The Dark Crusader

by Blackdrag-rose

28: Long Dead Allies

Getting the train out of the Shadowlot mountain and into the Evergleam Forest wasn't easy, but thanks to whatever spells Nightmare Moon had placed on it Crimson and his allies managed to arrive at their destination without delay. Crimson was glad that they had managed to get into Darkstar's base of operations, steal the Elements of Chaos, and get out without raising the alarm. What he hadn't expected was Nightmare Moon coming to Midnight, give her a full report on the dangers of what her own sister was doing, and give Crimson, her own sworn enemy, her full cooperation. He was only trusting Nightmare because Darkstar needed to be stopped, before she reduced his own Equestria to ashes, and effectively all the worlds connected to it in some way.

The strangest part was that Nightmare had given them the pieces of Order's statue and the horn of King Nova, telling them that they needed to resurrect some new allies. Crimson knew that they needed as many allies as they could get before they launched a full scale attack on Shadowlot, though it made him wonder if he could convince Princess Rhythm and her husband to turn as well.

As the group walked out of the train Crimson took the pouch that contained the pieces of their allies and beckoned for the others to join him, as he made his way towards the pit that surrounded the ruined castle. Once they reached the bottom they turned the corner and entered the cave, the one that held the large white tree that the Elements of Chaos used to be attached to. Crimson looked over the tree and immediately realized that it was indeed dying, but he wasn't sure if the Elements could help it recover at this point.

"Shall we get this show on the road?" Midnight asked, placing the pouch on the ground and pulling out the six ancient gemstones that were the Elements of Chaos.

"Proceed," Crimson said, backing up and giving them room to do what they needed to do.

"Okay girls, you know the drill," Midnight said, the gems floating until they were in front of the pony, "Let's heal the tree and buy some time to stop Darkstar."

"Dishonesty!" Jackie shouted, an orange light emitting from her stone.

"Brutality!" Angelshy called out, a pink glow wrapping around her.

"Betrayal!" Spectra said, a red glow joining the others in seconds.

"Greed!" Scarcity called out, a purple glow appearing not a second later.

"Sorrow!" Pinkamena barked, a light blue glow joining the other four.

"And Dark Magic!" Midnight shouted, a magenta glow wrapping around the other five before blasting the ground in front of the tree, creating some form of pool of energy.

Before any of them could react to the pool the six gemstone lifted into the air and floated around the dying tree, each sinking into one of the openings before all six of them were in their rightful spot. The tree glowed with energy and seemed to pulse, though Crimson was surprised that the tree was resurrected from near death with so little effort on their part. He glanced back at the pool until an idea came to mind, which lead him to place his pouch on the ground, withdraw the statue fragments, and gently sank all of them into the pool. For a moment nothing happened, but then a clawed appendage emerged from the pool of energy and a creature, akin to what Discord was, pulled himself free.

"I...I'm alive?!" the creature, essentially a white holy version of Crimson's own Discord, said, completely in shock, "I don't understand, I was destroyed by Darkstar and my pieces locked away..."

"Order?" Midnight asked, wondering if the experience of being in a death like state might have effected their allies, "Are you alright?"

"No, I am not alright!" Order snapped, turning his gaze to them all, "I have been dead ever since my last battle with Darkstar and I assumed that I would never see the light of day again, or whatever passes for light in this world these days. Now, I can understand if you went behind Darkstar's back and resurrected me to equal the growing darkness of this world, but please tell me we have some sort of plan. I don't want to come back to life, only to die at the blackened hoof of my ancient enemy."

"Oh, we've got the beginnings of a plan," Midnight replied, beckoning a wing over to Crimson, "Order, allow me to introduce Prince Crimson Flare of the Prime Equestria. He's here to help us put a stop to Darkstar's plot to basically destroy everything. We're also bringing back King Nova, so if you'll wait a minute or two we can fill you two in on whats happening at the same time."

Order huffed, but he moved out of the way and Midnight beckoned for Crimson to continue, figuring that if he could do it once, without direction, he could do the same again. Crimson pulled out the pearl horn from the pouch and gently placed it in the pool, letting it sink into the energy and waited for something to happen. Then the pool seemed to pulse as strands of white energy broke out of the pool, though it was followed by a ironclad hoof and the body of a light grey coated stallion. The light pulled itself back and sank into the areas that were the stallion's mane and tail, though he breathed the fresh air and let out a sigh of relief.

"It is...good to be alive again," the stallion said, opening his eyes to see Midnight, her friends, Queen Meta, Order, and Crimson around him, "I see that I am not the only one who was resurrected. Tell me, Midnight, is there a reason for calling us back from beyond the grave?"

"Darkstar's going to open a gateway that's going to rip the fabric of reality apart," Crimson said, causing Nova to turn to him, "King Nova, we're in the middle of devising a plan that will allow us to attack Shadowlot and defeat her before she has a chance to open it. As you can see the Elements of Chaos, Queen Meta and her changelings, and Nightmare Moon have gathered together to combat the madness that is happening in Shadowlot. Will you help us stop Darkstar, before she tears everything apart?"

"I...I will aid you in your quest," Nova replied, beckoning for Crimson to follow him as he slowly made his way to the opening of the cave, "I must tell Crimson something that Ebon entrusted to my care, Midnight. I will return once he knows what I was told to pass on."

Midnight nodded her understanding and returned her attention to getting Order caught up on who their enemies were and who their allies were, as well as the dangers they all faced. Crimson walked along side Nova, helping the King onto his hooves if he happened to stumble as he remembered how to properly walk once more. They walked a few minutes away from the cave, which told Crimson that whatever secret Ebon had given him must have been a terrible one if the others weren't allowed to hear it.

"I assume, by the look of the gemstone around your neck, that you have already delved into Ebon's fault?" Nova asked, somewhat surprising Crimson in the process.

"Yes, I did," Crimson replied, "Ebon left his plan on how to acquire the Elements of Chaos and wrote down that the Eye of the Changeling would aid him in that regard."

"All of those artifacts, each of them dangerous in the hooves of Darkstar and kept safe by her own son," Nova commented, "if only she knew what Ebon was really up to. I doubt that he told anypony else what his plan was. Before Darkstar came to my former Empire to sack it and take complete control over it, Ebon came to me the night before and I gave him two very important items. The first was that, deep beneath the Crystal Empire, there existed a pool of unnatural energy that Darkstar always came after, regardless of where it was in the whole world. When I lost my fight with her I cast two spells, the first was the one that sealed the empire away, but the second was to lock the pool in the same place, forcing her to waste time searching before she realized that she had to return to the same place every time.

The second item I gave Ebon was a special necklace, one that held a power that not even I was familiar with at the time, but I gave it away to keep it safe. Years later I managed to split a piece of myself out of my prison and sought Ebon out, only to learn that he was frightened of the power of the stone I had given him. He could not use it, he said, and eventually it joined the other artifacts he locked away, in the deepest reaches where only he and I knew the location of. Ebon only crafted a single key and he gave it to me, though when I was slain by Darkstar I took it with me to the grave, figuring that it would keep the stone safe.

It was almost as if Ebon knew what his mother would do in the future, though he continued to tell me that his counterpart would know exactly what to do with it the moment he found it. He wanted me to give you this the moment we met, so you could follow in his steps."

Before Crimson would say anything Nova pulled a gold and silver key out of his mane and levitated it over to him, allowing him to grab it before letting go. Nova didn't say anymore before returning to the others, basically telling him that he was supposed to go check on the stone and do whatever he needed to do. Crimson flared his wings and took off, heading around to the courtyard of the castle and returned to the wall he had shown Midnight, tapping in the sequence once more. Once the door was open he walked inside, quickly following the path until he returned to the circular gateway, mindful of the three metals that parted for him to continue.

As he entered the Vault he passed by the open tome, left at the page he had been searching for when he had come looking for the Eye of the Changeling. He approached the staircase and began to walk down the levels, still finding himself amazed at how many artifacts his counterpart could find and recover before his mother destroyed him. If he had more time and didn't need to stop a power mad monarch he would have liked to have studied a few of them, but he knew that it would likely never come to pass. Eventually he reached the final ring, where Ebon stored the most dangerous of the artifacts that he had recovered, and looked over each of them, looking for a place when a key would fit into.

When he was halfway around the ring he stopped in front of a simple iron box, one that was no larger than the one he had used to hide his royal jewelry in, and slid the key into the lock. Once he heard the clicking sound he opened the top of the chest and found something he wasn't expecting, an icy blue version of his own royal jewelry. The only difference was the gem that sat in the necklace, it was pitch black and seemed to suck in some of the magic that held the lid open for him. He was shocked, it was a gemstone that held a magic that was akin to Tirek's own magic, though he had to wonder what Ebon was thinking by allowing the thing to exist.

That was when he noticed the leather bound book sitting next to the necklace, one that, upon opening, revealed to him everything that Ebon had been planning before he had faced his mother. It was a foolish, crazy, rash, and nearly impossible plan if several of the factors that were mentioned failed to happen, but Crimson was positive that he could put it to good use.

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When Crimson, now wearing the royal jewelry of his counterpart, emerged from the Vault he found that Nightmare Moon had joined them in the courtyard, offering her apologies to both Order and Nova. The moment she noticed him she beckoned him over, clearly wanting to hear what the next step of his plan was now that they had more allies.

"I take it you have more to your plan than recovering the Elements of Chaos and resurrecting Order and King Nova?" Nightmare asked, raising her eyebrows while the others gathered near them.

"Yes, I do," Crimson said, looking the rest of his allies in the eyes, "We need to head to the Crystal Empire and have a chat with Princess Rhythm and her husband. Its time we raised a proper army."

Comments

[Sonata Blaze]

Okay, so what's the deal with the stone that Ebon SHOULD have locked away in a dozen magical seals and left to rot? A stone that mimic's Tirek's unnatural power...yeah, that's weird.