It took the entire day for Princess Celestia, hiding her bruises and bandages with an illusion spell, to arrange for an increase to the guards that patrolled Ponyville. It was both easy and hard for her to do so; easy in the regard that she could assign a few veteran officers to watch over the younger officers, though it was hard because, while she wanted to assign a few Lunar Guards as well, most of her sister's guards were out of commission for the moment. It literally took her hours to go through all her records and decide which of her guards were to be transferred to Ponyville, followed by the appropriate paperwork.

In the end she had at least fifty of her guards ready for transfer to the small city though, after a quick letter to Cadence and a reply coming an hour later, she felt that she was going overboard. Cadence was determined to meet with both Nightfury and Crimson Flare, thus she was coming from the Crystal Empire with a detachment of twenty-five guards. Her son was going to have enough guards to protect both Ponyville and start his own garrison in the Everfree Castle, whenever he got around to doing so.

She only prayed that Crimson remembered the enchantment that allowed the guards of the past to detect Shadows on their own, otherwise they might not find Glimmer before it was too late.

--------------------------------------

Crimson sighed as he looked over the blueprints of Ponyville, there were too many places where one of his enemies could slip through the cracks and get into the town. He suspected that his mother was going to assign a small detachment of guards to the town, but with a minimum number of at least fifteen guards that made it near impossible to protect the entire area of Twilight's kingdom. Glimmer could easily enter the town with that number of guards and get to the Sigils before they got anywhere close to completing the Everfree Castle, which meant checkmate on himself.

He would not, and could not, allow himself to be checkmated by this enemy, not after dodging her for so long and thwarting every plan he could discover. By his estimations they needed at least fifty guards for both Twilight's kingdom and the Everfree Kingdom, but he had no idea if his mother would be able to pull off those numbers.

"You shouldn't work yourself to the bone cousin," Nightfury commented, walking into the 'war room', as Crimson had already started calling it, with Twilight at her side, "otherwise we'll be hoofing over one of our remaining Sigils to Glimmer. You need to rest before mother and Aunt Celestia come back with the detachment of guards you asked them to bring."

"Glimmer does not rest in her pursuit to acquire the Prime Sigils," Crimson said, placing a rune on the area of the map between Ponyville and the Everfree, "so I cannot rest until we deport her, destroy her Council completely, and secure the Sigils that she stole from us. I spent the last thousand years coming up with dozens upon dozens of plans, preparing for the day where she decided to show herself again, but now it seems that we're playing her game now."

"So how will you find her," Twilight asked, glancing down at the map that Crimson was working on before taking a seat across from him, "when you couldn't detect her before she broke into my castle? And how will you find her if you don't leave my castle at all and spend you days pouring over every map we have of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest?"

"Crimson created a special rune during the time we lived in the Everfree Castle," Nightfury responded, sitting across from her cousin and ignoring the map completely, "one that he placed on the armor of our own Royal Guard. We shared a Royal Guard between us, half of which were on duty when Crimson ruled and the other half relaxing until it was my turn to sit on the throne. With the rune on each of their armor it gave them the ability to find the magical signature of a Shadow and track them down, though they were always under orders to tell us the moment they found something.

What Crimson plans on doing is placing the rune on the guards that Aunt Celestia sends our way, so they can better do the job that they are being tasked with. They'll be able to protect both your kingdom and the Everfree Kingdom from the lesser Shadows, though they'll need one of us to deal with a Council Member or, Moon forbid, Glimmer herself. In her present state, with two of the Prime Sigils backing her now, it would take the combined power of both me and Crimson to weaken Glimmer to the point where a third alicorn could take her down. That will all depend on who is around at the moment we discover her location."

"You guys had your own Royal Guard?" Twilight asked, curious as to who they were and if she already had some information stored somewhere in her brain.

Crimson was amazed that Twilight could get so excited about some random piece of information and completely ignore the fact that she might very well be called upon to deal with Glimmer, when they find her. He guessed that, seeing how she had no battle experience outside whatever his mother sent her to do, she was more of a bookworm and researcher than a warrior like Aunt Luna was. He still had no idea who the other alicorn, a Princess Cadence, was or what type of alicorn she was, like a fighter or a researcher.

"Yes, though they weren't as large as the guards that guard mother and Aunt Celestia these days," Nightfury replied, apparently thinking about it before telling her about them, "We called them the Dawn Guard, on account for the fact that they protected our ponies, and ourselves, from the Shadows that dared to enter our world. They helped us track down many of the hard to find Shadows, who were on a level below Gimmer as it were, and aided us in holding them down so we could focus on deporting them. I can only assume that, after Crimson and I vanished, they settled into guarding mother and Aunt Celestia until they, too, vanished into the background.

Do any members of the Dawn Guard still exist? That I do not know, but we can train a few of the guards that are coming from Canterlot into decent replacements."

"Um, Twilight?" another voice said, just as Spike appeared by the door, "The Princesses are here, and they're asking for all of us to come downstairs."

Crimson sighed and steeled himself, knowing that he'd want to lash out at his mother, but also knew that, by doing so, it would just open the way for Glimmer to attack them. He needed to remain calm when they were near each other, which he knew was going to be quite the task considering how much anger he had inside of him. He nodded to the others and followed the little dragon outside, wondering what they needed to see that was so important to interrupt him while he was planning. Once they were outside he immediately spotted what he assumed his mother wanted to show him, the seventy-five guards that were standing before the crystal castle.

"You told me you needed more guards," Celestia said, walking up to the group with Luna right behind her, "so I managed to transfer a decent amount of my own guard to Ponnyville. Princess Cadence has generously gifted fifty of her own guards to the cause, giving us a equal hundred guards to deal with our 'problem'."

Crimson nodded and looked behind his mother and aunt, spotting another alicorn, this one having a pink coat with three colors in her mane and tail, walking towards them. He was pretty sure who this new alicorn was, as there was only one he had yet to meet, but he held his tongue and let her approach, giving her the opportunity to speak first.

"Prince Crimson Flare and Princess Nightfury I presume?" Cadence asked, stopping right beside Celestia and smiling at them as she extended her hoof out.

"That would be us," Nightfury replied, shaking her hoof before motioning for her cousin to do the same, "I take it you are Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire?"

"That I am," Cadence said, shaking Crimson's hoof, who gave her a light smile before pulling away, "Celestia told me a little about your 'problem' and asked if I could lend you some of my guards. It wasn't easy to convince some of my guards to come all the way down here, but once I told them that somepony wants to do more harm to my sister-in-law's kingdom they came in numbers. So you've got fifty of my own Royal Guards here, but I expect some explanation on what's going on."

"There will be time for the whole explanation later," Crimson replied, turning to face the assembled guards, "A third of you will be assigned to the garrison of Ponyville, where you will patrol the town and make sure that it is safe from those that would do Princess Twilight and her ponies harm. The other two-thirds will have the task of making sure that the path to the Everfree Castle is secure and safe from the denizens that call the forest home. You'll also be charged with overseeing the ponies that will begin the construction process to rebuild the castle, where my cousin Nightfury and I will be making our home in a few weeks time.

There are ponies who would want to do us harm, but when you all leave this castle and report to the garrison we will give you the tools that will help you find these ponies. You will be given the names of several ponies that we suspect will be coming here, so that you can keep an eye out for them and report their location should they show up. If any of you find one of the high ranking targets on the list I would advise against attacking immediately, just wait until one of us arrives and we'll deal with them together.

Should any of you find the maximum threat target, one Glimmer Scale, I would advise against confronting her and follow her from a safe distance, so that we can come and aid you. Glimmer Scale is not to be underestimated. Is that clear?"

"YES SIR!" the guards called out, raising their front right hoof to their foreheads in a salute.

"Dismissed!" Crimson said, watching the guards begin the walk towards the garrison they had set up earlier that morning.

"What exactly happened while I was in the Crystal Empire?" Cadence asked, not understanding what was happening or who this 'Glimmer Scale' was supposed to be.

"Come inside and we'll explain," Nightfury replied, beckoning for them to follow her inside.

Crimson sighed as he stared out at the town once more, wondering where Glimmer was this time and what she was planning to do to him, his cousin, and young Twilight. He needed to find her fast, before she destroyed anything or managed to get her claws on another Prime Sigil.