Shadow in the Dark

by Thestoryteller

Chapter twenty seven. preparations for an invasion

Heading north to the Crystal Empire were five airships traveling below the cloud level. The larger airship of the five flew in front signifying that it was the lead airship. Two airships flew on the right and behind the lead airship along with the other two that flew on the left of the lead airship and behind it.

Airships were one of the most powerful and protected ways to travel, however they are not the fastest. There are many reasons and facts as to why this is, but the main reason is that airships are heavy and hard to move. Aboard the lead airship was none other than our main character Nightwing. But he wasn't alone.

Aboard the lead airship was Flash Sentry, Lightning Strike, Fluttershy, and Thorn. Now to those who care about logic and facts I'll explain ewhat happened. The Complex Crystal is a very fascinating thing, it had the power to be programmed with multiple spells. One such spell that Nightwing had programed on his Crystal was a fail safe that would activate in case he was turned to stone. And as you might've guessed the fail safe activated and Nightwing was freed from the stone prison, a while later Nightwing had freed everyone else.

Everyone wanted revenge against the three Sins that had turned them to stone. But their plans went array when a multi-color beam had shot up into the sky like a beacon in the far north. Everypony recognized the multi-colored beam as a distress signal from the Crystal Empire. Because of this both the Griffon leader and the Yak leader were asked to return to their nations for protection. Luna and Celestia were asked to return to the throne room and insure that Equestria wasn't vulnerable. Discord stayed as well due to him being no use because of the Crystal heart. Fluttershy, her being the Abbor Suserro, was asked to return to the Everfree to protect the Deer. But Fluttershy refused and instead gathered Everfree's army of Deer, loaded them onto an airship, and set sail towards the Crystal Empire.

Expecting a large battle to take place Nightwing had took an army of his own. In the Mountain kingdom they had been manufacturing multiple Guardian's by request of Nightwing. Once the airships had set sail a certain stowaway was discovered on the airship. That's right, your second favorite crazy pony Cheese Sandwich was that Stowaway. Normally Nightwing would've just dropped kicked that pony right off the ship just because he could. But instead he knew that Cheese could be very useful. So he told Cheese to go get reinforcements to help in the might-happen battle. And then Nightwing literately dropped kicked Cheese off the ship.

Now Nightwing was sitting in the chart room, examining the map of the Crystal Empire and the large area around it. Beside the map was an open book that contained information on the Crystal Empire. As far as the book told, all that Nightwing could gain from the information was that when the Crystal Empire is under attack multiple things happen. The first thing that would happen is if the Crystal Heart is unable to repel the attacker it creates a large magic dome around the entire Empire. Once the Dome is erected a distress beacon is fired requesting assistance. The reason that things like this happen is because the Empire's defense isn't very good. Why? Because the Empire puts to much faith in the Crystal Heart instead of in its military power.

Which is really stupid. But not really really stupid. Nightwing could understand why something like that could happen, it was true that the Crystal Heart was very powerful. But it didn't excuse them from making the stupid decision and putting all of their faith in the Crystal Heart. But they did have a secret army of Shadowbolts which meant that if they activated the beacon then that meant the Empire was in some serious trouble, which was the need for an army in the first place.

*knock, knock, knock*

"Come in." Night said, not removing his eyes from the map.

The door handle turned and Lightning walked in, looking very unpleasant.

"What's the matter with you?" Nightwing asked.

"I can't stand Airships." Lightning groaned. "Their so slow."

"Airships are slower than Pegasi Lightning, your just gonna have to accept that fact." Nightwing said coolly.

"Yeah but...how come the airship we took to the Mountain kingdom took less than a day and this one's gonna take us almost ten hours just to reach the Crystal Empire."

"Because the last airship we took wasn't flying an army to said Empire." Nightwing stated. "Not to mention that four other airships are piloting behind us."

"Okay..." Lightning said a bit sadly.

Nightwing groaned in his head, knowing full well that he'd regret asking Lightning. "*sigh*...What's wrong?" He asked.

Lightning looked away. "Don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, fine by me." Nightwing shrugged, going back to his map. But as seconds dragged on Nightwing hated the awkward silence and looked back to him and asked again in a more hostile tone, "Lightning tell me what's wrong before I tie you to the front of the ship."

"Okay okay...jeez." Lightning said quickly. "I'm worried about my sister okay." Lightning admitted.

"That's it?" Nightwing raised an eyebrow. "You know she's 'thee' Abber Suserro right?"

"Well yeah, but I can't help but worry for her."

"Ugh...look-"

Nightwing was interrupted when a loud flash appeared on the deck and a loud, "Oh Honey I'm hooooommmmmmeee!" Rang throughout the ship.

Nightwing put a hoof to his forehead, a massive headache already forming. With a sigh Nightwing sat up, walked to the door, opened the door, and saw Cheese Sandwich along with a confused Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Ranger and Silver Platter. Pinkie however was clinging to Cheese's back.

"Hello Captain Nightwing." Cheese saluted. "I've brought back willing soldiers for our fight."

"Nightwing!" Twilight yelled.

"Yes Twilight its me." Nightwing rolled his eyes. "You'll find Flash downstairs in the engine room." Nightwing said continuing to walk until he stopped the instant he saw Rainbow Dash. "What's wrong with her?"

"She ain't feelin' well....is there a hospital somewhere on this here ship?" Applejack asked.

"Downstairs, follow the signs they'll lead you there." Nightwing answered.

Applejack nodded in appreciation as Ranger scooped up Rainbow Dash and swung her onto his back. He the followed Applejack downstairs.

"You all might want to head to your rooms, I'll call a Guardian to guide you there-"

"Now just a minute!"

Nightwing cocked his head a bit as he looked a bit confused at an angry Rarity.

"I don't know what you did but I want you to send me back right now!" Rarity demanded. "My sister could be in serious danger and you expect me to just-"

"Silenceo." Nightwing pointed his crystal at Rarity who fell asleep on the spot and was caught by Silver. "Like I said before, you should all head to your rooms, it's gonna be a long trip. Lightning show them to their rooms."

Lightning Strike didn't get a chance to retort as Nightwing walked back into the chart room, slamming the door behind him. Nightwing breathed a sigh of relief once he was back inside the chart room. Or at least he was until he saw that there was someone else inside the room.

Across from Nightwing, sitting at the table writting in his book with a pencil in his mouth, was a light brown furred colt with freckles on his muzzle, he had a scruffy blond mane and tail, and had blue eyes. It was Appleseed, the colt from the future.

Appleseed looked up from his book and saw Nightwing. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted as he caught in a blue aura by Nightwing's crystal.

"Not in the mood." Nightwing grumbled as he chucked Appleseed out of the window. Once he was gone Nightwing sighed in relief again.

Only to see that Appleseed was sitting across from again with a cross look.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked, acting like getting chucked out of a window was an everyday experience to him.

"No. No. Nononono." Nightwing repeated over and over again refusing to accept that Appleseed was really here.

"It's me Nightwing." Appleseed said. "The colt who's from the future and who you met on the farm."

"Yeah right, I don't even think your from the future." Nightwing said.

"What makes you say that?" Appleseed raised an eyebrow.

"I think your nothing more than my subconscious trying to tell me what's right and what's wrong." Nightwing said.

"He'd say you'd say something like that." Appleseed said. "Face it Nightwing I'm from the fut-"

"No, no I refuse to accept that your from the future. In fact I refuse to accept your very existence!" Nightwing interrupted.

"I don't know what I have to do to convince you that I'm from the future. Oh wait." Appleseed paused reaching down next to him he pulled up an object wrapped in a cloth. "I do."

"What's that?" Nightwing asked.

"I told you before on the farm that someone can't stay in the past for to long unless they anchor themselves to the past. To do this you need to have an object with you from the past to anchor you down. This object could be anything from a mere pebble." He paused unwrapping the cloth and holding the object in front of Nightwing. "To a Shadow Knights Complex Crystal."

The room was once more filled with silence as Appleseed indeed held a Complex Crystal in front of Nightwing. But what stumped Nightwing was the fact that the Complex Crystal that Appleseed held was in fact his Complex crystal. Which was impossible, but just to make sure he looked down to his right foreleg and sure enough his Crystal was still there. But then a thought occurred to Nightwing, what if this was someone else's Complex crystal? To check he levitated the Complex Crystal that Appleseed held to him, lifting up his own and the other Nightwing tried to make both of the tips touch. Only for the instant they touched a spark shot from both of them, repelling each other as Nightwing went flying back and the other Complex crystal flew into Appleseed's hooves.

"Like I said before on the farm, time cannot be changed. If you to try and create a paradox time would instantly fix itself and prevent you from doing things like that." Appleseed explained in a calm tone.

"Where did you...how did you..." Nightwing fumbled on his words as his mind tried to wrap itself around the current situation.

"Calm down, I know it's a lot to take in but I'm telling the truth." Appleseed assured. "Listen I need you to be fully prepared for what I'm about to tell you. The trip here will be completely wasted if you aren't paying attention."

"I thought you said time couldn't be changed?" Nightwing asked.

"Yeah, that doesn't mean you should try and change time." Appleseed said. "It'd be like going back in time to kill Hitler and thinking that everything will be just fine."

"Hitler who?"

Appleseed sighed as he facehoofed. "Dangum it, Party's rubbing off on me."

"Who?"

"No one. Gah! What am I saying, listen I need to tell you a couple of things that involve the battle that's about to happen." Appleseed said hotly. "So are you fully listening?"

Nightwing nodded.

"Good. Okay, as you might know the Crystal Empire is under attack from someone. But what you don't know is what they've done to the Empire."

"Wait, why don't you just tell me who's attacking the Empire?"

"Because I'm not supposed to! Anyways, as I was trying to say before is that the ones who have invaded the Empire have infected the Crystal Heart. Because of this they have complete control over the Crystal ponies, its defenses, and the Empire's military the Shadowbolts." Appleseed explained.

"But-"

"And if your wondering why that is its because the Crystal Heart is connected to everyone who lives in the Empire. If you control the Heart you control everything in the Empire."

"Okay, but why did you travel through time just to tell me all that?" Nightwing asked.

"I didn't, you see your about to face someone that you keep close to your heart. When you do you have to push aside your feelings and kill them."

Nightwing's eyes widened. "What....?"

Before Nightwing could say anything else the door to the room was shot open as Ranger entered the room.

"I heard a crash." Ranger said, then saw Nightwing. "Nightwing are you alright?" Ranger asked.

Nightwing looked to Ranger, "I'm...fine, but-" Nightwing cut himself off as he looked back to where Appleseed once was only to see that he was no longer there. 'Oh he did not just pull a Dad on me!' Nightwing thought before looking back to Ranger. "Why aren't you with Applejack?"

"Actually, she told me to come get you." Ranger answered. "Somethings wrong with her friend Rainbow Dash."

---

Any feelings of anger at the colt Appleseed were pushed aside from Nightwing's brain. All that currently mattered was that he had all of his troops at one hundred percent. That included Rainbow Dash. The lead Airship was an attack airship which made it heavier which made it slower. But a main reason it was so heavy was because it was twice the size of a normal airship and had four stories instead of two. On the deck there was the chart room, the control deck, and one of weapons room. On the first lower story were one hundred and fifty cabin rooms, each room had one bathroom, six hammock beds, and six dressers. On the second lower deck was the engine room where the engine was powered by a crystal the poured magic into the engine fueling it, on the other side of second floor was the medical room, run by medical programed Sentinel Guardian's. The medical room was capable of holding up to seventy five patients. On the third and forth lower deck was merely storage.

On the second lower floor Nightwing and Ranger were walking quite fast to the medical room. It didn't take long for the medical room to come into sight, and with a ruff push Nightwing pushed through the double door which swung freely. Upon entering the room Nightwing's sensitive ears heard the sound a screaming mare. Which was, of course, Rainbow Dash.

Looking to his left Nightwing saw both Lightning Strike and Applejack on the sides of the medical bed trying to hold down the forelegs and backlegs of a struggling Rainbow Dash. Rainbow screamed and shouted in pain as her body writhed in pain. Behind Applejack was one of Nightwing's Guardian's who had a medical cross symbol carved into the armor's forehead.

"For pete's sake will ya give us a' hoof?!" Applejack turned her head to the Guardian and shouted at said Guardian behind her.

The Guardian looked at Applejack and simply replied, "No, you are not authorized by Nightwing to give me orders."

"Guardian, activate code order seven." Nightwing told to the Guardian.

"Captain Nightwing code order confirmed, eliminate Lightning Strike." The Guardian said, holding up its right hoof and a lightning ball appeared in its hoof. Which made Lightning turn pale.

"Gah! I mean code seventeen, code seventeen!" Nightwing clarified the code order quickly.

"Code order seven belayed, code seventeen accepted." He Guardian restated, making the lightning ball disappear, and the Guardian's body began to come apart piece by piece as it stretched over Rainbow Dash's body until three golden bars wrapped themselves around Rainbow Dash, preventing her from moving. Applejack wiped away the sweat on her forehead with a sigh, only to glare at Nightwing.

"An' just where in tarnation have you been?!" She pointed to Nightwing.

"I was busy talking to a colt who traveled through time from the future to have a discussion with me." Nightwing said honestly.

"...wha." Applejack asked confused.

Nightwing shrugged. "Hey don't look at me, your the one who always says that honesty is best policy." Nightwing approached Rainbow Dash. "Now then, what bug seems to have infected our patient today?" Nightwing asked examining Rainbow Dash. "Can I get some help here?" Nightwing asked.

Upon his request two Guardian's appeared at the end of Rainbow's bed. "What are your orders Captain Nightwing?" Both Guardian's asked.

"I'm gonna need some medical equipment." Nightwing said. And a Guardian left and returned with multiple tools. "Alright, let's see what the problem is." Nightwing said opening up Rainbow Dash's left eye.

The moment that Rainbow's left eye was open everyone saw that it was no longer the same. What was once a cherry red/pink eye was now a fully yellow eye full of fear.

"Oh colt, that's not good." Nightwing muttered.

"What'd ya mean 'not good'?" Applejack asked worried.

"Rainbow Dash is suffering from a type of fear spell, a spell that weakens the magic and strength of its victim. It keeps eating away at the victim filling her with her greatest fears making her live in her own nightmare." Nightwing explained.

"Well ya better figure out how to help her." Applejack threatened.

"I already did that." Nightwing held up his crystal, it flashed dark blue, and then he collapsed.

A Guardian approached Nightwing, picked him up, and sat him on the bed next to Rainbow Dash's.

"What just happened?" Lightning asked.

The Guardian turned to Lightning Strike and answered, "Captain Nightwing's subconscious has traveled in Rainbow Dash's to remove the fear spell at its source."

---

Magic is everywhere. It flows through our very blood. This magic can be used to do incredible things, one such magic is known as mind magic. Shadow casters were the ones who discovered and magnified this type of magic. Mind magic consists of reading minds, hypnosis, truth seeing, and traveling through the subconscious. When Nightwing first became Luna's student she taught him how to travel into a Pony's mind. Of course only Luna could travel through dreams but many could travel through the mind. Both dreams and mind traveling lead to the subconscious but traveling through a dream is much easier than traveling through the mind.

Why? Because when mind traveling it's like trying to shove a pin into a stone rock whereas traveling through a dream is like putting a pin in a pillow. When someone is traveling through the pony's mind the mind of said pony is fully aware of the travelers existence, meaning if the traveler is to stumble upon something he isn't supposed to, the mind will cease up and do everything in its power to destroy the intruder.

Now back to your least favorite/favorite OC.

"Hallways. It's always hallways." Nightwing grumbled staring down what seemed to be an endless hallway full of multiple doors.

Nightwing was standing in a somewhat medium sized hallway full of doors on each side of the wall. Beside each door was a wax lit candle the lit up the hallway. The floor was covered in a rainbow style carpet which wasn't surprising to Nightwing.

"Okay, let's find out what's making you so afraid?" Nightwing asked out-loud beginning his walk through the hallway. He knew the three rules of mind traveling. Rule one, never go invade on the dark secrets that the pony hides. Rule two, always check to make sure that the mind hasn't considered you a threat to the subconscious. Rule three, check throughly on the memory you see, cause if you do something really stupid then your gonna die. Rule one was very easy to follow because if the memory was a dark secret then it'd be covered in chains and black locks. Rule two would be more difficult cause you never know when the mind is gonna attack you, but considering that it was Rainbow's brain Nightwing was in he didn't worry to much about that. As for rule three, he planned that from the beginning.

As our main character walked through the hallway he began to pass by multiple doors that were locked down by chains and black locks. Nightwing soon came to a halt as a sudden thought occurred to him. He had no idea what he was looking for. Sure he had been under the fear spell by that yellow alicorn which made him experience.....his most awful nightmare. But he had no idea what Rainbow Dash was suffering from.

"Excuse me." A sweet and soft voice came from behind Nightwing.

In instinct he spun around behind him and saw no one there. Then looking down he saw a small filly Fluttershy who had half of her face covered by her pink mane. With a kind smile she asked,

"Are you looking for something?"

Nightwing stared at the filly for a couple of seconds before saying, "Your Rainbow Dash's angel aren't you?"

The filly Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth and giggled. Her reply was a nod.

"Your correct Mr. Nightwing. I'm the voice inside Rainbow Dash's head that tells her all the good things that she should do."

"Funny...you don't look like the normal angel's I've seen inside the subconscious?" Nightwing scratched his head. "Wait, if your the angel then who's the devil?"

"That would be me." A dry and sinister voice replied.

Once again Nightwing spun around to see that another filly was behind him. Only this one wasn't Fluttershy, instead it looked like a filly of an alicorn Twilight. Instead of normal neat fur the devil Twilight's fur and mane were more unkempt. Her eyes were not purple instead they were blood red. She also had vampire fangs and vampire ears.

Nightwing looked back and forth between the filly Fluttershy and the devil Twilight before saying, "Why is Rainbow Dash's and angel look like Fluttershy instead of herself?" Nightwing asked. "I can understand Twilight being the devil, but I can't for Fluttershy."

"Because despite how dusty Rainbow's brain is, it still knows how to keep this place running. Also, if both the Angel and devil were like Rainbow Dash then both would have enough ego that they'd never come to a compromise on a decision." The devil Twilight explained.

"Right...figures." Night sighed. "Listen, the mind may not know this but it's under a fear spell. Rainbow Dash is currently experiencing her darkest memory and she's slowly fading away. If we don't do something then she will surely die."

"We are already aware of that." The Angel Fluttershy responded.

"Why do you think the mind hasn't attacked you yet?" The devil Twilight said.

"Okay, so can you get me to the memory that's being affected?" Nightwing asked.

"Were already there." The Angel Fluttershy said.

Turning to his left Nightwing was now 100 percent sure that he was standing in front of the affected memory. In front of him was a steel door that looked like it was a door that a half aged dragon could fit through. Not to mention the number of chains that wrapped themselves around it so that it kept the large door sealed. In the center of the chains was a large black lock that kept the chains in place. Not to mention the faint yellow glow that seeped out of the cracks from the doorway.

Now came the hard part. Nightwing knew that once he tried to unlock the door the mind would instantly reject him from doing so. And since this was Rainbow's darkest secret, it meant that the mind would do everything in its power to stop him from trying to unlock it.

"This is gonna sting." Nightwing sighed as he used his complex crystal to pull on the lock.

As expected the door didn't like what Nightwing was doing so it instantly counter attacked as yellow chains erupted from the creaks in the door. The yellow chains slithered across the floor towards Nightwing at lightning speed. And before he could even counter the chains they had alread wrapped themselves around his legs, wings, back, neck, head, and muzzle. The moment the chains made contact with Nightwing's skin he instantly felt a stinging sensation as the chains burned his skin.

"Nnnngrrrgh!" Nightwing cringed as his skin continued to burn. But the heat was nothing compared to the burning fires he felt long ago.

His body begged Nightwing to stop, he could feel his body loosing strength. But his mind refused to accept the request as he continued to try and break the lock.

The said lock was slowly beginning to crack as the complex crystal continued to pull and pull against it. Until with one mighty heave it shattered and the door was slightly pulled open. Nightwing only needed a glimpse of the inside to get there as he vanished and reappeared behind the door.

As the door closed behind him Nightwing panted and cringed from the pain that the yellow chains had caused. Burn marks were clearly visible on his entire body. Of course this was all in his head and of it was real, but that didn't stop Nightwing from feeling pain.

After a while the pain had somewhat slowly died down just enough for him to move. Sitting up he saw that he was in a house. A cloud house in particular. In fact it looked like just a normal cloud Pegasus house, nothing to rich nothing to poor. Just a normal house.

Examining the room even more Nightwing saw that he appeared to be in the living room. Looking around once more he saw that there was a kitchen, upstairs, and dining room. All of which were completely normal. Which had confused Nightwing even more.

If this was her most traumatic moment then why did everything look so normal?

"Mom?" A young voice asked behind Nightwing.

Nightwing once again found himself spinning around to see a young filly with cyan fur and a rainbow mane. In front of the filly was a grown mare with cyan fur, green eyes, and a jet blue blue mane. The mare was about to step out the main door and she had a worried and shocked look on her face.

"Mommy where are you going?" The filly asked.

The mare looked hesitant to answer the filly. But Nightwing knew she was trying to think of a lie to get away.

"I'm sorry." The mare shut her eyes and looked away before racing out the door, shutting it behind her.

"Mommy!" The filly shouted. Running up to the door, pulling against the door handle trying desperately to open the door. But it wouldn't budge.

As this all happened Nightwing's ears perked up as he heard a faint sobbing. Turning Nightwing saw that the sobbing was coming from a grown up Rainbow Dash.

"So this is your most horrible memory huh?"Nightwing approached Rainbow.

Rainbow didn't pay any attention to how Nightwing was here. Instead she asked, "Why?"

"Why? Why your mother left you at a young age? I don't know, but she must've had a good reason for leaving." Nightwing gave a somewhat good response.

"Why are you of all ponies here?" Rainbow groaned. "Discord would've been a better choice than you."

"Ouch. That almost stings more than those yellow chains." Nightwing joked. "But in all seriousness, why is this your most horrible memory? I mean sure, your mom left you when you were young and that can be very traumatic I guess. But honestly, it doesn't seem that traumatic."

"Yeah like you'd understand what its like to lose someone you once love at eight years old." Rainbow Dash said.

At that moment Nightwing grabbed Rainbow by the neck so that he could stare Rainbow right in the eyes.

"Unless you have gone through the exact pain that I've felt you have no right to say anything along those lines to me." Nightwing growled.

"What are you talking about?"

"I take it you failed history class. When I was young ponies believed that my kind were nothing but monsters that needed to wiped away from the world. And because of that they hunted down every vampire batpony and killed them. I watched as my father, sister, and mother all died and I couldn't do a single thing to stop it." Nightwing explained. "When I was under the fear spell I watched as my family died over and over again. But it was more than that. I felt my entire race slowly dying from the hooves of the ponies."

"...oh." Rainbow Dash was speechless.

"But you still have a mother out there, somewhere. You just have to find her." Night extended his hoof. "So come on, you aren't gonna find her stuck in here."

---

Back on the airship Twilight had been race walking down the ship trying her best to remain a little bit of posture. After getting some directions from multiple Guardian's, Twilight had discovered the location of the engine room. Turning a corner in the hallway, Twilight saw the double doorway that lead to the engine room. And as expected two Guardian's were standing guard at the door. When Twilight approached the doorway the two Guardian's immediately blocked her.

"Move out of the way." Twilight ordered.

The Guardian's didn't move. "Identify." The Guardian asked.

Sighing Twilight responded, "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. Fourth princess of Equestria. I am the princess of friendship."

"Identity unknown." The Guardian said. "There is no authorized user by the name 'Princess Twilight Sparkle'."

Twilight mentally slapped herself. She forgot that Nightwing was the one that had programed the Guardian's therefor he gave them an identity that wasn't hers. So what kind of identity could he have given them unless-

A dark and horrific thought occurred to Twilight. She knew exactly what identity Nightwing had programed inside the Guardian's and she was a little reluctant to say it. But Flash was on the other side of the door which meant that she had no choice.

With a defeated sigh Twilight said, "My name is Princess Sporkal. The princess of dragon poo."

"Identity confirmed. Welcome princess of poo." The two Guardian's moved and the door to the engine room opened.

"Note to self. Banish Nightwing to the armpits of Tartarus." Twilight grumbled, walking in the engine room.

As the author probably told you in chapter twelve airships are fueled by magic. But magic isn't just a liquid that you can pour into the engine. No you have to absorb it. And that's exactly what the reactor was made to do.

In the center of the engine room was a large spherical thing that looked kinda like a large fire ball. Multiple large rings rotated around the large fire ball in a sphere 360 degrees. The large ball hovered above a circle device with numerous buttons and levers which were maintained by multiple Guardian's. But next to the circle device, observing the engine, was Flash and Fluttershy.

Flash was dressed in a royal guard enchanted gold armor breastplate. The head piece was nowhere to be found. Fluttershy was dressed in a Everfree green light armor which provided speed over defense. Both were talking about something based on tactics and decision. As they were talking both Flash and Fluttershy caught a glimpse of Twilight. Wishing not to be a third wheel in the conversation, Fluttershy told Flash they'd talk later and walked off.

Twilight approached Flash cautiously. "Hey..." Twilight introduced pretty awkward like.

"Hey..." Flash greeted can with the same level of awkwardness.

"So.....how ya been?" Twilight smiled weakly.

Flash shrugged. "I'm okay. I'm not completely fine, what with the fact I was turned to stone."

"Oh..."

More awkward silence.

"Twilight are you okay?" Flash asked.

"Am I okay?" Twilight took offense. "I just saw you turned to stone, my assistant Spike is currently being controlled by another element, and Nightwing declared me the 'princess of poo'-" Flash snorted. "It's not funny."

"Sorry. Look, I get that your probably angry-"

"That's an understatement. Shadow joked.

"-But, I want you to know that I'm here to help you in anyway I can." Flash said, trying his best to calm his mare friend. "Ya wanna hug?"

"....yeah. A hug would be very nice right now."

---

Eight hours had past and the five airships were still on their way to the Crystal Empire. Inside the lead airship on first lower floor in one of the rooms, Rarity slept in a rocking hammock asleep. Watching the mare sleep, not creepy at all, was Silver Platter. Who was smiling at the blissful sleeping mare.

"She's more beautiful in her sleep." Silver said softly.

"Why Silver Platter." The Mare's voice said in Silver's head. "Do you have a crush on this mare?"

'That would be an understatement.' Silver replied to the mare's voice.

"Ooh la la. I smell romance!" The Mare taunted.

'Whatever, I'm not in the mood for your jokes.'

"Well you better be in the mood for this, I've detected five other Elements of Chaos onboard."

'What?! Which ones?'

"I'm not sure about the other four. But I can detect the Element of Mischief onboard."

Before Silver could say anything else Rarity grumbled and groaned as she began to wake. Her eyes fluttered open as she rubbed them. Only for them to shoot open as she sat bolt upright.

"Sweetie bell!" Rarity screamed.

"Rarity!" Silver shouted as he ran to her bed (hammock) side and held her down.

Rarity thrashed and kicked. "Let me go! I need to save her!"

"Rarity calm down, your not gonna be able to help in your current state." Silver stated.

Rarity's thrashing began to slowly cease as she ran out of energy to move. "I-I-I-..." Rarity stuttered.

"I understand that you wanna help your sister, but there's nothing we can do. I'm sorry." He said, trying his best to help his friend.

"*sigh* It's not your fault Silver dear." Rarity sighed. "I just wish that I wasn't so...helpless."

"Your not helpless-"

"Yes I am." Rarity interrupted. "I was the reason Spike turned into that hideous dragon once again and my little sister is probably trying to defend herself from one of those alicorn brutes."

"It seems that the Element of Generosity is not aware of the Element of Love's power."

Before anyone else could say another word the main door opened and a Guardian walked in.

"Is miss Rarity at full health?" The Guardian asked.

"Um...yes I seem fine." Rarity answered. "Wait a minute. Where's that Nightwing he has no right to cast spells upon a lady!" Rarity said hotly.

The Guardian stepped forward in a hostile position. "You will make no threats to the Captain. Any threats will be targeted as an attempt of assassination and will be treated with defense protocols."

"Stand down Guardian." Nightwing said, upon entering the room.

"Order received Captain." The Guardian said returning to its normal posture.

"You." Rarity growled, glaring her eyes at Nightwing. "You better return me back to my sister this instance before I do something unladylike."

"Please," Nightwing rolled his eyes. "You clearly don't understand that I can't just put you back where your sister is right? Even if I did, you wouldn't last two minutes with her, the only thing you'd do is get in the way." Nightwing said before turning to the guardian. "Prep both of them for battle. Will be arriving sooner than we thought."

"Yes sir." The Guardian saluted.