//------------------------------// // Chapter 30 // Story: The Darkness Shard // by OliverSparkle //------------------------------// “Solar?!” Both Celestia and Luna could not believe who was underneath the hood. It was their long lost brother, Solar Eclipse. Not only that, but Twilight was also in shock to see it was the sisters’ brother that was wearing the coat. “I was Solar Eclipse. Now I got a new name…Midnight Crown. Get used to it.” “Solar,” began Celestia in a worried tone, “What’s happened to you?” “YOU what happened,” answered Solar angrily, “You turned your backs on me. And didn’t think to continue searching for me when I disappeared long ago.” “Solar, don’t do this to us,” said Luna, “You don’t wanna do this.” “Oh but I do. I deserve exactly what I should have gotten a long time ago.” “Please, we can help you,” said Celestia, “We can make this right.” “Oh like how you helped me moons ago?!” Solar asked angrily, “After turning against me?!” Luna started to get angrily at her brother as she then said, “You have done that yourself!” “Don’t speak of how this is my fault,” said Solar, “I may have killed our family, but it was for the throne. And soon, I will have my rightful place on the throne, thanks to my new master.” Celestia and Luna were not just confused, but also surprised to hear what their brother had just said. Even Twilight was the same before saying, “Your new master?” Solar looked at Twilight and grinned. “You’re welcome to join me.” Twilight knew what he was planning on trying to do with her, but she refuse to become what Solar Eclipse is now. She may be a princess and haven’t took the throne with the two sisters yet, but she refuses to become an evil princess. She glared at him before saying, “No, Solar. I may not have taken the throne by Celestia and Luna’s side yet, but I refuse to become a princess that wants to rule the WRONG WAY!” Solar was disappointed to Twilight’s response. He then said, “If you’re not with me, then you are my enemy.” “I get that a lot,” said Twilight hinting that many foes she encounter have made her their enemy, “But I will do what I must to protect everypony.” Solar grinned at the purple alicorn. “You will try.” The evil pony started to run towards Twilight. “Solar, don’t!” Celestia shouted worriedly, knowing he was gonna fight Twilight. Solar charged towards Twilight as his horn starts to glow. Twilight used her magic to teleport away and reappear in the air as she flapped her wings to help her fly in mid-air. Solar saw Twilight flying in mid-air which left him in shock. “What?! How were you able to do that trick?!” He asked. “Practice, and a lot of patience when learning it,” answered Twilight proudly. Celestia smiled proudly at her student. Solar growled angrily as his horn started to glow again. Twilight saw this and figured that she may be able to try and reason with him before it was too late. “Look, Solar…” But before she could say anything else, Solar shot a magic beam at Twilight which she managed to dodge by teleporting with her magic and reappearing after the beam was gone. Celestia was getting more and more worried about Twilight after Solar tried to shoot a beam at her. “Solar Eclipse is gone!” Solar shouted, “There is only Midnight Crown! And there’s no way you can save Equestria or anywhere you can hide, Twilight Sparkle! Not from me, and not from Ardyn!” “I would listen to him, Princess.” Twilight saw Ardyn walked towards them. Ardyn stood by Solar before saying, “No matter where you go, where you try to hide or try to stop me, I’ll always be back. Until I have what I want.” Twilight flew back to the ground while glaring at Ardyn. “I don’t care what it is you’re doing. But whatever it is, leave Lightning Twister out of it! He’s got nothing to do with you or the darkness you want!” “Oh I’m afraid he does,” said Ardyn, “Like I said, his darkness is what I need to become the rightful king. You all thought it was gone after defeating The Storm King a second time, but unfortunately…you can’t get rid of the darkness.” Suddenly, they all heard a buzzing sound coming from the distance. They turned and saw Robotink and Agent Stone flying in a egg-holder shape pod with a net hanging at the bottom with the Young Six trapped in it. They were all struggling to break free, even Smolder tried to break the net with her teeth. “Good day, sir,” said Robotink playfully, “I believe I have found your child.” The evil doctor shows them Lightning in Agent Stone’s right hand as he struggled to break free from his hand. But it wasn’t any good. Twilight gasped in shock before shouting worriedly, “Lightning!” “Auntie Twilight!” Lightning shouted in fear, “Help us!” Gallus groaned while struggling in the net before saying, “Let us and our friend go, Egghead!” “My name’s not Egghead!” Robotink shouted angrily, “It’s Doctor Robotink! Why doesn’t anybody get that?!” “Because you have no hair and you’re flying in a pod that looks like an egg holder, Eggman!” Sonic said as he zoomed into the area with Tails and Knuckles following, “And you better let them go! All of them!” “Or else what, Sonic?” “I’ll…I don’t really know,” said Sonic. “Exactly! You don’t know what to do this time! For the first time ever! Hahahaha! And once Ardyn Izunia has this pony’s darkness, he’s going to give us exactly what we want! For me, to destroy you, take your powers, and now, take over this Equestria place and turn it into my empire!” “Y-You can’t do that!” Lightning said. “Oh really?” Robotink asked while turning and grinning at Lightning, “And why not?” “B-Because…because it’ll m-make e-everycreature sad.” “Aww…sad?” Robotink said mockingly, “And what are you going to do about it?” Lightning got more scared of Robotink and the way he was speaking to him, like how his father used to speak to him before Fluttershy took him in. “I…I-I don’t k-know.” “And you know why? Because you’re a dumb, little, crybaby pony!” That so triggered Smolder as her face got so angry that smoke came out of her nose. She used her claws to cut the net open. The net got lose making Sandbar and Yona fall to the ground, but Yona landed softly on her back with Sandbar landing softly on the yak’s belly. Gallus, Ocellus and Silverstream flapped their wings to keep them from falling. “Huh?!” Robotink saw what just happened to his net holding the students. Smolder angrily flew from underneath the pod, got close to Robotink and grabbed him by the suit before dragging him to close to her face showing him how angry she was. “Hey hey hey, chill!” Said Robotink putting his hands up, “These take hours to make! I can’t replace them!” “LIKE I CARE ABOUT YOUR OUTFIT!” Smolder shouted angrily, “HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT MY BOYFRIEND! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HE’S BEEN THROUGH?!” “Oh he’s your boyfriend? Oh how lovely! I do apologise for saying that to him. By the way, if he does sleep with you, does he often smell your breath while you’re both sleeping? I don’t really know much about dragons, but I bet it smells of bad cooking in there.” Smolder growled before pulling the doctor our from his pod and holding him in mid air. “Let’s see if you can float without your pod.” She growled. “Smolder, don’t!” Twilight called. “Doctor!” Agent Stone cried worriedly. “Don’t do anything, Stone,” said Robotink, “I wanna see how this goes.” He grins at the orange dragon, “Now look, I know you’re angry, but I’ll make this easy for you. You put me back in my pod, I’ll let your boyfriend go and talk to Ardyn about this. However, if you drop me, Agent Stone will lock him in a cage and make things easy for Ardyn.” Smolder glared at Robotink before looking at her boyfriend. She can see how scared he was due to him shaking in fear and tears foaming in his eyes. “So, dragon, what will it be?” Robotink asked while smiling playfully, “You’re gonna do the right thing and save your boyfriend? Hm?” Smolder looked back at Robotink. She let out a calm sigh before saying, “All right.” She placed Robotink back in his pod while he said, “Oh good girl! Such a good girl! They taught you well!” “Now let him go,” said Smolder. “Yeah, about that…I kept my fingers crossed!” Robotink showed Smolder his crossed fingers, he was hiding behind his back. He laughed while Smolder let out a gasp to what she just saw. “You actually fell for it! And I didn’t think you would!” He continued to laugh. Lightning suddenly bit Agent Stone’s hand. He yelled in pain before throwing him out of the pod. “No!” Smolder shouted worriedly before flying as she quickly as she could. She managed to catch him before he could reach the ground even further. “Gotcha!” “Stone, what have you done?! You let him go and dropped him!” “Well he bit me!” Agent Stone said crossly. “And that’s what you get for holding us as hostages!” Smolder called. “And this is for saying those horrible stuff about our friend!” Shouted Ocellus while turning into a bugbear. She used her bee size tail to dang against Robotink’s pod as it went flying away while spinning with Robotink and Agent Stone screaming. “I’m blasting off again!” The doctor shouted. Ardyn glared at what happened to Robotink. He snapped his fingers which made all the dark wolves disappear as Rainbow crashed into a tree as she was just about to punch the one she was fighting. The dark soldiers marched back to Ardyn making the heroes confused to what was going on. Shadow, Chrysalis and Lord Tirek went over to Ardyn. “Let’s go,” he said to his followers, “We’re leaving.” “Not before I show them who is the true prince for the throne!” Solar said angrily while pointing at the sisters. “You’ll get your chance, I promise,” said Ardyn while making a big purple circle around them all, including Solar. The pony glared at his ex-sisters as big purple flames popped up and faded away revealing that Ardyn and his legion were now gone. Smolder flew back down to the ground while gently holding her boyfriend as their friends went over to them with Ocellus turning back into her normal changeling form. Everyone else rushed over to them to make sure they were all okay after being captured by Robotink. “Are you lot okay?” Applejack asked. “Yeah, we’re okay,” answered Sandbar, “Sorry for landing on your belly, Yona.” “No need to apologise. Yona love boyfriend and friends landing safely on belly!” Yona smiled. Fluttershy gently took Lightning out of Smolder’s arms and carefully cradled him close to her. “Are you alright, sweetheart?” “I-I think so,” the poor colt replied while shaking a bit, “He d-dropped m-me. A-And my wings s-still h-hurt. I-I could h-have hurt m-myself.” “Oh little bug,” said Twilight softly while gently stroking his mane, “It’ll be okay. Your wings will be better soon, and you’re safe now.” Lightning rested his head on his mother’s chest and nuzzled it. Fluttershy gently gave her son a kiss on the mane as she continued to hold her son. This gave Twilight time to talk to Celestia and Luna about Solar before they can all continue on. “Celestia, Luna, is it true that the pony we just faced was Solar Eclipse?” “I’m afraid so, Twilight,” said Luna, “But it seems he’s in more anger than ever.” “And filled with a lot of darkness,” added Celestia, “Something I hoped to never happen to him after disappearing.” Discord appeared near the princess of the sun while saying, “Well, you two did refused to accept what he did for all three of you. And you did gave up looking for him to try and help him become what he is now.” Celestia stared angrily at Discord as she gave him a massive punch in the face which made he fall to the ground and made everyone, including Luna and Doctor Strange, look at her in shock. “Tia!” Luna said in shock. “He had it coming.” “Fair point.” “Come on,” said Constantine while summoning the golden grasp map in his hand, “We’re not that far from the Tree of Life. We should keep going before it gets dark.” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Fluttershy gently placed Lightning on Silverstream’s back as she carefully kissed him on the forehead. They all began making their way forward to where the map said to go, with Discord flying by them while rubbing his cheek after that punch. Back at the Ardyn’s castle, the purple flames popped up as Ardyn and his followers walked out of the flames before they disappeared to the ground. Ardyn angrily snapped his fingers making Robotink and Agent Stone appear from the pod as they fell to the ground. Agent Stone groaned while slowly getting up before helping Robotink up. “You okay, doctor?” “Get your hands off me, Stone,” said Robotink while slapping Agent Stone’s hands so he can get them off him, “Scientists don’t need help from humans.” “Actually, Robotink, you do need help,” said Ardyn making both Robotink and Agent Stone turn and saw him walking angrily to him, “Because I, for one, am not a normal human!” He summoned a knife and points it at Robotink. “This is not going to go well for him,” said Chrysalis. “You’re next!” Ardyn said to her, which made her scared and nervous, before turning back to Robotink, “We’ve could have that colt right here by now! But instead, your agent dropped him and letting that teenage dragon save him, but also, letting that changeling send you flying away!” “I did say he bit me!” “Shut up!” Ardyn shouted. “How do you know she’s a teenager?” Lord Tirek asked, “She could have been a young adult.” “She was around sixteen years old,” said Ardyn while annoyingly looking at Lord Tirek. “Still looked like a young adult,” said Chrysalis. “Shut up, Chrysalis!” Shouted Ardyn angrily making Chrysalis step back a bit. “Ouch.” Ardyn turned back to Robotink and asked, “You didn’t think to just take only Lightning Twister and put him in a cage or something?” “I wasn’t told that,” answered the doctor, “I was only told to just capture him and bring him to you unharmed and alive.” “Along with those creatures that are his friends?” “Well, they could have done something and stop me from bringing the pony to you,” replied Robotink, “I was just thinking we could hold them as prisoners.” “Don’t you know anything about prisoners? If you keep someone as prisoner, they can find a way to break out and stop you,” said Lord Tirek. “Yeah, that…that never happened,” said Chrysalis while nervously moving her eyes left to right, hoping none of the other villains know that she’s been there. Ardyn glared back at Robotink as he made his knife disappear in purple smoke before saying, “Seeing as we are losing much time here, how long will it take for you lot to actually get your acts together and bring me that colt?! Chrysalis, you’re good at this sort of thing! How come you couldn’t have just taken him instead of fighting your son?!” “I have a thing where I get angry when someone betrays me,” replied Chrysalis, “Plus I was only good at capturing ponies when I had all of my changelings with me.” “So capturing Luna and Cadence wasn’t done by yourself then?” “Well that was easy for me to do alone since they didn’t put the shield up before knowing there was an invasion going on, and Luna was going to get in the way at some point.” “And you did not think to even try to do it alone since you don’t have them on your side anymore?” Lord Tirek asked. Chrysalis glared at Tirek and was just asked to say something when Ardyn shouted, “Enough!” The two turned back to him and saw he had an angry look on his face. “I still need that child, and if you can’t help me no matter what you can do, then I’ll just send you back where you were before and put an end to our deal!” “No!” Chrysalis said quickly in fear, “Not there! Anywhere but there! I refuse to go back there!” “Please don’t send us back!” Lord Tirek begged, “I can’t stand it there, and Cozy Glow is so annoying when we were all there!” “Are you going to actually help this time?” “Yes!” The two answered in fear. “You better, because I won’t have anymore mistakes or anymore excuses to why you can’t do this or that. Those lot can ruin everything by the time they save Lightning Twister. Not only that, but Kion’s son, the future king and leader of the Night Pride, is the next lion to have the roar of the past rulers! He can use it to stop us! And if he does uses the roar on one of us, we’ll be taking them out one villain down!” “Roar of the past rulers?” Agent Stone asked. “It’s similar to the roar of the elders but more stronger, and can defeat any threat that harms the Tree of Life or the Circle of Life,” answered Ardyn, “Now I suggest you will get ready for when we next attack while I go and figure out what to do next. Midnight, Shadow, with me.” Ardyn walked out of the room with Midnight and Shadow following him. The doors close behind them leaving just Chrysalis, Tirek, Robotink and Agent Stone looking worriedly at each other. If what Ardyn just said to them about the roar was true, then not only will they lose Ardyn’s deal, but end up back to where they were before the deal. Chrysalis gulped nervously while sweating in fear. The heroes managed to continue on walking to the Tree of Life as the sun was still in the sky. They were walking through the forest without knowing that the further they went past the trees, some started to have a pit of snow on the branches and leaves. And without even noticing or hearing anything, a white owl was spying on them before flying away. As they went through the last bunch of trees, they saw a big brown mountain up ahead which had some patches of snow on edge mini cliff sides and on top of it. “Is this it?” Asked Tails, “Are we close to the Tree of Life?” “According to the map, we should be here,” said John before making his magic grasp map disappear. They all looked around the area and saw no tree, no kingdom or no leaders, but just the mountain, the trees behind them and lots of snow around them. “You sure this is it?” Asked Rainbow, “Doesn’t look anything like a Tree of Life kingdom to me.” “Yeah,” agreed Pinkie, “Where’s the big tree? Where’s the rulers?” “Also, why is there snow around here?” Asked Tom, “Have we been going around in circles?” “Better not,” said Jacob, “Not sure how long I can take with all this walking.” “Look, everyone,” said John, “I can assure you, the map said this is where the Tree of Life is. I can promise you that. We just need to find where the leaders are. That’s how we know we’re in the right place.” Suddenly, they all heard tiny rocks falling of the mountain and landing in the snow making them look up at the mountain. They started looking around the place, seeing what it was that made the rocks fell, until they saw a shadow running up on the mountain and disappearing. Flurry Heart started to get scared as she hugged her brother’s hoof for protection. Lightning shook in fear while hugging Silverstream’s neck, not wanting to be separated from her. “S-Silverstream, I’m s-scared!” “Shhh…it’s okay, little cutie,” said Silverstream softly while gently rubbing the colt’s mane, “I’ve got you. Nothing’s gonna hurt you.” Just then, a sound of growling was heard as it echoed from the distance on top of the mountain. Silverstream and Ocellus slowly walked backwards with Lightning hiding in the hippogriff’s mane in fear. While still looking forwards and walking backwards, they didn’t know what was behind them until they bumped into something that felt like…a muzzle. With a worriedly expression on their faces, while Lightning had a scared expression on his face, both him, Silverstream and Ocellus slowly turned round to see what was behind them. And what was behind them made Silverstream, Ocellus and Lightning go into shock. There, standing in front of them, was a large grey hippo with a tiny dark grey mane on his head. He stared at the three for a few seconds before smiling at them while saying, “Hi.” Silverstream, Ocellus and Lightning screamed in fear.