As Midnight left Ponyville, he quickly teleported the remaining distance to the castle, arriving inside the throne room with haste. As he entered he was greeted by a lunar and sun guard, both of which ushered him quickly through the secret door behind the thrones.

"Well, first time I've been in here." He spoke out in surprise as he looked around the room before his vision rested on the two princess' sitting at a table on the far side of the room. Their vision was not cast on Midnight, but to the table in front of them. Sitting at the table was Cadence and Shining Armor as well as two other ponies of which Midnight had not seen before.

As he made his way up to the table, he took a seat next to Celestia as her vision never left the table. Midnight sat there in silence as he listened to the unknown ponies.

"Now that everyone is here, we can properly start. Please forgive us your majesties, but this does require all of your attentions." A dark grey unicorn with a white mane spoke up nodding to his friend, a sky blue pegasus with an equally sky blue mane and tail.

"We have recently gathered information about a possible attack on Equestria as a whole, as well as other nations that could be in danger. Our intelligence has gathered information about five locations that may be coming under attack by an unforeseen enemy in due time. From what has been gathered, it turns out that the locations are each nations capitals, and those that plan attack want to take over each of these nations to call their own. As for now we are not sure if they are working together to accomplish this feat, or working as a separate entity. Either way, we do know that they plan on using a ancient form of forbidden magic. At this time we are still gathering information. We have however gather several pictures of the possible parties in question that will be a part of the final product, but at this time it is only speculation, and no hard evidence to back up the claim other than word of mouth." The unicorn gave snort as he levitated a folder, opening it and spreading the contents of it across the table.

When Midnight's eyes fell onto the pictures, his heart skipped a beat, his eyes went wide, and his jaw hung slack in shock as he levitated one of the pictures to in front of him.

"Kindle?! But how? Why? Whats going on?" He asked, the over all feeling of helplessness covering his entire face as the picture fell back to the table.

"Sir? You know these ponies?" The pegasus looked at him with an icy glare as the two guards from before stepped up behind him.

"Yes, I know this young mare. She was part of a scientific group that I have visited while on vacation in Fillydelphia a while back. I had heard of another human here in Equestria and finally located them. She was working alongside a group of five ponies that was working on a project."

"Sir, do you know what they were working on?" The unicorn asked.

"No, unfortunately Kindle said it was classified and that no information could be given about it. The human female, Samantha is working alongside them as well, but from what I have gathered, she isn't to keen on what they are working on." Midnight said while giving a sigh. He stopped however as he saw the corner of another picture poking out from behind a piece of paper, he quickly snatched it up to see what it was but only gave an odd look before his eyes went wide in astonishment.

"STEEL!? But.......... whats wrong with him?" He spoke out in shock seeing Steel with a coat that looked like shining silver and glowing eyes.

"You know this pony as well?" Celestia piped up when looking at his expression of horror. Midnight began to speak but quickly pulled the rest of the photos up to him as he gazed at them. Sure enough, Ice had a picture there as well as a cloaked figure.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with the fact that you think these ponies and possible human is conspiring to take over several nations and Equestria?" He snorted as he looked to the two unknown ponies.

"Because Steel, as you have named him, killed three ponies to keep this picture from ending up in our hooves." The pegasus said giving a note of sadness.

"He.......... did........... what?!" Midnight's voice was low, low enough to hear the venom seeping through his teeth. The room felt much colder upon hearing these words leave his lips and echo calmly through the room.

"He killed several special ops ponies that were working espionage to gather this information. For some reason, Steel could hear the shutter in the magical camera used to take the pictures. The only strange thing was that the pony taking the pictures was almost a mile away and sitting on a cloud."

"Do you know if his death was quick?" Midnight asked as he shut his eyes tightly as they began to tear up.

"No, it wasn't. He tortured him for two days before a rescue squad made it to him. Two of the squad was killed while the rest managed to retake the camera and bring it back. The unicorn said as he pulled the camera from the floor and placed it onto the table.

"But why was the camera not destroyed by Steel?" Celestia asked as she looked over to Luna.

At this moment Midnight saw everything moving in slow motion as the expression changed on the unicorn across the table. It went from puzzled to a sinister grin as his hoof raised into the air and began to fall quickly toward the camera. Midnight's horn lit up upon seeing this and he quickly placed a shield around himself and everyone in the room, including the unicorn who had just hit the camera.

A bright flash erupted from the camera causing everyone to close their eyes and flatten their ears as a loud explosion rang out. Everything around them shook violently for a few seconds until it finally stopped. Midnight opened his eyes to see that a gigantic sphere almost twenty feet in diameter was carved out of the castle. Using the camera as its focal point. Without thinking Midnight cast a seize spell onto the unicorn and pegasus, locking them in place as he used levitation magic to float everypony to safety on the far side of the throne room. Celestia and Luna cast several scan spells to check and see if anything else was trapped. Upon failure to detect anything they nodded to Midnight who released his spell on everypony except for the two unknown's in front of him.

"Nice trick there. To bad it failed." Midnight snorted as he got right into the unicorns face. The unicorn only growling in response. "And what about you smart flank?" Midnight redirected his attention to the pegasus who was only staring in shock.

"What are you talking about?! I didn't know the camera was rigged to explode?! Recon! What the hell has gotten into you?" The pegasus shouted toward his friend, apparently named Recon.

"So what if I planted a little explosive in the camera. No biggie right?" He smiled innocently.

"Wait a sec, your not Recon!" The pegasus shouted causing the unicorn to grow visibly worried.

"What are you talking about?" He snarled.

"You're not Recon because Recon isn't his name. And he hates that nickname I gave him ten years ago. Everytime I call him that he flies off the handle and starts cussing me, even in front of the princess'."

The being snarled as a bright green glow enveloped him, quickly fading to reveal a dark black pony with bug like eyes. It gave a loud his as it tried to get loose from the magical hold.

"What the hell is that?!" Midnight shouted as he stared in awe.

"That, would be a changeling. It seems that queen Chrysalis has decided to attempt another taking of Canterlot, among other areas of the world." Cadence said as she trotted up to the young changeling. It giving a loud hiss and bearing its fangs at her.

"Princess Cadence, I am going to have to ask you to leave this one to me, as well as the pegasus. If we have the enemy in our hoof, then I can gather information from them to help save us all." Midnight spoke up causing her to step back and give a sneer toward the changeling.

"What do you plan on doing to them Midnight?" Celestia asked as she trotted to his side.

"I'm not going to lie Tia, I have military training that I am not proud of. Interrogation procedures that will yield results in a short time. But I'm going to need a few things." He smirked to the now cowering changeling.

"I am not going to approve of this method Midnight. Torturing another just to obtain information is not what we do." Celestia spoke up as her horn lit up, grabbing ahold of the changeling and pulling it toward her. It stopped in mid air though as the magical aura around it changed back to Midnight's. Celestia let out a grunt of pain as she back peddled from the sudden jar of loosing her grip on it.

"I didn't say you had a choice in this matter dear." Midnight spoke up with a hint of ice in his voice. "This thing is going to fork over the information on a silver platter when I'm done with it. From the Intel it has already given, it seems that there is a force that is attempting to take over this world and they do not discriminate when it comes to killing to get their way. I may not like my methods to get this information, but do you think that pony who was captured felt the same way when he was being tortured for information?"

Silence fell over the room as Midnight looked around. After a minute he spoke up. "I'll be in the dungeon if you need me. Make sure it is important though because you don't want to be near us during this."

"No....NO NOOOOO! Chrysssssalisss ssssaid nothing about thissss! NO! YOU CAN'T! CCCCCELESTIA! SSSSSAAAVE MEEEEEE!" The changeling cried before it and Midnight vanished in a bright light from teleporting.

"Sister, Do you think Midnight will harm the young one?" Luna asked while looking worriedly toward Celestia.

"I fear that he will, but he is correct when he said that they did not discriminate in killing other ponies. Although I do not agree with his method, he will be the only pony capable of doing this in order to save our kingdom." Celestia sat there for a while as her two sisters tried to console her.

"I'll gather the guard and have them step up training. If Midnight has taught me one thing, It is to expect the unexpected. In this case, an impending war." Shining Armor spoke up as he quickly teleported from within the room to the barracks.

"I shall keep an eye out here in Canterlot as well. Shining has taught me a few keen eye skills that will aid me. Might I borrow a few of the guard as well as we travel the streets Tia?" Cadence asked as she headed toward the door of the throne room.

"Yes, please take as many as you need. I will begin preparations here in the castle for when Midnight has obtained the required information.