Ashes followd Firebreeze, and realized the damages. In the chaos of the battle, numberous ponies had been hurt. Ironically, tought Ashes, Is that most of them had been injured by other ponies, in the big panic. He followed Firebreeze, looking around him, searching for Dark and smiling sadly to the ponies hurt. He didn't felt pain the same way they did, but, in a way, he knew how they felt. Strenghtless, hopeless, desesperate. And more: he heard the 'leader' before he died. The worst was yet to come.
A soldier saw Fire and Ashes and asked, "What are you two looking for?" Fire turned to the soldier, "We're looking for Dark Light." The soldier frowned, "And what gives you two civilians the right to see the comander?" Fire replied, "Well, beside fighting in a war with her and killing a Smoke Spirit leader that lead to our victory, nothing." The soldier sighed, "She's in the command tent in the plaza..." Fire said, "Thank you, my good sir." As he and Ashes headed towards the plaza.
When they were far enough for the soldier not to hear them, Ashes whispered to Firebreeze "What a rude soldier! Discipline and respect aren't part of armies valours? I say, he should watch his voice tone! I'm about to sign up in the army just to be his superior, and teach him respect over the civilians! Their job is to protect and serve!"
Dark was relaxing in a chair when a flash of light shone thorough her eyelids, she opened her eyes and saw a white unicorn standing there, "Snow?" she asked. "Yes, and Dark, we need to talk, I have found out something terrible. Black Night is back." Snow replied. Dark's eyes got wide, "But...but we killed her! Right there at the Infinity Gate! How is she back!" "I don't know, she somehow reformed, and I've seen the essence's of these Smoke Spirits, they are not the usual kind. Dosen't it strike you odd how Smoke Spirits, that are usually few and far inbetween and only attack when threatened, pulled together an army and attacked out of the blue?" Snow said "Well yes, but I don't see how this has to do with Black Night..." Dark began "Dark, these aren't acual Smoke Spirits, theses are constructs made BY Black Night! She's trying to weaken Equestria before destroying it. Black Night is behind all of this, and the essence's say so! We need to find Black Night and destroy her once more!" Snow exclaimed. "But wouldn't she just reform again?" Dark asked "No, not if we destroy her entirely, that means not only her physical form, but her essence as well."
Ashes walked around with Firebreeze, as they arrived near some tents. ''D'you think Dark could be in one of those tents?''
"Probably... Excuses me, soldier," Fire said to a passing guardspony, "Which tent is the commander in?" The soldier pointed to a tent to the left, "Right over there, sir. It's good to see you again." Fire and Ashes walked towards the tent. "That soldier must have been a part of my old 'Rough Riders' company." He thought outloud. They arrived and began to walk into the tent, "Hey, Dark. I think it's about time we called in S- Oh. How goes it, Snow?"
Snow turned to Firebreeze, "Good thing you came Firebreeze, I know who's behind the Smoke Spirits. She is an old adversary of mine and Dark's, her name is Black Night, and if you thought that evil Dark was bad, Black Night made her look like a saint. Black Night wishes for nothing less than the complete annilation of Equestria, a she is the culprit behind the Spirits attacking. Doesn't it strike you odd that Smoke Spirits, that are one of the rarest monsters in Equestria, and highly independant, where able to scronge up an army?"
"Quite frankly, I didn't know they existed a few days ago." Fire said walking all the way into the tent.
"Exactly." Snow said, "But you aren't taken this with the concern you need to be Fire! This is very serious! As far as I know, the only pony that has even close to the power to defeat Black Night is Snow Light, and you know how hard it is for us to create her nowadays! Ever since the Resistance War, Fire." Snow's eyes suddenly turned purple, "I look into the sky and see the dark cloud gathering over Equestria, I've tried to warn the royal family, but they've dissappeared! Celestia, Luna, even Tremalion! The only one I've had any contact with is Heculius! And he won't listen!" Snow's eyes swung over to look at Ashes and she suddenly jumped back, "Everypony, stay away from him! His essence, its, its, well, evil!"
"Well, Ashes here says he has a solution to the Smoke Spirit problem." Fire said scratching the back of his neck, "And I'm sure we can beat Black Night, we're not Ancient Elements because we're weaklings, ya know."
Snow shook her head, getting over the shock of Ashes essence, which she had originally thought was a part of Black Night's essence, but as she got a better look, although dark, it wasn't a super pitch black like Night's, "Well, there is one problem behind Black Night Firebreeze, and that's she's alot more powerful and when was the last time you've heard from everypony else huh? Rashall's somewhere in that damned forest of his, the other's are Celestia knows where. Ug, I'm just feeling overwhelmed right now, one moment I'm working on the design of the first mile-tall building in all of Equestria and the next, I'm trying to find a way to defeat the most powerful pony outside the royal family."
"i... Think i have something to say... Maybe it'll sound useless, in a crisis like this, but... You surely had guessed already that i'm not a pony. I'm a wind spirit, even if my power is limited to control ashes. In the spirits hierarchy, if there's actually one, i would consider myself at a... 'Higher rank'... Kinda. That's why i knew about the weaknesses of the Smoke spirits. Sorry to spill this out only at this time, i should've warned you earlier..."
"Ugh... Listen, we can all talk strategy, defeating Black Night, and spirits later, cause right now, I've got a massive headache and I feel like I could just fall over to- Wait, who's laughing?" he looked outside of the tent and looked around. "Where is this freakin' laugh coming from! It's gonna drive me insane!"
"I can't believe this actually worked." Ecliptic opened his journal and began to write. 'Success. The term usually refers to a situation that resulted in the intended outcome. Success is often measured by how efficiently and completely a task was accomplished. However, just as often, success requires sacrifices. Today, I lost my son. Technically he was one-third of my clone: the remaining genetic material came from two others. His brain became the first, and probably only if anyone finds out how I managed this, AI seed of its kind. Let it be known now that I take full responsibility for this project. Not to say that I want all the credit, but that I, and only I, accept any negative impacts that may result from this project. Anyway, we managed this by taking the best of us, our personalities, our intelligence, and made the perfect subject. We only accomplished this by sacrificing bodily functions and physical structure for enhanced neural and cognitive abilities. Had he been able to grow, he would have led a diminished life, and that's assuming he even survived the first week. It (the AI construct has yet to determine a holographic form and gender programming) still needs time to "grow" before it is ready for anything. With any luck, it won't retain any of our personal memories, only the knowledge we've accumulated over the years. For now the battle with the smoke spirits seems to be winding down; I haven't heard any shots in a while. That's nice.' Ecliptic closed the journal and turned to look at a holographic projector, which emitted light slowly phasing through the spectrum.
"What are you talking about Fireboy? There is no laughter." Dark said to Firebreeze, giving him a weird look. Snow looked worried, "Firebreeze, did you make any Smoke Spirit angry? Although these things are just replicas, they're still just the same." Snow said
