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Prologue2,187 words
Princess Woes1,650 words
Sunday in the Park with Sombra1,743 words
Two Minutes to Midnight2,250 words
The Midnight Hour2,746 words
New Ally2,445 words
A Chink in the Armor2,731 words
Creation of Darkness2,436 words
Ending the Evil3,934 words
Stroke of Midnight3,218 words
Nightmareland3,365 words
For the Stallion Who Has Everything2,653 words
For the Stallion Who Has Nothing4,548 words
Crystal Clear3,841 words
Battle for the Crystal Heart Part I2,635 words
Battle for the Crystal Heart Part II2,177 words
Journey to the Center of Twilight's Mind2,815 words
At the Stroke of Midnight2,236 words
Darkest Night, Brightest Dawn1,751 words
A New Day1,876 words
Epilogue: Watcher in the Darkness1,008 words

Epilogue: Watcher in the Darkness

"Whew, this party is off the chain!" Pinkie cheered, bobbing and weaving to the music.

"Yeah, what she said," Rainbow agreed, guzzling down some cider. "Could I have another?"

"Anytime ya want, Sugarcube," Applejack beamed as she slid another mug over.

Twilight and Sombra, meanwhile, were enjoying a slow-dance in the corner.

"Great party, right?"

Sombra smiled and kissed her. "The best."

The image in the crystal ball went to white, reverting back into an orange eye with a vertical slit pupil. A set of red and yellow eyes glinted in the dimly lit cavern, their owner as grim as the bleak surroundings. Although Midnight Sparkle failed miserably in her mission, it didn't mean that she was incapable of accomplishing anything. No, she didn't conquer Equestria but she did push Twilight Sparkle and her friends mentally, test them in a way their other foes didn't. This brought a smile to the ram's lips as he ambled past the crystal ball's pedestal and climbed the steps towards the inner sanctum of the fortress.

The clacking of his cloven hooves against the aging stone floors were the only sounds one might gleam within the sullen halls. More than a thousand years ago, Tambelon was the seat of power in the land now known as Equestria, a kingdom known rather fittingly as "the Nightmare City". He was a king, an emperor, the supreme ruler over a land of weak and frightened subjects, their fear fueling him. If he stopped and listened long enough, he could almost swear that he could still hear the screams of those unfortunate enough to find themselves within Tambelon's walls. After all, the pursuit of arcane knowledge required test subjects and the denizens of this territory were more than adequate.

Yes, those were the days...

And then came the day the Three Equine Tribes arrived on his shores. The fun only increased!

"Cruel," they called him. "Mad," they whispered. Oh, the titles they bestowed upon him! The Horned One, the Necromancer, Dread-King, Lord of Agony and Despair, the Father of Monsters. Whenever his bell rang, they flocked towards their caves and huts and huddled together, praying and begging for him to pass them over. That only increased his desire to explore the depths of their terror.

Until the day that he was utterly humiliated and defeated.

His smile vanished, replaced by a malicious scowl. That loathsome Gusty the Great led an army of yellow-bellied unicorns against him and his hoards of fiendish creations. Rows of hydras, chimeras, manticores, and other horrific behemoths conjured up by him and him alone. The unicorns tossed themselves at his forces, daring to attack him directly so he swatted them aside like buzzing insects. Then, while he was reveling in the mayhem and carnage, Gusty snatched his bell and made off with it, fleeing like a thief in the night.

Then, with her equally despicable partner Clover the Clever, she enacted a ritual to banish him and for centuries, he rotted in his empty fortress, powerless and alone. It was only through his strong will that he evaded madness from the isolation, formulating plans for his inevitable return. Using the Eye of Arimaspi, he bore witness to the coming ages, learning as much as he could about the advancement of magic since his time. What caught his attention, however, were the heroes of the modern Equestrian age, these "Element bearers." Six ponies, and now, a dragon hatchling, were single-hoofedly protecting the realm against threats far more powerful than them.

He soon reached an iron door and beyond that, a circular room whose walls and pillars were scrawled with ancient glyphs. Book-lined shelves were stacked along its perimeter, each one containing knowledge long since lost and written in tongues no longer spoken. Many strange and terrible relics stood atop spiked pedestals, each one more wicked than the last. The whole room hummed with foul eldritch magic, the walls literally whispering dark and unknowable things. It was here that the darkest and most forbidden of maleficium was practiced in the land.

The Sanctum Tenebrae.

He considered each and every victory awarded to the Element bearers. They'd overcome the might of a dark alicorn not once but twice, the last draconequus, who was now the embodiment of chaos itself, a magic-stealing centaur, a hoard of changelings, and an exceptionally powerful umbrum warlock. That last one was interesting as the umbrum returned from the dead, a feat only accomplished by a very rare and select few and was now...what? Their friend, their ally? And he's the significant other of one of them, an alicorn and princess of friendship of all things.

The ram stroked his beard in contemplation. How could he turn this to his advantage? Concentrating, he watched as a black and yellow aura surrounded a nearby battle-ax and began to slowly lift it off of its stand. It then unexpectedly dropped and clattered to the floor, causing the ram to curse aloud in a tongue not heard since the fall of old Alicornia. His magic was not yet restored to its full potential.

So then, he would just to continue with his current plan: watch and wait. A thousand years had passed and he'd retained his levelheadedness. How much longer could it take? A few measly months? A couple of insignificant years? By then, the Element bearers or their princesses won't know what they're up against until its too late.

If friendship was truly the glue that held the ponies together, then perhaps he should put it to a durability test. Break them physically, mentally, and emotionally, stomp out their hope and wide-eyed optimism, see if their precious friendship can weather the coming storm. He selected a particular book off of its lectern and flipped through it, coming across a picture of a very particular bell, his hoof caressing the image. Soon, very soon, they would be finally reunited and all will bow before him as they did during his glorious reign of misery.

Equestria will once more tremble at the name of Grogar.

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