The first reports came in hours after the Magenta Sky incident. Four Crystal Guards were forced to abandon their outposts near the Crystal Mountains after a freak magical surge of unknown power. The surge destroyed a large number of a mountain’s face, exposing a huge cavern of rock, predating any recorded Equestrian activity.
These guards are having their funeral service done tomorrow.
From then, strange, black shapes crawled across the rocky surface. Each one cast an eerie, green glow as they flocked to the mountain’s foot by their hundreds. When the flow of shadows finally ceased, they advanced again, slithering across the land as a single, streak of black.
Canterlot
“… and when she tried to get me, ZOOM! I was outta there! And when Astral blasted her into the pit it was amazing! And when…”
Frolicsome let out and audible groan, blissfully ignored by the happy mare in front of him. Laetitias had been at this for almost an hour, and showed no sign of slowing down, let alone stopping. The muffins she baked never seemed to run out, even though she was guzzling at least one per minute. The sun had almost set by now. The gold mare opened up a magical window on the wall, so she could see the sun sink below the horizon.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lily murmured
Frolic sat up with a start.
“Um, what is?” he asked unsurely
“The sunset,” she sighed “All the colours, orange to blue, it’s magnificent,”
Frolic had to agree. The sunset was always a sight to behold. It held a special place in the hearts of all ponies. The colours of orange to blue complimented each other perfectly. You could pick out a hundred shades of either in just one section of sky.
Lily continued, sighing to herself “It’s such a shame that this will be the last one some ponies might ever see,”
“What?”
The yellow mare’s sudden change in moods was slightly unnerving. She levelled, a serious almost angry glare right into the bat pony captain eyes.
“9 o’clock sharp,” she stated, leaving the table
When Frolic turned to see where she was going, she was gone. Only an open cell door and the faint smell of baking in her wake.
Down Below
Honour Bound sat in his cell, silently contemplating the lethal, green tranquilising gas that surrounded him. The gas had a profound effect on his senses, a fact that he kept to himself, and hid well. The lethal concentration may not have bothered him, but the fact that it also displaced any breathable air, certainly did. It was a reason why he wanted to get over this ordeal as quickly as possible.
Honour had been biding his time inside his cell, silently leeching the suspicion and fear that each and every pony brought into his vicinity. The dampening sigils were not universal. It may have proven more effective on a unicorn, but certainly not a changeling. With careful, calculated motions and actions, he began his escape plan.
Honour deeply inhaled the lethal gas, opening his mouth to its widest extent, sucking it all in like a hungry vacuum. He made sure that the gas did not enter his lungs, but went to his stomach instead. In seconds, he had inhaled the whole room’s full of toxin.
“What’s going on?” A lab pony demanded
“Gas concentration is decreasing rapidly!” another cried fearfully “It’s already reached non-effective levels!”
“Dammit! Get the guards!”
Body now filled with the toxin, Honour stumbled his way over to the volcanic steel door, and pressed his horn against its centre. Using his remaining magic, the giant changeling morphed the composition of his horn to replicate that of the necklace Luna wore during her visit. The enchantment on the door resisted at first, but soon allowed him access. The first to exit the cell was the long, crooked shape of the changeling’s horn. By this time, two dozen guards organised themselves in four equal lines, spears and shields at the ready.
Honour’s head broke forth, sporting a wide grin as he took in the guard’s obvious terror. Rearing his head back for force, he snapped it forward and released his entire stomach’s worth of tranquilising gas. The green smoke flowed out with a hiss, quickly permeating the whole room. In this much more open space, the concentration was far from lethal, but it was more than effective. Ponies, guards and lab ponies alike dropped to the ground after mere seconds of exposure.
Honour Bound stepped lightly through the steel door. Pausing to admire his work, he levitated a guard before him. This mare’s eyes were half closed, slightly glazed over in a state of near unconsciousness. The giant changeling closed his eyes in a state of contemplation, gently stealing away all the mare’s remaining energy. A faint green vapour wafted off the sleeping mare and flowed into his body. Honour dropped her, feeling his tiredness fade away.
He walked over to the nearest window, and bathed in the last rays of sunlight.
“Wake up, my brother,” he whispered to the setting sun “The dark ones await you,”
Canterlot Dungeons
Celestia sat outside a plain cell, quietly contemplating the ways she was going to do this. Inside the cell, the plain, granite statue of Astral Star stared back at her. This petrification wasn’t like anything she was familiar with. The victim wasn’t just trapped in stone, they became stone. She sat there for thirty minutes, before a disjointed, serpentine figure detached from the shadows. It had the face of a goat slightly disjointed, with a single fang too large for his mouth among his normal teeth. A pair of arms, one hand of talons, and one paw. Two legs, one belonging to a lizard, and the other a horse. The tail of a snake, ending with a tuft of white hair.
“Discord,” she greeted evenly
“My dear Celestia,” Discord replied, bowing down mockingly “You called?”
“Yes, I have need of your ability,”
“Well, I’m not going to get much done without your say-so nowadays, now will I?” he drawled, pulling a tea pot out of the air and taking a swig of the boiling liquid. “Spit it out already,”
“I want you to unpetrify this pony,”
“What? Is that all?” he joked “I thought petrification was your little specialty,”
He received a stern glare in reply.
“Well alright then. Stand back, this’ll be a snap,”
With a simple snap of his taloned fingers, Astral’s statue was enveloped in a white flash. Remarkably, nothing happened.
“Hm, now that’s odd,” Discord mused
Suddenly, the statue’s shadow lengthened and darkened, until it enveloped the whole cell, and spilled into the hallway. A tall, equine form rose from the pool to confront the draconequus. A thin alicorn, two heads taller than Celestia, his horn burshing the top of the ceiling. His coat was a jet black, rippling like liquid across his body. A regal, black cloak was draped on his shoulders. He also wore the adorned, white bones of a young dragon, its skull acting as his crown. He looked down at Discord with blank, piercing white eyes and smiled.
“Well,” he noted, with a deep, charismatic voice. A series of malignant tones that set their teeth on edge and a tingle down their spine. “This was unexpected,”
Ponyville: Astral’s Emporium of Magical Artefacts
Aurae was busily packing her bag for what could be a several day’s stay in Canterlot. Twilight stood by the entrance of the store, bags packed already thanks to some organisation and Spike. Minutes later, Aurae emerged from the store with a sky blue suitcase and matching saddlebag. Curiously, she was also wearing an ornate silver armlet with a jet black diamond set into the centre.
“What is that?” twilight asked curiously
“No time for that,” Aurae dismissed “We’re burning daylight,”
With that, Aurae shoved a huffed purple alicorn into the shop, along with her bags. Working quickly, Aurae took some chalk and began to draw a large complex circle pattern, resembling Celestia’s cutie mark, but had the crescent shape of the moon rather than the rounder sun. Twilight sat in the middle of the sigil, completely perplexed.
“What are you…?”
“There’s no time!” Aurae snarled, grunting in frustration
Working quickly, the nimble blue Pegasus took a heap of reagents from the nearest cabinet. Drawing herbs, salt and a golden, ancient looking knife from the open shelves. She scattered the herbs and salt across the chalk drawn lines. While doing so, she began an deep ancient tongues. Old words that would mean nothing to anypony but Aurae herself and a few others. These words were created to fabricate magic for non-unicorn races.
“Da mihi virtutem astra,” she muttered “lunam et ostendam me in via,”
When she finally finished, she began the final rite. She took the ornate knife in her mouth, and made a horizontal cut across the underside of her right forearm. Curiously, no blood leaked out, only small pinpricks of soft blue light. Wincing in pain, she shifted her armlet to cover the cut, the gem in its centre glowing blue in response.
Without another pause, she slammed her wounded hoof into a point in the sigil. The same blue glow spread across the pattern, glowing brighter and brighter over time. Aurae darted inside to join a bewildered Twilight, before the whole pattern, themselves and their baggage included, disappeared in a huge flash of white light.
All that remained of their presence was a scorch mark in the shape of the lunar sun.
Canterlot
In a brilliant flash of white light, the two travellers arrived. Twilight stumbled around hastily, trying to regain her composure. They had arrived in a dark living room, a wide area well-suited to the life style the Canterlot Nobles were so fond of. It reminded her of her own home, despite the lack of bookshelves. The wide windows were blocked by heavy set curtains, letting a trickle of moonlight through to illuminate the surroundings. In place of bookshelves, there were glass cases, each one containing a bizarre magical artefact that looked more suited to Nightmare Night costume than a personal museum.
Aurae quickly scanned the bookshelves while the startled alicorn took a look around. The rune Aurae used was scorched into the masterfully woven rug, exactly on top of a similar, more solar design. Juddging by the depth of the burn, it was either the spell was very volatile, or she used it often.
“While I do enjoy your visits, Aurae,” a female voice said sternly “I do wish you would call in advance,”
The two ponies turned to see a dark blue Pegasus in purple bathrobe behind them. She could’ve been Aurae’s twin, but the newcomer wore her mane in a neat bun at the back of her head, and two bangs framing her face. In addition, she wore half-moon glasses, crystal teardrop earrings and a mildly curious expression.
“And you brought a guest,” she continued, she sounded like Aurae too, but the tone was much drier and disinterested “How odd,”
“Well hello to you too, sister,” Aurae smiled, embracing her twin for a brief moment “Venti, this is Princess Twilight. Princess Twilight, this is Venti, my sister,”
“Nice to meet you,” Twilight greeted warmly
“Likewise,” Venti responded plainly “You have been expected, Miss Sparkle,”
Twi’s eyes widened in surprise
“By who?”
Venti shrugged
“An old friend of Astral’s. According to her story, you two have had quite the first impression on each other. Am I right my dear?”
She addressed her question to a previously hidden figure by the curtains. She was the same white, unicorn that assaulted Twilight back at the library, though no hostility could be seen on her face.
“Yeah, very sorry,” the mare said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head “How about a fresh start. My name’s Amaryllis and I’ve heard plenty about you, Ms Sparkle,”
Down Below
Discord and Celestia looked up at the dark figure, completely dumbstruck. The figure’s very presence filled them with unparalleled dread. A thousand, hungry souls festered in his piercing white eyes, silently begging for release.
“Is this the welcome I get?” he asked “How rude. To think I thought you to would grow up one day,”
“Hades?” Discord whimpered, hiding behind the white alicorn’s hair for protection
“The one and only,” Hades grinned, peering down at the cowering draconequus “Nice to see you out of Tartarus, again,”
“Well, I…”
“Ahem?” Celestia interrupted
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten about you my dear,” he chuckled, levelling his gaze back to the solar princess “So many souls hunger for your death. Regarding the path you have chosen, you will be doing them a favour in the near future,”
“I have no time for your games, Hades,”
“Of course you don’t. Let us talk in private,”
A series of black, hellish chains, sprouted from the ground and wrapped themselves around a screaming Discord. His cries were all that was left as he was yanked into a fire-draped hole in the ground, never to be seen again. Celestia shouted in surprise, but was shot down with a glare from the dead king.
“You’ll have him back,” Hades assured her “That is, if you want him back?”
“Discord is a citizen of Equestria now,” Celestia remarked sternly “He is my responsibility,”
“And I’m sure he loves you for it. Come along now, we have much to discuss,”
With that, the shadow black alicorn strode out of the room, the darkness writhing in his wake. Hesitantly, Celestia followed soon after.