Dash Light stood there, slightly startled by all the attention he was
suddenly given.

Everyone in the room were staring at him with wide eyes, the most shocked
one being Thomas.

Awkward silence took over the room for a few long moments before Brandy,
wearing a small, black bowler hat, broke it by inspecting Light with a
magnifier, which he took from not-even-Celestia knows where.

After few moments of very carefully examining every detail, Brandy stopped
and walked over to the group, much to Light's relief.

Brandy cleared his throat and said, with stoic expression and a flat
serious tone.

“This is Rainbow Dash's brother.”

Thomas simply nodded and added.

“Thank you, Watson.”

Brandy smiled and bounced happily away.

“W-What was that?” Light asked, still confused.

“Oh that was just Brandy, being ... Well, Brandy. You will get used to it.”
Thomas said accompanied by approving nods of his companions and the Princesses.

“Riiight.” Light stated and turned towards Princess Celestia once again.

The royal alicorn was looking directly at him with care and a bit of
confusion in her eyes.

“S-So Princess, may I accompany them?” the Rainbow maned colt said with his hopes high.

“I am not so sure about this Light, traveling in a larger group may be riskier once you pass the Gryphon Empire's borders.”

Light’s expression was slowly changing into a disappointed frown.

“R-Right. I guess I will get back to my post.”

He started to pick up the elements of his armor from the floor, but was soon stopped by a hoof on his shoulder. He turned around to see Albert smiling brightly at him.

“Princess, may I say something?”

“Go on, Albert.”

The violet unicorn cleared his throat before speaking. “As you already know, I too have a sister. Sometimes we argue, sometimes we have fun together, sometimes she’s cute and funny, but most of the time she’s annoying... But you know what?”

After brief pause Albert continued.

“If she was kidnapped by, whatever force may it be, I would travel through the whole world to find her. That's why I'm sure, with motivation of this level, Dash Light would be a great addition to the journey.” Albert stated, patting Light few times on his shoulder. The pegasus was stunned, he hadn't expected any of them to take his side like this.

Princess Celestia tried to say something but was cut short by Shining Armor.

“Princess, if I also may say something, Albert is right, just like he said that the bond that family members share is really powerful, think about what you would want to do if Princess Luna was taken by the Gryphons?”

Celestia stood shocked for a few moments before looking over to her sister,
Luna in turn smiled kindly and nodded in approval towards Light.

After a few moments of silence, Celestia sighed and simply nodded with a
smile on her muzzle.

Dash Light stood there frozen before he was brutally woken up by an excited Brandy tightly hugging him.

“Another friend for the journey!” He stated happily and soon all of the guys,
including Shining Armor were around congratulating Light.

Light, at first, was startled by the sudden affection from his new friends, but
soon his fear and shyness were changed into happiness, while his frown
turned into large smile.

After they parted Celestia walked up to the group.

“You will start your journey from Ponyville, carriages are ready to take you
back. Dash Light and Shining Armor will join you tomorrow when I have
everything ready.”

The colts nodded and bowed in respect before taking their leave towards the carriages.

Shining turned towards Celestia.

“I have to go and write a letter to Cadance, so if you'll excuse me.”

“Wait a moment, Shining.” Celestia half-shouted which made him stop in
his tracks and turn around.

“Yes princess?”

“You seem pretty excited about this whole journey.”

Shining thought for a few moments before answering.

“Of course I am, this is a journey to save my sister, but that is not the only reason.”

Celestia nodded for him to continue.

“Ever since I joined the royal guards all those years ago, I have barely traveled anywhere. Seeing Equestria through and through is a really alluring idea.”

Celestia smiled. She was glad that, even despite all these years of being
in the military, he could get excited like that.

“There is one more thing, actually.” Shining said grinning, causing Celestia
to once again gain his attention.

“What is it?”

“You see, I still didn’t get any good chance to talk with my sister's colt-friend. You know about these things.” As he spoke Celestia could
swear she felt a murderous intent coming from her former Captain, she couldn’t help butfeel sorry for Albert. This journey was going to be a long one, especially for the poor violet unicorn.

“AH-CHOO.” Albert sneezed loudly as they were entering the carriage with Terry.

“Bless you.”

“Thanks, Terry.” Albert said while climbing into the carriage.

Soon the other colts entered their respective carriages, with Brandy once again excitedly bouncing onto them, much to the guard's discomfort.

“Are we there yet?” Vergard asked quite irritated with the length of
their journey back home.

“We are almost there, my King.” One of the Gryphon guards answered.

“Good. Quickshot, my friend, are the elements awake yet?”

“No, my King.” Small Gryphon answered humbly.

“Too bad, I was hoping that maybe they would try to escape before we get them in The Hellbounds. That would certainly be entertaining. Especially the part where we catch them and punish them.” Vergard said, licking his beak.

Quickshot gulped and kept his gaze at the floor. ‘What happened to you Vergard? When did you become this sadistic monster.’

“Actually now that I think about it, we kidnapped them so Equestria can’t use the elements of harmony...
Why don't we kill them? That would makethings much easier.” The Gryphon King said with a devilish smile.

“We cannot.”

Everyone turned towards the dark creature whom had just entered into the room.

“Ahh Irae, nice to see you. Tell me, why exactly can’t we kill them?”
Vergard said, quite irritated that someone was telling him what he can’t do.

“Elements and their users share a powerful bound which can be broken only in some extreme situations, one of them is death.”

“Well isn’t that great? We can just kill them, their bond will disappear and the elements will be useless.”

“You don’t understand, King. If the bond is shattered , the elements would find new users sooner or later. If we will be unlucky they might find them soon enough for Equestria to use them in the war against my dark legions, and if that happens…” Irae said nothing more and only stared at Vergard with his crimson red eyes.

The Gryphon King didn’t say anything, resisting the urge to throw some insults
at him. Irae was right and he knew it, but he hated the way that the dark creature
talked to him, showing complete disrespect in his tone.

“King we have arrived at The Hellbounds.” The gryphon guard who had just entered the
room stated.

“Excellent! Get the Elements to the most secured cell and make sure there is always at least one pair of warriors guarding it.”

The gryphon nodded and walked outside, Quickshot couldn’t help but feel sorry
for girls, Hellbounds was the biggest jail in Gryphon Empire,
there was only one successful escape.

It was a gryphon pirate known as 'The Golden Lion'. He had escaped by getting rid of the
chains on his legs. Which he did by cutting off both of his legs with blades
stolen from guards. Some say that he now uses those very same blades as
prosthetic legs.

And now the girls who were the users of the 'Elements of Harmony' were
going to be taken there, probably forever.

“Ohhh Why can’t we go with you!” Scootaloo shouted, her fellow crusaders,
Spike and Anna nodded, standing behind her.

“Because it’s way too dangerous for small fillies and a baby dragon.” Thomas
stated simply whilst the rest of the guys were searching through the library for
some books about Equestria, or anything that they might find useful.

“Ohh come on.” Scootaloo said, irritated.

“No means no.” Thomas added and motioned with his hoof towards the door. “Now go out there and have some fun like normal kids.”

Scootaloo growled slightly before getting pushed away by Apple Bloom
and Sweetie Belle, Spike and Anna following them out of the library.

“I swear, kids these days.”

“Oh hey, look, we have a grave adult here.” Albert said with a smirk.

“Shut up.”

“Gahh! I am so angry at them! They treat us like we are some kids!”

“Well we are, technically.” Sweetie Belle added making Scootaloo frown
at her.

“But we are way cooler and braver then other fillies and colts!”

“Oh really. Are you now?”

The Group of five turned their heads towards the source of the sound,
which they soon found out was Rumble and Pipsqueak, who was wearing his usual
red pirate bandana, coming their way.

“Hey guys, what’s up?" Rumble asked, as they were getting close.
Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel her cheeks getting warmer.

“Our sisters were kidnapped and they won’t let us help them.” Sweetie Belle
stated simply, surprising everyone.

“What?” Rumble and Pipsqueak asked simultaneously.

“Maybe let me explain.” Spike said and proceeded to introduce the colts
into their situation, with more or less all details.

“Well, that sucks.” Rumble said rubbing back of his head.

“Aye, those lads need a savin.” Pipsqueak added.

Group suddenly felt into silence for a few long moments before one of the colts,
namely Pipsqueak, smiled with excitement.

“Then we should just set sail on an adventure and save them!”

“What are ya talkin about Pips?” Apple Bloom asked

“I am sayin that we should go and save them! Doesn’t matter what those guys
say, they are your sisters and they need saving.”

As far as it sounded crazy at first, soon everyone started to like the
idea, even Sweetie Belle.

“You're right, so how’s that crusaders?” Scootaloo turned towards her two
friends, they stared at each other for few moments before smiling and
simultaneously yelling:

“Cutie mark crusaders, sister rescuers! YAY!”

“Well if you are going I'm going too.” Spike said, soon Anna was by his
side, he looked at her questioningly to which she smiled and nodded.

“It seems Anna too.” Small dragon added.

“Hey, wait a moment, you think you can just go on the adventure of a
lifetime without us?” Rumble stated while motioning between himself and
Pipsqueak with his hoof.

“But your siblings weren't taken away.” Scootaloo stated simply.

“But we can’t just say no to such adventure, what kind of pirate would?”
Pips said and both colts smiled.

Soon the whole group was cheering, they were soon going to go on an adventure of
their lifes! It would surely be full of fun and happy moments.

But they would soon realize that small kids could have many problems in a big world.