Celestia paced around uneasily in the middle of the throne room as she talked to Luna and Rin standing near her. Having the throne room all to themselves, they were discussing the possible reasons for why they haven't received any word from Twilight yet about their peace meeting with Inferno. Granted that they did receive one yesterday to inform them that the meeting was being pushed back due to Inferno not being ready, but it didn't do much to ease them. Of course, Celestia also had to read the letter over when she saw the rather sloppy writing, recognizing it as an old habit of Twilight's for when she would sometimes walk and write while irritated.
"How much longer do you think we shall need to wait?" Luna wondered. "I mean, it won't be much longer before you'll have to lower the sun, Tia, and for me to raise the moon."
"I don't know how much longer, Luna," Celestia replied, "but I'm starting to regret having sent Twilight like this."
"Lord Dark is there, so I'm sure she'll be alright," Rin assured her. "After all, he is the Lord of Death, and nothing in their right mind would deliberately provoke him."
"Didn't that exact thing happen last time, though?"
"We didn't know what Dark was at the time. Now that we do, I'm hoping that King Inferno see reason, even if he is somehow being controlled."
"Regardless," Celestia began, trying her best to hide her nervousness, "I still find this lack of update to be worrisome."
"You know that I'm concerned as well, sister," Luna said supportively, "but I trust in those three to see this through. And while we know that Dark has a rather bad history with them, we also know that Twilight will be able to rein him in before he does anything stupid."
"True, but I'm not so sure that she'll be able to if she's threatened. We've heard of how protective Dark can get."
"Yes, but can you blame him? After all, he lost his family because of Inferno, so of course he'll do whatever he can to save his future one."
"I'm still having a hard time believing that," Rin voiced. "I mean, never before has any of the Scaleless Dragons had any offspring of their own. To think that Dark would be the first among them to do so... I'll need to research this."
Luna gave him a wary look. "I'm not so sure that either Twilight or Dark would appreciate you poking around at her like that. And aren't you supposed to be a Council Elder?"
"You forget that I'm also a mage as well. Besides, can't an old drake have a hobby or two?"
"Just as long as you have their consent," Celestia sighed.
"Of course, Princess. Even if Lord Dark and I seem to be on good terms right now, I still wouldn't want to cross any of the Scaleless Dragons, least of all Death Incarnate."
"And yet there are plenty who would still confront him and want him dead," Luna pointed out. "The most important and concerning of which being his younger brother."
Rin gave a sad sigh. "Such a shame that is. I've met him a few times in passing back in Vulcan, and each time I did, he had this... aura about him. I don't know what it was exactly, but it made me uneasy just being near him."
"Which does nothing good for us since he's joined King Inferno."
"If what Dark thought is true, though," Celestia added, "then it's more like that King Inferno joined Light instead of-"
Celestia was interrupted when a familiar green wisp flew in front of her. Recognizing it as a letter sent by Spike, Celestia let out a breath of relief as the wisp was turned into a scroll. Taking it into her magic, Celestia smiled before she began to read it. However, when she did, her smile vanished in exchange for a look of fear and worry.
"Tia, what's happened?" Luna cautiously asked, rarely seeing her looking like this.
"I've made a terrible mistake," Celestia fearfully said.
"What's going on, Princess?" Rin asked, now becoming uneasy about this.
"The negotiations have failed."
"How badly?" Luna questioned.
"Bad, Luna. Very, very bad. King Inferno shot down Twilight's proposal of peace and tried to have them all killed in the middle his throne room."
"Did they all make it out?"
"Yes. According to this, Twilight, Spike, and the royal guards we sent with them, are currently making their way to the airship."
"What of Lord Dark?" Rin asked. "What's become of him?"
"Dark stayed behind to buy them time to escape. However, as it turns out, Dark brought some of his own guards which are escorting Twilight, Spike, and our guards."
"This is really it then," Luna said disheartenedly. "We are truly at war with the Dragon Kingdom now."
"It would appear so, Luna."
"I am terribly sorry about this, Your Highnesses," Rin apologized with a bow. "I never expected King Inferno to take such actions. Even when he started gathering his forces, I didn't think that he would actually do it without the council's approval."
"It's not your fault, Rin," Celestia sighed. "You and your Dragon Council tried to do what you could to stop him without resorting to violence."
There was a moment of silence as they let the news of what happened settle in.
"So," Rin spoke up, "what now?"
Celestia shook off her fears with a determined and stern look. "Now, I must make for the Dragon Kingdom and get Twilight and the others out of there."
"But it'll take too long for you to get there! You'll never make it in time if you fly, or even if you teleported!" Luna objected.
"Not like this I can't," Celestia said before facing her sister. "Luna, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but would you be willing to lend me some of your power?"
"Why?"
"With enough power, I can teleport myself straight into the Dragon Kingdom and get them out of there. However, to do that, I'll need a bit of your magic to do it."
"Very well then," Luna nodded, not hesitating as she lit her horn and moved around the table to cross her horn with Celestia's.
"Thank you, Luna."
"I will give you some of mine too," Rin said, holding up a claw with a whirling orb of gathered magic in it.
"Are you sure?" Celestia wondered as she finished receiving Luna's magic and shivering with the additional magical energy.
"I am. I was hoping to preserve the peace between our two nations, but now that's failed. The least that I can do at this point is to help you retrieve those three before King Inferno manages to get his claws on them."
"If he hasn't done so already," Luna grimaced. "Who knows how much time has passed since Spike sent that letter to us, or what's happened since then."
Nodding in agreement, Rin pushed the orb of collected magic towards Celestia. Once it was close enough, Celestia lit her horn and tapped it against it, causing it to be slowly absorbed into her horn. Now having the collective powers of Luna and Rin, Celestia's horn was starting to crackle with magical energy.
"Thank you," Celestia thanked them. "With this much magic, I should have enough power to teleport directly to the Dragon Kingdom's capital of Vulcan, and back with everypony, including the airship they left in."
"Just be sure to not use too much of it at once," Luna told her. "It would be bad if you magically burned yourself out and were to fall asleep for another full week like last time."
"Yes, Luna, I remember."
"Good, because you'll need to return to make a statement about this new war with the Dragon Kingdom."
"That, or you could do that instead if you wanted to."
"I could, but I think that the ponies would be more comfortable if you were to do it, seeing as how they trust you more than I."
"Sorry to interrupt," Rin spoke, "but I believe that you have some ponies to save?"
Celestia blinked. "He's right. We'll talk about this later. Until then, Luna, you'll have to take over while I'm gone. I'll send you a letter through either Spike or myself with an update and further instructions after I get there."
"Very well. Take care, Tia, and be careful."
Letting it end there, Celestia lit her horn, and in a booming flash of light, she teleported off to Vulcan.
Dark chuckle as he decapitated yet another dragon with his Death Reaper scythe, before slicing through another with his Death Reaver sword. For the last thirty-five minutes, Dark had been on this rampage as he and his now seventeen Shadow Wraiths slaughtered everything that got close to them. Between the dragons, salamanders, and the flaming manticores that later came in to fight him, the carnage on the platform soon became so much that the ground wasn't visible anymore beyond the blood flooding over and off the sides of it. The dragons had figured that Dark would've dropped by now, but none of them knew of his stamina. That, and thanks to the fires sprouting from the flaming manticores' manes and tails, Dark used his Amplify to absorb them, severally weakening them while boosting his own power.
Losing another Shadow Wraith, Dark looked up and grinned as he noticed that with the position of the sun lowering behind the volcano, the platform was now mostly shrouded in shadows. Letting out a low and ominous laugh, Dark Shadow Melded into the shadow, causing the dragons and their minions to pause at him suddenly vanishing. As the dragons frantically looked around for him, Dark idly floated up through the shadows to the nearest dragon's neck, and dispelled his Shadow Meld just before he swung and lopped its head off.
The strike was fast, but just slow enough for the other dragons, salamanders, and flaming manticores, to see Dark cut the dragon's head off before disappearing again, this time with his Shadowport, over to another dragon and decapitating its head off too. Unsure of how to counter him, they all watched as Dark Shadowported between the dragons, salamanders, and flaming manticores, shouting "Die!" with each head he sliced by his sword and scythe.
As they watched helplessly as Dark beheaded them one by one, they started regretting not listening to those seven dragons yesterday when they said that Dark was declared to have defeated Nocturne and taken his place as Lord of Death. Now believing the dragons that they'd laughed at for spouting words of insanity, some of the dragons and flaming manticores started to turn around and flee. However, this act quickly caught Dark's attention and caused him to snarl in disappointment.
"Where do you think you're going?!" he shouted at them.
Drawing his sword back, Dark swung it towards one of the fleeing dragons and launched a blade of darkness out of it. While it was just the size of his sword's blade instead of a massive wave, in exchange for the size difference, it traveled much faster, reaching the fleeing dragon and slicing its wing off before the shadows crept up the rest of the dragon and dissolved it into black mist. Snorting at the dissolving dragon, Dark swung his scythe, launching a curved blade of death magic from it before repeating the process, switching between the two weapons.
"No! You don't get to run away!" Dark barked furiously. "You guys started this whole thing with me, so you better damn well stay and finish it!"
It got to a point where Dark's movements almost made it look like he was dancing, each spin firing another blade of death magic as he spun around. As Dark continued to enjoy this "Dance of Death", he didn't notice one of the dragons diving at him from directly above him. After another swing of his scythe, Dark was about to follow it up with another swing of his sword, but quickly found a draconic mouth stretching around him before it gobbled him up and swallowed him whole in one gulp.
All eyes were now on the dragoness who'd swallowed Dark. Almost instantly, they were roaring in victory for her killing him and started to land on the platform around her. However, after a few seconds had rolled by, the dragoness suddenly clutched her throat and started to violently cough. Staring at her in confusion, they all suddenly saw what was causing her such discomfort when two blades suddenly protruded from her neck and spun around, slicing off her head and the upper-half of her neck to reveal a panting and enraged Dark, covered in dragon saliva and blood.
Infuriated for them trying to eat him, Dark roared loud enough in Nocturne's voice that it caused the nearby dragons to cover their ears at the volume of it. It didn't help them either that Dark's roar was reverberated off of the wall of volcanoes. Launching himself up off of the collapsing corpse, Dark flew up high above the dragons and took in a deep breath. Having gathered enough air in his lungs, Dark glided around as he began breathing shadows down onto the dragons from above. As he continued to do so, he watched as the entire platform was covered in his lethal shadow breath before hearing the pained roars of the dragons caught within it.
Ceasing his shadow-breathing, Dark hovered in place high above the platform before the shadows he'd breathed seeped off the sides of the platform and dissipated, revealing the floor littered with skeletons of dragons, salamanders, and what few flaming manticores remained. With the platform now clear, Dark landed down on top of the pile of bones and turned to towards the cave at the sound of roaring. Moments later, the roaring ceased, and after that, Dark watched as six of his Shadow Wraiths returned from within, having figured that they took cover inside when he went started to go crazy with his scythe and sword, and ended up covering the cave in the meantime.
Taking a moment to scan his surroundings, Dark noticed that no more dragons, flaming manticores, or salamanders, were coming after him. Dispelling his Amplify, Dark planted his sword into the skull he stood on, helping to hold himself upright as he panted heavily from suddenly feeling tired from the backlash of having used his Amplify for such a long period of time. With nothing coming for him, and having his remaining Shadow Wraiths floating around him in a circle, Dark took this moment to take a breather.
"Well.. that was fun," he panted out loud, his voice and eyes returning to normal.
Getting his breathing under control, Dark snorted before he turned his head to the side and spit out a hunk of spit. Starting to feel better, Dark removed his Death Reaver from the dragon skull and was about to leave when he saw a bright flash of light behind him. Believing it to be Light using his wings, Dark spun around with his weapons ready to attack. But, instead of seeing Light like he predicted, in his place was Celestia, who stood slack-jawed as she saw the large pile of dragon, salamander, and flaming manticore skeletons. As she continued to take in the sight before her, her eyes eventually went down to the blood flooding the entirety of the platform, and then up to Dark standing on top of them all. With the scene before her, if it weren't for her seeing his armor in production, and for the sword in his right claw, Celestia wouldn't had recognized him.
"What in the...?" Celestia tried to speak, but was finding words hard to form at the moment.
Relieved and confused for Celestia showing up, Dark leaped off of the pile of bones and landed on his hooves several meters in front of her. Standing in front of her, Dark pulled his hood back, revealing his face before returning his eyeband back to storage and dispelling his Second Sight spell. Reversing the hold on his sword, Dark plunged it into the ground before dropping to kneel before her, ignoring the blood that was starting to cling to his armor, weapons, and waist cape.
"Princess Celestia, this is a surprise," Dark said with his head bowed.
"I believe that I should be the one who should be surprised here, Dark," Celestia returned before her eyes fell onto Dark again. "You don't need to bow Dark. Now, what happened here?"
"To start things off, Inferno ate Garble and the two other teen dragons who we brought back," he began answering, hearing Celestia give a small gasp before he stood up on his hooves and looked up at her as he continued. "He then had Razor Claw give the order to have us all killed. Since then, I've been here, covering for Twilight and the others as they escaped on the airship. I managed to get Razor Claw while I was at it, and I would've gotten Inferno too, but Light was there with them and interrupted me before I could finish Inferno off."
"I see," Celestia sadly sighed. "I'm sorry that things didn't go like we'd hoped that it would."
Dark's gaze fell as he frowned in disappointment. "Forgive me, Princess, but I think that it should be me who should be apologizing. After all, you, Princess Luna, and Rin all trusted us to smooth things out with Inferno. But instead, we ended up failing and plunging Equestria into war with the Dragon Kingdom."
"Tell me, who attacked first?"
"They did, Your Highness. Like I said, it started when Razor Claw ordered his guards in the throne room to kill us. Of course, needless to say that they didn't get very far, if anywhere at all."
Celestia shook her head. "Then you have nothing to apologize for, Dark. If what you say is true, and trust me when I say that I believe you, then it is King Inferno who's to blame for us being at war now." She took a moment to look over behind Dark and grimace. "Although, by the looks of things here, I'd say that he won't be mounting any kind of attack for a little while yet."
"Maybe," Dark mused out loud, earning him a look from Celestia. "I don't think that he's lost that many dragons. And even though I killed a lot of those salamanders, I doubt that it was enough to put that much of a dent in what we saw when we first flew into this place."
Celestia glanced around briefly before she gave a nod. "Either way, you've done more than enough here. Now, we better catch up to Twilight and the others before anymore of them show up."
"Yes, Princess."
"Also, before we leave," she began, looking over Dark. "You should probably do something about your armor. I doubt that Twilight would appreciate seeing you in such a state as to be covered in blood like that, even if it's hard to see."
Nodding in agreement, Dark shrouded himself in shadows before sending his armor back into his Shadow Storage. With it gone, he saw Celestia nod approvingly before she took off after the airship. Hesitating for a moment, Dark recalled his remaining Shadow Wraiths back into his shadow before following right behind Celestia. Looking back, he kept his eyes out for any sign of anything following them. Once he and Celestia few above and past the chain of volcanoes, Dark absorbed his Death Reaver and Death Reaper back into his body, seeing no reason to have them out anymore as they made their way towards the direction he saw the airship flying towards.
Back in Inferno's lair, Light watched Dark and Celestia fly away from another cave with Inferno looming over him.
"You better be right about this, Light," Inferno warned. "I'm taking a great risk in letting him go like that."
"At the rate he was going, you probably wouldn't have that much of an army left, and Equestria would've rolled over what remaining forces you had," Light countered, keeping his eyes on Dark until he and Celestia were out of sight. "We were unprepared for this. His power is far greater than what we thought it was."
"This plan of yours is falling apart. If Dark was able to do this much damage alone, then what do you think would happen if he had the armies of Equestria and the Crystal Empire to back him up?!"
"He won't."
Inferno looked at Light with a mixture of curiosity and anger. "Explain."
"Now that we've seen what Dark can do, we, or rather, I, can plan around it."
Light began walking out of the cave and onto the platform.
"And where do you think that you're going?!" Inferno heatedly barked.
"I need to return to where I stashed Aurora's remaining barrels of holy water. If my plan for Dark is to work, then I'll need them all, along with some of her old spellbooks."
Light paused and turned around to face Inferno with a wicked grin.
"Be patient with this, Inferno. When this is all over with, Dark will be out of the way, and Equestria will be free for you to safely attack."
Not all was peaceful on the airship. While they did manage to get away from Vulcan, there was still a group of dragons that followed them while Dark was distracted. After fifteen minutes of flying away from Vulcan, Twilight, who kept her eyes on the horizon for Dark, spotted a group of ten dragons chasing them down. With them approaching, Twilight called out a warning and started to snipe at them with her magic. Soon after she began, she found herself joined by the royal unicorn guards, and Spike. However, while most of their attacks connected, the distance between them and their targets caused the beams of magic to lose their power, resulting in the dragons flinching from the collective attacks, but nothing more.
This didn't prevent them from stopping, though. But as the dragons drew closer, Spike started to have enough. Even though he didn't want to do this, he didn't want to see Twilight or the other ponies getting hurt either. That, and he also started to think of how the Crusaders would react if the dragons were to catch up to them and captured them. Growling, Spike fell to all fours and opened his jaw. Seeing the energy starting to gather in his maw, Twilight shouted for the others to stand clear behind Spike. A few moments later, Spike fired a Flare off at the incoming dragons, piercing one through the chest and blasting the wing off of another behind it.
With one dragon dead and the other plummeting out of the sky, Spike took a few steps back and took a breather while the others resumed their bombardment. Once they saw that the dragons were close enough that they started to fire fireballs at the airship, Twilight switched to shielding the back end of the airship with a barrier, while the unicorn guards continued their attack. Of course, by this time, the dragons were close enough that the Shadow Wraths that were flying alongside the airship, turned around and charged the oncoming dragons.
While the unicorns provided cover, the Shadow Wraiths were able to get in close to swarm the dragons. With the dragons outnumbered like they were, while being distracted by the magical blasts to the face from the unicorns firing at them, they weren't able to do too much to defend themselves. Sure they were able to get twelve of them with their combined fire breath, but the rest of the Shadow Wraiths had either cut into their soft underside with their shadowy blades, or sliced through the membrane of their wings, causing them to fall hundreds of feet to the earth below and crash in a broken heap.
The last of the dragons falling, everyone cheered while the remaining Shadow Wraiths returned to their positions guarding the airship. Wincing from the discomfort of having shielded the back portion of the airship, Twilight fell to her rump and began massaging her forehead to try dulling the pain. Moments later, she saw a shadow nearing her and looked up to see Spike with a concerned look on his face.
"Hey, you doing alright?" he asked.
"Thanks, Spike, I'm fine," Twilight replied. "I just overdid it a little bit was all."
Spike frowned. "That's not good, Twilight. You can't just cast those kinds of spells like that. You heard what the doctor told you about using magic like that at this stage of your pregnancy."
"I know, but how else was I supposed to keep the airship safe?"
"Have some of the guards to it?" he huffed in slight annoyance.
Knowing that he was right, Twilight gave a silent nod in agreement. Glad to see her agreeing with him, Spike leaned down and helped Twilight up.
"Alright, let's get you back to bed. After that, I'll go see if we've got some medicine for your headache."
"Thanks, but I'd rather not take any medicine, for the baby's sake. If it's alright, I'll just try to sleep it off."
"Sure. In that case, I'll go tell the guards and crew that you'll be unavailable after we get you to bed."
"Thank you, Spike."
Smiling, Spike helped Twilight down below deck and back into her room to rest. Once she was tucked into bed with a cup of water on the nightstand, Spike returned back on deck. Sighing, he walked over to the railing on the back of the ship and leaned on it as he looked behind them for any sign of Dark. After almost twenty minutes of waiting and watching, Spike finally saw something flying towards them. Noticing that it wasn't the size of a dragon, nor did it even look like one, Spike kept his eyes on it until he could make out the familiar white coat and ethereal pink, green, blue, and purple mane and tail.
Princess Celestia? But what's she doing here? Spike wondered.
Waiting to say anything, Spike continued to watch as Celestia's form got closer. As she did, he noticed that she was carrying an orange blob on her back. Once she was close enough, Spike was able to see that it was Dark who was on her back, clinging to her as he appeared to be asleep. Even more curious as to what happened, Spike waited until Celestia landed beside him.
"Hello, Princess," Spike greeted her.
"Hello, Spike," Celestia returned, taking a moment to look around the airship. "Looks like you all managed to make it away safely."
"Just about. We had some of those dragons chasing after us."
"Yes, I saw them scattered across the ground on the way here."
Spike sighed and leaned on the railing. "Yeah. It was a good thing that Dark had those Shadow Wraiths guarding us. Those dragons were starting to get too close, so Twilight had to start shielding us from their fireballs."
"Speaking of Twilight, where is she?"
"She got a bit of a headache after she dispelled the barrier, so she's resting now down in her and Dark's room." Spike tilted to the side to see Dark slumped over Celestia's back. "Speaking of Dark now, what's up with him?"
Celestia looked back to Dark asleep on her back with an amused smirk. "While Dark was covering everypony's escape, he used his Amplify to help keep them at bay. He was rather tired and filthy when I arrived, so about half-way getting here, we took a quick break by a small river so that he could wash off the blood and dirt on him. The cool water woke him up and bought him some time, but his exhaustion was quick to catch up to him."
She chuckled at the thought.
"When I noticed this, I decided that I would carry him for the rest of the trip. It was a good thing too, considering that he fell asleep just moments after I got him settled on my back."
"Huh. Well, guess we better get him to bed too then."
Turning back around, Spike began to lead Celestia down to Dark's and Twilight's bedroom.
"By the way," he began, looking back at Celestia following him, "how did you get here so fast? I thought that you were still in Canterlot?"
Celestia frowned. "I was, but when I received your letter, Luna and Rin gave me some of their magic so I could come and get you all out of here. However, now that I see that everypony is safe, I won't need to teleport everypony and the airship back to Canterlot. So in the meantime, I'll just stay here and return with all of you."
"Couldn't you have done that on your own?"
"Not without some help from the others."
"Okay, but another question, if it's alright with you that is."
"Of course, Spike. What is it?"
"Is it okay for you to not be in Canterlot right now? I mean, from what you just said, it sounded like you just suddenly and abruptly left Canterlot, and we probably won't be returning back until somewhere around tomorrow afternoon."
"True, but I already wrote to Luna on my way here, so she knows what's going on. She'll look after Equestria while I'm here with all of you."
Nodding in understanding, Spike walked over to the door where Dark and Twilight were staying in. Lifting a claw to his lips in silence, Spike quietly cracked the door open and conjured a small light in the palm of his claw, illuminating the room in a dim green light just bright enough for them to see. Spotting the bed off in the corner of the far side of the room, Spike stepped off to the side while providing Celestia with the required light.
Approaching the bedside, Celestia took a moment to look at Twilight's sleeping form, remembering a time when she was younger and would sing her to sleep. Smiling at those memories, Celestia took Dark in her magic and held him up as she pulled the covers back. Of course, after she laid Dark down in bed and pulled the covers up, her smile softened when she saw Twilight subconsciously roll over toward Dark and began snuggling against him. Not wanting to accidentally awaken them, Celestia quietly walked out of their room with Spike and closed the door behind them.
"Well, I suppose I should lower the sun," she sighed before making her way above deck.
"Alright, in that case, I think I'm gonna call it an early night," Spike said with a yawn. "All this excitement today's been rather tiring. That, and using the Flare has left me feeling a little drained."
"I understand, Spike. I think that I too shall retire early after I'm done here."
"Okay. Well, goodnight, Princess."
"Goodnight, Spike, and pleasant dreams."
It was mid-afternoon when the airship flew over Canterlot and began its descent towards the castle. Coming in to land, Dark, Twilight, Spike, and Celestia all watched from the side before they spotted Luna waiting for them, along with Shining, Aero, Fissure, and Rin. Waiting for the pegasi crewponies to tie the airship down to anchor it, they began filing down the ramp provided for them and smiled when they felt the grass beneath their hooves and claws. Seconds after they were on solid ground again, Celestia, Twilight, and Dark, found themselves hugged by Luna, Shining, and Aero respectively, while Fissure and Rin approached Spike.
"Are you alright, Twily?!" Shining frantically asked as he started looking over Twilight.
"I'm fine, Shining," Twilight smiled, earning a breath of relief from her brother.
"Thank Celestia."
"Thank Dark. It was because of him that we were all able to get away safely." Twilight nervously gulped. "If he wasn't there with us, we all would've been killed in the middle of King Inferno's throne room."
Nodding in understanding, Shining pulled away from Twilight and glanced over to Dark, who was being squeezed by Aero coiling herself around his body. Walking over to him with Twilight, Shining waited until Aero noticed them and released Dark from her hug.
"Ooouuuch. Did you have to hug me so tightly, Aero?" Dark groaned, popping his back.
"I was worried when we heard what happened in Vulcan," she defended.
"... alright, fair enough," he relented before seeing Shining standing in front of him. "Hey, Shining. What's-"
Dark found himself stunned when he suddenly found himself begin pulled into a hug by Shining. Confused, he looked over to Twilight for answers, only to get a smile from her.
"Uhhhhh... Shining? What's going on?" Dark asked, starting to feel uncomfortable.
Pulling away, Shining smiled at Dark and placed a hoof on his shoulder.
"Thank you."
"Huh? What for?"
"For looking after my sister," Shining thankfully answered. "If it weren't for you being there for her, Twilight would be..."
Understand what he was getting at, Dark smiled and placed a claw on Shining's shoulder.
"It's no problem," he softly said before giving a small smirk. "After all, it's my job to protect my family."
Shining chuckled and gave Dark a playful punch. "Yeah, I suppose it is. Also, I believe with that that you've just earn yourself a bachelor party up in the Crystal Empire."
Twilight walked up alongside Dark with a look of uncertainty. "Speaking of which..."
"Yes, Twilight?" Dark asked, noticing her hesitation.
"... as much as I don't want to suggest it... should we perhaps postpone the wedding?"
"Out of the question."
Hearing that objection, Dark, Twilight, and Shining looked over to see Celestia walking up to them with Luna and Aero following closely behind her.
"Excuse me, Princess Celestia," Twilight began, "but is this really a good time for such an event?"
"Quite the contrary, Twilight," Luna stated. "While we may now be at war with the Dragon Kingdom, a royal wedding would do well to lift the ponies' spirits. Besides, we've had one royal wedding during a time of unease, so it wouldn't be of much issue to have another, if any issue at all."
Hearing her opinion, Twilight looked at Dark. "What do you think? Personally I'd rather keep to the schedule we already have for it, instead of having to postpone it."
With a smile, Dark began nuzzling Twilight's cheek. "I have no problems with continuing on like we had planned. If anything, I'd prefer it."
Happy with his answer, Twilight flung her hooves around Dark as she hugged him tightly.
"Sounds like the wedding is still on then," Celestia smiled approvingly.
"But what about King Inferno?" Rin wondered. "I doubt that he'll wait long to retaliate after you escaped him."
"I wouldn't worry too much right now," Dark said before breaking his hug with Twilight. "Besides him possibly needing some time to recover his numbers and rally his forces' moral, I also managed to kill General Razor Claw, so he'll need time to select a new General to lead his armies."
And with Razor Claw dead, that means that my record is cleared, now having killed every dragon that's ever attacked Stonewall Village, he mentally added with a hint of pride and satisfaction.
Rin nodded in agreement. "If General Razor Claw is dead, then I'm sure that King Inferno will need time to select a replacement. With that alone, we should have about a month before he begins planning for something."
"In that case, we should start making plans of our own," Shining suggested.
"If we could remove Light's influence over King Inferno, then he should see reason and halt his attack," Luna mused.
Twilight sighed in disappointment. "It's too bad that we can't use the Elements of Harmony anymore. I'd bet that we could use them to free him from it."
"What about the Rainbow Power that you got to defeat Tirek?" Spike questioned.
"I don't know. We've never really had a need to try using it again. And besides," Twilight's hoof fell over her belly, "absorbing that much magic and transforming again could harm the baby."
"When you put it like that, the Elements would be the safer option, seeing as they themselves hold the power," Celestia spoke.
"But again, we returned the Elements back to the Tree of Harmony."
Fissure glanced over to Twilight. "The Tree of Harmony you say?"
"Yes. It's a tree that-"
"I know of the tree, Princess," he interrupted with a small grin. "Besides, who do you think created it?"
Twilight went slack-jaw and began staring at Fissure. "What?!"
"After creating the world, I needed something to help stabilize it. The Tree of Harmony was my first, and still my greatest, masterpiece."
Celestia slowly blinked. "You're serious."
"You actually created the Tree of Harmony?" Luna said in disbelief.
"Yes. Earth Incarnate and all that," Fissure replied with a wave of his claw.
It took her a moment, but Twilight managed to regain her senses. "While that's incredibly fascinating and all, that still doesn't help us."
"Yes, it does," Fissure argued. "When the time comes, you and the others retrieve the Elements of Harmony from the tree, and I will remain by its side and keep it alive until they're returned."
"This won't be easy without you, you know," Aero frowned.
"What won't?" Dark asked, getting a look from Aero and Fissure before Shining spoke up.
"It's about what we found," he began explaining. "As it turned out, each of the kirins that we searched had a black feather, exactly like the one Sombra and those gryphons had."
"Okay, but what does that have to do with what Aero was talking about?" Dark asked.
"The statue there had a name carved on it," she started to explain. "I remember Aurora telling me something about that specific name, but I can't remember what she said about it. When we got back, I went and asked her about it. But even with Pinkie Pie there to translate for us, we couldn't understand her. So, the only other way for us to get answers is to contact mother and father through an old ritual. But, thanks to Fissure, Aurora, and Nocturne being unable to help us like normal, it will take us almost an entire week without interruption to complete."
"Alright, but why can't you just do it now before Fissure has to go and keep the Tree of Harmony from dying?" Twilight questioned. "You may not have Aurora or Nocturne there, but at least he'll be of some help, right?"
"The materials required to perform the ritual are hard to acquire, even for us Scaleless Dragons. That alone will take us several weeks to collect, even if we start searching right now. And with those three being unable to be there for the ritual itself, we'll need more time to properly perform it, since contacting mother and father from where they're at is rather difficult."
"In that case, should we count on you to be there should King Inferno attack?" Luna asked.
Aero shrugged with a sigh. "That, I cannot answer. If we're in the middle of the ritual, then we won't be able to help. It's that delicate."
"Best to prepare without us," Fissure told them, much to their dismay.
"Very well then. We shall make preparations without you then," Celestia said before turning to Dark and Twilight. "But until then, we've got some other preparations to make, don't we?"