//------------------------------// // The journey begins // Story: A Matter of Darkness // by Uberdeathninja //------------------------------// Hours passed after the incident with Zero, and all in the now-saved town worried for the health of the six who dared stand up to him... though their situations looked bleak; the beam of energy that Zero had fired upon the six did not kill them, but it had ultimately sapped their energy, leaving them vulnerable, and without any help. Thankfully, thanks to the efforts of the township, they were soon recovered, as near to death as one could be without fully succumbing to his grasp, but quickly fading, and were thusly taken to Canterlot, to have their wounds treated at last, and to finally give the bad news to Celestia herself. Zero had beaten them, stole their elements, and retreated, leaving the six to their fates... But fate would decide differently for these mares this day. The Mane six awoke in hospital beds, nurses all watching over them with worried expressions, soon turned to relief. When they awoke, the nurses had quickly become excited, and before the six mares, who'd only hours before been crushed by Zero, could even raise their heads, they and many other visitors swarmed them like the Dark Matter they'd fought with before Zero, all asking various questions about their encounter with the massive, disturbing alien: "What did it look like?" Asked one. "Did it have sharp teeth?" Asked another. "Did it talk?" asked a third. The questions flooded without seeming end, and Twilight, in desperation, almost raised her voice to silence the ponies who sought so many answers from her, when suddenly, a voice shouted out, quieting all the the voices in the room, and leaving the Mane Six, at last, in peace: "Make way, make way, Princess coming through!" Celestia had called, as she pushed through the crowd, parting it to give the bewildered heroes some breathing room, and then she found and turned to Twilight, who was beyond relieved to see her former teacher, and to have the media away from her, if only for a moment. However, the questions that came next from the Princess of the Sun once more upset Twilight, as they unnerved her more than every visitor in the room: " Twilight... Thank goodness you're alright. I saw the fight, Twilight. Is that... thing... defeated? Where are the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia asked, bewildered. Twilight grimaced almost refusing to give the answer to her former teacher for fear of her reaction, but then ultimately answered, swallowing her fears in the process. "We... We failed, Princess. That thing's minions knocked us down, then they... It took them, your highness. That alien took the elements, and left us to die." Twilight answered reluctantly. Celestia stared in a mixture of shock and horror, then burst out laughing, confusing everyone, especially the Mane Six, at the suddenness of her change in reaction. And finally, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye, Celestia spoke again, hoping for a better answer this time. "Twilight, you shouldn't scare me like that! Come now, tell me where they really are." She said, sighing. Twilight then gulped, hating to repeat such catastrophic news to her former teacher, but she still replied, her answer the same as before. "Celestia, we're... we're telling the truth. The Elements were taken by the invader. We failed. I-I'm sorry..." Twilight explained. Celestia's face fell as the words hit her like a freight train. Twilight had lost the Elements to a villain who hadn't even been here before, and not only that, hadn't been here for more than ten minutes! The notion itself was unthinkable! "You... You lost?" asked Celestia, dumbfounded. She couldn't respond properly. First, her sister is knocked out by this thing, and now it beats the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and absconds with the Elements themselves. Yes, this has happened before, but not in one day, and not by one villain, especially one who only appeared yesterday. It was Preposterous! Unthinkable! Celestia, unable to cope with the notion, then stumbled as if to faint, only to be caught by her guardspony immediately. "Celestia! Are you alright?" Asked Twilight, highly concerned. And Celestia looked back dizzily, and replied. "I-I'll be fine... I just... I..." Celestia finally passed out, simply unable to process or cope with the thought of this creature having the elements. Later, at a cave in the mountains... Zero looked at his prize: the shiniest gems he'd ever seen, now somewhere they could never harm him: in a chest, on an altar, in a cave on the top of a mountain. But even so, Zero despised the gems, despite their beauty, for they gave off a feeling of great happiness. Zero hated these cursed gems, and wanted to destroy them and spit on their remains, cursing their creators for the sheer audacity of making these horrid, disgusting, happy little trinkets. But in spite of his feelings, Zero knew that he needed these gems. He wanted the power stored within them first before he crushed them, and if he wanted that power stored withing these elemental pieces, he needed to learn how to operate them. Zero thought on this predicament, and thought even more. But no matter how hard he lamented on the workings of the powerful little jewels, or how hard he glared at them, attempting to intimidate into working with the force of his anger alone, no answer ever came to him, and the gems, set in their jewelry sets, merely sat there, twinkling in the faint light, as if mocking Zero for his incompetence. But all was not lost, for soon, another thought entered Zero's mind, striking him like lightning, and filling him with inspiration: The six he had defeated, they had used the elements before him without difficulty. And surely, when he fired upon them in hopes to kill them, he in fact may not have ended them right there! So, Zero pondered, an eventually, a decision became clear to him: If he himself could not use these trinkets, then one of the six that had originally wielded them would provide him with the answers he sought, willing or not... that is, if only he could find them. Canterlot castle, later Celestia awoke in her room, after awakening from a crazy dream where the Mane Six lost to a freaky alien and lost the Elements of Harmony to it. Oh well, it was just a dream, after all. Then, a maid stepped in. "Princess, you're awake! How are you feeling?" The maid asked, and Celestia rubbed her head, then replied: "Oh, I'm quite alright, just had the craziest dream though... The Bearers of the Elements were in it... and an alien..." The maid shuddered, then spoke up: "P-princess, that wasn't a dream... It actually happened." The maid said shyly, and after a moment of pause, Celestia sighed, lowering her head, and finally replied. "I figured it wouldn't be that easy. Alright, bring Twilight and her friends here. I need to talk to her. NOW." Later... Twilight, after hearing that the princess requested her presence, began to sweat. She had just failed the kingdom, and was now liable for treason. Her sentence could be death, or worse! And now, the Princess wanted to talk to her, alone, and under such grim circumstances! Twilight began to shake more and more as she reached the throne room, and as soon as she opened the door to Celestia's medical wing, she quickly found Celestia waiting, a stern look on her face. "Your Highness, I'm so very sorry for..." Twilight tried to apologize, but she was almost immediately cut off by a wave of Celestia's hoof leaving her in silence as a moment passed, and finally, Celestia spoke, her voice grim, but understanding. "No, Twilight, you've no reason to apologize. In reality, it's my fault the elements rest now with Zero; you have no reason to be ashamed" Said Celestia, and Twilight cast a confused look at the princess of the sun as she finished her explanation. "Zero? Is that the alien's name? How do you know that?" asked the confused Princess-to-be, and Celestia sighed, beginning yet another explanation to Twilight about the dire situation that the world was now in: "...I have asked the greatest court wizards on the identity of our newest assailant, Twilight, and none of them could identify it, nor any book in the archive, and I've certainly never seen anything like it before in my own long life, so it is clear it was not from this world, or this universe." Replied the Princess solemnly, looking as though a great burden rested on her head. "That is why I searched the mind of the minion we captured during the alien's last assault on us, and found out our new enemy's name, and it's rather... unpleasant history. I will not go into detail, but I have found out that the creature we now face is in great pain, and it has tried to spread that pain to others many times before." Celestia explained, and after a brief pause, she continued on. "It's name is Zero, Twilight, and it indeed came from another universe, one very similar to ours, but has been defeated twice by the same single hero. This failure, I've gathered, has devastated Zero, and if we are to ever have any chance of defeating it, then we need to sooth it, before it brings the whole world into nothing but chaos and unhappiness. And that, Twilight, is where you and your friends come in." Celestia Twilight was caught by complete surprise by this. "W-What? After we lost to it once? Why not send all the guards in the land?" She asked. However, Celestia did not react, and in fact seemed to grow more upset at the suggestion Twilight presented. Finally, after a quick sigh, Celestia responded: "Because, Twilight, we want to try and ease its pain, not increase it. It cannot feel positive emotions without feeling pain, but you and your friends can fix that." Said Celestia coolly. However, Twilight was confused by this. "Us, fix it? How? Without the Elements of Harmony, we're hopeless to stop that thi-... I mean, Zero." She said sadly. But nonetheless, Celestia gave a sad smile, then replied: "We can, Twilight. Zero cannot feel most positive emotions, but he still has one, and you and your friends can bring it out, and open the way for Zero to be happy again... You just need the greatest element of all: Hope. Without hope, our kingdom would not exist, and Zero would have simply stayed dead, never to feel joy or pride. Now, you must find it, then use it to face him." Twilight lit up at the thought of a secret element they could use to defeat Zero and make him stop his rampage. "Where is it hidden, Princess? I must know if we are to defeat Zero!" Twilight said, excitement in her voice. Celestia laughed softly, then replied. "Patience, my little princess. You first must find Zero. By the time you have found his lair, you will already have found Hope along the way. Then, you can defeat him." Twilight Straightened upright, then snapped a salute. "I won't let you down, princess! I promise you now, Zero will be defeated!" Celestia smiled. "I'm sure of it, Twilight. After all, I have hope that you will." She said with a smile, musing at her little joke. And thus, their meeting Concluded, Twilight exited the castle to round up her friends for an epic quest. Little did anyone realize, though, a dark, spherical interloper was watching from the window, and was now flying off to report to its master... Meanwhile, at the Citadel of Anguish, Zero's lair Zero hovered in a cocoon of dark energy he'd created to protect himself, rapidly gaining his own power back as he waited, but he still remained separated from the power within the Elements of Harmony, the boundless, unknown taps of power sealed within those tiny, fragile gems... and no way to reach them by himself. This alone infuriated Zero to no end, and he was tempted to just smash the impudent trinkets and be done with it. But, despite all his rage at the small elements, he restrained himself, for he knew that he eventually would be rewarded greatly for his patience, and this thought helped spark that one little emotion in him, the one he'd known all his life, and that he clung to like a raft in a crashing, raging sea of misery and despair: Hope. However As he floated in his little vortex of misery, a lone dark matter minion of his timidly approached Zero and his shroud of despair, and then began making otherworldly noises only Zero and other dark matter could understand: It told him that the six mares Zero had encountered before were now heading out, on yet another quest to stop him, but with a new, unheard-of Element this time: Hope. As soon as he heard this news Zero quickly became furious, his rage quickly overpowering his other emotions, and causing him to almost lash out at the dark matter minion, the elements, and the whole world itself. Hope, the only positive thing he could experience without it killing him. Now, they were going to use it against him?! ... Well, not if he found it first. Gathering his swarm, Zero then unleashed them upon the land to find this "Element of Hope" and bring it to him, and to grab one of those technicolor pests if possible. And on this order, the Dark Matter legions all swarmed out of the massive cavern that hid Zero from the world, blotting out the sun and sky with their sheer numbers as they spread out across all of Equestria, their search for the Mane six and the Element of Hope officially on. That done, Zero then quietly resumed his meditation, still trying to unlock the power within the Elements he had himself. Soon, he would show them all. He was going to bring them misery and pain whether they liked it or not, and he wasn't going to lose. Not this time. And now, after all those years in dreamland, after all those years of agony and defeat, Zero could finally see victory, gleaming like a star... And finally, after so long... he could almost touch it, and no one, no ponies, no puffballs, nothing in this world was ever going to get in his way ever again.