The Lords of Harmony

by Whinifree

Act 2 - The First Seed, part 1

No words could describe it. Every ounce of Celestia's being fought against it.

This isn't possible! she thought.

She closed her eyes, rubbed them and looked forward, repeating this process several times and hoping beyond all possibility that this was all a trick her weary mind was playing on her. But as the moments dragged on, her resolve began to wane.

At the princess's side, Twilight and the others stood paralyzed in fear and shock just as much as Celestia herself was. Rainbow Dash, the guard ponies, and the Ponyville ponies all remained passed out nearby.

Flapping his new wings as he hovered in place within the pillar of ghostly light, Sombra let out a cackle that echoed through the area.

Everypony winced and covered their ears.

“You're probably all too stunned to accept the truth,” said Sombra. “You are not dreaming. I'm really back, and better than ever!”

“B-But...” stammered Twilight. “The Crystal Heart... The Crystal Empire!”

“We all saw!” cried Cadance. “The true magic of the Crystal Heart and Empire destroyed you!”

Sombra grinned. “True, but not all of me. Part of my essence was hiding... elsewhere....”

“That is so cliché,” droned Pinkie with a roll of her eyes.

“You've all got questions of course, but you'll have to come find me. Do not worry, I'll leave the door open. However, before I go, I'll be taking back my property.”

A fierce red aura formed around Sombra's horn. On the ground below his hooves, the same aura formed around the unconscious form of Chrysalis. The Alicorn Amulet slid off the changeling queen's neck and rose into the air until it was hovering alongside Sombra.

What? Thought Celestia. Only the one wearing the amulet can remove it. Unless.... Of course!

“It's just a fancy trinket now without my essence powering it, but that can be easily remedied.”

A bright red light suddenly flashed across the area and Sombra disappeared along with the Alicorn Amulet. The sky-high pillar of ghostly-white light remained.

Several minutes passed by before anypony spoke up. All the while, everypony's gaze lingered on the spot where Sombra had just been.

“This is bad!” cried Rarity. “Very very bad!”

“Things just keep getting worse and worse!” Pinkie was just as loud as her friend. “At this rate we're going to need a super-mega time spell to fix this mess!”

The chatter of the others became lost to Celestia as her mind buzzed. Memories both ancient and recent assaulted her rapidly. Chief among them, she recalled when she and Luna confronted Sombra over a thousand years prior when the dark unicorn took over the Crystal Empire. Neither of them had anticipated the ace he had lying in wait: a spell that caused the entire Crystal Empire, and all of its occupants, to disappear along with him in the event he was removed from power.

The memory shifted to the days leading up to Luna's dark transformation and how Celestia had failed to notice her sister's loneliness and despair. She recalled what she, Twilight and the others had found in the old journal about a shadowy figure visiting Luna several times prior to that dark day. Suddenly, the pit in Celestia's stomach widened ten fold.

While Celestia was entrenched in her thoughts, the ponies started to come to one by one. It was slow-going, but eventually they were all back on their hooves, including Rainbow. The only one who stayed down was Chrysalis. All the ponies appeared to be having difficulty standing. Many of them quickly settled back down in one big group, trembling both from the cold winter night air and of the events that had occurred.

Rainbow let out a groan and rubbed her head in between stumbling around.

The others raced up to Rainbow and pulled her into a group hug, eliciting a gasp from the pegasus.

“You're okay!” cried Twilight.

“We were so super worried!” called Pinkie, tightening her grip even further.

“Girls!” Rainbow wheezed. “Good to see you all again too but can I breathe please?”

They let go of Rainbow and she spent a few seconds taking loud, deep breaths.

“Sorry, darling.” Rarity gently placed a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. “But you know us, we just love you so, and it always scares us when—”

“I know....” Rainbow rolled her neck. “So, I took that wretched Chrysalis down with me right?” She then noticed the pillar of ghostly-white light rising up from the ground and shooting up into the sky, and Chrysalis unconscious at its base. “So... what did happen?”

“It's, um, kind of a long story,” said Fluttershy.

Twilight explained what had happened, and Rainbow was left with her mouth hanging open and completely speechless.

“You're...” Rainbow stammered after several moments. “You're serious?”

“The kind of serious that makes one wish they weren't,” said Cadance, nodding her head. “Then again that's been the case since Nightmare Night so now it's just more of the same. We've all been played like fiddles, and now King Sombra has returned and is even more powerful than before.”

“And what about Luna?”

“Still nothing....” Twilight frowned, her eyes started to water, her ears flattened and she looked down.

The others did the same.

Celestia, having overheard the conversation, was finally pulled out of her contemplative state and turned her gaze toward Twilight and her friends. She walked up to them and sat down on her hindquarters. She put her foreleg and wing around Twilight, hugging her gently.

Twilight looked up at Celestia and her tears continued to fall.

“There is only one thing we can do now,” stated Celestia calmly, but firmly.

Everypony, including the royal guards and Ponyville ponies, all turned their gaze to the princess.

“We must follow Sombra.”

“Is that wise, Princess?” asked a guard mare.

“It is the only way to get to the real bottom of all this and find Princess Luna. I'm going too.”

The guards and Ponyville ponies exchanged glances for a moment then nodded.

“Then, take my spear.” The guard mare stepped closer to Celestia and the others, placing her spear on the ground before them.

Several more ponies stepped up and left their weapons on the pile until there were a total of nine—one for Celestia and each Element Bearer plus Shining Armor.

Celestia and the others eyed the spears.

“Whatever little help they may be,” the guard mare continued, “better to be over prepared than not enough.”

“What about all of you?” asked Fluttershy. “You shouldn't be left defenseless out here.”

“We can manage,” replied a guard stallion with a nod and gentle smile. “Besides, we're not the ones about to follow a maniacal tyrant into who knows where. Unless you'd like us to come with you as well.”

Celestia shook her head. “No. You should all stay here and make sure nothing bad comes through the portal, and thank you, my little ponies.” Celestia beamed and levitated one of the spears over to herself, getting a firm grip on it with her foreleg.

Twilight and the others each took one of the spears and examined it.

“I've never used a spear before,” said Fluttershy. “Or any weapon.”

“Well,” said Shining Armor. “Now's the time to learn. Unfortunately, we don't have time for me to give you all a thorough training session in combat technique. So we'll have to make do with a crash course along the way.

Fluttershy swallowed hard as she examined her spear again.

“It's time to go,” stated Celestia, turning toward the pillar of light.

“Teach that monster a lesson!” cried one of the Ponyville ponies.

The rest of them started to shout and cheer their encouragement.

“And don't worry,” said the guard mare who'd given up her spear. “We won't let Chrysalis escape.”

Celestia nodded and looked at Twilight and the others. After each of them had given her their nod of acknowledgment, she steeled herself and stared straight into the pillar of light. With the spear firmly in her grasp, she led the Element Bearers and Shining Armor forward.

The guards and Ponyville ponies kept a firm watch on the princess and her party.

Casting one last quick glance at the unconscious Chrysalis, Celestia stepped into the center of the pillar. The moment she did, her vision turned solid white and she felt her hooves leave the ground. Her entire body began to feel weightless, and she remained perfectly still as she felt herself being pulled through ethereal space.

---

The sensation returned to Celestia's body after only a few quick moments and she felt something soft beneath her hooves. Despite knowing what dark power awaited them wherever the portal had brought her and the others, she took gentle breaths and her heart beat normally in her chest. Very slowly, her vision returned to normal and she blinked several times and stared forward.

Twilight and the others appeared right behind Celestia. They started to chatter, but they stopped almost instantly as they beheld where they now were.

The ponies stood upon a beach. Before them was a vast, black ocean, and like the beach to their left and right, it spread out further than the ponies could see. There was no warmth in the air, but neither was it cold save for the soft breeze that blew over the area continuously. The ocean waters glided up and down the shore, creating a soothing harmony in the ponies' ears. The area was lit in such a way that resembled the twilight hours just after the sun had set—dark, but not so dark that the ponies couldn't see a fair distance in front of them.

On the horizon where the ocean and sky met was a large spot of soft, orange light that resembled the lighting of a recent sunset. The sea water beneath the orange glow reflected the light, appearing magenta in color, as were the clouds in the sky closest to the sunset-like glow. Moving away from that spot, the clouds were varying shades of pink, violet, and dark blue in that order, and getting darker like an artist creating a gradient upon their canvas. Behind the clouds, a pitch-black sky was devoid of any stars.

“Another place to add to our weird list,” said Applejack, hiding a gulp as she spoke. “Since I know it's the first question on everypony's mind, where are we now?”

“This beach....” Celestia gazed out across the sea. “I've seen this beach in my dreams.”

Twilight stepped up alongside the princess. She gently kicked a bit of sand away in front of her and stared out across the sea as well. “This also looks something like the beach Trixie described in her nightmares, only the one she described was darker, like midnight, with that ghostly-white sky and a dark moon. And... I can't help but feel like I've seen this place before as well, but I can't place where.”

“It was darker in my dream too,” stated Celestia. “The dream I had the night before Hearth's Warming Eve, I saw this beach, but it was darker like midnight, with a sky and moon exactly like Twilight described. Also, Twilight, perhaps you have seen a beach like the one Trixie and I have. Specifically, in the dream you can't remember from when you got back from the Dread Frontier.”

Twilight gazed upon Celestia wide-eyed then stared back out to sea.

“So that means....” Celestia looked behind herself and nodded. “Just as I remember it.”

The others turned around as well.

At the edge of the beach stood the tell-tale woodlands of the Everfree Forest.

“Why is there a beach and an ocean by the Everfree Forest?” asked Rarity, inching closer to the group and keeping a firm grip on her spear.

“There isn't either by the Everfree Forest we know,” said Cadance.

“So where are we exactly?” inquired Fluttershy, trembling slightly.

Celestia glanced back to the dark ocean in front of her. “It would seem we have stepped into a different dimension.”

Everypony gave Celestia a quizzical stare.

“Different dimension?” Rainbow furrowed her brow then let out a sigh. “Wait... I'll just save myself the embarrassment and believe you.”

Pinkie nodded after a second. “Good idea.”

“So then what 'dimension' is this?” asked Shining Armor as he looked around.

“When I saw this place in my dream,” said Celestia, “I wasn't alone. There were two others here with me.”

“I'm going to take a wild guess and say it was Sombra and Chrysalis?” Rainbow muttered aloud.

“Back then I thought it was Nightmare Moon, like anypony else would have, and the shadowy figure she was talking to did have a male's voice, but I didn't recognize it at all. Of course now I know it was Chrysalis and Sombra just before Chrysalis launched her attack during Nightmare Night.”

Cadance and Shining Armor leaned against each other and nuzzled.

“Chrysalis must have been planning her revenge since her plot during our wedding failed,” said Cadance.

Shining Armor gave Cadance a tender kiss on the cheek and wrapped his foreleg around her, holding her close. “It was a clever plan, but something as devious as Nightmare Night and beyond, only the dark and twisted mind of Sombra could have come up with all that.”

Celestia took a deep breath. “There are a couple of things I'm not so sure about.”

“What's that, Princess?” asked Twilight.

“For all its similarities, I just can't shake the feeling that this place, and the one I saw, and miss Trixie saw in our dreams are not the exact same beach. In addition, the things that Sombra said to Chrysalis in my dream, and the way he said them... it didn't sound at all like the King Sombra I'm familiar with....”

The ponies all exchanged glances.

“Whatever this place really is,” continued Celestia, “we'll learn as we go.”

Twilight nodded. “We have Princess Luna to find, and a maniacal, dark unicorn... well, alicorn now... to stop before he can do any more harm. If there's an Everfree Forest, then this world must be similar to Equestria.”

“We'll see...” Celestia turned to face the others while the waves of the dark ocean continued to glide over the beach in the background.

“Shall I scout around?” Rainbow asked, standing tall and gripping her spear with a determined look on her face.

“Make it a quick one,” said Celestia with a firm tone. “Remember, Sombra wanted us to follow him here. Also remember, those shadow ponies we fought in Ponyville yesterday were not changelings in disguise—they were very much beings of pure shadow. We should assume that Sombra can command them. We should also assume there is plenty of them here lying in wait for us.”

Rainbow nodded. “Sure thing! I'll be back faster than even I can fly, as impossible as that is but you get the idea. While I'm gone, you all should practice a little with those spears.” She gave a quick salute to the others and zipped into the air, taking her spear with her, and quickly vanishing from sight in the darkness of the unknown, twilight-lit realm.

“Well,” said Shining Armor, “no time like the present. Everypony gather round and I'll give you the basics of combat.”

“If you ask me we could just use our bare hooves,” stated Applejack. “That seemed to do the trick during the attack on Ponyville. Of course I don't mean no disrespect to them ponies who lent us these. I know they were just wantin' to help anyway they could. Just sayin' is all.”

“Not all of us are as strong as you, darling.” Rarity tightened her grip on her spear then loosened it several times.

“The unicorns and alicorns among us can use our magic to swing them around.” Shining Armor proceeded to show the ponies basic combat stances and ways to swing the spear for attacking, and ways to hold it for defense including throwing off an attacker that is grappling somepony.

Fluttershy and Rarity more than anypony struggled with their crash-course training.

After about twenty minutes, Rainbow returned, looking pretty flustered. “Stupid forest!” she cried at the top of her lungs.

“What is it, Rainbow?” asked Twilight.

“The forest seems to go on forever and ever! The only thing I saw was a crumbling stone building that looked a lot like the old ruins.”

“The Old Ruins?”

“We'll head there first and see where that leads us.” Celestia turned away from the dark ocean and started to walk on the beach toward the forest. “Keep your weapons ready. Shadow ponies could ambush us from anywhere and at any moment.”

The ponies followed behind Celestia and stayed close together. Within moments, they had left the beach and ocean behind and were walking through the darkness of the forest.

The forest didn't have any black trees with ghostly-white trunks and smoke rising from the ground like the Everfree Forest the ponies knew. They kept their eyes and ears alert, but other than the sounds the ponies themselves made—hoofsteps along the ground, and the rustling of bushes and shrubs they passed and branches they moved out of their way—the forest was silent as a grave.

Soon, they entered a large clearing that was split along the center and the side by a gaping chasm. A bridge spanned the length of the gorge, but there were no stairs going down into the side canyon like there was in the gorge the ponies knew.

On the other side of the bridge, in the exact spot the ponies know, was a tall but crumbling stone ruin. For several minutes, the ponies just stared at it.

“The old castle....” muttered Celestia.

“Is Sombra in there?” asked Rarity.

“Only one way to find out.” Without glancing at the others, Celestia walked forward with a firm stride in her step.

The others followed behind, crossing the rickety bridge spanning the chasm in groups of three. Once across, they walked up the stone path toward the archway that led into the ruins, never letting their gazes turn from the ancient, vine and moss-covered structure that loomed in front of them. Shining Armor and Twilight stayed in the back of the group, gripping their spears in their magic and watching the direction they had all come from as the others proceeded inside.

It was pitch-black inside the entry hallway, but that didn't last as Celestia fired up her horn, creating a bright light that lit up the corridor. She kept a tight grip on her spear with her foreleg, almost using it like a walking stick.

The corridor looked the same as the one from the ruins back in Equestria. Same as their trek through the forest, the only sounds in the area were their own breaths, and the hoofsteps that reverberated off the stone of the structure.

After a few moments, the ponies entered into a spacious chamber that looked exactly like the throne room from the ruins they knew back home, right down to the design and placement of tapestries that hung on the walls. Atop a set of stairs at the back of the chamber were two stone thrones, one with the image of the sun carved into the back rest, and the other with a carving of the moon in the same place. On the wall in between the thrones was a balcony with part of the guard rail broken off and the pieces scattered about the floor. Above the balcony, was a large hole in the wall of the ruin, but no light came through, causing it to appear as a pure dark void. That familiar sight did not phase the ponies one bit, until they spotted something else that none of them could recall seeing in the ruins before.

At the base of the stairs, hovering above the scattered fallen pieces of the balcony, was a small pillar of light about the size of a grown pony. It's top and bottom both extended beyond the central portion, with the top reaching up a yard and forming a cone-like shape, and the bottom extending down to touch the floor in a similar fashion. The light it gave off barely extended halfway across the throne room.

The ponies stared at the pillar of light for several moments.

“No Sombra in here,” said Applejack, “but if I were to make a guess, that there light thing is a gateway that will get us closer to him, like the one that brought us to this place, and that portal thingy in Ghastly Gorge that took us to the Dread Frontier. That sound about right to y'all?”

Everypony voiced their agreement and nodded.

“Any idea where this one goes?” asked Rarity.

“Won't know until we go through,” Rainbow stated.

“In my dream the morning of Hearth's Warming,” began Celestia, “I saw Twilight's encounter with the dark figure in the old ruins on Nightmare Night. After that interaction was done, I sensed some kind of residual energy lingering around in the exact spot where we see this pillar is now.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “And that means there could be something still hidden there, but what that may be will have to wait.”

“Onward, my friends,” said Celestia, keeping her gaze upon the pillar of light. “The next leg of our journey lies beyond this gateway. Wherever this sends us, we must press on.”

With Celestia in the lead, the ponies started to approach the gateway.

Without warning, a very soft cry like that of a voice calling out sounded in the chamber before quickly fading away.

Everypony froze in place and looked all around, but they saw nothing other than everything they already had.

“Wh-what was that?” stuttered Fluttershy, trembling terribly and losing her grip on her spear which fell to the floor with a clatter.

“So I wasn't the only one who heard that!” said Pinkie. “For a second I thought I was going crazy!”

“I heard it too,” stated Twilight. “But exactly what that was I'm not sure.”

The ponies went silent and listened, but the sound did not come again.

“We should not linger,” said Celestia. “Let's move on. The sooner we find Sombra the sooner we find Luna and put a stop to all this.”

The ponies retrieved Fluttershy's spear and moved toward the pillar of light.

Same as before, the moment Celestia stepped into the gateway, her vision turned solid white and she felt her hooves leave the ground. Her entire body began to feel weightless, and she remained perfectly still as she felt herself being pulled through ethereal space.

---

The sensation returned to Celestia's body after only a few quick moments. She took gentle breaths, and blinking several times, her vision slowly returned to normal.

Twilight and the others appeared at her sides.

“Startin' to get used to that finally,” said Applejack as she rubbed her forehead.

“Where are we now?” asked Pinkie.

“Hang on....” uttered Twilight. “Are we...?”

Celestia looked around.

The ponies were standing in the middle of an old village of moderate size. Some of the dwellings were collapsed completely. Most of the ones that were still standing had similar shapes and sizes to the houses in Ponyville. Many had holes in their walls, and the roofs had caved in on several of them. Some doors were broken off from their hinges and standing at odd angles or laying flat on the ground while others were still fully attached. The windows were chipped and cracked. Some of them were broken out entirely, with the fragments of shattered glass littering the ground below. The area was lit in such a way that resembled the twilight hours just after the sun had set—dark, but not so dark that the ponies couldn't see a fair distance in front of them. However, the space beyond the borders of the village was a pitch-black void, and within the village, little flakes of snow fell from the sky gently and endlessly.

Clouds of varying shades of violet and dark blue covered the sky, with only scant spots between them through which could be seen the dark sky.

Celestia took deep breaths as she took in the unfamiliar locale. The longer she stared at it, the more a sense of dread seeped into the cracks that were starting to form in the strength she had carried with herself thus far. Still, maintaining her steely demeanor, Celestia turned to face Twilight and the others. “I do not know what this new place is, but I have a strong feeling all of you do.”

Twilight glanced at Celestia, frowning slightly. “This is the village we passed through in the Dread Frontier, where the Headless Horse attacked us.”

“This doesn't make any sense,” said Cadance. “How did we go from the Everfree Forest and the old Castle of the Two Sisters to this place?”

Pinkie put her hoof on her brow and stared off in the distance. “At least there's no jagged mountain-of-doom here like there. At least none I can see.”

“We can worry about the how and why later,” Rainbow stated with a slight snort. “What we need to focus on right now is where to go from here.”

“True enough,” said Celestia, “but what little knowledge we've gathered so far about this dimension tells me we might go through several miniature 'pockets' before we reach our goal. For example the beach, then the Everfree Forest and the old castle, and now we're here in this village, with this village seemingly the only part to this particular 'pocket.' Luna did sometimes talk about these things, likening them to passing through a pony's dreams.” She gave the ponies a firm stare. “Tell me what you know about this village.”

Twilight sat down on her hindquarters and pondered briefly. “If my memory serves me correctly, this is the village in the Dread Frontier. Of course, it's obvious that it wasn't always called the Dread Frontier, but ponies used to live here, uh, or technically there. I don't know how long the place had been abandoned, but I would venture a guess to say it was a long time given how weathered and rundown it was when we found it.”

Celestia nodded. “Exactly how did you determine the place had once been occupied by ponies?”

Rarity stepped forward. “Aside from the houses looking similar to the ones in Ponyville, there was a painting in the house we rested in—an exquisite painting of a bride and groom on their wedding day, and I'm assuming their parents standing next to them. It was such a lovely piece that I wanted to bring it back home to have it restored instead of just letting the poor thing continue to rot away in its abandonment.” She let out a sigh and looked down. “But there just wasn't room in our saddlebags for it.”

“And more important things to worry about,” stated Applejack. “Like the midnium.”

“Yes. That as well.”

“And that still don't automatically mean ponies used to live there,” continued Applejack. “It's still entirely possible that whoever did live there was just friends with ponies. However, I don't got any idea who else it could have been, so I, too, am fixin' to say it's probably ponies who used to live there.”

Celestia nodded again and looked around around at the ruined village. She then looked down at the ground, and mulled over in her mind everything the others had said about their experience and findings in the Dread Frontier. After a few moments, she glanced back up, meeting their watchful stares. “I'd like to see this painting. Do you remember which house it was in?”

“I think it was one whose front door was still in one piece,” said Shining Armor, “and was still attached to the house, but I don't remember exactly which house.”

“I do....” Rarity turned around and pointed at a house about halfway across the village from where the ponies were.

Everypony looked in the same direction Rarity was pointing, spotting the house, whose windows and door were undamaged.

Celestia took the lead and began her trek toward the house.

Silently, the others followed. They reached the house after a few minutes and they all stared at its front. Meanwhile, the falling snow got a little bit thicker and faster as the ponies moved closer to the house.

The door was closed, and the interior was not visible through the blackened windows.

“Anypony else havin' powerful flashbacks right now?” asked Applejack.

“Maybe a little....” Rainbow said as she rubbed her face and forehead. “Well let's not stand around reminiscing about the past.”

A golden glow appeared around Celestia's horn and the same glow formed over the house door a second later. The handle turned with a creak, and the door swung open with an equally loud creak.

“We won't be able to fit in there with these spears.” She carefully leaned her spear up against the house on the left side of the door. Ducking her head down slightly, Celestia stepped into the house.

The others did the same with their weapons and followed.

Other than missing the thick layer of dust over everything, the interior looked exactly as Twilight and the others remembered. With Celestia among them, everypony was lacking in space between them.

They were standing in a modest living room. There was a stone fireplace against the wall to their left that had a couple logs inside a metal bin. Two metal rods were leaning against the fireplace, one of them a pair of tongs for gripping wood and another with a single pointed rod for pushing at the wood. Against the wall to the ponies' right were two sofa seats, and one couch that had two round pillows on each end. A staircase behind the furniture led upstairs, a doorway in the back wall led into what appeared to be a kitchen where part of a dining table was visible.

Celestia's gaze immediately fell upon the object of her inquiry, and from where she was, she could make it out clearly.

A painting hung on the wall above the bookcase. The painting was chipped in places and the colors had faded somewhat, but the picture was still clear enough to decipher. Six ponies—two earth pony stallions, an earth pony mare, two unicorn mares and a unicorn stallion—stood in front of a house that looked just like the homes in the village. The three earth ponies all had light orange fur, eyes that were different shades of red, and dark yellow manes and tails. The unicorn stallion had light green fur, green eyes and a gray mane. Both unicorn mares had emerald fur and sky blue manes and tails, while one had violet eyes and the other had green eyes. The stallions were all wearing tuxedo jackets, the mares were all wearing elegant crimson dresses, and all of them were smiling brightly. Standing in full frontal-view, none of their cutie marks were visible.

The unicorn mare with the green eyes had several roses in her mane, and she wore a red necklace that looked like it was made entirely of rubies. She was embracing one of the earth pony stallions, who was wearing a green necklace that looked like it was made entirely out of emeralds, and was embracing her back.

Rarity beamed as she looked upon the image. “Like I said, a truly exquisite wedding portrait. Those two just look so happy together.”

“Focus, Rarity,” said Applejack. “Yeah it looks nice and all but we—”

Without warning, a soft cry like that of a voice calling out sounded in the air before quickly fading away.

Everypony jumped and nearly knocked each other over in the process, gazing all around but they did not see anything other than what they already had.

“There's that sound again!” whimpered Fluttershy as she crouched down, trembling greatly.

“Is it just me or was it a little louder than the first time?” asked Cadance.

The door to the house suddenly closed, trapping everypony inside, and the room was plunged into total darkness.

Fluttershy let out a loud peep of terror and threw her forelegs around the first pony within her reach, quivering even more.

“Who turned out the lights?” cried Pinkie.

The darkness didn't last long. Mere moments after it had washed over everything, a white light shone from below.

“Look!” said Shining Armor, staring down.

Everypony else looked down as well.

Instead of the floor to the house, the ponies beheld a black abyss with ghostly white light slowly swirling around beneath them. The way the phenomenon was set up, the light barely illuminated the ponies up their legs to their stomachs. Despite the change in scenery, the ponies felt solid ground beneath their hooves.

“Talk about super freaky!” said Pinkie as she hopped up and down a few times.

“Those lights almost look like they're spiraling down,” stated Applejack. “Hang on a cotton-pickin' moment... Where'd the house go?”

Everypony lifted their gazes.

The house and living room the ponies had been standing in was completely gone. However, the painting was still there, hovering in the exact spot it had been on the wall when the ponies first entered into the house. The ponies from the image were gone. In their place was a single, pitch-black plant stalk coming up out of the ground.

Above the stalk was a pitch-black, four-pronged claw. The talons were partially closed around the top of the stalk, like it was preparing to rip it from the ground.

With a tense silence about them, everypony stared at the new image.

“Princess Celestia,” said Cadance after several moments, “is this what those dreams of yours were like?”

Celestia glanced at Cadance. “Very similar, and it seems my suspicion was correct.”

“Which was?” asked Rarity.

“The painting is still here, even though the house and the rest of the village is gone. This can only mean that the painting is the most significant thing in this part of our journey, and is the gateway into the next part of this realm.”

“What do y'all think this painting has to do with everything?” asked Applejack.

“Let's assume you're correct and say the painting indicates ponies used to live in that old village,” continued Celestia. “But this new image... it makes me think of Luna, and how dark desires were 'planted' inside her all the centuries ago that slowly grew—planted in the garden of her heart and mind until at last they bloomed....”

The others glanced at each other.

“That's a pretty poetic way of describing it,” said Rarity.

Celestia closed her eyes and the vision from the morning of Nightmare Night replayed in her mind. She recalled Luna all alone in the dark room, and the dark claw that grabbed her. She then recalled the last thing she heard before waking up.

“The world within welcomes you,” she uttered aloud before opening her eyes and letting the image on the painting solidify itself into her psyche.

“So,” Rainbow said, “we're in this 'world within'? World within what now?”

“Come. Let's see what the next segment of this dimension has to show us.” Celestia raised her hoof and gently placed it upon the painting. The moment her hoof touched the canvas, her vision turned solid white and she felt her hooves leave the ground. Her entire body began to feel weightless, and she remained perfectly still as she felt herself being pulled through ethereal space.

---

After another brief sensation of nothingness, Celestia felt ground beneath her hooves again. It was very soft, and even gave a little under her weight. I know this texture, she thought. Sand again? Are we back on the beach?

Celestia blinked several times until her vision cleared. She frowned. This isn't the beach....

The princess stood in the middle of a vast desert. Midnium crystals completely littered the area. Some were as small as a pebble, while others were taller than Celestia and stuck up out of the ground like spears. The area was as dark as the previous two places had been—not so dark that Celestia couldn't see a fair distance around her, but the falling snow was thicker and coming down harder than before, making it difficult for Celestia to get a truly clear view beyond several meters. The sky was pitch-black, except for the ghostly white lines that zigged and zagged all over the dark canvas in all directions which gave it the appearance of cracked glass.

Celestia swallowed hard—even her firm resolve splintering a little.

Finally, Twilight and the others appeared and looked around.

“Leg number three,” said Applejack, partially covering her eyes with her foreleg to shield them from the snow. “The desert beyond the mountain I reckon.”

“Dread Frontier?” asked Celestia without looking at any of her companions.

Applejack let out a sigh. “Eeyup. That's where we finally found this durn stuff.” With her free hoof, she nudged a small midnium crystal laying on the sand right next to her. “Then most of it was swiped from us when we got back to Ponyville.”

Cadance nodded. “And what was left was used to turn the Crystal Heart into a new Element of Harmony. Anypony have any ideas how the Tree did that?”

Before anypony could respond, a trail of hoofprints appeared in the sand in front of them that led away from the area.

Everypony stared wide-eyed.

“Uh...” droned Pinkie after a couple of moments. “I say we follow the trail of phantom hoofprints. After all, nothing else about this place has made any sense. Why should this?” She chuckled half-heartedly.

Celestia's horn glowed, and a magical golden barrier formed around the ponies that shielded them from the thick, rapidly falling snow. The bubble was large enough to allow the group several yards of space around them.

Pinkie beamed. “Hey! Just like when we left Ponyville for the Frontier!”

With Celestia in the lead, the ponies walked alongside the trail of hoofprints. The soft sand, combined with the falling snow and countless midnium crystals in their path—some whole, others splintered or broken entirely—caused their trek to be slow.

All along the way, Celestia did not allow her gaze to stray from the trail of hoofprints that guided her and the others closer toward their goal. Her mind raced, again mulling over everything that's happened. Despite the fatigue that gnawed at the princess, her stride was strong and her steps firm. She had a fire in her eyes that was matched only by the warmth she felt in the core of her very being.

After a little while, even though they were still in the desert-like region of the bizarre dimension, the ponies passed into the ancient, run-down abandoned village. The trail of hoofprints in the sand remained, but nopony was looking at them now as they stared at the dilapidated dwellings in confusion.

“Didn't we just leave that depressing place?” asked Rarity.

Suddenly, the village began to phase in and out of existence, both as a whole, and in individual sections. A moment later, everything in the area began to phase in and out, swapping between the desert, the old village, and the crater of the shattered mountain in the center of it all that Twilight and the others passed through.

Everytime the area phased to the mountain, the ghostly visage of Sombra appeared among the ponies.

“What the hay is goin' on?!” cried Applejack as she backed away from the recurring ghastly figure.

A voice called out through the air, similar to the one the ponies had heard twice before since arriving in the dimension. This time, it was loud and clear enough that what it was was saying could be understood. “Help me...!”

Celestia's eyes widened and she took a quick breath. That voice....

“That sounded like Princess Luna!” shrieked Twilight. “Luna?! Where are you?!”

After a few more moments, everything in the area became awash in a blinding white light and the feeling of nothingness returned to Celestia. But only seconds after she covered her eyes with her foreleg, the feeling in her body returned and the light faded. Opening her eyes, Celestia saw she was now standing in several inches of snow and the ground felt slippery like solid ice. Outside of her magical barrier, the snow was so high that she and her companions were completely buried within the confines of her bubble.

While the ponies couldn't see it now through their entrapment beneath the snow, the howling gales of the blizzard raged on, and it was so loud that they couldn't even hear each other when they tried to speak.

Now what? Thought Celestia. Maintaining her bubble so she and her companions wouldn't get buried under a mountain of snow, she glanced around while attempting to formulate their next move. We must be in the Frozen North, or rather this dimension's version of it.

Two glowing, pale-cyan orbs suddenly appeared in the snow outside of Celestia's barrier. They sat parallel to each other, and were no more than a couple inches apart.

Everypony froze and stared at the ghastly sight—each of them trembling slightly.

Several more pairs of the orbs faded into existence in various places outside the bubble in the snow. Two pairs looked down on the ponies from above, while the others were around the side.

Those look like shadow pony eyes, thought Celestia as she gazed at a pair of orbs that seemed to be looking straight at her. But they're blueish instead of white.

A moment later, tall shadows shaped like the homes of Ponyville also appeared in the snow behind the orbs and all-around the bubble.

Celestia's eyes widened. “Wait a second...” she uttered even though she couldn't hear herself through the vicious zephyrs outside her bubble. “This almost seems like—”

Before Celestia could finish her train of thought, everything became awash in the blinding white light again.

Celestia winced and covered her eyes with her foreleg. Like it was being overridden by something, she felt her magic stop channeling on its own. The feeling of nothingness returned and she felt her hooves leave the icy ground.

---

The feeling returned to Celestia's body, and she felt solid, non-icy ground beneath her hooves again. She no longer heard the sound of wind, and the chill and flakiness of snow was gone. The ground upon which she stood felt course, but also smooth, like carved stone or pavement.

I think I can guess where we are now, she thought. And if my assumption is correct then our journey here is near its end.

Celestia's vision cleared and she took a deep breath. “I was right....” she muttered.

Twilight and the others appeared, and they joined the princess in looking around.

The ponies stood in the middle of the streets of the Crystal Empire. Unlike the rest of the dimension—and though there was no sun in the sky—the area was lit as if it was the middle of the day and not a single cloud covered the clear blue sky. The palace stood right in the center of the city, with its towering spires glimmering as if they were aglow in actual sunlight, and behind the palace sat the stadium. The gem-shaped houses, the gem-shaped streetlamps, the benches, trees, bushes and ponds were all in their proper places. Even the spider web-like pattern of the streets was just like the ponies remembered. All the city was missing was life. Other than Celestia, Twilight and the others, the place was completely deserted; nopony was around, and neither were any birds to liven things up with their songs.

“I knew we'd end up here eventually,” Rainbow said after a few minutes of dead silence. She let out a half-chuckle and rubbed the back of her head.

With eyes wide and mouth hanging open, Cadance stepped forward until she was several yards in front of the group. “Is...” she stammered. “Is this the Crystal Empire?”

“Can't be,” said Shining Armor, walking up alongside Cadance. “Remember we're not in our own world anymore. This has got to be some kind of trick by Sombra.”

“This reminds me of the dream I had after my 'accident' with the Crystal Heart,” stated Twilight. She moved over to a pond and stared at her reflection in the water's glimmering surface, and at the claw mark scars that still sat fully visible over her eyes. She sighed. “Are these ugly things ever going to go away? They don't make my eyes itch anymore but I still can't stand to look at them.”

Applejack joined Twilight beside the pond and gently patted her on the shoulder. “It'll be all right, sugarcube,” she said with a warm smile.

Rarity gulped and rubbed the Element of Generosity that hugged her neck. “Anypony else find it a bit odd that we've come all this way, and haven't run into a single one of those horrid shadow ponies?”

“Don't jinx it,” stated Pinkie as she adjusted her own Element.

While the others talked, Celestia kept her gaze fixed firmly on the Crystal Palace. She closed her eyes, and the memories of when she and Luna confronted Sombra well over a thousand years ago replayed in her mind. She recalled everything: Luna by her side; the cries of help from the terrified Crystal Ponies; the way Sombra's gaze seemed to bore into Celestia's very soul; the dark unicorn's voice brimming with pure malice, and finally, the way the Crystal Empire and everypony and everything in it disappeared along with Sombra upon his final defeat.

Those recollections faded, and Celestia recalled the fateful day that Luna succumbed to despair and was taken by the shadows. Again she recalled her dream on the morning of Nightmare Night—Luna all alone in the cold, dark room, and the equally dark, misty claw that appeared and engulfed her. 'The world within welcomes you!' she thought. The longer the memory lingered, the more Celestia began to see a tall, cloaked, pony-shaped figure lurking in the background of the cold, dark room, as if she were seeing Luna's final entries in their old journal come to life in her mind.

Now those recollections faded and Celestia opened her eyes. The stares of Twilight and the others went unnoticed by the princess as she continued to stare at the palace without falter, taking very deep breaths with each passing second.

“Princess Celestia?” asked Twilight.

Several moments passed before Celestia replied. “To think that we've all been played so successfully....”

The others exchanged nervous glances.

“That night I called all of you to Canterlot to give you the Elements,” continued Celestia, “and Applejack said that something wasn't quite right... that should have been my clue. That look in Luna's eyes the night I fought with the giant rock creature... I thought it looked familiar but I wasn't thinking that deeply into it at the time. It was the exact same look that Sombra gave me and Luna the day we confronted him so many generations ago. The truth was right in front of me... but I just couldn't see it.”

“Don't y'all fret, Princess,” said Applejack. “Yes, I had a feelin', but I never could have guessed somethin' like this. Like you, like everypony, we all thought Sombra was gone for good. None of us could have known the Legend of the Pony of Shadows was really referrin' to Sombra because we all thought it was about Nightmare Moon, and Chrysalis made such a convincin' Nightmare Moon it was the perfect distraction.”

Twilight nodded. “As much as it hurts to admit defeat in this regard, Applejack's right. Sombra's had centuries to put all this together, and when it came time to put his plan in motion, he executed it perfectly, using Chrysalis, and the abduction of Luna as a front to hide his true plan.”

“Was his initial defeat by Luna and myself all part of this grand scheme too?” asked Celestia with a wistful sigh, looking down. “Another important question that has always nagged at me.... The Crystal Empire disappeared from Equestria—from the world—when Luna and I defeated him. But how, and where exactly did it go?” She paused and looked around the vacant city. “Was the Crystal Empire that returned to Equestria even the same one—the real one—or was it just a dark copy waiting for the right moment to show its true colors?”

“Princess,” said Rarity with a gentle smile, “I think it's safe to say it was the real one that came back. Otherwise, the magic there and in the Crystal Heart wouldn't have succeeded in repelling Sombra.”

The others nodded in agreement and gave the princess the same warm smile.

Slowly, Celestia glanced at each of them one-by-one, and the creeping fear and doubt that had thus far built up in her heart was replaced by a calm warmth like the morning sun. Once again thinking back to her dream the eve of Hearth's Warming, she pictured Twilight and the others with brightly glowing orbs that shifted between gold and silver in their chests where their hearts would be. She smiled back at them. “Well,” she said softly, “I don't suppose any of these questions of mine really matter now at this point. All that matters now is we find Luna and stop Sombra once and for all.”

“Yes indeedy!” said Pinkie as she hopped up and down.

Celestia let out a chuckle. “Sorry for holding us up when we're so close to our goal. Now, let's go. I have no doubt he'll be waiting for us in the palace, and with any luck, Luna will be there as well.”

All together, the ponies began to walk down the street toward the palace, keeping their gazes fixed upon it with a fire in their eyes, and a firm stride in their step.

Suddenly, when the ponies had made it halfway to the palace, the entire city began to phase in and out of existence—not everything all together, but in bits and pieces in quick succession. Despite this, the ponies felt solid ground beneath their hooves.

Everypony paused and stood still, glancing around at the phasing world around them.

“Not again!” cried Pinkie.

A deep, dark, and powerful voice sounded out in the air. “I was drawn here by the magic of this world....”

Celestia and Twilight's eyes widened.

As the voice spoke more, the things around the ponies started to phase faster and faster, taking on a more broken appearance each time it disappeared and then reappeared.

“There is a hole in this world,” continued the voice. “This world is a hole—deep as the endless void. It binds them together as one....”

“Sombra!” shouted Twilight. “This is exactly what he said to me in the Old Ruins on Nightmare Night!”

The hope and warmth Celestia had managed to find minutes earlier faltered again and she started to sweat and take deep breaths.

“There is still so much to learn,” stated the voice. “And you understand so little....”

Celestia's vision turned solid white, and before once again feeling like she was floating in space, she heard the voice speak one final time.

“You do not yet know what hides within the veil....”

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading!

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Well, this has been an exciting ride.

[Whinifree]

10217299
Does it totally give you that final-level-before-a-final-boss vibe?

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

10217506
Indeed. Particularly notable was Dash keeping up her cheerfulness in these trying circumstances, the artfully done creepy atmosphere and the sweet moment between Twi and AJ. A spear wielding Celestia leading the Element Bearers is pretty epic.