> Never Forgiven
>  by DragonassasslnGR
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Journal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna was looking out the window to the morning sky. The sun was coming out and it was time for Cassius and her to sleep. After Cassius and Sereen were reborn as her children she soon realized that Sereen was still a day pony. So she was to be raised by Celestia and it was fitting in its own way, She did love Sereen as a daughter, but letting her sister raise her only felt right. The two were always the best of friends and now they could be like mother and daughter. Luna looked over her blanket and saw Cassius holding an old journal with his cutie mark on it. She had told him it was a story book made just for him by an old friend of hers and he believed her.
After being born again, both Sereen and Cassius had lost their memories as the guardians of the balance and the princesses of night and day. Luna wasn't sure it that was a good thing or not, but she didn't question her mothers decisions.

"So, will you go to sleep without a story today?" Luna asked as she pulled the covers over her hips.

"Nope." Cassius quickly replied as he shook his head from side to side.

"Fine then, bring the book here and get comfortable."  she said patting a spot on the bed with a hoof.

Cassius quickly hurried to his mothers side and snuggled into the covers next to her. Luna lifted the book and found a page that had a similar date as today's. She began reading from it and found this was an entry on one of the many pranks he played on his sister with Luna. This one was when they cast a spell on her that made her paranoid for a day. She thought the chief was going to poison her with a spoon. After that day the spell was put on the forbidden list. It was worth it in her mind. She also noticed the same spell was in the journal. He was making notes on what they used. Luna decided to leave it in the book as she looked over to see Cassius was half awake.

"Looks like somepony played too hare today. Come now Cassius it’s time to rest your body and the continue teaching you how to interact with the dream realm." Luna said as she used her magic to close the blinds.

The two drifted into the realm of dreams for his practice on using his natural gifts with it. 

****************************************************

A yellow unicorn chamber maid with a silver and blue mane and tail walked into Luna and Cassius's room. Her cutie mark was covered by her uniform, but it was a musical note floating in a cloud. She stepped over several toys that laid scattered in the room.

Nopony was to disturb any of the royals as they slept and if they were caught they would be removed from the castle grounds for the day all the way to banishment, depending on their excuse and/or actions for being in the rooms without permission. She began to pick up the toys and place them in the trunk they belonged in. She looked over to see Cassius snuggled next to Luna. She had a hoof laying over him as they slept. A smile cracked on her muzzle at the sight. She blinked and saw Cassius's multi colored eyes looking right at her. She jumped out of fear and fell on her back.

In a tired voice the young unicorn asked. "Why are you in here? You will get in trouble if mommy sees you." 

"I'm sorry Prince Cassius. I was just cleaning." The maid said nervously.

"Thank you, but can you call me Cassius." he asked.

"If that is what you prefer, then yes." She replied while getting up.

"Prefer?" parroted the sleepy colt.

"It means: like better?" replied the maid.

"Well I prefer this over like better. What is your name?" he asked.

"I am Constance." She replied.

"That is a nice name. Good day Constance." he said with a yawn before rejoining Luna in the dream realm.

"Good day, young Cassius." She said as she grabbed the journal with her magic and walked out.

She turned to leave but bumped muzzle to muzzle with Prince Shining Armor.

"What are you doing with that book?" He asked calmly.

Constance looked to it and replied, "I'm putting it back in the library your highness."

"That particular book actually is a journal Constance. You know it is Cassius's favorite book." He said.

"Wait! This is that journal?" she asked letting it go.

Before it hit the ground Shining Armor caught it with his magic. The journal levitated back into the room and landed on the end table it belonged on. He closed the door to Luna's chambers and nodded. Constance was just placed on the staff to clean any messes Cassius and Sereen made and act as a nanny if need be. She was still getting used to the whole thing. 

"Come on I think Sereen wants you to sing to her again." Shining Armor said as he began to walk down the hall with a smile.

***********************************************

Sereen was sneaking around the castle halls. She was trying to find Cassius without being seen by anypony. She was going to give him some cake from the banquet and see if he wanted to play a game of tag in the maze garden. Thankfully the piece of cake was from the backup provided by Sugar Cube Corner in Ponyville. The new owner Pinkie Pie was more than happy to bake a new on one such short notice. Ever since the Cakes retired, Pinkie Pie became the owner with Pumpkin and Pound Cake worked with her as her assistance. Be that they just earned their cutie marks for baking also helped in her recent success in it. Sereen found the door to Luna and Cassius's room. The door was too big for her small frame to open alone, so she tried to use her very unstable magic. To her joy she opened the door without it exploding into splinters like the last time she tried to open one in the castle. It creaked open just enough for her to squeeze inside.

She levitated the slice of cake in the room and saw Cassius asleep. She huffed in frustration, Cassius was always asleep when she wanted to play with him.
The only time they had to actually have fun together was around dinner and until she fell asleep. Sereen trotted over and placed the slice on the end table when she noticed a book with his cutie mark on it. Sereen's muzzle gave way to a mischievous grin as she took the book and trotted out the door. Even though she was so young, Sereen had learned to read at Celestia's level.
It wouldn't be a problem to find something she could use to get her brother to play with her. 

She galloped straight down the hall to a play room that was made of Cassius and her.
The room still had found use as a study now more than a playroom since both of them were a little older and were learning to use their magic and their natural abilities. She had found a spot under a desk and levitated a blanket to cover up the opening so she would be undisturbed.
When she was sure no pony would disturb her she opened to journal. She stayed under the desk for hours reading what she thought was her brother having an overactive imagination.
This thought was quickly dashed however, she read the dates on each page and found that the first started over a millennium ago. She could feel the immense magic coming from the pages. She quickly turned to the last few entries and found one that was dated six years ago.

It read: "I do however regret my actions with Twilight during my awakening. I never wanted to hurt her, but I let go and she paid for it. I hope she can forgive me when this is all over. If not then I will carry on in silence. As for the war effort, the ones that have come to support me have decided to call us The Lost Night. I will let them have it. I... I still try to fight the control that Chaos has over me, but its like the balance has given me all the power and is putting me in the mind set to weld it. I don't know if after all this is done and I have killed Celestia if anypony can forgive me."

There was a gap and another entry appeared but in different hoof writing, "I do forgive you, but we will stop you and save everypony. Even you Cassius."

"Did Princess Twilight write this?" Sereen asked herself.

She continued, "Faithful? Did I hear you or did I imagine your words? I must be so gone now.
You wouldn't just forgive me after what I did to you. I only pray Luna can forgive me now. She is all I have left to care for. If I hurt her I don't know what I would do. Old friend, Its almost time that I see Celestia's Solar Empire for myself." 

As she read the entry it began to scare her. This was her brothers hoof writing no doubt. She looked to the final entry in the book. It was shorter than all the rest and was addressed to their mother.

"Luna, I am glad you have forgiven me for what I did to everypony. Sereen has even hugged me despite me snapping her neck and killed her." - Sereen rubbed her neck with a hoof. -" Mother Mare has told me she is willing to send us both back, but she won’t say how.
She has this smile on her face and it's creeping me out. Anyway, we will be coming back sooner than expected, but apparently we will have no memory of what happened. Luna please, hide my journal so when I do come back to you, I can read it and remember all of the good times. I forgot once, I don't want to forget again. I love you."

Suddenly the blanket covering the opening under the desk flew up and Constance was looking to Sereen. 

"Sereen why are you reading that under here?" she asked.

"I..I was reading a.... story." she said as a blank look formed on her muzzle.

"Well its time for your studies with your Aunt Celestia." Constance replied as she grabbed the book and slipped it into a satchel she had without looking at the cover. She helped Sereen out from under the desk and hurried her out the door and to the Royal Canterlot Library.

********************************************************

It only took a few minutes to get to the library from the Castle. Twilight was waiting outside for them.

"Hi! Constance, Sereen it's good to see you." She called waving a hoof.

Sereen ran over to her and latched on to her leg with a death hug. She squeezed as hard as she could being no bigger than an elementary school foal. 

"Well somepony missed you princess." Constance said with a smile.

Twilight looked to her and replied, "I can tell. She won't let go of my leg." - Twilight lifted her leg into the air with Sereen attached to it and playfully shook it.- "Well Constance I will take it from here. Why don't you head to Ponyville and pick up some cupcakes from Sugar Cube Corner and take a break? You earn it."

Constance gave a half bow and said, "Thank you princess. I will be back in the morning."

Twilight smiled, "Don't be late. Your next shift is at 5pm tomorrow."

Constance gave a nod and headed to the balloons. There the only way for flightless ponies to get from Canterlot to Ponyville without using the train.

***************************************************

Ponyville was a buzz during the night. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had purchased the building next to Sugar Cube Corner. The founders Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle held parties whenever a new member found their special talent.

Tonight they held a party for the Sixth Annual Libra Banquet and Constance had attended.
Being one of Canterlots best singers they had hired her for entertainment. All night she sang of songs inspired by that faithful night. She hated some of them but sang anyway.
Eventually she sat down next to her satchel and saw the edge of the book.
She had forgotten to return it to Twilight back at the library. She pulled out the book and to her horror it was the Journal. Panic quickly set in and she shoved it back in the bag. She sat there trying to figure out how she was to get it back to Luna's chambers without being caught.
Using magic would leave a traceable essence around the object so that was out of the question. 

A stallion walked over to her and tapped the table. Constance looked over to see a unicorn with a fire red coat and a long blue mane and tail that flowed like living fire. He sat next to her and just looked into her yellow and gold eyes. She looked back into his brown eyes before sneaking a peek at his flank. His cutie mark was two swords striking against each other inside a ring of flames. 

"Can I help you?" She asked unable to break away from his gaze.

"Actually you can."- He shifted to reveal a sword strapped around his back. -"I would like you to come with me. Its about that book you have there." He said in a low but stern tome.

Constance gulped thinking she was about to get banished to the moon or even the sun. She grabbed the satchel and followed him out the doors and into the ally of the two buildings.

"Hoof over the journal." He said as he stood on his hind legs pulling the sword off his back and lamping a special handle to it.

Constance quickly pulled it out and set it in the ground backing away slowly.

"Why are you threatening me if you are just going to take it back to Canterlot?" she asked.

The stallion picked it up with his magic and smiled. "What makes you think I will return this." 

His horn glowed with a small ball of fire that formed at it's tip. Constance narrowed her eyes and charged the unicorn. He jumped back and slashed her with his sword. Constance foreleg had only been scratched before it burst into flames. She quickly used a spell to snuff them out but not before receiving second degree burns. The stallion then released a small ball of fire that barreled right for Constance. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact. It never came. She opened them to see Pinkie Pie on her hind legs with a metal pot lid strapped around her left hoof that was melting and a sword with the same attachments as the red unicorn on her right hoof. She let the tip rest barely on the ground. Pinkie's mane was down and she had a scowl across her muzzle. She threw the half melted lid to the side and raised her sword. It burst into shadows when she pointed it at him.

"Leave! Now!" She demanded.

"Well, well you don't see that every day." he remarked. 

"I will not ask again." She said in a low grumble.

The stallion looked her over then sheathed his sword. Deciding that she wasn't worth the trouble of blowing his cover he placed the book in a bag.

"Pleasure doing business with you." he said just before teleporting away.

Pinkamina walked past Constance, letting the sword drag for a few feet before removing it and holding it in her mouth. She walked into Sugar Cube Corner and reemerged a few moments later. She was back to normal, or at least for Pinkie Pie as she bounced back to Constance.

Constance limped over and asked, "Pinkie Pie what was that? Where did you get that sword?"

The pink party pony looked at her as if she didn't know that she was talking about.

"Oh my, Constance you leg! we need to get you to the hospital!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she ran inside the Crusader HQ.

A few more moment later she came out with a few other ponies and the escorted her to the Ponyville hospital. She spent the night in fear of what Princess Luna would do to her if....when she found out Cassius favorite book was stolen. She was doomed the second Luna visited her in the hospital. She started wishing Pinkie Pie hadn't saved her back in the alley.
> Power Of The Prodigy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Luna was in the Ponyville hospital. More specifically by the reception desk, waiting for the receptionist to find the room Constance was in. The elderly brown mare looked through the computer carefully for her name. Luna had been waiting for an hour and was so bored she had entered the dream realm just to waste time in the great hall as her body lay in a chair by the desk.

"I found her princess!" the receptionist said with a lisp.

Luna heard her from the great hall and quickly reentered her body. Her eyes opened to see a computer screen with an itinerary of all of the guests in the hospital. Constance's name was highlighted in yellow with her room number. Her number was 273. Luna's eyes went wide as she leaned a little to the left past the desk and read the number on the room across from her.
The sign read 273. The princess of the night face hoofed on the spot. 

"Princess Luna, is something wrong?" asked the receptionist.

"No, nothing is wrong. Thank you for your... help." she said walking to the room.

The old earth pony saluted and said, "All in a days work."

"Literally." Luna mumbled.

"What was that princess? My hearing isn't the best." she asked holding a hoof behind one of her ears.

"Nothing!" Luna quickly said with a sheepish grin as she hurried into the room.

******************************************

Constance was asleep in her bed with an I.V. in her left foreleg as the right was completely covered in wrappings. Luna didn't have to see the burns to know she would never be able to walk properly again. She was lucky the burns were only second degree from what she was told. Attacked and nearly killed over Cassius's journal. Luna had entered Constance's dreams and forced her to relive the memory so she could give her a proper punishment for stealing before heading to the hospital, But after she saw Sereen reading it and Constance actually forgot about it. It wouldn't be right to punish the innocent for something they didn't do. Luna walked over to her and sat in a chair next to the bed. So many things about this attack seemed...off. Why would somepony want to steal a journal that know one but Celestia, Cassius, Sereen, Twilight, Shining Armor, herself, and a select few members of the castle staff know even existed; let alone had the ability to read. 

Luna looked to the little table that reached over the bed and found a book. It was an outdated copy of Equestrian Laws and Punishments. Luna let out a little giggle at the thoughts that must have plagued her mind. She pushed the table to the side with her magic. Luna could see dyed blood on the bandages when the table was out of the way. The pain she must have been in, Luna thought. Another more disturbing thought hit Luna. Pinkie Pie was using the same weapon she had back when Cassius controlled her. She even looked the same and still had her powers of the Nocturnal Guardian, Cassius's power. Just as Luna got up to go and find out what was going on, Constance moved her head to look at her. The young maids yellow eyes grow in shock as her pupils narrowed in fear. Luna gave her a look of annoyance, because she knew exactly how she was about too...

"Princess Luna! I can explain everything! Please don't send me to the moon or even the sun! It was an accident I swear!" She bellowed as she sobbed in her bed.

And there it was, the princess of the night face hoofed for the second time that day.

"Constance, you are fine. You will not be punished for anything." Luna said agitated voice.

Constance sniffled then replied, "But I lost the book."

"No, you were nearly killed for it. I won't allow you forgetting about a journal in your bag to being a reason to punish you. Besides your life is more important the that old thing will ever be. So, how is your leg?" Luna said softly.

Constance whipped a few tears from her eyes with her left hoof, "I can't feel it. They have me on so many painkillers, its a miracle I'm even in the right mind. Hey, how did you know I forgot about the book?"

Luna chucked before speaking in a very serious tome, "Constance, I saw your memory of the attack. The red unicorn, the magic of his sword, and...Pinkamina."

"Pinkamina?" Constance parroted.

Luna looked down to the floor, "She is the...other Pinkie Pie. She was one the ponies Cassius called six years ago to help him in his attempt to kill Celestia and eventually my mother." 

Constance fell dead silent, she heard of Cassius's ruthless killers. The bearers of the Elements of Chaos, his soul. Pinkamina was best known for her killings at the southern camps in the badlands. They found out about it thanks to Rainbow Dash's reports. The only thing that kept Pinkie Pie from being executed on the spot was the fact that she was being manipulated. They blew it off to a mind control spell.

"Princess Luna please don't have her killed!" Constance exclaimed.

"She saved you. Why would I have her executed?" Luna asked.

"I...I don't know." she replied as she pulled the blanket to her muzzle.

"Clearly she is behaving. I have no reason to detain her so she is free as long as nothing happens to anypony. I will have her under watch though. As for this unicorn, he has stolen a very valuable item from me. Did you get his name?" Luna asked.

"No. he never told me it." Constance said softly. 

Luna sighed, she leaned in and gave Constance a hug, "Get some sleep. You need to rest if you are to come back next week. I will see you in your dreams. Good night, Constance."

"Good night, princess." she replied closing her eyes.

Luna walked out and gently closed her door.

*************************************************

In the outskirts of the Appaloosa the fire red unicorn was walking to an abandoned fort.
It was originally used as a tree hatchery and the original storage of supplies when the buffalo were destroying the orchards. Now it served as his home and base. He approached the main entrance when two unicorns materialized in front of him saluting. He had his guards use invisibility spells whenever they were on duty. If they were to remain undisturbed, ponies had to think this place was still abandoned.

"Lord Flamearch, you are back so soon? Did you get the fragment from the statue?" asked an orange-yellow unicorn.

Flamearch looked to him with a smile of pure bliss, "No, didn't find it Harlot Storm."

Both the guards shared a puzzled look before the other asked, "Then, why are you so happy? Normally if something like this happened you would gut the one responsible for the waste of time on sight."

"Well Jara, I'm glad you asked. For you see, I have found this instead!"  Flamearch exclaimed with joy.

He pulled out the journal and showed them the cover. Once again, they shared a puzzling look. Why was this book keeping them from being killed out of Flamearch's frustration. They instantly recognized the cutie mark on the cover and felt the presence of very strong magic emanating from it. 

"Is that?" Harlot Storm began.

Flamearch nodded as he walked past the two with the journal floating close behind him. Harlot Storm and Jara vanished again, taking their watchmen positions once more. Flamearch stepped inside the fort and proceeded to the central building made of old stone and wood pillars.
He opened a large wooden door and approached a purple pegasus pony in a lab coat and glasses. Her cutie mark was a book and a magnifying glass resting on it. She was sitting on a chair looking over a desk with book and fragments of stone, wood, cloth, and other miscellaneous items. Even a few bone fragments sat around her.

"Oh Liz, I have a gift for you." Flamearch said in a sing song tone. 

"Oh boy Flamearch, your gifts are just the best. I might die from excitement." she said in a sarcastic tone as she looked over a book that was slightly burned.

"Just take the damn book." Flamearch said as his happiness collapsed into minor annoyance.

He placed in journal in front of her and took a seat next to her.
Her blue eyes widened in astonishment. 

"Where did you find this?" She asked.

"I was at a party in Ponyville. The singer had it on her when she took a break."  Flamearch replied as he recalled her beautiful singing voice.

Liz hit him on the shoulder and said, "Ok Casanova, stop daydreaming. You want me to find what?" 

"Anything we can use to recreate the power of Cassius and use for myself."
Flamearch said pushing away from the desk and rolling away on the chair.

Liz went right to work on deciphering the ancient text that sat inside the book. Despite the fact of being a pegasus, Liz could easily out think almost any unicorn scholar. Her intellect was only matched by her love for ancient cultures. This was one of the reasons she had joined Flamearch's Faithless. His addition for ancient power was good way to fill her thirst for knowledge, even if she found something actually useful and dangerous that Flamearch wanted. 

***********************************************

Two days passed as Liz read the entries inside the journal every chance she got.
At this point she knew it wasn't a book of ancient Equestrian society but the journal of Princess Luna's guardian. The journal never mentioned them by name and for obvious reasons,
she found stories that were written about the events in the long life of the guardian.
This was a better find than any she had ever read or even seen before. It was a first hoof account of the last five thousand years of Equestria's history. It was only missing the last thousand years and a few events prior to the Nightmare Moon events. Liz noted there was a two year gap between the last entry written in ancient Equestrian and the most recent ones in new Equestrian. They seemed to have been from the pony that Flamearch was obsessing over and had written the last entries. She had also made notes of several spells and tricks tricks the journal had mentioned by name. This was most likely what Flamearch wanted. It was also likely he would let her keep the book when she was done with it.

"So Liz, have you found anything interesting or even useful?" Flamearch asked as he walked over to her. 

She noticed his sword was missing and asked, "Where is Ragnarok Flamearch? You never leave without it."

"I left it on the table in my room. I was cleaning it when I realized you must have been done with the book by now." Flamearch said.

She pushed away from the desk and turned to face him. " Well, I'm actually half way through it."

Flamearch looked shocked, "Only half way! It's been two days Lizzy! I've seen you read book that big in an hour. What the hell is" - Liz rolled her chair to the left to reveal the book had grown ten times it's original size.- "Well... you don't see that..."

"Don't even start with that." Liz interrupted him. "Here I have a list for you. There was a small amount of spells that you would want to use in here." 

"Small amount?" Flamearch asked.

"Yes, only five were fire based. The rest are shadow base. Oh and there was one spell that isn't fire based that you can use."

"Why give it to me if its not fire?" the flame unicorn asked. 

She gave him a devilish smile, "It's a summoning spell for the Nocturnal Guardian himself."

Flamearch eyes brightened and he joined her in sharing the smile. 

"It can be used to bring him back and help the pony who calls him. Or at least that is what I understand from the text." Liz said as she flew over to him. "Lets get every pony here and call him."

Flamearch levitated the paper with the notes to him and began to create the platform for the spell.

"I'll take that as yes then?" the purple pegasus said as she flew out to gather The Faithless.

***********************************************

In a matter of minutes the main courtyard of the of the fort was occupied by the hundreds of members of The Faithless. Flamearch had finished the platform and had begun the incantation. In the center of the giant circle was the bone fragments that originally sat on Lizzy's desk.
They were the bones of Luna's protector. The pieces had been blown off thanks to Princess Twilight Sparkles attacks, the night he was defeated by Mother Mare. Flamearch was using all of his concentration to get the spell to work. He was determined to become the student of the Nocturnal Guardian. This was better than having some of his their power, Flamearch thought under the strain. The summoning spell was working, he felt a presence struggling to avoid being pulled to him. In his mind, Flamearch could hear voices as the spell grew more and more unstable. Arcs of black lightning shot from the circle. He heard some pony cry out a name that filled him with fear. It was like the name itself was going to kill him where he stood.

"CASSIUS!" the voice yelled. 

There was an explosion that sent Flamearch and everypony else flying into the walls of the fort.
If they weren't so far away from the town, Flamearch would have been worried they would have blown their cover. Smoke filled the air around the courtyard. Liz had flown up to avoid the blast and was now surveying the area of any sight of the Alicorn they had tried to summon.
All she could see was smoke and decided fly down to Flamearch and helped him onto his hooves.

"Did it work?" she asked.

"Ya, I felt something come through. Did you see anything?" Flamearch asked as he brushed off his coat.

"There was too much smoke. I couldn't even see you." she replied.

Flamearch began walking to the center of the circle to see what he had summoned.
To his horror it was a young gray unicorn colt with a red and blue mane and tail.
Flamearch roared in anger and called Ragnarok to his hoof. The sword burst into existence around his hoof in a brilliant display of fire as he held it up ready to kill the unicorn. 

"FLAMEARCH STOP!" Liz yelled as she placed herself in between the two. 

"What!?" Flamearch hissed.

"Look at his cutie mark. It's the same one on the book." She explained.

Flamearch took a moment to collect himself and lowered Ragnarok.
He looked at the shaking colt's cutie mark and instantly recognized it.

"Liz, please explain why there is a colt sitting inform of me!"
Flamearch raised his voice through gritted teeth.

"I don't have an answer for once, but he has the mark. He must be a messenger or something." Liz said.

Flamearch glared to the foal in front of him and snapped, "Listen here you pathetic waste of life.
I want you to tell your master I seek an audience with him."

The young unicorn hid his face in his hooves and began to cry. 

Liz took a step closer to him as she glared at Flamearch. 

She bent down and spoke softly as she tried to wipe the tears from his muzzle, "Hey now, don't cry little one. I will keep you safe from the mean old prig of a unicorn."

"Prig?" Flamearch said as he shook his head.

"What is your name?" Liz asked.

The unicorn looked her in the eyes.
She was taken back by the colorful rings in that rested in his eyes.

"My...my name is... is Cassius Nightshade." he sniffled.

Liz stepped back and fell on her flank. Flamearch raised an eyebrow and chuckled at her.

"Something wrong Lizzy?" he asked in a smug tone.

"N-no everything is right Flamearch. He is the Nocturnal Guardian."
She said with a wicked smile forming across her muzzle.

Flamearch stood in shock, "Are you sure?" 

"Yes, Cassius Nightshade is the name of the pony that caused the Dark Libra incident.
The same pony you have been trying to get fragments of power from. He is right here Flamearch, do you know the possibilities of what we can learn from the past.
He has been alive since Equestria's existence."

Flamearch stepped closer to Cassius with an evil grin, "I know exactly what I can learn from him."

**************************************************

Luna was in the throne room pacing back and forth. Cassius was taken from her by a portal spell when they were getting ready to meet Twilight in Ponyville. She had thought Cassius had learned it and was playing a prank but after seeing his look of fear, she had gathered the royal guard and sent search parties all over Canterlot to try and find him. Celestia was working with a team of Canterlot’s best minds on tracing the original location of the portal.
They had turned up with nothing, the spell had so much interference that the the caster couldn't conjure the portal correctly.
When Cassius was sucked in, a piece of bone and a purple feather was spat out in his place. Celestia was able to get a match for the feather and found the bone to belong to Cassius.
They quickly figured out it was from the battle six years ago based on Twilights magical presence on it and the fact it was from a larger rib than he had now. 

Luna walked into Celestia’s study and found her talking with a few unicorn scientists.
The princess of the sun turned her attention to her worried sister.

"Luna, don't worry too much about it. We will find him." Celestia said.

"Tia, how can you say that. Cassius isn't the unstoppable force he was six years ago. He is a foal now, he needs my help." Luna said as she began to pace the room.

"Luna, he is still the Nocturnal Guardian. He is more than capable of defending himself."
Celestia said trying to calm her younger sister down.

"Celestia, he doesn't know how to tap into his power yet! He just recently relearned how to become a nightmare spawn in the dream realm!" Luna exclaimed as the stress visibly showed on her face.

"He still likes that form?" Celestia mumbled to herself. "Luna, you need to calm down. We will find him. Twilight is gathering her friends and I am sending for one of the best trackers in all of Equestria."

"Who?" Luna asked with a gleam of hope.
Celestia looked to her sister with a straight face and said, "His name is Shadowheart."
> The Mercenary And The Alliance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville was as busy as it ever was. Ponies were off to do their jobs of the day to earn their fair share of bits. Nopony noticed the new face in town with a large amount of bags on his side.
A unicorn with a white coat and dark brown mane and tail was walking in the direction of Canterlot. His cutie mark was a silver shield with a black sword laying over it. An old gray satchel rested on his left side as the sword lay on his right covered by a cloth that only let the hoof clamp stick out. 
Something quickly caught his attention as he walked past a flower stand. His stomach was rumbling for something the fill the void inside of it. He sighed and looked around for the nearest place to get a bite to eat. His last meal was a day ago since he started to traveling to Canterlot. He spied a gingerbread building with a sign that read "Sugar Cube Corner".

The doors opened slightly and a voice called to the new face, "Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner. My name is Pumpkin Cake, how may I help you today?"

The source of the sound was a young Boston cream yellow unicorn filly. 

"Yes, do you have anything that can last a few days?" asked the white unicorn.

"Well I will have to ask Pinkie Pie. Give me one moment please." Pumpkin said as she levitated herself off a stool and walked into the back of the bakery.

The white unicorn looked around to see no other visitors were inside the building itself, except for the few that were sitting outside at some tables under an awning. The sound of hooves walking towards him refocused his attention.

"Pumpkin I'm sure I can make a muffin that will last..." a pink pony was saying, but stopped as she saw the unicorn. "Pumpkin, could you get your brother and take the rest of the day off. Go and see the music show in the park, I think Vinyl Scratch is playing today."

Pumpkin jumped with joy as she galloped off. Moments later a sound of the from door slamming shut, rang in the store. The pink pony walked over to the front door and locked it.
She then closed the blinds and walked back to the counter while never breaking eye contact with him. She placed her hooves under the counter and pulled out a mixing bowl with batter in it. 

Her hair fell from its original puffy form and she asked, "So, what is your name?"

"I'd rather not say without knowing who I am talking to first." he replied.

The pink pony scowled then replied, "Pinkamena Diane Pie. Now you."

"Shadowheart." he firmly replied.

"Where are you from Shadowheart. We don't see many ponies with swords around here. Especially ones with enchantments like yours." Pinkamena said as she stared him down.

"Not from here." He replied.

"No your not, but you look a lot like somepony that attacked my friend."- Pinkamena stopped mixing the bowl and lowered her right hoof below the counter. -" I would like to know why you are here." she said in a low tone.

"To get something to eat." Shadowheart said as he tensed up slightly.

Pinkamina shook her head slowly, "Wrong answer." 

She leaped from behind the counter with her new and improved Nerrix blade. Shadows burned as it raced towards him. Shadowheart dropped to the ground as Pinkamena flew past cutting the tip of his mane. He turned and removed the cloth that sat over his family sword, Dragonslayer. The sword looked like it was made from the bone of an actual dragon with a metal guard that looked like the red flesh that would be still attached on the opposite side of the blade. It coursed with magic as Shadowheart placed his right hoof in the slot of the grip. It calmed down and secured itself tightly around his wrist. Pinkamena looked him over as he held a defensive stance. Her scowl turned into a maniacal grin as her body burst into a shadows and she came in for another attack. Shadowheart was shocked to see such a sight, but was able to block her with Dragonslayer. The two swords collided and Shadowheart cast a spell that sent Pinkamena sliding across the floor. She turned as she slid and somehow grabbed a butchers knife from under a table and threw it at Shadowheart. He ducked to the left as the knife embedded itself in the wall behind him. Again he found the shadow mare coming in for another attack when he was open. Just before she hit he created a barrier that made the Nerrix blade scrape off to the right. He found his opening in her offenses and landed a powerful blow to her temple with his left hoof. Pinkamena collapsed to the ground and the shadows dispersed like steam. Her sword slid away from view as the grip failed on impact with the hard tile floors. She laid motionless on the ground with a small pool of blood that came from a now opened wound from the concussive blow to the head. Shadowheart bent down and pushed her mane out of the way to look of a horn. He was shocked to see no horn on her head. He moved to the blade and found no magical presence on it either.

"You won't find any hint of magic on it." Pinkamena’s voice called from behind him.

Shadowheart felt the presence of a blade on his spine. 

Pinkamena leaned in behind his ear and whispered, "If you move, I make you into CuPCAKES. Now, why are you here?"

Shadowheart hesitated for a moment. A slight pushing of the blade told him her patience was running thin and he was in danger of becoming many delicious pastries.

"I was hired by Princess Celestia to find some foal by the name of Cassius." he muttered.

The knife fell to the ground. Shadowheart turned to look at her, but found only a hoof found his muzzle. He backstopped and looked to a very angry pink earth pony.

"So is that what you wanted from the journal!? Cassius!?" she yelled.

"What journal!? What are you talking about!?" Shadowheart exclaimed as he examined for any breaks in his muzzle. 

"YOUR FRIEND NEARLY KILLED CONSTANCE FOR THAT DAMN JOURNAL!? NOW YOU WANT TO KILL CASSIUS TOO!?" Pinkamena yelled at the top of her lungs.

"What friend? WHAT JOURNAL!?" Shadowheart spoke in an agitated voice.

"The red one with a mane that looks like fucking fire and the sword that sets things ON fire when something is cut by it!" she exclaimed in anger as she crossed her front legs. 

"Where did he go?"  he asked suddenly. 

Pinkamena flung a foreleg lazily into the air  letting it fall back into place when she spoke, "Hell if I know. He teleported out of the damn alley when I saved her from being melted." 

"Where do you think he went?" Shadowheart asked as calmly as possible. 

"I ... DON'T .... KN..." 

The door opened as Twilight Sparkle hurried into the damaged showroom of the bakery. Pinkamena went wide eyed and darted for the back room in an instant.
The purple Alicorn looked to Shadowheart with her horn glowing a brilliant pink.

"What did you do to Pinkie Pie?" she asked in a slight growl. 

Shadowheart was dumbfounded by his luck with the mares in this crazy town. First a pink psych that can use magic without a horn was trying to kill him on mistaken identity, and now an Alicorn was threatening him. A scuffling sound grabbed both of their attention as Pinkie Pie galloped next to Twilight. Her mane was back to its puffy self and she looked like she was going to cry.

"Twilight, am I glad to see you? This unicorn is working for the pony that tried to kill Constance. He tried to kill me just now! " she said with tears running down her muzzle and placing a hoof on her chest.

Shadowheart looked to both of them with disbelief, "I did no such thing."- he pointed a hoof to Pinkie Pie.- "She tried to kill me."

"Nice try, but Pinkie Pie wouldn't hurt a fly." Twilight said. 

"I'd try to throw a party for it. Hmm.... What would a fly want at a party anyway? Garbage...rotten vegetables....oh, oh maybe some...rotten eggs sitting in the sun for a week."Pinkie Pie started to trail off like she normally did.

"This is ridiculous, She jumped over the counter and burst into a shadowy flame while trying to gut me with that knife in the wall." Shadowheart said pointing to the butcher knife that sat firmly in the wall. 

Twilight stood stunned at his accusations, but she let her magic fade from an attack spell and started to clean the mess with it.

"Well... um... I think this might have been a huge misunderstanding. First of all, what is your name and why are you here?"

"I am Shadowheart. I was hired by Princess Celestia to find some foal named Cassius. I came here to get some food." he said sheathing Dragonslayer.

"So you are the tracker then. I am ... Princess Twilight Sparkle. Please just call me Twilight." She turned to face Pinkie Pie. -"As for you Pinkie Pie. I can confirm that he is the tracker and he is not working with the pony who attacked Constance".

"Well if you don't think he had anything to do with it then I trust your judgment." Pinkie Pie said

She leaned in and gave Twilight a hug while turning her eyes from Shadowheart. her hair fell and she glared at him with hate. Her eyes promised that if he was lying she would kill him on the spot. When she released Twilight her mane when back to its puffy state and she smiled.

"Well Mr. Shadowheart, Lets get you a muffin and head to the castle." Twilight said.

"I think I will eat there instead. If you don't mind?" he replied.

"Not at all. Shall we go?" Twilight replied.

Twilight left the bakery first. Pinkie Pie stopped to inform of Shadowheart and let her friend get some distance. She turned to face him as her mane fell again. 

"You don't say a word about me. They think I'm dead and I want it to stay that way." She said in a low grumble.

Shadowheart looked confused for a moment. 

"They think Pinkamena is dead. I was... released six years ago and haven't let them see me since. I'm not a very popular pony." She explained.

She walked over to the fallen Nerrix blade and slipped it back in its hidden slot in the counter with a sudden motion. As she walked back to the door her mane began to take its shape once more. 

"Lets go Mr. slowpoke" said in her usually chipper voice. 

She bounced out the door to Twilight without a care in the world. Shadowheart was now questioning his judgment in accepting this job, but if it gave him the information he needed then it was well worth the hassle.

*****************************************************

Flamearch was sitting his makeshift throne inside the main stone building as he tested his very thin patience. He was waiting for Liz to find something useful about Cassius that could make himself stronger. Instead of getting information from her, she was playing with him.
This had occurred for the last hour now and Flamearch was almost at his breaking point.
He shot up and marched to Liz. She was flying around the room with Cassius in her forelegs and the young unicorn was enjoying it.

"Liz! Come here, now!" Flamearch demanded.

The purple pegasus hovered low enough to drop Cassius without hurting him and landed next to Flamearch. 

"What is it Flamearch?" she said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"You are to be finding useful information on how he uses his magic and getting him to teach it to me." growled Flamearch in a low tone so Cassius didn't hear him.

"Well I'm getting him to trust me. You scared him half to death Flamearch. He is just a foal." Liz said sympathetically as she looked over to Cassius.

"I don't care if I scared him to death. He is the only one that can give me the power I want, and I will be damned if..." he began but was cut short by the sounds of a spell going off.

They looked over to where Cassius was to see him staring at them with his multi colored eye. He held a blank expression on his muzzle as the rings glowed.

"Are you alright Cassius?" Liz asked.

He gave no response. Instead he just looked on, unblinking. Liz hurried over to his side but was stopped by a magical barrier that consumed half of the room. She looked to Flamearch who she thought was keeping her from getting to him. He shrugged his shoulders and trotted to her. 

"Is he doing this?" Liz asked in amazement.

"Ya he is. How is he making this big as it is?" Flamearch asked running a hoof on the surface.

"I don't know, but I will admit, his magic is powerful. I can see why you want it so badly." she remarked while looking for a way around the bubble. 

Cassius was sitting in the center just looking ahead of himself with the rings in his eyes glowing brightly. Suddenly his gaze found Flamearch. He got up and walked to the wall of his protective barrier and stopped just in front of Flamearch.

"You have it, don't you?" the little gray unicorn asked.

"Have what?" Flamearch said sternly.

Cassius glared at him, "My book."

Flamearch smirked, "Yes I do. Can you teach me how to use your powers within it?"

"I can, but why would I help somepony who foalnapped me." he replied to the red unicorn.

Flamearch leaned into the wall with a smile and said, "Because, if you don't ... I will kill you."

Liz noticed the wall getting dark and turned to see a massive living spike of shadows getting ready to strike the unsuspecting Flamearch. She slammed into him knocking him out of its path. Flamearch fell to his side and heard a scream as he slid a few feet. He looked up to see Liz was stuck to the barrier with a large spike of darkness where he was just standing.
Her crimson blood dripped from the spike in her chest and travelled down the wall of the barrier. She tried to speak, but her words hung in the air. She was looking right at Flamearch before her head dropped and she remained motionless. Flamearch sat there in shock at the attempt to his life.

"You want to learn. Give her my ability to survive even the most deadly attacks. Use my book." Cassius quickly said as he levitated the book to Flamearch. "If you don't hurry she will be too far gone. you only have 5 minutes before then." he said in a worried tone.

Flamearch dove straight into the book to find the incantation. He eventually found it and began to cast the spell. Cassius removed the spike and used the shadows to lower Liz's body gently to the ground. The barrier fell and Cassius galloped to Flamearch and helped him with the spell. When Cassius used his magic to support Flamearch, the red unicorn felt a surge of power that he only dreamed of. He literally felt invincible with the young gray unicorn at his side. The boost in magical power allowed Flamearch to complete the spell and cast it in only a few seconds, rather than the minute the journal said it would take any normal pony to cast. The spell hit Liz and the shadows in the room slithered to her like snakes. They engulfed her and began to fuse with her very soul. moments later the darkness faded and she coughed up some blood while the hole in her chest began to heal right before Flamearch eyes. He wanted this power more than anything in the world. He looked to Cassius who had galloped to Lizzy's side and was hugging her tightly. An evil grin formed on Flamearch muzzle as he walked over and helped Liz up to her hooves.
She was breathing heavily as she placed her left hoof over the healing hole and held on to Flamearch with the right.

"Lizzy, we did it. We brought you back together. I can use him with the book. I can be unstoppable. I...I can finally beat him." Flamearch spoke in a happy whisper.

"How did you bring me back?" Liz asked taking in deep breaths.

"He let me use of some of his power to help with casting the spell. Thanks to him Liz, you can't be killed by any mortal pony." Flamearch said as he levitated the journal to her and showed her the spell.

She looked to book with wide eyes, "Flamearch, this is a master level spell, only the princesses of Equestria can use it with that amount of magic you put being it! He really is Cassius Nightshade." 

Cassius held her leg with tears coming from his closed eyes. Liz patted him on the back and leaned down to give him a hug.

"Thank you both for saving me. Oh and Flamearch, please never threaten him again. He was going to kill you but I saved you. Now if you will, both of you get along while I go and sleep.
Dying and coming back is tiring work." Liz said with a yawn as she left the two unicorns alone.

They looked at each other in the eye for a moment before Cassius spoke first.

"You did good. if you are going to help ponies with the story book, then I will help you learn what my mommy taught me Mr. Fla...Flame..." Cassius stumbled with his name.

"Flamearch. Call me Flamearch. Now little one, it's time for bed." he yawned and started walking to his chambers.

"No its not. Bed time was this morning. Now it. s time to eat." Cassius called as he ran after Flamearch.

Flamearch groaned when he realized that he was talking to the Nocturnal Guardian. He would not get any sleep tonight.

*************************************************
Luna was awaiting Twilight and her tracker in the throne room. She had felt Cassius magic only moments ago and a great deal of it was being used to commune with the Eternal Herd. It was a request to have the gates open temporarily of a soul to leave. This was very concerning, because Cassius should have no memory on how to do this yet. Whoever had him, was using his power to do their bidding and this didn't settle right with her.

"Princess Luna, They are here." called a guard at the massive double doors that made up the entrance.

The princess of the night watched as Twilight, Pinkie Pie and a white unicorn approached her.

"That is far enough Pinkie Pie." Luna spoke as calmly as she could, trying not to cause suspicion.

The party pony stopped with a surprised look on her muzzle. 

Twilight did the same before asking, "Princess Luna. Is everything alright?"

"Twilight, This is a very fragile situation. Only ponies that need to know may follow me past this point and into the meeting chamber." Luna replied.

Luna wasn't going to tell Twilight, that the real reason she didn't want Pinkie Pie here was because of Pinkamena. She was a very unstable and unpredictable killing machine.
She could go on a rampage if brought into this and Luna wasn't going to take that risk.

"Please, Pinkie Pie go and wait back in the hall behind the doors. If you're needed I will send for you." Luna ordered.

The pink party pony began to protest, but quickly realized that it was the princess of the night. with a sigh of defeat she did as she was asked and left to throne room. The three proceeded to the meeting chamber and were getting ready to discuss the conditions to get Luna's beloved son back from whoever held him captive.
> Lost In The Fire Of Dreams
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna had taken Twilight and Shadowheart to a private room where Celestia was waiting for them. She had just lowered the sun and set the room to negotiate the terms of Shadowheart’s expert services. She sat in the largest chair at the end of the long table that could easily seat ten office ponies and their followers. Luna sat next to her sister's right while Twilight sat next to Celestia's Left. Shadowheart Sat at the opposite end of the table which was about ten feet from Celestia.

Celestia spoke first, "So, Mr. Shadowheart what would you like in exchange for your services in locating and retrieving Prince Cassius."

Shadowheart looked to the three Alicorns that sat in front of him. He noted that Luna was in distress, most likely from worry. Twilight was as calm as she could bring herself to be.
She looked tense despite her best effort not to be. Celestia however held her composure quite well considering the events that had befallen them. She was determined to find this Cassius and bring him home safely. Shadowheart respected them for their quick action to this unfortunate event.

"My terms are simple. I was told you could help me find my brother. I want everything you have on him and his possible location." Shadowheart spoke sternly.

"Right to the point. Very well, when Cassius is returned to Luna you will have Canterlot's full resources and support to locate you long lost brother." Celestia said with a smile.

"Is there anything else you would like." Luna asked nervously.

Shadowheart looked curiously to her before speaking, "I need supplies for the journey when I have a location. Until then, I need to know where the attack was when the journal was stolen and I will need to speak to the survivor of that attack."

Luna shot up and said, "She is in no condition to be brought back into..."

"Luna, enough." Celestia snapped.

Luna lowered her head and sat back down in her seat.

Celestia continued, "Very well, Twilight will take you to see Constance at the Canterlot hospital. I will grant you access to anything you will need in your search.
Now go and find Cassius Shadowheart, I will find your brother."

Shadowheart nodded, then got out of his chair. Twilight followed and the two left the room and headed to the hospital. Celesta looked to Luna and hugged her tenderly.

"I know this is hard Lulu, but you need to let him work. He will find Cassius and bring him back safely. You just look for him in the dream realm, I'm sure he will leave clues for you."

Luna returned the hug before walking to her chambers to enter the dream realm. The race was on to locate and bring her child home from this nightmare.

*************************************************

Constance wasn't expecting any visitors today. When Twilight and Shadowheart walked in she was sure she was going to be taken to prison or something like that. After Twilight explained Shadowheart was a tracker and needed her help to find something that could give him a clue on where to start, Constance agreed to help.

Shadowheart looked her in the eyes and spoke calmly, "I need you to tell me what the attacker looked like. What did they have on them, what type of pony they were, anything you think can help me find a place to start."

Constance rubbed the back of her head with a with a hoof. She was trying to figure out what would be important information to share and what would be useless. 

"Well, he was unicorn and he used fire spells. He carried a sword like you and he looked like he could use it too. He looked like he was set up to travel in a desert or something like that." She began as she tried to fight for consciousness that the painkillers threatened to take her out of.

"What did this unicorn look like?" Shadowheart asked.

Constance was silent for a moment, " He had a mane that moved like fire and he was as red as fire too. And his sword..."

Shadowheart looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "What about his sword Constance?"

She looked to her leg and lifted it up for him to see the bandages, "It is what burned my leg. He only scratched me with it and my leg burst into flames. If Pinkie Pie hadn't intervened. I wouldn't be here right now." 

Shadowheart was silent. 

Twilight stepped forward, "What did Pinkie Pie do that saved you Constance? I wasn't told she was your savior."

Constance was about to speak when Shadowheart stood up from the chair he was sitting in and walked out. Twilight looked to the door as it closed behind him.

"Constance, I will talk to you later." Twilight said as she hurried after him.

She found him already heading out the front door. 

"Shadowheart, wait up." she called.

He was lost inside his thoughts as she galloped beside him.

"What's gotten into you?" Twilight asked a she tried to catch her breath.

"I know who this pony is." He replied. 

"That's great. So who is he?" Twilight asked.

Shadowheart continued walking when he replied, "Flamearch."

Twilight was confused, "Who is Flamearch?"

"A very deadly pony obsessed with power. I have had my run-ins with him many times. If he is behind this then The Faithless are involved." Shadowheart looked on to the balloons in the distance.

"Who are they?" Twilight asked as she tried to keep his pace.

Shadowheart looked to her and replied, "I will explain in the balloons on the way to Ponyville. I need to get to that alley."

"Well, lets get some sleep at the library in town first. The alley is locked down and only you and I will be allowed in." Twilight said with a yawn.

"A library? For sleep?" Shadowheart asked.

"I was the librarian there and I still live in the top floor. It's not so bad. I have a guest bed for you. Come on lets go." Twilight said as she started to gallop to the balloons at the thought of seeing Spike again after being gone for a few months.

With a heavy sigh, Shadowheart hurried after her.

************************************************************

Flamearch had been reduced to playing nanny for his new partner. In the few hours he had spent with Cassius he had made him dinner, they played several games of tag and hide-and-seek. Eventually his kindness paid off when the young unicorn revealed he could take Flamearch to a place that no pony but him and his mother could go. A place that allowed him to become a god among other ponies. Flamearch relished at the thought. Too his disappointment, Cassius told him to go to sleep and he would show him then. Normally Flamearch would have threatened somepony if they made him wait, but he was very tired and he needed to stay in the little foal's good graces if he wanted to learn anything. He gladly left to collapse into his bed and drift off to his dreams for the night.

Flamearch found himself surrounded by a massive ring of fire while he sat on a throne.
His view of the now conquered Canterlot and the Sun Goddess in shackles bowing to him, the sight gave him goosebumps. This was the best dream he could ever have. He desperately wanted to make it a reality, with a few changes to the location and the princess of the sun to remain ruler of the sun and not his slave. He wanted supreme power, but having to raise the sun would be pain in his mind. While enjoying the sight of his near perfect dream he noticed a black figure racing towards him. Flamearch rouse from his throne, summoned Ragnarok and held a defensive stance. The figure was now in sight and he could see...Something that he only read about in old books with Liz. A nightmare spawn was racing to him with intent to feed on his good dreams.

He braced with his sword and fired a volley of fire balls from his horn. The creature of darkness curled into a ball and took the hits. After absorbing most if not all of the fireballs, it uncoiled and spat them back at Flamearch in one massive orb. He jumped off this high throne and began to free fall to the scorched earth below as he fired two streaks of white fire from his hoofs that arched and followed the spawn as it tried to avoid the hits. When Flamearch finally hit the ground he fired two more streaks and unleashed a massive tornado of flames that combined with the streaks. Flamearch could almost swear he saw it smile. A flicker of it's eyes and the tornado of molten fire distorted and dispensed into small swirls of black. They gathered around the Nightmare Spawn and began to form smaller versions of it.

Before Flamearch knew it, he was looking to an army of them. The original lifted its hoof at him and the others began the attack. Flamearch closed his eyes and tapped into his darkest of magic. He opened his eyes and found the spell that he promised himself he would never use again until the found the power to beat him. He began to charge the destructive force that would surely kill all of them at once. With out warning the shadow spawn clones vanished and the original began to fade away. In its wake stood a large gray Alicorn with multi colored eyes. Flamearch instantly knew who this Alicorn was. He was looking at the true Cassius Nightshade.

"You have come to grace me in my dreams?" Flamearch asked in astonishment.

The Alicorn smiled warmly then in a flash of light Cassius stood in his place. Flamearch was dumbfounded and was about to yell at the young unicorn.

"Flamearch, don't be angry. I liked him too. My mommy read the book every night to me and said that he wrote it from me. So I know what he looked like. I'm sorry I tricked you."

Flamearch quelled his anger for the moment then asked, "And you share the same exact name because?"

Cassius levitated to Flamearch side and began, "We share the same name because we are both special to her. She even told me that I was given his eyes when I was born. I was also given a gift from him. I can do everything he could and more."

"What kind of gifts?" Flamearch asked rubbing his temples with his hooves.

"I can look into a ponies heart and see their true feelings. Mr. Flamearch, your heart is very angry and dark. What is wrong?" Cassius asked in concern for him.

Flamearch looked away and quickly spoke, "Nothing that concerns you little one. Now you said you would show me a new realm?" 

Cassius smiled showing his teeth and trotted to a wall. With a wave of his hoof a wooden door appeared. Flamearch raised an eyebrow. Cassius looked to him as he began opening the door and stepped through, closing it behind him. Curious, Flamearch walked to the door. He felt a magical pressure flow from it, like it was bridging a gap of some kind. He opened the door and peered beyond it to see another door and the other side of a hallway. It's wooden sign read "Jara".

"Welcome to the Castle of Dreams! The realm of the Princess Of The Night and the Nocturnal Guardian or as most call it, the dream realm!" Cassius called with joy.

Flamearch was awestruck at the sight before him. Doors lined the walls as they came and went, hallways opening and closing. Even a few Nightmare Spawns loomed above fading and reappearing like the small embers of a camp fire. This new plane of existence felt overwhelming to say the least. Flamearch fell to his flank as he took it all in. He felt the freedom to do whatever he desired and something told him it would become a true reality here. He liked the feeling and wanted it to never end.

"Cassius, you said only you and your mother could come here? " He asked as he took long breaths.

Cassius nodded, "Yes. Why?"

Flamearch looked him in the rings of his eyes and asked, "Cassius, be honest with me. Who is your mother?"

Cassius turned his head and pointed to a midnight black Alicorn with dark blue armor. "She is."
Flamearch eyes widened as he instantly recognized Nightmare Moon at the other end of the hall with a very angry look. He shot up, grabbing Cassius and galloped down the hall to the main chamber of the Castle of Dreams. Luna who had entered her Nightmare Moon form gave chase.
Flamearch yelled as he ran for what he believed to be his life, "Cassius you never said you mother was Nightmare Fucking Moon."

"She isn't. She is Princess Luna." spoke the bouncing unicorn.

Flamearch turned to enter the hall labeled “Ponyville”. He galloped to the nearest wall, opened a random door and jumped in. He found himself in a world that was only filled with giant muffins. There were animals and even ponies made of muffins. At this point Flamearch was more terrified of this dream then Cassius’ hell bent mother. He was considering taking his chances with a pissed off Alicorn rather than be in this world one more second.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Cassius cheerfully answered, "This is Ditzy Doo's dream. I love her dreams, she always lets us stay and have a snack. 

"Cassius?" Flamearch asked placing Cassius down.

"Yes?" replied the young unicorn.

"What happens if I die outside of my dream?" Flamearch asked in concern.

Cassius rubbed his head with a hoof, "Well outside of the dreamers own dream everything becomes real to them, infact if you leave with a muffin here and wake up with it in your hooves,
it will be magically summoned. But if you leave a dream with somepony else, one of you will be teleported to where the first one wakes up."

Flamearch gulped at the thought of being killed by Princess Luna and decided to stay a little longer in the muffin world. Hours passed as Flamearch watched Cassius play with a very strange pony. Her eyes scared him more than Cassius’. It was unnatural how one trailed off and the other looked normal. About an hour ago, Luna entered the dream and asked the pony if she had seen Cassius and his captor. Thankfully she had told her they left just before she entered. Cassius said he could trust her and at the moment he didn't see a reason to doubt that. 

"Cassius, its time to go." Flamearch said.

The young colt looks disappointed, but said goodbye to his friend and she gave him a few muffins for the road. With one last hug and a they left and headed back to Flamearch. On their way out of the Ponyville Hall Flamearch noticed a sign that filled him with intense rage. He stopped and stared at it. Cassius stopped and looked to see him glaring at the door.

"Flamearch, What is wrong?" He asked with a mouth full of blueberry muffins

Flamearch looked to him and asked, "Cassius can we enter this dream for a bit. This pony was the reason that my family was... Wiped from the world." 

"Wiped from the world?" Cassius asked spitting up a little piece of muffin.

"My family was killed thanks to this pony. That is the reason I wanted your power. I want to avenge them and bring them back. The pony responsible for their deaths had eluded me for so long. I could never kill him without the power I have been seeking." Flamearch said darkly

"Your whole family?" Cassius asked as he began to cry from the sad story.

"Well my brother survived. I haven't seem him in years, but I know exactly how I would greet him now." Flamearch with a toothy grin.

Cassius walked over finishing his muffin. He opened the door and Flamearch gladly walked inside without another word. Cassius looked up to read the killer of Flamearch family the sign read , "Shadowheart".

********************************************************

Shadowheart was sitting in his dream of his late father. The old tan unicorn was sitting at a table with him. The two of them were drinking tea as Shadowheart’s little brother was trying to use his magic and start a fire with his mom so they could cook dinner. 

"Shadowheart, you are almost ready to accept Dragonslayer. I'm am sure you will wield it with honor and make our family proud as you defend the will of the Princess Celestia." the old unicorn said.

Shadowheart shot up from his seat in protest, "Father, why should I defend the will of a rule that lives past the sea and has never come to even greet her subjects in over 1000 years?"

"She has not forgotten us Shadowheart, She still cares for us. Have you not heard of what has happened in her court?" spoke his father.

"No, what has happened that has kept her from even seeing if we are even alive!" Yelled Shadowheart.

"If I have taught you anything my son, it is a temper will destroy any warrior."
He said while drinking more of is tea.

"I'm sorry father, I will remember to keep it in check. What has happened to her." he said taking his seat again.

"Her sister has returned from her banishment. This means He will follow soon after. When he does she will need your hooves in battle." the old stallion said.

"Does this mean Crystal Glare was right? His predictions have come true again, so that means..." the white unicorn began.

"Yes my time is numbered and the revolution will begin with the Dark Libra Awakening." The old unicorn finished his tea.

Shadowheart sat in silence at the realization of the words that hit him. Suddenly his father fell over and turned to ashes when he hit the ground. The house burst into flames and his mother was engulfed by the fire. Shadowheart grabbed his brother and ran out of the flames using his magic to cover them. When he was out, his brother had disappeared and he was holding Dragonslayer. Shadowheart turned to see the destruction of his family's house and all of his relatives dead on the burning earth.

"Shadowheart?" called a voice. 

He turned to try and find the source of the voice, "What? Who is there?"   

"Come now Shadow. You didn't really think you would get away from me, did you?" The voice spoke again.

Without warning Shadowheart was surrounded by a large ring of fire. He drew Dragonslayer and stood with it pointed straight out in front of him. 

"Oh poor Shadowheart. You weren't home in time to stop anything. They are dead, because of your failure. You are the reason they died." 

"Who are you! Show yourself!" shouted the white unicorn.

Two figures stepped through the fire covered in a protective ball of shadows. When they were clear of the fire the ball vaporized into the air revealing Flamearch and a small gray unicorn.

"Flamearch!" Shadowheart growled. "Is that young Cassius?" 

Flamearch smiled sadistically, "The Nocturnal Guardian himself." 

Shadowheart’s eyes went wide and he dropped Dragonslayer. His body trembled slightly at the realization.

"Shadowheart, the predictions are coming true." Flamearch spoke darkly. 

"Most of the events have fallen into place. The revolution was started six years ago, it will end on the seventh year. Welcome to the new age Shadowheart, do you want survive the first ten minutes?" 

Flamearch used his magic and the earth erupted under Shadowheart sending him into the air with a ball of lava that engulfed him. The mass fell with a splatter on the ground causing him to wake up in a cold sweat. He was laying in the guest bed in Twilight's library. His dream told him many things about his journey and his duty. Now he had to admit for one of the few times in his life, he needed help. Tomorrow he would go to the alley and get what little information he needed now, then he was off to Hoofsville to get an old friend of his. It would take some persuading, but he was sure the second he mentioned, The Dark Libra prophesy that Crystal Glare had predicted, he would join him without hesitation.
> Old Friends New Stakes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shadowheart had finished his adventure in the alley and to his dismay Pinkie Pie had requested to go with them to Hoofsville. Twilight had said yes and that was that. Pinkie however didn't stop watching him until they finally arrived at the train station. Normally he would take the balloons because they were faster, but he would rather be in public when Pinkie Pie tried to slit his throat. The had arrived in Hoofsville and immediately headed to the town hall. Once again to Shadowheart's dismay, Twilight being a princess made Celestia feel it appropriate to have her accompanied by royal guards. Something that would and did bring attention to them. This was the last thing he needed if he was going to get his friend to help.

They entered the hall and the guards took positions in and around the building.
The mare at the front desk looked shocked to see what would appear to be a military invasion. Shadowheart walked over to her and motioned the guards that followed him to step away.

"Ma'am. I'm looking for a purple earth pony with a pet jackalope that moved here recently?
Do you know here I can find him?"

The mare looked at Shadowheart then to his sword, "I hope nothing has happened to him and Corona or by Celestia Bud Light."

"Corona? Bud Light?" Twilight asked. 

The elderly mare looked at Twilight and replied with a bow, "Why yes princess, Fire Heart and Corona had become a couple while working at the bar together. Bud Light is Corona's son.
The three of them have been working together in tough times and Fire Heart and Corona have been inseparable for a while now. Please, if this helps here is his address."

She scribbled the address down on a piece of paper and passed it to Shadowheart.

"Thank you miss..." Shadowheart began.

She spoke up, "I'm FrontDesk. If there is anything else I can do to help just ask."

"Will do." he replied as he turned to leave.

Twilight and the others followed him closely behind leaving no more than a five hoof gap between anypony in the formation. As they walked down the dirt road they had drawn a crowd that seemed to follow out of curiosity of either the guards around the Alicorn, Princess Twilight in the middle, or the unicorn in the front with the sword. Twilight noticed some police ponies approaching them from the sides. Shadowheart stopped and looked to a large red unicorn just a few inches taller than Big Macintosh with a hat that looked like Applejack’s resting on his head. The guards stepped in between him and Shadowheart.

"Stay where you are." one said.

The red pony stopped in front of them blocking their path with the other law ponies.

"What is the meaning of this. Why are you here?" he asked with a slightly annoyed look.

"We are here on a pony hunt for Prince Cassius. If you interfere then you will be immediately detained and tried for treason. Now step aside." a royal guard stated. 

The pony stepped back with hesitation and an angry scowl. He grudgingly Stepped aside to allow them passage. They continued to an average looking large two story house that had the address on the paper. Shadowheart told everypony to look for a purple earth pony with dark red sunglasses and a burning heart as a cutie mark. The guards dispersed and began the search. Pinkie Pie hopped out of sight which made Shadowheart uncomfortable. Twilight flew into the air for a birds eye view, Shadowheart approached the door and gave it a knock with his hoof. After a moment he heard a shuffling in the house. Another knock and the door slowly opened and revealed a small jackalope was waving to him. 

With a smile he said, "Hi Jackie. It's been a while. Where is Fire?"

Jackie pointed to the staircase in the very blue house. Outside it was the normal design for a Ponyville home, but it was very blue on the inside. Well that was his favorite color, Shadowheart thought. He walked up the stairs and heard a loud scream from the bedroom. Shadowheart drew Dragonslayer and charged the door. He slammed through it  with his horn glowing and Dragonslayer pointed straight out in an attack stance. Another scream greeted him followed by a scramble in the room for the occupants.

"What the Hell!? Shadowheart!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" yelled a purple earth pony with sunglasses. 

He was laying in bed under the covers of the blanket with a unicorn mare who covered herself up to her muzzle, both were blushing furiously. Shadowheart was stunned with a blank expression on his muzzle as his face turned bright red instead of its normal white, He turned around letting his front legs go limp and without another word walked on his hind legs letting Dragonslayer drag on the floor and walked out of the room closing the mangled door behind him with his magic.
A few minutes later the purple earth pony came down the stairs with the mare he was sleeping with. Shadowheart was sitting in a chair in the kitchen still with the same look as before and still letting Dragonslayer hang from the clamp that held it to his hoof. Jacky was waving her little arms around and occasionally slapping him to try and snap him out of the shock. He just looked ahead with a blank stare.

"Corona, I'm sorry about that, but I need to talk to Shadowheart. I will see you at the bar ok?" the earth pony said to the Corona.

"I will be waiting for you there."- She leaned in and kissed him on the lips before whispering in his ear. -"Don't be long." 

She trotted out passing Twilight and giving her a quick bow before exiting the house. The earth pony bowed when he saw Twilight. She returned the gesture and noticed Shadowheart in the chair.

"Are you Fire Heart?" she asked.

"I am and you are princess...?" he asked letting the hint sink in.

"Just call me Twilight. Um... What happened to Shadowheart? He looked like he saw a ghost." she said walking next to him.

"Um... I wouldn't say that. But he is in shock."- Fire Heart walked over to him. -"Shadow? You home buddy." He waved a hoof in front of his face. 

"I have an idea." Twilight said. 

She walked outside. Fire Heart was confused but took this opportunity he was given. He walked over and turned to Shadowheart's chair to face him. Fire heart looked around to make sure he was the only other pony in the room. When he was satisfied, he removed his sunglasses to reveal his dark purple dragon eyes. He looked Shadowheart in his hazel green eyes and blew a smoke ring him his face. Shadowheart began to cough at the sudden lack of breathable air.
Fire Heart smiled and placed his sunglasses back on.

"Shadow, We never speak of what you saw to anypony. Alright?" said the smiling dragon pony. 

Shadowheart nodded while trying to clear out his burning lungs. Twilight walked in with Pinkie Pie and the two approached them. 

"How did you get him to snap out of it." asked the purple Alicorn.

"I'm an old friend of his. I know how to push his buttons." He said smiling even bigger.
"So what brings you here?"

"Well, Shadowheart is trying to help me find Prince Cassius. A bad dream made him want to find you." Twilight said.

"I think he ate some bad food at the castle. Wait, if he did then Princess Celestia would have eaten the same bad food too. Twilight, we have to warn Celestia her meal is poisoned! Her number hasn't been drawn yet!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she galloped out of the house. 

"Pinkie Pie, where are you going?" Twilight called as she chased after her pink friend.

"Well Shadow, you know how to really pick your special someponies." Fire heart said trying to hold in his laughter.

"Neither of them are my special somepony." the white unicorn replied as he got off the chair.

"Well that's a shame. Now what brought you to find me after all of your searching? Did you finally kill him?" Fire Heart asked with a hint of excitement.

Shadowheart shook his head, "No, he still breathes, I came here because of him though. Um.. Do you mind if I have a drink?" 

Fire Heart walked over to his refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of tea and placed on the table. He poured a cup and passed it to Shadowheart. The white unicorn slowly sipped the cup savoring every bit of it. 

Fire Heart smiled as he leaned against a wall, "You always did saver your drinks. So what happened?"

Shadowheart explained why he was hired by the princesses of Equestria. He told Fire Heart about his time with Twilight, the attack from Pinkamena or Pinkie Pie, he wasn't sure what was wrong with her,and his dream about Flamearch and Cassius. When he got to the part about Crystal Glare's predictions coming true, Fire heart nearly fell over from shock.

"Wait, the Dark Libra incident was the first sign? Damn it, then Flamearch is the controller and Prince Cassius is the Nocturnal Guardian reborn?" Fire Heart asked.

Shadowheart nodded, "Will you help me Fire Heart. This is more than me or Flamearch now. This could be the end of us."

Fire heart glared at him for a moment. A faint smirk broke the serious expression on his muzzle.

"Now if I left you to die alone, where would I find a replacement for your sorry flank.
Count me in to the end Shadowheart. I never go back on my word and you know I don't leave friends to die." 

Shadowheart closed his eyes and quietly said, "Thank you."- he looked over to Fire Heart. -"Lets find Cassius and stop all of this before it gets out of control." 

The two left after Fire Heart had Jackie jumped on his back and locked his house.
He was going to have Corona watch her while he was away and spend what was left of his night with her before leaving with Shadowheart tomorrow.

**************************************************************

Flamearch sat in his chair, the event of the night before left little Cassius drained from all the excitement. From his reaction to Flamearch after their adventure in the dream realm, he would say that the little unicorn was considering him a friend rather than a pony who took him from his mother and was using him to get back at another for his family's deaths. Flamearch had decided to send two of his best assassins to try and kill off Shadowheart while he was busy.
This was probably a waste of time, but he knew they would return with news of some kind if they failed. He leaned back in his chair and watched Liz go to town on the journal and taking notes on Cassius as he slept. Anything for your research ay Liz, he thought.

**********************************************************************

Gold and Sparky had boarded a train to Hoofsville as per Flamearch's instructions. Gold was an average sized earth pony with a black mane and tail and bright yellow coat. His right eye was a very dark blue and left was a sightless, milky grey that had a scar running from the top of it, all the way down to his muzzle and his cutie mark was a bloody dagger. He had his katana that sat inside a hilt that was made to look like a bronze dragon. He sat across from Sparky in the train car with it held tightly in his hooves. Sparky was a slightly shorter than average pegasus.
He had a black coat with a Mohawk mane that was blue with a yellow streak in it. He had yellow eyes and his cutie mark was a microphone with an electric bolts around it. He sat there playing with headphones and a music device of his own creation listening to Vinyl Scratch's latest song. The two unlikely partners were longtime friends and had known each other since they were foals. Sparky being the fun loving jester with the targets and Gold the ruthless killer with the ones that got in the way. They always got their targets no matter the cost or any life that were unnecessarily thrown away, because they wanted to be a hero. 

"Gold. You still itching to kill Liz?" Sparky asked in a louder than necessary voice.

"Keep your voice down you idiot." Gold hissed.

Sparky stopped his music and leaned in, "Ok, but are you?"

Gold shook his head, "Not any more. I was being... unreasonable. After all it was just a sandwich. No need to kill a friend over."

"But, it had mayonnaise in it."  the black pegasus chimed.

Gold shot up and slashed the couch Sparky was on with his sword and growled, "I HATE mayonnaise!"

"Hay, dolt. Volume control." Sparky said while laughing.

"Why you..." Gold began as the train began to decelerate. 

Sparky immediately stopped laughing and got up. The two walked off the train without another word. Their mission was officially on and there was no time to play around. They headed to the town hall to try and get information on where Shadowheart was. Flamearch had given them a detailed description of him and told them he was going to Hoofsville. What he didn't tell them was where he would go in the town. After a few hours of asking around and getting the same answer of him with guards and an Alicorn princess. They met with her and asked where he was.
She has asked what they wanted and they told her they were friends of his that wanted to help in any way they could. To their luck she believed them and told them he was at the bar, the only place they didn't look. The bar had a lack of guards around which was good for them.
They entered to the sight of a group of very loud ponies singing and participating in a variety of drinking games. Across the stage was a karaoke stand and an open microphone.

"Time to work my magic. Find Shadowheart Gold, I'll go for the kill when you get him in the open." Sparky said walking to the machine.

Gold surveyed the bar from the back wall near the door. Eventually he found his mark at the bar itself. He was talking with the owner and a purple earth pony behind the counter. He also noticed a young unicorn stallion mixing drinks with his magic.Gold closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He would rather do the killing than get cozy with the target. That was usually Sparky's job, but he probably wanted to show off and have a little fun.
He deserved it after taking down the dragon that nearly killed Gold a few weeks ago.
Still he hated crowds, and this was too much too fast. He needed to keep cool and get this over with. Gold walked over to the bar. He heard Shadowheart say something about the little unicorn being Corona's son. From the gesture he gave, Gold figured it was the unicorn owner he was talking about. He began to close the gap as the karaoke machine began to play and Sparky began to sing like a professional. 

"The unneeded meaning of start and end"

Gold decided to ditch the plan and go for the kill. He hated crowds as much as mayonnaise if not a little more.

"To the disappearance of this soul"

He drew his sword.

"Who remembers characters?"

Gold Charged Shadowheart who was looking at Sparky.

"From the window of madness. Goodbye"

Gold went in for the killing blow.

"Hello, myself"

Shadowheart ducked and landed a blow to Gold's ribs with his left hoof.

"Haven't we met before?"

Fire Heart told everypony to run.

"Goodbye, yourself"

An arch of electricity shot from Sparky's hoof as he sang and it struck the door.

"So, want to talk?" He continued to sing like nothing happened.

Shadowheart drew Dragonslayer from his side and slashed at Gold.

"iNSaNiTY. Like floating on air"

Gold parried and kicked him in the side.

"PSYCHoPaTHY,A carefree life

Fire Heart ran and kicked the back door's opened to let everypony escape.

"iNSaNiTY. An illusion that can't end"

Shadowheart and Gold were striking swords left and right. Neither could land a hit one another.

"CaPTiViTY. Unable to run away"

Fire Heart galloped to Shadow and kicked Gold in the side. The earth pony staggered while still parrying Shadowheart.

"iNSaNiTY. Like floating on air"

Sparky launched another arch of lightning at Fire Heart.

"PSYCHoPaTHY. A carefree life"

The purple earth pony jumped behind the counter while Shadowheart continued to fight off Gold with every swing of his sword.

"iNSaNiTY. An illusion that can't end"

Shadowheart fired a dark energy bolt at the pegasus on the stage as he finally got a hit on Gold's back

"CaPTiViTY! Like the corruption is continuing" He sang while ducking to avoid the ball of death.

The black pegasus fired another arch at Shadowheart and threw a throwing knife at Fire Heart who stuck his head out from behind the counter, but quickly retreated back.

"The discovered conclusion, disappearing. Outlines fading to black"

Fire heart had enough of this singing. He shot up and spat a continuous stream of fire from his mouth.

"In the darkness, there's no such thing thing as light. From the inside of madness, goodbye"

Gold stomped a hoof into the ground and a wall of earth shot up and blocked the fire.

"Hello, myself. Haven't we met before? Goodbye, yourself. So, want to talk?"

Sparky let his grin drop and he charged an orb of energy between his hoofs. Gold had managed to find an opening in Shadowheart's stance and slashed his right foreleg.

"iNSaNiTY. Like floating on air. PSYCHoPaTHY. A carefree life. iNSaNiTY. An illusion that can't end."

Fire Heart was starting to burn through the wall of earth when it exploded into shards from the other side. Sparky had sent the orb to him and was trying to kill him with the bits of electrified earth.

"CaPTiViTY, Unable to run away, iNSaNiTY, Like floating on air, PSYCHoPaTHY, A carefree life, iNSaNiTY, An illusion that can't end, CaPTiViTY, Like the corruption is continuing"

Shadowheart used his magic to try and bind Gold, but the earth pony was surprisingly stronger then he looked and was able break of the attack.

Suddenly another voice began to sing, "Hey, haven't we met somewhere in the past? Hey, you're special to me, I want to talk to you! Hey, what time is it? What's today? I don't know. Hey! It would be great if we completely forgot"

All four stopped and looked to the open doors of the main entrance.

"iNSaNiTY, It's like floating on air, PSYCHoPaTHY, A carefree life, iNSaNiTY, Dark? Light?, iNSaNiTY, iNSaNiTY"

A dark mist covered mare walked in on her hind legs holding a Nerrix blade and a demented smile clearly visible from the black mist that consumed her.

Sparky sang the next line, "sAnIty,Can't see the dark already"

She quicken her pace, "pUrIty, The days are longer"

Gold went for another blow on Shadowheart.

"sAnIty, But that also must sink"

Before his blade could hit the distracted unicorn the Nerrix blade caught it.

"sAnIty... WHAT IS THAT!?"

Pinkamena slashed up giving Shadowheart his opening. He charged and stabbed Gold in the stomach.

"GOLD!" Sparky shouted.

Fire Heart slammed into Sparky and began to shoot more fire at point blank range. The black pegasus used his mastery of his gift to create a stunning field around him to not only deflect the fire but shocked Fire Heart. Shadowheart pulled his sword out and went for the killing blow.
Gold blocked it with his sword and slashed at both of them nearly removing Pinkamena's head. She sidestepped and ducked bringing her blade up and parrying the bombardment of slashes from the enraged earth pony. Shadowheart ran to help Fire Heart believing Gold was out of his league with the pink psychopath. As he got to them Fire Heart was sent into the air by an detonation of the electric barrier. Sparky stood on his hind legs with two hidden blades that were about the length of his own legs. Shadowheart could see that the blades where collapsible which explained how they were the length they were. This was going to be a fight to the death and for once he was glad to have Pinkamena at his side.
> More Questions Without Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fire Heart's head was pounding. He could barely move and all of the sounds that came from the fighting around him were muffled. He tried as hard as he could to get up or even open his eyes, but his body refused to listen to his mental commands. He could hear some pony yelling at him from a distance.

"FIRE HEART, MOVE!", It was Shadowheart. 

Using most of his strength, Fire Heart opened his eyes for an instant and saw the black pegasus lunging at him from a table with a large blade that came from a device from his hooves. Fire Heart was unable to get his body to move out of the way, so he braced for the impact.
Without warning his bodies natural instinct kicked in and a loud cracking sound was heard before a pair of drake wings sprouted and began to flap pushing him out of the harms way.
He hit his head on the bar and opened his eyes as he rubbed his now aching and pounding head. He saw a blur that turned into Shadowheart catching Sparky in the side with Dragonslayer when he hit the ground where Fire Heart was only a moment ago. The hit sent Shadowheart and Sparky into the nearest wall forcing Dragonslayer to go through the black pegasi's right wing pinning him. Fire Heart's head finally cleared and he noticed Pinkamena had slipped past Gold and slashed his legs, trying to get him to fall. She walked over to him thinking he was going to drop at any moment. The earth pony could see she was getting cocky. He slammed his sword into the ground and leaned on it. Pinkamena smiled and casually walked over to him raising Nerrix to remove his scarred head. With a smile he suddenly punched her in the head when she was close enough. She spun around once then fell over a broken table, laying on the ground
The pink pony slipped into unconsciousness from the devastating blow. A yelp sounded from Sparky while he was trying to get free of Dragonslayer, but all he was doing was ripping his wing. Gold looked over to see Shadowheart who was charging a spell and dodging random attacks from Sparky. The black pegasus was sending electrical bolts and swinging his arms trying to hit the white unicorn.

"Leave him ALONE!" Gold shouted.

The large earth pony charged at Shadowheart with a murderous intent. His sword was pointed at the white unicorn that stood in front of Sparky. Just before Shadowheart could remove Dragonslayer he stopped and teleported to Fire Heart with the sword just a few feet from him.
In Gold's rage he couldn't stop in time and stabbed Sparky through the side. The black pegasus let out a howl of agony as the sword passed through him and embedded itself into the wall. Shadowheart and Fire Heart rushed the large earth pony. Shadowheart speared him in the spine with his horn whole Fire Heart flew over him and slammed his hoofs into Gold's head.
Their combined force toppled Gold knocking him on top of Shadowheart. The white unicorn struggled to remove himself from the now unconscious pony. He soon managed to free himself and took a quick look at the room. He saw the bar in shambles, several tables and by the entrance were on fire, there were two unconscious ponies on the ground and a dying pegasus in the wall. Nothing out of the ordinary when it came to Shadowheart's life. He charged a spell and fired it at Sparky knocking him out and hopefully keeping him like that for several hours.
Using his magic, he removed Gold’s sword and levitated the killer pegasus to the ground, then he began to heal some of his more fatal wounds.

"Why are you helping him? He was trying to kill us!" Fire Heart yelled as his new wings twitched with anger.

"Because Fire, he was hired by Flamearch. He knows where to find him, If he dies, then we will be looking for years if we even find him in that time." Shadowheart said calmly. "So, you have wings. I guess you aren't as... uptight as I thought."

"What does that mean?" Fire heart asked seeing the unmistakable sight of one of the rarest things he will ever see, Shadowheart smiling.

"I never would have thought that you would consummated with a bar keeper."  the white unicorn said with a snicker.

Fire Heart turned bright red, "Well... at least I love her. And what about you? A princess and a pink earth pony with a personality problem? Somepony can’t make up his mind."

Shadowheart finished his healing and walked over to Pinkamena and began a spell that allowed him to check for abnormalities in her. 

"I told you, I have not found my special...", he stopped and raised an eyebrow.

"What? What did you find?" Fire Heart asked taking a step closer.

"Fire Heart, can you put out the fires while i take care of something?" Shadowheart muttered.

With the realization of the bar being on fire the now dragon pony flew into action filling a bucket with water and putting out the flames. Shadowheart went back to his spell. He felt a fracture in Pinkie Pie's soul. It was a few years old, but it was strong enough to split her into two different ponies. He could feel the emotions of both personalities fighting for control. One was a sweet and innocent soul that didn't know of the others existence. The one that was formed from the fracture was a very tormented, ruthless, and intelligent one that fought for its freedom and control of the body. He could only guess this was Pinkamena herself. He could also feel the presence of magic from both souls as well. Pinkamena held the shadow powers he saw first hoof, Pinkie Pie on the other hoof held a magic that even he didn't understand let alone attempt to bind.
This gave Shadowheart an idea that may have him executed in the end, but he was going to do it. He placed a barrier around himself and Pinkie Pie's body. Fire Heart put the last of the flames out and looked up to see Dragonslayer levitating to Shadowheart. It stopped above Pinkie Pie and slipped past the barrier hovering inches from her chest.

Fire Heart galloped over, "Shadow, what are you doing?"

The white pony ignored him and continued his spell.

"Shadowheart, What are you doing!? She helped us! Put the barrier down and walk away!" Fire Heart yelled as he banged a hoof on the walls of the invisible blockade of magic.

"Hold it Shadowheart! You can't do that yet!" called a voice.

Both of them looked to it's source. A white maned silver unicorn walked in the bar with an unconscious orange pegasus pony on his back. Fire Heart's jaw fell and Shadowheart dropped the barrier allowing him to enter with his friend. The unicorn levitated the second pony over to Pinkie Pie. A glyph appeared on the ground around them and it lit up when he stepped into it.

"Fire Heart, please step back." he asked in a calm voice. 

Fire Heart did as he was asked without a word. The barrier burst to life in a gold color. 

"Where did you get that pegasus?" Shadowheart asked.

"I intercepted her when she was... never mind. That is a story for another day Shadow. Right now we have work to do."

Fire Heart was dumbfounded, "How could you have known we would be here?"

The unicorn turned to face him and simply replied, "That is a tale for another day Fire Heart.
I have little time before she dies. I would like to keep as much of her alive as I can."

He went back to his magic. The two unicorns began to make the glyph glow brighter and brighter until it was blinding and Fire Heart had to look away. The light eventually faded and two dizzy unicorns fell out of the circle.

"Crystal Glare, what did you do?" Fire Heart said walking to them.

Crystal Glare rubbed his eyes, "I helped fix the fractured minds of a pegasus and party addict. Speaking of, you two should attend one of her parties when you get the chance. I only have had the pleasure to attend one myself, but it was rather lovely. I got to see my dear sweet Celestia again. When she saw me however i was nearly sent to the moon again. You know how hectic lovers quarreler can be. Though we aren't really lovers... yet."

"Focus Crystal. Why did you help Shadowheart do whatever he just did?" Fire Heart asked helping the two to their hooves.

"Oh, well I kind of nearly got her killed and needed her back."- Crystal Glare began spinning his hooves around and swaying from left to right before pointing one to the orange pegasus. -"The pink one, I helped get her mind in check and kind of took the powers she was given and gave it to the pegasus." He said, starting walking backwards toward the door.

Shadowheart stepped forward, "Wait!"

Crystal Glare stopped and looked into the white unicorns eyes, "Yes, Shadowheart?" 

Shadowheart cleared his throat, "Why are you leaving her here? Why are you here? You only show up if things are at their worst."

Crystal Glare smiled, "Yes I am. She is a gift from me to you. Her name is Xilas. She is your salvation when you confront Flamearch and his new friend Cassius Nightshade."

"New friend?"Fire Heart asked.

"Yes. Flamearch has convinced Cassius he is avenging his family and he needs his help to kill you. The young guardian believed it and now you need Sereen and Xilas at your side. Oh and you need to get an... a... um... a dragon... named Melandrog Vrolthein." Crystal Glare began to trail off. - "You know what, I will get him and send him to you when you need his help. I wish you the best of luck, but I have a date with Celestia. Well more of a meeting."

The white unicorn walked out of the bar muttering to himself leaving Shadowheart and Fire Heart with four unconscious ponies and more questions that needed answers. Shadowheart turned around to find Gold was missing. 

"That makes three." He mumbled to himself.
****************************************************************

Flamearch had Jara prepared the food for dinner service. The main hall smelled of cooking stew and fresh steamed vegetables. Cassius was playing with Liz as they waited for the food to be ready. In a way Flamearch felt right about the sight of her playing with him. He actually felt happy to see them like that. It reminded him of his mother, Father, and Shadowheart. He slammed a hoof on his chair cracking the wood. He was hoping Gold and Sparky would return soon with some news. A moment passed and nothing happened.

"Damn, I thought that would work." he grumbled.

"What's wrong Flamearch, You look down." Liz called from her spot at the dining table.

"I'm just thinking Liz. How is your research coming?" Flamearch replied.

Liz got up and walked out of the room. Cassius was smiling at Flamearch from his seat. His multi colored eyes were fixed on him. Flamearch felt uncomfortable under the stare and began to fidget. The door opened up and Liz flew in with the journal under her. She placed in on the table in front of Flamearch.

"I had to read a Story for Cassius last night. When I, did I found this entry on something called the Elements of Chaos. I kept reading in this journal and I found it is the only one in the world to make any reference to them. They are supposed to rival the Elements of Harmony in every way possible." Liz explained.

"Well, where are they?" Flamearch asked in pure joy. 

Liz grimaced and looked over to Cassius who kept smiling at them.

"What's wrong Lizzy? You never have that look unless it's bad news." Flamearch felt his joy slowly dying.

"Flamearch, you have to promise me that you won't take them by force." she asked with a pleading look on her muzzle.

Flamearch laid back in his chair with an amused smirk, "Ok? I promise."

"Say the words." Liz immediately snapped.

Flamearch raised his hooves, "OK, ok  I promise I won't take the Elements of Chaos by force. Now will you please tell me where they are?"

"We have had them the whole time." Liz whispered softly.

"WHAT!?" Flamearch shot out of his chair. "Where!?"

Liz looked down, "His eyes."

The fire red unicorn looked confused for a moment, "Liz, please make sense.

She took a deep breath, "The Elements of Chaos are Cassius's eyes. He is the living embodiment of them."

Flamearch began to chuckle as he fell back in his chair, "You are messing with me. Well I needed a good laugh."

Liz slammed a hoof on the table making Cassius jump, "I'm dead serious. He is everything you wanted. The journal also said he is the only pony in existence that can even control it."

"Are you trying to protect him or does it say that?" Flamearch said through gritted teeth.

She pointed out the entry and sure enough the book told of a pony Cassius tried to give the power of the elements to. The pony was vaporized from the overabundance of energy. Flamearch gulped and forced himself to calm down. Jara entered the chamber with a pot of stew on a serving table. She started to pass bowls to each seat as she made her way around the dining table. Liz walked back to her seat and sat next to Cassius. Jara placed a warm bowl of stew in front of Flamearch. A few carrots floated past some hay in the center. After a few minutes everypony in the fort was eating in the room at benches and other smaller tables.
The large doors swung open and a battered Gold limped into the room with a thin trail of dripping blood behind him. Two pegasi flew with medical bags to him. If Gold wasn't tired from his long walk back he would have pushed them off of him. Instead he sat in a vacant seat and laid back. Flamearch got up from his seat and made his way to the earth pony.

"Gold, where is Sparky?"

The earth pony looked at him with his blind eye, "Captured or dead." A tear fell from his eyes but he quickly whipped it away.

Flamearch spammed a hoof on the stone floor, "What happened? What did you see?"

Gold explained the events at the bar and the ponies he saw. 

"That damn pink pony! She has Cassius' magic!" Flamearch snorted. "Shadowheart recruited his half dragon friend Fire Heart too. Then there is Crystal. I need to speak with him later. Did you hear the name of the pegasus he left with them?"

"Xilas" Gold said through gritted teeth as one of the medics tightened a bandage around his leg.

"Xilas...Salvation." Flamearch whispered in astonishment.

He turned to face his followers, "Everypony, we have preparations to make! Tomorrow we awaken the Nocturnal Guardian and his unlimited power!" 

The fort went into an uproar. Ponies banged their hooves on the tables in unison as they shouted and hollered in joy. 

Liz walked over to Flamearch, "Are you sure you should do this?" 

"It's time Lizzy, I make my move and finish what he started. Now lets get some rest. Tomorrow will be a big day. I will have Cassius get his own chambers for the night and we can go to ours." Flamearch nipped at Liz's neck as he lead her to their room. 

She let him guide her, but not before looking back to Cassius and waving to him. He waved back and walked off to some other room but not before asking a guard to read an entry in the book.
A look from Liz told him he would or he would have to face Flamearch's wrath. The last thing she saw before leaving to go up some stairs, was the guard running to the book. She was happy to know Cassius would be in capable hooves for the night.

*******************************************************

Luna was drifting in the dream realm looking for any signs of Cassius and the pony he was with last night. She found a brand new hall that read "Fort Faithless." She had never seen this hall before or even heard of this fort. She was sure Cassius gave this location it's own hall to tell her he was there. She entered and found hundreds of doors with names of ponies she had never heard of.

"Mommy!" called a voice behind her.

Luna turned to see Cassius galloping to her. She hesitated for a moment, but then galloped to him and met him halfway. The two embraced in a hug that lasted for several minutes. Neither of them could keep from shedding tear of joy at their reunion.

"Cassius, where are you?" Luna asked holding him tighter.

"I'm safe. I'm with Miss, Lizzy and Mr, Flamearch at the fort. I missed you so much." Cassius said as he gasped for air in between sobs.

"Luna rubbed his back to comfort him, "Do you know where the fort is?"

The young unicorn buried his muzzle him her coat, "No, but outside the fort is the badlands."

Luna lifted Cassius's head, "Tell me how you have been little one. I want to know what you have been through."

Cassius spent the night telling his mother about his fun with Liz and his adventures and games with Flamearch. From the sound of it, he admired Flamearch unless he was angry, but Cassius loved to be with Liz and help her with her studies. The whole night Luna listened to him and took pride to know he was been treated well. She was however going to get him back soon and kill any pony in her way. She just needed to find Fort Faithless.
> Trust In Me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna stormed into the throne room and made her way to Celestia. She stopped when she saw Constance singing with Sereen as Celestia watched intently on her throne. The yellow unicorn had her leg and part of her chest in bandages, but she seemed to stand just fine from a far.

Luna slowly approached as the two were finishing their song.

"All the days wither into night.", Constance sang.

"And moon with be your light!" Sereen finished.

Both Celestia and Luna clapped their hooves together. Constance and Sereen looked to Luna while Celestia turned her head and gave her a warm smile. Constance slowly walked over to the princess of the night, with Sereen following beside her. Both of them shared a very sad look that made Luna feel uncomfortable.

Sereen stepped in front of Constance, "I'm sorry mommy, this is my fault. If I didn't read the book, Cassius would still be in the castle with us and Constance wouldn't have been attacked."

She started to cry but Constance rubbed her back with a hoof, "She has been like this ever since I came back from the hospital. I have spent all my day trying to cheer her up."

Luna gave Sereen a hug and whispered to her, "It isn't your fault my dear. Don't blame yourself for any of this." Luna looked to Constance and Celestia while still holding Sereen in her hooves.
"I found him in the dream realm today."

Celestia got out of her chair, taking a step closer as Sereen looked into Luna's eyes with a gleam of joy in her own.

"Well? How is he doing?" Constance said with excitement at the great news.

Luna's gaze drifted as she thought of a way to tell them, "He is being taken care of. From what he told me, he is sanctuary having fun with some pegasus pony named Lizzy and a Fire red unicorn called Flamearch." - Constance looked down in anger as she gently rubbed her foreleg in the wrappings. - "Lizzy is taking very good care of Cassius and even reads to him when he is ready to go to sleep for the day. Flamearch plays games with him and makes some of his meals before the teaches him some of his magic and Flamearch teaches Cassius magic from his home."

Celestia closed her eyes, "We need to get to him before it is too late. We need to give Twilight and Shadowheart a location. Luna do you know where he is?"

"Fort Faithless. Tia, I have never heard of such a place but Cassius said it looked like it was in the badlands." Luna said slowly releasing Sereen who had stopped crying.

Opening her eyes Celesta took a step closer, "Luna, now we have a a general area to look in.
I will send a message to Twilight and tell her she needs to go to the badlands and look for this, Fort Faithless." 

The goddess of the sun walked off to her study. Luna looked to Constance with a smile at her pleasant and unexpected return to the castle. Constance looked to Sereen whose muzzle burst with a large grin at the thought of her sons return.

*****************************************************

Liz had spent the night with Flamearch in their chamber together. She couldn't remember the last time they did that together, because the last few months she had been staying up late into the night with her work while Flamearch trained his men. Liz was the first of the two to get up and begin the preparations for what he had planned. She looked to the bed to see her lover still asleep in the blankets.

"When your are ready Flamearch, I will have everypony gathered in the courtyard.
You may sleep as long as you need to." She whispered to him before kissing his forehead.

Liz donned her glasses and lab coat before leaving the room and headed to what was once the library, but was converted slightly to house Cassius. 

She knocked on the door and heard a reply," Come in."

Liz opened the door and found the same guard from last night playing a game with Cassius as they sat on the floor. Both of them looked tired. From what she saw the guard would have to guess what Cassius was thinking and if he got it right Cassius would use his magic to bring it to life for a moment using shadows. Liz was amazed at his talent and skill used to manipulate the shadows around the room.

The guard looked over to Liz and shot up and saluted, "Liz, What are you doing here?"

Liz spoke with a playful smile, "I'm here to give you leave, go to bed if you need to. I will take it from here."

The guard nodded and walked out of the room leaving Liz with Cassius who was resting with the journal on a bed that was placed in the library which was also Liz's lab. She walked over to Cassius and sat in front of him looking at the page in the journal he was reading to give him ideas for his game. The entry was one of the last in the book. In fact it was the last entry in old Equestrian. Liz knew the next page would tell him everything about his past and that would be devastating for him and Flamearch if he found out about the Dark Libra events. Liz pulled the journal away from him causing Cassius to groan in a mixture of disappointment and minor annoyance. 

"Oh don't be so sad Cassius. Did he read to you?" Liz asked.

With a yawn Cassius replied, "He tried, but he couldn't understand the words so I read to him."

Liz raised an eyebrow, "What did you read?" 

The little unicorn jumped up with excitement, "It was the story of when my mommy and the other Cassius played a game of hide and seek. It was a long game that ended a year before I was born. My mom finally won, but he died after the game. Or that is what mommy told me."

Liz flinched at the thought of what the entry might have said. Last night she was visited by Princess Luna herself in what the journal called the dream realm. At first the princess of the night was angry about them taking Cassius away and demanded the location of the fort. Liz told her she didn't know the exact location herself and after a while of convincing she eventually believed Liz's lie. They had talked for a few hours in her dream and Luna had made her promise to keep Cassius from reading the last entries in the journal. She warned her that if he read them, if Cassius didn't kill her Luna would.

The entry was the trigger for the memory Locks that Queen Rosetta herself had placed.
This was the most powerful of magic in existence and with that trigger it would unleash either the caring Nocturnal Guardian  or the destructive force of Cassius Nightshade. Liz would try and keep this promise for as long as possible. He life depended on it. Liz was about to speak when Flamearch entered the room.

With a smile he spoke, "Its time to get to work my dear. Cassius would you mind coming with me for a little bit? I have a fun new game for you that I'm just dying to play." 

Flamearch walked out as he let out a little chuckle. Liz had a worried look on her muzzle. She had never seen Flamearch act this way unless somepony was going to die by Ragnarok's blaze. Cassius trotted past her and followed him out. Liz quickly grabbed the journal and flew after the two. 

**********************************************************

Flamearch had gathered everypony in the fort outside in the courtyard at the training platform. They crowded around as Cassius and Flamearch stood in the center of the ring of living ponies. Liz flew up and hovered just above them to get a good look at what he was planning. 

Flamearch paced around addressing his followers, " Everypony! Cassius and I are going to play a little game! We are going to see which one of us is the most skilled in magic! We will try to outdo each other using any of the spells we know!" - He turned to Cassius. -"Are you ready little one?"- Cassius nodded. -"Good, now a few rules, One, no attack spells on each other. We will have dummies for that. Two, if you lose control of a spell it doesn't count. Three, we go one at a time."- Cassius nodded in confirmation. "Good. Liz, Take notes will you!" Shouted Flamearch.

"Can I go first?" Cassius asked.

"Be my guest." Replied the fire red unicorn.

Cassius jumped up and began to concentrate on a spell. His horn began to glow a dark blue and in the blink of an eye he used a chain teleportation spell. He disappeared and reappeared repetitively until he was a few feet in front of Flamearch. The red unicorn smiled and stepped back. With a flash of his horn, he burst into flames. Cassius jumped back from the sudden temperature change. Flamearch trotted around with his head held high as he gloated.
Cassius's horn glowed again as he stared at Flamearch in annoyance. The flames around Flamearch began to distort. They turned black and flew to Cassius forming a ball above his head. The shadow flame swirled around in the air for a moment before Cassius lowered them and rested on the ground next to him.

Flamearch looked on expecting more before Cassius spoke, "It's your turn."

Flamearch was taken back for a moment but eventually took his turn anyway. He lifted his hoof and slammed it on the ground. The stone of the platform cracked and chipped around him giving way to small eruptions of fire that blasted it's way up into the open air. The fire formed a dome and engulfed Flamearch. After a minute a barrier of red magic formed and covered the explosion of flames that came from the detonation of his fire barrier. The blast shattered the magical wall into a fine dust that faded in the light as a shock wave that pushed everypony back and almost knocked Liz out of the sky. The crowd stood, awestruck at the sight. From the epicenter stood Flamearch grinning on scorched glass. Cassius just looked on as he wiped some dust from his muzzle. The ball of shadows began to slowly move toward the crowd of ponies. Onlookers watched as it rolled around the circle before jumping into the air. The ball grew twice it's previous size and slammed into Cassius shattering the stone. Everypony leaned in and waited for what they thought would be a pool of blood. Even Liz tried to fly in to help in any way she could but a massive barrier of gold magic stopped her. Everypony looked to a silver unicorn that sat on the wall watching the game.

"Crystal Glare!?" Flamearch shouted giving a small bow. "What are you doing here now?" 

"Waiting to see the real winner of your game." He replied crossing his forelegs as they dangled over the wall edge.

Flamearch quickly looked at the impact area of the black ball. The orb was standing still in the small crater it made, the shadows still moving inside the ball. Liz looked on from her point in the sky. The orb of shadows receded and the shape of a large unicorn began to stand inside of it. The shadows clung to its flesh as a large pair of wings spread from its body. Flamearch took a step back as multi colored eyes stared into his soul.

"You fear me?" it spoke in a low raspy voice.
"I can see it in you eyes. Do you think I will harm you?

Flamearch was suddenly unable to move. He figured it's stare must have been holding him in place. The remaining shadows vanished revealing Cassius had taken the form of the Nocturnal Guardian. In his panic Flamearch's horn began to glow and he fired off a spell that created a tornado of pure fire around Cassius. With quick thinking Cassius slammed a hoof in the ground and a wall of black shadows erupted from the earth creating a dome that sealed the tornado and Cassius inside. Flamearch was able to move his body again with the eye contact broken. He fell on his flank and gasped for air. Liz flew to his side and wrapped her forelegs around him then kissed him. 

"Don't scare me like that again." she said hugging him tightly. 

Flamearch kept his eyes on the dome as it swayed with the tornado. To his horror it began to crack and flames vented out of every passage they could. Flamearch wished he didn't use the spell because he no longer had control of it. All he could do was protect himself and hopefully Liz from the flames if the tornado didn't die inside the dome. There was a cry of pain from inside the massive barrier as the shadows began to fade like steam. In an instant the dome detonated sending everypony in all directions. Smoke and bits of earth and glass were sent flying as the ground shook from the force of the contained explosion. Crystal Glare was knocked over and fell on his back on the stone walkway of the wall. He heard a scream underneath him. Liz was pulling on Flamearch who was laying limp with part of what was once a wagon stinking threw his chest, left leg, and neck. Crystal looked through the smoke to the remains of the dome to see Cassius regenerating his damaged body but as his unicorn form an not the Nocturnal Guardian. With a flash of his magic, the young unicorn teleported to them and Crystal Glare jumped off of the wall. He landed next to them and with a sigh used his magic to remove the objects from Flamearch.

"Cassius." he said as he placed the barely breathing Flamearch on the ground.
"You need to give him your gifts. If you don't, he will die."

Liz lost her composure and she buried her face into his coat. Flamearch looked at Cassius with his eyes starting to glaze over and a thin trail of blood sliding out of his mouth. For once in his life Flamearch felt regret and was truly scared of death.

**************************************************************

Shadowheart was back at Fire Hearts house. He had tied Sparky to a chair and broke his wings against Twilight's wishes. He hoped she would understand his actions and forgive him.
Fire Heart stood over the broken pegasus. Sparky had been sitting there for hours as they tried to get any information they could. Breaking his wings were the first of the many forms of torture the two used. Shadowheart made sure Twilight wasn't there for any of it. He asked her to look after the pegasus Crystal Glare had left behind. Shadowheart refocused his thoughts and to the pony in the chair down inside Fire Heart’s basement. Fire heart had placed rubber gloves on Sparky's hooves so he couldn't use his electric attacks. 

"I will ask again" Fire Heart said. "Where is Cassius?"

Sparky swayed from dizziness, "Probably being drained of any magic he has that belonged to the Nocturnal Guardian. Flamearch is obsessed with it, I doubt he will give up a living artifact." 

"Where is he?" Fire heart asked twisting a broken wing.

Sparky let out a howl of pain that was quickly muffled by a floating cloth that was shoved into his mouth by Shadowheart. After he stopped screaming Shadowheart removed the cloth and walked to him. 

"Last chance. If you don't give us the answer we want, then I go looking in your mind for it. Trust me when I tell you, this will be like lobotomizing you." He said as calmly as ever.

Sparky's eyes went wide behind his broken glasses. He tried to see if the white unicorn was bluffing, but only saw the face of a pony that could care less if he lived or died. It reminded him of Flamearch in a way.

Struggling to get his thoughts in order, Sparky finally spoke, "Fort Faithless, it's in the badlands about thirty miles from due North-West of Appaloosa."

"Thank you." Shadowheart spoke as he raised Dragonslayer.

Sparky closed his eyes tightly, The sword came down and severed the bonds that held him.
With his magic he removed the remains of the bonds and opened the door. Fire heart starred in admiration of the mercy his friend was still capable of.

"You are letting me go? After all of that?" Sparky asked in complete shock.

"If you are to attack anypony as you leave I will kill you. Now go." Shadowheart said holding a hoof out and pointing at the open door. 

Without another word Sparky limped out of the house. Shadowheart waited a few moments then walked out of the room, up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. Twilight sat in the chair sleeping while Xilas laid in the bed covered in a blanket. Shadowheart walked over to Twilight and gently placed a hoof on her shoulder. Her eyes opened quickly and she looked around the room frantically.

"Calm down Twilight, It's only me." Shadowheart said softly. 

"Oh Shadow."- Twilight let a yawn slip past her. -"I was hoping you would be the first person i saw when i woke up." Twilight whispered to herself. "What time is it?" 

Shadowheart looked to a clock on the dresser, "4:30 in the morning. Um... how do you feel? Do you need anything to keep you awake or go to sleep. I could take your watch if you want." 

Twilight looked up to him, "Why are you worried about me?"

Shadowheart flinched a bit at the question, "N-no...um... a Little. You have been up for two days straight."

Twilight got up from the chair, "And you have been up for three. If any pony needs rest its you."

"I think you both need rest. Take my room, I just changed the sheets after Shadow...um... never mind, just take my room. I will watch the sleeping pegasus here." Fire Heart said as he leaned in the doorway. 

Shadowheart went wide eyed at the offer and was about to speak when Twilight beat him to the punch, "That sounds great. Thank you Fire Heart."

The dragon pony gave a slight bow, "It is the least i can do your highness. The room is just down the hall. Make yourself at home."

Twilight gave a nod and walked out the door. Shadowheart sluggishly began to follow but Fire Heart  stopped him at the door with a hoof.

"Shadow, you're like a brother to me. I'm doing you a favor by setting you up with her."- Shadow was about to speak again but was cut off. -" She likes you. Now do yourself a favor and pursue you spectral somepony." Fire Heart pushed him out the door before he could interject.

The door closed and the sound of the lock tumbler clicking into place told Shadowheart that this was not up for discussion. He looked to the room and saw Twilight's flank as she entered the master bedroom. Maybe this would be a good rest after all.

************************************************

Sparky limped down the street to the train station. He would have killed Shadowheart when he was free if his body wasn't as broken as his smashed glasses. He was still surprised to see Shadowheart's generosity in letting him live. Still he had a mission and Gold had most likely finished the report. No was...

"Phase two then?" called a voice.

Sparky looked behind him to see a silver unicorn standing under a streetlight on the sidewalk. How classic, Sparky thought as he raised his hoof to fire a bolt of lightning at him.

"Now how would Flamearch act if he found out you attacked his oldest family friend. I'm sure you would be a pile of ashes in an instant." He said walking to Sparky. 

The black pegasus lowered his foreleg and sighed heavily. 

He took a seat on the ground and looked up to the silver unicorn as he removed his damaged glasses, "So what do you want?"

The unicorn stopped in front of him, Well, I'm here to tell you that Flamearch was... speared at the fort. He was taken to his chambers and is being cared for now, but it doesn't look good."

Sparky's eyes widened, "Wait, how did this happen? Flamearch is the most powerful unicorn I know, who could have done that?"

"It was a combination of Cassius Nightshade and Flamearch. They were having a competition and well it got out of hoof when Flamearch used a fire tornado spell and Cassius contained it to save everypony else. The combination resulted in a detonation that sent everypony flying. I hope you can fill in the blanks yourself."

"So what now?" Sparky asked.

The unicorn began to walk around Sparky, "Well for the betterment of Equestria..."

Sparky felt a sharp pain in his back. He slowly turned to see the unicorn with a golden energy blade that stuck through him.

"I am sorry Sparky, but if I let you live to kill Sereen and Xilas then Equestria's civil war will be the destruction of everypony. Now rest and go to the Eternal Herd." Crystal Glare whispered in Sparky's ear.

He twisted the blade and the black pegasus turned to beads of light an drifted into the stars of the night sky. Crystal Glare watched with sadness in his heart. In his long life he had only killed five pony's in the name of Mother Mare. Sparky's death marked the sixth, this was one of the signs that marked the countdown to the final war Equestria would ever see with The the Guardians of the balance, Cassius's shadow magic, Sereen's light magic, and the clashing of supreme powers. For once, Crystal didn't know the outcome, and he was worried for the world.

> The Future Holds Many Secrets
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ponies of Fort Faithless were on high alert. Agents that were out on the field were called back with the news of Flamearch's condition. Liz had sent word using pegasi messengers and unicorn carriers that sent scrolls back and forth. It had been hours scene the explosion and Flamearch was being kept alive by Cassius in his chamber. The young unicorn was trying to infuse him with his magic, but he was finding something resisting him. Liz had posted guards outside their chamber door to prevent anypony from disturbing Cassius's concentration.
She was going to do everything in her power to prevent his death for as long as she possibly could. Liz sat in his chair inside the main hall addressing the three of the top commanders that were part of Flamearch's task force. A light blue earth pony in heavy iron clad armor and a javelin strapped to his back stood at attention. To his right was a brown pegasus in light leather with a crossbow on her side and on his left was a yellow unicorn in a form of robe with an amulet around his neck.

"Madam, We are alerting the other outposts now. Commander Hail Storm wishes to know if he needs to bring the fragments that were recovered at the castle of the two sisters here." spoke the earth pony.

Liz looked in the direction of her chamber where Flamearch fought for his life, "Tell him to bring everything he has and move some troops here as well. I also want you to tell the other fort commanders and task force units to enter battle ready positions."

"Madam, with all do respect... Why?" the pegasus asked.

"Because Talon, Lord Flamearch was going to and secure the Altar Of The Guardians." replied the unicorn.

Liz turned and raised an eyebrow, "Well Ghetsis, I assume you were Flamearch's choice to perform the ritual then?"

Ghetsis gave a bow and replied, "I was."

"Well then, I am assigning Gold to be you guard. I want to guarantee this success. Talon you will be leading your flight to the area the journal said this altar will be. I want to know if this thing still exists after all of these years. Delgon I want you to personally find the pony that Gold and Sparky fought and either convert him to our cause or kill him. Now all of you go, I will do more research with the journal." Liz ordered.

The three gave her another bow and spoke in unison, "It will be done."

They walked off and left Liz to her thoughts, She looked down at her hoof and noticed the shadows clinging to it. For a moment she panicked and tried to rub it off. The shadows waved to her touch and fled from her limb. She sat there for a few minutes in surprise before remembering her near death experience. She could help if she knew more about this gift Cassius gave her. She got out of the chair and headed to her desk for more research.

*********************************************************

Twilight awoke in Fire Hearts bed with the sun shining through the window and onto her back. She let out a yawn and looked over the bed to see Shadowheart still sleeping soundly on his side. For a moment she thought about waking him, but left him alone. Three days with no sleep wasn't good for anypony. He clearly needed as much rest as possible. She looked over to a clock that sat on the small end table next to her side of the bed, it read 12:58 PM. They had slept for only a few hours and she felt great. Twilight slowly got out of the bed so as to not disturb Shadowheart from his sleep. 

She made her way down the steps and into the kitchen where a sweat smell called her. Fire Heart was cooking something on the stove when a shadow blade cut Twilight off and nearly slashed her neck. With a flash of her horn she was in the Armor of Light that Sereen taught her six years ago. The blade retracted and another came into view for a stabbing motion. The purple Alicorn waved a hoof and called her own blade of light and parried the incoming attack. She now had a good look at her attacker, it was a pegasus consumed in shadows with the eyes looking glazed over like the pony was long dead inside. Twilight kicked the pegasus in the chest slashed at her with the her sword of light. Just before contact with the pegasus a tendril of shadows caught it and tightened around the blade. Twilight had fought Shadow magic before and even Rarity's blades were not this strong. How much power did Pinkie Pie have, Twilight thought as her blade shattered in the grip of the tendril. The pegasus slammed into Twilight knocking her over. The pegasus lifted her hoof to stab the downed Alicorn when Fire Heart finally intervened.

"Xilas Stop! She is Princess Twilight Sparkle. She is on our side." he yelled as he placed himself between the two.

The shadows around the Xilas died as fast as they appeared. Twilight looked at the now trimmed looking pegasus. She held herself like Fluttershy on any given day with ponies she had never seen before. As to confirm her assumption, Xilas' eyes were glazed over. Fire Heart and Xilas walked over and picked up Twilight as she dispelled her armor and what was left of her sword.

"I am so sorry your highness, its just where I'm from my father is a ruthless tyrant and I have gotten used to defending myself and my friends from anything. Sometimes from each other." Xilas said softly.

Twilight got back on her hooves with their help, "It's alright Xilas. Um... if you don't mind I would like to ask you about yourself. The unicorn called Crystal Glare kind of left you with us without telling me anything about you."

Xilas pulled a chair out for Twilight and sat in one next to it at the table, " Ask away your highness."

Twilight took a seat in the chair, "Please call me Twilight."

Xilas smiled, "Okay Twilight. What is your first question?"

The purple Alicorn sighed and went straight to the point, "You eyes are glazed, Why?"

The smile left Xilas muzzle and she looked away, "If your question is implying, am I blind? Then the answer is no. The reason they are this way is, because of the shadow magic that I was born with."- She looked back into Twilight's eyes.- "What you are seeing is the Shadows that fused with my pupils making it appear glazed."

"Okay, how about the shadow magic just now? How do you have a mastery over it already?" Twilight asked.

"Well, my mother and father were infused with it when they were fighting to take the Altar of the Guardians from the Elements of Harmony." Xilas began.

"Wait? What? We never fought at an altar before, let alone one called the Altar of the Guardians." Twilight said.

"Twilight, Xilas is not from here. There is something you should know about Crystal Glare. He is old for starters. In fact he is about as old a Celestia herself, if not older." Fire Heart said.

Twilight sat dumbfounded in her chair. The thought of that, confused her beyond her comprehension. She was still trying to figure out what that had to do with Xilas.

"You know the story about Starswirl The Bearded?" She asked.

"Yes." replied the purple Alicorn.

"Well Crystal was the first tempted to make an Alicorn, Starswirl was the second, and you were the third. Now as to the inconsistency with Xilas here. She is from a future where we failed to stop Flamearch and get Cassius back."

"In other words, I'm from another dimension, because that hasn't happened yet." Xilas said.

"Well how did he beat us then?" Twilight began to panic over what could happen at any moment.

"My father Flamearch was nearly killed by Cassius in a plan he had that went wrong in a positive way for him. After that, Cassius infused him with the shadow magic. Then after they took the altar he used the journal to reawaken the old Cassius Nightshade. From there he convinced him to fight by his side and they dethroned Celestia and imprisoned her in the Canterlot dungeon after taking her power and giving it to him. When that happened he had killed Sereen, my uncle, and the Elements of Harmony. He was going to kill Princess Luna, but Cassius stopped him and threatened to use the Elements of Chaos if he touched her." Xilas explained.

Twilight sat there thinking about everything that was just said,

"How did they kill Sereen?" Twilight asked.

Xilas looked down, "My dad used a black pegasus named Sparky to kill her after He was eluded my aunt and uncle."

Twilight when wide eyed and she slammed her head into the table, "What have we done? I should have let Shadowheart do what he wanted to with that pegasus. Now my mercy will doom all of us."

Xilas shot a look at the lamenting princess, "Did you say Shadowheart?"

"I did, he is upstairs now sleeping in the master bedroom." Twilight said softly as she tilted her head to meet Xilas' eyes.

The orange pegasus jumped out of the chair she was sitting in and galloped to the staircase. Twilight and Fire Heart were stunned a moment but quickly took off after her. Twilight knocked over her chair as she flew over the table. Xilas found herself in a hallway with four doors and immediately opened the closest one to her right. She found Pinkie Pie laying unconscious in in a small bed meant for a single pony with a jackalope tending to her. Xilas closed the door and opened the next to find a very nice bathroom. she moved on the the next and door and found the master bedroom. She knew this was the one she wanted when she saw a lump moving in the bed covers. Xilas froze in the doorway of the master bedroom. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she slowly made her way in. When she was by the bed she saw Dragonslayer resting against the wall by the pony in the covers. All she could see of the pony was the tip of his white horn and brown mane, the rest of him was covered in blankets. She looked over to the door and saw Twilight and Fire Heart standing there watching her. They didn't make a sound or move to stop her. Xilas lifted the blanket from Shadowheart and almost dropped to the ground. Her glazed eyes filled with tears of joy and she gave him a light hug.

"Twilight, Why is she holding me like this?" Shadowheart mumbled as Xilas held him tighter and tighter.

Twilight walked in the room, "I have no idea Shadowheart. You must be very special to her where she is from."

"He was... is." Xilas remarked letting him go. "He is my uncle, and that must mean you are Twilight Sparkle."

All three looked at Xilas in confusion. It took her a few moments before she figured out why and began to explain.

"Shadowheart is Flamearch's older brother, making him my uncle. And you Twilight Sparkle where's lover before my dad took Canterlot with Cassius and my mom Lizzy." Xilas said smiling.

Both Shadowheart and Twilight turned pure red. Fire Heart caught on quickly and snickered as he walked out the door to keep from laughing at the circumstances of this new found knowledge.

"Xilas! You... we haven't... why would he fa..." Twilight was having trouble with finding words under her embarrassment.

"Oh. I'm sorry Twilight."- Xilas gave a meaningful bow. -"It's just... I haven't seen him in years and you..."

"What about her Xilas?" Shadowheart said getting out of the bed.

"The timeline I'm from she... She was converted by my dad at the Altar Of The Guardians and killed the Elements of Harmony when Sereen and Princess Luna failed to show up and stop them." she finished.

"Why didn't they show up?" he asked as he put Dragonslayer on.

"Because Sparky killed Sereen when they were on the way. There were two groups that were heading to the altar. The group with Luna and Sereen was ambushed and didn't make it in time." Twilight said.

Shadowheart's eyes went wide at the realization of his actions and it's precautions to give the pegasus another chance at life.

*********************************************************


Luna was walking around her chambers in deep thought. Crystal Glare had appeared in her room when she woke up from her nap. He had told her to get Sereen to the Altar Of The Guardians in the next two days. This alone wasn't to cause of her distress, He had been sighted in other locations in the last few days. Normally he only showed up to harass her sister with love tokens every few hundred years or so. This was different, He came to her to deliver a warning and didn't even bother with Celestia. Something was wrong and she was going to take this as seriously as she could. She had already made preparations to go there with the Elements of Harmony. The thing that made this a unanimous decision to go through with the plan with her and the element bearers, was the news of Cassius being there with Twilight. Luna was arming a special division of two hundred ponies that were created after the Dark Libra incident.
This group was to keep Cassius and Sereen from awakening their old selves too soon and to execute if need be anypony that threatened to do just that. Queen Rosetta had told Luna that she was to keep the memories alive, but not let them out until the two reached the age's they had when they became the Guardians of the Balance the first time.

Luna looked out of her bedroom window and to the courtyard below. Ponies of all races lined in formation to begin the march to the altar. Heavy plated earth ponies with spears made up the bulk of the mass of equine solders. Light leather armored pegasi stood in formations away from the main battle group so they could take to the sky's sooner. Unicorn magi with light robes were placed in strategic locations in the formation as to help the earth and pegasus ponies if they entered combat. From her perch, it looked like the princess of the night was declaring war on another land. In her mind, Luna was going to war to get Cassius back. If she failed to keep the Elements of Chaos suppressed until he was ready to use them with Discord, then everything would fall apart.

She took one last look at the ponies below that were already entering the first few trains.
She saw the bearers of the elements lining up to go with the first half of the army to the altar. Discord was with Fluttershy talking about what could only be arrangements to tend to the animals at her home. Rarity and Applejack were saying goodbye to their sisters. Rainbow Dash was also saying her farewell to her adopted daughter, Scootaloo and her husband Soarin.

What ever happened in the next two days on their journey to the altar, Luna knew this would push everypony to their limits. War was knocking at Celestia's door for the final time and was going to be the last time either of the two sisters would be needed to defend Equestria form another Alicorn's powers if they won. If they failed, it would be the last time there would be Alicorns to defend Equestria from anything.
> Race To The Altar 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack was sitting next to Rarity catching up after not seeing her in a few months.
Rarity had gotten a big opportunity to move shop in Canterlot and she took it.
She had a very enriching time and was now engaged to a stallion who was a skilled craftsman and owned a well known workshop. Applejack had noticed that her scar from her first fight with Twilight had healed nicely, but Rarity was insisting on covering it up with a scarf.

Applejack still couldn't see the problem with letting others see old wounds, In her mind it was a way to show one's character. If you had scars then you were a hard worker.
She had managed to collect her own from a farming accident that nearly killed her last applebuck season.

A tree had been damaged from a lightning storm the pegasi had scheduled. Applejack didn't notice, she went right ahead and bucked it to get the apples down. The tree gave more than apples that day, the whole thing fell on her and nearly crushed the orange mare. If Big Mac wasn't there that day, she would have died before they reached the hospital. Her left side was scared from the branches puncturing her side and the bones being knocked into organs.
Her death was avoided thanks to him and a team of unicorn doctors from Canterlot that Twilight had sent to them. The story of that day made Rarity literally pass out from the very vivid description of the injures. Applejack couldn't help but laugh at her friends weak stomach.
She decided to leave Rarity in her chair and headed over to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

"Hay A.J.!" Rainbow Dash called waving a hoof around. 

She became the Wonder Bolts head coach after Spitfire gave her the position. Rainbow Dash had lead them to heights of new found fame. She let her mane become more tame over the years, but she still had the fire for competition in her heart. Applejack had heard stories that she was getting more aggressive in her time as coach as well. Yelling to herself and the members of her team, getting into fights for no reason, an incident with a reporter that involved him almost falling off of Cloudsdale. These were just stories that were not proven, but for this to come to Sweet Apple Acres concerned the skilled rancher pony. The two had always seen each other every weekend when the Wonder Bolts weren't on tour to some town in Celestia knows where. In fact the whole group would always meet on Saturdays every week if they could help it.
This however, was not one of those days.

"Rainbow Dash, you were late last night. Applebloom and Scootaloo had left to get the cake from Sugar Cube Corner for your performance at Libra Banquet. Now we still have half a cake left. Speaking of, here you are Fluttershy." Applejack reached into her saddlebag and gave Fluttershy a slice of the cake that sat inside a plastic zip lock bag on a plate.

"Thank you Applejack." Fluttershy replied in a soft voice as she took the piece and placed it on the table in front of them. "Would you like to have a seat with us?"

"Why I'd love too." the orange earth pony said as she took a seat in next to Rainbow Dash.
"So, what were you two talking about over here?" 

Rainbow looked over to Fluttershy who smiled warmly and nodded at her. The rainbow pegasi's gaze found Applejack and a large mischievous grin was clearly visible on her muzzle.

"Well it's no secret that you brother and Fluttershy here have been dating after Cheerilee moved away four years ago." Rainbow started.

"Ya, Big Mac was heart broken, but he was glad to find out she still was teaching and making a difference. The two have stayed friends and write to each other every year." 

"Well, He proposed to Fluttershy before we left last night!" Rainbow said in joy.

"He did!? Already!?" Applejack exclaimed. " He said he was going to later in the year.
Well, what did you say?"

Fluttershy blushed, "I said yes."

"Congratulations Fluttershy. I'm so happy for you." Applejack said with glee.

"Thank you Applejack, I'm very happy too." Fluttershy looked out the window of the car.
"Um, Do you know where we are going?" 

They had left the train station as per princess Luna's orders only a few hours ago.
The land outside looked barren and lifeless as they headed south in the armored train that was noticeably travailing faster than most trains.

"You know sugar cube, that is a good question." Applejack said following her gaze.

*************************************************

Liz was sitting on a bench in a train that The Faithless commandeered, using heavily armored earth ponies. The where on there way to the altar with Cassius and the dying Flamearch in the back car. This whole time he was being kept alive by the determination and kindness of a young unicorn that could destroy anypony on the train ten times over. It made most of the ponies aboard the train nervous and for good reason. Liz looked out the window and wondered if they would make it in time to save him. She didn't want to think of what would happen if he was gone from her life. She got out of her seat and walked past two ponies that stood watch at the door. They opened the doors as she approached them and gave a quick salute. Liz nodded and passed from car to car making her way to the final one in the chain as the train raced for their destination.

Eventually she made it to the car of her desire. The doors were guarded by more ponies than the rest of the train, even the engine had fewer ponies on watch. The two armored guards took one glance at her before stepping aside and opening the reinforced metal doors. Inside was a single bed, a few chairs, table, and two unicorns. Flamearch laid in a bed with Cassius laying on the edge keeping him alive with his magic. Liz had to put him under with some medical supplies meant for surgery so he wouldn't be in constant pain on the trip. For some reason unbeknownst to her, Flamearch's wounds refused to heal on their own or with magic. The only reason he hadn't died yet was Cassius.

The young unicorn looked to her, the rings in his eye were glowing again, "Liz, I'm so sorry for what I did. I tried to help keep everypony safe, but I hurt Flamearch instead." 

Cassius was crying for what he did to his new friends. Out of all of the injuries from the explosion, Flamearch's was the worst. It was the only one that could not be healed and no pony knew how to save him without the altar and Cassius. Time was running out for him because sooner or later Cassius would pass out from extreme exhaustion from over use of his magic. 

Liz sat in a chair next to them, "It's alright Cassius, you saved many lives. If you didn't make the barrier, many more ponies would be dead right now. Just try your best to keep him with us, please." 

Cassius nodded and went back to work on Flamearch. The train roared down the tracks as it gained more speed. The ponies at doors watched Liz and Cassius without a sound.
They all sat in silence for a while before Cassius broke it.

"Shady grove, my little love, shady grove I know. Shady grove my little love, I'm bound for the shady grove." he sang softly.

Liz perked up at the song, "Cassius, Where did you hear that song?"

With a soft smile her replied, "Constance sang it to me and my sister. It is her favorite Hearts and Hooves day song. It has a few meanings but it was adopted into the holiday."

"Okay, so what meaning are you using?" she asked.

Without looking away he replied, "I'm using the meaning that if I have too, I will jump into the darkness I control, to bring him back for you.
We just need to get to that place you were talking about."

The pegasus was touched but was about to interject when Cassius continued the song, "I wish I had a piece of thread as fine as I could sew, I'd sew much love to my side, and down the road I'd go."

Liz sighed heavily, "Shady grove, my little love, shady grove I know. Shady grove my little love, I'm bound for the shady grove."

both of them sang together, "Shady grove, my little love, shady grove I say. Oh, shady grove my little love, don't wait for the judgement day."

The two sang the song trying to pass the time and keep spirits up for what was going to be a very painful experience if they failed. This was going to be a long ride and a the end of the line was the face that would change the world. 

*****************************************************
Sereen stood next to Constance at the castle gate waiting for Princess Luna to arrive so they could get on the next train and follow the rest of the soldiers to the altar. It was already being loaded with supplies from weapons to food. Sereen was humming to herself as she swayed from side to side trying desperately to relieve her boredom. Constance sat on a bench nursing her foreleg as she applied new bandages. Her leg was healing nicely, but it still needed to be place in fresh wrappings every two days or so according to the doctors. Constance was thinking about her encounter with Flamearch in the ally and how Pinkie Pie saved her life. She still couldn't get over her how quickly she changed moods and acted like nothing happened.
When she saw Pinkie Pie at the Altar of The Guardians with the others she would finally get a chance to say thank you to her. 

"Constance look! It's mommy!" Sereen exclaimed with joy that the boredom was finally gone.

Princess Luna was walking to the train with two of her personal royal guards. The lack of sleep showed on their faces as the followed close behind her. Constance quickly tied what she had of her bandages, shot out of her seat and to her hooves using care, not to put too much pressure
on her left foreleg. Luna waved a hoof to her and entered a light trot.

"Constance, you need not strain yourself to keep protocol." Luna said as she came to a stop in front of the two.

"I am fine you highness, my leg has healed. The doctor only said I need to be careful with it and change the wrappings every so often." she said applying only a small amount of weight to it and nearly falling over. 

One of the guards flew over to her and caught her before she hit the ground, "Your highness, I think she should stay. If she goes with us she will be a liability instead of an asset." 

Luna looked at Constance with a saddened expression at the facts before her.

Constance couldn't believe what she was seeing. Princess Luna was considering her ability to go with them and get Cassius without endangering every pony with them. If she was unable to go and help get him back Constance would never be able to live with herself.

"Please princess, don't do this. I have to go with you and get him back. I can walk and even gallop if need be. Please let me go with you." The yellow unicorn pleaded.

Luna looked her over again trying to find a reason she would be able to go with them and help. The sight of Constance in this condition worried the princess of the night. 

"Please don't have me stay here. It was my fault they got the journal and Cassius. Princess, let me make it right. I still have my magic. I can help." Constance was starting to tear up.

Luna thought for a moment then finally answered, "Constance, you have done many wonderful things in your time with me. You have never let me down once. I trust your judgment and I want you honest word on this. Do you think you can come and actually help with anything?"

The yellow unicorn paused for a second and thought it out.

"Princess Luna, I can't give you an answer. I can give you a promise, I will help. I know a few spells that may or may not have been from the journal that can counter to his shadow magic and it’s influence. I can teach the unicorns here to use them." Constance said with a large grin as she lifted her head.

Luna returned the smile and walked passed them, "Come on everypony we have to get Cassius back. Sereen, Lets go an play a game while we wait for the others to finish out here."

"Coming mommy!" she called as she galloped to Luna's side.

Luna loved it when she was able to play with her daughter. Being that the two slept at different times of the day, the little time they spent together meant the most to both of them. This was one of the times they could comfort each other in a way that, from the briefest moment, all of their cares vanished and it was just the two of them in perfect bliss.

Everypony hustled to lead the train with the last of the supplies. Luna, Constance, and Sereen were placed in the center car as the troops filled in the rest. After ten minutes, the remaining ponies were locked in and the train was on its way to the Altar Of The Guardians.

***************************************************************

Pinkie Pie's head was pounding and the voice that resided within was strangely silent. Ever since Cassius opened her eyes with the shadow magic, she had heard a voice that sounded like her own, but it didn't act like her. She had tried to repress it and to her knowledge she did just that. Some days she blacked out for a moment when doing so and suffering a bit of memory loss. Mr. Cake had told her it must have been because of the sweats she ate on a regular basis that was making her experience a massive sugar rush.

Pinkie Pie tried to move, but found that she was held in place on a bed with leather straps that tied around the beds mattress. A bunny with horns on it's head looking at her with a warm smile. Normally the party pony would babel away about the strange creature, but she was so drained of her natural energy that she could only manage a weak chuckle. She tried to turn over to lay on her side, but the binds held her firmly to the mattress. Seeing that the pink pony was uncomfortable, the bunny jumped into action and was about to loosen the straps when Fire Heart walked in and stopped her.

"No Jackie, leave her like that for now." he said sternly.

Jackie gave him a form of puppy dog face in an attempt to change his mind.

He narrowed his eyes in disappointment, "Jackie, I said no. We don't know what she is capable of or what Crystal messed with in her. I'm not going to take any chances, especially not after the bar fight and what Shadow told me."

The jackalope raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Fire Heart looked over to Pinkie Pie who also shared the same look as Jackie. The two of them wanted to hear the story.

He sighed and sat on a chair next to a table in the corner of the room, "She was given a gift from Nightshade six years ago Jackie. Before I found you Jackie, there was a war between the Nocturnal Guardian and Princess Celestia that nearly killed her and Mother Mare the Queen of  Equestria. His magic was getting stronger with every waking moment and his influence on the hearts of ponies was literally dividing families. He was eventually defeated by The two princesses, the spirit of Chaos, Queen Rosetta, Princess Twilight Sparkle and the power of the Elements of Harmony. She was one of his five bearers of his Elements Of Chaos which so happens  they were also the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. She was the most deadly of them all, Pinkamena Diane Pie the Dark Assassin."

Both Jackie and Pinkie Pie's eyes went wide at the accusation. The jackalope looked at Pinkie with a hint of fear and hopped out of the room. Fire Heart stayed in his seat and just looked at Pinkie Pie.

"So how do you feel?" he asked.

Pinkie didn't answer, instead she just stared back at him. 

"Well, okay then." Fire heart said as he got up and walked to her.

He began to undo the binds that held her in place, "Look, we are leaving now and heading to an old altar that rests a few miles away from this town. Your friends are on their way to meet us there along with some... colorful ponies that may want to kill us." 

Pinkie tried to mouth the words that would let her protest but she was unable to form the words.

Instead she managed a very, very low, "Why?"

Fire Heart stopped and looked into her eyes, "They have Cassius and we are trying to get him back."

At that moment Pinkie Pie heard the voice again. It was just as weak as her and for once in a long time it agreed with her thoughts.

"We need to save him. He needs us now more than ever Pinkie Pie."
It said as though it was in pain.

"Where have you been? Why are you agreeing with me? You always want me to do horrible things to my friends and everypony I meet, why do you care now?" she thought as Fire Heart went back to untying her.

The voice was quiet for a few seconds, "Some things are bigger than us Pinkie Pie. I may appear to you as being a monster in you eyes, but I am still loyal to Cassius Nightshade. I am bound to protect him and fulfill his wishes as his bearer of the Chaos Element of Sorrow.
You are his friend and the bearer of the Harmony Element of Laughter. We both have a duty to get him back safe."

The bindings came off and Pinkie Pie slowly got out of the bed with help from Fire Heart. He had her lean on him all the way to the kitchen.

"Pinkie Pie, I am willing to help you. I am too weak to take over and fight for us. But if you let me, I can guide you in a fight when the time comes. you need to just let go and give me room to work." Said her voice.

"What do I call you?" Pinkie Pie whispered out loud. 

Fire Heart looked to her and said his name thinking she was talking to him.

The voice spoke softly, "I am Pinkamena Diane Pie, Cassius's Dark Assassin."

The two made it down the stairs and into the kitchen where others were waiting with the bags for the trip. Xilas looked over to them and instantly burst into shadows and lunged at Pinkie Pie. Before anypony could react to the sudden outburst from the pegasus, Pinkie Pie pushed off of Fire Heart and ducked. Xilas slammed into the wall with a shadow blade that pinned her to it. Pinkie felt a sudden burst of energy that felt rejuvenating and gave her complete awareness of her surroundings. Her thoughts were focused on one thing however, a quick end to this attack. She looked around and found a knife that was used to cut vegetables earlier resting on the counter. She made a mad dash for it as Xilas dispelled the blade, freeing herself and conjured it again for another attack. Just before she could fully turn and swing at the earth pony, Pinkie Pie had turned with the knife and throw it at Xilas. It found it's way into her wing pinning her to the wall again. A cry of pain left the pegasus as Pinkie Pie covered her muzzle with her hooves.

"I am so sorry about that. I just let go and now you are hurt and I must look like a meany right now. Please forgive me, I just didn't want to get hit by that creepy blade you were attacking me with. Oh please don't hold that against me I didn't mean it." Pinkie Pie started to apologize as everypony in the room, even Xilas looked at her in shock.

"Pinkie Pie, How did you do that?" Twilight asked as she used her magic to remove the knife from Xilas's wing.

Shadowheart placed himself between her and Pinkie Pie as to keep what little peace remained as he healed her would and calmed her down.

Pinkamena called from with him her mind, "Don't let them know I still alive. If they do, then we won’t be able to save Cassius. Tell them it was instinct that saved you." 

Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight, "Um... my pinkie sense."

Twilight just nodded in acceptance instead of trying to find out more.
Trying to figure out her pinkie sense was like trying to figure out Pinkie Pie herself.
It just couldn't be done.

Moments passed before Xilas had calmed herself and dispelled her shadows. 

Shadowheart placed a hoof on her shoulder, "Why did you attack her?"

Xilas looked him in the eye, "She was the one that kill you using her shadow powers."

Shadowheart looked over to Pinkie Pie, "Crystal gave them to you Xilas. The future is changing, we can win and get Cassius back. Now, do we have everything ready?" 

He looked to Fire Heart who replied, "Yes, I just need to tell Corona I'm leaving with you so she can take care of Jackie while we are gone. I will meet you at the wagon."

Shadowheart nodded and looked back to Xilas, "We are all on the same side here, we are going to fight together. Now lets go and meet the pony who is taking us to the altar."

The group headed out of Fire Heart's house and went their separate ways to make final preparations before embarking on their trip that would only take a day to make it to the altar. Pinkie Pie looked into the cloudy sky above and thought of Rainbow Dash. This was going to be a hard battle that would change them all, she only hoped that in the end they would all stay friends.
> Deadly Trails
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delgon stood on the top of a small ledge looking over a creation of some sort that held his target and company. It was by the look of it, a new form a vehicle and was as large as the engine of a train, but had the armament of a heavy assault transport that The Faithless used. It was racing across the canyon range at break neck speeds clearly in a rush to get somewhere. This design of transport was not uncommon for a certain inventor that Celestia had allowed to create to their hearts content out in the middle of know where. This inventor had shown up to the fort one day and given some technical know how to Liz and even though her a few tricks. This saved Delgon's life after a mishap with a his former superior officer that left him with a new mechanical foreleg. It helped in a fight and was a blessing for the work pony. Now he would kill it's creator if Shadowheart didn't join them. This brought a smile to his scarred face as he picked up his radio.

With a dark smile he gave the order, " The target is approaching. Detonate the ridge."

Delgon looked to the far walls just ahead of the path the vehicle was traveling. From here he could see the light from the  plasma spears and charged beams that his team fired gracefully glide towards the walls of the canyon. In an instant there was a great flash of light, the walls shook violently, an explosion sent boulders tumbling down the path. He watched the vehicle try to avoid the crushing rocks and eventually it skidded out and slammed into the wall just missing being crushed entirely. Some smaller boulders hit the metal distorting it and stopping it from escaping altogether. Delgon could see the smoke from what was left of the engine. He looked over to a unicorn that charged a spell, stepping over to him and the two teleported down to the wreckage to meet up with the rest of Delgon's men.

*************************************************************

Shadowheart opened his eyes and found he was laying in a pool of blood that lead from the front of the vehicle. He could see the mangled mess of a green foreleg sticking out of what was left of the crushed driver seat. Upgrade was not going to be happy that her assistant was dead and her transport was smashed. Shadowheart had enough trouble to get her to allow them to use it let alone drive her creation. Celestia will probably pay her enough to rebuild it later,but the damage was done and he would have trouble getting another favor from her. He looked around and saw Twilight getting Pinkie Pie out from under the bags of equipment that had fallen on her when the vehicle had tipped over on its side. Xilas and Fire Heart were trying to open the door by bucking it in the air as gravity fought to keep it the reinforced door closed. Shadowheart tried to get up, but felt a sharp pain in his hind leg, turning around he saw Dragonslayer had embedded itself in his leg pinning him to the frame. This would be a simple fix with his magic once he got free, but Dragonslayer was a magical sword that like Ragnarok, if the smallest amount of magic passed through it the effects would activate. 

He looked back at Twilight who had gotten Pinkie free, " Twilight, can you give me a hoof without using your magic?"

"Why can't I use..." She began but once she saw his condition she immediately hurried over. "How did this happen? Are you going to be alright?"

Shadowheart picked himself up as high as he could without moving his leg. When he looked up he saw the fear in her eyes. This wasn't fear for her safety or even being stuck in a death trap of metal and earth, but fear for him.

"I will be fine as long as we remove Dragonslayer without using magic while touching it. So can you help me and get it out?" he said trying to calm her down.

She looked at it and saw it was through and through, it even punctured the metal of the walls. She noticed Shadowheart was looking at her and to her surprised, she thought she saw a faint smile on his muzzle.

"Twilight, It's okay. Just take you time, I can handle the pain that will come. Just try your best to remove it, then we can use magic to heat the wound." he told her in a soothing voice trying to make a bad situation seem less than what it was.

"Okay, ready?" Twilight said placing her hoof in the gantlet that acted as the handle mechanism.

Shadowheart tensed up a little as he felt the blade move slightly inside his leg, scraping the bone. This was worse than he thought and it was going to hurt like hell. Twilight was about to pull up on the sword when what was the bottom of the transport, but now a wall detonated sending Fire Heart and Xilas into the former roof. 

Twilight was also propelled to the roof with Dragonslayer still attached to her hoof. When the blade was removed it nearly severed his whole leg and the metal below. Shadowheart struggled to keep from screaming at the intense pain he felt as the shock of the sudden blood loss hit him and his body began to tremble. He looked over to the hole and saw a pony in black armor like that of a general and a prosthetic leg. He was looking around the busted interior of the transport. When he saw Shadowheart laying in a pool of his own blood the earth pony couldn't help but smile.

"You must be Shadowheart. You don't look so well my friend. Nether does Lord Flamearch." He said dropping his smile.

Seven unicorns stepped behind him and using their magic they managed to pin Twilight, Fire Heart, and Xilas to the wall with resistance from only the Alicorn. The look of strain quickly appeared on their faces.

"This is to make sure we remain uninterrupted. Now before I am allowed to kill any of you, I was ordered to try to get you to join us. I am only asking once, join us and live or refuse and make this an even more entertaining day." he asked.

Without hesitation all of them shared the same disgusted look, but before Shadowheart could answer for the group a voice spoke up.

"Is Cassius alright?" It was Pinkie Pie rummaging through the bags.

Delgon looked confused as to why she wasn't on the wall with the others,
"Yes, he is healing Lord Flamearch as we speak. Why do you ask?"

Pinkie Pie glanced over to Twilight then back to Delgon as she pulled out the Nerrix blade,
"I want to see him again. If it means going with you to do it then..."

Twilight spoke up, "Pinkie Pie what are you doing!?"

The pink earth pony let a tear roll down her muzzle before looking back to her friend, "I'm going to make sure Cassius is alright Twilight. I don't know why you would try to stop me, but I have to help him. I can't just sit here, I made a Pinkie promise to Constance in the hospital."

Delgon watched in amusement at the sight unfolding before him.

"Pinkie Pie, This isn't the way to do this. You were never like this, you would never let you friends down." replied Twilight as she tried even harder to get free.

Pinkie Pie's mane began to fall with the help from the sadness she felt, "A lot can happen in six years Twilight. Not everypony can stay the same forever. Well not every pony that isn't an Alicorn can."

Pinkie Pie walked over to Delgon securing her blade to her hoof. She stopped when she was next to the unicorns and turned to face the others. They all had the look of betrayal on their muzzles with the exception of Xilas, who only stared her down in anger. Delgon figured there was nothing more to be said and walked over to Shadowheart.

He bent down and smiled, "Well there you have it. I got one of you to join me at least. Now Shadowheart, die like the rest." 

Pinkamena chimed in, "I never said I was joining you, I just said, if it meant going with you." 

With that, she slashed the back of the closed unicorn and kicked the other. The distraction was more enough for Twilight to break the telekinesis of the other five. Fire Heart spat fire at the two other unicorns to Pinkie Pie's left while Xilas tackled the one she kicked, breaking its horn and stomping its head in mercilessly. Twilight used her magic and blasted Delgon out into the canyon before he could stomp on Shadowheart's neck. Pinkamena slammed into the last unicorn barely avoiding the flying earth pony and with a slash of her blade, she cut the jugular of the unicorn. The pink pony stopped as reality snapped back into her eyes. She looked at the dying pony, then to her bloody hooves that were trembling as she realized what she had just done. She looked down at the blood that stained her coat. Pinkie Pie fell back on her plot and stared at the blade attached to her, trying to figure out why she could be so cruel and take another ponies life. 

Seeing this, Twilight would talk to her about it later when they weren't in danger. She looked over to Shadowheart who was already healing his leg. He motioned for her to go get Delgon before he had the opportunity to attack again. Twilight closed her wings and galloped out of the wreckage as she cast her armor and charged a few combat spells. She looked around for the earth pony, but saw only the terrain of the canyon. Twilight kept her guard up and watched carefully for any signs of an attack. All she saw was metal and builders scattered around the canyon floor as she slowly got farther from the transport. Without warning one of the boulders flew towards her. Twilight took flight to avoid the surely killing blow and saw Delgon ready to hit another one at her. Twilight released one of her spells she was charging, a ball of electricity took shape and flew to it’s target. Delgon responded with the boulder and darted for the next. As the ball and rock collided and exploded, Twilight fired a beam of energy that destroyed the boulder he was heading to. 

The earth pony looked up as Twilight vaporized all of his cover and possible weapons with a constant beam. As soon as the boulders were turned to dust the beam made it's way to him kicking up ashes for everything under it. Delgon started to gallop as fast as he could to avoid the ray of purple death that pursued him with vengeance. The Alicorn above had abandoned all care for him and was willing to kill the earth pony for his actions. As he galloped he found he had no other choice, he stopped and slammed his mechanical hoof into the ground. The ground below it was eaten by a claws that pulled the bits of earth into the leg and set it in place for a firing mechanism to use it as a projectile. When he heard the click of the loader, he took aim after jumping out of the way of the beam. With a clear shot he fired the bit of earth like the bullet from a gun. The sound of it firing echoed from off the canyon walls as the rock left Delgon at the speed of sound and flew to Twilight. Delgon had to move again losing sight of his target, but heard his shot hit something close by other than the walls of the canyon. When he saw Twilight again she was covered with a barrier and a sword of light was held by her right hoof as what was left of his shot drifted to the ground. Delgon smiled at his worthy opponent and slammed his hoof into the ground again. Twilight lowered herself to the ground and stood on her hind legs as Delgon loaded several rocks into his leg. When it hit max capacity for ammo he stood his ground, meeting her eyes that were filled with anger for him. The two of them knew this was going to be a fight to the death as they glared into each others eyes. Twilight charged using her wings to gain even more speed as Delgon raised his leg and prepared to fire at the Alicorn.

******************************************************

The train carrying Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity stopped at a station that was only a mile from what was now a tourist attraction alongside one of Equestria's largest canyons. The area around it was that of rolling hills and a large grass land with a few trees here and there. The wind was able to give off a nice cooling breeze as it whistled through a canyon range that ran from one end to another. Reports had told of a rock slide inside the canyon and ponies were told to avoid the area. 

The Altar Of The Guardians was another attraction that rested here. Being discovered by archaeologist a year after he Dark Libra incident when the journal's existence became public in Canterlot. Using it as a reference to fill in the blanks of Equestria's history they came upon it's location and eventually excavated it. Now ponies from all over came to see it as it was a testament to not only the princesses but their protests as well. Princess Luna had sent word to close it for the next few days allowing her troops to defend it from The Faithless without any possible civilian casualties.

The ponies marched off of the train and lined in formation as some carried supplies and others scouted ahead. Applejack stayed on the train and looked out the window to survey the situation. She noted that Rainbow Dash followed the pegasi that flew to see what was at the altar. Fluttershy joined up with the medics and helped secure a wagon to a new recruit of the Libra division. Rarity was talking to some ponies that worked at the station asking her about something to do with her boutique in Canterlot after they recognized her. From the looks of it, they were wearing some of her designs and were giddy at meeting the creator. Applejack was glad to see this time hadn't changed her friends. She was probably the only one of her friends that hadn't settled down, found her special somepony, or pursued a dream. That didn't bother her that much though, because she was still reliable and would give up everything to help her friend. 
This wasn't the time for her to settle down, there was too much to do and only Rainbow Dash could see why she couldn't let herself relax yet. Applejack reached into her bag and pulled out a uniform of a commander, closed the blinds on all of the windows and slipped into it.
After getting the rank pins in place she stepped off of the train and assumed her role as Commander Applejack, leader of the Libra division.

She straightened herself before giving her orders, "Fall in!"

Everypony scrambled to obey the order except for Fluttershy and Rarity who stood in place trying to find the source of the order. When they realized it was Applejack who gave it, Rarity's jaw dropped. Both of them were stunned when they saw her approaching in uniform. 

"Rarity, fall in with the unicorn magic, Fluttershy stay with the medics and do as you are asked. We don't have a lot of time waste." Applejack ordered in a commanding voice as she made her way to the mass of troops.

Applejack glanced behind her and saw Fluttershy flying to the medical team and Rarity walking to a spot in the formation. She hoped she wasn't too hard on them when giving the order, but they needed to move quickly. She took her place in front of the formation after giving it a quick glance too.

With a deep breath Applejack spoke, "We are on a mission to get Cassius Nightshade back and put The Faithless down if need be! Princess Luna and the rest of us will be here in a few hours so I want a squad of ten to stay here and wait for them! Everypony else, move that gear up! Its time to go!"

The last ten ponies in formation took up positions at the station as the rest began the hour long march to the altar. Applejack had led the ponies of Equestria to the last Alicorn war. With hope they would be able to come out on top.

********************************************************************
Rainbow Dash was flying in the sunset with four other ponies that made up her scouting party. Earlier she had one of the scouts to fly back to Applejack and see how long it would take her to get to the altar. She was given good news that she was only a few minutes away from their location. Not a moment too soon, because she finally got a sight on this Altar Of The Guardians. It was a massive colosseum with a white and black stones and a pyramid structure with the tip removed in the center with four statues that rested on a platform that Cassius and a few other ponies sat on. From the looks of it the awakening had begun, because a barrier had formed around the structure and unicorns were massing around it casting their magic in a rod that was hung just above Cassius. All Rainbow Dash could do at the moment was to watch in horror as everything they had fought so hard to prevent for six long years was about to be undone.
******************************************************************

Liz had Flamearch and Cassius taken from the train and teleported the rest of the way to the altar. She had troops there already and with the news that Princess Luna herself was on her way to get Cassius back unsettled her. Ghetsis had already prepared for their arrival and had the spells to awaken Cassius's true power ready. All he was waiting for was Liz to give to order and for Gold to return with the blood he needed for the ritual. 

Ghetsis had Cassius leave his master's side to enter the ritual ring. This was not good for Flamearch to be left without his help for too long. He had placed seven other unicorn magi to sustain him, but they were not strong enough to keep him from dying. 
Ghetsis cursed under his breath at their lack of magical skill and the strength of the shadow magic at work. He sighed and looked to the cloud line above to calm himself. What he saw was a rainbow that stretched across the sky and above the altar. It was moving at alarming speeds.

"Well young Cassius, it looks like you're bearers are here to retrieve you. We can't have that now can we?" he muttered to himself as he cast a barrier spell around the altar. "Somepony teleport Liz here so we can get started! And where the hell is Gold with that vial of Blood!?" he shouted.

To his surprise Gold was walking with Liz to him. True to his word, the earth pony had a vial of blood and Liz had bandages around her side.

"So, you are the donor then?"  he asked.

Liz stopped next to Flamearch, "Lets get this over with. I don't want him to die." 

Ghetsis nodded and levitated the vial from Gold and poured it around the ring where Cassius sat looking to the sky. Wasting no more time, Ghetsis began the ritual. Runes and glyphs floated around him as he mentally left the physical plane. Liz watched in awe as some of the other unicorns joined him around the altar. Each one of their eyes glowed with white light as they cast their magic into a large rod like device. It glowed and hummed with pure magic as it dangled above Cassius. Every so often a unicorn would drop dead after expelling all of their magic into the rod. She looked over to the center where Cassius sat. The rings in his eyes were glowing as he looked back with a smile.

"Lizzy, I will dive into the darkest depths of my soul to save him for you. I will make everything right, I promise you." he called with an echo in his voice. 

The ring around him glowed ferociously as the magic built up in the rod. Without warning there was a loud thud on the barrier. Liz and Cassius looked up to see Rainbow Dash slamming herself into the magical wall. Streams of black shadows emitted from her, as her anger and desperation to get Cassius grew. With another hit the barrier cracked as it started to give way to the pegasus.

Ghetsis spoke with an echo in his own voice, "Liz, she is one of his bearers of Chaos. If she stopped me now Flamearch will die." 

Those words pulled on the most fragile of nerves in Liz's soul. She glared at Rainbow Dash as her body burst into a mist Shadows. Cassius had given them both a gift, now it was time to see who would use it to its fullest extent.
> Rituals And Sacrifices
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The altar was in sight as a scroll appeared in front Applejack and unrolled itself. She called for a halt and began to read it's contents that made a smile form on her muzzle. It was good news, Princess Luna had made it to the station with Sereen and the rest of the division unharmed. Her happiness was soon crushed however when the sound of a sonic rainboom detonated above the structure with dark color rather than its normal light ones. A stream of black shadows left from the barrier and the two collided in mid air creating a second detonation of a dark rainbow mist. Applejack didn't need somepony to tell her that was Rainbow Dash. Sometimes her pride in loyalty made it hard to keep the element of surprise, something Applejack respected.

She turned to face her troops, "We need to crack that nut! Unicorns this is your job, break that barrier."

There was shuffling in the formation as the unicorns moved to the front and the others filled in the empty places left by them. Applejack began the march to get closer to the barrier and give them a good strong hit. When they were about one hundred paces the unicorns cast a spell breaker in unison. The combined power was just enough to fracture a small portion of the barrier and keep it open to allow them through. 

"Rarity, Fluttershy, go through the hole. Teams Hail Fire, Night Strike, and Swift Steel follow and keep them safe. Everypony else do what you can to keep this hole open for the others." Applejack ordered as they stepped through.

The sum of fifteen ponies followed with Fluttershy and Rarity close behind there friend.
The group stayed close to the walls and in the shadows of the building, They saw a dead unicorn every so often as they made their way to the center platform. Fluttershy was being guided by Rarity as she had her cover her eyes when she saw the first unicorn laying on the ground. Who ever was casting the barrier didn't notice or just didn't care they had gotten in. Applejack was hoping there would be able keep this that way for as long as possible. Eventually they made it to a large archway that lead from the entrance of the colosseum to the altar where a very powerful unicorn was casting the spell. 

Applejack looked back to her teams, "Night Strike, get in close and eliminate the unicorns around the area and take their places."

The team of two earth ponies, one unicorn, and two pegasi saluted and galloped off.

"Um... Applejack, darling?" Rarity started.

With her gaze fixed on the unicorn at the top of the altar she replied, "Ya Rare."

Rarity removed her hooves from Fluttershy, "You just sent four ponies that cant pass as unicorns to pose as, well unicorns."

"Rarity, I know what I did. Watch and you will see, I know what I'm doing." she replied with a scowl.

The white unicorn glanced over to one of the unicorns that an earth pony Applejack has sent picked as his target. He pulled a blade from his side with his teeth and slit his victim's throat and with burst of green flame, took her identity.

Rarity whispered in shock, "Changelings."

Applejack looked back to her, "All of team Night Strike are changelings."

"Why? How does Celestia not know?" Rarity asked.

The orange earth pony looked back to the altar, "She knows. After the first incident and the team up of  the most powerful ponies in Equestria, The queen of the changelings offered her help to prevent this from happening again. Celestia only accepted five of them that she could personally trust. And here they are, one of the most effective infiltration teams I have the pleasure of commanding."

Rarity felt a little concerned about how comfortable Applejack was with them. She acted like they were family to her, but six years can change almost anything she thought. She leaned in and placed a hoof on Applejack's shoulder.

The orange mare looked her in the eyes as she spoke, "Applejack, what aren't you telling me."

She raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean sugar cube?"

"You are too relaxed about all of this dear. In six years we have all found something more in life that make us happy, all except you. This, what you are doing here is good, but you don't seem happy with it. I'll say it surprise me to see you like this, but there is something more too it isn't there." Rarity said.

Applejack narrowed her eyes, "What are you trying to say Rarity?"

"What I'm saying is you are hiding something, or you aren't letting go of something else that's eating at you. Applejack, I'm worried about you." Rarity said in a soft voice.

She didn't like to see Applejack try so hard to appear happy when she could see in her eyes and know the truth. the orange mare shrugged off Rarity's hoof and looked to Fluttershy who shared the same look.

"Do you feel the same way Fluttershy?" She asked.

"Yes. We all do Applejack." she replied in a slightly louder than normal voice.

Applejack looked back to the altar, "Well, when we are done here I will tell you everything." 

***************************************************************

Twilight charged Delgon as he fired the first round from his leg. It bounced off Twilight’s armor, the second clipped her left thigh.Twilight brought up her blade and pushed Delgon's leg up as it fired it’s third shot into the air. Delgon brought a hoof to her side as she turned and brought her right foreleg to his jaw. She felt a rush of pain run up it as Delgon only smirked and fired a round into her chest at point blank range. The rock tore through her abdomen and just missed her spine as it burst from her back. Before she could react to the pain she felt, Delgon spun around and kicked her in the head. Twilight fell to the ground as Delgon began to approach with a smile. In her quick thinking she fired a blast of pure white energy at the earth pony. The skin melted from his body as a howl of pain echoed throughout the canyon. Twilight got to her hooves and increased to power of her spell in an attempt to incinerate the pony. When the screaming finally stopped she let go and the spell faded from existence. All that was left of Delgon was a charred husk of black in his shape. The lavender Alicorn sat down and caught her breath as she thought about how easy it was to kill her attacker. Her comfort in the act scared Twilight as much as seeing Pinkie Pie do just the same. 

"Well that hurt." A voice said.

Twilight looked up to see the charred pony slowly move as to break the bits that melted into place
and restricted his movement. Delgon was not only alive, but he raised his hoof and fired another rock that impacted just an inch from Twilight. The Alicorn used a trick from Sereen and used her wings to propel her away from Delgon's shots. She returned with a barrage of energy bolts that blasted the was left of Delgon's skin away revealing a robotic skeleton that housed the few vital organs he needed in a clear liquid inside the chest cavity. Twilight was shocked to see him, the pony was more than what he appeared to be. He must have been a project of Upgrade's.
That pony was one of the many minds behind Equestria's Technological revolution and one of her creations was about to try and kill Twilight.

"Oh don't be so surprised to see me like this. You just rode over a hundred miles and hour in a speeding hunk of metal, how am I the most shocking thing you have seen?" Delgon asked in a metallic voice.								

Twilight sprung back onto her hooves and rushed the cyborg pony with her blade at the ready. Delgon did the same seeing no fun in dropping his target at a distance. He brought his hooves to bare and the barrel of his foreleg ready to fire. When Twilight was no more than ten feet away Delgon fired at her leg. The round hit true and the loss of footing was enough to send Twilight flying by her momentum, right into Delgon's hoof. The metal of his hoof came into contact with Twilight's forehead causing her to flip around and land  on her back with a severe concussion that she nearly passed out from. The earth pony stood over her with its stare that filled her with fear, one that could only be matched by the Fluttershy or Cassius. He positioned his arm so Twilight was looking down the barrel of the chamber. Just before he fired a sword burst from his chest and was pulled it up into his neck virtually gutting him on the spot. Shadowheart was holding Dragonslayer as he kicked Delgon off his blade and let him fall to the ground. 

"Are you alright Twilight." Shadowheart asked as he helped the wounded mare to her hooves. 

"This isn't the worst thing that I've been through." she replied, already using a healing spell.

Shadowheart noticed her wounds were closing slower than usual when she used that spell, "Twilight, how much magic did you burn from that fight?" 

The lavender Alicorn looked him in the eyes, "A lot. I can barely keep my concentration on this spell."

Shadow forced Twilight to sit by the wall of the canyon as he took over healing her.
To his surprise, she gave no objection and just relaxed to clear her aching head. He sat next to her and watched as the hole in her left hind leg closed.

Fire Heart was walking with Xilas, both of them carried a few bags of food, water and other needed items. Fire Heart stopped himself and Xilas when he saw a shadow laying on his haunches next to Twilight. He was given a confused look from the orange pegasus before she realized what the dragon pony was doing. The two watched from a distance at what they thought was going to be one of the key moments in time that Xilas had mentioned. From what they saw, Shadowheart was talking to Twilight as he healed her. 

Xilas heard Fire Heart mumble to himself, "Come on Shadow, she loves you too. Seal the deal already."

As if hearing his friend Twilight glanced over to them and pulled Shadowheart in. The action surprised both of the pegasi. After about a minute of Twilight and Shadowheart not breaking the kiss, Fire Heart headed back to the transport as Xilas still looked on at her uncle.

The Dragon pony turned and called to her, "Xilas, that's enough. We need to get Pinkie Pie and move. Let them have another minute, then go get them separated."

***********************************************************

The train carrying Luna, Constance, and Sereen came to a grinding stop as it pulled into the station. Luna stepped off and was greeted by a few members of one of Applejack’s assault teams.

They had told her that Applejack and the others had arrived to the altar and were engaging The Faithless. The princes of the night was pleased to hear that and had ordered the others to create a portal link with the unicorns that were already at their destination. She was not going to leave Applejack without backup. 

One of the unicorns sent a scroll with a teleportation spell in an attempt to have whoever was there to help bridge the gap on that end. It only took a moment before there was a reply and the presence of magic. Luna stepped forward and with a glow from her horn, the portal opened and Sereen was looking at an armored earth pony that waved them over with a hoof.

Luna looked over to Sereen and Constance, “Go through, I will hold the portal for everypony else to cross through.”

Constance nudged Sereen and the two stepped through with the other members of the Dark Libra Division. It didn’t take long before everypony was through and Luna was left to close the portal behind her. She looked to what appeared to be an earth pony that was a team leader for Applejack. 

He held himself with dedication and determination as he gave a firm salute, “Your highness, The Commander is inside with the other bearers of harmony and teams Hail Fire, Night Strike, and Swift Steel. She has already placed Night strike in position and Rainbow Dash is engaging another pegasus with Prince Cassius’ shadow magic.”

Luna looked him over, then to the others that awaited her orders. She glanced to the sky and saw what had to be Rainbow Dash clashing with another. The situation was escalating and she could feel the power of the ritual behind the opening in the barrier wall. She took in a deep breath and and calmed herself. It was time to move and get her son back.

With her mind set she looked to everypony, “Its time to end all of this. We get Cassius back and kill anypony in our way. Move in, hit hard, and don't let them finish that ritual.”

With that they gave one last salute and hurried inside to help when Applejack gave the order to attack. Luna stopped Sereen and Constance along with a five pony team.

She looked into her daughter's eyes and spoke softly, “Sereen, I need you to stay here with Constance. These ponies will keep you safe out here. When I am finished, I have your brother we will go home.”

The young unicorn was about to give her rejection when Constance spoke, “We will your highness. Go get him back and give them hell.”

Luna gave them both a hug and hurried inside to help stop the reawakening. Sereen watched as the other ponies that stayed behind with them took positions around her. Constance pulled one aside and whispered to her, she glanced at the young unicorn and nodded. The yellow unicorn followed after Luna leaving her with the group. The pegasus she was talking to walked over and looked at her team.

She bent down to Sereen and said, “Okay Sereen. We are going to take you back to the station to wait for your mother.”

“But why? I want to see Cassius.” whined the little filly.

The scarlet pegasus looked her in the eyes and sighed, “It's dangerous here and your safety is more important right now. So lets go.” 

******************************************************************

Rainbow Dash was hoof to hoof with Lizzy as she fought to get past angry pegasus. She was hell bent on keeping Rainbow away from the barrier and didn't care that the wound on her side has opened slightly. The only thing that Liz had on rainbow was the element of surprise with the first few collisions. The scientist was no match for her rainbow maned opponent. Rainbow Dash pushed off and kicked her in the head, causing the purple pegasus to enter a free fall for a few seconds from the blow, before catching herself. 

She knew all she could do was hold off the chaos bearer until, "Lizzy!" 

She looked around to see Talon was rushing Rainbow Dash from behind. This brought a smile to her muzzle that was quickly destroyed when Rainbow scowled and fired her crossbow at Talon. The arrow hit her between the eyes and she fell out of the sky, Liz shuttered at the ruthlessness she had just witnessed. At that moment the barrier fell from around the altar and the ritual was coming to an end.

"I have spoken to Queen Rosetta herself! This is her will and I am her instrument! Everypony listen well, this is our final hour and he is our judge! The last Guardian War is here!" Ghetsis yelled in joy with an echo of his own voice as he gestured to Cassius.

Liz saw Princess Luna throw an orange mare with a tan ranchers hat using her magic. She was sent in the direction of Ghetsis as he let the magic held in the spike above Cassius go.
She watched as the earth pony pushed him out of the way when it detonated blinding her.

Rainbow Dash covered her eyes as the flash hit and yelled at the top of her lungs,"APPLEJACK!"

The rainbow maned pegasus looked in horror as Applejack's hat rolled down the stone steps of the altar.
> We Live With Regret
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everypony looked to the top of the altar as a thin trail of crimson blood made its way off down the stone steps. The hat of the commander of the Dark Libra Division gently floated in the breeze as it came to a stop in front of Twilight, who had just walked in with Shadowheart and the others. She saw the looks on the muzzles of ponies from both sides, a unicorn that looked like a priest went limp and fell over next to somepony else. Luna looked on in complete shock with tears in her eyes. 

The princess of the night looked around and her face distorted with rage as she gave the order, "ATTACK!"

Twilight watched as ponies in armor charged from every shadowy spot possible and began to kill the ones that controlled the altar. The showed no mercy as they went to clear a path to their fallen commander. Fluttershy raced over with the medical team as Rainbow Dash caught up to them and headed to the top while Rarity helped to clear the path for the ponies that didn't have wings.

"What happened just now Luna?" Twilight asked her in concern.

They all looked so angry in Twilight’s eyes, it wasn't until Luna turned to her and yelled over the sounds of the fighting, "Twilight, now is not the time. Get up there and help get Applejack!" 

Just as she was about to gallop to the top, an explosion of fire and shadows erupted from across the courtyard and a figure raced to the pillar at break neck speeds. Twilight was pushed as Shadowheart darted for the altar to meet it at the top with Dragonslayer at the ready.

As everypony was about to make it to the top, a black orb formed and blocked all of them. Twilight teleported just above to see Applejack's body laying next to the dead priest, Ghetsis. The barrier was being created by Cassius as he sat next to the fallen orange mare in the commander's uniform. Her hair was free of the hair tie she always had on and the wind was allowed to pass blow it around. From here, Twilight could see the blood running from her mouth and the hole in her chest. Cassius was crying over her and eventually looked up to her and he whimpered. Twilight noticed that the ring in his eye that represented Applejack was faded and glazed over.

He looked back to Applejack and said softly, "She's with mother mare Twilight. She tried to save me."

Another voice called out, "No, she ruined your reawakening. She ruined my plans!" 

Flamearch walked to the barrier, covered in burning shadows as the hole he had in his stomach closed.

"You're alive!?" Cassius asked in astonishment from inside his protective wall.

Flamearch scowled, "I was never going to die. I was absorbing all of the magic you were feeding me to get stronger. I just endured the pain to get as much as possible."

Cassius slowly stood up, "You lied to me?" His tears of sorrow turned to pure anger. "YOU LIED TO ME!?"

Flamearch smiled, "I used you."

The small gray unicorn looked around to find something to attack Flamearch with when his gaze found the still very charged spike. He looked to Twilight, then to Applejack before his gaze found Flamearch.

"Do you fear me?" he said softly.

Flamearch began to chuckle, "Not anymore little one. You are no match for me. None of you are a match for me!"

Cassius slammed a hoof to the ground and a rune appeared. Flamearch stopped his boasting and looked at the rune, he knew exactly what it was. 

Cassius smiled when he saw the fear in the red unicorns eyes, "I read the rest of my journal on the way here. I know what I was and know how to become it again. I will make you pay for everything that has happened" - Flamearch gulped- "What's wrong Flamearch, I can see in your soul that you are scared." Cassius gave a psychotic grin from ear to ear as he stamped his hoof to the floor, triggering the rune.

The magical trigger detonated the barrier of shadows and receded to Cassius. He was engulfed in a ball of shadows as the spike above struck him with its magic. The orb of darkness began to grow and fluctuate as it gave of a feeling that sent shivers through everypony. A shock wave hit when the spike fired and pushed everypony except Flamearch and Shadowheart and the bodies of Applejack and Ghetsis. Cassius had placed a shield of magic around them to keep them in place as he absorbed the rest of the magical build up in the spike. The sound of whispers filled everypony’s ears as the orb began to distort and spasm. The sky itself gave way to darkness and the wind grew restless as the power of the hundred or so dead unicorns was being fed into the ball. 


Shadowheart was unable to move and attack Flamearch, but from where he was standing he could see the paralyzing fear on his muzzle. This made him even more uneasy, If Flamearch was this scared of something, This was either a good thing for Shadowheart or a bad thing for all of Equestria. 

*******************************************************

Rainbow Dash hit the ground near Fluttershy when the first shock wave hit. She struggled to lift herself half way up and looked to the sky. She had never seen clouds move on there own before, they gathered around the area and cast down rain no less. She was in pure astonishment until the wind blew something in the corner of her eye, she shot up when she recognized what was blowing on the ground. She galloped over to catch Applejack's hat before it landed in a mud puddle. When Rainbow had it in her teeth she realized that had happened only moments ago. She looked to the top of the altar and saw the ball of black darkness. Applejack was still up there and she was going to make sure she came out of this alive. 

Rainbow Dash jumped up to take off, but only a sharp pain greeted her as she hit hit ground. She looked back and found her left wing was broken. If she was going to save her friend, it would be on the ground. She began to make her way to the top as ponies from both sides clashed and killed one another. Rainbow Dash caught a glance of Princess Luna flying to the top of the altar and stopping just above and watching whatever was happening in horror. Rainbow quickened her pace, but was stopped by Applejack.

The orange rancher spoke in a happy tone with tears in her eyes and a thin trail of blood running down her snout, "Rainbow...I...did what I thought was right. Stay out of this, sit down and rest while they finish this."

Rainbow didn't like what her best friend was going on about, "AJ what are you saying. What's going on up there. Why do I have you hat?"

Applejack looked away, "Rainbow, you are my best friend. So I want you to keep it, I don't need it anymore. Before I go and rest for awhile, I need to tell you something that the others wanted to know when we were done here. Will you tell them for me?"

Rainbow began to tear up when Applejack gave her request, "No AJ, you can tell them yourself when we leave."

Applejack found Rainbow Dash's cerise eyes with new tears forming on her own as she whispered, "Dash, I can't. Please promise me you will tell them and make sure Big Macintosh keeps the farm going strong."

The cyan pegasus was shaking in fear, that what was happening right now was real, she clenched her teeth and lunged at Applejack giving her a tight hug as tears rolled down her muzzle and fell with the rain, "I promise AJ, I promise."

The orange mare smirked, "Thank you Rainbow, you always were loyal." 

Applejack leaned in and whispered into her ear. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and she took a step back letting go of her friend, she had a look of surprise on her and she looked to the cold, dark, wet earth she stood on. The news made Rainbow Dash even sadder and angrier at Flamearch and the rest of his Faithless. She then looked to Applejack and wondered why she would have entered battle knowing she might have died knowing such a thing.

"Applejack, why did you come here then? You could get hurt and die here." Rainbow asked hugging her again.

The orange rancher stopped hugging her friend and let her head rest on her shoulder, "I made promises, I had orders, and you are the only other pony I have told besides him. Dash you know me better than anypony, I'm stubborn at times and hate asking for help. I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you sooner."- They stood there like that for a moment as Rainbow Dash tightened the hug.- "Its time to go Dashie. I love you will all my heart and soul, be safe for me, get home and live your life for both of us.... you need to wake up now. and you need to get out"

Rainbow looked confused for a moment as everything around the two faded into darkness and she felt a cold sensation followed by another of pain. Her eyes opened to find a bloody conflict around the cyan pegasus. She tried to get up and fly but much like her dream, found her left wing to be broken. The only thing that was missing was Applejack and her hat. Rainbow Dash looked to the top of the altar and saw the orb starting to fade as it spun with shadows.

*************************************************
The spike gave the last of its magical build up to its target and the hum of the magic died.
The ball began to fade as the glowing eyes of a very angry Alicorn glared at Flamearch. All of the rings in his eyes glowed furiously except one, the chaos element of Lie held a very faint glow that was of Cassius' own power without the bearer's presence in the world. 

From the ground Fire Heart noticed Xilas slowly backing away from the altar, "Xilas what's wrong?"

The orange pegasus shuttered, "He... Fire Heart, the future has changed." she began to shake. "If we don't stop Cassius and Flamearch here and now Equestria is doomed."

"How is it doomed?" the dragon pony asked.

Xilas looked up to the altar where her father sat and muttered, "My dad knows a binding spell that he will use on Cassius to control him, if that happens then... not even Luna is safe.”

Fire Heart followed her gaze and asked as the rain began to pour down on them, "How do we stop it?"

The orange pegasus thought for a moment, "I say we have somepony else take his place when my father uses the spell. Whoever he takes won't be able to do much compared to Luna, Twilight and Cassius." 

Fire Heart  nodded, "Okay, you go look for somepony to do that, I will..." -He took a look around the area- "Xilas... where is Pinkie Pie?"

************************************************************
Pinkamena was her way to the outside the the altar slashing anypony in her way. She had a target and was going to get her, one way or another before Cassius called for her help. Given her stature the escort couldn't be very far away, especially not after what just happened inside the altar. Sure enough she saw a team of ponies leading Sereen away. Pinkamena drew her sword and ran at them. Just before the lead pony could turn and stop her, the pink killer jumped in the center of them and landed only a hoof step from Sereen. Pinkamena slashed the throat of the teams leader, stabbed the rear guard and kicked the Pointman in the neck, killing him on impact. The last two caught her in the side with a spear and slammed into her knocking Pinkamena to the ground with a bleeding side. The small white unicorn watched with an unchanged look on her muzzle as Pinkamena burst into shadows and had them lash out at the last two guards.
One was smashed like a bug by a shadow spike while the one that stabbed her was held above the ground by dark tendrils. The pink mare slowly got up as she examined her wound to find she would not die from it, but it did need medical attention later if she was still a normal pony.

The shadows that had served her for such a long time, gladly healed its master as she approached her next victim.

Pinkamena smiled darkly as she spoke, "Sereen, please be a dear and look away." 

The white unicorn did as she was asked when the shock of what was happening loosened its hold on her. The pink earth pony leaned onto the guard as her shadows covered his muzzle.
She ran a hoof through his coat and let her blade’s tip rest on his chest. She licked her lips and slowly sank the blade into him, cracking some of his bones. If the shadows didn't bind his jaw closed and covered his muzzle, his screams would have stopped the battle that was going on at the altar. Pinkamena stopped when she felt the blade hit what could only be his spine. She gave the sword a swift yank downwards and watched in joy as his entrails fell to the cold wet earth below. With another slash, she severed him in two from his left shoulder the his right hip. The tendrils flung the pieces across the landscape when her sword hit the ground. 

Pinkamena licked the tip of her sword to get the sweet taste of his blood before sheathing it and looking to Sereen, "Well now that I have... sent them off. I need you to help me with a plan to save every other pony from Flamearch."

Sereen sat there for a moment before realizing what the pink killer was trying to do, "I read Cassius journal and..."

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow, "And what?"

The young unicorn looked her in the eyes, "I was given a glimpse into the future. That red unicorn called Flamearch will bind my brother using a forbidden spell if we don't get to him soon."

Pinkamena smiled, "Then lets get going."

With that the two of them galloped back to the altar, ready with a plan to try and save everypony else they could from Flamearch.

********************************************************

Shadowheart tried to move, but the overwhelming force of fear held him down. Through the dying shadows, he could see those eyes looking into his soul. Cassius Nightshade was back to his full power with no binding to anypony. The magic that he absorbed had turned the small unicorn back into a full sized Alicorn. His gaze fixed on Flamearch with deadly intent as he slowly stepped closer to him. 

Cassius leaned in and whispered to the terrified fire red unicorn, "I will make you suffer."

He pulled back his hoof and a shadow blade burst to life. He went for a killing blow when Shadowheart called to him, "Cassius, stop!" 

The angry gray Alicorn looked back to him, stopping the blade only a few centimeters above Flamearch, cutting his mane slightly.

Shadowheart continued, "I need to be the one to kill him. He is the reason our family’s demise, he slaughtered them all for Dragonslayer. Please let me have my fight with him so I may avenge them all."

Cassius began to ponder the thought as shadows launched to Flamearch and held his hooves to the ground. He struggled under the might of the darkness that obeyed its master. Cassius stepped aside as he took deep breaths to calm himself. 

"I want you to make him bleed for Applejack." Cassius hissed.

Shadowheart gave him a bow as he felt his fear subside, "Thank you Nocturnal Guardian." 

Flamearch looked to Cassius in the eyes as his brother approached. The Nocturnal Guardian held his gaze with a scowl as he sat over Applejack holding her head. Shadowheart raised Dragonslayer with a hoof ready to go in for the kill. Flamearch kept his eyes on Cassius as he cracked a smile.

"Why are you so happy Flamearch.", the white unicorn asked in confusion.

"Oh dear brother, you don't see it do you?" Flamearch said in a cocky voice.

Shadowheart raised an eyebrow, "See what?"

Shadows of fire burst from Flamearch knocking Shadowheart back,"I have all the power I need to kill you and take what I want." -Cassius was grabbed by the darkness that Flamearch controlled, binding him and engulfing anything the gray Alicorn could use to break free.- "I will have your power as my own. Even if you are not willing to join me. Now Cassius, show me those pretty eyes of yours." 

The shadows easily overpowered the stunned Alicorn as they pulled his closed eyes open. Cassius was unable to his magic for some reason, all he could do was thrash around in a desperate attempt to break free. The shadows at his command were too weak to fight off Flamearch’s own.

"What's wrong Cassius, can't you break free." Flamearch laughed maniacally. "I suppose you can't with the enchantment I had placed on you when you fell asleep on the train. That and the amount of magic you used without help may have drained you. Face it, you can't use any of your magic that I don't want you to use. Now lets see how strong the will of a God can be."

Just as Flamearch was about to cast the final spell to take over Cassius, Pinkamena jumped on top of him with Sereen on her back. The spell fired and and struck the small white unicorn as Pinkamena slashed Flamearch leaving a massive gash on his chest. He staggered back and glared to see the results of his plans and even more to his distress, Cassius was free again and was breaking the enchantment on his left side. This was going to be a battle for the ages, and despite the setbacks, Flamearch was far from beaten.
> Rise Of The Sea Of Flames
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flamearch held his chest with a hoof as he sent Pinkamena spinning over the edge of the Altar with a wave of shadows. The pink earth pony slammed her sword into the edge of the stone, just before falling to what would without a doubt be her death. Cassius galloped over go help her up before the stone could give way.


Shadowheart charged his distracted brother and went for a killing blow by trying to remove his head. The fire red unicorn ducked and slammed a hoof into Shadowheart's gut making him stagger. Flamearch lifted his hoof and Ragnarok burst into existence around it in a brilliant display of flames of shadows. With a powerful slash, Flamearch slammed the end of his mighty blade to the stone floor only inches from Shadowheart. The white and black stone chipped and cracked at the force of the devastating blow. Flamearch pulled Ragnarok back up and went for another swing as Shadowheart clashed Dragonslayer with it. 


The two unicorns glared hate at each other as one tried to push the other back.

Flamearch charged a spell and fired a molten ball of slag at his brother. Shadowheart spun to the left to avoid the attack and landed a blow to Flamearch's head. The red unicorn staggered but returned with a swing of his blade which met once again with Dragonslayer. The two exchanged blows, parried and dodged each others attacks. They were matching every attempted hit to the dime, unable to slip past the other. This only made Flamearch angrier with each passing second. He sacrificed so much and spent the last six years of his life to surpass his brother and was now filled by the power of the Nocturnal Guardian. How is he able to keep up with him and even counter some of my attacks?, Flamearch thought


He looked around as the two swords clashed again to see his spell hit Sereen, the Solar Guardian, "Little one. I require your magic." He called to her.


Shadowheart felt a sharp pain run through him as a bolt of electricity struck his back. He nearly fell to his haunches from the pain as he fought harder not to lose the hold Dragonslayer had on Ragnarok. If Shadowheart slipped up now, it would spell his death and Flamearch's first real victory. He looked over his shoulder to see the small unicorn glaring at him, her eyes were glazed over thanks to the spell that held her to Flamearch's will. She prepared to fire the spell again, Shadowheart waited for what was to come. When she fired he stepped to the side and let the bolt strike his brother. Flamearch was sent tumbling down the altar from the electrified hit. Shadowheart couldn't help but smile at the sight of his brother being bested by his own blunder.


Cassius pulled Pinkamena over the edge and looked to Shadowheart, "Go and kill you brother. I will keep Sereen from doing something she would regret later."


The white unicorn nodded once then began to gallop and jumped off the edge after Flamearch leaving Cassius to his sister.


He looked over to his beloved sister, "You shot him with a bolt of lightning. You could have killed him you know."


The white filly smiled at her now older brother, "Well I wanted to make Flamearch think his spell worked."


"How did you know he was going to try and control me? A better question, is how did it fail on you?" Cassius asked, holding Applejack close to him.


The small unicorn’s smile fell as she looked at the ring in his eye, "I was told by Pinkamena, so I prepared a counter spell before we got up here." - She gulped - "Cassius, Is she..."


A tear fell from his eyes as he whispered, "Yes Sereen, she is gone from this world."


She walked over to the fallen earth pony, "Are you going to ask for her back?"


Cassius held his head down as he began to cry, "I can't."


Sereen sat next to her weeping brother, "Why? Don't you have all of your power back?"


He closed his eyes and lowered his head, "I do, but Mother Mare has willed this herself. I can't undo any of this. No matter how badly I want to."    


*********************************************************


Rainbow Dash made her way to the altar's steps when she saw the fire red unicorn get blasted off its peak. The ponies in the battle that ensued around her seemed to ignore the wounded cyan mare. Rainbow Dash  walked with a limp as she slowly made her way up the steps. It was only a moment before she saw a white unicorn jump and levitate to the ground where the other one fell before. She went to look over the edge of the steps when a voice called to her. The pounding in her head made it hard to make out who the voice belonged too.


"Rainbow Dash, are you alright?" The voice was quiet and could only come from one pony in all of Equestria.


Fluttershy flew over to her with tears in her eyes, Rainbow Dash took one look at her left foreleg and saw it appeared to be broken. The yellow pegasus gently landed in front of her but kept the leg off the ground. Dash could see she had cried a lot before flying over to her and was proud of her for showing a smile to her past the pain she must have been feeling.


"I will live from this Fluttershy, but are you going to be okay. Your leg doesn't look good." the cyan pegasus said looking her friend in eyes.


Fluttershy gave a concerned look but had a smile and spoke, "I am in better condition than you Rainbow Dash. We need to get out of here before one of us dies."


A form of fear hit Rainbow, Something Applejack said to her in her dream.


"Before I go and rest for awhile, I need to tell you something that the others wanted to know when we were done here." He words echoed in the her mind.


"Fluttershy, we need to get up there and get to Applejack." she said frantically.


Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash with concern, "Rainbow Dash, you are hurt worse than I am. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. So lets hurry up and get her."


The two of them gradually made their way up the black and white steps of the stone altar. Fluttershy hovered close beside Rainbow and looked over the edge from time to time to see the battle below. All the ponies completely ignored them. She was horrified to see that they were capable of taking another life, but she swallowed her disgust and fear so she could continue to follow Rainbow.


When they finally made it to the top they saw a large gray pair of wings extended outward, covering somepony that was laying on the ground from the rain. A small white unicorn was sitting next to them. Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy froze when the Alicorn looked over his shoulder, seeing Applejack's ring faded his eye. Sereen got up and walked over to them as Cassius looked back to the fallen pony.


"Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, You too look awful. Do you want me to try and heal you?" Sereen asked in a calm and caring voice.


Fluttershy spoke up in a not so timid voice, "Oh, yes please Sereen."


As the white filly began to heal the two, Rainbow Dash asked abruptly, "Sereen, where is Applejack?"


Sereen looked over to Cassius with a grim expression on her muzzle. She said nothing, but her face told them all they needed to know and more. Rainbow didn't even wait for her bones in her wing to snap back into place before galloping over to Cassius. She stopped when the Alicorn looked at her again, she saw the sadness in his eye along with a very potent anger.

Rainbow looked at him for a while before she took another step, Cassius only watched as he lifted his wings a little higher so she could sit under them and out if the rain. The cyan pegasus stopped again when she saw the color of the coat and her mane that was now free of its tie. She only stayed like that for a moment before galloping to Cassius' side.


Her eyes began to water when she saw the blood running down through the hole in Applejack's chest, "Cassius, so is she going to be able to come home with us?"


He looked her in the eyes, "Rainbow Dash... she won't be coming back."


Frustration washed over the wet pegasus, "You brought Twilight back from the dead, why can't you do the same to for Applejack? What makes this any different than that? Why are you giving up on her? Why would you betray..."


Cassius stamped a hoof in anger before blurting out, "I haven't betrayed anypony! Do you think if I could have brought her back by now I would have! I was lied to and nearly killed for my power Rainbow Dash! This is out if my hooves. For once in my existence, I am completely powerless to stop what is happening. I can't get her back, but I sure as hell can avenge her."


Cassius shot up and walked to the edge of the altar and looked on to see the battle that raged around him. The Nocturnal Guardian stood there for a moment until his gaze found the two unicorns he was looking for. Flamearch was clashing swords and exchanging blows with Shadowheart. Spells flew from one and was blocked by another spell from the other.

The brothers were at even terms and neither of them could gain an upper hoof over the other. 

Cassius looked behind him to see Rainbow still sitting next to Applejack with her head lowered in shame and Fluttershy walking behind her with Sereen close by, still healing the two.


"Rainbow Dash... I am sorry I yelled at you just now. I want you three to get every pony you can out of here. Gather the dead and wounded first, I don't care what side they fight for.

I am going to end this with Shadowheart. I will see you back in Canterlot."


Before anypony could give their feelings on the matter, Cassius spread his wings and glided through the rain to the conflict below. An orb of shadows consumed him as he closed the gap between the two brothers and himself.


Through the sounds of the fighting, Cassius heard Twilight calling to him. He looked over and saw the Alicorn racing to Shadowheart with a blade of light emitting from her left hoof. To his horror he saw a large earth pony racing to cut her off with a large sword of his own. It was Gold trying to keep as much pressure off of Flamearch as he could. Cassius would have none of this. He shifted into a nose dive and was barreling towards Gold at a rapid pace.


*********************************************


Gold spotted the purple Alicorn rushing to join the fight and try to kill Flamearch. A devilish grin formed on his muzzle as the thought of avenging Sparky entered his mind. He clamped his sword to his hoof and galloped to intercept the Alicorn. He was closing the gap when she turned and saw him. Twilight raised her protective barrier around and pushed the light blade past its walls in preparation for the coalition that was sure to happen. Gold didn't slow down his charge as the image of Sparky laying dead on the cold ground filled his murderous rage.

He positioned his blade to meet hers as to have it slide away from his when he collided with her.


Just before impact a bolt of dark lightning struck the wet earth sending bits of the stone and water into the air. Their gaze found Cassius as he landed behind Gold. Before he could react, Cassius slammed a shadow blade through his back. The large earth pony spat up blood from the blow. Twilight looked to Cassius, his muzzle showed no signs of remorse, only anger stared back at her. With a swift jerk of his hoof, the blade ripped through Gold's back, while another hoof burst from his side. 


The sight of the merciless bloodshed brought back horrible memories for Twilight. She looked away as she heard the sound of bone being torn from flesh. The blood curdling screams of agony from Gold cut through the sound of the rain and battle that consumed everything in sight.


It wasn't until a final snap that the screams ended and the sound of the large body hitting the wet earth. She looked to see Gold not only dead, but half of his spine jutting from his back with a pool of blood forming around him. It poured from the hole in his back and from his mouth as Cassius walked past her like nothing had happened.


Twilight darted in front of him blocking his path, "Cassius... how... Why?"


He sneered in frustration, "Twilight, I will kill anypony that threatens us. If I didn't kill him now, you would not have gotten to Shadowheart before his battle with Flamearch ended with him dead just like Applejack."


Twilight looked to the top of the altar to see Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash carry what could only be Applejack away from the altar. If it wasn't the rain, she would have been crying right then and there at the loss of one of her best friends. Instead she took a deep breath and stepped aside to allow Cassius to proceed to his target.


"Thank you Twilight." He looked ahead to the fighting brothers and noticed flames slowly taking shape behind Flamearch as their battle became more and more intense. "Come with me Twilight, I fear Flamearch has taken more of my power than I first thought."


She looked over and noticed the anomaly as well. Without hesitation the two of them galloped over to aid Shadowheart.


****************************************************************


Flamearch ducked down and kicked at Shadowheart’s hind legs. Shadowheart jumped and brought a leg to his brothers head as he went into the air. Flamearch staggered and fired three balls of fire from his horn. They arched and raced to the white unicorn who cast a shadow lance that clashed with the burning swords. Explosions boomed from the colliding forces of the two siblings.


Flamearch growled, "I have had enough of you brother. It is almost time to end your existence once and for all!"


The flames on his back burned brightly as bone began to from within them. The fire that covered them started to take the form of flesh, right before Shadowheart’s every eyes. A menacing grin formed on Flamearch’s muzzle as he too watched with utter joy at his transformation finishing its last stage.


Flamearch began to laugh maniacally, "Oh dear brother, I finally have all the power I had ever dreamed of and more. Today is the day that I finally kill you and become the next and last Alicorn God."


Shadowheart raised Dragonslayer, "I will fight to my last dying breath to not let that happen."


Flamearch's laugh started to die as he gained a more serious and dark tone, "Oh Shadowheart, thats what I'm counting on."


Shadowheart lunged at his brother with a slash of Dragonslayer. The sword burst into living shadows as it misses it target by only inches. Flamearch slammed his hoof into the ground and a pillar of molten earth sent the white unicorn into the air. Flamearch positioned Ragnarok and using his now wings of fire flew after him. Shadowheart was unable to think straight as he saw the flames rising to him. He struggled to stand on the burning pillar, the only thing keeping him from crying out in pain from the burns was his focus and the special horseshoes he wore.

As the pillar gained altitude, Shadowheart launched dark spears and slashed at the air with Dragonslayer, creating waves of black magic. All the projectiles flew to the approaching abomination. Flamearch only smiled and released a lash of built up energy which destroyed the oncoming attacks like they were nothing.


Shadowheart's eyes went wide at the power Flamearch truly held. Any normal attacks he threw at him would surely fail one after the other. He closed his eyes and sheathed Dragonslayer as the pillar continued its ascent into the sky, by now he was as high up as the altar itself.

Steam lifted up when the cold rain hit the ever heating pillar. Shadowheart knew what he had to do if he was going to kill Flamearch, with a deep breath he calmed himself and let his magic gather. Shadows wavered at his command and he felt the pillar slow and eventually stop. 


Flamearch looked in awe as the wind began to pick up and the shadows clung to it. Shadowheart opened his eyes, they gave off the glow of darkness as his horn shined brightly.

He waved a hoof and a bridge of shadows slammed into Flamearch sending him back only a few feet.


The fire red Alicorn pushed back causing the shadows to bend. Blood and fire mixed in as Flamearch was being shredded alive, the only thing keeping him from truly dying was Cassius' healing ability he stole.


Flamearch chuckled, "Brother, do you really think Maelstrom can kill me now? If so, you are going to die quicker than I thought."


Flamearch rotated his foreleg, wrapping some of the razor sharp wind around it.

To Shadowheart’s irritation, the dark wing burst into flames and the tornado of shadows began to be converted into a wall of spinning fire.


Flamearch yelled over the roar of the black burning winds, "Well Shadowheart, Its time for you to burn!"


The walls of fire began to close in around the white unicorn. The heat intensified when Flamearch's amplified magic poured into the spell. Shadowheart was starting to lose oxygen and would suffocate before the fire could burn him to death.


The battle that had only moments ago erupted turned into a panic as Luna ordered everypony to leave. Shadowheart could barely see past the heated air, the ponies were working together to find any means of escape. One thing caught his eye though, Three balls of living shadows were racing to the fires. One was coming from the ground, the other two raced from the sky. They slammed through the winds and into Flamewatch, One slammed directly into him and revealed Cassius and Twilight. the one on the ground dispelled allowing Pinkamena, Crystal Glare, and Lizzy to walk in unharmed. The last one landed on the pillar, Fire Heart extended a hoof to help Shadowheart up. Xilas erected a bubble of pure darkness to cool the air and allow him to breathe again.


Fire Heart looked his friend in the eyes, "Didn't I tell you I couldn't replace your sorry flank if you died."


Shadowheart coughed trying to clear his burning lungs, "You took your sweet time getting to me."


Xilas chuckled, "Well I had to get Crystal Glare and we know how he takes his job. If you want we can go and let you handle my dad alone."


Shadowheart shook his head, "No, no thats fine. But he has gotten stronger than I had thought."


The dragon pony laughed, "Oh that is an understatement. Shadow, HES A FUCKING ALICORN! HOW MUCH MAGIC DID HE GET FROM CASSIUS!"


The burned unicorn looked through the swirling shadows to see his brother exchanging blows with the enraged guardian, "Enough to finish Crystal's prophecy. This fight was different from what he told though." He nodded in satisfaction. "We can beat him, we have to beat him. No matter what the cost."


Fire Heart rubbed the back of his neck, "Well i guess we will pay the price so nopony else has too. Like I said, I'm with you to the end."


Shadowheart didn't take his gaze off of his brother, "Good, because I will need you to get Flamearch off of Cassius."


The dragon pony froze, "WHAT?!"


The white unicorn turned to face his oldest friend, "Fire Heart, you know I would never ask you for anything like this if it wasn't important. I need as much of his shadow magic as he can spare, and to do that he needs to be able to cast everything he can without an interruption. This means you and the others that can't use shadows will have to play chicken with Flamearch."


Fire Heart began to pace nervously around the cooling but still very hot pillar, "If I die from this Shadow, I will haunt your plot until the end of time itself and not even Crystal Glare will stop me."


"Glad you stil have you sense of humor Fire Heart." Shadowheart said with a grin.


The dragon pony crossed his forelegs, "I wasn't joking, I will haunt you ass. I will haunt your ass!"


Xilas chimed herself in, "Okay you two, we aren't really in any position to be messing around. Incase you forgot, My father is trying to kill us and enslave all of Equestria. Can we please get back to the matter at hoof?"


Shadowheart looked to his friend, "Xilas is right. Are you ready to help me settle a sibling rivalry?"


Fire Heart grumbled to himself before speaking, "As ready to die as I will ever be. Lets just finish this so I can get back to Corona."


With that, Shadowheart slammed Dragonslayer into the pillar and nodded to Xilas. He closed his eyes and began to channel his magic as she let him absorb the shadows that made up the protective orb. The flaming winds had calmed but had not dispelled, instead they were being redirected at Cassius. The gray Alicorn used his own shadows to fight back and had entered a duel of blades with the Alicorn of fire. Ragnarock clashed with the blades of shadows that Cassius summoned as his weapon of choice. Twilight came up from the rear with her swords of light, Flamearch had almost no trouble fending off the princess of magic, but he did show concern when the Guardian came in for a blow. He blocked Twilight with defensive spells but used his sword to stop Cassius.


Fire Heart shook his head and with a sigh, jumped from the pillar and rushed towards Flamearch. Within an instant, Xilas and Shadowheart heard a popping sound. In Between them stood Pinkamena, Crystal Glare, and Lizzy.


The gray unicorn smiled happily, "I believe you need them to finish this?"


Shadowheart smiled at the prophet, "You know what I need for this, Can you get everypony that was touched by Cassius that is still fighting with us?"


The white unicorn's muzzle shifted, "Well thats is going to be kind of hard see as the only one you are missing is Cassius himself. But I will help relieve him from his battle and send him to you."


Before anything could be said Crystal was gone in a flash. A few moments later and explosion of darkness burst to life and Cassius slashed his right hoof and a shadow blade down on the pillar, nearly missing its chance to split Shadowheart in two.


Cassius looked up to see the stunned expression on Shadowhearts muzzle, "Where did Flamearch go?"


The unicorn cleared his throat, "Crystal Glare switched places with you so you could lend me some your power to help me finish my brother off and end what we started so many years ago."


Cassius glared at him for a moment, "I gave you my word that the final blow would be yours Shadowheart... What do you need from me?"


"I need you to channel as much of your shadow magic to me as you possibly can." he said, taking a step closer. "I plan to end this in a similar way to your defeat by the hooves of the royal immortals."


The gray Alicorn raised and eyebrow, "You plan to write him out of existence?"


"No, I plan to erase him from existence at the cost of my life if necessary." Shadowheart looked Cassius dead in the eyes without flinching or breaking eye contact.


"I want him to suffer for what he has done, but I will give you all of my power if need be. Very well, I will give you the last strike on him." Cassius smiled and began to gather his magic in his horn as he sat down and concentrated.


Shadowheart returned the smile, it quickly faded as every other pony began to fall over and roll in pain. Lizzy Pinkamena, and Xilas doubled over and began to scream as the shadows left their bodies and made its way to the true master of Equestria’s darkness. Cassius closed his eyes and absorbed his power from the ones he had touched. The white unicorn ran to The pink ponies side and she held herself with tears of pain rolling down from her closed eyes. In the distance a stream of floating darkness flew to the gray guardian. Shadowheart could only guess that this came from the other bearers of the Elements of Chaos.


Cassius was Calling back all of his power, Even Flamearch wailed in pain as he fended off the attackers. Only small amounts of the shadows left him however, the rest lashed out as they burned like fire, trying to pull the fleeing shadows back to him.


The living darkness clung to its master and even dripped off of the gray Alicorn. Shadowheart watched as they changed him before his very eyes, Cassius' wings grew as black as night, his muzzle began to look feral, his hooves grew claws that appeared as though they could cut through anything. Cassius was taking his Nightmare Spawn form.


Shadowheart only started on as Cassius absorbed more and more of his and the lands shadows. The darkness in the hearts of every pony nearby was being taken by force and called to him. Even Shadowheart felt a tug at something that he thought was long dead. It quickly turned into a searing pain in his chest that made him fall to his haunches and gasp for air. A small but visible stream of darkness left his chest and made its way to creature that was Cassius.

The shadows that left Shadowheart was the hate he held for all this time. Hate for his brother, hate for his familys loss. But more so, hate for himself for failing them.


Cassius finally spoke in an echoed voice, "The balance is maintained, but the suffering will begin with Flamearch."


He opened his eyes and looked at the flaming Alicorn. All of the rings glowed with anger, except one. The Nightmare Spawn got to his hooves and slowly walked past Shadowheart and to the edge of the pillar.


Shadowheart looked in horror as a thought entered his mind, The last Alicorn war is coming to a close, may Mother Mare have mercy on my soul when this is over.


*********************************************


Flamearch slashed at Crystal Glare's leg, the silver pony’s blood spilled to the wet earth as the rain began to clean the wound.


"Not as immortal as you thought, ay Crystal" Flamearch said mockingly.


Crystal gritted his teeth for a moment as the gash quickly closed, "Trust me when I say this Flamearch, I am immortal. The only reason I haven't killed you myself is because it is not my place too."


Flamearch scowled, "Then whose place is it oh high and mighty Crystal Glare?"

The silver unicorn smirked "Well I would say his."


Before the self made fire red Alicorn could respond, Crystal glare ducked and he saw who he meant. Flamearch went wide eyed as a monster of living shadows flew over Crystal and slammed into him, Teeth bare and claws first into his chest.


The shadows from the beast burned his flesh as it gave off a deafening roar. strings of saliva flew from its massive jaws as it went to bite down on Flamearch's neck. Thinking quickly, Flamearch released a concussive blast of flames at the monster. he then fired a point blank beam of white hot energy to its chest, sending it into the air and blasting a hole through and through. It landed on the ground with a thud laying lifeless in the rain as smoke flew into the air. Flamearch inspected the burning gashes in his chest. His new found healing did not take effect this time, his chest burned and he could see little embers in the holes. He looked back to the creature with anger as it began to get up. Flamearch knew what and who this was when it began to laugh at him. the hole in it's chest began to close as it stood up and let its ink like wings unfurll.


Flamearch willed his wounds to close with the aid of his magic as he got to his hooves in pure rage, "SO THATS HOW YOU WANT TO PLAY THIS LITTLE GAME CASSIUS! WELL THEN LETS PLAY!"


Flames began to swirl around Flamearch as his anger only grew. It latched itself like the very shadows that held Cassius. Within only seconds there was not one, but two Nightmare Spawn. One large spawn made of only the purest of dark shadows that dripped off like ink in the rain and another about the same height as any pony made of brilliant fire, the rain evaporates almost instantly as it fell on Flamearch. The clouds over head only grew darker as the last game between Cassius and Flamearch was about to continue.


Cassius spoke in an echo of his own voice, "Flamearch, I told Shadowheart he can have the killing blow."


Flamearch snorted blue flames before responding in an echo as well, "I am a God now! Do you think he or anypony can kill me!?"


"That is what I thought, until I was written out of existence. I will make sure you wish for that very death. You are nothing but an abomination created by my compassion and kindness. I WILL SEE YOU PAY FOR YOUR ACTIONS WITH YOUR BLOOD!" Cassius yelled in anger.


Cassius darted for Flamearch, his shadows lashing at the ground with each step he took.

The flaming spawn galloped at its opponent, each step it took turned the earth below it into glass as steam floated off of him. The two clashed, the flames and shadows mixed and fought for control as they consumed each other. Cassius went for his throat but Flamearch was able to slip a foreleg up and land a blow to his side, digging his flaming claws as deep as he could before the shadows broke them and engulfed his entire leg. He back away as the felt the darkness tear apart his skin and burn every bit of flesh as the cold feeling of death crawled up the dying leg.


He looked to Cassius and saw that his burning effect had taken its tole on the guardian as well. Cassius struggled to get up and bits of melted flesh seeped from the holes in his side. Cassius glared hate at Flamearch as he went in for another attack.


*******************************************


Shadowheart had gotten to his hooves and was watching the battle of the Nightmare Spawn. Every other pony had also gotten to their hooves as they were trying to get focused after the intense pain they felt.


Pinkamena sat next to Shadowheart holding her burning side, "We are ready to give you as much of the his shadow magic as you need for your plan."


The white unicorn looked on, "I will need to take a lot. By the end of all of this, Flamearch might not be the only one dead."


He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, "I need all of you to channel your power into me. This will finish everything."


The ponies on the pillar said nothing but got up and concentrated.


Pinkamena smiled at him, "You know something Shadowheart. I was going to kill you back at Sugar Cube Corner. If I had, we would all be dead thanks to me." She leaned in a kissed him, "Consider that my apology and my gratitude for helping save Equestria. I can see why Twilight loves you. You have a caring heart for others rather than yourself."


She stepped back and closed her eyes as she commanded her shadows to awaken.

Each of them stood around him and burst into an inferno of pure darkness. They were acting as nodes to fuel Shadowheart’s magic.


He took a deep breath and began to concentrate on his spell. As he did however, the memories of the day his brother turned on his family flooded his mind. The house burning uncontrollably, the screams of his mother as the bedroom caved in over her. The trail of blood that led to his father, dying near Dragonslayer. The worst of it all was Flamearch, he had spent the night looking for Shadowheart and mercilessly killed their family. And that sword, it all started with that sword he found tucked away from everypony. It drove him to do the unthinkable in the name of power.

It sickened Shadowheart to know that Flamearch willingly chose this. The monster wasn't the Nightmare Spawns that fought, it wasn't the darkness that Cassius commanded, It wasn't The Faithless, it was Flamearch. Shadowheart knew what he was going to do, and he would finish this without hesitation.


"I am sorry brother, you brought this on yourself." Shadowheart mumbled to himself.


He opened his eyes and began to draw in the shadows that the others fed to him. He channeled everything he had and everything the others were giving him into his horn. More memories flashed before him, when he entered his burning home the find his father barely clinging to life and offering Dragonslayer. A flush of pain rushed up his spine to the immense power he was building up. Shadowheart had see what the future held if Flamearch lived, Crystal Glare had given him a look into it. What he saw wasn't right, Equestria would fall to a monster calling itself a new God. Another surge of pain hit Shadowheart, but he continued to build the energy he needed.


Another vision of his past that had haunted him all his life came back clear as day in the dark sky's and down pour. He failed to kill his little brother back at the house so many years ago.

He allowed the briefest mercy to him and his brother still wanted him dead. They almost killed each other that day, but he let Flamearch get away. Shadowheart was going to correct his oldest mistake.


"Cassius! I need your power now!" He yelled to the black creature that had pushed the flaming Nightmare Spawn back.


Without hesitation Cassius slammed a hoof to the ground and his Shadows raced to the white unicorn leaving the gray Nocturnal Guardian still holding Flamearch at bay. The darkness ran up the pillar and latched onto his hooves. Shadowheart had never felt such loneliness and pain before, it felt like an existence that was more of a curse to others had just embraced him.

One emotion was taking over with the shadows that aided him, anger and rage. It was nearly overwhelming, But he would not go against his father. Shadowheart forced himself to quench the anger Cassius had passed to him. This was something that Shadowheart would do on his own terms. there would be no anger or rage to cloud his judgment.


The mass of power he had built up was ready to be unleashed. Blood ran from his snout and he coughed up more as the energy waited to be released. The shadows that Cassius gave him twitched with excitement, as if it was awaiting Flamearch’s destruction  with joy. He gave one last look as Flamearch knocked Cassius out of the way and looked back at him, shock must have hit him as the realization of what Shadowheart was doing sank in, and small orb appeared into existence, just a and inch above Shadowheart’s horn.


The white unicorn took in a deep breath as the rest of the shadows held him closely, he muttered to himself, "I made mistakes and failed before. Now I correct everything and finally avenge our family. Goodbye brother."


Shadowheart released the energy into a small, but very deadly beam of darkness that barreled to Flamearch.


*****************************************


Flamearch braced for the beam to strike him down by covering himself with his new wings. It took only a moment for him to release them and see the attack frozen in time only a few inches from him. The world around him was at a standstill as well, all except Cassius and Crystal Glare.


The silver unicorn smiled warmly at him, "Well Flamearch, you are in quite a conundrum aren't you."


The Alicorn of fire tried to speak but was unable to. He tried to move but found his legs unresponsive. In his mind he began to panic.


"What's wrong Flamearch, Can’t you move?" Cassius said with a chuckle. "I told you that I would make you suffer for your actions. And Crystal Glare is an friend of mine that I have had the pleasure of dealing with many times in the past. Well except the last 1,006 year of course."


Crystal Glare shook his head and looked to Flamearch, both of their smiles faded and he spoke again, "I am going to let Cassius do as he wishes for a bit. After all it takes a lot of magic to stop time and I'm only covering the first few minutes with mine. After you Cassius."

The gray Alicorn walked closer to Flamearch with a look of revenge in his eyes, "With pleasure Crystal."


A shadow blade formed on his left hoof. Cassius walked behind Flamearch and using his magic, pulled on one of his wings to extend it. Flamearch felt a searing pain as Cassius slowly cut through his flesh and bone. If he wasn't bound by the magic that the two held, Flamearch would have screamed in agony. Tears of pain rolled from his eyes as the Alicorn began to sever the other wing. They didn't fall to the ground because Cassius left them hanging by only bits of torn flesh. the pain was magnified by the spell the gray Alicorn was using on him. Cassius dug the blade into his side and twisted as he pulled down allowing part of Flamearch's small intestine to protrude from the open gash.


Cassius leaned in and whispered, "You wings were for Haven, to side is for me. And this is for Applejack."


The sword of shadows faded and Cassius slammed his hoof through Flamearch's stomach and out the other side. Cassius used his magic the create another blade on his right hoof and he cut off Flamearch's horn.


Cassius whispered again, "You lived and as a unicorn, you lied to me and used me to become an Alicorn. Now you will die as an earth pony, but not by my hooves."


Cassius let a large breath out of his lungs and slowly removed his left hoof from Flamearch. Blood poured out of the large wound in the small pony's stomach. At that moment, Flamearch knew he should be dead, Cassius was keeping him alive and he had a good idea why.

Time began to reassert itself and the dark beam grew closer. The bloodied Flamearch looked in horror at his failure and death.


Cassius called to him one last time as he stepped back, "Flamearch, do you fear me?"


The dying fire red pony looked to him, eyes as wide as the could be as he whispered, "But I am a God."


Crystal Glare furled his eyebrow, "No! You were playing God! And others payed for it!"


Flamearch felt the searing chill from the beam as it drew closer. The spell that held time at bay gave in and the beam struck Flamearch. His screams were only heard for a moment as the energy passed through him. bits of flesh, bone, and blood flew in all directions. The earth that was struck disintegrated and the rain evaporated. Suddenly the beam broke into another strand that struck Flamearch in his left shoulder, then another and another. The red pony was being torn apart piece by piece.


Flamearch yelled over his pain, "I can not die! I WILL NOT DIE! I... AM... A... GOD!"


Shadowheart called back, "YOU ARE A MONSTER THAT I LET LIVE! I AM CORRECTING MY MISTAKE!"


"DEAR BROTHER, IF I FALL THIS DAY... THEN SO DO YOU!"     Flamearch called in anger.


The beams intensified and flamearch screamed even louder as he was literally being atomized. Just as it looked like a victory, Ragnarok bust into existence and took the rest of the hit. The sword reflected the beam back to Shadowheart. It struck true and flung the white unicorn over the edge of the pillar. The spell faded as the shadows returned to Cassius. Every pony looked in shock as what was left of Flamearch fell to the wet ground.


*********************************************


Shadowheart felt the chilling cold strike him then weightlessness. Blood flew up as he slowly fell from the pillar and the horrified faces of the ponies, watching him fall to his death.

He felt so much pain, but he had finally avenged his family and freed his beloved little brother from that damned sword. Shadowheart wasn't happy to die, but he was happy that he saved Equestria and even fell in love. The pain began to fade and the cold was creeping in. Shadowheart was left with what he assumed was going to be his final thought. So many died for this, Sacrificed themselves and more. He was able to do what he promised to do, he helped Luna get Cassius back, killed his brother, and found his special somepony. A tear flew from his eye and mixed with the blood that fell with him.


"I will miss you Princess Twilight Sparkle." He whispered.


********************************************


Rainbow Dash woke up by the train with Fluttershy still out cold from the pain when the shadows left them. She had Applejack laying on a cot with a blanket over her as if she was sleeping. It was there the cyan pony realized she was still needed back at the altar. Without a moments hesitation, she flew out of the train and raced back to the altar. On the way something caught her eye, a certain hat laying in a puddle just a few yards away from the large battle zone. She flew down and landed a few feet away with fresh tears in her eyes as she saw what looked like The rancher when she was dreaming sitting near the puddle.

Applejack had the reassuring smile on her muzzle as her mane was blowing in the wind, the rain passing right through her. Rainbow Dash slowly walked over to her as she shook. Before long she was looking Applejack in her beautiful green eyes as the rain finally started to lighten up only a little.


Rainbow Dash spoke softly, "Applejack..."


The apparition only smiled and embraced her in a hug. Rainbow felt a warmth from it and her fear melted away. She tried to return the hug, but her forelegs only passed through Applejack.

After a moment she let Rainbow Dash go and faded from the world. The cyan pegasus sat there for a little while longer as the rain continued to fall. She thought it was as if Mother Mare herself crying for the losses today, the sacrifices that a sea of fire had claimed. She looked down and saw Applejack's hat in the puddle. With a sigh, Rainbow Dash pushed it up and put it on.

The skies were dark over the last few seconds of the Last Alicorn War, but all things must come to an end. Rainbow Dash got to her hooves and walked back to the train. She had to prepare herself to give the news and tell Applejack's family what has happened. Things needed to be done, and she would carry them out for her best friend.
> The End And A New Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been two days since the battle at the Altar Of The Guardians, and the pegasi had scheduled Canterlot to have a rainy day as requested by Princess Celestia herself. Everypony sat on the chairs that were available or stood around as Celestia prepared to give her speech. Luna stood beside her on Celestia's right with Sereen sitting under her and Cassius to her right.  He was looking down and his wings were covering Luna and Sereen from the rain. Twilight was on Celestia's left  as she scanned the crowd. Fire Heart was sitting with Corona,  Xilas, and Lizzie in the far back. Apples sat in the front, Soarin sat with Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders took up two rows behind them, Spike and Angel  Bunny sat as close to the front as possible, the remaining Elements of Harmony bearers were scattered with their loved ones, and nearly the entire town of Ponyville was in the courtyard for the speech.  Rainbow Dash was wearing Applejack's hat out of respect for her.

Behind Celestia were five coffins of the only four ponies and a changeling to die from their injuries in combat and had a body that could be recovered,  but only one was currently open.  Luna had asked for it to be to let the ponies of Equestria know who had given their life and more to save all of them.  Applejack sat in the center of the the others with her eyes closed, to everypony, it looked as though she was just asleep.

Celestia began, "Equestria has faced so much in the last 10 years. My dearest sister had returned to all of us, Discord had joined the battle for harmony, The changeling invasion and the freeing of the Crystal Empire. We survived the Dark Libra incident and now the have lost so much to end the Last Alicorn War. Some can never be forgiven for their action, others gave everything for those they loved. We owe them so much, but everything must come to an end. We lay them to rest as heroes, loyal allies, companions, friends and family. Each one of them were all of these and so much more. Now we say, rest from your long journey."

Everypony bowed her head in silence as Celestia stepped aside and Luna took her place to say her piece, "We have all suffered greatly,  some more than others. I personally have lost two dear friends to this fight. Constance was a good friend and caretaker. She had ran back inside the fighting and saved the lives of two ponies that had been nearly killed by the unicorn known as Flamearch and had given the pegasus Lizzy a second chance at the cost of her own life.  Applejack, she had many things to live for. One that she kept secret from myself and my sister.

She sacrificed herself to save Cassius and helped to end the killing and to stop a prophecy from coming true. She was a friend to everypony she met and even acted as a second mother to my children when she was here at Canterlot Castle. As my way for saying thank you and honoring her memory, I am going to do all I can for the Apple family, Starting with removing any and all taxes from the land and property along with sending Canterlot guards and workers to help with maintaining the farm and orchards."

Big Macintosh held Fluttershy closely as she began to cry for her friend. Rainbow Dash pulled the rim of the hat over her eyes and tried to fight her tears. Blue Blood pulled in Rarity and the two looked on in silence. Pinkamena Diane Pie looked to the ground as she allowed both personalities to be present for the speech as Pound and Pumpkin Cake sat on both sides of her, the three of them held onto each other comfort. Pinkie Pie cried for both Applejack and Constance as she remembered the time she spent with both of them. Twilight looked to Cassius to see his reaction, he looked down at the damp grass of the courtyard. The rings in his eyes glowed faintly in the darkened light. Luna stepped back and ushered Twilight to step forward and take the podium.

Twilight did just that, "I have met many ponies in the last few years, and I am glad to call Applejack as one of my best friends. I am proud to call her one of my closest friends. I am happy I was able to meet Constance and work with her for the last year. Both of them shared some of the same qualities, loyal, reliable, honest, trustworthy, friends. They will be missed, all of the them will be missed. for those that could not be recovered from the fighting, we will erect a plaque with their names to honor them. On behalf of everypony here, I thank you for coming and honoring the fallen with us."

With that Twilight stepped down and walked away. Everypony got up and said their last goodbyes to Applejack and the others. Twilight walked over to a unicron covered in bandages, his brown mane and tale soaked from the rain. She gave him a very faint smile before holding him softly as not to upset his wounds.

He spoke softly, "I'm sorry we didn't arrive in time to save her Twilight. I did my best."

She kissed him, "We did everything we could Shadowheart... I just wish we could get them back."

Shadowheart looked up, "Did Rainbow Dash tell you what Applejack was hiding from all of you?"

Twilight began to cry again, "Yes she did, she told all of us back on the train when i was trying to keep you alive. I found him by the way. He is here and Rainbow is going to tell him like Applejack wanted her to."

Twilight and Shadowheart watched as Rainbow Dash gave her husband a hug and walked over to a black pegasus who was standing over Applejack's coffin.  His wings covered his cutie mark and he was about as large a Cassius. His mane and tail were white and  his eyes were a dazzling silver. He wore a necklace on with a metal emblem in the shape of Applejack's cutie mark. 

*************************************************

Everypony watched as the caskets were being lowered into the ground and the guards raised their forelegs in a salute. The unicorn guards fired energy bolts in the sky for the 21 Unicorn Salute to honor their fallen comrades. The elements of harmony watched as the final chapter of this long battle was coming to its close with the memory of Applejack, Constance, and the others. 

Cassius kept his eye on Applejack’s casket as the guards began to bury it.

The ring in his eye that represented her was dark, but it held a faint light that was from her.

Everypony left as the sun came down leaving Cassius and Luna in the light of the moon.

They looked at the head stones in silence as the clouds blocked patches of the moon light.  Luna looked to Cassius, the light bending away from him as he just stared at the stone before him.

He spoke in a whisper, "Mother, Why can't I bring her back?"

Luna leaned into her son, "My Mother wanted this to happen. Cassius, she has her ways and this was a test to Equestria. She willingly gave life to save all of us. We were to lose this battle Cassius. Mother Mare asked her to give herself to save the rest. Applejack being who she is saved you and in return Equestria."

Cassius closed his eyes and slammed a hoof to the ground in frustration, "Mother, I have been able to reverse the veil of death before. I know why she did it. my question is, why can't I bring her back?"

Luna looked to her moon, "I don't know. Mother doesn't want to give her back to us this time, or Applejack does not want to come back. I can't say which."

Cassius looked into Luna's eyes, "But she was with a foal. Why wouldn't 'she want to come back. Why would Mother Mare not want to give her back?"

Luna held her son close, "I can't say for sure Cassius. I was told something long ago by my sister,  it is only the body that dies not the soul. You of all ponies should know this lesson well.

As for her foal, It was given second chance and the Element of Honesty will be received through her. All you have to do is wait then you can protect her like you did with me so many years ago."

Cassius returned Luna's hug, "Who is the mother?"

"Well the father is Shadowheart, why don't you tell me who the mother will be." Luna said with a smile. "You know Applejack hasn't Left this world yet, right?"

The gray Alicorn Smiled as he looked to the head stone and saw the apparition leaning on her own grave marker, "Yes, I know. We will be spending some time together while I wait."

"She was given permission to see her friends and give her last goodbyes before passing. Make your peace, then help her make hers. After all Cassius, you are still the 

Nocturnal Guardian. Its your job to see she passes to the Eternal Herd." Luna gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving the two in her moonlight.

Cassius smiled as he would help end the tale that almost claimed all of Equestria. In his eyes, the ponies that had perished were heroes. They gave everything to save him and everypony else. As most would age and die, he would remember the days that had passed and the ponies he would forever call his friends. Cassius looked to the castle to see every light dark, except one, Princess Twilight Sparkle and future Prince Shadowheart's room. Even from there he could see the silhouettes of the two embracing one another. Cassius couldn't help chuckle, he knew what was going to happen to them in less than a year. From the looks of it, his waiting had just gotten shorter.

"Well Applejack, I think I owe Fire Heart a few bits." Cassius muttered to the apparition.

"Life will begin a new and the royal family has just gotten a little bigger."

********************************************************

Crystal Glare was sitting on a balcony somewhere in the castle. He was waiting for Xilas to finish her visit with her mother. He had given her time to get to know her mother and have some actual fun in a world at peace before going back home. He watched Cassius and Luna in the courtyard. The moon shined brightly on the balcony as Crystal Glare heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see the orange mare with a smile on her muzzle.

Crystal smiled back, “ Did you have a good time?” 

She walked next to him, “Well I helped save Equestria, I had a blast. Thank you Crystal Glare.” 

He raised an eyebrow, “For?”

She leaned into him and looked at the moon, “Everything. We saved the future.” 

He followed her gaze, “I hope we did. Are you ready to go home?” 

Xiles took in the sights one last time, “Yes, I am ready.” 

Crystal Glare and Xilas walked to the ballroom and to a large mirror that hung on the wall. Crystal Glare held onto Xilas as he pressed his hoof to it’s sleek surface.  It molded around his hoof and the two passed through , back to her time. The world was in a state of morning and renewal. The last Alicorn war was finally over, now the ponies of Equestria could finally relax, for now.