//------------------------------//
// Chapter 85- Preparations and Arrivals 
// Story: Of Flame and Shadow 
// by Garuda IV 
//------------------------------//

Ever since Celestia gave her announcement, the ponies of Equestria have been in a state of borderline-panic. With them officially being at war with the Dragon Kingdom, a number of the ponies began to buy preserved and canned foods from the market and store them in their cellars. Apart from that, much to their regret, Celestia and Luna made a call to arms, calling in their reservists, along with bringing a few willing retired veterans back. This didn't go for just the royal guard, but also for the Wonderbolts as well.

While Equestria was busy with gathering their forces, Shining and Cadence were busy up in the Crystal Empire. Even though the war was against Equestria, they were still close allies with them and wouldn't allow for them to fight this war alone. Having made the call to arms as well, Shining had his general and lieutenants begin training the new recruits. While they were busy with that, Shining would rotate with Cadence in running the empire while the other went down to their research facility to oversee the new crystals they had developed. They were close to getting them perfect, and once they did, they would distribute them to each of their guards and Equestria's.

In Ponyville, once Dark, Twilight, and Spike returned home, they personally informed the Dazzlings, Aques, and Pyre on what happened. Twilight gave the Dazzlings the option to return back through the portal where it would be safe, but they refused, saying that they had enough of running away and wanted to stay and help how they could. This also seemed to gain them some points not only with Twilight, but with Aques as well.

Since then, Dark has been spending a majority of his time in his forge, creating better weapons and armor for the guards to help prepare for the upcoming battle. Any time that he didn't spend in it, Dark would spend in Ghastly Gorge with Pyre and Nocturne pushing his training. Of course, he also remembered to reinforce his growing army of Shadow Wraiths. Though they were originally meant to guard the castle, and were a challenge to create at first, ever since he first started making them last November, the more of them he created them, the easier it became. But, even with all of that experience, at the end of the day, he could only produce perhaps seven of them, unlike the ninety he made during their trip to the Dragon Kingdom. However, despite all of his time with work and training, he always remembered to save some to save some personal time for himself and Twilight.

While Dark was busy with his work and increased training,	 Twilight was having her own problems to deal with. With the announcement of the war, she and Mayor Mare held a public announcement to try and ease their worries about it. It did work to an extent, but it still left many of the Ponyvillians very skittish about it, but thankfully not enough for them to frantically panic. Another thing that eased their minds was the fact that Twilight had announced that the Scaleless Dragons living in town with them were on their side and that none of them approved of the war that Inferno had declared on them.

After Twilight managed to get Ponyville under control, she waited a few weeks before she messaged to Sunset about their current situation. Sunset wasn't happy to hear about it, and seemed a bit worried about it, considering that it had been many years since Equestria had seen war. Thankfully, this didn't seem to deter Sunset or the others in their plans to come over, which left Twilight with a thankful smile. However, she was surprised when Pinks suddenly showed up through the portal just a few hours later, putting her arrival a few days earlier than what she'd planned. When Twilight asked her what she was doing here so soon, Pinks answered by saying that she and Pinkie would need to slightly modify their projects, and left it at that before she bounced over to meet up with Pinkie.

While they were doing that, Applejack and Rarity found themselves more busy than before, having to gather more apples and make new uniforms respectively. Thankfully, some of Applejack's relatives came up from Appleloosa to give her and her family a hoof in harvesting, while Rarity got help from Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy, using the latter's sewing skills. However, Fluttershy couldn't always be there.

After the announcement, Fluttershy went into the Everfree Forest to warn the creatures living there about how the dragons would be coming to Equestria to attack. Though she went with the intention of convincing them to run away to somewhere safer, what happened instead left surprised, worried, and also glad. Deciding to agree to their offer, Fluttershy also decided to return and help feed them during her free time, thanks to Discord's help.

However, even with all of these preparations for the war going on, there was still some good bit of news that gave everypony something to look forward to. Despite the news of war, the royal wedding between Twilight and Dark was set to continue as planned. As Celestia and Luna and figured, the good news brought the ponies a sense of comfort and happiness. Along with that, Celestia also told the papers about the "assassination" attempt on Twilight, Spike, and Dark, which instead turned to a horrific fail and ended up costing the Dragon Kingdom hundreds of losses with their forces. While she was glad to see the positive feedback from it, what she didn't say was who killed them all, nor the fact that that number was but a fraction of what Inferno had waiting to march on them.

Now with a week before the wedding, things were starting to slow back down to a more steady pace. While everyone was still on edge with preparations for the war, since the few weeks that had passed, the initial rush of fear was starting to die down, leaving ponies to now begin getting things ready for the wedding, or in some cases, starting to finish up in advance.

As for the future groom and bride, it was just after nightfall as they were both relaxing by the fireplace in the lounge, started to enjoy their next week off, much to Celestia's insistence. Despite the war preparations, she didn't want for either of them to wear themselves out before their wedding by overworking themselves, or worse, getting hurt or injured. With all of the hustle these last few weeks and the little amount of time they managed to spend together, they were more than happy to agree with her. That, and Sunset and the others would be coming back to visit later in an hour or two, something that both Twilight and Dark were looking forward to.

Happy with how they were, Dark let out a blissful sigh as he continued to hold Twilight while she sat on his lap. Feeling her leaning back into him and start to nuzzle his chin, Dark smiled and continued to hold Twilight against him with one claw, while gently caress her slightly larger belly with his other. Like the last half-hour, they both sat in relative peace and silence, the only sounds being their breathing, the crackling of the fireplace, and the occasional hum of content.

"One week left," Dark sighed before giving a small chuckle. "I still can't believe that this is actually going to happen."

"I know," Twilight giggled. "I'm really excited for it."

"Yeah. Me too."

Using this time of peace and privacy, Dark took Twilight's chin in his claw and gently turned her head to share a tender and loving kiss with her. All too happy to return it, Twilight brought a hoof up to caress Dark's cheek as she pressed back with one of her own, drinking in one another as their lips remained locked for the next few minutes. Parting for air, Twilight sighed in content and smiled before giving Dark a quick peck. Returning back to her snuggling up against his chest, Twilight hummed while Dark resumed caressing her belly. Content with the way they were, Dark and Twilight remained as they were until the lounge door opened.

"Heya, Dark, heya, Twilight."

Hearing the chipper voice, they looked back to see Sonata walking in.

"Hello, Sonata," Twilight greeted her. "Is there something we can help you with?"

"Not really," she shrugged. "I just wanted to tell you that Spike told me to tell you that Sunset and the other Rainbooms are on their way here."

"Okay. Thank you, Sonata."

"You're welcome." Turning around, Sonata just started to skip back out before she suddenly stopped. "By the way, do you two know by chance where the Pinkies went?"

Twilight and Dark shared a look before they both shrugged.

"Sorry, but we have no idea," Dark replied. "We asked them a few nights ago, but they both just giggled like they were hiding something."

"Huh. I wonder where they could be?"





Meanwhile, in Pinkie's Party Cave, both Pinkie and Pinks were working on their secret project.

"Okay, how's it going over here?" Pinkie asked Pinks, who was looking over the edge of her project.

"It's going great!" Pinks exclaimed. "I got our cutie marks printed on the outsides of the two spiked-zeppelin balloons, got the armor plating on, got the thruster installed, got the small cannons mounted on the sides, and I got the four rotatory cannons on the front installed."

"What about the BBC?"

Pinks gave Pinkie an unsure look.

"Uhhh, the what now?"

"The BBC. You know, the Big Bucking Cannon."

"Oooohhhhhh. Okay. For a moment there, I thought you were talking about... something else."

"Like what?"

"Nothing!" Pinks quickly replied with a blush before calming back down. "Anyways, yes, I got it installed too. By the way, why do you call it that instead of the BFG?"

Now it was Pinkie's turn to look confused. "The what now?"

"You know, the Big Fu-"

"Whoa! Hold on there! You can't say that word!"

Pinks blinked before she giggled with a snort. "Yeah, right. I suppose I can't if we don't wanna risk losing our T rating on this thing."

Pinkie gave a sound nod. "Exactly."

"By the way, how's it going with yours?"

Pinkie's face lit up. "Got the cannons set up, the double-barreled turrets are installed, and I just finished up attaching the last of the rotary engines and propellers on the sides."

Happy with the good news, Pinks jumped off the side and slowly floated down to the ground.

"Hey, you don't think that we're going a bit overboard by building these things, do you?" she asked somewhat unsurely.

Pinkie thought about it for a brief moment and shrugged. "Nah. After all, they did it a lot more in that game than what we're doing here with these. And besides, we're fourth wall breakers, so we're kinda obligated to these kinds of things."

"Huh. Well when you put it like that, I suppose we are," Pinks giggled in agreement before looking up at the clock hanging by the door. "Hey, aren't the others from my world supposed to be here soon?"

Pinkie looked over to the clock too. "Yeah, I suppose they will. Oh well, now's as good of a time to call it as ever I guess."

In agreement, the two pink ponies began making their way to the door when they got a good look at each other's coats. While Pinks was covered in metal shavings and gunpowder, Pinkie was covered in gunpowder, oil, and grease.

"Eww. Guess we're gonna need a bath first," Pinkie grimaced.

"Yeah," Pinks agreed. "You should go first."

"Nah, you go on ahead. I'll wait."

"But this is your home and dimension."

"But you're me."

"... okay then, in that case, let's take it together."

Pinkie blinked. "What?"

"Yeah. Besides, I'm just taking a bath with myself in the end."

"Meh, works for me," Pinkie shrugged before she and Pinks began making their way up the slide in Pinkie's Party Cave, and towards the bathroom. "By the way, me."

"Yes?"

Pinkie looked at Pinks suspiciously. "This isn't gonna get weird, is it?"

"Are you kidding me? This whole thing was weird to begin with."

"Can't argue with that." Pinkie started up their bath and began adding bubbles before noticing something hanging from Pinks' neck. "Ooh, pretty necklace you got there."

Pinks looked down to the pink necklace with an imprint of her cutie mark on it.

"Oh, yeah. I totally forgot I was wearing it."

"Where'd you get it?"

"Now that's a fun story," she began as she and Pinkie sank down into their bubble bath. "You see, it happened on a Saturday. At least, I think it was a Saturday. The movie didn't give us any specific dates, so I'm just going by the day that it was released. Anyway, we were all going on this camping trip to Camp Everfree..."





Dark, Twilight, Spike, Soul, and the Dazzlings were all waiting in the library to greet their friends from across the portal. As the minutes ticked by, they relaxed on the couches while Sonata played with Soul. During these last few weeks, Sonata found herself becoming somewhat attached to the young colt, offering to watch over him while Dark and Twilight were busy and play with him. In turn, Soul also started to open up more to Sonata, finding her to be fun to play with, and enjoying her personality. He also tired the same with Adagio and Aria, but found them to be a bit harder to befriend than their youngest sibling.

Several minutes later of playing tag, it was now Soul's turn to chase Sonata. Chasing her around the room, they suddenly stopped when the mirror began sounding up. Knowing that they were coming through, they went back and joined the others, who were now approaching the portal.

A few seconds later, Sunset stumbled out of the portal and fell to the floor. But before she could get up, she was pinned down at the bottom of a pile of bodies when Twi, AJ, Dash, Rares, and Shy stumbled out of the portal and fell on top of her. Getting used to their pony bodies again, they each wobbly got up to their hooves, much to Sunset's relief.

"Okay, next time, we each wait five seconds before following in instead of all of us piling through at once," she said as she brushed her coat with a hoof.

"Agreed," Twi grimaced. "My back's really sore from that."

"Girls!"

Hearing her voice, Sunset and the others looked over to see Twilight coming towards them. Happy to see her again, they each made their way over to meet her half-way for a group hug.

"I'm so happy that you could all make it," Twilight gleefully said.

"Us too," Sunset agreed. A few moments later, she and the others let Twilight go and took a step back, her face turning serious and solemn. "I'm sorry to hear about the bad news."

Twilight's smile faltered for a moment, but was quickly recovered. "Thanks, but let's forget about that for now. That's not what you're all here for now, is it?"

"No, it's not."

"Then let's forget about that and get to partying!" Pinks exclaimed from behind Sunset, causing her and the others to yelp in surprise.

"Pinks! When did you get here?" Sunset asked, trying to get her breathing under control.

"Silly filly, we've been here the whole time," Pinkie said from beside Twilight. "Oh, cool! You all brought your necklaces too!"

Looking at her friends, Twilight saw that they each wore a color-coded necklace with their cutie mark embedded in it.

"Are those the geode necklaces that you wrote to me about?" Twilight asked, sensing the powerful magic coming from them.

"They are," Sunset confirmed. "And like I said before, they each gave us a unique power."

"Interesting..."

Noticing the look on her face, Twi came forward. "You better not."

"What?" Twilight innocently asked her counterpart.

"I know that look. You're wanting to borrow our necklaces and run experiments on them."

"Can you really blame me? I mean, you all have with you a magical piece of jewelry from a world that shouldn't have any magical to begin with."

"We know, Twilight," Sunset spoke, "but to be honest, considering that we were pretty much meant to have them, I don't really see much of a problem with us keeping them."

"Especially with our new powers and looks," Dash said.

"Looks?" Dark repeated.

"Yeah. I mean, while the outfits are alright, the crystal wings that me, Shy, and Twi have are-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Twilight interrupted. "What was that last part about my other self?"

Dash tilted her head. "You mean about how Twi has wings now?"

Slowly, Twilight's gaze moved from Dash over to Twi, who, as Twilight now noticed, was just as tall as her, and was now sporting a pair of wings on her back.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Twilight muttered.

Now all eyes were on Twi and her new set of wings.

"Um... wow, Twi," Sunset spoke, trying to find her words.

Turning her head around, Twi looked behind her and saw the wings on her back.

"... you know," she slowly began, "I know that I should be freaking out right now about this, but after everything that's happened since the Friendship Games, this doesn't even make it to my top fifteen."

"Yeeaahhhhh. Hey, Twi?" Sunset called.

Twi turned back around. "Yes, Sunny?"

"How much do you know about alicorns?"

Recalling what she read about them, realization began to dawn on Twi. "Oh... right..."

"Yeah, we may have a small problem," Twilight agreed.

"How so?" Dark wondered.

"How? Dark, Twi is an alicorn now! Everypony will see it!"

"And I doubt that the dress that my other self made for us will accommodate her new wings now," Rares spoke up.

"Then we'll just bring her to Rarity tomorrow and have her alter the dress a little bit to hide the wings."

"But how will she hide them until then?" Shy asked.

"A simple concealment spell should work," Twilight figured. "It'll keep her wings invisible until we bring her in to see Rarity."

"Okay," Twi agreed, deciding to trust them with this matter.

"Then what about the rest of us?" AJ wondered. "Ah mean, even if we're all dressed up for the weddin', we'll still look like ourselves here."

"Simple, just dye your coat and manes," Dark shrugged. "I'm sure that Rarity has some more in her boutique."

"Ya sure about that?"

"It's where I got mine from. That, and she and Pinkie pranked me and Twilight by dying our coats to match the other."

Pinkie snorted. "Yeah, that was funny."

"Good. Glad that we got that out of the way," Sunset said approvingly before looking behind Dark and Twilight at the Dazzlings. "So, how've you girls been?"

"Super!" Sonata exclaimed with a bounce. "Like we said, we've been on our best behavior and have been helping around the castle and town."

"It's actually not as bad here as I thought it would," Adagio piped up. "Sure it's not the ocean, but it's still peaceful and quiet."

"Not counting a few weeks ago," Aria added with a frown. "Really. I don't think that I've seen ponies acting so ridiculously."

"You can't really blame them," Twilight defended. "Ponies haven't been to war in hundreds of years."

"What about the yaks?" Spike questioned.

"That doesn't count."

"Sounds like there's a story involved," Sunset said.

"I suppose so," Twilight admitted. "But first, how about we get you all settled in? After that, we'll head on over to the lounge and swap stories. After all, I'm extremely curious about what happened during your girls' camping trip. Don't get me wrong, Sunset, but reading about it and listening to it in person just aren't the same."

"Nah, I get it."

Glad with that, Twilight and Dark led their guests to the guest rooms, minus Pinks. Once they were all settled down, they retreated back to the lounge where Spike, Soul, and the Dazzlings had helped with snacks for them all to munch on while they shared their stories. The girls found it kinda funny when Twilight began telling them about the visit from Prince Rutherford of Yakyakistan, finding his actions to be both rude and amusing at the same time, the latter being more because of how ridiculous his reasons were.

Once Twilight was finished, Sunset and the others began telling their tail about their trip to Camp Everfree. During that time, Twi went into her dreams of Midnight Sparkle, and how she feared using magic would let her loose. Of course, by the time their story was over with, Twi showed that she no longer feared using magic by using her levitation on multiple nearby items, one of which being a cookie from the cookie tray to munch on. Twi also went on to tell them about when Luna paid her a visit in her dreams last time she was here, telling her to talk to her friends about her nightmares.

As they continued to catch up with recent events, they made sure to stay clear of the failed peace talk in Vulcan, or the mention of Dark's brother. Time quickly went by, and before they knew it, it was already nearly midnight. While they still wanted to stay up and hang out, they all needed to rest for the remainder of the night. Lifting Soul onto his back, Dark and Twilight bid their guests goodnight before going to tuck Soul away into bed, while Pinkie returned back to her home. With everyone in their rooms, the quiet of night began to finally settle in on the castle's occupants. However, not all of them were peacefully asleep as Sunset and Twi had... other plans. One that would keep them up for a few more hours, but would leave them well rested.





By the time morning came around, everyone was up and well rested, two in particular. Thankfully for Sunset and Twi, they remembered to silence their activities with a soundproof barrier before they began. While Twilight and her guests waited in the dining hall, Dark, Soul, Spike, and the Dazzling were working in the kitchen to finish up everyone's breakfast. Thanks to the six of them, they were able to get it done pretty fast, and bring it out to them in one trip.

Buzzing through their meal, everyone helped in cleaning their dishes before Dark, Twilight, Spike, Sunset, Twi, and Rares got ready and began making their way over to Rarity's boutique.

"Oh, it'll be so nice to see my other self again," Rares giddily said.

"Just as long as you don't go fashion crazy on us again like you did at camp," Sunset half-joked.

"I wasn't that bad."

Twi looked over to her. "Yes, you were actually."

"Sorry, Rares, but you kinda were," Sunset apologized.

Rares sighed in defeat. "Alright. I suppose that I did overdo it a bit with turning the dock into a runway."

Nodding in agreement, they continued to follow Dark, Twilight, and Spike to the boutique. As they did, Sunset looked up at the sun in the sky.

"I know that we're here for Twilight, but I should probably go and see Princess Celestia and spend some time with her," she mused out loud.

"I'm sure she'd like that very much," Twilight agreed with a smile.

Sunset looked bashfully at Twilight. "I'm sorry to have to ask you this, Twilight, but could I-"

"Yes. Besides, I already said that the princess would like it, so why shouldn't I let you go spend some time with her?"

Taking a moment, Sunset hugged Twilight before they continued their walk. "You really are the best friend a pony can have."

"And what about me?" Twi smirked, only to get a smirk back in return from Sunset.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that, sweet flanks."

"Do you mind?" Twilight asked slightly irritatedly.

"What?" Sunset knowingly smirked. "It's not like we're talking about what happened last night in bed."

"Maybe, but I'd rather not have Spike hearing this."

"Yeah," Dark agreed. Besides, it's not helping me either with these images in my head.

"Like haven't heard it before," Spike dismissed with a wave of his claw. "Besides, I've had the misfortune to hear Dark and Twilight doing it twice already."

"Either way," Rares began, "we should probably end this train of thought. It appears that we've finally arrived."

Looking in front of them, they saw Rarity's boutique not twenty feet away from them. Walking up to the door, they saw that the sign was set to open and allowed themselves in. Once they were all in, they closed the door behind them with the bell above the door ringing.

"Rarity?" Twilight called.

"Just a moment, darling," she called back from within. A few moments later, Rarity walked down the stairs and saw her guests. "Oh my, you're here already."

"Indeed we are," Rares returned before she walked up to Rares and shared a hug with each other.

"Just as fabulous as always," Rarity complimented.

"You too, darling. However, we're here for more important reasons, more specifically, dress modifications."

"Oh?"

Rares motioned for Twi to step forward for Rarity to have a look at. As she got closer, Twi unfurled her new wings, causing Rarity to let out a small gasp.

"Oh my. I see what you mean. When did this happen?"

"We figured that it happened when we got our magical necklaces during our camping trip," Twi explained.

With her mentioning it, Rarity now took notice of the necklaces that she, Sunset, and Rares all wore.

"I see," Rarity muttered to herself before shrugging. "Well, never fear. I can take care of this in a jiffy."

"You can?" Twi questioned.

"Of course I can. Nothing that a little extra fabric can't fix. Oh, and I suppose that you better come along too, Twilight."

Twilight blinked in surprise. "Me? Why me?"

"To retake your measurements, of course. I don't know if you've noticed, darling, but your baby belly has grown a little since I last took them. If you want to be comfortable wearing your wedding dress, then I'll need to take them over again."

"It will only take a moment, Twilight," Rares added. "My other self can work on Twi's modifications, while I take your measurements for her."

Twilight sighed in defeat. "Suppose I might as well while I'm here."

Following after Twi and the two Raritys, Twilight went with them up to her workroom. But, before they got to the stair, Sweetie Belle trotted down before spotting Spike and making a run at him. Seeing her coming, Spike prepared himself, for not two seconds later, he caught Sweetie Belle as she leaped up and wrapped her legs around him with a smooch.

"Hi, Spike."

"Hey, Sweetie," Spike smiled. "How've you been lately?"

"Alright. Me and the girls have been getting ready for next week."

"Yeah."

"Why are you here?" she asked before quickly adding, "Not that I'm not happy to see you of course."

"Don't worry, Sweetie. I get it. We're just here to get some changes and measurements done for Twi and Twilight."

There was a mischievous smirk on Sweetie Belle's face. "Soooo, you're not doing anything right now?"

"Nope. Just waiting for them to be done."

She closed the distance between until their muzzles bumped. "In that case, you wanna hang out in my room until they're done?"

Getting what she was asking, Spike nodded before Sweetie Belle gave him a quick peck on the lips and darted back up stairs. Once she was out of sight, Spike looked back to Dark and Sunset.

"Well, if you two will excuse me, I'll be spending some time with Sweetie."

Remaining silent, Dark and Sunset watched as Spike ran up the stairs, following after his fillyfriend. With them now alone, the remaining two went over and sat themselves down on one of the couches as they waited for their fillyfiends to be done. As time went bye, Sunset took a look at one of the magazines Rarity had provided for her waiting customers to read, while Dark felt something on his tail. Lifting it up from over the armrest of the couch, he sighed when he saw a white furball attached to it.

"Hey, Opal," Dark sighed, only to get a hiss from the cat.

Frowning it her, Dark used his magic to pry Opal from his tail and set her back down. With one last hiss from her, Dark watched as she walked away and gave a small groan before glancing over to Sunset.

"So, how've you been lately?"

Sunset looked up from her magazine. "Hmm? Alright I guess. Not really too much to talk about that I haven't already told you guys last night."

"How about your house and the school?"

Sunset blinked before she smiled and sat the magazine down. "Still worried about the damage that was done to it?"

Dark frowned at himself. "Yeah."

"Thanks, but you don't need to worry about it. I got it all fixed up, and I used the extra cash from the bits you gave me to install a new security system. Although, I'd still prefer magic in terms of home security any day."

"I see."

"As for CHS..."

"Something wrong?"

Sunset bit her lip before answering in an apologetic tone. "Things have returned to normal... but..."

"But?"

"... there's been a complication. You see, Dark, no one there blames you for the Dragon Gang being there. Actually, if anything, both the students and staff are happy that you saved the school from them..."

"But?"

Sunset gave a sad sigh. "While everyone there appreciates what you did for them, someone had to answer for why they were there in the first place." She looked up at him with an apologetic look. "The police took a look at the security cameras around the school and saw you being dragged away into the basement by them."

"Wait," Dark interrupted. "It took them this long?"

"Yeah, I don't get it either. Guess they just sometimes tend to drag their feet. Anyway, they later took another look and somehow managed to briefly spot you again when you fighting the Dragons off. I'm sorry, Dark, but Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna both had their hands tied with this one."

"With what?"

"... they didn't want to, but to comply with the School Board and authorities, you've been expelled from Canterlot High, and are now wanted by the police."

"Wanted?! For what?! All I did was help save you guys from them!"

"We know, and none of us at CHS will ever forget that. But you're wanted for not only that, but also for impersonating a dead person. You see, Dark, the police found out about the you from our world, so they know that the you from there is dead. When they saw you on the cameras, they thought that you were some kind of identity thief."

Dark crossed his arms with a huff. "This is so stupid."

"Look, we all know it's not true, but we need to keep Equestria and the portal a secret."

"I know, Sunset. I know," Dark replied with a disappointed sigh. "Well, it's not like I can just go back there anyway without risking an undead global disaster here."

"I guess not," Sunset weakly chuckled, attempting to cheer herself up with his humor.

Placing a hoof on his back, Sunset started to rub Dark suppotingly. A few moments later, both Raritys and Twilights came back down and saw them.

"What's going on?" Twi asked.

"I just told Dark about our little complication back at Canterlot High," Sunset explained.

"Oh... I still say that that's still stupid of them."

"What happened?" Twilight asked them.

"I'll explain it to you on our way back."

"Oh, before you forget," Rarity began before levitating a bag to them. "Here's the coat dye for you and the others. Rares and I have already gone through and picked out the colors for each of you. Except for you, Sunset. Since you don't need to worry about any duplicates, you don't need any of the dye."

"Thank you, darling," Rares thanked, taking the bag of coat and mane dye from her. "Well, it was a pleasure working with you."

"As working with you," Rarity returned.

"If we're all done here, then we better head back and check in on the others then," Sunset suggested.

With a round of agreements, they were making their way to the door when Dark paused.

"Hey, what about-"

Before Dark could answer, Spike and Sweetie came walking side-by-side down the stairs.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. "I kinda lost track of time with Sweetie. Are we ready to go?"

"Yep."

"Okay. See ya, Rarity." Spike turned to give Sweetie Belle a goodbye kiss. "See ya soon, sweet lips."

"You too, hot stuff," Sweetie smirked back with a blush.

Not wanting to question it for now, they watched as Spike took the lead and led them back to the castle. Once they were gone, Rarity turned to Sweetie Belle with a questioning look.

"What?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Rarity narrowed her eyes. "Did you two-"

"No, Rarity, we didn't," she huffed in annoyance of being asked such a thing. "We just played some games while you and the other Rarity were busy with the Twilights." That, those games may have involved us making out, she mentally added.

Keeping her judgmental gaze on her, Rarity soon relented when she saw no deceit in her sister's eyes.

"Very well, Sweetie," she conceded. "But, after working on the wedding dress for Twilight, I'm still in the mood for making modifications. So, with that said, why don't you come on up for one last fitting."

Noting how that wasn't meant as a request, Sweetie Belle followed after her sister to get fitted for her flower filly dress... again.





Later that afternoon, up in Canterlot, Celestia dragged her hooves as she made her way into the dining hall where Luna sat waiting for her.

"Another stressful evening I see," Luna said, noticing Celestia's exhaustion.

"The nobles have been pestering me nonstop about not only the war, but also about their objections about Twilight's and Dark's wedding next week."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me that these nobles are the remnants of Blueblood's entourage."

Celestia walked over to her chair and plopped down unceremoniously into it with a loud sigh.

"Unfortunately, it is."

"... we could-"

"No, Luna, we're not going to lock them away in the dungeons."

"Ponies have been imprisoned for less," Luna pouted. "Remember when you had that one noble locked away for destroying your cake?"

Celestia looked to Luna with a surprised blush. "That was a five-layer angel cloud cake! Do you know how hard it was to make one of those over a thousand years ago?!"

"Yes, I remember perfectly, Tia."

"Then you'll also remember that he also tried to undermine us several times throughout our reign back then."

"Yes, I remember... again," Luna replied before sighing in annoyance as she remembered that particular stallion.

Nodding in agreement, Celestia then allowed for a small smile to form. "However..."

Luna quirked a curious eyebrow. "What?"

"The Sultan from Saddle Arabia has been made aware of the declaration of war from the Dragon Kingdom."

Luna's eyes widened in expectance. "Are you saying that Saddle Arabia is going to align with us in this?"

"... not quite," Celestia meekly replied, earning her a small huff from Luna. "You see, while they don't agree with King Inferno's decision, they do want to help us. However, they want to do it in a way so subtle that the Dragon Kingdom won't notice that they're involved and have allied themselves with us."

"I take it that they've informed you on it?"

"Yes. From what the Sultan wrote to me, he's sending his 'Champion', to come and help us."

Luna gave Celestia a disappointed look. "Just one?"

"The Sultan has promised me that he's the best of the best, and that nopony has never bested him in his 'arena'."

"I hope that he's not exaggerating this horse of his, Tia."

"Pony, actually."

Luna blinked. "Pardon?"

"The one he's sending us is a pony."

"Really? Who?"

"He didn't give a name, but he's supposed to arrive soon now. He also warned me that this pony is rather eager to violence, is the very definition of egotistical, and is quite the narcissistic."

"Okay, but why wasn't I told about this sooner?"

"I just received the message during afternoon court, you were still asleep, and I didn't think that it was really worth sending a guard to wake you up and inform you."

"Well, you're not exactly wrong there. At least I'll be awake to greet him."

Agreeing, Celestia began eating her dinner while Luna started breakfast. Ignoring the complaints of the nobles, they instead began going over things to go over for the upcoming wedding. However, twelve minutes in, there was a ruckus coming from the hallway. Seconds later, four guards ran through the door and slammed it shut behind them.

"What's happening out there?" Celestia asked.

One of the guards stepped forward with a bow. "Your Highnesses, there's an intruder in the castle!"

Both Celestia and Luna abruptly stood up.

"Who would dare to intrude in our castle?!" Luna barked furiously.

"We don't know who it is, Princess."

"Is it the fugitive?"

"No. It's some earth pony, Your Highness."

"Can you describe this pony to us?"

"Yes. It's a tan earth pony stallion with brown eyes, and a black mane and tail, the front of his mane leaning forward, while the back is tied into a ponytail."

Celestia took a brief moment to think. "I'll need more to go on. Is there anything unique about him? Like is he wearing any clothing?"

"A few, and yes, he does. He wears a sort of golden headband on his forehead, his ears are pierced with a golden earring, wears a greenish vest with what appeared to be fur, has pants with bladed-greaves, and spiked-gauntlets protecting the front of his forelegs."

"Seems like quite the character," Luna said amusingly.

"That's not the weirdest thing though," the guard continued, gaining their attention again. "He's also got this wickedly long moustache, and has these strange weapons."

"Strange how?"

Before the guard could answer, the doors were thrown open, knocking the guards blocking it back and revealing the stallion in question, exactly as the guard had described. However, what was unusual was that not only was this stallion standing on his back hooves, but in his front ones, he was holding a pair of strange bladed weapons with something of an axe head on them. What's more was that when the stallion flicked one of the weapons in his hooves, the two blades stopped rotating while one of them slid up alongside the first. Repeating the process with his other weapon, the stallion sheathed them on his back and held his hooves up high in a victorious pose.

"Who wants some Craven?!"