//------------------------------//
// Brotherhood of Makuta; Equestrian Division 
// Story: The New Brotherhood of Darkness 
// by JeckParadox 
//------------------------------//

	"So, these are Makuta's fortresses?"
"Yes, Great Spirit."
"They... the design is familiar, I know where he found his inspiration."
"Where?"
"Did I ever tell you how Makuta and I met? It was in the creation of the matoran 'universe'."
"Your body."
"Yes, the Great Beings constructed me, and created a multitude of races to keep me functioning, but as soon as my brain began working, I was allowed to fine-tune myself, as it were. I created several species to keep the Matoran working, species to bring variety, or to increase efficiency, in the end, I was being very selfish. I created the Makuta, or rather, Teridax in particular, planning on him being my body's immune system. They would oversee all the other creatures, and increase efficiency and destroy threats to my body, like the barraki, to do this... they were given ambitous, selfish, charismatic, and demanding personalities, ones that became more corrupted and evil as time passed. But they were supposed to keep even themselves in check. And they did... but it was reversed on me. When one Makuta stood up to the others and kept their impulses in check, I commended him, gave him more responsibility, one of the greatest Kanohi as well. But because of this added power, he turned against me, used his control of the makuta and rahi and Matoran to put me to sleep and steal my body."
"I apologize for my lack of patience, for truth, not patience is my virtue. But what does this have to do with the construction of Makuta's fortress?"
"It is like a tiny version of my body. The same complex simplicity, the same clunky perfection."
"Those are paradoxes."
"As is the nature of life." Mata Nui sighed. "He knew my body better than even I knew it. Even as I called him brother and put him above all the others of my creations, he knew my body better, and kept me safe from everything beside himself. I still am recovering from my reliance on him and the Makuta, I fear that I may have to create something similar to them in the future though."
"Surely the order is enough?"
"Perhaps... but I doubt it. Maybe the Skakdi or the Vortix."
"Those monstrous-"
"They are my creations, just as the toa are. I created them with just as much purpose and virtue. It takes selfishness and ruthlessness to keep me alive, as does mercy and selflessness."
"I... apologize, Great Spirit."
"I don't care, I just want you to know that. That inside Makuta lies the potential for him to be greater and more virtuous and yes, Axonn, good, than any Toa." He gestured toward the gigantic, almost living structure. "Imagine if I made him a architecture specialist before it was too late? He would be considered a legend among the Matoran, and they would aspire to be like him."
"But he chose the path of evil."
"He chose to protect my body, his purpose that I gave him, even if he had to erase it's mind and soul. But through that desire, yes he became, and is, evil." Mata Nui put his hand on the giant structure. "My brother, why couldn't you have simply retired and built towers for your lifetime?"

"Guards, come here immediately! Princess Luna has been captured by a creature called Mahk-yu-duh, and... put through a forced transformation into Nightmare Moon. I want you to disperse our troops, cover the entire countryside, and find them!" Celestia shouted. She turned to another guard. "I need you to contact Spitfire, I need to know how many Wonderbolts are ready to go at this moment." 
"Yes your Highness." The two guard said in unison, and then galloped off in two different directions. 
Celestia then readied her wings, and was about to take off, but another guard stopped her. "Princess, we need you here, in the hub of information."
"If we do manage to locate them... who would be able to take on Nightmare Moon other than me?"
"Nopony, but until it comes to that you must stay here."
"Hm. Thank you Rear."
"Think nothing of it your Highness."

"We should head to Everfree Forest." Nightmare Moon decided. "I have a fortress there. It hasn't been used in more than a thousand years but-"
"What does the age have to do with it? Could it have been overrun while you've been away? If so, it's not much of a fortress, is it?"
"It's more of a fortress than you have right now."
"That's fair. Lead the way."
"We'll have to fly." 
"I can fly."
"You can hover."
"Lead the way, and I'll follow."
Nightmare Moon nodded and took to the air, Makuta assumed flight position and followed after her. Soon they came to a forest, they made their way over a river and forest and cliffs Makuta had to jump. Eventually they came to some stone ruins. Nightmare Moon landed and looked over the ruins frowning. 
"This is your fortress?"
"It's had a thousand years of disuse!"
"So? Perhaps our versions of years are different."
"What do you mean?"
"I've had buildings that I spend millenia apart from sometimes." He walked up to a stone pillar and pushed it over without effort. "When I come back, there's been no difference. The materials in this universe are weak. Nothing is eternal." He suddenly turned back to Nightmare. "Tell me, what is the name of your race?"
"I am an Alicorn. A pony with wings and a horn."
"What is a pony?"
"Um... all the creatures like me, but most don't have wings and horns, they just have one or neither."
"So all of them are ponies. How old are you?"
"Um... well, I'm not sure myself, but Luna's body is easily thirty thousand years."
"Ha, you're younger than the youngest little ones. This is a very strange world, to be so young and yet decay so quickly."
"What do you mean, the world is young?"
"You're only thirty thousand years old."
"And?"
Makuta was dumbfounded. "The world  was created, and then you were, to raise the moon, and then all of the other ponies, right?"
"I... I have a lot to talk to you about."

"Princess, are you comfortable?"
"Go away." 
"Come now Princess, you're being  unreasonable. I've been a gracious host to you, given you everything you need, I even let your husband stay in the same room as you."
"Let me down!" Cried Shining Armor, stomping on the ceiling. 
"You can thank your sister for the gravity spell." Sombra gave an evil grin. "You'll all be happy to know I've been a kind King to your subjects, only four have collapsed of exhaustion so far."
"Monster!" Cadence screamed. 
Sombra merely smirked and licked his fangs. "Why thank you, but beside your 'comfort', I have an actual reason to speak with you."
"I don't want to speak to you at all."
"Did you send a message to Equestria?"
Shining Armor smiled. "So, you're fighting against my men." He shook his blue mane out of his eyes. "May the devil have mercy on you when you see him in a few days, or maybe hours."
"Oh please, he'll be begging me, and I'm not afraid of your team of over-glorified bodyguards, I'm reasonable about the size of a threat Celestia could potentially be." He brought Cadence close to him and breathed a cloud of smog into her eyes. "Did you contact her?"
"I won't tell."
Sombra pulled a spear of shadow out of nothing, and threw it at the ceiling, it collided an inch away from Shining Armor's hoof. "No? Then you don't really love him." He made another spear appear, and he swung it back and forth maliciously. "Because, if you don't tell me, and make me believe, whether you contacted her or not, I'm going to cut off his legs, one by one."
Cadence shrunk back and let out a gasp, but the shadow held her. "Don't even... speak about something like..."
He brought her face close to his. "You know I'd do it Cadence, you've heard the stories about me. Heck, you've heard the stories from the few SURVIVORS of me. Now then, which do you like the least Armor? Your front or your back? Left or right? Do soldiers really name their front hoofs?" He was grinning madly, not showing any response to the sizzling of Cadence's tears on his shadowy form. They burned a ways through before he threw them to the side. 
"I... we tried to contact her... I don't know if it went through."
The spear was jabbed in Armor's direction, and Cadence cried out, credit to Shining Armor though, he didn't wince when he saw it coming for him. But Sombra didn't let go of it, and it didn't touch him, but sat a foot away from Shining Armor's head. "Not good enough Cadence. Make me believe."
"I promise you! I promise on my life! I don't know! I gave the order, but I was reported that the messengers were all too busy! You came before I ever received confirmation, I really, really, really don't know." Cadence blubbered out. Shining Armor was swearing and trying to jump downward at him.
"Cut off my leg and I don't care, but make my wife cry?! For that I'll beat you into the ground!"
Sombra was silent, and his face became very dark, the purple mist and green haze that covered them faded away with the shadow, and Cadence was released. "I... believe you." He opened his eyes, but they were still narrow, but Cadence thought she saw blood flowing from them, she couldn't read the look on his face. He turned around. "Tell my guard if you need anything... the gravity spell will also wear off in a few days. That will be all."
Sombra walked all the way back to his throne room, and he walked up every single stair. By the time he had gotten to the top, he collapsed. He had made the stairway long ago, when he first decided to become an evil overlord. He had lacked the resolve, he found himself unable to do what he had to do, unable to access the dark, evil, magic. So he climbed the stairway, and by not giving up he built resolve, by exhausting his body he needed to rely on the dark magic, and thus, he made sure he always had it with him. He would not fail like he did the month before.  He was about to take the crystal heart, but when he saw the sacrifice of the unicorn and the dragon, and of Armor and Cadence, his magic left him, and he was trapped on his crystal, a sitting duck for Cadence to hit him with the Crystal Heart's power.
He had made sure to crack down on himself harder the moment he regained consciousness. 
He regained his shadow magic and moved to his throne. He needed to set up a meeting with that gigantic dark force. That had to be his first priority, no, that's a bad idea, keeping your kingdom intact is always an evil overlords top priority, above even your own life, because even if the heroes kill you, if your kingdom still stands, you still win! Or as Author Unknown likes to think, the hero still loses!
Sombra began constructing a spell to locate dark magic, though he would have to destroy it afterwards, if Celestia managed to get ahold of it... he would never be able to escape her. The guide says that he shouldn't be doing something like this unless it's absolutely necessary. But if this thing could join up with him... he'd have to risk it. Besides, the magical-talent unicorn inside him had already began constructing the spell. After a few minutes of silently sitting in his chair he was ready. "Experiment!" He cried. And the room's jutting-out crystals turned black, and beams came out of them, creating a large circle and a complex design on it in the floor. Out of it rose multiple machines and contraptions made of darkness. 
He immediately called in the various tools needed for his experiments, magical artifacts so ancient they don't have names, bottles, fibers of millions of species. 
He constructed his spell and separated part of himself and put it into a bottle, he did this twenty more times. And then he did a different variation of his spell on each one, and then assembled them in a room, and tested each one. Eventually he perfected his darkness tracker, and destroyed all the shadow fragments and all the other spells. He was a magic-talent who had experimented for millenia. And not even that upstart Sparkle could match him in his ability. 
He set up the spell between two gigantic black crystals. And it quickly identified the top three sources of 'living darkness' in the world. Number 1 was an unknown signal in the Everfree, second was himself, and third was an alicorn next to the first. An alicorn? Princess Luna, perhaps? He didn't want to deal with one of the princesses, perhaps she and the new darkness were having an epic battle in the Everfree, he could tell that they were both expending large amounts of magic, mostly on the surroundings. Everfree... in the heart of Equestria. Sombra shivered. He hadn't built up an army from anything. He was pretty sure that if he brought a skilled guard in from among his crystal slaves that guard would let Cadence and Armor go, and besides that he had no need for staff, just two prisoners, everything else was automated and controlled by his magic directly. 
He paced for a while and came back to his greatest dilemma, one that was noted as his greatest long-term weakness in the guide. He had no second opinion. He couldn't watch his two prisoners constantly, so he took the most scared and cowardly of the crystal ponies to guard them, one who would never- no, the guide warned not to use that word, one who was extremely unlikely to betray him, one who had too much fear for his own life, who had betrayed fellow slaves before and who was likely to do it again to save himself. But besides him, his castle was empty. He had slaves, but that was it. He couldn't confer in them. He couldn't confer with his single guard, he considered speaking to Cadence and Shining Armor, but that wouldn't work either. They hated him. He got the information he needed from them. According to the guide, unless they were absolutely necessary... he should kill them. Or worse yet, execute them publicly before their former subjects, unless that would provoke rebellion. 
But then comes his second biggest dilemma, Sombra just couldn't kill. He just... couldn't. He could terrorize ponies... but not kill them. He could threaten them and talk scary and make them cry... but he couldn't bring himself to make good on any of it. He had the power, so it wasn't a bluff, but he still didn't... no, couldn't make do on any of those threats... 
Sombra collapsed on the floor, his shadows leaving him. He sighed and moved toward the stairs, making his way downward. He didn't usually have to do the stairs more than once a day. In his best years he could go weeks without purifying himself on the staircases. 
As he made his way down he considered his risks and benefits. He would be going to the heart of his greatest enemy's land,  confronting possibly both princesses, all to meet up with a force that he thinks might help him. But on the other hoof, by possibly gaining an ally he would be erasing his long-time weakness. He would have somepony to meet and discuss ideas with. 
Sombra told himself he was letting his loneliness influence his rationality, but he did need that force. As a second opinion, as a way to leave the empire and still have it be protected.
He left a large portion of his power behind to protect his country, and then he shot off in his shadow form, aiming for Everfree. 

"It's unfortunate that Shining Armor isn't here." Said her unicorn guard, Shield Wax, "I'm nowhere near the level of his magical power."
"But I am." Celestia said. 
"Are you sure you want to go through with this Princess?"
"Of course! We must retrieve Princess Luna at any cost!"
"Then brace yourself." And Shield Wax cast his spell. Celestia fueled it, and all of Equestria was bathed a in a thin gold light. "Princess, do you see anything?!"
"I... I see..." Celestia's face contorted with concentration. "They're in the Everfree Forest... and... oh dear."
"What?"
"Something just crossed over the border into the field. It's dark... It's Sombra."
Shield Wax fell to his knees. "A death machine, Nightmare Moon, and King Sombra... all at once?!"
"We'll have to defeat them."
"Well of course we'll have to! We'll all be freezing, starving, slaves if we don't!"
"Gather our top guards, our most elite. And... gather the elements of harmony. I'm heading to the royal armory."
"What for?"
"To check on Nightmare's armor. And to put on my own." She walked to the exit of the room before turning around one last time. "We march on Everfree in thirty minutes."

"Be careful with that, you oaf!"
"What is an 'oaf'?" Makuta then slipped slightly and the stone pillar broke in half. 
"A clumsy idiot!!"
Makuta looked at the broken pillar and growled. "You insult me?"
"You have proven yourself to be an oaf, so I call you that!"
The Kanohi Kraahkan glowed and the stones that made up the castle glowed and shifted. "Fine, I'll prove myself then, bring me metal, tons of it."
"What for?"
Makuta turned back toward Nightmare Moon and smiled with his eyes. "I'm going to make a fortress worth something. Bring me as much metal as you can. I may not have any matoran to build for me, but I've learned a few skills in my eons."
Nightmare Moon frowned and took to the air, and locating a mountain with a large cave on it's peak, she decided that it was likely a dragon's home, the only location where that much metal would be in one place. 
She stopped by the entrance and let out a roar with the Royal Canterlot Voice. She smiled as a gigantic emerald-colored dragon stood over her. "Give me all of your metal." 
"A pony dares to give me commands?" It roared down at her.
Her eyes flashed pure white and her ethereal mane shot forward, grabbing the dragon's tail, she cracked a smile and flung him up and down against the ceiling and floor of the cave over and over. She stopped after a few minutes and brought the dragon's head to her level. "Give. Me. All. Of. Your metal."
"NEVER!"
She flung him out of the cave, smiling as he soared out of the Everfree and onto the roads beyond. Crushing a certain obnoxious traveling show-pony's cart.  
She then turned to blue mist and possessed the entire horde of treasure, Makuta could have the gold and silver and iron, but the gemstones were a good bonus for herself. 
She flew the horde to Makuta and looked upon the contraption he had transformed her castle into with horror. "What did you do to my castle?!"
"Oh, that amount will do just fine." He summoned a gigantic black and red storm from his mask, and it shot from him, becoming a gigantic hand. It grabbed the horde of treasure, and condensed them into a solid mess of metal, it vibrated, and all the gems fell out. Nightmare let out a sigh of relief. The sphere quivered and shook, and became billions of tiny parts, they attached themselves to the stone frame, and Nightmare watched it being built up, it looked almost as if he was building a giant clock, it was filled with giant gears, cogs, and other simple machine parts. But soon she couldn't tell what it was.
Makuta Teridax fell to his knees, panting. "It's finished!" He looked up at the gigantic stone and metal egg-shaped structure.
"It's... a blob."
"It's a work of art you are too inexperienced to understand!" Makuta shouted, causing some birds to flutter up from the nearby trees, Makuta reached up with his shadow hand and caught them all, and absorbed them without a sign of caring. "They might have given away our position if they got far enough away." Nightmare Moon let a shiver go down her spine. 
"Ah...of course, Teridax." She turned to his mechanical blob. "So, explain your work to me."
"It's a moving castle, it has no weaponry currently, but it does have mechanisms to fire dark bolts, but that requires energy output from us. Actually, until we find a better fuel source one of us will have to be in it's core whenever it's active."
"A moving castle? Like an airship?"
Makuta looked it up and down. "Where the heck did you get the idea that this could fly?!"
"I don't know! How else could something that big move?!"
"How could something that large fly without Kanoka!?"
"I have no idea what you're saying half the time..." she sighed. "If it doesn't fly, how does it move?"
Makuta's eyes became wild and gleeful. "It walks."

"This was a stupid idea!" Sombra shouted at himself, dodging another onslaught of shockwaves. The Wonderbolts had mobilized military reasons for the first time in almost a year. And they were itching for a fight. Most simply considered the Wonderbolts an over-glorified flight show, but in truth they were Equestria's most elite fliers, and Celestia had converted the team into a reserve air-force long ago. And now they were tasked with one job; capture or destroy Sombra, how they did it was up to them. 
"You bet it was!" Cried one of the Wonderbolts as she blasted past him, leaving a thundercloud path behind her, and as she turned the shockwave turned as well, and pulled the shockwave into him, he couldn't shadow around it and was pushed back with the impact. A little blood escaped his mouth, but it hit his shadow and was consumed. He used that energy to fuel his counterattack. He threw his shadows in a wide arc, but the Wonderbolts scattered like flies before reforming on the opposite side. Sombra merely smiled and moved them back like a wave, destroying the clouds in their wake, and eventually making contact with the Wonderbolt's formation, he felt a sick feeling in his throat as three were filled with fear, and clenched their wings to their sides. He told himself that they would fall into a cloud or regain their strength before hitting the ground. But the sick feeling wouldn't go away, he felt his magic slipping, and he brought it closer to him. He would have to rescue them. He dropped himself and shot a burst of energy from his hind legs, getting below the falling Wonderbolts. He then created gigantic wings of shadow, expanding them and catching himself and the three wonderbolts. He tossed them to a nearby cloud before flying back up, his conscious satisfied. 
"H-he's an Alicorn!" One of the Wonderbolts screamed, but another quickly slapped him before he could panic. 
"No, he's just pretending to be, those wings are fake, and nothing will stand up to the Wonderbolt's real wings!" A shadow beam shot from Sombra and impacted the Wonderbolt who was reassuring the others, and covered her with a bubble of darkness. She screamed out in fear as her worst nightmares filled her head, and she dropped. Sombra knew the bubble would protect her. And it also had the effect of shaking the Wonderbolt's formation. He quickly picked off two more with his fear bubbles. 
But then three shockwaves hit him simultaneously. A bolt of fire, a bolt of thunder, and a bolt of... rainbow. "The heck?" Sombra let out. He glared at the new three combatants as the remaining Wonderbolts cheered. "What's with this poor display? The Wonderbolts defeated this easily? That would be an academy record." The cheering stopped as they realized how badly they were losing to the cursed unicorn. "Hey you, are those black wings built for speed?"
Sombra foolishly began shaking his head no without thinking. 
"Too bad." The rainbow one crashed into him. "Because we are going to take you out in ten. seconds. flat. Remember me from the crystal empire?"
Sombra blinked. "Who are you?" The rainbow-maned pegasus fumed in anger and dashed downward. The flame-maned one and the blue-maned one both cried out when she did so. 
"Code Rainbow! Code Rainbow! Scatter!" Shouted the fire-maned one. All the Wonderbolts then changed directions and began speeding away from Sombra. Did he win?
Nope. 
He was deafened as the rainbow Pegasus flew past him, breaking past the sound barrier as she did. The Shockwave knocked him backwards and blinded him with light. He was filled with it, his senses were overloaded, his darkness was dispelled and he fell toward the earth without his wings, blind, deaf, and without magic. "Oh yes! Oh crap." The pegasus circled back and caught him a few hundred feet before he collided with the ground. "Whew, if you died I'd feel guilty."
His eyes shot open as he caught the pegasus's scent. His sense amplified by the lack of the others. He still couldn't see, but the sight of his eyes was enough to make Rainbow Dash yell and drop him. He let his magic refill him, the rainbow was far enough away now that it could exist openly. He re-created his wings, and filled his eyes with the magic. They turned green and expelled purple haze. He could see through them though, but it was strange, almost bas-relief, and the colors were all too dark sometimes. But he could see enough to get all the Wonderbolts in view. "Perish while facing the darkness of your hearts and minds!" He yelled, and launched a high-speed volley of fear bubbles at every member, including the three new Pegasi. He single-hoofedly defeated all of the Wonderbolts. He did a little dance of glee where he floated, and then stopped, looking around in embarrassment to make sure nopony saw him. Nopony did. He continued his dance another minute before continuing his flight toward Everfree.

"Wax, are we prepared?"
"Yes Ma'am. An assault by ground would be careless and risky, so we've equipped six airships with magic shields. Each airship has room for twenty Earth ponies, and ten Unicorns. Twenty Pegasi guard each one. We can leave at a moment's notice."
"Good. Let the troops know that we are commencing our attack. As of now Equestria is at war with Makuta Teridax."
"Yes Ma'am. Will you be staying with the airships?"
"No, I'm flying myself."
"You're low on magic."
"That won't be a problem... but still, have the elements of harmony and their bearers standby."
"Um..."
"What?" Celestia snapped. She was getting anxious about the battle.  
"Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty, is a reserve Wonderbolt. She was at the academy with Spitfire and Soarin when they were called to fight Sombra."
"So she's by the border, fighting... Him?"
"Yes, your majesty."
"Then we can't count on the elements of harmony finishing this for us." Celestia shook herself slightly, trying to get her armor in a comfortable position. "I'm off. Center the airships around where we located them, not where I am. Understood?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"All forces, our number one priority is rescuing Princess Luna! our second is capturing, or if impossible, killing Makuta!" She shifted into the royal Canterlot voice. "Pegasi, stay by your Airships, Earth ponies, be prepared to drop and attack as soon as the enemy is in sight, Unicorns, have capture spells prepared! And remember, if Luna has still not come out of her forced transformation, I'll handle her myself. Focus all efforts on Makuta!"
She was answered with praise and confirmation. Giving a final nod to Shield Wax, she took off. A ring of rainbow passing her as she took off.

"How in the world, could that thing walk?!"
"You'll see." Makuta turned to the horizon in time to see a wave of rainbow light and burning sound pass by. "What is that?!"
"A sonic Rainboom." Nightmare frowned. "One of the elements of harmony's weapons."
"Elements of harmony?"
"Yes. We should watch out for them. They're six ponies-"
"Six?"
"-who each represent an element-"
"Oh no."
"-of harmony. When they combine their power they create a powerful beam of light that surrounds their target and turns him... or her, in my case. To stone, or can be used to fuel banishment spells."
"They are six heroes, who each have an individual element, who combine their power to encase their opponents in unbreakable mineral. They're Toa." He stomped his foot into a tree, causing it to splinter. "We'll have to kill at least one of them."
Nightmare blinked. "Kill one of them?"
"Of course, I can't allow them to exist as a team."
"Then why not break their spirit and trust for each other?" She said hopefully.
"Well of course that as well, but when they go their separate ways, if you can't corrupt one of them you have to at least kill another."
"Um... I don't know what a Toa is. But I think you're wrong about the elements of harmony."
"LUNA!" Rang a voice. 
"Celestia?" Nightmare whispered. "How fast can that thing move?"
"I don't know how you measure distance in this world, but it can move faster than I can hover."
"That'll have to be enough, let's get inside!"
Makuta nodded and flew up to the only entrance, which required dark energy to open. He waited til Nightmare was safely inside, and then hovered to the core, he sat in the stone throne, recycled from Nightmare's 'castle', and gripped the two steel coils. He filled them with dark energy and listened with satisfaction to the clanking and hissing of his moving castle. He imagined what would be happening outside. Four spikes would appear on the bottom, and the entire fortress would raise on them, once it was high enough the spikes would bend and pull out the rest of the heavily armored legs, and those four visorak-like legs would move expertly, reacting to Makuta's mind and make it's way across all terrains. It crawled over the forest in seconds, making it's way North, but after a few minutes Celestia was blocking it's way. 
"Nightmare, if you would."
She smiled. "Gladly." She made her way to the exit and dived out, unfurling her wings and flying up to her sister. "Hello Celestia, it's nice to see you, though I'm sure you've been praying that you would never see my face again."
"Luna, I know you're in there, please Luna, come back, fight her, fight her with all of your strength."
Nightmare actually winced visibly as Luna tried to take back her body. But she was stronger, she always had been. "Too bad, guess she wasn't strong enough." 
Celestia howled and fired a bolt of sunfire at her. Nightmare countered with a beam of moonlight. "Release her!"
"Then what would I do?! I'd like nothing more than to be permanently separated from that foal! But what can I do? If I let her go free I'll never be allowed to come back out!"
"We'll figure something out Nightmare, just please, let my sister go."
Nightmare stomped her hoof on nothing. "You don't get it, do you Celestia? Me and Luna have the same body, I'm just as much your sister as she ever was! The only difference is that I'm mean." She said the word 'mean' in the snottiest and most sarcastic way possible.
"Attempting to freeze and starve the world because of your jealousy is a little bit more than 'mean'."
"That doesn't mean you should seal me away inside Luna forever! It's unfair to both of us! You banish us both for a thousand years for what I did, and sealed me away in Luna's mind, driving the two of us almost crazy for what Luna did!" Nightmare was throwing one attack after another at her 'sister' while she screamed out her rage. "When you abused Luna's feelings and the people abused her powers she created me. And you didn't notice! She's never been right in the head, she created me after all, and I came up with the stupid idea that eternal night might make ponies like the night more, and then I acted on it without a single thought!" Nightmare Moon dodged a banishment spell. "Really?! You aren't even going to banter with me? Just banish us again?!"
"Just until I can deal with Makuta, and then we can bring you back and seal you away with the elements again."
"Really?! Really?!" Nightmare frowned then unhinged her jaw, her entire body was made up of dark magic, similar to Sombra's actually, and she could manipulate features like muscle and bone placement, or the type of eyes and teeth, or even the coat color, quite easily. She dived for Celestia and sank her teeth into her neck, or at least tried, bu her fangs met with enchanted metal. She drew away and looked in horror as Celestia had donned blood-red armor. Similar to her old blue armor, but a full set instead of just the chest, hooves, and helmet. 
"Nightmare Moon, release my sister this instant. It's true that it's unfair for Luna to have to be punished for your sins, but I'm sure she'd agree that you need to be stopped, and that she'd be willing to spend a little more time on the moon if it meant that she could be free of you when she returns."
Nightmare turned her head to the side and smiled. "What's that Luna? Sorry Celestia, it seems she doesn't quite agree with you on the whole banishment thing, actually, she hates the moon more than I do." No I don't! Celestia don't listen to her!
"Liar, I know Luna."
"So do I."
"In a twisted way."
"So what shall we do? We are evenly matched. Why don't we both call off our troops and you let us get away?"
"What 'troops' you have that ugly mishmash metal monstrosity, whatever Makuta is, and yourself, what else? My airships can destroy your spider-lump easily, that's for sure... truthfully, I think I could right now!" Celestia's mane shot out and grabbed Nightmare, and their ethereal manes mixed together. "With a little bit of your power, sorry if this hurts you Luna." Nightmare screamed as her ethereal mane was torn off, leaving only her dark blue real mane, and as the dark magic slipped away she felt the color returning to her coat, and leaving her eyes. Her teeth melted away and her wing feathers lost their edge, and began to look like a normal Pegasi's. You helped her, didn't you Luna? Yes, I did. You'd give up your magic and feel my pain just to be rid of me? Of course I would. I hate you with all of my soul. I'm part of your soul! No! You... if you're part of me, then you're all the worst parts! Shut up! I don't have time for you I have to- not hit the ground! Nightmare Moon caught herself in the nick of time, and then managed to dodge the banishment spell Celestia threw after her.  Nightmare turned to the castle and shouted in the Royal Canterlot voice: "A little assistance please!"
"What is that hunk of junk going to do?" one of the spider legs slowly rose up toward Celestia, who quickly dashed to the side. "It moves too slow to-" It then swung the leg toward Celestia impossibly fast, colliding with her. Celestia couldn't even let out a breath as she was flung incredibly fast toward her airships. Nightmare then watched as one of them exploded upon Celestia's impact. 
"That's hilarious!" The Queen of the night laughed out. No it isn't. "Shut up Luna." At that moment she was covered by a shadow, and when she saw the silhouette of an Alicorn on the ground she looked up with a nervous smile. She couldn't have come back that quickly, could she? But she was greeted with something else entirly. 
"Y-You're Nightmare Moon... You're Nightmare Moon! I'm a big fan! We haven't met, have we?"
"Sombra." Nightmare's throat tightened. "What are you doing here? Aren't you... you know, dead?"
"Oh, I can't die. Believe me, they've tried. But then again, I could say the same of you!"
"I was sealed away, the elements of harmony only seal away, never destroy. I think the whole idea is that everything can exist together peacefully, they don't kill, just make them unable to affect anything."
"Um..." How should he go about this? A legendary villain, and veteran evil overlord, was standing before him, and most likely also had made a deal with the mysterious darkness. He had to make sure the first impression was done right... he couldn't sound to prideful, but he couldn't be submissive... unless that was the only way she'd let him work with her... she was apparently jealous and stubborn, but he didn't know anything about her other than that, just that she made the world fall under eternal night during his time, inspiring him to become a global overlord as well. "I-" A burst of sunlight was fired from behind Nightmare and he swung her to the side with a shadow claw, while spiriting around the beam. He fired a burst of fear, wrapped with smoky billowing darkness, and fired it at Celestia, who had sneaked up on them under the canopy.
"That.... thank you..." Nightmare said, shocked. 
"Uh... I... I apologize for throwing you, it's just the beam-"
"N-no! I need to thank you. what was that you threw at Celestia?"
"A fear/shadow bolt. It blasts and attacks with shadow magic, while paralyzing the victim with pure fear."
"Hm... Sombra, King Sombra, I mean, how would you like to join up with me and a... friend, I suppose. We are currently in need of safe haven, my castle..." she mumbled something. "... is no longer a suitable place. Celestia knows our location, the Everfree is no longer safe for the two of us. Could we possibly form an alliance?"
"Of course, actually, I was about to offer a similar deal as well, I have recently re-conquered my Crystal Kingdom, soon to be empire. I would greatly appreciate some company." Sombra caught himself too late. He said it, he was only looking for them because he was lonely. 
"Great! I will give the news to my... ally." 
He let out a silent sigh, she either didn't notice or didn't care for his reasons.
She disappeared into the giant moving castle, and then came back out, and gave him a fanged smile. "Lead the way, your Highness."
"Of course, your Majesty." He winced and hoped it didn't sound to patronizing. He flew off, a giant mechanical beast being driven by a more fearsome mechanical beast following him. He still hasn't met the new darkness, but he supposed that would have to wait until they came to the Crystal Empire.

Celestia screamed as Twilight was frozen in front of her, the frost covering her body, and then cracking. Slime dripped down on her from above where Changelings spun their cocoon, her prison, she tried to turn her eyes away from the shattered pieces of Twilight, but a lion and eagle paws turned her head and kept her eyes open. Then Nightmare Moon, dressed in full armor walked over the pieces of Twilight, and she heard cracking sounds. Nightmare held a chain in her mouth, one connected to a filly Luna. And she was crying. Then Sombra walked past her, followed by a parade of hundreds of other demons and monsters, every murderer, serial killer, monster, and revolutionary in thousands of years. Then at the end of the line, after the first murderer Celestia ever ordered executed, was the newest threat, even though he was at the beginning of the line, where the ghosts that haunted her past belonged, it stood. Makuta, she could tell, but he was different, almost four times taller, his body wider, his limbs thicker and more protected. There was life under the shell, she could tell, not just more metal, but that just made him look more fearsome. He had the built of a giant armored minotaur, and he held strange weapons in each hand. Then she tried to back away as another claw, a storm of darkness launched from his chest and engulfed her in pain, and then, blinded her. She couldn't see, there was no light, but it wasn't cold. It was uncomfortably hot. And then his mask appeared before her in the darkness, just the red-blue light of his eyes remained, only his eyes illuminated the dark. She took in a breath, and found the air poisonous. She choked to death, the only thing she could see was Makuta's eyes, watching emotionless as she writhed. 
A hoof touched her side and she shot upward. It was Twilight, and she had a bandage. Wait... she had died, hadn't she? Celestia didn't differ between Twilight and herself, but just wrapped her hooves around Twilight and brought her close. "I... saw you die... oh my... Twilight I-"
"Princess, please, you just had a bad dream. The guards found you in the middle of Everfree screaming. They sent for me, and called me back here from the hospital-"
"Hospital!?" Celestia looked over her student searching for the cracks she saw in her... dream.
"Yes, but that's not important now... I found the deactivation spell for your nightmare-" Celestia winced again. "Sorry... your bad dream, it was a fear spell, mixed with an imprisonment spell, I think you deactivated the prison on your own. I just had to clear away the remaining bits of the fear spell." Twilight finally stopped talking and noticed the relieved look on her teacher's face. "Um... Princess, are you alright? I've never seen you this shaken..."
"Yes it's just... every demon I've ever met, paraded before me and... never mind, it was a very effective spell, let's leave it at that." Celestia got up. "Where are the rest of the element bearers? We need to use the elements of harmony against Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, and Makuta."
"Makuta?!"
"Yes, you know of him? Did the guards tell-" Celestia's eyes widened. "Your letter of recommendation. Did that thing put you in the hospital?!"
"Hehehe..." Twilight gave a nervous laugh. "He only flicked me in the forehead. But I was out cold for seven minutes. Spike got up after only two and sent a letter to the hospital."
"Don't worry, I'll bring them down... where are my guards, no, you still haven't told me about the other bearers."
"Well, Rainbow Dash had a similar spell done on her, and she's still in the royal hospital, she's fine though, and had a much weaker spell used on her. As for the others, they came to the forest when you called for them, but with two of us missing they had to run back to Ponyville and figure out where me and Rainbow were. Your guards let me in after I told them I knew how to disable the fear spell, but I don't know anything about the situation except that were were fighting the three of them."
Celestia got up with a creak and moved to the door, she knocked on it twice and a guard walked in. "What has occurred during my... paralysis?"
"Sombra appears to have joined up with Makuta and Nightmare Moon, they took out all of the airships with surprisingly zero casualties. Then them and their contraption moved due North, toward-"
"The Crystal Empire, send a message to Cadence immediately."
"We have your Highness, but we aren't sure the message went through, there was no answer, or even confirmation that it had been received."
"Did you already send Pegasus scouts?"
"Yes Madam."
"And their findings?"
"...The North has been filled with a dark cloudy smoke. In a much larger amount than we've ever seen before. The contraption hid in it, and the two Pegasi we sent in haven't come back out."
"...Load up two more airships, but have every pony there armed, understand? We might be at war with the Crystal Empire... and it's three new rulers."