Rainbow Dash was walking next to Paul. She felt slightly uncomfortable around the timberwolf, but he had been helping them so far and he didn't seem to show any signs of a threat. Originally, she had tried to make conversation with him. She didn't know why she did, she just, did. Paul had tried to communicate back, now finding that he had a voice. In his own language, Turtimberkish, the language of Timberwolves, or, known in Turtimberkish as Tukeresterk. He understood Equestrian, but he couldn't speak it. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash seemed to understand, and know how to speak, Turtimberkish. Pinkie Pie also seemed to understand Paul, but she couldn't talk to him properly as she couldn't speak Turtimberkish. Now Rainbow Dash was bored. Her conversation with Paul hadn't gone too well, as neither of them knew what to say, plus, Paul's, reserved, almost shy, personality, had made it hard for Rainbow Dash to talk to him at all. She still didn't know how she understood him or could speak a bit of his language. She and her friends were wandering around the castle, trying to find the elements again. They were pretty sure that Nightmare moon had taken them, but they wanted to make sure. The friends had split up, to make their search faster. Twilight and Spike were searching the upper section, Rarity and Fluttershy searched the west ground section, Pinkie Pie and Applejack searched the east ground section and Rainbow Dash and Paul searched the basement. It was when they were beginning to leave to get back to the others and report their findings that Paul saw something that neither he or Rainbow Dash had seen before. It was an entrance. An entrance to, somewhere. Somewhere dark. Somewhere dark and mysterious. Somewhere, that, seemed to draw anyone who saw it, to it. It wasn't evil, just, foreboding. The entrance led downwards, though not very far. It eventually came to a cave. The cave had ancient words carved into the wall. Unirish, from what Rainbow Dash could tell. The two left the cave and found the others already waiting for them.
"What took you so long? We've been finished for ages, another minute and we would have gone in after you." Pinkie Pie asked, a bit concerned, though, more or less her cheery self.
"Did you find something??" Fluttershy asked. "None of us had any luck."
"Yeh, we did find something, but not the elements. We found a cave and in it there were words written into the wall. Unirish I think." Rainbow Dash said.
"Where? Take us to the cave! It might help us." Twilight said. So Rainbow and Paul lead the others down into the basement and into the cave. The cave was surprisingly light. Twilight had expected it to be pitch black, but there was something in the cave that lit it up. Twilight looked at the words engraved onto the wall and began to read.
"Ag an am idir Lá agus Oíche, an té atá teideal díreach, go domhain san uaimh ina twists intinn, beidh féach an fhírinne agus a fháil a n-áit."
"At the time between Day and Night, the one who's title is just that, deep in the cave which twists minds, shall see the truth and find their place." She translated. "Huh, that's weird, it's like a prophecy, but a prophecy to what?"
"OOH! A prophecy to see who is gonna side with Nightmare moon! Or a prophecy to see who is gonna find their place in life! OOOH! Maybe it's about a pony who's name has got something to do with time!" Pinkie shouted, bouncing around.
"Umm, I don't think so Pinkie. Maybe about somepony finding their place in life but not the others."
"But what about a pony who's name has got something to do with time?" Fluttershy asked "That seems pretty obvious."
"Prophecies are meant to make you think that. Its not going to be about a pony who's named after a time or something. We are going to have to figure this out, find another meaning to the prophecy than what we think it is." Twilight explained, matter of factly.
"Well one thing's fer sure an' that's it's got somethin' to do with Nightmare moon." Applejack said.
"How can you be sure of that Applejack?" Twilight asked
"Well, it's here, under the castle o' the two sisters, we found it while Nightmare moon is free. An' prophecies from ancient times come up when they're needed, right?"
"Hmm, that does make sense, but it could be about something else we have to do! Oh no! What do we do??"
"How about we start by kicking Nightmare moon's butt! Then we can get Princess Celestia back, and hopefully, Princess Luna. Then we can worry about what an ancient prophecy has to do with anything." Rainbow Dash suggested. The others agreed. So the main 6, Spike and Paul set off to find Nightmare moon.
They immediately went to Canterlot, to Celestia's castle, as that was where Nightmare moon had said she was going, to claim the throne. When they got to Canterlot, they noticed that nopony was outside. They had all locked themselves indoors. Twilight lead the way to the castle, staying hidden from the beasts and the guards that had decided to work for Nightmare moon. They got as far as the great gates that ran around the castle. There they came face to face with several guards. Nightmare moon had made them change their armor from sun gold, to moon white, with black shoes.
Their new armor protected more of their bodies than their previous ones. The new armor covered the entirety of their body and neck, their helmets covered every part of the head except for the ears and their shoes came halfway up their legs. The guards had caught the group trying to climb over the gate. Without question, the guards immediately attacked them well aware of Paul. The guards decided to ignore Paul for now, if they went for him, the others would escape and they couldn't allow that.
The guards leaped at the girls, only one missed. That one was the guard aiming at Rainbow Dash who had dodged to the right at the last second before spinning round and bucking him in the chest. Applejack faced her attacker head on. She had been knocked to the ground by the guard, but she had quickly pushed him off and now she had him pinned to the floor. Spike was clawing and scratching and the unicorn guard who attacked Rarity. Rarity was pinned to the ground by the unicorns magic and couldn't do anything, and Spike, being the handsome Night in shining armor that he was had come to her rescue. he wasn't doing very well. Twilight seemed evenly matched with the unicorn that had attacked her, and she was also fighting the pegasus guard that attacked Fluttershy. Fluttershy was curled up in a ball behind Twilight. Pinkie Pie was running circles around her guard, well, more like bouncing. But, unfortunately for Pinkie she made a mistake. Her Pinkie sense told her that something was going to fall from the sky, so she stopped bouncing to find a place to hide, during those moments the guard launched himself into the air and landed on top of Pinkie. Now Pinned to the ground, Pinkie Pie squirmed with all her might, but the guard was too heavy and she couldn't shake him off. The guard pulled out a set of hoof-cuffs and grabbed Pinkies right foreleg and clipped the hoof-cuffs on. Paul saw this and became enraged. Pinkie Pie was his first friend, and because of that friendship, he had been pulled out from the dream dome and had been transformed from an imaginary timberwolf head into a real timberwolf. If it weren't for Pinkie, he wouldn't be here right now. Paul bounded over to the guard that had Pinkie Pie pinned to the floor, and grabbed him in his massive jaws. Then he shook the guard senseless and threw him away. He nudged Pinkie back to her hooves before going to help the others. He helped Twilight first. He brought down the pegasus guard and flung her in the same direction that he had flung the previous guard. He left Twilight with the other guard and left to help Spike and Rarity.
Finally, the battle was over, the guards had lost and now lay in a heap on the floor. Everyone was relieved that they had fought them off and could now get into the castle with no interruptions. But they were wrong. Nightmare moon had sensed their battle and had prepared her army of Chaos beasts. She allowed the group to get past the gate and into the castle. She did this because she was sure that they wouldn't be able to beat her. Especially without the elements. But Nightmare moon was wrong this time. The girls, instead of heading straight to Nightmare moon's throne room as she had planned, split up in search of the elements. Their search was successful, thanks to the lack of security around the elements now that all of Nightmare moon's guards and soldiers lay in wait in the throne room, ready for an ambush.
Twilight didn't know what to do now. She had the elements. But she didn't know how to work them. She had a feeling that some of her friends might be able to wield them, but she wasn't sure and she didn't want to take any chances. Plus, the elements were still in their stone cases.
"Right, everypony grab an element, were going to Nightmare moon." Twilight ordered. The others grabbed an element each while Twilight examined the statue the elements had been on, looking for the sixth element.