When Two Worlds Meet

by Darkness 1

Inside The Crystal Castle Part 1

As everypony began to reach the train station, they all heard the conductor yell out: " Allllll ABOARD!!!! Train to the Crystal Empire leaves, in three minutes!!!" Everypony heard this, and trotted faster, and got on to the train.

Rainbow Dash said, " Whew! We made it!"

Just then, the train and cars jolted a little, and began to move, as the train whistle blew as the conductor yelled out: " We will be arriving in the Crystal Empire in 30 minutes due to minor weather fluctuations! This is our way of taking precautions so you all arrive at your destination safely, thank you, enjoy the ride!"

Rainbow Dash looked around, and said, " Hey, where's Darkness? Did he make it on?"

Snowshy said, " Oh, he did, he's in the back of our car, just over there, see him?"

Everypony looked, and sure enough, there was Darkness, standing there, looking out the window, with a distant look in his deep blue eyes, and said in a quiet tone, " No time for celebration yet....it has only just begun....." Everypony was going to see if he was okay, and

Snowshy stopped them, and as if she knew what they were thinking, said, " It's okay, he's not distancing himself from you guys, he's like this because he's preparing himself for whatever lies ahead when we get to the Crystal Castle."

Twilight said, " Oh, I see, I guess we should do the same we when get there then."

Snowshy said, " That sounds good, but its not just that, I can feel it too, the disturbance......it's getting stronger now....he knows it as well as I do, we are running out of time.. And I know you all know this too."

Everypony nodded, and Applejack asked Snowshy, " How much time do you reckon, we have left?" Snowshy said, " I don't really know.....I'm not sure Darkness knows for sure just yet either...."

Applejack said, " Well, don't worry about it sugarcube, you guys will figure it out....I just hope we aren't too late-"

Darkness finished her sentence, as he said, "We are not too late, not yet." He had walked from the back of the car to them, while they were in conversation. Darkness then said, " We should save our strength for our task at hand, we shouldn't talk until we get to the barrier, alright? Shove your worries aside, let me handle the things that trouble you, I will have an answer to your questions when I figure it all out, until then, focus, on the task at hand, step by step, day by day, hour by hour, take small steps, and we cannot fail. Focus, and we will all talk later."

Snowshy said, " I know what you just said, but, I'm worried too, will we make it? Will we stop the disaster?"

Darkness smiled, walked over to Snowshy, put a hoof on her shoulder, and said, " I understand, you are worried about all the lives in this world, you've always been like that, and that's why they call you a hero, I get that. I understand your concern, but don't worry, sister, we will make it, we have to, we must stop this, or with everything we've got, die trying. I will not let this happen to this world, no matter what it takes."

Snowshy said with some relief, " Thank you brother, that's relief to hear."

Darkness said, " Alright, no more talking till we get there, okay?" Everypony nodded, and began to ready themselves, as the train continued to head towards the Crystal Empire.

20 minutes later, the train stopped, and the conductor said, " Crystal Empire train station!!! Next stop, Appaloosa, in one hour! Thank you!"

Rarity said nervously, " Well, this is our stop."

Darkness walked past them, with no fear in his eyes, and said, " Let's go, we have a job to do."

Rainbow Dash commented, " How can he keep his cool, and not be afraid, in a time like this?"

Snowshy said, " He doesn't like talking about it, but when he was younger, he fought a lot of battles, a ton of enemies, just to survive. There was a time, when he left Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest, and traveled the world in search of answers to save himself from sadness, pain, and the past that tormented him. It was on these journeys, he encountered many monsters, and things you can only dream you wouldn't want to face, it was there, he honed his skills, as a swordstallion. He once told me this, a couple days after the events of Darkness Night, he said, he couldn't show the enemy he feared them, he would always tell me, before I retired and went my way, ' that fear is a form a weakness, instead, turn it around and use your greatest weakness as a strength and use it against your enemy, bend and dodge with the wind, free your mind, and focus, and you can never lose, remember this well, Snowshy, you or somepony else might need this to help you or somepony else out one day.' I think it was then I realized truly that my real mother wasn't lying to me, I had found my brother that day, and I took his advice, and I think we all should do that."

Twilight said, " It reminds of what you said, about him being 'chosen by the gods of Equestria' I can clearly see why now, he is truly an inspiration, I say we all give it shot, if it works for him, it can work for us too!"

Everyone shook their heads in agreement, and Fluttershy said, " Umm...I think we better catch up Darkness."

Rarity said, " Yeah, let's get going."

As Everypony was catching up, they saw Darkness was waiting at the inn, as they caught up to him, he said, " I thought you guys were behind me, oh well, I should've looked behind me. Anyways, let's go." Nopony said anything, they just followed him to the Crystal Castle, and when they reached the entrance, they were greeting by none other than Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Both Cadence and Shining Armor rushed to Darkness and the rest, and began to bow before Darkness, and Darkness held up a hoof and said, " Stop doing that, geez, Princess Celestia was trying to do the same thing. I'm not a ruler or anything, a simple hello does just fine."

Shining Armor spoke, " My apologies, Darkness, it's just Princess Celestia asked us to show our respect and thank for you, and the rest of you for coming here, and you are a Sorcerer pony after all."

Darkness quietly said, " Still makes no difference..." And he walked off, and then he turned around and said, " Oh, I suppose, I'll be at the inn, getting ready, meet me there in an hour, until then, I guess you can all catch up on things with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor."

Everypony smiled, and began to converse with Cadence and Shining Armor, but Snowshy just watched Darkness head off into the inn, with a look of concern, when Twilight came up beside her, and she said, " Worried about Darkness right? I don't know about you, but does it seem like he's taking his job, just a little too seriously? He avoided a lot of good conversation with Cadence and Shining Armor, why would he do that?"

Snowshy said, " Yeah, I am concerned about him, and yeah, maybe you're right, maybe he is taking his job a little too seriously. My guess is he avoided conversation with Cadence and Shining Armor is well, he couldn't really talk to ones he almost killed, and he can't bear to look at the damage he's done to this place."

Twilight responded, " I should've guessed, I was close, and it makes sense, but Snowshy, it wasn't his fault, it was Darkness Night that did all this."

Snowshy said, " That is true, but it was still physically him, it may not have been him mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, but it was still his physical body that got used to do these horrible acts. And he takes the responsibility for it all..."

Just then, the rest came up beside them, and Cadence simply said, " He shouldn't, we all knew then who was at fault."

Shining Armor said, " Cadence is right, we had all heard of tales of something like Darkness Night when we were young, but we all dismissed them as old pony tales, fantasy, just something to scare us into bed. I think I say this for everypony, we never thought the tales were telling an ancient prophecy, and that they were, in fact, very true."

Snowshy said, " Yeah, you all are right, I wish just my brother would see it that way and stop blaming himself for all of it, I don't like seeing him like this, it saddens me to see him like that.... But we better go inside the inn, it's almost time, let's go everypony."

Cadence asked, " Mind if we tag along?"

Snowshy smiled and said, " I'm sure Darkness won't mind."

As Snowshy said that, they all headed inside of the inn, as they opened the door and walked into the main area, and they immediately saw Darkness, in a corner of the room, sitting in the back of a big table, with a big piece of parchment in his hooves, he looked up and he saw them, and waved them over. They all walked over to the table, sat down, and Cadence was the first to speak, " Darkness, I hope you don't mind, that me and Shining Armor came with your friends and Snowshy."

Darkness said, " Not at all, in fact, it's good seeing as you are the rulers of this area, it's good for you to know what's going on."

Applejack asked, " What do you mean?"

Darkness smiled and put down the big piece of parchment he was holding, and spread it out, and he said, " I'm glad you asked, Applejack. Everypony, please take a second to look at this, you might find it interesting, I picked this up, the last time we made camp and I was in the mountains, and I stumbled upon it." Everypony looked, and saw what looked like very old instructions, to build....something....it was hard to see it.

Snowshy looked up at Darkness and asked, " What is this?"

Darkness said, " A very good question, I'm not sure myself, hey! Not even I know everything. My guess is this is important, but as you can clearly tell, the sketch is in bad shape, and a good part of the parchment ink has faded. But if you look at the title, it's called, ' The Grand Project' "

Rainbow Dash commented, " Well, somepony had little imagination for a great title."

Darkness snickered for the first time, he then looked around, and said, " What? That was good, I was kind of thinking the same thing, we don't have time to be wondering about all the little strange things about me, do we? No? Alright then, back to the what I was going to ask. I can't really tell what this 'project' is, but what are all your thoughts on this? I wanted to get some input on this before we get to work on that barrier. So, ideas? Thoughts?" Whatever this is, It bothers me, I'm not sure why, but I got a bad feeling about it."

Snowshy said, " I got the same feeling from it too, but all I can see, it's huge, maybe a giant statue?" Darkness said nothing, he just sat there, with one hoof supporting his chin, and he waited for somepony else to put their input in.

Rainbow Dash said, " I was thinking it's possible it could be instructions for a huge coliseum!"

Fluttershy said, " I really don't know, to be honest."

Pinkie Pie said, " Nope! I got nothing!"

Rarity said, " Me neither dear."

Twilight said, " I can only see a part of it, perhaps...a prison?"

Applejack said, " Maybe it's one of those temple do-hickeys."

After everypony finished, Darkness spoke, " Hmmm, interesting, I guess there's no solving this mystery now, is there? I figured as much, I just wanted to see what you all thought, and I have to admit, very interesting answers, I guess until I figure out how to restore this parchment, there's no getting to the bottom of this, but this will have to wait till after we are done here, but thank you all for input, it gives me some insight that you all think too, that this was meant for a sinister purpose. When I figure out how to restore this, I will let you all know, until then, let's get to the barrier, shall we?"

Cadence said, " I'm sorry, Darkness, but we never said anything, we really had no ideas either."

Darkness said, " It's alright, it's the trying that counts, remember that, ruler of the Crystal Empire."

Shining Armor said, " Thanks Darkness."

Everypony shook their heads in agreement, and Darkness said, " Alright, let's solve this, let's go." Everypony got up from the table, left the inn, and started to head to the Crystal Castle,

Cadence stopped everypony and said, " Everypony, wait, I wanted to show you all, the progress we have made so far in the rebuilding of this town and the castle, and just by looking around from this point, you can see it all." Darkness looked down, and Cadence said, " Please, Darkness, I know this is hard for you, but you, out of all of us, need to see this the most."

Snowshy said, " She's right, brother, as you once told me, face your fears today, be free and happier tomorrow."

Darkness looked up, and said, " Alright."

Cadence continued, " As you can see, 95% of the town was destroyed, and it left many homeless, and 80% of the population was killed, that we know of so far, due to what happened, the castle itself was reduced to one floor, and the basement caved in, from the shock of the rest of the castle crashing into the ground. However, despite the damage, we have made very good progress in rebuilding this once-glorious town, the castle can wait, our subject's homes are way more important right now. However, we are still finding bodies, of those that got killed, well, I'm sure you knew the spell Darkness Night used, but it threw everything and everypony everywhere, and a different spell was used to shatter the castle to bits. But anyways, we've had reports, that some Crystal Empire homes have been scattered as far as Griffonstone. In just two years time, we've repaired and rebuilt so far, about 20% of the homes that were destroyed, we still have much work to do, but we've had quite a few newcomers come here and settle here. We've had a 15% increase in the population, so that helps out, me and Shining Armor figure that within at least ten years time, the town should be back to the way it was, and in another five, the castle should be back to the way it was, so we still have a lot on our hooves. But I just thought I'd let you all know this, especially you Darkness, Shining and myself wanted you to see, that despite everything that has happened, the pony spirit is alive, in times of hardship, disaster humbles us all, and shows us for a lot of us, to always appreciate what we have, where we live, and our lives, every single day. Look around, Darkness, despite all that has happened to this Empire, it's only made the survivors stronger, and better ponies, of course, sure those days, were pretty scary, but the stories of each survivor is passed down, from generation, to generation, as stories of hope, and banding together for a greater cause, and to live each day with each other, and appreciate each day of living, with each other, and never forget where they came from."

Darkness said, " Somehow, I will find a way to conquer all that haunts me...but right now....that's not important. But Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, thank you for showing and telling me this. Now, everypony, no more delays! We must get to that barrier!" Everypony followed Darkness as he rushed to the barrier, and he pulled a small sack from one of his side packs, dumped the contents into his left hoof and held them out before the barrier. The area around them all, was instantly covered in a white light, and then it slowly dimmed, as the light receded back to the source. Everypony stood in awe, as they saw the shards form together to remake the Talisman Of Dreadnaught. Darkness then held up the talisman close to the barrier, and with a violent gust or wind, the barrier had been dispelled, and the talisman, turned to dust, in Darkness's hoof. Darkness then turned around and said, " Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, I'm afraid this is as far as you two go, the rest of us will proceed from here, should you two be harmed or lost, it would spell disaster for the Crystal Empire, and make the current situation that much worse."

Cadence said, " I agree, Shining Armor and I will tend to things out here, while the rest of you take care of whatever there may be inside, and recover what has been stolen. We wish you the best of luck!"

Darkness said, " Thank you, everypony, shall we get going? But proceed with caution." Everypony nodded, and followed Darkness into the Crystal Castle, alert and focused.