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// The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 4 
// Story: When Two Worlds Meet 
// by Darkness 1 
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	As they all headed back to the ruined waterfall, and where they were before, Darkness stopped, who had a searching look on his face and said, " As I thought, the talisman, is still here, somewhere...but there's something else.." 
His face contorted in pain, and everypony rushed to his aid as he began to tremble, and Twilight asked, " Darkness? What's wrong? What is it?" 
Darkness struggled to stand, but got back up on all four hooves, and struggled to say, " That ancient.....evil....it's presence is stronger....now argh!!! Whomever this is......it feels....very familiar......almost as if....it's somepony.....I may or may not have met....it is beginning to awaken...argh!!!!" Darkness began to breath heavily as his face grew pale, and Darkness said, " Whatever it is....it's powerful.....and it's speaking to me in my mind... Can....can of you hear it?" 
Everypony listened, but they shook their heads no, and Rarity said, " Whatever your hearing, it's only choose to speak to you, listen to it, we may be to figure out who or what it is, at any rate, it might be a clue of some sort as to why it's affecting you so badly." 
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said with a scoff, " For once, Rarity's right about something for once, but yeah, you should listen to what it has to say Darkness." 
Darkness said, " Alright, but I got a really bad feeling about this, I am going to shut off all my senses, so I can hear it better in mind, I will need everypony to keep danger away from me just, in case, because I cannot defend myself, while I do this." 
Everypony nodded, and formed a defensive circle around him, and Applejack said, " Whenever' yer ready, because we are."
Darkness nodded, and took a deep breath, and said, " Alright, here goes." Darkness his eyes, and went limp, and his eyes went purple, as his entire consciousness went completely into his mind, and heard the voice clearly, it was frightening voice, it sent chills and goosebumps all throughout Darkness's body as the voice said, " Hello, Darkness....heh heh heh HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! I HAVE RETURNED!!! IT HAS BEEN A LONG SLEEP!! JOIN ME OR DIE WITH THE COMMON RABBLE AS I TEAR THIS WORLD APART!!! VERY SOON, I SHALL FULLY AWAKEN AND CONQUER THIS PLANET, THIS GALAXY AND BEEN ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE ME, BENEATH MY HOOVES!!!! HEH HEH HEH HEH  HEH HEH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!" Darkness came to, the maniacal laughter still echoing in his head, and he realized as he looked at himself, he was covered in goosebumps and had chills all over. As Darkness stood back up, they went away, and his eyes went back to normal.  
Everypony all then stood in front of Darkness, all with worried expressions, and Applejack said, " You gave us quite the scare, you just went limp and yer eyes went purple and you began shaking and shivering, are you alright sugar cube?"
Darkness said, " I okay now, but let me explain what I heard, and it will all make more sense." Darkness then went into explaining and describing everything the voice had told him. And as he finished, he noticed their faces went pale, and the same happened to them, as it did him, all of them shivered, had chills all over, and had goosebumps. A couple moments passed, as the chills, shivers, and goosebumps went away from all of them. 
And Twilight said, " I know this may a be a good comparison, but I thought Darkness Night was really scary, that voice gives me the creeps." 
Rarity said, " Me too! I don't like what that voice said at all!" 
Darkness agreed, and said, " Indeed, all the more reason why we must hurry." 
Twilight said, " Well, we know it's pony, that much is clear, and we definitely know now that it's something ancient. But...how did the voice know you Darkness? I think that's what troubles us all the most, and it looks like it worrying you quite a bit as well." 
Darkness said, " It does, and that's bad if this voice knows me, because that only means one thing..." 
Rainbow Dash said impatiently " And what would that exactly be?" 
Applejack scolded Rainbow Dash and said, " Rainbow Dash! Be patient! And let Darkness explain!" 
Darkness waved it off, " It's quite alright, anyways, it could only mean that's somepony from sometime in history, I know that's not very clear, but seeing as we can't really narrow it down right now, anypony from ancient times, there were a lot, I'd rather not see return, I've read about them enough in my mother's diary."
Applejack said, " Uh oh." 
Twilight agreed, " I agree, that's not good at all." 
Darkness said, " Indeed, whoever this pony is, it must never fully awaken, or we could all be toast. Now, enough talk, we must find that talisman, and get to what's left to the Crystal Castle! It seems we are running out of time.....again." Everypony shook their head in agreement. Darkness said, " Now, I don't want this to sound like I'm giving orders, but search this area, we must hurry!" 
Rainbow Dash said, " Even if it was, I think I speak for everypony, we would follow you anywhere, and listen to whatever you say. You are a sorcerer pony, after all, you're the best chance this planet and everypony in it has for it's very survival." 
Everypony agreed, and Darkness said, " Thank you all, you really are such good friends.....I wish you guys would've been born sooner, then the prophecy of Darkness Night would've never happened.....anyways, um, now let's get looking! Oh, I almost forgot, the talisman won't be hard to miss, but it is small, it should be a dull yellow color, with lots of symbols on it, on a dull brown necklace, if I remember it correctly from the diary....yeah, that's right." Everypony nodded, and began searching.
Rainbow Dash took to the skies, and began to search above the woods, but saw nothing, and she muttered to herself, " Hopefully, the others are having better luck. All this for such a small thing." 
Pinkie Pie was skipping along, as she usually was, near the edge of the grassland, near the outskirts of the woods, humming to herself, until she tripped over a rock and face planted on the ground, as she picked herself back up, shook her head and said, " Owie! Stupid rock!." She went over and kicked the rock with one of her hooves, and the rock shattered, as she now jumped around in pain, but something caught Pinkie's attention, and stepped closer, she noticed, a very old-looking yellow item, but it, looked like it was part of something: it looked broken. She looked around for any other pieces, but that was all. She picked it up, and looked at closely: it had a few weird-looking symbols on it and was attached to a part of a brown necklace. Pinkie gasped, and said, " This had to be it! I need to find the others!" And she took off in the opposite direction she was heading, back to where they all had split up. Fluttershy and rarity, was at the ruined waterfall, searching around a pool of water, it was all that remained of the waterfall. 
Rarity piped up and said, " You know, Fluttershy, it's amazing that this lake stayed intact, it should've broke the ground around it that keeps the water in it, apart." Fluttershy said nothing, she was just staring ahead of her, with a look of fear in her eyes. Rarity waved a hoof in front of her and said, " Fluttershy? Are you even paying attention? I was talking to you!! Wait...what are you staring at?"
Fluttershy still said nothing, just stared ahead of her, and started to whimper. Rarity followed what Fluttershy was looking at, and saw what she was looking at: it was a small, but dark cave. Rarity rolled her eyes, and said, " Fluttershy, really? Does that cave scare you that much?" Fluttershy shook her head frantically, and Rarity said with annoyance, " Alright, fine, I'll go and search the cave. But why don't you search the lake?" 
Fluttershy relaxed, and said, " O-o-o-okay." 
Rarity was no longer listening, as she had already entered the cave, and before long, she couldn't see her own hooves, and she said to herself, " Great.... but easy solution!" And with a flash, a light appeared on top of her horn, and it lit up her surroundings, as she said, " Now, that's better, I can actually see my hooves now. Still Fluttershy, of all the things to be scared of, there's nothing to be afraid of, it's empty, a little cold, but empty." She started to look around, and said, " You know, this area looks familiar...." As she thought she said, "Oh!" And a flashback appeared in her mind, as she remembered when Twilight, the others, and herself was in the waterfall, in the area where Darkness Night took out the floor in the middle of the big, circular area. Rarity said, " Gosh, that was awful! We had to stand on two hooves and shuffle around that area!" A shining glimmer took her out of her reminiscing, and she went forward, and lit up what was shining.  It looked like a diamond, a blue one. She moved a couple rocks away from it, and the ceiling began to shake a little, and Rarity said, " Even after all this time, this ruined waterfall, it still unstable, I better be more careful. I don't want to be trapped in some icky, cold cave!" She pulled out the blue diamond, but also noticed there was something else in it, it looked like a piece of a yellow small item with a bunch of symbols on it, and Rarity said, " This has to be it, but it's only a piece of it. Still, I should get back to the others and see if they found the others. Besides...I rather not spend another minute in here." And with that, Rarity left the cave, and heading back where they had all split up, with blue diamond, and the piece of the talisman encased inside of it.
Fluttershy, meanwhile, was searching the surface of the lake, however, the lake had suffered some loss, it wasn't all that deep anymore, it was now shallow. But that made things easier for Fluttershy to see anything at the bottom. She stopped searching because she heard the sound of hooves, and saw Rarity come out the cave, with something in her mouth, and Fluttershy asked, " What is that Rarity?" 
Rarity stopped, put it down, and said, " It's a piece of that talisman, but as you can see, it's encased in a rather beautiful blue diamond, if I might add, but I need to get going, and see if the others found the other pieces. See you where we all split off, Fluttershy!" And with that, Rarity picked it back up, and trotted back where they had all last seen each other. 
Fluttershy said, " My goodness, if Rarity found a part of it, perhaps, I can find one too." She went back to searching the shallow lake. She searched, and searched, and searched, sifted through the dirt at the bottom of the lake, but found nothing, just a couple of bits, and shells. As she moved the dirt around some more, she found a rather large, but intricate shell, Fluttershy picked it up, shook it, hoping there might be something inside, there wasn't, just more dirt. Fluttershy sighed, and said, " Well, at least now I have a nice shell, I can put on my shelf, when I get back home now." Fluttershy looked down, picked up the shell and began to go back, when she noticed a black figure was following her. Fluttershy jumped with fright, and accidentally broke the shell, and she stopped and looked closer, it was just her shadow. She sighed with relief, but was disappointed, and she said, " Well, I did, have a shell." As she looked closer, one the broken bits were shiner than the others, and she squinted, it looked like a very small sliver of something yellow...with a part of a weird marking on it. Fluttershy picked it up, and looked closer, and it was attached to a short brown string, it looked like it was part of a necklace. Fluttershy gasped with excitement, and began to rush back where she had last seen the others.
Meanwhile, Darkness had been looking, flying and searching all over the grassland, the woods, but didn't find anything. He sighed and said to himself, " This stinks, I don't see anything, well, no point in flying around aimlessly, the talisman is definitely not going to be seen from above, that means it is somewhere on the ground. Damn. Well, I better get back to the others, I'll go back to where I last saw them and wait, at least one of them has probably found it already. I just hope they had better luck than I did." And with that, he flew around, and headed beck to where he had last saw the others, and then he saw Rainbow Dash flying around, he called to her, and asked her to head back to where they had all last seen each other, she nodded, and began to fly in that direction, and so did he. Applejack and Twilight, had decided to search the middle of the grassland, and so far, hadn't found anything. 
Twilight said to Applejack, " Maybe it's not on the ground, but under it." 
Applejack asked, " What do you mean, under it? Like we have to dig to find it?" 
Twilight responded, " That's what I'm thinking." 
Applejack said, " Fine by me, I'm not afraid of dirt, unlike Rarity." 
Twilight said, " Rarity may be like that, but she still is the most generous pony I know," 
Applejack sighed, " Yer right Twilight, I'm sorry." 
Twilight said, " It's okay, searching for small items can sometimes be stressful. Now, let's start digging here, it seems like a good start." 	
Applejack said, " Let's get to it then." They both began digging, and after while they both ran into something. They both uncovered it a little more, and it looked like a statue, maybe an altar of some sort. Applejack asked, " What do you that is? Because it sure ain't that talisman."
Twilight agreed, and said, " Not it's not, but maybe it can give us a clue as to where we should be looking. Besides, this looks like a button right here." 
Applejack said, " Perhaps, that's not a good idea, we don't know what that is, but just be careful, okay Twilight?" 
Twilight said with a small chuckle, " Relax Applejack, what's the worst that could happen from pressing a button?" Applejack didn't say anything, as Twilight pressed the button. Nothing happened for a while, and then the ground began to shake,  as Twilight and Applejack got out of the way, as something began to rise out of the ground. 
Applejack said, " See? What did I tell you?" The ground stopped shaking as they saw what had come out the ground, it was a very worn statue of a pony with a horn, wings, a helmet, some kind of armor with a strange insignia on his chestplate, a long cape and he had one hoof out, as if issuing an order to charge, as if he was leading an army. Applejack looked at the statue, and said, " He looks important, wonder who he is? And haven't we seen that insignia somewhere before?" As Applejack pointed out the intricate symbol. 
Twilight responded, " He does look important, and yeah, we have seen that insignia somewhere before...." 
Twilight and Applejack gasped and said at the same time, " The Elite Sorcerer Pony Knight insignia!" 
Applejack pointed out and said, " It looks like he's holding something in his raised hoof." Twilight looked and saw what Applejack was talking about: indeed there was something in the statue's hoof, something shiny. 
Twilight said, " Let me use my magic to pry that off." 
Applejack said, " Okay, I guess that saves us from climbing that statue then."
Twilight said, " Yeah, it does, and that was the idea." Twilight said no more as she concentrated her magic through her horn, and magic formed around the shiny object, and after a little bit, it came right off, But as soon as Twilight had the shiny object, the statue slammed and sunk back into the ground, as two stone doors closed above it. Twilight said, " Yikes, it's a good thing I used my magic." 
Applejack said, " Yer telling me." They both looked at the object Twilight now had in her hoof, and they could tell that it was yellow, it has strange symbols on it, and was attached to part of a brown string, and it looked broken. Applejack looked at Twilight and said, " Are you thinkin, what I'm thinkin? Cause, you know what this looks like to me?" 
Twilight responded, " I am, and it looks like that talisman, although...it's broken. That means there are pieces of it within the area, hopefully." 
Applejack said, " Well, let's get back to the others, and wait for them, were we last saw them, they have probably found the other pieces by now, possibly." 
Twilight said, " You're right, let's get going then." As soon as Twilight had finished speaking, the two began to head back where they had last seen the others.
Darkness and Rainbow Dash were the first ones to arrive, followed by Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and then finally, Twilight and Applejack, as they all met by the entrance to the grassland. Darkness asked, " Did anypony else have better luck than Rainbow Dash or myself?" 
Pinkie Pie said, " I think I did." 
Twilight said, " Possibly." 
Darkness said, " Okay, so what did everypony find?" Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, each handed out what they had found out, and gave them to Darkness. 
Twilight asked, " Is that the talisman?" 
Darkness nodded and replied, " Yes, it is, but I wasn't quite anticipating it to be in four pieces, but this is definitely what we have been looking for, I can feel the power emanating from it." 
Applejack asked, " So now, what do we do with it?" 
Darkness shook his head sadly, and said, " At the moment, nothing right now, we need to head and get to the Crystal Palace. Once we are there, I will hold the pieces up to the enchanted barrier, the magic from the barrier is the same as the magic in this talisman. The magic will make the talisman whole again, and then I use the pieced-together talisman and break the barrier." 
Rainbow Dash asked, " And then what? We storm in?"
Twilight said with concern, " I'm not sure that's the greatest idea." 
Darkness said with a smirk, " You know, Rainbow Dash, as much as your courage is to be admired, no, that would a bad idea. None of us are sure what awaits us once that barrier's out of the way. It would foolish and a waste of time, for us to be stopped there, because we rushed in and were caught by surprise." 
Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and said, " Well, still, it's a option." 
Darkness said, " If all else fails, I'll consider it a last resort. Fair enough?" 
Rainbow Dash said, " Deal!" 
Darkness said, " Now that's out of the way, Twilight, please send a message to Celestia, and Luna, of our progress, and my own progress, and tell them where we are heading next. Also tell them, to please tell Princess Cadence and Shining Armor of our coming arrival, and to meet us at the entrance to the castle. We may need the extra help." 
Twilight said, " That's a very good idea, and a sound plan, just give me a moment, I need to concentrate." Twilight pulled out a piece of parchment out of her bag, wrote down everything, Darkness told her, and with a flash a purple light, the parchment was gone. Twilight took a deep breath, and said, " There, all done and sent." 
Darkness said, " Alright then, let's head to Twilight's castle for any supplies we might need before we go to the Crystal Empire. What's left of it anyway." Everypony nodded in agreement, as they all headed back into the forest, and back towards Ponyville.