Ardyn POV
Where to begin is the question. Not too many ponies ever went into the gardens and the ones who did either tended to the place or patrolled it. I suppose I could walk into a store or a library for anything I might need like a map, there's still plenty of time before nightfall and I doubt the princesses will be able to act so soon after Discord so that just makes my job easier. Deciding to make things a little easier for myself I climbed on to the rooftops to look for any place that might sell maps and maybe some snacks, I don't need the snacks or food in general so it's more for pleasure. Finally finding a place called Golden Oaks Library I made sure no one was watching before sneaking in through the window on the top floor, there were a few maps downstairs and I grabbed a history book while I was there.
Leaving the library I decided my first stop should be the Everfree forest, unnatural to these ponies, but like home to me, what I can remember anyway. It's also supposed to be the same general location I was stoned so what better place to start than ground zero? If I can't take the darkness into myself I should at least be able to purge it with the Royal Arms. Actually a thought comes to mind about my Royal Arms, the Rakshasa Blade and Blade of the Mystic were basically twins lore wise, so does that apply to the other 12? Were the other 12 also siblings like that? Doesn't matter I suppose, I don't have a way to find any answers for the foreseeable future.
Arriving at the forest I decided to take things slow for a few reasons. The first reason is because there were still a few hours until nightfall, the second reason is so I could read the history book and see how nature reacts to my seemingly unaware presence while doing so. I mostly just skim through what I read unless it's important or interesting so I quickly learned a summarized version of history. Hearths Warming, Discord, me, Changelings, Tirek, Sombra, and Nightmare Moon, surprisingly there wasn't much about me. All history has of me is that I created daemons, corrupted anything I touched, and was quickly stopped, and it goes into some details about the efforts against daemons. Thinking back to the Rise of Nightmare Moon I quickly realized I was to blame for that incident. Ponies feared the night and by extension her because of me, bad enough I'm responsible for killing and turning any number of ponies, but to learn one suffered a fate so similar to the real Ardyn quickly brought me to tears.
I dashed through the forest until I reached a bridge that looked just stable enough to cross leading to a ruined castle, but I dashed over that as well and wandered around for a while. Maybe two hours before nightfall did I find a throne room and help myself to the more comfortable looking one. Lifting one leg over the other, leaning on the side with my head resting on my hand, and lowering my hat to cover my eyes I quickly dozed off.
I have more to fix than I originally thought was the last thing to go through my mind before I drifted off to sleep.
Twilight POV
It's been hours since Discord was turned back to stone and "Ardyn" or "Adagium" escaped. So many questions were going through my mind and no answers were being found. What was that magic he was using? Imperial Chancellor? If he was evil then why was he helping us? Why didn't he at least try to slow us down?
"Learn from them before you learn from me young child." His words rung in my head.
"That's it!" I said a little louder than I meant to and startled Spike.
"What's it? Do you need something Twi?" Spike asked.
"Spike, I need you to write a letter to the princess real quick." He grabbed one of the quills and papers off the desk.
"Okay, I'm ready." He said.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I know I just sent you a friendship letter, but there's something that's been bothering me that I probably should have asked about earlier. Do the names "Ardyn" or "Adagium" mean anything to you? Even though he didn't look or act the part he said our kind calls him "Demon of Darkness"? Earlier in during our confrontation with Discord he had somepony else with him and he was supposed to "get rid of us" as part of their agreement, but he technically never agreed to anything and whether he meant to or not helped us. That's not the strangest thing though, he used magic to conjure multiple spectral weapons to surround Discord and even, I don't know what, he practically teleported to the weapon he threw into the air to avoid being hit by the Elements! He left shortly after landing, but when I tried to ask who and what he was and what mistake he made he directed me to you.
"Learn from them before you learn from me young child".
What mistake did he make? Should we go after him? What should we do?
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
"Okay, sending it!" Spike said and breathed fire on it.
"Now I guess we w-" I started before the sound and flash of a teleportation spell interrupted me.
"Where is he!!??" Princess Celestia shouted scaring the both of us.
"Pr-princess I don't understand, what's wrong?" I asked asked as calmly as I could which was not at all.
"Twilight I need you to gather the others again. I'm sorry but the Demon is significantly more of a threat than Discord even when he's angered, we need to deal with this now before he does it again!" She ordered.
"Who is he a-" I started.
"Now!" She interrupted, I left to gather the others immediately after. They were just as scared as I was I mean not even Nightmare Moon got a reaction even close to this, hay even Rainbow was a little concerned and I just told everypony 'princess Celestia wants to see us all right now'. It took a lot of running, but I got everypony to come back to the library where even princess Luna was now waiting for us.
"T'would appear thy student has't arrived with the rest of the Bearers." Princess Luna said to her sister.
"Luna we talked about your speech." Princess Celestia chided.
"We a- apologies." She responded.
"It's alright. Now that everypony is here we can discuss this other newly returned threat." Princess Celestia started.
"I'm sure we can take'em down in no time. So who is it this time?" Rainbow asked.
"This creature is nothing like Nightmare Moon or Discord. Not only is he significantly more dangerous the world is still feeling the effects of his actions." Princess Celestia warned causing Rainbow to back down nervously.
"This creature is believed to be the creator of the demon race. Our first and only encounter with this creature resulted in one of the guards present to die and another to be turned into a demon. It also resulted in a disease spreading around Equestria that turned ponies into demons. It took us years to gain enough control to keep the cities safe with villages and small towns becoming safe again not long after. Since demons only come out at night it also did nothing to help with the country's poor image of me, blaming me but never being able to do more than that." Princess Luna explained.
"In other words, this 'Ardyn' is responsible for everything we have suffered because of his demons and his indirect involvement with Nightmare Moon." Princess Celestia added.
We all just stood there trying to process everything we've just heard. What else could we do? We just learned we barely made it out of that fight alive, Discord too.
"Wait, then why? He said he wasn't angry at all about you imprisoning him and even said it was necessary! Why would he want to hunt demons and fix a mistake he made. He even said to ask you about him before asking him. What if his side is completely different?" I asked.
"I WILL MAKE HIM PAY FOR EVERYTHING WE'VE SUFFERED! THAT MONSTER SHOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED!" Princess Luna shouted with tears in her eyes as her sister comforted her.
"It's time to lower the sun, afterward we will search the most likely place he will be. Keep the Elements on you at all times, they'll drive away most if not all demons but him. We need to end this now before history repeats itself." Princess Celestia said as she walked outside to lower the sun and raise the moon for princess Luna because of her emotional state right now.
Can we even do this? Is it right?
Ardyn POV
I awoke a few minutes before the sun and moon switched places. I actually feel a little different right now, maybe it's the darkness in me or something. I don't know. I can tell you what I do know though, this night won't be long enough to rid the Everfree of the demons.