The ruins of Opaline’s ancient castle had collapsed when the together tree that the alicorn had been trying to use for her own, dark, twisted purposes had grown into a massive, beautiful thing that stretched into the sky, its blossoming flowers and jade green leaves spreading across the branches and casting calming shadows down onto the stone bridge that jutted out from the side of the cliff. The tree, Sunny knew, could also create portals, because it was there that her friends had gotten sucked into one and transported to Starlight Ridge.
But that portal had been a calm, swirling vortex only a little bigger than a pony. It wasn’t threatening, it wasn’t terrifying, and above all, even though it was strange, it looked natural. Like it was supposed to be there - made by magic for a purpose.
Whatever was there now was most certainly magical - but it was definitely not natural.
Sunny stood on the stone bridge at the edge of what could only be described as a jagged tear in the fabric of the world.
The edges were sharp and dark, hissing as they met the natural world. The rip was as long as the together tree was tall, stretching across into open air. The world was wrinkled and warped around the edges of the rip, as if it had been pushed aside to make room for this. Within it sparkled a menacing magenta light that rose from a bottomless fall. There was a feeling around the tear, the same kind of heavy, ancient magic that was familiar to Sunny, although she couldn’t remember where she had felt it before.
Whatever this was, it was something bad - very bad.
Sunny took a deep, steadying breath and took a step back. The aura around the rip was so strong, so powerful, that she felt drawn to it. She knew that, if she wasn’t careful, she might just topple inside and never come out. She wondered where it went, if it did go anywhere. Maybe whatever fell inside disintegrated into the dark, malevolent magic that powered the tear in the first place.
“Okay, Sunny,” she muttered to herself. “You’ve got this. This must be where the wolves are coming from. Now you just need to find them and get your friends back. Easy as pie. Or cake. Or smoothies.” She took a few more steps back. “You’ve got this. Your friends need you.”
Suddenly, she heard a howl from the horizon, and Sunny gasped, turning around to see dark shapes galloping toward her at lightning speed. She ran to one of the last remaining turrets from Opaline’s lair and ducked behind it, her heart hammering in her chest.
The together tree hummed, and lightning flashed overhead. Sunny’s eyes widened as a portal opened in the tree, and a ram stepped out.
He was as tall as the sky, or so it seemed to Sunny, with shockingly blue fur and piercing red eyes that gleamed with evil intent. His two massive horns curled around the sides of his head and were crackling with yellow light and black lightning. Around his neck was a red halter with a rusty old bell attached - a bell that Sunny recognized. The bell and the ram both seemed to reek of the same ancient power that Sunny felt around the portal-rip. The creature leaped over the massive tear in reality and landed with a shaking thud on the other side.
Between terrified heartbeats, Sunny knew exactly who this was: Grogar, the ancient ram who created his bell, which the Legion of Doom had tricked Sunny into bringing to them when she was under their control. Somehow, he must have gotten ahold of it after the Legion of Doom was defeated.
And now he’s here? Sunny’s mind screamed in panic. How? And why? And how?
But her ponderings were interrupted again by the arrival of the wolves.
Dozens - no, hundreds - of them came pouring over the hills and assembled in front of the bridge, their dark paws prancing anxiously and their unnerving eyes unblinking. In the blood red light of the setting sun, they seemed all the more terrifying.
One wolf, larger than all the rest, stepped through the ranks, and the others parted to let it pass. It stopped on the bridge, at the edge of the rip, before Grogar, where it promptly sank into a bow with all of the other wolves following suit.
Master of shadows and darkness, the largest wolf said, although Sunny couldn’t see its mouth moving. It spoke inside her head, in twisting words that wormed their way into her mind, simply reeking of wrongness and evil. She shuddered and put her hooves over her ears as if she could block the sounds altogether. We have strengthened our army as you have commanded, and every day we are sending more wolves through the portal. The ship is moving ever closer, and we have not yet found Sunny Starscout, but everything else is all according to plan. We await your next commands.
Sunny’s heart was beating so fast she could barely hear what Grogar was saying.
The massive ram nodded. “Good,” he said, his voice thrumming with ancient and deadly power. “I want you to increase the number that you send through, but in the meantime, the ponies of this land will have noticed by now that their rulers and protectors have gone missing. Before too much panic sets in, you may have free reign of the land. Gather as many as you can. We must make our army stronger.”
The wolf nodded and turned back toward the other wolves, but Grogar stopped it.
“Oh, and track down Sunny Starscout. As long as she’s out there, she’s dangerous. She may not have any of her friends, but she is powerful enough to fight back - and that makes her too powerful to be allowed to exist.”
Another nod. The wolf howled, a piercing note that seemed to split the sky and summon the dark night from the depths of the infinite void. The other wolves echoed the cry, and the night seemed to echo with the ringing of their sounds long after they turned and ran away.
Sunny took deep, yet hasty, breaths, trying to calm herself down. She listened for a moment, to make sure that no more wolves or rams were hanging around, then stood up and walked to the edge of the rip. Its pulsing magenta light illuminated her face in the darkening evening. She could sense the evil behind it, but something stronger seemed to call from within its depths… something that was heart-wrenchingly familiar to her.
She felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck, like she was being watched. Sunny tore her gaze away from the tear and looked around her, straining to see in the twilight.
“Hello?” she called nervously. “Is anypony there?”
Silence. And then, “You shouldn’t be here, little pony.” And Grogar stepped into the light.
He seemed even more menacing in the dark than he had earlier. The purple light cast shadows on his ancient face, causing his eyes to glimmer with maleovance as he stepped carefully down the stones of the bridge toward Sunny. Behind him, three wolves appeared; one was the largest of them all, the one who seemed to be in charge. Beneath their piercing gazes, Sunny could feel her mind start to slip away, but she held firm, glaring at Grogar, trying to find the courage to not run away screaming.
“Where are my friends?” she demanded.
Grogar laughed, the kind of laugh that made Sunny’s blood run cold. “They’re gone, Sunny Starscout. They aren’t coming back.”
“Yes they are!” Sunny screamed, a breeze blowing around her. “I have to get them back!”
“You won’t ever be getting them back, pony. They’re mine now. You’ve failed them again, haven’t you?”
Sunny took a step back, and her hoof slipped into the portal-rip. She regained her balance, but the words had stung true, and it must have shown in her pained expression. Grogar tipped his head to one side as he studied her, tsking disapprovingly.
“Yes, so much shame, so much guilt. You would make a wonderful pet, Sunny Starscout. Serve me, and you won’t have to worry about anything else. Your friends will forgive you. You can see your father again. Just give up hope and surrender.”
Just give up. Sunny wanted to laugh. As if there was anything she wanted to do more! But she couldn’t give up. She had no idea what the wolves would do to her, but she could guarantee that it would be worse for Equestria if she did give up. Just look at all of the damage the Legion of Doom had caused when Sunny surrendered to them - damage that her friends had only recently managed to clean up.
She couldn’t give up. She had to keep going.
And so Sunny planted her hooves firmly and stared down the ancient ram as Grogar came closer. “I don’t give up. Not anymore.”
“Really? Well, then, see how long you last.” Grogar took a step back, and the wolves came rushing forward.
Sunny almost leaped back, but with the portal right behind her, she had nowhere to go. She felt her alicorn form appear around her, the magic coming stronger, but even though this had always filled her with confidence and hope, now it made pure dread course through her veins. Her magic hadn’t been enough to save her friends - why should she use it now? Why did she think it could save her now, when it couldn’t even save the most important thing in the world to her?
Her wings and horn flickered in and out of existence as Sunny wrestled with herself. She ducked the swipe of one wolf’s paw and leaped over another one’s tail, escaping from the dead-end. Grogar stood at one end of the bridge, his horns lit, the black lightning crackling menacingly, and Sunny knew that she couldn’t go that way. But she couldn’t go back, either. There was nowhere to go except for the tear in reality… except…
Sunny clenched her eyes shut and allowed her alicorn form to solidify for just a moment. She spread her wings and flew over the tops of the wolves, lit up her horn, and blasted the together tree at the end of the bridge. “Maretime Bay!” she shouted, waiting for a portal to open up in the tree’s trunk to bring her home.
But the tree did nothing. Sunny could feel some dark force in her mind, could hear the sinister laugh of an old nemesis she thought she had defeated…
Opaline, she thought with dread.
At that moment, her wings and horn flickered and died, and Sunny plummeted out of the sky… toward the portal-rip.
“NO!” Grogar roared, leaping forward.
Sunny’s hoof managed to snag on the edge of the torn seam, and she clung to it desperately as the power of the portal tugged at her, trying to drag her down into its bottomless depths. Bits of rock and debris fell into the void and disappeared from sight.
The shadow wolves gathered at the edge, hesitating, uncertain.
“GRAB HER, YOU FOOLS!” Grogar bellowed, but he was still too far away to help.
One of the wolves lunged forward, its black existence expanding to become all Sunny could see, and she could feel it tugging at her mind, trying to find a way in-
Sunny did the only logical thing. She let go.
Grogar’s roars of fury and the wolves’ chilling howls echoed above her as she plummeted into the infinite darkness.