The vehicle was now out of the dank and mostly dark caves, and now traveled a rather wide passage on the side of the mountains. Luckily, a rail had been placed on the "doom" part leading to a fall to death. Everypony looked upwards at the gigantic grey mountain. There were powerful stormclouds floating above, and they crackled angrily. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had been placed within the cabin to help them recover from their ordeal. Fluttershy was busy helping them out with some herbs that were within the food stocks. However, both Celetia and Twilight didn't like the looks of this situation. There was nothing here. No creatures, no birds, not even other intelligent beings. Just rock and tumbling pieces of the mountain. Crimson was eyeing the area very carefully, and Celestia took attention to this acting:
"What are you hiding from us?" she asked angrily.
"Nothing." Crimson was not impressed with the sun princess at all.
"No. Really. Tell us, Crimson. We know you're hiding something. You've been very afraid of this path since you talked about it at the camp. What are in these mountains?" Twilight asked.
Knowing that it was pointless to dissuade two obviously stubborn mares out of their questioning, Crimson sighed and rubbed the intersection of his eyebrows before getting back on the wheel.
"Well, one of Equestria's greatest monsters lives here."
"What?!" the local mares screamed in horror.
"W-w-which one is it?" Luna stuttered.
"The Pourpros." the minotaur answered blankly.
"What? Why didn't you tell us? We don't even have any meat to deal with it!" Twiligh hush-yelled.
"What do you think was in that barrel that I stashed in the back compartment? Vegetables? That barrel is for dealing with that horror. Now keep it down, and we might not need to deal with it. Wait..." Crimson looked around. "Where's Pinkie Pie?"
It was true. That mare had been awfully quiet for somepony like her. Assuming the worst, she was apparently left at the town.
"What? No! She was here on this ship. I do not think that our friend would have been left behind while I'm here." Rarity calmed the others.
"Then where could she be?" Luna wondered while looking around everywhere.
The thunderstorms began to crackle ever more frequently, causing Crimson to stress.
"I don't know, but I think the Pourpos know that we're here. Let's get a move on." he said while pushing a lever to accelerate the vehicle's speed."
"But, what if she fell off? We need to go back!" Twilight insisted while trying to take control of the vehicle.
"Yeah? Well, we can't turn here, and even if, I think that your collective yell alerted it to our existence. If we don't get out of here soon, there will be nothing left of us. Go to the back and pull out the barrel and bring it here."
Twilight was still mad, but even she knew of the powers that the Pourpos wielded. Crimson continued to scope the sky for any sign as Twilight and Celestia went towards the hatch holding the horrid barrel. Luna decided to help the minotaur. It wasn't very quiet, but the sound of a thunderclap exploding right next to everypony's ears was enough to cause them to cover their ears in pain. Luna was the first to open her eyes, only to see some sort of gigantic dragon-sized deer with claws instead of hooves, and huge bat-wings protruding from its shoulders hanging onto the nearby mountain wall.. Its horns were even straight and as white as chalk.
"Look out!" the moon princess shouted.
The Pourpros roared and jumped at Crimson, wings deployed, only to miss its target and have to do another pass. As it did so, Crimson activated the auto-pilot of his vehicle and took his humongous axe. One more dodge from the claws, and he swiped at the creature's chest, causing it to roar in pain. Twilight had begun to use her own spells of magic, while both Celestia and Luna just stared at the two mares who still had their own powers.
"What are you two doing? If you can't help us directly, then do it indirectly! Go get that barrel while we hold it off!"
"R-right." Celestia said in disappointment.
The Pourpros, this time, slammed itself hard against the mountain to cause a rock avalanche. The monster smile as its victims were about to be crushed, only to see Crimson slice everything up and Twilight holding them all in a magical bowl. The lavender mare was aided by Rarity who helped concentrate the magic using her own horn.
"Can't...can't you use that light thing to destroy...all of these rocks?" Twilight struggled to say.
"No. It only works on the shadow beasts. Now stop complaining and toss those ro-"
Crimson was interrupted by Fluttershy who had flown out of the cabin and was performing "The Stare" on the fearsome creature. The warrior just couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Now listen here, mister! I don't know what you're problem is, but you shouldn't attack us for any reason. I don't like it when my friends are put in danger like this. Now just run along before I get REALLY angry!"
Crimson's jaw had dropped with much power, nearly letting out a small "crack" sound as the Pourpros looked astonished and confused, but he noticed that it was raging now before anyone else.
"Twilight, toss those rocks at it. NOW!"
The minotaur was right to worry, because as soon as Fluttershy had finished her speech, the purple eyes of the Pourpros glowed a bright color, announcing its demonstration of its fangs, and the lifting of claws. Luckily, the rock throw was spot on as the Pourpros was tossed away by the large objects. Fluttershy flew frantically back onto the ship, panic on her face, and she grabbed Crimson's legs.
"The Stare never failed me before. I don't like using it, but when I have, even a full-grown dragon listened to me."
"Yeah?! Then get back in the cabin! You just made it angry enough for the beast to summon up a thunderstorm on us."
"It can summon thunderstorms?" Rarity shouted.
"Yeah."
"Oh no! My mane will be ruined!"
"No one cares! Celestia! Luna! What are you two doing back there?"
"A rock got stuck on the lid. We can't get it off." Luna shouted.
"Crap. Twilight, try and form a barrier around the ship. I'll chop that rock off and throw the barrel into the air. If the mountain gets any more damage from that thing, the entire path here will crumble and we'll fall and die."
"Got it."
The thunderstorms began to rage terrifyingly, only to burst out in lightning and a deluge of rain. The shield Twilight created was strong enough to resist the wait of the rain, but the thunderbolts that kept crashing down on the barrier. The two unicorns weren't going to last long. The worst part is that the Pourpros was back, and it was mad. It flapped its wings a few times as it leveled itself with the ground, only to pull them back and charge at the ship again. Twilight and Rarity closed their eyes until they saw Pinkie Pie appear on the creature's head while holding a sledgehammer. Crimson ran forward with the barrel and was about to throw it when he saw the pink thing smashing the Pourpros' head in with the hammer. He was disturbed enough as is.
The giant started to sway violently from side to side and began to slam itself against the wall to get the pest to leave its head alone, to no avail. It finally started to pass out and wobbled before slamming onto the pathway and falling off the edge. Pinkie ran up a wing and jumped off of it, only to land perfectly on the deck. Crimson shrugged and tossed the barrel over the edge, for when the Pourpos would come back. The shower of water soon began to calm down as the vehicle left the mountain pass a few minutes later and stopped on a small batch of grass between a few thinned out trees. Crimson began preparing tents and even starting to cook food with campfires that he started. He had made of great vegetable soup of unknown ingredients that Fluttershy took to the even more sick Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
The minotaur began to scold Pinkie Pie, who simply gave a smile and pulled out a cupcake from nowhere. Twilight began to talk as everyone went to bed in a sleeping bag:
"I hope everypony will be alright back at home."
"Me too, Twilight. Seeing as everyone else is asleep now, I should warn you that what you will see in the Nyubet is much more terrifying and even more dangerous than what you saw with the Pourpros."
Twilight leaned up a bit, pushing against her right arm to stay in an upward position.
"What do you mean?"
"I cannot speak of it for now, but I do know that we are forced to find this 'polar opposite' of the crystallions. If we do not, I don't know how we are going to survive the armies that Abstract has certainly created by now."
"He-"
"Quiet. The others cannot know. It will cause panic, and only pure light, like that from my gauntlet can save them. It takes a great amount of time to recharge, however."
"Understood. I'm just glad the princesses are alright."
"So am I. Goodnight Twilight Sparkle."
"Goodnight Crimson."
As the two finally fell asleep under the calm twinkle of the night stars, nopony heard the silent crying of Celestia. She had been cast from her position, both she and Luna hurt badly and turned into smaller forms, nopony recognized her, and the entire world was being destroyed because she could not stop anything. She felt a huge pressure on her psyche fly away calmly as she slowly cried herself to sleep. Her only sense of gratification being that her sister was okay, and that her student was still watching over her despite the situation. Hopefully, the next morning will prove fruitful.
It was already the next morning, and the fortress had seen some good repairs. Almost everything had been patched up with crystal; even the tower that had fallen. It was half-way done already. As the gigantic wooden doors leading to the castle slowly opened, Abstract walked in with a few chips here and there. He adorned them proudly and did not use his magic to repairs his crystallion body. His shadow army carried captives attached upside-down on a wooden pole. They were severely beaten up. Once the doors close, the crystallion turned around and lowered his head to be at eye level with the prisoners.
"Will you join my empire through will, or will I have to use force?"
"We will never join you! You killed our princesses, and you enslaved everypony here! You are not fit to be a ruler, let alone a self-proclaimed emperor."
"Indeed." Crimson gave a look that indicated grinning at the worst possible degree. "Send them to the torture pits. A bath in boiling blood should untaint their false hope."
"Wh-what?!" the stallion started to panic as the beasts of shadow turned to face an elevating pit producing black flames around it. "You can't do this! Help! Someone help!"
"No point in calling for help. Even your equally captured comrades know what's awaiting them, and most have already joined us. Have fun burning."
"Nooooo!" the stallion yelled as he and a few of his comrades disappeared within the disappearing tunnel.
"Hmhmahaha."
"Emperor!"
"Ugh! What is it NOW?!" Abstract roared, causing a little shockwave to push the guard back.
"The crystals, they are breaking!"
"What? Already?! Impressive. I didn't think much of alicorn magic. Hmm...I wonder what chaos magic would produce. I appreciate the news. Now MOVE!"
"Yes, my lord."
Abstract galloped as fast as he could, blasting through anyone and anything in his way as he made for the throne room. Once he opened the doors, he slammed them shut and sealed the doors with shadow magic. The cloud was twitching as it saw the cracks stretch themselves across the surface of the blackened jewels.
"Yes! Be born! Free yourselves from those restricting cages!"
Before Abstract could say anything else, however, the two crystals exploded. The explosions were so powerful that they shook the entire castle and threw the crystallion against the wall on the far-end of the room. Lifting himself back up with his magic, he marched through the dark fog in an evil joy.
"Yes, my sons. Reveal your powerful appearances unto me. We will begin your training no-"
The cloud converged upon two points, which surprised Abstract. Normally, upon birth, the shadows of the "father" are rejected completely, but these two seem to have absorbed the magics quite easily. However, his face gave way for horror as he looked at his creations. They were not deformed. They were not missing any parts of their bodies. They did not have anything truly out of the ordinary, until one of them spoke in a strange tone:
"Hi daddy!" the crystallion on abstract's left announced.
"Hey, it's dad! We heard everything you were saying while we were growing up in there." the one on Abstract's right said.
"Yeah. We really want to help you."
"Wha...how..."
"What's wrong?"
"You two are...mares?"
Indeed. Whatever reaction the magic of alicorns had, it had a strange impact upon the genome of crystallions. A race that had always been all-male, now had the first two mares in its entire history. The mare to come out of the left crystal had an appearance drastically similar to her father, if not for the cyan blue iris in her eyes, the existence of a mouth, and a strange mane and tail that were quite jagged and pointy, but still had the pastel of Celestia. However, this pastel had other colors. Instead of the pink, green, and blue, it had dark purple, hot pink, and lavender. She was the tallest and the most joyful of the two.
The other also had the same features, despite her iris having a turquoise color, and her pupils looking like that of a dragon, reminding some of a threat long since gone. Her mane and tail were more "smoother" than her sister's, but she could control the starry turquoise of her body. Once she saw the cloud that accompanied Abstract, she smiled and jumped after it playfully while her father remained dumbfounded. They at least had four wings, even if they only had one horn each.
"Are you okay?" the Celestia look-alike asked while waving her hoof in front of the crystallion's jaw-dropped face.
How was this even possible?