It was a normal sunny day in Canterlot, birds can be heard chirping as they fly through the trees, ponies going about their usual days completely unaware about the discussion going on at Canterlot Castle. Sombra was back, there had been sightings near the Crystal Empire putting the crystal ponies on edge. So all four of the princesses had arranged to meet at Canterlot, Twilight bringing her friends with the elements and Spike, Cadence also bringing Shining Armour. All of the most important ponies in Equestria were present at this meeting in Canterlot.
Discussions like this would usually take place inside the throne room, but thanks to everypony, with a horn, present being able to detect unusual amounts of dark magic build up, the discussion was then moved to an old war room that hasn't been used for centuries. Everyone was sat at a large round stone table, which had an image of half a sun and half a moon on it. The most important part of this table however was the map on it. It was a map of the Crystal Empire with all spots where Sombra had been seen.
"With the increase in Sombra sightings, Twilight you and your friends are to go to the Crystal Empire and attempt to use the elements-" Celestia begins to explain before she is interrupted by a guard entering the room.
"I apologise for the interruption your majesties but there is a disturbance outside, huge dark clouds are gathering around Canterlot. Ponies are worried that this may be Sombra returning, especially after the Sombra scare in the Crystal Empire," the guard explains.
"Well that makes it easier to find him then. Let's go blast him!" Rainbow says as she starts flying out of the room followed bu the cheers of the mane 6 aside from Twilight who grabs Rainbows tail with her magic.
"We've got to plan this out Rainbow, so we can actually beat him. Who knows what he plans on doing, but he must have a plan if he announces himself to all of Canterlot like this."
"Twilight we still do not know whether this is actually Sombra. It may just be a result of all of the dark magic accumulating around Canterlot lately," says Luna, "Do not just jump headfirst into a problem that may not even exist in the first place. I say we go and investigate this phenomena ourselves and even if it is Sombra he will not be able to stand to the might of four alicorns at once."
"Don't be so confident Luna, while it may not be certain it is Sombra, it is also not certain that it is not Sombra. Twilight is right to plan for one of the possibilities." says Celestia, " How about you, Cadence, Shining and I go and confront the clouds while you all come up with a plan if it is Sombra." As Celestia says this Cadence, Shining and Luna stand up to accompany Celestia whereas The mane 6 and Spike sit back round the table beginning to come up with ideas. Eventually coming up with just use the elements against him.
They then ran to join Celestia and the others outside of the castle in one of the main streets. They were Observing the clouds, which had gotten much larger than before. "It doesn't seem to have the same dark magic feeling as Sombra's magic, it seems raw, unfocused. Definitely not something product of Sombra." says Cadence
The streets were lined with ponies panicking, some claiming the world is ending, some others saying it was the third coming of Sombra. It was almost complete anarchy with boxes, clothes and food scattered about, discarded because of the seemingly impending apocalypse. The dark clouds were touching the floor now, obscuring a perfect view of the full street.
"This is getting worse and worse the longer it goes on. We've got to determine if there's a way to stop this, Twilight you and your friends should attempt to use The Elements on this cloud of dark magic, their harmonious nature should cancel it out and remove the dark clouds over Canterlot," Celestia says.
But before they can follow this plan through, the world around them goes unnaturally quiet. No more ponies screaming, no chirping of birds, it was as if all of time had frozen. It wasn't completely silent however they could hear the clopping of one set of hooves and the sound of something metal being dragged along the pavement. The mane 6, believing this to be Sombra, put on the elements in preparation for their use. They were not however prepared for what walked out of the fog.
They first saw glowing blue eyes in the fog moving slowly towards them. The cat like irises standing out like solitary stars in the night sky. The next thing they saw was a menacing grin full of pearly white, sharpened teeth that looked like knives. A long horn then pierced the darkness glowing a deep hue of blue, signifying the use of magic. Finally their full head was revealed to be none other than, The Queen of Nightmares and The Mistress of Darkness herself, Nightmare Moon. Once she fully revealed herself she was wearing full plate mail with intricately carved runes etched into the light blue armour. The runes predominantly featured the moon in its many stages in the night sky. The most worrying thing however wasn't her appearance, it was the one and a half metre long claymore that was stained red with the same if not more detailed runes as on her armour, again featuring the moon in all her stages.
Her appearance was met with the gasps of all ponies present aside from her own. Nightmare Moon just looked them all in the eyes as her grin widened. "How dare'st thee return foul Nightmare!" Luna shouts in the Royal Canterlot Voice, Nightmare Moon however looks unfazed, picks up a sack that was hidden in the black fog, the sack was dripping a red substance that all present hoped to be sauce, but they knew it probably wasn't. Nightmare Moon didn't open her mouth to speak, she just grinned even wider staring, seemingly into their collective souls. Nightmare opened the sack revealing a familiar decapitated head.
It was the head of the Crystal Dictator himself, Ex-King Tyrant Sombra, only it lacked one of his most iconic features, his sharpened red tinted horn. Nightmare drops the sack and levitates the head over to herself, she looks him in the eyes before looking over to the ponies gathered. She throws the head to Celestia's hooves, looking her in the eyes before turning round and walking away, into the smoke, with her claymore in tow. It was then that she released the first sound they'd heard from her in this whole meeting, it was a cackle, a menacingly evil cackle, which only worsened the feelings of dread they all felt.