Shining armor woke up the next day, his soldiers were ready to continue their journey in order to save as much ponies as they possible can from Nocturne’s grasps. Shining armor got out of his tent and went to check on his squad. They all seemed to be ok, they were out of their tents and had their gear ready. Shining armor was still thinking about what happened yesterday in his dream, what he saw was real? Or was this whole thing schemed just to scare him off?

"Good morning everypony, doing ok?" He asked.

"Yes, my prince!" Flash Said.

"Always!" Ensis said with a face full of pride.

"I am fine my prince, thanks for asking." Silver Bandage said.

"Oh I slept like a filly last night!" Sleepy said with a gaze full of happiness.

They all stared at him for a minute. They thought that he didn’t take this mission seriously. Sleepy Doo noticed that and tried to stay more focused to the mission.

"I mean, yes I am ok!" He said with awkward smile.

Shining armor rolled his eyes.

"Alright, then. Everypony gear up, we are moving! Sleepy Doo, take back the tents and any equipment that you used yesterday." Shining armor said.

"Yes my prince!" Sleepy said with a salute.

He then rushed at the tents and he dismantled them in a matter of seconds. He then shoved everything back to his trusty huge backpack and went back to the line and saluted at Shining armor with a smile.

"I still don’t know how you do that Sleepy." Shining armor said.

"I am just determent my prince!"

"Um…ok that’s good enough for me i guess."

He tried to say that without giving the impression that he was confused.

"Ok, everypony gear up. Where are moving!" He ordered.

Then they started wearing their armor and weapons. Shining armor wore his favorite armor. The one that he had when the changelings invaded, he put on his helmet and pulled out his trusty sword. Flash Sentry wore his classic royal guard armor and his weapon of choice was a spear. Ensis even if he was an earth pony he still wanted to carry two weapons at once, his weapons of choice were two small axes, sometimes his own hooves and his armor was made of crystal like that one of the crystal guard's but with some modifications. This armor complete covered his face and let only a two small holes that were in the eye position of the helmet and the other parts of his body were covered by spiked bracers. Even if the armor was heavy, his warrior like spirit could lift anything. Silver Bandage however wasn’t such a war enthusiasm. Instead, he wore his medical robes and armed himself with a knife and a bag of first aids. And last but not least, Sleepy Doo wore his crystal armor and his weapon of choice was a small wrist blade witch was pured with Ricin poision. They were ready.

"First column!"

He ordered. The others then followed his command and made a straight line one behind the other.

"We are moving in!"

With that said, he started following the road to Canterlot. During their journey he thought that it was only a matter of time before they would encounter some of Nocturne’s minions. Shining armor had faith in his soldiers, but after what he saw at Yakyakistan he wasn’t sure if his soldiers would survive this encounter. They had managed to reach Cloudsdale or at least had managed to go under Cloudsdale. But what they saw it was a sign that Equestria was slowly becoming Nocturne’s. The clouds were dark with lightning coming out of them and the rainbow was gone not to be seen again. They didn’t say a word, they just looked at each other and knew that this will be Equestria’s future if Nocturne was not stopped. They had reached the mountain that the Canterlot was on, they passed the waterfall and followed the train rails. When they entered the tunnel they saw what appeared to be a mare running to their direction. Ensis pulled out his axes just in case if this was a trap, but the mare seemed harmless and she was crying. When she reached them she fell to Shining armor’s hooves. Shining armor holded her and tried to calm her down. The mare cried even more. The mare’s skin was pale, her mane was red and her cutie mark was diamond.

"Please you have to help me!!" She said.

"Don’t worry, you are safe now." Shining armor said.

"No you don’t understand, it is coming!!"

Before they could ask who is coming, from end of the tunnel came what appeared to be a skeletonized wolf with a few pieces of flesh in it along with black fur and blue lightning effects running around it's body. Shining armor stayed calm and gave the order.

"Battle positions!"

His team got into position. Ensis went first and was ready to go up against the beast, Sleepy Doo was to Ensis's right and would attack the wolf when Ensis had its full attention, Flash Sentry’s objective was the same, but he would be to Ensis’s left, rush in to the wolf along with Sleepy Doo and put it down for good. And for Bleak, he would be in a fair distance between himself and the three ponies in front of him so that he could treat any wounds without having the wolf attacking him. The beast rushed in to them in frustration. Its steps would echo all across the tunnel like tiny earthquakes. They knew that this beast was not going to die so easily.

"GET READY!" Shining armor said.

The beast was close, Ensis then unleashed a powerful roar that got the beast’s attention, It then jumped straight on top of Ensis. Ensis grabbed its claws and was trying with his back hoof to kick it out of him, while dogging its bites. Sleepy Doo and Flash Sentry then rushed to the wolf immediately stabbing it to its back. The wolf didn't feel pain at all it just kept attack Ensis. Ensis was not able to keep control of the wolf and it bite his hoof and squeezed. Ensis hoof was bleeding heavily, he just ignored the pain and gazed at the beast with a grin and he reached out for his axe. He then grabbed it and then started hiting the head of the beast relentlessly. The wolf released Ensis, but it didn’t back down, it then focused on Flash Sentry and Flash started back. He could see the beast’s rage in it's eyes, Flash tried to stab the beast with his spear, but the beast grabbed it and broke it, leaving Flash defenseless, he tried to fly away from the beast to save himself, but he was dragged down and the beast started scratching his face and then it tried to imaple Flash right in the center of his face but at the last second he dogged it and the beast ended up imapling his left cheeck and ripping it appart. Flash screamed in pain as his flesh was ripped right in front of his own ones and there was nothing he could do it about it other than scream and watch as his own dry blood would slowly fall down to the cold ground. When out of nowhere Sleepy Doo came and climbed at the back of the beast, he then started stabbing it with his poisonous blade and he then grabbed it by it's ears and jumped right in front of it while hanging from it's back with a rope that he attached to it.

"Hi there!" He said with a smile and he shoved a tiny ball at it's mouth and he jumped off with a smile.

"What the...." Flash said.

"Relax all part of the plan." He said with a smile.

Soon the ball exploded and Sleepy was laughing.

"YEAH BABY, GET REKT!" He said excitedly.

The beast however quickly immerged without a problem and was about to strike again.

"Well shit!" Sleepy said.

But the wolf just stoped it raised it's head up into the sky with awareness and after a second it started running away from them, like if somepony was calling it to go back.

"What the fuck?" Sleepy said. He then looked at Flash and said.

"HOLY SHIT DUDE YOUR FACE!, SILVER COME HERE WE NEED YOU!" He shouted.

Silver bandage quickly run to them and said.

"Ok don't worry here i am......what the....Flash!"

Flash left cheek was gone, ripped appart along with some broken teeth and a tonge full of cuts.

"Docth dell me dat i vill bii ok?" He tried to say.

"Damm it! I will think of something don't worry!"

While Silver was patching up Flash's wounds Shining armor went back to talk to this mysterious mare.

"Are you hurt mam?"

"No....um thanks for saving me."

"Now, can you please me your name?"

"My name is….Diamond Rose."

"Ok, Diamond Rose. How did you got here?"

"I was back at some creepy prison, then I heard rumors that some ponies found a way to escape. I followed them outside when we were spotted by....that thing!" She was refering to the wolf.

"I am pretty sure you can guess what happened to the others...." She said.

"I understand no need to worry, you are safe now, in fact we are here to rescue you and any survivors."
She was happy.

"Thank you so much my Prince, come on I will show you the way into the prison."

But Ensis objected.

"Wait a minute, are we for real boss? Going into Canterlot itself?"

"Of course we do, we have to rescue anypony we can and Diamond Rose gave us the way to do it! That’s why we are going in."

"I am not saying that we shouldn’t but, what happens when we meet him?"

"Him?"

"Nocturne sir, the princesses said that he is more powerful that anything we have seen before and should not be underestimated."

"I know Ensis, but this is a risk that I am going to take."

He then put his hoof on Ensis's shoulder and said.

"We must be brave at the face of danger, we must save these poor ponies that are trap whoever knows where they are right now, we have to try Ensis."

"I.....understand sir! Let's do it!"

Shining armor smiled.

"I know that you will play your part better than anypony else Ensis."

"Ok i will! I will make sure that we will get everypony back!"

"Guys, we have a problem...." They heared Sleepy calling out for them.

They got closer and they saw Silver patching up Flash.

"Flash...." Shining armor said.

"Is he gonna be ok doc?" Ensis asked.

Silver's hooves were bloodied but not to much, he had used some tools in an attempt to "fix" whatever he could.

"Flash's situation is pretty bad, i cleaned the wound and treated it the best way i could, but he will live." He said.

"And what about his cheek...." Shining armor said with a sad tone, he never thought that this would happen to Flash. When he looked at him he saw a fallen solder, covered in wounds and tiny bits of his shattered armor.

"Well, i covered it and i....."cut" off the surrounding pieces."

"You did what?" Ensis said.

"Forget about it....the point is that we he is ok."

"Flash, you ok?" Shining asked, but he didn't reply. Flash was scared more than ever, the pain that he endured was beyond measure.

"I.....am ok....." He said after a minute. "Don't worry about it let's go." He said.

"Very well....." Shining armor said.