The signs of a reading binge were everywhere. The central chamber of Twilight’s castle was scattered with empty nacho plates and remnants of hayburgers, along with several dirty napkins and various note-taking supplies. In the center of it all was Twilight, curled up with her favorite fuzzy blanket and a large soda, focusing intently on the massive book that sat before her. Its pages were a fine yellow-brown, bound by a worn leather spine, covered with ornate stitching and dotted with rubies. The cover and back of the book were made of a thick black leather, stitched with other-worldly designs, made of a ghostly grey thread that seemed to shimmer on its own.
Twilight had been filled with morbid curiosity ever since the forbidden tomes had arrived at her castle. It was a whole new world of knowledge that she knew nothing of, and she was intent on learning everything she could about it. This was her 5th book, Apparitions of Darkness, and her terror only grew with each page. The more she learned of Dark Magic, the more she realized why it had become a forbidden art. She had learned about the basics of Dark Magic, and how those who wielded it fueled it with their bloodlust and hatred... the emotions that unlocked the vast mana banks of the wielder. She learned that mind control and manipulation was second nature to Dark Magic users, and how to change those that were under your control, from unwilling slaves to servants that worshipped you as their god.
It all deeply perturbed Twilight, as she hadn’t seen the things described in these books used by even Sombra, the most powerful Dark Magic user she had ever known. The list of unholy sins this forbidden art was capable of only became more vast as Twilight dug into Apparitions of Darkness, which discussed how you could summon dark minions in your own image if there were no living hosts available.
Her soda having run dry, she summoned Spike. “Spiiiiike! I’m out of soda! Can you get me another one?”
Looking extremely grumpy, Spike slammed open the doors to the main chamber. “Now I remember why I hated your reading binges at the old library... We’re out of soda; and before you ask for me to go get more, I’m getting you water, and you’re going to like it!”
“Ugh!” Twilight groaned, putting on a disappointed face in an attempt to guilt trip Spike into getting more.
“Twilight, no.” Spike stood his ground.
“Pleeeeeaaaassseee???” Twilight begged, putting on her best puppy dog eyes.
“All that soda isn’t good for you! Nothing is better than water! I’ll be back with your glass of it.” Spike said resolutely before shutting the doors.
“Fine.” Twilight grumbled to herself. “Have it your way.”
Right before she was about to go back to reading, Twilight spotted a lock of purple and cyan mane poking out from behind her stack of books. “Starlight? What are you doing here?”
“YEEP!” Starlight jumped straight up into the air in surprise. “Oh! Eh…. Um….. Well… You see….”
“Starlight. Don’t lie to me. Were you reading those forbidden tomes?” Twilight asked, with the most stern face possible.
Starlight cast a defeated and guilty look. “Yeah. My curiosity got the best of me. It’s almost like the book… wanted me to read it.”
“You, of all ponies, should know just how dangerous these strange spells and magic can be. I need to read over these first, and make sure they’re safe for anyone else to read.” Twilight said in an authoritarian tone.
“I’m really sorry, Twilight... It’s just that there’s so much unknown knowledge here, especially magical knowledge. It’s driving me mad that I can’t learn anything about it!” Starlight gritted her teeth in frustration.
“I know how that urge to learn feels, Starlight, but you’ll have to wait. I need to make sure nothing in these books is capable of subverting detection spells, so if you got any funny ideas... I’ll know about it.” Twilight put on a worried grimace.
“That’s what you meant by safe-to-read?” Starlight asked quizzically.
“In a way, yes.” Twilight responded with a sheepish grin.
“Huh. Not what I was expecting, but that seems fair. I’m gonna go and see if the girls wanna hang today. Have fun reading!” Starlight said before walking out of the central chamber.
Just as Starlight opened the doors, Spike came out of the kitchen with a pitcher of water and several glasses on a tray. Taking advantage of the open door, Spike rushed through through, and barely prevented spilling the pitcher of water all over the chamber floor. “That was close!” Spike looked at Twilight and grinned stupidly. “Your water.”
“Thanks, Spike. Sorry for being so temperamental earlier. I think all that soda put me in a bad mood. You were right, water is better!” Twilight smiled and poured a glass of water for herself and Spike. “Here you go! Have some water! I know you work hard to keep me happy during these reading binges. I just have trouble realizing it since I’m so busy reading!”
“It’s fine Twi, I get that you have to absorb all this knowledge in a pretty short amount of time. The least I can do is make sure you’re comfortable while reading this much.” Spike replied as he took a sip from his glass of water.
“I appreciate the understanding Spike. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish this book!” Twilight said with a giddy smile.
“Have fun you bookworm.” Spike snickered, and left the room.
All was quiet, and Twilight could once again focus on reading. This day was turning out to be a really fun one!
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
The day was going terribly for Steel Nut. Mi Amore had finally found him, and it was up to him to keep the heat off, and make sure she suspected nothing of the Order. Currently, that meant not getting electrocuted by the tazer spells she was blanketing the area with. She certainly had made the situation public, and fast. No cold or calculating response that he would have expected from a royal, just take to the skies and TAZE! Truly the mark of competent royalty.
BZZZZZZ!!!!!!
Okay, less roasting, more evading! Steel Nut banked left on West Main Street, and plowed through anypony and anything that got in his way.
Behind him, he could hear Cadence shouting orders to her guards and civilians in the Royal Canterlot Voice. “MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!!!! GUARDS, SPLIT AND ENCIRCLE HIM!! DO NOT LET HIM ESCAPE!!!” She fared no better in the collateral damage department, as anything hit by her taser spell was charred a thick black, and sometimes caught on fire.
Flying above did give her a minor advantage, but Nut countered by diving through narrow alleys and dense streets, making it difficult for Cadence to spot and taze him. However, he was running out of ground, fast! He could only run south for so long until he would hit the border gates, and then it would be game over. If he could make it back up North, he could get back to the temple, and would be safe from Amore’s wrath. Now, how to turn around a half-crazed monarch hellbent on tazing you unconscious?
The answer? Lose her in a crowded intersection! Running down East Main Street, he came upon the Eastern Traffic Circle. Filled with ponies, he could easily lose her long enough to turn the direction of the chase! After dodging through several taxis and chariots, Nut finally came back to Main Street, and started to blaze a trail North. Unfortunately for him, he forgot about the guards trailing Cadence, and ran straight into them. Both Nut and the guards were baffled for a second, until they got in gear and prepared for bloodshed. Nut unleashed a massive blast of dark energy, and bored a clean hole through one of the guards heads. He stunned the rest of the guards with a electro-pulse spell, which was, unfortunately, enough to make Cadence realize her error.
“THIS ENDS NOW PEASANT!” Cadence bellowed as she dived at him, taser spell at full charge.
“Oh boy.” Nut braced for impact, electrocution, death, anything. Instead, time slowed around him to a crawl. He felt another presence, too. It was warm, comfortable, familiar. He trusted it, just by the way it felt to him. Then, he felt it speak.
I can’t keep this up forever, so listen. Set up some entrapment spells around her, and then kill the rest of the guards and get as far away as you can before this wears off. Good luck. You’ll need it.
Heeding the mysterious presences words, Nut threw up several trap spells around Cadence, axed the remaining guards in his way, and hightailed it North. As he ran farther and farther away, time began to speed up around him, until it resumed its normal pace, and he heard the distant explosions of his trap spells activating. Two could play the maim game.
Soon, the streets and buildings became more and more familiar, until he finally found the Temple. Or at least, the building on top of the temple. It was Xenon Glow’s nightclub, the West District club to be after a hard workday. Starting under a small hatch in the basement of the club however, was the Temple of Sombra. A holy site for those who followed Xenon Glow’s teachings, known amongst them as the The Order of Sombra. Xenon was known to his followers as Father Venebris, and he was the sole conduit to their God and master, Sombra.
The story goes that Xenon’s order first began during Sombra’s second invasion, when Xenon himself started to mess with the dark crystals generated by Sombra. He was drawn to them, and took as many as he could back to his apartment, where he told his followers he extracted the energy out of the crystals and became a vessel of Sombra. Through his connection supposed of Sombra, he learned of Dark Magic, and came to realize how powerful it was. Seeing that Dark Magic was magic in its most powerful form, and that Sombra was the creator of this magic, he decided to find those “touched” by Sombra at his nightclub, and teach them his ways. Thus, the Order of Sombra was born.
In reality, Xenon was an idiot who tried to make the dark crystals into a drug to sell at his club, and when he tried to snort the powderized crystals, they infused him with Dark Magic. As he tried to control the new magic, the darkness resisted, and slowly made Xenon go insane. So in all actuality, Xenon was a raving lunatic in the basement of night-club, teaching those he had duped into believing him what could just barely pass as dark magic.
Desperate to get to safety and hide from Cadence, Nut used the back entrance into the club, and made a beeline for the basement. As soon as he found the hatch to the temple, he flung it open and descended the ladder the temple as fast as possible. Once down, he found his way through the tunnels and into the main temple area. There, he found Father Venebris at the altar.
Nut gasped for air, startling Venebris, and began speaking as fast as his hyperventilating mind would let him. “Father Venebris! She’s finally found us! The usurper Cadence put the pieces together, and tracked me down! She’ll surely stop at no end until we are destroyed!”
Venebris rose from the altar and calmly turned to Nut. His dark purple coat seemed phosphorescent in the warm candle light, and his soft green mane glowed in the darkness of his cloak. His eyes had once been a radiant crystal blue, but had since lost their luster, and now sported slivers of red. “This day has been a long time coming. Certainly unavoidable. Sombra has told me so. No matter! We have his horn, and we shall protect it with our lives. I am curious however, how did you escape the clutches of the usurper?”
“I’m still not entirely sure myself Father.” Nut sat down and tried to contemplate his escape. “I was losing ground to the usurper, and was dead for sure, until time froze around me. A strange presence talked to me, and told me to set some trap spells and run as fast as possible. I did as it said, and ran as fast as my hooves could carry me. Slowly but surely, time melted back to normal speed, and I made it here to the temple. I heard distant explosions, so she must have triggered the traps. That should buy us some time.”
Venebris looked very upset. “Why would you heed the word of an unknown presence!? How do you know it wasn’t the usurper tricking you?”
“Because it felt warm… comforting… familiar, empowering. It felt like something I could trust. So trust it I did. I may have been a lapse in judgement, but everything about its presence felt right.” Nut hung his head in shame.
Venebris stroked his chin in thought. “If you lead the usurper straight to our door, then I will need more power than I originally planned for. I must draw upon the power of Sombra’s horn. He has long told me of his power, but now I must wield it to protect us, and his legacy.”
Suddenly, a dark voice boomed out from behind Nut. “Not so fast. That horn belongs to me.”
“Who goes there?” Father Venebris yelled.
“Just someone reclaiming stolen property.”
A dark brown unicorn in a trench-coat jumped out of the shadows and was wielding a jade butterfly knife. “Here’s how this is gonna go. You’re going to take me to the horn, and I’ll take what’s mine. Refuse, and things get ugly.”
Nut dived at the knife wielding stallion, determined to stop him from bringing harm to Father Venebris. The unicorn moved in a flash and slashed Nut’s throat open. “Any questions?”
“You have toyed with the wrong stallion you thug!” Venebris yelled in anger as he fired a massive bolt of dark energy at the unicorn. To his amazement, he absorbed the blast and charged him. After wrestling him into a headlock, the unicorn put a magic block spell on his horn. “Pah! An inhibitor spell? That will do nothing!” Venebris charged up another massive blast, ready to fry the thug, when it fizzled out. “WHAT? HOW?” Venebris was dumbfounded. He had no idea there was a magic blocker for dark magic!
“Any more shenanigans, and I find the horn alone. You wanna end up like your pal?” The unicorn gestured to Nut, who was making grotesque gurgling noises as he flailed on the floor.
“Fine. You’ll never be able to wield all of its power! Who are you anyway? Some crook looking to make a quick buck? How did you find us? Find the horn?” Venebris grew increasingly frustrated as he was let go and showed the strange unicorn to the altar in the center of the room.
After pushing a secret button on the side, the top of the altar opened up to reveal Sombra’s horn resting upon purple silk. The mysterious unicorn shoved Venebris aside and picked up the horn to study it. After scanning it over with magic several times, the unicorn’s face cracked into a broad smile.
“Who am I? I am Lord Dracarthus, the conqueror of nations, the butcher of the masses, the topller of empires, the harbinger of a new Equestrian age!” Dracarthus said as he cackled maniacally.
He had finally found it. The first fragment. He should have assumed it would be Sombra’s horn. After all, it was probably the darkest thing in this whole empire. He was just glad he had tailed that peculiar blue fellow back to this dank basement and gotten his hooves on it before that crazy fool had tried to absorb its power. That would have things much more complicated. At last, he could be one once more with some of his old might.
Beginning the ritual, Dracarthus dropped his disguise, revealing an unassuming unicorn with fur so pale it could just barely pass as gray, as well as a dark blue mane that seemed out of place amongst his lighter coat tone and very faintly purple eyes.
He then brought the horn up in front of him, and impaled his chest with it. Everything went black, and he soon found himself back in the realm of the Lost Ones.
Excellent work… You have done well. However, your quesssst isss far from over. Your next fragment liesssss insssside the throessss of a trading village to the easssst known as Rainbow Falls. Make hasssste dark one! The element of sssurprissse issssss a limited one. You time growssss ssshort. With our magic, we imbue you with the powersss of old!
In the waking world, Dracarthus’s limp body levitated into the air and began to twitch as the horn stuck in his chest sunk in, and his blood electrified. Crackling and buzzing, his blood whirled around him, and re-entered his body through the opening in his chest left by the horn. The wound healed itself, and Dracarthus’s body began to change. It made cracks and groans as his skeleton grew taller, his coat became slightly darker, and his mane lengthened as well as donning strands of black-ish purple. At last, he opened his now light red eyes, and descended to the ground.
He took a deep breath, and stared at Father Venebris, who was now on his knees in reverence. “It appears you’ve had a change in attitude, however your past transgressions will not be overlooked.” He summoned magical shackles to bind Venebris, and walked over to examine the body of Steel Nut.
“Tsk Tsk. My. What a waste of good meat. He could have been such a capable minion. Come to think of it, why don’t we give my new power a little test-run, shall we?” He looked over at terrified Venebris.
“Wha-What are you going to do? He’s dead!” Venebris exclaimed in terror.
“Not for long…” Dracarthus replied with an insane grin. His horn began to light up, and Steel Nut’s body was wrapped in dark energy. As Dracarthus worked, he could hear the sounds of the body twisting and crunching. But something was wrong. The innate dark aura of the body was fighting him, as if it was rejecting his power. It writhed and clawed at his invading magic, desperate to keep itself in control. What resulted was the cocoon of energy exploding into tons of smoke. When it cleared, a horrifying eldritch creature that had once been a pony stood before Dracarthus. It had thick black tendrils that extended from Nut’s former right eye socket and mouth, with a plethora of other tendrils extending from his chest, skull, and belly. His mouth was clear, and now full of razor sharp teeth.
“Well then. What’s this little abomination?” Dracarthus closed his eyes and focused on the creature. He could feel its mind bound to his, but not all of it. He tried to make it move, but it instead meandered in a circle. So all I can do is influence you. Interesting… Next he tried tapping into its memories, and he was met with a flood of information.
Second coming of Sombra? A third princess? Hunting him? A Father teaching him dark magic? The princess wounded?
Hmm… All very interesting information.
To further test the creature's abilities, he tried to look into it’s conscious mind. He was met with the mental equivalent of 110 decibels of static. Shocked and pained, Dracarthus ripped himself from the creature's mind, but came away with an overpowering feeling. Hunger. For flesh. This… thing wanted meat, fleshy meat. Badly.
Dracarthus asked it to stand still, and it obeyed. He turned to Father Venebris. “So it seems this thing is of your doing. Whatever dark magic you tried to teach this moron while he was still alive was rotten and hollow. As such, it corrupted my minion spell, and now he’s this creature. You know what he wants? Meat. Fleshy meat.”
Venebris’s eyes widened in horror. “No! Please! I-I-I can help you! I can give you more power! Find you followers! PLEASE!”
“Minion!” Dracarthus shouted, and the creature turned to face him. “Eat.”
“NO! NO! NOOOO-AAAAAGGGH!!!!!” The air was filled with the crunching and tearing of the creature, complimented by the screams of a chained and helpless Father Venebris. When his dead body had been eaten, his carcass was filled with a black goo, and he too grew tendrils and teeth.
“Well then. Looks as if you’ve got an infectious personality.”