Day After War Nexus

by MLP Moth

First published 12th of September, 2013

Reunited just to destroy each other. Shadow and his daughter will defend themselves from powerful adversaries they once called their family.

50 years after the siege a series of connected events happen to the few remaining survivors. Three of these survivors grew a cold heart, they want to share their sorrow and anger with the rest of Equestria. Three more found forgiveness. The cold-hearted survivors have a power unknown to the world but so do the warm-hearted. These powers have the strength to either destroy or harmonize the world, a power called Lumen Fulsi.

Prologue + ACT I: Chapter 1 - The Academy

He fought against his old friend and teacher; he needed to end his life. He didn't want to. The Pegasus he faces now wants to kill him. They shot toward each other and collided. Shadow was struck right under his wing. He crashed into the cold ocean below. While sinking down to the abyss his armor separated and gradually sank down. He heard a voice of one he thought had died many years ago, a familiar voice.

"You are not done finished yet. You still have a family to protect." It said.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw an illusion of his deceased wife. She was a beautiful and strong unicorn. Her long white mane had streaks of light pink, her coat was a normal-shaded pink. Her name, Starflare, granddaughter of Star Swirl.

"I can't.....I'm weak." he said in his head,"I will die here."

"No you won't. What will become of your daughter if you die here? She will be left in a world of nothing."

"I'm sorry, I-I just can't. I can't kill him."

"Then he wins the war, then he will continue to kill. No one will be able to stop him. Only you can."

"How can you still have faith in me after all this?"

She said tenderly,"You're my husband. You been through so much already. Why stop now? Get up."

Shadow's wound started to seal itself. He opened his eyes fully and spread his wings. He rocketed through the disturbed surface and shouted at his enemy,"I am not done with you yet!"

"Do you believe you can defeat me?" Garren replied.

"You will fall under my sword."

It seemed Shadow's confidence angered Garren,"Well then, show what you have learned over the years my former student!"

They both enabled their magic. Shadow's aura glowed white while, Garren's glowed black. Their auras were seen miles away to a cliff where Princess Celestia and the others waited. The next thing they saw were the two warriors charging with great speed toward each other.

4 years before, Shadow signed up for training in the Royal Guard. His daughter, Dawn, stayed at a frontier southwest of Canterlot and north of the Everfree forest. He was on his way to a city above in the clouds where he met another Pegasus named, Seng. His journey began that day.

Chapter 1- The Academy

Shadow was a blue Pegasus with a dark blue mane and tail, his eyes were light blue. His cutie mark, a pair of golden wings over a white diamond. He has yet to find out what it means. He went to the registration window to give his letter of acceptance to the clerk.

"It says here that you were suppose to be here tomorrow." the tired looking clerk said. It looked like he was up for months without any sleep.

"I am aware of that." Shadow replied.

"Oh are you because, from what I remember "tomorrow" was yesterday."

"Can you do anything about it?"

"I'll see if I can get your C.O.(commanding officer) to go easy on you and let you in."

"Thank you."

The clerk walked to a lazy mail carrier sleeping in the corner of his office and knocked down the pile of letters a mare was sleeping on.

"What you do that for?!" she asked with a raised voice.

"One, no sleeping on the job. Two, I need you to get this to Knight Black Soul."the clerk replied.

"No. I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"She scares me."

"Quit being such a filly and go.SHOO YOU LAZY BUM!!" he yelled while kicking her out.

Shadow waited for an hour or so before starting to think this Knight Black Soul rejected his acceptance letter. His mind was changed when a Pegasus introduced himself to Shadow.

"Hello there. Are you Shadow by any chance" he asked.

He nodded "Yes, and you are?"

"Seng, nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Well, I'm not here just for you I need help getting some medical supplies to the track. You can just leave your luggage here."

"Alright. Let's go."

They started walking through hallways. Shadow thought their was something odd about Seng, he kept looking through every door they past by.

"Are you looking for a door that leads to the track?" Shadow asked

Seng answered,"Nope."

"Then what're you looking for the medical supply room."

"When did your C.O. tell you to look for these?"

"An hour ago."

"What?" Shadow replied

"Yeah, I only been here a day and a half so, I don't know where it is. She knows that and now when we get back we're going to get yelled."

It was early morning around 7:37 AM so they had loads of time left.

"Who is this 'she'?"

"Knight Black Soul, our C.O. and D.I.(drill instructor) Found it."

The door ahead had a red cross above it. Seng opened the polished wooden door.

"Well, what do we need?" asked Shadow.

"Uuhhhhhhhhh........I forgot."

"Oh my Celestia. I don't want to start off like this."

"Start off like what?"

"Late and forgetful."

"Oh. Let's just take those boxes over there with the words "first aid"."

"You are such a genius." said Shadow sarcastically

"Oh, ha ha ha." Seng replied

Shadow and Seng both went to the track where they saw 18 Pegasi doing laps and 3 others in the center. One unicorn, earth pony, and Pegasus. They walked closer to the three.

"Wow, I thought I was going to die of old age before you got." the female Pegasus said.

She was also a dark blue Pegasus, her mane and tail were the black but, one thing that contrasted her dark colored coat, mane, and tail was her lime green eyes.

"I know, I'm can wrinkles on my hooves." The unicorn chuckled.

Her coat pink. Her mane and tail were pale pink. The earth pony next to her was gray coated and had peach colored mane and tail..

"Now Seng, go give me 30 laps for making me wait." the Pegasus said.

Seng joined the others.

"And you are?" she added.

"Shadow."

"I am your commanding officer,Knight Black Soul. You too give me 30 laps for not helping that slowpoke. "

Shadow caught up to Seng.

They both saw their C.O. fly to a microphone and she shouted,"WELCOME TO THE ACADEMY!"

Chapter 2 - The Student and the Teacher

After the 30 laps, Shadow and the others met Knight Black Soul in the middle of the track where she properly introduced the unicorn and earth pony.

"Since, Seng took so long I had to bring some assistance, everyone meet the ponies who will aid you if you are injured. Leader of the medical team Fyn Cour(fine core) and her assistant Dust."

Fyn Cour was the unicorn, her cutie mark was a red heart under a pair of crossing swords. Dust, the earth pony, had a cutie mark of a medical cross formed by two swords. Every single pony except Shadow and Black Soul there on the track were about 18-21 years of age. Shadow and Black Soul were around the ages of 27-30.

Black Soul addressed her students,"You may return to your barracks for a few hours to get to know each other. Dismissed."

They arrived at the barracks. It was a steel rectangular prism but, that was the only one there. The other C.O.s had different barracks for their recruits elsewhere.

"You a little bit older than the rest of us, Shadow." Seng remarked.

Shadow replied,"I stalled and my a few mistakes, I'm correcting those mistakes right now."

"Any family?"

Shadow chuckled,"And I just made another, hehehe. I have one daughter.You?"

"Never knew my parents. I was raised in an orphanage until I was sixteen. I waited two years in the frontier by Canterlot before coming here."

The two kept asking each other questions you would if you just met someone. Meanwhile, at the frontier Shadow's daughter was on her way to school. Her coat was a light orange, mane and tail were yellow. She is 14. Her cutie mark was a white sun with an odd shape in the center. She arrived to class a few minutes late, the teacher was already giving a lecture about the rules. Though that Dawn has been alive, her and Shadow are both immortal, for so long she has gained the knowledge of many teachers from different parts of the world. She kept herself busy by attending school.

"Okay class this must be our first tardy student of the year on the very first day of school, Dawn. Go find a open seat." the teacher scolded.

Dawn kept quiet and felt the other kids staring at her since she was the only one standing besides the teacher. The teacher's name, according to the chalkboard, was Ms.Grazer. Her coat was a maroon, her mane was curved and had stripes of a light pink and pink. Her cutie mark was a ruler laying against an apple. Dawn chose a seat in the back of the room by a sky blue unicorn with a mane and tail the same color. She had no cutie mark yet even though she should.

"Now for a social activity. Look at the neighbor next to you and introduce yourself."

"Hey, my name is Flake, what's your name?" the sky blue unicorn asked. She sounded nice but, Dawn still didn't respond, she was already sleeping on her desk buried underneath her hooves.

Flake responded awkwardly,"Uuhhhh......okay."

Dawn didn't want her feel left out so she lifted her head and said,"Well, you should already know my name."

"I know I was just trying to start a conversation."

"Good job at that."

"Where did you come from?"

"Fall....I mean, I came from the Crystal Empire(this was just an excuse)."

"That's cool, how long have you lived here?"

"For two years now."

"I've been here for 3 years. Any family?" This one seemed to want to know everything about her new neighbor.

Dawn answered hesitantly,"Yes, my father and a dear friend."

"What are their names? If you don't mind me asking."

"It's fine. My father is Shadow and my friend is Excaelum(ex-say-lum)."

"The only family I have with me here is my mother." Flake said.

They too, engaged in a generic conversation.

Back at the Barracks. Knight Black Soul entered.

"Alright, tomorrow we will test your speed in a time trial. For the next two hours you are all going to be flying the track at a pace you find fitting. To the track, NOW!!"

Seng mumbled,"Unnecessary shouting."

"It's only unnecessary if we don't hear her." Shadow said.

"I guess that's true."

"Well, I'm guessing she's like that so we can see her as a leader and take her seriously."

"I think we should hurry before our serious teacher yells at us."

Back at school with Dawn.The class had a long social activity but, they were starting to get rowdy. Some of the students started to yell across the classroom, throw paper balls, and shout insults at each other.

"Class, please sit down."

Ms.Grazer was getting blocked out by the loud class,"SIT DOWN!!"

The class sat down as fast as lightning strikes.

"Good." She waited for the next minute until the early school day ended with the sound of a bell."Sit there quietly please, just until the bell rings."

RIINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

Author's Notes:

The frontier mentioned in the story is future Ponyville, just so you know. And the reason why Fyn Cour and Dust were able to be in the city in the clouds(future Cloudsdale) is that they were on a solid piece of land floating in the sky. Unicorns used their magic to make it float so talented ponies other than pegasus were able to be there.

Chapter 3 - Course on the mountain

After their 2 hour workout, the 20 students were allowed to rest for a chance to re-cooperate for 15 minutes before their C.O. briefs them on their upcoming task. They were to meet at the briefing room located next by the clerks office.

It was late noon, around 12:58 PM.

"Find a spot to place yourselves. Okay, your next task will be a time trial to test your speed, agility, and acceleration. It will be here on training grounds. The task tomorrow will be much more difficult." Soul said.

Seng whispered to Shadow,"How hard can it be?"

It seemed Black Soul heard him because, she looked right at him and said,"You have to up half a mile up a mountain while dragging a 200 pound cart in under 10 hours. That's how hard it can be."

"Damn. That sucks." A Pegasus to the right said.

"You think that sucks wait until Dry Ocean and Ice Valley. Alright enough talk. Let's start the time trial." Knight Black Soul added.

The course had 10 rings with a diameter of 8 feet each, they were closely packed together. Shadow knew it was for agility. There was a flag at the starting, that was for acceleration. The faster you take off, the more violent the flag would wave. The finish line was about 7 meters away from the rings, that tested your speed.

"Alright, line up in an orderly fashion so we can begin. You will have one minute to complete this course." A Pegasus was by the starting line. He had a dark gray coat and his mane and tail were dark red. His cutie mark was covered by his armor. Like it mattered what it was.

"I would like for you to meet Knight Storm, he will be aiding me during your training. First up, Aero."

Seng and Shadow were too busy chatting so they didn't see how he looked like or how well he did in the course. It was over quick though, the next pony was up. And within no time it was Shadow's turn. Soul blew a whistle signaling to start. The whistle sounded off. Shadow felt like he was slacking off but when he came back Knight Storm said,

"Wow. New record, Knight Black Soul, Shadow here beat your record."

"What was his time?" Soul asked.

Storm answered,"23 seconds."

"You beat me by 4 seconds, Shadow. Congratulations. Seng you're up."

"What?! I can't beat that."

"SHUT UP AND GO TO THE STARTING LINE!!" Storm yelled.

Seng went up to the line nervously because, Storm was there. The whistle sounded off again. He returned with a time of 37 seconds.

"Not bad. Next" said Storm.

3 more times the whistled rung the ears of those who finished. The trial was done. Black Soul gave the top 3 times.

"Shadow: 23 seconds. Aero: 31 seconds. Seng: 37 seconds. You may return to your barracks."

They relaxed for the rest of the day, preparing for the course on the mountain.

Knight Black Soul came in to wake up everypony. She was wearing a similar type of armor that Knight Storm was wearing but, Soul's was full gold. Storm's armor had a golden armor with a outlining of silver. The colors on their armor distinguished the ranks. The 9 types of armor were: solid bronze, bronze with silver outlining, and bronze with gold outlining. Silver with bronze outlining, solid silver, and silver with gold outlining. The top were gold with bronze outlining, Storm's, gold with silver outlining, and finally solid gold.

It was early morning, 4:00 AM.

"We are going to the base of a mountain east of Canterlot. We leave now to go there in an hour." Soul started,"and after this you'll be granted 2 days to spend with your families. After those 2 days are up, you report back here."

They flew to the mountain base and saw 20 loaded carts that belonged to the earth ponies so they did not hover as the ones designed for Pegasi did.

"You will drag these up the mountain using your wings. If I see any of you use your hooves, you will be kicked out. Understood?" Soul said in a firm voice.

"YES, KNIGHT BLACK SOUL!" the 20 nervous Pegasus said simultaneously.

"5 minutes to start. Get ready." Soul added as she flew up.

Starting time 6:00 AM

Goal, before 4:00 PM

Current time 5:59 AM

Goal distance 804 meters(half a mile)

Current distance 0 meters

Storm yelled,"Begin!" then he flew back to the city in the clouds.

"YEAH!! FEEL THE BURN!!" Seng said while struggling to make a pace.

"Yeah. Come on, we just started." Shadow replied.

After a few minutes, they both found a pace that was comfortable.

"I wonder how the others are doing." Send said as he looked back.

There was one Pegasus coming up behind them. It seemed he was rushing.

"Whoa, there. Slow down you're going to pass out before you finish this." Shadow said.

He replied,"I don't want to fail though."

"Yeah but, you don't want to die either. Just stick with me and Seng. You'll pass so, don't worry. What's your name?"

"Lancer, and you're Shadow from the looks of it. You beat Knight Black Soul's time trial record."

"Yes he is, and I got third place, thank you very much." Seng said trying to pitch his name in the conversation.

"Oh yeah, you're the one who got yelled at by Knight Storm."

"Great now everypony is going to remember me as 'the pony who got yelled' at." Seng said then added sarcastically,"Yay me."

"Haha." Shadow quietly laughed.

They kept a steady pace for a while and made good progress. They did not make a sound until they heard a thud behind them. Somepony passed out.

Fyn Cour and her team were following them at the back of the line, waiting for either somepony to give up or pass out. Unfortunately, for one it was passing out.

Shadow heard Fyn Cour say a few words,".....worked........too hard. Take.........down......please."

"I feel bad for that one. He did all this just to have it end where he began." Lancer said.

"Yeah." added Seng."

Shadow stopped the conversation,"Back to us. Less talk more flying."

For about two hours they again didn't make a sound. The fair breeze cooled them down a few degrees.

Lancer broke the awkward silence,"What do you think Dry Ocean and Ice Valley will be?"

"Hot and cold." answered Seng.

"What he said." Shadow exclaimed.

"You two are blunt aren't you?"

Shadow and Seng looked at each other then looked at Lancer and they both said,"Yeah."

"This is going to be a long course." Lancer sighed.

"Okay.You guys are really boring." Lancer said.

Shadow replied,"That's because, we're concentrated right now."

"Yeah but, that doesn't mean you to have to be brick walls."

"Fine. I was getting bored anyways. Start a conversation."

"Where were you born?"

Seng answered first,"Far from here, I don't think I've been at the frontier very long. How about you Lancer?"

"I as well. Shadow?"

"Southern Equestria." This was a lie from Shadow, the others didn't know that though.

Seng responded,"Isn't that where dragons usually live?"

"I suppose you can say that. I never had a problem with them though."

Lancer sounded happy,"Bummer we can't continue this because, I can see the finish line."

The three used the rest of their energy they had to finish strong. They completed the course on the mountain. They were very tired and didn't feel how sore they were until a few moments after they were done.

"I feel a cramp in my wing." whined Seng.

"It's not so bad." Lancer tried to stretch his wings,"Never mind I feel it."

Chapter 4 - Family of Three

After this painful training, Shadow was allowed to leave from there straight back to the frontier with others he did not know, he was eager to see his friend and daughter. The sun was beginning to set. Shadow lived in a cottage by the Everfree Forest, where it was quiet and relaxing. The breeze that came from the forest cooled down the warm air. He saw Dawn sitting on a hill, just basking in the evening sun, he joined her.

"Dawn, it's nice to see a familiar face again."

"Hello father. How was your day."

"I'm tired but, I won't have to go back for two more days."

"We get to spend some time with each other then."

"Of course."

"Hopefully, we can contact Luna and Celestia soon too."

"I'm sure they will contact us first."

"Speaking of contact, where's Excaelum(ex-say-lum)?"

"I don't know. Haven't seen him for a couple of weeks."

"He's probably busy."

They both saw something emerging from the thickness of the Everfree Forest. It was Excaelum. He was a dragon, fairly large about 18 feet tall, 35 feet in length, and with a wingspan of 60 feet. Even though he was too big for the cottage, he had a separate compartment connected to the cottage so, he was still able to chat with his 2 friends. His scales were gray outlined with black, his eyes were a light blue. He had 6 limbs: 2 legs, 2 arms, and wings. He blew flames of blue, the color of his father's flames, Dragaitas(dra-guy-tis). His skull shape and head crest also looked like his father's, triangular and sharp. He had a back and tail covered in spikes. It looked like he was exhausted.

Shadow asked Excaelum,"Where have you been?"

"Shadow. I've been searching for something. How have you two been?"

"Well, I've been lonely because of you and my dad is tired."

"I'm sorry Dawn. I will try to be here more often."

Shadow said to the both of them,"Don't worry to much about her, she can take care of herself." Shadow paused, then continued,"The sun feels nice, doesn't it?"

"Yes it does. It feels like we won't be able to do this for a long time though." replied Excaelum.

"Why do you say that?" asked Dawn.

"This is just something you can't do everyday." the dragon answered.

"It won't be special if we did." Shadow added.

The three sat on the hill, the sun was set, and the frontier's lanterns started to be lit. At night was cool by the cottage due to the neighboring trees absorbing the heat. Excaelum's compartment was by the fireplace so, he can light the firewood, his flames also gave off a blue light. When the dragon wasn't there Dawn or Shadow would light the chandelier and lamps that gave off a normal light. Tonight the lamps and chandelier were lit and Dawn went to her room upstairs.

"Shadow, how were you today?"

"Fine, Excaelum. Thanks for asking."

"I've been occupied lately."

"Doing what?"

"Looking for something very important to me."

"If it's important, I won't ask. Do you think the princesses know that we're here?"

"I can go pay them a visit."

Shadow chuckled,"Ha, the first time they saw you they almost jumped out of their skins."

"What I recall was Celestia pushing her sister to me as tribute not to eat her."

"And I'm guessing they were surprised when they saw me walking up to you and telling them that you're not going to eat them."

Dawn came down the stairs and continued the reminiscing,"And when they saw me behind you."

"That was a fun day." said Shadow.

"Yeah, except for that time Celestia kept on trying to use her stun spell on Excaelum." Dawn added.

Excaelum had a grin on his face,"I still hate her for that. All those spells gave me were headaches."

"I'm sure she's sorry for that and now I think she got over her fear of dragon." said Shadow.

"That was over 50 years ago." Dawn said trying to convince Excaelum that she didn't mean it.

Excaelum replied,"I don't care about that anymore, now that I think about."

"I remember the first time we met you, Excaelum." Dawn said as she walked over to the kitchen to find something to eat."You didn't like us at first, though because of your father you started to."

"I think your dad would've killed us if he didn't." added Shadow.

"Well, aren't you two immortal?"

"Yes. From aging, disease, and unnatural causes so, everything." It seemed Shadow was not saying something, something important.

"Then how do you explain Dawn."

Shadow hesitated for a moment then answered,"Oh her, her age accelerated to that age for some reason." It sounded like he was trying to hide something. Dawn heard their conversation but didn't care and continued her business in the kitchen.

It was getting late. They blew out the lights and turned in. In the morning, Shadow went downstairs to greet Excaelum. He was gone.

Shadow said to himself aloud,"I don't understand that dragon sometimes." He rummaged through the basket of fruit but, they were all rotten so he threw them out and went to the town market. There were a couple hundred others living but, the frontier hasn't been given a name yet due to no leaders to do so.

It was a normal day, ponies commuting, joking around, fillies heading to school. Parents buying the weeks dinner and deserts. The stands available sold fruits, grains, pastries, nuts, vegetables, home decors, flowers, and clothing. There were stores but, they were being fixed and designed so the store owners decided to continue selling things outside. Shadow stopped by the fruits, grains, and vegetables bought a bag from each stand and continued home. When he opened the door he saw that Dawn had just come downstairs. He went to the kitchen and placed the bags on the counter.

"I thought you were supposed to be at school."

"I don't need anymore knowledge than I already have."

"It wouldn't hurt to get a little more."

"Well, I learned from both the princesses and Dragaitas. And you have to admit they are the most smartest and wisest teachers out there."

"Garren was also a smart and wise teacher. I miss him. He was like a father to me."

"I hate that place." Dawn said as if she was angry.

"What place?"

"Fallen Star. I hope we never have to return to that damned island."

"I hate that place too. We lost many friends there."

"At least we have a chance to make new ones."

"Remember our promise at the cliff. How we promised that we were not going to get any friends or get ourselves attached to anyone else."

"Yeah, why?"

"I broke that promise."

"I did to. As long as they don't suffer the way our friends did at Fallen Star, I won't mind getting a few friends friends."

"I made 2 so far. You?

"Just one."

"Maybe we can meet your friend after school is out."

They waited until 3:00 PM when the schools were dismissed.

"Her name is Flake and she's very nice so don't scare her. I know you have the tendency to scare ponies with your serious tone and look."

"I'll try."

They waited for Flake at the front of the school.

"Hey Flake. How was school?" greeted Dawn.

"Good." Flake looked at Shadow,"Who's that?"

"My dad. I thought it'd be nice for you two to meet."

"Hello, my name is Flake."

"It's nice to meet you." Shadow said with a deep firm voice.

"DAD!!"

Shadow's voice went back to normal,"I'm sorry but, I couldn't resist."

"Okay. Ummmm.... well I have to go now. Bye."

"Bye Flake." Dawn looked at her dad with a stern face,"I told you not to do that."

"Sorry. Old habits die hard."

They went back home where Excaelum was in his compartment sleeping.

"Is that all he does when he's here?"

"I guess."

"I'm sorry daughter but, I have to leave now to the barracks. Please say 'bye' to him when he wakes."

"Okay. When will you be back?"

"Tomorrow after we go to Dry Ocean."

"Alright then bye." Dawn went up to her room.

Excaelum woke up as Shadow opened the door, "I'll be off to." He said.

"See you tomorrow then."

"Take care, my friend."

Excaelum didn't leave for a while though.

Dawn was in her room opening a few old books.

"What chapter was I on? Ah, Chapter 7 - Advanced Spells. To be read. DO NOT ATTEMPT." Dawn ignored the chapter's warning,"I'm still going to do these spells. Let's see, this spell is used to create a ring of objects orbit the caster fast enough to cut through the strongest rock and to use the winds of the objects to hover. Seems simple enough, don't know why it says 'DO NOT ATTEMPT' and they show you how to do it. It just makes you want to do it."

Dawn shut her eyes. She started to lift the nearby shelves and books. They dropped.

"Let's try again. This isn't that advanced, I could do this in my sleep. Well, here I go again." She said aloud to herself.

This time the objects came up more violently and and dropped with a loud thud. Dawn's eyes opened and they started to glow. The room was ever more violently as her mane, tail, and cutie mark started to glow. A beam of light shot out of her horn and it ripped of hole in the ceiling. The beam continued to for 3 more seconds. Something crashed down next to Dawn. The beam began to fade and Dawn fell and with her blurred vision she saw a figure of another pony.

It said,"Dawn, can you hear me? Dawn? DAWN?!!"

Dawn fell on the floor then blacked out. The one who entered the room was examining the destruction of the young fillies magic. Broken pieces of roof and shelves painted the ground.

Chapter 5 - Visit from Princess Luna

Dawn woke up on a bench outside of their home,the moon was starting to set, she wondered how she got their. Dawn got up slowly to avoid headaches that came with if you did. She yawned and trotted on to the front door, opened it, and saw debris up the stairs. She investigated and saw that her room and half of the hallway were completely destroyed. She was in shock. She heard voices coming from the backyard, one sounded like Excaelum, the other sounded familiar. Dawn went downstairs and opened the door to the back where she saw an alicorn that she loved with all her heart.

"Princess Luna!!" She shouted excitedly as she ran to her to give her a hug.

"Dawn!" Luna replied happily. She wrapped her wings around Dawn.

"Do you mind telling me what happened?"

Excaelum opened his mouth,"I saw a beam of light behind me as I was above the clouds then I noticed it came from our place"s direction, I came back but as I saw the cottage in sight, it stopped. Luna brought you outside to ensure the place doesn't come down on you. You were out for at least 12 hours."

"You know we are going to have to fix this place before Shadow gets back." Luna said.

"Oh he won't do anything. And Excaelum I still don't know how a dragon your size gets around without being noticed."

"Really? Out of all what happened that's what curious about. Okay well, I use the sun to hide myself."

"I still do not know what happened to you Dawn. I mean, that was a kind magic I have not seen before. Where did you learn that?" asked Luna.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Were there any bystanders watching?"

"The whole frontier." said Luna.

"She yelled at them with what she calls her "Royal Canterlot Voice". Remember that ?"

"Oh come on, I didn't yell at them with that. At least not a lot."

Excaelum looked at her with a face that denied her statement.

"Okay, maybe I did, a lot. They left though so, it wasn't pointless."

Dawn asked,"What did you say?"

"I told them," Luna said it like she was going to reenact it,"CITIZENS," and she did,"YOU NEED NOT WORRY!! THIS IS TRADITIONAL CANTERLOT CEREMONY WHERE WE SHOOT A BEAM OF BEAUTY INTO THE SKY TO MARK THE ANNIVERSARY OF MY FIRST MOON RAISING!! GO BACK TO YOUR HOMES AND ENJOY THE NIIIIIIGHTTT!!"

"I see." Dawn stood there next by Excaelum staring at Luna awkwardly."I still need to know what I did. Do you think Celestia will know?"

"I don't think so. Big sister and I were never taught anything like that from Star Swirl the Bearded."

"We need to find somepony who does. Excaelum, do you have any idea on someone that can help?"

"No. I don't mingle around ponies much remember." he answered bluntly.

"Big sister should be raising the sun in a couple of hours. Let's start fixing this place."

"We can improve it while we're at it." Dawn suggested.

Excaelum replied,"Why?"

"So you can fit through the doors and have enough room to sleep in the living room."

"Well, how are we going to do that?" asked the dragon.

Luna made a comment,"Maybe Dawn could blow it up with her magic."

"Oh ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny Luna."

"It kind of is. I can just bring it down my claws and you and the princess can levitate the pieces so, it won't make any noise."

"Alright, let-" Dawn was interupted.

"I don't think it'd be wise for you to use your magic now Dawn. I can handle it, for now just relax. Ready Excaelum?"

They brought down what remains of the cottage in under 40 minutes. They waited for the sun to rise so, the can start with lighting. The sun rose and 50 ponies from the frontier came to help, Excaelum went to the Everfree to avoid being seen. The townsfolk were really helpful and, since they thought Dawn was hurt they did all the work and Luna oversaw their progress. Late afternoon, the frame of the house was completed. It had a second floor with two rooms, a study room, and a balcony. The first floor was built large enough for Excaelum, of course the townsfolk didn't know why they were building it that large. Luna told them to also build a library next by the future kitchen. Luna left to Canterlot and came back with the nicest furniture: a couch, 2 beds, chairs, rugs, lamps, etc. Luna came over to check on Dawn.

"Where did you get all those stuff?"

"Your dad's bed and the other things I got from a furniture store.'

"Where did my bed come from?"

Luna had a evil looking smirk on her face,"From a special furniture store. Hehehe."

Meanwhile at the Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia walked into her room, she saw something missing.

The evening was coming and surprisingly the new cottage was almost done. The townsfolk had nothing else planned so, they helped out the whole day. The only thing left to do was bringing in the furniture and they're done. Luna went inside to observe. Shadow came back with a friend.

"Hey, I'd like you to meet Ae-. What're they doing to the cottage?"

"Remodeling." Dawn answered.

"Wha-Why?"

"It kinda got destroyed."

Luna came back outside.

"Oh I see why." said Shadow.

"Shadow, didn't expect you to be here."

"Well, I live here so."

"Who's your friend?" Luna asked.

"Aero introduce yourself."

"Hello, Princess Luna." he bowed.

"Nice to meet you but, we'll continue this conversation later. I have to raise the moon."

"You didn't tell us you knew the princess." said Aero.

"Yeah, I kinda left that out didn't I?"

Dawn walked to the new house. Shadow and Aero followed.

"Wow. You two have a big place."

"It wasn't like this before Aero."

"Well, I didn't see the other look but I prefer this one. You have a library, a large living room, and nice kitchen. I wish I knew a princess."

"Let's check upstairs." Dawn said.

A few townsfolk were coming down the stairs. They just finished their job and now are returning home.

The first door Dawn opened lead to the study room, the 2nd her room.

"Why is that bed so big?" Aero exclaimed.

"And why does it have a sun at the top of the bed?" added Shadow.

"Luna said she got my bed from a 'special' furniture store."

"Let's check my room."

They went over the next room but, it lead to the balcony.

"Nice." Aero said.

They next door lead to Shadow's room.

"Why is my bed half the size as yours Dawn?"

"I don't know, ask the princess."

"I don't think I can handle another visit from her."

"I'm to rent a room at an INN. See you at Ice Valley Shadow. Bye Dawn it was nice meeting you."

They had a bit of trouble getting used to the new house, especially Shadow he was so used to the old version. The next day, Dawn and Shadow explored their new place. It was nicely polished. The rugs and carpets had a fresh fragrance. The kitchen was loaded with different utensils, pots, and had a basket of fresh fruit. The large front door was made so, that Excaelum was able to get in, it went well with the large living room. Luna was asleep on the couch that was comfortable as a bed. Shadow woke her up.

"Why did you come here princess?"

"Well, Dawn destroyed the house with a beam of light."

"That was her? I saw that beam from the clouds. How did you do it?"

"I don't know. How come you didn't come back father?" Dawn asked

"I saw a a shape in the sky and it looked like Luna; she went down there and it stopped so I thought she had it covered and stopped it."

"I didn't stop it. The magic faded away on it's own." Luna replied.

Shadow said,"Hopefully it doesn't happen the next time you come to visit."

"Hey, it's not like it happened because of me.

The three spent the rest of the day catching up on the years they had. Later that night Excaelum came inside.

"Well this is different." he said.

Chapter 6 - Ice Valley

"I can't believe I fit through that door." said Excaelum.

"Kind of a nice thing to make the door that big. What is it like 8 feet wide and 7 feet tall." Shadow added.

They continued exploring their new living space. Luna went back to Canterlot to stay with Celestia. The next came upon them, Shadow and Aero were to report back for their next course. They arrived to the briefing room and Knight Black Soul was starting her lecture.

"Ice Valley is not like Dry Ocean because, instead of blazing temperature over 143 degrees Fahrenheit you will have freezing temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit maybe even lower. Now remember what happened at Dry Ocean, 7 of you friends were taken out because, they suffered from heat strokes. You have the decision to leave my regiment before we go to Ice Valley."

No one left. Yet.

"I have been informed there is an unusual amount of activity from Yeti but, we will still go because they usually don't bother us. If you don't want to take that risk, leave now."

2 Pegasus left the room.

"We still have to take precautions. We will give you a pair of these, what we call, hoof-blades. They do not go past the bottom of your hoof so you're able to walk with them on. This precaution shall be another flag saying to leave while you still have the chance also, Knight Storm and I will be over-watching you from the sky with our team, this should also be another flag."

Another 2 Pegasus left, one sitting next by Seng said something that stopped Black Soul from giving any further warning.

"The rest of us aren't going anywhere."

"Is that right, Cloudfire. Do the rest of you agree with him?"

They all answered,"YES SIR!"

"Alright." Soul continued,"Go get some rest we have a long day ahead of us."

There were only 8 Pegasi left: Shadow, Seng, Lancer, Aero, and Cloudfire. The others were known as Voyager, Echo, and Hail. The next early morning they had to leave early to Ice Valley, a blizzard was stirring. The valley will protect them form the harsh winds but, if they take too long they can be buried by the snow.

Arrival time 4:31 AM

Time starts at 5:00 AM

The weather was freezing and it didn't get any better as the sun rose. The blizzard will block most of the sunlight from reaching the valley. Knight Storm had a team of 3 Pegasus with him their names were Fencer, Razor, and Canon. Knight Black Soul also had a team of three: Tint, Bladedancer, and Flood. The storm was getting worse. The snow slipped in through some small cracks in the doors and hit them in the face. The howling of the winds was loud not because of the speed of the train going against it, it was the speed of the blowing winds.

"These winds are relentless." said Fencer.

Razor replied,"It's not so bad."

Tint added,"It can be worse."

"Don't jinx it or I'm going to have o stab you. You have negative energy Tint." exclaimed Fencer.

Canon chuckled,"Not if he gets you first."

They group laughed a bit.

"It is so cold right now. Brrrr! Damn it's really cold!" whined Aero.

"Once we move our body temperature will rise so don't whine so much." Lancer replied.

"Oh I wasn't whining if you want to hear whining I can do it right now."

"Okay just shut up." said Lancer.

Seng asked Shadow,"Do you think it's that dangerous in the valley?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it unless we run into a few yeti on the way. They're pretty much not a bother unless provoked."

"Let's not hope that happens, us provoking them." said Lancer,"I don't want to tango with them at all."

"None of us do." Seng said.

They were going to start in less than 10 minutes.

Storm came from the starting to the back where the carts were,"We modified the carts so, 2 of you can drag one together. We can't afford to lose anyone in the blizzard. We will travel in a small compact group so we can all see each other. My team and I will be in the front, Black Soul's team will be in the rear. Any questions?"

The 8 remaining Pegasus answered,"No, sir."

Shadow and Seng chose their cart. Lancer with Aero. Cloudfire with Voyager. Echo with Hail.

Formation

Storm

Fencer Canon

Razor

Shadow-Seng Lancer-Aero

Cloudfire- Voyager Echo-Hail

Soul

Tint Flood

Bladedancer

They began, it was freezing so they had to keep moving to keep their body temperature up or else they catch hypothermia.

"The halfway point is a ways from here." sighed Aero.

"Let's just focus on something else other than that." Lancer tried to get his mind off of that idea.

"Did any of you see the beam of light a couple days ago?" Seng asked the group.

"I did, I thought the world was going to end." Aero exclaimed.

"Maybe it's a sign of the beginning of the end." said Lancer.

Shadow stayed quiet and listened to the three talk about what they thought the beam was. Shadow started having memories replay themselves. They were blurred, he saw the accident at Fallen Star. He shook his head, to stop that horrible memory. He wondered why he was seeing that. Again, he saw his old friend Dragaitas opening his great wings, he again shook his head.

"Why I'm I seeing this now?" he mumbled to himself.

He heard a scream of pain,"AAHHHHH!! LEAVE ME!!" Shadow looked up and saw everything besides the blizzard, was normal. They were still flying the carts with no problem.

The screams in Shadow's head continued, he wanted to cry because, those screams brought back terrible memories but that's all they were. Memories. The past.

Through all those painful memories, came a soothing and happy one he heard the voice of his deceased wife,"Dawn, don't run too fast. You're going to hurt yourself."

The memory was as clear as the sky after a storm.

"Starflare you can't baby her, for the rest of your life. Let her roam free."

"Yes I can, dear. And do you really want Dawn to hurt herself again?"

"No, honey. Last time she did Dawn kept on crying. My ears are still ringing."

"That was a week ago, Stop exaggerating you big baby."

Shadow saw his daughter turn around,"Who're you calling a "big baby" mom?"

"Your father. Even though he's strong you can still beat him in a race, can you hon?"

"Yeah dad, you're slower than a rock."

"That hurt my feelings Dawn. YOU BETTER RUN BEFORE THE TICKLE MONSTER CATCHES YOU!!"

He chased his daughter and started to tickle his daughter with his wings. They both rolled down a hill and laughed. Starflare was standing on top of the hill, smiling.

The memory ended, and Shadow started to tear up.

"I'm so sorry Starflare. It was all my fault." Shadow began to cry under his breath so the others won't hear him.

He heard Seng, wiped the tears away then looked at him.

"Shadow we're stopping for some reason. Pay attention, Soul's going to tell us something"

Shadow looked ahead and saw the valley was littered with holes on the sides.

"There are a lot more. Now, leave the carts. We have to fly our way out."

"A lot more what?" asked Voyager.

"Yeti. They may try to attack us."

"Damn, we need to go now Soul, I can see them." Storm said.

They were poking their large white, fur-covered faces out from the holes. Yetis stood at least 9 feet tall and had arms that were 6 feet long each and weighed at least 750 lbs.

"Ready your blades. I will decided whether you die or not." Knight Black Soul exclaimed.

One yeti charged toward Shadow. Shadow left his cart and sliced it's thick throat. It landed next to Storm. It's body was heavy, they could tell because of the vibration it generated when it landed.

"Stay together." he said.

Soul replied," And who gave you command?"

"That body. Now are you going to criticize me or help me?"

"Hit their joints, head, and as Shadow displayed their throat or neck. Lead the way."

"Alright. On 3, fly as fast as you can. Ready?! THREE!!"

They flew straight in and the yetis started to pour out of the holes. The group was broken when one of them jumped straight in the middle of them.

"DAMN!! KILL IT!!" shouted Soul.

Storm and Razor pulled back and charged to him. Razor went for the joints on it's legs, when it was down Storm finished it off with a swift hit to it's throat.

They saw the end of the valley but, it was blockaded by yetis. They had to go straight through, if they fly up the blizzard would've forced them back down, leaving them stunned on the floor. Soul's team was attacked. A yeti grabbed hold of Tint and started to pull on his wings, within a few seconds he would be a Pegasus without wings. Bladedancer and Flood stopped him just in time. They both made crossed cuts to the back of the yetis neck. It went limp and fell.

"That was close." said Flood.

"It was." Tint replied.

"Can you two shut up and help me??!!!" screamed Bladedancer was facing a yeti that was over 10 feet. Soul got it's attention by cutting it's wrist. It got angry. Blinded by it's rage, Soul cut it's neck but, the cut wasn't deep enough. She cut it again, and again in the same spot. It finally fell.

The blockade was ahead. Soul and Storm's team teamed up against the wall of at least 8 yeti. There were 6 total from the two teams.

Cloudfire and Hail were also attacked but, were saved by Storm and Echo.

Echo being a recruit didn't have enough speed to make a clean cut. His cut was rough and slow. Storm finished was Echo started and killed his target.

"You need to be faster Echo!"

"Sorry sir!"

The blockade had a hole in it and they were able to go through. The yetis didn't follow for some reason.

Lancer, Seng, and Aero ganged up on one 7 foot yeti. They striked simultaneously, it had three gashes on different places.

"I killed it!!" Seng joyfully shouted.

"NO!! I did!" Lancer argued.

"Does it matter? We all know I killed It!!"

"SHUT UP AERO!!" Seng and Lancer screamed.

The three then screamed for a different reason. The alpha yeti was behind them. It was 14 feet tall. The power it possess was more than they can handle so they chickened out and flew to the end of the valley where the two teams, Cloudfire, and the others were. The only ones missing were Soul, Storm, and Shadow.

"The alpha is here." Storm said.

"Just like old times, huh?" Soul replied,"Eliminate it. COME ON!!"

The two old friends met the alpha, it swung at them. It was slow but, if it got hold of either one of them, it would've been over.

"Joints!! Hit them!!" yelled Soul.

They both attacked the same one on it's left leg and right leg. It was still standing. They did it again. It still was standing. Shadow came out of nowhere and joined.

"Need help?"

"SHUT UP AND HELP US!!" Storm screamed.

The three were able to bring it down to it's knees. Three deep simultaneous cuts to the throat killed it. Or so they thought. It began to rise even with blood running down it's body.

Soul shouted,"BRING IT DOWN!!"

Another three cuts to it's red throat finished it for good. 7 more alphas appeared. Shadow, Soul, and Storm retreated to the end. Shadow stood at the end waiting for them.

"What're you doing?!!! Get back here!!" Canon shouted.

Shadow landed. One of the alphas swung at him. It's hand was slashed off by something. And Shadow didn't even flinch. None saw it but, Shadow's wing was covered in blood.

"You will not harm anyone." Shadow said.

Shadow's eyes, mane, tail, cutie mark, and wings started to glow. He ascended, wrapped himself in his wings, and opened them. The glow from his wings blinded the alphas, the wind generated by his wings kept them from advancing. He used to glowing wings and flew past the beasts so fast no one could've seen it. The alphas fell to pieces, in halves, thirds. Shadow emerged from the snow their lifeless bodies kicked up, still his body was glowing. His head was jerked back and he shot a beam of light into the sky that dispersed the blizzard from his out of his mouth and eyes, it continued for 3 seconds. The beam faded away and he fell. He saw his friends fly to him.

He blacked out.

Author's Notes:

http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/Hb-Default-3-400255372?ga_submit_new=10%3A1379195120 concept art for the hoof-blade. it's not good, it's just to show you an idea of what it looks like

Chapter 7 - Forces of Nature

Seng and Lancer carried Shadow to the train that was waiting a few minutes away, everyone else were watching their backs just in case anymore yeti came around. None did. They safely got back to the frontier where they put Shadow at the little medical clinic that was there. Soul and Bladedancer were talking.

"What happened to him? He killed all of the alphas with one move." said Bladedancer.

"I don't know and I think he did 3 passes."

"How? That's impossible. It happened so fast"

"I'll ask him when he wakes."

Shadow was having a dream, only it didn't feel like one. He was near the edge of a cliff, he saw someone looking out to the ocean. It was Starflare. He ran to her.

"Star, how are you here?"

"I should be asking you that, my love."

"What do you mean?"

"You're in the spirit world."

"I'm dead?!"

"No you big dolt. I brought you here."

"Why?"

"I have to tell you something. Something terrible is going to happen."

"What is it?"

"2 of 3 lights have been lit. After, they will be blown out by an opposite wind."

"I don't understand."

"You will soon enough Shadow."

The world Shadow was in began fade.

"Star, when can I see you again?"

"When the moon is brightest. Take care."

Shadow woke up and he saw his daughter.

"Hey dad. How are you?"

"I feel unwell, thank you for asking."

While Dawn and her dad chatted, Excaelum was south of Equestria. He met up with his brethren, the Forces of Nature. This organization was made up by 7 different elements of life, before there were 8 but the Star dragons went extinct. The remaining forces were:

Time

Rock

Fire

Water/Ice

Air/Wind

Thunder/Lightning

Gravity

1st, Chronin(crow-nin)- She was the lead dragon of time and a non-combatant that wishes only to have peace. She had the power to stop or slow time within a 20 meter range, teleport from her location up to 20 miles away or send an object away, and the rarest powers of all time dragons, to be able to see the past of a location she is currently in and to see the true memories of whomever she wished by putting the tip of her claw on their head. Her time control only worked on weaker being so, she isn't able to control any member of the Forces of Nature or any stronger being. Her subordinates addressed her as, Lord Chronin. Her scales and wings were golden, her eyes a darkened yellow. Her size in length 40 feet, wingspan of 60 feet, and a height of 22 feet. She was part of the first team of dragons before this, this was the second formed. She was at the bottom at their ranks but, after the top leaders died, she took their places. Any fight she fought, she comes out the victor but, she didn't like fighting. She is very intelligent and wise with most situations that came up.

2nd, Mesadraco- He was the leader of the Rock dragon and a combatant. He had the powers to control the earth below him. Even though he had no wings he was able to run on all fours as fast as 350 mph. His body was rough, covered in sediments from the ground below. He can also, create caves and tunnels underground to move unnoticed and if he wanted to, he can make earthquakes happen without warning. Dark brown scales went perfectly with the floor and his eyes were green. Height, 25 feet and length, 35 feet. Addressed as Lord Mesa. He only cared for his force only, the other forces could die out and he would do nothing about it.

3rd, Pyrodia(pie-row-dia)- Leader of fire and highly combative. His fires were able to get as hot as 450 degrees Celsius, he used his powerful wings to push the flames to his enemies. His scales were red scorched by fire, eyes orange. Height, 18 feet. Length, 30 feet. Wingspan, 40 feet. Addressed as Lord Pyrodia. He always searched for a fight whenever possible, others don't know why though. It could have something to do with the anger he held inside from the fact he wasn't on the top of the ranks.

4th, Aquabellina- Lead water dragon. Her ice is maybe the only thing that can fight off Pyrodia's fire, it got as low as negative 130 degrees Celsius though she didn't fight as much as he did. She can create hurricanes, typhoons, and maelstroms in her strongest state. Also able to dive down in the ocean to 5,000 feet. Her scales light blue, eyes yellow. Height, 15 feet . Length, 30 feet. Addressed as Lord Aquabellina. She sided with the ones she believed she could use to her advantage, a user of users.

5th, Olganna(ol-gan-a)- Air leader. The winds she conjured up could blow 200 mph, she used her wings to raise the speed of it. Her more evil power, her ability to drain the oxygen of a living being, she never used this unless she needed to. Scales cyan and eyes violet. Height, 20 feet. Length, 35 feet. Wingspan, 50 feet. She doesn't fight much, she's like Chronin, believing in a non-violent solution.

6th, Zartez- Thunder leader. The volts of his lightning reached to over 500,000. The Amps he generated went over 200, more than enough to stop the heart of whatever it touched. He's a non-patient type, he especially had none for those not in his force. Addressed as Lord Zar. He is also very stupid and arrogant that is what leaves him at one of the bottom ranks. Height, 17 feet. Length, 25 feet.

7th, Excaelum- Leader of an endangered race. He has the ability to make an area within 40 meters of him have no gravity or a extremely heavy one. He is able to generate flames, not as strong as Pyro's but still strong, over 150 degrees Celsius . He is the only known thing to be able to go to space and survive. Height, 18 feet. Length, 35 feet. Wingspan, 60 feet. Addressed as Lord Excaelum. His large wings and powers he possessed were passed down from his father. Dragaitas was one of the first to create this organization. He was in the 2nd rank, the top was taken by a Star dragon bu, he later took his place when he proved himself the wisest and strongest of all dragons. Dragaitas, even after his death forever withholds the title, The King of Dragons. Dragaitas' flames were much more powerful than Pyro's and his gravity powers were far more developed than Excaelum's. The stories of his powers shows the potential for Excaelum. Excaelum doesn't know how to excel his powers because, he has no one to teach him how. Excaelum may become even stronger than Chronin one day and take the title of king.

The star dragons went extinct, the reason is unknown. They had the power to harness power form the sun during the day and the stars in the night. They can learn all powers from all the forces. The top leader in the previous group is known as, Duesiden(dew-sid-en). She controlled a bit of all the forces but, she wasn't a master. Her race either died or disappeared. It still remained a mystery.

The ranking system also included dragons they were able to command.

Forces of Nature(Top)

Solitaries

Ambassadors

Pawns(bottom)

Solitaries are dragons that follow whoever they want no matter what force they are, they of course can follow their own force. For example Chronin has a rock solitary, Jakal(ja-cal) and Olganna has an air solitary, Gulfstream. Their leader has to approve them before they become their solitary. Solitaries are usually strong dragons and the max number of solitaries allowed is 5. They can command the ambassadors and pawns only during a battle or war.

Ambassadors are higher ranking pawns they are brought up a rank by either solitaries or lords. They are only able to command pawns. They must be the same force type as their lords to be a ambassador. Tend to be stronger than pawns but, weaker than solitaries. They can only order pawns if given permission by either lords or solitaries. Max limit of ambassadors 8. Ambassadors can become solitaries only if approved by a lord.

Pawns have no order in the ranks but, can go to the level of ambassador. They are the common weak dragons and must follow the orders from higher levels of the same force. For example, a thunder pawn must follow the orders of a thunder ambassador, solitary, or lord. They follow the orders of the higher rank. There is no limit of how many pawns are allowed.

If a lord were to die the best solitary of the same force must take their place. For example, when Dragaitas died Excaelum took his place but, takes the bottom rank. You must earn your way to the top of the ladder. If no solitary is available the best ambassador will take the place as lord but, must be approved by the other lords by a voting session.

War laws. If another force wants to fight another first they have a trial battle of any of the choices to hopefully satisfy the leaders. 1 solitary v.s. another, 2 ambassadors v.s. another 2, or 5 pawns v.s. another 5. If the problem is not resolved, they must gather together with the other lords and state their reasons to fight one another with a full force. Wars don't start between dragons often because, the lords are smart enough not to start one because, if war were to begin both forces and innocent bystanders will be majorly devastated. Only for drastic measures will another lord fight another.

The lords are discussing the population of the dragons.

"We need more territory if our species prefers to lived civilized." said Mesa.

"Yes. I say we take over the frontier of mark bearers." Pyro agreed.

"No. We should just hold a tournament for pawns to kill each other and whoever is left promise them a spot as an ambassador." Olganna argued.

Chronin and Excaelum didn't say a word during this argument for they had no population to worry about because, they had no pawns or ambassadors. They would only get involved if a vote was called but, for now they just had to listen.

"I will rather kill others than my own kind, Olganna." Mesa replied.

"The others have nothing to do with our problems, you fool."

"Watch your tongue."Mesa said angrily.

"I just don't believe in punishing others for our mistakes Mesa."

"I understand where you're coming from but, we cannot live like those yeti."

The population is under control, the reasons of this conference were not found. Suddenly out of nowhere a vote was called in.

"I suggest we vote on whether or not to attack the mark bearers." Zartez said.

Excaelum broke his silence,"Objection. As I recall the population is at a perfect balance so, why are we having this conversation in the first place?"

Pyrodia seemed like he wanted to put a word in but, something caught his tongue and he answered in a shameful way,"I."

The voting began.

"I."

"I."

"Nay."

"I."

"Nay."

"I."

"Nay. Pyro, I thought you were different." Excaelum said.

"Silence. We have made our decision. We attack in 2 days." Mesa said.

Mesa, Pyro, Aqua, and Zartez went outside, it seemed they wanted to end the conversation early for some reason.

"I don't want to do this." Pyro sighed.

"We have to, to bring the Star dragons back." Aqua said.

"How do we know we can trust the mark bearer?" Zartez asked.

"He said he knows where they are. We just have to trust him. Now gather your army, we have to awaken Excaelum's power." Mesa said.

Back in the council room.

"I can't believe this is happening." Olganna whined.

"I'll give you and Excaelum temporary command over my solitaries. I will not be there to assist you. And Excaelum."

"Yes, Lord Chronin?"

"I understand you have mark bearing family, is that correct?"

"Yes it is."

"In that case protect them. Olganna don't bring any awns they will just be in the way. Just bring your solitaries that should be enough."

"They will bring an army of pawns. How will we fight all of them off?"

"When the light is lit, you will know."

"What?"

Chronin disappeared.

"Damn. Excaelum will Harvest be able to fight?"

"She's outside."

"Her and Luster are probably talking right now then."

"They make a good team."

"Enough talk we have to get to the frontier while it's still dark."

They left the council room and saw 8 of the solitaries at their command.

"We'll brief you when we get there. Let's move." Excaelum ordered.

The 10 dragons used the night sky as cover. Excaelum's only solitary is Harvest, she is a water dragon, she flew alongside her lord. Two of Chronin's were Ula(oo-la), he is a wingless time dragon and Jakal the winged rock dragon. Olganna had 5 solitaries: Nelo(knee-low)- a wingless thunder dragon, she used her thunder cloud vessel as a vehicle. Shortsnout, he is a fire dragon, flew behind his lord. Karnage and Gulfstream are both air dragons, though Karnage had no wings and Gulfstream did. Karnage always tries to prove herself stronger than her older brother, Gulfstream. She used a similar technique to Nelo so she can move without using much energy. Luster and Harvest are best of friends, they both had wings and the force of water.

When they arrived to Canterlot, they set themselves in the courtyard. A maid was walking past a window when she saw them.

"AAHHHHHHH!!!!" she yelled.

A voice inside calmed her down,"What is it?"

"Look outside."

"It can't be that ba..........AAAHHHHHH!!!!"

"Princess Celestia, I thought you got over the fear of me." said Excaelum.

"I did. Your face scared me."

"Ooooohhhhhhh. She got you my lord." Harvest chuckled.

"Nice one princess. Haha." Nelo laughed.

"I'm just joking Excaelum. What business do you have here?"

"An assault on the frontier." Olganna said.

Chapter 8 - You are life

"What do you mean?"

Excaelum answered,"An army of numerous dragons are going to attempt to takeover your fair land."

"Can you stop this?"

"Yes but, I may need Shadow's help. Where is he now?"

"I heard he's at the hospital."

"Can you tell someone to get him?"

"Yes. Iril, can you fetch the group that just came back from Ice Valley."

"Of course but, isn't Shadow injured?"

"What happened to him?" Excaelum asked.

"We don't know but, he's fine. He's resting."

"I get him your highness."

Iril is a maid at the castle, Celestia took her in after the frontier was created, she was just a filly back then. Now, she is a 20 year old earth pony proudly working for her princesses. Her coat is close to white it's yellow. Her mane and tail were purple and tied in a bun. Celestia didn't require her to wear a maid outfit because, she saw her more as a friends not a worker. She went to the hospital and went to Shadow's room.

"Who're you?" Dawn asked.

"My name is Iril. You must be Dawn."

"How did you know?"

"The princess told me about you. I must take your father to the castle."

"For what?"

"The princess didn't say. Can you fetch his friends as well?"

"Sure."

"Thank you."

Iril brought a couple of colts with her to get Shadow and his bed on the train. He was still in a deep sleep. Dawn looked for the group of Pegasus that brought her father to the hospital.

"Excuse me, are you Knight Black Soul?"

"Why yes my dear, what do you need?"

"The princesses request your assistance at the castle, my father is on his way there now."

"Alright. SENG WAKE UP!! I'm sorry I didn't catch your name?"

"My name is Dawn."

"That's a beautiful name."

"Thank you and you are beautiful yourself."

Black Soul smiled and led Shadow's daughter to the train along with the rest of the group.

Time till attack 48 hours

Current time 6:00 AM

They arrived at Canterlot and Iril led them to the dining hall where they discussed the situation. Shadow woke up in one of the castles suites, when he opened the door he saw Excaelum waiting for him. Excaelum explained the attack to him after, Shadow left Excaelum and joined the others in the dining hall.

"Celestia, your guests have arrived." Iril said.

"Thank you Iril. You may join us if you like."

"That's fine. Thank you for the offer."

Iril left the room.

"Princess you requested our presence. How may we serve you?" Echo asked.

"Not serve. Help. I need help defending our land from an attack."

"From who?" Soul asked.

"This can't be good." Aero exclaimed.

"Is it a gang of thugs?" Seng asked.

"If it was a gang of thugs, she wouldn't have asked us." Lancer replied.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" Aero asked.

"No we are not. Geez. What's with you ponies?" said Voyager across the table.

"Silence, please." Celestia silenced the ponies,"This attack is to happen in 2 days. This is an attack to takeover our frontier. There will be numerous counts of enemies and, we must evacuate the town before the attack begins."

"Why must this enemy need our land?" asked Soul.

"Their population is getting too large."

"Where is this information coming from?" Hail questioned.

"A reliable source."

"Who is it?" Canon continued the questioning.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

"What will we need in order to stop this?" Storm asked.

"Any weapon that's sharp."

"We can go to Wrench and Wither's foundry in the Everfree Forest." suggested Soul.

"That you can do after this."

Razor said,"You still haven't told us who we're fighting against."

"Can you tell us? We need to prepare for whoever it is?" Fencer added.

"Against...........dragons."

"WWHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?" exclaimed Cloudfire, Canon, Bladedancer, and Tint.

"I told we're going to die." Aero said.

"I take back what I said and agree with you." Voyager added.

"Alright, who wants to stab me? I will not haunt you if you do." Seng said.

Lancer replied,"I will if you stab me."

"Okay."

They both got up and used their wings to pick up the nearest object close to them.

"SIT DOWN!!" Soul yelled.

Seng and Lancer were about an inch away from stabbing each other with a spoon(Lancer) and fork(Seng) before Soul stopped them before they attempted to kill each other.

Seng whispered to Lancer,"Did you really have to pick up the spoon?"

"What?!! You were going to stab me with a fork so, why not."

"Quiet. How do they plan on executing their attack?" Fencer asked.

"A full assault. You need to prepare for this now, I have brought a few friends to help you. They are in the courtyard."

"Who're they?"

"You'll see but, you need to go to the foundry to pick up armor and weapons."

Black Soul obeyed her request,"As you wish. Seng, Lancer, Shadow, Aero, and Knight Storm accompany me."

They followed her to the forest and began to walk deep into the trees. They began to see a broken down building in a clearing ahead.

"Is this the right place?" Seng asked.

"Don't seem like it." said Aero.

"It's the right place." Storm answered.

Knight Black Soul opened the door, and inside were nice white walls, polished floors, furniture, a kitchens, and anything you would find in a nicely done house. There was a steel door in the back, it had a little window that looked into the mini foundry that was run there. They looked through the window and saw flames and molten.

Inside the foundry was completely different from the living quarters. The walls were hidden by finished and unfinished weapon and armor, they were unpolished and had oil spills all over them. There seemed to be a ventilation system, vents over the main fires lead smoke out to the atmosphere. There was a filter that somewhat purified the smog to at least take out some toxin from the smoke. In the back were 2 ponies, 1 earth and 1 Pegasus. They seemed to be finishing a piece. The colt was the Pegasus, he was wearing a mask that protected his face from the heat and sparks but, it had small cracks all around it. Part of his mane was and tail were burned but, they both seemed to be orange. His coat was scorched by burn marks, his coat was a light red. The earth pony, she seemed like a fragile one but, worked with deadly machines. Her mask was perfectly taken care of, no cracks or anything like that. Her man and tail weren't burned, she kept her yellow mane and tail short to avoid a fire that can bring her utter pain. Her coat was protected by a jacket that prevented any of the ambers from burning her. They poured the hot molten into the mold that created a future deadly weapon. After the molten had hardened the casting would be taken out and hammered down to a desired flatness.

Soul told them about the workers,"Wither, the earth pony, was taken in by Wrench when he found her wandering the Everfree by herself. She doesn't know what happened to her parents and, she came from no place of good."

"Where was that?" Shadow asked.

"She says if was full of torture and pain. It sounds a little like my old town, Green Fawn."

That town sounded familiar to Shadow.

"I wouldn't be here today if, the Pegasus that saved me hadn't come along."

It all came back to Shadow. He was the one that saved her. He saved her from a griffon raid and, never has Black Soul thanked her savior.

Wrench and Wither came inside their living quarters and saw an unexpected surprise. They saw the 6 Pegasus freeloading off of his fruit put their for Wither and himself.

"What a surprise, Black Soul. How are y-" Soul interrupted Wrench.

"I'm sorry but, we have no time to talk. Do you have anything that can do harm to a dragon?"

"What're you going to do kill one?"

Knight Black Soul and Storm looked at Wrench with a stern expression.

Wither said,"I think that means yes."

"Let's see, ah. We just made 20 pairs of fresh blades and a few sets of armor a couple days ago, they're in the storage cabinet in a crate. And if you are willing to wait we can finish our hoof-swords by tomorrow."

"Shadow, Lancer. Go get them. I'm we would but, we're short on time. Thank Wrench. We will tell you about this later."

They took the crate and head back to Canterlot. There seemed to be commotion coming from the courtyard. They saw Cloudfire, Razor, Bladedancer, and the others getting thrown to the ground by dragons. Storm saw the princesses just watching, he went over to them and asked what was going on, they said they were sparring with them to prepare for the attack. After the crate was placed down, Shadow and the others joined in on the sparring. Hours of pain went by, the pegasi were sore and tired. They had dinner and went to bed. Shadow however, was talking to Celestia at the tallest tower.

"How are you princess?"

"I'm worried. We never had a problem with the dragons before and now, they want to take our land."

"I'm sure there is something more to it than that but, we just don't know what yet."

"So, I heard about your incident at Ice Valley. What was the magic that you used?"

"I don't know. I never thought a pegasus could use magic."

"That's still a mystery then. Did you see the beam of light coming from the frontier a few days ago?"

"Yes, I did. I suppose you don't know what that is either."

She chuckled,"No, I don't."

"Aren't you sore from the sparring? You should get some rest." she added.

"I'm fine."

"What do you think Excaelum is going to do?"

"I don't know. I have not seen him fight any other dragons but, if he's like his father he will not go down easy."

"I pray he won't have to."

"Pray to whom?"

"Not whom. What. That "what" is destiny."

"We'll have to wait for destiny's decision then."

The sun has been risen and the courtyard was lively in a couple of hours after, everypony has been awoken and fed. Shadow, Seng, Lancer, and Aero grouped up against Excaelum's solitary, Harvest.

"I will train you with the time given now and in addition, the time you missed yesterday to make up for your absence. The weak points on a dragons body are the stomach. The stomach is usually unprotected and it's the softest part of the body compared to the rest of the body. The next is the neck, it has vital blood vessels but, is protected and hard to reach without getting killed. NEVER fight a dragon in their own force. If you were to attack me and I was in water you will be killed. Take the target out of reach of their element or in an environment opposite to their force. The opposite of water is rock. Thunder to fire. Wind to rock. The forces without an opposite are gravity and time. Each of you will each have to land at least one hit on me to rest. Begin."

The 4 charged and were hit by the back of Harvest's claw, they were launched back, they hit a wall.

"OW!! DAMN THAT HURT!!" exclaimed Lancer.

"I don't feel a thing." Seng muffled with his face implanted in the wall.

"We're going to die before tomorrow comes." said Aero.

"Get up. We need to- ah. Right in the sore spot." Shadow said.

They kept this up and again and, again they were tossed back by Harvest's strength until Lancer hit her on her neck while she hit the other 3 against a wall.

"Good. Three more times." said Shadow.

A few dozen more time and another hit was landed by Aero on her again her neck.

"The more you do this the more frequently you will hit me." Harvest scolded.

She was right. Seng landed one on her stomach on the next round.

"Now let's see how you do against a dragon in their force. Since there is no water supply nearby you will spar with Gulfstream, he is a wind dragon. You will fight him in the air." Something blacked out the sunlight behind them, they looked and saw Gulstream. He is a dark green colored dragon with only legs and wings with yellow eyes. He was small 10 feet tall. 20 feet in length and had a 35 foot wingspan. He was bulky which made his enemies think he was slow, they were wrong.

"So, I'm going with them? This should be easy." he said.

"You guys will have fun with him." Echo said to Shadow and his group.

"Let's watch them since we're done with ours." suggested Voyager.

"Good luck." Hail said.

"This is going to be bad isn't it?" cried Aero.

"It can't be too bad." argued Lancer.

Gulfstream took off straight into the air so fast it pust the ones standing nearby back.

"You should take that back." Seng said.

"I think he already did." said Shadow.

Harvest said,"As a treat, any of you get to hit him to pass."

They chased after Gulfstream in the air, Gulfstream came down to them, opened his wings right before he made contact with them, and they were thrown down. Hard.

"Oooohhhhhhh." exclaimed the others watching.

"Wow, haha. That must have hurt. Are you okay Seng?"

"No, Cloudfire. We just hit the ground at over 1,000 mph and we're fine. Ahhhhh....thanks for your consideration."

"Stop exaggerating. come on we'll take you to Fyn Cour." Tint said.

Gulfstream landed and he felt a nudge at the bottom of his claw. It was Lancer.

He wheezed,"I............win." and passed out.

"Did I go too hard on them?"

"Yes you did." answered Karnage.

"Well, let's leave be. They had enough."

They were taken to the infirmary where Dust and Fyn Cour were tending to their injuries. Fyn Cour's magic allowed her to see through coats to render care to the muscles, bones, and nerves. If bones were fractured she can easily fix it but, if it was broken it may take a few hours depending on the injury. If nerves were severed she too can render easy care to it. If a muscle to torn or pulled it can be easily fixed. If small outside scrapes or bruises can be done as well.

"This is going to hurt. Your wing seems to be dislocated. On 3......1....3." Fyn said.

"You forgot 2." Seng whined.

"I'll get him to rest." Dust said.

Lancer and Aero didn't have any major injuries. Only a few fractured bones. They were tended to and she moved to Shadow next. She examined his body.

"Amazing, there seems to be no fractures or anything on your body."

"I guess I'm just lucky." Shadow got up and walked normally.

Their training was over and the real fight will begin in 12 hours.

Current time 6:00 PM

Dawn and Luna were talking in Luna's room.

"Princess, do you have any thing we can talk about, I'm kind of bored."

"Well, we do have a problem with cargo going to Saddle Arabia and Los Pegasus."

"Really?"

"Somepony has been robbing the cars that contain metal that were going to be recycled into new metal and a few of unused metal cars as well."

"Do you know who is behind it?"

"No but, we may ask help from your father to help escort the cargo safely after this is all done with a month from. We stopped shipment until we can get escorts."

"Do you at least have an idea of who it is?"

"No but, there were sightings of a strange pegasus in a black cloak at the incidences according to most of the eyewitnesses."

"Is there a pattern?"

"No. They just happen randomly."

"Okay new subject."

The two talked about random things. Meanwhile, Shadow and Celestia again were talking at the tallest tower.

"How was your day Shadow?"

"Fine besides the sparring."

"We should just wait here and enjoy the full moon my sister is going to raise."

"A full moon?"

"The brightest."

Shadow mumbled to himself,"When the moon is brightest."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

"I don't want to see anyone hurt."

"That won't happen. At least I hope not."

"Shadow, how does it feel to live forever?"

"What do you mean?":

"Exactly what i just asked."

"Being alive to see loved go is painful."

"I know how you feel. I used to have many friends until we grew up and I saw their lives end."

"Hopefully I can die someday."

"That's quite a thing to say. And you can't die, right?"

"That's where you're wrong princess."

"How?"

"Dawn and I have the choice to- Will you promise me not to tell anyone this?"

"Of course."

"Dawn and I can give up our immortality for only, a great purpose."

"You two aren't natural immortals, are you?"

"No. I had to do horrific things to gain this immortality for me and Dawn."

"Like?"

"I went to a witch that goes by the name, Great Tear. She had me sacrifice 20 lives each for our lives to be spared from fate."

"I can't believe you." Celestia sounded angry,"Why would you do that?!!"

"I don't want to kill another loved one. That's why." Shadow silenced Tia for a moment. She spoke again.

"What? What are you saying?"

"I KILLED STARFLARE!!" Shadow screamed.

"Star Swirl the Bearded's granddaughter?"

"Yes. And Dawn's mother. The love of my life." Shadow began to cry.

"Come here." Tia put her hooves and wings around him, trying to comfort him.

"I just want to be with her again but, I can't leave Dawn." Shadow cried even more.

"Please stop your tears. You are going to make me start to cry if you don't."

"I'm sorry but, it's just so hard to."

Tia looked at Shadow in his eyes and said,"We are here for you. Your daughter. Excaelum. Even your friends, are all here for you."

Shadow cried for a few more minutes during the cold night. The clear sky with the stars and the moon lit the night. In the distance were the lights of the frontier.

The same night Shadow journeyed into the spirit world where he saw Starflare.

"Star, I'm sorry I told Celestia about you."

"It's fine, don't beat yourself up. How's Dawn?"

"Can't she see you in this world?"

"No. I can only be seen by somebody with a strong memory of me. And you have a very strong memory of me."

"Who can she see? And is this for everybody?"

"Zaz maybe. This is only for the ones with the power of Lumen Fulsi."

"Lumen Fulsi?"

"Light beam."

"And Dawn has it to?"

"Yes. One more positive power. There are 3 negatives."

"Positives and negatives?"

"You have much more to learn about this. Hehehe." Star chuckled,"The positives are life, love, and mercy."

"And the negatives."

"Death, hate, and merciless."

"Which positive is Dawn and who are the others?"

"I can't reveal that. You on the other hand. You are life."

The world faded along with Starflare. Shadow woke up.

3 hours left until attack.

Author's Notes:

http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/Hoof-sword-concept-art-400987717 just imagine the sword a wee bit longer and sharper. and there is also art for the hoof-blade if you look.

Chapter 9 - King of Dragons

Shadow went to the castle lobby where the others were equipping themselves with the hoof-blades. Luna and Celestia just came back from the frontier.

"The frontier is evacuated, Excaelum and the other dragons can station themselves there while, you will stay and defend Canterlot just in case he fails. We do NOT want them to fail." Celestia scolded.

"The wind dragon, Olganna, will be here for additional support if they get through. Any questions?"

Knight Black Soul explained the plan,"Good. The plan is, the dragons fend off the enemy and we all live our happy lives. If they fail and they come to Canterlot, protect the princesses, and most importantly don't die. Understood?"

The pegasus cried,"YES SIR!"

While Olganna stayed at the castle, Excaelum and solitaries waited in the center of the frontier. The outskirts were lined with pawns, ambassadors, and solitaries. When the time struck 6 the fight began.

8 dragon were sent, one for each solitary. 5 of them were winged, the rest were not. Karnage, Nelo, and Ula took the wingless ones because, they too were wingless.

Karnage made the first kill. She dodged a fireball the dragon shot at her, went behind it and clawed his head leaving it stunned. She then tackled the dragon, used her sharp teeth to rip flesh from it's throat, then she finished it off by jamming her claws in between it's scales to it's chest and pulled it's heart out. She knew it was a pawn by the way it fought, it didn't attack smart, it just charged without a brain. The dragon lied on the ground bloodied up with a hollow chest.

Nelo, didn't use much effort to make her kill. When her dragon charged head first, she grabbed it's head and started to shock it to death. The head was left burned and so much electricity was put into it, the body didn't know it died so, it kept moving, thrashing on the ground hitting rocks, trees, and whatever was nearby. It then, began to move slower and slower until it finally stopped. It's fried head was smoking and charred. Nelo pushed it's body to the side.

Ula's kill was just as brutal as the others. He didn't need to use his time ability to make his kill. His target was more smarter than the ones Karnage and Nelo killed but, it was still stupid. It was a rock force dragon, it threw a large stone at Ula, he caught it and threw it back harder, it killed his target by hitting his neck. Ula went over the body and saw bones from the neck sticking out. He moved the body over to the side because, the sight of it wasn't pleasing.

Gulfstream took a more gruesome path. The dragon was diving down at him was going to suffer. Gulfstream grabbed the dragon by it's neck and slammed it to the ground, it was dazed. Gulfstream then used his right claws and placed them on the upper jaw, left on the bottom jaw, he pulled them away from each other. The bottom jaws ripped off and upper was completely bent. The dragon was left to bleed to death if it even was still alive.

"4 more." Gulfstream said to himself aloud.

Shortsnout's target was too a fire dragon, that didn't matter, Shortsnout would kill anything with no remorse. He flew to his target and went for it's wings, Shortsnout burned off the joint connecting the wing to the rest of the body. The dragon was roaring in pain. Shortsnout silenced the noise from it's mouth by welding it shut with his flames. The dragon unsealed it's mouth by tearing it apart and blew flames at Shortsnout. Shortsnout being the higher level dragons, flames of lower levels had no effect on him. He flew straight to the dragon and tore his claws through it's stomach causing it to scream in pain.

"Just finish me!" it screamed.

"As you wish." Shortsnout grabbed the dragon by it's head and started turning until he completely snapped his neck. The limp body fell down.

Luster was nearby a small lake, she used as much water as she can to create sort of an icy armor for her wings. She encrusted her wings with ice that had sharp jagged edges, a dragon was going for her. Her kill was swift, she simply flew straight to the other dragon and left a long gash on the side of it's body. The body fell in the lake mixing the remaining blue water with it's red blood.

Harvest was getting attacked Luster assisted her by launching the water she had for her wings to her. Harvest deflected the water to the dragon attacking her, she froze it, flew into the air, and slammed it to the ground leaving pieces of the other dragon everywhere. She melted the water, it change color from blue to red violet. She seperated the blood from the water and placed the water back in the lake.

Jakal's target was not a pawn. It was one of Mesadraco's solitaries, Staok(stowww-k). He had a similar look to Jakal. He had a rough looking body but, his head was smooth. The scales on his body were tan, his eyes yellow. The difference between him and Jakal were the color of the scales and the eyes. The shape of both their bodies were similar, just not the color of them. Jakal had reddish colored eyes and brown scales.

"You must be Jakal. Do you consider yourself a worthy opponent?"

"Yes. Do you?"

"You should step aside my target is not you." Staok looked at Excaelum.

"You think you are worthy enough to fight him. You are a fool if you think that."

"So you think you can defeat me?"

Jakal nodded,"And if you want to get to Lord Excaelum you have to kill me."

"Very well."

Staok raised a spike right under Jakal fast enough to kill him. Jakal evaded his surprise attack and broke the spike, he then used the rock in the air. He made the sharper edges point to Staok and shot them at him. Staok slammed his claws on the ground creating a wall to protect him from the bullets. He put the wall down and charged to Jakal. He swung for his head but, was blocked by Jakal's left, Jakal countered using his right to get Staok off of him. Jakal used this tiny amount of time to try and land a hit on his enemy. Using his left, he tried to gash Staok's neck, it didn't work. Staok pushed him off and put some distance in between him and Jakal to have a little talk.

"What region are you from?" Staok asked.

"The south."

All the forces had regions they shared with each other. The rock force had a large region in the northern territory while the southern had a much smaller region. Jakal and Staok were from opposite regions.

"You fight well." said Jakal.

"As do you."

They both exposed their claws and charged. Jakal left three gashes along Staok's chest but, he too was struck. He had cuts running down his face. Neither died.

"Until we meet again." Staok flew back to the outskirts.

It seemed his lord wasn't pleased with him.

"Why did you return without attacking Excaelum?"

"Lord Chronin's solitary got in my way sire."

"I see he left you a souvenir. Leave before I finish what he started. Time to execute our little plan. Zartez, Pyrodia. Ready your strikers."

Excaelum and the solitaries regrouped.

"Why did they stop?" asked Harvest.

They didn't stop. The next thing that happened was of destructive beauty. Lightning and rock dust were launched at the castle. The fire Pyro's dragons provided gave the shots more speed and velocity. It moved fast towards the castle. They kept on shooting the compact rounds of 3 different forces to it. Olganna blocked the first few then one made contact. There was a huge explosion. The other shots were stopped by a shield that surrounded the castle. The shield protected it but, it might not hold on for long. That didn't matter to the opposing lords. They stopped firing.

The rock pawns all raised the land of the frontier destroying the houses and other buildings. Aquabellina's air solitaries kicked up the dust and rocks. The fire dragons created a smoke screen. Excaelum and the others could not see well. There was commotion coming from left of Excaelum, he was irritated so he used his powers to push the smoke down. The area was clear, the buildings were aflame and crumbled. He looked around and saw that Ula, Jakal, Nelo, and the other solitaries to be alright but, there was one missing. Harvest. He looked around shouting her name. He saw her head sticking out from rubble. He removed the rubble and pick her body up from it, only to see that a spike that punctured her scales and went through her heart. Excaelum took her far from the outskirts and gently placed her at the edge of the frontier. She spoke.

"I'm sorry I can no longer protect you." She coughed.

"Save your strength, I can get you well again. Just hang on."

"We both know I'm not going to make it." She coughed up blood.

"Save your words. No need to speak them."

"You can try and hide the truth but, it will find it's way to reveal itself." She tried to stand but, she could barely keep her balance.

"Stop talking." Excaelum began to soften up.

"I promise this is the first and last time I make you feel like this, my lord."

"No, you can continue to after this."

She laughed weakly,"You were always looking for a way to continue things. Sad it has to end here."

Her head looked down and never looked up again. Her body fell over.

The heart-torn solitaries were just as sad as Excaelum. They looked down with their eyes closed, gave her a moment of silence.

Rage was building up inside Excaelum. He opened his eyes.

"Stay here and do not let any of them get close.

The solitaries obeyed his command, they didn't want to anger him more by disobeying him. He slowly trudged his way to the border of the outskirts where he won't harm Harvest's body. Each step he made was brought down with great force. The enemy was about to regret their presence in the anger of Excaelum. He opened his wings and flew high into the air, a single tear on his head fell. The tear stopped falling, Excaelum was concentrating on his power. He again shut his eyes, they opened and changed color. They were white, they weren't glowing. His body also change. His scales darkened to black, his wings grew to about 100 feet in wingspan. His length grew to 65 feet and his height wasn't easily determined. The fire that flared from his nostrils were colored white. This appearance belonged to a dragon that died decades ago. The King of Dragons. Lord Dragaitas.

Excaelum's power grew immense, the dragon on the outskirts felt a power stronger than all the lords combined. The solitaries guarding the body of Harvest bowed. The enemy was frightened and nervous. They had the right to, they could feel the immense power. The spirit of Excaelum's father took over his body. He roared, white flames were blocking out the sun, it lit up the sky. Fueled by uncontrollable rage Excaelum charged to the ones responsible for the death of his dear friend. They tried to fight back. That was pointless. As they attacked, Excaelum forced them down without even touching them. His gravity powers was much more stronger than before. He brought down some dragons so hard their internal organs were crushed inside their bodies, leaving them to bleed internally. He walked over to the 4 lords. Each step sounded like thunder. Like the coward he is, Zartez tried to flee. Excaelum brought him down using his power. He slammed the coward on the ground, brought him up, and did it again and again. The body of Zartez was limp, dead. Excaelum chucked his body to a tree, the tree was taken down. Mesadraco is more of a fool, he spoke words that were his last to the lord.

"I killed Harvest. And I enjoyed watching you weep like the weakling you are."

The voice of Excaelum was not his. This voice was compelling and deep.

"You will regret those words."

Lord Dragaitas took the neck of her killer and crushed it. He threw his body in front of Staok.

"You always deserved a his spot."

Staok bowed,"I am not responsible for her death."

"She would have killed you before you got a chance to."

Dragaitas looked over to the other lords. He was talking to someone but, none of them.

"I feel your anger but, you must resist. Show mercy even to those that caused you great pain."

The white eyes shook the bodies of Pyrodia and Aquabellina.

Dragaitas flew back to the body of Harvest. The solitaries bowed to him.

"Lord Dragaitas, can you bring my sister back?" Luster asked crying.

"Elevate yourselves pupils." They all lifted their heads and the lord said,"No. I'm sorry but, this is her destiny. I must ask you all a favor, can you pass this message to your lords?"

"Anything." Shortsnout answered.

"Look after my son."

Lord Dragaitas' appearance faded. Excaelum had his own appearance and control over his body and his own size. The tear that was in the sky from Excaelum began to fall and when it hit the ground, another great power came from Excaelum. His eyes and wings were glowing bright. His head was jerked back and he shot a beam of light through his mouth. A whirlpool of wind formed from him, the solitaries stood in front of the body of Harvest, shielding her from the great winds. This continued for 3 seconds, the beam faded. His head slowly went down, his eyes closed, and slowly opened. They were not glowing anymore, so did the glow from his wings. The whirlpool of wind was still active, he dispersed it.

Excaelum spoke,"Thank you. Father."

He blacked out.

Chapter 10 - Aftermath

Luster took command of the group due to the black out inflicted to Excaelum.

"Stay sharp, they may attack again."

"I'm sorry for bringing this up but, were you two actually sisters?" Shortsnout asked.

"No, I just felt like she was. We knew each other ever since we were hatchlings."

Gulfstream announced,"They're retreating." he seemed confused,"Why?"

"Doesn't matter. We need to get Lord Excaelum somewhere safe, some stragglers may be still around."

"I'll scout the area and see if there are any." said Jakal.

He flew into the air and started his search.

Back at Canterlot there was an eruption of shouting.

"HE'S LOSING TOO MUCH BLOOD!!!" shouted Dust.

"Hold him still, I need to clamp his artery!" yelled Fyn Cour.

The explosion shot by the dragons has critically injured Fencer, he had almost half of his front left hoof blown off and part of his wing center was cut deep but, luckily the others had scrapes. Fencer was at the center of the explosion along with Shadow, Razor, and Cloudfire(positioned left to right). When the shot was spotted Olganna came in from the right to left and used her body as a shield but, the shot was faster and affected Fencer the most.

"He fainted!"

"Not good, he may slip into a coma! Damn!! Who else had any medical experience?!!"

Dawn spoke up,"What do you need?" her voice was slightly deeper and her mane was also, kind of darker. No one noticed, they were to in shock to.

"I'm sorry but, this is much too important Dawn." said Dust.

"I can handle it."

"Like we have a choice. Get over here!" ordered Fyn."I need you to hold his hoof in place so it won't fall off while I go in to clamp his artery. Ready?"

Dawn nodded.

They were working on Fencer for a couple of hours and he was stabilized but, he was in a coma. They did not know how long it would be until he awoke. Dust and Iril moved him to a infirmary inside where he would not be disturbed.

Olganna was injured as well but, her tough scales kept her from being majorly damaged. The others just woke up, the explosion knocked them all out due to the force and loud sounds. They were all pushed against either a wall or pillar.

"Is everyone alright?!!" Soul yelled.

They all replied with yeses and yeahs.

"How about the princesses?" Flood said.

They turned around and saw that Celestia and Luna were talking to another unicorn. She was old and frail looking. Her coat was a mix with gray and white, her mane and tail were messy and white. She wore a hat that was pointy, like a wizard's hat.

"I'd like you all to meet the unicorn that conjured up that shield and saved our lives, Gandore." said Celestia.

"I must get back to my studies now." she said.

"Really? She just left." exclaimed Aero.

"She's stubborn and too much of a bookworm but, hopefully she can help us another time." Luna replied.

"Where's Shadow? I must talk to him." Celestia scolded.

They looked around and saw he wasn't anywhere near them.

On the top of the mountain where they did the course, Shadow woke up. He walked around wondering how he got there then he saw someone he thought died many years ago. This pegasus had a white coat and a mane and tail that were golden.

"Master Garren?"

"Ah, your awake. How have you been?"

"Fine but, how are you still alive? We thought you were dead."

"You're not the only one that has visited Great Tear."

"Where have you been all this time?"

"I would like you to join me."

"Join you? For what?"

"Yes. On my journey back to Fallen Star. I have a few friends dying to meet you."

"Why there?"

"We have plans for this fair land for deserting our cry for help during the siege."

Shadow's tone toward his old teacher changed,"What plans?"

"To destroy it."

"How are you going to go about it?"

"You? You're not joining then."

"Why would I destroy my home?"

"Fallen Star is your home."

"Never. It will never become my home again."

"Don't worry me and my associates cleared the island of those griffons."

"How many associates do you have?"

"Including me, 3."

"Three? Fallen Star is a big island. How did you do it?"

"I understand we have been connected ever since the days we were born."

"How?"

"We both, Excaelum, and 3 others all have a gift. A rare type of magic."

"Lumen Fulsi."

"That is correct. Where have you gained your information?"

"None of your buisiness. Which one are you?"

"I am death. And you are?"

"Life. How do you expect us to fight together when we are opposites?"

"We control our destiny not these titles. We can rule the world together."

"I see. I don't want to rule the world. I don't want to go against my friends and family. I see how we can opposites."

"This is your last chance. Are you with me?"

Shadow hesitated to answer but, he did in a firm voice,"No."

"Wrong answer."

Garren had a hoof-sword equipped, he flung out the sword and stabbed Shadow in the right scapula(shoulder blade). He was too quick for Shadow to evade him.

"Ahh. You can't kill me." groaned Shadow.

"That doesn't mean you can't feel pain. Since you were my student I'll give you another chance. Will you join me?"

"Go to hell."

"I just got back."

He pulled the sword and stabbed Shadow in the neck. Garren pulled out his sword and secured it back into place.

"When we meet again I won't be so friendly."

Shadow passed out and didn't wake for a few hours. The sun was setting and mountain air was getting cold. He was to injured from Garren's attack to fly so, he walked down. Although his wound sealed itself he still left a small trail of blood. He continued to the frontier, the moon was already up. He saw Olganna and a golden dragon, Chronin. Excaelum was up and he was talking to them. Shadow saw the golden dragon nod and it moved to the center of the frontier. The buildings were going back to normal. Chronin was using her magic to turn the structures back to their original form before they were destroyed but, this power only worked for inanimate objects. The body of Harvest was brought to her feet. Excaelum levitated her body and took her over to the small lake. Luster cleared the water of the blood and she encased her body in ice, she then was placed gently by Chronin. Shadow walked closer and was noticed by Excaelum, he walked closer and spoke to him.

"Who is in the ice?" Shadow asked.

The gray dragon sighed,"My friend."

The ice and the body started to dissolve. Lord Chronin was speeding the process of the decomposing. The body was not falling apart, it simply turned to dust and drifted into the night sky joining the stars.

"I am sorry for your loss." Olganna said.

"Come here Excaelum I must know something."

Excaelum walked over to the great dragon, she placed the tip of her claw on his head. She saw what his father did when he took over his body.

"So, you wanted to kill the other lords but, your father told you to show mercy and he killed 2 of the lords and many others."

"I am sorry." Excaelum replied.

"No need to be. He made a wise choice giving Staok a lord's position but, we need to find out who Zartez's replacement is and I believe you have somewhere to be."

"Yes I do."

Excaelum flew and headed towards the moon. Excaelum forever changed after leaving.

Lord Chronin looked at Shadow.

"Who is this?"

"One of Excaelum's mark bearing friends. State your reason for being here." said Olganna.

"I mean you no harm, I just need to go back to the castle."

"We have to go back there anyway." Olganna said,"I'll take you."

She lowered her wing allowing Shadow to get on.

"Well, if you would rather walk be my guest."

"No it's just I haven't rode a dragon for awhile."

Shadow rode on her back and started seeing flashbacks.

He saw himself, Dawn, and Garren sobbing on the back of Dragaitas. They were crying because, Zaz had died.

"I'll make them pay for this. I will kill all of them." said Garren.

The memory ended and they arrived at Canterlot.

"Shadow, Celestia wants to talk to you." Iril said.

Olganna lowered her wing so he can get off.

"Where is she?"

"Inside I'll show you the way. My name is Iril by the way."

"Nice to meet you Iril."

They walked inside the castle and continued up the stairs and turned left into a hallway.

"The room she is in should be the last door straight ahead."

"Thank you."

Shadow opened the door and saw both the princesses with his daughter chatting.

"You made it we have something to talk about." said Tia.

"What is it?"

Dawn answered,"Lumen Fulsi. We have just discussed the basis for it."

Chapter 11 - Six Flowers

"Do you need me to get Gandore sister?"

"Yes Luna. She can make more sense of it than I can. Shadow are you aware of the magic you posses.?"

"I am. What of it?"

"What of it? Father I had a dream of Zaz and he said to "Give love to those who lost it." Right before I woke up. What does that mean?"

"You must be the love positive."

"Love?" said Tia.

"I talk to someone in my dreams as well, she said there are three positives and an opposing three negative. The positives are life, love, and mercy. Negatives are death, hate, and merciless. They are all part of a power chain called as you said earlier, Lumen Fulsi which means light beam."

"Which are you dad?"

"I am life. I heard the dragons outside and Excaelum may be the mercy."

"Who're the others?" asked Tia.

"I know who one of them is, he is death."

"Who is he?" Dawn asked.

"You remember him Dawn. He was the father of Zaz, my old teacher."

"Master Garren, why him?"

Luna and Gandore came inside.

Garren said,"All who posses these powers are connected in some way."

"How do you know that?Dawn asked the old mare.

"According to legend the magic was forged by 6. The magic was meant to bring balance to the world but, was split in half when they grew a different point of view."

"When was this magic made?" Shadow asked.

"400 years ago. It also says that all 6 powers must be awoken before the conflict can begin."

"Where's the piece of literature where you got this from?" questioned Dawn.

She pulled out a dusty old book titled Six Flowers. The binding was coming loose so, no one could touch it only use magic to read it. It was very thick and yellowed. The cover was faded and curled.

Tia questioned Gandore,"This is it?"

"Yes, I was reading this because sadly, I ran out of material to read. It's written in code princess. At first I didn't get it either but, I've spent 2 years decoding it and I still don't fully understand. The first and last three words of each chapter are they only words that matter and I have looked through the chapters to make sure I didn't miss anything, the rest is just about fillies that spent time together. That is why the book is so thick, to contain it's secrets."

"What do they say?"

"I haven't fully read the words because, I spent some much time trying to understand what the first few sentences meant but, I can show you what I have so far. The field was. Covered in grass. The six lived. On a five. Pointed piece of. Land that has. Fell from the. Dark cold skies. The six flowers. Grew apart now. They shared a. Sun and moon. They grew different. From each other. Three of the. Flowers died under. The moon and. The rest thrived. In the field. Of green grass. Red mist showered. The remaining three. Flowers lived on. Two visited a. Memories that calmed. The mind of. One before it. Died and all. Eventually dead, passed. On and the. Remaining lived to. See the future. Six were reborn. I need to read it over because, it seems this dusty old book is more important than I thought."

"That's it?" said Shadow,"Some of it doesn't make any sense."

Dawn spoke out,"I know what it is saying. The six who posses the powers will fight and four will die there. The other two will eventually die, then the six will be reborn. The location of the fight will be Fallen Star."

"Fallen Star?" Tia was surprised."How can you know this if Gandore couldn't figure it out?"

"Well, we are the powers so I think we have a connection the story. Five pointed piece of land that fell from the dark cold skies. Most shapes of stars have five points and it fell from the skies. Fallen Star. I do not want to go back there."

"Looks like we'll have to go there again." said Luna.

"I can't let you go sister."

"I'm not going to let them go and have the legend become a reality."

"Father who was the one who spoke to you? In your dreams."

"Your mother. You, Tia, and Luna haven't met her because, she died before Fallen Star became an island of death. That island used to be filled with life but, now it's probably nothing but a wasteland."

"So I'm assuming three have already awoken. Dawn, you, and Excaelum. What about the other three?" said Luna.

"Let's not worry about that now. Let's just mind our own business until they do but, Shadow we must take extra precaution for now. Since we just got this done we will wait for a month before taking another action." Tia scolded.

"Thank you, we do need to re-cooperate and Fencer is in a coma right now. What do you need?"

"We need help transporting cargo to different locations: Saddle Arabia and Los Pegasus."

"I recall no train tracks going to Saddle Arabia."

"You'll have to go there by hoof. There will be two groups both of them will be headed towards Los Pegasus, one will stay there and wait for the delivery to Saddle Arabia to be done. I want one group to stay so the cargo that has already been delivered will be protected."

"What's the cargo?"

"Metal. Just plain metal."

Shadow thought in his head,"That explains the swords Garren stabbed me with but, how did he get them? Did he raid Wrench and Wither after we left? He couldn't have."

"Shadow, can you do this?"

"Of course, I'll notify the others when I can."

One month has passed and both the cargo was safely on board the train. Fencer had awoken from his coma a week before this mission was scheduled and he joined the mission. Seng, Shadow, Lancer, Aero, Tint, Bladedancer, Flood, and Knight Black Soul were to be stationed at Los Pegasus. The Saddle Arabia team was led by Knight Storm and he had the other recruits and his team from Ice Valley with him. Both teams were give armor and hoof-swords. The armor for pegasus was little. It only had the helmet and for the center of the body, they weren't given full sets of armor because, they had to more agile and quicker than their enemy. The pegasus were all standing on top of the train, Seng and Soul were talking.

"Perhaps after this you all can be knights." said Soul.

"After all we went through so far, I hope so." Seng replied.

"I have been planning on this for awhile and with all of you I may have enough pegasus to make my own group."

"Of what?"

"The Royal Airborne Knights(R.A.K.). I have just been approved by Princess Celestia to form it whenever I wish."

"That's cool maybe you can put me as one of the leaders. We should rest, it's going to be awhile before we get there."

"I'll consider it. Everypony inside! Get some shuteye." Soul ordered.

Shadow was speaking to himself,"Garren, you will not bring death to this land."

They were all tired from standing of the train that was forcing wind in their faces so, they happily obeyed her. The train was silent even in the day. In a day or two they would arrive in Los Pegasus.

Author's Notes:

http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/1/12/Map_of_Equestria_online_version_2012-08.jpg I couldn't find Saddle Arabia on the map but, this is the map I used to base my fanfic in. I would assume Saddle Arabia would be in the desert area by San Palomino Desert. I made up the location for it as well.

Chapter 12 - Original

Excaelum hasn't been seen for a while since the attack on the frontier. He was sitting still on the moon, just sitting in one spot. He was meditating.

"Father, I've been doing this for awhile now. When are you going to teach me how to use my power?"

Since he was on the moon, Excaelum didn't need to wait for a full moon to see the one he had a strong memory of, Shadow and Dawn have to wait for a full moon to speak to theirs.

"In time. This power if used incorrectly, can end the lives of the ones you love."

"I'm I the only one with this power?"

"No. Shadow and Dawn have this power. And another three do also. Shadow and Dawn are allies, the others intend harm to you and them."

"Who are the others?"

"You know one very well, Garren. He and the others haven't awaken their powers."

"When will they wake?"

"Positives mostly activate when in a time of need but Dawn, her power activated without needing it. That remains a mystery of why it happened. Negatives activate when the user wants to do harm to another being. You are all connected."

Excaelum sat their awhile longer, quiet. He wanted to ask a few questions not about the power but, the first organization of dragons.

"You never told me about your generation. We have time we should talk."

"I was one of the original dragons so is Chronin. We excelled our power, size, wisdom, etc. Our members were far more powerful than yours."

"How so?"

"Pyrodia's flame, are you familiar with it?"

"Yes."

"His flame was cold compared to my own and Flamekken(fla-mech-kin). Flamekken was magnificent, her flames were burning of vivid red, yellow, and orange. Her scales too were also bright as her flames and the slight blue in her eyes were contradicting the rest of her body. She was about the same size as me, well we all were similar sizes except for Chronin, who we called the runt of our group. Flamekken was a happy one, usually she was the one who kept on making nicknames for us. Flamekken died a peaceful death, she passed in her sleep. We were all saddened but, an egg was by her corpse the one inside was as you know today, Pyrodia. The original rock dragon named him."

"Who was that?"

"Yaforn(ya-forn). She named him Pyrodia because, of his dark scales and his aggressiveness, I had to teach him the basics of fire none of the other originals could use fire. Yaforn was odd, she would disappear for the longest time coming back even more negative. Her scales were rough, they were brown and tan striped. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of yellow that looked like they were the sun. The stripes were distorted and uneven but, that made her significant from the rest of the rock dragons. Her death was wrong, she was killed in her sleep by her own offspring, Mesadraco. That's why I was not happy when he killed your solitary. It reminded me of his evil laugh when we found him standing over the body of Yaforn. We had to keep him alive before we found a replacement, Staok seemed to be more of an appropriate choice than his lord, that's why I gave him Mesa's place. Funny how Pyro, Aqua, Mesa, and Zartez all grew up together and they ended up in the same hole as each other."

"Why did you kill Zartez?"

"I didn't, you did. It seemed like you didn't like seeing a comrade leaving his allies."

"Did you hate that?"

"Of course I did, that's why I let you kill him. His father also hated that, Okin. He was strict when it came to Zartez but, when he was with us, the originals, he was optimistic and telling stories. He once told us a story of how he kept on electrocuting Zar in his sleep to teach him a lesson when he was behaving in a intolerable matter. His scales were dark violet and his eyes were blue. He was always blending in with the sky as we were cruising them during the night."

"Sounds like you had quite a time during your rule."

"Even as dragons we needed to have some form of entertainment because we didn't worry about other affairs, we just minded our own business. That has changed since your group came into power."

"We are no longer united now."

Pyrodia and Aquabellina were talking to another mysterious dragon.

"He killed two of your lords?"

"Yes, we did not intend for that to happen. At first we were working with you to bring the star dragons back but-" the mysterious dragon stopped Pyro.

The mysterious dragon was laughing maniacally,"HAHA!! You two are fools, the stars can never be brought back. HAHAHA!!"

"Why have you lied to us?" Aqua was angry.

"To get mercy awaken. What're you two going to do about it? It's not like you can defeat me."

"We'll see about that." Pyro shot a ball of flame at him, the fire did not effect his target. Pyro was scared.

"That was very foolish of you." the dragon had a evil look in his face.

The dragon charged towards Pyro, tackled him on the ground, and blew a dark blue flame in his face until the roar of the fire dragon stopped. Pyro's body was set on fire by the dragon, his body was burning fast and the heat from the flame made Aquabellina step back.

"What have you done?!" Aqua was shaking.

"I simply punished a traitor, will you be joining him?"

Aqua summoned the moisture from the air and went into a fighting stance.

"I take that as a yes."

The dragon charged towards Aqua, she avoided the enemy and landed a clean mark of her claws on his neck.

"That's all you got?" the dragon chuckled.

He forced Aquabellina on the ground without moving.

"Your family will not be pleased with your betrayal Orcusin(or-kiss-in)."

"I don't plan on pleasing."

Aqua wasn't able to move, she was overpowered. The dragon went over to her, used it's claws to grasp her head, it started turning her head. It kept turning Aqua's head until there was a sound that told the killer that the neck has broken.

"One member doesn't make a family." it said.

Dragaitas or rather his spirit has just finished reminiscing of his friends in the first group of forces. Excaelum continued to sit there. A day or two passed by.

"This meditation is to calm your mind, clear it of all disturbances, and to test your patience. You have proven yourself ready for the next phase of your training."

"Have you had this power before?"

"No."

"How do you know about the training then?"

"The original creators of this magic cast a spell having a close one to the users heart teach them. I was given the gift to watch you grow until it was time. The knowledge of each power is passed to only the one chosen to teach the current user."

"What happens after you're done with this task?"

"I will be able to rest."

Excaelum slowly raised himself and looked down at the planet below. It was covered in blue, the water, and white streaks, the clouds. Suddenly he saw a beam of black shoot into the atmosphere.

Chapter 13 - I Hate Your Sanity

"What's that?" Excaelum asked himself.

6 hours earlier, the train has just stopped at Los Pegasus and the first of the cargo has been delivered. Knight Storm and his team are on their way to Saddle Arabia. Since they had to watch for enemies, there were earth ponies pulling the cargo while Knight Storm watched the horizon.

"It's hot now. Whew, the sun just came up to." Hail whined.

"Dry Ocean was a lot than this." Echo replied.

"I can't believe how much I hated that place. Ugghhhhh. Just thinking about that place makes me sweat." Voyager added."What was it like 121 degrees Fahrenheit there."

"Add a couple more numbers and you might be closer. I just chugged those canteens that were given to us during the first few hours." said Echo.

Hail chuckled,"That backfired on you when you had no water left. I had to share some of my water with you."

"I was greedy with mine." laughed Cloudfire.

"I wasn't so generous either." Voyager said.

While Voyager, Hail, Echo, and Cloudfire were talking about their memories of Dry Ocean, Razor and Canon were going ahead of the convoy to see what's ahead. After a few minutes they came back.

Razor reported,"There is an abandoned warehouse up ahead Knight Storm, should we rest there for awhile before we continue?"

"It'll give some time for the earth ponies to rest from all that hauling they've been doing." added Canon.

Storm answered,"Why not. We can avoid that sandstorm coming."

Canon was shocked,"What sandstorm?"

"That one."

Storm directed his wings in the direction of the storm, it was behind them. It was moving slow but, soon enough it would impact them. When they reached the warehouse the sandstorm hit against the boarded windows, broken walls, and windows. The warehouse wasn't much, it was large and dusty. There were opened boxes that were filled by sand.

"It appears that nopony has been here in a long time." exclaimed Fencer.

"What do you think this place was used for?" asked Hail.

"Probably a post office or something like that." Voyager said.

"Not so much post office, I mean look at the size of this place. It's pretty big for a post office in the middle of this desert-like terrain." Echo argued.

After an hour the storm still hadn't died out so, Fencer and Storm went to look around just for the fun of it. They were searching the back to see if there anything of value. The warehouse was bigger than they thought, they went further in the mysterious warehouse. They walked between two tall polls and a smell overwhelmed their noses.

"What the heck is that stench?" said Fencer."Did something die in here."

They found something that startled them.

"GET OVER HERE!" shouted Fencer.

All the pegasi flew over to the calls.

"What is it?" Cloudfire asked.

"This is no post office, look." Storm turned his head down to what looked like a cargo bay.

They looked down and saw bodies, hundreds of them stacked upon each other. Most of them had what looked like stab wounds, some of the bodies had limbs missing. There was something that disgusted them all, not the stench but, the tools that were hanging on the walls. They were covered in blood, they were not cleaned. Hooks, chains, saws, nails, etc. That wasn't all.

"These kills were very recent, someone has been here within the past few days." Storm scolded.

"Is that what the residents at Los Pegasus were talking about? I remember they said that a whole town went missing about a month ago. Could these bodies be the citizens of that town?" Razor said while shaking.

"But the kills are still fresh and if it was a month ago then that means the......." Canon was speechless for a few seconds, his eyes widened,"....the killer tortured them before-"

Storm stopped him,"We need to get out of here."

Hail said,"The storm is still-"

"Would you rather stay here and meet whoever did this? That's what I thought, come on."

They went back to the main storage room only to see the earth ponies dead on the ground. One of the workers was still moving. Voyager flew over to the injured one.

"Who did this to you?" he asked worriedly.

"B......hind.."

"Tell me."

"Behind..............you." the worker stopped moving.

"Behind me?"

Voyager slowly turned around, the others looked towards the same direction.

Voyager looked at the others and said,"I don't see anything."

Suddenly there was loud pop from the direction he turned his back to, Voyager turned back to see what it was.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE!!" yelled Storm.

A spear was shot from a giant bow concealed in the boxes and cranes. The spear pierced Voyager's neck and stuck him to a wall. His head was hanging by only a thin piece of skin. The blood was pouring out from his head.

"HOLY SH- VOYAGER GET AWAY FROM THERE!!" screamed Razor.

In all the panic something stopped them, a cry. It was coming from the entrance they came through. A pony wandered inside sobbing, it was wearing a black hooded coat.

"Grab the pony and let's go!" Storm ordered.

Fencer flew to grab the crying pony, it wouldn't move. The crying stopped and turned to a laugh. The doors were slammed shut, the walls and windows were being closed by magic. The pony looked up at Fencer and said,"Where are you going?"

Fencer fell over with a dagger jabbed in his side. The hooded pony looked up with a sinister looking smile. The hood was taken off and they all saw it was a unicorn, it performed a spell knocking out the ones closer to it first, Storm was near the back, he heard the voice of the murderer. And he had a glimpse of what it looked like as it walked closer.

"More things to play with." it laughed hysterically. Storm passed out.

Echo and Cloudfire woke up, they saw that they were still in the main storage area only chained up to the wall along with Storm, Razor, and Hail.

Echo was out of energy but managed to ask,"Where is Canon?"

"I don't know. Where did that bastard go? She's going to pay for what she did"

"We can't get him if we're chained up like this."

The looked down and saw their weapons were taken form, the chains that kept them from escaping were not rusted but, new and strong. Razor tried breaking it, he didn't leave a scratch.

"My, my. You aren't trying to leave are you? We just got started." the unicorn returned with blood on her face and carrying a bag. She threw the bag and a pair of wings fell out.

"What have you done?" asked Cloudfire.

"I killed one of your friends, isn't that obvious. I feel bad for the other two I killed," she looked up, she was looking at the bodies of Voyager and Fencer hanging above them."I never liked killing ponies instantly, it was never any fun so I thought if I was going to kill anyone instantly, I might as well be creative. That bow I used to kill the first one, I made that. First I ha-"

Cloudfire was angry,"Shut your mouth."

"That's not a way to treat the one who has your life in their hooves. I'm going to have to punish you."

The unicorn walked over, looked at Cloudfire, and levitated a brick and hit Razor in the head.

"This is what happens when you disrespect me."

She kept on hitting Razor in the head with the brick again, and again Cloudfire heard the impact it made on Razor's head. Razor didn't make a sound, he was dead. The unicorn dropped the brick and left snickering. Cloudfire was speechless.

After a few minutes, the rest woke up.

"What's going o-" Hail saw the body of Razor and started screaming.

"Canon, Razor." Storm was sad, the last of his personal team was killed. A tear fell from his eye.

Echo felt a drop on his head, he looked up and the saw the bodies. Voyager's head fell and landed right in front of him."AHHHHH!!"

Cloudfire was silent, he didn't know what to do.

"I see you are all awake. You know it's rude to fall asleep when you're visiting someone, it says that they're boring and nothing they do interest you." the unicorn returned and Echo's screaming stopped.

Her coat was clear of blood and the jacket she wore was hung by a hook. Her coat was a dark yellow, her mane and tail were dark violet. Her eyes were light green. Her eyes, her eyes were bloodshot and they looked menacing.

"Speaking of rude, I have not introduced myself yet. My name is Lacoden(la-co-den). And yours?"

She was looking at Echo. He answered,"You are going to die."

"You are ungrateful, I show you the finest hospitality and this is how you repay me. With words of hate. You must be insane if you have the guts to say that. That's good though because....."

She levitated a broken pipe from the ground, both sides were jagged. She took it and stabbed Echo in the stomach.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

"I hate your sanity. Don't worry we're not done having fun. If I pull it out now you'll bleed to death, let's go to the back where we can have some privacy."

Storm was trying to stall Lacoden,"How did you kill the workers without us hearing their screams?"

Lacoden was surprised at what he asked, she figured it was odd for him to ask that in a situation like this, "Those two polls there, I put on spell on them so that when you pass in between them you can't hear what's happening from the side you entered, I cast another little spell that blocks the fragrance of the bodies also. I'll take the spell down so you can hear us have fun."

Lacoden dragged Echo to the back. Storm heard something coming from the entrance, it wasn't the sandstorm it stopped. He focused his teared up eyes and saw Knight Black Soul. She quietly came over, she walked to Cloudfire and wondered why he was silent, she walked to Storm.

"We're going to get you out of here."

"What about Echo?"

"I hate to say this but, we have to leave him. I'm going to use his screams as a cover to break these chains."

Soul had her sword ready.

"You can't just leave him." Hail whispered.

She heard a scream and hit Hail's chains to set him free.

"Shadow and the others are outside go."

"I'm sorry Echo." Hail said, he went outside.

Soul waited for another scream and broke Storm's chain. Lacoden heard a faint echo coming from the storage bay. She got suspicious, she looked over at Echo, she got closer to him, she stabbed him with the same dagger she used to kill Fencer, and right before he screamed she covered his mouth. Lacoden heard a clear sound of metal hitting each other.

"I told you, you are going to die."

"Still so rude." She jabbed the dagger into his skull."Have you learned your lesson?" she stared at the body,"Good, you have. Now I have to greet your friend." She walked to the front humming a cheery tune.

"Cloudfire we need to leave. Can you hear me?"

Cloudfire didn't respond.

"I'll have to drag you out then."

"I couldn't save him."

"Look at me it wasn't your fault. Now we have to leave before she comes back, are you with me?"

Cloudfire looked up at his commanding officer, he stuttered,"Y-yeah. We can kill her later."

Soul had a small grin,"That's the spirit. Get up."

"Well that's touching. I killed five of your friends and yet you still have the motivation to live. If I kill her," Lacoden looked at Soul from one of the polls,"maybe you will be more damaged." She launched a spear at her with her magic. It was too fast for Soul to react. There was a loud sound that stopped the heart of Cloudifre. Soul was still standing without a scratch on her. Soul looked back.

"Sorry I was late."

"Seng what're you doing here?"

Seng's sword broke and the sword fell on the ground with a clang. He stopped the spear but, he had no defense now. His hoof was shaking.

"That hurt more than I thought it would." Seng chuckled."Shadow is preoccupied outside, you should go check on him before he gets himself killed."

"Thank you." Cloudfire said.

"Don't thank me yet, we're not out of here yet."

Seng looked at the two,"What? I never said I was going to stay here, look at her she's crazy!"

They flew out, Lacoden didn't stop them.

Outside Shadow, Lancer, and Aero were outside. They were just finished killing a few Changelings.

"I'd never thought I would ever fight a Changeling before." Lancer panted.

The bodies of the Changelings were laying on the ground as there normal form.

"We need to get back to Canterlot." said Shadow.

"Not so fast." Lacoden was at the entrance."I have to say hello to my friend. Shadow I missed you"

"How are you alive?"

"Great Tear had my life spared and I became immortal."

"You are merciless I suppose."

"No I'm hate. Now it's time for me to awaken."

Her horn, eyes, mane, and tail were giving off a black light. A beam of black shot out of her horn, this continued for 3 seconds.

Excaelum was on the moon,"What's that?" he asked himself.

Back on the ground, Lacoden fainted.

"This is our chance to kill her." said Hail.

"She's immortal, you can't. And if we take her with us she'll only break out and kill more of us."

When they returned to Los Pegasus they saw that the cargo had been stolen.

"All this for nothing." Aero sighed.

Lacoden woke up, she was sunburned.

"I can't wait to kill her. The bitch that left me to die."

Lacoden was laughing her lungs out.

Author's Notes:

http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/DAWN-1-of-3-Main-Enemies-concept-art-402924537 Lacoden in a hood, I'll make more detailed drawings of the other characters and her if I have the time and the patience to make something good. It says i didn't come up with a name yet because this was drawn before I finished this chapter.

Chapter 14 - Two Sides of the Coin

A funeral was held a few weeks after Lacoden has awaken her hate, there were two seperate funerals. One for the workers and one for Knight Storm's team, Echo, and Voyager. Celestia and Luna attended the workers funeral to apologize for what had happened. Knight Soul and Storm and the others were silent during the ceremony. Five caskets were lowered 6 feet into the ground, all in a row. They were empty caskets, they didn't want to get the bodies back, they were too frightened by Lacoden's power to. Dirt covered the caskets as soon as they touched the ground, no tears were shed. They were all too sad and too angry to cry. They went to the frontier, to Shadow's place.

Soul told them all,"If you want to avenge our friends you cant stay, if not you have my permission to leave. Anyone leaving?"

Shadow replied,"I think we all have a score to settle with her."

Lancer added,"We are prepared for whatever happens next."

"Good, I will be making my own group of elite flyers, Royal Airborne Knights(R.A.K.). There will be four divisions: Scouting/intelligence, attack, defense, and support. You will be able to choose your division, you will be training for a long time, about three months at the most. Since this is the very first time this has been formed we do not know our full potential."

"When do we start?" Hail was eager.

Storm said,"After we go back to the clouds, we got a gift for you all."

They flew back to the clouds and were led to the barracks. They all saw solid bronze armor.

"I know it's kind of late but, you are now officially in our military. Do you accept our gifts to you?"

Aero walked over to the armor and placed his hoof on it,"I'm in."

None of the pegasi left, they were loyal to Equestria.

"A start for a new beginning." said Soul.

Garren and Lacoden were having a conversation at the warehouse that was used to torture innocent beings.

"When do I get to kill her?" Lacoden asked.

"In time. Merciless and death haven't been awoken yet. Our powers take more time to mature, not like the others."

"It was fascinating how you got the yeti to attack Shadow and to activate his power."

"Yetis aren't intelligent it wasn't that hard."

"And how Orcusin(or-kiss-in) convinced those reptiles to attack their own for no reason, genius."

"You are the only one of us that has their power activated but, like the positives it can't reach it's full strength without all three activated. The positives have already got their power activated, they know only need to learn their light command. Once we've all learned ours the war can begin."

"How should we awaken death and merciless?"

"A simultaneous attack on both the Crystal Empire and Canterlot. I will be visiting Shadow and Dawn while, Orcusin will be having a family reunion."

"What about the after effect?"

"Me, Shadow knows I can break out of their bars so, I won't have anything to worry about because, they would just leave me be. Orcusin, I don't know."

"I can work on my teleportation spells to get him out."

"You're thinking smart now, nice job."

"I learned a lot after the siege."

"I hope you liked killing those griffons as much as I did."

"Oh, I did."

They both walked to the back of the warehouse wear the bodies were kept. Lacoden moved the bodies to the side, there was a door under all the limbs and blood. She cast a spell that opened it, the door led to a underground foundry, they followed the great staircase going down. It was large, they didn't need a ventilation system for Lacoden used her magic to filter out the air. There were hoof- swords, blades, and armor in a distribution part of the foundry. This foundry was ran by Changelings, they were obedient to Garren. They obeyed his every word in return for food and Equestria as their new territory. There were hundreds of Changelings, they worked day and night. The only time they were allowed to rest was when they were fed.

"The metal we stole from them will come to be useful in the future." Lacoden said.

"The foundry in the Everfree Forest is nothing compared to this."

"I can't believe you gave them your blueprints for your weapons. Why did you do it?"

"I want to have some fun killing others with weapons than rather killing defenseless ponies. That would just be boring don't you agree."

She chuckled,"I hope they know how to use them. That way we can make a sport out of it. Hehehe."

"Once we activate the Magnas Lumen on Fallen Star the world will be pure."

"Too bad, we all have to be there for it to start."

"Our troubles will be paid off. We watched our friends and family die because, the princesses didn't even help us. They will regret the day they were born."

"We wouldn't have to do this if they only would've helped us!" Lacoden kicked a pipe down into the foundry out of anger.

"Calm down, once they have fallen we can lead a world for the greater good."

"How can we get the amount of ponies we need to get to Fallen Star?"

"They will come of their own free will. After the world has been purified they can bow to us. How does that sound?"

"If Dawn suffers, I'm all in. She deserves pain for abandoning me."

Garren was silent then said,"I will be attacking Canterlot alone, I feel the need to encourage the citizens of the frontier and Canterlot personally."

"Are you sure? I will be at your side if you wish."

"Yes, if we both went we would destroy everything."

"You're kind of old. Are you sure you can?"

"I'm not that old but, until our spy informs us that they are complete with their R.A.K. training we will wait to attack."

"How can you trust our spy? Maybe they will reveal them-self."

"Our spy won't, don't forget we have leverage. A single life in your control can give you command to another."

Author's Notes:

I changed the pronunciation of Orcusin to or-kiss-in because or-kuss-in just sounded weird after i typed it and i said it. I wanted it to be or-kiss-in in the first place anyway.

Chapter 15 - R.A.K. Briefing

"Which division will you be joining?" Seng asked Shadow, Lancer, and Aero.

Aero answered,"Defense but, I want to know more about the divisions before I decide though."

"Well, I think they will brief us on the division before. I'm thinking scouting." Lancer added.

"Hey, me too." Seng sounded happy,"Shadow, how about you?"

"Attack, simple as that."

Cloudfire and Hail were having the same conversation with Tint, Bladedancer, and Flood.

"Me and Hail are going to be in support. We can't go through what happened again. It just..." Cloudfire paused.

Hail said,"It's okay you don't have say anymore. They understand our situation, Cloudfire I know we went through a hard time but, I may join the scouting division. I want to help bring them down."

Tint added,"I will join the support, I'm more of a stay back and watch the fireworks pony, I'm not the one that sets them off."

"I will join the defense, it just seems like my area." Flood said,"How about you Bladedancer?"

"Maybe attack, maybe."

Knight Black Soul, Storm, Fyn Cour, and Dust walked in.

"Alright settle down, we have some explaining to do. Before you decide your division, we will explain the job of each also, Fyn Cour and Dust will be having their own little division in it also, this was a last minute change up. They will have the medical division which will be connected to all the other divisions." Soul scolded.

Storm took over,"I will introduce the leaders of each division. Mist, leader of the scouting/intelligence division. Barrier, leader of the defense division. Tal, leader of the support division."

They walked in as Knight Storm announced their names. Mist was an earth colt, she had a light brown coat with a black mane and tail, they were both long and well taken care of. She was small in size, that's probably why she was hard to spot during scouting missions. Randall is a female unicorn, her coat is orange and her mane and tail were green. The colors in general looked fine together but, on her it looked good. Her mane was tied in a bun while her tail was short. Tal is a male earth pony. He was gray coated and his mane/tail were red. although he was intimidating he seemed very nice, by the way he walked, he walked casually not like he was some serious pony but, like he was walking in a park.

Bladedancer asked,"Who is the leader of the attack division?"

Soul answered,"We haven't decided yet but, we do have someone in mind." She was looking at Shadow tentatively.

Mist started talking, her voice was sweet and soothing but not so much as her words,"Which one of you pansies will be coming with me?"

Seng, Lancer, and Hail hesitated to step forward but eventually did.

"Alright, you all look like a confident bunch. Your mission is to go behind enemy lines and to gather information that can help us in anyway. None of you will be flying for that will give away your position so, instead for now on you will be running and sprinting to get your legs in shape. Your flexibility will be tested as well, it will come to be useful. Your creativity will be what's tested the most, you will be tested on how creative you can make your movements seem normal in the natural environment to get in further in the enemy territory. I will get more into detail when we start, Any questions?'

Seng had a smile and asked,"How deep do we have to get in the enemy?"

Lancer and Hail snorted trying not to laugh.

Mist answered,"So deep that-" she realized that Seng didn't say territory."Oh, we have a funny one here." her tone changed,"GET OUTSIDE AND RUN 80 LAPS AROUND THE FRONTIER!!"

"Are you kiddi-"

"NOOWW!"

Lancer and Hail laughed a little.

"You two can join him, GO!"

She chased them outside.

Randall was chuckling,"She hasn't changed a bit." Randall's voice was also sweet and soothing s were her words. "I apologize my sister can't take a few jokes. Who will be with me?"

Aero and Flood weren't scared to step up. Shadow knew she was too perfect, she had to have something wrong with her.

"Hey there, you guys are some good looking colts. Maybe we can all get together sometime and-"

"Randall. Are you serious? Haven't you...... nevermind."

"Storm don't say anything that's not nice. Speaking of which Flood you got some strong legs, maybe you can help me-"

"Randall. Can you not do this like you did when we became knights as a matter of fact before we became knights." Soul said.

"Calm down I was going to ask him to move some of my things." She looked at Flood with a smile, he was blushing.

"Let's go get started." Randall walked outside, Aero and Flood followed her like bees follow honey.

Tal was also laughing,"Brings back some memories don't it Storm?"

"Yeah. I almost fell for her one time too."

"We all did." Tal chuckled.

"You two are pigs." Soul said, she walked upstairs.

"Unlike our colleague, I will explain our task." As friendly as he looked, he was.

Cloudfire and Tint walked up.

"We will offer aid to any division that asks so, we will have to learn a bit about every division including medical well, all the divisions will be learning medical together. Isn't that right Fyn Cour?"

"Yes it is."

"Okay, follow me outside. I will give you more details."

Shadow and Bladedancer were the only ones left.

Fyn Cour said,"So I'm guessing you two want the attack division."

"Yes we do." replied Shadow.

Storm said,"Shadow we saw how you handled yourself at Ice Valley. You were impressive with your attacks and that thing that you did with the lights, that was quite a show."

"I'm not sure what to say."

"You will to this. How will you like to be the leader of the attack division?"

"Excuse me?"

"You are well trained, Soul and I don't know who or where you learned how to take down yetis by yourself but, we would also like to be your students."

"What?"

Soul came back downstairs,"Come on, yes or no."

Shadow looked at Bladedancer and back at Soul

Soul added,"You will be also given the rank of solid gold, same as me."

Shadow could hear the shouts of Mist coming from outside, he was distracted. He wanted to say no but, that would be disrespectful and deep inside his heart he wanted to say yes. He heard Starflare.

She said,"Follow your heart, your heart is always in the right place."

Shadow was having a flashback. He was sitting at with Star under a tree and there were three cups, all upside down. Dawn was sleeping on Starflare's lap. The breeze was nice and the skies were clear.

"What is that supposed to mean Star?"

"It's obvious, come on you can solve it."

"'My heart is always in the right place'."

"It is, always in the right place. Now what do you choose?"

"Hmmmm....the second cup."

He saw the memory of her lifting the cup he chose, the rock he was trying to find was under it.

Star was smiling, Shadow missed her but, this time he didn't shed a tear for the past. The memory went away and he heard Soul asked,"Well?"

Shadow looked over to Bladedancer to see if he had anything to say.

Bladedancer said with a big smile,"On your go, Knight Shadow."

Chapter 16 - R.A.K. Training Days

Knight Mist has just finished working Seng, Lancer, and Hail to the bone but, they're not done yet. Mist will give them all she has to offer in training. The night after the 80 laps of running, the three were all sore, Mist didn't care.

"DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO REST?!! GET UP!!"

The three got up, Seng was to tired to make anymore smart remarks.

"You're going to be standing here until the sun rises."

"Yes, sir!"

"I'm going to be a bit nice. Since you are all pegasi I'm going to make you with you didn't have wings. Each of you will be carrying one of these buckets using your wings until I say you are done."

There were 6 silver buckets in the corner, they were all already filled.

"Any questions? Good."

They hustled over to the buckets and held them up, they weren't sore. Yet. She worked mostly their legs but, their wings were about to go next. The same night Knight Randall was busy with Aero and Flood. She wasn't sure what to do with them since they were pegasi and not unicorns, she found something though. She, Aero, and Flood visited Wrench and Wither in the Everfree.

"Randall, good to see you."

"You too Wither. Say do you still have the shields?"

"Yeah, they're in the storage closet. Please try to not make a ruckus, Wrench is asleep right now."

"Okay. Go get them you two."

She watched them get the shields, she had drool coming from the side of her mouth.

"Randall." Wither saw what was going on in her mind and she wanted to distract her,"So what have you been doing lately?"

Randall was still distracted,"Uhh...ummmm...." she snapped out of it,"Oh nothing. You?"

Aero and Flood brought out the shields. They weren't plated or anything special. They were made out of metal. Their design was like a sock only made out of metal. They would use them as brass hooves as well as shields. They were very sturdy and well maintained. They each got a pair

"Let's go, bye Wither. See you later."

"Bye, Randall and don't be such a creep."

Randall and her students went to an open field. The moon was overhead and the breeze was cool. Crickets chirped and the owls who'd. There was a box where Randall went to.

"Put those shields on. I will strike you as hard as I can, your goal is to block my attacks and to withstand the force, not to be pushed back."

"What will you be using?" asked Aero.

"This." she hoisted a hoof-sword from the box and readied it."This may hurt a bit, Flood you're first."

He wasn't prepared for what was going to happen. Randall is fast, she disappeared without teleporting. It was just sheer speed. She was strong as well, she struck Flood but, he was lucky enough to get the shield up . His hoof was shaking and he was pushed back a few inches.

"I might have gone too easy on you, you're still standing. You know, I didn't become a knight just by luck, I earned it."

"You're up." Flood walked to Aero before sitting himself on the ground.

"You're not resting, come on get up. Just wait until it's you're turn again."

"I'm ready." said Aero.

Again she struck the shield, his hoof was shaking as much but it still was.

"We will continue this until the morning. Flood, your turn."

Tal took Cloudfire and Tint to the water reserves. The frontier wasn't active because, it was night. There were still a few residents just trotting around but, they didn't notice them.

"What're we doing here?" Cloudfire asked.

"I want to see how long you can hold your cool. We will stand in the cold water until the sun rises, if you get sick I won't care. Now let's get in."

Cloudfire went over t the water and touched it."Nope to cold." he backed away.

"Don't make me get you in here."

"It's way too cold so, I'm staying right here." he stayed about a foot from the water.

"No you're not." said Tal.

Tint pushed Cloudfire in and started laughing.

"HAHAHA!!" he laughed.

"Why'd you do that for?" Cloudfire replied angrily.

"Got bored."

Tint got in the water by will. They both were shivering.

"Only a few hours left boys, get comfortable."

"What is this suppose to do?" asked Tint.

"I want to see if you can get comfortable in the worst conditions."

Shadow took the offer, he only had one condition. That he started at the bottom, he wanted to earn his rank. Soul and Storm agreed and Bladedancer was happy that somepony other than Soul was giving him orders. They got hoof-swords and were getting ready. They were just outside Shadow's house.

"We will each spar each other, Soul who would you like to go against?" asked Shadow.

"You."

"Bladedancer that leaves you with Knight Storm."

"I never beat him in a sparring match." whined Blade.

Storm replied,"Keep at it and someday you might."

"Obviously no lethal hits, we only want to hit metal not flesh. Show your opponent where you got them. This is just a warm-up so, after I will show you how to properly use the weapons."

They split and Soul was eager to see how well Shadow fought. They were across from each other and Shadow charged towards Soul right as they were positioned.

"Don't give your enemy time to prepare themselves as soon as your ready, strike."

She evaded his attack and countered, she attacked back. Shadow blocked.

"Good hit, hit harder next time." He pushed her off, she was off balance and he tackled her, he landed on her with his sword at her neck."You're dead."

"So are you." Shadow looked down and saw her sword was at his stomach.

He let her up.

"Who taught you how to fight?" she asked.

"An old friend but, he is dead now."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, his lessons are still in my head. Again?"

"Of course, I want to get you without you getting me."

Bladedancer and Storm were having a fun time.

"I can never get you."

"Come on Bladedancer. You are one of Soul's squad members, you can get me."

"I'll try."

He flew towards Storm,he was sluggish.

"Faster, come on." Storm knocked him down.

The four divisions were busy training while Fyn Cour was inside with Dust and Dawn.

"What are they doing out there?" Dawn said.

"They're training maybe they could be a bit quieter." replied Dust.

All they heard were the clashes of steel outside and the sound of the crackling fireplace.

Fyn said,"So do you not go to school anymore?"

"Once in awhile I do but, I really don't have a need to. Usually I just stay home and read books, practice magic, that kind of stuff."

"Can you show us a spell?" asked Dust.

"Anything in particular?"

"No, just show us what you can do."

"Okay let's see....."

She went over to the kitchen and got a glass of water, she set it beside her. She made the glass disappear but, not the water. The water was still in a shape as if the cup was still there.

"Where did the cup go?" asked Fyn.

"Behind you."

"Wow. Impressive."

"That's nothing. I just noticed it's a full moon tonight."

She put the cup back in it's place, holding the water.

"It's getting late, I should head to bed. Goodnight."

Dawn went up to her room, she still had Celestia's bed. It was comfortable for her. She fell asleep rather quickly. She was in a dream, she was walking around and she saw her old friend, Zaz.

"Thank you for helping me save Fencer."

Zaz was about her age when he died. He was a white-coated unicorn. His mane/tail was black. He was Dawn's very first crush. He was joyful and optimistic.

"I am sad though, he was killed by Lacoden, she wasn't like that before."

"I know, she was nice and shy. I'd never expect her to be that way."

"When will your father be taken over?"

"Like when you took over my body to save Fencer?"

"Yes, it is necessary for the 6 powers to be taken over by their loved one in a time of need. From what I know, Excaelum's father took over when someone he cared for was killed."

"I haven't seen him ever since then. Do you know where he was?"

"No, I tried to contact Dragaitas but, he won't let me talk to him."

"You can talk to him?"

"We can communicate through telepathy. If he doesn't want to talk he can block me off."

"How?"

He chuckled,"It's one of the perks of being connected by this power. I can only communicate with only the positive powers."

"Lacoden and Garren are negatives."

"Sadly yes."

"Who is the other negative?"

"I don't know for sure, I never met the merciless holder while I was alive. Merciless is a dragon though, from my knowledge."

"When will this so called "war" going to start?"

"Not anytime soon."

The spirit world started to fade.

"Dawn remember, give love to those who lost it."

Dawn woke, it was morning. She went downstairs and saw that the division leaders were in the large living room. She saw that they were all tired.

They relaxed for only a bit and then went back outside to talk.

Mist ordered,"Everypony give me 80 laps around the frontier. No flying."

Everyone but, Shadow, Soul, Storm, and the other division leaders went.

"How was your night?" asked Tal.

Randall answered,"Good. Seems like your pupils are sick though."

"Yeah, I kind of made them stay in the water for a long time."

"So Soul, how was your training?" asked Mist.

"I think it went well. You Shadow."

"We got a good start with our sparring session."

Randall asked,"Aren't you suppose to know how to use the swords before you spar?"

"I wasn't taught like that. I was taught by fighting."

"How will that work?"

"Lancer and Aero did a fine job taking out some of those Changelings without proper training at the warehouse."

"Now that I remember, Seng blocked one of Lacoden's spear and he isn't that trained either." said Soul.

"We have some natural fighters with us then." Storm exclaimed.

For the next few days they repeated this routine. The pupils were getting tired of it eve, the leaders did as well. The leaders wanted to step up the game. Hell week. In the Canterlot Castle one night Gandore was wandering around the castle. She entered her study room. The room was messy, it had books piled high and had many candlesgiving off light. There was only a small couch and a large desk. She was reading an old book.

She was reading aloud,"There is a temple in the center of the island, it contains a crystal that can have amazing power to cleanse the world. The last time it was activated something stopped it from purifying the world. Three residents of the island came from the temple after the activation of the crystal was stopped. One was a young dragon, another a filly, and the last one was a pegasus. That pegasus was called the "Six-winged Pegasus". The whereabouts of the three are unknown."

She was at the end of the book, there was a drawing of a group of ponies that were there. The description said,"Survivors of the last activation of the crystal." There was a date.

"That's odd, this was made around 50 years ago but,... he and she are.............must be a coincidence."

She shut the book and Iril came inside.

"Gandore aren't you tired?"

"Not really."

"I am, do you mind if I rest here for a bit?"

"Not at all."

Iril untied her bun and her long purple mane fell and she set herself on the couch and began to sleep. Gandore stayed up for a few hours reading books. She made a stack of books to sleep on. She had the book that she just finished reading on her desk, it was titled The Crystal of a Star.

Fyn Cour was snooping around late after midnight. She was following somepony. She was in the frontier, she turned a corner so did Fyn Cour.

"Where is she going?"

"What are you doing?"

Fyn was startled and turned around,"Storm, you almost gave me a heart attack." she looked back and saw that the pony she was following was gone.

"Nothing. Did Shadow end your training for the night?"

"Yeah, he went back to his place with Soul and Bladedancer. I saw you and wanted to ask what you were doing."

"I was just out for a stroll, let's go back."

They both went back to the house, everypony was just sitting down.

Tal spoke,"Hell week starts today, all of you will be experiencing it together."

"There will be endurance and stamina training." Mist added.

They slept for only a hour then there was shouting all over the place. They ran, ran, and ran everywhere. There was no need to work their wings as much because, Soul did most of that at Dry Ocean and Ice Valley, they flew everywhere before this. Shadow was doing the training, he wanted to be moral support. He knew he could do this but, this training was absolutely almost mental. They say it's physical but, actually it's to see if you have the will and determination to go on. Anyone can be physically fit, it takes even more to be mentally fit. They ran for 8 miles under 40 minutes, Seng and the others were all tired. Shadow pushed them to keep on going, the next part was a push-up session of 120 in sets, in between the sets they had to run to a post 10 yards away and come back to continue. And again it was routine, routine, routine for five days. They weren't allowed to sleep but, they were fed every 6 hours that didn't help for they threw most of it back up. They ran even more during the night when it was cooler. They were almost always moving, after 5 days they were done. They were outside of Shadow and Dawn's house. The sun had just risen.

"I.....don't....want.....to.....move." whined Seng.

He was laying on the ground.

"It's not that bad, at least none of us failed." said Lancer.

"No time to whine. Now we will still be training only this is not like hell week. We will finally teach you skills in your division." Storm announced.

"Seng, Lancer, and Hail. Come with me." ordered Mist.

Hail complained,"Damn we just finished too."

Mist replied,"Don't worry it's just talking."

"My division come with me, I'll be teaching you how to turn your defense into an offense."

"Tint and Cloudfire, follow me."

"My division stay here." said Shadow.

Mist was giving orders in the Everfree.

"Okay. I'll give you all 1 hour to make ghille suits out of whatever is in this area. You'll have to reach the center ahead and to set off one of the fireworks. That will signal that you have evaded us."

"Us?" asked Hail.

"I have help to get you. 15 of us will start from the center, and go in different directions, and when the horn has been blown that is the start of this training. If you are caught you'll have two more chances before you are failed." she whistled and a pegasus and dropped a kit. "This is a small thing of materials that can help you make your suits. There is clear glue, tape, and some other things. Three suits are also in there, they are adhesive on the outside so, you'll be able to cover it with what you wish, they also have hoods so you can cover your head. There are many ways to get to the center, you can choose which path you want. Any questions?"

"Time limit?" Seng asked.

"None, we will take our time with this. We will be inspecting every little crack in this forest for you three. Now begin working, I'll leave so I can't see your suits."

She and the pegasus flew back to the center. There was a slight commotion coming from there. It was very faint, the three thought it was just Mist yelling at them and went to talking to each other.

"What's going to be your approach?" Lancer asked.

"Probably a brush type. Yours?"

"Thinking about a-" he looked to the left and saw a creek going to the direction of Mist, the creek was very close by ."A mud type. Hail?"

"Probably a tree, something like that. Let's start fixing up these things."

An hour later a horn was blown. It started. Seng has made a suit that had pieces of twigs, grass, and lots of leaves, and it was covered in a thin layer of dirt. This was his choice he stayed near where they were left at. He moved slowly when the wind blew to minimize the noise he made while traveling. After a hour or so of doing this he heard sticks breaking ahead.

"One of the 15." he thought."Stay still and let him pass."

The earth pony was looking around, listening for the slightest noise. He was getting close to Seng. Seng thought that he had seen him. A spider was crawling of Seng's face, he stayed as still as he could. His heart was beating like crazy and he had a hard time controlling his breathing, he had to breathe as quietly as he could. There was a noise that caught the attention of the patrol, he moved on and Seng let off a big sigh of relief and knocked the spider off of his face.

Hail took a more active approach, he put bark all over his suit and lathered on some dirt on it and climbed the trees. The forest had thick leaves and large trees, Hail used this to his advantage. Going from branch to branch he also advanced fairly slow. He and Seng both went in the same general direction. In the trees he saw a slight movement in the bushes a few yards away.

Hail thought,"That's Seng."

There was a patrol coming. Hail quietly broke off a piece of bark. The earth pony was looking around, listening for the slightest noise. He was getting close to Seng. Seng thought that he had seen him. A spider was crawling of Seng's face, he stayed as still as he could. His heart was beating like crazy and he had a hard time controlling his breathing, he had to breathe as quietly as he could. There was a noise that caught the attention of the patrol, he moved on and Seng let off a big sigh of relief and knocked the spider off of his face.

"Your welcome. Hopefully that patrol doesn't notice me." Hail threw the bark that he broke off to get the patrol off of Seng, he of course threw it away from his own position to help him as well.

He walked right under Hail.

"The center must be far." thought Seng.

Lancer covered his suit by first dunking it in dirt and threw some water on it to make dirt, then he finished it by again throwing another layer of dirt on it. His suit was heavy. Half of his body was in the water and the other half was on the muddy ground. He had to use a lot of his energy to move against the water with his suit on. A piece of bark landed a foot away from him, he heard a patrol go there. Lancer flattened his body as much as he could. Two more patrol members were on the opposite side of the creek.

"Any luck?" one of them yelled.

The one in front of Lancer replied back,"Not yet, they are a tricky bunch."

The other two left, the one in front of Lancer walked a few inches from him, a loud sound was coming from the forest. He ran to the source. The two on the other side of the creek flew to the sound as well. Lancer knew this was his chance to get some distance. He wormed forward and saw another patrol coming down the creek, Lancer heard a sound behind, he stopped his movements. It walked right passed, a small filly in a hood.

"What're you doing here?" the patrol asked,"Who are you?"

The filly didn't answer and took off it's hood.

Lancer's heart was racing,"Lacoden!" he thought. He wanted to warn the patrol but, he was frightened of her. Lacoden took out a dagger and turned into a black pony with bug-like wings and with holes in their hooves. The patrol screamed, the Changeling stabbed the patrol and took his form and threw the corpse down the creek. The patrol from earlier returned with 2 more patrol members.

"Damn that hurt." Hail had fallen from a trees weak branch, it collapsed right as he stepped on it.

Hail heard a sound.

"Hail wh-. Be quiet." Seng and Hail hid in the largest bush they can find

Five patrol member came along. Two coming from direction of the center and three from the creek.

"What was that?"

"I don't know."

"Let's look around, it may be the ones we're looking for."

"How many again are we looking for?"

"Four."

They rummaged around the area, a scream came from the creek. They left.

"Four? What were they talking about? Hail are you okay? You took quite a fall."

"I think my wing is dislocated."

Seng checked his right wing and saw that it was.

"I will put it back in place and we need to find Mist. Something doesn't feel right. Bite on this."

Seng placed a stick in his mouth and popped his wing back in place. Lancer's heart was racing,"Lacoden!" he thought. He wanted to warn the patrol but, he was frightened of her. Lacoden took out a dagger and turned into a black pony with bug-like wings and with holes in their hooves. The patrol screamed, the Changeling stabbed the patrol and took his form and threw the corpse down the creek. The patrol from earlier returned with 2 more patrol members.

"I just offed the last patrol member. Have you found their commanding officer and the three hiding."

They changed back to their original forms. They were all Changelings.

"I think Master Lacoden would be happy if she found out that you were using her look."

"She won't find out."

Lancer wanted to fight them but he wasn't properly equipped. The commanding officer they must be speaking of must be Knight Mist.

"It was satisfying seeing that she came back to start the training but, instead she saw us finishing off her friends. Her screams filled me with joy. It only took 5 five of us." they laughed.

Lancer realized something,"That must have been what we heard before we started."

"Seng. Hail. Help.....me."

The two thought it was Lancer but this voice sounded more feminine. Mist. She was wounded.

They slowly went to her.

"What happened?" Hail sounded frightened.

She fell down.

"She's bleeding. We need to get help." said Seng.

Hail was panicking but got himself together.

"Put pressure on the wound, we need to slow the bleeding."

Lancer was watching them laugh. Something whizzed past Lancer and one of them fell over. A sword pierced one in the neck and it died. It was Shadow. He killed four of them but, left one injured. He knocked it out.

"Lancer!" Shadow yelled."

Lancer stood up,"What is going on?!"

"I don't know. We were training a we saw a body coming down from the river. I'm going to ask this one what's going on." He kicked the Changeling on the ground."Fyn Cour and Dust are searching for Seng and Hail. Soul and the other leaders are going back to Canterlot to protect themselves and the princesses from whatever is coming."

Fyn and Dust located the three.

"Let's go we can't stay here!" exclaimed Fyn.

They arrived at Canterlot and put the Changeling in an interrogation room. The one-way windows allowed Luna and the others to view what was going on. The Changeling regained consciousness. Shadow was in the room with a sword.

"Who sent you?"

The Changeling smiled.

Chapter 17 - Interrogation

"Your old friend, hehehe."

"Surely you idiotic Changelings didn't do this yourselves. Who helped you?"

"We aren't idiotic but, we did have some help from one of your own."

"Who?"

"You have to find out when she decides to reveal herself."

"When is that?"

The Changeling killed the subject,"Mist, how did it feel to watch your friends die? It would've been easier if you didn't send one of them to search the creek for any 'disturbances'. We wanted to see you see us kill them all in a breeze. The one you sent was a coward."

Mist had enough strength to be there, after she heard that she was angry. Only Dawn, Luna, Celestia, Gandore, and the division leaders were there.

"Calm down. Let Shadow deal with it." Randall said.

The Changeling ran up to the wall, he knew where the others were.

"You Dawn, you are next."

Shadow hit the Changeling with his hoof,"Threaten her again and that's the last thing you'll do in your pathetic life. Tie him. Randall and Soul came in and restrained it against the wall and left again.

"Why did you do this?" Shadow asked in a firm voice.

"To get you back home. Why else?"

"Garren did a poor job training you. You are giving me whatever I ask for."

"That's because, he was going to come here and tell you himself."

"If he does I will kill him."

"Stop lying. If you lie to me, you're lying to him. Remember what happened the last time you lied to him?"

"He told you?"

"He gave me everything to anger you, even her appearance."

The Changeling's hooves changed to pink.

Shadow readied the sword,"Finish your transformation and you die."

"I suppose I can have more fun." it went back to normal.

"Are you planning another attack?"

"Garren will be coming here after merciless has been awoken."

"Who possesses merciless?"

"You'll find out when Excaelum returns."

Tal was curious and asked Luna,"Who's that princess?"

"Our friend."

"And Garren?" Randall asked.

"Now, an enemy." Tia said.

"Remember the crystal Shadow?"

"What of it?"

"It is to be activated."

"Is he-DOES HE KNOW WHAT IT CAN DO?"

"The prophecy is to be fulfilled."

"I will change and destroy the prophecy."

"You can't change fate. The powers will never become whole again." it laughed.

"That does not matter."

"We'll see about that." it continued to laugh. Shadow left the room.

"What crystal does the Changeling speak of?" asked Gandore.

"You don't mean the.." something caught Dawn's tongue.

"Yes it is that one."

"Dra...... he died stopping it."

"No one will die. It won't happen again, I promise."

Shadow went back in the room.

"I would like to speak to Dawn."

"Why would I let you speak to her?"

"I would like to share my knowledge I have with her."

"What knowledge do you have that my daughter doesn't know?"

"Let me talk to her so you can find out."

Shadow was puzzled, he wanted to know what he was talking about. He didn't want Dawn to speak to him though. Shadow went back inside, Dawn went in.

"Come closer I want to ask you something."

She walked closer.

"Lock the doors." he whispered.

She wanted to play along so, she used her magic to lock it without anyone else knowing.

"Now what is it?"

"Excaelum, he has a friend, a golden dragon."

"No. Do I want to know know her?"

"Yes. If you want to learn the truth."

"What truth?"

"Do you remember your mother?"

"No. She died when I was born. Why is that relevant?"

"Are you sure that's what happened?" it grinned.

Dawn was irritated and changed the subject,"Why is Lacoden different?"

"She needed help, she went to Garren because, you abandoned her."

"..............taken over by their loved one in a time of need."

Dawn thought,"She knew why I had to leave her, I didn't abandon her."

"Have something stumped you?"

"Shut up."

"This may jog your memory."

Shadow saw what the Changeling was going to do, he tried to open the door. It was locked.

"DAWN ! UNLOCK THE DOOR!"

She couldn't hear her father's cries. She looked back at the Changeling. It was now a pink-coated unicorn with a white mane and tail that had streaks of light pink. Shadow stopped his struggle and saw what the Changelings turned into. He didn't know what to do.

"Who are you suppose to....." she stopped.

"Do you know who I am Dawn?" the Changelings voice changed. It was now sweet and soothing to the ears."I'm your mother."

"W-what?"

"Dawn it's me your mother, Starflare."

The others inside were also shocked.

"Is that who I think it is?" exclaimed Storm.

"Shadow is Star Swirl's granddaughter her mother?"

He didn't answer.

Dawn was confused.

"I haven't met you but, somehow I remember your face."

"You have met me, many times."

Dawn realized what she was doing,"You're lying."

The Changeling changed back to normal.

"This look may suit you more."

His coat was whit, his mane and tail were black.

"Dawn, do you remember me?"

"I remember the appearance but," Dawn was no longer fooled by his mimicry,"He would never asked if I remembered him. Of course I did." She used her magic to snap the Changeling's neck.

She unlocked the door and left the room. Everyone one in the room was kind of frightened by Dawn, witnessing one such as her killing with no hesitation was different for them.

They were tired and wanted to get some sleep. They continued their training only that one team trains at a time to avoid more casualties. Two weeks later it was a week before the division leaders graduate their pupils. A pegasus came to the frontier to visit some old friends. A white-coated pegasus with a golden mane and tail.

"Looks like death will have to come first."

Chapter 18 - Maker of Orphans

Garren was trotting down the road, the stores and buildings were all done with their finishing touches so the store owners moved inside. Garren concealed his sword with a cloth but, that didn't last very long. Two ponies just exited a store with some items that they have purchased. Garren went into an alley next to him for they were going to his direction.

"Mom why did you have to buy these antiques?"

"It may have some value in the future."

"This old junk? Are you sure?"

"That's why the word 'may' is in the sentence. You just have to hope for the best Flake."

"I'll try, for you."

"That's my girl. Let's go to th-"

Garren stuck something in the mother's side. Flake's mom looked at her side. Flake saw what Garren had done.

"Flake.........r...run." her mom fell to the side, Garren had pulled out his sword.

"Listen to your mother." Garren looked into new orphan's eyes.

Flake ran away screaming and crying.

The division leaders, Celestia, Luna, Dawn, and Gandore went to the courtyard where the others were. Shadow went somewhere to try and clear his mind. Tia informed the others on the situation.

"I can't believe Shadow won't tell us anything, after all we been through together. Does he not trust us?" whined Aero.

"No it's not that. He just doesn't like to relive the memories of his homeland." replied Tia.

"Where is that?" Lancer asked.

"Dawn will it be okay if I told them?" asked Tia.

"They're going to find out sooner or later but, I want to tell them. Me and my father are from Fallen Star."

"That place was destroyed over 50 years ago. How are you still alive?" Soul questioned.

Dawn avoided the second sentence."Fallen Star is still there."

Iril came running outside,"Prin..princess" she was out of breath,"some.....one is killing the residents of the frontier."

"Who?" asked Luna, her voice was raised.

"Eyewitness accounts say it's a white pegasus with a golden mane."

Dawn said under her breath,"Garren." Dawn ran to try and find her dad.

"Is it over?"

"No."

Garren was flying , he was laying waste to only the adults and leaving the juveniles to witness the deaths of their parents. He had a smirk on his face as he did it. The sword he had on was sharp on both sides allowing him to stab his victims with ease. He went to one to another swiftly, the screams of the children filled his dark heart with joy and delight. The adults were trying to protect their children, hiding them behind crates and behind doors. Garren wasn't targeting them anyways. The adults tried to fight him off but, failed. He continued his senseless massacre, he killed many parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts. A father was protecting two of his children, he was shielding them from the horror that was happening before his eyes. Garren took his life, the sword went through the father's neck and nicked one of the child on the ear, they were both shaking and speechless. Something changed in Garren, he struck down at the foals. Another sword stopped his strike.

"Why don't you fight me?"

"Shadow, you're late as usual."

"You two, get away from here."

One of them said,"Thank you for saving us."

"If only you were on time you could have saved Starflare."

"Shut up!" He knocked Garren back and charged, Garren was overwhelmed by his former student. Shadow's strike were fast and strong.

"Where did you find your strength?"

Shadow threw Garren into a window, Shadow was out of breath. Garren came out,"My turn."

He charged at Shadow ruthlessly also delivering stronger and faster hits. Shadow kept on blocking his strikes until he had an opening. He found one, Shadow ducked under Garren's strike, stabbed him, and flew into the air with Garren at the end of his blade. He slammed Garren as hard as he could on the ground, Shadow backed away. The dust kicked up by the impact was beginning to clear, he saw Garren standing, laughing.

"Do I look like the griffon that killed her?" he was laughing some more,"Pathetic how you managed to kill him, HAHAHA!! I think I change my mind about her death not being your fault, you killed her! I agree with you!" he was laughing, and laughing.

Shadow's anger was building up inside, he didn't know how to show it. He loosened the tightness of the sword, winded his body back, and shot the sword at him. It hit Garren in the chest.

"Do you really think that can kill me?" Garren did the same thing, Shadow stayed where he was.

"You missed." Shadow said.

Garren smiled,"Turn around."

Shadow saw that Garren's sword had penetrated the skull of his daughter, Celestia, Luna, and Soul were there also. Dawn was on the ground. Shadow's anger grew even more great."Get Dawn out of here Soul!"

"What about you?"

"Don't worry about me! Just go!"

Black Soul and the princesses flew back to the castle.

"You wondered why I was laughing so much I suppose, I noticed Dawn there behind you right after I said that you killed her mother and now your secrets will be revealed to the ones you call friends."

Shadow forced himself to Garren, Garren shot a beam of black out of his mouth. His eyes, cutie mark, and wings were giving off a black light too. Shadow was pushed back, he charged again but, this time he was stopped.

"Lacoden, what're you doing?!"

"Oh Shadow you will never understand us." Her hood was partially on so Shadow could see the evil in her eyes, Lacoden turned around and saw that Garren's power was done. She said,"One more to go." She walked to Garren and teleported somewhere with Garren. The juveniles saw that their parents killer had gone and came outside to grieve over their bodies. Flake came over to Shadow.

"He killed my mother and your daughter." Flake had tears running down her face.

Shadow hugged Flake,"Dawn is not dead, she's far from it."

"How?"

"We are cursed. I have to go help my daughter now, you are free to join me."

"My mother needs me right now."

Shadow nodded,"You will become a strong mare someday. Feel free to stay at our place near the Everfree Forest until I come back." Shadow flew to the castle.

The foals at the frontier are now scarred and without parents. Orphans. The blood of the dead painted the walls and the ground. The stench of the red water filled their sinuses, some threw up it was so disgusting. The older foals including Flake gathered the bodies of the parents,

Shadow arrived at the castle's front gate where the others were standing over Dawn.

Seng met up with Shadow,"I'm sorry your-"

"She's not dead."

Shadow walked to Dawn and pulled the sword out, blood flowed out for a few dozen seconds then ceased. The wound on her head closed up a minute after. The paleness on her face faded and her color returned.

"That's amazing." Storm exclaimed.

"Take her inside, let her rest. I'll take her home later. I have some other business to intend there. You all should go help those poor souls at the frontier, witnessing that much death, I don't think they can handle it."

The princesses, division leaders, and pupils all went to the frontier. Fyn Cour, Dust, and Iril joined. They saw that the foals had already placed the bodies in coffins. They were shocked by how grown up the foals have become in a very little amount of time. The princesses gave the best burial ceremony they can.

"Princesses my name is Flake and I have a question."

"What is it my dear?" Luna replied.

"How can we avenge them?"

A court of the Forces of Nature was called and Excaelum arrived there after training with his father. Chronin, Olganna, and Staok were the only ones there.

"Where are Pyrodia and Aquabellina?" he asked.

"They were murdered."Olganna answered.

"By whom?"

"After examining the bodies, I found that her organs were internally damaged, slammed to the ground. The only external wound was her neck snapped, that was the cause of her death. I only know of one dragon who can deliver internal damage without touching them." Chronin looked at Excaelum.

"Are you saying I committed this heinous crime?"

"Who else could use gravity Excaelum? You are the only one left of your kind. If you can find a explanation to prove yourself innocent I'll be glad to hear it. We don't want to pin this crime on you but, we have no other choice." Olganna said.

Garren woke up in the Everfree Forest.

"Garren I am sorry I interfered."

"I do not care, I revealed his secrets. And now it's time to reveal another. Where is Orcusin?"

"At the warehouse, or he should be anyways."

"Let's head there, in a week he can go to the Crystal Empire we can reward our spy there."

Dawn woke up in her house. Flake was beside her along with Shadow and Soul.

"What're you doing here?"

"I heard that you always wanted another sibling."

Chapter 19 - Flint. Spark. Fire.

Orcusin has just arrived at the warehouse, Garren and Lacoden met the dragon outside. It was midnight.

"When will you be in the Crystal Empire?" asked Garren.

"What business do I have there?"

"You wish to have Merciless awaken don't you?"

"I have no business with any other mark bearers. I will greet my own kind during the migration."

"How will we get the two nations to assault Fallen Star?"

"You and Lacoden can do that yourselves. I have to start a fire that will burn the dragons."

Orcusin went inside the warehouse.

Lacoden asked,"How can we take down the Crystal Empire?"

"We don't have to. I know of someone who can for us."

"Who?"

"His heart is as black as night but, if we were to convince him to do our dirty work it may take longer to get the war started. He's a loose cannon."

"Some risks are worth taking."

"Wait you're my sister now?"

"Yeah, your father, well now it's our father, adopted me after my mother was killed. Knight Black Soul is planning on adopting too."

"Really?"

Soul replied,"Yes, I believe am not ready to raise one of my very own yet." she left the house.

Shadow muttered,"That's not it." and followed her outside.

He saw her overlooking the Everfree, he saw a tear coming from her.

"I haven't known you for very long but, you aren't fairly good at lying. Why are you really adopting one?"

She sighed, wiped away her tears and answered,"I am sterile."

"Sorry I asked."

"It's fine. I found out years ago."

"Must have been tragic."

"It was for the both of us."

"Who was the father supposed to be?"

"He is one of my most trusted stallions, we worked with him for awhile now."

"Storm?"

She nodded.

Shadow added,"I can't see you two together. He's really strict while you are strict as well but, you have a very kind side to you."

"He has a kind side as well but, it's hard for him to show it."

"That's hard to believe."

"He's more open once you get to know him."

"So what are you thinking about?"

"My adoption. I always wanted a colt maybe a Pegasus. How do you feel about adopting Flake?"

"I feel like she could be a good sister for Dawn."

"Graduation is in a few days."

"Hopefully with no disturbances."

Graduation came with no disturbances whatsoever. At the graduation they were give a coat with a logo on it, a wing. And an I, representing that this was the first installment of R.A.K. The coats were colored differently to show the different divisions. White for support, yellow for defense, brown for scouting/intelligence, and gray for attack. The medical division received a red coat, and since all the divisions got a bit of medical training they were all red on the inside. The hoods completed the look and were comfortable on the inside. The division leaders got coats with a blue stripe going from the front of the chest area to the back of the neck, it sort of resembled a necklace. There were holes on the side for the Pegasus coats for their wings, the ones for the unicorns and earth ponies were the same just without the holes. Sine the Pegasus coats had holes, then holes were stitched more securely to prevent rips.

They celebrated their accomplishment with a small party in the Canterlot ballroom. They filled their stomachs until it couldn't hold anymore. They relaxed for a bit and Knight Black, one of lead attack division leaders, spoke.

"We will have a few days off but, after that we will have to get to work. We will meet at the frontiers town square. How do you all like your outerwear?" they nodded and cheered to answer "yes".

Soul continued,"Good, take good care of those they represent our homes and our family. What is the name of our family?"

They all shouted,"R.A.K.!"

Soul let Randall take the spotlight, she was flirtatious,"Hey there you stallions , how do I look?" she was posing in a very intimate way. Her mane was up by it's own for a few seconds then it fell and covered her face. Randall blew her hair back up into position.

Shadow saw that his friends were all drooling over her and that they were all dumbstruck by her beauty. Mist pushed Randall over and took over,"Get down you perverts!" Shadow's friends arousal was wiped clean from their minds. They weren't standing though and Shadow wondered what Mist meant when she said,"Get down you perverts!". Mist asked Randall,"Don't you ever get tired of trying to seduce stallions?"

Then it popped in Shadow's mind, he said in his head,"Oooooohhhhh, I get it.'Get down.'" Shadow started laughing aloud, he stopped himself before he went nuts over such a immature reference.

Mist scolded,"Always remember your family." she left with a big smile on her face.

Tal took over,"We made it this far together. I want to see if R.A.K. will go even further than this. I hope it does, this is the first time I felt so welcome around strangers,no offense. We can never reach a limit, we can grow as a family and spread our love for peace. Well I kind of find that hypocritical, an army of peacekeepers? Does that sound like it makes much sense?" They all chuckled at Tal's mild joke,"I didn't think so. Well, whatever good influence we can share, share it with the world." He stepped down.

After those speeches, the princesses and pupils applauded their leaders. They were glad that they had such an amazing group of knight leading them. The division leaders, not including Shadow or Fyn Cour, went to the courtyard to talk among themselves, under the clear night sky and under the bright lights of the infinite darkness.

"Sister, I've never seen you so happy before."

"And I never seen you so stimulated before." Mist chuckled,"It just feels good to be back together in a family Randall."

"I just have special needs sis. Aren't we family?"

"Of course we are but, family is more than siblings. We have a whole family tree now. "

"I see what you mean."

"I remember when we were in training our C.O.'s would be hard on us." Storm said.

"I wondered if they were as close as we are." Tal added.

"They were, I spoke to Knight Athen before she passed away."

"Soul, why do you still refer to your mother by that name?" asked Mist.

"She was my best friend first, and my mother second."

"Back at Green Fawn we had our fun times, didn't we Soul?"

"Oh Storm, I can't believe how much trouble we got into."

The next day the dragon migration passed over the frontier but, earlier there was a dark gray dragon that flew over. Later Shadow noticed Excaelum following behind the huge pack. Excaelum and the other dragons arrived at the migrating area there was one problem, a dragon not allowing any to pass. The pawns,ambassadors, and solitaries were all forced to the ground. Excaelum was at the very back of the pack therefore he did not know what was going on, he saw the dragons on the ground and wondered why they were doing that then he saw the only standing dragon. Excaelum confronted the dragon, it said,"What are you doing here?"

Excaelum answered,"I'm here for my trial."

"Why don't you just leave?"

"I am honest and loyal."

"He said he was going to teach you to be that way." The dragon's eyes were dark blue but, the color wasn't what Excaelum noticed it was the shape of his pupil."

"Who are you talking about?"

"Pity, he still doesn't trust you." the dragon quickly went over to the nearest dragon and snapped it's neck. Excaelum had just noticed what has happened and retaliated. He tried to force the dragon down with gravity, it wasn't working. The dragon felt Excaelum's weak power trying to force him down.

"You are weak." it said.

The dragon used it's power on Excaelum, he tried to fight it but, it was too strong for him.

"Gravity?! You are one?"

"Is it not obvious. I won't be able to control you with time for you are stronger than that and the Star dragons are extinct."

"How?"

"For years I hid my presence until it was time to unravel myself."

"Who are you?"

"Orcusin."

"Orcusin?"

Orcusin walked over to the nearest dragon and again murdered it. He continued his killing spree. Chronin and Olganna arrived and saw Orcusin killing. Chronin flew down in front of Orcusin.

"Stop." she commanded.

"The golden time dragon what a pleasant surprise." there was an evil pitch to his voice, Orcusin grabbed Chronin on the neck. He flew into the air and used his powers to bring her down, he left a crater where Chronin landed. She was still alive, weak but alive. Olganna was furious,"How dare you treat her like that?"

"Olganna, the offspring of Witasen(wit-toss-in)."

"How do you know her name?"

"I killed her."

Olganna went into a state of anger and started towards Orcusin, she was no match for him.

"I am here thinking you'll be more of a challenge." he knocked her on the ground and grasped her head. Excaelum broke out of Orcusin's gravity hold and stopped him before he killed her. Excaelum threw Orcusin on the ground and tried to burn him. Orcusin was impervious to his flames.

"I would think you'll be stronger, then again I took down Chronin without a problem." Orcusin countered with a darker-blue flame and it scorched Excaelum.

Excaelum roared in pain. Orcusin set some of the other dragons on fire, they died, turned to ash. Orcusin went up to Excaelum and said,"Don't you remember me? Brother." He pushed down Excaelum leaving him to struggle on the ground. Orcusin was laughing, he stopped all of the sudden. His head jerked back and a beam of black shot of his mouth, this continued for three seconds then he went limp on the ground. He disappeared. Chronin was standing and she said,"He doesn't belong here." She had teleported Orcusin far from the migrating area. A few water dragons put Excaelum out before he burned to death.

Olganna exclaimed,"I think I know who the real perpetrator is."

"He can control gravity." Chronin sighed,"The only other gravity dragon wishes death upon his own brother. Darkness in his heart." Chronin seemed sad as if she realized something.

"Merciless." Excaelumm said weakly.

Shadow was asleep in one of the castle suites. A voice woke him up, he was in the spirit world.

Starflare was on the cliff,"The six lights have been lit."

"It's to be true then." Shadow said.

"The prophecy can't be changed. A few words before you awake."

"What is it?"

"A shroud of darkness will consume the empire of light and love."

The spirit world faded away and Shadow jolted himself up from his sleep and panted,"The.......Crystal Empire." Shadow calmed down his breathing and jumped out of his bed,"Our break has been cut short."

Author's Notes:

The R.A.K. is mostly pegasus members and created by one that's why it has the word airborne in it.

http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/RAK-Logo-406072062

Chapter 20 - Rise of a Tyrant

Excaelum has just recovered from the fire Orcusin put on him but, his scales were charred and lathered with soot. With time his scales would go back to a normal light gray color. Excaelum was still having trouble absorbing the fact that he had a brother and that he just tried to burn him to death. Olganna went to calm the lower-class dragons while Chronin was speaking to Excaelum.

"He said he was my brother."

"He is dangerous. What do you plan on doing?"

"My father said I can't do anything until we return to Fallen Star."

"Why did he attack you then?"

"He thinks he can change the prophecy. That's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible. The prophecy is what the ones who created it foretold, not saw."

"I think it's impossible that he is stronger than you."

"He is the direct descendant of Dragaitas, so are you."

"He seemed to be older than me by a few centuries. His voice was striking and his eyes weren't complete, they were disrupted."

"You and your father's eyes are complete meaning your souls have good intentions. My eyes are complete also."

"Mesadraco's eyes were complete, explain that."

"He wasn't always like, one day he was calm and collective, he went missing for a few days and he kills Yaforn."

"Lord Yaforn was the first one to have an offspring wasn't she?"

"No, Dragaitas was the first. He was born many years before Measdraco. You were the last and the only second offspring of an original."

"What happened to the rest of the gravity dragons."

Chronin avoided to answer that question,"Gravity is the rarest and strongest force in nature, yet we go on our lives not knowing it's there. Star dragons harvested their power from the sun during the day and the stars during the night to master all the other forces except for gravity and time. Time is the weakest of the forces and uncommon. Yes we can control time but, it has it's limits. Against an opponent with the same or greater amount of strength our powers will have no effect on them. Gravity however, can overpower all the forces for the other forces depend on gravity to work, except for time. That doesn't matter though, Orcusin and you are well past the point of time control."

Up north of Canterlot near the Crystal Empire Garren and Lacoden were going to meet up with somepony. This pony lived on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire in a house. Garren approached the door and walked inside, Lacoden followed in.

"What do you want?" This pony was a unicorn. He had a dark gray coat,mane and tail. His eyes were red. His horn was also dark gray at the base and, faded into red toward the point.

"What a lovely home you have here."

"Who are you? How do you know my location?"

"I'm not important, what's important is the grand city you envy."

"I don't envy it, I just rob from it's shops and live my life."

"Don't lie to yourself, I've seen you scrutinizing every detail of the Crystal Empire. You want it's beauty to yourself with all who live there to be at your command."

"You make it sound as if I was obsessed with the city."

"I'm sorry did I say the Crystal Empire, I meant to say the Crystal Heart."

"I have no desire for that. I must ask you to leave or I'll have to force you out."

"One you are lying to me, the last time someone lied to me he lost his wife. Two, you threatened me and her."

This colt was smart and decided Garren was right. The unicorn's tone changed.

"Why do you want me to conquer it?"

"Me and my friend have a score to settle with the princesses. They left our nation to perish, we wish to see one of her nations fall."

"Why don't we just take Canterlot then?"

"Would you rather die or watch something you love be torn to pieces?"

"I would die."

"If we had the choice we would die as well but, we suffered through the second option."

"Do you mind if I ask where you come from?"

"Fallen Star. Are you with us? If not you will die watching the city that exiled you to the cold thrive and prosper."

"How do we begin?"

"Wise choice. Myself and my friend,Lacoden, will grant you enough power to do what you wish with that city for as long as you want. You do have to endure some amount of pain and I will have to teach you how to control your powers before you are able to use it properly."

"What's your name?"

"Garren. And yours?"

"I don't have one."

"You can make yourself a name once you succeeded in your path. Lacoden, time to empower him."

Garren took him outside, made the unicorn stand outside while he and Lacoden got into position. Lacoden was to the left of the unicorn and Garren on the right.They both took a deep breath and blasted the unicorn with black beams. The unicorn within the epicenter was yelling, the whites of his eyes turned green during the process. It ended and the unicorn was panting on the ground he got up slowly, he maintained his balance.

"How does it feel to have this much power?"

The voice of the unicorn deepened,"I need more."

"You can have more once you have the Crystal Heart to yourself."

"When do we start?" the unicorn asked, looking at Garren.

The sun was still out at the highest point in the sky this gave them enough to start their first session.

"Guard up!" Garren yelled.

The newly born unicorn wasn't prepared and was knocked to the ground by Lacoden. The unicorn got up and tried to attack her but, Garren attacked as well.

"Learn to fight by fighting." Lacoden said.

"Guard up!"

Garren gave him enough time to get his stance and charged with great force. The unicorn was pushed back a few feet but he was still standing.

"Now you can either attack me or her."

The unicorn charged toward Lacoden, he was aggressive, striking with his bare hooves didn't give him any sort of pain. Lacoden had difficulty keeping up with him, she was knocked down by him. He stopped and looked up to Garren.

"Don't give you enemy time to recover." said Garren.

He looked back down to strike Lacoden, she was gone. Lacoden tackled him on the ground and relentlessly pummeled him into the cold ground.

"Lacoden that's enough. Lesson 1: Never give your enemy time to recover." Garren walked over to the unicorn and pulled him up,"Lesson 2: Suspect an attack from your enemy if they do recover." Garren hit the unicorn in the face stunning him and he flew as hard as he could running the unicorn over and colliding with a side of a mountain. The unicorn's body took all of the force. The unicorn was laying on the ground and Garren scolded,"Lesson 3: Stun your enemy to deliver an effective blow."

Garren and Lacoden tortured the unicorn preparing him to gain control over the Crystal Empire for days until Garren had an interest in what his current disciple's talent was.

"I can conjure illusions real to the eyes and mind." he said.

"How do you plan on using that against your enemy?"

"Like this." the unicorn melted in front of Garren and the real one was behind him.

"Amusing. You need more than that to defend your prize."

"How so?"

"You can make a portal of some sort to create a nightmare most fearful to your enemies heart."

"Tell me."

"Concentrate, shut your eyes and listen to only my voice. Focus on your greatest fear."

The unicorn took a deep breath and did as he was told.

"Good. Make your fear become as real as I am."

The unicorn cringed a little.

"Use your fears, force it onto an inanimate object, your vessel."

The door started slamming violently on the house.

"Eliminate your fears. Put yourself in the skin of others, find their fear and embed it into the door. "

This step took a few weeks. The unicorn signaled he was done with a deep and long breath.

"Etch those fears you have discovered onto your vessel."

The invention was done. Garren ordered Lacoden to open the door, she did and something startling happened. She was still for a moment, then she went over to the nearest wall and started to bask her own head against the wall yelling,"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Garren saw that her head was starting to bleed and stopped her before she did any permanent damage to herself. He laid her down on the unicorn's bed.

"It works." the unicorn said.

"Perfectly. I think that process would've been a lot longer. How did you complete your vessel so quickly?"

"I went into Celestia's mind once I found her fear it was easier for me to find the fears of the ones weaker than her therefore making it faster. I didn't find your fear though along with a few others."

"That's because we're stronger than her. What did you do for the future fears of the ones that haven't even existed yet?"

"My vessel will evolve to find their fear on it's own."

"You are indeed talented."

"Thank you."

"Do you feel you are ready?"

The unicorn looked up with an evil smirk.

Garren said,"At midnight we attack."

It was only a few more hours until it was midnight. The night went from calm to flames and destroyed buildings everywhere. Within minutes the Crystal Heart was already in possession of the unicorn. He threatened that if the heart were to remain unharmed the residents had to do his every bidding . He broke their spirits so they could not give power to the heart.

"Slavery. That is your way of destroying a nation?" Garren asked.

"Yes it is. Is that wrong?"

"No, in fact I love it."

"I thank you for granting me your knowledge and your power, Master Garren. Now with the Crystal Heart in my control I can harness it's power."

"Have you come up with your own name yet?"

"No but, I gave myself the title of 'king'."

This king wore silver armor and a crown that was pointed, they resembled horns.

"I like it." exclaimed Garren.

Word got out to the frontier and Canterlot a month after the king took the Crystal Empire and the R.A.K. was to take action. The R.A.K. met up in the castles council room to discuss their priorities.

"We have to recon the surrounding area to-"

"Mist that won't be necessary."

"Princess Celestia with all do respect you can't just go in there blind, you might die out there."

"I have done nothing long enough, this time I will be the one to save them."

"Sister I will join you."

"Luna you can't."

"I have the guilt as you do for letting Fallen Star fall. We must do this together."

"We depart tomorrow. Any objections speak out now."

Shadow said,"This may not be a normal takeover princess."

"I'm aware of that. You and your friends need to stay here and look after our kingdom while we take care of the Crystal Empire."

They were dismissed and the princesses prepared to take the Crystal Empire out from the enemies grasp.

Author's Notes:

http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/DAWN-dragon-eyes-406462232?ga_submit_new=10%253A1381459345

Chapter 21 - Other Side of the Coin

As soon as the next day came around Celestia and Luna left quickly. They took a train half way then flew the rest. First they scouted the Crystal Empire and saw what the King has done with only a month. They were hovering around the city, scoping out the dangers of it.

"What happened here?" Luna was shocked at the appearance of the empire.

The empire has dark colored crystals everywhere, the once clear blue arctic sky was now dark and cloudy.

"Look down there Luna."

They saw that the Crystal ponies coats were not shining anymore. The ponies were chained to each other forced to do the King's every order. The Crystal Heart no longer had any use since they couldn't power it with broken spirits.

"Who do you think is responsible for this Tia?"

"Let's check the tower, maybe the one responsible may be there."

They casted a spell making them invisible for only a limited amount of time. They flew to the tower. The King walked out to the balcony with two other ponies behind him. They were a few yards away from them, to the right and a few feet above them. Tia and Luna whispered to each other.

"I knew it. Lacoden and Garren are responsible."

"Luna we don't know that for sure."

"It's the most logical reason why they're here."

Lacoden heard a few faint words and thought it was nothing, she kept on hearing it she suspected something she stood silent listening.

"Tia why can't we just stop them now?"

"We don't know what they've done with the heart. We just have to wait."

"We can't do anything? Again?!"

"Lower your voice they might hear us."

Lacoden smirked."Found you." Lacoden launched a petrifying spell toward the general direction of the sounds and hit Luna. Luna started to fall and the invisibility spell broke and Garren and the King saw them. Celestia saved Luna from her fall and started flying away from them, Garren followed behind. Tia took Luna the the highest roof she could find. She looked into her sister's eyes and saw that they were open and she was still.

"Luna I'll help you, just hold on." Tia was scared for her.

Garren reassured her,"She's just petrified, in an hour she'll be fine."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why? Don't you remember neglecting our home in a time of need?"

Tia said under her breath,"We didn't care for anyone else that time." She raised her voice,"Things are different now, we can reunite our nations."

"That is not going to happen. Everyone that lived there.......ARE DEAD!! You can't have a nation with no one in it! You know what we did when myself and Lacoden regained our strength and we discovered our power? We slaughtered the griffons living there. The children, moms, dads, entire families wiped out by us, like they did to our families and friends."

"There must be a reason for their killings though. Right?"

"We were just minding our own business then suddenly a whole flock of those beasts attacking us, unprovoked. You wouldn't know, you came after the damage has been done. Lacoden came to me after she saw her family get torn to shreds. Shadow and Dawn were lucky, they still have each other. I lost my son. Everytime when we took our revenge I made all the sons watch their fathers fall under my blade, then I killed them. Shadow now helps a nation that didn't help ours, because of what? His morals? He ruthlessly mashed the griffon that killed Starflare until there was nothing left, but red pulp and feathers. I don't know why he helps you. Sure you helped his daughter, what else does he owe you? I don't think I would ever find out. "

"He forgets the past, you can hold all the grudges you want. It won't solve anything. You will not succeed in taking our kingdom."

"I never said anything about taking it." He was circling Tia and Luna,"Do you know something really amusing? Lacoden could have easily killed Luna, she spared her life so that she can see her beloved home destroyed."

"You can't destroy our nation."

"Really? You don't remember those Changelings, I have a whole army of them. I also have a spy on the inside. I gave my weapon specifications to a small foal I saw wandering around the Everfree Forest. I have planned our attack for years."

"Why are you telling me this? You planned this for so long, why do you want me to know this?"

"Death is more frightening when you see it coming. I will not kill you, it's not in my taste to kill a princess. Instead I will bring you inside to meet the King who created this, paradise."

Garren flew to the castle leaving Celestia to carry her sister. The King and Lacoden were no longer on the balcony, they moved into the King's chambers. The chamber was plastered with dark crystals, even the throne was made from dark crystals. There was a staircase in front of the King. Celestia didn't want to find out where it led to. She set her still sister gently on the floor.

"So you are the one responsible?"

"Princess it's a honor having you in my presence."

Tia thought,"Please Luna I need you to wake up."

"Princess, I believe we haven't been properly introduced. My name is Lacoden."

"I heard of you. You are the one who killed my stallions."

"Not all of them." Lacoden created a smoke-screen and when it was clear she saw a wing-less Pegasus.

It was wheezing,"Prin...princess. I'm sorry."

Tia ran over to the tired Pegasus and leaned over,"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"Are you sure? He is the reason why our spy has been so cooperative. I kept him alive to be used as leverage."

"How do I know this isn't just one of your Changelings?"

"We wouldn't stoop down that low. If you want to make sure, Changelings have a serious allergic reaction against sulfur. I'm sure you know that."

"That is true. How will I know if you didn't cast a spell to make the Changeling not be harmed."

"I will dispel the magic around him, why don't you do it to make sure."

Celestia casted her spell, then Lacoden threw sulfur dust on him. Nothing happened.

"There you have it. You have found out that one of your stallions is still alive. Canon do you care to tell the princess who our spy is?"

"You can tell me."

"Her name is-"

Lacoden finished for him,"Dust."

"Garren I have a question for you. Who did you give your weapon designs to and why?"

"I want to have fun killing. You can't have fun killing someone who can't defend themselves. She works with Wrench in the foundry."

"Wither. How?"

"When I found her she said her village has just been attacked by a gang of thugs then I gave her a scroll before I told her the way for shelter. Those scrolls contained my designs."

Luna was beginning to move, she opened her eyes and saw Lacoden. She tried to get up to get her back but the spell was still wearing off. She tripped. Celestia whispered something to her, Lacoden only heard part of it,".................down..........the....King.....arctic...north........over one thousand years." She could have warned the King of their plot but, she found it more amusing to see him fall.

The King spoke,"I shall take your land next princess."

Garren and Lacoden didn't like that idea. Celestia and Luna jumped up. Celestia shouted,"Now Luna!"

They used their magic on the King, the King tried to counter but, Garren and Lacoden took back their gift and let the King be defeated, he shouted,"Why?!"

Garren replied,"Their land is ours to destroy." Lacoden teleported herself and Garren to an unknown location.

Celestia and Luna continued to shower the King with their spell, after a few minutes the King was defeated and banished him to the arctic north.

"Are you sure that can keep him contained for a thousand years big sister?"

"Maybe even longer. We took all his power so he won't have a way to break out, we have sent him deep to the north where there a no resources or animals to break him out, plus I added a spell that will keep him in a very deep hibernation for 200 years by then he will have no power whatsoever. The area where we sent him, it contains crystals that drain the energy from anyone within a few yards."

The castle started to shake.

"What's going on?" Luna asked frantically.

"I don't know. Let's get out of here!"

"What about the Crystal Ponies?"

"We can't do anything for them right now."

They left the Crystal Empire and looked back at it. It was starting to become transparent. They watched in awe, wondering what was to be of the the proud empire. A few moments later the empire disappeared into thin air.

"NO!" Luna screamed, she flew with Celestia by her side to the place where the Crystal Empire used to be. Not even the enslaved ponies were able to escape.

Garren was behind them,"He casted a spell during the first week of his reign to ensure the Crystal Empire was to be his just in case he was defeated. He designed the spell to last as long as he needed to regain his power. I let you two defeat him for I did not want him to take our revenge." Garren flew away. Celestia and Luna were too sad to chase him down and by the time they could move he was long gone.

Celestia said,"This action is unforgivable. We shall retaliate with as much power as we can have. This may take a long time but, we have to train troops anyway."

"When do we begin?"

"When we return we will rally up the frontier and any other allies willing to risk their lives to assault them."

"Their location is unknown and we don't know how much forces they have with them."

"We will find out."

They both moved sluggishly to the train station, where they got on a train to try and rest before they got back. This train ride was the longest one they have ever had. They sat up at night because they could not sleep at night. They had a large amount of guilt hanging over their heads. When they arrived back to the frontier they saw that their kingdom was safe and sound. They gathered the R.A.K. only to tell of of what horrid things that had happened.

Chapter 22 - Truths

It's been around three months since Garren massacred most of the adults in the frontier. The orphans were left to live in an orphanage ran by the few adults left. Celestia has just finished explaining what happened to the Crystal Empire and she needs willing lives to avenge the empire. Only one problem, there is not enough adults to do that.

Celestia was allowing anyone with solutions to speak.

Shadow said,"I have an idea but, it is going to take time. A lot of it."

"What is it?" asked Randall.

"The orphans."

Tal replied,"Are you crazy? They are too young."

"That is why I said it will take time. We can raise the orphans and when they are of proper age we can train them to fight. Most of them are only 14 to 15 years of age, well those are the oldest ones. The adults left will have to stay for they will have to look over the young ones."

Seng said,"With all do respect, you are saying that we should train child soldiers and I think that is the most stupidest option. What about the other countries like Los Pegasus and Saddle Arabia? Can't they help us?"

"I sent the messenger pegasus to give them the info already in the meanwhile, we must speak to Dust. Iril can you fetch for us?"

"Yes princess."

Iril went to perform her task.

"Why must we need to talk to her?" asked Aero.

"She can tell you once she arrives."

Dust entered the room with Iril and Fyn Cour.

"You requested my presence princess."

"Good now everypony is here, now you get to tell us all what you have done."

"What have I done?"

Luna scolded with a loud voice,"Don't play stupid we know what you have been doing. Admit to your treason."

"Luna let her explain. Go on Dust." said Celestia.

Dust was hesitant, she was sweating and nervous and again she answered in a way that angered Luna even more,"I still don't know what you are talking about."

"Tell all your friends how you betrayed all of them! Do you like what you are doing is that why you won't tell them?!"

"Luna calm down." Celestia said in a firm voice.

A tear was running down Dust's face. She ran out the room.

"I'll get her." said Lancer.

He followed her outside.

"Luna I can't believe you. Admitting treason is hard for someone to do."

Mist was curious,"How did she betray our country?"

Tia replied,"I will let her tell you that for it may anger a few more even greater if she didn't say it herself."

Bladedancer announced,"They're back."

Dust was sniffling a little and Lancer went back to his place.

"What did you say to her?"

"Aero I just calmed her down. she said she was going to admit to this "treason" when she comes back inside."

"Must be serious since Luna was so angry." Cloudfire added.

"Are you ready?" Luna asked nicely.

Dust nodded. She looked to all those in front of her and said,"I have been spying for Garren. I told him when, where, and how the R.A.K. training was going to happen. He used the information provided to his advantage."

Mist said in a low but angry,"Like sending those Changelings during my training." She walked out the room and slammed the door as hard as she could.

There was a silence and then Tal, Randall, and Soul left. When they exited the room they walked down the hall, coming toward them was Dawn.

"If my father in that room?"

Yeah, along with that traitor." scolded Mist.

"Mist come on relax. He is there dear just don't interrupt them, they're busy right now." said Soul.

Dawn walked to the door and saw that it wasn't closed all the way so she decided to eavesdrop.

Dust is still continuing telling what she has done.

"I told him about the cargo transport to Saddle Arabia. He made the sandstorm that caused you to go inside the warehouse where Lacoden killed our friends."

"Friends do not betray each other." Cloudfire said before also exiting the room. Hail left shortly after without saying a word.

"Why have you done this?" asked Tint.

"He has someone that we thought died."

"Who is it?" said Storm.

"Canon."

He was in shock,"He's still......alive. The last of my squad is still alive." He spoke clearly now,"Where is he held?"

"Probably the warehouse but, if he finds out I told you he will kill him."

Tia argued,"He told us, why can't you?"

"He lied. Damn him."

Shadow said,"You can't trust him."

"Why should we trust you? You didn't tell us you knew him or that you knew Lacoden. Or that your daughter is immortal. You even know a few dragons. Your dead wife is the granddaughter of Star Swirl even Garren told me that. How can we trust someone who doesn't feel the pain of losing anyone or tell his friends his secrets?"

"Do you want the truth? I to am immortal and I have killed innocent civilians when I joined a gang to get Dawn a better life, I know dragons because, one time i was almost killed by one. I became immortal due to the fear of losing another loved one. And I killed my wife. I killed her during the siege, I couldn't protect so a griffon took her life. She wasn't strong enough to fight back for she gave her powers to Dawn. Her death is my fault and I take full responsibility for it. I used to live at Fallen Star where Dawn, her mother, and I lived our happy lives. I was a student of Garren's and when the griffons attacked our home, our lives changed. I lost many loved ones; friends, family. I have experienced that pain many times. Don't tell me that I don't feel anything! Is there more that you want me to say?!" Shadow was panting.

Storm said,"You didn't kill her, that griffon did."

"You know I told myself that it but, I sent her home with Dawn when the attack happened. I went to get Garren for help and when he denied assistance so he can protect his own family I returned to see a griffon tossing her body around like it was a doll. I took a large stone and broke it's legs. Then it's wings, torso, and it's head. I enjoyed watching that beast die. When I looked up to Dawn she was looking at me as if I killed her mother. I tried to convince her that I wasn't bad and that I wanted to protect her. Dawn was right I am her mother's killer. To make her listen to me I had to drag her to a witch, Great Tear, to have any memory of her mother wiped out, she doesn't even remember her first birthdays because her mother was there. Do you know how she would react if she found out?"

There was a small opening at the door behind it was a unicorn, it was Dawn. She said,"I don't how the hell I would react." She left the door. And from the sounds she was crying.

Shadow stopped speaking.

Seng said,"Oh shit, I'll go talk to her."

"No just let the truths be absorbed by her. Hearing all that at one time can probably scar her."

"You can't let her suffer through that alone, I will go." Aero said.

"Please just-"

"Shadow he's right. Dawn needs a little guidance on why you didn't tell her." added Flood.

Shadow heard a voice in his head,"Listen to them. They're trying to help. You can let them, that's the least you can do for her. I will talk to Dawn. Tonight is a full-moon."

Shadow made a gesture signaling Aero allowing him to talk to her.

Chapter 23 - Starflare

Aero went after Dawn, Shadow didn't want to see her face again until he was ready to speak to his daughter again. Seng went as well shortly after without anyone else knowing, he believed that Aero's negative attitude may worsen the situation but, Aero was trying to be as positive as he can to help cheer her up. Dawn went to Canterlot Garden to get her mind off of things. The sun was starting to set. Aero found Dawn on a small bridge looking down into the pond below. He saw ripples in the water coming from the center.

"This place is peaceful isn't it?" asked Aero.

Dawn was weeping, probably not hearing him.

Aero continued,"It's supposed to be a full moon tonight."

Dawn looked up at him.

"So, you're immortal? Well, I think you already know that."

Dawn finally replied,"I have never known what it's like to be sick."

"Why is that?"

"I can't get sick, die from old age, disease, and unnatural causes. Maybe from natural causes as well but, I haven't come close to death yet. What is it like?"

"To be sick?"

"Yeah. I would like to know."

"Trust me you don't."

"Please."

"Fine. Well, it doesn't feel good I can tell you that. Especially when you have a cold that does not like to go away. You sometimes can't breathe easily because of all the snot blocking your nostrils and when you blow your nose it's just really nasty."

"That sounds interesting."

"No, that sounds like it sucks. I hate being sick, it makes me feel like I don't want to move and it can difficulty when you're trying to sleep."

Dawn chuckled a little,"When was the last time you got sick?"

"Not for a long time. I am very cautious about what I do to avoid getting a cold."

"I don't think I've ever been sick."

"You're lucky."

"Not really, it makes me feel not alive. I don't know how to explain it."

"I can understand what you mean. It makes you feel like you're not normal and that you want to fit in but, you can't."

"Exactly my point."

"It's special that you are not normal, you're significant. I mean you are the only filly that's immortal and has powerful magic."

"I didn't ask for it though. Why do I have these gifts?"

"Maybe you're supposed to have it. So you can change the future."

"Like a destiny?"

"Exactly like one."

"What do you think I should do?"

"You need to figure that out, I can't control what you do."

The moon was partially raised now, the warm night was starting to blanket the land. The plants in the garden were absorbing the heat from the air so it got cooler. The crickets were beginning to chirp and the fireflies began to light up the dark areas of the garden. The wind blew softly.

"I'm so confused right now. I don't know who to trust anymore. My dad hid so many truths from me and who knows what else he is hiding."

"He could have his own reasons to keep them hidden."

"Like what?"

"I'm going to be a bit blunt here but, would you have been happy if you found out he killed your mother and that he cleaned any memory of her from your mind?"

"Not really." Dawn's voice changed to a little angry tone.

"Everyone has their reasons, don't be so hard on him. I bet it killed him when you found out."

Her voice got more serious,"I will talk to him but, not now it is taking me some time to get this in my brain."

"I'll leave you by yourself, you can be more at peace alone in crap like this."

Aero left her on the bridge, he didn't leave the garden though. Seng was waiting at the doors back inside to the castle.

"How did it go?"

"I think it went well."

The moon was about to reach it's highest point in the sky. The light from the moon was shining solely on the bridge, the rest of the area was dark. It was like Dawn was in a spotlight and she was in the center of a stage. As it did a loud sound from the tallest tower in Canterlot sounded off. There was a slight commotion in the town but, it died down as nothing happened after. Seng and Aero heard sounds behind them, they turned and saw a pink-coated unicorn with a mane and tail that was long, white, and had pink highlights. Her eyes were pink and Seng and Aero stepped in front of this unicorn before she got any closer.

Seng asked in a serious tone,"State your name."

She said,"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Her voice was pleasant to hear.

"Try us." said Aero.

"I am Star Swirl the Bearded's granddaughter, Starflare."

"You're right I don't believe you. According to Shadow she died."

"Okay then well I have to get aggressive then if you don't let me see my daughter."

"You won't get through anyway." Aero scolded.

"I may be the granddaughter of Star Swirl one of the most powerful unicorns that has ever lived, are you still willing to risk it?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

She walked up to them, they both stood there ground. She knocked them right off their hooves, they were both seeing stars circling around their heads. She went off with a laugh and walked to the bridge. Dawn was looking up at the sky. She heard noises coming closer she assumed it was her dad.

"I don't want to talk to you."

Starflare chuckled,"You have grown so much mentally."

Dawn looked down and saw her. It was dark so she couldn't define who it was.

"Who're you?"

The unknown unicorn stepped into the moonlight.

"You look like the Changeling."

"I am real, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"That sound from earlier, it was my soul taking over your father's body. Zaz did the same thing with you when Canterlot was attacked."

"Mother?"

"Yes my daughter. I am your birth-mother."

"I don't want to talk to my own father. What makes you think I will talk to someone that I don't remember and is probably my imagination?"

"You do know me and I am real as the pain you feel." Starflare turned Dawn around,"Just try to listen, will you do that?"

"I'll give you a chance."

"You, Excaelum, and your father are all unique. You can do what even the princesses can't."

"I know that."

"Your father kept my death from you. He remembered all the times we had together the good, bad, and so forth. He did not want you to remember me, when he saw you crying over my body it tore him up. He wanted to take his own life but, he thought of you. He did whatever was the best solution was, that was to go to Great Tear and have your memory of me erased. If you were in his position you would understand."

"I don't though, why couldn't he just let me remember?"

"After you were done crying, you ran to the nearest cliff from our house and you jumped. You didn't know what you were doing."

Dawn choked up a little,"What happened?"

"Shadow saved you before the waves below even touched you."

"Was I that dead?"

"I dug into your father's memory and saw that you tried to get out of his grip so you can try again. He was telling you not to, that you still have something to live for."

"For what?"

"You. To live for yourself."

"Why did dad try to kill himself then?"

"He was close to but, when he saw you running for that cliff he realized he still had someone to take care of."

"He did that for me?"

"Everything he has done in his life has been for you."

Dawn started to sniffle,"Why couldn't you live? Why were you the one to die? Why couldn't I be the one to talk to you instead of you talking to me?"

"I decided to give you my power the day before, I did not want to be pressured to live up to my families standards. I gave my life for you, that was my decision. My destiny."

Dawn stopped sniffling,"So you to leave your burdens with me?"

They both laughed.

Starflare had a smile on her face,"I miss you." She placed her hoof on her cheek and slowly felt Dawn's soft coat. Starflare missed the feel of her daughter.

"I miss you too mom."

Starflare's smile shined, she looked up to the moon.

"Luna knows how to make the moon shine."

"She's good at her job mom. That is why she's tasked with that."

"You may have a throne of your own someday." Starflare said trying not to be heard.

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing. I must leave now."

"Why? We have only just met."

"You can go to our first greeting by going to Chronin. She can show you your forgotten memories."

"Wait-"

"I love you, Dawn."

"I love you too."

Starflare's appearance was beginning to fade, her pink coat turned to dust and went with the wind under was her dad. Her father fell to the ground. Dawn's eyes were covered in tears. She went to her father and hugged him as hard as she could, he teared up as well and hugged back.

"Don't cry Dawn."

"I'm sorry I doubted you."

"I'm the one who is sorry. I'm sorry for not telling you the truth. From now on, no more secrets."

"It's okay, I now understand. Dad?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"Right back at you." They laughed.

They both separated, but stayed close to each other. They spent the night just watching the sky.They lied down under a tree that was near by. Shadow had his wings around her the entire time. She fell asleep but, Shadow stayed up. When the sun began to rise from the horizon he woke her so they can watch the sunrise together. It was beautiful.

They lied down under the tree until the next night, everyone wondered where they were, Shadow's friends started to look around the castle for them. Seng and Aero didn't remember what happened that night. Knight Black Soul saw them just enjoying each others company when she went on the small bridge in the garden. She called off the search for them so they can actually be a family, once again.

Chapter 24 - Reliving the Past

It was just right after noon that Soul appeared on the bridge again, Shadow put Dawn on the grass to let her rest. Shadow approached Soul on the bridge.

"You two looked peaceful I didn't want anypony bothering you."

"Thank you, for letting us be."

"You're welcome."

"I said that I have no more secrets hidden away to my daughter."

"That's good."

"Not all my secrets are about Dawn some involve Green Fawn, your hometown."

"Wha-what? Are they good secrets?"

"No. It's about the day when a gang occupied the town."

"Were you there when it happened?"

"I was part of the gang that occupied the port."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you, let's go around the garden."

They went very slowly around the garden Shadow started telling the story of Green Fawn.

"Do you remember that day?" asked Shadow.

"I can remember the screams."

"I'll start from the very beginning. This was after Starflare passed and we left Fallen Star. I had to find work to get our life back on track. There was no available job at the time, this was before I ever seen Green Fawn by the way. We were at another port nearby called-"

"Green Doe."

"Yes, I went to a marketplace to steal some food for me and Dawn. Dawn was staying on a boat with a friend we made. Someone stopped me before I got a chance to steal something, he said he was offering a job of security for the mayor of the port. He was very odd, he was wearing a raggedy cloth over his body. It was ripped pretty much about every inch of the cloth, I was uneasy about my choice but, I had no other option. I took the job, I didn't meet whoever I was supposed to protect until later on. My first job was to protect a carriage going to like a mansion or something, I was one of the pawns at the back. The pay was decent enough to get through a month or so. Anyways, the carriage contained the mayor inside, we transported him safely to his mansion, that same night we were ambushed by a couple a fools that called themselves peacekeepers. I was told to kill them, I didn't believe they were peacekeepers then because they wore no insignia and they had weapons."

"Did you kill them?"

"Of course I did, I was desperate at the time. On the way back to Green Doe we were again attacked by a rival gang from Green Fawn."

"We did have a gang occupying our town but, they weren't violent."

"Our mayor took this as a threat and planned an attack against Green Fawn. It was then I found out that our so called mayor was actually a gang leader. I still haven't seen him but, I'll get to that later. I told Dawn to stay with our friend at the port, in a week we went to Green Fawn. I didn't participate in any action other than pretending to be pumped for the kill or breaking domestic objects like stands, poles, etc. I saw two foals run inside a house in the center of the town, what appeared to be a mother followed them in. No one other than me saw those three go inside the house, I went in and the mother was very protective of these two foals, she was trying to knock me out with some kitchen tools. She was dark-colored, like you Soul. Does that sound familiar to you?"

"That sounds like my mother, Storm and I were the two foals. Were you the one she was attacking?"

"At first she thought I was going to do harm to you three but, I was telling her to hide and to let me ransack the house to make it look like someone has already been there."

"She hid me and Storm in the fireplace, she then threw a table in front of it. That table had a tiny hole in it, I used it to see what was going on."

Around 20 years ago. Location, Green Fawn.

The door opened as soon as it was closed, a pegasus was at the doorway. The mother levitated the nearest object to her and launched it at the intruder.

"Leave us!" she screamed.

"Stop! I'm hear to help!"

The mom shouted,"Get out!"

The pegasus threw the unicorn against a wall and held her down,"I'm here to help. Believe me."

"If you are here to help, get off me."

The pegasus did as he was requested.

"You need to hide the foals, they will be the first ones to go."

"To go?"

"They will be killed as the colts were. The mares will be raped."

The mom looked to the foals,"The fireplace go."

"But mom-"

"Get in!"

The two foals followed their order. The fireplace was recently used so it was filled with ash and coal.

"Block the fireplace."

"The table knock it over."

The two pushed the table over and blocked off the fireplace. The unicorn went to a cabinet that was nearby and opened it. Inside was a set of armor, it was black and outlined with a very dark-violet. She put the armor on.

"You're Knight Athen."

"I am." The knight walked to the table and said,"Look after each other, stay close as I was with my comrades."

Another gang member entered the house,"Shadow what are you doing get her!"

The knight shot a knife from the floor to hit between the intruders eyes. The knight exited the house.

The pegasus walked over to the table and said,"I'll come back for you, stay here."

The pegasus walked out the house and saw Knight Athen crushing those who got close to her with a spear-like weapon in her possession, it was barbed at the blade so every time the knight would pull out the spear it would tear flesh. She stabbed one and slid the spear forward and violently ripped it out. The gangster almost instantly died. The gang leader, sitting in his carriage, sent one of his strongest pawns down to defeat this major threat. This pawn was Shadow's friends, he was one of the best friends he had made. He too was a unicorn. He was a former knight. An orange coat and had a mane and tail that were yellow.

"Athen."

The knight turned around,"Oless, what are you doing?"

"Something I should have done a fucking long time ago." Oless' horn started to glow, he quickly pivoted back to the direction on the carriage and shot a beam at it. The explosion was large. The still loyal gang members horded Oless, Athen tried to fight them off but, there were still too many. They both were beaten up so bad they lost the strength to fight back. The gang leader survived the blast and didn't take Oless' attempt to kill him lightly. This gang leader was fat, he indulged himself in foods he had stolen prior to this event. That's what Oless had said about him anyway.

"BREAK THEIR HORNS!!" the leader said.

One of the members took a large stone mallet and smashed their horns to pieces. They both screamed in agony. Shadow shut the door leading to the two foals unnoticed, he did not want them to even the screams.

"Hahaha! Now for our public execution." the leader rejoiced.

They had brought with them a machine designed to only cut off heads, a guillotine. It was stood up.

"This will be used later on. First the children we have captured." the leader annouced, his followers were not pleased,"Don't worry my friends this will be much more entertaining. WE SHALL DROWN THEM!" his followers cheered. Shadow was sickened by the leaders words. They marched over to the port, the adults captured were brought to the port as well, they were forced to watch as their children's lungs were filled up with water. All the foals cried for help, Shadow's heart was broken he felt like he couldn't do anything. He was worried about his friends taking care of Dawn and what they would do if they found out Shadow has a daughter. They were tied up to a crane-like contraption and dipped into the water, one by one. The dead foals were cut off and their bodies splashed into the water they started to create a barrier, blocking any more bodies to enter the wet abyss. So many bodies, so much dead young. The last foal to go was shouting for help.

"Please I don't want to die! I will be good! I promise!"

Shadow tried not to hear the cries, the adults were shouting curses at the gang.

"Go to hell!"

"Damn you bastards!"

"I'm going to kill you all!"

The leader of the gang punished them,"Drown the last foal!"

The young foal yelled,"No! Please!"

The bodies of the already dead foals floating in the water blocked the current foal from fully reaching in the water. The foal was crying.

They brought her back on the dock and cut her from the crane."Does this mean I can live?"

"No." the leader pushed over the foal and stomped on her."Who else wants a turn?" again his followers cheered.

One by one the dozens of gangsters stomped on the young filly, stopping her every time she started to yell for help.

"Help me!"*BAM*. Shadow wasn't looking but, every time Shadow heard that sound he knew that poor fillies body was smashed against the wooden dock. Soon enough the crying from the filly fell silent.

"Now to reward the brave colts for trying to defend their home." They marched to the guillotine.The leader added,"First the colt who tried to kill me."

Oless was pulled from the crowd of colts and set in position for the blade. The executioner asked,"Any last words traitor?"

Oless answered,"You are not one of them!"

He wasn't looking at anyone, just the basket his head was going to be in. The blade fell. Cries from the adults rang the air.

All the colts were executed. The mares, including Athen, were all tied up to boards and gagged, they were put into houses. When night fell Shadow knew what sickening things were happening to the mares. Shadow stood in front of the door leading to the foals. A board was being lifted, headed to Shadow's direction. Shadow looked to see who was on the board, Athen. She was beat up, tears running down her face. Her eyes were swollen. She was still gagged with a dirty cloth.

"What is to be of her?" Shadow asked.

"Our leader wishes to punish her himself for killing our comrades."

"Open the door!" one of them shouted.

Shadow opened the door and quickly went in front of the table blocking the fireplace and he whispered to the foals behind it,"Stay quiet, everything's going to be fine. Shut your eyes and ears."

Athen was placed on the floor, there was no light inside the house. The moon wasn't shining, it was blocked by the clouds.

"Light the fireplace." a gangster ordered.

Shadow did not let them pass him.

"Do you want me to kill you?"

Shadow replied,"We have lanterns use them you fucking imbecile."

"Say that again and I'll beat you like that bitch on the board."

"Touch me, see what happens."

The gang leader walked in with two members following behind, both carrying lanterns.

"Place the lanterns on the ground and leave me alone with her." the leaders said."Have any of you touched her yet?"

The pony who Shadow threatened answered,"Besides the beatings no sir."

"Beatings?" the leader looked at Athen and scrutinized her body,"You were told not to touch her! She was to be fresh! Get him out of my sight! Kill him!"

Shadow said,"Gladly." The other two ponies went outside as well.

Shadow dragged him outside and choked him to death. Shadow remembered what Oless had said, "You are not one of them." Shadow went back to the door and heard,"What do you think will happen if I put this in here." he heard muffled cries. And thumping against the ground. Shadow looked around, he saw Athen's spear lying on the ground, he looked around to see if someone was watching. Shadow went to get the spear and he killed the other ponies by him silently. The other members were all inside doing vile things but, Shadow's first priority was to kill the leader. He barged inside and saw the fat leader defiling Athen.

"Wait your turn or I will have you killed."

Shadow was not affected by his threats and he went closer to him, the leader got up and looked behind him and took a spear to the crotch, Shadow rapidly stabbed him the face. Again and again Shadow did not stop until he was dead. He pulled out the spear, dropped it on the ground and ran over to Athen. He untied her.

"Here cover yourself with this and let's get you untainted." Shadow threw her a torn blanket and led her outside, she later returned.

The two foals came out from the hiding place to hug her.

"Thank you. What is your name?"

"Athen my name is Shadow."

"Thank you Shadow. I must ask you a favor Shadow but, we have to go outside."

"Alright."

"Storm. Soul. I'm going to be gone for awhile. Storm take care of my daughter."

"Yes ma'am." Storm's voice was high-pitched back then."I will guard her."

"Good. And Soul I need you to be strong."

"Mom where are you going?"

"In time you'll see. Shadow let us go outside. Bring my spear. Kids stay inside. Bring the body outside." Those were the last words Soul had heard from her mother.

They walked outside.

"The other gang members are still raping the others, stop them Shadow."

Shadow left and came back in about half an hour.

"Those animals. They were having intercourse with dead mare bodies. They killed them before..."

"Don't I know what you are going to say. My favor."

"What is it?"

"That fucks child is inside me. I must ask you to stop it."

"How?"

"Kill me."

"I can't do that."

"Would you rather have my child grow up and remember out her mom committed suicide after being saved or her being killed betrayed by the one who just saved her? To me the second option sounds better."

"I can't."

"Please. There is another thing I ask of you. Watch after those two for me."

"I can't kill you."

"Yes you can."

"I just-"

"You can, don't think about me."

"I don't have a choice do I?"

Athen chuckled,"No you don't."

"You are the greatest knight to have ever lived, Knight Athen."

"As a gift for my gratitude, I grant you my armor and my spear. My armor is on the scaffold to the guillotine. Use these gifts however you see fit."

"Thank you." Shadow slowly hoisted the spear from the ground and jabbed Athen.

She had a smile on her face,"Thank....you." She fell on the ground, Shadow pulled the spear out. He put Athen's body on a patch of grass and covered it with a blanket. He went to the scaffold and picked up her armor.He entered the house and he started to cry when Soul asked,"Where's my mom?"

"She left to find help. Stay here until the morning and help will arrive."

Shadow took his gifts and left. In three days a large group of peacekeepers came to Green Fawn.

"So my mother told you to kill her so an abomination wouldn't grow inside her womb?" asked Soul.

"Yes she did I am sorry for that." replied Shadow.

"It's....it's fine. She trusted you and she depended on you to do something she couldn't."

"I still have her armor and spear."

"I would like to see it."

They left but, had the princesses to watch his daughter. They went back to the frontier and to Shadow's house. Shadow opened an old chest inside was the black armor and barbed spear. They both were clean, just not polished.

"They belong to you."

"No, my mother gave them to you."

"And she said to use it however I see fit. I think giving it back to her grown daughter is fit enough."

"I'm going to have to modify it to my use then."

"Whatever seems fit. Your mother will be proud of you."

"I'm sure she already is."

Shadow went outside a few minutes after Knight Black Soul came out wearing the armor.

"You look like your mother."

"Thank you, this armor is a little tight though. It doesn't have any places for wings."

"It was made for a unicorn after all. You can get it fixed I'm sure."

Chapter 25 - Infiltration

The messenger pony has just gotten back from her errands, she is to report to Celestia about Los Pegasus' and Saddle Arabia's responses to assisting them in retaliating for the Crystal Empire. Luna and Celestia were still at the garden watching Dawn.

"What did they say Dali(da-lee)?"

"They fear for their own safety, they will not help."

"Damn."

"Maybe we can reach out to the Fort Reiner where we evacuated the frontier before the dragons attacked." suggested Luna.

Celestia replied,"I don't know, a few of our own stayed their instead of coming back, for a change of scenery. Maybe they will be willing to do something since Garren killed off most of our adults and those adults can be their friends or relatives."

"We should go there ourselves sister."

"Thank you Dali. You can leave. Luna that fort doesn't have much people we have to widen our options."

"Shadow. Doesn't he know someponies at Green Doe?"

"I don't trust pirates."

"All of them aren't bad, we just have to be careful on who we choose."

"I bring it up the next time I speak to him then."

"We may have our number of soldiers figured out but, how about the weapons?"

"We can build a foundry for Wrench and Wither, then we can hire a few dozen workers. That may take a few months though."

"True and to have a war we need money."

"Wars not cheap. Okay, let's see our options. I think selling to Saddle Arabia and Los Pegasus is out of the question. Manehattan?"

"We don't really have a connection with them, we can try though."

"Fundraisers, large land sales, taxes, tariffs. I don't know what else to think of."

"The first two I'm fine with. Setting up taxes, I don't know."

"It doesn't have to be a whole lot, if we start taxes now, fund-raise, and sell land we can have enough money to pay the troops."

"Or we can have volunteers. They can sign a contract saying they will serve until the war ends."

"How about a draft?"

"We will be looked at differently if we do that."

"Tia the entire world will look at us even more differently if we don't do anything."

"Quite a dilemma we have."

They both looked to the tree where Dawn was, she was gone. The two princesses walked around to find her. Celestia was walking by a hedge and heard Dawn talking. There was another voice, it sounded distorted. Celestia quietly sneaked around to hear the conversation better.

"What are you doing here?" scolded Dawn.

The voice replied,"Oh is it a crime to visit an old friend?"

"Lacoden answer me or I will make you."

"Now, now, I will tell you."

"Take that hood off. I want to see your face."

"My good friend haven't you seen it enough."

"You are no longer my friend. Take it off!"

Lacoden complied but, she only parted her hood to the side. Her eyes and grim smile told everything Dawn needed to know about her mental state."Pity, you still haven't realized what has happened to us."

"What happened to you?"

"We were reborn into a world of shit. We should have died on that island. You left us to rot!"

Dawn looked at the ground,"We thought you were dead. You were bleeding out and your pupils.....the look in your eyes still haunts me."

"It still does. Doesn't it?"

Dawn didn't respond."

"Look at me!" Lacoden shouted.

Dawn looked up, looked straight into her eye. It was dead. Bloodshot and haunting. Dawn looked away, she couldn't bear to see the look in her friends eyes.

"Don't look away! Look what you did! I would not be doing this if you had stayed just awhile longer."

Dawn started to cry, she was feeling guilty. Lacoden wanted her to see the damage. She used her magic to choke and lift Dawn. Lacoden forced Dawn's eyes down into her own. Dawn didn't fight back. Lacoden was beginning to grow a hostile look, she started to tighten her grip on Dawn's throat. She pushed Dawn against the hedge Celestia was hiding behind. Celestia was scared to confront Lacoden. Lacoden could easily kill her. It was getting tighter and tighter, Dawn didn't want to attack. Suddenly Lacoden's grip stopped. Dawn dropped to the ground gasping for air.

"GET OUT!!"

Dawn looked up and saw Lacoden holding her head.

"You don't need her! I stayed when she left! I am the one you need!"

"What's wrong with her?" Tia thought."

Lacoden ran to a tree and started bashing her head against it. Leaves from the tree were falling, Dawn tackled Lacoden, she didn't want to see her lose any more of what sanity she has left.

"Snap out of it!" Dawn yelled.

"I already have." Lacoden laughed and pushed Dawn off of her. She got up and said,"How selfless you are. You stopped me even though we are enemies.

"You are still my friend. We can end this nonsense right now. We wouldn't have to go back to-"

"Do you know what it feels like to kill?" Lacoden broke off a branch from the tree and started to sharpen it with a stone. The loud grating sound it made irritated the ears of Dawn and Celestia. Celestia was trying to decide what to do then she looked in front of her and saw that Soul was coming to her.

"Princess are you alright?"

"Where's Luna?"

"Back inside the castle. What in the world is that?"

"Lacoden she's here."

"I need to get Shadow to fight her off. Where's Dawn?"

"With her."

"I can't leave then, you have to find him. He's inside the castle."

"No! I will not leave her alone."

The grating sound ceased and the two silenced their voices.

"Killing brings my cold heart warmth." said Lacoden.

"How?" Dawn replied.

"I especially like it when I can see the death of my target but, I can't see this one which saddens me. Not as much though this kill with bring down another with it."

"You and me are the only ones here. I won't let you leave. You can't kill me."

"Ah, I can't. I can see you though, I was not talking about you." Lacoden chuckled,"Hahaha, I'm not talking you. I'm talking about the ones hiding!" Lacoden quickly shot the wooden spear to the side of the hedge. Shnk!

A high-pitched cry rang through the air,"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Dawn ran to the other side of the hedge. Celestia was hit. The wooden javelin went through her side and exited out the other side. The javelin left splinters around both exit and entry wound. Soul was crying for help.

"PRINCESS!" Soul screamed.

Lacoden walked around also and said,"I killed the princess! HAHAHA!"

Dawn was determined not to let her die in vain,"You will pay for this!"

"Oh?"

"HEARTBEAT!" Dawn shouted. A ominous wind was starting to circle around her. The winds got stronger and faster.

"That's your activation word? SLAY!" another ominous wind was circling around Lacoden.

Soul's first thought was,"I have to get the princess out of here!" She started to hoist the princess. The princess' blood was getting all over Soul. The princess is much larger than most mares, Soul had a hard time getting her up. Dead bodies weigh more than living ones. Shadow arrived.

"I'll help you! We have to across the bridge!"

They got Celestia out of the danger. Shadow went to go back to Dawn.

The winds from the two were loud Soul had to raise her frightened voice,"WHAT ABOUT THE PRINCESS?!"

"I CAN SAVE HER! GET INSIDE!"

Soul did just that. Shadow stayed to observe the awesome power of his daughter and Lacoden.

"They're going to blow this castle off the face of the world."

The winds stopped and their bodies were glowing. They both had an aura around them. Dawn had a purple glow while Lacoden had a yellow one. They rushed to each other causing an explosion. In the smoke Shadow could only see the two glows, they were clashing with each other. Everytime they did an explosion would go off from them.

"SHADOW!"

Shadow turned and saw Fyn Cour running out the door to him.

"WHAT IS IT?!"

"GARREN!"

They went inside, Shadow couldn't do anything about Dawn. They ran inside to the main hall of the castle. Garren had a hoof-sword. Shadow's friends were barricading Luna with their bodies, Soul was protecting Celestia.

"Garren leave them alone."

"A little late for that."

The bodies of Tint, Lancer, and Storm lay in Garren's wake.

"Here show me what you can do." Garren slid a bag over to Shadow, it's contents: a hoof-sword. Shadow equipped his weapon and got into a fighting stance. He opened his preparing to attack. They both started to circle each other, Garren flew into the air and dived down. Shadow simply stuck his blade out and stabbed Garren in the mouth, he then slammed him to the ground. Shadow backed away. Garren got up slowly."How many times have I told you Shadow, don't let your enemy recover."

"I'm not a coward like you. I will never become like you."

"That is how you lose my pupil."

Garren's wound was starting to regenerate. He retaliated with full-force. Garren is agressive, he will not give Shadow an opening. Shadow's skills got better while Garren's stayed the same. Shadow tackled Garren and stabbed him in the throat. The sounds from the explosions outside stopped. Garren shoved Shadow and got up.

"Until next we meet." He flew away.

Luna ran down to her sister,"Tia! Tia! Don't Die!" Don't leave me!"

Celestia looked up to her sister,"I'm ....not....going....anywhere." she said.

"You're going to stay right sister?"

"Always." her head fell to the side, her eyes stayed open. Celestia's mane and tail stopped waving in the air.

"Wahhhh!" Luna was crying. Her sister passed away, murdered by Lacoden.

The others there were too crying for the princess. Aero broke a window out of anger. Iril fell to the ground crying. Seng was distraught, he was acting different from his usual optimistic attitude. Fyn Cour was weeping.

Fyn thought she could save her,"I-I will close up the wound. That should work! Just some rest and she'll be fine!"

Dust saw that her friend was losing her mind and hugged her, comforting her. "It's no use. I'm sorry but, she's gone." They all cried. No one was left with a dry eye.

"No. She is not. Not now." Shadow scolded.

Author's Notes:

http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/Lacoden-Half-faced-408562937?ga_submit_new=10%253A1382320622

Chapter 26 - Immortal Choice

"I thought you can save her Shadow." cried Soul.

"I can Storm, Lancer, and Tint as well."

Dawn returned back inside the castle only to see the body of the princess lay still on the floor. She started to tremble.

"Dawn, there is one more thing I need to tell you. We can die, only if we sacrifice our immortality. We can do this for a reason or for none at all. I will give my immortality to bring back those four. After you can decide whether or not to do the same. Put them together, in a row."

Seng, Aero, Bladedancer, and Flood gathered the bodies of Lancer, Tint, and Storm by Celestia. Shadow stood over their bodies and shut his eyes. He took a deep breath. His friends gathered by each other, they didn't know what was going to happen. The light and color in the room started to fade. Everything was now black and white. The winds died down. Glowing beams of light started to come from Shadow's chest.One ray went into Lancer another to Tint and another to Storm. All their wounds healed by themselves. One ray went to Celestia's wound, it healed. It was not enough. More rays started to emerge from Shadow's chest they all entered Celestia. The rays stopped emerging. Shadow was uneasy, he was wobbly and almost fell. The color, light, and wind came back.

"That should work." said Shadow, he coughed up a bit of blood and his nose started to bleed.

Fyn Cour ran to him,"Let me take care of that."

"I'm fine just move them to the infirmary." Shadow coughed a bit more. Some of the others helped carry them.

"Are you sure it worked dad?" asked Dawn.

"I'm sure. I had to use a little amount of my own life and a large amount of my power to bring Celestia back. I split my immortal life into fourths, they each got a piece of it. Tint, Lancer, and Storm were all able to come back with only one-fourth. Celestia being a natural alicorn, it took more out of me. Me being the positive of life I was able to use my power to surely bring them back. The reason why the world went uncolored is that the rays emerging from chest find it easier to find their target. They are living. It'll take a few weeks for them to wake up. Their soul is still being brought back from limbo."

"Who told you this?"

"The witch that granted us immortality, Great Tear. She told me this after I became immortal."

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know and I don't care."

Dawn chuckled,"So I can give up my immortality?"

"If you wish to."

"You're able to die now. Aren't you?"

"Yes. That's sort of a downside to it." Shadow laughed."Okay everypony we've had ourselves an eventful day. You should get some rest."

Soul, Fyn Cour, Seng, and the division leaders stayed.

"What shall we do?" Randall asked.

"Build an army. This was an act of war." Mist scolded.

Tal replied,"I agree. Where should we go to recruit?"

"We tell the frontier that the princess was almost killed. That can rally them up quickly." Soul said.

Fyn Cour blurted out,"What about the sun? Who will raise it?"

"Luna. I'm not sure if she can do it though." Seng said.

"I can assist her. My magic is as strong as hers." Dawn suggested.

"Don't get too confident." Mist replied.

"I think my daughter can. Her mother is the granddaughter of Star Swirl making her the great-granddaughter of Star Swirl. "

"Yeah and I think her mother knocked me out." Seng exclaimed.

"She doesn't like it when she gets the answer "no"." laughed Shadow.

"Did she really?" asked Soul.

"Yeah. My wife kind of always wanted things her way. Well, let's clean this place up. It's a total mess in here."

Dawn repaired any broken windows and other inanimate objects. Fyn Cour and Mist mopped up the blood from the floor. Tal and Randall picked up any debris they can find. Shadow and Black Soul went outside to the garden. IT was completely demolished, not a green plant in sight except for the great survivor, grass. Grass can be found in some of the most harsh conditions in the world.

Soul asked,"Does it feel weird to be mortal again?"

"It's the same as it was before. You have to be careful with what you do."

"I'm going to get my mothers armor reformed to fit me because I'm a Pegasus. It's going to keep it's color and it's to be polished. The spear will be the same only sharper and clean."

"Wrench and Wither going to be doing that?"

"Yeah."

They continued to where used to be the bridge, no water was in the pond anymore. Just dirt and part of a gray object.

"What is that?" Soul asked.

"Not stone. Let's dig it up."

They used their hooves to pave away the dirt. The gray object was an egg. A very large one, it had no patterns just gray coloring.

"Dragon egg."

"Shadow are you kidding me?"

"It most likely is. I can have my friend see what kind it is when he returns."

"You mean Excaelum?"

"Yeah. I wonder who buried it here."

"It couldn't have been recent. This garden was built many years ago."

"It must have been dormant this whole time." Shadow gave the egg a little nudge to see if it was hollow."There's something inside."

The egg started to rumble and it cracked a little. The egg was starting to hatch. The egg heated up, the shell was turning red hot.

"I need a dragon here right now." said Shadow.

Shadow looked toward the frontier and didn't see a dragon in sight. Like he expected to.

Soul shouted,"I have no idea how to raise a dragon!"

"I don't either!"

The shell was becoming to fall apart more and more. The dragon inside was gray. It wasn't much. About 6 to 8 inches in length. It was crying it's high-pitched cry. The wings it had were bigger than the body. 10 to 12 inches in wingspan. It opened it's eyes, light-gray. The head was quite large for it's size, but it looked natural. A few pebbles around it started to lift, barely a couple centimeters off the ground. The pebbles dropped.

"No way. A gravity dragon?" said Shadow.

"Gravity dragon?"

"7 races of dragons. Fire. rock, water, air, thunder, time, and gravity. Time and gravity dragons have the highest rarity. I thought Excaelum was the last one, looks like I'm wrong. We need to take care of this dragon until he returns, he will know what to do." Shadow approached the hatchling and it blew a blue flame at him,"It doesn't like me. You try Soul."

It growled a bit as she inched closer to it but, didn't blow any flames at her."Seems like it likes me more than you." she chuckled. That changed,"I guess it doesn't like to be called "it". Let's see, are you are girl?" It growled,"Nope a boy. I'm going to call you angry." It growled."I'm kidding."

"Only if you could talk it would be a lot easier."

Dawn walked up behind them,"It takes time for a dragon to mature you know."

"Since when did you become such a dragon expert?" asked Shadow.

"I talked to Dragaitas while you and Excaelum were out that one night. He said that Excaelum took longer than he expected to until he learned how to speak."

"Oh. Well, where the heck is Excaelum? Damn we can't do anything with him."

A burst of knowledge ached Shadow's head and he began to hear what sounded like Excaelum talking to himself,"Where is Orcusin? I need to find out what happened to the rest of us."

Shadow felt like he was there with him and said,"What the? How is this possible?"

"Shadow. How are you in my head? I'm nowhere near the frontier."

"Yeah it's kind of awkward me being in this to I guess."

Shadow added,"Okay now that Dawn is here, even though she's right next to me, we can figure this thing out."

"You don't need to my friend, my father told me that we can communicate through our minds."

"Well now that we kind of got this sorted Excaelum we need you back at the frontier immediately."

"What's wrong?"

"I think we may have discovered another gravity dragon."

"I'm on my way." A few minutes passed,"That's where he's been. I need to lose him."

Dawn asked,"Who're you talking about?"

"My brother he's been tailing me. Keep the dragon warm until I get there. He still doesn't know of the dragon, let's keep it that way. He may want to take the dragon if he finds out. He is much stronger than me so if he does find out I won't be able to stop him. Sit tight."

Excaelum didn't come that night. They moved the dragon inside and gave it a name, Kishi. This name belonged to a friend Soul had awhile back, she had the privilege in naming him because the dragon didn't try to burn her.
That night, that calm, faithful night. The Six-winged Pegasus was speaking to his daughter in the garden.

"Have you decided?"

"I......I don't know."

"This kind of decision takes time. What has gotten you stumped Dawn?"

"I'm afraid......afraid of death."

"Death must come to everything one day. Death itself is not frightening, it's facing death on your own. As long as you have the love of your family and friends, death will not scare you."

"Death,,,,,,"

"If you die then that means you have lived. We are living, we must go someday. That's the truth."

Dawn started to sniffle,"I don't know where I'm going to go after."

"None of us do. Besides you want to grow and have a family of your own one day right? Grow old with your love. Have fun with Flake, your future friends."

"Does death hurt?"

"Only if you let it."

"Why can't we just all live?"

"I ask myself that everyday."

They both stood where the tree used to be. The same tree that brought them ever closer.

Dawn looked up to the moon and shut her eyes taking a couple deep breaths. The world wasn't going dull as it did for Shadow, it went more vivid instead. The rays left her body and joined the stars. The process completed and Dawn opened her eyes followed by a gasp for air.

Author's Notes:

check out this video i stumbled upon http://www.logotv.com/video/what-bronies-adult-fans-of-my-little-pony/1715584/playlist.jhtml#vid=965102
I'm sorry I forgot to mention that the word tear in Great Tear's name is tear as in rip.
TWO NEW ART PIECES. SHADOW'S AND DAWN'S CUTIE MARK
http://azndragon123.deviantart.com/art/Shadow-s-Cutie-Mark-409125760?ga_submit_new=10%253A1382573513
I am looking for somepony to volunteer and make my scanned images into CGI if you are interested leave a comment here or on my deviantart.
The dragon design came from a member in a forum I am part of. mlpforums.com you can add me as a friend there if you want to, same as this username. MLP_Moth

Chapter 27 - Origins of Kishi

The moon was up in the sky longer than usual. Luna has yet to gain enough energy to raise the sun. She needed to raise it. Dawn is now again mortal. Many years of being immortal did a number on her. Her body was feeling weaker and more heavy. She was tired.

"Go to bed. Hopefully I can help Luna raise the sun."

"I'm going to see what's up with the dragon instead."

"I don't like that dragon."

"Dad, all because he blew fire at you doesn't mean you should hate him."

"First impressions stick."

Dawn went down to the lounging quarters of the castle and joined the others. Soul was looking over the newly born dragon. The room was very warm but comfortable. The fireplace cracked while the bright chandeliers lit the room up.

Randall asked Black Soul,"KIshi? That sounds familiar."

"That's the name of one of our friends remember."

Mist exclaimed,"Ah, Kishi. I remember him. He passed a few years ago."

"He did." Tal added,"He was a good friend."

Fyn Cour asked cautiously,"How did he die?"

"He fell ill. At least he didn't die alone. I was there when he died." answered Soul.

Aero said,"That's a touching story but, we need to get back on track. How will we raise an army?"

"Like what was suggested by Shadow. We can raise them as child soldiers but, they will barely have any education." Seng replied."Personally I think we should let them grow and when they are 18 we get them to choose if they want to fight."

Dawn said,"The cycle hasn't been completed yet. I agree with you. We won't have to fight until the powers have been properly activated and until we return to Fallen Star."

"How about we don't go there at all." said Bladedancer,"We won't have a need for an army if we don't go there right? That's what you just said."

"I did, we have to go there eventually or else Garren and Lacoden will keep picking us apart."

Something came up to Tint's mind and he jumped up,"Why are we in this in the first place? This is your fight not ours. Why should we risk our lives for your skin. Tell us why."

"I don't know how you all got dragged into this, maybe it's destiny."

"No, a prophecy." Gandore joined as well, she was carrying an old book,"This prophecy must be fulfilled if our world were to be left in peace."

Dust asked,"Is that the book that has this "prophecy"?"

"No, this is a book on our little friend here. Gravity dragons are rare and to have one buried in the garden is much more rare. How deep was it when you dug it up Soul?"

"Not deep at all around 3 - 4 feet in the ground, Give or take a few since Dawn kind of blew the garden up."

"3 - 4 feet deep. Somepony or rather somedragon buried it far more recently than I thought." Gandore opened the book it was titled Dragons of Equestria. She flipped through the pages fast and she stopped on a section titled Dragon of Gravity.

"Now for a little story time, be quiet as I read aloud. This is the only copy of a very valuable journal. Please hold any questions until the end."

The gravity dragons were said to be the first race of dragon to be created. There is only one recorded gravity dragon, well to me. This gravity dragon was very large and it's scales were very dark. The basic powers of gravity dragons are: levitation, gravity-drop, and gravity-rise. These are the only ones observed by ones brave enough to even sneak up on a dragon. I have been watching to for weeks now and he still hasn't changed his-

Seng asked,"Who is the one who wrote this?"

"Star Swirl the Bearded and didn't you listen hold your questions."

"When did he write it?" asked Randall.

"120 years ago. He wrote this as he started his career to be one of the best unicorns to have ever lived. Can I continue?"

It still hasn't changed his lifestyle. It's been doing the same things for months, I wonder if it knows I've been watching it. I will approach the dragon in a week. I hope it doesn't eat me.

Today at Fallen Star is the same as always. Green grass and waves pounding the beaches. The scenery is not what I'm after. I will approach this dragon with much kindness as I can make. If I am not heard from again that means I've been eaten.

Apparently dragons don't like the taste of ponies, I will recite our conversation. I remember it word for word, nopony forgets the first time they speak to a dragon.

Note: I was ready to sprint the whole time during this talk.

I came up slowly to the dragons cave. It was sleeping. I approached the sleeping dragon trying to get a closer look of detail on it's scales.I tripped over a rock, land on it's snout, and he wakes. I try to bring myself up but, trip even more. It pinned my tail to the ground with it's claw. Damn my straggly and tangled tail. It prevented me from moving. I wanted to cut it off before it ate me, instead it spoke.

"You have been observing me for weeks now. What have you learned?" it said.

I responded,"Not.....not much." I was beginning to stutter. I haven't stuttered ever since I was a little.

The dragon lifted it's claw and replied,"What would you like to know?"

Puzzled, very puzzled I was. Would you agree if somepony found out you were spying on them they would get angry? I sure did, I answered,"Where the loo is."

The dragon quickly stabbed it's claw down into my tail again and said,"Well it's not here. Were you going to relieve yourself in my cave?"

"No no no! Of course not." I was shaking, it felt it.

"I think you already did." it chuckled."What is your name?" it asked as it released my tail.

"St-Star Swirl."

"Are you a native of this island?"

"I come from a land far away."

"When do you plan on returning there?"

"I don't know."

"Would you like to do me a favor?"

"We just met though."

"And you seem responsible and honest. Will you do this?"

"It depends. What do I have to do?"

"I need you to hide something."

"For what?"

"My eldest son has gone mad."

"So you want me to hide something from a dragon. Yeah well, I'm going to go now." As I turned around to leave the cave, he said something that I won't ever forget.

"You can save your homeland, Equestria."

"I never said.....How did you know where I come from."

"I have lived for many centuries and you think I don't explore the world I am in."

"Okay. You still haven't answered my question."

"This is my island. I know what comes in and goes out. Now answer mine. Will you do me a favor."

"What do I have to hide?"

"My unborn offspring." The dragon lifted an egg from behind his great body.

"When will it hatch?"

"It is growing as we speak but, will not reveal itself until the time comes."

"When is that?"

"That's for it to decide." The dragon grew alert and he was looking around. He looked back at me,"You need to leave. Take it."

I got the egg and used my magic to hold it up."What is it?"

"My son. Orcusin. Leave. Go to the village north of the island."

"What is your name?"

"Dragaitas."

I hope I can speak to Dragaitas again someday. I did as he instructed me to because, I did not want to get in the middle of a dragon fight. I went to the village to the north and found a boat headed toward Equestria. The egg given to me was safely hiding among my research papers and my luggage. I hope the princesses don't mind me bringing a dragon egg to the castle.

Halfway to Equestria we have stopped at a small island to resupply and rest our sea-legs. I want to leave. Everything here is just the same as before: drunks fighting each other and pirates getting all the loot they can get. I will stay on the Dutchhorse until she leaves this island.

I just got off the Dutchhorse, we made port with Green Fawn. I will find a way to get back to the castle and show the young princesses my souvenir.

I showed the princesses the egg , I remembered Dragaitas telling me to hide it so I did. I buried it in the Canterlot Garden. I hope this Orcusin didn't follow me back.

I am still young, kind of. I like to think myself as young to keep me going. My birthday marking my 28th year of life is happening soon. Funny I started this 4 months ago and nopony has asked me what I write in here. I would like to keep it that way. I think I shall stop this journal and pay attention more to my studies. The princesses need somepony to teach them how to rule a kingdom. I will make my decision on my birthday.

I have met somepony today at my celebration. She is very smart and humorous. I will pursue her. As this name for my entry is this my last entry. I have decided to focus more on my life outside of these pages. I hope when this is again read I will have left an Equestria in the hooves of two strong sisters. I am Star Swirl leaving this journal of my adventures studying dragons. I hope the information provided here in ink will help in some way.

Flood spoke,"We know one thing for sure. Star Swirl buried the dragon in the garden."

Hail contributed to the conversation,"What "time" did Dragaitas speak of? When the time comes. That egg has been buried for 120 years and it just hatched now. My head hurts."

"Tell me about it." added Aero,"Why has the egg hatched now? I sure it's no for anything good either."

Cloudfire said,"It also said that the egg was still growing. Does that mean Kishi is 120 years old? He's small though."

"I think his growth will catch up with him." said Dawn,"Wait......When my father and I met Excaelum he was only I think 30 years or so old. That was 50 years ago. This dragon is older than Excaelum that means he can be stronger than him too."

"Orcusin is the oldest, Kishi, then Excaelum." Randall concluded.

"We still have to worry about Orcusin though." said Seng,"He is still stronger than Excaelum and Kishi. He is mad to according to Dragaitas."

Soul looked at Kishi,he was laying by the fireplace,"I hope he doesn't become like him." she mumbled to herself.

Luna and Shadow were in the infirmary staring at their wounded friends.

"Princess the sun needs to be risen in a couple of hours."

"I know. I am too weak to though."

"You know me being life I can use some of my power to assist you everyday until Celestia wakes up again."

"That would be appreciated."

"When will you tell the frontier and the rest of the residents here that Celestia is injured?"

"I don't plan on it."

"You can't hide it for long. They will wonder why the sun has been risen late."

"I hate my responsibilities sometimes."

"Don't we all. I will take care of our army and Garren, you just worry about the sun."

"You got the easier deal."

Shadow chuckled,"Not really. I have to worry about a killer while you have a giant ball of flame miles away to raise every morning."

"Haha. I can't believe we still have room for humor."

"I try to keep my morale up."

Lacoden was talking to herself at the warehouse. Garren was elsewhere, she was left in keeping the Changelings in check. She had trouble keeping herself in check.

"You are getting more active everyday aren't you?"

Her tone changed to a lighter one,"To get you out of my life."

"Now that's rude. I kept you alive this long and you want out."

"I need to get my life back."

"I am your life."

"No you are not real."

"I am as real as you make me."

"Give me my body back."

Lacoden smashed her head against a bloodstained wall and she looked at the puddle of dark cold blood drained from the bodies of ponies she has killed. She saw her reflection, a dead hollow shell covered by a hood.

Lacoden was not speaking in her high-toned voice anymore. Her disturbed, deep, and hostile voice remained. She said to her reflection

"You can't have it back yet, Lacoden."

Chapter 28 - Mysteries

"Luna are you ready?"

"Yes Shadow."

It was time for Luna to raise the sun. Shadow boosted Luna's ability to raise the moon with his power so she can be able to bring the sun. It took long, but it worked. The sun was up in the sky.

"That took more out of me than I thought it would."

"The sun is larger than the moon after all. Go get some rest Princess."

"I will."

Luna went to her room. And Shadow went to check on the others. The were all passed out on the floor and couches of the room. One thing was missing. The dragon. Shadow didn't wake anypony, he walked to the garden expcting to see the dragon trying to kill something. Kishi was in the garden, not killing anything though. He was simply levitating a few large stones and opening his wings. Shadow went back inside and lied down by his daughter.

A loud roar woke them all up.

"What the heck was that?" said Tal.

"Let's check it out." Seng added.

They went to the walls overlooking the frontier and saw in the distance two dragons.

"Brother I'm not here to fight. I need to know something."

"Oh young brother, you have yet to know your place in this world."

The juveniles in the frontier were scrambling.

"These mark bearers are quite annoying. I don't know how you or your father put up with them."

"Don't speak of him that way. He's your father too Orcusin."

"I can turn them all into ash right now and you won't be able to stop me."

"Leave them out of this. This conflict between you and me."

"As you wish. You want to talk then."

"What happened to the rest of us?"

"Us gravity dragons? We slowly died out."

"There has to be more than that."

"No there isn't." Orcusin slowly approached Excaelum,"We all died very gradually."

"You are saying our race just died for no reason brother."

"I am."

"The star dragons, why are they extinct?"

"I don't care for others affairs."

"Time dragons. They are on the brink of extinction like us."

"I don't know everything even if I did I wouldn't tell you. I am no devil, I want all our races to survive but, I can't do anything about it so why should I care. Back to our problem."

"Leave."

"Why? Do you not want me to scorch this place?"

"Yes. Now leave."

The juveniles panic calmed down, they saw that nothing wasn't going to happen.

"Do you remember the crystal at Fallen Star Excaelum?"

"What about it?"

"Garren wishes to activate it."

"To do what?"

"He wants to cleanse this world of all the injustice."

"He wants to kill every living thing."

"Precisely. I don't care as long as all of our different races are there with us. Fallen Star is the safe haven after all."

"You want to be the King of Dragons."

"You or Chronin can never compete with me. I don't need Chronin there, just Ula."

"I suppose you don't need me there either."

"No there is another gravity dragon I am searching for." Orcusin felt Excaelum tremble just a little,"You aren't telling me something. What is it?"

"I do not know what you are talking about."

"LIAR!" Orcusin forced Excaelum down using his powers,"Tell me."

"You can't make me talk."

"Then I'll kill you."

"Smart. Who will tell you what you wish then?"

"I'll destroy this place."

"I'll fight back."

"I want to know what father taught you." Orcusin released his hold on Excaelum,"You throw the first volley."

Excaelum blew a ball of his light-blue flame, it was small but concentrated. It hit Orcusin and again it had no effect on him. Orcusin returned fire with his dark-blue fire. It was massive. Excaelum forced the flames down before it touched him.

"Sad I can't kill you just yet. Oh how I long for when that day comes." Orcusin directed his fire onto the houses and structures of the town. He blew flames to a house that he saw fillies retreat to, it did not hit it's target. Excaelum didn't move and Orcusin wondered what happened. The flames thinned out and he saw a small dragon. Orcusin grew an evil grin,"Centerra. What a lovely place to see you." Excaelum looked to the direction his brother was looking at and saw a light-gray dragon.

"Is that the gravity hatchling?" Excaelum thought,"It withstood his fire. How is that possible?"

"I see you still haven't developed your ability to speak. You're wondering why I called you Centerra. That was the name our father gave you."

"That must be the gravity dragon." Excaelum thought again.

"You are much smaller than I'd expect yet, you are stronger than he is." Orcusin was speaking of Excaelum,"Brother I would like you to meet our last family member. Father sent his egg elsewhere when I came to capture it. It appears that he sent him here. He is your older brother but, my younger."

Excaelum approached Centerra and bowed,"Welcome brother."

"So you save your formalities for him."

Excaelum raised his head and looked at Orcusin,"He didn't try to kill me the first time we met. You still wish to capture him?"

"Not anymore. My goal now is to kill him." Orcusin jolted to them, Centerra being smaller he was more agile. He quickly dodged his attack. Excaelum absorbed Orcusin's impact with both of his clawed hands. Orcusin's eyes became dark red and his scales lightened to blue then darkened,"This is what father wasn't able to become."

Excaelum backed away,"His body is being taken over. By whom?"

"This power was lost in the weakness of our father's eyes."

Wind started to circle Orcusin, dirt and dust was lifted up. The transformation was complete. Behind the clouds of dust stood a tall dragon. Wings opened and the dragon flew to Excaelum. He tried to block the dragon the same way as he did for Orcusin but, this dragon was not him. Excaelum was thrown back. A trail a fire left a distinct straightaway to the downed dragon. The great dragon marched with loud booms every step. Luckily no foals were hurt in this explosion of power. The dragon stopped and looked up.

"Chronin." it said. It's voice deep and lifeless.

Chronin landed between the dragon and Excaelum,"You are Orcusin's body taker, Mastron."

"I taught him how to exceed the power of Dragaitas."

"You can never exceed him. He defeated you."

"Alone I was very powerful and combined with the power of his sun and the power of merciless. He can easily exceed him."

"You forget fool. Excaelum has the soul of his father, his own strength, and the power of mercy. You can't have Orcusin be stronger."

"Not now but soon." Mastron's appearance faded and Orcusin jerked his head back. His eyes started to glow and a dark beam shot out of his mouth. This continued for three seconds. Orcusin fainted to the ground. Chronin teleported him somewhere far. Chronin went to Excaelum and saw that he was out cold. His chest was wide open but he was still breathing. It closed up on it's own but instead of light-gray scales they were blue with thin streaks of black.

"Impossible. I thought they were extinct. How is he one of them? Dragaitas forget to tell me something before he died. I'll get him to his friends." Chronin teleported Excaelum to the courtyard at the castle. Centerra flew to Chronin,"You are the only one that can bring those two back together. Do you understand?" Centerra nodded. Chronin used her power to return the frontiers buildings and structures back to normal and left. Flake and the other fillies came out.

"We have a lot of training to do." exclaimed Flake.

"You think, we're going to be fighting dragons too." another pony said.

Centerra flew over them and headed back to the castle. Shadow and the others saw the wounded dragon and went over to him.

"He can't be dead." whined Dawn.

Shadow said,"He's not. Why is his chest different from the rest of his body?"

"Kishi is back." cheered Soul.

Seng asked Black Soul,"You really like that dragon don't you?"

"As if he was my own." she answered.

Garren was at an island far from land.

"Halfway to Fallen Star. Let me see how much mercenaries and pirates would like to be paid to do my dirty work." Garren trotted to a bar and marched right to the center of it and shouted,"Who is looking for easy money?!" The loud ones inside silenced and looked over to him,"I can find malleable material in here." Garren thought,"Work for me and you can have all the money in this world!" He continued,"You are living like pests but, if you work for me you can live like kings!"

"Prove yourself!" One of them shouted.

"Very well!" Garren whistled and four Changelings came in dragging a large chest. They opened it and it contained jewels and gold as bright as the sun."If that proof enough? There is more where that came from!" A few dozen Changelings followed in and they were all carrying large chests. They were all opened and contained as much valuables as the first one did, filled to the rim."You can have all this for a simple task I would want to be done in three years. As a matter of fact I will give this all to you now. You can enjoy all this and not have to work for three years. Do you comply?"

"How about we just kill you and take it?"

"Changelings are always prepared for battle and so am I. Do you think I will be stupid enough to do this and not be ready for the outcomes? This is your last chance take it or leave it."

They cheered in agreement and the Changelings threw the chests to the greedy pirates and mercenaries.

"Enjoy your gift! I will return with more!"