Five years had passed since then, and Twilight has grown stronger because of her studies with Princess Celestia. Spike has grown a bit, but the baby dragon still needed to be cared for more than Twilight. Though, that wasn’t the only thing that has grown since then, the pre-teen filly was starting to become more attached to her mysterious bodyguard.

At this moment, it was mid-afternoon and the filly was spending time with her favorite foalsitter n the castle garden. The two were making flower headbands, and there was a question weighing on her mind. “Cadence?” She spoke up.

“Hm?” Cadence acknowledged, tying the flowers together for the headband she had.

“Can I ask you something?” She said, looking up at the older pony.

Cadence smiled at the filly. “Of course you can, Twilight. What do you want to ask?” She said, smiling that sweet smile of hers.

“Ok, now or never…” Twilight thought, before taking a deep breath. “H-How do you know if you’re in love with some pony?” She asked, catching the Princess off guard completely.

“Huh? In love? W-Well….” Cadence stuttered, pondering how she could answer that question. “You find it hard to talk around that pony. They’re always on your mind. You do what you can, just to see them smile… Oh, and your heart races every time they look at you.” She explained. “Who’s the lucky colt?”

Twilight began to blush furiously, trying to hide it. “N-No one! I-I was just c-curious!” She said, failing to hide her embarrassment.

Cadence smirked at her, the Princess already knew who it was. There was only one pony that Twilight acted differently around. “They wouldn’t happen to have… A midnight blue coat, a long black mane… A strong, muscular, build… A pair of entrancing gray eyes… A pair of bat-like wings…” She teased.

“C-Cadence…” Twilight muttered, making her flower headband even faster.

“And this stallion wouldn’t happen to be called-“ Cadence was cut off, when the name that she was going to say had been shouted.

“Sir Night Claw!” A Guard yelled, making the mares look towards the courtyard’s direction. They saw a group of guard ponies rushing towards that direction. “Quickly! There’s no way Sir Night Claw will be able to hold them off on his own!” The Guard yelled.

“Cadence! Night is in danger, we have to go help!” Twilight yelled, dropping what she was doing in a panicked state.

“Twilight, wait!” Before the Princess could protest fully, the filly had dashed off to see if she could help in some way… The Princess quickly flew after said filly, hoping to catch her before something might actually happen.

When they arrived at the scene, the two saw Night Claw, armored, facing off with eight armored gryphons! Each one giving him dagger-like glares… There were also members of the Royal Guard laying across the courtyard, injured. They also noticed three other gryphons, all looking like someone had sliced them to the point they could no longer put up any kind of fight.

“Night is out-numbered! Cadence, we have to do something.” Twilight said, her magic appearing around her small horn.

Cadence put a hoof in front of the filly. “First, let Night Claw handle what he can… He isn’t defenseless. Plus, those are gryphon soldiers… They are too dangerous for us to actually fight.” She said, looking at the scene…. Noticing that Night Claw had his wings wide open, giving off a threatening demeanor.

“Be careful, Night…” Twilight muttered, waiting for the fight to start.

Within seconds, the first two gryphons lunged at Night Claw, their talons ready to cut in to him.. But the stallion was too fast for them, dodging their attacks before delivering either a devastating buck or a painful slice from the blades on his wings. When the next two attacked, in hopes to catch him by surprise, they didn’t fare any better than their comrades.

Night Claw didn’t wait for the next attack, and went straight for the two gryphons closest to him. “This guy fights like no pony I’ve ever seen before!” A snow white gryphon said, moving next to an ebon one. “At this rate, we won’t be able to do a thing!”

The ebon gryphon looked around, noticing both Cadence and Twilight. “You try to distract him… I’m going for a double.” He said, the snow gryphon suddenly charging Night Claw, trying his best to keep the batpony’s attention without being beaten to a pulp or cut to ribbons.

“Yeah! Get’em, Night Claw! Show those feather brains who the best around is!” Twilight cheered, stomping her hooves on the ground, while watching the stallion starting to overwhelm the snow gryphon with his powerful, yet agile, attacks.

“Should really be more concerned about yourselves, rather than him!” A voice said, before the mares noticed that the ebon gryphon was heading straight for them!

“Stay behind me, Twilight!” Cadence yelled, before attempting to blast the gryphon with her magic… Only to miss him, due to the gryphon’s superior agility. The Princess soon found herself slapped aside, crashing and sliding away from the filly.

Twilight quickly rushed over to Cadence’s side, to see if she was alright. “Cadence! A-Are you ok!?” She asked, worried about the foalsitter.

“Y-Yeah… Just a bit dazed.” She said, rubbing her head.

The two suddenly looked up, seeing the gryphon looming over them, his claw raised. “Not for long, pony!”

The moment he brought his claw down, the mares were quickly covered by a dark figure.. When Twilight looked up, she saw Night Claw standing over them… With the gryphon’s claw stabbed into his shoulder!” N-Night!” She screamed, seeing the blood run down his foreleg.

But the stallion didn’t respond, and Cadence could see why, he was… Different. His eyes were red, pupils had become hair line thin, and he suddenly had fangs bigger than any batpony should possibly have. She could also sense a darkness within his heart, that wasn’t there before… One that made her skin crawl. “A-Aunt Tia… Who is this pony!?” She thought.

The ebon gryphon tried to pull his claw free, but soon found himself caught by Night Claw’s wing. “L-Let go, y-you freak!” He yelled, noticing the same change that Cadence had.

Not even responding, Night Claw opened his mouth, Cadence sensing what he was about to do and covered Twilight’s eyes. The next second, the stallion had bit into the gryphon’s neck, and threw him to the side! This caused Night Claw’s wound to open freely, blood starting to pour out of it.

“Twily! Cadence!” A stallion’s voice called, causing the two mares to turn and see Shining Armor, with a large group of guards, rushing over. Cadence looked back at Night Claw, and noticed that he had returned to normal. “Are you two alright? Are either of you hurt?” The unicorn asked, looking at the two of them.

“Shining, Night Claw is hurt!” Twilight said, looking up at her older brother. “That ebon gryphon was going to attack us, but he took the attack himself.” She explained, Shining Armor looking at the batpony in disbelief.

“I-I’m fine, Twilight.” Night Claw said, turning around and smiling at the filly. He was obviously out of breath, his bleeding slowly stopping. “See? It’s already stopping… I’ve had worse injuries, promise.”

“But…” Twilight managed to say, before Night Claw interrupted.

“I’m fine, Twilight. How about this, I’ll go see the medics, get a bandage, and then meet you in the library. Sound good?” He asked, giving her a gentle smile.

“Only if I get to come with, to make sure you actually do it.” Twilight said, glaring up at him.

Night Claw couldn’t help but give a slight chuckle and nod. “Deal… Let’s go.” He said, actually limping, slightly, towards the castle.

Shining Armor leaned his head down, and whispered to Cadence. “How is he even walking? That was a direct hit to the shoulder…. Most ponies wouldn’t be able to stand, let alone walk.”

Cadence shook her head, trying to piece it together. “I don’t know… But I plan on asking my aunt exactly who, or what, she has protecting Twilight.” She said, Shining Armor glancing at all the injured in the courtyard, including the gryphons. To their surprise, there was only one death out of all of them… The ebon gryphon, who had a large, blood, bite mark on the side of his neck. The only way one could describe, was that it looked like some kind of monster had ripped the flesh clean off.

“Impressive, as always, Mr. Claw. The fact you heal flesh wounds so quickly, is a miracle in the medical field!” A cream colored unicorn stallion, with a brown mane and tail, a red cross for his cutie mark; said. “You must let me take some samples, so I may figure out what gives you this ability!”

Night Claw just laughed at the question, trying to ignore Twilight’s scolding glares. “Like I told you the last time, Dr. Bone Saw, I cannot let you do that. Such things are a closely guarded secret of my family. One that, may I remind you, has Princess Celestia’s seal of approval?” He said, not really lying. The genetic structure of a Night Lord, like all Astartes, is a closely guarded secret.

“I see… If you ever change your mind, and permission, please come see me.” Dr. Bone Saw said, giving Night Claw one last once over. “Normal prescription, a few hours of rest, just in case something is wrong. Now, to make sure there won’t be a scar-“

“Leave it… I deserve that scar.” Night Claw said, looking down at the claw mark scar appearing on his shoulder. “After all, Princess Cadence and, especially, Twilight almost got hurt because I allowed myself to be distracted.”

Twilight blushed, embarrassed, at what he just said before looking at Dr. Bone Saw. “Are you sure, Doctor? I mean, it looked like he was hit badly. Wouldn’t it be better for a couple of days, just to be sure?” She asked.

Dr. Bone Saw pondered for a moment. “Well, he has recovered from far worse injuries, and took only a day to bounce back… However, this is his first joint injury, so we should take precaution.” He said, thinking about it for another moment, and nodded. “Two days, just to be sure.”

Twilight smiled, the Doctor agreeing with her, as Night Claw let out a sigh. “You are the doctor, so I don’t really have a choice.” The stallion said, nodding. “Guess Twilight and I will be studying in the library a lot more.”

Twilight’s smile got even bigger. “He’ll be here for Hearts and Hooves Day!” She thought, Night Claw getting ready to leave. “I hope he likes my gift!”

Celestia was brushing her mane, before attending a meeting with her court. Hearing about the sudden attack by a small extremist group of gryphons, and how both her niece and student were in danger, had the Princess in quite the distress. When the guard told her that Night Claw dispatched them, and prevented any harm from befalling the two, she calmed down rather quickly.

“I need to find some way to thank him properly.” She thought, looking at her multicolored mane. “If he wasn’t around, I fear there would be many gray hairs in my mane.” She giggled.

A knock suddenly came at her door, making Celestia put her brush down. “Yes? Who is it?” She asked, looking towards said door.

“It’s me, Aunt Tia… Um, may I come in? There’s something I need to ask you.” Cadence said, from behind the door to Celestia’s chambers.

“Of course, Cadence. Please, come in.” Celestia said, as the young Princess opened the door and walked inside. When she closed the door, Celestia smiled at her niece. “What can I help you with, dear?” She asked.

“It is about Night Claw…” Cadence said, her voice becoming concerned about how her aunt would react.

“I see.” Celestia said, raising an eyebrow, completely missing the concern in Cadecne’s voice before going back to brushing her mane. “I heard about what had happened earlier. I was thinking about somehow repaying him, maybe you could help me do just tha-“

“Aunt Tia, what in Equiestria is he!?” Cadence interrupted, the question shocking her aunt so much that she dropped the brush.

“W-Whatever do you mean, Cadence? He’s just a regular p-pony.” Celestia answered, giving her niece a confident smile.

“Aunt Tia, he is not a regular pony…. The fact he is so big for even a guard pony, strength that not even an earth pony could possibly have while also being a bat pony, is proof enough to suspect he isn’t normal.” Cadence said, Celestia starting to become nervous. “I would have ignored it, normally, because he takes such good care of Twilight.. But, after what I saw today, I-I don’t know if I can!”

Celestia gave her niece a serious stare, trying to hide her fear of what she might have seen. “Cadence, tell me, what did you see?” She simply asked.

“It was when the gryphons attacked, and the ebon one was getting ready to strike Twilight and me. The moment I saw him, after he took the hit, he was different.” Cadence explained, Celestia listening intently. “His eyes were red, suddenly his fangs grew in size, the likes no batpony has, his pupils were thin as my hair and…. A-And that wasn’t the worst of it”

Celestia lowered her ears, eyeing her niece. “What was?”

“When I sensed, to see what was in his heart… All I felt was rage, fear, sorrow a-and…” Cadence was starting to breath fast, the feeling of what she saw just now hitting the young alicorn. “A darkness so powerful, so terrible, I never want to see the likes of it ever again. The magic you showed me, the kind that King Sombra could wield in those stories, don’t even come close to it.”

Celestia let out a sigh of relief, giving a warm smile. “Thank goodness, he didn’t have a relapse.” She said, Cadence giving her aunt a questioning look.

“Relapse? Aunt Tia, what do you mean? I didn’t even tell you he bit the gryphon’s neck open, and you seem calm despite what I just told you.” Cadence said, confused at how Princess Celestia is taking this.

“I already knew that part, and when you said that you saw him become different, I feared he had relapsed and our plan was about to be ruined.” She said, Cadence giving her a dumb look. “I cannot tell you the whole story, but do not fear…. Night Claw would never harm his precious Twilight. He would rather be killed, in the most horrible of ways, then let that happen.”

“How do you know?” Cadence asked.

“Remember that murder, six years ago? The foal rapist, whose body was found in an alleyway, torn apart?” Celestia asked.

Cadence gave a nod. “Yes, the police never found out who did it-“ She suddenly stopped herself. “T-That was him?”

Celestia nodded, smiling. “That was what his former self was able to do. Guess who the foal was, that he saved?” Cadence went wide eyed, she knew exactly who, and Celestia took that as her answer. “However, this is a very closely guarded secret… One that everyone will find out, in due time.”

Cadence gave a nod. “I-I understand, Aunt Tia. I won’t breathe a word, not event to Shining Armor.”

Celestia walked over, and wrapped Cadence in a hug with her wings. “I know you won’t, Cadence… Hence why I told you at least that much.”

Cadence looked up at her aunt. “T-There’s more?” She asked.

Celestia gave a light nod. “Far more than you would ever believe… He is truly a pony shrouded in mysteries.” She commented, giving a sigh. Keeping such a secret was painful for the Princess, but it was one she had to keep. “One such thing, is that his current form, and the one you saw, are nothing compared to the real him.”