//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: A Dark Seed // Story: Fires of Friendship and Ice of Hatred // by Super Ponyman //------------------------------// (Twilight Sparkle's Castle, Map Room) Twilight Sparkle awoke suddenly to the sound of thunder, it was raining heavily outside. Feeling hungry, Twilight walked downstairs, seeing that the light in the map room was on. She thought to herself, "Must be a coincidence that the night before I head out to the Badlands to find the last Element Master, The Master of Wind, that a storm blows into town. Why is the light on in the map room? I swear I shut it off right?" Twilight Sparkle entered the map room and said, "Hello? Is somepony in here? I won't hurt you..." She heard a deep voice from behind her in the shadows of the room, a voice that was chillingly familiar... "Its been awhile since I heard that false promise, Twilight." Twilight used her magic to brighten up the shadows in that corner of the room, but she saw nothing. She felt hot Breath from behind her and spun around to see the masked face of Quickfire glaring at her with some sort of nostalgic but angry look in the eye that was visible through his mask. Twilight had heard from Shadow Armor that Quickfire was an expert markspony and assassin, and that he was very familiar with what she could do. That last statement puzzled her, she had never met Quickfire before this crisis. Why did he sound like somepony she knew? Twilight Sparkle asked the masked pony, "Why were you in here? Don't you have to be down in the lab watching Burning Star?!" Quickfire smirked from inside his mask and said, "I was just exploring your castle. The castle I'm familiar with is a lot more... dark and twisted than this bright white and blue mess." Twilight narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Hey! This is my home and you're staying here as my guests. I can let you sit out in the rain if you insult my home anymore!" Quickfire smirked under his mask, he knew that this was bothering Twilight, but he needed to push her more if he were to confirm his theory. He needed to know if she had become her own worst enemy. Quickfire chuckled dryly, "Ah, I see that the seed of darkness has been planted within you and is sprouting... tell me, who do you think I am? That is what's bothering you, right? Not knowing who I am?" Twilight asked Quickfire in an rather harsh tone, "Well, who are you?" Quickfire grunted, "Somepony that you know personally, Twiliy." Twilight Sparkle shouted at the mercenary, "Stop It!" Quickfire kept pushing the needle, "Stop what, Twily? Stop irritating you? No, I am an investigator as much as I am a hired gun. And I need to know the truth. How are you feeling?" As a rush of frustration rushed over her, Twilight's eyes suddenly went green... and with a roar, she blasted Quickfire away with a bolt of Dark Magic. Quickfire growled, before saying, "Well, it seems I was wrong with my predictions. You already know Dark Magic. I hope you didn't mean to do that or this situation would be a lot worse. It would be a shame if I had to kill the beloved Princess of Friendship because she was a great danger to the others around her, oh wait... the latter is already true." Twilight Sparkle flung Quickfire out the front door and chased after him, very annoyed now. She said with anger in her voice, "Silence! You will not address me like that at all!" Quickfire got to his feet slowly, as the rain made the ground muddy and hard to stand on. The unicorn then said to her, "Don't do this Twily, I am here to stop this catastrophe, just like you are, or are you enjoying the spotlight while Burning Star is out of action for a while?" Twilight Sparkle snorted, "Yes! I mean... No! I want to be a hero as well, and I don't need to be helped by him constantly. I can take care of myself, I don't need him to back me up all the time. And most importantly, I really do not like you, Quickfire. You are not very kind or friendly at all." Quickfire thought to himself, then said, "Somepony once said that "Friends are nothing more than a fleeting illusion. That you can only count on yourself, and no one can surpass me." Do you know who said that Twily?" Twilight Sparkle tackled Quickfire to the mud and ripped off his mask, revealing something impossible. Behind the orange and dark gray mask was a white unicorn stallions face, he had little scars on his chin and two across his eyes, one eye was even missing entirely! The face held a single blue eye and his mane was cut loose, revealing a faded navy and cobalt mane. His horn was sharpened to the point it was like a sword, and he had the stone cold gaze that somepony has when they have seen death. Twilight Sparkle stepped back in shock at what she was seeing. That face was Shining Armor! The unmasked Shining Armor/Quickfire stood up and said, "Took you long enough to find out BBBFF, although I stopped calling you that for good..." Twilight shouted at Quickfire, "Who are you?! Why do you look like my brother?!" Quickfire jumped at Twilight and landed a clean buck to her chest, "Somepony who knows what you are all too well..." Twilight Sparkle got to her feet, she was sore everywhere from her scuffle with Quickfire. She said weakly, "Then... why did you attack me, Quickfire? What did I do to you?" Quickfire said, "No, I Attacked you because of what you could do soon... Twilight, I'm from the future, hence the reason I didn't kill your Shining Armor, I would cease to exist." Twilight was about to speak, but she was silenced by Quickfire, "I'm from the future, but not so far into it, about 20 years in the future, I came back to stop the rise of Empress Midnight Sparkle... which is you." He pointed his katana at Twilight, who suddenly felt insecure. He continued to speak, "The pony who sent me here asked me to stop you from going to the Badlands, by any means necessary, including killing you. But, I had another goal, to try and talk you out of this. Please Twilight, don't go there, something bad will happen to you and you'll never be the same way." Twilight Sparkle shook her head, "No! You can't be from the future, I'm no evil empress! What even happens to me anyways?" Quickfire walked back inside and said, "We should discuss this in private..." (Twilight's castle, Map Room) Quickfire took a gamble and sheathed his sword, "If I tell you this information, I may alter history even more. If you're wondering why I'm not being erased from time, because the pony's spell sent me back here miscasted, yes it succeeded in sending me back in time and de-aging me as well, but I became detached from the flow of time itself. I am unanchored in time, Twily. I found a solution, though." Quickfire pulled back one of his armor plates, "Meet the Tachyon Harness. This keeps me grounded in one timeline, I found this in a random blue police box when I came here... somepony called "The Doctor" apparently made it." Quickfire approached Twilight and said to her in the kindest voice he could, "Please tell me, sis... did you use any dark magic on purpose for any reason? Have you come in contact with anypony skilled in it? Besides the obvious answer of Burning Star, the only other user of dark magic is King Sombra... and he is dead right?" Twilight Sparkle cringed, before saying, "He was dead, he isn't anymore..." Quickfire grabbed his mask and put it back on, "Then he has to be destroyed! In order to save the future, I will kill him." Twilight Sparkle blocked the alternate version of her brother, "NO! He is helping us cure Burning Star!" Quickfire threw the Alicorn off him, saying, "Do you really believe that he is here to help Twiliy? I thought you were smarter than that, everypony has an ulterior motive, usually for personal gain. Don't you think the fact that he leaves his dark magic tomes lying around the castle, mainly in the library, your favorite place may I add... isn't the least bit suspicious?" Twilight Sparkle shrugged, "Not really. He said that he wants "to contribute to the library." he says that "being the element of Magic, I should know about all types of magic. Both light and dark." I do agree with him for once, after all... knowledge is power!" Quickfire stopped for a second, then said. "Wait a sec, Twily... say that again but listen carefully to what your saying. Twilight repeated herself, "being the element of Magic, I should know about all types of magic. Both light magic and dark mag-" She stopped speaking and put two and two together, "Oh sweet Celestia! He is trying to lure me into learning about Dark Magic. You got to stop him! He is probably on his way out to the Badlands now to ambush me. Maybe you can catch him now, go to his room, quickly!" Quickfire unsheathed his sword and ran headfirst to the guest room Sombra was staying in, it was pitch-black in there. Quickfire ignited his horn, "Show yourself, Sombra!" He heard muffled cries from the corner of the room, he saw both Shining and Shadow Armor tied up and gagged, Magic suppressing bands around their horns. Everywhere across the room, everypony except the element masters and Twilight was tied up and secured. Quickfire looked on and said, "Shining? Shadow? Everypony? What are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash bit through his gag with her teeth and said, "Quickfire! It's a trap!" Twilight Sparkle kicked Quickfire into the room and slammed the door shut, laughing like a mad pony. A demonic voice came out of her mouth, "Even after 20 years you are still so easily tricked, Shining Armor." Twilight's form faded away and revealed their captor, King Sombra!!! He said to them, "Got you! you ponies are too easily tricked, this was too easy for me to trap you all in here, I mean come on. Not even Applejack knew it was me?! Gra-haha-ha!" Pinkie Pie shouted at Sombra, "You big meanie! We trusted you, you said you would fix Burning Star!" King Sombra smirked, "I did, he is perfectly fine. In fact, He and his friends are already with the last element master. The master of wind. it wouldn't be the first time somepony was masquerading as somepony you love, huh Shining?" He rubbed more salt into Shining Armor's wounded pride by mentioning Chrysalis. Celestia, Luna, and Eclipsio were bound to the floor, both unable to do anything. Sombra' toothy grin grew even larger, "I have won, Alicorn Pests. You are left helpless to watch as Twilight will fulfill her destiny as my Queen! Oh and don't worry, I'll make sure you all get a front row seat to the destruction of your monarchy and the kingdom you built, and the return of THE SHADOW KING'S CRYSTAL EMPIRE! GRA-HAHA-HAHA!!!" Shadow Armor bit through his gag as well and said, "Burning Star will stop you, he is Twilight's partner, and our friend!" King Sombra smirked, "Oh I don't think so, Shadow Armor. When he returned with the last Element Master they all set off to the Frozen North to fight the Windigos! Twilight is helpless and alone... but not for long. Soon, I will finally reclaim my empire, and once Twilight is finished torching Equestria, I'll snuff out her life and take her Alicornhood for my own! Before he left, King Sombra stopped to say, "Besides, even if Burning Star were to find out for some miraculous reason, Diamanda and I had a plan for that, we pooled our resources and magic to create our new army, Villains from your past and present. Even he cannot beat them alone, and his friends will perish to Diamanda. I will leave the entire Frozen North to her, while I take Equestria." With that, King Sombra transformed into his Shadow Form and tried to leave, but a white and gold mare stopped her. It was White Storm! White Storm, once Tempest Shadow, said to the Shadow King, "Not if I can help it! Prepare to face me, White Storm." King Sombra growled and blasted White Storm with all his might, White Storm returned fire and the two entered a Beam clash. It was Dark vs Light White Storm vs King Sombra The two ultimate Unicorns! King Sombra won the Beam clash and charged White Storm, she could not guard and everypony heard a crunch as King Sombra impaled White Storm on a pillar of black crystal. King Sombra laughed and transformed into his shadow form, before speeding off towards the Badlands... The clash between the two managed to destroy the bindings around everypony, and Celestia ran over to White Storm, who reverted back to Tempest Shadow. Tempest Shadow said, "I tried, Celestia. He is too strong, stronger than the Pure Alicorn Amulet... *cough... I think I can do one last thing though." Tempest looked around and saw that Everypony was standing by her, Tempest let out a grunt as a Rainbow Beam of Magic flew out of her. Her body began to fade out of existence, but she said one least thing to everypony, "Don't worry about Burning Star, He knows about Twilight, Sunset told him via telepathy... he has to deal with Sombra first, so Sombra doesn't know he knows about his plan..." Tempest faded away, but with a content smile on her face. Many ponies cried, even Shining and Quickfire, well Quickfire hung his head and kneeled in sorrow at least. And then the saddest thing happened... Shadow Armor knelt down, and wept as well. He said through his tears, "I was just getting to know her. I... I... No..." Suddenly, Shining Armor got up and said, "C'mon, everypony. Let's not make Tempest's sacrifice be in vain. Let's go get Sombra!" Everypony nodded and their gazes became like stone. Shining Armor said to himself as he put on his helmet, "I'm going to kill you Sombra... He strapped his spear to his back and Eclipsio opened a portal to the Frozen North. Shining Armor continued, "EVEN IF I HAVE TO BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH MY OWN HOOVES!