Captain Ardon stood on a high tower's balcony, Canterlot, Equestria's capital city, stretched out below him, beautiful to the eyes, but he sensed it rotting in his heart.
The sun was crossing the western horizon now, and the Princess had told him that her protégé and her companions would be arriving by 'train' soon.
It did little to calm his thoughts that they were the new Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
At the very least I can trust them not to stab me in the back, he thought bitterly, which is more than I can say for their ruler at any rate.
Ardon's thoughts were interrupted when he saw a figure flying towards Canterlot, focusing hard he determined that it could only be one of his knights flying on either a remarkably large black pegasus, or much more likely the 'Princess Luna' he'd heard next to nothing about.
Ardon left the balcony, noticing neither the golden chariot flying from the north or the train winding up the mountain.
The Knight made his way to the courtyard, where Celestia was already waiting.
"Milady," Ardon bowed as he approached, "I assume you're here to greet your sister?"
"Among others," Celestia replied evenly, "though I suppose I should complement you on your eyesight."
It irritated him how she seemed to know every thing that happened, but he held his tongue as they awaited the other Princess' arrival.
Their patience was quickly rewarded as the Lunar Princess landed in fron of them, a gleaming figure facing flankward seated on her back.
"Sister we have a prison..." she trailed off as she spotted the other Knight, "One appeared here as well."
"Another Knight?" Luna's passenger tried craning his neck to see, "It's not Garris is it?"
"Damarus?" Ardon's composure broke as he moved to get a better view of his comrade, "I hope you didn't cause too much trouble-"
His words caught in his throat as he saw the bonds keeping Damarus' hands together.
"What is the meaning of this?" Ardon's words practically dripped with venom as he rounded on Luna.
"What right do you have to speak to Us in that way?" Luna lowered her horn and prepared a spell, but stopped when a golden-shod hoof touched her shoulder, the darker Princess' objection caught in her throat at the sight of her sister's disapproving look.
"Luna, these Knights are our allies, I would expect you to treat them as such."
"But..." Luna trailed off as Celestia's gaze lingered, "Very well Sister, we shall relinquish our bond on the Knight."
"Not necessary Milady," Damarus slid off Luna awkwardly, "I can take care of myself."
As he walked toward his Captain, Damarus' bonds shone brightly and disintegrated, leaving a stunned Lunar Princess behind him.
"Celestia, he just-"
"I know."
"But he shouldn't-"
"I know."
"But how?" Luna turned to her sister, desperate for some explanation for this madness.
Celestia's eyes narrowed. "That I don't know."
Just feet away, the two Knights were having their own conversation.
"They don't know much about us, do they?" Damarus wore a smirk Ardon was only too familiar with.
"Try to keep your jokes to a minimum," Ardon looked over his subordinate quickly, "I take it you didn't learn anything from the Princess?"
"They still have magic earplugs," Damarus shrugged nonchalantly, "not surprising really."
"I see." the Captain closed his eyes for a moment, thinking, "The Princess has summoned the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and there are two more Alicorns as well, so there's a chance our entire company will be present by nightfall."
Damarus opened his mouth, but his response was cut off by the landing of a golden sky-chariot, its passengers being none other than Empress Mi Amore Cadenza and General Shining Armour of the Crystal empire, and Lieutenant Escura.
"Captain!" Escura leaped out of the chariot and ran to her superior, saluting him, "Lieutenant Escura reporting for duty sir."
"Oh, right." Damarus moved beside her and copied her pose, "What she said, only five minutes ago and with my name."
"Let's leave it at that," Ardon said quickly, having not missed the look in Escura's eyes, "we'll speak more later, for now though, the Elements' new Bearers should be arriving soon."
As if on cue, the Element-Bearers, Lyra, and the Knight Garris entered the courtyard.
Twilight Sparkle stopped in her tracks when she saw the scene before her, three more Knights were standing together, smiling broadly as Garris and a hesitant Lyra approached. She was broken from her stupor by a nudge and comment from Rainbow Dash.
"Isn't that your brother?" Rainbow pointed to what was unmistakably a grinning Shining Armour and Cadance.
"Shining! Cadance!" Twilight ran up and hugged her brother, "What's going on, did Celestia summon you two as well?"
"That's right," it was Celestia who spoke, and every head in the courtyard turned to listen to her, "I've brought you all here because Captain Ardon has brought grave news to my attention."
At her statement, all eyes turned to the Captain, "It's true, but before I begin, is there some place we may speak more comfortably?"
"Of course, follow me." Celestia led the group to an opulent dining hall with strangely plain chairs, "Please take a seat."
Much to the surprise of the Knights the chairs transfigured themselves into a more comfortable form as they approached.
"We use this room to entertain diplomats from other races," Luna explained as she settled into her own elongated seat.
"Fascinating," Ardon and the other Knights settled into their chairs, each one cushioned and white with red trim, except for Garris' chair formed from two seats which was dark blue and rather intimidating, "how does it function?"
"Normally it searches for specific species markers and morphs into pre-programmed forms like with me," Twilight motioned to her own Celestia-sized chair, "in cases where no markers are found it simply makes an approximation."
"What's it think Garris is then?" Damarus asked with a wicked smile.
"That would be a minotaur's chair." Twilight admitted sheepishly.
Both Garris and Damarus burst out laughing at the news, joined shortly by many of the others.
Ardon stood as the laughter died down, silencing the last giggles.
"As Lady Celestia said before, the news I bring is grim, the spell placed upon us could only have been broken under one condition." Ardon closed his eyes as he placed his palms on the table, "Has any record of our final confrontation survived to this day?"
"The Legend of Sunflare's Nights." Lyra looked at the Knight nervously, but continued at his nod, "M-most versions of the tale say that the Knights fought death and sealed it in Tartarus though I've come across one that implies says that the Death they sealed in Tartarus was just some creature with the name."
"That's exactly it, thank you." Ardon looked at the ponies gathered before him, each of them, save Celestia, wore identical expressions of confusion and fear, "I'm afraid that Death, the beast we fought so hard to seal away, is making to escape."
"That's impossible!" all eyes turned to Luna as stood, "Cerberus and the chiroptasi have guarded Tartarus faithfully for thousands of years."
"What do you mean guarded?" Ardon's expression betrayed his fear too well, "Tartarus shouldn't need guarding it's a seal Celerius himself placed upon the greatest evil that exists what do you mean guarded?"
"The gates of Tartarus opened shortly after Discord's reign," Luna fixed Ardon with a cold stare, "my Sister and I were able to contain most of the beasts that escaped, and the chiroptasi have guarded the gates with Cerberus ever since."
"That can't be, the spells Celerius set in Tartarus should have awakened our containers before then."
"Discord," Celestia hissed vindictively, "his magic must have damaged the spells."
"Dammit," Ardon slumped down in his chair, "This isn't good, we won't have as much time as I'd hoped."
"Time for what?" Twilight tried to look confident as she spoke, "What did you plan to do in the first place?"
"There is a spell, invented during the war with Death's forces," Ardon locked eyes with Twilight, "with it, a unicorn can bond with a human and enhance both their magic and physical abilities, a linked pair of Knight and unicorn can fight together as well as a hundred soldiers."
"And you think this spell can save Equestria?" Celestia looked over the Knight's critically.
"No, but it's a start, and so long as the Elements make it to the final battle this time," he spared a glance to the Bearers, "a start should be all we need."
"Regardless, it's getting late, and most of you had a long trip here," Celestia flashed the congregation a warm smile, "might I suggest resuming tomorrow with clearer heads?"
"Yes, I agree," Ardon paused pensively, "I need to speak with my company as well."
"Naturally," Celestia ignored Ardon's eye twitching as she continued, "I'll have the cooks bring up a meal for us before we adjourn."
The meal had proceeded uneventfully, and night had fallen quietly on the castle. Later the Knights found themselves in a stately room that had four simple beds shoved into it, long wide tables next to each of them.
"Did you really need to insist on us sharing a room?" Damarus had just finished stripping out of his armour, which was now laying somewhat haphazardly on his table, "no offense meant or anything, but I wouldn't mind a little privacy."
"I'm still not sure I trust Lady Celestia." Ardon glanced up from his own armour, laid out neatly on his table, "And take better care of your armour, it's the only one you've got."
"Oh come off it, Captain," Damarus stretched out on his bed lazily, "I've seen this stuff take a hit from Death without denting."
"That was imbued armour," Escura piped in as she helped Garris out of his armour, her own already off, "you know full well that it's just normal steel until the spell is cast over it."
"Oh fine," Damarus rose and started straightening his armour out, "it's not worth it to have you on my case."
"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Escura finished with Garris and rounded on her other comrade, "Because it really sounds like you're asking to be my sparring partner tomorrow."
"Hey, no offense meant or anything," he threw his hands up defensively, "you're just relentless, it's a virtue or something."
"Regardless," Ardon interjected, rubbing his eyes, "We'll discuss what we've learned about this time in the morning, understood?" his Lieutenants gave their assent, "Lights out then."
With a snap of his fingers the candles were extinguished, and each of the Knights drifted off to sleep.