> Abstract the dark's revenge
>  by The Psychopath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Emergence of crystal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a bright and sunny day in Equestria. The pegasi hadn't let a single cloud stay aloft in the sky, the winds had been blowing with a relative frequency, keeping anyone from dying of heat. The cool breeze keeping the land fresh and bright, everypony was working hard at the castle during this day to make a surprise for Luna. Decorations were being hung everywhere and hidden from view with magic, while foods of such smells that even the pony who never ate would demand twenty-thirds were being cooked in the castle kitchen. Despite the princess asking for the meals eaten by the common pony in order to become "closer" to her subjects, the finest of Equestria's cooks were there today, and they were working together with little experiments as long as they were together.

An honored privilege given to the Cakes of Ponyville was to make pastries for the moon princess. Therefore, they were also in the kitchen. Pinkie Pie was told to take care of the babies, which she did surprisingly well. It even went to the point where they would cry when she was gone for more than an hour. As for Twilight, she was asked by Celestia to make a letter that would sound terrible and would bring the moon princess out early in order to trick her into the surprise. Twilight had too much to do, so she wouldn't be at the party, much to Celestia's disappointment. The others also had many things to do. Rarity had several dresses and suits that need to be done in two days, Rainbow Dash had her weather job, Fluttershy had a family of moles to watch, and Applejack needed to harvest the zap apples.

Oh well. At least Luna would be with those she knew, and she'd have the food of several regions. Celestia walked up to the guards and servants putting up the decorations and confetti blowers in the castle yard.

"So? How is everything?" a guard turned around and wiped his head after Celestia asked this. He was standing on a ladder.

"Everything going fine on our hoof m'am. We might finish this early. I suggest you go to the kitchen 'n see what they be doing. I don't want them to end up creating somethin' that'll end up sickening your sister."

"Some good advice." Celestia said with a concerned face and a rubbing of her chin. "I'll see you later then."

"Good day to ya, m'am." the guard responded with a head bow.

Walking within the castle, the sun princess could see that the decorations were coming along well. Many of them were coloorful, but quite a few had the impersonations of the stars and the moon. The sun princess smiled and reached the kitchen. Her mouth watered just by staying in front of the wooden doors decorated in food carvings. As the princess opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of several of her servants rushing everywhere with pots and trays, while others were cooking many foods. A gryphon chef was looking at a rather large oven, and scratched the side of his head while staring blatantly at it.

"So? How is it?" asked a rather deep voice.

"It is ready." the gryphon smiled.

"Good!"

The minotaur chef tore open the oven door and pulled the dish out of its heated world. After slamming it onto the tables, the two chefs smelled it, then each took out forks and dug into the pot pie. They chewed it quite abit, letting the flavors roll around on their tongues, before spitting it out in disgust.

"Well that was disappointing." the gryphon said with a scrunched up face before flicking his fork away.

"I'll say. Hm? It's princess Celestia."

Everypony stopped what they were doing to stare at the white entity standing in the doorway, with the only thing flowing through the air being the bubbling of pots and stews. A mare with the chef hat stomped towards Celestia and started to push her out of the kitchen.

"No, no, no. You will see the dishes that we have prepared later. It is bad luck to interrupt a chef when he or she is in the process of creation."

"But-"

"This is perhaps why their pot pie ended up tasting terrible."

"How-"

"I am sorry, but you cannot stay here. Until later."

The mare closed the door on Celestia, who was still stunned in surprise and shock. Brushing the event off, she decided to go see what those who were organizing the party activities were doing. 

However, beneath Canterlot, no one was preparing for fun. Quite the opposite. The crystals beneath the castle were showing several thousand images, all different. Some showed what Twilight had been doing when she didn't have anything to report to Celestia, others showed what Pinkie Pie would do with her parties; and even more showed the dragon migration. A strange voice that began with some sort screech echoed upon the crystal walls, who vibrated and shone darkly in response. Two eyes of the most white purity shone brightly within the darkness. These white eyes were pupiless, yet they could see surprisingly well in the dark.

As an image with Chrysalis being defeated by her own element ran across several of the crystal growths, the creature  watching frowned and growled in anger. It then slammed whatever belonged to it into the crystal, shattering something "indestructible" outright. 

"Hmph. Pathetic changelings." the voice said as steps were heard echoing across the dead and lonely tunnels. "I have absorbed enough darkness, and my kin has been entirely eliminated. Only I remain, and I shall exact revenge upon the ponies and minotaurs who unjustly killed us off. I will succeed were even the 'great Discord' failed. That buffoon cannot compare to those who have existed before he, to those who have lived for several thousands if years, to the embodiment of pure shadow.
The changelings fell victim to their own powers."

The crystals showed Chrysalis flinching right before the shield created by Shining armor and Cadance blew all the changelings away into the Everfree forest.

"No right being who feeds on 'love' can truly be defeated by it. These fools know nothing of combat, of elemental usage. They know nothing of tactics and infiltration. They can morph into anything, yet they prefer to act foolish and reveal themselves immediately. One with true intelligence could have easily dissuaded Twilight Sparkle of her suspicions, even in the face of certain defeat. Nightmare Moon..."

The crystals shone brightly once more before showing the mare in the moon being engulfed by the elements of harmony and returning into the form of Luna. The creature stood up in strength as some sort of cloud akin to the mane and tail of Nightmare Moon floated towards the minerals, before pushing against them and creating cracks upon their surface.

"You possessed the moon princess, and you failed once in defeating Celestia. You returned after a millenary and banished this pseudo-goddess to her own celestial object,  and claimed the world as your own, bringing with it eternal night. I was about to reach the surface, but you were defeated by six mares simply because Luna was holding you back and keeping you from utilizing the proper way of disposing of trash. A true being of darkness would have been more than capable of suppressing these so-called immortals and have submitted all to its rule with an iron hoof. You are as pathetic as the rest. 
And Discord."

The biggest crystal of all showed the petrified Discord as a statue in a protected bunker. He seemed bored.

"You are too pathetic to bother speaking of. A lord of chaos whose own power did not reach my domain, and who was also defeated by the six mares. You deserve to remain within that stone prison."

The starlight shroud waved like a hand, showing Celestia sending the letter she received from Twilight to Luna, and getting ready to hide with her soldiers and servants.

"Hmph. These 'gods' actually perform within mundane tasks, and find it amusing. If only my emperor were still alive...I shall uphold his will and conquer the world of light, and bring with me shadows and crystal. They shall fail when they try to counter me, and I will become the new emperor. It is time."

The creature closed its eyes quietly. Nothing happened, until the ground began to shake and lift him through the ceiling. This creature was accompanied by the many crystals that grew underneath the castle, and vines of darkness dug through the earth like roots.





Luna flew into the yard with a look of concern on her face, and she spun around violently as she tried to find everypony.

"Sister? Where are you? I have received your letter. Where are you?"

Luna continued to walk while looking around, until confetti cannons blasted their contents into the air, causing the hidden decorations to reappear and everypony who was hiding to jump out of their hiding place.

"SURPRISE!" they roared.

"What-"

"Happy anniversary Luna!" Celestia shouted as she popped out from the bushes.

"What?!"

"Yes! We're celebrating the anniversary of your return to us. I hope you'll like everything we have prepared for you. We have many things in store."

"I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anythin' princess. We'ze got some great things fer ya," a guard said.

This day was quite enthusiastic for the moon princess. Despite her initial confusion, games of foam boxing and wave surfing created by magic brought much amusement to everypony there. Luna was even pranked by a few servants with cream pie to her face. Celestia laughed whole-heartedly, and, with some removed face-cream, became a bit more vanilla than white. Everything soon turned into a pie war as everypony grabbed the pastries closest to them and tossed them high into the air.

Soon after that, everypony sat down as the servants brought out the magnificent dishes of the chefs. There were mountains of salads that were decorated to look like mountains, a wide and flowery plain, and even Canterlot castle. Some tomato sculptures took the form of Luna and Celestia. All the ponies dug into this magnificent feast of gods that was deposited on the most modest of king-length wooden tables.

After this, the desserts came in. Four of the chefs decided to carry their gigantic cake on their backs and placed it gently in the middle of the table. It was a five-story chocolate cake with diverse garments of star and suns, and a mini-Luna statuette upon the top-most part the cake. They then bowed and backed away. Celestia thanked them. With a clearing of her throat, she lift a fork with her magic and spoke:

"To my dear sister Luna, who I have not seen for one-thousand years. I've missed you, dear sister. I hope that this day that we have prepared for you was fun?"

"Yes. It was. Thank you for this marvelous party everypony."

"Huzzah!" they all yelled.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Take a piece of the cake!" Luna shouted.

As a knife was grabbed by the griffon chef who eagerly approached the cake, a massive quake rocked Canterlot in its entirety. Before anypony knew it, those sitting in front of the princesses were covered in chocolate cake. Most were irritated, but others started to fork the pieces on them and smiling with delight as they placed this refined substance upon their taste-buds. Another quake, much more violent than the other, shook Canterlot once more, and both guard and alicorn started to look around, determined on finding the source of the quakes.

Suddenly, one of the guards still standing watch on the walls flew towards the princesses with grave news:

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, there are strange crystalline growths coming from below Canterlot, and weird trees of shadow are following!"

Another quake shook the land, followed by an explosion and the sound of roaring.

"Quickly! We must go to Canterlot and evacuate the inhabitants there. Before-" Celestia was cut off by the castle exploding in several different areas as gigantic crystals of varying colors grew forth from the walls and grounds. Following these massive constructs were tendrils of shadow that swirled forth from the new craters and spread into the air, dropping several thousands of shadowy creatures upon the grounds.


"What? Oh no. If these things are here, then that means that..." Luna turned around to hear the sound of screaming and buildings being crushed and destroyed beyond the castle walls.

"Concentrate, Luna! We must destroy whatever these things are. Only then will we be able to help the others." Celestia pleaded.

"Right." Luna responded with a nod.

The guards all screamed from the top of their lungs as they charged at the shadows who seemed to be taking many forms. Some just had a body with needle legs and arms with claws, while others literally took on the form of a drake. Many of them flew through the air, and the sight of the pegasi fighting these things, only to be tossed through the castle walls, or into a crater within the ground only served to enrage the surviving troops. In Canterlot, gigantic beasts of shadow were stomping throughout the area and blasting everything with some sort of beam coming from their hands. These things had no heads, only white eyes analyzing their environment, and their bodies looked like wide and thick blobs of black smog.

As the guards each fought the demonic creatures with combat techniques and a wide assortment of spells, the princesses were flying around through the air while avoiding strikes from the other shadows and blasting them away with their own magic. Luna had even trained and developed a type of magical shock wave that blasted everything around her away. More explosions were heard, and one of the towers of Canterlot fell off its resting point and slowly landed a few stories lower, throwing up dust and rubble despite the distance.

"What is going on? Ungh! What are these beasts and where are they coming from?!" Celestia screamed as two of the flying creatures grabbed her with their teeth, only to be slammed into a wall.

"I dun know princess, but I believe that them crystals are the reason behind these things' coming here." the country guard replied after impaling two of the shadow beasts on his spear.

"Then we'll need to destroy them. Come Luna."

Both princesses approached one of the giant crystals that trickled and ebbed with a dark magic. Gathering massive amounts of magic, the two princesses united their magic to blast the thing away with a magical blast. The ensuing explosion gave way to an ear-piercing scream, and the darkness within the crystal blasted out almost immediately, throwing the princesses onto the ground. More explosions, coming from Canterlot this time, rocked the area. As the princesses turned their heads for barely a second, the sound of pained yelling could be heard as the crystal began to reshape itself.

"What?! But how?" Luna wondered as panic began to strike her face.

"I don't know what these things are, but they can regenerate. We don't have time for this."

"INDEED YOU DON'T!" some sort of crystalline voice blurted out within the minds of everypony in Canterlot castle.

From the highest point of the castle, some sort of being erupted, throwing stones everywhere. It spread its six wings, similar to a pegasus', widely across the sky as the entire world seemed to become engulfed in swirling clouds of darkness. The creature flapped its wings once more, casting out a veil of pure darkness that started to carve through the castle towards the fighting guards. While the shadow creatures dissolved and were sent back into the emerging crystals, the guards were "eaten" by the shadows, and spat back out as darker and more evil versions of themselves. Everything changed, and they looked up evily at the two princesses who had avoided the wave by flying higher than they already were.

"Pathetic! There is no point in trying to flee Abstract the dark."

Before either princess could even think of a spell, they found themselves pinned to the now brown and withering grass of the castle grounds. They both looked at the crystalline hooves standing on them, and let their eyes slide up to see the creature pinning them down. It looked like a male alicorn made of a very dark crystal. Within this crystal seemed to flow a dark cloud. The only true difference between both "alicorn" types were that this "Abstract" character had six crystalline wings, and two horns on its head. It also had no mouth, letting Celestia and Luna wonder how it could speak. 

Unfortunately, this creature was crushing their throats, but immediately lift them up and threw them against a piece of Canterlot castle and let the vines of darkness attach them against the broken stones. He slowly approached Celestia and formed some sort of dark "tongue" and slowly approached the sun princess with it. As she tried to move away, the creature lashed out at the air around her and let the tongue dissipate. The sun princess was confused.

"Mmmm. The magic of your essence tastes of purity. You thought that the Crystallions were dead, but we still exist."

Abstract spoke highly as his white eyes closed in superiority, and the crystals of his body seemed to contract and twist in smiles along with the shrouded sky.

"What are Crystallions? We have never heard of them." Luna spoke out in calmness.

Abstract's joy faded away and gave way to anger. Even his body twisted and cracked as the shadows in his body started to spin wildly. The same starry shades of Nightmare Moon erupted from cracks in his body and slammed right next to both princesses as the Crystallion stared at them with his eyes full of rage.

"How do you not know of the Crystallions? The crystal wars? Our destruction at the hands and hooves of pony and minotaur?"HAVE WE BECOME SUCH A BURDEN THAT YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN US?!"

Abstract's furious yelling manage to destabilize another portion of Canterlot castle's walls, causing a piece of it to crumble down and let its debris roll down the hill side like playful children. Both princesses shook their heads, letting the Crystallion's left eye twitch.

"Then I will tell you." he said as he backed off and started to "pet" his starry mane. "The Crystallions are beings of pure darkness and righteousness who feed off of the darkness of the underground caverns that you used to mine in. It was ten thousand years ago, and even then, your kind had disturbed us with their incessant chipping at our crystals. You, however, allowed us to reach the surface and begin to claim our new lands for our people. However, back then, we were weak, and an alliance between your kind and the minotaurs of the Cretan islands somehow brought about our destruction. I alone, survived, and I fled to the mining caverns beneath this crumbling castle. You soon blocked it off to prevent any of us from returning, but I was always there. 

Through your crystals and your windows, I watched. I watched and studied everything as I absorbed more and more darkness. Now, I have the power to destroy everything!" He said as he lift a hoof to the sky.

"And what do you want with us? Are you going to be an old fashioned searcher for revenge and claim one of us as your queen or do you need a h-" Luna was interrupted.

"No! Crystallions have NO NEED for females in order to reproduce. We used the crystals to send our gene templates and messed around said templates with our shadows in order to make an entirely unique looking child. Unfortunately, my new powers have devoid me of such abilities."

Abstract lowered his head in sadness, but stood back up and looked menacingly at the princesses.

"However, you two are more of a nuisance than anything else, and the magic of your essence could allow me to create an heir. Perhaps two, even. Now then, do not move."

"What are you doing? Let us go! Let us-"

Once more, Celestia had been cut off by the Crystallion as it opened large portions of its body and let the shadows engulf both princesses. Their magics were drained away, and, when all was done, the princess fell limply upon the floor as the vines released their prisoners. Luna struggled to move, even to speak, but she was too tired. Somehow, she was the only one capable of staying conscious while her sister was out cold. Abstract cleared his throat somehow, and summoned one of the fat giants from Canterlot, only to have it pick up both princesses. This giant stared at Luna with its beady eyes, allowing Abstract ample time to speak to her:

"There is no point in trying to stop me. The elements of harmony are hidden now. While you were fighting my minions, I hid them everywhere and nowhere! Have fun being mere ponies with no magic. Throw them."

"N....no!" Luna faintly squealed before passing out.

The giant chuckled, its rumbling voice causing the air around it to vibrate. With a pull-back of its massive black arm, it let out a crack, and the princesses found themselves being cast at extreme speeds towards the darkening horizon. As Luna mourned the loss of her powers as her horn began to disappear, she slowly faded away to sleep as the simple air pressure knocked her out slowly.
> Fleeing through Everfree
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, before the princess were drained of their powers, and tossed away like rag dolls, everypony in Ponyville had gathered in its center to see what exactly was going on in Canterlot. It was so far away, yet the thundering clouds of shadow could still be heard crackling as they swirled into ever larger proportions. Twilight was starting to worry, as Spike was sent to the castle to retrieve some books from the royal library. The gossiping of the ponies vibrated throughout the air as the mane six reunited in their own little circle.

"Twi, do ya know what that is?" a certain orange cowpony asked.

"No. I thought that it was the pegasi doing something special."

The group turned to face Rainbow Dash.

"What? Don't blame me! I don't have anything to do with this. I didn't even know about that weather plan." Rainbow flew a bit higher and squinted to try and get a better look at the swirling clouds. "Those don't even look like storm clouds."

"Well, I think it looks simply dreadful. Such a horrid color too," Rarity answered in her typical way.

"Yeah, well we don't think that it might be 'fashionable' issues," AJ said in a bemused manner.

"I hope the Cakes are okay. What will happen to the babies?!" Pinkie screeched while clutching her head.

"Heh. If you become their 'step-mother', I don't know what we'll do," Rainbow mocked.

"Oh no! THREE Pinkie Pies?! I'd rather leave Ponyville." Rarity added in a sarcastic tone.

"Hey, Fluttershy hasn't said anything lately. You okay?" 

Twilight put a hoof on the yellow pegasi staring at the cloud and tried to approach her friend's face.

"Fluttershy?"

"RUN!" she screamed before grabbing Twilight and galloping far away.

"Fluttershy, sweetie! What's wrong?!"' Rarity asked while following. The worries were spreading through the group.

Suddenly, those gathered in the center of Ponyville started to disperse in screams as what looked like two large objects crashed through several buildings, ejecting stone and brick throughout the area. Some ponies were hit by the flying debris, forcing some to help them out. As the six mares ran away from the flying objects, said projectiles crashed with full force into the ground and slid very far, creating a little hill of dirt.

Fluttershy quickly stopped and walked carefully towards the two objects. She was followed by the remaining five ponies, all covered in a wide assortment of dust and dirt. Rarity stuck her tongue out in disgust and complained while she started to wipe her body of the "nasties". Applejack simply brushed her hat and mocked Rarity for her girlishness, while Pinkie Pie somehow grabbed everything and made it into a dirt mask.

The two "objects" turned out to be nothing but two earth pony mares. Yet, they seemed familiar to Twilight, who just couldn't put her hoof on it. One was of a regal white with a flowing pink mane and tail, while the other was of a night blue, while her mane and tail were slightly shorter than her compatriot, and were of a bright, sky-blue. Looking over these two, Twilight suddenly noticed their cutie marks. Her heart raced, her pupils shrunk, and she began to stutter with her mouth wide open while pointing like an idiot towards them.

"What's wrong Twi? Ah know these somehow landed here, but we've seen crazier," AJ tried to comfort her friend.

"Yeah! Remember Discord? He had AWESOME chocolate rain," the pink party pony slurped her lips after saying this.

"You...you don't understand. Those two are...P-P-P-Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

"What? C'mon Twilight. Don't say stuff like that." Rainbow Dash started to panic once she saw the cutie marks, and this panic caused her voice to crack.

"I...she's right. But, who could do such a terrible thing?! We've got to help them right away!" Fluttershy whisper-yelled.

"I don't think we have the time for that darling. Look over there."

Rarity pointed towards the sky, which was being blotted out by strange black creatures who were letting go of even MORE of their kind on Ponyville. Screams and sounds of destruction vibrated through the air as these creatures landed on everything below them with a huge kick up of dust and dirt. Some even landed near Twilight and her group. As these strange monsters of shadow surrounded them, Twilight and her friends prepared for battle, but the weakened Luna tried to tell them something:

"N-no...flee from...them...The shadow is...too powerful."

"Too powerful? Ya dun know who yer messin' with princess," AJ spoke aloud after adjusting her hat to slide forward a bit more.

Everypony started to fight, except for Fluttershy, who tried to protect the princesses and hide at the same time. Rainbow Dash was using her extreme speeds to shock the flying creatures and throw them into each other, letting a dissipating trail of black smog reach the ground in a heartbeat.  Applejack dodged every swipe and strike at her, only to return it ten-fold with a buck to the chest of every single beast. These smaller creatures started to panic as their brethren were tossed aside like mere rags. Even Pinkie Pie was starting to disturb them. She somehow got herself a samurai armor with a katana and was striking through them all, only to throw an explosive bomb and have it toss everything around into the air with confetti and cream. Rarity, on the other hoof, had gone berserk. The creatures tossed too much dust and dirt on her, and they started to back away as she literally chewed and bit through every single one of them.

Her heavy breathing, rabid eyes, and the sight of just one limb remaining in her mouth was enough to scare most off. Unfortunately, two of the giants which attacked Canterlot had arrived. They were standing right above the group, who stared at them in disbelief. Before they could say a word, the creatures lift their arms and threw them down with unbelievable speeds. They managed to hit Rainbow Dash, who was caught in a second by Applejack. They were all about to die, until something bright exploded from the ground. It was a crystal. The things were spreading incredibly fast. This sudden outburst, was followed by the two giants falling on their backs.

"Quickly everypony! Grab the princesses and run for the Everfree forest!" Twilight shouted in a panic.

Knowing full well that this was not the time to argue, Applejack put the shrunken Celestia on her back, While Pinkie did the same Luna. As the mares began to run for the greenery of the trees, several more crystals punched out of the ground. One even destroyed the school, much to the certain delight of the children. A mighty roar indicated that the giants were behind them, accompanied by the tinier shadow creatures. They had finally entered the forest after the run of their lives. Stopping for a quick breather, the mares turned around to see that the giants wouldn't enter the forest. Everypony sighed in relief and smiled nervously, until the smaller beings started to run along the tree-lines and the ground.

"Awww, horse apples," AJ cursed with an eye roll.

The ponies ran. They ran. They wouldn't stop. Only sheer conviction for their survival allowed them to push through their limits. However, the creatures were catching up, until some sort of creature clad in crimson-red armor jumped down from the tree line and spread its hand wide open. The shadows stopped, and turned tail as their faces changed from "maniacal killer", to "I'm falling to my doom".  It was too late , however, as a wide  ray of light burst forth from the gauntlet and incinerated everything in front of it. Once that part of the forest was gone, it turned around and gestured for the ponies to follow.

Its helmet had horns on it, which twisted once but ultimately, pointed forward. The only view-port through this helmet was a single black slid outlined by white going across the entire armor piece. Its body armor seemed to be composed of three over-lapping plates of metal, same for the arms and legs. The head of a minotaur was emblazoned on the body armor in a very dark red, almost black.

As the ponies ran through the forest, twilight wanted to thank the helper:

"Thanks a lot for your help, mister...?"

"Cronos Boliveri."

"Cronos? Sounds interesting."

"I don't want to be rude, but we are approaching the center of the forest," the warrior spoke with an accent similar to the ponies of the far-east.

"So? It's not like-OW! It's not like that's a bad thing," Rainbow Dash laughed as she tried to fly through the branches.

"No? Then you will see it up close."

The group suddenly stopped in front of what looked like a rather sized crater full of blue and yellow flowers. In its middle was a little mount of dirt with what looked a huge pile of vines. Rainbow Dash snuffed around and shrugged.

"I don't see what the deal i--"

The blue pegasus was about to step on a flower when the warrior pulled her back and held her in one arm. The pile of vines had come to life. There was an extremely large head, similar to that of a carnivorous plant, with a quadruple-jawed mouth. It had two sets of petals. The first were yellow, and they were pointing straight forward while looking sharp as well. The second were blue, and they looked rather flimsy. A bit normal, seeing as some sort of poison was dripping from them. Six more smaller heads rose out from the garden and started to growl violently at the group, who all flinched back.

"What is that thing? Why is it in that magnificent garden?" Rarity creaked.

"That is the Ivamora. One of the most powerful beasts of Equestria. It will not let us pass so easily. If we even attempt to fight it, we will certainly die."

"Oh my. Maybe if I tried to talk to it? I am very good with animals." Fluttershy blushed.

"I do not care. There is no talking with the Ivamora, no matter what you say." the warrior stopped to listen to the roars coming from behind. "There IS one way. I can offer it this ginto flower."

The flower this character took out from his armor belt was a beautiful red, and its petals overlapped each other just like the warrior's armor plates. It had four stems ending in an orange ball at the end. The warrior slowly approached the creature who began to growl, only to stop as it noticed the flower being offered to it by a kneeling creature. One of the heads grabbed the flower gently, allowing the biggest to observe it from up close. It seemed to smile, and ate the flower, chewing it violently. Confusion ran through the mares who didn't understand what just happened. Surprisingly, the Ivamora began to spit out several thousand seeds all over the garden, planting the flowers. It seemed all giddy at the newest addition to its favorite spot, and was about to return to rest when it remembered. 

Stretching a bit, the beast pulled out some of its vines and creating a bridge over its garden and to another side of the crater. The warrior bowed down to it and tanked it humbly. Gesturing the mares, they each crossed the "bridge". Despite Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy's fears, the Ivamora just watched them cross. With another bow, the warrior headed out to the other side of the forest with his "protégées".

"Will it be alright with those creatures going into its garden?" Fluttershy worried.

"I would worry about those shadows more than the Ivamora. Also, cover your ears."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"If you say so."

"You too."

"Pff. It's gonna roar? Tcheah. Like that is going to hurt me." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"No, but you will go into an epileptic seizure if you do not cover your ears."

The rainbow pony slammed her hooves on her ears after a gasp. Sure enough, some sort of screeching roar tore through the forest. It was so loud that everyone's head began to spin. It had some sort of tone added to it that managed to peel the bark off the surrounding trees and bring about cracks in very large rocks. Once confirmation of the roar was over, everyone uncovered their ears and continued to run. The sounds of trees cracking and objects being thrown through them accompanied every step the group made until they reached the other side of the forest. Beyond the tree-lines, upon the greenest of grass which encroached upon the territory of the forest, sat a strange vehicle.

It seemed to have four wheels, and had the appearance of a boat, yet, it had sails. Not taking any chances, the warrior tossed everypony on the vehicle, and urged them to enter the cabin and go to the lower floor. There, med-kits and nourishment awaited the two wounded they were carrying. There were only two beds, and the bluish hue of the single room didn't help much as the vehicle began to move. Twilight wondered what was going on, and what she could do to repair everything. So many questions left unanswered. As she began to ponder these things, above, the crimson warrior looked behind himself as he steered the "boat", only to see two very tall creatures of darkness rise from Ponyville. Unlike the giants, these ones seemed draped in a long black robe adorned with several decorations and symbols not recognizable by the average mind. These things had a head, but no mouth, and the crowns they wore had several branches sticking out of them. In one last sweep, they slammed their hands together, creating an orb of pure darkness and flew throughout a massive area surrounding Ponyville. Oddly enough, this "orb of darkness" avoided Everfree.

The warrior grunted.

"I think it's time to reach the others. Those accursed Crystallions are back."
> Spoils of war
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a few hours since the attack on Ponyville and Canterlot, and the crimson warrior had been driving his strange vehicle endlessly. It seemed that the princesses were now fully unconscious. The other mares had started to babble on about what had happened, trying to ascertain the situation. Twilight, however, was the most worried. How did her teacher end up like this? What were those creatures and those crystals? And, more importantly, who was that warrior?

As these questions began to eat her up, Twilight decided that the best way to get these answers was to get back to the deck and question the one who helped her. She waited for everypony to become distracted, then quietly crept up the stairs. She shielded herself from the sudden gust of wind blowing away, making sure that everything in its path would be caught in its hold and be tossed around like a ragdoll. Twilight erected a tiny barrier of magic around her face and walked towards the front of the "ship". The stairs led to the back, which slightly irritated the unicorn at this strange positioning. She leaned slightly around a corner of the cabin, only to see that the warrior had removed his helmet. It was a minotaur, a crimson colored minotaur. Everything about him was red. His skin was a slightly dark shade of red, while his hair took on a brighter appearance as it reached the bottom of his neck. His horns were even stranger. Like the helmet which rested upon the ground near his cow-feet, the horns twisted once then stuck out straight.

He seemed to emit some sort of aura about him that disturbed Twilight, who was dragged out of her hiding spot by the surprising awareness of the minotaur.

"Come out of your spot, unicorn. I know you are there."

Twilight walked into the open, frowning a bit and rubbing her shoulder in embarrassment.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping us back there. My name is Twilight Sparkle, by the way."

"One of the elements of harmony?"

"Y-yes. How do you--"

"My order knows many things that you could only dream to learn. My name is Crimson Scar. I do not know my true name, but this one will suffice."

"Not your real name? What do you mean?"

"Let's just say that I do not remember it. Something required to join my guild is to forget your true name. Enough of the formalities. I believe, however, that you wish to know what has just happened?"

"Yes."

"Then I need to know who those two mares you were carrying were. They seemed so familiar."

"That's because they are the princesses."

"WHAT?!" the sudden news caused Crimson to jolt the wheel of the boat, nearly tipping it over. "That can't be possible!"

"I know! It's the truth, unfortunately."

"The only Crystallion that we know who was capable of draining the magic is Abstract the dark, and he has long since died."

"Who?" Twilight asked with a heightening of her voice.

The minotaur pulled a few levers and pushed on a tiny white crystal next to the steering wheel. This crystal began to glow, and the boat began to drive itself. It was much better than Scar at avoiding the stones in the pathway.

"There we go." Crimson said after brushing his hands.

His iris and pupils were just as red as the rest of him, and two scars bore down his face and onto his neck. Twilight placed a hoof on her mouth in shock.

"Do not worry. It is only a curse. This is why I am this color. Now then, as for your explanation, what you encountered was a crystallion."

"A what?"

"A crystallion. These beings look like your alicorns, only, they are all male."

"Then how did they reproduce?"

"Through Crystaxual reproduction. Before you ask, it requires a crystallion to place his genes within a crystal of his choosing, then messing around with the dna using his shadow magic. The process was always successful, but there was one in particular, who was not meddled with, by a rather precarious crystallion. At birth, they looked exactly alike, although the younger one was, of course, very tiny compared to his 'father'. This one was named Abstract the weak. Why? Because, if one looks at the ancient records, that crystallion was the weakest of all the crystallions in those species' history.

However, they forgot that they take their power from darkness and sorrow, and thus, they created the most powerful of crystallions. He surpassed the emperor in strength ten-fold, but, thanks to a good friendship between both, and a strong sense of loyalty, Abstract the dark obeyed this crystallion. When the day had finally come, the crystallions emerged upon the world in great catastrophe. They destroyed all the cities in their path and enslaved every single race they came across. This was the start of the Crystal Wars. No matter the joint effort of ponies and griffons, the crystallions were too much, and any efforts to tame one of the great monsters of Equestria proved pointless. That is when my race came in. We, apparently, were quite effective at destroying the crystallions, as all minotaurs are endowed with great strength.

Thanks to our contribution, the crystallions were all destroyed. Well, all but one. After seeing his friend die at the hands of one of my ancestors, Abstract fled into the crystal caves from whence he came. He was sealed up and we had thought that he had died. A problem with fighting him was his ability to absorb the magical essence from a being full of magical power. This is how all the unicorns who faced him perished without a scratch on their body."

Twilght's eyes widened in horror.

"Oh no. Then that means that..."

"No. I do not believe so. Your princesses might perish, but their stamina is most excellent, so it will not be now. If they can restore just a nano-fraction of their magic, they can live as earth ponies for the rest of their lives." Crimson looked at Twilight from the side with a grin. "Unless you are willing to retrieve the essence?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then we will have to consult the master on the 'how to'."

"There are the elements of harmony. They were cast...out...if that monster is truthful."

The two looked behind them to see a very weak Luna struggling to keep herself conscious. Her legs were wobbly and her mind was aloft. Rainbow Dash and Rarity got the princess before she fell.

"Cast out? My dear Luna, Abstract does not throw away such gems of conquest! It was seen in his personal hideout during the Crystal Wars. So many things apparently 'destroyed' were kept there. Besides, I do not believe that the Elements of Harmony will do anything to him and get off my head."

Crimson had his arms crossed while Pinkie Pie was lying down on his head with a little smile on her face.

"Whyyyyy? It's so comfy here."

"Off."

"Fine."

Pinkie Pie pushed her front hooves on the warrior's horns and performed a quadruple forward flip before landing perfectly on the ground.

"That was might impressive Pinkie." AJ was quite impressed, as suggested by her tone of voice.

"What didja mean by 'the elements won't work'? They've always worked! I mean, sure, we didn't get to use them on Chrysalis, but that's because she caught us after an awesome fight." Rainbow asked shamefully.

"Simple. Chrysalis may have been 'evil' by your point of view, but she was simply following what she needed to feed her hive."

"Then what about Discord? You're not going to say he isn't evil too?" Twilight shouted with a concerned look.

"I didn't think he was mean," Pinkie Pie whine.

"Yeah, well, you're more on the chaotic than anything else Pinkie Pie." Rainbow laughed as she tried to help her friends with Luna.

"No," the minotaur said blandly.

"What?" said four collective mares.

"You heard me. If you do not learn that chaos is an essential part of life and existence, then there is no point in letting you keep the elements. Discord was simply having fun his way. As far as I know, he wasn't killing anyone."

"No, but--" Twilight was cut off again.

"And Nightmare Moon." Luna shied away. "She was still Luna. Why do you think all of those traps were mostly non-lethal? She was holding her evil back."

"How do you even know about that?" Rarity squinted with her question.

"Like I said to your friend, my guild knows a lot."

"And why...why will the elements not work..." Luna gasped.

"Because Abstract is pure evil?" Fluttershy had said. She was tending to princess Celestia who had yet to awaken.

Everypony stared at the timid pegasi who, for the first time that they knew, spoke up in presence of a stranger, a stranger who smiled, nonetheless.

"Yes. And sorrow. While the majority of crystallions had the others to call 'brothers' and father, Abstract had nothing. Even his 'father' rejected him. He was a cast-out, a stow-away, a failure, and through this, his powers grew tremendously. With this power, he took revenge on those who had ruined everything he could have held dear, and feasted upon their own darkness, turning them into nothing but dust."

"That's horrible! How did he live it through? Did he have some animal friends after all this time?"

"No. He had nothing, and he wanted to be alone. Whatever he did, he has gone far beyond the age limit of a crystallion. I know not what he must have found, but it must be why he was able to conjure up that army of shadows and manage to corrupt everyone that you knew."

"Whadda ya mean? Big Mac ain't no traitor!" AJ responded in a huff and hoof-stomp

"No, but that dome of darkness was used before. It was created to have rebels submit to the crystallions' reign before. However, it required the conjoint efforts of ten crystallions to create it. Creator knows what levels of power he has attained."

"This all fine and pretty, really, but what does this have to do with the elements being ineffective?"

Before Crimson could speak, Pinkie Pie started to bounce wildly in front of him.

"It means that he has no good in him. The elements would take the good out of somepony and use it against them with increased power. Since he is nothing but negative energies, he can't be affected."

The pink party pony stopped bouncing and gave a great big smile. Everyone, even the minotaur, had their jaws gaping open. Crimson then regained his posture and began to laugh.

"Exactly! I'm impressed."

"Thank you," Pinkie answered.

"Now then, we are approaching the camp. Prepare the princesses. We will have much to discuss."

Along the rounding horizon, a very large camp full of white tents and camp-fires that seemed extremely busy could be easily seen. It was amazing to see it. There would be much to discuss indeed. However, for the time being, perhaps Abstract had something planned?





"Yes! YES! FINALLY! I will finally make them pay. I even have my first war trophies." Abstract spoke gleefully.

He had the elements of harmony floating right in front of him as he stood in the partially destroyed throne room. The little mount leading to the throne had been torn halfway by a rising crystal, and the seat was barely hanging on its remaining hinges as is. Several pieces of brick were scattered here and there, while a gaping hole in the roof revealed the sky to be as dark as Abstract's body, as well as some shadow creatures rebuilding the broken pieces of the castle with crystals. The now sub-serviant slaves were all bowing down before the crystallion and his trophies. They were awaiting a response. The entity of crystal laughed maniacally as he lowered the elements slightly and turned to face his new subjects.

"Good. I have freed you from the pathetic rule of the alicorns, and have placed you all under the new rule of the crystallions. You shall now address me as Emperor Abstract. As you now serve me, I suggest you return to the basic duties you were performing with your weakling princesses. HOWEVER, I order you all to begin repairs on my fortress as of now. Take pieces of the crystals scattered everywhere and rebuild this pile of stone. The area where the tower has fallen shall be my quarters. Get to work now!"

"Yes, Emperor Abstract!"

The ponies immediately set out, while the crystallion gave sense that he was smiling with an utter sense of satisfaction. However, once everypony had left, he straightened himself out and lowered his jewels gently upon the ground. Hopping down the destroyed steps of the throne, he decided to take a little stroll around the throne room to think things over. He was over-excited by the happenings, and with the knowledge that nothing remembered his race, he felt happy and insulted at the same time. Stomping around the room, he began to speak to himself out loud.

"They actually dared to forget my own species. Those grotesque bastards. This CAN tip into my favor, however. I'll need a map, a quill, and ink. I'll take in the amount of soldiers here, and enhance their numbers with my shadow army. The darkness shall spread until everything is under my rule. I shouldn't worry about the dragons, as I can corrupt them just as easily. Hmhmhmhaaa. Now then, my race..."

Abstract paused for a moment and blinked several times after a sudden realization. He used his wings to keep himself aloft as he stared at his two front hooves, then, he "smiled", his entire body following with cracks and bristles. 

"Yes...I wonder. Perhaps, with their magic, I could..."

The cloud accompanying Abstract everywhere exited his body and swirled around two gigantic crystals standing side-by-side in the room. It seemed happy. Abstract ran towards the crystals and stood against them. He hit them a few times with his hooves, horns, and wings. Then he placed his head against them, and finally, tried to feel their energies.

"Perfect. With the magics of those alicorns, these crystals, and my own genes and shadow, I shall restart the glorious existence of the crystallions. Now then."

Abstract slammed his hooves against the two crystals and began to pour his shadow magic into them, allowing the darkness to take the form of something remotely similar to a pony. The things, unfortunately, began to dissipate.

"With the magic of the alicorns, I GIVE YOU LIFE!"

The left leg of Abstract glowed in a bright pastel color, while the right took the appearance of a starry mane, irritating the cloud who hissed in protest. As the magics began to seep into the crystal, they floated around for awhile, before converging onto the central masses. The new emperor "smiled" in joy as he saw them change and morph in front of his emotionless eyes. The forms had become stable, despite having a strange appearance hidden by the shadows already present within. To be sure, Abstract waited in front of the giant towers in contemplation of his new sons. He waited for hours, until being finally certain that they really were going to live. He backed away slowly while being swirled around by the cloud. 

"Yes. Perfect. Now then, a few days of wait, and I'll get my awaited sons. Yehehes! But, for now, I shall begin my plans to conquer this land of ponies, and exterminate the minotaurs like they did my own."

Abstract walked out of the throne room and slammed the gigantic wooden doors shut with his magic. What he didn't notice, and he should have, was that there were some weird miniscule flashes within the crystals. The entities were...changing somehow. Becoming something different. In four days, the crystallion would know what his sons would truly look like, and how powerful they would be at birth.
> Hand of light
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally reaching the camp, the mares watched as Crimson hopped off his vehicle and began to speak with the others in an unfamiliar tongue. The minotaurs in their blue and grey armor went inside the ship and carried both Celestia and Luna outside and into a tent where a doctor was waiting for them. The two guards closed the entrance and stood guard outside, preventing any entry. The warrior gestured for the six mares to come next to him. While the other minotaurs looked intimidating, the biggest one was in front of Crimson and had a massive golden armor on him with a gigantic axe on his back. This one looked quite old, as he had a long gray beard and very bushy gray eyebrows. 

"These are the elements?" he asked with a very gravely voice.

"Yes, Titan fist. They are the ones. I believe we need to go to your tent and hear what can be offered to them in aid."

"You mean you need advice?"

Crimson rolled his eyes.

"Yes."

"Then come with us, little ponies."

As the group began to walk through the camp, seeing many things going on, such as Minotaurs training with throwing spears at dummies in the plains, while others were working on how far they could throw a pony-sized rock with one hand. Titan decided to open a conversation:

"So, Crimson saved you from the crystallions, eh? What are your names?"

"Well, I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"Ah'm Applejack. Pleased ta meet ya."

"I'm Rarity."

"I'm the fastest flier in Equestria, Rainbow Dash!"

"I'm Pinkie Pie! Oo! Maybe I can throw a 'thank you' party for Crimson."

"That's quite alright. Thank you," the minotaur replied.

"Um...I'm Fluttershy."

"Yes. This one seems to know quite a lot when it comes to feelings." Crimson remarked while pointing at the shying mare.

"I see. Now then, tell me, while we continue towards my tent, how many crystallions were there?"

"One."

"One?! Surely you jest."

"No."

"Th-then, who was it?"

"Abstract the dark."

Everything stopped in a flash. Titan was twitching and everyone in the camp just stared at their red companion. Suddenly, the chief of the guild suddenly shouted:

"Minotaurs! Get to the help of the two princesses! Make sure that at least a miniscule portion of their magic returns, or else they will die."

Fluttershy gave out a little squeak.

"Quickly, into the chief's tent."

The group ran as fast as they could into the biggest white tent of the camp. In it stood a rather large wooden table with several minotaurs sitting around it. Once they saw titan, they all bowed,then sat back down. Titan fist ran towards his seat with a large amount of sweat on his face. This disturbed the others who stared at him in confusion.

"We don't have much time. First things first, we are the hand of light. Our guild has kept the secret of the crystallions' existence for several millenaries. We believed that all the crystallions hadn't died, so we devoted our lives to fight them back one day. However, I did not think that Abstract was the sole remainder. He has taken over Canterlot and the villages around it by observation of your princesses. We have much to do.

Members of this council, I have the grave news of telling you that Abstract the Dark has returned."

The others at the table began to mumble and an uproar began.

"What? But he should be dead! Crystallions don't live that long."

"He's right. What is this trickery?!"

"Oh. It is no trickery. However he has done it, he has lived longer than he should, and apparently, he has grown quite powerful," Crimson said in a worried tone.

"Yes. Quite. However, the elements won't work on him. You are aware of this, correct?"

Crimson nodded, only to turn his head as he saw an irritated Twilight Sparkle walking forward.

"I've had it with this nonsense! The elements are the most powerful artifacts in existence. How can they NOT work?"

"While I prefer not to get my beautiful mane tangled up in this, she is right. I simply do not understand it." Rarity added.

"I already told you why." Crimson replied angrily "What do they have to do to defeat him?"

The council started to talk with each other and share facts and stories, before finally calming down.

"It has come to my attention that I've been hidden the fact that there was another crystallion who survived the war. Unfortunately, as my sub-members have said, it would seem that he was born in an exceedingly late fashion. He is still alive, but you will have to go to one of the most dangerous places in this world to find him." Titan said as he started a rather large cigar.

Pinkie Pie began to smell the air and started to drool.

"Oooo! What is that? It smells like cinnamon."

"Heh. This is a cinnamon cigar. It is non-toxic and you can smoke as many of them as you want, until you get sick from cinnamon overdose."

"Yeah, yeah. So, what's so dangerous 'bout this place anyways?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Ever heard of the Nyubet?" the bearded asked with a puff of smoke.

Crimson immediately stood back up from his kneeling position and roared his protest furiously:

"Is this a joke?! The Nyubet?! Do you have ANY idea what that thing living there is capable of? That region is a death sentence. How can your little 'protégée' even survive in a flat landscape like that?"

"Crimson, it is quite fathomable. After all, this Crystallion chose to absorb light rather than darkness. Perhaps, if you find him, the polar opposites will destroy each other." a flimsy minotaur said.

"But that doesn't dismiss that fact that it lives in the Nyubet. How could he survive?"

"He had his ways," the flimsy minotaur said while looking upwards and pushing out his lips.

"Um...I don't mean to interrupt, but, what is it exactly?" Fluttershy asked.

"The Nyum-Bunet. I cannot go further in detail. Just the thought of that colossus frightens me."

"It's that dangerous?!" Twilight screamed.

"Yes. Well then, Guild Master of the Hand of light, Titan Fist, who shall accompany them?"

The entire council pointed at him.

"Wh-what? But, surely, you can--"

Crimson sighed. "No. You are the only one who knows how to control that land vehicle that YOU created. If you are quick, you will reach the Nyubet in five days."

"Fine, but they will need a day of rest. I also need to know the itinerary to get there."

"For your first proposal, of course. After what the drained princesses have gone through, they all need their rest. As for your path, here."

Crimson grabbed a map passed to him by a female minotaur. She was quite burly, and, apparently, scared the minotaurs around her breathless. The warrior read over the map and exited the tent. As the mares were about to follow another, less impressive female, Titan remembered something:

"Oh! Hold on." Titan began to fumble through the pockets of his armor. "Here, Twilight Sparkle. Take this badge. It will give you free entry to the tent where the princesses are. I'm sure you three have much to share to each other. As for you Pinkie Pie, go right when you leave here. I'm pretty sure the troops would love a little moral booster."

"Oooo! I get it. See you later."

With that, the tent was now only filled with the council members sitting around their table. The burly minotaur spoke to Titan:

"Are you insane? What if those poor darlings get hurt by that monster? And then, the Pourpros is also in their path! Sure, if it were to get into a fight with it, the Pourpros would certainly die, but do you not see what you are putting them through?"

Crimson slammed his armored fist on the table, breaking a piece off in the process.

"Do you not THINK that I tried other routes? You want me to send them through the graveyard of that shovel-holding lost spirit? You know what happens when anything passes by that graveyard. We may have not been able to free him yet, but many of our own have become damned souls in the process. There are only three routes that are the fastest possible ways towards the Nyubet, and the route that I have chosen is the least dangerous of the three. Now then, if you'll excuse me," he said while standing up "I have to tend to some 'colorful' matters."

And with that, the tent had now become calm and quiet.





Twilight was in the tent, seeing her teacher and Luna on two separate beds that looked more like hospital carts. Luna was much more energetic than her sister, who had just barely awoken from her slumber. The doctor and his assistant, wearing suiting white uniforms, were performing tests on the princesses' blood samples.

"So? Are they going to be alright?" Twilight asked frantically.

The doctor continued to observe the tubes filled with blood in the light, but had the time to answer.

"Of course. You're lucky they were brought here. Whatever Crimson told you, they were going to die in three hours. Beings with their amount of magical power get the biggest feedback from losing their magic. Their new appearances are a token to that."

"I...I see," Celestia grunted as she tried to sit up.

The assistant saw the efforts of the fallen sun princess, and forced her back down.

"I'm sorry Celestia, but you are in no condition to move. Your magic power is far greater than that of your sister. Why do you think you had such a feedback from the drainage? Our herbs are enough for your magic to regenerate into a little spark. By tomorrow, you two should be fully recovered. Until then, stay down."

Celestia, despite an obvious protest on her face, understood matters very well. She wasn't a stranger to such dangerous tasks and had to deal with her fair share of troublesome things.

"Okay. Are you alright Twilight?"

"Oh. Sorry, princess. It's just that...you look so strange now. No offense."

Celestia looked at herself and her sister in better detail, and recognized their old appearance.

"Ah yes. This is what we used to look like when we were little. Back when we didn't know how to use our magic."

"Oh. Well, you ARE still taller than most ponies, so..."

"About as tall as the brother of Applejack?"

"Pretty much."

"How is my sister doing?"

"Luna? She fell asleep. I was pretty surprised that you two didn't have anything with how you arrived towards us."

"How come?"

"Well, you DID come at us like a cannonball powered by a lightning bolt. I think you destroyed half of Ponyville on your descent."

Celestia's jaw dropped as her tired eyes tried their best at widening in horror.

"Oh dear. I hope nopony is hurt."

"Me too. Well, while we wait, we can talk about that Abstract character."

"Okay. If it prepares us for our future encounter."





Outside, near the edge of the camp, Crimson was sitting on a stone and still looking at the map. Somehow, the sun was setting, giving off a darkening golden glow upon the world as it prepared for resting. The cursed minotaur tightened his eyes as he felt shivers running down his spine. He was cursed with this color, as well as having some sort of intense regeneration ability. He could die, easily, but his curse kept the wounds from doing him in. As he stared at his armored hand, he thought to himself, that he would simply have to wait for time to catch up. He worried though. He worried quite a lot recently. These six mares were forced to go to the Nyubet, and he would have to take them there. At least the Ivamora proved to be nice on occasions. The two monsters on their way wouldn't be that nice. He would have to stock up on an extra amount of meat to deal with it.
Standing back up and stretching a bit, the minotaur was going to bed. He had quite a long trip to make, and the princesses were still weakened from their draining. He'd have to pay special attention to them.
> The father's joy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the sun rose tiredly above the horizon, Crimson and the other minotaurs were placing foods and beverages into the lower portion of the vehicle, one that was fit for barrels and crates. The mares were all still tired from waking up early, except for Pinkie Pie, who was still happy about the party she organized last night. It seemed that a few of the minotaurs exaggerated with the ivy juice, and ended up with a massive headache in the morning. However, with the help of the doctor and his assistant, the two princesses managed to climb aboard the "ship". The group was almost ready to leave, when Crimson came back with a massive barrel that dripped with a red liquid. He managed to hold it on one shoulder, further proving how powerful minotaurs were. As Twilight wiped her eyes that pained of light and sleep, she managed to partially make out the red minotaur and the object he was carrying.

"What is that, Crimson?" she asked with a rather loud yawn.

"Something that we'll need when we reach the mountains. I will not speak of its contents." the red minotaur replied with a concentrated look.

Crimson finally reached the back of his vehicle, and stomped on a portion of the deck. A tiny compartment flipped open, and it was here that the minotaur gently placed the dripping barrel. With another stomp, the lid slammed shut. He snorted, adjusted his armor, then went towards the wheel. A wave of goodbye, and they were already off. Somehow, Pinkie Pie found a marine's suit, and was scoping the areas with a telescope from who knows where.

"Pinkie, where did you get those?" the minotaur asked while looking at the pony weirdly.

"From my Pinkie basket. Over there."

Indeed. A basket made from straw, and that was rather tiny, sat upon the deck. Crimson decided to brush this off as he felt some sort of bizzarety coming from this pony. Applejack, who was lying against one of the rails spoke up:

"So, where're we goin'?"

"To a nearby town to get some information on the dangers ahead. I already know of two, and the last one isn't pretty."

"Really? Whats its name?"

"Derby Creek."

"Anything special 'bout it?"

"Well, besides it being full of perverted stallions and some of the worst scum Equestria has seen, it's a rather quaint town."

"Perverts? They say anything about me and I'll bash their heads in!" Rainbow shouted from atop her perch on the mast.

"I must agree. Isn't their another area that wouldn't require us to pass such rustic areas for knowledge?" Luna asked.

The moon and sun princesses had recovered quite a lot since the previous day, but, unless they retrieved their magic from Abstract, they would have to get accustomed to not flying nor using magic. It had proven hard enough with four glasses breaking after they tried to hold them without magic, so anything else would be extremely hard.

"Unless you want to pass by a cemetery full of damned souls, I believe this way is the best way. Besides, I'm fairly known over there." Crimson said with a maniacal smirk.

"What--" Celestia tried to say, but was stopped by Crimson.

"Let's just say that the only way to find it is to follow a ghost wielding a shovel. He isn't mean, and wants to save the damned souls at that graveyard, but whatever force is trapping them there has also enslaved many of our guild's comrades. Until we can find out what is causing their entrapping, no one is going there. Especially not me. Now please, just relax and enjoy the trip until we reach that place. Oh! I almost forgot. I have a plan that will scare them senseless. Simply walk into the open, and I'll wait for the first slur to come out. Once it has, I'll walk out of my ship. perverts will know that you're with me, and they should shut up for the remainder of our stay there."

"I would hope so. Such ruffians cannot be in the presence of a lady such as myself." Rarity said with a bounce of her mane.

Crimson rolled his eyes in response.

It had been a few hours. For a "close" town, it was pretty "close" for the trip. Finally nearing it, everyone could see that the grassy greens had left way for a rather dusty, sand colored landscape. They were near the mountains, and the town was very ugly. It looked like there were shacks from a post-apocalyptic era created from metal fences and whatnot. The shacks were all stacked upon each other, giving a strange yet colorful appearance. The clay hills this town was built between reached extremely high, and the shacks almost reached the top as well. Several creatures walked among the town's desolate appearance, the creatures being mainly pony and Wolf beast. Wold beasts are simply bipedal wolves similar to minotaurs in practically every aspect of construction. Crimson grinned and turned the crystal of his ship back on.

"Okay. You know what will happen. If I come out when they least expect it-"

"Then they will leave us alone. I hope that your plan works." Rarity spoke in a worried tone.

"Who knows." 

With that, the minotaur returned within the boat's cabin and closed the doors. Soon enough, the ship slowly came to a halt as it approached the town entrance. Everything walking within the streets stopped as they saw the tall white machine halt with a small kick of dust and a rumbling noise. The characters there were all gruesome looking and stared questioningly at the occupants of the ship. While silence made its way back across the town and the landscape, Applejack bucked the button to lower the ramp.

"Well, we' ain't gon' go nowhere without gettin' down from 'ere. C'mon girls!"

"Girls?" a creepy looking stallion said. This character, like many others, wore torn black clothing that seemed to be made from leather, a material that ponies did not want to have. He was missing an ear as well as an eye. This dark brown and tan colored stallion had several Wolf beasts and other stallions around him. As Twilight and Fluttershy came down, Fluttershy gave a nervous smile, and the nauseating whistling started. 

"Ugh. What a bunch of non-educated ruffians." Rarity said in a huff.

"Non-educated. Well I'z tink that maybe yas be likin' some gruel," a voice said from nowhere.

"Some wha-DEAR EQUESTRIA!"

"AHAHAHAHA!" the crowd mocked.

Rarity had gotten a bucket of questionable substances poured on her, and it stank terribly. The bucket came from a shack built into the canyon wall, but the perpetrator disappeared.

"These folk are not at all kind," Celestia spoke in a toned fashion. She was still having trouble getting used to her predicament, although her sister was already used to the situation.

"Anypony want to say something to my friend there?!" Rainbow yelled from her hovering position. She was about to smash someone's face in. 

The same stallion who noticed the word "girls" spoke up with his mouth missing quite a few teeth, although most of them were replaced with fangs:

"Yeah! I'd love to roll around in th--"

A loud thump interrupted the possibly 'crude' remark.

"You'd love to what?" Crimson said while holding an axe currently lying down the ground. The hilt was about his height, with the axe-head being double-sided and adorned with little silvery spikes. It was a massive weapon.

"Th-th-they're with y-you?" the stallion stuttered. Everyone nearby began to shake and back away.

"Hai! Now then, how about you leave these lovely ladies with me? I'm escorting for our trip."

"Yes sir! Let's get out of here boys!"

The streets pretty much cleaned themselves of anything, save for the massive dust cloud that was created in the upheaval. Luna crocked an eyebrow and walked in front of the minotaur to ask a question:

"What did you do for them to fear you so? You are far from being a bad character." 

"They learned that I fought the Pum'Pon and won the battle."

"What?! But no pony has EVER managed that." Twilight spoke in fear as her voice cracked.

"Not without the Piut. I pulled it off. It seems that it is too stupid to...understand certain things when angry."

"You didn't hurt it badly, did you?" Fluttershy worried. Crimson gave her a warming smile.

"No. I don't not kill any form of animal. I may still eat meat, but others do it for me. Twilight, if you could, try and conjure a spell that will clean our friend here."

"What is wrong with taking a nice, warm bath?" Rarity asked with a tilted head.

"Look around you. See how nasty this place is? Now then, do you REALLY wan to see the bathrooms?"

Rarity began to show a sign of horror on her face. Already that the place was dusty enough, but seeing the state of these shacks...

"I hate ta say it, but Crimson 'eres right. I dun think it'd be the best thing ta do." Applejack said with a reassuring tone and a slap on Rarity's back.

The mare coughed a bit, but still gave an irritated smile.

"Good. The others and I shall go to the tavern over there. A good informant works there. He'll be able to give me some info regarding our path."

Twilight began to think of some ways to get the gunk out of her friend's mane. Meanwhile, Crimson slammed the door open with the blunt side of his axe. This place was full of scum who became white the second they saw the red minotaur and continued with their occupations. The place had a western style to it, of which Applejack took a good pleasure in. Crimson went to the counter  and sat on a stool as he slammed his fist on the counter. A Wolf beast, obviously quite old, was cleaning a glass with a white cloth.

"Oh. It's you. Whadda ya want?"

"I need to know what lies on the paths  from here to here." Crimson pointed on the map.

Suddenly, the Bartender dropped his glass and began to shake.

"Y-y-y-y-y-you're going to the Nyubet?!"

The music stopped and everyone turned around to face the group. Fluttershy shied away. Some of them nodded in astonishment at these 'hard-core' characters.

"Fine. Come with me in the back. You'll get your information. You have pay?"

"Hai."

"Then come. Uhh, hold on. Sulphur! Come take care of the clients here!"

A golden colored Wolf beast, of a rather young stature, came running up towards the counter as Luna, Rainbow Dash, Celestia, and Applejack sat on the stools.

"Yeah. Give us the strongest drink ya've got!" Rainbow Dash shouted with her tongue sticking out.

"One Viper venom? All righty then. Don't come yelling that I didn't warn you of the effects."

"Pah! I'm the fastest flier in Equestria. I bet I can deal with something like that."

"Fine. Here you go."

Four glasses with a black bubbling liquid slid across the counters and in front of the four ponies. Celestia immediately turned it down while Applejack and Rainbow lugged it all down, only to run out of the tavern in burning screams. The entire tavern laughed their hearts out.

"Oh my. Luna, you aren't going to drink that are you?" Celestia spoke in a panicking tone.

The fallen moon princess stared at the glass with a concerned look.

"C'mon missy. Surely, you can drink this?"

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!" the others began to roar in rhythm.

Luna finally grabbed the glass with both hooves and let the entire black substance slide down her throat, before she slammed the glass so hard on the table that it broke into a million pieces. She stared into the abyss for a moment. Silence reigned within the "palace" as everyone leaned towards her. Sulphur was thrown against the wall opposite of the counter by an extremely loud burp coming from the moon princess. Everyone began to cheer for the princess, who blushed a bit.

"Luna! Where are your manners? You are a princess! You aren't supposed to act like that!"

"Pah! Let her be. She's having fun. You should too , m'am." the Wolf beast said in half-laughing as he got back up from the counter.

*slam*

"I demanded a drink that would make my head spin! Not some cough syrup!"

"OOOO!"

"Hey Sulphur, give her the ten-twenty. Let's see if she can cope with that!" a Lizard creature shouted.

"W-w-what is the 'ten-twenty'?" Celestia asked in shaking.

"It's the most powerful drink of Derby Creek. No one has managed to drink even a drop of it without vomiting out their entrails."

"That's horrid! Luna, please don't drink that." Celestia spoke after putting a hoof on her sister's shoulder.

However, her sister had a stern look that showed that she wasn't a quitter. Luna had always a bit more..."stallion-esque" than her sister. The Wolf beast slammed a tall glass full of a mostly golden substance that vibrated with a bright colors. The moon princess took in the drink like a shot despite it being a huge glass, causing a collective jaw dropping. She said nothing afterwards.

"Um...Princess Luna...are you alright?"

"..."

"Come to think of it, why do they keep calling you two like the princesses of the ponies?" Sulphur asked while leaning over the counter.

"It's just because we look a lot like them and our cutie marks seem to be quite similar as well." Celestia replied with a smile.

"Seems legit."

Crimson came back out of the back room, done talking to the bartender.

"Thanks for the info. I shall be going nowwww...Luna?"

The minotaur tried snapping his fingers in front of her, but she wouldn't react. The bartender egan to panc a well and lifted the small plank blocking the entrance to the other side of the counter. He began scolding Sulphur:

"What did you give her?  Viper venom?"

"Yes."

"Are you crazy?!"

"No. She called it a cough syrup, so I gave her the ten-twenty."

"You gave her the...how long has it been?"

"A few minutes. Why?"

"The only ones to have properly drunk that destroyed my counter after the backlash. I'll get the money ready." the Wolf beast said in an irritated fashion.

"What do you--"

The discussion was interrupted by Luna smashing herself against the counter. 

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's the best drink I've had in centuries! Oops."

Luna had indeed broken the counter in two, with the impact center being torn to shred and pieces.

"Right. We shall take our leave here, then. Have a nice day."

The three remaining mares left the bar and reached the ship, where a sick Applejack and Rainbow Dash were lying down on. Once everything was in place, Crimson started the boat and began to drive through the town to reach the mountain pass. He was greeted by the majority of the bar mates chasing the vehicle with laughter and cheers. One of them even said:

"Hey Luna! If you ever come back, let's have a drinking contest!"

"I'll beat you all at it anyways."

"We'll see. Bye for now."

"Goodbye!"

The ship had entered a tunnel carved within the mountains. It was illuminated by quite a lot of torches on the walls.

"Well, it seems you've already made quite a name for yourself, Luna. You seem very good at making friends. I wouldn't answer if I were you. Go into the stock in the back. Not the last door, the one near the entrance to the cabin, and rink some water. The ten-twenty requires water to be drunk afterwards, otherwise...well, let's just say bad things happen. Now then, we're going to reach the mountain pass. Let's just hope that it isn't there."

"What's 'it' Fluttershy asked."

"You'll see if it appears."




It was already the next morning within Canterlot castle. The sounds of work still resonated throughout the grounds of the fortress as ponies switched shifts on their work. Abstract may have just begun his work as a tyrant, but dead slaves were pointless, and forcing somepony to work for you when they are tired would incite a rebellion, despite the spell he had cast on everything. These things still needed to eat and sleep, so he was tending to that very carefully. Within the still destroyed throne room, where the two crystals containing the crystallion's sons sat, floated an orb high above the ground. It was a twisting and contorting orb of darkness surrounded by floating crystals which elevated and lowered calmly while smaller orbs of dark magic spun wildly around their "planet". The giant orb of darkness gave out a mildly loud humming, the tinier orbiting orbs adding to the sound. Suddenly, two white flashes appeared within the orb. They observed their surroundings and looked down at the two crystals. A few cracks and an upping of the lower portion indicated joy.

In another flash of purple, the orb exploded, throwing the crystals into a circular position into the crumbling walls. Abstract had just awoken from his slumber and was flapping his six wings maniacally to get his energy flowing and wake him up faster. Eventually, the crystallion landed gently upon the ground, although he tumbled a bit towards the two crystals and held himself upon one of them. He felt light-headed. He was night used to his part meditation, part sleep. After all, he had been planning his attack for ten millenary. He had finally created more armies and had already sent them out to conquer the surrounding cities. He was happy with himself. The shadows would spread, and through the magic he would absorb from the world, he would recreate the crystallions, and he would forever be their emperor. But first, he had to think smaller. Conquering Equestria was the first step, and it would be very hard. There were quite a few races capable at magic, and that left out the vile monsters of titanic proportions living everywhere. He would have to create his own, one with monstrous abilities, but who would stay under the crystallion's control.

Taking in a "deep breath", Abstract opened his eyes with uneven blinking and stared at his two sons. If he had stayed in the room the previous day to see what had happened, then he would've noticed that there was something about their appearance. A notable bizzarety was that they had grown much faster than previously expected. They even seemed to have "manes", despite the lack of true manes on any crystallion. The self-proclaimed emperor was too blinded by the feeling of joy that he never had in his miserable life. His face seemed to contort and crack difficultly to give some form of smile as he let his foreleg run slowly down the left crystal. The cloud accompanying him left his body and swirled around the jewels. It did not like the occupants. It knew that something was off about the two growing crystallions, and it needed to warn its master.

All its efforts were in vain, as Abstract simply became furious and swiped at the floating smog, who retreated from the attack.

"You shall not ruin the only moment of happiness that I have ever had. Together, my sons and I shall conquer and destroy everything in this world, and we shall recreate everything in our image!"

The crystallion shouted with a "clenched" hoof in the air. The two growing entities moved a bit as if reacting joyfully to what he said. They also seemed to be somewhat irritated as well. Abstract noticed this, but he just couldn't put his hooves on the "why" of their irritation. However, he began to speak to them:

"Yes, my children. TOGETHER! The shadows shall engulf all as the crystals expand. Our race shall finally have the lands they rightfully deserved, and you two will help me in attaining this feat. Hmhmhahahaha!"

Knowing that it was no use, the cloud seemed to grumble in sadness, then laid itself gently between the two crystals. If it couldn't get Abstract to destroy them, then it might as well make sure that whatever comes out does not harm its master. The crystallion noticed this and, with a crock of what could be an eyebrow, said in an interrogative tone:

"You wish to watch over them in my absence? Hmmm...fine. Good. I know that you cannot do anything to them, and I trust that you will redeem yourself with-"

"My emperor!" a guard shouted as it burst through the wooden doors. Abstract's left eye twitched.

"What is it?"

"The city of Manehatten proves to have many unicorns and defenses. We require your aid in defeating them. This will also allow you to stock up on their magical essence."

"Hmmm. I WAS going to levitate you into the air and tear you in two..."

The stallion flinched and began to shake with a cold sweat.

"Bu this news you have provided me is quite forthcoming. You shall not die today, and I MIGHT just give you some small portion of darkness for your powers if you continue sending me these messages. Now then, direct me to this meager city, that I may tear it down to naught but the roots of the dead plants beneath its foundations."

"Yes, your excellency." the guard said with a bow.

Both soon left the room, leaving it empty with the cloud that settled itself cozily upon the ground. As it began to fall asleep, it heard the giggles of females, and shot upwards to check its surroundings. It looked around, and thought that, despite the impossibility, the giggles came from the crystals, only to see four pegasi mares carrying baskets full of crystals through one of the holes in the ceiling, and readying themselves to fix the throne room. They were laughing. Casting this event off, the cloud went back to resting between the "jewels".

> Pourpros attack and possible impossibilities
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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?
> The uniques
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two crystalli-No. That wouldn't fit their description now. The Celestia look-alike hopped joyfully her father with a humongous smile on her face, much similar to that of a certain pink pony. The Luna creation had a very evil look on her face, and the cloud, for some reason, adored her quite a lot, as she did it. Abstract did not understand what was going on. He just needed to walk through the castle a bit to think. Was he complaining about his first true children? The only ones to have ever been born? The first two to help the recreation of the crystallion race? No. He just could not understand how they became mares. Were his powers so immense that they could defy Mother Nature in all forms? Or was it the magic of the alicorns that had something to do with this? He couldn't put his hooves on it.

"So. Father. What names have you granted to us?" the Luna creation asked.

The Celestia look-alike stopped bouncing right in front of Abstract and stared at him with big joyful eyes, sickening and disturbing him even more.

"Yeah! What have gotten for us, Daddy?"

"I..."

"Yeah?!"

"...Let me thing."

The Luna nodded politely while the Celestia sat on the ground and began to pout. She had no patience.

"Hmm. Let us go into the garden. Seeing what your abilities are best centered around, I'll name you. How does that sound?"

"Oooo! It sounds great! Let's go!"

The two Crys...mares(?) rushed towards the garden in all speed, leaving Abstract's brain to malfunction.

"My lord." said a rather familiar voice behind him.

"Yes?"

"I noticed something about your two children."

"And that would be?"

"Well, there is the most obvious, but I can see that you have noticed. The second is, how are they so intelligent and knowledgeable when their are barely a few ours old?"

"The crystals know everything. When a crystallion grows properly within one, they are gifted the knowledge of our entire people upon birth."

"Ah. Shall I prepare some sort of festivity for their new birth into this world?"

"I have it covered. Tell a few of the guards to meet me in the garden. I have a few...tests to perform."

"Yes, my emperor."





Now in the garden, the Luna had her head slightly lowered and was looking at the guards, who were literally trembling at her will. The Celestia, however, was having fun climbing trees and whatnot. The personality of the Luna pleased Abstract, yet, he still couldn't understand that of his other...daughter.

"Okay. There are ten guards here. YOU!"

"Yes father?"

"Show me what your powers are based on, and you will be both evaluated and named."

"Okay."

"Five of you, step up and attack her."

"But-"

"Do not oppose me, worm."

"Y-y-yes sir."

The five guards hesitatingly stepped forward, and, gradually, built up enough courage to attack the little mare who just had the look of tired eyes and an maniacal smirk.

"Pfff. Fear and control." she said while expanding the glow of her eyes.

The guards stopped moving immediately. The Luna slowly stepped forward and impaled two of them with her horn, then walked back to her spot. The impaled guards began to go into an epileptic crisis, disturbing Abstract to the greatest point. However, they did not foam from their mouths, no, instead, they "shadowed" from their mouths. The black foamy mist surrounded them and mutated them outright! The once pony-esque guards were now some sort of giants with jagged sharp teeth, two tentacles on their backs that seemed to have a mouth, their legs were much more muscular, with a bone protruding like a blade where their knees should have been, and their eyes were blacker than the color.

"Attack those three."

The two ponies contorted, trying to break control of their minds and bodies, but it was pointless. Their new bodies bounced immediately on the bodies of the paralyzed guard, and performed untold horrors that are best not described, much to the amusement of the Luna and Abstract. The Celestia was too distracted by the tree she was in to notice. The mutated guards smiled evily as the Luna pet them on their heads.

"Excellent. In the echoes of crystallions, you shall be called Umbra Continentia."

"Excellent. The control of shadows and minds shall be my traits." Umbra said with her two new 'pets' at her side.

"Now then...uhh...where is she."

"Here I am!"

"..."

"Awww. You didn't get scared."

"Ugh. Just show me what you are capable of."

"Okay!"

She hopped towards the guards joyfully. They weren't afraid of her, thinking that she wasn't a threat compared to her sister. OH, were they ever wronger? The mare somehow continued to teleport to random areas and, before the guards knew it, one of their comrades screamed in dire agony as his body twisted and contorted, only to be torn to horrid pieces soon after. Another found his body literally smashed and flattened. The remaining guards stared up in panic at the Celestia who smiled joyfully atop her perch on the wall and  waved her hoof with a smile. Soon after, she was near Abstract again, and the royal guards found themselves sliced into several horizontal pieces that flopped lazily upon the ground.

"Wow! Now THAT, I didn't expect. Let's see, you are joyful, and you seem to move too fast-"

"I can also go into somepony's body and control it."

Both Abstract and Umbra stared at her in confusion and disgust.

"Riiiiight. Let's see then... Iviesta Poravon sound good?"

"Cooool!"

"Great!"

"Dad, we're hungry," Iviesta said while putting a hoof to her stomach and frowning.

"Wait, what?"

"I have to agree with my sister. We are famished and require sustenance."

"But, Crystallions do not feed. We take our needed energies from the shadows."

"Strange. Then why do we hunger so?"

"I don't know. Go to the kitchen and ask the chefs for whatever you need. I shall continue looking over news of the conquering. Apparently, we have found a new stash of weapons that I will be able to duplicate and equip my shadow armies with."

"Ok dad! See you later!" Iviesta shouted joyfully as she grabbed her sister and rushed to the kitchen.

"How? How are they mares?! I am certain that alicorn magic does not have such an impact as to be able to alter the crystallion gene-pool. I wonder...can they give birth...or will they have to use the same reproduction means as any crystallion?" Abstract said aloud to himself.

"My emperor!"

"Yes?"

"News regarding the surrounding areas. It appears that the minotaurs and griffons had untied and are pushing us away."

Abstract"s eyes seethed with anger and glowed like white fire as the grounds around him began to tremble and eject mini-crystals and tendrils of shadow.

"Not this time! THEY WILL BE THE ONES TO PERISH! On what region do they stand?"

"T-t-t-to the w-west. They have b-b-barricaded themselves near the red canyons."

"Gather the entirety of the shadow beasts! We will crush them outright, then head out further and destroy all minotaurs and griffons remaining." Abstract's six wings cracked with delight so much as his horns formed some type of electrical net between them out of pure rage.

The sight of the thundering black beasts and the skies filling with a black shadow impressed all within the castle and at Canterlot. There was still quite a lot to do, and the portal that Abstract had created from dark rituals of shadow and crystal helped travel back-and-from any area of his choosing.





The two crystallion mares exited the door to the kitchen, the wooden entrance decorated with carvings of fruits and vegetables was about to fall from its hinges. The two mutated guards awaited their master eagerly, hoping to receive some appraisal for their patience.

"That was delicious! Who knew that it tasted so well," Iviesta expressed in laughter as she licked her hooves.

"Yes. I did appreciate this partaking very much. Now then, what shall we do next? Father is gone, and we have nothing to do. These ponies are barely worth anything. Hmmm. There is the matter of the princesses trying to destroy our father through some bizarre means."

"The crystals said they were nearing the Nyubet, right?"

"Yes. And knowing how our father has only been concentrating on his conquering and us, he hasn't seen the significant progress they have made. Perhaps it is best that we intercept them?"

"Yeah. I think that there is a small port very close to there. I guess there used to be a lake, but it dried up. Now they sell boats to the dare devils who try and survive it. Ohoho! This sounds like fun. But how will we get there? It's so far away."  Iviesta sat on her hind legs and seemed to be dramatically crying.

"With the portal." Umbra told her sister with a hoof on her dark shoulder.

"Huh?"

"Yes. Only his genes can use it, and we still have them, despite their modifications. If we unite our powers, we can reach that port before those ponies do."

"Ooo! Let's do it!"





It had been two days since the mountain pass. The trip was relatively calm, although there came a shortage of foods and drinks on the trip.

"Hey Crimson, where're we going next?" Pinkie Pie asked while letting her back bend over the minotaur's head.

Crimson sighed in annoyance. "An old port nearby. There are no lakes left, but those foolish enough to do so will still buy skidders to travel across the Nyubet."

"Will it be long before we reach it?" Celestia asked.

"Yeah! I've gotta stretch my wings out." Rainbow complained.

"Can'tcha just follow us while ya fly?" AJ spoke sarcastically.

"You know quite well that we can't. We need to stay together. Besides, I think we're getting closer." Twilight pointed to the sight of a few buildings and boats rotting in the distance. 

The place seemed abandoned. However, the sight of the Nyubet behind it actually gave everyone a great beauty of white to look at.

"Welp, it seems that our trip is nearing it's end. Once we get that crystallion, we'll just travel back and destroy Abstract. Easy as that."  Crimson said with a smile.


> "It" appears
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ship stopped right in the middle of the town. The sky was shining brightly and the clouds were barely numerous in number. The town was given a nice hue of white die to sun bleaching, turning it, ironically, into a resemblance of dead coral from the seas and oceans. As everyone jumped off the boat, they noticed something strange: the town was empty. Crimson, Twilight, and the princesses walked around together while the other five went in another direction to try and find someone. It had been fifteen minutes already as the group appeared in the town, and the regrouping of four had already broken into a rickety old wooden house full of sailor trophies.

"Huh. I didn't think anyone would have any cherry sake. A rare treat coming from my lands."

"Is it another alcoholic drink?" Twilight asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Crimson lowered the bottle before it reached his lips, and rolled his eyes.

"Yes. You cannot have any. I'm already worried about Luna over there, what with drinking a ten-twenty. Kampai!"

The minotaur took in a giant gulp of the stuff, literally emptying it in one swift lip movement. He moved it away and checked the interior for anything, only to toss the glass bottle angrily behind him, letting the crackling sounds of its encounter with the solid ground rattle throughout the small house.

"Um, is it a good thing to do what we are doing? We ARE breaking into other ponies property," Twilight said worryingly as she examined the broken shards.

"I have to agree with Twilight. While this place looks abandoned, the inhabitants must be hunting or something similar." Celestia said sternly.

"No. Impossible. My 'friend' at the tavern we went to a few days back, told me that this place was always rumbling with life. Whatever happened, it got here before us, so we should remain on our hooves."

All four house occupants exited the home, only to come face to face with ponies that seemed blackened and quite furious. Crimson discreetly moved his arm towards the axe on his back while Celestia advanced calmly.

"Yes? I apologize for breaking into this home, but we thought everything seemed aba--"

"The princesses! Eliminate them!" a blackened pony yelled.

"I told you there was something wrong with these guys!" Crimson shouted.

The five assaulters jumped at Luna and Celestia, who were caught off-guard, only to see three of the assaulters get smashed by the axe and one of the other two get grabbed by his hind-leg and thrown against the other free one. The resulting impact thrust them both into a nearby building, causing the frail object to collapse.

"Quickly! We must get out of here!" Luna insisted.

As the four began to fight their way through the ever increasing amount of enslaved ponies, the sights of explosions far away with Rainbow Dash slamming into the flying pegasi danced above the buildings like an ill-fated omen. They were heading back to the ship. Everyone had to deal with these strange beings, and getting to the ship was the easiest part. Every corner swarmed with these slaves. Crimson used his axe to smack away any oncomers, and Twilight used her own magic to blast everypony away.

"There they are!" Twilight shouted as she saw the other five near the boat, trying to punt everything away.

"Hi Twilight!" Pinkie shouted with a wave and smile.

Pinkie grabbed Applejack and threw her friend into the crowd. Celestia could have sworn she heard the sound of pins being smacked down by a bowling ball as everypony flung into the air by the sheer impact force of the orange mare.

"We must depart now! They have been corrupted by-"

Crimson was cut short by a huge claw swiping him far, far away from the area. Everypony looked at where the minotaur previously stood, and hesitatingly looked to the side. There were two gigantic pony mutants standing there.

"By Equestria! What manner of beast is that?!" Celestia gasped as she backed away.

"It's wretched! Who could let something so horrid stay alive." Rarity squealed.

The two monsters turned their putrid eyes towards the mare and growled in anger. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash leaned towards the white mare in whispered in unison:

"I think they understood."

But, before a second step could be made, a huge bellowing resonated in the air like a blade cutting through wind.

"HALT!" the beasts obliged.

Two creatures, similar to a crystallion, flew down from above and landed right in front of the two mutants. Everypony was estranged by these two beings. Wasn't Abstract the only remaining crystallion?

Finally, as Celestia's curiosity got the best of her, she stepped forward and asked, with a hoof lifted:

"Who are you two? You don't look like Abstract."

The tallest of the two turned around and gave a wide smile. Everypony gasped in shock, while Celestia felt her heart contort and squeeze under the grip of who knows what.

"Oooo! It's Celestia and Luna," Iviesta mused as she pranced about the freed area.

"Wh-who--"

"In more lenient terms, some could say that we are your daughters." Umbra spoke blankly as she turned around with a very serious look. It was almost screaming 'I am superior in every way'.

"What? But we did not--"

"Don't. I know quite well what you were thinking. Our species does not grow like that. Your magic is now a part of my sister and I, and we are here to..."

Umbra had turned her head and looked confusingly at Pinkie Pie and Iviesta who were doing a myriad of bizarre things. The other ponies sights had followed.

"What? IVIESTA!"

"What?"

"Cease these activities at once! We have a duty to fulfill for father."

"Awww. Okay. See you never Pinkie Pie!" she said with a wave as she literally appeared right next to her sister, causing huge cuts to form in the trail she took.

"What do you mean by that?" Pinkie wondered with an interrogative look on her face.

Umbra grinned and let out a laugh as she let her beasts shoot forth. They began to attempt smashing the ponies in front of them, all while the slaves watched. Applejack tried to jump on one of them and subdue the creature like a rampaging bull, but this broncho was too much and she found herself being tossed a long distance before getting rammed by the beasts shoulder.

The place was throwing sand everywhere, and the mutants were doing many things that were destroying the place, such as causing a portion of the ground to break and lift up while houses tumbled and crumbled. A good five minutes had passed that everypony was tired. Even Celestia and Luna, who had tried their best at fighting in their frail forms, were plum-tuckered.

Finally, the creatures brushed everypony but the fallen alicorns aside. These two princesses were held against the floor by the massive weight of these beasts, allowing the two crystal mares to approach unhindered.

"Haha! Can I get into her body now, Umbra?" Iviesta said joyfully, her tongue flopping everywhere.

Umbra rolled her eyes and nodded, just before pricking Luna into her side with a horn. Instead of just mutating outright, like any others, she simply screamed in pain and clenched her teeth. The crystal mare was taken aback, only to grind her teeth in fury and begin pounding the fallen alicorn.

Meanwhile, Celestia's eyes locked with the heartless abominations of Iviesta. Try as she may, she couldn't gaze away, and her struggled was only welcomed by even stronger crushing from the mutant. One last small from the crystal mare was followed by it deforming itself into some sort of crystal net that englobed Celestia. The mare screamed in agony as the shards seeped into her skin like melting ice. Once the deed was done, silence overtook the fallen alicorn, followed the mutant guard removing it's hoof.

"P-princess!" Twilight shouted from her position on the floor.

Celestia stood up, wobbled a little, then walked towards Twilight with her eyes closed.

"A-are you okay?" Twilight hesitated.

Celestia gave a massive grimace and opened her eyes to reveal that she was possessed. A gasp coming from the unicorn was followed by the sounds of being punted hard against the boat.

"Haha! What better way to die then at the hands of the one you love most? Haahaha!" Iviesta screamed psychotically while stomping on Twilight with all her hooves before turning to look at her sister. "Umbra, how's the corruption going?"

The other crystal mare was furiously pounding the opening she had created with her horn and was about to explode.

"Why. Won't. You. Mutate?!"

"Because I am an alicorn. I shall not perish by sheer, ugh, black magic."

Umbra look shocked and saddened for a moment, but her anger came back ten fold.

"Then there is no point in you living! You are a threat to my father, so you must perish!"

Before Umbra's new spear of magical darkness could pierce through Luna's heart, a huge funnel of burning came forth out of nowhere. Both crystal mares screamed in agony as they started to burn away. Celestia plopped onto the floor as Iviesta was torn away from her body. The two mutants barely had time to turn their heads around that they disintegrated into red smog. Crimson ran back and grabbed both crystal mares while they were dazed and still smoking, smacked them together, then kicked them into a still intact building before destroying the foundations, crushing them underneath.

He forced Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy to get the others into the boat, which they did. Placed into the cabin for treatment by Fluttershy, Crimson activated some sort of system on his boat and turboed into the Nyubet, letting the strong winds drag him along the pearl-sized grains of sand.

"Ah reckon ya better hurry up there darlin'. Them crazy ponies 'n those two freaks are followin' us."

"Yeah! Wait...those are mares." Rainbow Dash panicked.

"Certainly mutants caused by the magic of your princesses. Keep those idiots off of us. If the commotion is big enough, then we won't need to fight back."

"Why?" AJ asked again.

"Just do it! Force those two crystallion mares to use their magic."

The two friends nodded to each other and ran towards the back of the ship. It was a massive amount of pegasi flying towards them with other "true" boats gliding aloft the surface of the sand.

"Uhhh, Crimson!" Rainbow Dash shouted while still staring at the massive armies following them.

"Yeah?"

"There are a bit too many here."

"That's good. Then the two mutants won't have any trouble inviting our friend." Crimson grinned.

Everything was going according to plan. The two mares ran forward as spears were jamming themselves into the boat's hull. Even massive orbs of magic cast by Iviesta were exploding violently against the surface. The minotaur laughed internally as he saw several patches of sand further away begin to ruffle and toss about.

"Crimson, this friend ya talked about. Is it that thang ya feared?" AJ asked, sweat starting to trickle down her face.

"Yes...AND HERE IT IS!"

The minotaur struggled to turn his ship which tilted violently as some sort of mountain was lifting itself from the sands. With one roar, some sort of blizzard encased several of the enslaved pegasi flying in front of it. Again, Crimson had a hard time navigating as an arm of disjointed ice blocks brought with it a huge amount of sand and danger.

"Woah! What IS that thing!" RD shouted while hanging onto a rail.

"That, my dear pegasi, is the Nyum-Bunet. One of the most dangerous and powerful creatures in all of Equestria. It's over one hundred and sixty-five meters tall, and is made for destruction. Let's hope it doesn't notice us."

"But there're some o' them boats that're goin' 'round it." AJ said while hanging onto her hat.

"Pah!"

Indeed. Crimson's laughter came from the fact that the monster waved its arms within the sand, creating massive pits of quick-sand, immediately dragging in the boats. It roared again, and, this time, it turned around to face the ship everypony was on.

"Uh-oh." Rainbow spewed.

"Uh-oh is right. We best head for the limits of the Nyubet. It doesn't chase anything outside of there."

The Nyum-Bunet used its arms to lift its massive bulk from the sand it was in. This being seemed to be made from nothing than ice blocks interconnected by who knows what. The pieces each rotated slightly either clockwise or counter-clockwise, and the massive monster, and only the seven-digit hands were still intact. Its head seemed to have been destroyed long ago, as only the top portion with the furious red eyes and even angrier blue pupils were still intact. The head itself looked like a crown with several thorns of different heights and widths. This gigantic being began to run after the teeny boat intruding on its territory.

The other slaves were still flying around it, as well as the boats, each who began attacking the legs of the creature as every step it made was quite capable of creating a massive sand tsunami on its own. With angry swiping, the boats found themselves turned into bits and pieces of plank wood just as their occupants were tossed extremely high into the air. The Nyum-Bunet roared once more and stomped upon the ground, creating another shock-wave, but, this time, a tsunami reaching its torso was created into a circle. Screaming echoed throughout the Nyubet as everypony was caught in the wave and tossed away. Rainbow and Applejack saw this and ran towards Crimson while pushing wildly on his arms.

"Come on! Make this thing go faster!" Rainbow urged.

"I can't! This is as fast as it goes!"

"Well then, Twi-oh right." AJ grinned after remembering how Twilight was.

"Welp, this was fun. I had a good adventure. Oh well." Crimson gave up.

The other two began to panic while the minotaur just gave a stupid smiling expression as he let his arms flop to his side. Soon, the wave caught up with the boat, lift it high in the air, then began crashing it down on its topside. While the two mares held each other and screamed, Crimson scratched his chin a bit.
With a 'crack', no more. The Nyubet was devoid of anything but its single inhabitant destroying the remainders.


> Not enough time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.