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

Celestia was bored. She couldn’t explain why but she was monumentally bored out of her mind. At the same time she was proud. Her sister had been so wrapped up in making friends and adjusting to a way of life one thousand years in the making. Now she knew that her skills had not rusted even a bit.

“Sister don’t forget the one on the right.” Celestia intoned as she nodded to the correct side.

“Thank thee sister I already have seen it.” Luna rolled her eyes but quickly destroyed the monster before her. It sent a torrent of shadow into the water making the murkiness rise. Already several of the shadows took new forms.

The Twilight shadows had been the most difficult as they tried to teleport within the shield only to be melted alive by an angry sun alicorn. The ones which stayed outside the shield were cut down by ethereal blades of darkness and ice. Luna placed greater care to either bisect or decapitate the rogue beings before her for pragmatism and efficiency. From her estimates Celestia had managed to destroy over two hundred of the creatures before she had returned. She needed to make sure that she was still at the top of her game.

After a time both the Rarity and Vinyl shadows had wormed their way out of the crystal tree and galloped over to the moon alicorn. Instead of flashy magic like the Twilight shadows they attempted to impale Luna on their moderately resized horns.

‘A sure sign of magical tampering. These beasts know no bounds in their attempts to reach Anubis. Lest they forget they are facing the personification of the night and not one fool shall pass by me.’ Luna’s eyes glowed a bright white as she summoned a heavily modified version of the Tantabus and sicced it on her less than worthwhile foes. The Tantabus took the same form as Luna and began to mimic her fighting style. Each swing of an ethereal moonlit blade was copied and mirrored by the Tantabus and turned into a beautiful dance of whirling blades of death.

As the two whirling midnight blades of shadow cleaved through the entire horde of shadows Celestia looked on slightly bored now that none of the opponents would reach the shield. While she silently sighed several new shadows grew out of the tree. Each of them looked exactly like Fluttershy. Unlike Fluttershy they took up a perimeter and stared down Luna and the Tantabus. Strangely enough the Stare managed to pierce into their very soul stopping them from moving. Before it could fully take effect Luna managed to cast another spell.

The shadows that attempted to tackle the Tantabus were absorbed into it’s ethereal form and torn to shreds before dissipating into smoke. The ones that sprang into action against Luna were frozen the moment they made contact with her. Their inert bodies fell to the floor and shattered like ice. That action got plenty of the magical shadows and lights to change tactics as the doppelgangers of Rarity and Vinyl, one again, took up artillery positions and peppered Luna’s position with high intensity magic blasts. The lightshow caused the Fluttershy doppelgangers to flinch and shut their eyes.

While Luna took a few hits charring a bit of her side it allowed her to teleport out of the way and fire back at the Stare masters. Several blades of moonlight shimmered forth and decapitated the doppelgangers freeing the Tantabus and allowing it to refract the beams back into their targets.

“Come thither foul beast from yonder planes. Feel the wrath of your Princess of the Night! Watch as I freeze thine very souls and cast them to the depths of thy very blasphemous realm of existence. None shall prevail over I!” Princess Luna bellowed with the Royal Canterlot Voice actually destroying a few of the doppelgangers just by the power of her voice.

“Oh Sister. You’re having so much fun now. Make sure you leave some for Cadance. Can’t have her get too lazy ya know.” Celestia chuckled slightly but Luna could tell that she was just teasing.

“Do not worry Sister. I’m sure that the tree will provide. It’s given us enough to cope with our stress wouldn’t you say? I think that we should find a way to incorporate such battle training into our life. Probably should put Twilight into this.” Luna mused as she sunk another moonlit blade into another doppelganger. With a quick flick of her magic the figure flew off into another and fell into the abyss below the tree.

“I don’t know if she could handle it. Perhaps we should get her into more cardio before we do that. She’s doing fine but she has been sitting around a lot lately. Maybe we should get Rainbow Dash to train her a bit more before we start the combat training.” Celestia looked over Anubis noticing that the cracks were getting worse.

The sphere began to mutter about Rarity requiring several light spells, Twilight needed gravity spells desperately, and Vinyl needing self-levitation spells. The magic flowing off Anubis created even deeper cracks in the shell. Fluttershy’s request was the strangest out of all of them. She had requested a Magic Crystal Storage Unit. Confused overall by the request Anubis still obliged and turned over the item. Celestia was worried that something would be brought over and tried to get Anubis’s attention only for several more doppelgangers to attack the shield while Luna was turning the Tantabus into a wicked shaped scythe.

“Luna I need you to keep the copies busy!” Celestia called out while her own magic burst from the shield slamming the copies into the abyss. Luna soared into action gripping her new weapon and slicing through the copies that congregated around the shield before smacking the rest over into the tree.

“Anubis I need you to tell me what is going on. What is Fluttershy using that crystal for?” Celestia used her magic to try to seal up the cracks as she asked. Her magic had no real effect on the sphere’s shell. The magic was absorbed and returned without any detrimental problem.

“That is not as comforting as I thought it would be. What are these… identities that she is bringing? What was their purpose in that world?” Celestia scowled not at the sphere but at the uncertainty of what is being brought.

“I suppose. I’m just worried that this would be something we couldn’t handle. While we are doing a decent job of keeping this realm safe I can’t help but think that we are far beyond our mettle. These creatures are doing things we are not prepared for even in the slightest. I don’t even think that the guards we do have would be able to deal with these creatures plus the Elements of Harmony are inert and useless against these threats as it is now.” Celestia grumbled as another set of copies were torn to shreds by Luna’s haphazardly placed cuts.

“It shall be interesting at least right Tia? We can accommodate these changes at our pace rather than at the enemy’s pace. There is little worry with taking care of these problems is there sister?” Luna snorted as she bucked another enemy into the abyss.

“That’s not the problem. The problem is how ponies would react. Remember how some unicorns are when it comes to status. Most of the annoying partitioners of the court all count magic as the end all be all way of life. Those elements would no doubt look to take advantage of these changes to their own benefits. Remember that foul being Upper Crust I was forced to speak with for hours due to some trivial matter of her status being looked down upon when we gave Twilight the chance to hold her birthday in our ballroom? I’d rather not deal with that sort of problem.” Celestia groaned as she fired off a magical burst of flames away from the shield striking the forces that were forming for a mass attack.

“Why not just make this a project for either the Crystal Empire and Ponyville? When we get Spike back we can have him lead the movement in the Crystal Empire alongside Shining Armor and Cadance. While Discord watches over Ponyville alongside Twilight to make sure things go right. At least they will be controlled and kept from spreading like wildfire.” Luna posited.

Celestia merely smiled but beneath the exterior of her calm smile a torrent of emotions seemed to fester within her mind. The constant stream of copies and monsters was starting to wear thin on her patience. Luna was still having the time of her life as she sliced apart another cavalcade of copies before they could even form. The constant stream of enemies soon came to a halt allowing the three to take a breath.

“Well that was a thing wasn’t it Tia?” Luna chuckled as the Tantabus returned into Luna’s subconscious. Celestia wanted to know more about why that entity was still within Luna’s psyche but kept her eyes on the prize.

Anubis was in extremely bad condition. The cracks adorning its sides were pulsing with magical backup and flaring out. While the magic that was radiating off it was negligible to their health the constant stream looked to be causing problems in maintaining the link with the other ponies.

“Anubis is there anything we can do for you? You’re not going to be able to handle this much longer at this rate. We should figure out a way to repair you somewhat.” Celestia stared sadly at the sphere.

“We should prepare for them then. I wonder whom the ponies she brought are.Shall we at least clean up a bit before they come down here.” Luna piped up while she swept away parts of the darkness into the abyss below the tree.

“Horseapples… Is there nothing we can do for you then?” Celestia glowered at the tree releasing a snarl that even she never realized she had before. Luna noticed but kept her thoughts silent. The constant battle had taken a bit of a toll on her. Luckily she had managed to defeat more foes than Celestia and took great solace in that fact.

“Celestia we must keep up with our job. We shall protect this place and it from the forces beyond this world.” Luna smirked as she put away all the blades the had warped to her side.

“Quite. Oh, by the way, I still destroyed more copies than you.” Celestia smirked back while Luna’s smile faltered into a scowl.

Before they could get into something Cadance brought in the two ponies that she found. The brown coated stallion and the grey coated pegasus mare. After a quick explanation the two were willing to go along with the plan.

With a small sigh Celestia took off to search for the last two ponies they needed. Hopefully the last two ponies were easy to find.