Glimmer dashed behind a building and let the guard that had been walking behind her pass her by, keeping her host's eyes on him as she wondered what was happening. She had known that Crimson, her ancient enemy, would have eventually called in the Royal Guard and set them up across the small town, but this was unexpected. She had been told, by Poison Mist in fact, that Crimson was supposed to be in the Everfree Forest, sulking from some sort of argument with his mother, but she saw him, earlier that day, in front of the crystal castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Commanding a section of guards no less! Glimmer thought, her anger washing over her face before she regained herself, That blasted Shadow pegasus lied to me and expected me to believe her. We were supposed to recon the town, get to know the layout before the guards showed up, and then strike the moment their guard was down. Now our entire plan has been blown to pieces, all because one blasted pegasus couldn't do her job.

"I could hear the darkness vibrating with your anger," a voice said, just as a grey stallion, with no red horn, armor, or dark magic, appeared behind her, "and I saw the command, which ruins our plans. Tell me, what shall we do now?"

"They'll be hunting us down now anyway," Glimmer groaned, hating to ditch one of her own finely tuned plans, "so tell the others to prepare for the assault, only there's a change of target this time."

"Oh?" Sombra asked, already prepared to disappear once more, "Where shall our forces be pointed at?"

"There," Glimmer replied, beckoning towards the crystal castle with as little effort as possible, "all six Princesses are now in attendance in this one town. Celestia, Luna, Crimson Flare, Nightfury, Cadence, and Twilight Sparkle, with the remaining two Prime Sigils, are just sitting there, waiting for something to happen. Tell the others and open the gates, we'll be marching soon."

The moment she mentioned that Princess Cadence was back Sombra was already heading into the darkness, intending to marshal their forces so he could exact his revenge on the Princess that took his empire from him. Glimmer knew the others would be excited as well, as they all wanted Princess Celestia and Princess Luna under their hooves, to show them that they were superior. Her only focus was on finding a way into the castle, so she could get close to either Crimson and Nightfury, before she stole one of their Sigil's away from them. Then she realized who she was possessing and an idea popped into her head, she only had to execute it before they caught on to her.

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

"The guards have been given their runes and know what to look for," Crimson said, sighing as he wondered why he felt that they were missing a key piece of information, "but so far none of them have seen any trace of a single Shadow, not even a lesser one. Where is Glimmer this time?"

"Maybe the arrival of our guards spooked her?" Cadence asked, still trying to wrap her head around everything they had been trying to tell her for the last two hours, "It is seven to one hundred after all, so they'd be fighting at terrible odds."

"These Shadows have fought in the most terrible wars across all of history," Twilight replied, worried that there was some clue they were missing, "usually fighting a whole army by themselves. They'll likely laughing at us, but I cannot help but wonder where they are and what they're planning."

That was when a filly burst into the room and ran over to where Nightfury was sitting, though all of the Princesses knew who the young pony was, as she had offered to allow Nightfury's assistant to possess her body for a couple of hours at a time. The young azure coated unicorn mare was homeless and had no ponies watching over her, so Nightfury took it upon herself to offer the job to the young pony, who accepted in seconds. The grey coat told them all that Thorn was in the building, which meant that she must have uncovered something during her research in the enemy capital.

"What's wrong Thorn?" Nightfury asked, noticing that her assistant had a worried look on her face as she approached.

"Princess, I come baring news," the young pony said, coming to a stop before catching her breath, "I overheard a couple of guards saying that they were preparing to open a few gates, by the request of Glimmer Scale and authorized by her own master. Then, before I could make for the nearest quiet area to call on this filly's services, the Nightmare walked into their chamber and commanded the two of them to prepare her sister's personal gate to be readied. All she told them after that was 'The Darkstar comes to Equestria once more', though I don't know if that's the name of Nightmare's sister or just her title."

"Blast it all, they're preparing for an invasion," Crimson snapped, slamming his hoof on the table, "We'll need to use half of the guards to escort ponies out of their homes and someplace safe, so they don't get caught in the crossfire, while the other half prepares for their arrival. There's no telling when they'll arrive, but we know they're coming for our Sigils."

"That's not exactly true," Celestia spoke up, stepping into the room and drawing the attention to her, "I just got a report from one of the guards saying that they saw black crystals growing out of the ground and that they are coming towards the town. They also reported seeing a mass of shadows surrounding them, melding into forms of ponies that looked out of this world and gathering in significant forces. Glimmer's making her move, though it seems like Sombra is aiding her in his pursuit for vengeance."

"Blast it all again," Crimson groaned, wondering how many Shadows were coming their way, "With two of the Prime Sigils Glimmer has the power to open gateways to her home world, but only to summon the minor warriors and grunts. We need to get those Sigils back, before she gains enough power over them to do even more damage than she's already done..."

"Knight-Commander!" a guard shouted, bursting into the room before saluting the assembled alicorns, "We've received word from the outer patrol and they're telling us that a mass of shadows is coming towards the city from the Everfree Forest."

Crimson, not believing the speed of which he was receiving all this news, rushed to one of the windows and threw it open, his eyes scanning the trees for any signs of their enemy. Then he saw it, the black mist that always told them when an army of Shadows was nearing their location, but he could see a good four dozen of them forming already. As he watched them he spotted another familiar sight, two stallions what were walking towards the castle in the intent to destroy in their eyes. He knew that they could only be Boulder and Crater, which meant that they needed someponies to deal with them before they could wreck their forces.

"Aunt Luna, we've got company!" Crimson shouted, flames wrapping around the side of his body as a longsword materialized between his wings, "Its Crater and Boulder."

"Oh not these foul demons again," Luna replied, sighing as she prepared to take off, "I'll take the fight to them and make sure that they don't get close to the castle."

"And there's another one over there!" Cadence said, pointing at a swirling mass of shadows that formed into a familiar stallion, "Sombra...I guess it falls to me to defeat him, only this time I'll go alone."

Twilight watched as the two alicorns made their way out of the castle, though she had to wonder what Glimmer hoped to accomplish by sending out members of her Council to do war with them. She was most certainly coming for the Sigils of Fire and Air, but she knew from experience that neither of the newest alicorns would be willing to part with theirs.

"Twilight Sparkle," Crimson said, turning his head so he could look back at her, "I'll need you to erect a barrier around the castle, one that will prevent anypony from entering unless we give them permission to do so."

Twilight, familiar with how the magic of the spell worked despite almost never using it, nodded at his request and moved to the open floor area of the chamber. Magical runes danced around her before settling on the floor, creating the perfect circle that she required to perform the spell, though she needed to concentrate to complete it. She took a seat in the center of the circle and prepared to start the spell, but a guard came in escorting Sweetie Belle, who Twilight assumed had been nearby and the guard had grabbed her to get her out of the way. She nodded and the guard left, leaving Sweetie to move over to a bookshelf while she closed her eyes, focusing on the task she was working on.

Crimson watched as the air around the crystal castle began to shimmer before the barrier took shape, beginning its descent towards the ground while keeping its bubble shape. He knew that, with three of the Council members running around already, there were still four Shadows unaccounted for and that made him take the step they needed. He suspected that the other three members were lurking around on the soon to be battlefield, waiting to draw one of them out so they could try and take their Sigils, but his main concern was Glimmer. He had no idea where she was, and that alone made him summon something that could protect himself and his cousin, just in case their enemy was coming their way already.

Glimmer watched as the alicorns around her turned their attention to the events happening outside of the castle, save for the young Twilight of course. They were so focused on the coming wave of Shadows that they all forgot that there could very well be one of them hidden amongst them, though she knew she was lucky to have gotten through without them noticing so far. That was when she noticed another filly standing beside Nightfury, her intended target at the moment, one that reminded her of an annoying Shadow she had seen back home. The filly was staring at her as well, as if she was trying to determine who and what she was, though it continued to remind her of the same Shadow over and over.

Then it clicked in her head that, seeing how Nightfury had returned and Thorn had been summoned once before, that she could very well be looking at Thorn in her new host's body.

"Princess Nightfury! She's here!" the filly spoke up, nearly shouting at the assembled alicorns while pointing over at her, "Glimmer Scale's right here!"

Glimmer, not wasting a second the moment her rouse was discovered, leapt into the air and headed in the direction of Nightfury, though while she did so the air around her shimmered. One moment she was the same filly that the ponies around her were used to seeing, but the next she was a grey coated filly that was wearing a cloak, with the two orbs floating nearly over her head. Her magic ignited the moment she touched the ground, one set of them turning into chains and wrapping around Nightfury without giving her a chance to defend herself. The second bit of magic she summoned smacked the other filly in the head, knocking her onto her back and out of the way so she could make her escape.

"So long losers!" Glimmer shouted over her shoulder, dragging Nightfury out of the open window and disappearing into the mass of Shadows before the barrier could even reach the ground.

"Oh, she is so done for," Celestia said, anger in her voice, "and so, too, will her tiresome Council."