//------------------------------// // The Clash of the Nightmare Kings and the Crystal Empire // Story: Order In Equestria // by Bowenross //------------------------------// I woke up and untangled myself from my sheets. I had tossed and turned in my sleep, so they were wrapped around me snugly. Some of my feathers had been dislodged during my slumber, and I had to sweep them off of the bed. I checked my wings to check if they were any feathers necessary for flight, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that my wings were not missing any feathers. They had grown back as I slept so that I wouldn't have to worry about them. Not like I would actually have need of them for the upcoming events. I had figured earlier that I would disguise myself as another pony so that others wouldn't know that it was me. I could act more easily behind the scenes and they wouldn't figure out that Ordeus can shift into the King of Nightmares from Nightmare Night. I teleported myself over to the area where the crystal empire would appear later today. I set up a precautionary barrier that would last until Shining Armor could cast his own and get Cadance to keep it up. I then transformed into an earth stallion that was a dark black that had small patches of white fur on my body. Mane and tail were a bright sapphire blue, a stark contrast to my dark fur. I sat down on a rock and waited for the Empire to appear, it reminded me of when I first got to the planet. It was just way colder and windier than in the beginning. I waited for about an hour before I could see a crystal start to poke up out of the ground. It was the top of the palace, and the rest of it followed quickly after it first broke the earth. Other buildings were popping out of the ground left and right, quickly forming the snowflake pattern that the Empire was built in. I could see a pegasus guard flying away, off to tell Celestia that the Empire had returned. I was surprised that he hadn't asked me what I was doing here, but then I realized he hadn't seen me. I walked through the Empire and watched as the residents exited their homes. I greeted those that welcomed me, but those were few. Most of the ponies were depressed looking and hung their heads as they walked about. They didn't greet each other enthusiastically, but in hushed tones, as if something were out to hurt them if they spoke loudly or cheerfully. I was on my way to the palace when I bumped into somepony that was running out of an alleyway. We crashed to the ground and I was picked up in a blue glow of magic. "Watch where you are going, citizen. You ran into my wife, and I don't want to see anything bad happen to her." The tone of this stallion's voice was stern and angry, but there was an undertone of worry. I looked up and was greeted by the sight of Shining Armor picking up Cadance from the ground where she had landed. I chuckled and then let out a loud guffaw. They looked at me as if I was crazy, but I would have done the same if the stallion I ran into randomly started to laugh. They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "Do you guys not recognize me? I was at your wedding! I knew that the Crystal Empire was going to return and I got here even before it came up. Try to guess who I am. I'll give you three guesses before I tell you." I held up my front two hooves and one of my back hooves so they could keep track of their guesses. "Um, are you the Duke of Stalliongrad?" Cadance asked as she was scratching her head, trying to think of who I was. "Nope, there goes your first guess." I let my back hoof fall down, indicating that they only had two guesses left. Shining Armor was sitting down and scratching his chin, still holding me up with his magic. "Are you my second cousin on my father's side of my family? He has some relatives that have really dark fur but bright manes." "No, you got further away from the answer with that guess." I put down my right front hoof. "I'll give you a hint; I know the caverns like the back of my hoof." I looked down at my hoof, inspecting it like one would a map. "Hey, that scar is new!" Shining just looked at my quizzically but Cadance totally got it. "Uncle Ordeus, what are you doing here? I would have figured that you would have been in Canterlot to help brief the others about what is going to happen." "No, I'm taking an active role in this. Did you guys not notice the barrier I set up when you arrived? It is to repel Sombra until you guys got here and set up your own. It also acts as a secondary protector, and it doesn't need to be constantly replenished. I need you guys to get to the palace and set up the barrier. Cadance can keep it going while Shining goes to get Twilight and the others." I put my other hoof down and just looked at Shining. "Now that you know that it's me, you can put me down Shining." "Oh, sorry, I completely forgot." He lowered me to the ground and then released his magical grip on me. "Why are you not in your original form? It would allow you to act under any circumstances and you wouldn't be hindered by anypony. It also would allow you to use magic and fly, which you can't do in your current form." "I'm doing this incognito. The only two who will know of the fact that I'm Ordeus are you guys. Believe it or not, I can get more done in this form that I can in my original form in this situation. I'll be less noticeable and can sneak around and gather information easily. I'll meet you in the palace when Twilight and her friends arrive with Shining." I started to gallop off before I turned around quickly and looked Shining in the eye. "And be warned, Sombra will most likely appear when the train gets near here. He'll try to stop help from arriving, but just surround everypony in a barrier. When you have to go on hoof, keep that barrier up and keep walking. Get Twilight to help you because Sombra will try to break you with powerful dark magic." I turned and ran around a corner, not listening to what Shining was saying. "I walked around the Empire for the next few days, setting up some runes for protection from dark magic. I had to return to the palace every now and then to get more materials for creating the runes, and Cadance, Shining and I had strategy meetings where we exchanged info about what was happening and what we were planning on doing in the upcoming events. I kept what I was doing mostly a secret, only telling them what was necessary at the moment. I didn't tell them about anything that would happen in the future. True to her word, Celestia sent the girls four days after the Empire appeared. It took about a full day to travel from Canterlot to the Empire, and that is why it was four days instead of three like I would have expected it to be. Shining and Cadance had appeared so soon because Celestia had teleported those two to a location near the Crystal Empire. From where I was when the girls neared the Empire, I could see the massive black cloud that was Sombra. I could also see a small, in perspective, purplish bubble that protected the girls from Sombra's attempts to hinder them. I ran through the streets to reach the spot where the small group would enter from. I slid to a stop in front of the small group; the girls were looking around in amazement. "No time to be amazed in the beauty and splendor. We need to get you girls to the palace so that you can be briefed on the situation and begin the investigation." We began to hurry our way to the palace, and Pinkie asked Shining who I was. I turned my head and told her, "My name is Midnight Cry. I am an infiltrator for the Lunar guard. I am also its captain, while Shiny here is captain of the Day guard. I'm retiring after this so one of the others will take my place. Hopefully it will be Night Breeze; she is the best second hoof I've had in a long time." We reached the palace and I opened the doors for the group and I closed them after everypony had gotten inside. We rushed for the throne room, where Cadance currently was. She looked even more tired than the last time I had seen her. "Hello girls, it would have been nice to talk and hang out, but this isn't the time for that. Sombra is trying to break down the barrier that I'm holding up." That explained the exhaustion she showed. She looked at me and I mouthed for her to not tell the girls who I really was. "Shining and he will tell you what we have learned so far, and they will point you in the right direction for your search. Now, I have to focus on this barrier." Shining and I led the girls back to the entrance of the palace. We filled them in on where the library was and any other thing they might need to know. I felt Cadance's barrier falter for a moment and Sombra's magic slip in. My barrier and runes stopped the further spread of his magic for now, but they too would falter in time and his magic would start to slowly spread across the empire. Hopefully, it would be the same amount of time that the girls would have had in the show. Heck, it could even lengthen the time by a short amount. I decided that I would confront Sombra now rather than later, it would save us a ton of time. I made my way to the outer edge of the Empire, seeing the girls every now and then trying to get information out of the ponies that Shining hadn't gotten yet. There weren't many things left that they had to say. I reached the edge in a short amount of time and stepped out into the frozen wasteland outside of the bubble. There, pools of shadow coalesced around me and shaped into the form of Sombra, the very stallion I was there to meet. "It seems that we have a brave one here. You would be fit to be my first slave after so many years of imprisonment, your tail shines like the brightest sapphire." He conjured shadow shackles that rushed forward to latch onto my legs. I stepped forward and the shackles disappeared. "It's great and all that you think my mane and tail are pretty, but that's not what I came here for. I came here to tell you to scram and leave these ponies alone. You will be defeated either by me or by those in the Empire right now. Either way, it doesn't matter in the long run, as you will be defeated. Have you heard from your nightmare monster of the Nightmare King?" I shifted and pulled my armor to me. "Oh, so you are the one that defeated one of my most faithful servants. To think you took the guise of a pony. Nopony would have thought of looking for you that way. But now is not the time for useless chatter, as we have a battle to fight." He pulled at a dark crystal that was sticking out of the ground and his scythe came out. He twirled it with his magic before he held it beside him. "This will be a wonderful warm-up, crushing a worthless and fake king." "Oh, so you underestimate me? Fine, I'll fight with my hands until thirty minutes are up. Then I shall switch to my first weapon, then my second, and finally my third after an hour and a half. Hopefully you can stand up to me that long, because I haven't had the chance to try out the third in a while." I clenched my fists, took a boxers stance, and gestured for him to attack first. He basically threw the scythe at me, spinning it while it flew towards me. I kicked it out of the air and cancelled his magic on it at the same time. He had to grab it out of the air again before it hit him, and then he snarled and grabbed it in his teeth. He found out that magic wouldn't work while fighting me, so he figured he would do it the old fashioned way like an earth pony. When he got close to me, I caught his scythe as he swung it at me and flung him off of it. He landed some distance away and I threw the weapon back to him. "Why are you giving me my weapon back? You could have finished me off by now!" He stamped his hoof in anger, blowing hot air through his nostrils. "I told you that I would fight with my fists for the first thirty minutes and it's barely been five. I want the challenge that you aren't providing. Fight me seriously or leave now." I changed my stance into that of an aikido fighter. I sat on the ground with my legs underneath me. "Come at me full force and do not hold back." He yowled and conjured up shadow beasts that took physical forms after they appeared. They ran at me, followed by their master. I simply sat there and flung them as they attacked me. For those readers who don't know what aikido is, it is sometimes known also as the Way of harmonious spirit. You either use the attacker's momentum to throw them, or you use joint locking techniques to stop them from moving. It is a style that does little to no damage to the attacker unless the environment is dangerous. But since we were surrounded by thick snow, there was plenty of cushioning. I took the shadow beasts down easily, them disappearing right after I threw them or stopped their movements. These beasts actually had really easy to see joint areas and pressure points. Sombra was smart enough to be able to right himself after being thrown, and he kept his body out of my reach by using the length of the scythe to his advantage. The rest of the first thirty minutes passed with him trying to hit me with no avail. I got up and stretched, pulling my sword and shield to me while I put my arms behind my back. "Now that you have had your chance to be offensive, it is my turn to attack and you to defend." I pointed at him with the sword, making myself look really cliché. "Your scythe will shatter alongside your soul as you realize that your efforts are fruitless." He just glared at me and pulled more shadow magic to him. It gathered around his scythe, reinforcing it. I rushed him with my shield raised and caught his scythe in the spikes at the top of my shield and broke the blade in half. Then I crashed my sword against the top of the scythe, breaking the top off of it. Now that he only had a long staff to protect himself, Sombra actually started to look panicked. I spent the rest of the time slowly chipping the stick down into a stub that was worthless. "Have you decided to give up yet, Sombra. You know that you can't win, so why even bother. Your magic is being blocked by my barrier and the others are getting closer to finding out where you hid the crystal heart. See, they already have the fair set up. When they find the heart, you will be blown away from the Empire towards the Badlands. You could probably meet up with Chrysalis over there and plot to overthrow pony kind or something, but I would still be here to stop you." "I will not give up! A king shall never relinquish his kingdom to those unfit to rule, especially if they don't have an iron hoof when dealing with their subjects!" He rushed me again, trying to stab me with his horn. I sidestepped and kicked him in his ribs, sending him flying. "That's too bad to hear. We could have ended this peacefully, but I figure that I shouldn't drag this out any longer than I have to." I pulled out my third weapon, a sword that was made from metal that came from a meteorite. It was a well-known blade of a paladin that was used to vanquish many a demon. It would quickly deal with Sombra, seeing that he was just a unicorn that used dark magic rather than a demon that took form of a pony. I held it in front of me and started to gather energy into the blade. It began to glow, and it got brighter every second. Sombra began to scramble back, but he fell on his haunches after he tripped on one of the crystals that were spread around him every time he used his magic. I made my eyes glow an ethereal white and I shouted "May the power of Celestia smite thee!" I swung my blade and unleashed the energy that had been built up in it. Sombra screamed as he was engulfed in the blinding white light that slashed across the land. Any crystals around were disintegrated by the light and there was a scar in the snow and earth for miles away from where the blast originated. "Well, no more Sombra. I have found out that I have been getting more and more violent as I stay here, probably because I haven't had the chances to vent that I normally would have. I should find the training room in the house to vent some steam every one and awhile. Time to return to the empire and take down those runes and the barrier." I changed into my pony form and trotted back to the empire. I still carried the blade because I felt that it would help me explain on how Sombra left. Shining was already at the place where I entered and exited from. I faked a limp so that it would seem that Sombra had hurt me in some way. I didn't want him to think that I had gotten out of a battle unscathed, especially one with Sombra. I could hear the galloping of others coming towards us as well. I pulled Shining into a darker alleyway so that the girls wouldn't see us. "What happened out there? You've been gone for over an hour and then this huge burst of light came from out there. And where did you get that blade? It seems that it is filled with power, greater than even the strongest unicorn." "Well, the light came from this blade and my own power. Sombra has been dealt with and won't be coming back any time soon. The blade, as I call it, is called the god-sword and is filled with the power of the light. Though it seems that one of Sombra's crystals got stuck in there. I'll get it out later, for now, how about we help the girls with the fair?" I walked off at a brisk trot, followed by Shining. We made our way for the crystal palace, going to tell Cadance that she didn't have to keep the barrier up anymore. Along the way, I found a piece of cloth and strapped the sword to my back. When we got to the entrance, I let Shining go up to tell Cadance about Sombra. I went over to the crystal heart where Rainbow was standing, looking extremely bored. "Hey Dash, what have you been up to?" She looked up from the spot she was staring at and huffed. "After the jousting, which I was awesome at, Twilight made me come over here and watch the heart. I am so freakin bored, nothing has happened that is exciting." She scratched at the ground with her hoof. "So, what's up with you?" "Oh, nothing much, just came to see what you were doing. Also, I defeated Sombra a short while ago; making sure that he wouldn't bother us or these other ponies for a long while. Oh, I also need to tell you that the crystal heart right there is not the actual crystal heart. If the crystal ponies see that thing, they're going to be crushed." I poked at the fake crystal heart, waiting for Dash to react to what I just said. "You defeated Sombra?! All by yourself? I won't believe that, even Celestia and Luna could only trap him." She blinked, and did a double take at the heart. "Wait, what did you say about the heart? You said this one was a fake? Meaning there's a real one?!" I just nodded yes and Rainbow took off to find Twilight. I pulled over a cloth to cover the fake heart, making sure that I didn't alert any other pony that anything was wrong. It felt weird picking up everything with your mouth, and you could taste whatever it was you picked up. I really missed my magic right now. When I got back to the heart, Twilight was already there with the rest of the group. She was holding the book and was flipping through the pages, scanning them for anything that mentioned the crystal heart. I threw the cloth over the heart and walked up to the book. "Here Twilight, let me show you where the information would have been." I flipped over to the place where Sombra had ripped out a few pages. "That's where it would have been if Sombra hadn't torn it out before he was imprisoned. I learned that he did that right before he, um, left." "What do you mean by 'left'? Ugh, never mind, we don't have time for that. We have to find the real heart before things take a turn for the worse. Fluttershy and Pinkie, go off that way to see if you can find anything. Applejack and Rarity go the other way and search around and talk to the ponies over there. Rainbow, see if you can find anything while flying. Spike and I will search the castle to see what we can find there." I held up my hoof, waving it so Twilight would notice. She looked over at me and gave me a nod, telling me to speak. "I know where you can start the search. Follow me." I led Twilight and Spike up to the throne room. "Cadance isn't here because she's resting after having used all that magic. See if you can find anything in this room. I'll help you search." Twilight and Spike went off to one side of the room to see if they could find anything unusual while I just stood there waiting for Twilight to figure out that this wasn't exactly what the throne room looked like while Sombra was in power. Twilight and Spike walked over to me and asked me if I had found anything. It sounded like Twilight wasn't anywhere close to figuring out that the room needed to be changed, so I figured I would just tell her. I wanted this to speed up as quickly as possible. "I didn't find anything, but that's most likely because the throne room didn't look like this while Sombra was in power. I would change it, but I don't have magic." I pointed to my forehead, showing the absence of a horn. "Twilight, if you would do the honors." She just nodded and gathered dark energy into the tip of her horn. She struggled slightly, and her eyes began to glow and give off a green mist. She shot the magic into the center of the room and the entire room changed into the dark crystals that Sombra created. Stairs appeared in front of where Twilight was standing. "How did you know that was what we were supposed to do?" "Eh, it was just a hunch. Besides, we have descending to do. No time to spend dilly dallying like this." I started to run down the steps, leaving Twilight and Spike standing at the top. It took them a moment to register that I had just run down into the darkness by myself and they took off after me. I had slowed down slightly to allow them to catch up with me. Spike had already gotten tired and was riding on Twilight's back. I grabbed onto the railing that wasn't naturally there, I made it appear, and I slid down. Twilight followed my lead and did the same. We reached the bottom of the stairs within minutes. We stood in front of the door and Twilight inspected it. I put up a spell on myself so that I couldn't be affected by illusionary magic, and I did so when Spike wasn't looking. Twilight went into a stupor, standing there with a blank look on her face. Then she was screaming and crying, going through her own nightmare. I walked up to her and pushed her aside, placing myself in front of the door. "Huh, what happened?" Twilight looked around to figure out where she was. "That was weird Twilight. You had a one mare show going on there." Spike was trying to explain what Twilight had done while she was stuck in her nightmare, but I just kicked a nearby crystal and it showed a playback of the scene. "Sombra put a strong illusion spell on the crystal above this door. It made you live your worst nightmare in your own head, leaving you vulnerable to any kind of attack on your physical body." I stared at the crystal. It had shifted into an eye, and it stared back at me. I held my gaze and, it took a few moments, it shattered. It had tried to use too much power to make me weak or vulnerable, but the spell I had cast on myself prevented anything from happening to me. I opened the door to show even more stairs and I walked out and began to climb. "What was that?!" Twilight ran up next to me, carrying Spike on her back again. "What was what, Twilight? I got us through the door, is there any need to know how I did it?" "Yes, I mean, even I was affected by that door. How were you not, when you are an earth pony that doesn't have any strong affinity to magic?" "I got a spell placed on me a while ago that blocked any illusionary magic from affecting me. It has aided me in my missions." I leaned over the edge of the stairs and looked up to see how much further we had to travel. We still had a long way. "If you could speed this up, that would be greatly appreciated." She nodded and flipped our gravity, and we slid the rest of the way up the tower. She reversed our gravity back to normal and we landed on our hooves. We looked at the real crystal heart, and Spike licked his lips. I glared at him and told him to not get any ideas. This gem was not for eating, we had to get it back down to the ground. I felt a small pulse of energy from the sword on my back. I glanced at it and saw that it had turned half black and half white. "Well, I should have seen this coming. Can't have one without the other. Time to signal Dash to help us out." I walked over to the edge of the top and pulled the sword off of my back and caught the sun's rays on it. I found where Rainbow was and flashed the light over her. She looked up and saw that I was holding the sword at the very top of the palace. She bolted up to where we were standing. "Did you guys find it already? It's barely been twenty minutes." "Well, Midnight here seemed to know exactly how to get up here. He even broke the crystal above the door that affected me, without even having to do anything but stare at it." Rainbow Dash rushed up to my face. "Are you a spy for Sombra? You seem to have an awful amount of knowledge about this place." "I am a spy, but not for Sombra. And the reason why I know so much about this place is that one of my ancestors is a crystal pony. He was a palace servant under Sombra's rule, and he was an undercover agent for Celestia and Luna. He passed down the knowledge of the palace and its secret corridors and such in the stories he used to tell. Now that we have that cleared up, go get Fluttershy. She can help you get this down to the ground and then you can come back for Twilight and Spike." Rainbow Dash grunted and flew off to get Fluttershy. I walked over to the edge of the tower and jumped off onto the crystal below it. Twilight had yelled and rushed over to me when I had jumped off, and she had tried to envelop me in magic so I wouldn't fall. When she saw that I was fine, she just yelled at me to not scare her like that again. I just chuckled and made my way down to the ground. By the time I had gotten there, Rainbow and Fluttershy had brought down the heart and were going back to get Twilight and Spike. "So now that we have the real heart, how about we gather everypony here so we can wrap this up? Places to go, ponies to see." I walked over to the crystal heart and placed it on the pedestal. The rest of the group fanned out to tell everypony in the empire to come to the palace. I went and got Shining and Cadance so they could be there to celebrate along with the others. In almost no time at all, the crystal ponies were gathered around the center and pouring their happiness into the heart (super cheesy sounding if you ask me). A massive wave of energy passed over us and the others became crystal ponies. For some reason, only my tail had become like crystal while the rest of me stayed the same. I placed the sword against the pedestal because I was probably never going to use it again and even if I did need it I could just pull it to me using my powers. I also placed a 'do not touch' sign on it because I knew some ponies would want to touch it. Nopony noticed me as I walked out of the empire and into the frozen wasteland that surrounded it. I transformed into my alicorn form and teleported to Canterlot. I appeared in the main hall and made my way to the night court, because that was the one that was currently in session. I walked in right after something had hit the door, and it turns out the thing that hit the door was one of Luna's slippers. She had gotten angry at one of the aristocrat ponies and had almost hit him. "Well, it seems that I have come at the most opportune time. If I may, I ask that you leave the room everypony and leave Lu-Lu and I alone while somepony sends a servant to fetch Tia." There was much grumbling from the ponies as they walked out of the room. The last one almost bumped into somepony that was coming in. "You had no need to send a servant to fetch me because I was already making my way down here after I heard that my brother had come back after his long absence. What have you to say for not visiting us often?" She made a pouty face and was gathering fake tears in the corners of her eyes. "Tia, you should know that doesn't work on me at all." She stopped and gave me a smile. "I came to tell you that Sombra is no more for now. I have purified him using a blade that I left at the Crystal Empire for now. But I have also come to tell you that Twilight will soon be ready to fulfill her destiny partially, you just have to find that spell from Starswirl that is somewhere in the library's restricted section. And with that said, I must go! My bed needs me!" I teleported into my house, because screw my own spells. I walked up the stairs and opened my bedroom door, and was surprised when I saw that somepony was already sleeping on my bed. I don't even know how she got in again. I locked all the doors, I put up spells preventing ponies from entering my house without me being in it, and I had asked her to not use any of her 'special powers' to enter my house. Even after all that, there was Pinkie sleeping in my bed; her pink hair covering most of the pillow she was laying her head on. I went over to her and nudged her awake. "Huh? Who is that?" She looked up at me with bleary eyes. She rubbed at them and then leaped up with a huge gasp and hugged me. "Pinkie, go home. I don't need any pony in my house, when I'm about to sleep." I smoothed out the covers from where Pinkie had messed them up and then got into the bed. She got in next to me and snuggled up to me. "And I definitely don't need a pony to get close to me, in the same bed, while I try to sleep." "But you live alone in this humongous house with nopony else. It must be really lonely at times. That's why I decided that I would be here for you one night to surprise you and spend the night with you so you wouldn't be lonely. That, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me that I needed to go to one of my friends' houses for the night because they were going to Manehattan and didn't trust me alone in the shop alone for some reason. And the others were doing something, so I couldn't stay with them." "Fine, you can stay here for one night. One. Night. Only. There is a guest room down the hall on the third left door I think. Goodnight, I will most likely not be up in the morning, so you will have to show yourself out." I turned over so that I was facing away from her. I looked back over to her when I hadn't heard her get up and leave and found that she had gone back to sleep. I just smiled and patted her head, turning out the light so that I could get to sleep.