A couple of days had passed since Footnote had been asked to research the Shades.  Everything had remained peaceful and everypony was finally starting to get settled into Footnote's home.  He was a boring pony, so not too many people came by his house during the day.  In fact, Eclipse could have sworn that the local mailmare was the only visitor that ever came by his house at all.  Footnote arrived in the evening, slightly later than normal.

"Hello again, everypony.  You all stayed out of trouble?"

"Yes," Midna remarked,  "as boring as that is."

"Good to know." Footnote said.  As he continued into the home, Eclipse was up in his study, plotting away.  Celestia and Luna were already aware of their presense, as indicated by their request for Footnote to study the Shades.

'Now,' Eclipse plotted, 'we need to make them feel a little bit uncomfortable.'  Trixie entered the study, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Why are you still in here?" Trixie asked,  "Don't you have anything more interesting to do than sit there and read?"

"Well, sitting here and reading is vital if Operation Dragon's Claw is to be ready to go, not to mention work perfectly."

"Fair enough." Trixie said.  She had noticed that Eclipse's mane was almost back in full color now.  The sheen of the red mane was a brilliant look with Eclipse's sunset orange eyes, and light grey coat.  Trixie went to leave the study again, and go back to praticing some magic, when Eclipse spoke up again.

"Would you mind staying in here for a while?" Eclipse asked. "I've been kinda lonely lately doing all of this and I'd appreciate the company."

Trixie pondered this for a second.  Was Eclipse weak and dependent?  Had she made the right choice for their leader?  Or maybe this pony just legitimately wanted somepony to talk to.  Over the course of the past week, the two unicorns had noticed that, while they had their disagreements, they had begun to enjoy each others company.  Trixie's attitude even seemed to shift when Eclipse was around; her arrogance was starting to outright disappear.  And now that Eclipse was in a leadership position, her true colors were beginning to show through, both in her attitude, and physically.  Trixie was starting to warm up to this new stage Eclipse was going through.

"I'll stay." Trixie said.

"Thank you, Trixie." Eclipse said.  A couple minutes passed in silence, and soon, Trixie found herself shifting closer to Eclipse.  She noticed just how furiously she was writing, and was quick to ask about it.

"What're you writing?"

"Just some ideas." Eclipse said.  If we're going to do this whole takeover thing, we're gonna need to send Celestia and Luna a clear message. You know, shake 'em up a little."

"Trixie will help you however she can with this.  What do you have in mind?"

"Just a couple small things." Eclipse replied smugly.  "A letter of intent, a chance to surrender.  Things to let them know we're coming after them."  She turned her full attention towards Trixie.

"Wait, are you suggesting... terrorism?" Trixie was nervous about this thought.

"I wouldn't call it that." Eclipse said, chillingly. "I'd call it... warning. An indication of things to come."

"Well, what exactly are you thinking we could do?"

"Do you know how much Celestia loves Canterlot market?" Eclipse asked as she returned her attention to the pages in front of her.

"No idea."

"She used to visit it daily, and now even makes a point to visit once a week.  She often will buy things from ponies there, helping contribute to the economy and keep the ponies from starving.  She also believes that when she buys something there, it helps to boost confidence in each pony's abilities."

"Okay, so? What do we have to do with all this?"

"We,"  Eclipse started, "will burn it to the ground." Trixie's eyes widened in shock.  She was definitely suggesting terrorism now. "No casualties, just a wake up call for Celestia. I've got a couple of other ideas floating around too."

"Trixie is not sure how much she approves of this."

"Well, as your leader, I could tell you to do it anyway, and you would have to listen." Eclipse smiled. "Luckily, I won't make you do anything."

Trixie smiled nervously at Eclipse, wondering both what had gotten into her, and plotting a little something of her own.  A little bit of personally motivated revenge.

It was over dinner that Eclipse fully explained each attack.  Some of them were a little more aggressive than others, but each of the three attacks was given out.

"I want them all done tomorrow, are we clear?"

"Eclipse," Footnote interjected, "shouldn't we spread them out over a few days?"

"No." Eclipse bluntly replied, turning her attention to Footnote.  "We are aiming to spread panic as quickly as we possibly can.  To showcase just how fast we can strike her down."

"Of course." Footnote replied.

"Good." Eclipse said, now turning her attention towards the rest of the group.  "I'll lead the charge tomorrow morning, with the market attack.  Palm, Luna should be asleep around mid-day, so your attack will take place then."

"Understood.  This'll be interesting." Palm Branch replied.

"Footnote," Eclipse continued,  "keep your attack to the late afternoon.  Ponyville Square is pretty densely populated around then."

"My thoughts exactly.  I must say, you seem to have gotten a little more aggressive with your tactics."

"We're getting close to the execution of Operation Dragon's Claw.  Changes like this are going to be needed."

"Fair enough."

"And finally, Trixie will be available for anypony as they are needed.  We have worked out a small communication spell, so she'll be able to come help us if we need it."

"Trixie is at your service!" The blue unicorn piped up.

"Yes," Palm said, tone of irritation in his voice. "How could we forget about you?"

"Not very easily, Trixie assures you."

"Right." Palm rolled his eyes at this comment.

"So, is everypony clear on their actions?" Eclipse inquired.  A resounding "Yes!" was heard.

"Excellent." Eclipse said. "Everypony, get some rest.  We're going to need it to focus tomorrow."  With that, every last pony that sat around the table got up and went to various corners of the house to prepare.  Eclipse retreated into Footnote's study, Palm went into the basement to practice the conjuring spell he would need, and Footnote had gone outside to practice his special breed of magic for tomorrow.  Trixie was in the main entry, making sure that the small stone Eclipse had enchanted for communication was working.  All the pieces were in place, and now, it was time to set everything in motion.

Eclipse entered the Canterlot Market, wearing her hooded cloak, like she always did when in public.  It was early in the morning, and only a few of the shops in the market had even come close to opening.  As Eclipse gently trotted through the market, she stopped at an occasional stall, having a look at what they had for sale, appearing to be intrigued by the products the small stands sold.  She wouldn't be buying anything here though; that was not part of her plan.  

About halfway through the large market, she made a stop in front of an empty stand.  This one in particular was in the most popular area of the market, where hundreds of ponies would go every day to find some of the best produce around.  Her horn began to glow orange, and a small fire started beneath the unattended stall.  It made a faint crackling noise as Eclipse walked away, satisfied with her work.  The tablecloth on the stall caught, and soon enough, the entire stall would be engulfed in flame.  Eclipse made a point to make her way into one of the nearby alleys, before heading back towards Footnote's home.

Upon entering the alley, her horn lit up with a soft blue glow, and she began to speak.

"Trixie," she said, the spell conveying everything to Footnote's home,  "everything went off without a hitch.  Expect me back in 15 minutes.  If I'm not there, do not come looking for me.  If everything is alright, I'll be back there eventually."

There was silence from Trixie.  No response was returned to Eclipse.

"Trixie, please respond." The silence continued, only to be shattered by screams of terror as the orange glow of fire became more visible in the alley.

'Whatever.' Eclipse thought, 'She's not there.  Probably brushing her mane, or something stupid like that.' She rolled her eyes as she began moving back towards Footnote's home.

Back in the market, the first stall had become engulfed in flames, and the fire had already begun to spread to the many other stalls.  Nopony was gathering their stock, and everypony was panicking.  Various screams came from the marketplace now, as utter chaos began to work its way through the crowd.  Soon enough, the market was fully ablaze, smoke billowing into the sky.  The fire brigade had been called, as was on their way to get there.  It was then that Celestia looked out her window.  Having just raised the sun, she was exhausted from using all of that magic.  The feelings of exhaustion that she had would give way to a look of absolute horror as she looked upon the scene in front of her.  Canterlot Market was burning.

Celestia took a couple of steps back, and raced back towards the window, shattering the glass outright in a potentially ill-conceived attempt to try and save the already ablaze market.  She sailed through the sky with tremendous grace, cutting through the air with ease and precision. As she arrived near the market, the Canterlot fire squad arrived, unlike at the Ponyville Schoolhouse, where the fire brigade didn't bother to be present.  Dressed in their traditional blue fire gear, they were armed to the teeth with buckets and pumps of all shapes and sizes, ready to extinguish the rising flames.  As they moved closer to the fire, the ponies spread out, readying their sources of water.

"On the count of three!" The fire chief shouted.  Celestia used some of her magic to create a barrier around the inferno of a marketplace, sealing off the fire from the rest of the world, and preventing any harm to surrounding buildings.  There was so much history in this area that she knew couldn't be replaced.

"One! Two! Three!" The fire chief exclaimed again, as the massing of ponies used their buckets to dump large amounts of water on the fire.  The flames died down a little, and the ponies who had been given the pumps were furiously working to bring precious water to the fire.  Sweat was pouring from their brows as they furiously pumped up and down.  The water eventually had reached it's destination, and burst through the hose being controlled by yet another pony.  The water impacted the base of the fire with a great vigor, and the fire was being deprived of its lifeblood of oxygen.  As the flames died down, the water kept on coming, until it was finally doused in its entirety.  The ponies who had been manning the pump were very clearly exhausted by this whole ordeal.

Celestia's magical shield was lowered, and she began to feel a searing pain across her body.  As she turned, she noticed the various lacerations across her body, many of which contained various sizes of glass shard.

'Perfect.  I'll have a medic look at that a little later.' Celestia thought, as she quickly observed the scene of devastation around her.  She had a sneaking suspicion about who might be behind all of this, but nothing remained in the market to confirm this.  The fire chief quickly looked over the members of his squad, some of which had developed some minor burns from the scorching flames mere minutes ago.  He dismissed them, after thanking them for their work.  Each pony began picking up their equipment and the chief turned his attention to the Princess.

"Thank you, Celestia." He said, in his gruff, somewhat deep voice. "Without that shield of yours, I don't quite know what would have happened to all these houses."  Celestia observed the small houses behind the market, wondering what might have happened if she did not notice. She focused on the chief again.

"You're welcome."  It was at that moment that he noticed the various cuts across Celestia's body.

"Umm, are you going to be alright?"

"It's nothing serious." Celestia replied, toughing out the pain a little more. "I should be able to handle it until I return to the castle."

"Well, in that case, I had best be going.  We have some ponies of our own to attend to.  But do have that looked in to!" He said, finally turning away and heading back to the Canterlot fire hall with his squad.  Celestia also turned away from the market to head back to the castle, but not before shedding a tear.  All of those memories in the market, as she and Luna happily wove in between stalls those many years ago.  The layout of the market hadn't changed since then, keeping the same feel as it had once possessed.  Now, it lay in shambles.  Even if the market were to be reconstructed, it would never feel the same to Celestia.  Her heart was broken by this, and she silently trotted back to the castle, frequently wiping tears from her eyes.  The citizens of Canterlot observed this, but Celestia didn't care.  One of the final places that was part of her childhood was now gone; she had every reason to be sad and bitter, and she had every reason not to care about what others thought of her in that moment.

Mid-day couldn't have come any slower than it did for Palm.  For the morning, he had stayed in the basement, practicing the spell he would need for his attack on Luna.  Now, he finally felt confident in his abilities, and was finally ready to do this.  He packed his personal copy of Malicious Magics into his light blue saddlebags, and set off towards the gates of Canterlot Castle.  However, as he came closer to the castle gates, he slowly changed his course to dodge around the main gates, choosing instead to proceed to a clearing in one of the parks on the edge of the castle grounds.  It was a spot where no eye reached from the towers of the Castle, and where he was not within the sight range of any patrols.  Birds chirped happily in the various trees as Palm Branch arrived.  There was a gentle breeze and a very crisp feel to the air in that clearing.  To be honest, it was a relief for Palm to finally be out of the basement; it was getting rather stuffy down there.

He shed his light saddlebags, and opened them to dump the contents out; Malicious Magics, a quill, and a small, leather-bound book that he used as his journal.  He opened Malicious Magics, turning to the page he had folded the corner of.  He gazed upon the spell for a final time before casting it, being sure to overview its effects carefully.  Once he had everything in order, he proceeded to read the spell off the page.  As he spoke, a dark blob began to form mere meters in front of him. As he finished, he closed his eyes, and the blob before him turned into a dark purple smoke.  After another second, the smoke whisked off, swiftly heading into Canterlot Castle.

This was where he had to be careful.  If one of the guards saw the smoke, he risked being caught.  Thinking fast, Palm quickly molded the smoke into one of Luna's personal guards, and calmly walked the guard out into one of the hallways.  The guard made his way through many hallways, finally reaching Luna's bedroom, where two guards stood outside, ensuring the safety of the night princess.  Keeping himself calm, the dark guard of Palm's creation approached one of the stallions guarding the door.

"Good day, sir." The false guard said. "I've been sent to cover your shift while you go get some food, as you requested."

"I never requested to go get some food." The young guard replied, maintaining his position.

"No? Hmm," Palm said through his false guard, "that's certainly odd.  Oh well, I guess I'll go back now."

"Wait!" The real guard shouted at the false one. "Umm, now that you mention it, I am kinda hungry."

"Well, go and get something to eat, and I'll stand guard."

"Thank you very much!" The guard dashed off towards the kitchen, which was found in the complete opposite side of the castle.

'Awesome.' Palm thought, already proud of what he had accomplished. The other guard turned towards him now.

"Look, don't tell anypony, but I'm going to get some food too!  Can you keep watch?"

"Yes sir!"

"Sweet!" The second guard shouted, running off through the halls.

'Not even a "thank you?" How rude.' With that off his mind, Palm Branch refocused on the task at hand.  He looked through the eyes of his creation, and observed no other ponies in the hallway. 'Perfect.  Now, let's do this.'

With that, the pony disassembled itself, becoming a cloud of smoke again.  After the transformation was complete, the smoke seeped underneath the door of the sleeping princess.  Now that he was in, he stretched out a stream of smoke which resembled a hoof, locking the door.  There was no way that anypony was getting in now.  With that final move, and all the pieces in place, the smoke began to transform again at the command of Palm, this time turning into a tall, dark alicorn who wore sheets of metal on her head. The pony cast a spell to seal off the room from any sounds, in order to keep the events that would transpire in here a secret.

Now, everything was finally perfect, and Palm subconsciously smiled, before letting out a distinctly evil cackle that woke the princess of the night from her sleep with a shock.  As her eyes began to focus on everything in the room, she found herself face to face with Nightmare Moon, who she thought had been defeated by the Elements of Harmony.  No, she knew that had happened! Celestia had told her, and she could remember it too!  What was going on?

"You little foal! Thinking you could get rid of me!  Haha! It's far too precious!" Nightmare Moon shouted at her!  Luna screamed at the top of her lungs, as loud and long as she could, only to be greeted by more laughter from Nightmare Moon.

"Scream all you want, sweet Luna.  Your foalish attempts matter not! Besides," Her tone of voice shifted, "Don't you want to hear what I have to say?"

"Of course not!  You think that we do not know who you are?"

"My dear, I know that you know who I am.  And I know who you are.  So, we're even."

"Get away from me, foul mare! Return to where you came!"

"Tempting offer." Nightmare Moon muttered under her breath, "But, I think I'll pass."  she said sarcastically. The evil alicorn approached Luna slowly. "Don't you wish you could see Equestria bathed in your glorious night forever?"

"Of course not!"

"Now, now, no need to lie about things like that. I know you do." Nightmare was right.  Luna had been wanting to see the night last a lot longer than it normally did.  She needed to remain strong if she was going to fight Nightmare off, regardless of how she had even got there. Before Luna had the chance to speak again, Nightmare had spoken up.

"To be honest, you have been rather foalish about a lot of things lately, not to mention this most recent issue."  Nightmare began to slowly move around to the other side of Luna's large, luxurious blue bed. "Seriously, have you not noticed just how weak your sister has been acting?"

"She has been acting strongly, and in the best interests of the ponies of Equestria."

"And that's what it looks like on the outside." The illusion of Nightmare had made its way to the other side of Luna's bed, maintaining full eye contact as she had circled around.  "Secretly, she has been planning to overthrow you.  I've heard her talking with the guards; she thinks that she is capable of ruling by herself again.  And, just look at the past!  She already ruled alone for, oh what was it, a thousand years without you!" Nightmare was smiling smugly as the night princess' mind raced.  Could it be true? Could Celestia really want to remove her as the princess of the night?  It didn't make sense, but then again, neither did the fact that Nightmare Moon herself was standing in front of her, let alone talking.

"To top it all off," Nightmare continued, "she's been ignoring you over the past day or two.  She's getting ready to throw you out." Nightmare moved closer to Luna, now invading her personal space. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"GET AWAY!" Luna shouted as she slammed her hoof down onto Nightmare Moon's face.  With a loud bang, the pony before her exploded into a cloud of smoke which quickly faded away.  Luna began to cry into her hooves, unable to believe what she had heard and seen.

'It cannot be true. Celestia would never want to throw me out of my position.' Luna thought.  'Then again...' Memories of her thousand years on the moon came racing back.  She remembered just how lonely she had felt, and how unloved she had become.  And then she remembered who had sent her there.  She continued to cry, alone in her room, thinking about what Nightmare had said, and before too long, she had cried herself to sleep.