Author's Notes:

This is one of the short interlude chapters after four ponies. I decided to add these chapters only to show off a bit of what each of the princesses had to fight against during their partner duels.
I hate having to work two jobs but work is work and money is money so chapters come as I finish writing them. So instead of the 3 to 4 days I'm not gonna put on a deadline. It's too much pressure to finish something and I didn't feel right for what I wrote.

Flashback (When Luna left to find the new bearers.)

She couldn’t believe her eyes. They had been called in to check on the map of the Castle of Friendship and instead they were fighting an unspeakable evil which seemed to tear apart two of her friends. ‘Well Spike is at least… Discord needs to earn that trust again… maybe I’m too forgiving?’ Cadance finished her thought just as another shadow creature struck against the shield that she was behind. Another moment later saw it turn to mush in her cornflower blue glow. That was the twenty seventh time that another shadow creature had made it past her aunt.

Celestia was standing in front of her three blades made of solar energy flared in front of her stabbing an unsuspecting shadow before another blade would either bisect them or flay them. The brutality that Cadance saw shocked her to her core. Her own aunt had always been so mellow and even when Chrysalis had attacked during her wedding she had kept her attacks to beams of solar energy. This… this was something much worse and horrifying to imagine. Luna had left a while ago and the tree had begun processing even more enemies for the two. Anubis had remained quiet and relayed the messages that had come in from the group.

Starlight had been hyperventilating when she called in. The mention of honest to Celestia zomponies… ‘or was it zombies?’ had brought about a shudder to her soul. She had learned that the world she was in was harsher than anything that had happened in Equestria even with the invasions and Tirek’s assault. The concept of friendship was almost kept to a minimum with political intrigue and the want for power vastly overwhelming that angle. Luckily she had managed to make friends there… true friends as she came to know it as. Anubis had gifted her with some peculiar spells which neither of the princesses knew why it would be necessary.

Cadance lifted up several of the shadows ripping their limbs off almost effortlessly before tossing them towards Celestia. She had summoned a solar lance and made sure to catch the falling bodies before igniting the spear turning the shadows back to ash.

‘It’s for the good of the world Cady, keep telling yourself that and it should make the feeling stop.’ Cadance took a few steps from her own breathing exercises. The amount of carnage that she had been part of left a sour taste in her mouth. She had wanted to be stronger… more active in saving her ponies. But this… this was monstrous, Half the shadows had looked like Spike which made it harder whenever he said something in his voice.

“Remember niece. They are not the real deal. Constructs and nothing more. Don’t let their voice nor their appearance deter you from protecting this world. We must push on!” With that scream Celestia skewered one of the shadows on her horn. The creature slid down helplessly before exploding in a flash of her golden magic. Cadance stared at the display as three more enemies fell to the golden sun like blades.

Shaking her head Cadance gripped another of the shadows which looked like Discord and crushed it within her telekinetic grip before tossing it into the chasm below the island. The violence was getting out of hoof due to the amount of foes. It was even worse when Celestia managed to turn her mane to pure fire as she incinerated everything that came close to her or passed by her. The smile on her muzzle looked unnerving and held together by true malice.

“Celestia… are you ok?” Cadance managed to weakly mutter out catching her attention. Her eyes were glowing with pure magical force in a white light while the smile kept on her face. She was enjoying herself immensely and looked forward to the carnage. The magic slowly died down returning her mane back to its illustrious moving pattern and a sad smile graced her muzzle.

“Sorry dear niece… I may have lost myself there for a moment. It was too good an opportunity to not pass up. Over a thousand years of dealing with pompous windbags and no possible way to deal with them other than talking or ignoring them. Can you imagine not having any outlet to deal with that travesty of justice. Aside from the incident with Luna, which caused a whole other body of problems to my psyche, there hadn’t been any way to truly manage all the stress that came from the day to day drudgery.” Celestia spoke up though her tone betrayed how she truly felt. She was still happy to be getting rid of all the rage she had built up over the long centuries of life.

“I… understand. I know what you mean though not at that level I guess. I remember when I thought ponies only saw me as that pretty pink princess, It tore at my heart that that was all I was seen as. I wanted to lash out but it would have been a bad idea overall. Luckily I found out how they truly thought of me. It helped me and kept me from being overwhelmed by anger.” Cadance felt her spirits heightened.

“I know that niece. I know all too well when they don’t take you seriously. Even I used to have pink hair and they considered me ineffective. I’ve managed to work out a way in getting past the narrow minded unicorns of the Day Court. Now they take me seriously at least.” Celestia motioned her hooves for emphasis before knocking out another shadow that tried to attack her from behind.

The quiet soon came up and left the two fighting more shadows which seemed to take the form of the ponies which left for random worlds. The Starlight shadows and lights were especially dangerous managing to perform magic which paled in comparison to Celestia and Sombra. The dark crystals had nearly pierced through the shield while the light beams matched Celestia’s in power knocking them out of place.

Rainbow Dash doubles used plenty of lightning and speed to confound the two managing to break the shield in places forcing Anubis to focus on making more shields. The Pinkie Pie shadows were especially horrifying managing to pop in through the shield forcing Cadance to get her hooves messy smashing the shadows before they could smash into Anubis.

A random slash appeared over Celestia, marring her side while beams of light barely passed her mane. Cadance took more than a few smacks whenever Shadow Pinkie managed to get a stomp through. Still Anubis kept healing them throughout the spree forcing them to keep fighting against the impossible odds. Luna hadn’t sent word yet about finding the new bearers as another hour passed by leaving them to fight more doppelgangers. The tedium had forced Celestia to use a lot more power than she had wanted to use burning the Twilight clones before they could activate their spells fully.

The pandemonium that rose from the conflict also brought to light just how strong Cadance’s own shield spells were. Every other clone would be violently bisected or vivisected whenever she focused on their bodies with her magic. Celestia, on the other hoof, brought in more solar weaponry she had created. Skewering or slicing became the norm during battle as more shadows warped in or oozed out of the tree. They weren’t all that strong either only getting in grazing hits rather than decisive ones.

“They aren’t doing anything right… “ Celestia muttered under her breath as another Starlight clone flew in trying to tackle her… only to end up impaled on her horn and bursting apart from the surge of magic. Only frowns adorned the Princess’s face leaving her feeling sick from destroying another Starlight clone. Focusing back on the problem Celestia returned to a scowl and kept fighting against the tides. Gripping many of the shadows together including the two Dash clones, which had managed to get off multiple lightning strikes which had destroyed two of her solar weapons, she forced another mini sun to be created burning the shadows beyond ash.

“Oh Celestia this is horrible… “ Cadance grimaced as she focused another shield on a Starlight clone ripping the head from the body before tossing the body away. The sickened feeling that had been building up in her throat finally forced itself free. Anubis, though exhausted, happily warped the mess away even though he was focusing on giving Starlight a measure of protect from something called Las Plagas.

Soon more messages also came in with Twilight requiring gravity spells, Pinkie needing another party cannon, Fluttershy sobbing uncontrollably about what role kindness played. There were more every second. Rainbow Dash had the worse time when she said she needed Luna’s help soon but she wasn’t back yet. Another frantic call came in. Rarity mentioned something about a travel agency in the land of the dead. Applejack needed more protection from energy draining. The messages kept incoming leaving Anubis to crack almost incessantly while he managed the requests.

Throughout the calls more shadows kept pooping out of the tree at an increased pace. The shadows stopped charging aimlessly forcing themselves to coalesce into one being. A doppelganger of Luna soon stepped forward.

“Forsooth! Now I shall make sure your corpses join your friends!” The mock Luna spoke in the Royal Canterlot voice leaving a very stunned Celestia while the other shadows disappeared from sight oozing into the Luna clone.

“Vile monster, you dare take my sister’s form. Have at ye!” Celestia charged forward meeting the false alicorn in combat. Lance struck blade as solar and lunar weaponry danced around the cavern leaving the glistening afterimages of blades behind.

“Watch out Celestia!” Cadance had barely brought her horn to point as several lunar based weapons formed into being dripping with what looked like poisoned shadow were flung into Celestia’s direction. A shield made of love sprung to life seconds before the weapons could form. The Luna clone then focused her weaponry on the pink alicorn only to be stopped by Anubis’s shield.

“Your battle is with me monster!” Celestia charged forward forcing the clone to the ground and disrupting the magic flowing through the lunar weapons making them dissipate from sight. The two mares swung their hooves at each other knocking one another into the ground. Blood seeped from some of the wounds Celestia had acquired on impact. The fragments of the ground tore into the shadow letting the poisoned shadows burst onto the ground.

The monster still stood back up only much less intact. What had been wings were now just stumps spilling out more shadows which uselessly spilled to the floor. The face was partially mush now showing off nothing underneath but the remains of the left eye. The horn had also fallen off leaving Celestia to look at a horrifying visage of Luna brutally mutilated and still trying to kill. As the creature stood back to its hooves Celestia charged a large batch of solar energy then released a prismatic spray of light all over the creature burning away the shadows and leaving behind nothing. The room was secure once more and silence reigned supreme.

“Thanks Anubis. That was horrifying. Can they do that for all of us?” Cadance motioned where the Luna clone had been standing. Her eyes seemed to gaze off into the distance almost uncertain about the world.

“So it just wanted to torture us with something then?” Celestia scowled at the tactics the spheres had taken when something else came to mind. She bit her tongue on the matter though and kept it to herself… until Cadance noticed.

“What’s wrong Auntie? It looks like something is on your mind.” Cadance poked at Celestia though she did so cautiously. The actions that she took still scared Cadance deep in her soul just by the viciousness she had seen.

“We still don’t know what or who had tried to attack us. All we know is that they hold dominion over harmony and chaos. That is more dangerous than anything else we’ve been through and there is no possible way to deal with this effectively or without hurting our little ponies,” Celestia looked over to Anubis scrutinizing him intensely. “But you do, don’t you?”

“Why haven’t you said anything about it to us? Do we not have the right to know what exactly we are up against?” Celestia stomped her hoof cracking a bit of the island. Slowly she regained her composure and quickly controlled her now shallow breathing.

“No!” Celestia cried out realizing the information was practically useless and the fact that they could be considered gods of their respective influences was sobering a thought.

Finally, Luna floated down the shaft with three ponies within her magic allowing the two other alicorn princesses to sigh in relief.