Everyone had returned to the mansion so they could talk about their findings. They met in the committee room once more and they took their respective seats. Knuckles, at the head of the table, said "So, it's clear that Pitch has left a presence here in Equestria and he's planning something awful. I had collected a sample size of the black trail he left in the city and it's going to get sent off to the lab to get analyzed. Now, Rainbow Dash, were you and the others able to find anything in the western half of Equestria?"

Rainbow shook her head and said "We weren't able to find anything substantial that would tell us something about Pitch Black or the Pony of Shadows."

Knuckles sighed and said with frustration "Da[BLEEP] it! I would have thought that fool would have left something behind. My senses have never failed me!"

Rainbow said "However, we were able to pick up this." She handed him a scroll and Knuckles grabbed it from her.

He unfurled it and upon reading it, he felt anger and disgust. The scroll read:

"Greetings Knuckles,

You may know me or may not, but I know exactly who you are. However, allow me to introduce myself. I am Pitch Black. The master of all things dark and evil. I gain power from fear and as a result, I get stronger. You may think that your little plan of yours is going to work, but it's going to take more than a simple search party in order to find me. I am not so easily fooled as you may think. I have been feeding off fear for far longer than you have been alive and your little attempt to stop me won't even stand a chance.

I hate Jack and the Guardians and his family with a burning passion and they certainly ruin my plans, but there's something special about you. I could literally see it from a mile away. I have never seen anything like you before and I know there's something deeper going on. We could do so much together if you would just join me, but I'm willing to give you some time to decide about it. You have three days to respond and if you do not within that time, your world as you know it will come to an end. I will not hesitate to do so. So, make your decision wisely because once you do, there will be no turning back. I look forward to hearing from you!

Insincerely,

Pitch"

Knuckles sat there in his chair for a few moments speechless and after the rest of them heard it as well, they didn't know what to say either. Finally, Knuckles came up with a response and said "How pathetic for that fool to desperately try to convince me to join his side and if I refuse, he will end everything in existence. Does he not know who he is messing with?! If he thinks he can do something like that, he has got another thing coming. I will make him pay for everything if he does that."

Rainbow expressed worry and said "But you have to respond to his letter! You can't just ignore him or else Equestria is going to suffer!"

Knuckles looked at Rainbow with a deadpan stare and said "I have the Ultimate Power, remember? It is in my sole possession now and it is anything far beyond what Pitch could potentially throw at me. He would not stand a chance against me."

Flash Magnus raised a brow and said "You weren't thinking about joining him, were you?"

Knuckles glared at Flash with a deep hatred on his face and said "Of course not, you f[BLEEP]ing retard. Unlike you foolish pony, I would not turn my back on my friends and family just as an excuse to defeat a greater evil that was clearly sooo much more "important" than the ones closest to you in your life."

Twilight hit him in the arm quite a bit and Knuckles winced in pain slightly. He glared at Twilight for doing that to him and she returned the glare as a way to tell him to knock it off and stop the constant slander. Knuckles rolled his eyes and said "You get my point. I would not simply abandon my friends and family just like that. It was highly discouraged in the tribe and if someone ever did that, they would be cast out forever and be eternally restricted from ever being part of it again. That was the worst crime you could ever do and it was treated the same as treason against the United States."

Anna asked "Well, what are you going to do now? Are you going to answer his letter or what?"

Knuckles sighed and said "Frankly, I do not know. I know what my answer is, but I need some time to properly write it as a way to make it clear what my stance is, but not to anger him even more than necessary. The first tactic of the tribe is to deescalate, so if that fails, that's when the fighting begins if they refuse the warning to back down." He was about to close out the meeting, but Twilight elbowed him and pointed towards Starswirl. He groaned and said with bitterness "Did you find anything about the Pony of Shadows, Starswirl?"

Starswirl cleared his throat and said "I did actually. There was already so much that I already knew about the Pony of Shadows since me and the Pillars have dealt with him, but it's always good to do extra research just to make sure."

Knuckles growled at that and said "I do not give a s[BLEEP] if you already knew about the Pony of Shadows or not. I asked you a question and you are supposed to answer it. It is not that hard! Now get to the da[BLEEP] point already!"

Starswirl chuckled nervously and said "Of course. Sorry about that. Anyway, he had brought us all together originally, but he turned to darkness after he tried taking our power from himself and he wants to cover this world in darkness."

Knuckles snarled at that and said "I did not ask for a history lesson, you f[BLEEP]ing idiot! I know the story already! All I want to know is what his powers are and how that negatively affects Equestria! Stop dancing around, you da[BLEEP] dunce! Also, if you choose to believe that f[BLEEP]ing stupid narrative, then be my guest, but just know that I refuse to believe anything you say about that after what you and your friends did to me and my tribe."

Twilight slapped him across the face and said "Caleb! That's quite enough! I understand that you don't like Starswirl and the other Pillars, but you better put that foul language under control or else there will be consequences! Do you hear me?"

Knuckles sighed and said "Fine, but do not expect me to be best friends with the most hated enemy of my lifetime. I am only doing it because I care about you."

Twilight rolled her eyes and said "Please continue, Starswirl. Excuse my husband's fiery anger towards you. He's not typically like this." Knuckles glared at her for saying that, but she could care less and ignored him.

Starswirl said "It's fine. It's well deserved after what happened thousands of years ago, but anyway, the Pony of Shadows is able to draw power from dark places and seeks to destroy anything that gets in his way." For Knuckles, it almost sounded similar to him and his tribe, but the difference was that the Pony of Shadows was doing it for evil as an attempt to take over the world. His tribe would take out anyone that stood in their way because they had to in order to protect the Master Diamond. They weren't purposefully trying to do it, but it was part of their responsibilities as guardians of the powerful artifact.

Suddenly, the alarms went off and everyone had gotten into a defensive position to attack whatever was coming. Knuckles was alarmed by this and he said "Wait. WAIT! No one is attacking this house! Ugh. Not again. The alarm only went off because my child tried to mess with the vault again. Please excuse me while I go deal with this and rebuke my butler for allowing her to wander off again. Reginald!" He shut the door and went to go find Reginald.

Back in the committee room, Starswirl took a look at the paper map of Equestria and said "There seems to be less dark corners in the realm these days."

Rainbow asked "Isn't that a good thing?"

Flash Magnus said "True. It will give the Pony of Shadows a harder time regaining power. When he rears his head, we'll be ready!" He clinked the apple cider sitting there with Rainbow and they continued to drink it.

Fluttershy asked "But what about this Pitch? Most of us have never even heard of him until now and it's unclear how he could use his abilities."

Jack said "For me, my family, and the rest of my fellow guardians, we're well aware how he functions and whatever's he got planned is not good. Just like the Pony of Shadows, he will stop at nothing to make sure he brings the end of the world and maybe even the universe as we know it. He's hell bent on destroying us for good, but I could tell from Knuckles' face that Pitch is after him as well and has terrible plans for him, which would sort of explain the letter."

Rarity asked "But where are we supposed to go from here? It's clear that both of these villains have horrible plans for Equestria and maybe even beyond and there's even a chance these two are even working together."

North said "I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Pitch is very cunning and sinister, so it's makes it easy to get inside someone's head and convince them that the darkness is not as bad as it's portrayed to be. It's happened plenty of times before and I'm sure it will happen again."

Anna asked "But how are we supposed to defeat them both? It was already hard enough just traveling from one dimension to another chasing after Pitch, and now we have him potentially teaming up with this Pony of Shadows as well."

Tooth said "It was already bad enough the last time Pitch had attacked the world, but after chasing him for so long at this point and potentially teaming up with this Pony of Shadows, it would be even worse!"

Mistmane said "The Pony of Shadows has been known for spreading his dark power across Equestria and destroying anything that gets in his way."

Starswirl said "More importantly, our two foes want to destroy all that is good in this world. The question we must face now is where exactly where we go from here."

Twilight thought about it and said "I think I might have an idea. But I would have to run it by my husband first to make sure he's alright with it."

Speaking of which, Knuckles was walking through his house looking for the vault and he spotted his daughter trying to get inside the vault. This had been the third time this week where his daughter tried to get inside the vault and the alarm had gone off. He would train her up eventually to use the Master Diamond, but because she was still an infant, he didn't list her as authorized personnel for the vault when it does security checks. He didn't want his daughter to be able to open the vault and then go haywire with the Master Diamond since most babies' thoughts are pretty erratic. So, he was doing this to simply protect her at the moment.

He picked her up and said lightheartedly "You naughty child! How many times do I have to tell you cannot use the vault yet?" Madilynn made some whining noises in sadness and Knuckles said "I know, I know. I am no fun. I am just trying to protect you, that is all. You are not ready for the Master Diamond yet. It is a very powerful artifact and until you are old enough to use it, you must simply wait. I will train you, but that time has not come yet. So, you must wait a little longer. You think you can do that for me?" His daughter made happy baby noises and Knuckles said with a smile "That is my girl. Now, do you know where my butler Reginald went off to?"

Madilynn simply pointed behind him and Knuckles saw Reginald running as fast as he could over to the vault. He stopped to catch his breath and said "I'm sorry, Master Caleb. She got away from me again."

Knuckles sighed with frustration and said "Reginald, we have been over this. It is the third time this week it has happened. You cannot keep letting this happen. I am trusting you with the responsibility of looking after my child whenever I am busy, but with this happening, it is making it difficult to do so."

Reginald said "To be fair Master Caleb, I am dealing with a supernatural being like I've never seen before and she is more challenging than the typical child I've dealt with."

Knuckles said "Well, it is true that my little girl has Twilight's raw magical abilities and my super strength, but that still does not excuse losing her on your watch. I will be gracious this time, but if something like this happens again, I will not be as forgiving. Am I clear?"

Reginald sighed and said "Of course, Master Caleb. I will do my best to keep her from running off."

Knuckles grunted in satisfaction and said "See that you do. Now if you will excuse me, I have a committee meeting to get back to." He gave his daughter over to Reginald and he walked off back to the committee room.

Reginald smiled at Madilynn and said "You want to go do something?" Madilynn made some more happy noises and Reginald smiled. "Alright. Let's see what we can go do."

Knuckles walked back inside the committee room and sat down in his chairman seat at the head of the table. He said "Sorry about the interruption everyone. I had to keep my daughter away from the vault again for the third time this week and I had to give my butler some... consuel of some sort."

Flash Magnus asked "What exactly is inside in that vault?"

Knuckles scowled at Flash and said "That is none of your da[BLEEP] business, fool! And even if it was, you should already know what is in there. I do not need to tell you, not that it matters anyway. Now where were we?" Twilight came up to him and starting whispering her idea to him. He seemed to approve and said "I see. That is not actually a bad idea. Now, with these two villains on the loose, it is possible that they could potentially go after the Elements of Harmony and even the Tree of Harmony since that would be considered the primary weapon that could take them out."

The Pillars were stunned when they saw the Tree of Harmony and Starswirl said "I never thought myself or the Pillars would ever see the day of the Tree of Harmony."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow and asked "Why are you surprised about it?"

Starswirl said "Like I wrote in the journal, we left a seed behind thousands of years ago as a way for the light to stand against the darkness in our absence and it appears to have grown into something quite powerful."

Rockhoof smiled and said "Then it did work!"

Sunburst was confused and asked "What worked?"

Somnambula said "Each of us infused a crystal seed with our magic in hopes that it would grow into a force for good."

Mistmane said "We wanted to leave something to protect the realm in our absence, but we never dreamed our gift would become so powerful."

Applejack was confused and asked "Yall mean the Elements came from ya?" Everyone in the room was giving each other confused looks and they were trying to think what Applejack was trying to say.

Pinkie said "You know, the sparkly crystal things that grew from the Tree of Harmony and represent each of us? Laughter! Honesty! Generosity! Loyalty! Kindness! And Maggicccc!"

Somnambula said "They are reflections of our own elements of hope, strength, beauty, bravery, healing, and sorcery." Twilight tried to gain Starswirl's favour from that statement, but the Unicorn quickly rejected that and Twilight was heartbroken about it.

Elsa asked "What exactly are these Elements of Harmony in the first place?"

Before anyone else could answer, Knuckles said "From what I remember reading in Equestrian history books, the Elements of Harmony are six artifacts that were grown from the Tree of Harmony thousands of years ago and are considered Equestria's primary form of defense against foreign threats. It used to belong to the rulers of this land over in Canterlot, but now my wife and her friends are the new bearers of it."

Meadowbrook said "We had no idea our small seed would bloom into the living spirit of the land! I am glad our mantles have passed to such capable ponies." That was something that Knuckles could agree with the Pillars for once.

Starswirl said "More importantly, we no longer need Ponhenge to send our foe back to Limbo. We can use the stored magic in this Tree of Harmony."

Before Knuckles could rip into him for that decision, Twilight said "But doesn't a banishing spell take a lot of power? We'd have to sacrifice the Elements for that."

Starswirl simply nodded in confirmation and Fluttershy asked with worry "They'd be gone forever?!"

Twilight said "Starswirl, I don't think the Tree can survive without the Elements. If it dies, Equestria will suffer." She did have a point. If you watched the Season 4 premiere, you know what happened and why Twilight has that concern.

Starswirl disagreed with the opposition and said "If the Pony of Shadows has his way, your land will not EXIST! So, unless you have a better idea... Our foes will seek dark places from which to draw power. I will prepare my spell so that we may strike as soon as you find him!"

Knuckles had enough and said "Hold on! That decision will not be made final unless I say so. Let me be absolutely clear to you Starswirl: If you think using artifacts that are no longer yours to do your bidding as a way to defeat foreign threats after what you and the rest of the Pillars did to my tribe centuries ago, then you got a whole different thing coming. That already happened to me once. I will NOT let you do it again!"

Starswirl tried to jump in, but Knuckles stopped him and said "I am not finished yet! You were not around for this, but Twilight has a VERY good reason why it would be a dangerous idea to sacrifice the Elements of Harmony. Over five years ago, the Everfree Forest went out of control and if it had its way, it would have covered all of Equestria. This was also during the time of a major holiday where both rulers were missing and no one had a SINGLE clue on their location. To make it a long story short, the Forest expanded because of these plundervines that had sprung up from Discord thousands of years ago and because Celestia and Luna extracted them from the Tree in order to defeat him, it slowly weakened the Tree's magic over time and eventually, the vines had enough power to overtake the Tree and it was to the point of near death. So, do not even think about trying to take shortcuts here, Starswirl!"

Starswirl raised a brow and asked "Then how do you suggest we defeat these villains?"

Knuckles sneered at Starswirl and said "Oh, I got plenty of ideas. But, my wife provided the perfect one to me just a few seconds ago. However, I will let my technology do the talking."

He brought up the live 3-D map of Equestria on the projector screen that is able to go up and down and he said "This is my 3-D map of Equestria and it gets updated every second and if I select the foreign threats checkbox in the settings, it will keep an eye out for any one that is considered dangerous, which would include our foes that we are facing at the moment. Now, go prepare your spell Starswirl and leave my presence! As for the rest of you, prepare yourselves for battle and as soon as we get an alert, we are out of here!"

Rainbow felt excited about this and said "What are we waiting for?!"

Flash Magnus liked the energy from Rainbow and said "I like your spirit!" Everyone started cheering a little bit in excitement, but Starlight noticed Twilight walk out in sadness. However, Knuckles motioned to her that she needed to stay and he'll go talk to his wife.

He found her in the library with Spike and the dragon asked "What about this one?"

Twilight looked at the book and said "Sea Pony Etiquette isn't gonna help right now, Spike."

Knuckles opened the door and asked "Twilight, what is going on?"

Twilight said "Nothing! Everything is perfectly fine!"

Knuckles was not buying that and said "Yeah, nice try. But I know whenever my wife is distressed. After all the s[BLEEP] I have gone through in my life, you always knew when something was wrong and it is the same now. So, there is no use in hiding it. I tried hiding my secrets from you several years ago and looked how that turned out. So, just tell me what's going on."

Twilight sighed and said "I just unleashed ultimate evil and doomed Equestria because I was obsessed with meeting my idol!"

Knuckles gave her a deadpan stare and said "That is it? Okay. It is not exactly your fault that the Pony of Shadows somehow was brought out of Limbo along with my most bitter enemies, so I do not blame you for not knowing."

Twilight said "But I should have listened to both you and Starlight and left things alone and now the Elements of Harmony will be lost to fix my mistake!"

Knuckles said with a firm tone "Hold on, that is not going to happen. If Starswirl firmly believes that using Equestria's first line of defense as a way to temporarily fix his problems again, then he has truly learned nothing from when he stole my artifact thousands of years ago. Also, we still have the Master Diamond. It is in my possession once again and no one is ever going to take it from me once more after what happened all those years ago. Even if you lose the Elements hypothetically, we still have the most powerful artifact of all time in our possession. Plus, I think there may be another approach to this entire situation than what Starswirl has "planned."

Spike was carrying a stack of books and said "If there is, Twilight will find it."

Twilight pulled out the large book and said "Portalgate. Portal keys. Portal Spells! Yes! If the Pillars can hold open the gateway to Limbo, a powerful pony can do the banishing herself! Do you know what this means?!"

Spike set the books on the ground and asked rhetorically "I can stop carrying books?"

Twilight smiled at Knuckles and said "The Pillars don't have to leave Equestria! Even though we'll lose the Elements, we'll have the ponies that created them and the Pony of Shadows will be banished for good!"

Knuckles didn't exactly agree with that and said "Did you forget everything I just said? We have the Master Diamond on us in case all else fails and I believe that there is more to the story than the Pony of Shadows simply being evil because he tried to "steal" artifacts. Banishment is not the only option here."

Twilight said "Starswirl knew what he was doing when he cast that spell. If I can make it even better, maybe he'll see that I take magic as seriously as he does." She pulled out the quill and scroll and began to write. Knuckles simply sighed and walked out of the library. He could tell that Starswirl was feeding her lies and he didn't like it one bit. His worst enemy was corrupting her and will eventually get her to turn against him if things continue down along this path. One thing's for certain though: If he was going to protect his family to the best of his ability, he had to keep the two at an arm's length so his own wife doesn't turn against him.

Meanwhile, Jack, his extended family, and the rest of the Guardians were trying to digest what had just happened and what their next course of action would be. Jack said "This surely is something else."

Elsa said "In everything that has happened in my life, we are definitely in a unique situation at the moment."

Anna said "Surely, there has to be something that we can do."

Kristoff said "But where do we even begin? We only had to deal with one villain before and now we have two of them to deal with along with teaming up with a bunch of ponies and a supernatural human being that rivals your powers Elsa."

North said "This is not the first time we have faced adversity. I'm sure we can figure something out."

The Easter Bunny objected and said "But we don't even know Pitch has the same effect on children in this world, mate. It could either enhance him or hurt him with the ability, mate."

Tooth said "I agree with Easter on this one. We've already seen that we lose our powers every time Pitch creates fear in children and they stop believing in us, but we're a completely different dimension that is dominated by another species, so we're not sure if Pitch would have the same effect on them or not."

The Sandman made a question mark appear above his head and simply shrugged since he really had no insight on the matter.

Kristoff asked "So, what do we do now?"

Jack sighed and said "We follow Knuckles' lead and if anything comes up, we'll let him know. He seems to be very good at taking control of situations and it seems that he's willing to listen to other opinions somewhat as long as it doesn't sound super outlandish, but anything can happen."

In the committee room, Starswirl said "The realm has seem to have vastly expanded since the last time myself and the Pillars were here in Equestria."

Fluttershy asked Meadowbrook "Isn't there some way to banish him without losing all of you?"

Meadowbrook sighed and said "Oh, I wish there were, but to save our home, we are willing to leave it."

Twilight suddenly came in and said "I don't think you'll have to! My spell isn't finished yet, but I think we can send both the Pony of Shadows and Pitch Black to Limbo without all of you having to go as well!" She presented the spell to Starswirl, but the wizard immediately shot that down and pushed it aside.

He said "While I appreciate your enthusiasm Twilight, this is hardly the time to take risks on "half-baked" spells."

Twilight was quite heartbroken about it, but her friends were quick to defend her and Knuckles overheard the conversation in the next room over. He had just finished writing his response to Pitch and sent it out shortly after. To say he was pi{BLEEP]ed would be an understatement.

He stormed into that room and said with seething anger "What did I tell you about DISRESPECTING MY WIFE, STARSWIRL?! YOU WERE NEVER TO DO THAT AND YET, YOU DISOBEYED ME ONCE AGAIN! Let me see that spell!" He ripped it out of Starswirl's grasp and took a read at it. He said "I see absolutely nothing wrong with this spell at all. In fact, I think it is the one that we might need to defeat our two foes and this is NOT me being biased in favor of my wife. You ponies continue to prove to me why you were such a disappointment to this country and my tribe's most hated enemy. It is pathetic."

He threw it back on the table and Meadowbrook said "While it is an unconventional approach, I believe it could work. Knuckles has a fair point in this case."

Starswirl examined it more closely and said "Hmm. I suppose there is a chance."

Sunburst said "But we still have no idea where we could find both villains."

As if he said it on command, the map made an alarm sound and everyone saw that a small circle was flashing red at the location of Manehattan. Knuckles saw that and said "That is where they are: right there." He stuck his head out the hall and yelled "HEY! JACK! ELSA! ANNA! KRISTOFF! GUARDIANS! WE HAVE TO GO! OUR FOES ARE IN MANEHATTAN!" They swiftly came and Knuckles said "It is go time ponies! Let us move out!"

Everyone left Baltimare and quickly headed for Manehattan. Once they got there, they quickly knew that the Pony of Shadows and Pitch had been coming through the city. They searched everywhere for them and then, Knuckles spotted them in the distance. He said "THIS WAY!" All of them followed and they continued to chase the two villains.

Knuckles saw them heading out towards the harbor and he was trying to think of the quickest way to beat them and cut them off. He saw the Crystaller Building and it clicked for him. He turned to Elsa and said "Elsa, use your ice powers to get up to the top of the building up there! I have a way to stop them from reaching the harbor."

Elsa asked "Are you sure?" A quick nod from Knuckles was all it took for her to build an ice ramp up to the top of the Crystaller Building and Knuckles ran as fast as he could up it. He got up to the top and saw the two villains quickly approaching the harbor. He ran even faster and sprinted across buildings to beat them out to the harbor. The rest of the group was right behind and they were trying to stop the villains from reaching the harbor as well.

Knuckles eventually cut them off and yelled "STOP RIGHT THERE, PITCH AND PONY OF SHADOWS! THE LINE ENDS HERE! YOU WILL CAUSE HAVOC NO LONGER AND YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!"

Pitch simply laughed and said "You must have received my letter. That's good. Unfortunately, you resisting me was the worst possible decision you could make and because of that, you will suffer!

The Pony of Shadows said "You fools potentially have us outnumbered, but we're far intellectually smarter than you'll ever be! Your little plan to defeat us both is admirable, but foolish!"

Knuckles growled with anger and said "Wanna bet?!" He charged up his red lightning and punched them both smack dab in the face, which definitely left a nasty impression on both of their faces.

Both of them growled with retaliation and began attacking Knuckles. As a result, the rest of the group chipped in and they fought alongside Knuckles as a way to defend their leader for the most part. Twilight and Starlight were shooting off spells at the villains, and while the villains dodged it somewhat, they got trapped inside Elsa's ice and had a hard time getting out. The Pony of Shadows pushed them all away with his shadows and both him and Pitch fled. Knuckles snarled at the two of them and yelled "FOLLOW THEM! DO NOT LET THEM GET AWAY!"

The group continued firing attacks at the villains as they were running, but the villains were dodging most of them anyways, so it wasn't being very effective. They ended up back at the Crystaller Building and when all of them jumped to the next building, they were suddenly in a different environment. Knuckles grabbed all of them and they were now hanging from some building. Knuckles looked up and saw that it almost looked like the Empire State Building, but he thought that there was no way they could be in New York at the moment.

Most of the group below him were yelling with fear and Knuckles struggled to keep his grip on top of the building. He had one hand holding up the entire group and the other holding the top of the skyscraper. He wanted to put a tighter grip on the rod, but he knew that if he gripped any tighter, the rod would be instantly crushed and all of them would fall to their deaths, which he did not want. He spent so much time thinking about it that he didn't notice that his hand was slipping and eventually, all of them started falling from the building.

Almost all of them were screaming and Knuckles was trying to think of what he could do to stop this. He then had an idea click in his head and he reached inside his coat pocket inside his jacket. He threw down one of the golden rings in front of the group and they all fell on top of the grass in somewhat of a rough landing, but none of them were seriously injured, which was a good thing.

Most of them were confused and Rainbow asked "Uh, where are we?"

Knuckles sighed and said "We are in New York City. Otherwise known as the Big Apple."

Twilight asked "New York City? What's that?"

Knuckles said "To put it simply, New York City is a city in the state of New York on the east coast of the United States and it is known for several things such as being the hub for International Trade, the largest city in the United States of America by population, and where all immigrants could come at one time."

Applejack asked "What part of the city are we at right now?"

Knuckles said "The building we just fell from was the Empire State Building and we landed here in Central Park. But the borough we are in right now is Manhattan."

Rarity lit up at that and said "Manhattan?! Is that the same as Manehattan?!"

Knuckles said "Not quite. It is similar, but it is not the same. What Equestria has is just one borough or area of New York City. NYC has five boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and The Bronx. We are in Midtown Manhattan right now and we have to figure out how to get out of this place. This interdimensional travel ability that Pitch has is really worrying me and it seems that he has used it to transport us back to my home planet on short notice. Let us see if there is anything that could help us find a way out."

They began walking and Knuckles noticed that something about this place changed. He looked up and saw the new World Trade Center that was up there, which vastly confused him. He said "What happened to the World Trade Center?! What the f[BLEEP] is this new building?!" He looked around and asked to someone walking by "Excuse me sir, what the heck is that large blue building in front of us?"

He said "Oh, that's the new World Trade Center."

Knuckles said "I thought it was destroyed after the events of 9/11. I never heard anything about a new building."

The man said "Yeah, they announced that a new building was going to be built to replace the old one."

Knuckles asked "How long has that building been there?"

The man said "As far as I remember, it was completed in 2013 and opened in November 2014."

Knuckles' jaw dropped and then said "Thank you kindly, sir." The man left and the group kept walking. He said "I cannot believe it! It has been around for six years and no one mentioned anything about it?! I remember watching the original towers falling on live television when I was still in high school, but I did not hear anything about a new building after that. I was so torn up at the time that I just stopped paying attention to what was going on. I came to Equestria in March 2009 and this new building opened to the public over five years later. That is just pathetic. Anything else I missed?!"

Twilight said "I don't think anyone could blame you for not knowing about this new building being here after watching the old ones fall and being gone for so long."

Knuckles said "I am not particularly happy with being back on my home planet."

Applejack raised a brow and asked "Wouldn't ya be glad to be back home?"

Knuckles sighed and said "Not exactly, Applejack. While this has always been my home, it always has not been the greatest. There have not been that many terrible things that I have experienced here in New York City, but all of the bad memories still live on in my hometown of Baltimore, which is four hours south of here. Most of them I will probably never get over."

Twilight put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder and said "It's in the past, Caleb. We're all here with you now and we'll support you to the very end." The rest of the group said the same, but the Pillars stayed quiet about it because of their mixed opinion of him.

Knuckles smiled a bit and said "Thanks. I greatly appreciate it. But we must get back to the mission. This city will be hard to navigate and we must stick together. No running off at all." They continued walking through downtown New York City and Rarity was in absolute awe of the environment around her. If you thought she got excited about the Crystal Empire and Manehattan, imagine how it would be when she was walking through Lower Manhattan in NYC.

She took it all in and said with excitement "There are no words!"

Knuckles obviously heard that and said "Rarity, we did not come here to explore the city and go out shopping. We are here on a mission to defeat two villains and I can't afford to lose anyone here. There is a reason why New York City is called The Big Apple. This area covers over 330 square miles and I cannot let you wander off. So, stick with the group here and maybe you can explore this area at another time when the entire universe is not threatened."

Rarity blushed in embarrassment and said "Sorry about that, Knuckles. It's just I have never seen so much fashion here in this city and with Manehattan being the fashion capital of Equestria, it just reminds me a lot about it. But you are right. We have a mission to complete. However, I must ask why are there so many horseless carriages on the roads here?"

Knuckles chuckled a bit and said "They are not horseless carriages. They are called cars. They are powered by an engine to run, it uses wheels to move the vehicle, and uses gas to make the vehicle travel. It has been around for over a century and they have played a key role in modern society. To make it short, you have regular sedans, pickup trucks, vans, SUVs, buses, monorail trains, and airplanes. Here in NYC, most people use public transit, taxis, or the subway to get around, but in other parts of America, people use cars more."

Twilight was busy writing down notes and the Pillars seem intrigued by the environment around them as well. Things had definitely changed a little bit since they were last here. Of course, they had seen cars before, but most of them looked completely different than it did back all those years ago. Everything that they had ever known about this world had changed.

As the group was walking through Lower Manhattan, quite a few people noticed them and some of them rubbed their eyes to make sure they weren't just seeing things. Plus, there were a lot of fans of Beamer in NYC. Although, the ratio of people who like him to those who don't is roughly 55 to 45 percent. It was higher when Knuckles had released his first hit single, but after more songs came out, a lot more people in the city didn't have the same view, but at least half of those people still respected him for his success. The other half was just hating on him for his success, which didn't surprise him since New York City is probably the most liberal city in America.

You were always going to have people complain that no one should be listening to angry metal rock music because that would make people sad or something like that and that didn't settle well with them. In other words, it was just part of their socialist utopian world view of things which was standard for New York City. As a political commentator, Knuckles knew that the Democrat to Republican ratio was just as bad as the nation's capital, Washington D.C., where it's 90 percent Democrat and 10 percent Republican.

Regardless though, Knuckles didn't really care what his haters had to say, and the money he had made so far in his career was able to back it up. He had dealt with bad people all of his life, so dealing with a city full of liberals was nothing in comparison. In fact, it made his hometown of Baltimore look good, which wasn't exactly that conservative either. But I'm getting off topic here. Now is not the time for political discussion. That's a different topic for a different day.

Now, as a result of Knuckles being well known in New York City, you had people following after him and the rest of the group. He wasn't from NYC, but he had performed concerts here before, so most of the people in the city were aware of who he was. Rainbow asked Knuckles "Um Knuckles, why are all of these humans following us?"

Knuckles said "Well for one, I am quite popular in New York City since I have done many concerts here before, and two, no one in this city has ever seen you guys before, so it is drawing a lot of attention. If I can just find a map, I should be able to get to the Statue of Liberty."

He looked everywhere for a map and just before the entrance to Central Station, there was a map of Lower Manhattan and a subway map right next to it. He said "Okay, so we are here, and the Statue of Liberty is there, so from what I am reading here, we need to head south from here." All of them headed south and just as they got to the edge, they stopped since the Hudson River was right there.

He said "Hmm, the Hudson River is blocking the way between here and the Statue of Liberty. Hey Elsa, do you think you can use your ice powers to freeze part of the river so we can get across?"

Elsa said "I definitely could, but how is the ice going to melt once we make it across? The boats still need to be able get through here."

Knuckles thought about it and said "I have got an idea. Just go ahead and do it." Elsa simply took a deep breath and cast ice on the river, which froze it and the group was able to cross. Then, Knuckles charged up his red lightning and punched the ice broken from one side to the other so the boats could continue moving without interruption.

Most of them were mind blown and Rarity asked "Wouldn't doing that causing you to get really cold?"

Knuckles shook his head and said "Of course not. It's September and typically, the Hudson River is 65 degrees on average during this time of year, which is considered a comfortable swimming temperature. So, I do not have to worry about getting hypothermia or something."

Applejack asked "Um, what is that green thing that is front of us?"

Knuckles said "This is the Statue of Liberty. It is similar to the one you guys have in Manehattan, but there are some differences between the two. This was a gift from France and it arrived here to America on June 17th, 1885 as a way to recognize the United States as a champion of liberty and it even encouraged the French to adopt the same ideals. This was considered a welcoming presence to the gateway of America and immigrants used to travel to Ellis Island to become citizens, which is on the next island over. It is now a museum, but it was an important gateway for immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries."

Jack asked "But why are we even here at the Statue of Liberty? What's so significant about it?"

Sunburst agreed and said "Yeah, what could a statue possibly provide us with?"

Knuckles said "The reason why we are here is because there's something significant about this place. If you just follow me over here towards the edge of the island." They went over to that area and saw a British Police Call Box standing there.

Starlight asked "Umm, that's just a box. What's significant about that?"

Knuckles sighed with frustration and said "Let me explain. Get inside one at a time. NOW!" They quickly started moving and Knuckles pressed the button inside to send each of them one down at a time. Once they all made it to the bottom, none of them could believe their eyes. Knuckles said "This was always my little hideout I had whenever I visited New York City. I have had this since I was a little kid and I still come here occasionally to check up on it."

Rarity said "You call this just a hideout?! It's a state-of-the-art facility! It's more than just a hideout! Are you sure you don't live here?"

Knuckles said "I promise I do not. I grew up in Baltimore and now, my new home will be in Baltimare, so nothing will change about it. However, I am tired from all that walking and I am going to rest now. It has been a long day and we will need our strength for tomorrow. This man is getting some shut eye and I suggest you all do the same. Feel free to make yourselves at home, most of you. You Pillars on the other hand, don't touch ANYTHING and you must ask my permission to use something, unless if it is the bathroom or something like that, but other than that, everything is OFF-LIMITS! Good night!"

He retired for the night to where he normally sleeps and Twilight said "I guess we should probably all head to bed as well. It's late at night and we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Rarity agreed and said "Yeah, all of that walking definitely hurt my hooves." Most of them could agree with that statement and they provided their insight as well. Everyone soon retired for the night as well and they all said goodnight to each other. Twilight went to join her husband and she saw him already peacefully sleeping. One thing was for sure, he was one to be quick to fall asleep if he wanted to. He was both the heavy sleeper and dead sleeper, so that was something Twilight had seen being married to him the last two years and sleeping together every night.

She smiled and whispered in his ear "Goodnight, my strong warrior." She went to sleep as well, but then she suddenly felt Knuckles wrap his arms around her, which made Twilight smile even more. She saw a small grin on his face and that was enough to tell her that he had loved her very much. She eventually fell asleep and the two rested peacefully. The night had just begun and tomorrow will bring a new day with new troubles and anxieties for today already had its own to worry about.

Author's Note

AN: I am very sorry for this chapter coming out so late once again, but life has only gotten busier for me lately and I've had very little time to work on this chapter. However, it is done now and we can move on to the next part of the story. There was a lot of action going on in this chapter and it might seem a bit confusing, but all the loose ends will be tied up before the end of the story. The rivalry is only beginning to heat up and things will get more dramatic as time goes on. Also, it's nice to see the Chiefs and the Eagles in the Super Bowl this year and I'm interested to see how that goes. Go Chiefs! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Next Chapter: The trek to Boston! After the group finds themselves in New York City, Knuckles tries to find a way to get them out of there and find Pitch and the Pony of Shadows to get back to Equestria. However, that is easier said than done and in order to figure it out, they have to travel to Boston to find the two villains. But, travelling there is harder than expected and the group must figure out how to get there without killing themselves in the process. Will they be able to find a way to Boston, or will they be stranded in New York City with nowhere else to go?

Until then, my fellow readers