With twin blades drawn and graceful sword work, a dark grey pegasus made waste of a few would-be attackers. Her off-white partner watched in awe as her form fitting cloak danced with her movements as she skillfully destroyed mobs of monstrous creatures that at one point were probably the citizens of this fair city of Cloudsdale. In a blink, the sword dancer vanished and appeared directly behind the final creature and decapitated it with a single slice. Retracting her blades, she threw her hood back over her black dyed mane and looked to her partner with a nod. The two began to speak a familiar chant as they stood over the fresh corpses.

“In death you hold nothing. Death is your salvation, the void holds nothing worse for you; may you go in peace.” They spoke in unison.

Finishing their chant, the skilled sword-mare smiled to her partner and gave a wink. “I swear, this is a child’s job. Who would have thought retrieving the element would be so simple? They may as well have sent a rookie to do this job… I can’t believe they almost considered sending a Void Watcher.” She spoke in a raspy voice.

Her partner shook her head and her far softer effeminate voice sang to the other. “Don’t get too cocky; remember pride in the family, not in one’s self.”

The sword-mare laughed heartily. “I’m surprised at you, Kin. You’ve actually been doing your homework for a change?” The mare placed her hoof upon Kin’s shoulder. “You are right though, I apologize. It is unfitting of me as a sister to behave in such a manner, forgive me.”

Kin blushed and shook her head, not wanting to make her companion feel remorse. “No, it’s fine. You were just expressing yourself, that’s all, no need to apologize Night Sky…”

Night Sky smirked and disagreed. “Ah, but I do. As my duty as your sister it is my responsibility to make sure you do not fall into the traps of the unworthy. We stand together, we build together and we conquer together, that is the purpose of sisterhood, is it not?”

Looking to the ground hoping that answers would come to her, Kin shrugged before finally meeting Night Sky’s eyes with her own. “Yes… Of course. I’m sorry for being so emotional about it…”

As she surveyed the area, looking down from a building that the two were atop of, Night Sky observed a group of three fighting their way through the city down below. A white unicorn, a griffon and an earth pony that looked of no consequence were slaying up the monsters that they had cleansed many of upon entering Cloudsdale. Night Sky’s memories of this place began to come back to her before she shook them out of her head and turned her attention back to Kin. “Yes… I have noticed you’ve been more emotional lately. Is something troubling you, Kin?”

She bit her lip, but decided to fess up. “It’s just… Our mission… I’m unsure about it…”

Night Sky placed both of her front hooves upon Kin and made her sit down as she held her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. Kin’s green eyes met with the light purple of Night Sky’s. Night Sky observed her companion’s white coat and curly gray mane before speaking. “Remember that faith needs to be unfaltering. We are children of the greater kind now, blessed to inherit the world. The time of the prophecy is so close; we can’t have our faith shaken now, not when we’re this close. Do not fall off the path, sister.”

Kin grimaced. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to do, but she knew it would make the situation go from bad to worse. So instead she shrugged it off and nodded to her “sister” and decided to let it all slide into the recesses of her loud mind. “Yes… Of course… We will retrieve the element and then we’ll be one step closer to the prophecy.”

“When all six of the elements are ours’, only then will we be able to restore balance before our rise.” Night Sky reminded.

“Yes, yes I haven’t forgotten…” Kin brushed her off, not wanting to hear this lecture again.

Night Sky released her and began to observe the three down below once more. She smirked as she watched them. “Looks like our friends might lead us right to it. If we follow them, we should find what we’re looking for.”

“Do you think they will make it?” Kin asked.

Her sister shrugged. “Who cares? It’s not a concern to us. What happens to them has nothing to do with us. We’re forbidden from assisting them anyways. Come, we should move, stay up on the roof tops so they don’t see us.”

Kin could only nod as her pegasus friend leapt from the roof top to another rooftop. Being a unicorn, she couldn’t fly like her companion, but Kin’s agility proved more than enough to make the leap and land upon the other side with ease. Night Sky smiled back at her and commented. “Come on, you better be able to keep up!”

Rolling her eyes, Kin groaned at the rehashing of an old joke. “You know that’s not fair on your part!”

Night Sky nodded in agreement as she snickered and made her way forward with her faithful sister behind her, keeping tabs on the travelers from the Canterlot stronghold who were making their way through Cloudsdale. The two groups had eyes on the same prize; however Night Sky knew that they would be no match to keep her and Kin from acquiring it, even if they didn’t get to it first. It was going to be like taking candy from a baby, or rather taking an element of harmony from a group of ragtag misfits.

Her mind slowly crept back onto the words of the prophecy she had been preached for many years now, realizing that it drew closer and would come during her lifetime. She wondered what would happen next, what she would be asked to do for the family. Whatever it was though, she knew she would perform her duties in pure faith, unwavering, unfaltering and fully committed with Kin at her side.

She looked back at Kin for a brief moment whom appeared lost in thought herself. For that brief second, Night Sky was thankful to have even one semblance of her past with her, even if it wasn’t the same as before all of this. With Kin near her, she knew she was strong enough to do whatever would be asked of her. Her faith only emboldened by the loyalty of her sworn sister.

Kin found herself playing catch up with Night Sky for a good ten minutes as her sister has traveled far ahead of her. Finally reaching her as she sat in an on looking window of what appeared to be some kind of coliseum; Night Sky had her head down looking like she was observing something intently. Kin knew that her sister was more familiar with this place than she, but it annoyed her that Kin seldom told her what she was doing or where she was heading before running off ahead.

Catching her breath, Kin spoke up to her friend only to be silenced. “You know, you could slow down for a-“

“Shhh!” Night Sky hushed.

With a hoof extended she pointed into the coliseum. Kin lowered her head and looked in to see the three travelers from before. One of them stood in the center with a firearm smoking, it was the unicorn, now a little bit less white as she was covered with blood and various black tar from a fresh kill. The griffon was coming down from the grand stands and the earth pony with them was now covered in various guts.

The trio gathered around a large corpse of what appeared to be once a rather large and impressive pegasus or possibly even an alicorn. The distance and battle damage made it difficult to tell which. After briefly talking it appeared as though they had decided to part ways with the griffon whom left the stadium through the way they must have entered while the other two proceeded to the other side.

Night smirked as she watched them leave. “Not bad. Though, far from too impressive.”

“Shall we go down and get a closer look at that creature?” Kin asked with a raised brow.

With another smile, Night nodded. “It’s as if you read my mind sometimes, Kin. Let’s see what this beast was.”

Without hesitation, Night Sky leapt out the window to a nearby ledge and eventually scaled down to the bottom of the stadium. Kin followed as quickly as she could, and while her agility and dexterity were not nearly as impressive they were leaps and bounds above even a very well trained unicorn.

Examining the body up close, Kin noticed a black ooze dripping out of it. With a squint she could see a mark of a sun on the creature’s flank. Her eyes widened as she noticed Night Sky noticed exactly what she just noticed. “It’s… Celestia…” She commented.

Night Sky could only nod in response as she stared in awe. The two remained silent for a good minute before they saw creature leak more black ooze, causing the two to step back. The ooze reached out and touched the other parts of its body that had been disconnected and began to pull itself together, trying to form a full creature again. After a few seconds it lifted itself off the ground and groaned violently.

Kin drew her blade and took her stance. Night Sky leaned back onto two back hooves and drew two swords, ready for battle. “Looks like she doesn’t know when to stay dead…” Kin commented.

Bracing herself, Night Sky smirked deviously. “That’s okay. I grew bored of killing the little ones anyways.”

“Just remember not to use too much Ker upon her.” Kin reminded.

“I can take her down and have plenty left over.” Night Sky bragged.

The creature had come to a full stand now and hissed violently at Kin, spewing spit and black sludge at her. Night Sky laughed as she leapt into battle both blades at the ready.

Kin moved quickly to dodge the first strike with its mighty hoof by the former princess and began forming a magic rope with her horn and twirled around the back side of the creature, dancing skillfully around its attempts at attacking her to loop around to its front side again. A few more circles around it and she would have it tied in a magical rope to restrain it.

It growled in anger as it tried to break free of its new confines. With Night Sky jumping head on with both swords it opened its mouth and spewed black sludge in her direction. Thinking quickly though, Night Sky vanished and appeared behind it impaling its spine with her blades.

The monster growled and moved violently trying to shake her off. Night Sky leapt off and landed upon its neck to stab the back of its skull repeatedly. Once she had created an opening she jabbed her hoof into the creature’s rotting brain matter and smiled. “I’ll show you what real power can do…”

With those words she cast a spell from her hoof that cause the entire creature to burst into blood and sludge. Kin quickly casted a barrier around the two to protect them from the guts and entrails covering them. Once the monster was dead and Night Sky landed back onto the ground, Kin released her barrier and took her sister’s hoof as the two recited their familiar chant.

“In death you hold nothing. Death is your salvation, the void holds nothing worse for you; may you go in peace.” They spoke in unison.

“Poor thing…” Kin commented as she looked at the remains of the creature.

“She was corrupted. However in death she is forgiven for her sins, you know this already, Kin…” Night reminded, tapping her friend on the shoulder.

“Still… Couldn’t her death have been avoided?” Kin frowned.

“It was decided by the void, it is not our place to question it…” Night Sky rolled her eyes, already having this conversation with her many times before.

“Yes… You’re right… Sorry. We should catch up to them, right?” Kin asked.

Night nodded. “Yes, let’s hurry.”

Night Sky and Kin had caught up with the no-longer trio and paid close watch as they exited a vault. Keeping their eyes on them, Night Sky instantly noticed the necklace in the unicorn’s hoof. There was no mistaking it, it was an element of harmony. She had seen it once before adorning the neck of a young gentle pegasus. It had been years, and for a brief moment she was lost in memory, only to have Kin snap her back to reality by tapping her.

“What’s the plan?” Kin asked curiously.

Night Sky readied herself and watched the two carefully. Keeping her eyes on her prey, she gave instructions to Kin. “Go wait for me outside the beacon to enter this place. I shall take it and meet you there. If either of them show up, stop them from pursuit by any means necessary.”

Deciding not to question her plan, Kin nodded and bolted off to get into position. Night Sky quickly teleported past the unicorn holding the element and appeared above her upon a balcony with the element in her own hoof. Quickly she tossed it into her bag and prepared for the retaliation by that which she robbed.

The white unicorn looked up to her and drew twin blades, ready for a battle. “That was pretty sneaky, it’s too bad you won’t live long enough to tell anyone about it.” She called out to Night Sky.

Ignoring her empty threat, Night jumped to the ground from the balcony she had landed on and drew her own blades in response to the unicorn’s threat.

Her challenger laughed with overconfidence. “Good, I like them with a little fight in them.”

Without warning, the unicorn sliced at her with tremendous speed, however Night Sky was already prepared. With a quick use of her abilities she appeared behind her which only seemed to annoy her more.

“Fast, huh? How about this then?” She called out before attempting a flurry of slices all of which Night Sky dodged using a little bit of power. To the unicorn it would appear as though the blades simply passed right through her like a phantom.

Eventually Night Sky realized their fight was a waste of time and she made a beeline for the town hall to make her escape. With years of training, Night Sky was in excellent shape; however it would appear as though her pursuer was as well. Keeping up, she managed to slip into the beacon that Night Sky planned to use to escape.

Teleporting outside of the city from the beacon, the unicorn was still following from behind. Night decided to lure her out farther away before finally stopping and turning to face her, removing her hood.

“You’re quick for a mere unicorn…” Night Sky spoke.

“Glad you noticed.” The unicorn smirked. “Name’s Vinyl.” She added.

“I do not make a point in remembering the names of insignificant creatures.” Night Sky responded with blades drawn.

“We’ll see about that…” Vinyl growled.

From the distance, Kin watched as her sister fought the unicorn with ease. While this “Vinyl’s” skills were considerable for an unenlightened one, Kin knew that Night Sky was far more formidable, and this pony posed no true threat to her. Still she kept watch, following her duty as a scout.

She took note of the earth pony whom had just come out of the beacon behind all of them watching the fight. Examining him closer she could see he was a weakling, a pony of no real combat prowess whatsoever. The way he carried himself, his demeanor, and his inaction, it all pointed to a stallion whom had no real idea what he was doing.

Part of her felt sorry for him, knowing that if he attempted to intervene in Night Sky’s fight that he would certainly be killed quickly. Deciding to show some mercy upon him, she sat back upon her haunches and began to fill the air with an enchanting tune with her elegant voice. With the old tune of her kind humming through the air, the stallion was lured towards her.

In a trance, he approached her slowly as she opened her hooves to offer him embrace. When he accepted she sang in his ear, letting him fall into a slumber. When she was certain he was lost in a dream she had weaved with his thoughts and memories she let him rest on the ground gently.

With him dealt with, she signaled for Night Sky as she teleported into the distance.

Night Sky caught her gesture and nodded before ending her fight with Vinyl and teleporting far away from the fight, leaving Vinyl looking around in confusion. The two had made a relatively easy escape.

With the element they had acquired in hoof, Night Sky patted her sister’s shoulder as they began their journey back to their home. “We did it. We were able to retrieve an element of harmony!”

“Yes, but what happens now?” Kin asked.

“That is for the elders to decide.” Night Sky explained.

Kin frowned, not quite enjoying that answer, but she knew it was all she would get from her sister. Night Sky’s faith in the elders was unwavering, and while she knew she should also have stronger faith, she found it hard to trust completely when the elders always kept secrets. Many secrets that even Night Sky knew about were kept from Kin.

That was life as a scout though, they were followers, not leaders. She sighed and nodded as she smiled at Night Sky. “Well, hopefully we pleased them today.”

“I am sure we have.” Night Sky stood with pride.