirl, but the case with the dark King is that it was simply the trap of knowledge: The desire for knowledge turns into a lust for power and that is never a good thing at all. History has proven that time and time again.

Anna said "I tried to distract Pitch as best as I could, but he was mainly focused on taking out Jack as revenge and even trying to steal Elsa from him."

Knuckles couldn't believe what he was hearing and the thought of that just absolutely disgusted him. In his tribe, no man was EVER allowed to steal another man's wife just for his own selfish gain. Anyone who committed that terrible act would immediately be exiled from the tribe and they would be sentenced to death if they ever tried it again. That's how seriously the Echidna tribe took this issue. They didn't play around when it came to marriage. They valued it as sacred and a lifetime commitment and anyone who decided to be foolish with it got punished severely for it.

The Easter Bunny said "It was not a pretty sight, mate. It got ugly real quick and no one was prepared for this invasion. Not even my carrots seemed to faze this dude, mate. My carrots never failed me, mate!"

Jack sighed and said "After that terrible invasion, we immediately began chasing after him again because there was no way he was going threaten all of our lives and then just get away with it. He had to pay for he did. So, we chased him throughout the world and every time we fought him in a battle, he ended up escaping somehow. What didn't make sense is that he somehow gained the ability to travel through different dimensions and he used that to his advantage. Ranging from a bunch of spaceships in space to a giant lizard and three headed dragon fighting each other in Boston, Pitch eventually found his way to this world and that's how we ended up here."

Knuckles could only sigh and said "That is just great. At least we have somewhat of an idea of what look out for with Pitch. We know that he can gain power from fear and he can now possess the ability of interdimensional travel. Anything else I am missing?" He also knew that what Jack was talking about was the Galactic Empire in Star Wars and Godzilla and King Ghidorah in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters that had come out earlier this year in May.

North said "Nope, but what could you tell us what to look for in the Pony of Shadows and what exactly are his abilities?"

Knuckles thought about it and said "Well, there is not much I know about him when it comes to his abilities, but I do remember from what Twilight told me and the books I read, the Pony of Shadows simply draws his power in dark places in Equestria. However, there are fewer of those areas these days because the population has massively grown since the emergence of the Pony of Shadows thousands of years ago, so it will make him have a harder time regaining power."

Elsa asked "How exactly did you gain your powers in the first place, Knuckles?"

Knuckles said "I was born with them. My grandparents were granted supernatural abilities from protecting the Ultimate Power and those powers got transferred to me through birth. Super strength is not something everyone has and I was the only one growing up that were able to possess these abilities. Even when the Ultimate Power got stolen, I did not lose those powers since I was born with them and could not simply be taken away. Did you gain your ice powers the same way?"

Elsa said "You could say that. I was born with mine like how you were and it sadly tore my family apart for a good while. I was afraid to hurt them and it caused to me to distance myself from them. It didn't help after me and Anna lost our parents when their ship sank in the Arctic Ocean during a storm."

Knuckles sighed and said "Yeah, I know how it feels. I lost both my grandparents and my first love within the span of three years and both of their deaths were very difficult for me, especially Maddi's. At least she was there when my grandparents died, but I had no one to rely on when she died. My grandparents were fortunate enough just to die from old age, but Maddi was not so lucky."

Anna asked "How did she die?"

Knuckles sighed again and said "To put it simply, she got T-boned in a car accident and the criminal who did it got released from prison before eventually dying doing the same crime to someone else a short time later. It still tears me up inside and I still blame myself for her death, but at least I have Twilight now as a wife, whom I love very much."

All of them were horrified and Anna said "I'm so sorry, Knuckles. That must have been terrible losing someone very close to you. The rest of us couldn't even imagine what that would be like."

Knuckles sighed for a third time and said "You all would not be the only ones to tell me that. It stings worse than death itself and the road to recovery is still a very long way away. The worst part about it is that I never got to propose to her because of that tragedy. I was a week too late, which was really sad. It shows all of us NEVER to take your loved ones for granted because they can be ripped away from you at any moment like how it was for me or Anna and Elsa. But enough of this sappy talk. I do not like talking about my emotions a lot and it shows weakness to the enemy. My wife would probably disagree with that, but she is not here right now. She is back at the house, so let us see if there is any clues we can find."

Jack asked "How exactly are we going to find any clues in here though? There are so many of these ponies and this city we are in is massive. Plus, we aren't even familiar with the area in the first place since we are not from here. It looks very similar to the city of Baltimore, but I can tell there are some differences between there and this place."

Knuckles said "We simply need to stick together. After living here for almost ten years at this point, I have pretty much memorized this city like the back of my hand. If you find anything, let me know and we can examine it together." The group nodded and they began looking through the city. Knuckles asked the locals if there was anything that they saw that could lead to the location of the Pony of Shadows and Pitch, but none of them could provide a good answer about either of their locations.

Knuckles was about to give up when Jack said "Hey guys. I think I found something."

Knuckles lit up at that and said "Where is it?"

Jack said "I think it's down here in this alley. I see a black trail moving through."

Knuckles quickly ran down the alley and noticed the black trail that went up the side of the building. He climbed up the wall and reached the top to see if it continued, which it did.

Jack asked "Does it continue up there?"

Knuckles said "Yeah, and it seems to continue out in the harbor." He pulled out his binoculars and saw that the black trail continued past the harbor into the ocean. He then saw Pitch in the distance giving him an evil grin and then randomly disappearing from sight. Knuckles growled with frustration and said "I just saw Pitch out there in the harbor and with this trail here, I know it is him, but he is way too far out and he has already disappeared. However, that doesn't mean we cannot document this evidence that he has decided to leave behind."

Knuckles took a sample size of the black trail in a Ziploc bag as evidence and hopped down from the building. He said "That fool might think he got away, but with this, it can at least tell us its magical properties and what the ultimate end goal is. Let us get this back to my house before someone tries to steal it. I do not want to lose it. Pitch's reign of terror ends here!" He began walking back to his mansion and the rest of the group with him knew that something bigger was going on that they did not know and he refused to tell them.

Elsewhere in Equestria, most of the Mane Six, the Pillars, Starlight, and Sunburst were wandering in Las Pegasus to see if they could find any clues on Pitch and more importantly, the Pony of Shadows' location.

Mage Meadowbrook asked "What exactly happened while we were all gone for a thousand years? That's obviously a long time and it seems so much has changed since that point."

Rainbow said "Well, it is a long story and I'm not exactly Knuckles, but from what I remember is that we've had to deal with the threats of Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, and well... Starlight Glimmer, but she's on our side now, so there's nothing to worry about!" She did still receive a slight glare from Starlight, but it was technically true.

Starlight turned to the Pillars and said "Speaking of Knuckles, is there any reason why there is so much beef between you guys? I know that you took the artifact from him, but everypony else around can tell it runs much deeper than that. So what is there that I'm missing?"

Flash Magnus sighed and said "That's what he claims. That we "stole" the Master Diamond when we were only trying to protect it from evil. We believed that his tribe should not have held that much power and as a result, we had to fight them for it."

Starlight countered by saying "I'm sure what he's saying is true! I know you probably had good intentions, but it is still considered stealing regardless. He said himself that one incident caused the downfall of his tribe and it was more than simply being sad and heartbroken about it. He said that some of them ended their own lives because they felt like they failed at their life mission and he felt even more betrayed when he discovered that you had used the artifact to defeat the Pony of Shadows."

Mistmane said "It was not an easy decision, but we had to do what we had to do in order to protect the Master Diamond from being used for evil."

Rarity said "Don't you think that's a bit of a rash judgement to make?"

Mistmane raised a brow and asked "What exactly do you mean?"

Rarity said "Well, I simply mean that if you guys were trying to protect the Diamond from being used for evil, then why did the ones that created it specifically assign his tribe to be the guardians of it?" None of them had an answer for that and they went dead silent on that.

Applejack said "We know that y'all are supposed to be legendary ponies of Equestria, but even they can make mistakes from time to time and this is no exception."

Somnambula said "It is true that we have made mistakes, but even the most "innocent" ponies or people can be the most sinister at the same time."

Rainbow asked "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Flash Magnus said "It means that your friend has purposefully twisted the story to make himself look good and us the bad guys which was not the case at all."

Rainbow didn't like that and said "That's ridiculous! Do you even know of all the tragic heartbreak and suffering that he had to experience throughout his life?!"

Rockhoof said "No, laddie. But he could have used that as a way to get ya to sympathize with him and we have known him for a very long time, lass."

Starlight facehoofed in frustration and said "Do you guys even hear yourselves?! Getting abused by your own parents all your life and having your first love tragically killed does NOT sound like a sob story as a tactic to get the enemy to sympathize with you! You guys weren't even there for that! So how you would even know what he went through when you were gone for a thousand years in the first place?!"

After she said that, there was dead silence for a few moments and Meadowbrook said "While it is true that we have been gone from Equestria for so long, we were around him long enough to know how he behaves."

Starlight scoffed at that and said "I can't believe you guys. You all are supposed to be the most legendary ponies of all time and you make Knuckles out to be the bad guy when you weren't even there for most of his life anyway?! How pathetic." She turned around and started walking away.

Pinkie said "Well, that definitely escalated into something else."

Sunburst sighed and said "It's not entirely her fault. She'll go through entire lengths to defend her friends and Knuckles just happens to be one of them."

Applejack said "Yeah, considerin' how much Knuckles has suffered, it's only natural to feel awful about the guy."

Rainbow said "Yeah, he might not have been the nicest to us when we first met, but he certainly has done everything he could to make up for it big time."

Rarity said "I agree. Friends should always stick up for each other no matter how tragic or terrible their past has been and while we haven't always demonstrated that, we definitely have been for the past few years."

Pinkie said "No one should have to go through that much heartbreak and be so sad all the time! Looking down upon them is so not cool!"

Fluttershy said "I can't even imagine what something like that could do to his mind and how much emotional damage he suffered because of it."

All the Pillars there couldn't believe how much Knuckles' friends stuck up for him and rebuked them for thinking so lowly of him without any regard to his past. But, they believed that his friends were simply brainwashed into the belief that Knuckles was supposed to be the good guy and all of them were the bad ones since they took the Master Diamond from him. They'll eventually learn that Knuckles wasn't all cracked up to be.

All of them eventually followed Starlight and they continued looking for any clues about the location of Pitch and the Pony of Shadows.

Back at the mansion, Twilight was walking through the hallways and staring at the paintings. She noticed that there were a lot of paintings of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, and Ronald Reagan. It was clear that her husband was a big fan of history and he adored these guys since there were paintings of them everywhere.

While it was cool to see all these paintings, she wished that her husband had the same adoration of the Pillars as he did for these historical figures in American history. They provided great insight on what it meant to be a leader during difficult times and how to not let the pressure get to them. Of course, Twilight knew that the Pillars weren't perfect, but that was thousands of years ago, so surely they would have learned their lesson since then, right?

Unfortunately, that was not really the case since she seemed to have forgotten that time does not pass in Limbo. It happens in a blink of an eye that it felt like they never left, so they would still hold the same position as they did all those centuries ago. She sighed and Olaf asked "What's wrong, Twilight?"

Twilight looked at him and said "I don't know, Olaf. Things seem so complicated at the moment and I don't know where to go from here. We have two villains on the loose and my husband and the Pillars can't seem to get along because of a thousands year old rivalry. It just seems wrong. I want to help, but there is so much bad blood between the two that I don't even know where to start."

Olaf said "Hmm. I remember when Elsa and Anna were going through that. It was definitely not a fun time."

Twilight got curious and asked "Do you mind telling me exactly what happened there? I'm interested to see if there is any sort of guidance on how to tackle this issue."

Olaf said "Well, it all started when Elsa and Anna were kids. They were so close when they were young and played in the castle all the time. Elsa would use your ice powers to entertain Anna and she was always fascinated by it. But it cost them dearly one night. While Elsa was summoning small snow mountains, Anna was moving too quickly and she couldn't keep up. She fell and then accidentally struck her sister in the head in fear. Her parents took them to the trolls and Grandpappy said that Elsa had to be careful with her powers because if fear were to take over, it would destroy her."

Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing and she felt quite bad for both Elsa and Anna. That was a tragic thing to happen and a small child shouldn't be told that their powers could destroy them if they were not careful.

Olaf continued and said "Her parents did everything they could to protect them, but it ended up causing more harm than good and when they eventually died out at sea, it caused their relationship to crumble to even more. Things seemed great when Elsa was coronated Queen of Arendelle, but it took a turn for the worse when Anna pushed Elsa too far and her secret powers were revealed to the world for everyone to see. Elsa ended up running away in fear and Anna chased after her. She eventually met Kristoff along the way and then she met me. I knew how to get to the ice castle, so I showed them the way. Anna went in to visit Elsa and things seemed great once more, but after Elsa had a flashback of what happened in their childhood, she didn't want to hurt Anna again and cast her away."

Twilight could sympathize with Elsa because she knew what it felt like to want to keep everyone safe and not hurt anyone, but that choice was not always easy. She could only imagine how hard that must have been for Elsa.

Olaf said "Anna didn't want to let go, but Elsa created a giant marshmallow snowman to get us out and we ran as fast as we could from that thing. I tried to stall it from reaching Anna and Kristoff, but this guy seemed to be a lot stronger than I thought he was. We went to the trolls again and after some crazy stuff, Grandpappy told us that Anna's heart was frozen and could only be thawed by an act of true love. Anna thought it was this Hans guy who happened to be a prince, but he had some sort of evil plan and ditched her while she was dying."

Twilight's blood began to boil at the thought of some prince ditching someone who had blindly loved them without question and leaving her to die with a frozen heart cast by her own sister. It reminded her of Blueblood, but not even he would stoop to such lows. He was incredibly cruel and a royal pain in the a[BLEEP], but he would not simply leave someone to die for their own selfish gain as part of an evil plan to take over Equestria.

Olaf continued again and said "Me and Anna tried to escape the freezing castle, but it was hard with all the spikes everywhere that was caused by the winter storm that Elsa left behind when she fled. We made it out, but it wasn't pretty out there. I wasn't there to see it all, but from what Anna told me, she said that after seeing Hans trying to kill Elsa, she raced over to stop him before she could run to Kristoff, who clearly loved her more than Hans ever did. Anna turned into frozen ice and none of us could believe it. Elsa was so devastated about it, and she cried. But it seemed that it began to thaw Anna's heart, because after a few seconds, she eventually got restored and the two of them reunited for the first time in a while. It was this moment that everyone realized that Anna's sacrifice was considered an act of true love and Elsa was able to figure out to bring back summer and then she made a flurry for me so that I wouldn't melt."

Twilight said "Wow. That is definitely a powerful story and I'm glad that Elsa and Anna were able to resolve things. Unfortunately, my situation isn't as simple as being scared of your own powers. I'm still unsure on where to go about that."

Olaf said "Well, that's okay. Everyone has points in their life where they're not sure where to go. I had to explain to Anna what true love was, so I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out. Things do eventually resolve themselves and I think they will."

Twilight smiled and said "Thanks Olaf. I can see why Elsa and Anna have you as part of their family because you always encourage everypony to stay happy no matter what the circumstance is, just like Pinkie Pie does."

Meanwhile, in some dark desolate place in an undisclosed location somewhere in the nation of Equestria, the Pony of Shadows was busy scheming how to defeat his greatest enemies and how to make Equestria fall into eternal darkness. He paced back and forth and said "Those fools that are known as the Pillars will NOT get away with ignoring this issue! They may have contained me before, but they will NOT do it again! This realm will FALL once again and those six WILL BOW TO ME!"

Suddenly, a voice said "I may be of assistance with that."

The Pony of Shadows was confused by that voice and asked "WHO SAID THAT?! WHO DARES DISTURBS MY PRIVATE TIME?!"

The shadowed figure came out into the light and said "I did. I don't mean to intrude."

The Pony of Shadows growled with anger and said "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

Pitch simply laughed evilly and said "My name's Pitch. Pitch Black. I come from the planet Earth and known as the master of terrorizing children."

The Pony of Shadows laughed like that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard and said "Terrorizing children?! That's it?! How pathetic! Talk to me when you actually have something more impressive."

Suddenly, there was a bunch of loud whinnying noises and the dark black horses appeared next to Pitch. He gave an evil grin at the Pony of Shadows and said "You were saying?"

The Pony of Shadows huffed in disgust and said "I'm listening."

Pitch said "I can tell that you want revenge on those so called pillars that have returned to Equestria."

The Pony of Shadows said "Yeah. Why do you care?! What's it to you?!"

Pitch said "You were simply treated so horribly by those foolish ponies and I know how that feels. I suffered through that as well and I want revenge on the Guardians and Jack's family for what they did to me."

The Pony of Shadows raised a brow and asked "What's the point of all this?! What are you trying to get at?!"

Pitch gave an evil smile and said "I have a deal for you: you get me to the location of the Guardians and Jack's family, and I'll let you do whatever you please to the pony inhabitants of this world."

The Pony of Shadows looked at him with skepticism and asked "So you're suggesting an alliance?"

Pitch nodded and said "I originally wanted to conquer Earth once again, but after running through here, I've grown a liking to this place and I want to conquer this world as well. However, I am willing to let you run free with this one if you get me to where Jack, his family, and the rest of the Guardians are at so that I can destroy them ONCE AND FOR ALL! So, do we have a deal?"

The Pony of Shadows began to think about it and weighed his options. On one hand, this Pitch dude is a complete stranger and he somehow found his way to Equestria. He was adminit about taking over this world even though he wasn't from here and the Pony of Shadows was going to take it over first. Plus, what if Pitch was just using him as a pawn for some sort of secret scheme that he didn't know about. But on the other hand, he was willing to work with him and allow him to take over this world if he can get him to these Guardians and extended family of this Jack person. He looked at him with uncertainty and asked "So, if I take you to these Guardians and these extended family members of this "Jack," then you'll let me run free in this realm?"

Pitch nodded and said "Of course. As long as you take me to them, you can have all of this world and you could even have half of the multiverse as well. We could be unstoppable together and soon, every living being will fear us! What do you say?"

The Pony of Shadows laughed evilly and said "I'm in. We'll make all of them PAY! They may have gotten away once before, but this time, THEY WILL FALL!"

The two of them did evil laughter and Pitch said "Let the games begin." This would now be a new chapter for the two of them and everyone will soon fear them. So much so that not even Knuckles himself could stop them. Pitch could tell something was different about that character and he was determined to find his weakness. Nothing could ever stop them now. Their glorious reign shall begin and Equestria will fall.

Author's Note

AN: Well, things got incredibly interesting real quickly. I apologize for this chapter coming out a little later than usual, but school just started back up for me and between balancing that and work, it's left me very little time to complete it. I'm aiming for posting new chapters four times a month, each once a week, but we'll have to see since my schedule just got a lot more hectic. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Next Chapter: The return to New York! After gathering evidence on the Pony of Shadows and Pitch's location, the group tries to plan their next course of action. But the live map alerts of them of their location and they quickly go after them. However, when they are chasing them, they end up in New York City and they must figure out how to get out of there. Will they be able to find their way through NYC or will the Big Apple leave them stranded with no way out?

Until then, my fellow readers