My heart sank as those words poured out of the guard’s mouth…all…three…rogue…factions. It was an event so unprecedented that my mind went blank as my jaw hung open. My damned illogical paranoia was on the mark yet again. A small part of my mind would have been overjoyed at my deductions if it not had been drowned out by an overwhelming feeling of both dread and terror.

I did not snap out of my trance until another explosion shook the palace. Black Wing was already barking orders to the still panic stricken guard. She was probably stating something of import, but my dazed mind did not comprehend anything other than her strings of obscenities.

She then quickly turned to me and shook me when I did not respond. “Snap the fuck out of it, Blood Moon!” she yelled while continuing to shake me.

I blinked a few times and stated in a shaky voice “I…was…right…why in Tartarus was I right?!”

“Because your thrice damned paranoia is always fucking right! It never fucking failed to not be right and if you do not pull yourself together I am going to fucking bash you senseless!” she snarled at me.

“Indeed…bash…senseless…got it” I said and shook my head a few times. I then quickly turned to Twilight and the others before stating “Alright everypony, this is not a drill. The worst possible scenario has come to pass and we are going to have to fight our way out of it.”

Black Wing shook me again and growled, “Like fucking Tartarus you will! You and your lieutenants’ jobs are to get Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends the fuck out of here!”

I looked at her in shock and stated, “What?! You desire us to tuck tail and run?! We can-” before she interrupted me with a doom glare.

She continued glaring only for a second before stating “No…you…cannot. Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends possess weapons and armor that are completely untested and or unbound. The consequence of such can only end in disaster!”

I had attempted to protest, but she bellowed “By my position as General of the Lunar Forces, I order you and your lieutenants to use the emergency portal gate under your alchemy lab to lead Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends to the emergency regroup point! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, CAPTAIN?!”

It was only one of the few times she had ever ordered me in such a manner. Her glare never let up either. In the end I was the first to blink. I soon lowered my eyes away from her gaze, gritted my teeth, and stated “Affirmative .”

She replied “Good, now get them the fuck out of here!” before turning and galloping out of the arena after the guard.

I leered at her as she left and I could feel my blood magic sparking around my horn. “Luna damn it!” I snarled and stomped the ground with my left forehoof, before adding, “Fine! If she desires us to run like beaten diamond dogs, then so be it!”

I then turned and stomped my way passed the others on my way my alchemy lab before they started following me. I normally do not act in such a manner. While it is true that I have been shouted at many times in my long life, I normally can keep myself calm during those encounters. This time however, it appeared I was having a harder than normal time subduing my emotions. Maybe it was that I was tired or even that I needed to feed, but what I truly believe got under my skin was the fact that she treated Twilight and her friends as liabilities. While indeed their new armor and weapons were untested and unbound, they could easily be as formidable as any reaper knight.

Regardless of my feelings my orders were quite clear. I needed to get Twilight and her friends to safety. So after trying and failing a few times I managed to get my seal on my alchemy lab open. After which everypony hurried in without giving me so much as a glance.

Just as the last one slipped through the doorway the palace seemed to take a direct hit from something. The impact made me fumble over for a second just as I saw something awful. The explosion caused other opposite side of arena dome to collapse in. At first I was worried the area was going to be bathed in sunlight, but it was still almost as dark as it was previously. This curiosity however was short lived when I saw rogue soldiers of all types pour in for the now ruined ceiling.

“BY THE MOON!” I screeched and quickly jumped into my alchemy lab before scrambling to close the seal on the door.

“What the hay was that?” I heard somepony say in the near dark of my lab.

I swallowed hard while I checked the seal on the door a few times. “We have a horde of uninvited guests inside the palace,” I replied trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

Their only response was a quiet “Uh oh.”

“Yes quite ‘uh oh’ indeed. We need to move quickly. The door will only hold for a little-” I said but got interrupted when I heard something heavy slam against the lab door.

“Blast and damnation! They are attempting to get through!” I yelped.

In the tight space, that was truly not designed for this many ponies, I manage to squeeze my way to my alchemy table. I then attempted to shove the table to far side of the room, but it was not budging. After my attempts were proving to be fruitless, Gray Mane decided to walk over and flip the table.

Everypony scrambled out of the way as the table overturned and slammed into the far wall. The sound of shattered glass filled the room as I felt a small part of mind shrieked in horror. While we did indeed need to move the table, Gray Mane in one fell swoop had easily just destroyed most, if not all, of my projects I have been working on for decades.

He snorted and boastfully stated “The table’s out of the way”.

It took everything I had to prevent myself from throttling him with my magic as I responded with a strained “Thank…you”.

Either way the table had been moved and I now had access to what was hidden under it. I stomped my hoof on a small seal in the middle of the floor before twisting it to the left and then the right and then left again. I had everypony move away from the center of the room as the floor shifted and a downward spiral staircase had formed.

The stairs were one of several in the palace. They were designed by Star Swirl the Bearded as a means of hiding one of his other creations. In other words, they were quite simply hidden passages to one of the emergency portal gates he had developed for such an occasion as ours.

However while the portals, to the best of my knowledge, were still functional, they were barely tested. Truth be told I had only determined where this particular one went because I made the mistake of accidentally activating it. But that was not the worrying part, the issue was nopony but Star Swirl knew what powered them or how they got you to your destination. Even Princess Celestia herself had become visibly uneasy when I inquired about them.

After the stairs had finished, everypony had rushed down them as fast as we could. At the end they lead to a modestly sized room that gave off an unnerving hum of power. At the center of the room sat a large three ringed alchemy circle carved out of solid stone and pressed into the floor. Outside the alchemy circle sat a control pedestal used to active the gate.

I squeezed everypony inside the circle the best I could and quickly trotted over the control pedestal. I then placed my left hoof on the pedestal, cleared my throat, and stated in a shaky voice, “By command of Blood Moon, Captain of the Reaper Knights, activate emergency exodus portal!”

The pedestal gave off a unnerving disembodied voice that merely stated “Acknowledged”

I then jumped into the circle next to Twilight as the hum of power in the room soon got louder. After a few moments the rings of circle started to rotate counter-clockwise. The outer most then stopped after a few seconds and the disembodied voice stated “X axis locked.” However right after the voice spoke I heard the door of my alchemy lab crash in before shouting start to emanate from the spiral stair case.

“Come on come on” I said and fidgeted in place.

After another second the middle ring stopped and the disembodied voice stated “Y axis locked”.

The shouting from the staircase got louder by the moment right before the innermost ring stopped and the disembodied voice stated “Z axis locked…Emergency Exodus Portal activating in…three…two…one.”

I saw the rogue soldiers pour into the room right as I involuntarily screamed “I REALLY HATE PORTALS!” before the portal gate activated.

Blinding light flared into the room and it felt as if I somehow got sucked into the floor. All my senses went berserk as my body got tossed around everywhere. Lights and random darkness just flashed by me as I soon felt like I was getting stretched thin. I had absolutely no idea what was happening at this point as my mind went blank from sheer terror. However, what I did know was that if this living nightmare did not stop soon I was going to vomit my non-existent breakfast into who knows where.

Only a few more seconds passed before we all just appeared in the forest outside Canterlot and standing on a similar alchemy circle as the one we had just left. I stood there shaking violently and holding my stomach with a foreleg. After a few moments I summoned my scythe merely to prevent myself from falling over.

“What the fuck…was that? Oh Tartarus ah think ah’m gonna heave,” I heard Shadow Dancer state behind me.

“That…nightmare…was one of the Emergency Portal Gates. By the moon it was just as horrid as the first time,” I replied while still quite queasy.

Shadow Dancer than responded with a quick, “Yup…gonna hurl,” before violently vomiting next to the circle.

I scrunched my face at the awful noises Shadow Dancer was generating before stating “Is everypony alright?”

A collective groan emanated from everypony, well everypony except Pinkie Pie. She was happily bouncing around the perimeter of the circle babbling something about our portal trip. The only piece I managed to understand was, “Whoooa we were like wooosh and my tummy felt all funny, but then I tumbled around and everypony was all like AHHHH but I was like WEEEE and do it again do it again do it again...” before her voice sped up and I could not determine what she was attempting to say.

I shook my head and looked over at Twilight next to me. “Less than pleasant trip hmm Twilight?” I inquired. She just stood there staring forward and her right eye kept twitching. “Umm Twilight, are you alright?” I added.

“He…he tore the veil between dimensions…” she said in a shaky voice.

I tilted my head and said “What?”

She turned her head to face me, but her eyes did not seem to actually be looking at me. She then said, “Star swirl…managed…to tear…the veil…between dimensions. I-i-it requires a vast amount of energy and finely tuned harmonics. The theory of which was never…”

I had little idea what she was stating after the first few sentences. It was something that included complex equations and some sort of advanced magical techniques. After a few moments I waved my left forehoof in front of her eyes and said “Hello? Equestria to Twilight?” but she kept staring straight through me and continued rambling undeterred.

“heh heh ya lost her Blood Moon. She may snap outta that in a week,” I heard Applejack state and chuckle.

I raised an eyebrow and said “Hmm? What are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash walked up next to me before smirking at Twilight. “She means the ol’ egghead got herself stuck in a loop…again. Twilight really needs to get out more.”

I sighed in response. “Is there any way we can expedite the process?” I inquired while half narrowing my eyes.

Rarity walked up and replied “Nothing short of a new book, darling.”

Twilight instantly snapped out of her trance and blurted out “Who said new book?!”

There was much laughter had at Twilight’s expense. I actually felt slightly awful due to her still asking everypony with a glimmer of hope her in eyes. However, the feeling quickly faded after she still did not believe us that there was no new book while we made our way through the forest to the emergency meeting point.

“Really? There are no new books that somepony brought? Really really?” she stated looking at me again.

My left eye started to twitch in annoyance, but I kept as calm as I could. “For the…twentieth time Twilight…no…there are no new books to be obtained. Again…it was merely a comment and nothing more,” I replied.

She must have finally had gotten the hint because I looked over to see the hope drain out of her eyes. Her face then went from sadness to irritation. I even believe she kept mumbling under her breath that we were hiding one somewhere and we did not want to share. So after groaning and rolling my eyes, I lifted my tome and floated it over to her.

She squealed with delight before biting her foreleg and opening the book’s seal. Then after stopping our journey for a moment to heal her leg, she promptly stuffed her face into it. It was actually an amusing sight to watch. What was even more amazing was that even though the ground was uneven and there were rock, roots, and trees everywhere she just seemed walk around or over them without even looking. I just grinned and shook my head in response wondering how many times she had fallen on her face to develop that ability.

So we kept walking through the forest until we got to a medium sized clearing. This was the point where an odd thought occurred to me. Now I knew the thick canopy of the forest trees would block out much of the sun by the portal gate. However in the clearing there was not much sunlight even though there were no trees. It truly should have been mid-day by my accounting, but it was no more light than say early dawn. What little light there was did not even seem to hinder my strength at all. After a moment I looked up at the sky to see a blackish type of smoke where the clouds should have been.

However, any further mental inquires stopped dead in their tracks when we got into the center of the clearing. My ears soon snapped up and swiveled around to listen to the forest. I then stated in a firm voice “Everypony stop where you are! Lieutenants, defensive positions!” They got the hint and we formed a pentagon pattern around Twilight and the rest before summoning their weapons

Twilight almost fell forward as she bumped into me and said “Hey! I was on a good part!”

I glanced back at her and said “Shh something is wrong.” I looked back and forth a few times and saw a few blurs in the forest and a few light spots mixed throughout. I then looked straight ahead and yelled “I KNOW YOU ALL ARE OUT THERE! REVEAL YOURSELVES!”

It started off quiet, but soon I heard somepony chuckling from the forest. A rogue solar channeler walked out from the forest in front of me. She was then followed by others of her kind along with rogue vampires and lycans. They had us completely surrounded on all sides.

The solar channeler then narrowed her eyes in what I could only tell as amusement. “Bravo bravo Captain Blood Moon of the Reaper Knights. I was wondering if you’d notice us. You see stealth really isn’t my thing. It’s more for blood suckers like you.”

A few of the rogue vampires hissed at her as I stated “Yes, your heartbeats gave you away.”

She then smirked and tilted her head to the side. “Heh I don’t give a fuck really. It’s actually pretty fucking funny. Here I thought we were given a shit job monitoring one of those little emergency whatever gates you idiots used. Only to have none other than the elements and you and your little band of dumbasses fall right into our hooves.”

“Dumbasses? Oh my my how very rude of you,” I grinned and scolded her.

She tipped her head back for a second and said “Ha rude? I don’t give a fuck what you think! You’re completely surrounded. You’ll be nothing but a smear on the dirt in a few minutes. So why the fuck would I care anyway?”

“I suppose it never occurred to you that you may be underestimating us a little hmm?” I retorted.

She started to laugh again and go into more gloating and insults. I just kept retorting with some little quip as she continued her borderline monologue. I smirked and thought, ‘that is right you little fool. Keeeep running your mouth. Yes, keep telling me how outnumbered we are and the such. It shall only be all the sweeter.’

The reason I was stalling for time was because she had failed to realize I was working my magic behind me. As all eyes faced her I had quietly shut down my lieutenants and my suppression fields along with Twilight’s and Rainbow Dash’s. I then checked everyponies’ armor and weapons to make sure they were all set.

After I believed we were ready I looked at that gloating little fool of a solar channeler and stated, “Well, I believe you neglected to realize one thing.”

She laughed some more and wiped a tear from her eye. “Hahaha what didn't I realize? You've got nowhere to go! What ya gonna do? What ya gonna doooooo?” she gloated.

I merely said “This,” before I blurred forward and swung my scythe down in a vertical strike. Her eyes went to the size of dinner plates, but she did not have enough time to react. I heard the scraping of metal as my scythe’s blade went right though her helmet and buried itself all the way down the pole in her forehead.

She made a gurgling yelp before she fell over after I quickly yanked my scythe out. Her fellow solar channelers scrambled away from her in horror. I then yelled “Attack!” and everypony jumped into the fray. It was obvious that their overconfidence had gotten the better of them. While yes they did indeed have the numbers on us, but they did not have the skill. The forest soon exploded into the chaos of combat as we fought to defend ourselves.

Twilight was dodging around with Spike and making several blows on enemies. While she did not seem to be making any fatal hits, her katana melted right their armor and may have burned off a leg or two. Spike just held onto her back and would sometimes breathe out some flames to ward away enemies behind her.

Applejack and Shadow Dancer were holding their own against a few lycans. While they had the speed against Applejack they just could not puncture her thick plates as she bucked them square in the chest. These bucks were only made all the more powerful from the kinetic energy her armor was absorbing from all the failed attacks on her. Shadow Dancer, on the other hoof, was just flipping around Applejack and eviscerating the rogue soldiers as they got flung away from her.

As I looked around I saw Fluttershy cowering and holding onto Gray Mane’s back. Her shepard’s staff would sometimes slip, bash some enemy soldier on the head, and cause them to go rigid. This was somehow working out quite well in regards to Gray Mane’s fighting technique. Each time an enemy soldier would get frozen in place Gray Mane would turn and have his gruesome way with them.

Rarity and Night Star also seemed to be playing off of each other’s strengths. They were in a way enchanting to watch. They did not just fight, they were somehow dancing around each other in some sort of pattern. Every so often Night Star would spin in place before throwing a knife at an enemy over Rarity’s shoulder and then bowing in front of her. Rarity would then gracefully thrust right over her and impale some poor rogue soldier that gotten too close.

Rainbow Dash and Cloud Streak instantly took to the air. Right as somepony got either thrown upwards or tried to fly away, one of them would clip them and throw them back down. While they did not seem to be really openly attacking anypony on the ground, their efforts were causing the enemy soldiers to panic even more as their allies started dropping on top of them.

The last duo of Pinkie Pie and Tactic was actually quite hilarious to watch. Tactic would dodge and parry with his dirks before he would trip an enemy. Then right before they fell, Pinkie would jump over, spin on her back hooves, and swing diagonally upwards. The blasting cap enchantment on Pinkie’s mallet would then detonate on impact. The poor fools on the receiving end of this combo would flail helplessly and howl as they sailed towards the sky.

The battle continued for quite some time until most of the cowards eventually turned tail and ran. I wanted desperately to chase them down, but truth be told I was completely exhausted. To add to my problems, while my armor had prevented any puncture wounds, the impacts of the many blows I had taken heavily bruised me. In turn not much of my body had any desire to move.

As I was about to turn around to check on the others I heard Twilight shout “BLOOD MOON! LOOK OUT!”

Time had stopped after I heard a slash of some type behind me. I swallowed hard in response and stood still for a second. I mentally scanned my body, but everything seemed intact and just throbbing from fatigue. I did not turn my head until the smell of burnt fur had permeated the air.

I looked behind me to see a short sword was held pointed at my head and it was only a few centimeters away. The rogue vampire that was holding the weapon had a frozen look of shock on his face. It did not take long to notice that their neck had a smoking ring on it. I tapped them with a forehoof and their head slid off as their body fell to the ground. The neck wound had been cauterized all the way through.

Twilight was standing right behind the now thoroughly dead rogue vampire. Her katana was held with her magic at first, but her weapon dropped to the ground. As I looked on I noticed her eyes were fixed on the body. It then dawned on me what was happening as I had seen that look many times in the past from new recruits.

“Nooo Twilight keep it together,” I said and limped over to her.

Red tears started to pour out of her eyes before they squeezed shut. I held her shoulders with my forehooves and stated in firm voice “Twilight look at me!” She shook her head in response until I borderline yelled “LOOK AT ME!”

As she opened her eyes it was shown as plain as the moon. She had never taken a life before. It was the reason why she was only disabling the rogue soldiers. While she had indeed saved my life, it had caused a great conflict in her mind. I wrapped forelegs around her before she broke down in my embrace.

I looked at everypony else and they did not seem to be doing much better. “Damage report,” I stated over Twilight’s muffled cries.

Night Star limped up to me and stated “Mostly minimal injuries. Fluttershy is attending to the wounded as we speak. However, we have a…problem,” before she looked back at the group.

I narrowed my eyes in response. I did not like the tone in how she stated the word “problem”. “What do you mean we have a problem?” I inquired.

Night Star turned her head toward the rest and said “Applejack, can you please come over here?”

Applejack groaned and said “Ah keep tellin’ ya it’s just a scratch. Fluttershy just got it patched up,” as she walked over to us with a slight limp in her right hind leg.

“Show me your leg, Applejack,” I said to her.

“Ah told ya. It’s just a scr-” she started to state again before Interrupted her.

“Show…me…your…leg…Applejack” I growled at her.

She started to shake a little bit as she showed me her right hind leg. The side armor plate had seemingly fallen off. There was white cloth bandage that now surrounded the exposed area. I took a deep breath and loosened the bandage with my magic. Then my heart promptly sank in my chest. It was certainly not “just a scratch”. It was a bite wound. A lycan bite wound to be exact.

I wrapped her leg back up as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I then took another and then another. After a minute had passed I opened my eyes and squeezed the still shaking Twilight. “I am going to be honest with you, Applejack. You have been bitten by a lycan. I am so very sorry, but there is no going back. You will change sooner…or later. It is only a matter of time,” I lamented.

Her strong facade started to break as she said “Ah’m…Ah’m gonna turn into one of those…those monsters?” She started to tear up until we heard a loud protesting “HEY!”

Shadow Dancer angrily stomped up next to her “Who you callin’ a monster missy?! Well maybe Gray Mane, but he don’t count.” We heard another “Hey!” come from Gray Mane this time before Shadow Dancer continued “Anyway, So ya done got yerself bitten. Well ah say big fat hairy arse deal. It ain’t the end of the damn world. All it means is ya get to fetch yer own newspaper in the mornin’.”

He then gently shoved her with his right shoulder as she chuckled a little and wiped her eyes. He then turned to face Twilight and said “and hey princess.”

I narrowed my eyes at him before stating, “Be very careful with those words of your’s Shadow Dancer,” as Twilight looked up at him.

He waved me off and said “Yeah yeah, anyway. Ya see that fucker down there, Princess?” he said and pointed that the headless body next to us. “That fucker almost impaled yer coltfriend in the face. As ah know fer a fact that Blood Moon doesn't like pointy things in his head, I reckon ya done saved his life. Now ah know from that look in yer eye that sorry excuse down there was yer first kill. But let me tell ya this, that bastard down there probably had deserved far worse. Don’t cry over him, he ain't worth it.”

I was not sure how he did it, but he had. Twilight had let out a small chuckle and rubbed her eyes. Even Applejack was not looking so broken up after her grim news. Sometimes all one truly needs is a small laugh and a proper perspective. I shook my head and grinned before stating “Thank you, Shadow Dancer.”

He smirked and replied “It’s what ah’m here fer. Now ah reckon we should git the fuck outta here before more of those assholes show up.”

“Agreed” I said before helping everypony to get moving.

The remaining trip to the emergency meeting point went according to plan. There was parameter guards around the area as there normally should have been and they did not look to have seen any combat recently which certainly was a positive. As we arrived I asked one of the guards for a report from Canterlot. She just looked at me as tears start to flow down her face as she pointed to an observation tower. With little delay I limped my way up the stairs of the tower and looked towards the direction of the city.

“Nooo! It cannot be! No no no no NO!” I stated over and over again as I broke one of tower railings. Canterlot, my home for over a century, the place I took an oath to protect, burned.

There is little that can compare to the destruction of one's home. As I promised, the story arc was going to start getting a bit darker. I hope you all enjoy it.