Celestia moaned as the light of her sun hit her face, making her turn around so she could rest her head on the other side of her pillow and rest some more. Then, when she realized that somepony else had moved the sun in her absence, she raised her head and opened her eyes, only to find that she was resting in one of the rooms in Twilight's castle. In the process of moving she noticed that she had a few bandages on her legs and around her chest, but she was more concerned for whoever had raised her sun for her.
"See Twilight?" she heard Spike cay, turning towards the voice and spotted him standing there, along with Twilight, "I told you that the Princess was going to be all right."
Celestia noted that Twilight had the look of somepony that was annoyed, curious, and concerned about something all at once, which was never good in most cases. She knew that she could be concerned for her well-being, as she had, foolishly, fought her own son in the middle of the night, only furthering his hatred towards her. That was the only thing that came to her mind, which made her curious as to what else there was that could have made her student have the expressions she currently had.
"What's wrong Twilight?" Celestia asked, hoping that she might be able to comfort her student.
"Well, Princess Luna returned to Canterlot earlier this morning and performed your daily duties," Twilight replied, giving her a moment before beckoning to the sun, "so she basically did what you did during her banishment, she raised both the sun and the moon. It seems that somepony broke into the castle last night and severely hurt most of the Lunar Guards that were on duty that night, pinning them to the walls or throwing them into the stonework. Whoever was behind the attack also hit the royal library, throwing many of the valuable books off of their shelves and damaging some of them in the process.
The unfortunate part is that the hourglass was found shattered with the glass scattered around it, but all of the sand was found missing, not even a grain of it remained in the library."
"You don't mean..." Celestia said, her eyes widening as she realized exactly what Twilight could be telling her.
"The Sigil of Earth is missing," Twilight replied, shaking her head, "so Princess Luna did some investigating before ponies started their duties and made a second startling discovery...the Sigil of Water is also missing..."
"Sweet Faust help us..." Celestia breathed, noticing that Twilight was looking at her notes and had not heard what she had said, "How could we have lost both of them in one night?"
"That would be our fault," another voice said, just as Nightfury walked in, "Crimson and I have been wearing our Sigils since the day we found them, so it is possible that somepony, well versed in their magical signatures, followed our trail and found the Sigils. Now, there is only one creature that is well versed in the magic of the Sigils, Glimmer Scale. I'm afraid that, in our attempt to make sure they were safe, we ended up hoofing over two of the Prime Sigils that you spent the last thousand years collecting."
"We still have one of them though," Celestia sighed, referring to Nightfury's Sigil as she had no idea what Crimson was doing now, "I guess we'll have to keep you and your Sigil safe until we can find Glimmer and deport her back to her world. The only problem is that we don't have a way to find her, as that now that she has two of the Prime Sigils she'll be focusing her mind to using their power to hide herself."
"We need to dismantle the Council of Shadows," a third voice said, causing Celestia to turn towards the door and find her son, the Sigil attached to his neck, present, "the bothersome group of Shadows that serve whoever commands the Darkness, acting on his or her behalf in our own world. I got a letter and a package from Aunt Luna earlier, the letter describing what happened in Canterlot last night while the package contained the fragments of the weapon that was used against the guards. I studied the fragments and found that they belong to a bow that's been made up of shadows, but the tip of the arrow told me exactly who came knocking at our door; Glimmer Scale."
Twilight had been surprised when Crimson had entered the room, wondering why he had bothered to return and aid them, when he wanted nothing to do with his own mother. She couldn't understand his anger and hatred towards Princess Celestia, no matter how much she read she couldn't piece everything together. But now here he was, walking into the room and telling them that they needed to find the shadowy ponies that were aiding Glimmer in her campaign.
"Back when Nightfury and I lived in the Everfree Kingdom we took it upon ourselves to destroy the Council of Shadows," Crimson continued, walking past the bed, and his mother, before stopping in front of the window, "She would keep an eye out for any unusual magical signatures that belonged to the Shadows and I, using said information, would figure out which Shadow she was referring to. Several times I thought I had cornered one of the leaders of the Council, but in the end I was only able to fully destroy one of them, ending his reign before he could do any lasting damage.
Now it would seem that Glimmer might have taken the place of the previous leader, though she is in a position where she could damage us before we can find her. If we are to find the leaders of this Council and destroy them before they can gather the remaining Sigils then I propose that everypony follows what I say to the letter."
"Come on cousin, you know we need your help," Nightfury said, though she knew that Aunt Celestia would never admit to it, "Without you the Sigil of Air would have been trapped outside Equestria until I found a way to break through on my own, without you we would have lost your Sigil to Glimmer during the Dragon Wars, and without you we wouldn't have been able to negotiate a peace treaty with the Griffin Kingdom and stop the war with them. You know that, in order to survive the coming storm, we're going to need you now more than ever."
Crimson waited for a few minutes, seeing if his aunt, his mother, or Twilight had any objections to following his orders until the Council was dealt with. He knew that if NIghtfury had no objections to following him, then Aunt Luna would follow her daughter until she saw fit to change her mind and deviate from the plan. He truly had no idea if his mother would ever consider following even one of his orders, as she threw them aside during the Dragon Wars, but he would be okay if she left him alone anyway. He did know that Twilight, Equestria's newest princess, would likely follow her mentor until the end, but a part of him wanted her to see how the world was almost two thousand years ago.
"Very well," Celestia sighed, knowing that she severely needed all the help she could get and that turning her son away would be a major mistake that she couldn't afford to make, "What will your first order be, Knight-Commander of the Everfree Kingdom?"
"Knight-Commander!?" Twilight gasped, recalling that, throughout all of her readings, she spotted references to a Knight-Commander that happened to be involved in the Dragon Wars, "Your telling me that Crimson is the Knight-Commander that nearly all of the history books talk about?"
"My name was stricken from the history books, so no Shadow could figure out who I was," Crimson remarked, a small grin appearing on his face, "It was, after all, another move on the chess board, one that I deemed necessary at the time. I knew that Glimmer would come looking for me, so I practically erased almost every mention of myself and went into hiding. My mother, on the other hoof, took it another step further and forgot about me until a few days ago, when you stumbled upon me before I could finish my spell. Now Glimmer knows who and what I once was, so she's bound to be preparing her forces for my arrival.
My first order is to double the guard patrols in Ponyville, so we can show the ponies that they have nothing to fear and to keep an eye out for any strange activity. We'll set up a way for them to communicate with each other, so that way we can find out where a Shadow was last seen without having to get there much later than we usually do. Aunt Luna, you and my mother should return to Canterlot for now, to calm your citizens down and tend to the wounded guards, all while keeping an eye out. Once the builders have arrived we'll add a few guards to watch over them, so they can make sure that the rebuilding of the Everfree Castle goes ahead as planned.
Twilight Sparkle, I want you and Nightfury to combine your knowledge of the Darkness, the Shadows, and the residents of Ponyville, so we can flush out any Shadows that are trying to get closer to us. We need to find the leaders of the Council and send them back to their world before they can get their hooves on one of our remaining Sigils. I, on the other hoof, will remain here, pouring over the maps of the immediate areas so I can better plan our future moves and prevent the citizens from realizing that something is, in fact, wrong. We had best get started before Glimmer catches wind of our plans, so your all dismissed."
Twilight looked up at Princess Luna, wondering if she should leave or not, but after a few seconds she beckoned for Nightfury to follow her to her study area and the two left almost immediately. Luna looked over at her sister and wrapped a hoof around her, helping her out of the bed before they made their way out of the room as well. Crimson, once he was sure that they were all gone, sighed for a moment before he stared out the window, staring down at the ponies that passed by the castle while doing their daily tasks.
As he watched the ponies walk by he spotted the three fillies that had been the first to discover him, the one known as Sweetie Belle leading the other two to whatever they had planned for that day. He knew that he needed to keep an eye on her as well, just in case Glimmer decided to take her body again and use her against her will. He needed to find Glimmer fast, otherwise he was sure that the Council would continue to operate until the end of their existence.
Glimmer grinned as she lead the other Crusaders, who were obvious to the fact that Sweetie was possessed, away from the crystal castle, knowing that everything was coming into place. Soon, she knew, they would have the remaining Sigils. It was only a matter of time.