//------------------------------// // Act 2 - Shadow of Malice; Terror of Ages, part final // Story: The Lords of Harmony // by Whinifree //------------------------------//     Mere seconds later, Celestia felt solid ground underneath herself again and her vision returned to normal. Every part of her felt reinvigorated as the full power of the Elements of Harmony coursed through her. She glanced around.     The princess wasn’t standing on the snow-covered, icy ground of a wintery Equestria anymore. Now she stood upon what appeared to be a stain-glass window similar to the ones in the royal palace in Canterlot. But, this one had the images of Celestia and Princess Luna encircling the sun and moon with numerous stars littering the outer edge of the circle—the banner of Equestria. Celestia was standing on the side of the picture of herself, and Sombra stood on the side with the picture of Princess Luna with the images of the sun and moon between them. Unlike the Equestrian banner whose canvas is normally light blue, the stain-glass floor was a vibrant gold and silver, with the rainbow-colored energy of the Elements of Harmony flowing beneath the entire surface.     Thick storm clouds had the strange scene surrounded, swirling about as if they were alive. The sky above was crystal clear, and the full moon loomed overhead with the dark spot in the center. Only, now the moon was so large it seemed as if it would crash down upon the world at any moment.     Finally, Celestia noticed that all seven of the Elements of Harmony were hovering beside her, and that she and Sombra were alone.     “What is all this?” snarled Sombra. “Where have you taken us?”     “I’d say this is some secret power of the Elements,” replied Celestia. The princess then gave the Elements a mental command.     Link     At that, the Elements linked themselves together into the form of a spear and stood upright next to Celestia.     “And at least here,” she continued, “the land won’t be torn apart when I defeat you once and for all!”     Celestia glared at Sombra and the spear pointed itself at the dark alicorn ready to strike.     Sombra let out a quiet sigh. His horn glowed and the nine dark phoenix feathers appeared, encircling him like a shield before quickly linking together into the form of a chain. “Just because you’ve got the Elements lending you their power does not mean you know how to use them. And even if you do defeat me, I’ll be back eventually. But regardless, you can’t win this war without Luna. The work I’ve done and my colleagues, the Seeds of Malice, have already made sure Luna is beyond the reach of you and your friends.” Celestia furrowed her brow. “Who, or what, are the—” Before the princess could finish, Sombra spread his wings and lunged forward. The chain of feathers rose up into a striking position. Celestia had just enough time to move her spear into a blocking position in front of her, and a magical barrier much larger than what she can create normally appeared around her. Sombra’s chain slammed down upon the barrier with all its strength. The impact created a loud explosion of magical energy outside the barrier, but inside, Celestia heard only muffled poundings and felt no tinglings in her horn or anywhere in her body; the power of the Elements of Harmony shielded her fully. Sombra raised his foreleg and the chain followed suit, readying for another blow. With the Elements hovering beside her, Celestia quickly spread her wings and kicked into the air, avoiding the second attack. She covered her ears with her hooves before mentally delivering her next command to the Elements. The spear thrust toward Sombra, only moving a few inches through the air and sending a large gold and silver beam of energy at him. Sombra blocked the beam with the chain before flying back. His horn glowed again, and clouds of dark mist appeared around his front hooves that turned into the shape of four-pronged claws. The chain of dark feathers also split in two. Sombra gripped one of them with his left claw, and the other with his right, making the two feather links resemble longswords. Letting out a fearsome battle cry, he dashed forward with weapons raised. Glaring, Celestia raised her spear and rushed forward. Immediately, Celestia and Sombra were locked in a ferocious, high-flying, grand melee that a pony would only see in a story book. Each strike the princess and the dark alicorn sent at each other made magical explosions of accompanying color sear across the area. Many of Sombra’s attacks left behind patches of ghostly white flame on the stain-glass floor, but would almost right away be extinguished by the energy from the Elements of Harmony as Celestia wielded her spear. For Celestia, time seemed to vanish as she fought in this—her last stand. Yet… she felt not the clutches of fatigue upon herself; there was only the heavenly, warm, all-encompassing power of the combined Elements of Harmony. It was a sensation she hadn’t known since the terrible day over a thousand years ago when she had been forced to banish Luna to the moon.  Part of her hated the feeling of wielding such artifacts again due to the circumstances of their prior use and resulting trauma, but the princess knew this was the only way she could defeat Sombra and his newfound power.     This battle could drag on for who knows how long, thought Celestia. But with the Elements keeping my energy strong, this battle won’t be decided by something as simple as getting tired. I need just one good opening, but Sombra’s leaving me no room for a good counterattack. I can’t help but wonder if Twilight and the others can see all this.     Yes, the struggle showed no signs of slowing down. As soon as Sombra attacked with one of his sword-like links of dark feathers, he would pull it back and strike with the other, always holding one in front of himself defensively. His fierce glare never faltered and he growled like a dragon whose gem hoard was being threatened. “We’re getting nowhere like this. Let’s kick this battle up to ten!”     Sombra flew back and released his grip on the dark feathers which separated back into their nine individual selves.     Celestia’s eyes widened and, keeping them linked together in the form of a spear, aimed the tip at Sombra and fired another large beam of rainbow energy.     Before the laser even got close to Sombra, the dark alicorn suddenly turned into a cloud of black mist and soared high into the air with dark feathers in tow. The feathers simultaneously each shot to a different spot at the edge of the area and stuck into the stain-glass floor, emitting a flashing white aura.     The area became covered in the same dark mist Sombra had turned into, blotting out the sky and the moon. The only thing Celestia could see now was the floor and the glow from where Sombra’s feathers had landed. “What now?” she uttered under her breath as she glanced around, keeping her spear ready.     Then an idea came to her.     “Wait… I wonder if those feathers of his can be destroyed. Or what if he’s expecting me to try that? Maybe I could at least tr—”     Her thought was interrupted as the white auras from the feathers shot up into the sky, and nine pony-shaped dark figures—each one bearing a single feather—launched downward at Celestia one after another. “These things again. This time I’m ready for you!”     As she didn’t have enough time to fire a ranged attack at the dark clones, Celestia waited for just the right moment to swipe her spear, destroying each one as it came in range. The princess grinned triumphantly.     All was quiet… until the clones reappeared a second later and rushed again.     Celestia groaned and destroyed the first two the same way as before. Without warning, a massive beam of ghostly white energy burst down directly above Celestia, striking her point-blank. The princess screeched in pain as she was knocked down to the ground and the Elements landed all around her with a clatter. Her vision blurred for a moment and a wave of soreness ran through her but otherwise she felt fine. Panting, she hurried back to her hooves and the Elements reconnected back into the spear. A beam similar to the first fell upon Celestia a moment later, but this time she thrust the spear straight into it, causing it to split apart and strike the ground around her harmlessly in smaller pieces. While it was difficult to discern through the sounds of the battle and the ringing in her ears, Celestia heard what sounded like a cry of pain coming from the beam as it disappeared. The dark mist also vanished, and the princess stood still upon the stain-glass floor. She was alone. Is it over? the princess thought as she levitated her spear at her side and glanced around. Even though she was sweating only a little and her breaths were only slightly heavier than normal, she wiped her brow and took a deep breath. Several minutes passed in complete silence. No… If it was over… I wouldn’t still be here, I think… Celestia swallowed hard, her heart quickened and her breaths deepened. She turned around in all directions, keeping the Elements of Harmony poised to strike at a moment’s notice. Where are you…? For a few minutes more there was nothing still. Then, a tiny tingle ran down Celestia’s horn that continued down her back, and the fur on the back of her neck stood up. The princess looked up. With the dark mist gone, the sky above the area was clear and the full glory of the incredibly enlarged moon shone down. The princess gazed upon the celestial body. For a moment, she thought she saw a twinkle of white light coming from inside the dark spot in the moon’s center. She peered closer… and pointed her spear straight up. A beam of rainbow-colored energy burst forth and rocketed into the sky, disappearing into the dark spot. The beam continued for several minutes until Celestia called it off. Again all was quiet. Celestia let out a huff. “We’re not done yet!” she cried, her voice echoing all around. “Show yourself and face me!” As if reacting to the princess’s demand, Celestia suddenly felt a dark energy appear behind her. She whipped around with her spear ready, but lowered it a second later. “Huh?” she muttered with a furrowed brow. An orb of dark mist slightly larger than Celestia had appeared on the opposite side of the stain-glass platform, hovering just inches above the image of Princess Luna. Celestia stared blankly at the orb for a second before shaking her head, then narrowing her eyes and pointing the Elements at it. A moment later, out from the anomaly walked a pony-shaped figure. It was as tall as Celestia, but it was wearing a dark full-body cloak that completely concealed its true identity. It stared straight ahead at the princess without saying a word. Celestia let out a sigh. “Not this again… Quit trying to confuse me, Som—” Without warning, like it was pushed by a furious gust, the dark figure shot toward the princess. Celestia didn’t even have time to move the Elements before becoming engulfed by mist as dark as the orb and the figure that emerged from it. Her horn began to crackle with little and rapid bolts of magic energy, and then went numb. She couldn’t move anything, as if her body had turned to stone. What is this? She thought. I can’t move! And I can’t feel the Elements anymore! I can’t… I… can’t… Everything went dark.     Celestia’s eyes burst open. Though she felt solid ground beneath her hooves, she saw nothing except a pitch-black void all around. She shivered, despite the unknown space not being cold. Her horn was still numb. She tried to activate her magic, but nothing came. She looked around once more, but she was truly alone.     “What just happened?” she asked, her voice echoing slightly. “Where am I? What is this place?”     The princess took a few steps forward, but nothing about the mysterious space changed.     “Hello?”     She waited for a few moments. There was no reply.     Celestia took a deep, deep breath. “HELLO!” she cried at the top of her lungs, holding the call for as long as she possibly could.     Her voice echoed like before, and it took a while for the resonation to fade away into the nothingness. The princess frowned and dropped to her haunches. Her mane stopped flowing, and she stared down at the ground she could feel, but not see.     “Where is everypony? Can nopony hear me?”     Celestia shivered. It’s not cold in this place, she thought. But I feel so cold. Did I lose the fight and now I’m trapped all alone in this place forever? I wonder…     Is this what Luna had to endure for a thousand years, all because I was a terrible sister?     Tears began to pour down Celestia’s eyes and she clenched them shut. She sat there in total despair. The chill of the crushing loneliness closed in all around her while the resonance of her cries filled her ears.     After a while, she began to hear something else—voices that were not her own.     Celestia opened her wet and reddened eyes and glazed around. “Is… somepony…”     The voices began to grow louder, but they were all meshed together and the princess could not discern any specific words. This continued for several minutes, with the voices growing louder and louder until they were overpowering. Remaining seated on her haunches, Celestia cringed and put her hooves over her ears. Then she saw them.     Countless dark figures that greatly resembled the shadow ponies—the Dreadkin—had appeared and had the princess surrounded. Their ghostly-white eyes peered straight at her.     From alone to surrounded by Sombra’s minions and nothing to fight them with but my bare hooves… thought Celestia. Is this how I’m doomed to spend the rest of my life?     One of the shadow ponies made a few soft whinnying noises and stepped toward the princess.     “Get back!” cried Celestia, glaring at the shadow pony. She stood up, crouched into a defensive stance, and swiped at the creature.     The shadow pony paused for a moment, then continued on.     Celestia clenched her teeth and instinctively tried to channel her magic, but her horn was still numb and nothing happened. She swung her hoof at the creature as it came within her reach.     The shadow pony leaped back, narrowly avoiding the princess’s attack, and stared at her while making more soft whinnying noises.     “And stay back!” Celestia growled.     After a moment, all the voices came back to break the silence, and the whole group of shadow ponies rushed the princess at once.     Celestia let out a battle cry and began to swing her forelegs and kick her hindlegs. She grunted as the creatures piled on top of her. Their combined weight made her fall to the ground and she was once again unable to move. “Get off of me, you… you…”     She paused for a second, then couldn’t hold it in any longer…     “YOU MONSTERS! I HATE YOU!”     A terrible pain suddenly shot through Celestia’s horn and she cried out and trembled, clenching her eyes tightly shut. It lasted only for a moment though. All of her pain gave way to all-consuming rage. Her eyes turned ghostly white, little strands of black mist started to appear over her body. Snarling, she struggled with all her might to break free from the pile of shadow ponies holding her down.     One of the creatures knelt down and peered into Celestia’s eyes.     “Princess…?”     The sound of that word pierced through the uncontrollable rage, and Celestia stopped struggling. The strands of dark mist covering her body remained, and her eyes didn’t revert back to normal, but she returned the shadow pony’s firm gaze.     “Princess!”     Celestia let out a tiny groan and her eyes slowly opened, then she heard several familiar voices just overhead. She glanced up and her heart suddenly felt lighter. Through the teary-eyed faces of her friends, she noticed she was on Twilight’s bed in her room in Golden Oaks Library.     “Princess!” the group cried in unison before giving her a warm hug which even Rainbow Dash participated in.     Amidst the group hug, the princess smiled and shed a few tears. Though she barely felt an ounce of strength in her body, she was alive, and it appeared as if her friends were all okay. “My little ponies…” she said with a weak voice.     “Thank Celes—” said Twilight through her sniffles and maintaining the hug. “Thank goodness! Yes it’s us, Princess!”     “If you ever scare us like that again…” sniffled Pinkie.     “We thought you’d become one of those dreadful creatures!” cried Rarity.     Celestia stared straight ahead with a blank face. “Could you say that again please?”     Applejack let out a big sigh. “We ain’t got the foggiest what happened after y’all disappeared into that pillar of light, but—”     “Cool it, cowgirl,” Rainbow said as she let go of the princess.     Everypony pulled out of the group hug and Fluttershy nodded. “Yes. We should start at the beginning of the story. We don’t want to overwhelm the princess after what she’s just been through. But first, you must be hungry, Princess Celestia. Can I get you something? Some delicious vegetable soup and tea? It’ll be better than the IVs Nurse Redheart’s been keeping you on.”     “That’s very kind of you to offer,” stated Celestia, giving the pegasus a warm smile. “But I’m fine for now.”     Fluttershy beamed. “Of course, Princess.”     Celestia’s tone became a bit more serious now. “Now then… How long have I been unconscious?”     Everypony was silent and glanced at each other for a moment.     “First there’s something you need to see…” Shining Armor’s horn lit up and he levitated Twilight’s large stand up mirror over to the bed.    Celestia let out a weak gasp while the others watched her with a frown. Clear as crystal upon her face were dark claw marks right over her eyes, similar to the ones Twilight had.     “After that huge pillar of golden light appeared,” said Cadance, “you disappeared into it along with Sombra. You reappeared a few hours later, but you weren’t yourself at all. Your eyes had turned solid white and there were these tendrils of dark mist covering parts of your body. It was like…”     Twilight’s eyes watered even more and she tightened her embrace of the princess. “It was like you were turning into one of those things.”     “But the strangest thing is you were actin’ like we were the ones who had turned into them varmints,” stated Applejack.     Celestia gave them a confused look. “I was?”     “Yeah,” Rainbow said. “You even called us monsters and said you hated us.”     Celestia’s jaw dropped. N-no… she thought. It… it can’t…     Pinkie nodded several times. “I never in a million bajillion years thought I’d hear such nasty things out of you, Princess. But it’s okay. Like we said you weren’t yourself and we know you’d never say anything like that to us.”     “We had to use the Elements of Harmony to subdue you,” said Shining Armor, levitating the mirror back into its previous place. “Fortunately nothing else happened as a result. You’ve been in a coma since then. That was a week ago.”     Celestia was speechless and sweat poured from her brow as she lie motionless on the bed. Slowly, she rubbed her eyes and peered at the marks over Twilight’s eyes. She then remembered the ponies talking about how Twilight had started to act strangely when they were searching for the midnium.     “There’s one last thing…” said Twilight, finally letting go of the princess and peering into her eyes.     Celestia gazed back, both into Twilight’s eyes and also at the claw marks that still sat over them fresh as the day they had appeared.     “We can’t seem to leave Ponyville.”     The princess furrowed her brow. “What do you mean ‘can’t leave Ponyville’?”     “Exactly what it sounds like,” Rainbow said. “After you got back from… wherever… I tried to leave to go and get some help, but some strange dark cloud has the town completely surrounded. No one can see into it, but every time I tried to go through it, I somehow ended up right back here where I started. I tried going through; I tried going over; I even dug a hole and tried to go under… And nothing.”     “To put it bluntly,” uttered Applejack. “We seem trapped here now, along with the Everfree Forest.”     Trapped here… thought Celestia as she listened. With the forest…     “Princess Celestia…” said Twilight worriedly. “What exactly happened? Did you defeat Sombra?”     “I don’t…” she started to say, pausing for a second as the others stared at her in dead silence.      “I don’t know…”     The Everfree Forest…     Ever the enigma that, even before the time of the Royal Sisters, has sat in Equestria’s center. Often described by the ponies as ‘unnatural.’ Beyond its foreboding appearance, it is a place where the clouds and weather act and the plants grow on their own, and where animals do not need the assistance of ponies to survive. Ponies of all sizes, shapes, colors and ages dread to set hoof anywhere near this dark and eerie woodland, let alone the fierce beasts that lurk within its shadows.  It was uninviting enough before recent events made it go from simply intimidating to something out of a pony’s worst nightmare. The forest was now blanketed by perpetual darkness even in the middle of the day. The trees and vegetation had all turned just as black as the land. Ghostly white smoke rose up from the ground and swirled about everywhere like it was alive. Finally, while the rest of Equestria was feeling the snowfalls of winter, the forest had no snow at all like even the weather had begun to avoid the area. Ever since Nightmare Night the forest had been dead silent save for the lone timberwolf or pack of them, prowling through the trees and howling into the night. This night was no different. Except…     Deep in the heart of the forest, inside the crumbling throne room of the ancient castle, countless tiny, ghostly white particles of magical energy began to swirl above the stone dais between the old thrones. It started slow then hastened until it looked like a small localized hurricane. After a few moments, the particles condensed into a single ghostly white orb that was twice the size of an average adult pony. The bright light it gave off pierced through the surrounding darkness, illuminating the back part of the room, down the stairs and revealed the large hole in the back wall through which the dark cloud came and engulfed Princess Luna over a thousand years in the past. The glow reached as far as the throne room’s entryway, just bright enough to make it visible amidst the shadows.         A minute later, a dark figure emerged from the orb. The figure was the size and shape of an average pony. It wore a large cloak as black as midnight that reached all the way past its hindquarters to cover its tail as well as thick and equally dark boots on each of its hooves. The hood of the cloak completely covered the figure’s head, hiding its facial features, and the parts of the figure’s body that weren’t covered by the cloak were concealed by a black bodysuit. None of the figure’s physical features were visible.     It looked around, first at the stone throne with the engraving of the sun, the throne with the engraving of the moon second, then finally it turned and looked at the hole in the back wall, ignoring the various bits of stone rubble that were scattered about the floor directly beneath the opening. After a few moments, the figure looked forward again. Casually, it walked down the steps, heading toward the archway that led out of the chamber and into the ruin’s entry hall. Small, muffled thumping sounds from the figure’s boots echoed through the quiet chamber which slowly died down as the figure departed.     After stepping out of the ruins and into the clearing in the forest, the figure crossed the bridge that spanned the chasm. The bridge swayed slightly and creaked with each step. Once the figure was across, instead of continuing on into the thick of the forest, it turned to its left and stepped toward the flight of stairs going down into the gorge.  Reaching the bottom of the stairs, the figure entered the cavern where a certain fabled tree dwelled. Into the bowels of the cave it walked, and reaching the inner chamber, it came to a stop and lifted its gaze. There it stood—the legendary Tree of Harmony, casting its light to all corners of the cavern. However, it wasn’t anywhere near as radiant as before. Despite standing within the Tree’s soft light, the figure’s facial features remained hidden within the darkness of the hood of its cloak. For a while it simply stared up at the Tree. Eventually, the figure kicked its boot off its left hoof, reached inside its cloak and pulled out a book and pencil. Settling down onto its stomach, the figure opened the book to a blank page and began to write. To be continued in part 2 of The Lords of Harmony epic saga: The Lords of Harmony: Malice Descending