Fluttershy dropped the letter. They all watched as it slowly fell to the ground. Canterlot had been attacked by dragons? Nopony could believe it. And why did Luna send the message? It was usually Celestia. Had something happened to her? And they were supposed to stay clear of any cities? Didn’t they want their help? They were the elements of harmony! They could surely do a lot to help out. Perhaps Princess Luna had everything under control? Perhaps she didn’t need their help? Or had Luna, Celestia forbid, foreseen Equestria’s doom? Did she really want them to rebuild a new Equestria if the princesses weren’t able to defend the current one? The thought were terrifying. Everypony looked at each other, waiting for somepony to say something. But nopony really knew what to say. They all knew they all shared the same thoughts. The silence started to get awkward and they all started fiddle with small rocks and their manes.

The silence was broken, however, when the panting Twilight walked back into the cave. The breathed heavily and didn’t say a word until she reached the other ponies.

“I was too late…” she said slowly. “They were nowhere to be seen.”

“But why are you so worried all of a sudden?” Pinkie asked. “We are nowhere near any pony city.”

“Please think for a second, Pinkie!” Twilight shouted. She was frustrated and completely stressed out. Twilight had been just as chocked by the news as everypony else. But she’d realized something they hadn’t. “That dragon Huffy is got to be behind all of this!”

“Take it easy, Twi!” Applejack said, trying to calm Twilight down as Pinkie, surprised by her friend’s outbreak, backed off to make some space between her and the worked up unicorn. “An’ what do ya’ mean Huffy’s gotta be behind this attack?”

“Okay… okay… I’m sorry…” Twilight said, took a few deep breaths and sat down. She looked up to her friends. Now, as the frustration had faded away in her eyes, they could see how worried she really was.

“Allow me to explain…” Twilight said slowly. “Apparently Huffy is capable of magic such as taking control over another dragon’s mind, which is exactly what had happened with Sharpy’s sister.”

“And I doubt the dragons would engage Canterlot unprovoked”, Rarity said thoughtfully. She started to realize where Twilight was going with this.

“Exactly!” Twilight shone up. “Too many dragons would die. But what if there is someone, who obviously doesn’t value the lives of other living beings, is taking control of them and forcing them into battle? Someone who can control minds.” They all looked at her. Nothing more needed to be said. They understood completely. And they realized the danger their two friends were in. Huffy wasn’t just messing with dragons for fun. It seemed like he had some kind of plan behind it all. According to the letter they received from Princess Luna it seemed like he’d targeted every major city in Equestria. Did he want to wipe out pony kind? At least that would explain why all the dragons were missing.

“So… what do we do now, Twi?” Applejack asked worried. “We can’t leave ‘em out there with that freak Huffy.” Twilight bit her lip, figuring out something to say.

“But we can’t go out in a vague attempt to find them”, Twilight said depressed. “They can fly. We can’t.”

“I can fly”, Fluttershy spoke for the first time in quite a while. “I could go out looking for them.”

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I doubt that would make any difference”, Twilight said as friendly as possible so that she wouldn’t upset her. “They could’ve gone anywhere by now. No offence, but you’re not as fast as they are. You wouldn’t catch up to them even if you went the right way.”

“So all we can do is waiting for them to come back?” Pinkie said disappointed. “Oh, I hate waiting!”

“Unfortunately, yes”, Twilight said. “But in the meantime we could come up with a plan of what to do when they come back”.

“Sound good”, Rarity added. “I just hope the princesses will be able to hold back the dragons.”

***

The Princess of the Night was standing at the highest point of the castle towers, looking out over the burning city known as Canterlot. She was wearing a dark steel armor. Which was once worn by the infamous and feared Nightmare Moon, who’s now known as Luna. Even though Luna has regained the trust of the ponies and was nothing like the once feared Nightmare Moon, she was not a terrifying sight in her old armor. By looking into her eyes you could see determination. And anger.

A white unicorn with a blue mane ran up and kneeled before her. He was wearing a golden battle armor. It looked a lot like the regular Royal Guard armor, but not exactly. This armor was only worn by the high ranked captains of Celestia’s Royal Guard.

“Princess Luna”, he said whilst still kneeling down. The princess did not turn around to greet him. Instead she kept looking out over the city.

“Rise, Captain”, she said short. The captain obeyed and slowly walked up to her.

“Did you send the letter to Twilight?” he asked and placed himself right next to her. At the sight of the burning city he let out a sad sigh.

Luna did not answer him by word, but she gave him a quick nod. The captain bit his lip and nodded slowly. He was clearly uncomfortable with the situation and not used to seeing the princess like this. She was usually very talkative, happy and intelligent. But now she was silent, cold and you could almost feel the heat from the anger burning inside her.

“How is my sister?” she asked without moving a muscle. The captain hesitated for a second before answering.

The dragons attack had been quick, brutal and ruthless. The sky had been covered by hundreds of dragons. In just an hour the city had turned from a shining and happy place to the burning ruins it was now. Quite a few houses were still standing, but only the bigger ones. All the smaller houses were lying in ashes as the black smoke rose to the air.

The attack had started with a full-scale attack to the Canterlot Castle where Celestia usually had a lot to do. Celestia had a meeting with at least twenty other politicians and representatives from all corners of Equestria when the dragons attacked. At least thirty of them spotted Celestia and caught her completely off-guard by smashing through the windows and even the walls. Only six of the politicians managed to flee the room and were the only ones who survived. Celestia managed to kill all the dragons. Every single one of them. But because she was caught off-guard, she took a lot of hits. Lacerations and burns were covering her entire body. When the Royal Guard ran into the room, they found her lying unconscious on the floor in the worst conditions you could possibly be in. But miraculously she was still alive, so they took her immediately to the medics.

The captain had been checking out how Celestia was doing at the hospital right before he came to Luna. There was nothing but bad news. He’d gotten a full report on her condition, but he had no intention of telling Luna that. But he didn’t want to lie to her.

Luna noticed the captain’s hesitation and started to get really worried. For the first time of their conversation she took the eyes from the burning city and bowed down so that she would be at the same level as the white unicorn.

“Will she survive?” she asked, looking straight into his eyes. He avoided her glare.

“It’s not good”, he sighed. “The medical unicorns are doing everything that can, but I really can’t say.”

Luna looked right at him for a few seconds. Then she nodded slowly and looked down at the ground before standing up straight again.

She took a deep breath and looked out over the city once again. Then she looked up into the air. There you could see both dragons and pegasi fighting. The pegasi forced did a good job keeping the dragons from landing, but it was obvious that they wouldn’t be able to hold the line for long.

The captain noticed the same thing and became worried. He walked out on the balcony, leaned over the edge and started yelling out orders to the earth and unicorn ponies down at the ground. It was a long way down, but they heard him well and immediately started moving, stationed themselves to fend off any dragons that managed to bypass the pegasi defenses. After doing that, he looked up to Luna.

“How long until the Night Guard arrives?” he asked desperate. He realized Celestia’s forces alone wouldn’t be enough to defend Canterlot from these dragons.

“They should be here any second now”, she answered without taking her eyes from the battle that raged up in the sky.

The dragons were pushing the pegasi down towards the ground. The dragons had, thanks to their superior size and strength, the upper hand. But the pegasi guards were ponies you had to take seriously. Their skill in fighting was far more advanced than the unorganized and untrained dragons. Many dragons fell lifeless to the ground before they were able to push the pegasi down by just a little bit. And for every fallen pegasi, a new one took his place. For the dragons it seemed like a hitting a wall. A wall of which you could slowly, but surely, move, but not completely break. That was until a hole was found in the defenses.

The pegasi were needed everywhere around Canterlot so every now and then a squad or two had to leave their current position to help defending another one. That’s what just had happened and for a short time, the pegasi hadn’t been able to reestablish their defenses everywhere. Right in the middle of the line of pegasi, there was one single guard defending his position all by himself, waiting for assistance. A few dragons noticed that and took their chance. They quickly flew toward him and in all the confusion they were able to burn his wings before he even knew he was specifically targeted by the dragons. They watched as he fell screaming towards the ground while flames were destroying his wings. A few dragons saw this opportunity to bypass the defenses and head for the Royal Castle.

Six dragons were able to sneak past. The seventh dragons fell lifeless to the ground with a spear piercing his neck. Both Luna and the captain witnessed as the six dragons, which passed by the defenses, immediately spotted them and went in for the kill. The captain did his duty by placing himself in front of the princess in order to defend her.

“Please let me take care of this”, Luna said and gently shoved the captain away. She then charged up her horn with magic, pointed it towards the charging dragons, and shot. A dark blue beam was shout out from her horn and was flying towards the dragon in the front with incredible speed. The dragon didn’t even have time to react before the beam went straight through the dragon’s chest. With a surprised and confused look on his face, the dragon fell down from the sky. The other dragons didn’t stop, even though they saw how easily their friend was taken out. But Luna didn’t hesitate. She shot the same beam again and again. She managed to take down three more dragons without as single miss.

The dragons now realized they wouldn’t be able to take down the princess by themselves. Luna watched as the last dragon was fleeing, and easily taken down by the Royal Guard.

The captain was amazed by the princess skill. He’d never doubted that she was far more powerful than any unicorn, but he’d never really seen her in action. But there were one thing that somehow bothered him.

“Wait! That was just five dragons. Where’s the si-“, the captain didn’t have time to continue as the sixth dragon smashed half of the balcony from beneath. The dragons roared in anger and he reached out for the princess. The captain and fallen to the ground when the dragon appeared and were now trying to get up on his hooves as quickly as possible. But in vain. He realized that he wouldn’t be able to reach the princess in time. He could do nothing but helplessly watch as the dragon was getting closer and closer to Luna. Yet Luna remained so calm. He even saw a little smile showing up on her face. But before he could think of anything else, a dark shadow flew up just beside him. When he realized what just had happened, one of Luna’s Night Guard was sitting on top of the dragon with his glowing spear stuck in the dragon’s cranium.

“Commander Darkspawn reporting for duty, Princess”, the Night Guard said while ripping out the spear from the dragon’s head. The Night Guard commander had a gray coat and a purple mane. Apart from the helmet, he was wearing the same armor as the rest of the Night Guard. It was a purple armor with both dark and light purple colors. Just like all the other ponies in the Night Guard he had a pair of bat wings instead of the regular feathered wings. Unlike other ponies, the Night Guard also had reptilian eyes which helped them see in the dark. Overall, with his armor and steaming hot spear that pierced through dragon scales like it was nothing, he was ready for a battle.

“You’re here! Good!” Luna said quickly. “Take all of you men and help defending what’s left of the city!”

“Will do!” Commander Darkspawn saluted and flew off. He shouted out a few orders and soon hundreds of Night Guars soldiers were flying to all corners of the city, ready to fend off the dragons at the Royal Guard’s side. Even though everything that could possibly go wrong already had gone wrong, Luna couldn’t get rid of the feeling that this was just the beginning.

“We should go check on how the evacuation is going”, Luna said to the captain. “We don’t want any civilians in the city if the dragons are able to break though our defenses.”

“Agreed”, the captain relied and were ready to go to the western side of Canterlot where the evacuation took place. But he stopped when a blue aura surrounded him. He looked back at the princess a bit confused, but then he realized what she was doing. He nodded and gave her a smile, showing her that he was ready. And so Luna teleported them away from the castle to the western side of Canterlot where the Royal Guard were rounding up civilians so that they could bring them to safety.

As soon as Luna arrived, all the guards immediately stopped with what they were doing and saluted.

“Go back to your work, men!” a field officer yelled. After making sure they all obeyed him he walked up and bowed his head to Luna. “Princess! Captain. What brings you here?”

“We’re here to check on how the evacuation is going”, the captain answered. The field officer nodded.

“I see. Well, it’s going good so far. We’re able to keep the dragons away from the civilians, but we really must hurry up. I don’t know how much longer we can keep them away”, the field officer got a sad look on his face. “And there’s probably many ponies still trapped down in the city, but sadly there isn’t much we can do for them. We need all soldiers in the front line.” Luna nodded slowly and took a deep breath. She gave the officer a sign that he could continue his work, and so he did.

“All those poor ponies…” the captain sighed and shook his head. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

“The best thing we can do is to make sure all the ponies who actually made it here gets out of Canterlot in one piece”, Luna said. The captain hated to admit it, but it was the truth. Going through a burning city looking for survivors while dragons were trying to burn you alive didn’t even seem like an option. The captain shook his head. He couldn’t let something he couldn’t do anything about bother him too much. He had to change subject.

“Have you seen the dragon’s eyes?” he said as an attempt to make him think about something else. “They’re all white. Like they don’t have…”

“They’re being mind controlled”, Luna interrupted him. “It’s just like what I read in the report from the dragon attack on Ponyville a few days ago.”

“But if magic is involved… could that mean they’re targeting the elements as well? What if they find out where Twilight is before we do?” He started to get really worried.

“Let’s just hope the Elements are safe from all this insane violence”, Luna said. “We’ve got a city to take care of.”

Suddenly a loud shout echoed from the sky. Both the princess and the captain looked up.

“The western defenses are down! The dragons are breaking through!”

“This is not good…” Luna said as the Royal Guard fled as hordes of dragons were chasing them, slaughtering everypony who wasn’t fast enough. On the ground all the civilians started panicking, trying to run away from the terrifying sight.

“We have to protect the civilians!” Luna yelled so that all the soldiers nearby could hear her. But as they saw the swarm of dragons closing in, it all seemed pointless. Neither of them could see any other end to this than death. As the Royal Guard quickly stationed them to fight the incoming dragons on the ground, they were joined by the Night Guard. Almost every soldier in the area joined the ground defenses on the western side of the city.

“Luna... I’ve known you for a year now. It’s not been long enough, but I’ve enjoined every second of it. If I die now, it will be an honor dying by your side”, the captain spoke slowly and calmly. It seemed like there was only one way now. But if he was going to die, he was going to die fighting. Fighting with the hope that Twilight was safe and sound. A tear ran down from his cheek.

“If we fail here…” Luna said. “I will die knowing that the Elements will be there, lighting the flame of harmony once again. Believe in your sister... Shining Armor.”

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