//------------------------------// // Chapter XIV // Story: The Ending of the End - Love and Tolerance Edition // by StarlightisVERYcute //------------------------------// From his snowbank atop a small hill, Sombra watched Grogar at work. The ram lord was now working inside what remained of Canterlot Castle, each stroke of his stick adding another line of blue light to hauntingly illuminate the stained glass panes. When in his pony form, Sombra could feel cold, and right now he was freezing. If only Hope were here to keep away the cold, he lamented silently. Her hugs had always warmed both his body and his soul. Sombra considered Grogar’s words. ”Contacting old allies.” But what kinds of allies? He already has the Windigos. Is he getting more of them, or is he up to something else? As he continued to spy, Grogar set down his stick and maneuvered his jewels to six points of the castle’s throne room. Each began to glow a sickly, desaturated color as he focused the power of the Bewitching Bell downward. The floor and walls of the castle flickered with ominous light, and Grogar flicked his horns back and forth. Each wave of his horns were accompanied with a brighter flash of light. Sombra tried to analyze the magic Grogar was using. The magical techniques were very foreign, simultaneously primitive and advanced, perhaps an entirely different evolution of magic from the Equestrian lineage. He had a general feeling that Grogar was trying to break through wards of binding and open a gate to Limbo. But a ritual of this complexity and magnitude suggested whatever he was trying to free was very tightly bound. Sombra tried to remember things banished to Limbo. There weren’t many. The Pony of Shadows, perhaps, or possibly some of the mightier embodiments of darkness? I’m pretty sure I heard that Princess Luna was corrupted by her own jealousy. Could one of those corruptors be lurking in Limbo? As Grogar pushed his spell to completion, Sombra braced himself. One way or another, I’m probably about to find out. All of the glowing lines scribed across Canterlot glowed brilliantly, and then went out. The air, or something else, bent and twist around Grogar, warping the light. A tiny pinprick of blackest shadow appeared in the center of the distortion, and then shot outward. A shockwave tore through Sombra’s body, forcing him back into his insubstiantial, cloudy form and sending him tumbling over the edge of Canterlot. He righted himself and surveyed what had happened. Another city had materialized on top of Canterlot. Its sharp towers, which pierced the cloudy night sky like long spears, seemed to grow organically out of the ruins. It was made of a dark, twisted stone that draped a supernatural darkness across the city. Arching bridges connected one tower to another. The highest tower had grown from where Grogar himself had stood. No doubt he’s there, Sombra thought to himself. But what truly grabbed his attention was the inhabitants of this benighted city. Swirling clouds of malevolent black tentacles, huge draconic beasts with fangs as wide as a pony’s torso, angry monstrosities with a hundred claws, and worse had appeared together. Tambelon is back, Sombra realized in horror. So this was the army Grogar was gathering. A pony-shaped mass of liquid shadow stepped out from behind one of the towers. The Pony of Shadows too? Did Grogar summon every single being trapped in Limbo? Sombra noticed something very worrying. Canterlot was mostly buried, but here and there its streets were still visible. And where they were, the drawn lines were glowing again. What’s Grogar doing with those? he wondered. He followed the line out of the city—and even in his smoke body, he nearly fainted. It, together with thousands of companions, crisscrossed the landscape below. They spread out across Equestria to farther than he could see. But what’s the purpose of these paths now? He’s already summoned Tambelon. Are they to let him teleport it? Or do they have a darker purpose? There’s only one way to find out. He floated along quickly. I have to decipher what he’s doing before he finishes doing it. Sombra lifted the binoculars to his eyes. He scanned the ground below, looking for some hint of what was going on. The night’s inky blackness hindered his eyesight not at all, but there were just so many things to check. He didn’t even know what he was looking for beyond “something amiss.” Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long. Far below and a little to the south, the earth cracked and buckled, and something enormous crawled out. It was shaped roughly like a huge salamander, wide and flat, but it had at least four pairs of legs, each ending in a seven-clawed foot. Spikes ran down its back, each one sizzling with lightning. Its head was shaped like a shovel, and its mouth spanned as wide as the Ponyville schoolhouse lined with thousands of thin, needle-like teeth. Three huge eyes ran sequentially down its shovel-head, each one bigger than an Ursa Minor. The thing roared. Sombra wracked his brain. In all his years, he had never seen anything like this creature before. It was a monster not even found in legend, something even the vilest and most forbidden texts had never once mentioned. He watched in shock as its spines arced and hurled a bolt of lightning three buckball fields away. He heard a sibilant hiss from behind him, and whirled around. A massive worm slithered up from one of the chasms. Its reinforced hide was piled together like a conglomerate of boulders, and its yawning mouth resembled nothing so much as a diseased flower in bloom. He gasped, and turned away, hurrying through the sky as quickly as he could. In his form as a cloud of smoke, it was unlikely these creatures could hurt him. But as an ancient king who prided himself on his knowledge, he could be forgiven for fleeing these mysterious horrors of which he knew nothing. After a little less than a minute of flight, a sickly greenish glow made Sombra slow down. A hill just ahead was shining a very specific green: a shade produced almost exclusively by dark magic. On the one hoof, he really didn’t want to be attacked by something like one of those things he’d just escaped from. On the other, he had to find out what was going on. The more information he could bring back to his frie—fellow schemers, the more they’d be able to figure out what to do. With a mental sigh, as his body of smoke was not suited to a physical one, he set down on the glowing hill. He heard a very faint chanting. Lhkr’unp aph’ghul n’ghwuhwa k’khrl Gro’ghar fhto v’kawaghr. Something about the words tickled the back of Sombra’s brain, but he couldn’t place it. They were Sumareian, he felt, but he was very rusty on his Sumareian. But even taking that into account, this sounded different than what he’d learned—perhaps it was Archaic Sumareian?—and was almost incomprehensible to him. His thoughts were jerked roughly back into the present by a bony hoof shooting out of the ground a few paces ahead of him. He floated back, fear clutching at his vapors. Another one reached out as well. Then a third, and a fifth, and a twentieth. One by one, skeletons of ponies climbed out of the ground. Pinpricks of light glittered in their eyes. They marched down the hill in utter silence, not paying him any attention at all. He allowed himself to disperse a little in relief. But a few moments later, a disturbing idea darted across his mind: If Grogar’s ritual had spread lines of energy across Equestria, and those lines were doing this, did that mean that monsters were awakening and undead rising all across Equestria? He condensed in dread. The other members of the Legion of Doom had to be told right now. Sombra rose up into the air, and hurried as quickly as he could towards where he’d spoken and bonded and revealed his inner self to them. They had to know before it was too late. As he flew, he continued to keep an eye on the terrain below. Grogar’s other forces were still active, of course. Diamond dogs, dragons, and even a few changelings zipped around. High above, the Windigos continued to swirl around. It would be very hard for any ordinary pony to make them out in this storm, but his eyes effortlessly pierced the darkness and were well-accustomed to snowstorms. It was hard to tell, but he felt their actions were more than just determined. They seemed almost gleeful. And why wouldn’t they be? he asked himself darkly. They’re winning, after all. He ran down the list of what his teammates could do. Midnight probably knows enough necromantic magic to seize control of the undead. Chrysalis can sow chaos, disguising as those creatures and pitting them against each other like she did with ponykind. Tirek hopefully can drain their magic. And if Cozy is lucky, she’ll be able to persuade parts of Grogar’s sapient army to fight against him. As for the Elements, it’s very unlikely they’ll be willing to use any of the more effective techniques. Certainly they won’t start taking hostages or anything like that. It’s disappointing, really. If they would just accept that war requires different procedures than peace, they’d be a much more dangerous team. On the other hoof, he mused, the Elements’ softness means that if we do defeat Grogar, my allies and I will have a much easier time betraying them and taking Equestria for our own. All it will take is a few dozen hostages and they’ll surrender. Tirek displayed that wonderfully in his deal with Twilight all those years ago. The thought of ruling once more would have brought a cruel smile to his lips, but he didn’t currently have any. Sometimes being a cloud of smoke is really inconvenient. Sombra slipped down in the cracks in the ground near Twilight’s castle. In his form of fog, he could fit through spaces not even a pebble could. He found Tirek, Cozy, Chrysalis, and Midnight easily. “What did you learn?” Tirek asked, turning to face him. “Tell us.” Sombra clumped his body back together into a stallion’s shape. “Grogar summoned Tambelon,” he said, panting. Even as an insubstantial creature, he’d still worn himself out. Tirek and Chrysalis both gasped. Cozy and Midnight stared blankly. “Who’s Tambelon?” Cozy asked. “Tambelon is a place, not a person,” Chrysalis answered. “It’s said to be the city where Grogar crafted all of his monsters, including us changelings.” “I also witnessed his magic animating skeletons across Equestria and waking up ancient monsters,” Sombra said, his voice uncommonly hasty. “I had never even heard of some of his pet horrors. And he seems to have called back the Pony of Shadows as well.” “Describe everything you saw in detail,” Midnight instructed. “Do not exclude any matters. The tiniest clue may be our victory.” With a flicker of dark magic, Sombra created a comfortable throne, and sat down. Cozy gave him an encouraging smile. With a harsh exhale and a flash of illusion magic for visual aid, he shared what he had seen. Twilight had been sleeping peacefully. She floated in a void of soft, pastel colors. Her entire body felt warm and comforted. A jolt of energy passed through her body. It was both hot and cold at once, but it wasn’t painful. A translucent, twinkling copy of herself appeared before her. “I did not speak up earlier because I had to delve into my own roots for answers,” Treelight said. “Now I have come to visit upon you the information you need.” “Well, that sounds great,” Twilight said, “but shouldn’t you wake me up so my friends and I can ask you questions together?” Treelight tilted her head, smiling her haunting smile all the while. “Yes.” She held a hoof out to Twilight’s chest. A spark of lightning passed between them, and Twilight jerked awake. She was still in the Treehouse’s basement. Her five best friends were all just waking up too. “Everypony, wake up!” she called out across the room. Starswirl groaned. “Uurgh, I barely got any rest. What is it, Twilight?” “The Tree has something to tell us!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down inside her sleeping bag. “Get up get up get up!” Somnambula sighed in resignation. “Well, now that we are all awake, we might as well talk with it.” “Yeah, no point in missing all that sleep for nothing,” Gallus added dryly. Treelight manifested in the middle of the room. “You mentioned the Elements of Disharmony,” she said. “It took me a great deal of thought, but I was able to remember them.” She conjured up spectral images of the Elements. “Honesty. Kindness. Laughter. Generosity. Loyalty. And finally, Magic. The six Elements of Harmony. But they each have a dark reflection.” The images turned blackened and scarred. “The Elements are six gems, so their mirrors are likewise. Deceit. Cruelty. Despair. Greed. Betrayal. Desolation. These six are the forces that split friendships asunder.” Spike wrote rapidly, taking down every word. “They are as powerful as the Elements of Harmony but serve the opposite purpose,” Treelight continued. “When used against each other, they simply cancel out. I imagine Grogar sought them to nullify your usage of Harmony.” “But we don’t have the Elements anymore,” Twilight reminded her. “So they’ll just do to us what we did to Discord years ago.” “Or the opposite of what they did to me,” Stygian added. “Whatever do you mean?” Rarity asked apprehensively. “The Elements of Harmony separated me from the Pony of Shadows, redeeming me,” Stygian replied. “Those of Disharmony might corrupt you and your friends.” “That’s not gonna happen on my watch,” Rainbow said firmly. “None of you guys are turning evil while I’m around!” “Thanks, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said with a smile, slipping a wing around her. “It’s so nice to have somepony brave like you looking out for us.” “Yeah, yeah,” Smolder grumbled. “So how are we going to deal with Grogar’s Disharmony stuff?” “I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “But we still have each other. And together, we’ve overcome every threat Equestria has ever faced. We have to figure out something, or Equestria is doomed!”