Nothing let but darkness and dustiness. Crimson and Twilight were the only ones still awake, but they said nothing. The boat was destroyed, and the ponies were all buried underneath the sand and planks. Everypony soon found themselves getting slapped awake, but even they said nothing. There was an ominous force in the cavern that their subconsciousness did not want to awake. With a shrug, the group walked down the dry grey corridors of this tunnel. Several holes were drilled into the ceiling that allowed light to pass. Shaking off their fears and the shock from the Nyum-Bunet, the group finally spotted something bright and flashing at the end. It was so bright, that Celestia confused it for the sun or her powers. She eagerly galloped towards the light, followed by Luna and Applejack who were trying to stop her. Surprisingly, Luna didn't notice the wound growing on her side. There was something about this place that numbed the infection.
Fluttershy was the only one to have the courage to speak up. Amidst every word, the grounds shook and sand fell in little dribbles as the Nyum-Bubet continued its rampage on the surface world.
"C-Crimson?" she spoke softly whilst twirling her mane.
"Yes?"
"What was that thing exactly? I couldn't feel anything from it but anger and hatred."
"You saw it? I thought you were in the cabin of my ship?"
"I went out to see what was going on, only to spot that...that horrible thing before it stomped the ground with its foot."
"Well, I'm not sure I already said it, but it is the Nyum-Bunet. An insanely powerful creature living in the Nyubet. One of a kind."
"But...there's nothing here. What does it eat?"
"I don't think it eats." Crimson said as the ground shook once more. "No one knows what that thing is, exactly. Some think it's a golem that lay dormant in these lands before they changed, while others believe that it came from another dimension. Whatever it is, that thing obviously has no soul."
"Now, let's not get mean here. Maybe it's just grumpy because it lost somepony," Fluttershy gave an undertone of hope and a forced smile.
"...No. Not this one. Nothing causes this much destruction anywhere for no reason. Even dragons have reasons to attack cities and towns, no matter how ridiculous the reasons are."
"Hey guys! Come check this out! Ah think we found yer 'polar opposite'!" Applejack shouted from afar.
Everyone ran into a circular room where everything seemed polished and clean. However, much to the surprise of Crimson, Titan Fist was right. In the middle stood a white crystallion, its inner energies swirling with a white cloud of light. Its eyes were completely black and it didn't seem to react to anything. The minotaur stayed back and put a hand to his chin and he pondered this creature.
"Helloooooo! Hey bud! What's wrong? Stunned by the great Rainbow Dash?"
"Rainbow, I don't think that's what it is. I think he might be hibernating or something." Twilight said with certainty.
"Oh my! Would you look at those white colors! I've never seen such beauty, well, besides my own." Rarity said as she bounced her mane with her hoof.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Now, that's all you Rarity. How can ya be thinkin' 'bout that at this time?"
"Well excuuuuse me! I'm just interested in beauty is all." the white unicorn huffed as she averted her gaze.
"Hey mister! Heloooooooooooooooooooo! You okay? Are ya tired? Maybe if I tickle ya..."
Pinkie Pie slowly extended her hoof towards the unmoving crystallion, the tip of her tickle weapon inching slowly towards its sides.
"Pinkie Pie, I don't think you should..." Fluttershy tried to finish her sentence, but couldn't find it in her to do so.
"Poke...YAAAH!"
Pinkie Pie jumped towards the ceiling and somehow attached herself to it. Only the three not used to her antics stared at the pony acting like a cat. The crystallion had literally exploded into a cloud of dust, letting the white cloud within it float around a bit.
"I...I didn't mean to--" Pinkie stuttered in horror.
"This is not your fault Pinkie Pie," Crimson said as he walked forward to observe the cloud.
"How so? Was it already in this state?" Luna asked with a strong demeanor.
"Yes. It would seem that, thanks to the 'protégée', we now know that crystallions and light are not compatible. He wanted to be a being of purity and create a new form of crystallion, one that certainly would have flourished amongst normal ponies, if I can observe by the white crystals over there," Crimson spoke as he pointed to what looked like destroyed white crystals in a corner. "It seems that, he too, was cursed with the inability to recreate. His curse must have been the light, whereas Abstract's was...who knows what."
"So we did all this for nothing?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"No. We--"
"Shut up!"
"What did you just--"
Rainbow got into the face of Crimson. Both were snarling at each other and showing their teeth in anger.
"You made us walk along huge chasms of death, go into dangerous places, and nearly get crushed by something that could certainly grab the moon with a hand, and for what? A dead crystallion!"
"Uhh...guys?" Twilight started to panic.
In the background, Celestia and Luna were being lifted into the air by the cloud, and were fusing with it. They began to glow brightly and retake their old forms.
"Yeah? Well maybe I should have let you ingrates at Ponyville, where you would have become giant mutant leprechauns or something."
"GUYS!"
"WHAT?!" they both shouted in unison.
No one moved when Celestia and Luna were looking at their bodies. While they had retaken their old forms, they were glowing a bright yellow, and the magics would fizzle a little showing their fallen figures in portions and pieces.
"What in Equestria?" Celestia whispered, only to find that her horn and that of her sister's were glowing bright.
Two rays of light sprung forth from the horns and smashed into a wall. This was a portal, and it showed a distraught castle rebuilt with crystals and covered by shadows.
"How is that possible? We don't even know how this works." Luna asked out loud while still looking at her fizzling hooves.
"I've heard that the magics within crystallions can take life when the powers become strong enough. They can even become companions of the crystallion. I think that Abstract has a cloud similar to when Luna was Nightmare Moon," Crimson said blandly as he took his axe in hand.
"WHAT?! So you're telling me that--"
"He was the reason why your sister became corrupted and evil. You were unable to free her as his powers were too seeped within her. Thus, you had to banish her. However, a millenary in stasis was enough to weaken it. That's why using them again managed to free her. He hadn't expected that you do such a thing to your own sister, so he could not retrieve his cloud. I also suggest that you look at your side, Luna. That infection is gone. The 'protégées' light cured you."
Celestia was red in fury while Luna and everypony else looked to her side to see that there was nothing left.
"Well then, let's pay our good friend a visit." Celestia proposed with blood coursing through like fire.
"Through the portal everyone." Crimson directed towards it.
The opening screamed every time something went through it, but once no living being was left within the room, it collapsed, only to reopen on the other side in front of the castle gates. They had been reinforced with a black metal of unknown composition. Above it stood some bipedal shadow beasts holding bows and arrows.
"Oh crap." Crimson cursed.
The two princesses, on their side, were writhing in pain as what looked like white thunderbolts danced across the surface of their bodies, only to separate and converge into a gigantic draconic being. It seemed like a mixture between a dragon and the Nyum-Bunet. It panted and growled quietly as the shadow beasts started to shoot it with their arrows. Nopony said a single word until the thing screeched loudly and charged through the door, destroying it completely and tossing bits and pieces everywhere as the archers fell hard upon the ground.
"Woho! That's awesome!" RD exclamated, her eyes glittering in astonishment.
"How...how did you do that?" Twilight asked her fizzing teacher as she approached her but still stared at the monster destroying everything.
"I...I don't know ho--"
"No time to lose! Abstract is in the throne room as we speak. Take advantage of the distraction and run!"
They all nodded and ran towards an obviously free passing towards the entrance, that is, until one of the headless goliaths stomped in front of them. It was reaching towards Celestia again unto the Light beast grabbed its arm and threw it through the castle walls and into the deep abyss next to Canterlot. More of the flying beasts and pegasi appeared, apparently dropping bombs on the draconic entity. It crew some sort of angled claws on its neck and shoulders and cast lasers from them. Everything in the air began to fall into burning fireballs while other shadow beasts tried to attack its feet, only to be kicked far away.
Unfortunately for the group, the door to the castle was locked and they couldn't budge it. Not even magic seemed to help.
"Stand back everypony. Luna and I will try and destroying this spell with this light given to us." Celestia announced.
Both sisters took in a deep breath, and were preparing a blast of strong energies, that is until the light beast stomped on the passage and body slammed onto another group of shadow beasts, crushing them outright.
"Ah. Well, let's go!"
Surprisingly enough, there wasn't much resistance in the halls. A few enslaved guards and shadow beasts were all the resistance they encountered. AJ and RD wanted to fight, but Crimson jumped right in front of them and chopped the shadows with his axe while performing fighting techniques with the guards, knocking them out cold.
Finally, they reached the gigantic doors of the throne room. They had been modified to show a giant crystal passing through the middle instead of the moon on the left and sun on the right. AJ bucked it open, only to see that Abstract was sitting on the throne once belonging to the princesses. Not much had changed here, except for the massive amount of trophies everywhere. The elements of harmony were floating directly above the crystallion.
"Oh ho?! The princess have found a strange new power. No matter. Here! Take the elements and try to us them against me. You will see how futile your attempts are," the crystallion mocked as the elements were tossed to their respective owners.
"We know that you cannot be affected by them, Abstract, but we know that you cannot stand concentrated light." Twilight said angrily as she looked at her crown."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"We found a friend of yours, a certain crystallion survivor. He's been long since dead, but you aren't going to find his resting place."
"Nonsense! Iviesta! Umbra! Teach these lower life forms about our powers!"
"YES!" Iviesta yelled.
Crimson caught movement on the side of his right eye and jumped in front of the princesses, only to fall to his knees as the Celestia turned around with a wide grin on her face. The minotaur fell as blood began seeping through his armor. The only problem is, nothing dripped on the floor as everything seemed to crawl back into his body.
"Haha...hahahaha! Silly mutant. I have been cursed! Your quick-blade techniques will not work on me!"
"Wh...take thi-Ooomf!"
Iviesta was blocked by the long hilt of the axe and was thrown upon the ground. Crimson grabbed her leg and threw her against a wall. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity stepped in to block the creature, while the remaining three blocked Umbra. Pinkie's antics were enough to confuse and destabilize it.
"Impossible! They are my daughters! You shall NOT HARM THEM!" Abstract screamed as his horns blasted away two different beams at the opposing groups, only to be deflected by the alicorns.
The crystallion took a step back and growled.
"Not this time. Your evil is too much to remain in this world. We shall destroy you outright."
"No you shan't! Try and face the might of shadows and sorrow with your pitiful energies of brightness and joy!"
Two beams of great power burst from both sides, interconnecting and creating great gusts of wind as all three struggled to keep dominance upon the situation. The opposing energies were so powerful that they were tearing away everything around them and causing the swirling clouds above to dissipate.
"Grrr. You will never triumph over pure darkness. You are just pitiful ponies!"
"That's where you're wrong. Where you are all alone, I have learned that having friends brings greater powers then just purity of loneliness. You will never win BECAUSE you are alone!"
"Yet, I am still over-powering you two." he replied with a grin.
The crystallion was right. The beams were shrinking with black gaining terrain.
"Not today! You shall not triumph over us!" Crimson shouted.
Using his gauntlet, he shone the bright lights onto Abstract, who screamed in agony as he sizzled and burned, leaving the two alicorns to blast away at him with their magics. He barely had time to see the light beams come at him that he heard:
"Father!"
"Daddy!"
A flash of light, and nothing left. Everyone rubbed their eyes to see the two crystal mares lying on the stairs leading to the throne. They were panting heavily and laughing a bit.
"NOOOOO!" Abstract shouted.
He quickly flew down to face his daughters who lay upon the ground in utter pain and waltzing upon Death's door.
"No." he said "NO! You will not die. You are the future of crystallions! I shall not let such atrocities happen. Not to my own children."
"It is okay father. I thought that disappearing for three days under that monster meant they were gone."
"Three days?!" the others thought.
"Yeah. It seems that we're not too good with that sort of thing and never will be."
"Yes. You will be. I actually found joy just being with you two. I had only felt sorrow and fury. You brought the only joys in my life. I won't let you go so easily." Abstract's voice was cracking.
"It's okay. We both adore you father. These were the best moments of our short-lived moments with you."
"Yeah. I love you too daddy. Buh-bye."
"WAIT!"
But before anything could happen, the two crystal mares disappeared into an upheaval of dust, liberating the magics of Celestia and Luna. Abstract began to desperately try and cling onto the floating clouds, in hopes that his children will be revived, only to see them go back towards their initial owners. The light left them and expanded throughout the totality of Equestria and beyond, liberating the world of the shadows.
Everyone stepped up in a serious and furious manner towards the torn crystallion who sat upon the steps and stared at his hooves upon which both daughters had placed their hooves before dying.
"This is it Abstract. Now it's your turn!" Celestia shouted.
Only Fluttershy was truly aware of the pains that the ex-father felt. In so many millenary, he hadn't felt the slightest emotion of love. Abandoned at birth, mocked by his own. He had nothing. Then he came to great power, only to see his entire race disappear before him. He was alone once more. The only things to have brought happiness were the two mutants, and now, they were gone. Nothing left to remember them by. Not even a memento. The pegasus flew in front of everyone and stopped them.
"Wait!" she shouted gently "Let him go."
"We can't! He'll come back again and do the same thing," Crimson raged.
"I don't think he will. We just removed his only joys in life, and now they're gone. I think we destroyed his heart."
"Fluttershy, dear. You don't HONESTLY think that thing has a HEART do y--"
The sound of cracking resonated throughout the castle. Looking at Abstract, everypony readied themselves as he had stood up, yet, he was wobbling. This wobbling caused everyone to stare at the crystallion in confusion and horror. Across his body were several obvious cracks of large proportions. Even his left eye was affected, and from both eyes seeped a black, oily substance. The crystallion turned tail, walked towards an opening in the walls, and flew out of it, only to fly high into the sky and spiral downwards into the ground without saying anything or making a sound.
"I...We won," Celestia spoke with disgust in her mouth.
This had been the most bittersweet victory any of them ever tasted. Who knew that such a being of pure evil would actually have feelings?
"I cannot stand this upon my own consciousness. Just know that my guild and I shall be there when you have troubles with Abstract again." Crimson was quite angry.
The minotaur dashed out of the throne room and out into the open to return to wherever his guild had gone, leaving everypony to stare at the two scorch marks on the ground upon where both crystal mares had lain upon. Twilight walked slowly next to her reformed teacher, tears forming in her eyes.
"Princess...did we do the right thing? Couldn't we have banished them? They would have been happy together."
"I know, but that would have been too much of a risk to take. Please, return to Ponyville and assist with the problems there. My sister and I have much to do ourselves."
Twilight nodded and took her friends with her. It may have been a victory that saved everypony's lives, but it was still bittersweet. Such a surprising reaction from Abstract the dark was entirely unexpected. They all thought that he wouldn't care, especially seeing what they had done to the enslaved ponies. Yet, the "pure evil" showed other emotions. With disgust of themselves, everypony began to assist in reconstruction. It was a dark day despite the sun finally shining brightly upon the lands.