Auroras & Souls

by Blues Rider

2: The Dark Times

Chapter 2

Princess Miamore Cadenza was awoken not by the sudden screaming, but the sudden stopping of it. For some reason she had been kept within the dream realm longer than she should have been... She was sure of it.

Then she sensed the shift and a loss of love in the empire. A guard came galloping in and tried to warn Cadence of some thing, but he was grabbed and dragged out of the doorway by a dark energy.

A deep breathing made its way through the halls of the castle. The heavy dark voice echoed in the halls outside her doorway. She slammed the double doors, locked and encrypted it with a spell of security and love. Then she ran to Flurry Heart's crib and gently picked up the sleeping filly. Not wanting to wake her too harshly she opened the door to her right which took her into the throne room.

“Sunburst!” her voice, a calm and warming whisper, echoed throughout the chambers. Flurry stirred just a little, turning over in her mothers hoof. Probably for the best if you awake now sweetie pie, Cadence thought.

She called Sunburst again, who burst into the room from a door on the other side.

“Sssshhhh” Cadence called across to him. Sunburst stopped in his tracks and whispered across to her.

“The Crystalling! That was supposed to be today. We both missed it.” He whispered back, tense and agitated.

“Sunburst, there’s something big in the corridor of this castle.”

“And I was supposed to help advise too. And.... Wait what!” Sunburst took in this new information and observed the door. He felt a deep vibration buzzing through the floor.

“Sunburst, look outside.” Cadence kept herself together and calmly directed the situation. Sunburst did as instructed and saw the streets lined with ponies of all descriptions cast in stone. He turned back horrified.

“Princess...”

“Sunburst, I need you to take Flurry to the safe room and keep her there till I come and collect you, or you deem it safe. I trust you.” She lit up her horn and transferred the sleeping foal to Sunburst's orange glowing magic. Sunburst caught Flurry Heart and hovered her over him.

Then before he could ask any more questions, Cadence charged a spell of dark alicorn magic and threw a beam of blackness into the centre of the floor.

The floor opened up to reveal the long downwards staircase leading to the top of the crystal palace.

Sunburst Hesitated for a second.

“Sunburst! Go!” Cadence ordered louder than she had expected, Flurry stirred again. “You know what to do.” She reassured him warmly. Sunburst nodded and then ran down the staircase.

Cadence cast another spell which locked the floor with all the love she could muster.

The doors to the throne room then flew open to reveal the curved red horn and sleazy grey eyes of old King Sombra. His head floating in a barrier of shadow at the door, his body was non-complete, and non-existent. He laughed his evil meticulous deep spitting laugh.

"I am Princess Miamore Cadenza!" She blockaded the chambers of the castle in a voice only Princess Luna could replicate, "Defender of the Crystal Empire!" The halls resonated with the voice of ancient alicorn royalty.

Then Cadence began to shine with a light brighter than any star or sun in the sky. The room was filled with white light.

From the top of the palace tower a thick green light of hope emanated brighter than it had ever before. The power of a battle cry, a call to war forced its way across Equestria. A battle cry of hope.

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In Canterlot, Princess Celestia finished lowering the sun to it's dusk position.

The night could start to be seen but the orange glow emanated a lovely colour through the sky, a smooth gradient reached into the royal blue of night. She turned and cantered into the hallway leaving the worries of the tiring day behind her. The blue walls illuminated by the calming orange glow of the sun were a lovely colour that filled the room. Celestia became disorientated.

She looked to the end of the hall where she could see Corporal Flash Sentry dismissing another guard from his post at the doorway, leaving only Flash guarding the door. It was 5 minutes until the next shift came around.

She looked outside at the green sun, the shiny blue floor, the brown - not red - rug that runs the length of the hall, the glowing green wooden pillars holding up the ceiling. She felt sick and dizzy.

"No need to worry everything's going to be fine this evening bro, it'll be gone in a flash." Came a smarmy remark from Corporal Flash.

"Sure Flash it'll be a nice walk home." She heard the other guard reply back to him... Hope.

Celestia felt hopeful.
...,

Princess Luna fell out of bed her hooves sliding over the cold castle floor as she gathered herself. She could sense everything from her dreamland. The green aurora had infected everything.

She jumped over her bed landing on the other side, slamming the door open with such force it could be heard outside by the croquet ponies who are all hoping to win the game and won't stop until they have.

She galloped down the corridors casting a connection spell to locate her sister in the palace. She had hope she would find her and she did. Celestia in the west wing. Then Luna's body vibrated and felt a nightmare.

She stopped and realised what was wrong.
This was no time to be hopeful.

Luna passed the Guard Pegasus at the door and called down the corridor.

"Tia!"

"You know better than I what this is about sister." Celestia's voice was weak, yet there was hope and peace there. That worried Luna.

"Only the Crystal Empire could produce such an aurora across such a wide distance. The realm of dreams are interrupted too, it has infected all forms of magical communication." Luna sped through her explanation as quickly as her mouth could move. She could feel the magical aurora closing in around her.

“Slow down sister, what is it?”

Luna felt shock. She snapped a psyche spell over Celestia and balanced a moment of normality into the world. The long blue corridor with its long red carpet returned to its normal colour, and Celestia felt just a little bit better.

“It’s an aurora of hope, do you feel it? It’s more powerful than anything the Crystal Empire has ever emitted before, it’s almost like...”

“...A war cry...” Celestia finished her sister’s sentence. Letting the horrifying thought set in for a second. Slowly the air around them started to close in. Celestia felt her throat slowly tighten into itself.

"Flash Sentry!" She called down the corridor gasping for air as a tear wept from her eye. Her vision blurred as the green aurora started to set back into the corridor around her. Her head felt light...,
Luna's gaze scanned the hallway for as much information as possible... she felt her legs weaken.

Celestia gasped, her legs buckled beneath her. Flash Sentry came running down the corridor to the princess of solace.

"Flash, get message to Princess Twilight Sparkle NOW. The Crystal Empire is in danger, magical communications are being forcefully used to infiltrate the souls of ponies, get more guards with you.” Her raspy voice echoing around the large stone walls of the castle.

She felt a relaxing sensation wave over all her muscles. Celestia then felt her body flung against the wall by a force of dark magic emanating from the north.

Then she felt her soul being lifted.

She had no weight. She has no body, she saw herself in the corridor, her sister collapsed on the red carpet next to her, Flash calling guard ponies in the other room.

She sees all the rooms of the top floor, she sees herself being found by another guard pony, shocked and stunned, she sees the pony run to the Captain's quarters on the ground floor.

She sees the palace, she sees Canterlot, the Mountain next door, orange in the current glow turning a musty green, then Ponyville, Equestria...

Black.

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Forsythia was in the throne room of Princess Twilight's Castle. Her dark pink coat befriended the grand blue crystal walls. She was only employed to decorate the halls with flowers but she had known the mares who lived and worked here for years, so she figured it would be a nice surprise for the esteemed customers if she gave the throne room a lift while she was at it, especially for Twilight and Rarity.

She stepped back from placing a beautiful blue rose on Rarity's chair. The vibrant blue would enhance Rarity's mane. Taking another step to admire her work, she tapped the table with her flank by accident. The pink hydrangeas that had been delicately placed to surround the back of Pinkie's chair fell down.

A whale like call shot from the map vibrating throughout each and every corner of the castle.

The shock petrified Forsythia. She turned to look at the cause of the noise.

-----

Starlight Glimmer was making a daisy sandwich in the kitchen and stumbled back in surprise knocking two pans off the shelf. She ran upstairs to the foyer and bumped into Forsythia charging down the main corridors in the other direction.

"I'm so sorry I only meant to decorate the thrones I didn't mean to...” She panted as she made her way to the door. The castle walls began to turn red. Starlight followed Forsythia's trail. The red crystal castle glowed a deeper, more intense red, the closer Starlight's gaze got to the throne room.

“Go, go, I’ll check this.” Starlight willed the other pony out of the castle and then continued her journey to the throne room.

-----

Twilight and her friends Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were out on a hill having a picnic.

Starlight suddenly appeared for a second, grabbed Twilight in a furl of magic and whipped back to wherever she had come from. The five friends were stunned.

"What.., was that about!" Rarity exclaimed. The five remaining friends then felt a wall of good will suddenly hit.

"I’m sure it'll be fine." Applejack dismissed.

"Yeah, she probably just knocked a book over again or something." Rainbow Dash loused.

"I love it when..." Pinkie pie was interrupted by a dark force as the 5 Mares suddenly became lifeless, their bodies adopting stone like states that no longer were capable of movement.

-----

Twilight was stunned. The round table in front of her was pure red. The cutie-map was red. Deep. Blood curdling, screaming, horrific.
Red.

Starlight had mentioned about Forsythia, but she was sure it had nothing to do with the flower mare.

"No this was not just Forsythia." Twilight perused the map. At that moment they heard a bang. Then another. Flash Century reeled into the room, out of breath. Shocked. Petrified.

"Princess Celestia is gone! Princess Luna too! Magical communication is no longer a viable means of communication... There are more guards informed but I think I might be the last to make it..." He panted.

Then he collapsed on the floor.

"He's still breathing.” Starlight observed crouching next to the colt on her front legs. She suddenly felt a shift, like a warning, she stared at Twilight. Her horn glowed and a crystalline dodecahedral shrouded the three ponies.

Inside Twilight could only move her eyes in the gel like substance. She stared at Starlight whose eyes simply said "No."

Starlight knew what Twilight was thinking, but all Starlight knew was that she could not let either of them go until her shield stopped getting rammed with dark magical energy.

Twilight couldn't feel the difference that Starlight as the caster could. She was hopeful anyway.