//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 - Progress 
// Story: All the King's Mares (Book 1/3) 
// by AdrianJNovelle 
//------------------------------//

	Before Twilight could finish her sentence, a large, hot-pink blob came speeding toward her, and inevitably crashed into her, knocking both herself and the mass to the ground. The mass was none other than the most playful pony in Ponyville, Pinkamena Diane Pie. 
"Pinkie Pie, you clutz! You-" Twilight cut herself off. "You're alive?"
"Of course I'm alive!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "How could I run into you like this if I weren't alive?"
"Everypony else is gone," Twilight explained exasperatedly.
"No wonder this place has become a TLC!" Pinkie Pie got off of Twilight. She smiled.
"So, whatcha wanna do?"
"I want to get to the bottom of this," Twilight said, starting off in the opposite direction.
"Um, aren't you already touching the earth?" Pinkie Pie asked.
Twilight turned her head and gave Pinkie Pie a frightening glare of rage. She calmed, and resumed her stroll.
"Where are we going?" Pinkie Pie inquired, hopping behind, Fluttershy flying just overhead between the two.
"The Everfree Forest," she answered.
"T-t-th-th-the-the the Everfree Forest?" Fluttershy trembled with fear. "Why?"
"Destruction appears to only be hitting cities. If that's true, then I know one pony who might be able to give us some intell on what has happened here. And you're both coming with me."
Fluttershy shook visibly as the ponies approached the dark forest. 
"C'mon, Fluttershy," Twilight insisted, stepping into the shady land. "It's daylight. Even if there were any scary monsters in here, they would be too scared of the sun to come out."
"Oh, really?" Fluttershy spoke softly. "Tha-tha-that's a r-re-relief." She slowly drifted in, keeping her eyes right on Twilight, a rather colorful character compared to the grim environment surrounding her.
After about ten minutes' worth of walking, the frightened, elated, and determined ponies made it to Zecora's hut. Her hut, by little surprise, was untouched, the only smoke visible emitting from the nostrils of one of her weird zebra decorations. Twilight hurried to the door and knocked, the door opening upon contact with her hoof.
"Ah, Miss Twilight," Zecora began from her cauldron, making eye contact, "our eyes have been without many a night."
"Do you know what happened to Ponyville and Canterlot and everywhere else?"
"Ah, the Disaster as it were," she walked over to some shelves of bottles, searching for one in particular. "Brought onto us by a familiar cur!" She found a bottle and began pouring its liquid contents into the cauldron. "Legend tells of a mysterious power, abused by the bringer of our darkest hour! It is he who cursed our land, and brought ponies' happiness to an end!"
The cauldron boiled and steamed, exploded and bubbled, a large one escaping as the sihlouette of a large, evil-looking unicorn appeared for only a second before the bubble popped.
Twilight gasped. "King Sombra!"
"The former villain of the Crystal Empire, plays with forces stronger than fire. The Darkness it is called, for it is greatly appalled!" Another bubble - pure black in color - floated over the cauldron and popped. "The Darkness will suck Equestria of all light - slay King Sombra with all your might!"
Zecora concluded her speech by taking a seat behind the cauldron.
"So...if I understand you correctly, King Sombra obtained some kind of super-powerful magic known as the Darkness, and has used it to destroy harmony in Equestria, the rest of the population defenseless because they did not know about the existence of the Darkness?"
"And the Crystal Empire," Zecora added.
A moment of silence.
"It is simply a rumor, young squire."
"Right. Well, thank you, Zecora, I guess we'll be-"
Zecora closed her eyes. "Twilight, before you leave, there is a favor I ask of thee."
"Yes?"
Zecora sipped a cup of a hot fluid. "Have you met a fellow mare? One who needs a little share?"
"Um, well, I met with Princess Luna back at Canterlot."
"Hmm. A pony of royalty. She must be affirmed immediately."
"Can do, Zecora. C'mon, girls, back to..." Twilight lowered her head in disappointment. She sighed. "Canterlot."





The girls exited the Everfree Forest, retracing the many steps they took to reach Zecora's cottage. Then Twilight led the way back to the train station, where she and Pinkie Pie took turns pushing and pulling the railroad cart as Fluttershy silently followed from the air, Pinkie Pie remembering her phrase of transportation: "Shimmy-shang, cherry chunga, shimmy-shang, cherry chunga, shimmy-shang, cherry chunga..." Twilight became bored from all the travel and irritated with all the unnecessary background noise, despite the fact that she was surrounded by a few of her best friends. Her spirit did rise, however, when Canterlot was neared, the ponies parking their cart at the train station, where they hopped off (and landed) and started on their way to Canterlot Castle.
The trip back had taken another good chunk of the daytime. Thus, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon as a cleaned but still lone Princess Luna was found in front of Canterlot Tower within the Castle, where the Elements of Harmony were stored prior to their movement back to the book in Twilight's library.
"Twilight Sparkle," she said, announcing her adjunct's presence. "And friends. Pleasure."
"We come with word from Zecora," Twilight said, sounding exhausted.
"Oh? What doth she say?"
"She says that the villain behind all this destruction is none other than King Sombra. He controls a powerful force of magic called the Darkness, and with it, he is capable of overthrowing all of Equestria."
"The Darkness, you say? Hmm...I cannot say I have heard of such a power before. Do you have access to the Elements of Harmony?"
Twilight shook her head. "I accidentally broke my crown - their power is useless!"
"What a pity," Luna turned away and approached a window, staring out into the dusty city below. "However, since we learned of some alternative powers, there might be a way we can counter the Darkness after all without the Elements of Harmony."
"Alternative powers?" Twilight inquired.
"The power of love, as illustrated by the union of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, and, more recently, the power of the Crystal Heart. It may not be our first choice, but we cannot afford to let Equestria be conquered. This could mean the difference between life and death for us all, Twilight Sparkle." She turned back around. "You will need both Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, for their love and magic will evoke an all-new magic to the world. If they combine the power of their unity and the power of the Crystal Heart, it might be enough to counter the Darkness."
"Where can we find them?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know. My best guess is somewhere in the Crystal Empire...if King Sombra hasn't taken it over. Since he's seem to struck everywhere else - Ponyville, Canterlot, Fillydelphia, Appleloosa - he might be not have reached the Empire since it may not appear important to him anymore. Why settle for just an ancient Empire when he can have the rest of Equestria enslaved?"
"Don't tell me we'll have to take the railroad cart all the way to the Crystal Empire," Pinkie Pie groaned. 
"The railroad cart? Oh are all the trains out of order?"
Everypony nodded. 
"I may be singed, but let's see if I can still do this." Luna closed her eyes, her horn starting to illuminate. She concentrated harshly, a bright light shining from her horn, spreading throughout the empty room, the light surrounding the three ponies, lifting them up into the air, and making them vanish from sight in a flash of bright white light. In an instant, they were gone.