The month was passing quickly, all my visits to the Crystal Empire to check up on my project must have made it feel like it was passing so quickly it was already the day I sent for my crystal heart to make the journey to my home, physically. By this time, it would have absorbed too much magic to be able to carry it by magic, and it had to be hidden with only one carrier pony in an anti-magic chamber so no suspicion would be aroused. Of course, it was disguised as a normal suitcase, just a heavy one.
During the month, I hadn't seen any of Twilight's friends. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash didn't really suit me to start with, they were too rowdy almost all the time. And Celestia was still awkward to hang out with and ever since I explained myself, she seemed to be sad around me, her smile not so perfect. I didn't really need friends anyway, just ponies that understood my research required short interactions at times. But, when I did meet the other two of Twilight's friends after she forced me to, they turned out to be exactly what I was thinking. Pinkie was the puff ball that made me try the sweets that I would have regretfully chosen to live forever without trying and she wouldn't stop talking so quickly or enthusiastically. Rainbow was definitely the proud pony I saw, but she seemed to be humbled by my horn. I first found it baffling to have magic stronger than an alicorn of this time, or any pony, even if my horn was insanely not proportional to my head and shined from my perfected magic. That was a thing, many years, as they call it, of doing nothing but practicing magic had polished my horn to a nice shine that it kept on its own. I had actually stopped into Ponyville to test out exactly how strong it was and to see Discord.
"Fluttershy?" I said in a questioning tone, knocking on her door with my right hoof.
"Oh, Shadow Aura! Nice to see you again." She welcomed me inside and I trotted in, standing in the doorway as she closed it.
"Likewise. Where's Discord?" I wanted to go straight to business this time.
"He's running a bit late, I'm sure he can't be much longer. Come, relax." She beckoned me to take a seat in her animal heaven of a living room. I sat in the loveseat that Discord usually occupied all to himself.
"Sounds like him. I must say, these past few weeks have been pleasant, you've been a good friend, so has Rarity." I smiled warmly to her, my voice still rough, but in an odd cheery tone.
The moons had definitely made my voice deeper and gruff and many ponies found it weird that I could still sound happy when my normal tone makes me sound like my own sister had died. Even though I found friends in Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight; I still liked my silence and my seclusion, it was my own paradise. I'm sure some of them would maybe want to see how I live and do things, except Twilight, she's already been out to my home.
"Well, I'm glad we could be your friends. Um, if you don't mind me asking, how are you comfortable with everypony staring at you?" She must have wanted advice on how to deal with that kind of attention. She did become more outgoing, but usually pressured events brought that out, things she couldn't run away from.
"I've always been used to the whole horn thing. You have to get accustomed to it or you just don't get anything done. It's a kind of fear you get over."
"Aura, I meant your mane. It's waving." Fluttershy pointed her hoof to me and I got up and trotted over to a window to view my dim reflection in it.
My mane was flowing like she had said, including my tail, which kept my lab coat from covering my flanks. I decided to wear the coat whenever I made a trip somewhere, it started to just feel right to wear at all times. But my tail flowed into two separate wisps, my mane flowing into three separate wisps, but my new waving mane didn't curl at the end like the princesses' did, they simply flapped up and down like a flag would, rippling slowly.
I lit my horn up for a moment, sending a mind message to Twilight. This was a very advanced spell that only Celestia and Luna truly knew how to use, Celestia rarely used it to guide Twilight in the times that she needed to. I only used it when I needed someone urgently or to send information to a colleague, back when I had them.
A flash of purple light soon appeared in the middle of Fluttershy's living room, Twilight standing in the open floor.
"I came as quickly as I could. What's the..." Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she stared at my mane in silence.
"I find it preposterous, considering I barely even understand friendship in Equestria, so I couldn't be turning into an alicorn. I can't run any tests my self, but could you?" I trotted over to twilight in a slow motion, standing right in front of her.
"Shadow Aura...I don't need to. I can feel the magic energy you're putting off and it's intense. It's all kinds of them, too: chaos, changeling, unicorn, alicorn, even windigo. I had no idea you knew how to use windigo magic!"
"Hardly, I could only freeze water with it, not even the vapor in the air or freeze things to the extent that happened in our Hearth'swarming legend." I looked up to my mane. I could barely see it ripple since it flowed behind me instead of having a tuft in front.
"You have to be brimming with magic. I suppose it's because of how well you've mastered so many different magics and studied them." Twilight was the most excited filly in all of Equestria with her wide smile and high pitched voice, "we should tell the princess!"
"I'll do that myself, perhaps after this."
The door to Fluttershy's cottage slung open and slammed against the wall.
"Shadow Aura!" A very angry Celestia stood at the door.
"I have done you ponies no wrong. Why do you use such a tone at me?" I trotted to her with a slight scowl. I didn't enjoy the emotion called anger, but I hated it whenever someone got like this to me.
"Because your research project fell into the wrong hands and now my ponies are stranded in the Frozen North with a broken, flaming, and shredded train with them!"
I dropped my scowl, before getting an actual anger," who. Interrupted. My. Research. Project." I bared my teeth and stared Celestia right in the eyes.
She recoiled back, calming down upon seeing my reaction, maybe even with a hint of fear.
"The ponies reported a black shade attacking the train before crystals tore it apart. It left with your crystal heart, some ponies believed THE Crystal Heart was stolen."
"Sombra! That pile of pony shit is still alive and dares to do that!" I definitely wasn't clam now. I jeopardized Equestria on accident.
My horn lit brightly with a grey glow before I teleported myself to the Crystal Empire, and more precisely, to the throne room. Ponies were arguing and yelling at Cadance and Shining Armor about the Crystal Heart missing. I was not in the mood for their feeble complaints.
"Silence! Shut your stupid foal mouths!" I shrieked and stamped my hooves on the floor while I approached Cadance, walking to face her.
"I thought the Crystal Heart here was protected, how could you let him get it?!"
"Shadow Aura, you must calm down, anger won't solve this." I regretfully allowed her to finish her sentence.
"There is no calming down! Sombra wields immense power with two crystal hearts!"
The ponies uproared again at my words.
"SILENCE!" I yelled again, casting a spell to prevent their mouths from moving from their current positions.
"Why...did you let him do that, you imbeciles!" Cadance recoiled back into her throne chair. I now noticed her horn was glowing a bright pink, keeping a shield up around the Crystal Empire to keep the Frozen North at bay.
"Don't yell at my wife like that." Shining Armor got into my face.
"Don't get up here unless you know your magic can outdo mine, soldier foal."
"What if I think it can?!" Shining still stood up to me.
"I'll do to you what I'm about to do with Sombra."
We both head butted each other.
"Shadow Aura! My, my, I thought I wouldn't see the coolest head in Equestria so hot, but you've got bigger problems, spicy." I heard Discord's voice behind me. I acknowledged him, but did not falter from my piercing gaze into Shining's eyes.
"Discord. What is it you want?"
"There's a new festival in Ponyville to celebrate the renovations to the town, the black crystal spires, the looming shade, the eternal snow. Oh! It's great! I just thought you'd like to come."
"Shining, you're not my problem right now."
I casted a teleportation spell again and removed the paralyzation one on the ponies.
I reappeared in Ponyville's town square and there were black crystals everywhere, heavy snowfall, and a looming black show as Discord said. Twilight gathered the unicorns up and had them blast magic bolts at it, which seemed to not affect the shade at all, even with Luna and Celestia chipping in. Discord appeared and did the same, only hitting the clouds in the distance with his magic, turning them into chocolate milk-raining, cotton candy menaces.
"We need help! And you're the most magic adept in Equestria!" Twilight shouted at me.
I calmed my anger down after a moment, gaining my composure. I would definitely have to apologize to Shing and Cadance after this, if we even survived.
"Everypony, stop shooting your magic at it. It's using a very advanced shield you can't see. The two Crystal Hearts it has is absorbing all the magic you throw at it and making him stronger." They ceased, a voice laughed through the atmosphere.
"Shadow Aura, what is it?" Twilight galloped to me.
"That, that is Sombra reborn after years of hibernation."
"But I thought we destroyed him."
"I saw your victory, his horn survived and he was reborn from it, slowly, but here he is."
"Shadow Aura. Do you have a plan to rid of us this foul evil?" Luna came to me with the rest of Twilight's friends, Celestia, and Discord.
"I do, but it's a long shot."
After I finished my words, a laugh echoed out again in a deep gruff voice, similar to mine except it sounded haunting and not wise at all.
The skeletons of ponies began to come around Ponyville, enclosing the town. Raising the dead is an ancient, forbidden magic that only I and unicorns from my time know of, let alone how to do.
A guard from the Crystal Empire appeared from a flash of pink light.
"Princess Twilight! Princess Luna! Princess Celestia! Princess Cadance has an emergency, the Crystal Empire is being assaulted by the undead. She says they rose from the snow in the Frozen North." He bowed at the end of his report.
"Sombra, he truly he a wicked soul." I commented.
"Tell Cadence that we have the same problem here." Celestia erected a yellow shield from her magic around Ponyville that was quickly shot down by the shade in the sky with a black and purple magic bolt. Celestia quickly teleported the guard back to the Crystal Empire.
"Everypony, comply with me, no matter what."
"Sombra! Come down here and face me. I have a deal for you." Another laugh echoed through the air before the shade rapidly moved to the snowy ground in front of me, forming into the shape of a twisted unicorn, red fur coat, iron armor and crown, red spiked horn, this was the King Sombra and attached to both his sides were the Crystal Hearts.
"A deal? This should be interesting to hear. You ponies were quick to give up. Am I really that unconquerable now to you?" He laughed, his chuckle echoing out.
"Sombra. This is a deal you can't possibly resist."
"All of Equestria for free seems like a good option, all thanks to you." His words stung deep.
"As we both know, you can't take magic from ponies with knowledge of an ancient forbidden magic that I didn't get the chance to study. I'm offering you, all the ponies magic here and princesses in a rune, for you to absorb."
"Ooooo, that does sound tempting, what's the rest of it?" He grinned wickedly.
"A showdown with you, I'll let you absorb both of those hearts. A showdown until one of us is utterly destroyed. Your undead slaves of the past won't interfere, no ponies here will. Just you and me. Magic blasting everywhere. The ultimate magic duel."
He laughed loudly, throwing his head to the sky for a good minute or two. His undead backed off.
"I like you. You have stones, Shadow Aura. Maybe when I defeat you, I'll make you my second in command. But first, have the ponies dump their magic into this rune, I promise no trickery. You have my word as a future tyrant." He grinned with his jagged teeth.
"Shadow Aura, you can't be serious!" Twilight shouted at me.
I teleported one of my empty, uncarved rune stone to me, the biggest I had. I began to carve in a swirl with a cross in it and lightly chiseled in a flower that centered the cross. This was the ancient unicorn symbol for 'gift.'
"I am. Now do it, all ponies here, even you Discord." I floated it to the ground.
There was a minute of silence, a painful long minute of silence, no moving to be done. I could hear the snow falling onto the already thick ice layer under my hooves.
"I trust you Shadow Aura. Equestria is in your hooves." Celestia spoke and poured out all her magic power for a second time.
Unicorns and alicorns could give magic energy or their magic ability. If one were to give away their magic ability, it leaves them crippled and needing assistance permanently, while giving magic energy just left them exhausted until they rested and recovered it naturally.
Celestia fell over onto her side. Luna followed suit with Twilight and Rarity after her. All unicorns did the same and the pegasi and earth ponies came to the aid of their friends, helping them stand and stay warm in the frigid cold. I guess that's friendship. After a few moments, all unicorns were devoid of magic and the rune floated. I teleported it to my home, which Sombra had no idea where it existed.
"Fluttershy, if I lose this duel," I spread my hooves and casted my wing spell, granting myself temporary wings for the battle, "tell him where my home is, he will find the rune there, next to the crystal that created the crystal hearts."
"B-b-but-"
"No arguments." I took the air and Sombra absorbed the crystal hearts into his body, corrupting them with his dark magic before rising up on a tall pillar of pitch black crystal, blacker than what he normally uses.
"Shadow Aura, how brave and honorable of you. I'll make sure you get wrote down in history as my greatest triumph, right next to the dragons." He loved to taunt, though what I saw through my visions said he didn't like to talk much.
"Sombra, way up here, they can't hear us. If I lose this, at least go easy on those who foiled your plans the first time."
"I'll try." He grinned and scoffed.
I breathed out, my horn glowing with a bright grey, my body following suit.
"I am curious, Shadow Aura. Who are you?"
"A legend, more immortal than you, an ancient unicorn who existed before you. I am also the unicorn that's going to tear you limb by limb and make your horn into my trophy."
"Interesting and impressive, but foolish." Sombra lit his horn with the green lightning of his dark magic.
I looked down below, watching all the ponies staring up at us. I guess this proves fate is real and nobody can avoid being a part of history. Also, fate has a really messed up way of making you face your things and giving you your moment in the spotlight. They all counted on my below, and that was a lot of pressure, even for me.
"Buck...you..." I charged my horn quickly, releasing one of my stronger blasts of offense magic. He jumped and glided with black flames burning below his hooves. The black pillar below him was blasted to bits and crystal went flying in the distance.
I flew after him, blasting more and more shots of raw destructive magic at him before realizing this wasn't going to get me anywhere. He casually zipped out of the way. Sombra turned back and fired a large spear like crystal out of his horn and towards me. I blasted it apart with my own magic. I would have to throw new things to him if I wanted to really win this.
My horn lit up a bright green, and evil kind, and I shot a beam down to the ponies, encasing them in the changelings cocoons back when they were all nasty little bugs. Their bodies all quickly went dormant.
"Oh, I'll enjoy destroying you more now. This is Chrysalis' magic, is it not?" I chased after him, shooting more bolts to keep him running.
During the chase, I shot a green beam at the town square, creating changeling eggs and forcing them to hatch as quickly as I could with my magic. The changelings did have a hive mind, and I could feel their thoughts and influence what they were doing. When the bugs crawled out fully grown from a time spell, I sent them to chase down Sombra, flying and trying to assault him with their hooves and magic.
"Ahhhh, now this is a duel." Sombra began to rise crystal spikes from the ground below in an attempt to impale me. I had trained in flying with temporary wings on many occasions and dodging these were easy feats I could pull off. Sombra still kept avoiding the changelings and their magic, regardless of how many bolts they fired. Sombra zipped around me and began to throw bolts of black magic at me along with his spikes, still avoiding my many changelings. I focused on dodging just a little more before I made a wall of destructive magic energy below me, blowing the spikes that came at me apart. I turned about and fired a laser at Sombra, making my grey beam chase him as he flew about. I still wasn't having luck.
Sombra shot his bolts at my changelings, throwing up a black shield in the direction I was facing, taking out my changelings one by one. I threw a large and powerful beam of magic at the shield and it unfortunately held, the corrupted crystal hearts absorbing my magic. Sombra breathed out once before turning to me, he had to have been getting tired, I was.
"This is the most entertainment I've had in years, but I play to win."
Sombra shot a giant beam of black magic at me, too large to escape from. I attempted to teleport, but he had casted a spell to prevent teleportation from happening. I stared at the beam before me, a dim light casted over me.
"I said...Buck. You!" I breathed in a large huff of air before blasting a beam to equal it's size, halting it in its track. I kept pouring more and more energy into the beam, my eyes scanning about me and looking below.
The ponies stared with their mouths agape in the cocoons, in awe of the battle above they were witnessing. This had to be magic unlike of whatever they had experienced let alone saw from Twilight. The only reason why I sealed them inside the fake changeling cocoons is so that the changelings would focus solely on Sombra and not them, believing they were trapped.
I stared back at the beam and began thinking. What if I couldn't win this? What if we ended in a draw? Equestria rests in my hooves as Celestia said. I've seen it rest in the hooves of others countless times, but now it was in mine and it's a feeling nopony could get used to. All the friendship lessons finally made sense, why they were recorded and spread. Even the greatest ponies needed a reminder that anything is possible, nothing is a lost cause, and to keep trying. It sounded stupid and cheesy in my head, but it made perfect sense.
I focused on the duel again and noticed the black beam was almost upon me and that my own magic was shriveling. That's when I felt a kind of power inside me, it was an odd magic, one I never felt before. I put this magic into the beam I was firing and it flew all the way back to Sombra, almost crushing upon him. I summoned up balls of magic energy in the air all over the place and put the same energy into them, shooting them all at him. He brought up his corrupted crystal heart shield, but with each hit from the grey magic bolts, it cracked further and further.
I put one more push into my large beam and a resounding boom cracked over the atmosphere and I stopped sending my beam out, seeing Sombra fall fast to the ground, his weakened body thudding against it. I quickly flew down to him and landed above his head, his wicked gaze shifting to me.
"Impressive. Changeling magic...a unicorn," he scoffed and Equestria began to dim, the sun was partly blotted out from the black shade of Sombra casting over. He lifted himself up, "I'm not losing here." He shot back up into the sky, black crystals forming out of his body in odd protruding spikes. This was his evil magic at its peak.
"How much longer with you keep this charade going?" I blasted changeling magic once more and hatched another brood of the evil bugs to aid me. My creations charged him quickly, pestering him. I flew back up after him, firing beams once more.
This battle must have looked similar to the fight between Twilight and Tirek.
While my beams were constantly shooting out at Sombra, I focused on drawing up magic I haven't used much. I specifically drew upon Discord's presence. I shot a beam of orange from my horn into the ground and large water droplets began to rise up, becoming the opposite of rain.
"Hah! Water? Distractions don't work, foal." Sombra, again, taunted. For a tyrant, he acted like a cliche.
I previously thought my windigo magic wouldn't harm him whatsoever, given he brought the ice and snow from the Frozen North here, he was the curse of it after all; but now I had an idea. I began to freeze the large raindrops that entered the clouds above into ice, making them into spikes. My changelings were able to plan their attacks and avoid the ice as it flew up. I still kept my beams up and I began to pour my magic energy into pockets in the air, sending beams out of them at Sombra. The wicked unicorn stopped again and erected a shield once more. I flew right to him and saw his teeth grinding and gritting against each other. He was pushing himself and he was on his last limb. I shot a normal magic bolt into the ground below and a large structure of wood came up, wrapping around his shield and leaving spaces to view and attack at him. With my changelings and continuous ice spikes wearing down his shield, cracks once again formed. I realized what the loud boom was earlier with the sight of a black crystal heart embedded in the shield. I had destroyed a crystal heart with my own magic and this friendship magic that Twilight talked about. I was about to destroy his second source of power, which was most likely the original crystal heart. I charged my magic into the tip of my giant horn, which was growing out longer and thicker without any pain. A blinding grey light was coming from my horn and a loud boom resounded a few moments that felt like an eon.
"Sombra, you're finished." I spoke just loud enough for him to hear. I sent out a larger beam than before, utterly destroying the wood structure I made that held him in place. My magic disintegrated the land as it traveled, the mountains in the distance losing chunks of land. I knew I had power, but not this much, I had released all the destructive forms of magic I knew into this one feat.
I stopped my beam after a while and found the sun casting light onto the land normally again. On the stump of my leafless tree was Sombra's evil horn, smoking. I flew to it and touched my horn to it, absorbing the dark magic that could rebirth him. I wouldn't let him live again and I knew if I took his spirit in, he couldn't overpower me and my will, I was sure of that. His horn lost it's orange shade and turned to black, shriveling up to a normal unicorn horn with cracks in it.
I stopped my ice spikes from flying, sending a bolt of chaos magic into the ground along with my normal magic, retracting my tree into the ground again. The snow and ice around us was melting quickly. I flew back down and casted Starswirl's time spell, but in an aging form, on my changelings and aged them away to dust in the wind; Equestria had no need for more changelings and they were created with raw magic, no sense of pony of sentient creature in them anyway. I shot changeling magic at the cocoons and had them open up, letting the ponies inside out.
"Everypony, help the unicorns, the princesses, and Discord get their magic back." I banished my wings after saying this. I somehow wasn't tired from what had to be my most extensive use of magic to date.
I stood in silence, the ponies gathering around me as the unicorns reclaimed their magic abilities one at a time, Discord being last.
"Shadow Aura, backwards rain?! I'm impressed! I never thought of something so...chaotic!" Discord cheered.
"And the windigo magic to freeze them into ice spikes, genius!" Twilight commented.
"Whoa, what happened here?" Twilight's new student Starlight Glimmer appeared from a flash of cyan light, along with spike.
"We go to visit the dragons for one moment and suddenly Equestria is in danger and skeletons of ponies circle a frozen Ponyville!" Spike took a deep breath before continuing his half-monologue, "what in Celestia happened here?!"
"Spike, young dragon. Shadow Aura defeated a great foe and took it upon himself to ensure he never harms Equestria again." Celestia turned to him and spoke in a calm voice. That was an impressive feat about her; she stayed calm after every major event.
"Who?" Starlight asked and looked to me, in awe at my still new flowing mane.
"Sombra. It looked like he took in his magic and spirit," Twilight answered and turned to me with her eyes growing a bit bigger, "Shadow Aura, are you feeling okay?"
"Well, I feel the dark magic in me, but I'll get used to that. As for Sombra's spirit, I crushed it with my own will on the way down here, I can't feel him in my mind." I replied and trotted over. And I lied, I could definitely feel Sombra fighting me.
"Oh man! You two should have seen it! It. Was. Awesome!" Rainbow Dash flipped in the air, screaming on the way to us. The rest of Twilight's friends joined us.
"Darling, you were a star up there. I don't think a pony exists that is more adept at magic than you are." Rarity commented and nudged against my side.
"I did feel this magic of friendship you ponies talked about during the fight, I can really believe in it now, but I still don't understand it." I commented.
"We told ya." Applejack chimed in with a knowing smile.
"But I have tragic news. The crystal hearts are destroyed." I spoke in a quieter manner.
Like clockwork, Cadance and Shining Armor appeared from a flash of pink light.
"The snow and ice of the Frozen North is melting at a fast rate and the undead aren't moving anymore. What happened?" She commented, turning her gaze to each of us until it rested on me.
"Shadow Aura, what did you do?" Shining asked.
"I defeated your greatest rival, Cadance, Shining. Sombra is forever dead, destroyed, gone." I looked to both of them and their muzzles stretched to try and support their wide smiles. I lied again. He probably would never affect Equestria again, if I kept him captive.
"That's...great...news." Cadance began to get teary eyed.
"Aura, we're cool now, you're definitely one of us." Shining trotted to me and punched my chest with his hoof.
"But the crystal hearts are destroyed." I whispered in a hushed voice.
"What?!" Shining uproared.
"It was the only way I could dispatch of Sombra safely and protect all of Equestria at the same time. There was much on the line."
"Shining, dear, they're only artifacts, precious, but we don't necessarily need them now. The Crystal Empire is now safe from the curse of the Frozen North and trees and shrubs and plants are returning, don't forget that. Also, Aura can always make a new ones thanks to his research." The dead grass below our hooves was soon visible from all the snow melting. Cadance was still smiling from the earlier good news.
"We still have a lot of work to repair the damage and properly bury the desiccated ponies and return them to their rest." Luna commented.
"I'll leave that to you ponies," I stated, "and I believe I now have the ability to use the magic Sombra could, respectively. Cadance, fear not about the open changeling cocoons, that was my magic to protect the ponies here from the changelings I hatched to attack Sombra."
"Wow. Twilight he outdoes you and I put together." Starlight looked to a scowling Twilight.
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.
"I am headed to my home now. If any of you would like to visit, you can in small numbers," with my last words of our conservation, I teleported away and into my library of my large home.
I brought a quill and many pieces of parchment to me and began to record the great events of today as a historian would and also from the perspective of a researcher or an observer. I did both, describing chronologically and switching between both of them. I set them down my writing utensils when I felt a magical presence near me. Twilight appeared from a flash of purple light.
"Shadow Aura? Are you-"
"I am here. I was recording today's events as I have for many many many moons."
"Are you sure you're okay? Taking in Sombra seems very risky." She looked to me with big pupils.
"I'm fine, Twilight. I lied back there to make sure nopony would think that Sombra is still alive, but he is in me and I can feel him clawing in my head." I commented, picking my quill and writing back up and resuming my work.
"Aura, you should talk to the princesses or Zecora or someone who is experienced with those things." Twilight voiced more of her concern.
"Twilight, do you know where you went when you were becoming an alicorn?" I asked. I was already working out ways to get rid of Sombra and doom him.
"No, but nopony else was there."
"Wherever you went, I couldn't follow with my spirit spell. Your soul or spirit or whatever you wish to call it must have left Equestria and gone somewhere else." I finished describing all of that which had gone down and set my quill and filled parchment down.
I trotted over to the giant hunk of crystal that could birth crystal hearts freely and charged my horn. I shot a contained beam and began to carve out shapes of more hearts, leaving dozens over the floor with a lot of the crystal still intact.
"That's...interesting. And why make more crystal hearts?" She inquired.
"Better safe than sorry, and these artifacts must be revered by normal pony folk. I must now see Celestia," I charged my horn for a teleportation spell back into Ponyville, "and Twilight."
"Yes, Aura?" She looked up to me just like a foal would when they were on the brink of tears. I guess I did gain a really good friend.
"Tell no one what I told you and you can come use my library and equipment anytime, just notify me of what reagents you use."
"Really?!" She beamed, prancing her hooves up and down.
"Really." I smiled before releasing my spell and appearing in the now wet and melted Ponyville, the Princesses giving a speech.
"And so Equestr-" Celestia stopped speaking when I appeared in front of her in grey light. The ponies suddenly began to cheer loudly.
I gazed over the crowd, seeing all their smiles and hearing all their gratitude and applauds before they started to chant my name.
"Celestia," I turned around to her, "we have something urgent to discuss." I charged another teleportation spell, landing her and me in her throne room. The guards jumped at our sight.
"I'll never get used to that." I heard one of them whisper to the other before I teleported all of them outside the throne room and sealed all the doors shut.
"Shadow Aura, why so sudden?" Celestia asked, worried.
"Firstly, stop giving speeches until you've fully cleaned up a mess. Secondly, I need to ask you something that you might know. Where did you go off to when Twilight was becoming an alicorn? Where you showed her memories?"
Celestia chuckled lightly before smiling, "Shadow Aura," she paused, "that's a place I don't even know the name of and I've never been. But I would suppose it drew me with Twilight because it knew we had a connection and knew that I guided her. Why do you ask?"
"I have a new problem. Sombra is alive, inside me, and I can feel him wanting out. Wherever you went, I couldn't follow with my spirit projection spell. Which means your souls or spirits left Equestria, so I might be able to get Sombra out and destroy him there."
"That is a grave problem. I would suppose the only way to get there would for you to become an alicorn which would probably take a long while to accomplish and even then, you might not become one. The Elements of Harmony took Twilight and I there, go see them and study them, they might have answers." Celestia smirked slightly, but in a knowing way.
"You're up to something, Celestia. We both know you are." I charged a teleportation spell.
"Am I?" She chuckled lightly.
I flashed away and appeared in the gorge outside the cave that lead to the Tree of Harmony I could feel the intense magic coming from the cave. I trotted in and looked heavily out the Elements before I felt a strong magic presence behind me. I couldn't turn my head to face it.
"Hardly like the shade we sat under to take breaks away from libraries, research, experiments, and magic; but it'll do, don't you think?" A familiar, young stallion's voice rang from behind me.
I stood, whatever grip on my head left, but I still couldn't turn around. I was gripped by my emotions now.