After that, the Knights read the documents and discussed among themselves the possible strategies they could use in various general situations, with Twilight and Pinkie being the ones interjecting the most to point out possible flaws and methods, as should be expected.
Still, considering the sheer difficulties of planning around unknown threats and unexpected conditions, they actually ended their discussion quite quickly. In the same way, since there was very little information about what Starlight Glimmer could be planning, and the fact that she was a very versatile caster, it was also difficult to plan for her, so the follow-up discussion about said subject did not last long either.
As such, soon enough the meeting had devolved into idle talk and eating lunch. The participants had split into groups, with Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy making one of them, the dragon teasing them about their relationship and getting asked about how things were going on his side. Another group was made of the two princesses plus Sunset, who were casually playing word games and taking them far too seriously.
Then there was Trixie and Pinkie Pie, who were discussing something about a combo magic show/party. And the rest were gathered in the biggest group: The Crusaders and their older sisters (Rainbow Dash counted in spirit if not in truth). They were the only ones having anything close to a serious conversation.
"Ya girls really acted recklessly last time." Applejack spoke in a tone of light rebuke, but then rolled her eyes "But that's pretty much the Knight's job description, so perhaps Ah should be saying 'good job'?"
"That's right." Applebloom nodded "And considering the sorts of things yer involved with, ya could say we're only following the example of our senior Knights." She grinned.
Applejack shook her head in bemusement, and Rarity spoke up:
"Speaking of that, I heard you guys used my cutie mark to help with your final attack. Could you tell me more about it? I'm quite interested in what kinds of things other people could make with my talent."
She had been looking at Sweetie Belle when she spoke that, but the filly unicorn shook her head:
"I'm not really the best one to talk about that, I was mostly thinking about you when I channeled the cutie mark, the others were the ones who really acted." She looked to her fellow fillies.
The one who spoke was Scootaloo:
"Haaaahhhh... How can I say it... Feeling a cutie mark is like looking into something like a funhouse mirror. You still recognize yourself, but different.
"That time, I think it was Applebloom who came up with the idea to use chaos to create a sword, but in terms of actually creating it... Instead of creating something, it felt more like I was using something already built. What was made wasn't a tool, but a specific action to be brought to life directly." She concluded.
"I see. I guess my teacher would call it the difference between 'creating' and 'performing'." Rarity said.
A sense of understanding passed through all the ponies in the group. Then Rainbow Dash took up the word:
"Actually, since I've seen that wedding I got curious." She looked at the three fillies "What's the feeling of the bond magic? Does it feel like you're married or something?"
Hearing that, the three blinked in complete unison, then they looked at each other consideringly for a while. The three mares felt a strange sense of tension.
"Nah." Applebloom eventually answered "The feeling of the bond kinda varies, with it being stronger when we're going all out. But when it gets to the highest level, it feels more like we're one soul in three bodies."
"I see... Or, well, I don't see." Rainbow Dash admitted "Sounds like this is really something you can only understand from experience."
The three fillies nodded, and Applejack could tell that they had to deliberately try to not do so all in unison. It looked like talking about the bond magic had made them more aware of the effects it was having in them.
Still, the conversation soon turned to more casual topics, and eventually it came time for the Knights to separate, since Spike and the Crusaders had to leave for their mission.
+0+
Three days after that, even the Knights in the worst conditions had already recovered enough to act naturally in their daily lives, and had even briefly resumed their normal occupations, since that would help stabilize their condition more, even though they would have to leave them in the very following day.
Out of those, most of them didn't experience anything of particular note. Twilight was still teaching magic to children, Trixie was still doing shows, Rainbow Dash was helping in the training of the rookie Wonderbolts... The only one of them who did not find that to be true was actually Sunset.
For those who knew what had happened in her previous mission, that would probably not be any sort of surprise. After all, Sunset had achieve the feat of channeling the power of the sun, and as it so happened, her job was to "help" princess Celestia with raising it.
It had already been a while since she was first able to complete the process entirely on her own, but that was always an exhausting endeavor, so most of the time she still simply helped.
When she went to raise the sun on the day where the Knights would leave for their newest mission, Sunset thought that helping the princess was all she was going to do (the princesses' actions were limited while they were keeping up the ritual, but two of them could keep it up by themselves for short periods), but unexpectedly Celestia told her to raise the sun by herself, saying that it wouldn't be too draining.
The Knight almost questioned that, but she soon realized that it was true. Even though she was still only 80% recovered, lifting the sun didn't really strain her at all.
Princess Celestia only smiled upon seeing her student's disbelief "Didn't you realize? Titles are only given to Knights who become strong enough to be able to fight at the level of an alicorn without tricks. That kind of thing is easy by comparison, specially with your connection to the sun."
Sunset looked down at herself in astonishment, almost unable to believe what she had just done. Celestia's smile got slightly wider, but then her tone went a bit somber "Also, because of everything that's going on recently, we just haven't had any time to hold your actual Title Granting Ceremony. So, I'm sorry."
"That's fine." Sunset replied "I've waited my whole life for it, I can wait a bit more."
And within her mind, Sunset was actually somewhat relieved about that. She had always imagined receiving a title together with Twilight and Trixie, so she wasn't sure how to feel about a ceremony just for herself.
+0+
Later in the day, it was finally time for the adult Knights to leave for their mission. They needed the ritual to be at full power in order to weaken the Cloud of Chaos as much as possible for their mission, so they weren't seen off by the princesses.
In order to travel to their chosen battlefield quickly and reliably, a teleportation magic ritual had been set up specially for the occasion.
"Okay, everypony. Are you ready?" Sunset asked them, receiving confirmations from them "In that case... Trixie, fire it up!"
The illusionist mare nodded with a grin and activated the formation. It was shaped like the number eight, with the eight of them standing on specific positions on it. As soon as it activated, the shape lit up, revealing that it was made up of countless minuscule letters of an unknown script.
The entire shape was engulfed in a bubble of power, along with all of the Knights, and then it popped, leaving behind nothing, neither the formation itself, nor the Knights.
+0+
The destination of the teleport was a good distance away from the current location of the wavefront of the Cloud, so that they could set up some defensive spells and set the area to their advantage. However, just as expected, things would go unexpectedly when so much chaos was involved. And in this case, while they did all appear together a good distance away from the Cloud, that distance was not horizontal but vertical.
Indeed, the eight Knights appeared hundreds of feet in the air, instantly going into freefall.
But of course, that kind of unexpected situation was far from enough to qualify as anything more than an inconvenience for those experienced Knights. Those of them that had easy ways to fly, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with their wings and Rarity and Sunset with wing spells, all immediately got control of their movement.
Meanwhile, the other Knights all had their own ways of dealing with such a situation. Trixie teleported above Sunset and stood on her, causing the other unicorn to give her an unamused look. Applejack sighed and took three steps in midair, before standing on the wind.
Twilight and Pinkie were the most eyecatching, since the concentration of chaos nearby was more than enough for them to use the chaotic "slipstream" trick. The former used her magic to condense water out of the air and shaped it into a helicopter, while the latter opened her mouth and started eating the sky itself, which had turned into cotton candy, thus stopping herself in the air.
Once all of them were stabilized, and had gathered back together, Sunset summed up the situation:
"Well, it's not the worst thing that could have happened. After all, we're still together, unless one of you has been secretly swapped with a chaotic clone." She said.
"Doesn't seem like it." Pinkie answered Sunset's (not entirely) rhetoric (not quite) question. At least that was what she meant to answer, though it was difficult to make out with her mouth full.
"So, do you think it's worth it to try and go to the planned ambush position?" Sunset asked.
That time, Twilight was the one to answer:
"Probably not, the fact that we're gonna have to deal with chaotic interference, regardless of whether we go there via teleport or 'normal' methods, is enough to wipe out any advantage the ambush could give us." She shook her head.
"Then that means our best option would be..." Trixie spoke "A dynamic entry from above, isn't it?"
Sunset nodded. Then the eight Knights smiled wryly, and soon they were back in full freefall.
+0+
Freefall didn't last for long, however, as the Knights realized that was silly and they had much better ways of doing it. Specifically, Rainbow Dash extended her wind manipulation to "grab" all of them in the air and dived downwards, accelerating at a very respectable speed, which was still pretty much just a crawl by her standards.
Soon enough, they became able to see the Cloud more and more distinctly. And then they saw some unidentifield flying objects heading directly towards them.
Those objects had strange shapes, with only a minority of them having any sort of wings or other flying implements, most remaining in the air purely through the use of chaotic magic. Their shapes also weren't very much like those of normal creatures, resembling letters more than anything, though different ones depending on the direction you looked at them from.
Those were obviously chaotic constructs, which was very much within the range of expected situations they could face during the mission, so there was no surprise to be found on their expressions.
The chaotic constructs spread around and attacked from all directions, some with varied ranged attacks while others dashed straight into them to hit the ponies up close and personal.
The first wave of them didn't even reach the level of a "speed bump". They were powerful due to their proximity to the cloud, but when faced with the overwhelming advance of the experienced Knights, their power amounted to nothing more than a passing breeze.
"World's Harmony: Fortress." Fluttershy chanted, and spread her power throughout the "ship".
Rainbow Dash's wind construct acted as a compact version of a super combat airship, the speed granted to it by the rainbow pegasus was supplemented by a ridiculous level of toughness that allowed it to shrug off direct hits by the enemy, destroying them in return. Sunset was an entire suite of firepower all by herself, both intercepting long-range attacks and targetting their sources accurately. Finally, there was Applejack, whose Sight covered the entire surroundings and prevented any sort of surprises.
One of the most important aspects of their limited planning had been a general consensus that they should try their best to remain together, and their current strategy was very much in line with that.
Of course, that first wave wasn't everything the Cloud of Chaos had, and when it "noticed" how little effect it had, its next move pulled out all the stops. Instead of merely a few dozen chaotic constructs, the top layer of the cloud seemed to come alive, spewing out too many enemies for even Applejack to count at a glance. From the Knight's position, the cloud had covered everything up until the horizon in all directions except for the one pointing towards Canterlot, the direction they had to protect.
And the constructs were a lot more varied as well, instead of simply weirdly-shaped flying monsters, there were also multi-legged forms that leaped on the air, thin and spindly towers with long insect legs that grew from the top of the cloud and bent towards the ponies, teleporting rats with bodies of steel, and many, many more. With such a quantity and variety, while they could not stop the Knights, it wouldn't be impossible to delay them and drain their strength.
But Trixie wouldn't simply allow that. She spent one of her energy charges, drawing its power to shape a truly colossal spell:
"Grand Illusion: Knight Sky!" She shouted.
The next moment seemed to disappear from existence. And during this missing time, the Knights had adquired an army of their own. Completely mirroring the enemy, they covered the sky opposite of the enemy rain. And they were all Knights.
One who had deep knowledge about the history of the Knights of the Realm of Equestria would recognize dozens of those faces, mostly ponies, but some others too. They would even be able to recognize some of their famous skills, such as Aurora Dream's Hunger Mouths which were already spreading around her.
Of course, one who met those requirements would also quickly realize they were all illusions. Not only due to the sheer impossibility of all of those historical figures suddenly appearing, but also because most of them weren't actually real Knights, with some being fictional figures, while others Trixie had created whole cloth.
However, as had often been the case, illusions were very effective against chaos, specially when properly applied, and that had been a masterful execution by Trixie.
Confused, the chaos forces did not all advance upon the actual Knights, instead splitting themselves to try and deal with all of the approaching "enemies". The Knight Jet once more broke through the enemy lines, with only slightly more trouble than the first time.
And then, they actually crossed through the top layer of clouds.
"Gaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy screamed at the same time.
The sheer chaotic density of where they were going through wreaked havoc with the wind construct, damaging them with the feedback. The "Jet" twisted itself and writhed, about to break apart.
"Patty Cake, Patty Cake, baker's pony....
Bake a cake for the one and only..."
Pinkie and Twilight started playing Patty Cake, singing the song calmly. With that, the wind construct almost immediately stabilized, or rather destabilized in a more functional way, as the wind wings grew dozens of insect wings of their own that beat to accelerate, the nose became a very tough baguette and the tail turned into an old school propeller, only it was entirely made out of fused together lollipops.
That solved Rainbow and Fluttershy's problem, allowing them to respond quickly when the next issue made itself known.
'Magic Array forming, dead ahead!' Applejack's warning sounded in their minds.
The two took action simultaneously. Fluttershy reduced the toughness of the World's Harmony very briefly, allowing Rainbow to quickly accelerate the group to five times the speed of sound, decellerating just as quickly. It took only a fraction of a fraction of a second, but it was enough for them to pass through the area of the Magic Array before it could fully form.
That made the baguette nose of the airship halfway melt.
That wasn't enough to get them out of danger, however. As the spell created by the Array quickly retargetted them, creating a giant worm made of birds that dove straight at them, thousands of wings flapping. Sunset bombarded the birds with the highest amount of spells she could shoot all at once, barely managing to keep them back, and more problems were popping up in front.
There were more Magic Arrays. A lot of them spread out far too wide for their previous tactic to succeed. So Rarity took the job.
"Wind Ruler Sword: Repaint the Sky!" She shouted, and slashed with the blade.
That was a powerful slash by most standards, though not quite worthy of the amount of power she put into it. The reason for it was that the true worth of the slash wasn't in the power, but the ridiculous precision it had. The slash disturbed the wind currents, even taking into consideration the chaotic energy in the air, and it affected the forming arrays, changing their prepared spells into things that were far less dangerous for the Knights, mostly atacking away from them.
Back behind, Applejack realized that Sunset's spells were just barely not strong enough to pierce the hide of the birds and truly destroy them, so she took matters into her own hooves. With a step, she appeared inside of the worm itself, barely not being hit by her own ally's attacks. Then she started punching Sunset's spells, just to give them a small extra oomph to destroy the enemies. With her Eyes and her skill, it was possible.
She punched exactly nine thousand three hundred and fifty seven times, causing all of the birds to die and destroying the worm, and them she stepped back into the relative safety of the air construct.
"Patty Cake, Patty Cake, one more time....
Let us do this pantomine..."
Twilight and Pinkie were still playing pattycake, since the risk for the air construct was still there.
But it was at that point when the Knights managed to see the ground, and what they saw managed to astound even them.