The next morning
As the sun filtered through the windows of Shadow Flare's room, the massive Alicorn peeling his eyes open as he woke up from a long and good night's sleep. Letting out a yawn and licking his lips Shadow stood up from his bed and after making it he laid back down and pulled a small rope next to his bed, soon a group of Palakyne armed with grooming tools entered through one of their own doors and went to work on Shadow. While he could groom himself just fine he liked the gentle care the Palakyne had and it allowed him to better focus on the morning reports, he smiled and turned his head to look at the door.
"Three... two... one..."
He lit his magic up and opened the door, revealing Rose Lilly standing there with her hoof raised to knock and a deadpan look on her face.
"Every time Uncle, how do you know?"
Shadow chuckled. "Many years of the same thing Rose, each of my personal aides have always come to that door at the same time so I've committed to memory."
Rose shook her head as she walked up to the bed as Shadow shut the door and Rose sat down, pulling out a small stack of papers from under her greatcoat
"Anyway, nothing too serious this morning Uncle: Besides our guests from Equestria, a Salvage Team has been sent to recover what they can from the Equestrian Airship, and there are a few reports of creature movements but nothing of note so far."
"Good," Shadow said as he laid his tail out at its full length to allow the Palakyne access to it, he jumped a little with an "Ow!" when one accidentally caught it in between the teeth of a comb.
"Care back there, you guys know my tail is rather sensitive."
Rose shook her head. "I remember the stories about how you freaked out at the transformation into this." She said gesturing to Shadow's body and the various... "attachments" it had.
"To be fair Rose, Alicorns were known of back then. It was these other features caught me off guard, you'd freak out too if your forehooves became fingers and your tail grew out like a whip. I'm just glad it was painless."
"Fair enough Uncle, so about our guests? When would you like to met them?"
Shadow looked over at his day planner, running a finger along until he reached today's date.
"Well bearing any attacks or anything else that needs my attention, I've got a meeting with the Council regarding these events but otherwise there's nothing happening today so... how about after supper? It'll gave them plenty of time to explore the city and get to better know us while I'll have time to get ready and make plans."
"Sounds good Uncle, that will also allow me to set some things up on my end like making them passes."
Shadow nodded as the Palakyne finished grooming him and Rose went to get Shadow's breakfast, not noticing that Shadow was reaching out with a foreleg. Before Rose could react she suddenly found herself in a headlock and Shadow was giving her a nooige.
"GAH! UNCLE!"
"Got ya Rose, now for this!" Next thing Rose knew she was on her back and Shadow was blowing a raspberry into her belly, causing the Earth Pony to squeal loudly with laughter. Eventually Shadow let up and Rose curled up into a giggling ball, after a short while she gave Shadow a playful glare.
"I'll get you back one day Uncle."
"Don't be so sure Rose, you mother and her mother said the same thing." He said with a large grin, causing the two to laugh. After Rose had recovered she and the thoroughly amused Palakyne left to do their other duties, as they did that Shadow looked out the window that overlooked his city and Ponies.
"And now we will meet later on my guests, I wonder Celestia... who did you send to make contact."
Night Star's Room
Twilight blinked as she started waking up, started for a brief second before remember the events of yesterday. Around her the others started waking up as well, followed by Fire Claws sitting up and stretching with a cute meow as Metal Flash stood up and started to nose Night, who groaned and rolled onto his size which caused the Calhound to let off an annoyed snort.
Fire Claws chuckled as he looked over at the giggling Equestrians.
"Meowtser can be difficult to wake up sometimes."
Metal Flash hopped onto the bed and after placing his front paws on Night started doing a leap-push, causing Night to groan again.
"It's my day off Flash, go back to bed."
Applejack whispered to her friends. "This reminds me of Winona on some mornings, only with a much bigger dog." She finished to further giggling.
Night shifted again, not noticing his long tail had fallen out of the cocoon of blankets he had wrapped himself in. Fire Claws got an evil grin and carefully moved over to it and picked Night's tail, before giving it a good bite. Night jumped at least four feet letting out a mix of a pained hiss and whiny before crashing back onto his bed while Metal Flash got clear and Fire Claws released the tail, the owner of the limb giving the Palakyne a nasty death glare with teeth bared.
"FIRE CLAWS!! WHAT THE BUCK!!?"
Said Palakyne gestured his head toward the laughing Equestrians, which caused the Thestral to facehoof.
"Oh... right."
It wasn't long before Night got his gear on (the Equestrians noticing a small but long knife attached to his belt that they'd missed before) and lead the Equestrians to the Castle Tavern, which was mostly empty right now but Night groggily told them that in an hour or so the room would be filled so if they wanted to get their breakfast and start the tour they'd better get on in so they could be out before the rush hit. The group got their meals and after a quick breakfest Night lead them out of the room, running into Rose on the way out.
"Morning Rose." Night said as he bit back a yawn.
"Morning Night, girls, Spike." Rose greeted back, the latter two greeting back as Rose looked at Night who was rubbing his eyes.
"You never were a morning Pony Night." She said with a giggle.
"I'm a Thestral, we don't like getting up at dark O' clock." Night said, as the Equestrians giggled.
Rose smiled and turned to their guests. "I have some news for you seven: The Hunt Master has agreed to meet you after supper, giving both him and you plenty of time to prepare. Sound good?"
Twilight, being the "leader" of the Mane Six, nodded her head. "That would be wonderful, we've been wanting to take a better look at the city now that it's day time, see how the Ponies here live compared to back home. I would love to see the Library." Behind her the others added their own thoughts; Pinkie wanted to see the bakeries, Applejack was curious about how the Astera Ponies handled farming, Rainbow was hyped to see the airships, Rarity wondered about the fashion, and Fluttershy wanted to meet the animals. Spike meanwhile was curious about the Hunters themselves.
Rose smiled as she pulled out some cards attached to straps out of her coat pocket.
"These are passes that will let the city's inhabitants and guard know that you seven are ambassadors from Equestria so please keep these with you at all times." Rose explained as she handed them out, once she did Rose turned to Night. "Mind if I tag along? Other than a Council Meeting for the Hunt Master which he doesn't need me for and I don't have anything else for awhile."
Neither Rose nor the Equestrians missed the way Night brightened up.
"Sure Rose, come along."
Rose smiled and started walking past Night who quickly but quietly leaned his head down and as Rose passed him he grabbed her tail in his mouth, getting the familiar cotton candy taste and gave the tail a gently pull. This caused Rose to squeak in surprise and she rewarded him with a bat of her tail over his face and a smirk. Like Shadow Flare had said it was Night's way of show that he liked her.
The group walked through one of the halls which the Equestrians noticed, now that it was day time and they weren't rushing, that the hall had slots in both walls and even the ceiling for crossbows and bows, Night explained that this was for defensive reasons.
"You see," He explained, "When the castle was first built danger was all around so the place was built to be as hard to take as possible."
"Well it seems that the builders were successful at doing that." Twilight said. "Having grown up in the Royal Palace, I can say that the defenses here are much tighter. Especially the Guards."
As the group had been walking they had passed by numerous individuals that had to have been guards if their armor was anything to go by: Unlike the ones they had seen last night these one wore heavy plate armor that completely covered them from ears to hooftips, even their tails were armored. The armor itself was red and gold with a purple iridescent sheen over it, a dark red and blue scale cape that resembled wings flowed from their shoulders to cover most of the body exposing only their shoulders, front legs and chest as well as their tail which was whip-like and tipped with. The most noticeable things was the, gauntlets, helmet and neck armor; the gauntlets where thick with heavy curved spikes that from the Equestrians' guess were designed to either as offensive for defensive, maybe both, and could block weapon strikes and maybe even hook and pull a weapon from an enemy. At the end of the gauntlets were four figures to better grip their weapons with each figure was tipped with a claw an inch or two long, and on the left foreleg was a custom Slinger. The helmet had been shaped to resemble a Dragon of some kind with two large, golden horns on top as well as frills the same colors as the armor but in a darker shade extending from both sides of the neck armor, which resemble a cowl.
Held in the right "hand" was a halberd the same color as their armor but had what appeared to be a revolving cannon built into the handle.
For some reason that Twilight couldn't explain, she felt rather intimidated by these guards. A quick glance behind her told her that the other Equestrians were filling the same way. She chalked it up to their larger size, they actually made her bother Shining Armor who was not a small Stallion, look small. That and they looked ready to slay anyone that proved to be a threat.
Rose noticed their glances and spoke up.
"No need to be scared girls, while they are intimidating the Guards wouldn't hurt you if you don't give them a reason to. Still nice to see the intimidation factor is working." Night chuckled and continued for her.
"These Guards are well trained and have many years of battle under their belts, having battled many monster attacks on Shadow Lair."
"Monster Attacks?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes, as you likely saw the city is surrounded by a large and thick wall." Rose explained. "While it's not often attacks do happen, especially if Elder Dragons are involved."
"And for clarification," Night said," We say "monsters" to avoid confusion with creatures like us, Griffins and so forth.
"Okay," Twilight said, "But what are Elder Dragons?"
"Well Twilight, here is Astera we have several classifications for the monsters that live in the land. "Elder Dragons" refers to a class of monsters that unlike other monster types, which classify monsters by shared traits, are creatures that defy typical classification and reside outside of the standard ecosystem, regardless of their resemblance to a dragon. These monsters are rare creatures with immense power that have lived since ancient times."
"It's true." Rose explained, "The closest thing we can compare them to would be living forces of nature, able to control the very environments around them. We know of one that can control the winds and weather with far greater range than any Pegasus could hope, one that lives deep below the surface with an entire ecosystem centered around it, and one that actually hunts and eats other Elder Dragons."
"The Iron Dragon is classified as an Elder Dragon, and due to how powerful and dangerous the type is only highly experience and high-rank Hunters are allowed to hunt them. And even then only under special circumstances, like say one is threatening a village." Night said.
"For the most part we try to just leave them alone, which as far as we can tell seems to be mutual from them as well: We leave them alone and they do the same. Only on rare occasions have we had any conflict for the most part." Rose finished.
The Equestrians looked at each other in worry, while they knew of the history of Celestia and Luna facing off against many threats during the early years of Equestria, these "Elder Dragons" from what Rose and Night had just told them sounded to be on a whole other level, especially the Iron Dragon if even half of what Night told them last night was true.
By this point the group had entered what was known as the "Grand Hall", which was the first room those coming into the castle would see, and it was quite the sight; The floor was white marble with a massive Iron Dragon Icon (which the Equestrians had learned was what the symbol Night showed them last night was) made from dark sapphire blue marble in the center, gold pillars with the same purple sheen and massive red, blue and silver tapestries lined the side walls with doorways and balconies in between them, and high above was a giant skyline that allowed the morning sun to bathe the room in a warm light.
"Wow." Twilight said in awe, the place reminded her of the foyer in the Castle of the Two Sister, yet this one was seemed to put it to shame. The others were also in awe, especially Rarity who focused on the tapestries. "I must say darlings, these are incredible works of arts."
Rose smiled. "Those were commissioned when the castle was first built, by a Mare named Art Star. She came from a long line of artists and even today her descents still carry it on. Before Star passed on she made those as a thank you to Shadow Flare, for everything he had done."
The Equestrians turned to her, Spike asking "Who's Shadow Flare? I'm guessing an important Pony."
Night chuckled. "He was more than that young Spike; Shadow Flare was the founder of Astera." He lead the group over to a giant portrait of a young Unicorn Stallion; His coat was a midnight blue with a sapphire mane and tail, both with a single silver streak. His eyes were a metallic gold that even in the still painting shined with intelligence and his mouth had been shaped into a charming and friendly smile. Rarity couldn't help but comment that he looked very handsome.
"Shadow Flare was born a Noble, part of one of the most powerful families of the time. But when the Great Winter came the Nobles left our ancestors to die... all but one. Shadow Flare was considered a black sheep among the Nobles, primarily for the fact that he always chose to mingle with the common Ponies then other Nobles. When the others fled Shadow stayed, his father disowning him on the spot." Rose chuckled as see looked at the painting. "But from the story that's been carefully past down through my family; Shadow merely looked his father in the eye and said: "No hairs out of my tail.""
This caused the Equestrians to laugh, Rainbow and AJ the hardest. Even Twilight couldn't help but giggle, she knew a few Nobles who could be told off. After a moment Fluttershy spoke. "He... he sounds like a great Pony."
Rose smiled at her. "He was, Shadow stayed with his followers for the entire time keeping them alive with his magic and showing them how to hunt and make warm clothing. Sadly while he wasn't able to save all his followers, most of them survived thanks to him." She then let out a sad sigh. "But it came at a heavy cost; Shadow's health went downhill after months of fighting the hash cold to keep his followers alive and by the end of the Great Winter Shadow's midnight blue coat had greatly faded to a bluish-grey while his sapphire mane and tail had lost all color, the single silver streak all but gone in the grey mess. His metallic gold eyes had faded to a dull gold and his silver magic was almost lost all color, his body had also gone from the well built frame from before to a weak and frail body. Shadow could barely move by then and had to rely on his Ponies to help him move, and just to finish it off; he caught a sickness that caused him to cough up blood."
Rose gazed up at the painting.
"Shadow had given his all to help his Ponies, but at the cost of his own health."
She didn't need to finish, the Equestrians understood how the tale ended and looked at the painting in a different light; they felt awe at Shadow's deeds and respect that even during the worst times he never abandoned his Ponies. After a minute Twilight spoke.
"He sounds like a wonderful Pony, shame he never got to see his Ponies thrive."
"Yeah," Rarity said. "If only he could see them now." She turned to Rose and Dusk, who smiled back.
"He'd be very proud, that's for sure." Dusk said, only Rainbow noticing the tiny glint in his good eye.
'Now what was that? Does he know something we don't?'
Rose and Dusk continued the tour before Rainbow could dwell on it so she pushed it to the back for her mind and followed after them, but not before taking a last look at the painting of Shadow Flare. The group noticed and stopped as Dash landed in front of the painting, and to their surprise Rainbow gave it a salute and said; "Shadow Flare, as the Bearer of Loyalty I can say for certain you went above and beyond the call. I'd never leave my friends or family hanging, as you never left your Ponies hanging. I only hope you can see what they've become, and that you're proud of all they have a accomplished. Rest in peace, for you more than earned it. May Harmony watch over you."
With that she finished the salute and returned to her friends, who smiled at her. "I didn't know you could speak that well Dash." Fluttershy said.
"I have mad respect for those that despite the worse stick true to their friends, and I mean what I said; Shadow Flare more than earned his peace."
Rose and Dusk gave each other knowing smile, if they knew their Hunt Master like they did he would have heard every word. Soon the group walked down one of the halls, while high above in his room Shadow Flare watched, touched by Rainbow's words. A single tear ran slowly done his cheek.
"Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I am proud of their accomplishments, but I still have my job to do and watch over them for as long as I live."
He stood up and made his way to the room were the meeting would be held.
"Step by step the time comes Celestia, I know you had good reasons to banish your sister, who returned to you. I just wonder how our own meeting will go."