In all of the locales and places that there was on Equestria, there was one place that was ultimately hidden in the world. A place that was obscured out of sight from the public eye and accessible by only those with the magic and knowledge that was needed to do so. A place that served only as a prison for those only willing to commit evil deeds, and who were never to be redeemed into the path of light again.
It was this place where it served as his prison for a long, perhaps almost eternal time. And it was this place where he remained trapped even now.
In the underworld known as Tartarus, there was a long, narrow, rocky stairway that led up to a large rock spire with an open clearing at the top that was surrounded by parts of the spire protruding from the main base of it. At the bottom of the stairway stood a large, black, fifteen-foot-high, three-headed dog that wore spiked collars on each of his necks. The giant dog was facing the path ahead of him with the stairway behind him, standing guard against whoever dared to walk up the stairway that led to the spire’s top.
At the top of the spire, in the very center of the circular-marked clearing, there stood a large, silver, metal cage, and imprisoned within it was the dark red and grey centaur himself, sporting a white tail, a white beard, and cloven hooves. He wore silver metal bracelets on the wrists of his arms, a black chestplate on his upper body, a silver ring that was pierced in his nostrils, and a large silver necklace with a golden triangular medallion hanging from the bottom of it.
“Ugh… how much longer must I remain in this forsaken prison?” he said, looking annoyed and sporting an old and feeble voice, with his hands grasping the metal bars. “Curse those ponies. Curse them all… and my brother who foolishly sided with them!”
His hands tightened themselves on the bars as he exclaimed that. Then, he sighed with a weary tone, loosening his grip and looking down.
“It must have been years since he betrayed me like that. Years, decades… it could be centuries, even. Quite hard to tell in this cave-like underworld without the sun and the moon shining their lights upon it.”
The centaur began to look around, observing his surroundings. After a while, he then sighed again, looking upward with his teeth gritted.
“I swear… I will get my revenge on the pony world above, sooner or later. I cannot be stuck in here for eternity. After all, nothing lasts forever.”
“...Indeed… Nothing lasts forever.”
“Hm…?!”
Having just heard a loud voice coming from somewhere, jumping a bit, the centaur swiftly looked around. He glanced left and right, ahead and behind him, and upward and downward.
“…What did I hear just now?” he asked, his black sclera, white-dotted eyes shifting left and right. “I thought it was just me and…”
He glanced downward, toward the base of the stairs where the three-headed dog was.
“Cerberus, was that you speaking to me just now? How sudden of you to speak to me now after all this time.”
After a few seconds, no response came from the dog. Instead, he raised his lower left leg up to the left side of his leftmost head, scratching his left ear with his paw. Seeing this, the centaur knew it wasn’t the dog.
“Hm, how odd… I thought we were alone in here?”
“…You were alone… until now. Gaze above you, Tirek.”
Tirek looked upward, his hands still gripping the metal bars. What he saw above seemed to be a small sphere of swirling energy that was descending towards the centaur’s cage. The sphere had a mixture of beige-green, white, and black colors that were constantly swirling against each other, with beige-green being the sphere’s most dominant color. As it continued to descend, Tirek could see that the sphere’s size was about the same as a pony’s head.
The sphere stopped and floated right in front of the centaur, who stared at it with a bit of a puzzled look.
“…I am guessing that the sudden voice came from you,” Tirek said. “Tell me, then. Who are you? And how did you get into this cursed place?”
“…Who am I, you ask? I am merely… a stranger,” said the sphere, sporting a deep, reptilian-like voice. “To you, and all the inhabitants of this world you call Equestria. Perhaps you could call me an alien here, for this world is not my original place of birth.”
“You are not from around here? Interesting…”
“Indeed… I come from a far-away world. A destroyed world… A world which had been ravaged and harvested from the predecessor that I was spawned out of. A world that was destroyed by my father, you could say, and he, too, was a spawn himself that came from another destroyed world… To this, you could say that we are parasites. Viruses, even. We reproduce, find worlds for our resulting spawn to harvest and destroy, and then, the cycle repeats from there. We harvest worlds and their energy in pursuit of one ultimate goal: to achieve perfection in our forms. To obtain the perfect life state.
“But although that is my life purpose,” continued the sphere. “It is not why I have arrived here in this world. And this is not my actual physical form here that you are seeing. This… is merely my avatar. As such, I have a different motive for this world.”
“Oh? …and that is?” asked Tirek, raising an eyebrow.
“I would like to simply observe this world, for the sake of curiosity… and offer some… help for you. Nothing more than that.”
“…You? Offering to help me? Why?”
“I know of your past exploits, Tirek. And not just what you have just mentioned as well. I know that you and your brother Scorpan came to the main continent of Equestria to steal the ponies’ magic for yourselves, how he saw the supposed good in them and pleaded with you to relent. But you refused, and as such, he told their leaders of your plans. And while he returned to your homeland, you ended up here in the pits of Tartarus and had remained here since.”
After a bit, the centaur sighed, looking down. “…Yes, that is how it all went long ago. I still cannot believe that my own brother would rather be friends with them instead of showing them who their rulers should really be. Whose mighty force that they should be bowing down to. But alas, it didn’t come to.”
“Indeed… As such, I share some of the same sentiments as you. With attempted conquest or destruction of the land come those who wish to defend it. Their so-called ‘beloved’ home… and yet they so blindly ignore your needs and motives, the reasons why you wish to conquer or destroy it. Such was the case of my father back then, how he faced a group of lifeforms that foresaw his forthcoming destruction. In the end, however, he proved to be triumphant over them, and he ultimately succeeded in his goals.
“That is why I want to help you,” continued the sphere. “Whereas he succeeded and triumphed, you can, too. You do want their magic, correct? And rule over Equestria as the sole supreme ruler, bringing your might over those who oppose it?”
“Oh, I do, indeed,” Tirek said, looking at the sphere. “These ponies don’t deserve one bit of their magic. All they ever seem to do with it anyway is to maintain their happy little communities with each other. That’s it… and it is quite boring, in my opinion.
“However… I see one little problem with you helping me here… I have been betrayed before, and I won’t tolerate a second round of it. How am I supposed to know that you will not do that to me? Given the fact that you and your kind are parasites that harvest and destroy worlds, how am I exactly supposed to believe that you will not do the same to this one?” asked the centaur, frowning with a suspicious look. “Even when you’ve helped me take over it?”
“I have only one simple answer for that. The universe is infinite… and with such an infinity comes a vast number of worlds. Even if I do not harvest this one, there are numerous others that are ripe for us out there, instead… Do not worry. This world shall be yours, and yours alone. I will not disrupt your rule afterward.”
“…Hmm…”
Tirek narrowed his eyes at the sphere, slowly caressing his beard with his left hand as he thought about the mysterious off-worlder’s offer to help him.
“I do not know how you came to know my past, but… if you say that you won’t harvest this one, hm… very well, then. And a fair enough answer as well. I guess if there’s other worlds out there…”
“How I know about your past is not relevant, Tirek. Again, I only seek to observe and help you. You should not worry about it afterward, and you shall have my word on this.”
Tirek nodded. He looked away and then back at the sphere again. “Alright… How will you get me out of this cage, then? With magic? …I don’t even know your name, by the way.”
“With my own, yes. As for that… we were called by many names and labels throughout our time in the universe. My father was given this particular name by the lifeforms he faced, so I suppose I should use it as my name as well.”
The swirling sphere began to glow bright beige-green, continuing to glow brighter and brighter until its light began to blind and envelop Tirek within it, who grunted and shielded his eyes with his hand.
The light then suddenly pulsated, and in the next three seconds, it dimmed and faded away. Both the sphere and the centaur disappeared, leaving nothing but an empty cage behind.
“From now on, you have the courtesy of calling me…”
---
The door to the Golden Oak Library was quickly barged inward, and in came the purple unicorn, running to her desk that lay ahead of her. With a smile on her face and with the Crown of Magic adorned on her head, she stopped right in front of the desk and focused her attention on the written parchment that was on it.
Soon after, her friends followed her in and stopped near her, with all of them wearing their respective Element necklaces. Still in her Super form, Dash floated right above the desk, facing Twilight as her horn glowed.
“Fix the spell? What spell, Twilight?” asked Dash.
“This spell. Right here,” said Twilight, using her horn to levitate the parchment. “Princess Celestia sent me this last night for me to rewrite and finish it, as this was supposed to be Star Swirl the Bearded’s secret masterpiece. I didn’t know what the spell was supposed to do, so today, I decided to cast it after you left, Rainbow. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but now I know that something did happen. The spell had changed the Elements of Harmony.”
The unicorn turned around to face the rest of her friends, looking at them while the parchment floated below her face a bit.
“And with the exception of Rainbow Dash because she’s the Flame of Harmony, it had changed your destinies as well.”
“Oh, so that was why,” said Rarity. “My goodness. I didn’t even feel like myself when I had Pinkie’s destiny.”
“Yeah! And with me trying to sew up dresses and stuff!” exclaimed Pinkie. “That was weeeeeeeeeird.”
“…I don’t think I ever want to buck trees with my hooves again,” said Fluttershy, looking back at her lower hooves with a look of pain on her face. “Ergh…”
“And I don’t think I wanna take care of them animals again,” said Applejack, looking weary. “It was harder than I thought it was goin’ to be... Gosh, Rainbow, you got lucky here since it was said that you’re the true conduit of the Elements and all.”
“Yeah… Still, at least I tried to help you guys when I saw what was going on. But even with my new powers, I had no idea what to do, so I ended up going to Twilight,” said the white pegasus.
Glancing back at the desk, the purple unicorn levitated the quill pen over to her, bringing it to the parchment. Focusing on the piece of paper, she began to write on it.
“From all of us together,” she wrote aloud. “Together we’re friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end.”
As Twilight finished writing and smiled at it, a second later, Dash felt something. Something tingled within her, making her notice.
“Huh…? Whoa, what?!”
Suddenly, her inner Harmonic energy began to flare up within her. As she looked down at the undersides of her upper hooves that she brought up, she began to notice that the lightning gemstone of her necklace was glowing brightly, sporting a glow of multiple colors.
Then, suddenly, as if it was a tide of rushing waters demolishing the gate that held them back, the colorful glowing gemstone shot out a rainbow energy beam the size of Twilight directly at the purple unicorn. As she glanced back and saw it, the beam had quickly engulfed her in whole. It hit the ground, causing a minor explosion and shockwave that knocked them all back.
With the beam dissipating thanks to the shockwave, the white pegasus was thrown farther back in the air above and behind her. She quickly stopped herself, looking onward to the rainbow sphere that now stood there with strong energy winds emitting from it.
“Twilight?! What did I just…? Huh?!”
Suddenly, she began to feel a pulling force, moving her forward. It didn’t take long for her to notice that she was being pulled toward the sphere.
“What?! Waaaaaaaa!!!”
In one mere second, Dash was suddenly flung towards the sphere, yelping loudly as the sphere swallowed her in. Then, the sphere quickly dissipated, stopping the energy winds and leaving behind nothing but a large, smoking, charred mark on the wooden floor as well as the Crown on top of it. A mark that resembled Twilight’s star-shaped cutie mark.
Getting up from being blown away earlier, the ponies gasped in shock, seeing that both Twilight and Rainbow were no longer with them.
---
For a brief moment after the sphere swallowed her in, Dash saw nothing but pure, blinding white light in her eyes. Her body, after getting pulled in, was now seemingly floating in the air somewhere, she felt.
Soon, the white light in her eyes dimmed, and her surroundings were revealed.
“…What? This is…”
The white pegasus had found herself in an area filled with stars and nebulae, as well as bluish-green mist all over, both near and far as the eye could see. She recognized this place, for she had been here before a month ago in her dream.
“The Lane of Destiny,” she said. She began to look around. “But why am I here again? And where’s…?”
She turned around, searching for where the purple unicorn could be.
“Twilight! Where are you?!” Dash shouted.
“Rainbow! I’m right here!”
Hearing her to the right, Dash turned and flew over, finding her standing past a layer of mist. The pegasus landed near her, facing the unicorn.
“Are you alright, Twilight?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, if you don’t count me being caught off-guard by your Element necklace suddenly firing a magical beam on me, that is,” replied Twilight. Her eyes shifted left and right as she looked around. “Um, where are we, Rainbow?’
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, much less send you to this place! That spell of yours must’ve triggered the Harmonic energy inside of me to send you here.”
Dash looked in the direction that the unicorn was facing. Suddenly, she was reminded of something. Something that she learned of when she conversed with the Soul of Harmony a month ago.
“And I think I know why it sent you here, actually…” she said, walking in the direction she looked.
“Huh? Well, why?”
Dash stopped and turned around to face her.
“I’ve been here before, Twilight. In the dream that I had a month ago,” she said. “It was here that I talked with the Soul of Harmony.”
“Really? This place?”
“Yeah. It said that this place is where ponies can discover their true destiny. Not the ones shown by our cutie marks, but our real destinies. Hidden ones, and only those with hidden destinies can enter the place, it said.”
“Hidden destinies? Such as you being the Flame of Harmony?”
“Yeah,” Dash nodded. “And it was here that I learned of the darkness coming to Equestria. That I must train in order to defeat it.”
The pegasus looked around. “I don’t know why I’m here again, but… maybe it’s to see you reach your own hidden destiny, Twilight. I didn’t mention this before, but…”
She looked at the underside of her right hoof that she brought up.
“…when I asked the Soul on why I’m the only one of my friends to have a special destiny as this, it said I wasn’t. Another one of them will come to represent all of the Elements of Harmony, but in a way that is different from becoming the Flame. Now that you’re here with me in this place…”
Lowering her hoof, Dash looked at the unicorn.
“…I’m guessing it’s you who is the one, Twilight.”
“…What? Me?”
Just then, Twilight heard a familiar voice coming from behind.
“Indeed, it is you, my faithful student. I knew you could do it.”
Twilight glanced back. From out of the layers and layers of mist walked in the tall-standing, mane-flowing, white alicorn princess herself, with a graceful smile on her face.
“Princess Celestia? …I don’t understand,” said Twilight, turning around with a puzzled look on her face. “What did I do?”
“You did something that has never been done before. Something even a great unicorn like Star Swirl the Bearded was not able to do, because he did not understand friendship like you do. The lessons you have learned here in Ponyville have taught you well. You have proven that you are ready, Twilight.”
“Ready? For what?”
The sun princess turned to her right, glancing back at her with the same smile.
“To fulfill your destiny.”
Celestia began to walk in the direction she faced. Still puzzled, Twilight glanced back at Dash, only to see a smiling nod from her friend.
Looking ahead, the unicorn began to walk on, following her mentor. The pegasus began to follow as well.
But as soon as Dash took a step on the invisible ground, suddenly, something tingled in her head, urging her to look behind her.
“Huh? Behind me…?”
She looked back, and what she saw surprised her. Behind her was a completely black and dark void that appeared out of nowhere, with part of the Lane suddenly disappearing. In the void ahead, what looked like a blank white screen was floating there, with the screen seemingly flickering every three seconds.
Seeing it, Dash was reminded of her time with the Soul again, having seen the screens that retold the history of the Elements of Harmony. What could this screen be, then? Another look at the past?
Her mind tingled again, urging her to go to it. She heeded it, turning around and walking over to it. Whatever was happening to Twilight, she’ll know later.
Dash walked to and entered the void of darkness. Taking a look at the darkness around her, she recalled that the last time she was surrounded by darkness, she was met with a vision of a dark and destroyed future that would be caused by Discord. A future that she ultimately prevented.
Could this be another warning, then? She thought. After all, she knew that some sort of darkness, a threat greater than Discord, would be coming to Equestria.
The white ruby-eyed pegasus stopped at the screen, looking upward. The screen flickered and flickered, until it began to show something.
The scene she saw was that of a winter landscape. Heavy amounts of thick snow were everywhere, covering the hills and mountains that were seen. A strong blizzard was occurring, with rapidly flying snow and with strong gusts of wind that were howling throughout the area. Thick grey clouds were covering the sky, and without a hint of the sun’s light anywhere, there was nothing but darkness to see.
Barring the unusually dark clouds, to Dash, this looked like a typical blizzard snowstorm. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until the screen cut to a different scene. What she now saw triggered worrying feelings within her. The scene was that of Ponyville in ruins again, with its buildings having been crumbled and fallen to complete dust. Snow had covered some of the ruins. The ground, where the snow didn’t cover, appeared to have taken on a brownish-red color, with other parts of the ground appearing to be completely charred to black.
From this view, the ruined town appeared to be deserted, until she saw something moving in one of the ruins. As if it read her mind, the screen cut to inside of the ruin. There was a group of ponies there, with a pale and sickly appearance to them. Some were sitting on the ground and against the walls there. Some were lying on the ground, sleeping with mere torn rags on them. All of them seemingly lacked cutie marks on them, and all of them had the looks of sadness and restlessness on their faces.
…Oh, man. Dash thought. What the heck happened here? The ruins look like crazy Twilight did it again, but then, there’s no sign of Discord’s chaotic magic anywhere. And what happened to their cutie marks?
The screen then cut to a wider view of the town, with something else in the distance. The city of Canterlot was still there on its mountainside rest, but much like Ponyville, it, too, fell into ruin. Parts of the buildings there had fallen off, with some of them leaning over in different directions. The waterfalls that used to flow had ceased their run long ago.
As if the sight of both the Ponyville and Canterlot ruins suffering a seemingly never-ending harsh winter wasn’t enough to make her distressed and worried, the screen then cut to something again. This time, it was of a wide, sky-high view of a continent surrounded by grey-colored oceans of water. She stared at it, trying to figure out what she was looking at, and then, it hit her, causing her to look with wide open eyes.
“Oh, no… This is all of Equestria?”
So it seemed from the shape and the landmarks that she recognized from a map. However, much of it was now unrecognizable. Most of the world she came to know as her home was in ruins, with a giant howling snowstorm covering most of it. Half of it was covered in snow, while the other half had the same brownish-red ground as in Ponyville as well as charred marks and giant craters all over. Parts of the continent had been shattered into several smaller islands, and not a single hint of plant life, the greenery that used to dominate the landscape, was seen. It looked more like a dead world to her that had its life sucked out of it.
Seeing this dead Equestria instilled bleak feelings of hopelessness into Dash, as if she was there trying to survive. No way, then, was this the work of Discord. Could this be the work of the incoming darkness, then? If so, the Soul was right. This was definitely a greater threat than what the Spirit of Chaos could ever do.
And is this truly the future as well? Since she’s seeing this in the Lane of Destiny, it had to be. It must also be the reason why she’s really here.
The screen cut off and then shrunk to nothing. The darkness around her began to fade back into the ethereal light of the Lane.
Having seen the dark future that awaits them all, Dash thought about it with her eyes downcast, trying to process what she just saw. Who or whatever will cause Equestria to die like that, at least one thing is for certain: that she won’t ever allow such an event to happen.
Nodding to herself with an expression of determination on her face, Dash turned around.
“Huh?”
The pegasus saw the purple unicorn floating bipedally in the air above Celestia. The unicorn was being surrounded by a ribbon of purple energy. As the energy enveloped her more and more, her head then shot upward as she began to glow blindingly bright white, with light shooting from the sphere encasing her.
“Whoa, Twilight…?!”
The sphere continued to increase in size, until it began to engulf everything. It wasn’t until long that Dash herself was swallowed up within it.