//------------------------------//
// Resurrected Monsters 
// Story: The New Brotherhood of Darkness 
// by JeckParadox 
//------------------------------//

			"It is done." Axonn said with finality. He pried Kanohi Olmak from his face and crushed it in his hands. He then gave the shards to Mata Nui, who took them in his avatar's hand and created a liquid around them. They pulsed, shifted, and changed color, eventually becoming a broken kanoka disk. He then gave it back to Axonn. 
"Axonn, keep this safe, from now on it is your responsibility, make sure it is never crafted into a mask again."
"This will be my sacred duty." Axonn bowed deeply, and placed his mask of truth back on his face. He then bowed again. "Mata Nui... I have doubted you. I find that Makuta was indeed telling the truth."
He turned to Roodaka. "But what seems strange is that you were as well... how? You betrayed the brotherhood of Makuta."
"I betrayed the brotherhood, the collection of blackmailed monsters, and pitted them against the dark hunters, a collection of greedy fallen warriors. Teridax may have formed and even controlled that organization, but even my meddling helped him accomplish his goal. He is the only one I admire, the only one whose life I consider greater than my own."
"Hmm..." Mata Nui said, causing both members of the order to turn to him. "I now have reason to doubt my brother's resolve."
"You do not. His life is worth more than mine. His species were killed, sacrificed so he could become the Great Spirit. And that plan, our millenia upon millenia long plan, failed. He has nothing here for him, even me. I'm part of your order now... perhaps that is betrayal in itself."
"You are not a traitor to help the brother of your lover."
"...Thank you, Great Spirit."
"So... we now live in a world without Makuta."
"But not without evil." Axonn said, thinking of his brother's corrupted form still at large.
"We have work to do." Mata Nui said, and he got up from his position and faded into light. 
Roodaka looked at the gravity kanoka on the ground and frowned. She moved her hand to her breast, where a single shard of cracked crystal protodermis lie, forever embedded in her chest, the symbol of her sacrifice for Teridax. She knelt down next to the disk that held her lover in place and scratched a circle, and then made two lines in it, the first letter of Makuta's name. "Stay where you are Teridax, and prosper." 

Luna paced uncertainly back and forth on the great balcony that served as the Princesses' personal landing strip. Her sister had left her in charge, and she could sense that the darkness was getting closer. She ordered her guards to their posts throughout the castle, the balcony, and the city itself. "Howler, have you received any message from my sister?"
Howler simply shook his head, his bat-like armor jostled in response. "No Mistress, but our magic detectors have noticed that your sister has spent a huge amount of magic in the last minute."
"What?! Was she in a battle or-" Luna let out a sigh of relief as she spotted her sister's carriage coming closer, but the relief became something else, she could feel the darkness emanating from whatever was in that vehicle. She flew out to meet it, and the Pegasi guards pulling it nodded to the Princess of the Night. 
"What's that thing?" Luna asked, inspecting the source of darkness, an alien metal. 
"I'm not sure, but Celestia said that it ate her magic."
"What?!" Luna lifted it up with her own magic, but the blue began turning to a purple-red. Luna screamed, and then laughed, her magic being eaten and then replenished with stronger, darker, magic. With a great push of will she managed to drop it into the carriage again. "Th-that was incredible..." 
"Sister!" Celestia shouted, painfully taking to the sky to meet with her sister. "Please don't tell me you-"
"She lifted it." the Pegasus guard said quietly.
"With magic?"
"Yes." Said Luna. "And it was incredible... and addictive. I think we may have to get rid of this thing. I don't know how I'll be able to stand being in the same building as it... you don't know the magic this thing holds sister..."
"Well, it knows mine, I lifted it up the same way and it started eating my magic."
"Eating it?"
"That's what it felt like... like something was pushing into me and taking bites out of my magic."
"Hmm... should we have our unicorns research this object or-"
"Your Highness, a visiting dignitary has made an urgent request of your presence." A Guard flew up to her, panting. 
"What? I didn't have any plans for today... who is it? A dragon lord? Saddle Arabians?"
"I... don't know. It looks like something that crawled up from Tartarus..." The guard shivered. "He says it is extremely urgent, or he would have made an appointment before hand... please come quickly, the servants are afraid to be in the same room as him..."
Celestia looked at the mask, and then to the guard. "Luna, please take care of that mask, have it analyzed by our specialists and then locked up somewhere, have nopony use their magic on it directly, only indirectly, to scan it."
"Of course." 
Celestia sighed and made her way down the steps. "What's the likelihood of two things of this magnitude happening  at once?"

Makuta decided he would try and be courteous, so he waited inside the tree's shadow for the street to clear, and then rose out of it. He knocked on the door three times and stood at attention. The head of an archives was a very important position, one that could belong to only the most honored of Onu-matoran. And a student of the princess as well. This must be a very important individual, and deserves a show of respect. So as the door opened Makuta gave a short bow. "Hello Archivist."
"Eeeeekkkk!" The purple being slammed the door shut, so Makuta sighed and shadowed his way in. The purple horned creature turned to him, a strange object pointed at him, and she was breathing quickly, close to hyperventilation. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"
Makuta answered in a quiet voice. "I am a royal from another land, I've heard that you are very close to the Princess, and I need to make a meeting with her as soon as possible."
"Wait... you want me to talk to the Princess?"
"Yes. As soon as possible."
"But... so, you aren't here to kill me?"
"No. Do I have reason to?"
The being slowly got up and moved to the other side of the room, letting the object she was holding float back to the desk. She took out a parchment and a bottle of black liquid, then pulled out the object again, she dipped it into the liquid, and then dragged the object across the parchment. It was a pen. Makuta silently came closer to watch what she was writing, and it wasn't a language he recognized. "What's your name?"
"Makuta Teridax."
The being gave him a surprised look and then flinched to see how close he had gotten. "Really? That's... an unusual name."
"What is yours?"
"Twilight Sparkle."
"Hm." Teridax nodded. "It's a fine name." He looked back at the pen and the parchment, and was curious to see how the pen was moving, was it automatic? Or was the being controlling it with telekinesis? "How are you sending this to Celestia?"
The being gave him a nervous smile. "I'll show you. Spike! Could you come in here please?" 
"Sure Twilight, what's the -Oh sweet Celestia what is that?!"
Makuta looked at the small being. A child? Perhaps they start out as bipeds, then as they age they lose their scales and go down to four feet... seems like it should be the other way around. Twilight noticed Makuta simply staring at Spike and whispered "Spike is a dragon, but he's just a baby dragon, he's harmless."
That thing was not a dragon. He had killed dragons, he had been dragons, that thing was not a dragon. "Ah, of course."
"This is Mahkuuda... Tare-dacks? He's a foreign royal who wants to speak to the princess."
"So he came to Ponyville library?" The Dragon lifted his eyebrow.
"Was this not the correct course of action? Archivist Twilight Sparkle has a way to directly contact the princess. Who else in this town could do that?"
"He has a point." Twilight let a little smile of pride show. 
"But why would a royal visit Ponyville in the first place? It's not exactly an important place." 
"If it's not why is the Princess's personal student here?"
"To study the magic of friendship," Twilight said. 
Makuta stared at her. "Magic... of 'friendship'?"
"Yep, I stay here and have adventures with my friends and then I send letters to princess Celestia about them."
Teridax looked from the Dragon to Twilight. "But the Princess does listen to you, right?"
"Of course, I'm her most faithful student."
So she's staying here with her friends, sounds reasonable. "Tell the Princess the matter is urgent. It has to deal with relations between her and my  empire."
"Alright." Twilight scratched a bit more at the paper with the pen and then placed it back on the desk, and wrapped up the message. "Spike, if you would." The Dragon sighed and blew a stream of green fire over the scroll. 
"Thank you miss Sparkle, I will remember your services." Makuta turned as if to go. 
"You don't want to wait for her message back?"
"This is very urgent, I simply didn't want to arrive unannounced."
Twilight considered for a second. "I'll go with you."
"Huh?" Spike asked. 
"I want to learn more about him... or her, I... can't really tell." She said, embarrassed. 
Makuta turned his head up. "I am above simple things like 'gender'... but I was born male, and have male organic DNA." 
"Then 'him' will work?"
"If it must."
"See, so much to learn!"
"Twilight, it's a death machine. Obviously. It has spikes, it's made of curved black and red metal, it moves silently, it has claws like mine." Spike held up his hand. "And it mysteriously shows up in your library not knowing it's a library."
"Spike, you're just being paranoid." She turned to Makuta, "You wouldn't hurt a fly." She didn't have time to gasp as a finger was flicked across her forehead. Spike yelled as Twilight landed next to him, a flick somehow sending her across the room. 
"Twilight!?!" Spike turned to Makuta. "What did you do to her?!"
"She'll live." Makuta said simply. "Just like you." 
"What!?" Spike was sent against the wall as well, a large bruise on his forehead. Makuta checked the door to make sure it was locked and shadowed his way out. It was almost night, and the shadows were getting longer and darker, allowing him to travel across the miles from Ponyville to the city on the mountain in minutes. He arrived and quickly found the gates to the main castle, appearing before a crowd of beings, who dispersed and screamed when they saw him. 
He marched to the main desk where a single secretary remained bravely at his post. "I need to see the princess." Makuta said in a dark, deep voice. "Now."
The secretary only nodded and marked several documents, then pushed them to the side, "G-g-go to the room on your l-left. Sh-she'll be with you sh-shortly."
"Thank you." Makuta walked up to the door and faded into shadow, just in case there was a trap in there waiting for him. 

"This... this is great! Finally, another being of pure darkness! Together we'll rule the world!"
"Shut up Sombra." Cadence said, standing outside the cell, concentrating on her spell keeping Sombra inside it. 
"Never. You'll tire eventually, you'll collapse, and then I'll be free, and this new power and I will conquer the world!"
Cadence called for the nearest guard. "Has a message been sent to Celestia yet?"
"No ma'am. I apologize, we've been trying to keep the citizens calm, and our crystal messenger hawks are busy flying messages between guard posts."
"Why do you call yourself an empress, Cadence? You don't even have a standing army, heck, you don't have an empire, a single, powerful, fortress-like city, but that's it. You might be a queen, but not an empress."
"Shut. Up. You over-glorified witch."
"Witch?! Really Cadence, I use dark magic, but I haven't made a contract with anything. Are you really so paranoid as to believe that whatever you don't understand is witchcraft?"
"Whatever, just... please be quiet so I can contain you in peace."
"Maybe we can bring your husband here, did he ever really heal after I crystallized all the alicorn in his horn?" The field shook. "Oh? Not so full of love now, are we?"
"Be quiet...." 
"Silence!" Cried the guard. 
Sombra reclined in his cell, his inky form beginning to solidify, becoming a gray coat and a black mane. The unicorn that single-hoofedly conquered and enslaved an entire race and their 'empire'. He bared his carnivorous teeth, reminding her that the thing before her was no pony. It was a monster, maybe not a witch, but something evil and dark and monstrous and pretending to be a neighbor. 
"Oh Cadence, that look on your face is priceless, and the longer you make it the more clearly I can see it, after all, your shield is fading because of that." He stepped up to the shield and put a hoof up to it, it sizzled and a bit of smoke came off of it, but Sombra didn't change expression or even flinch as his hoof was partially eaten passing through the shield. "You know Cadence, I've always wondered why it is your magic hurts me. I think I've found out why." He gave her an evil grin. "You love everything, even Changelings I've heard. But not me. Because I tortured your crystal pony ancestors? No, because I'm scary? No." He came closer, his face pressing on the shield. "You're afraid to love me, because you think, even if I love those other creatures it won't hurt me. But if I sympathize in the slightest with... this, you'll be corrupted into something you don't want to be. Well Cadence, I have only one thing to say. You're right." He rammed himself through the shield and didn't flinch as he was partially burned away. 
Cadence and her guard looked at each other as Sombra regenerated in an instant. He licked his fangs and smiled at the two of them. "Hello, my crystal slaves."

"Hello, I apologize for your wait." Celestia had stopped by her office and received a letter of introduction from Twilight, strangely, it was pertaining to her newest guest. "So, Mack-you-duh Tear-rid-axe, Twilight's letter said you wanted to speak about your empire's relations with mine... what empire exactly?" She lifted her eyes to the monster before her and din't flinch. She had seen things that were scarier.
"I'm here to ask you how to get started with that." Makuta looked at her and frowned, she was a familiar of the light. But she was powerful, he could tell that at least, and sensible, and capable of fear.
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Please explain."
"I propose an alliance. I plan on creating my own empire, probably nearby. And I'd like to assure that I don't plan of making an enemy of Equestria if I don't need to."
"As long as you treat your subjects well, don't openly attack any of our allies, and it's outside our borders you won't have a problem."
"Now, I have several problems with this. We most likely have different definitions of 'well', 'Equestria's allies'. Also, I do plan on including a portion of Equestria in my empire." Makuta said, eyeing the map behind Celestia. Drawing borders in his mind. 
"Why have you come into my castle and make multiple threats against my country and people?!"
"Simple, I propose to you a deal. You agree to allow me to become part of your court, your closest adviser... or you make me your greatest enemy."
"Leave my office." 
Makuta got up and walked to the door. But as he turned his spines tingled, and he felt the need to obey. Something was wearing the Kanohi Kraahkan, and his Rahkshi body was trained to obey it. "You have my mask." He said quietly. 
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "You mean that twisted piece of evil metal?"
"YOU HAVE MY MASK! MY SOUL!" Makuta didn't know why he was so angry about this, is it because of his Rahkshi body's worship for it? Or is it that it was his sole possession in this world? "RETURN IT IMMEDIATELY!"
But another being like Celestia walked in, tall, one with a horn and wings. And she wore Makuta's mask. And she had a black coat.
"Luna?" Celestia asked, all the breath sucked out of her.
"I'm so sorry sister. I couldn't keep away. It called for me. And it said it loved the night, and would make it last forever... and it gave me the power to do so." A bolt of blue lightning shot at Celestia, who was knocked to the other side of the room. Makuta however, wouldn't let this bother him, and jumped foolishly for the mask, whisking it off the being's face and onto his own. It cried out and tackled him, but he barely moved, he was almost a ton of metal with perfect balance and a gigantic amount of power, why would a horse tackling him bother him in the slightest? Lighting bolts were another matter entirely though. 
Makuta was shot backward  by a few bolts, And then the other being tackled him again, and he got a clear look at her turquoise, dragon-pupil eyes. He then reached forward and took her neck in his hand, and began crushing. The other one stormed at him, the princess he thought, and began burning him with a beam of pure light. He kicked a hole in the wall and threw the sister through it, jumping after her. Celestia screamed. "LUNA!!!" Makuta turned around and assumed flight position, readying himself for impact on the many towers and pedestals of the city below. He noticed that in a second she'd meet with one of the spires. And her death, impaled on it. He considered it for a few miliseconds, and dove forward, grabbing the unconscious being moments before she would have met the spike. With his mask, a captive, and a new enemy, Makuta decided to make a tactical retreat.

Luna and her guards were making their way toward the magical investigation lab, and she was trying her hardest to ignore the object, but the feeling inside her, calling for the object, was gnawing in her belly. But about halfway down she began hearing a voice in her head. 'put it on.' 
"Did you hear anything?" Luna asked her guards quickly, the all said no silently. 'Put it on.' "Are you sure? It sounds like someone's calling to me..." 'Luna, put it  on, it's a mask, put it on. It'll look beautiful on you.' Luna had stopped and began looking around for the source of the faint voice. Her guards also began searching and listening for what was upsetting their princess. 'It loves the night, Luna, it shapes the stars as well, it sees beauty in darkness, and uses it's power just as you do. Put it on Luna.'
"Shut up! Be quiet!" Luna screamed. She realized she was holding the mask, and in fear she threw it to the side. She fluttered to the opposite side of the hall and looked at the curves and holes in the object. 'It forgives you Luna, just put it on, and everything will become clearer, just put it on Luna. Put it on Luna, put it on I command you! I spent a millenia on the moon for you Luna, put on the mask!'
"No, nononononono!"
But she had begun lifting the mask to her, and she frowned as the voice in her head laughed at her. 'I have more power than I thought. You are truly weak Luna, to let me take control of your magic like this...' The mask was lifted to her head, and it sealed itself to her face, her magic being recycled by it, being replenished by it. Inside this mask was more magic than every unicorn and alicorn and zebra in Equestria put together. And it was pure darkness, the abyss. Kraahkan. It said. Forged in the bowels of Artahka, blessed with control of pure darkness, gifted to the greatest of all of Mata Nui's creations, his only possible heir, and now, now she was part of it, a servant of it, of Makuta. She bowed to her invisible master, and thanked him for the mask. Her guards gasped as her coat turned black, as her wings became sharpened, as her eyes narrowed and became dragon-like. She was their dark and beautiful queen Nightmare Moon.
"Hello, my little ponies, remember me?" She said in the royal Canterlot voice. "I would think you should run outside and look at the sunset. It's the last time you'll see it, after all."
The guards looked at each other and galloped away as fast as they could. "What good little sun-loving cowards they all are." And she wrapped herself in her mane and spirited to the other side of the  castle, to where her sister was. She reappeared outside of the office. She opened the door, and at the sight of her sister, Luna broke free just a little bit. "I'm so sorry sister. I couldn't keep away. It called for me. And it said it loved the night, and would make it last forever... and it gave me the power to do so." But Nightmare Moon pushed her back down and launched a bolt at Celestia, who was too shocked to dodge, then a mechanical hand, one that was familiar in the mask's memories, reached out and ripped it from her face, she cried out in pain and tackled the mechanical being. But after it barely gave she launched a few bolts at him, then tried tackling him again as he was in the air from the hits. But he grabbed her neck and crushed the air out of it. She gasped and fell into unconsciousness. 
She thought she heard Celestia crying for Luna.
Then something was pulling her away from falling. And then there was grass. And she awoke, but not giving any sign that she did. Just observing through sound. Heavy, but balanced and graceful footfalls, and from the longing inside her she knew the mask was near. When she was sure that the creature was facing opposite from her she got up silently. It was a Rahkshi, a fellow servant of- fellow servant?! When did she become it's servant?! The Rahkshi was one of darkness, she was no longer connected to the mask, but she managed to grasp that memory among the ones that were slowly disappearing from her. Including her servitude to him.
The Rahkshi turned around, and it was wearing... no, its face was the Kanohi Kraahkan. She was standing before Makuta. But she did not bow, she was free of the mask now. But she let a shiver go up her spine. 



"What are you?"
"My name is Nightmare Moon. I am the Queen of Equestria, and not Regent, but owner, of the night. Though many know me to be the insane alter-ego of Princess Luna."
"You have an essence of darkness in you only present in Makuta." Teridax said. "Tell me, makuta of this dimension, or closest thing to it, will you serve me?"
"I am a Queen, you are nothing but a-"
"I was a universe once." He said. "And even if I may never be that again. I am still the most powerful thing I've come into contact with in this universe. And if you aren't with me, I think you would be too dangerous to allow to exist otherwise. Be my soldier, and my daughter, or be my victim. Your choice." Makuta was emotionless in feature, but his glowing, deadly red eyes showed an evil and power that frightened her. 
"I... I will accept being your daughter... But I will not bow to you."
"Will you try and betray me?"
"N-n-no. I... I have too much love for my own life."
Makuta's eyes frowned. "Fine. You are Makuta Nightmare Moon. Act as such, with pride, and to fulfill my will and your own." He put a mechanical hand on her shoulder and gripped it. "You are also my major source of information in this world." He took one step toward the horizon, and the sunset made his body a silhouette of black. A monstrous, commanding shadow appeared behind him. And Nightmare Moon stepped out of it in fear. "So... where do we begin in our new empire, Nightmare?"

The Crystal 'Empire' fell in an hour. Every single citizen was traumatized. Every single one. They all feared him, he crippled the Emperor and nopony had seen the Empress in the entire time. The guards fought bravely, but Sombra merely made himself into a wave of darkness that washed over the guards. When it passed they were filled with a liquid blackness that made them cry out their various fears. He was proud to note that many of them in fact screamed 'Sombra' when they faced their own fears. 
He spirited up the many staircases and when he came to his throne, he smiled, and reclined into it. He raised a piece of crystal into his sight using his darkness as a tentacle. He examined it in every direction, the crystal heart. It was the crystal incarnation of love, just as the elements were the crystal incarnations of harmony and friendship. He wanted to destroy it, but he found it was impossible... at least for him. Perhaps this new darkness could figure out a way. He almost giggled at the thought of there being another evil overlord around. But he caught himself and did a gravelly evil laugh instead.
He spun it around and around, he wanted to throw it into a pit, or bury it in a completely random spot in the desert, so remote that nopony could ever find it by chance. But he needed it close by... or did he? He looked around the room, trying to find anything that could be spying on him.  Satisfied that there was no such spies, he brought a book into existence. "Evil Overlording for Foals" by Author Unknown. He flipped through the pages and came to the section on superweapons, then went down to 'secret weaknesses-your's, and why they have to be kept secret.'. He looked the section up and down until he found the phrase he needed. "Every weakness has a special place, if your weakness is an ancient artifact, don't leave it in a temple guarded by traps and labors and monsters on the other side of the globe, keep it close to you, but very well protected, and unable to be accessed by anypony but you. Suggestions; a simple, or rather, as complicated as possible safe, magically and physically locked, even permanently sealed. If your weakness is also your super weapon, then keep it in the safest place possible, and only use it when absolutely necessary."
Sombra examined the heart and began making preparations for the safe. He had kept it fairly well-protected before. He had a trap that forced the rebel trying to take the heart to stay imprisoned, and whenever one of his friends helped it would stab them and drive them off, a betrayal machine! And he wiped out all traces of the heart's existence. All except for a lone history book, which he left in existence at the begging of the librarian. And even in that he ripped out all the important parts relating to anything that could beat him. Heck, all that he left about the festival were the stupid party games. He brought his checklist into existence and wrote 'remove all traces of stupid party games and festival activities'. It might save his life the next time he was overthrown. Though, to be fair, being overthrown had helped him quite a bit. He had been given an extra thousand years to live, and he had been given the ability to store his soul in his shadow as part of his imprisonment, and by keeping just a tiny part of him extremely well protected, his horn, even if he was burned to death, his horn would survive, and it's shadow. And thus him. 
He wondered if the other evil had an overlording hoofbook. Probably not. Sombra sighed. Not everypony was so naturally terrible at evil that they needed a guide.
He was scary to Cadence and the crystal ponies though, and he did re-conquer the Crystal Empire. And he did all of that without checking the guide.
Maybe he was a worthy evil overlord after all.