Meanwhile, at the front gate of the capital city, Frozen Fang walked to the middle of the gate, holding the same staff he used to get rid of the Umbrum thing.
He stopped and said, "This will bring you to me." He raised the staff and slammed it into the ground. The runes on the staff began to glow gray light as a white bean of magic shot straight into the air.
He used his hoof to nudge the staff, making sure it was secure in the ground before turning to the Wereponies who were waiting for him to speak. "My brothers and sisters, I know that you are hungry. You're starving and you want a piece of the action. I promise you that the action will soon come. That is the purpose of this weapon." He gestured to the staff and continued. "The Bringer of the Sun." As Frozen said her name, he noticed that some of the Wereponies had fear in their eyes. He continued, "She will be here soon, so find a good position to make sure that your meal can't find you." As he spoke, several Wereponies rushed off, searching for good hiding spots. Frozen Fang smiled and said, "I'm ready when you are, Princess of the Sun."
Celestia flew around the battlefield slaying one Monster in the sky after another. She heard the rumbling of dark storm clouds that had gathered, accompanied by several lightning strikes hitting the area by the front gates. When she looked in that direction, she noticed the white beam of magic. It was at this moment that Arkantos walked out of the shadows like they were a doorway on top of a roof right next to her. He said, "Yep, he is right there."
The Princess of the Sun ignored Arkantos and made her way towards the beam, but Arkantos popped up on a different roof and tried again. "Hello, Princess of the Sun, are you in there?"
Celestia said, "I don't have time to waste on a conversation with a shadow."
Taken aback by that comment, the Umbrum replied, "Ok, first, ouch. Second, ask yourself how do you know where he is right now?" She didn't answer him, but flew on. As she was flying, she didn't think too much about it. And then she did, saying, "Maybe their leader is just stupid."
Arkantos popped out of the shadows from a destroyed ballista tower and replied, "No, it's because he's set up a trap for you."
Celestia raised an eyebrow at Arkantos as he kept pace with her. They looked at each other for several seconds, the silence interrupted by an explosion of fire and ice elsewhere in the city. Eventually, Celestia asked, "What do you mean, it's a trap?"
Celestia saw ten to twenty Monsters charging through a square. She dove down and created a magical dome in front of her before crashing right onto them and creating a heat wave that blasted onto and burned the Wereponies. She created a pony-sized crater in her work and used her pike to kill the ones who didn't get her message as they challenged her to fight. Eventually, the Monsters realized they could never beat her, and ran in the opposite direction with fear in their eyes.
It was at this time Arkantos popped out of the shadows again, saying, "Celestia, do I need to spell it out for you?" Celestia took off into the sky, saying nothing. As she continued to fly, Arkantos reappeared on top of a church that was devoted to Celestia and said, "The only reason you know where he is is because he wants you to know. He wants you to be there. He wants to defeat you. Trust me, if I were in his situation, I would do the same thing to end any possibility of resistance. And if you fall, then the rest of this capital city will fall with you."
She landed, killing more Wereponies, and said, "Even if what you say is true, it won't help him. I've taken down hundreds of these things." She took off into the sky again, shouting, "So unless he has some kind of secret weapon, I'm willing to go into his so-called trap." She lit up her horn and several beams of pure sunlight hit a dozen Wereponies who were about to kill some unconscious solar guard unicorns, probably knocked out by an explosion. They would have been Monster grub, but the Alicorn of the Sun stopped that.
Celestia next saw Arkantos appear beside a bell on top of a bell tower. He asked her, "Did you forget that he's super fast?" She landed on a rooftop and began tearing up with a mixture of sadness for the fallen and hatred towards the Monsters who had killed them. "I am willing to sacrifice anything to stop these Monsters. They've taken so many already. It has to stop!"
Arkantos replied, "I know that, but that's life." The white Alicorn looked at him from the roof of the mansion. He continued. "Celestia, you have a big heart. You love your ponies. But you must understand you can't save them from everything, and there will be times like right now where you have to accept the loss, but trust me as I say your death wouldn't accomplish anything. And if you let your emotions get the better of you, then you know who will come to make things even worse."
She realized who he was talking about and became emotionally unbalanced. Given her current state, this could potentially lead to Daybreaker's freedom. Daybreaker, the darker part of her soul that she despised, the never-ending rage that lay underneath, resided deep within her conscious mind. Though she would have been more than happy to burn anything that frustrated her, Celestia said, "It will not go that far."
But Arkantos asked, "Are you sure about that? Because I'm pretty sure I saw a few ashes falling out of your main and tail just now. And at one point, your mane changed from its usual color to that raging fire."
Celestia remained quiet for quite some time. Arkantos said, "Even if you didn't have that weakness inside you, that white werepony has the means to defeat you, and that little ace is the staff of Star Swirl the Bearded."
Celestia's eyes widened as she turned around and said, "Are you sure he wields such a weapon?"
The Umbrum said simply, "Yes."
Up in the cloud hovered three Hunters who were tasked to protect Celestia. "So, where is she going?" Sturdy Step asked.
Night Glider replied, "She's following that magical beam that the Wereponies are shooting into the sky. Which, of course, is a trap."
Night Breeze said, "A trap that we will need to save her from." She looked at the pony and continued, "But I'm more curious about the pony that she’s talking to."
Without missing a beat, Sturdy Step responded, "That is an Umbrum, also known as a Shadow Pony. They disappeared a long time ago, supposedly. No pony has seen or heard from them and most ponies believe that their race was killed off."
"Until now," Night Breeze said.
Night Glider asked, "How are there six Alicorns in existence?"
Sturdy Step replied, "Alicorns are powerful and rare. It can be difficult to become one because first, you must be friends with an Earth pony, a Pegasus, and a Unicorn. Then you have to accomplish a very difficult task that connects the pony to the true meaning of magic, and once you accomplish this, you become an Ailcorn."
"Well, yeah, I know that." Night Glider said, very impressed by that bit of knowledge. He finally understood why she was called Study Step. "But how is it that four of them have a royal title? And the other two don't?"
Sturdy Step rolled her eyes and said, "Because it's optional and some of them just want to have a good life. Being royal isn't all it’s cracked up to be." Sturdy Step glanced down and saw several Ponies that were about to be eaten, but she continued to watch the Princess of the Sun as she entered into a deep conversation with the Umbrum.
Eventually, Sturdy Step sighed and said, "I'm bored." She asked the two Hunters next to her, "Can we save those Ponies from death?"
Night Glider looked at Night Breeze and asked, "Shall we?"
Night Breeze looked back and replied, "Yes, we shall."
The three Hunters popped out of nowhere. Night Breeze threw several objects in random directions which caused explosions of pure liquefied silver. The silver burned any Werepony positioned too close to the small bombs. Sturdy Step examined the area and believed she needed to go all out. She flipped a switch on her ax and her weapon became red hot, like it had just been pulled out of the blacksmith’s forge. She swung her ax left and right, each time hitting a Werepony. Night Glider jumped into a nearby tree. He aimed his crossbow and fired seven silver arrows at a time.
Wereponies began to cower in fear when they saw their fallen comrades, but their fear heightened when they saw the two Hunters that had taken them down. They knew two of them, knew that if they tried to attack, they would die no matter where they were. Even the third one was fearsome, but all the same; they were hunters to the core.
Back at the Barracks the front gate opened and Summer Spell marched out with Sugar Mist and Crystal Breeze behind her. An angry look on her face, Summer Spell shoved the hoodie pony to the ground and asked, "Who are you? And you better be honest because I am not in the mood for lies." As the Unicorn said this, she materialized a sword of lightning magic and pointed it at the hoodie figure.
The hoodie pony got up and started to laugh as shadows began to errupt from her. The Unicorn tried to swing her sword of magic, but it was too little too late, as a smoky tentacle launched at her like a javelin, sending Summer Spell slamming to a wall. Then several smoky tentacles wrapped around the pony and brought her closer to the hoodie stranger. The mare said, "My dear, I'm happy to let you know that you will play a part in my story along with your companions." Suddenly, fear crossed Summer Spell's face, and an evil grin appeared on Mystic Coat. Her cloak flew off of her and Summer got a better look at this Umbrum. Her coat shined like silver, and her mane and tail were a dark shade of blue. But her eyes. Her eyes were a dark, deep shade of crimson.
The shadow pony spoke. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mystic Coat." As she said this, a dozen more smoky tentacles shot out at the other two ponies. Sugar Mist was too slow and immediately got tied up by the tentacles. Crystal Breeze, on the other hoof, managed to dive out of the way of the first few tentacles, did a loop de-loop through the smoky projectiles, and started to make her way back toward the gate. She was two to three hoof steps away from the gates before the smoking shadow image of the Umbrum popped out of nowhere and kicked the Pegasus out of the sky, back toward the tentacles. They quickly wrapped around the mare. Mystic Coat commanded the tentacles to slam the Pegasus to the ground several times, stopping only when she was satisfied that the mare was unconscious. She did a magical scan to make sure she didn't overdo it and saw that the Pegasus was still alive. Pleased with the results, the Umbrum placed her roughly in front of the Earth pony before more tentacles wrapped around the Pegasus and pinned her to the ground.
Crystal Breeze and Sugar Mist both struggled in the shadow pony's magical grasp. As Sumer Spell regained consciousness, she became very concerned for those two, as well as for herself. But she got a good look though the book that this Mystic Coat carried. There was a bunch of scribbling that she couldn’t make out, but what caught her eye was the large image in the middle. It looked like a drawing of three Alicorns, except the coats around their wings and hoofs were black as tar. She gave the image a closer examination, and saw that each Alicorn was distinct from the others. One had wings that didn't look like they were submerged in tar. The same could be said for the other two except it was the horn and hooves that had escaped the black substance. Suddenly, Summer’s eyes widened in recognition of her own image. It was pretty much exactly like her except for a few minor details such as the black hoofs and wings. In the likeness, she was wearing some kind of magma armor and most of her red coat was still there. She studied the other two Alicorns in the drawing. Their coats and body shapes looked similar to those of Crystal Breeze and Sugar Mist. As she continued to look through the book, she saw other images, except something was very weird about them; the images seemed to be moving. Some appeared to be shouting something, but they didn't get through the pages. Others just accepted their fate.
It was at this point that Mystic Coat got into her line of vision, her horn glowing a mixture of red and yellow, and her eyes glowing dark green and purple. She said, “Ready for your story to begin?"
The unicorn felt very hot, like someone had just poured lava into her bloodstream. The pain was unbearable, but somehow she managed to look toward the others and saw that they were in the same kind of pain she was. The heat reached a boiling point and a burst of flames and electricity shot from her hoofs. The coat of her legs turned black as tar followed by several orange cracks. And she began to feel stronger, like way stronger, strong enough to smash through walls.
Not wanting to leave anything to chance, she decided to test her newfound strength on a nearby rock. She first gently placed her hoof on the rock and then added pressure. As she increased pressure, several cracks started to form in the rock. She lifted her hoof off of the rock, then slammed her hoof back down. The rock crumbled into pieces. But that was not the only thing that happened when she slammed her hoof on the rock. She also created a crater that was the size of her hoof.
Suddenly, she fell to the ground as the pain on her back became more intense, and she felt threatened by a very real fear of blowing up.