6:00 AM, Apple Orchard Avenue, Sweet Apple Acres
“Come on this way, this way.” Kettle’s voice came, singing, through the woodwork that surrounds. There was the faint flicker of green light, in which was revealed the edges of old barrels and cobwebs, and then the shimmer of movement as Kettle came drifting through the locked door. He was floating backwards, and spun around as he passed into the room, undoing the lock with a flick of his tail as he spoke, “And do watch the—”
THUNK
Something solid, almost hollow-sounding, collided with the door making it shudder in its hinges. The wood splintered and there was a shower of dust shook loose from the rafters. Kettle winced at the pained yelp from the other side, “Ow!”, and the thud that quickly followed.
The door unlatched itself and swung inwardly, bidden by Twilight’s magic, to reveal Rainbow Dash slumped at the base of a flight of stairs and rubbing a bump on her head the size of a cantaloupe. “That’s...” she groaned, “smarts.”
Pinkie bounded past her and into the room, and Twilight carefully stepped over Rainbow Dash, picking up the mare’s pack in her magic as she passed. “Stop fooling around, Rainbow Dash,” she commented offhoofedly and joined Pinkie Pie among the barrels inside.
“Ugh...” Rainbow groaned. She ignored Twilight’s comment for the time being and instead focused all her energy into getting back up. She stood, wobbling, and with crossed eyes, and inched her way towards the closest of her friends—two swaying Pinkie Pies.
After a few labours steps, she finally shook it off and leaned against Pinkie for support, and glanced around. They were in a tiny room under the barn with a low ceiling. In the dim light of Kettle and Cream, she could see the outlines of wooden barrels lined sideways along the walls. The unmistakable scent of fermenting cider also burned her nostrils. She snorted and rubbed her nose with a fetlock, and glanced over to Twilight. “Since when does AJ have a wine cellar?”
“Well this place has been destroyed so many times...” She glanced around the room, tapping her chin with her Harmony Pack’s nozzle, as she did so. “I wouldn’t be surprised that Applejack would take some extra precautions.”
“Besides!” Pinkie chirped. She jumped beside Rainbow Dash and pulled her against her side, and waved to all the barrels with a wide swaying motion, “Where else would Applejack keep all of her,” her eyes narrowed as she leaned close to Rainbow’s ear, cupping a hoof over her mouth and whispering, “extra virgin cider.”
Rainbow’s ears perked at this news. “Wait...” She joined Pinkie at looking around at the barrels and her eyes drew to one in particular with a large, red, only just illegible label up its side. “A- Are you saying these are—”
“Ahem,” Twilight coughed and both ponies paused. They turned with wide eyes to see Twilight and the Corn brothers both looking to them. Bemused scowls and raised eyebrows ran rampant, “Need I remind you why we’re here?”
“Oh,” Rainbow’s ears dropped, her smirk vanishing under the withering glares, “...right.” She wiped the drool that had somehow gathered under her lip, and pushed Pinkie off of her, then joined Twilight in the small circled they’d formed in the middle of the room. “Okay,” she looked between her and the ghosts, “So what’s this ‘thing’ you were going to show us?”
“Ah, right, of course,” Kettle coughed and turned to his brother, “Care to do the honours?”
Cream pouted and folded his arms, “You know I’m not very good at this,” giving his brother a stern look.
“Well a little practice never hurt anypony.”
“I have been ‘practicing’ for eight millennia,” he glided away from the circle, taking his half of the light with him, and drifted aimlessly around the room patting spaces in the along his way, “I’m just never going to improve, you know that.”
Whilst the two ghosts carried on their bickering, everypony else took a seat among the barrels in the back to watch. Rainbow leaned in beside Twilight, cupping a hoof over her mouth as she did so, “Are you, uh—” she cast a glance to the nearest of the two to make sure they weren’t being overheard. Gesturing with her head, she continued in a whisper “— sure we should be trusting these guys? Key seem kind of—”
“Awesome?” Pinkie’s head butted in between Rainbow and Twilight. She looked between the two with wide grin, immediately ploughing into a tangent of her own, “Creepy?” She offered, only to be met with frowns from the other two, “Creepy awesome, or—” she suddenly gasped and wrapped her hooves over Twilight and Rainbow’s shoulders. Their frowns scrunched into half smirks as they were pulled into Pinkie’s sides, “Awecreepsome-y!?”
“N- no,” Rainbow stifled a laugh, and pushed Pinkie away, “Weird.”
“Aha!” The conversation was brought to an end as Kettle shouted in triumph. There was a loud explosion that shook the rafters, static charge filled the air, and electricity arced across the room. Manes blew into frenzy and eyes were turned in time to see space rip asunder.
Where there had once been but the dank, dark, dusty air of the Apple Family cellar, there now swirled an – oddly familiar-looking—portal. It pulsed with energy, giving off a deep growl as it cast a rippling green light across the room. “Ha-ha!” Kettle cheered, clapping his hooves, “Good show, boy!” She slapped his brother on the back, then turned to wave for the ponies to follow him. “Now let’s not waste any time.”
With a light shove, he had Cream go ahead, before diving through the portal himself. “Listen,” Twilight twirled around fixing Rainbow in her gaze. She dropped her voice to a whisper, “I know they’re a little...” She trailed off, averting her eyes, and then coming back with a slight cough into her hoof, “That’s why I’m leaving you here.”
Twilight spun back around, starting towards the portal and speaking to Pinkie over her shoulder, “Pinkie Pie,” the mare in question bounced to her hooves.
Puffing out her chest and doing her best to look serious, she flashed a salute to the princess with her Harmony Pack’s nozzle in hoof, “Aye-aye, Twilight.”
“Do you still have that ’ghost detector’?” Twilight groaned inwardly.
“Mhm,” Pinkie nodded and held the device up to show. It was slightly battered and the banana had a bite out of it, but it still seemed to be working as it vibrated loudly against her hoof—flashing all manner of colours—in a vain attempt to notify somepony of the already obvious ghostly presence.
“Good,” a smile spread across Twilight’s face as she slowly approached the portal. Without looking back, “come one, you’re with me,” she stopped beside the portal, testing it with a hoof, and watched as Pinkie trotted past, and disappeared through. Then it was Twilight’s turn. She stepped in front of the portal and poised to jump in, but stopped at the last moment to look back to Rainbow.
From Rainbow’s position, sitting a few steps away in front of the portal, she saw Twilight’s silhouetted, outlined by the blue-green light as the portal shifted and changed behind her. “Rainbow Dash,” she said. Her expression hardened, “Rainbow Dash, I trust you on this. If we’re not back in an hour it’s up to you. Go get the cavalry.”
Rainbow felt a lump forming in her chest. She swallowed it and nodded, “You got it Twi.” Giving a last salute, she watched as Twilight turned to leave. She turned around, and was intent on inspecting some of those barrels, when she paused. “Wait,” her eyebrow rose, “We have a cavalry?”
~ ~ ~
On the other side of the portal, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie stumbled out into a hazy green thickness. “Hello?” Twilight squinted ahead. All she could see around her was a green mist stretching on as far as the eye could see—which, evidentially, wasn’t very far— “Anypony there?”
She could already feel herself hyperventilating, and just the thought of hyperventilating made her hyperventilate even more. Her eyes shot around, blinking the sweat out of her eyes and frantically searching for any sort of landmark. “Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie? Anypony!?”
“I’m here,” Pinkie’s voice came, echoing, through the void to Twilight’s right. Soon after the mare came trotting forward with her pack slung over her back and a juice box balanced on her right hoof. She waved, pulling a long sip from the box, as she approached.
“Oh,” a wave of relief washed over Twilight, “Thank Celestia.” She pressed a hoof to her beating chest, breathing a sigh, “Do you have any idea where we are?”
Pinkie Pie shrugged, “Last thing I remember we were in AJ’s cider cellar, then I’m all alone here with nothing to eat.”
“Hm...” Twilight frowned, “... I- I think we were here for a reason.” They both looked over their surroundings, at the walls of green fog currently enclosing them. Shadows moved in the distance, and Twilight caught a chill running up her spine.
She could tell there was somepony, something in the shadows, and she feared to know what it was. A faint moan sounded ahead; barely audible over their breaths, but Pinkie was the first to react to it, “Gah!” She jumped, bumping into Twilight and wrapping her hooves around her barrel, “What was that?” She began shivering, looking around her frantically with fear written in her eyes.
“I—” The words caught in Twilight throat. She swallowed and took a step back, feeling a slight tremble up her right hoof and the much stronger trembling of Pinkie Pie as she squeezed the air out of her, “I don’t know,” Twilight admitted.
More groans, and more figures lurking. Twilight felt as if she had a million eyes on her at once but only worse, that she couldn’t see them.
A blast of cool air passed behind her, and Twilight felt a cold hoof on her shoulder, “There you—”
AAAAHHH!
They both screamed, almost rocketing out of their skins. Twilight spun around, spreading her wings defensively whilst Pinkie cowered behind her. She had her horn blazing and ready to fire when she laid eyes on Cream.
He floated innocently behind her, his translucent form only just visible against the bright glow of the fogs around. He bore a warm smile and a half smirk, his hoof rested on her shoulder. “Oh,” Twilight mentally kicked herself, and outwardly relaxed, “It’s just you.”
“Of course it’s me!” Cream chuckled, “Who did you expect? My good-for-nothing brother?” Another laugh as Cream drifted away, the mists parting behind him as he led them to a clearing where Kettle had been waiting.
“There you guys are!” His face lit up upon seeing his brother approaching, with the two ponies trailing behind only looking mildly scarred, “Where have you guys been?!”
“Sorry, brother,” Cream shrugged, “You know hoe mortals can be. Leave ‘em alone for two minutes and they forget their own names.”
“Well, it is better late than never,” he stood up, staring up the hill, “Now come on; it’s not far from here. You simply have to see this.”
~ ~ ~
The four trotted in silence, Kettle drifting ahead lighting the way as they slowly crept further up the hill. Twilight and Pinkie huddled together, keeping close to Cream whilst trying to avoid the encroaching edge. With every step the clouds seemed to grow thicker, closing in around them and inducing a kind of claustrophobia.
Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to care either way. She simply hummed away her ‘Giggle at the Ghosties’ tune whilst sipping her juice box, but Twilight couldn’t help but shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.
A movement in the fogs caught Twilight’s eye and she quickened her pace, drawing level with Cream, “So, uh...” She trailed off, looking for something to say to break the tension, “H- What is this place anyway? And how do you know where we’re going? I can barely even see three hooves in here.”
“Not true!” Pinkie shouted. Twilight looked back to see the mare frowning at her with three hooves held up in front of her, and a fourth still holding the juice box.
“...how did you...?” Twilight looked down. Pinkie was hopping along behind her on the end of her tail, “...” She shook her head. That’s just Pinkie, and looked back to Cream expecting an answer.
He coughed, “Well... To answer your first question, this is the Necroverse. At least that’s what we call it. You ponies might have another name for it. It’s a nexus point for all spiritual energy that passes through Equestria and beyond. It’s also the first place a pony goes when they die before moving on to the great divide.”
“Does everypony come here?”
He nodded, “Everypony. As for your second answer—” Cream paused, his mouth turning down in a frown as he through, “... call it ghostly intuition.”
“Also there’s a trail,” Kettle’s voice shouted from ahead.
“Yes, of course!” Cream nodded frantically, “There’s a trail.” He repeated his brother’s words.
“A trail?” Twilight asked, incredulous. She looked down between her hooves to inspect the ground: all rocks and cracked red dirt. Nothing that would have struck her as any kind of path, “This doesn’t look like a—” She looked up again, expecting Cream to be floating beside her. Instead she was face with Pinkie Pie staring at her with wide eyes. The juice box crinkled as she slurped loudly on the straw.
Some chattering drew Twilight’s attention ahead, where Cream had run off to join his brother in the front. “... Okay.” She turned to Pinkie, “By the way, what does your ghost detector say?”
“Hm?” Pinkie pulled the straw from her mouth, “Oh, right,” and tossed the now empty carton into her mane. “Just give me a—” Pinkie reached to the side of her mane and went silent. She held up the strap with and empty banana peel hanging from the end, “Oh... right.”
Twilight facehoofed, “... Seriously?”
“I’m sorry!” Pinkie shouted and tossed the banana peel away, “I was hungry!”
“Pinkie Pie,” Twilight growled, “You had one job!”
“We’re here!” Kettle sung, interrupting Twilight from being about to turn Pinkie into a ghost. Both he and Cream darted ahead up the hill and Twilight and Pinkie took off after.
As they crested the top of the mountain, a deep thrumming began to beat against Twilight’s ears adding to the ominous tone of the realm. Kettle and Cream slowly came into view, floating silently unmoving and staring off into oblivion. “Kettle? Cream?” Twilight stepped between the ghosts and looked between them.
They were completely frozen, floating there with wide eyes and mouths agape. Pinkie Pie stepped up beside and waved a hoof in front of one of their faces to no avail.
Twilght’s ears dropped, “Wha—” and she gulped, “What’s going on?”
A deep rumble sounded from below the mountain, and the thrumming changed its tune. It picked up and then popped, and came to a sudden stop. Silence came crashing down between them, only broken by the rushing of wind whipping around the mountain and the distant howls of ghosts in agony. In that moment of silence, a deep and melodic laugh echoed from the distance.
Mwahahaha
The voice was immediately recognisable and she recoiled. “No.” She shook her head, retreated a step behind the colonels and using her magic to bring up her Harmony Pack. She didn’t believe it, it couldn’t be. They’d defeated him. He was dead.
But still, that last fact only made it all the more believable. Both ponies slowly retreated away as far as they could, Twilight standing firm with her pack out ready for a fight whilst Pinkie cowered behind. “T-Twilight?” She was shivering all over and slowly peeked her head out from behind Twilight’s flanks to glance up at her. “Who is it?”
“It’s—” Twilight gulped, her throat already going dry.
Before them, the clouds all swirled in the currents of the winds, churning over them and parting and merging, contorting until the black silhouette of a pony’s head emerged. Its eyes blazed a bright green light, and parts of the fog trailed away in a puff of pure black. Its maw spread into a wide, toothy snarl as it glared down at the pair of ponies gathered before it.
“—King Sombra.”
~ ~ ~
Rainbow Dash was pacing the darkened cellar, the only light that of the portal and the only sound, besides its faint moaning, that of Rainbow’s agitated rants. “Come on,” she whispered under her breath as she reached the far end, “Where are they?”
She turned around, looking back over her shoulder to where the portal still remained, the only connection she had to her friends right now. There had been no signs of change since Twilight and Pinkie had gone through. Beside the occasional moan the portal persisted. It felt long, but she was sure it couldn’t have been for more than a few minutes she’d been pacing there. But still, she felt she had to do something.
“Ugh!” Rainbow groaned up at the ceiling, throwing a hoof in the air, and trotted back. Tired of pacing, she went straight for a barrel she’d stood upright in front of the portal—alongside which her pack now lay— and slumped down against it. She caught herself with a hoof over the edge of the barrel as she deflated and sunk to the ground on her back. “This is so boooring!”
For a long while she laid there entertaining the thought of digging into AJ’s cider stash when a low rumbled sounded in the distance. She was instantly alert, sat back up strait and her ears pricking to pick up the sound. There was a faint, very distance, humming coming from outside.
She stood, and looked around. The humming getting louder and deeper, until she could feel the treble beating against her chest.
All around her, the ground began to shake. The wood of the barn creaked as it moved, and the barrels sloshed on their shelves.
“Oh, uh,” Rainbow’s ear flattened and she cowered back slightly, glancing back to the portal. “Uh, Twilight.... I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
~ ~ ~
Silence fell over the mountain as the figure of Kind Sombra hovered over head, his menacing green eyes rolling over the scene, and his toothy grin widening as he set eyes on the small group gathered below.
The colonels, frozen on the spot, seemingly truck in some kind of trance, and Princess Twilight Sparkle, standing firm with her nozzle floating in her aura. She swallowed as his penetrating gaze roll past her, and Pinkie Pie cowered further back behind her flanks, emitting a silent eep as she did so.
There was the faint flicker or light behind the figures eyes, recognition, Twilight thought, and it came to life. “Princess...” His deep voice rolled out from the depths, smooth and eloquent. It sent a shiver up Twilight’s spine as he drew out her name, “... Sparkle.”
Twilight was taken off guard, “Y—” She tripped over her words. For all she knew, she had been prepared for him to be sinister, almost like an animal. But, as it were, with his voice so smooth and welcoming, he sounded more of an old friend. “Y— how do you know my name?”
The figure shifted slightly, moving higher and drawing mass from the surrounding clouds as the voice continued unabated. “The time has come.” It boomed, a commanding voice that shook Twilight to the bone. She was enraptured by the magical allure of king’s voice. If she hadn’t known who it was, and what he was capable of, she would have surely followed him to ends of Equestria. Instead, she was filled with hatred, and dread for the king, and couldn’t help but frown at his confidence.
“Enough chaos has been wrought, and my powers are nearing their apex,” a clap of thunder in the distance, and energy electrified the air to the tune of howling ghouls. “Now, is the time to rise, my brethren. Time to take back what is ours, and have my revenge on thee...” His gaze turned passed the mountain, but, before she could see where he was going to look, Twilight’s attention was pulled away by a hoof poking her in the side.
“Uh, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie stepped up beside her and tilted her head to the side, pointing wordlessly with her eyes.
Twilight followed Pinkie’s gaze to the nozzle in her aura, floating forgotten at her side, and realisation dawned on her. “O—” Twilight’s eyes widened, and she glanced back to Pinkie who looked to her with a knowing expression, and a nod. “Oh, right!”
She whipped the nozzle around. Pushing Pinkie aside and standing in her hind legs, Twilight wrapped her forelock around the shaft of her nozzle and took aim. She flicked a wingtip across her pack’s switches, slipping them all on and waited for the pack to charge.
Sombra ignored them for the time being. His head floated in the air, an echoing laugh sounding all around as he revelled in his assured victory. Twilight kept her eyes trained, following with her pack aim dead centre. She counted down under her breath as she listened to the pack’s humming slowly grow.
Five... four... three... two... The tone of the pack changed, now rumbling deeper against her back, several lights flickered on a the top, and Twilight pulled the trigger.
The beam arced across the sky, sparking and lighting up the area with a rainbow of light as it met its target. Twilight was almost thrown back by the force, and founder herself caught against Pinkie’s hooves as she helped her keep standing.
Sombra’s laugh contorted into a twisted cackle as the beam tunnelled through between his eyes and burst out the other end, burning away the clouds at its edged and dissipating his form. There was another explosion from within and Sombra exploded into a burst of dust and smoke, leaving nothing behind but the distant echoes of his laugh.
With the king gone, Kettle and Cream immediately began to wake. Kettle stumbled into his brother, clasping a hoof to his forehead, “Oh dear, what in Tartarus happened?”
“Indeed, brother,” Cream nodded, slumping against Kettle, also with a hoof pressed against his head. They both wobbled in the air, trying to use each other as support before they collapsed to the ground a tired heap.
“I feel worse than the time I tried your mother’s cooking.” Kettle joked.
“And I feel worse than the time I tried your mother’s cooking.”
“We have the same mother.”
“I know that.” They both turned slightly greener and lurched.
Pinkie Pie and Twilight were still recovering from the experience. Twilight holstered her nozzle and began trotting over to the Corn Colonels with Pinkie following slowly behind. She glanced around at the foggy sky, still sceptical. “What was way too easy.”
“Tell me about it.” Pinkie agreed. She held a hoof over her eyes and squinted into the distance. “I mean, isn’t this supposed to be King Sombra, the biggest baddest most bad guy there is?”
“Yeah, there’s something not right here.” Twilight turned her attention to the brothers, who were still in the middle of recovering from their hypnosis. “Kettle,” she shouted to the first of the two, and they both perked up. “Do you remember why we’re here?”
“Oh yeah,” Kettle nodded. He slid out from under Cream, brushing himself off as he returned to an upright position. He waved a hoof towards where King Sombra had just been. “It’s right down there.” Before Twilight could say anything, Cream sprung to his hooves and both brothers clapped their hooves and spread them out to dismiss the clouds.
There was a burst of wind and the air cleared, revealing an unhindered view of the plains below. Twilight’s jaw dropped.
Spread out as far as the eye could see, ghostly figures circled the edges of a massive crater marring the landscape, but that wasn’t all. They all moved in formation, circling upwards towards the sky, where a network, almost like the roots of a tree, reached down from holes in the sky. In fact—Twilight frowned – it seemed exactly like the roots of a tree. Energy pulsed down and around them, and, following them up, Twilight spotted black crystals jutting through rips in the sky.
“Well.”Kettle huffed, following his arms and turning around, “It’s not—” and set eyes on the view, “Oh. Now that wasn’t there before.”
“This is really bad,” Pinkie spoke from Twilight’s side.
“Mhm,” Twilight nodded, “I think it’s time we went back.”
“Back?” Cream raised an eyebrow, “There isn’t any back. Nopony goes back from The Necroverse.”
“Wait what!?” They both screamed, and spun around.
Both brothers stood firm, holding their straight faces as both Twilight and Pinkie glared him down. At length, a slight grin cracked at the side of Cream’s mouth, and his brother burst out laughing. “Kidding!” he shouted, slapping his knee and falling over backwards, “We’re kidding!”
Twilight’s ears dropped, and she formed a pout. She and Pinkie continued to glare at the two ghosts as they doubled over in laughter in front of them. Pinkie shared Twilight’s sentiments.
Kettle wiped a tear from his eye, pausing long enough to speak, “You” — he gasped —“should’ve seen your faces.”
“Priceless,” Cream added and stood up straight. He coughed into his hoof and stroked his hoof through his mane to straighten it out, “Okay, come on.” He turned around, beckoning them after him with a wave of his hoof. “I know a short cut.”