Luna pored over a couple of pages in a rather thick book about the history of Equestria in the Canterlot Royal Archives.  Twilight Sparkle looked on, as years upon years of pure history whizzed past in the pages.  Luna was intent on finding something in here, but Twilight wasn't sure what at this stage, nor had she bothered to ask.  Celestia had left them not but a minute ago, in order to go raise the sun.

"Come on, come on!" Luna angrily mumbled, continuing to look through the book.  Twilight caught a glimpse of a page about Nightmare Moon.  Twilight finally asked Luna the burning question on her mind.

"Luna, what exactly are you looking for?"

"Twilight, I saw a symbol on the metal plate we had found at the schoolhouse.  It's a symbol that haunts my memory even to this day; all the horrible things they ahve done refuse to go away."

"Who were they?" She asked.

Luna stopped the rapid turning of the pages, and turned her attention towards the purple unicorn.

"They called themselves the Shades." Luna paused, contemplatively. "They are a fairly well kept secret in Equestrian history; the only records of them existing are kept here, in the Royal Archives."

"Why the secrecy about them though?  What did they do?"

"Unspeakable things.  They were very organized criminals, and commited acts of murder, terrorism, and other unspeakable treachery.  Some members even committed treason, and were hanged."

Twilight was speechless about this topic.  Murder, treason and terrorism? She didn't think that the pony she knew as Starry Night would be capable of such things, let alone being involved with them.  Luna continued explaining.

"Their leader was a unicorn by the name of Flare.  He was never caught while the group was in action.  Some believe that he found a way to eternal life; others believe that he still influences any remaining members of the shades, and others still believe that he is dead and gone." Luna paused. "Personally, I like the third option best.  Flare was a mastermind, and he was a gr-"

"That's enough about Flare." Celestia's powerful voice boomed through the room, scaring Twilight and Luna slightly.  "Get to the point of all this."

"Right. Sorry Tia." Her attention quickly refocused on Twilight. "What we saw engraved into that metal plate was what I remember to be the insignia of the Shades.  If this was true, it could mean that..."

"Mean that...?" Twilight responded.

"It could mean," Celestia spoke up, "that not only have the Shades, one of our great enemies, returned, but they have been active for more than 50 years now, biding their time." She paced back and forth in the room. "They would have been waiting for the right time to strike.  I suspect that, if all of this is true, they could strike soon."

Twilight was definitely picking up the fear in Celestia's voice.  What could these ponies do that Celestia and Luna, the royal alicorn sisters, have to fear?  Twilight shook these thoughts from her head, and suggested to Luna,

"Have you tried looking in the index for the Shades?"

Luna pondered this for a second, before quickly turning to the back of the book.

"Why didn't I think of that earlier?" She quietly asked herself. Twilight overheard this, and giggled slightly.

"Because you're not a librarian, princess." The unicorn responded quietly.  Luna smiled at her.

"I suppose you are right.  This is the sort of thing you do for a living, is it not?"

"Yep." she responded simply. Luna had made her way to the index, and quickly scanned across the letters, before coming across the 'S' section.

"Ah, here we are.  The Shades; page 206." Using some of her magic, she quickly turned to the page with precision.  A look of shock filled her face.  The first thing on that page was an interesting symbol.  Tendrils of black were wrapped around what appeared to be the sun, which in itself contained a 5-pointed star.  It was the exact symbol that they had seen on the plate.

"It is as I feared.  They're back." Luna calmly said, trying her best to surpress the panic she was feeling.

"Is it possible that they still have the influence of Flare?" Twilight asked.

"That, Twilight Sparkle, is not just possible. It's more than possible." Celestia offered.

===============

Eclipse and Trixie had gone and restudied every single aspect of Operation Dragon's Claw, and had worn themselves out, eventually falling asleep on the floor.  When Footnote left for work that morning, he had last seen the two mares passed out on the floor, noting they had fallen asleep awfully close to each other.  He smiled slightly at this, but quickly moved past the open door.  Upon arriving at the Royal Archives, he observed Twilight Sparkle, along with Celestia and Luna, on the top balcony.  He silently dodged them, avoiding any eye contact as he turned towards his normal office.  His small team of researchers was still tasked with researching anything and everything about dark magic.  He knew that Celestia was getting closer to finding him out, and was very distracted about every little detail.  He just couldn't slip up.  If he did, he would have failed Cherilee.

He approached and sat down at his desk in the cold, small, white room he called an office; he looked over a couple of notes he had left there, before going to check his mailbox.  It was nearly always empty, but to his surprise it had something in it today.  A small note from one of his researchers, detailing some powers of dark magic, a few of which Footnote himself could pull off.  This made him nervous.  After walking back to his thick wooden desk, he placed the note on top, and swiftly opened a desk drawer, and used a quill to open a small hidden compartment.  It popped open easily, allowing Footnote access to its contents; a few scattered notes, a small reference to Operation Dragon's Claw, and matches.  He quickly snatched up one of the matches, and closed the compartment again.  He grabbed his quill again, this time pushing it into a small hole in the side of his desk.

Another compartment of the desk, fully lined with metal and filled with ashes, revealed itself.  Footnote sighed.

'More paper, just gone to waste.' He thought as he struck the match, and brought it up to the corners of the small note. 'A crying shame.'  He quickly placed the now burning note into the metal drawer, and shut it tight. The note quickly became engulfed in flame, adding to the ashes in the drawer.  Footnote overlooked his 'research' so far.  It was, in all honesty, complete crap; every single word was a lie.  He even had gone as far as saying that "dark magic poses no threat to Equestria, and such magic can no longer be found in commonly available materials.  He hoped that would be enough to quell Celestia's investigations, and intended to hand it to her today.  Not personally though; that would be too risky now, especially if Twilight was with her today.  He would have it delivered by one of the messengers that made frequent runs through the castle. That would be the easiest way of keeping away from Celestia.  

With seemingly perfect timing, a knock came to his door.  It was a messenger mare, dressed in a bright red uniform that had so many pockets on it, a pony could easily hide anything they wanted to in there.  The messenger spoke up.

"Footnote, Princess Celestia has requested your presence on the balcony overlooking the archives."

'Damn.' Footnote thought.

"She states that it is urgent," the messenger continued, "and requests your immediate response."

"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes." replied Footnote, "Thank you."

"Always happy to help." She closed the door gently behind her, leaving Footnote to contemplate the events that just transpired.

===============

Eclipse awoke in roughly the same place as she remembered falling asleep in.  Trixie, on the other hand, had gotten much closer to her than she remembered, let alone felt comfortable with.  She quickly and quietly scooted away from the blue mare, avoiding waking her up.  Eclipse didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to like Trixie a little bit more every day.  She couldn't explain why though.  She left Trixie in the room, and left for the bathroom.  She approached the mirror in the bathroom, noticing something slightly different about her mane.  Near it's base, it was starting to turn blood red, it's original color.  It hadn't been this color since her parents deaths; her outright depression at the time appeared to have lasting physical effects.  Now, the color had started to return to her life; she was leader of the Shades, an aspiration of hers since Cherilee had introduced her to the group, and she had started to regain a degree of happiness since then.  Now though, she knew that the blood red color would come to represent entirely new things for her.  It was both a manifestation of Cherilee's murder, and something that would remind her of how ruthless she was then; how ruthless she would need to be leading now.  She smiled at the returning color of her mane.

Palm Branch walked by, offering a kind good morning as he passed.  Eclipse mumbled something unintelligible back to him.  He just assumed that she said good morning as well.  A few minutes later, Eclipse followed shortly after him, satisfied with her appearance.  As they made their way to the main floor, Midna was already up and frustrated at something.  Eclipse didn't notice Footnote around, and assumed that he had gone to work with Celestia, which was a considerable risk considering last nights events.  Eclipse made her way into the kitchen, where Palm had already started on his breakfast of daisy pancakes.

"Well, it didn't take long for you to get down here.  Trixie still resting?"

"Considering she's not down here or in the washroom making herself look good," Eclipse started sarcastically, "I would have to say no."

"Figured as much." Palm said. "You get a decent rest for a change?"

"Only a couple hours, but I was too tired to care about where I slept.  The floor gets really chilly at night." Eclipse remarked.

"Yeah.  You want some pancakes?  I've already got a batch started, but I can double the recipe, no problem."

"That'd be nice.  Thanks Palm."

"Hey, it's no problem.  You know I'm here for you." Palm continued to make his pancakes, quickly adding more ingredients to the batter for Eclipse.  After a few minutes of prolonged silence while breakfast was prepared, Palm finally brought a steaming hot plate of pancakes forward.  He set two down in front of himself, and another two in front of Eclipse.

"Thanks." Eclipse said as she began to eat the breakfast in front of her.

"No big deal." Palm said. "So, what's life like as the new leader of the Shades?"

"Not too bad, or different for that matter." She replied with a certain amount of dullness in her voice. "My mane's color is finally starting to come back though." Eclipse said, pointing towards the red in her mane with her hoof.  "Makes me kinda happy, you know?"

"Ah, the red mane you once had.  I'm not sure how much I'm going to like that; I haven't seen it in such a long time!" Palm said, chuckling slightly as he stuffed more pancake into his mouth. "I'm sure it'll look fine though."

"Yeah." Eclipse smiled a little.  It had been so long since the two of them had actually sat down and talked.  She ate a little more pancake, as did Palm.  

"How's the scar holding up?"

"Meh. It hurts a little now and then, but it hasn't really bothered me.  I got vengeance for it, and thats what I'm satisfied with."

"Good to hear."  The two ponies sat in silence for a few minutes, simply enjoying their breakfasts. When the time came for the silence to break, it was Eclipse who had broken it.

"Hey, Palm,"

"Yeah?"

"Who's Flare?"  Palm Branch nearly spat out his breakfast at this question.

"What do you know about him?"

"I remember reading 'Flare will help us' a couple times in Operation Dragon's Claw.  He was really only mentioned a couple of times, and that's all I know." Palm Branch still looked stunned.  Had Cherilee really mentioned Flare in Operation Dragon's Claw?

"Look, I don't know enough about all this, nor do I feel comfortable answering that.  But, Footnote might be able to answer that question a little better.  Now come on, finish your breakfast."

===============

Footnote, having decided that he had spent enough time in his office, went up the stairs to the balcony overlooking the library.  He bore his report for Celestia in his mouth as he quietly approached the final flight of stairs.  Celestia had been waiting impatiently for the past few minutes now; Luna and Twilight were nowhere to be seen on the balcony now, just a menacing looking Celestia.

"You called for me, princess?"

"Indeed I did; over 10 minutes ago.  What have you been doing down there?"

"I was collecting my materials, and more specifically, this report." He placed the stack of pages in front of Celestia. "It details very much about dark magic.  I don't believe this to be a threat to Equestria though."

"Well then, your research is flawed." Celestia said, "Have you heard about the attacks in Ponyville last night?"

"No.  I have yet to settle in at home and read today's news.  What happened?"

"My student, Twilight Sparkle, was attacked at Ponyville Schoolhouse by a small gathering of evil ponies, one of which has been identified, but appears to have escaped." Footnote knew she was talking about Eclipse now. "A full scale hunt has begun in Ponyville.  Twilight said that she knew the pony as Starry Night, so we are going by that name." Celestia pressed in a little closer.

"You don't happen to know her, do you?" she asked.

"Never heard of her.  I haven't been down to Ponyville in ages."

"Do you remember the schoolhouse?"

"Yes. Very much so.  Lots of good memories from that place." Footnote remembered all the meetings that the Shades had ever had in there, as well as growing up learning in the old school.

"It's been burnt to the ground." Footnote was confused by this.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I heard you correctly.  What did you say?"

"Ponyville Schoolhouse has burnt to the ground.  Nothing but ashes now."  This was news to him.  How did that manage to happen? Celestia continued detailing the events.

"After making eye contact with Starry Night, she proceeded to disappear, and hasn't been seen since then.  When she left though, about a minute after the alarm bell went off, the school gradually caught fire.  We presume it was to cover her trail."

"Well, that was smart."

"Are you suggesting you support this pony, Footnote?" Celestia asked agressively.  Footnote's heart rate was starting to increase now.  He had witnessed many of these events last night, but now that he was being questioned about them, everything was at stake.

"No.  I'm just observing her intelligence, that's all.  After all, burning it would leave no evidence."

"And that's where this all gets very interesting.  While no phsyical evidence of her presence was found in the school, we did find a metal hatch.  It bore the insignia of a former foe, and, when opened, led into a tunnel system, just big enough for 1 pony at a time.  We also observed 4 sets of hoofprints."

"What does all this have to do with me?!" Footnote shouted.

"You are dropping every single bit of other research I have assigned you, and you are studying a single topic. The Shades." Footnote's heart rate was at maximum now; he was being asked to investigate and study his own group.

"If the Shades are active again," Celestia continued, "I think a series of attacks on Equestria may very well be happening soon.  It would cause complete chaos across this peaceful land, to such a level that it would rival even Discord's chaos and anarchy."

"As you wish Celestia.  I shall get my team started on this immediately."

"That's the other thing.  Leave your team out of this.  I only want you researching this.  You are my top researcher, and I expect great things from you.  For now, I want as much information about these ponies as you can possibly produce.  Understood?"

"Understood." Footnote quietly trotted down from the balcony, and retreated back into his office.  His heart rate finally began to return to a somewhat normal pace now that the conversation with Celestia was over.  He was in charge of researching the history of his whole group now, for better or worse.

===============

Midna and Palm Branch has spent much of the afternoon neatening up Footnote's place.  It was about the only thing they could do around there anyway.  Eclipse had gone back up to the room from last night, studying more and more about Operation Dragon's Claw, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Footnote.  Trixie was napping, as she had done most of the morning, and once more in the afternoon.  When Footnote actually arrived at home, Eclipse was the first pony to talk to him.  She had waited so long to ask him now, and her curiosity was reaching its peak.

"Footnote, who is Flare?"

Footnote was shocked now, trying to think of the best way to answer this.  It was a delicate and touchy topic for him, and it would certainly become interesting for Eclipse.

"Eclipse, can't you wait until I get in the door?"

"No! I've already been waiting all day to ask you this!"

"Who told you to ask me?"

"Palm."

"What do you know about Flare?"

"Nothing, but as your leader, I command that you tell me; who is Flare?" Footnote sighed.  She had pulled the leader card, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Flare was the leader of the Shades for many years.  He had discovered many secrets in his quest to eliminate Celestia from power; one of these secrets was the secret to long life." Footnote paused.  Eclipse was listening intently to every single detail.  She wanted to know everything about this pony.  "He lived through 3 generations of ponies, biding his time as he tried to take over Equestria.  He saw much death and destruction, and even the last of the Equestrian wars." Footnote paused.  Now, he was getting into more sensitive material. Eclipse could sense his uneasiness about the topic.

"Now, long life is not eternal life, and so, eventually Flare died.  I was a young colt when it happened, but wasn't there to witness it.  You, on the other hand, witnessed his death."

"I certainly don't remember that."

"You wouldn't.  You were a newborn filly." Footnote paused once again. "Tell me, have you ever looked under your back left hoof?"

"No.  Never had a need to."

"Well, have a look." Eclipse sat on her haunches, and bent forward to have a look at what was under her hoof.  She could make out a small symbol on it, resembling an arc coming from the sun.

"Flare's cutie mark is on your hoof.  But, do you know why?" Footnote asked.

"If I did, would I have even asked you about any of this in the first place?" Eclipse said, irritated. Footnote chuckled slightly.

"Fair enough.  See, when Flare died, he had one last trick up his sleeve.  When his hoof made contact with yours, he cast a spell with his dying breath, merging his personality, as well as some physical traits, with you.  Essentially, you and Flare are one and the same, and his specific personality can be called upon by you."  Eclipse no longer had any clue what was happening any more.  "He was a great strategic leader, and always made sure every single detail was precise and perfect.  It was why his plans almost never failed.  When he was solo, that is.  He never screwed up on a plan, not once.  It was his group members who failed him on many an occasion."

"You're going to have to explain this to me more, Footnote.  I don't quite understand."

"I will later.  How did things go around here?" Footnote asked as he began to settle in to the house.

"Quiet, but good.  How was your day at the royal archives?"

"Things are getting... interesting, to say the least." Next Chapter: Chapter 10 - Shattered Sanity Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes