In Tartarus, where the shadows and ghosts are most alive, Tsyinu and the ghost of FireFlight were speaking to each other.

“What will we send on Ponyville?”  Tsyinu asked.

“We have planned to send the ursa minors,” FireFlight’s ghost replied.  “They will depart tonight, when the sky is at one of its darkest grays.”

“Cerberus is loyal to us?”

“Yes.”

“Are you certain?”

“If he doesn’t do his part of the deal, we don’t do ours.  It is too big of an opportunity for him to pass up.  He is loyal.”

“Why don’t we all attack now?”  Tsyinu wondered aloud.  “It will catch everyone off guard, and when they have the chance to attack, it will be too late.”

“Do not be impatient.”  FireFlight advised.  “It is what Grand Master commands, and we do not question him.”

“You still talk to me as if I am still under you.”  Tsyinu said with a small smile.

FireFlight returned the smile.  “I will always think of you as someone under me.”

Silence fell upon the two friends for a few minutes.  They gazed at the slowly darkening sky, waiting for the shade of gray that would announce the time for the first attack.  FireFlight frowned, thinking something over.  He tilted his head slightly and asked,

“It is odd, though.  Why is our attack not larger?”

Tsyinu shook his head.  “We need to make it look as if the ursa minors just decided to attack.  If it is too large, the guards may be suspicious.  We are sending a few spies out, though, to see how everyone will react.”

“We have some room to undershoot, but none to overshoot,”  FireFlight agreed.

The sky reached a deep gray, and a beast with an eagle’s wings and dragon’s body and a owl’s head led the group of ursa minors towards the gates of Tartarus.  Most of the ursa minors’ bodies had shades of purple mixed in with the blue, signaling that they were close to being fully grown.  The faintest glow of orange surrounded each of them, and a pony would have to search hard for the glow to find it.  Under the beast with the owl head’s spell, they walked with the thirst for blood.  They growled as they eagerly waited to be shown their target.

“Who is the one controlling them?”  FireFlight asked.

“Many simply call him Beast,”  Tsyinu replied.  “Of course, no one calls him that to his face.  One did, and he was killed in cold blood.  Twice.  Forth time he had died.”

“Got quite the temper.  I am surprised that I have never heard of him.”

“I think that he is just unstable.”

“There’s the shade of gray,”  FireFlight observed, nodding at the sky.

There were three loud howls, and Tartarus’ two colossal gates slowly opened outward.  They were like two plain black walls inside of Tartarus, but the creatures on the outside could clearly see the ones inside.  Cerberus stood just outside of the gates, drool coming out of the corners of his mouth in strands.

“Anyone that is coming must come quickly.  If this gate is stays open for more than ten minutes, the princesses will know that I have opened them.”  He turned and walked out, not waiting for his followers.

The spies went out first.  All of them were shadows, creatures who had died and came back as the 3-D versions of the shadows that they had cast on the ground and walls when they were living.  Beast and the ursa minors followed, and a few seconds after they passed the gates they closed.

The corridor was wide, and although there seemed to be no light source, it was the same deep gray as inside of Tartarus.  It was half a mile long, and the floor slanted slightly upward.  The silence created an eerie atmosphere, setting everyone on edge.  Even with that nervous feeling in place, each one was feeling an exited anticipation.  As they neared the end of the corridor, three howls sounded, and a final set of gates, just as massive as the other set, opened.  The only difference between the two sets of gates was that, for this pair of gates, both sides were opaque.  All of the creatures winced as light flooded into their vision, pushing out the darkness that all of them, excluding Cerberus, had experienced for years.  After their eyes adjusted, Cerberus turned to Beast and asked,

“I will receive my payment?”

“As long as there are no catches,”  Beast rasped.

Cerberus nodded and returned to his regular position as guard of Tartarus.  The creatures stepped outside, wincing once again as more light pooled in.  Everyone looked in awe at the onslaught of colors, and threads of color appeared out of the darkness on the shadows, showing the emotion each was feeling.

“Everyone,” Beast said.  “We will depart soon.  You must leave before I do to see what the ponies do before the attack.  Do you understand?”

All of the shadows nodded.  Everyone, excluding the ursa minors, sat down, but no one was at ease.  They all waited for their powers, dulled from Tartarus’s magic, to start to flow again.  After several minutes, the shadows disappeared without a word.  Beast took that as the signal, and he attempted to use his magic to teleport the ursa minors and himself.  His magic not coming back as easily as the shadows’, though, and he failed several times, sending the magic he tried to use painfully back through his beak.  In a fit of rage, a shot of stray magic came from his beak and hit a tree, doubling its size.  Several more attempts later, he cast the spell correctly, and the ursa minors and himself teleported to the edge of the Everfree forest.  They were near an unkempt cottage, obviously abandoned years ago.  A collection of small buildings could be seen in the distance, and the sun’s final rays bathed them in gold.  Beast could see none of this, however, for he saw only his target, saw only a place he was ordered to attack.  Using the spell that he had on the ursa minors, he silently commanded them to attack the small town, to kill some of the ponies but not to a major extent.  With a roar, in unison, the ursa minors minors surged towards Ponyville, each one eager to cause mass destruction.