//------------------------------//
// Verse 23 
// Story: The Nightmare Knights Become A Band 
// by SwordTune 
//------------------------------//

Frostbitten hooves would be the least of their worries in a few minutes if they did not win. The shadow was growing stronger. Even with help from volunteers, Tempest and Glitter could not contain the lumbering monstrosity. Every shadow was a different form, making it difficult to predict how to fight each one. 
A lightless tail whipped through the snow and crackled against Glitter Drops’ illusions of Tempest. The intangible copies of her best friend were the only things keeping them in the fight. The shadow was, fortunately, as single-minded as it was powerful. It didn’t seem to learn, simply lashing out at images without realizing they were illusions.
Tempest took her chance and found an opening, piercing the shadow’s darkness with a burst of her magic. Its hulking body trembled, struggling with three uneven legs and a dozen stumpy arms, each ending with rough, serrated hooks.
Every shot Tempest took only briefly slowed the creature down. In seconds it regenerated from the damage and resumed its assault.
“You not touch pony friend!” One volunteer, a yak, threw himself at the shadow. He grunted as a chunk of his fur was torn by the shadow’s hooks, but it did not seem to cut the skin. “Ruargh! Torchfire, now!”
Another volunteer, wrapped up in a yak-sewn blanket to ward off the cold, blew circle of his dragon fire around the shadow. The light held back the beast long enough for the yak to recover, but the snow and winds surrounding them snuffed out the fire before long.
“Captain!” Glitter Drops distracted the shadow with illusions of Tempest while she rushed to a crystal stallion guarding a hole in the snow. “We can’t keep holding it off. Is the pit ready?”
The stallion shook his head and pointed down. “We need to remove a little more ice, or else that thing will come back too quickly.”
“Boff!” Both the yak and dragon flew back, struck by the shadow’s whipping tail.
Glitter Drops looked down to where ponies were bucking buckets of water out of the pit, while three dragons used their flames to carve deeper into their glacier. 
“We’ll give you all the time you need, but please pick up the pace!” Glitter focused on her spell again, adding more duplicates to her illusion. But it didn’t matter how many she added, the frenzied and sweeping arcs of the shadow’s tail always seem to find Tempest. 
She was only saved by their volunteers. “Only yaks best as smashing! And Brundi is strongest yak!” The dragon climbed on top of him, spewing fire and warding back the shadow.
“Yeah, what he said!” The dragon pumped his fist at the shadow. But the black stumpy arms lashed their hooks out, snagging and wrenching the dragon. Even with his natural armour, his scream curdled Tempests’ blood.
Two pops struck the shadow and erupted in a burst of light, throwing it back. “That pit better be ready because it’s coming now!” She blasted it relentlessly, not giving a second for the shadow to move forward.
“Wait, no!” the captain shouted, but he couldn’t be heard over the bursts. The dragons took flight and lifted the ponies out from the pit. Tempest pinned the shadow down with a stream of magic, pressuring it into the hole.
The captain rushed to her side, trying to pull her off. “You can’t. There’s something under us, we spotted it through the ice!”
“What?” Tempest turned, but the shadow already slipped on the snow and tumbled down into the pit. A moment later and crackling could be heard, followed by a shudder throughout the glacier as the ice below the shadow shattered. 
“The glacier is hollow,” the captain said, “The diggers saw something under there, they said it looked like--”
“Shadows!” the dragons shouted from above, pointing down into the cavernous pit they just opened up. More beasts crawled out. Long, snake-like shadows and floppy slimes with spider legs pulled themselves up and out.
Glitter Drops cast her illusions around the pit, distracting the incoming threats before they escaped to quickly. One by one the Northern Watch retreated. One shadow was already a challenge to trap. Now there was no telling how many of them would come out. 
Tempest rushed to her friend’s side. “Dropsy, remember Starlight’s lessons? Can you teleport everyone on the ground?”
“Uh, maybe?” Glitter shouted between panicked breaths. “But the shadows will just keep coming if we don’t stop them now.”
Tempest stomped her hooves into the show and spun around. “Just get the spell ready!” She sucked up a lung full of cold air and snowflakes. Her body shivered in the brutal northern storm, but with the pain of the cold came a certain clarity and focus.
At the tip of her horn, a blinding light grew. Even distant mountains seemed to light up from her spell. On the glacier, even in the thickest storm, it looked as if the sun had descended on them.
“Fizzy, what’re you doing?”
Tempest half-turned her head back gave her friend an excited stare. “Something I’ve always wanted to do.” The ball of magic was no larger than the head of a pin, but its density of energy was so great, it launched through the sky like the sun itself. The shadows shrieked as it flew over their heads, flying higher and higher still to the mountain above the glacier.
“I’ve always wanted to say this,” Tempest couldn’t contain her smile as she caught up with Glitter.
“What?” her friend groaned, too focused on her teleportation spell. Tempest pointed up to the rolling wave of ice and snow with a big dumb grin on her face.
“Avalanche!”





Cadence paced back and forth in the library as the patrol finished their report of the battle on the glacier. Luna presided over the meeting. As the only one who had ever warded off a shadow on her own, they sought her counsel on how to combat the shadow’s dark magic.
“This is a disaster,” Cadence brayed, “why do these monsters have to show up now of all times?”
“I believe,” Luna offered, “they are showing up because of these unique times. These shadows are the remains of the dark magic used by Sombra. They are raw and without direction, now that their old master has gone. But they are still attracted to the same forces.”
“You mean the distrust between ponies and dragons?” Cadence looked up from her panicked thoughts. 
“Indeed,” Luna nodded. “The Crystal Heart is powered by love, and while those emotions might still exist, there’s no denying that fear and anger, the emotions that dark magic feed on, are increasing within the Empire.”
“But, I don’t get it,” the captain of the Northern Patrol interjected, “we’ve been outside the city for a while, so maybe I’m missing something, but dragons and ponies can get along just fine. I have all kinds of creatures on my team, and I’ve never seen better teamwork.”
“Unfortunately, not every pony in the Crystal Empire feels that way anymore,” Cadence told the captain. 
“Fighting the shadows is a temporary solution,” Luna concluded. “We have to starve the shadows of dark emotions. They only approach the Crystal Empire because they can sense the anger building up.” 
“And you’re working on the solution, right?” Tempest asked. “A few days ago, Poppin caught me in town. She asked me how I felt about an outdoor venue in the night market. She’s talking about the party, right?”
“Well, we planned it out and it’s going to be more akin to a festival,” Luna answered, “but yes, preparations are nearly complete. This weekend we shall have the market reserved for only fun and amicable relations for all creatures!”





“I am not teleporting any of you to the Crystal Empire!” Starlight stormed out of the school with the six young students behind her. “You should all be on the train to home by now.”
“Not a problem,” Smolder flew up in front of her and flashed six signed permission slips. “Our parents and guardians said we could go.”
Starlight pushed the papers out of her face. “This isn’t a field trip. It’s nice that your adults trust you, but I still say it’s a bad idea.”
“But Starlight!” They all whined in unison and crowded around the unicorn.
“Yona had so much fun with friends after concert!”
Silverstream whipped her black pearl card out from her feathers. “Besides, you don’t have to worry about taking care of us.” She wiggled it around. “We can handle ourselves.”
“Yeah, no.” Starlight poofed the card with some magic and it popped into her hooves. “First of all, money doesn’t fix everything. And secondly, be careful not to fly too close to the sun. Pride comes before the fall. I would know.”
She tossed the card back to Silverstream. “Besides, wouldn’t your parents be worried about you overspending?”
The young hippogriff gave a naive shrug. “The royal financier barely noticed the hotel charges. Actually, I think these cards are causing an economic boom for my country right now because the royal treasury has never been bigger.”
“Exactly why you shouldn’t be going!” Starlight pressed. “You’re my students. I’m supposed to be teaching you about responsibility and stuff. I can’t just bring you all to the Crystal Empire.”
She might have refused them strongly, but her students were as persistent as she was stubborn. They pursued her from the edge of the school to the front doors of the Castle of Friendship.
“For the last time,” Starlight turned around, massaging her temple, “just go home. Trains haven’t been running in or out of the Crystal Empire for weeks now. Any route to the city will take days and a bunch of alternate transportation. Just go home and enjoy your winter break, kids.” She shut and locked the door before they could raise their voices in protest.
They sighed and turned themselves around, walking a slow path of defeat back to the school.
“So,” Smolder shrugged, “plan B?”
Gallus shook his head. “We’re not asking Trixie.”
“Why not?” Sandbar asked. “We’ve seen her teleport stuff before, right?”
“That’s exactly why I’m worried,” Gallus waved his talon in front of his face. “Do you want your head teleported into a wall? Because I heard that can happen, you know.”
“Maybe friends try plan C,” Yona suggested. “Train to Vanhoover still open.”
“Yeah, and then we can get a luxury carriage all the way to the Crystal Empire!” Silverstream glided up into the air enthusiastically.
“Won’t that take a long time?” Ocellus cautioned them. “Vanhoover is still pretty far from the Crystal Empire.”
“I might have an idea.” Silverstream flashed a cheeky smile and flicked her eyes at her perplexed friends. They traded looks as if guessing whether she was going to spout out an insane fantasy or brilliant plan.
“I know the hippogriff consul general in Vanhoover,” she said. “I could pull a couple of royal strings and maybe get us an airship to the Crystal Empire.”
Beaks and mouths all dropped and gawked at her. “A what? You can just… do that?”