//------------------------------//
// The Crystal-Equestrian War Part 3 
// Story: The New Brotherhood of Darkness 
// by JeckParadox 
//------------------------------//

	Makuta felt a deep pain as his head collided with the moon above. He was dying! He had achieved spirithood, and now he was dying!
Everything he had worked for...
He had to give it all up, or die. He pulled his essence from the machine moments before it went brain dead. He looked at it hopelessly as the world around him shifted and pulsed. Sky scrapers fell as the ceiling caved in on the city of Metru Nui, the city that was his actual brain a minute ago. He felt despair clutch his heart as the city was slowly destroyed. He felt a bright light behind him and his immaterial form turned toward it. It was a glatorian, the mostly organic creatures of bara magna. He could maybe posses him? Start again from the bottom. But as he saw the mask on the glatorian's face he shivered. "No... not you! How could it be you! What are the chances!? I threw you into space!"
"A mercy... that I will not forget, brother."
Makuta's antidermis soul shivered without a body. "Well, what are you going to do to me?"
Mata Nui's golden arm reached toward him, and Makuta decided he wouldn't even run away. His ultimate plan, the one that he had sacrificed everything for, it was all gone. It had failed. "Brother, I forgive you, but you have done crimes that the rest of the universe can never forgive and forget."
"You are the universe!"
"No. I was a giant robot. One constructed by the True Great Beings. The organisms within me decided my body was the universe, and thus it became so."
"No! I was the universe!"
"My poor, unfortunate brother, come to me now, my son, my brother."
Makuta floated forward, intent on possessing the mask of life and discarding Mata Nui's soul. But as he came closer he let those thoughts go and only embraced his Great Spirit, his brother, his creator, the one who he had tricked, but now who forgave him. Mata Nui's mask came to life, and he extracted the tiniest bit of Makuta's essence, and gave it life. He then gently pushed Makuta's soul into the new life, making it permanent. He took another tiny bit, and created a machine. "Brother, when you had me in your grip you put me in a mask and sent me into space to start a new life... I can't have you in this universe, but I think I know how I could do something similar for you."  

Makuta's arm released it's hold on Shield Wax's neck as Makuta lost his hold on the mechanical limb. He was blind, and he was slowly losing his sense of touch as his spiritual connection to the separated parts faded. Soon he would just be a torso. He didn't want to risk spiriting out of the broken Rahkshi, there was little hope of there being another body capable of holding his essence in this world. Makuta cursed as each piece of his body lost connection. Leaving him a soul in a hunk of metal. 
It was so very, very dark. He tried moving, but the mechanical 'muscles' pulled at nothing. The joints were the weakest places, and thus, had been ripped out first in the explosion. 
He shuddered to imagine what his head or neck would looked like. 
He wondered if the unicorn lived.
Makuta's body was savagely kicked, or possibly thrown, he couldn't tell. Yep, the unicorn probably lived. 

Celestia carried Luna on her back, using her magical mane to heat her sister and keep the snowfall off of her. She was walking as fast, but as carefully as she could. Unfortunately, when Nightmare said that Celestia's attack really did take her wing off, she wasn't lying. Celestia would never forgive herself if Luna never flew again. She knew through her internal compass that she was heading South, and that was good enough for her. One of the three things that started the war, one of their few objectives, had been obtained. No one would blame her if she temporarily suspended the attack to care for her sister.
"Oh, Luna, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." She whispered. She tried not to, but she glanced backward at the bright red trail following her. She had sealed the wound, at the very least, but that didn't stop the persistent wound from dripping off Celestia's back and  onto the snow. She shuddered, as much from the cold as disgust as she continued her march across the snow. She didn't dare fly right now.
But maybe if she brought down a cloud and carried Luna back to Equestria that way... Celestia searched the sky and frowned to find it to be nothing but feral snow clouds, too brittle and wild for Luna to lie on, except the thunderstorm far in the distance she had called from nothing. She sighed and continued her trek.

Shield got up slowly, his neck aching, but he had just survived one of the main battles of the war. He should be relieved he only had an aching neck. He edged away from the robotic hand and began calling out orders, trying to get the soldiers back in formation. But with a few looks around he saw it was hopeless, they were less than a fourth of the wave. The darkness had fallen on all sides, and who knows how many more were lost. 
Then Shield realized the main problem.
He had forgotten which way they were going. 
They were stuck with cursed fog on all sides, in chaos, with no idea which way was the target or which way was home. The attack had been a failure. He had no choice but to lead his army on in a straight line. Hopefully out of the smoke. He began calling for his troops to gather and follow him, and in a few minutes they started off in a random direction. He did a spell to search for ponies, but it was a simple one, and told him the largest and closest group of ponies was this way. Whether that was the rest of the army, or the Crystal Empire this was the direction he was going.

"Bwa-ha-ha-haagh!" Sombra chuckled, he turned dramatically, his cape swishing to the side, and the smoke emanating from his eyes billowing around his mane.  "Finally, I have the Elements of Harmony, Equestria's ultimate superweapon, and their users, within my evil grasp!"
"boo." Pinkie shouted out from a few feet away, within her pink crystal cage. 
"Oh be quiet... it was scarier than the last time, right?"
"You're trying too hard." Rainbow said, sighing. 
"If I might make a suggestion?" Rarity piped up. Sombra gave her his attention. She straightened out as much as she could from within her cage. "As you turn make one eye wider than the other, to give you a more maniacal look for that moment, but make it go to a normal eye the moment both are in sight to make you look dignified."
Sombra turned back around and then turned dramatically again, making the eye facing them maniacal the second before both were in view. "Like that?"
"Hmm... better, but keep your chin up, you're threatening me, not seducing me. And as you turn place both fore legs completely on the ground. It makes you look nervous and well, mare-ish."
"But..." Sombra raised his hoof threateningly. "It looks like I'm about to stampede, you know? Or it's supposed to be imposing."
"Please darling, listen to Rarity, she knows best." Rarity assured. "If you actually got up and did the whole 'about to stampede bit' it might work, but frankly that won't work for your dramatic turn. Just keep your hooves on the ground, it'll look more... stable."
"Stable?"
"Do you want to go for the maniacal look? Or the evil dictator look?"
"Is there a 'demonic overlord' look?"
Twilight let out a long aggravated sigh. "He's the enemy! Stop talking to him! He's not one of your customers! He's a monster!"
"Not one of my customers? But he said that he'd buy a bigger, more dramatic cape from me! Oh, by the way Sombra, have you thought of having a purple or green theme? The red clashes with the 'demonic aura' in your eyes."
"I don't know... the whole green and black theme is kind of too... Changeling, I suppose. It's been done."
Twilight put her face into her hooves. "Oh my... this is ridiculous! You are all ridiculous! We got kidnapped, the enemy has our weapons-" She gestured to the proudly displayed elements of harmony on the wall. "-and you're making friends with him?!"
"Um... I don't mean to be mean... but aren't you the one who fights enemies with the 'magic of friendship'?" Fluttershy offered. 
"Between us! Not with the enemy!" Twilight let out another sigh and laid on her side. "You know what, just keep on talking, never mind that we've been imprisoned, failed our important mission given by the princess, and lost the most powerful artifacts Equestria's ever known, Rarity has to talk to a monster about what color cape he needs!"
"Twilight, calm down, you're overreacting."
"I'm not overreacting, you all are under-reacting! He's and evil overlord who kidnapped us, made us fail our mission, and has us in cages!" She turned to Sombra, glaring. "Sombra, I don't know how, but we are going to get out of here, and we are going to defeat you and bring your evil empire down!"
Sombra turned and suppressed the gleeful expression on his face, a hero wanted to stop him! He had had revolutionaries coming after before, he's had military forces coming after him before, even lone assassins... but never an actual hero! He was a real villain! He has a hero coming after him! "But how will you do that while you're in a cage? And without your precious elements? Face it, Twilight Sparkle, I am the victor, my allies will destroy your precious army and your precious Princess will fall!"
He smiled and evil smile as Twilight backed away, and a look of fear crossed over her face, and then rage. She was going to actually try and stop him! He glanced at the others, they were beginning to look scared too as well, they knew he wasn't fooling around any more. They had seen him defeated before, they thought that he wasn't a threat, but now their eyes were telling them that he was. "Monster!" Twilight went into unicorn rage mode, turning bright white, with her mane in flames. She fired a beam from her horn, but it was consumed by darkness and bounced around inside the cage, teleporting away from hitting Twilight, and unable to leave the cage. It was a maze of blasts inside the tiny purple diamond box, and Twilight couldn't move, lest she be hit by her own beam.
"Hahahahahaha!" He began laughing uncontrollably. He tried to stop himself, but he was too giddy, this was perfect! He had a hero trying to kill him! A 'hero'! "Do any of you others think you can stop me?" He reached out with his magic and picked up the six necklaces. "Now... which is which?" He held out a red lightning bolt crystal. "I assume this is the element of... honesty?" He picked up one with a purple star. "I know this is the element of magic, any hints? Perhaps I should put together my own team of element bearers..."
"It would never work." Rainbow Dash assured. "They're entwined to us. If you want them, you have to make a deal."
Sombra raised an eyebrow, Twilight did as well, she looked at Rainbow Dash confusedly, and Sombra noticed Dash wink at her friend. He glanced back at Sparkle and noted that a look of understanding, a quick smile, and then an obviously fake angry face appeared in that order.
"Don't tell him anything at all about the elements!"
"Oh yeah?! Well they're no good to anypony if we're just sitting here. I'm cramped, I need to fly." Rainbow edged closer to the bars. "Let me out, I'll tell you all about the elements." She winked. "I'm the element of honesty, you can trust me."
Applejack put a hoof to her forehead. 
"The element of honesty huh?" Sombra bent down and looked into her eyes. "How old are you?"
"T-twenty"
"Where were you born?"
"Cloudsdale"
"What is your element of harmony?"
"Ah-honesty, of course."
"There it is."
"There what is?"
Sombra did a spell on the cage, revealing a crystal monitor. "This is an emotion detector, it can also sense lies. You're not to be trusted, and you don't know anything about the elements." He smiled maniacally. "Goodbye Rainbow Dash. Element of loyalty, you served it well." He then flicked his horn, and the ground underneath Rainbow's cage evaporated, letting her fall into what appeared to be pure darkness. She flapped as hard as she could, but the cage was too heavy, and she screamed as she fell into the darkness. The floor reappeared, and Sombra turned toward the others, who were looking at the floor, unbelieving. 
Fluttershy was the first to speak. Though at first it was too quiet for any of them to understand. "Fl-fluttershy?" Twilight asked hesitantly. The pegasus took a long, slow breath through her nose. And when she opened her eyes they were blazing red and gold. 
"YOU WILL BRING HER BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" Fluttershy screamed, knocking Sombra to his haunches and bringing him to his knees, unable to break eye contact with the goddess of rage the Pegasus had just became. "I am going to count to three, and if I'm not seeing Rainbow Dash, then I'll... oh, then I'll... do something... bad!" Fluttershy threatened. 
"You want to see Dash? You get to see Dash!" he flicked his horn and the ground under Fluttershy dissipated as well.
"Oh dear." She said before screaming adorably as she fell.
He turned to the others. "Do you want to join them?"
"I do! I do!" Pinkie fell as well, yelling out; "weeeeeeeeeeeee"
"Anypony else?!" He roared. "No? Alright then." He turned dramatically away, "Now then, I'll be checking on the war, don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
He made his way down the stairs, letting himself skip a little bit once safely out of view.

King Sombra stood over the holographic model, and watched the cloud and the city as much as possible. The defenses were ready, but Makuta was handling the Equestrian army fairly easily. He did constant searches, but after a few minutes he got bored. 
He shadowed away and checked over the crystal wall, the solidity of the force field, and the readiness of Makuta's troops. Which was sadly made from the new 'soldier' class. Basically, all of the ponies formerly part of Shining Armor's army, and Sombra doubted that they would fight their best against Equestrians, and he had to put them under an aggression enchantment. The ponies were growling at each other and stomping their hooves angrily. They were also the Crystal Empire's warriors of old. You wouldn't see very many cutie marks for crossbows, or spears, or torches in the peaceful Equestria. But in the Crystal Empire there were many who's special talents were for war.
He came back to the control room after only a few minutes, but he had noticed three main things; the first was Nightmare's signal was gone. She had either left the field... or died. The second was that the Equestrian Army was completely messed up, the lines of pony soldiers and the lines of unicorns pushing away his smoke were no more, and the giant tunnel they made in his smoke had become a series of bubbles, and over a hundred ponies were lost in the darkness individually or in small groups that had to stay together so close they had to touch, and the close contact and the pressure would just accelerate the insanity spell, which would send the ponies heading into the darkness alone.
It was working perfectly, that is except for Nightmare not being on the field, until he noticed the third thing. Makuta's war... thing... had been destroyed, and his signal was all over the place and fading. 
He paced for a few seconds, unsure what to do. He considered asking the element bearers or Armor, and frowned at the idea, they wouldn't help. He made his way back out to the army and looked over the soldiers. He took in a deep breath, and he began charging his spell. "Attention Crystal Army! I am about to do three things, the first is that I am going to activate the crystal heart." He didn't tell Makuta, for fear of how he would react, but the crystal heart was the actual heart of the empire, and all crystal ponies, and it's presence, when activated, allows the crystal ponies to adopt their crystal form, as well as change the emotions of the ponies. The crystal forms would make them nearly invincible in melee. "The second, is that I am about to put a navigation spell over you, you'll be able to find your way through my fog as if it isn't there, you'll also be immune to the other effects..." He fired the spell, and it covered the entire army. "And finally... You are to drive the Equestrians out of the smoke! And then out of the Crystal Empire! Drive them back to their borders!" He opened a hole in the crystal wall. "Attack!" The enchanted crystal ponies roared with agreement and charged out of the gate.

Shield Wax heard the stampeding of hooves and ordered for his men to form ranks, but as he saw the glimmering, crystallized forms of the ponies, armed with spears and lances and crossbows, bursting out of the darkness screaming. He hadn't expected this, no one had, not even Celestia, that there would be a crystal pony army of such a size.  "Hold your positions!" He screamed, readying his spear and his spells. He blinked as an arrow rushed past his face and back toward his army. "Attack!" 
It was suddenly chaos. Ponies screamed in rage or pain, there was blood and sparkles and smoke and metal in the sky. A shattered crystal sprayed him, and he tripped on a bloodied spear. He roared and joined the fight, blasting and sending fireballs at every crystal pony he saw. He was hit across the face by a crystal hoof, and he had an arrow in his flank. 
He looked up and narrowed his eyes as the smoke had fallen to just above his head. The darkness was closing in, but the Crystal Ponies didn't seem fazed by it, dashing in and out of the smoke. He noticed that he couldn't see his remaining soldiers. He fired one darkness dispelling spell after another, but it only succeeded in expanding his bubble slightly, he began seeing shapes in the smoke, and then seeing them disappear. They laughed at him and screamed and he fell to a heap, crying and laughing. He saw three armored crystal ponies and fired an attack spell at them, they dodged it easily. One of them held out a spear, he laughed at it, it was hilarious. 
He felt a pain, and then he decided to forget about it and sleep. yes, sleep sounds nice.

Makuta slammed above him, and again and again, until he began getting dizzy. Then he struggled some more, the joints of the Rahkshi writhing. He pushed and pushed, even after separating himself from the Rahkshi's nervous system, he found that he couldn't move his essence. When Mata Nui 'captured' him, it had been more than a mere toa seal or a cursed Rahkshi body, they had put his entire essence into the 'pilot' of the Rahkshi. A Kraata. Once again Mata Nui was generous, it was a 'darkness' Kraata, level 5 out of seven, but not bad. If he got himself free he could travel in a field of darkness, and be able to snuff out light, fire balls of darkness that completely destroyed all light within it if he hit something's face he could blind them. And with his field of darkness there was no way he could be hit.
But he was stuck in the Rahkshi body. And he wasn't sure whether or not to escape. He could wait for Sombra to gather all his parts and see if the unicorn could put him together, or he could risk it and try to get back with his slug form. He could probably make it, snuffing out all light in the area, he would appear to just be a batch of Sombra's smoke. But how would he get back to the Crystal Empire. There were no biomechanical beings whose face he grab onto and control. He didn't know where to go if he got out, having your head explode can really disorient someone.
And then there was the issue of getting out. He had managed to disconnect his nervous system from the machine, but he was still a slug in a metal box. 
But his savior came in the form of a magically thrown spear, that had apparently missed, making a crack in the armor. He pushed on it, and eventually managed to push the ceiling off of him, and crawled into the opening. He crawled until he saw the smoke outside seeping in. He took a breath, a strange feeling, and found the air outside was cold. He had never been scared of the cold before. He chastised himself for being so weak and crawled out of the opening, then falling out of the opening and onto his back onto the snow. He writhed for a minute before righting himself, and cloaking his body with darkness, but he was already in the darkness of the smoke. His power was useless here. Everything was already as dark as it could be. 
He then made his long trek in the direction he thought was the direction of the Crystal Empire, he crawled for hours, a terrifying effort that left him tired and cold. He wished he was an ice-resistance Kraata rather than a darkness Kraata. He decided he would continue his trek after a little while of rest, but an attempt to burrow for heat was useless, just expending more effort and getting even more covered in snow. 
He continued his blind painful trek toward the empire when a hoof landed startlingly close to him. He looked at the pony attached to it, it was an Equestrian Earth Pony soldier. "What the hell is this thing?"
Makuta was unable to answer, but he decided his best bet would be to remain as still as possible while slowly concealing himself more and more in the darkness. "Is it a rock?" The pony nudged him, and he fell over onto his back, resisting the urge to wriggle and right himself he remained absolutely still. "It's... squishy, and warm." The Earth Pony then bent over and was about to eat him. He was told the monsters were herbivores! He wriggled as much as possible but the Earth Pony had only picked him up in his mouth, still it was uncomfortable. The soldier placed him inside his armor's breast. "hmm, even better than a hot water bottle." The soldier then began walking in the opposite direction. 
Having no better plan, he decided to bite the pony and then wriggle away as fast as possible, the pony screamed like a mare and threw Makuta in a random direction, and Makuta had even less of an idea of where the Crystal Empire was. 
He was also on his back in the cold snow again. 
He also decided that when he conquered the universe he would light whatever part of it was snow-bound on fire. 

"Princess!" the soldiers yelled, and she was flocked by them before she knew it. Within minutes she and Luna were both in hospital beds, on IV's, and had Doctor's examining them. The stallions around her audibly admired her battle scars, and told each other stories of how she could have got them. She ended up pretending to be asleep a half hour longer to hear the ending of a particular lieutenant's creative story on how she got her horn lopped off. As the doctor came in and began shooing away the soldiers Celestia caught his eyes and said. "You should write a book."
"I..  I will your Highness." And he galloped away blushing that the Princess had heard the entire story. 
The doctor eyed her up and down, feeling her wings and touching an exposed nerve in her horn, and marked down that she winced when he did so. She never did feel comfortable with Doctors, what with being immortal. "Well, you'll heal. You might have some scarring, but it's mostly just minor cuts and gashes, and a few already mending bones." He nudged a painful spot on her thigh. "Stay off this leg."
"...What about my horn?"
"It'll heal slowly, but you should be able to use magic again in a few months."
"Months?!"
"Well I'm not accounting for your alarming rate of regeneration..."
"And?"
"I'd say, three to six."
"Days?"
"weeks."
"Crap." Celestia looked him in the eye. "What about my sister?"
"Oh, she has much more serious injuries, those monsters must have done something awful to her while she was kidnapped, she should get a medal."
Celestia stifled the rush of guilt. "Will... she ever be able to fly again?"
"If she were an ordinary Pegasus, definitely not. I'm sure you understand the basics of magic-based flight, right? A pony's wings couldn't possibly support them, but they are required in order to properly harness active Pegasi magic. A normal Pegasus surviving these types of injuries would be only capable of passive magic. Like cloud walking and cloud manipulation. Things like air manipulation or flying is now beyond her at the moment. I'd say permanently, but I've never had an Alicorn patient, so I won't say anything's definite."
"...t-thank you doctor, what about her other conditions?"
"She's lost a lot of blood, but I can see you sealed the wound properly, you might have saved your sister's life by doing that. Right now she's on an IV and we'll be giving her a lot of liquids for a good while. Otherwise, besides a few broken bones and a few already healing cuts, she's fine."
Celestia let out a sigh of relief. "At least she'll live."
"Yep, what good fortune both of our Princesses on the front lines have come back alive, it must have been some fight."
"...Yes."
The Doctor looked disinterested for a while, but he slowly began casually, "So, who did it? Sombra,  that other thing?"
"Nightmare Moon."
"Both of you?"
"...Yes. But in the end Luna managed to incapacitate her, and I did the finishing strike."
"Wow..." The Doctor then excused himself and made his way out of her hospital tent. She wondered where Luna was, and if she was still asleep. She frowned as her mind asked her if Luna would tell them a different lie. But it wasn't really a lie. Nightmare's magic was being held back by Luna's mind... and Celestia had done the finishing blow.

Sombra walked in circles for a good six minutes before going to the hologram again, the first wave was definitely finished, the forces were fractured and spread out by Makuta's machine and his army of Crystal Ponies. And they were now making their way back to the safety of the Empire's walls. He checked again and again, but Nightmare's signal was nowhere to be seen. 
He had gone over the recordings, and found that after she made contact with one of the soldiers, probably Celestia, they were both carried off the screen... and she never came back, but then again, neither did Celestia. Perhaps they were still fighting, or maybe Nightmare was captured, and now in Equestrian control.  
He just didn't know!
He checked again on Makuta and frowned that he was moving perpendicularly toward the Crystal Empire, but very, very slowly. Was he limping? Injured? He decided to increase the automatic defenses and go out and get him himself.  
He was about to leave when he realized that his place was here, making sure the kingdom was being defended. Makuta would at best scold him for leaving his post, at worst the Equestrians would get in while he left his post, and he'd cost them the war. Sombra let out a relieved sigh that he caught himself before going out and looking for Makuta on the off chance that somepony actually managed to harm the indestructible machine.

Makuta was so, so very cold.