You lucky people; you've got your second chapter quickly. I wish it could stay like this, but nah. I have a life too, you know. :c

Now, the story really begins… I hope this satisfies you eager peeps. :3 – FrozenAgent.

Only ten minutes had passed after the letter from Darkadia came and yet Canterlot was setting up every defense they had. Discord and Celestia put up a force field around Equestria's capitol, not to mention that the she summoned Princess Cadance and Shining Armor from the Crystal Empire as well. They just hoped Twilight and the others would make it and stop Sir Blackheart in time so that the defenses wouldn't be necessary.

Trying her best to ignore the sound of guards readying for a battle they hoped not to come, Celestia stepped beside a golden carriage and began speaking to the baby dragon she knew well. "Spike, once you arrive, send me a letter on how strong Blackheart's magic is; there's no doubt he'll be using it after being asleep for so long."

Spike enthusiastically yelled from in between the princesses and raised his small fist, "You got it, princess!"

She then looked to the lavender alicorn with a small smirk. "Twilight, the guards will aid you when you confront him, and when given the chance, you and Luna shall strike him with the Banishing Spell."

Twilight looked down to Celestia from inside the golden carriage the guards would carry her in, trembling at the slightest, "Princess Celestia… I… I don't think I'm ready for this." Tears welled up in the young pony's eyes as she imagined the outcome of Equestria if she failed. She closed her eyes, dropped her head, and began sobbing; she was terrified. Sure, she fought an army of Changelings, but that was with her friends. She even fought multiple evil forces from millennia ago, but like before, that was with her friends. But now, she was fighting something stronger than her, more dangerous, and most likely better in magic than her – without her friends.

A hoof was placed on her chin and lifted her head up, following the beautiful, calming voice of her mentor. Celestia looked deep in Twilight's soft blue eyes and said, "I believe in you Twilight. We all do. Equestria's fate lies within your hooves now, and I know that you cannot fail us. Right?" She cracked a small smile, hoping to rejuvenate the lavender alicorn's hope.

She was victorious. As if on cue, the sun escaped from behind the sky's gray clouds and shone upon the carriage as Twilight instantly smiled back and raised her head, quickly wiping her tears from her face. Sitting up, she spoke back to the princess, her voice slightly croaky, "Right."

The carriage shook as the guards settled in, preparing to fly off. This was their signal to get ready to go. Celestia placed her hoof on Twilight's cheek and nodded. Though she said nothing, that nod meant more than a million words to the both of them.

One of the guards had finished settling in and stretched his wings out for flight like his brethren, looking back to both of the princesses, "We're ready, your highnesses." His voice was deep and scratchy, the tone that someone would expect from one of Equestria's most elite soldiers.

Luna held her hoof at him, speaking calmly, "One second." She then turned and looked over the side of the golden carriage, speaking to her sister, "I'll miss you, big sister."

"I'll miss you too, Luna. Good luck to all of you," she raised her voice as she commemorated the brave soldiers that were rushing into the danger as well. The guards raised their heads high, their pride and morale rising beyond the charts. "I believe in you all."

With that, Luna smiled at her and spoke two words as she looked back to the waiting guard, "Let's go." The carriage took off with a loud 'BOOM', blowing dust across the immediate area and letting the royal cart look like a simple blur of gold in the dark gray sky. The sun quickly faded away.

After watching her sister and star pupil leave Canterlot to save Equestria, Celestia sighed and turned around to find Discord weeping childishly into a handkerchief. She couldn't help but let out a small giggle. The moment was utterly serious; she knew that, but a crying draconequus who claimed to be the Spirit of Chaos was more than contradictory. It was funny.

Hearing the giggles come from the princess, Discord smiled and tossed the cloth aside, his tears disappearing like magic (well, because of magic). He flapped his wings and made his way beside the princess. "So what do we do now, Tia?"

Celestia was beginning to grow fond of her new nickname that only Discord dared to call her. If she wasn't called 'Your Highness' or 'Your Majesty', she was most likely called, 'Princess Celestia', but that draconequus was something else; a rule breaker. And though it was disrespectful to call royalty by a name that wasn't theirs, the princess loved it. With a small smirk she looked up to him and began walking towards the castle, "We keep the force field going until the threat is gone."

"That's going to be lot of magic, you know." Discord said as he followed behind her, holding a pencil in his paw and a chart in his claw. He showed her his math and pushed on his large nerd glasses that happened to appear on his face.

"I know. That's why I have you, Princess Cadance, and Shining Armor. You and I will work with the sun and moon while Shining Armor and Cadance will keep the force field running."

"But wait," the draconequus dropped his items and tossed the glasses aside. "What about my…" He stopped, almost struggling to let out the word as he thought of the ponies back in Ponyville. "Friends?"

She let a large smile creep upon her face as she verified in her mind that Discord referred to the Ponyville ponies as his friends; Celestia was thoroughly surprised. "Bring them as well as the Elements of Harmony; we'd best be safe than sorry. Plus, we could use a little joy around here." The battle-ready town was beginning to remind her of the famous Canterlot wedding, where Chrysalis, queen of the Changelings posed an imminent threat against the Equestrian capitol. Barely anypony cracked a smile until the wedding, which happened to be a disaster as well, but in the end, everything was alright. Something was different this time, though. Was it true that Princess Celestia was actually… Nervous?

"Got it." With a snap of his fingers, Discord was gone in a flash.

After watching her – she stopped and blinked as she realized this – friend teleport to Ponyville, Celestia looked up to the sky and saw a shiny crystal carriage coming down from the sky towards Canterlot, multiple squads of royal guards surrounding it. "Perfect. Now that Cadance and Shining Armor are here, we can make sure Canterlot is at its full defense."

… Meanwhile, in Mid-Western Equestria (Fast fliers – I know.)…

"So Luna… What do you think what we're up against?" Twilight asked over the wind that pushed against them while the carriage flew across the sky at amazing speeds.

Luna sighed and shook her head as she stared at the clouds, watching the faded moon so distant become smaller and smaller as they approached Darkadia. "I don't know… But I do know that we'll defeat Sir Blackheart."

The younger princess smiled and said nothing back, only to look amongst the other side of the carriage, down to the green lands of the meadows below. She thought to herself with a large grin on her face, "She's right! We will beat this guy, whoever he is!" Twilight suddenly squeaked as she winced at the unexpected feel of two scaly hands wrap around her stomach. She tilted her head and questioned, "Spike?"

The baby dragon said nothing as he held tightly onto her; Twilight wasn't the only one a bit low on confidence about what was going to happen. She smiled warmly and wrapped her foreleg around his head, embracing him kindly. She whispered into his ear calmly, "It's going to be okay Spike, I'm here."

He nodded as he buried his face in her lavender coat, trying his best to keep his bearings. Twilight looked to Luna, who was already looking at her with her blue eyes. The younger princess began to speak, but her oncoming sentence was interrupted by an earsplitting roar of thunder. Flinching, both princesses looked forward and Spike dug his face even deeper in Twilight's coat. Right ahead, there was a rampaging storm on the outskirts of Equestria.

Suddenly, the carriage started to shake some; the storm's wind had begun to throw the guards' flight off track. One the guards looked back and yelled, "Your highnesses, we'll have to land! We can't make it much longer in this weather!"

Luna agreed, "Land the carri-" Her voice was cut off by a lightning bolt that slammed accurately into the side of the golden carriage. Millions of sparks flew into the air as everypony in the carriage screamed. As predicted, the carriage quickly tipped over and began falling at a breakneck speed.

Amongst screaming, Twilight was able to let out three words, "Everypony hold on!"

Up ahead in the midst of the pitch black storm was an alicorn as dark as night with glowing red eyes that practically screamed 'chaos'. He was standing upon a cloud that grew bright with lightening and roared with thunder in front of the rest of the storm. With his wings spread out, Sir Blackheart chuckled evilly in triumph as he shot down the carriage that seemed of a high priority. He was the last of Discord's pupils, and it was time to make his teacher proud. Blackheart grinned hard as he saw far off in the distance, the city of Canterlot. He grumbled loudly and lowered his eyebrows as the onyx heart-shaped pendant that hung around his neck grew darker, a black light gleaming from inside of it. "Finally…"

A loud ringing filled the colt's ears as he attempted to stand up on the weakened wood floor, barely hearing his name being called by a muffled voice, "Nightfall!" He groaned and placed his hoof on his head, feeling a warm liquid run down the side of his head. He was hurt. The dark-coated colt came to consciousness when the feminine voice called him once more, now with a more pleading tone, "Nightfall, help me!" It was his younger sister.

Nightfall's heart skipped a beat as he jumped onto his hooves and frantically looked around, his dark purple eyes opening wide. He shouted over the sound of thunder and heavy rain, "Dawn! Dawn where are you?!" Ignoring the throbbing pain that seared through his head, the colt galloped to a pile of debris that used to be a part of the roof. He placed his snout under the wood and flipped it over, finding nothing.

His sister called once more, coughing as she did so, "I'm over here!" Turning to where he heard Dawn's voice, Nightfall saw the small white filly he called his younger sister. She was trapped behind a tipped over wardrobe. That was no problem to him, but the raging fire behind her was. Hunks of wood dropped from the ceiling around them, endangering them more than they already were.

The colt gasped and rushed quickly to the wardrobe, his hooves tapping loudly against the floor. Sparks of burning wood flew past him as he yelled to his sister, "I'm coming!" He hopped over the wardrobe and picked his younger sister up by her light blue tail with his mouth. Nightfall glanced shortly over to the scorching flames that licked at him and his sibling. With no hesitation, he made his way back over the wardrobe and gently placed his sister on the floor.

She screamed and wrapped her forelegs around his as the sound of thunder cracked through the sky. After finding his bearings, Nightfall looked back to the raging fire and picked up his sister once more. They had to leave.

It didn't take long for Nightfall to find a way into the flooding streets. Heavy rain splashed down on the two as they left their house that was on the brink of falling, washing the soot from both of their coats and the blood from the colt's mane. He looked back to the burning house and then to the remnants of the neighborhood. With his soaking wet dark blue mane hanging over one eye, Nightfall took a glance around him. Everything was destroyed. If a building wasn't already on the ground or smithereens, it was burning and preparing to fall. There were ponies, mares and stallions alike littered in the mud, not moving at all. Small streaks of red could be seen within the puddles of rain, bringing a few tears to Nightfall's eyes. It looked like everypony was gone.

Dawn had pointed her white hoof at the obviously deceased inhabitants of Darkadia. "B-Brother… Are they -"

Nightfall calmly cut off her sentence with his, silencing her. "Don't worry about it, okay? First, we need to find a way to Equestria…" Like a responsible older brother, he tried his best to keep his younger sibling's mind from wandering to the horrible concept of death. She simply wasn't ready for that.

"Like where Princess Celestia lives?" The young filly questioned her older brother with large, innocent purple eyes, now interested on the next topic.

The colt nodded and answered her question as kindly as possible, "Yes. We're going to need help to rebuild Darkadia, and the Equestrians are the only ones who can help."

Not knowing the seriousness of the situation at hand, Dawn cheered in the pouring rain while on her brother's back, "Yes! We're going to see a princess!"

Chuckling slightly, Nightfall agreed, beginning to step further into the muddied streets. "Yes, we're going to see a princess. But you have to stay calm; we've got a long way ahead of us."

She sighed and slumped down on his back, grumbling as her light blue mane soaked in the rain. "Man… This sucks." Thunder exploded in the sky, making her scream and wrap her forelegs around Nightfall's neck. Shaking his head, the colt had begun walking down the road, a small smirk on his face. He knew that the journey to Equestria wouldn't be easy or quick, so the first thing he planned to do is grab some supplies for the trip.

The two walked down the town's main road for what seemed like hours to the storage area of Darkadia, drenched in rain. While walking down the road, Nightfall's ears perked at the sound of voices coming from around the corner they were near. Luckily for him; One of them he was familiar with. "Father!" Nightfall exclaimed and rushed around the corner her heard the voices coming from. His assumption was correct.

There was a dark purple unicorn wearing golden armor in front of a group of about 6 other stallions dressed just like him. With wide cyan blue eyes, the stallion stepped forward quickly. "Nightfall! Where's your sister?" His father's voice was nearly muffled by the rain, but it was hearable.

"I'm here daddy!" The small filly popped up from behind Nightfall's mane, smiling brightly.

He smiled and waved to her slightly before looking to Nightfall, his tone now utterly rough; he was showing his 'military side'. "Where do you think you're going?"

Nightfall was now hesitant to speak of his plan. His father never agreed to his thoughts or even took pride in having a son like him anyway. "Well, I was thinking…" He paused, trying to find an easy way to tell his father of his quest he wanted to make.

Having no patience, his father made small circles in the air with one of his hooves and gestured him to speed up. "Well? We haven't all day Nightfall; there are still mares and foals out there needing our help." He then gestured to the stallions behind him with his hoof.

"I was thinking about taking Dawn with me to go to Equestria to ask Princess Celestia for help…"

"What?!"

"…I was thinking -"

Nightfall's father cut him off, "No, I heard what you said. I just want to ask you, what makes you think the princess will want to accept to help a country who can't even send a worthy messenger to ask for help?!"

"I -"

"It's your fault Blackheart escaped! For 900 years our creed has been keeping him asleep and life has been perfect! But for some reason, instead of casting the spell, you want to go out and gaze at stars!"

Dawn ducked back down behind Nightfall's mane as the colt looked to the mud, the rain still soaking his dark blue coat. It was all true. He was chosen by his father, the leader of the royal guards in Darkadia, to place the spell on Blackheart. It would've been a simple job for any other unicorn in the town, but Nightfall was different. The colt who happened to be the next chosen descendant of the first guards to place the Hibernation Spell on Blackheart couldn't do exactly what was needed of him, though. His attention was caught by a new constellation in the night sky just minutes before Blackheart's spell ceremony.

"But if you think you can handle travelling over 400 miles of nonstop hard work and no stars to gaze at, go ahead and give it a try!" With that, his father put up a hoofsign and yelled to his men, "Let's move, boys." The group of guards marched through the mud and searched every house around the area.

Being left alone with his sister, Nightfall sighed and shook his head, fighting back the tears in his eyes. Dawn wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and placed her mouth next to his ear, whispering gently, "What's wrong?"

Sniffling, the dark purple-coated colt stood up straight and turned his head to looked back to his sister, shaking his head slightly then. "Nothing. I just need to make this right. If Princess Celestia got my messages, she'll know to put Equestria's capitol on guard. I'm going to fix this."

Saying nothing, Dawn simply hugged tightly on Nightfall, sniffling a few times herself. The colt flipped his mane from in front of his eyes and began trotting towards one of the only houses that stood above all of the others; The Safety Shelter. He knew that he was going to find the first aid, clothing, and food to make the trip to Equestria there, so that was obviously going to be the first place he would go.

As the rain washed away the blood that seeped along the side of Nightfall's face, the colt narrowed his eyebrows and whispered to himself, "I'm ready…"