A Tale of Shadows and Chaos

by cuddlyluna

Chapter 11

Stygian would slowly regain consciousness. The grey unicorn found himself alone in a dimly lit room practically devoid of color.

He rose to his feet with a hoof on his head. It felt as if he had been sleeping for an eternity. For some reason, he was neither hungry nor thirsty. The confused unicorn made his way to a nearby door and opened it, turning to walk down a hallway. Just that walk alone made him a bit lightheaded.

He carefully opened the nearest door to him. Inside, he found Spike lying on a bed motionless. Stygian galloped over to him and shook him. "Spike! Spike wake up!"

"So, you have finally regained your senses." A voice said from the hallway. Stygian panicked and prepared a spell, but doing so made him dizzy, only resulting in dim light to the tip of his horn.

Sombra would enter from the door, watching Stygian from across the room. "You have been asleep for more than two months." Stygian would silence the faint light on his horn, knowing he was in no condition to fight. "... Has it really been that long?"

"Well, considering that the essence of time has been destroyed. No time has passed at all. Time as we perceive it, though, you've been out just over ten weeks. Come with me, we have much to discuss."

Stygian watched Sombra exit the room. He turned to look at Spike for a moment before following behind.

Sombra took him to a table with some chairs around it. Stygian took a seat as questions filled his mind. Sombra would remain standing as a goat figure entered from a doorway. Grogar took his time approaching the group, keeping his eyes locked with Stygians.

"The world you know has ended. I require the help of you and the dragon to fix it." Grogar said in a stern voice.

Stygian turned his gaze to the table in front of him. keeping his hooves placed on it. "You both have strong ties with shadows. Why would you want the world fixed?"

"Both of his sought to bring shadows and light together. Not to annihilate all of light." Grogar responded.

"Only a madman would desire to reside only in shadow. Drawing power from it and spending eternity in it are two very different things." Sombra would add.

Stygian would shift his eyes back to Grogar. "How are we supposed to help fix this? I'm just a unicorn, and Spike is only a dragon."

"You are the only elements of harmony left, represented by the green element of companionship. The one that was never found by Twilight Sparkle." Grogar explained.

Stygian looked at him confused. Grogar then levitated a hexagon-shaped crystal onto the table. "I have had many years to gather information. Given the current situation, we were able to retrieve this from the cave that Harmony's tree once resided in."

Stygian examined the element before him. After some thought, he shook his head and stood up from his chair. "Even if I help you both. You will just conquer the world immediately after. I don't see the point."

Sombra and Grogar looked at each other for a moment, Sombra would then motion for Stygian to follow him up a staircase. Stygian did so, and after Sombra opened a hatch on the ceiling, Stygian witnessed the outside world.

"Natural magic no longer lingers, Nature has no means of survival, and every pony you know has turned into shades with a complete lack of memory. It is between living under us, or living alone in eternal wastes."

As Sombra began to walk back inside, Stygian called from behind him. "Alright, I'll help. Now how do we wake Spike?"

Grogar began to answer him. "The shadow arts do not have a method for waking slumber, only a spell for waking the dead. As you can guess, that did not work."

"You are our best bet, I saw a glow at the end of your horn earlier. Because you once were the pony of shadows, you might have some natural magic left in you, which would allow you to wake your friend" Sombra spoke.

Stygian agreed with him and entered the room where Spike was. Grogar followed him in and offered him the element of companionship. Stygian placed his hoof on the crystal and put all of his might into spellcasting. After a great amount of effort, Spike awoke with a large gasp. Once he answered the dragon's immediate questions, Stygian caught Spike up to speed on the current situation. He explained that they are the element of companionship and that they are going to help Sombra and Grogar return the world to light.

"I'm not thrilled about helping villains, but if you can make the world normal again, I'll do what you say. "Spike said, claws pressed against his head.

Grogar nodded and began to give instructions to his new allies. "Alright, first and foremost. I need the three of you to go out into the world and find the remainders of the former shadow council. You will take the element as a means of defense. At a minimum, try to get a spirit of chaos. I am unaware of how the absence of light and time might be affecting them, but they can't be worse off than we are."

The group agreed to the plan, but Stygian had a question for Grogar before they set off. "You said before that everyone is a shade without any memories. How are we and the shadow council different?"

Sombra answered for Grogar. "Those bound to shadows were not affected. Algea also spared those who faced her." Sombra went up some stairs to reopen the hatch leading outside. "Algea has your friends, and we only barely managed to convince her not to take you two along as well. Unless you would like to spend the rest of existence being friends with Umbrum, I suggest we get moving."

Spike spoke up to Sombra. "I thought you and the Umbrum were on the same side, what happened?"

Sombra glanced back at Spike, lowering his head for a moment before he stepped out into the wastelands. "There was no longer a purpose to being their king."

Stygian and Spike wondered what he meant, but decided not to dwell on it and take the element of harmony with them as they followed behind.

As they walked along, the remaining heroes slowly realized they didn't have much urge to breathe in this world. Up until now, they had only done so out of habit. Exhaustion didn't seem to be a factor either. It was as if they were trapped in a different reality altogether.

"You know, I've seen this place before," Spike spoke, breaking the silence. "When Twilight had her time travel battle against Starlight, we saw alternate timelines where different people took over Equestria. The last place we ended up was here."

"Perhaps all of those alternate timelines lead here," Sombra said as he lead the group. "All you can do is think to yourself in situations like this. All the time in the world to reflect on your own foolishness. Attempting to destroy Harmony just to get taken over by the force only she could stand against."

The two in the back went quiet. "Did something happen to you Sombra? From what I heard, you were pretty self-confident the last time you attempted to take over Equestria." Stygian responded to him.

Sombra refused to turn and look at them. "I realized how I betrayed the only pony that cared about me. That is why I am doing this. So I can apologize to her face, and let her live a decent life under Grogar's ruling, as I seclude myself until death finally takes me."

Neither of them knew how to respond. Fortunately, there wasn't much opportunity to, as they reached their destination soon after. A small castle resided in the middle of the nothingness, with banners bearing the faces of Tirek and Cozy Glow.

Upon entering, they could see Tirek leaning back into a throne seeming bored out of his mind. He hardly responded to the group coming in. Cozy, on the other hand, was busy designing the castle. Upon further inspection, the castle was bigger on the inside then it was on the outside.

She began to speak with them casually as she worked on the castle. "Sombra, for the last time, we aren't helping you until you have a decent plan. Besides, we like things as they are! Right Tirek?"

Tirek would simply groan in his throne, rolling over to the side to face away from them. Cozy turned to the centaur. "Oh come on now, you have to somewhat enjoy staying in a top tier castle with your bestest friend!" Upon turning to face Sombra, she noticed the other two that he had brought with him.

Cozy kept up her act. "Well even if you got them to wake up, nothing changes. There is no way to make the world normal again."

Sombra only spoke as much as he needed to. "They bare an element."

Tirek slid out of his chair and walked towards them. "Good. I'm on board, fix this mess of a world."

"I think we are going to need a majority of you guys, or at least one chaos spirit. Going off of what Grogar said." Stygian spoke from the back. "I mean if she would come along too then things might go better." He said motioning towards Cozy Glow.

Cozy watched the group as she thought it through, turning back to her castle decorating. "And leave behind my hard work? This is much better than that cell down in Tartarus."

Spike sighed, having a feeling this was coming. "I'll talk to Twilight and make sure you two aren't sent back there. Just no more taking over the world."

Cozy quickly flew up and gave Stygian and Spike hugs. "Alright good, we're friends now I won't be evil let's go." She speedily said as she walked out of the castle.

The rest of the group gave each other weird looks as Cozy called from outside. "Come on! We have a world to save!"

Before the rest could catch up, Cozy went up onto a nearby hill and called out. "Chrysalis! We're going to fix the world now! You can come out!" The changeling queen startled to wiggle her way out from beneath the dirt, shaking off her limbs and fluttering her wings. "You better be serious about this."

The rest cleared the hill and saw Chrysalis beside a shallow hole in the ground. "You were staying in a hole in the ground?" said Stygian.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said, glaring off towards the distance.

Sombra started off to the next location. "Hm. I thought that you would have laid eggs and started a new hive by now."

Chrysalis snapped at him as he was walking away from her. "I DON'T LAY EGGS! At least, I don't think I do. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS UMBRUM!"

Spike caught up with Sombra as he was walking off. "Hey, wait. Are you sure Eris and Cosmos are still here? Wouldn't they have gone back to their own dimensions by now?"

Sombra responded as he went along, not wanting to slow down. "Algea told us from the start that this plan of hers would wipe out all other dimensions, they probably assumed their own would be left out. However, I feel the realms of chaos have been destroyed as well. There is a chance that they will be devoid of power."

"From what Discord told me one time, power fluctuates between their dimension and themselves. I wouldn't understand how that works, but they probably won't be completely magicless." Spike told to Sombra.

"Well, that is good for us then. Make sure the others keep up, If Grogar's prediction is correct, at least one of them will be here. It is in a Chaos beings nature to conquer Order. And what better place to solidify that conquering than to claim ownership of Harmony's capital." Sombra said.

They would walk over a hill and see Twilight's bright castle made of crystal. The houses around it would be dull and brown by comparison. It took Spike a moment to take it all in, but Sombra pressed on ahead without stopping.

Sombra entered the castle first. All of the gates were already up. The rest of the group caught up to see Sombra standing in the throne room looking up to Cosmos sitting beside a grey and emotionless Discord.

"Look, love, visitors! Remember the dragon one? He's your friend right?" She said, attempting to get a response out of him. Discord continued to look straight ahead. The most response they got out of him was a blink.

"Discord, you there? Can you hear us?" Spike asked. There was still no response. "He has been like this since that rainbow hit him. I'll do anything you want, just fix Discord." Cosmos pleaded.

Eris teleported into the room from elsewhere in the castle, sensing unexpected guests. "So you have managed to wake those two. If you are ready to face Algea, then I will take us to her."

"Someone seems eager to get the show on the road." said Cozy.

"I'm miserable, she's miserable, we are all miserable, there is no point in beating around the bush trying to convince us that this lifestyle is horrible. We are helping you fix this mess." Eris said, Cosmos seemed to have no objections in the back.

"Why didn't one of you just wake us up if you wanted to fix reality this bad?" Stygian asked.

"Do you want to stand here like idiots for twenty minutes as I explain to you the in's and out's of chaos magic and the effects of having your dimension destroyed, or do you want to get on with all of this?" Eris asked.

No one responded to her question. Eris went on and teleported the group. They were suddenly in an unknown part of the world. There was a large crater in the ground before them, as if a meteor struck here many years ago.

Cosmos panicked as Discord was no longer in her arms, She quickly teleported him back to her. Eris turned and snapped at Cosmos. "Leave him." Cosmos shook her head. "He'll be fine there is literally no one else here, leave him!" Eris fussed.

Cosmos looked upset as she slowly laid Discord on the ground. "I'll be back soon, alright? I love you." Cosmos told him before kissing him on the cheek. Discord gave no response and he just laid on the ground with a tired expression.

Eris looked amongst the group. "Alright, this may take a few tries. The good news is since there is almost no laws of reality left to break, we should be fine."

"How sure are you of-" Tirek got cut off as Eris grabbed his horn and pulled him over. "Lock arms or magical parts or whatever. Don't let go." Eris ordered as they formed a circle of sorts. Eris stood there with her eyes closed seeming to focus all of her energy. Although there was no magical aura or lights.

After half a minute, Chrysalis spoke up. "So, is anything happening or-" Reality itself shook violently all of the sudden, it was impossible to register what was happening around them. When their senses returned, they saw the world around them.

They were standing on a massive floating island, all around was vast emptiness with streaks of purple flowing through. On the floating island was a gigantic temple of the likes of which none of them have ever seen before.

"Harmony's Temple. Let's go." Eris said, leading the group.