As with the Unliving Queen, Celestia and Luna had likewise witnessed the falling stars. They remembered them, however. When Luna had been imprisoned in the moon as Nightmare Moon, her return had been foreseen and the prophecy stated that the 'stars would aid in her escape.' It was these four stars that had freed Nightmare Moon. They didn't know the true nature of these stars, that they were forms of the Valkyr, but given the connection to Nightmare Moon, they felt it could not have been a good sign.

Trixie's genealogy lead had led to a dead end. They were only able to trace her lineage back a few hundred years, and nothing stood out. Dejected, the ponies had returned to the lounge. As the night wore on, most had drifted to sleep, except Celestia and Luna, who were incessantly trying to figure out what was happening to their beloved Equestria.

The skies had turned a fiery orange as the Three Sisters broke the third seal. While Celestia and Luna struggled to make sense of this bizarre phenomenon, Celestia's magic had activated on its own. The supernatural force wrote 'HELP' repeatedly on a blackboard. After the magic died down, Celestia stared at her sister in fear. "I think we may be running out of time."

Luna frowned and re-read the board. She sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "What are we missing?"

Movement caught their eyes and they saw the Unliving Queen looking towards them. She spoke with a voice that was not her own. "Seek out the falling star. In her light you will find guidance."

The Queen started to fall back asleep. Celestia flew over to her and held her up. "Wait, who are you? What is happening? We don't know what we are supposed to be doing!"

The Queen's body smiled. "I am Shariel, Valkyr of Death. If wisdom you wish to find, seek out the falling star."

The Queen shut her eyes and Celestia gently laid her down. Celestia and Luna stared at her body for a few moments. Luna put her wing around her sister and hugged her. "What's a 'Valkyr?'"

Celestia shrugged. She had never heard the term before. "And why, whatever one is, would it be of death?"

Luna looked back at the board and frowned, then took a protective step in between her sister and the Queen. "Shariel may be a demon, it looked like she possessed the Unliving Queen. Is this another Fizzle Hooves trick?"

Celestia shook her head. "I don't think so. Look at the skies, sister. Whatever the sisters are doing, they are succeeding. I don't know what the 'Valkyr of Death' wants with us, but whatever it was that was writing 'help' through me bore us no ill-will."

"I know that prophecy said 'the stars' would help me escape the moon, and they did, but I don't remember them being more than just stars. It would certainly appear that this 'falling star' we are meant to find was one that we saw earlier," Luna said.

Celestia nodded. "Yes. It looked like they fell someplace in the Frozen North."

Luna sighed and looked out the window. "Well, things are likely to only get worse from here. Shall we awaken the others?"

Celestia shook her head. "No, let them rest. We will seek out this falling star on our own."

The two sisters fetched some winter clothing and headed to the North. They soon realized the clothing was unnecessary, as the skies didn't just look fiery, there were flames all across Equestria, pouring from great fissures to the Netherworld that had opened in the night. For miles around these fissures the trees were reduced to ash and the ground was naught but scorched earth. These fires from the Netherworld had even warmed the chilling climate of the Frozen North.

As they looked below them at all the destruction, they found that the fissures seemed to have originated from one location. With great trepidation, they headed for the smoldering crater that had housed the first seal. As they neared, they began to hear screams of agony, and were unsure whether to flee or quicken their pace.

The alicorn sisters pressed onward and at the bottom of the crater they found Taraiel. Baphomeena had inserted the Nether Crystal into the Valkyr's body and just left her there, torturing her nemesis with the unholy magic she had stored in the Crystal. The light of Taraiel's wings had grown dim, barely visible. She writhed in agony as torrents of unholy energy coursed through her.

Luna glanced at her sister, who shrugged in response. They had never seen a pegasi with wings of light before. "So, the stars were ponies? Strange, we saw four of them, but I only see one. What should we do, Celestia?"

"We have to help her," Celestia said. Celestia shut her eyes and turned her head as she used her magic to pull the crystal out of the Valkyr's body. She strained with all her might. It wouldn't budge.

Celestia panted, "Help me, Luna..."

Luna grabbed the crystal with her magic and the two sisters pulled and worked up a sweat before the crystal finally came free. Celestia curiously looked at the crystal. Her face paled as she recognized it. "The Nether Crystal?"

Taraiel smiled weakly up at them. "I thank you, alicorns, for my freedom."

"You are welcome, stranger. I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna," Celestia said. "We are the leaders of Equestria."

"I am Taraiel, Valkyr of Justice. My sisters and I came here to prevent the three great evils from breaking their ancient seals," Taraiel said as she stared up into the sky, a tear falling down her cheek. "But we have failed..."

"What are Valkyrs?" Luna asked.

"For thousands of years, my four sisters and I, the Valkyr, have waged war against the forces of darkness and corruption," Taraiel explained. "We were normal pegasi, once. Our blood was pure and so were our hearts. In reward, upon our deaths we became champions of the light, the Valkyr. We each were granted an aspect: Hope, Wisdom, Valor, Fate, and Justice."

Taraiel looked at the crater and cried. "Now we have lost Fate, Wisdom, Valor, and Hope. I am alone. Justice is all that remains, but without hope, what chance do we have for justice?"

Celestia gently clasped Taraiel's hoof. "No, you are not alone. Shariel still lives."

Tariel's eyes went wide in surprise and she furrowed her brow. "How do you know this?"

Celestia smiled. "She helped us find you. She told us she was the Valkyr of Death, and that you would hold the answers we need to defeat Baphomeena."

Taraiel pondered Celestia's words, then sighed. "I am still alone then. She was my eldest sister and as Wisdom, she was the voice of reason and our leader. She deemed all of this beneath her, and she will be of no help. Shariel was once an intelligent and noble mare who cherished all life. She left us long ago, but before her departure she had become melancholy, evasive, and at times, frightening. It is of great sorrow to hear that she has cast aside Wisdom to claim Death."

"What about these three sisters, the great evils? Can we stop them?" Celestia asked.

Taraiel looked into Celestia's eyes. Perhaps her sister wasn't gone, for she saw hope in this stranger's eyes. "I do not know. They have grown exponentially more powerful since we last fought. Just one of them single-hoofedly slew my sisters... She would have taken me as well, but she wished to inflict eternal suffering upon me with that unholy artifact you carry. For you see, it was I that helped curse them to their current state."

"What are the evils?" Luna asked.

"Demons, powerful ones at that. We had fought them for eons. Finally, we and the forces of light managed to exile them by exorcising their spirits from their bodies. They wandered the world, bodiless, possessing ponies, for decades. Eventually they escaped from our realm of conflict back into the mortal world, your world. I enlisted mortal ponies to track down and bind the three great evils. They were called the Horsadrim. I recruited a paragon from each of our tribes. Starred Rain, the unicorn. Hail Crasha', the pegasus. And Tincan Fool, the Earth pony. They tried all manner of magical methods to bind the evils - crystals, runes, spells... None of them worked. Eventually, they came upon the idea that they required vessels of purity to contain the evils."

Celestia thought upon Taraiel's words, she remembered what Fizzle Hooves' true form had looked like. A shadow foal. She gasped as realization dawned on her. "Oh my gosh. They used their own foals?"

Taraiel sadly nodded. "Fizzle Hooves, daughter of Starred Rain. Ravenmane, daughter of Tincan Fool. And Storm Watcher, daughter of Hail Crasha'. These innocent foals were sacrificed for the greater good. Sadly, the evils they contained were so pervasive that even after they had been bound and defeated, their demonic essence oozed into their poor hosts and corrupted them."

Luna quivered with rage.  "To do something that awful to innocent foals..."

"The three evils seek to break the seals of the Horsadrim and reclaim their demonic bodies," Taraiel said. As she spoke, her eyes began to glow and images formed of the demons' true forms.

The image showed an ebony-furred, hooved humanoid with goat legs, a prehensile tail, and a horned, wolf-like head. Her eyes were red and smoldered like embers. She had a slim, feminine build and long, platinum-blonde hair hung down to her waist.

Taraiel explained, "Lucifiona, Dark Lady of Destruction and Pain. She revels in destruction and leaves a trail of annihilation in her wake.  She truly enjoys inflicting pain, and does not care if she receives it. If she touches you, she can have you re-experience the worst pains you have ever felt in your life, including any injuries you suffered the first time. No matter how impregnable our fortifications were, Lucifiona always found a way to destroy them."

Lucifiona's image vanished and another demon formed. Like her sister, she was also goat-legged, tailed, and hooved. She was tall and gaunt, with long, unkempt hair and a feral face twisted into a grimace of supernatural hatred. Two long, curved horns protruded from her forehead. She had scaly, ivory-white, wrinkled skin covered with knobby lesions and black, cracked lips. She wore a billowing black cloak, and her eyes gleamed with a cold, evil light and were so sunken that her face looked like a skull. Her bony arms were covered with withered sinews and wasted flesh and they ended in long, curved talons.

Celestia shuddered. Taraiel gently brushed Celestia's mane with her wing. "Azazandra, Dark Maiden of Hatred and Anguish. She is aggressive and domineering. She has a cold and calculatingly cruel nature and is almost unreachable emotionally. She is violent, cruel, and hateful at all times. Unlike her sister Lucifiona, she is interested not in physical pain but in emotional agony. Her touch chills you to the very soul."

Tears ran down Taraiel's cheeks as she conjured the last image. "And the worst of them all, Baphomeena, Dark Mistress of Terror, Lies, and Sin."

Celestia and Luna glanced at each other. "That sounds about right. This is the one we've had the most interaction with."

The image formed of a goat-legged, tailed, hooved humanoid of unearthly beauty covered in a reddish fur. Long, flowing, blood-red hair swept around her and at times had the appearance of flames. Her eyes were dark, glistening orbs of green that seemed to drain your life force just by looking into them. Unlike her sisters, she looked almost pleasing to the eye, possessing a supernatural allure.

Taraiel slowly nodded. "That makes sense. Baphomeena is passionate and plotting, both to very dangerous degrees. She is by far the most charismatic and seductive of all the evils, a master of deceit that delights in coercing and corrupting ponies. She is the most powerful, and most dangerous, of the three evils. She has plagued your world on several occasions, and tormented mortals time and again, more often than any of her foul sisters. Often the pony who Baphomeena possessed went mad watching the Dark Mistress ruin the lives of those around them and all they held dear."

"Is there even a chance for us to defeat them?" Luna asked nervously.

Taraiel looked into Luna's eyes, saw that same flicker of hope. She smiled. "Perhaps. The events that are unfolding have been in the making for millennia. My sisters and I have been working to stop them." She grinned at Luna. "We helped free you from the moon, amongst other things."

Taraiel held out her hoof and three glowing orbs appeared. "These are the spirit stones. Over the years, we have collected all the drops of blood, all the tears, all the pain and sorrow of the evils' victims and used our powers to forge them into these prisons. If we can vanquish them, we can trap them in these, forcing them to suffer for all the grief they have caused."

Celestia and Luna picked up Taraiel and held her between them. "Let's get back to Canterlot. Now that we know more about them, we will find a way to stop the evils."