> Equestria: Darkness Rising
>  by Shocks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Ch.1 Not Just a Dream....
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Crystal Empire. 

The Jewel of Equestria.

Well at least that was its recently appointed nickname, still it’s a nice thought. 

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza sighed contently as she gazed out at her kingdom before her. Better known as Cadence by her friends and relatives, the alicorn of love watched happily at the scene before her. The crystal ponies went about their daily business on the streets below, laughing, smiling and basking in the warm glow that was the day’s sun. Cadence couldn’t help but smile, seeing her ponies happy as can be. They day was perfect. Her Auntie Celestia had raised the sun to its perfect position in the sky, the weather was clear, the fields were a green with life, the shadows danced around the black crystals, the….

Wait. Dark crystals?

“Cadence?” A familiar voice behind Cadence spoke. Not expecting the sudden interruption, she almost jumped, her cerise wings involuntarily unfolding. Bringing a hoof to her chest, she attempted to steady her heartbeat. 

‘’Shiny! Don’t scare me….like….that?” Turning towards her husband, the princess’s voice caught in her throat. There standing behind her, was Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard, prince of the crystal empire, brother to the element of magic, and most importantly, her husband. But something was wrong, horribly wrong.  Shining’s coat, once a beautiful white that had almost seemed to glow, was now a dirty and dull light grey. His eyes were dull, almost lifeless, heavy bags around them evidence of exhaustion. His mane, normally in perfect condition, was now disheveled and unkempt. What was worst was his body. Shining Armor was a powerful stallion, and had the muscle to back it up. But this Shining… he was weak, malnourished, his body wracked with bruises. To complete the horrifying transformation, his horn was covered in small black crystals and his ankles bore black shackles and heavy chains. 

Cadence could feel the searing pain in her chest, her heart breaking at the sight of her husband. Tears beginning to gather at the corner of her eyes as she lifted a shaking hoof towards her love. ‘’S-Shiny?’’

The new Shining Armor seemed to hardly react to her. He simply stared at the ground below him. “Cadence…..why…….why didn’t you…..stop them?”

“W-What?” Cadence asked, her head tilting slightly, her confusion at the situation increasing. Her husband slowly looked up to meet her gaze. The pain in his eyes tore at her heart. 

“Why…why didn’t you stop them?’’ 

Them?

“Them?”

The world around her seemed to swirl, and suddenly she no longer stood on the crystal balcony, instead she was now on the crystal streets. 

Cadence looked around and was again horrified at the scene around her. The once green fields of the empire were now barren; the earth, cracked and dry, with jagged dark crystals sprouting everywhere. The city streets, normally a glow, reflecting the color of the sky, were now a dull eminence. The buildings faired no better. Once pristine crystal architecture was now covered in dark crystals, taking all the warmth and beauty the city once offered. The palace now loomed before her, a menacing structure with crystals jutting out of it, seemingly completing the nightmare city. Cadence instinctively back peddled.

This is all wrong!

Cadence almost shrieked as a hoof wrested on her shoulder. She reeled from the contact, coming face to face with one of her crystal ponies. Just as the Shining Armor from before, this crystal pony bore heavy shackles and chains.

“Princess? Why didn’t you stop them?’’ the pony asked.

‘’Wha-I-‘’ the crystal princess tried to formulate words, but her brain had almost seemingly shut down. 

‘’Princess?’’. Another voice asked from her right. Her head immediately snapped at the new voice, her gaze finding another slave pony to her right. ‘’Why didn’t you stop them?’’

‘’Who are-‘’ Cadence was cut off as another voice spoke to her left. 

‘’Princess?’’ another pony stood near her. She hadn’t realized it, but she had but ultimately been surrounded by crystal ponies, once happy subjects, now demoralized slaves. A sea of voices cried out to her. 

‘’Princess?”

“Why Princess?”

“You could have stopped them”

“Why didn’t you stop them princess?”

“Why?”

“Why?” 

“Why?”

Cadence turned every which way, yet everywhere she turned she heard the same cries, saw the same depressed faces of her crystal ponies.

“No! I-‘’ Again, she failed to formulate words as new figures materialized in the crowd, figures she instantly recognized, figures she loved. 

Her Aunts, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Her in laws, Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Her friend and sister in law, Twilight Sparkle. Her Husband, Shining Armor. All shackled, all chained, all slaves. They all looked to her, their pleading gazes boring into her soul. They spoke as one voice, asking the same question over and over. 

“Why didn’t you stop them?”

Cadence screamed and the world around her shifted again. Now, she had returned to the balcony overlooking the now nightmarish crystal empire. 

‘’No… This cant be happening… this is just a dream….’’ She was violently shaking, the energy in her body completely drained. She could barely stand, she felt as if the entire world were on top of her. Her blood instantly ran cold as dark laughter echoed from behind her. She knew that laugh. She had heard that laugh before.

It can’t be… It can’t. 

Gathering her shattered courage, she shakily craned her neck backward, and her worst fears were realized. Behind her stood a grey unicorn clad in silver armor, a spiked crown adorned his head. A king’s robe covered his back, crimson with a white border. This unicorn’s most striking features were its curved horn similar to an upside-down fang, at its base it was a light grey, but quickly changed to a bright red along the horn. His eyes were the worst though. There were no irises, no pupils; they were completely covered in a brilliant green as wisps of a vivid violet smoke flowed from the corners of his eyes. 

S-Sombra….

The king smiled at the alicorn princess, clearly displaying his razor sharp teeth in all their glory. He suddenly began to chuckle, before throwing his head to the sky and laughing with his entire being. Cadence couldn’t tell if it was her own body that was shaking, or if it was the palace itself. Probably both. 

The crystal princess tried to retreat, but soon felt her backside hit something. It was the railing of the balcony. She couldn’t go back. Sombra stood before her, guarding the entrance to the balcony. Attempting to fly would only leave her an easy target. She was trapped. With King Sombra, the worst ruler Equestria had ever seen. Who banished an empire for a thousand years. Who enslaved the crystal ponies. 

Who….who was defeated!

Sombra lost. We defeated him! How then?...

‘’SOMBRA!’’ Cadence roared, finding new found strength in the thought that he had been defeated once, he could be defeated again. 

‘’What did you do?! You shouldn’t even be here! We defeated you! The crystal heart destroyed you!’’ 

Sombra seemed to consider the words for a moment. He then started to chuckle as his gaze narrowed on the princess. 

“Did you really think it was going to be that easy?” the dark king asked.

Easy?

“I was defeated once. I was not going to make the same mistake again”. He almost hissed out “mistake”. “But… to answer your first question, I didn’t do anything. They did.” As Sombra spoke, his body began to dissipate, turning into a cloud of shadows. The cloud seemed to swirl for a few moments before it began to shift and change. It broke into four different pieces. The shadows seemed to thicken and four silhouettes began to take shape. 

Cadence gasped. The shapes soon solidified, revealing four black…..creatures. They appeared to be crouching, except for one in the middle. They were tall, that much she could tell, the standing one easily her Aunt Luna’s height. Not only that, but at the end of their top limbs were 5 digits. She could only assume they were claws, just like Spikes. And they were black. Pure black. Except for their eyes, they each had Sombra’s eyes. And they were all looking at her. 

“Magnificent. Aren’t they?” Sombra’s disembodied voice spoke around her. 

“Who…What are they?” Cadence asked, despite fearing what the answer would be. 

The voice laughed again. “You are asking the wrong questions, crystal princess. The real question is… how do you stop them?” 

Cadence’s eyes widened. 

It was them. 

“Why didn’t you stop them?” the voices of her people, her friends, her family echoed in her head. These creatures, it was them, they did this to the empire, they were the cause of all of this! 

Her fear was gone. In its place was the outrage of an alicorn, a princess, and a wife. 

“I will stop them! We defeated you Sombra! We can defeat them! The crystal hearts love will destroy them and you!” she bellowed in the royal Canterlot voice. 

The voice laughed even louder now. This infuriated Cadence to no end. She looked around attempting to find the source of the voice, and silence it. Her horn glowed, its light blue aura preparing a devastating magical attack. Movement in the corner of vision brought her about, to again face the creatures that seemed to have not moved since forming. Her power instantly vanished as she spotted the standing creature was holding something in its grasp. It was the crystal heart. 

No….

“I would have much rather kept the heart intact… but this way works all the same” Sombra’s voice laughed. As if on cue, the standing creature shattered the crystal heart, sending fragments skittering across the balcony. 

NO…….

“T-That can’t be…. That’s impossible…Tha-at…” Cadence couldn’t speak anymore. Tears were now freely flowing down her face. She shut her eyes; she wanted to wake up from this nightmare. Just wake up…

“Cadence….”

Her eyes shot open. The creatures were advancing on her. 

“Cadence…” They seemingly spoke, yet she saw no mouths move.

“S-Stay back!” Cadence cried.

“Cadence…” 

“No! Stay away from me!”. Sombra’s voice laughed at her pleas. 

The creatures were nearly on top of her. They’re claws reached out to her. 

Cadence closed her eyes and screamed. “GET AWAY FROM ME!!” 

“Ow!”

Her ears immediately perked at the familiar voice. She immediately opened her eyes again. The sight that met her was possible the most beautiful she had ever seen. She was in her bed. In her room. In the crystal palace. The normal crystal palace! 

“Cadence?” 

She looked up, and was met with the sight of Shining Armor. The normal Shining Armor!  He had one hoof to his snout, rubbing it slightly.

‘’Shiny!’’ Cadence all but leapt into him and they embraced. 

“Shiny! I so happy you’re ok! Everything’s ok!” Cadence cried, tears soaking into Shining’s coat. Shining tightened his grip on his wife and tried to comfort his distressed love . 

‘’It’s ok Cadence. It’s ok. You were having a bad dream” He spoke calming. 

The crystal princess forced back a few sobs so she could speak to her husband. 

“No Shiny. Not a dream. A…A Nightmare.” She barely got the words out before renewing her crying. Shining Armor looked sadly at his wife, then at the small group of ponies around their bed. Numerous crystal guards, as well as a few nurses had surrounded the bed, worried expressions on their faces mirroring his own. 

He sighed. This was not good.




Far below the crystal palace, in crystal caverns long since forgotten, a voice laughed in the darkness.

So it begins.







> Ch.2 Tensions Rising
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Frozen North. A barren wasteland of snow and ice. Normally, the only sounds to hear in this desolate place would be the howling of the winds and that of the north's resident arctic wolves. However, a piercing whistle echoed through the frozen tundra. Large amounts of snow were knocked away from seemingly buried tracks as the military train barreled on. Inside the powerful train, the firemen were double timing shoveling coal into the furnace, keeping the roaring fire alight and strong.  The engineer and his firemen continued their feverish work to keep the train at its current pace, making sure to get their passengers to their destination as quickly as possible. 

Meanwhile, in the first train car, the passengers in question, the royal guard of Canterlot, were deep in discussion. The sound of many voices and conversations at once created a rather excited atmosphere, save for one particular royal guard, Swift Strike, as he sat silently in the seat opposite of his superior officer, the newly appointed captain of the royal guard, Iron Wall. The silence between the two had began to grow unbearable as time went on. Finally, Swift Strike's nerves got the best of him.  

"Permission to speak freely sir?" , inquired the royal guard, shifting his gaze from his seat to look at his captain, the very large earth pony. His coat was a deep silver, his mane marble white, while his eyes were a light blue. Iron Will, had up till the point, been gazing out the trains window, eyeing the frozen wasteland outside with a blank stare. His attention hardly shifted from the window, save for a raised eyebrow. 

"Something on your mind Swift Strike?" the captain asked, his voice caring a mild hint of irritation. Swift Strike, who had been silently relaxing in his seat, snapped to attention, now obviously on the spot. He tried to think how to phrase his question as delicately as possible to avoid his captains already sour mood. 

''W-Well sir, I uh-'', Swift began, but found the words he was looking for seemingly absent in his train of thought. He mentally face-hoofed. He had decided to take a seat next to the captain to impress him and to show how much he had changed from the screw-up reputation he had earned back in basic training. He definitely wouldn't consider it brown nosing. It wasn't. Right?  Unfourtunelty, his nervousness seemed to be derailing any hope of a professional conversation. 

"Way to sound professional moron" 

"Sir, Im just wondering, why are we here?" he blurted out. The captain's brow furrowed and he finally removed his gaze from the window to lock it onto the nervous Pegasus . That captain didn't speak, he simply looked the private up and down, as if making sure he had heard correctly. 

"So. Your the one I've been hearing about who keeps asking that question" . Unbeknownst to the two, a stallion near the rear of the car had begun to whistle nonchalantly as another guard next to him glared angrily. 

"Uh, no s-sir!", Strike quickly replied, waving his front forelegs dismissively. Now fully under the gaze of his superior officer, the guard now regretted saying anything. His captain didn't seem to appreciate his response, and continued to eye Swift Strike. His gaze was starting to become unbearable, Swift starting to feel himself sweating in his armor. He tried to rub the back of his neck, only to have the golden plating of his helmet meet his hoof. 

"Kinda hard to do with your helmet on idiot!"

As if reading his mind, his captain broke the awkward silence between the two. " You don't need to wear your helmet at the moment, you can remove it if you wish". Swift, taking it more as an order rather than a suggestion immediately removed is golden helm and placed directly against his side. The sudden removal of his helmet caused his armor's enchantment to fail, revealing the natural colors of Swift Strike. Where his coat had once been white, was now replaced with a bright yellow. His mane was short, bright red at the front and turning into a dark orange near the end. His once blue eyes, became a bright emerald. The transformation was done in moments, but neither guard deiced to acknowledge it. The captain simply nodded and returned his gaze to the window. Swift, attempting to salvage the conversation, tried again to ask his question. 

"Uh, well sir, well... what I meant was.... why are we being mobilized to the Crystal Empire? I haven't heard of this large a movement since the threat against Canterlot" 

The captain snorted, the glass around the window slightly fogging with his hot breath clashing with the cold exterior, as he muttered under his breath. Strike heard something along the lines of " we all know how that turned out..." , but wisely decided to not mention it.Iron Wall again focused his gaze on his subordinate, Swift shrinking back from what was an undeniable  glare. 

"The Princess has requested that a large detachment of the guard be stationed in the Empire for the moment after receiving a letter from Princess Mi Amore Cadenza asking for more security." the captain replied. Swift noticed that the captain had only said Princess, rather then Princess Celestia. In truth, most of the royal guard did still refer to Celestia as the princess, even after Princess Luna's return a few years ago. Up till that time, there had only been one 'true' princess for 1000 years. Luna's return had not been received well by the guard, especially after attacking three pegasi with lightning while being Nightmare Moon. It only became worse as Luna's former guard, the Lunar guard, appeared out of nowhere, seemingly  deciding to reclaim their positions that they hadn't held for over a thousand years. It wouldn't have been so bad if many of the night guard hadn't been removed by Princess Luna herself, being dropped into lower positions with lower pay. This had infuriated many in the command of the guard, only increasing their dislike for the 'new' princess. Most of the guard eventually came to accept Luna as princess, but there was still a few who held resentment against the princess of the night. 

A small cough roused Swift from his thoughts. The silver stallion was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Swift realized hed been lost in thought for some time. "Eh-hehe sorry sir, I kinda was just thinking about your answer", he lied. 

"Oh? What exactly were you thinking about?" the captain asked.

"Horseapples! Quick think of something!"

"Well, uh, I mean, doesn't the empire have its own guard force? Shouldn't they be able to defend the Empire?" 

The seemed to bring a small smile to the larger stallions face, as he started to chuckle. Not the reaction Swift was expecting. 

"Swift Strike, I've seen members of the reserve guard who could wipe the floor with those crystal pony guards.", he chuckled. His face was stoic once again, as he became more serious. 

"The fact of the matter is, those guards are untrained and ill suited for combat. They have barely any pegasi, little to no unicorns, its honestly not surprising that Sombra character managed to take the place over, they had little to fight back with.What experience those guards had was lost when the empire returned. Right now? They're about as combat effective as a militia. Its been only through Prince Armor and the re-assigned royal guards that have kept them in decent shape." Iron Wall finished.

"Wow, that was..something".

Before Swift could add any further to the conversation, a shrill whistle sounded through the air, the train's conductor indicating they were approaching their destination. Iron Will immediately assumed his role as commander, dawning his helmet instantly and hopping off his seat, moving to stand in the aisle of the car. 

"Guards! Helmets on!" he roared. All side conversations between the various guards ended abruptly as they too dawned their helmets. Swift fumbled with his momentarily as the train suddenly lurched, indicating they were arriving at the station. The captain of the royal guard started to move down the aisle toward the front of the car, guards moving to follow as he passed them. When Iron Wall reached the door, he momentarily paused as he looked over his soldiers. Each guard was perfectly lined behind each other in two rows, many wearing the trademarked un-emotional mask of the royal guard, though he could see a few with small smiles on a few ponies, Swift Strike included. 

"Rookies.." He chuckled inwardly.

"I would suggest to put on your visors now! This blizzard has caused unexpected problems, and the last thing I need is some of you fillies going blind! Am I understood?!" 

"Sir Yes sir!" they saluted in return. Each reached into their saddlebags and removed plain black visors, specially designed to shield their eyes from the harsh weather. Seeing as each guard was properly covered, he put on his own pair, noting with some distaste that more of his vision was blocked than expected. Double checking once more with his troop, Iron Will nodded slightly before throwing the door open. Immediately, he was slapped with the roaring wind. The howling of the wind alone  was deafening to say the least. This blizzard was not making things easy. Stepping onto the  battered wooden platform, he looked to his left, spotting his lieutenants stepping out of their own respective cars, their own groups no doubt waiting behind them. 

" Sergeant Iron Will sir!" a voice yelled over the blizzard ahead of him. 

Iron will turned to face another royal guard, a bright orange pegasus. He was flanked by two other crystal guard ponies, their silver armor matching their sparkling magenta coats. 

"Sparkling....very threatening...".

" Second Lieutenant of the Royal Guard of The Crystal Empire Flash Sentry reporting in sir! I've been tasked by Prince Shining  Armor himself to escort you to the Empire!" , the pegasus yelled, which barley sounded like he was raising his voice over the roar of the blizzard. 

"Well what are we waiting for? Lets get moving!" the captain ordered. Flash quickly saluted and motioned to one of the crystal ponies behind him. The guard nodded and proceeded toward the end of the platform, where the last of the guards were stepping out of the train. "We need to stick close together sir! This blizzard is deadly if a pony stays out here to long!" ,Flash said as he descended the steps of the station. Iron will walked directly next to the lieutenant, with the crystal pony behind him, followed by 2 rows of royal guards, with the last crystal pony in the rear. The captain quickly realized where they heading, as he spotted a series of small poles sticking out  near a snow bank. Each pole was adorned with a small crystal at its tip, giving off a very faint red luminescence. 

"Stay near the poles sir! It will lead us right to the Empire!" Flash voiced, as he trudged through the thick snow. 

"Thank you for that insightful  information Lieutenant !" the captain rebuttled, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Something about this guard had managed to irritate Iron Wall immediately, making their trek towards the empire more frustrating then necessarily. 

Sentry, clearly not taking the hint, continued talking. " Its no problem sir!" 

The captain snorted. 'This pony's basket is missing a few apples'

Flash looked around for a moment before turning to the captain, "You know, I bet a Snowcone stand would do great out here!" 

The large earth pony groaned, praying to Celestia they didn't have much longer to go. He could already feel a headache coming on. 





"I'm afraid this is as far as you can go", the guard stated simply, raising a hoof to halt the crystal pony before him. Standing in the small perimeter around the crystal heart, the stoic crystal guards had been like this for days as per the princess's orders. Maintaining an immediate defense around the heart. Unfortunately , this action had not gone over well with the other crystal ponies. Since the city square was directly below the palace, the 4 entrances also flanked by guards, many of the ponies had averted the palace, choosing to walk around the perimeter. Yet there were many who enjoyed walking by the crystal heart. Knowing it sustained the shield around the empire, many found warmth being within its proximity, but now, they had been denied by the placement of the guard. Many the crystal ponies could have overlooked the new placements, if not for being unable to be told why. 

"I still don't understand, why cant we see the crystal heart? Is there something wrong?" the sapphire pony asked, attempting to get a better look at the heart, only to have the guard re-position in her vision.  Her name, coincidentally Sapphire, was the self appointed leader of the small crowd of ponies present. Behind her, a wave of murmuring went through the crowd. Many voiced the same questions and concerns. Several nodded in agreement that something was defiantly going on.

"I'm sorry, but at the moment you cant see the heart. Please go about your business." the guard replied plainly. 

"The crystal heart is our business!" , an azure stallion stood up from the crowd, pointing an accusatory hoof at the guard. 

"Ya!" "Exactly!" several other voices spoke out. The guard remained stoic, though any skilled enough could tell his eyes betrayed concern. The crowd was starting to get restless, and a few of the guards next to him had tightened the grip on their spears. Up above, a few guard pegasi were hovering nearby, watching the group warily, ready to act if necessary. Unknown to the group, a message was already on its way about the crowd.

"At this time you cannot see the heart. Please go abou-" the crowd soon cutoff his response. 

"We heard you the first time! We want to know why!" 

"What's the big deal!" 

"That's our cities heart! We have a right to see it!" 

"Whats with all the royal guards anyway?!" 

"Whats going on?" 

"Whats going on?!" the crowd yelled in unison. The crowd, which up till now had garnered little attention from the other ponies around the square, was now center stage. Many where eyeing the exchange attentively, their attention peaked. The crystal guard gulped quietly. He looked towards his fellow guards, they in turn looked to him. He eyed the crowd, most wore irritated expressions, some that screamed WERE WAITING. The guard cleared his throat, and he was about to speak, when another beat him to the punch. 

"What seems to be the problem here?" the voice said. Everyone within earshot turned to see a  pure white unicorn stallion in a bright red vest walking out the doors to one of the palace's entrances. 

"Prince Shining Armor!" the guards saluted, and the crowd bowed in turn.  The only sound emanating from the entire square was the click clack of hooves on crystal as the prince approached the opposing groups. 

"At ease" he informed the guards, and motioned for the crowd to rise. He looked in-between the two, a small smile on his face. "So, what seems to be the trouble?" 

The mare and guard looked between each other and the crystal prince, both plagued by indecisiveness. After a short eternity, the guard spoke. "Your highness, we were maintaining our position around the crystal heart, when they approached us", he pointed to the small crowd, " When we stated they couldn't see the heart, they became restless." 

"I see", nodding once to the guard, he turned toward the crowd, " I would like to hear your side of the story as well". Most of the crowd were unsure how to answer, some finding their hooves in need of their attention. Sapphire decided to speak to the price. "Well, my prince, what he said was the truth. We wanted to see the heart and when we couldn't, we got....restless...." Sapphire said, lowering her head, acting like a filly who's hoof was caught in the cookie jar. The prince simply nodded in understanding. 

"I can understand your concerns completely. I know many of view find great comfort in being near the heart. After recent...'events'...." , the prince was looking for the right word, "  you all have a right to voice your concerns. As citizens of the empire, you all deserve to know whats been going on for the past few days. I take it everyone has noticed the large amount of royal guards that have been entering the Empire?", the prince paused, motioning to a squad of unicorn guards walking down a nearby street, as well as the large amount of pegasi guards in the sky. 

The crowd nodded, eagerly awaiting for the prince to continue. "Well, I can assure you, you all have nothing to worry about. This is simply a joint military exercise between the royal guard of Canterlot and the guard of the Empire. Although many from the guard in Canterlot have been reassigned to the Empire, our overall training and ability is in need of some improvement. With that in mind, Princess Cadence and I have asked Princess Celestia to assist us. This exercise is supposed to be taken as 100% real by all the guard, and for that, we felt it best too not inform you all, as to keep the exercise authentic. I can see now that might have been a bad idea in hindsight." , the  price laughed lightly gaining a few laughs from the crowd in turn. " Now as for the heart, I'm afraid that I cant remove the guard from the heart, as they are part of the exercise. I can inform you all though that the heart is fine. The guards will be removed as soon as the exercise is over. Now, do any of you have any questions for me?" Shining asked. The crowed looked to one another, before shaking their heads. Each had a grateful and satisfied smile on their face. Sapphire, the self appointed spokes-pony of the group, shook her head. "No, we are fine, thank you my prince", the crystal pony smiled and bowed lightly. The other ponies in the square were also nodding among themselves, satisfied the matter had been resolved. 

"Good to hear. Now if you'll excuse me, my advisers are probably going crazy wondering where I'm at." Shining laughed again, this time getting the whole crowd to laugh with him along with a few guards. As the crowd dispersed, and the crystal prince made his way back into the palace, no one noticed his small smile turn into a deep frown as the doors slammed shut. 





> Ch.3 Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We sense much darkness in them. Very nice......

Yesss......they will do....

....We were not finished fool.....They are too good, they favor the light, the darkness cant grow.....


The light will have its uses in time...remember who is in control here

HAHAHAHA.....We laugh at your insolence..... Have you forgotten whose power brought them here?

Yesss, but who's spell was it? Without me, you would be a forgotten memory. 

You pathetic foal! We have been alive longer then you could imagine! We can never be forgotton!


Enough! We waste time bickering amongst ourselves....Is everything ready?.........

......Yes, her alignment with the heart falters even now......

Excellent..... now is the time. 



(Vincent's POV)


The hell.... who were those voices?...

I could slowly feel myself waking up. My basic senses were kicking in, and the first thing I noticed was multiple sounds around me. Whatever the hell was going on was making a lot of noise. I honestly didn't really want to move, just laying here felt great. My body felt like it just went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, I had no energy to do anything, save for curling my fingers slightly. I tried to speak, but I just felt my mouth make random, uncoordinated movements, like it was numb or something. Whatever was making those noises was getting closer, and in my grogginess I started to panic. My head felt like it weighed a million pounds but the extra adrenaline being pumped into my system gave me the strength to lift my head up slightly, and then the pain came.

 GOD IT HURT. Where the rest of my body had been sore or just rather heavy, my head felt like I had rammed it into a wall. 

A concrete wall. Reinforced with titanium plating. Did I mention I was also going at 100 mph? 

I subconsciously let out a groan, resting my head back on whatever I was laying on. My head making contact with, I'm assuming the ground, caused a wave of pain to roll through my head. Dam. What the fuck happened? The noises I was hearing were really close now, but instead of the unintelligible sounds that I had originally heard, they were actually starting to sound like speech. 

"es.....eee......k?" I heard one voice ask. 

"ro! o! ....an...yo.....er......e? " Another seemed to speak, or did it reply to the first one? And why did those voices sound so familiar? 

Uh..... to much thinking.... My head was still hurting, but it was slowly turning into a throbbing pain, rather then the freaking sledgehammer to my head. I just wanted to block everything out and just lay here peacefully. Unfortunately, a light the goddamn intensity of the sun was blasted into my vision as I felt my left eye being forcefully opened. 

"AHHHHHHHH!" I yelled, pain shooting into my head again from the brightness.  I naturally reacted, swatting whatever had opened my eye with my left arm. I felt my arm make contact with something soft, but at the moment all I was concerned with was my vision.Even with my eyes closed again, I could still see white.  The voices spoke again, this time one sounded pissed. 

"So........itch!" One voiced hissed. I was able to make out this time that it sounded feminine. Dam, it was really familiar, where the hell did I know that voice?

The other voice seemed to chuckle at the other. Huh. That one actually sounded like my bro, Jon. He would be the kind of guy to laugh at that kinda shit. Wait. My bro? That's right! I had a brother, Jonathan Rodriguez! My name is Vincent Rodriguez.....

As my brain started up again as my synapses where firing on all cylinders now, the fog that I had been in started to clear. My originally dull senses where coming back to normal. I actually managed to open my eyes slightly, I was still seeing spots, but I managed to actually get my first look at where I wast at. It was dark. No, correction, dim. I could see brighter lights in the corners of my vision. I forced my still aching body up, it fighting me all the way. 

"Uhhhhhhhhhh" I groaned out, moving my hand to my forehead. 

"Hey, welcome back to the world of the living bro!", my brothers voice blasted in my ear. Fucccccckkkkkk. That was loud. Why does everything I do bring me pain? My bro didn't exactly have an inside voice either. Literally. He was loud. Always. Worst fucking person you'd want to be with when your hungover. 

"Dammit, lower your goddamn voice" I hissed out. I spotted him out of the corner of my vision crouching next to me, a small light illuminating the area around him from something in his hand. I found myself looking into a mirror image of me. No shit, were twins. Where I prefer to leave my black hair short, he had grown his out, now sporting a small ponytail. Ah, Who was I kidding? He was just too damn lazy to get a haircut. He also had his ears pierced, the tiny studs slightly reflecting some of the light. His body tone was considerably off from mine, but that's because I preferred working out over video games. Don't get me wrong, I love me some battlefield, you just gotta know when to put the controller down. My brother was still figuring that out. 

"My bad", he said, his voice much bit lower. He then looked to the side of me as a small smile crept on his face. Before I could question it, I felt a rather hard punch against my shoulder. Seriously, pain. We need to stop meeting like this. 

"Ow", was all I could reply as I looked to my left, spotting my assailant kneeling next to me, a brunette with teal eyes that were locked on me. If looks could kill, well I would be six feet under. She was clutching part of her maroon tank top, rubbing the right side of her well endowed chest. It only took me a moment to realize who it was, my friend( and somewhat personal trainer) Maria Delfurro. Now, your probably wondering why she was my personal trainer, well, cant really answer that without giving up some of her background. First off, her dad was a mixed martial arts teacher and owned his own business. Second, she's a daddy's girl. See where I'm going with this? Well, needless to say, daddy's girl picked up a few things, like how to kick ass. 

A lot of ass. 

At one point, she asked me to come along and join her for some friendly sparring. When I asked her why, she shrugged and replied with "I need a new punching bag". If we hadn't been friends since we were kids I would have been scared. Hell, I wont lie, she kicked my ass. What d you expect though? She was trained by her dad for years. I wasn't a pushover in a fight, but you know when your outclassed. She had so much 'fun' that she wanted to spar more. Eventually, I was going everyday, and I gotta say, the results were pretty sweet. I had gained quite a bit a muscle from our 'workouts' and I sure as hell was more then capable of kicking anyone's ass in a fair fight, that is if Maria didn't get to them first. Seriously, that girl was the female version of Rocky.

Actually, that isn't that great of a reference. Screw it, they're both Italian. Bite me. 


Wait, was Stallone even Italian? Moving on.......

The girl was a Venus fly trap. Beautiful, but deadly. I cant tell you how many guys she shot down trying to ask her out. The more persistent ones, well.... they faced a bit harder rejection. We we're friends though, so I didn't think about her like that. 

Said no man EVER. 

Maria knows what she wants too. Although we didn't got to far in the romantic department, we did hit each other up for some casual sex here and there. But right now? I was lucky if she didn't destroy me. 

"You hit me in my boob you ass." So that's what I hit. Makes sense. Alright, here was my brother and my friend crouching next to me in a dark...cave? I actually didn't really know where I was or what the hell was going on. 

"What the fuck happened?" I asked, finally getting a good look around. For starters, we were all wearing hiking gear, backpacks, boots, shorts, the works. I still couldn't really tell where we were at, but it definitely looked like a cave, but there was actually some stalagmites jutting from a few points. The place looked like nothing had even lived here before, or was living.And that bright ass light that nearly blinded me? They're I-phones, seriously, its actually a pretty effective flashlight. 

"You..don't remember what happened?" My brother asked nervously. Seriously it didn't sound ominous at all. 

"No, though my head hurts like hell" placing a hand on my forehead for good measure. 

"Shit, you probably have a concussion." Maria said, motioning my brother closer. 

"And how did that happen? I hit my head on a rock or something?" 

My bro seemed to find something pretty funny about that, as he started to snicker. "Hehehe, you could say that." 

A glare from Maria shut him up rather quick. 

"I don't find any of this funny Jon.We're lucky were not dead right now, or at the very least horribly injured" My brothers smile quickly faded, replaced by a downcast look as he said in a low voice "Just trying to make light of the situation".

Ok. Back that up. Dead? Horribly injured? 

"Alright, I want answers. Where are we, what the fuck is going on, and why are we supposedly not dead? " I was serious right now. Something was going on, and I was being left out of the loop. I hate that. A lot. 

My smart ass of a brother decided to ignore me and antagonize Maria even more. "Well, maybe we are dead and this is hell?" 

She actually smirked at that, " Well, if I was him, I wouldn't want you up there either." 

" I can tell you both right now were not in hell, considering it doesn't exist in the first place", a new voice spoke. 

Right. Fucking behind me. I almost flipped my shit. I instinctively scrambled to my feet, only to trip and land face first into the hard, unforgiving cavern floor. Again, I was introduced to my old friend, pain. Despite this, I forced myself to stand, only to be greeted by a familiar face. Standing in the spot I assumed I had originally been in, was my best friend, Cole Henderson. The tall, lanky asshole was probably as surprised as I was, as he looked just as shocked. 

"Sorry man, didn't mean to scare you like that. I figured you heard me coming and were just busy talking to Maria and Jon. Glad your finally awake though, you seemed like you took the fall the worst" . 

" Uh, fall?" I needed some clarification here. 

"Ya, you know, when the freaking ground collapsed under us and we fell who knows how far?" . My look of confusion caused one of his own in turn. He looked toward Maria and my bro. 

"Maria thinks he probably has a concussion. He probably doesn't remember what happened" my brother explained. 

Cole sighed as he ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, rough fulling it slightly. "Shit. We'll, that complicates things. The rest of our injures aren't that bad, but if you got a concussion, that could turn serious. We're lucky you actually woke up, that could have been bad". 

To prevent even more confusion, my bro spoke up again. 

"Landed on my arm, it hurts. Didn't break anything tho" he shrugged. 

"I might have sprained my ankle, but it's nothing I can't deal with, might need some help walking though." Maria stated. 

" My back to most of the fall, but I don't think there is any real damage, might leave a nasty bruise though. And you, well you hit your head" Cole finished. Alright. So I'm starting to put the pieces together. They keep mentioning a fall, and I'm assuming we landed here or they moved me here, considering it sounded like they had been active for awhile. Still, I was just going on bits and pieces. 

"Ok, I guess I have a concussion, because I have no idea where we are or why were here and since everyone else knows what going on, mind filling me in Cole?" 

"I think the past can wait for a moment, considering our present needs the most attention" he said somewhat ominously. I raised an eyebrow at this, and noticed that the others seemed to more concerned then before. 

"Alright, so I'm guessing we got a good news, bad news situation here. I want the good news first" I deadpanned. 

He just shrugged. " I wouldn't exactly consider it that way, but there is some good news, some bad news, and some worse news. I suppose Ill start with the good", he took a deep breath before continuing, " Ok, while you were out Vince, I managed to do a little exploring. You might be surprised by this, but it looks like were in a mine, not a cave.  I found a few tracks down that way" he gestured over his shoulder. "Now, I think they're our best bet, considering that the tracks are on a slight grade, so all we have to do is follow them up,  and that should lead us to the entrance, or at the very least closer to the surface. Now for the bad news. Im not entirely sure on this, but its best to go with it anyway. I don't think this mine has a sustained air supply. I'm no expert, but I don't feel any air currents... and have any of you noticed the air? " , at this he motioned around us. I sniffed, and something did smell, though I was unsure if that was me or the air. I took in a few deep breaths as well, and I tasted something strange as well. Bitter? Air isn't exactly supposed to have a taste in cave. Lovely. I looked over to my bro and Maria, who seemed to be drawing the same conclusions. 

" If your having the same experience, then it looks like its confirmed" 

"Uh, quick question here, but.... there's no chance for poison gas right?" my brother asked. Fuck, he would go there. 

".....I actually didn't consider that." 

Well.

FUCK. 

I think all our faces got considerably paler at that. "Well, at least ..hehe, we used our phones instead of a match, right?" 

"Yes, because suffocating to death is such a better fate then being incinerated." Maria added, not looking amused in the slightest. 

" Cole, just continue, we don't exactly have time to spare here". I rested my head in my hands, its allot to take in a few minutes. 

He must've been feeling the same thing, as he took a deep sigh. "Well, that pretty much rapped up the bad news. Now, for the worst news. Our supplies are dangerously low. We didn't exactly plan on being away from the camp for too long, and there's no telling how long we'll be down here- 

"If we don't suffocate or die from poison first" , Jon just had to mention. 

".........Right. That. Anyways, we managed to go over our supplies while you were out Vince. We've got about 2 to 3 days of food if we ration it, and about 5 days of water if we ration it too. We've also got 4 flashlights not including our phones,2 lighters, a few first aid kits, some hunting knives, cant say those might come in handy, a tarp, fire making material, and a...flare gun" . At this, Cole looked over to my bro, who shrugged. "Never know when your going to need it". 

"Besides the flashlights, food, and water, none of that stuff is going to help right now" I deadpanned. 

"Which is why I think we should get going, the longer we stand idle, the greater chance of something bad happening. Everyone in agreeance?" 

Each of us nodded to Cole in turn, and personally, I was tired of sitting on the dam cave floor. I tried to get up, and nearly kissed the cavern floor again. Luckily, Cole helped stabilize me in time. 

"I'm ok, I'm ok. Just a blood rush is all" , I tried to wave him off. 

"Easy man, don't strain yourself. Just take it easy." While my friend supported my left side, my bro helped Maria to her feet, a bit unsteadily at first. 

"Dam, your heavier then you look" . Bro, you just know what to say to a lady. Yep, and there's the punch to the gut. 

"No, your just weak. I felt that flab"

"So...ooo..ooo...fun-ny" he coughed out. 

"If you guys are done over there, we're ready to move. Cole, I'm good. You can let go now" .He released me, but held his hands out somewhat, ready to help if needed. Luckily, it was unnecessary. After cracking and popping a few limbs, I was ready. Reaching into my shorts pocket, I pulled out my own Iphone. Quick check revealed no signal, not surprised by that, and I returned it to its place. Cole already had two flashlights in hand and tossed one over to me. 

"Alright, follow me. Jon, Maria, turn off your phones, we need to conserve the energy. Two lights will do fine" Cole finished, and started walking. He was in the front, my bro helping Maria in the middle, and me bringing up the rear. As we walked, the unending dark receded away from the light, only to quickly gather again as we passed. Strangely, the hairs on my neck were standing on end. My arms were prickling with goosebumps. I just... felt.. screw it. I was afraid. I wanted to do nothing more then to move to the front, rather then being stuck in the back, the darkness right behind me. My instincts were telling me to move, to run, but I repressed them. I looked over my shoulder as we continued. Darkness. Just darkness. 

Somehow, I felt we weren't alone. 




"So there I was. I had to make the biggest decision of my life "

"Mhm" 

"There was no turning back. It was one way or the other" 

"Mhm" 

"I decided. There was no choice. I went with the bubblegum ice cream! It.was.delicous!" The all too chipper crystal guard explained. 

The Canterlot royal guard next to him groaned, resisting the urge to facehoof. Repeatedly. Originally, his unit had been tasked with simply patrol duty in and around the Crystal Empire. However, shortly after the arrival of the Elements of Harmony days ago, he along with most of unit had merged with a detachment of crystal guard ponies to protect the bearers. The task had been simple enough. The bearers, including the newly crowned Princess Sparkle, had begun an extensive search through the Crystal Library, and like any good guards, they were assigned to stand around and well, guard. Unfortunately, his assigned companion, a crystal unicorn by the name of Bright Light was more then willing to discuss his recent adventures in what he called 'The world of the future'. 

"What is your favorite flavor Stinger?" Bright asked, leaning over as much as possible while holding his spear. 

"Strawberry" , the white earth pony answered roboticly, not breaking his stony visage.  He instead decided to look towards the bottom floor of the library, where a colorful array of books were stacked and in some cases, piled about. When the new princess meant extensive, she meant extensive. Stinger thanked quietly that he was assigned to the second floor, and despite Bright's unnecessary enthusiasm, it was well worth avoiding the catastrophe down below. Speaking of which....

"Timber!!!!" A hyperactive pink pony called out, motioning to a leaning tower of books that had suddenly begun to topple. Several guards immediately scrabbled to avoid being buried by the mountain of literature, two barely diving out of the way in time. Skittering across the opaline floor, the two lucky stallions voiced their surprise. 

"That was too close!" 

"Dude, my life flashed before my eyes!!! And I was bored!" 

Suddenly, like a reverse in time, the books began to move back to form several smaller piles, each tome encased in a lavender glow. Each book soon formed a perfect stack, the largest at the bottom to the smallest at the top, also coincidentally, alphabetically ordered.

"Rainbow! What have I told you about stacking the books too high!" Twilight Sparkle yelled out loud from a nearby reading table. A second later, a rainbow maned pegasus quickly appeared above her, a book clutched to her barrel. Dropping the book on the hard oak table, the cyan pony landed opposite her unicorn counterpart. 

"Well sooooorry Twilight, but were do you expect me to put them?" She motioned all around her, where many stacks lay strewn about, the bottom floor quickly becoming a maze of books. It was reported a guard got lost on the first day, but those reports were still being looked into. 

"Ah gotta agree with Rainbow on this one Twi" A southern accent spoke out near a  crystal bookshelf, an orange pony with a Stetson hat peeking around the corner. "Its becoming mighty hard to move around in here" 

"And stuffy! This isnt doing wonders for my mane darling!" a white unicorn called down from the third floor, who was trying to fix the nonexistent mistakes in her hairstyle.  The golden clad guards behind her simply rolled their eyes, an action going unnoticed by said unicorn. 

" But, we need to make sure we go through every book! Cadence is counting on us, so every book needs to be removed, checked, and then stacked to make sure its been checked!", the lavender alicorn attempted to defend herself, causing a few hairs to split from her mane. They all knew what this meant. 

"Now Twi, we all want to help the princess find out about these watchamcallits, but you getting all worked up, wont solve a darn thing" Applejack stated, moving to put a reassuring hoof on Twilight's shoulder. The latter stiffened and then relaxed from the contact from her friend. She was right, she needed to stay calm and focus. 

"Ya, it cant be that hard right? I mean, we been through like what? Half the library? We got to be close then!" Rainbow Dash explained happily. 

"A-actually, its more like a fourth" a yellow colored pegasus hovered over to the group. This caused the cyan pegausus to mouth 'a fourth?' while the Twilight's wings drooped to their sides. This was taking far longer then any of them imagined, coupled with the seriousness of the situation, did little to alleviate their stress. 

"Twitchy Tail! Itchy hoof!" a pink pony with a poofy mane suddenly popped out from below the table, startling the group and causing Fluttershy to hide her face in her mane. Twilight groaned. As if she didnt have enough problems, now Pinkie Pie's logic breaking ability was now in effect. 

"Yes Pinkie? What is it?" 

"Well Twilight I was reading this book and it was really good but also really scary but that was because it was a monster book about monsters that live in the empire or maybe used to I don't know if it was fiction and then a read this one page about these things called humans, but it had lots of other creatures like yetis, chupacabras, tauntauns, and then I started reading and my tail started twitchingandthenIgotitchyhooftooand" the enthusiastic party pony took in an impossibly large breath before continuing, " And then I read the page again it happened again and its kind of weird that it did that so I came over here as fast as I could!" Satisfied, Pinkie finished with a large smile on her face. 

"Um, what?" Twilight asked incredulously. 

"Could you repeat that sugarcube?" 

Pinkie nodded her head, before taking a deep inhale, only to have a cyan hoof shoved into her mouth. 

"And just the basics ok Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash deadpanned. 

"Mhmhmhmhmhm mhmhmh!" Pinkie attempted to say. 

"I'll take that as a yes" , Rainbow removed her hoof. 

"Ok, so I read this book", she pulled out a  dark brown book from her bubbly mane, "and then I read about these things called humans and then I got twitchy tail!" 

Twilight encased the book in her own aura, levitating it before her. She looked over the book, it didn't look very special, just a plain dark brown cover with the words..

"The Monsters That Go Bump In the Night? Pinkie, this is a foals book! Why would this make you go twitch tail?"  Twilight asked, slightly irritated. 

"Not the book silly, but the page!" Flipping thorough the book in an instant, she located the proper page. It was simple, a small picture with an equally small passage. Leaning closer, the group eyed the book curiously as Twilight began to read out loud. 

"Humans, very smart and tricky creatures. Although appearing to be very unhostile, they will lull anypony into a sense of security 
before taking them away into the night. Never underestimate a human, for these creatures pray on the innocence and unawareness of others. Should you ever see a human, never approach it, if you are lucky,it will not see you and will go away. However, should it, you may get very close to meeting its fangs. Very close" She gulped at the last part. Looking to the picture, she was stunned. Depicted was a tall bipedal creature with unhealthy looking pale skin, as if the suns rays had never touched them. It had almost no hair, save for a very short mane, and had something similar to claws, yet uncharacteristically different. Scary different. This was what Cadence had described. It was them.  Slamming the book closed, Twilight all but jumped out of her chair. 

"Girls, we need to go!" she spoke, already making her way toward the exit. All her firends quickly followed, including Rarity, who had been listening intently from above. 

All meeting at the entrance, Twilight found the sergeant in charge of this particular guard force. 

"We need to head to the Crystal Palace at once!" 

"Right away Princess! Fall in!" The sergeant called out. Immediately, the entire library guard force arrived. Forming up around the elements, the captain nodded before truning to two familiar guards. 

"You two! Stay here and help clean this place up! The rest of you, lets get moving!" Salutes later, the large group exited the library, leaving the two stunned guards behind. Looking over the massive mess, Bright Light winced. 

"We have to clean, all this?" 

"Eeyup" Stinger nodded solemnly. Suddenly, a book pile collapsed, a brown stallion in partial royal armor tumbling out. The pony was dazed and looked around with blood shot eyes and somehow had five a clock shadow. 

"What year is it?" The mystery pony asked. 

Stinger groaned. Worst. Deployment. Ever. 
> Ch.4 We are not alone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Princess!" 

"Princess help us!, Save us Princess!" 

"Princess!!!" 

Cadence awoke with a start, her heart pounding in her chest. Quickly looking around to confirm she was in fact in her room the in the crystal palace, she let out a tired sigh. A soft knocking at her door disrupted any further thought. 

"Princess? Is everything alright in there?" A voice asked, who's owner Cadence knew quite well. Polish, the head maid of the palaces cleaning staff, an ocean blue crystal pony who had helped tremendously in her transition from Canterlot to the Empire. 

Shaking herself more awake, Cadence slowly crawled out of bed, causing some of the sheets to sloppily slide to the floor. She let out a mental groan as she noticed this, but continued her way to the door anyway. Stopping just before opening the door, she mentally collected herself, and attempted a genuine smile. Wrapping the handle in her aqua aura, she pulled open the door to reveal Polish in mid-knock. 

"Oh! I'm sorry princess, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything!" Polish said sheepishly, as she lowered her hoof to bow. As she did this, the four guards flanking the door also bowed slightly, but did nothing more. 

This action did in fact cause Cadence to smile. Although she had tried to make sure ponies didn't bow to her unnecessarily, Polish always made it a necessity to bow. 

"It's fine polish, I was actually just having a bad dream" 

Again. 

"I'm sorry to hear that princess, I-" Polish paused, as she took a quick glance over Cadences shoulder, before her eyes went wide. 

"Princess! Your room!" She said in shock. Cadence stepped aside slightly and joined Polish in the survey of her room. In truth, it was a mess. Normally, Cadence took pride in organization and neatness. However, in the past week, that had taken a backseat as her priorities shifted to more pressing matters. Now, various forms and papers littered the small writing desk she had, her crown and golden slippers were strewn about near her dresser, and her bed was quite disheveled. 

The crystal princess blushed lightly with embarrassment. " I didn't realize it was that bad" 

"This simply won't do princess!" Polish said, trotting into the room. "I'll have in clean in no time!" 

"No, no! That's quite alright I can clean it myself!" Cadence quickly said, not wanting to burden her best maid with her recent problems. 

"I'm afraid I must disagree! Why, if my sister Shine was here, she would have my head for leaving our own princesses room dirty!" Giving the room one last look, she turned to face Cadence. "But before I do, would you like be to draw you a warm bath while you wait?" 

The idea was more then welcomed by Cadence, she still felt a little sticky from sweating in her sleep. "That's sounds great Polish, but I can draw the bath myself, thank you" 

"It's my pleasure!" Trotting over to the adjacent bathroom, The pink alicorn activated the taps to the large porcelain tub, allowing it to fill. Sure, it wasn't as fancy as the royal baths in the Canterlot Castle, but it was more then enough to hold a few ponies. Stopping the water at just the right level, she tenderly dipped a hoof in. Finding the water at a more them adequate temperature, she fully submersed herself in the warm bath water, sighing contently as her body relaxed. However, being left alone with  only herself quickly became a problem, as she was plagued by troubling thoughts . Groaning inwardly, she splashing a hoof into the water in frustration. 

"Polish?" She called out towards the door. 

"Yes princess? Do you need anything?" The crystal maid called back.

"No, no.......but...can I ask you something?" Cadence asked nervously. 

"Of course!" Polish's immediate and cheerful response only caused more apprehension in Cadence, as she stared into the water, her own reflection staring back. This is when actually took note of how the week had affected her overall appearance. Her eyes had heavy bags underneath them, her mane had several split ends, despite even being wet, her wings were slightly un-preened and droopy. 

I haven't looked this bad since the wedding......

The self evaluation over, Cadence took a deep breath and asked the question that had bothered her since she became the ruler of the empire. 

"Do you.... Do you think I'm doing a good job as a princess? In ruling the empire I mean" 

"Of course you are princess!" Not a moment of hesitation. Not a slight pause. The perfect answer. It angered Cadence to know end. Closing her eyes on frustration, she subconsciously snorted, releasing some pent up anger. 

" Polish, please. I want an honest answer, I lived with my aunt long enough to know when somepony is giving me the answer I want to hear, rather then the truth"  she finally said.Instead of a direct answer this time, their was a momentary silence, to which Cadence mentally reprimanded herself for being to harsh to, of all ponies, Polish. However, a few seconds later, she heard hoof steps stop right at the edge of the bathroom door. Still frustrated, she refused to turn to Polish and kept her eyes closed.

"Princess" Polish said in a kind and motherly voice. " I can't tell you if your doing a good job or a bad job as princess because that is something you need to decide for yourself. But I will tell you this. You are Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, one of the few alicorn's in all of Equus. Your cutie mark is that of the crystal heart itself, and your special talent is too spread love and in turn, happiness. You united us, the crystal ponies. You made us believe in ourselves, and through that allowed us to defeat King Sombra. You now lead us into a new age of peace and prosperity" 

The longer Polish spoke, the better Cadence began to feel. The conviction of her words resonated deep within the crystal princess and near the end of Polish's speech, her eyes were watering. 

"...Polish, that was beautiful. Thank yo-" 

"Of course" Polish suddenly said, her voice beginning to change, "That will soon change" her voice ending into something totally different from the sweet and kind voice she usually possessed. Instead, this voice was cold and dark. The princess knew this voice all too well, it had been haunting her dreams for days. 

Sombra!!!!

Her eyes slamming wide open, she nearly went into a full blown panic at the sight before her.  She was still starring at her reflection, but now there were four new ones that hadn't existed moments ago. The four  bipedal creatures, black silhouettes, save for their terrible green eyes, were starring at her in the water, from right behind her. It took Cadence a few moments to realize the horrified expression of her reflections was in fact her own, as the creatures continued to stand there, their cold, emotionless eyes digging into her soul. 

Runrunrunrunrun

It would only take a moment, her horn would charge instantly, and she would teleport, free from Sombra and his creatures. Sadly, they somehow anticipated this, as one of the creatures appendages slamming into her horn, causing shooting pain through her head as it wrapped around her horn, encompassed it entirely. 

"Ahhh, leaving so soon?" Sombra laughed, "You know, its quite rude to abandon guests, even I entertained the Celestial sisters once" 

Cadence let out a pained scream as she was lifted out of the bathwater by her horn, the delicate part of the alicorn protesting the strain to it. Desperately trying to brake away from its iron grip, she tried bucking at the creature only to have her hind legs grabbed as well. Her heart rate skyrocketing at her new precarious position, the princess attempted to get away using her fore hooves, unfortunately those were soon grabbed as well, leaving her completely immobile. Struggling frantically against the iron grips, she quickly grew exhausted, the feeling of helplessness wanting to make her vomit. Her breaths became choked as she felt tears well in her eyes. 

"S-Sombra p-please...." Suddenly, she was swung around to face the instigator of her torture, the once dead tyrant king. His face inches away from her own, an all to menacing smile present on his face. 

"As much I would enjoy another addition to my mines" He paused, his smile waning slightly. "Your usefulness has come to an end" 

At this, his horn bubbled its sickly purplish green aura, causing a crystal scythe to materialize next to him. Raising a hoof to grip Cadence's face, he checked her over one last time. Then taking a step back, he raised the scythe into the air. 

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Her struggles renewed once again, more frantic then before. However, she still could not brake free. 

"No..." 

"Till we meet again,and we will meet again" The scythe reared back, reading to deliver its deadly strike. 

"No" Sombra's smile returned, bigger then before.He smiled broadly, clearly enjoying the show.

The scythe came down. 

"NOOO!!!" 

Cadence rocketed out of her bed, the sheets wrapping around her instantly, causing her to face plant onto the hard crystalline floor. Still in her frantic state, she thrashed against the restraining sheets, desperately trying to get away. 

"Letgoletgoletgo!" 

"Cady stop!" Shining Armor's voice called from across the room. Immediately, Cadnece froze as she spotted her husband running over to her, adorned in his striking golden and purple armor. A sense of relief washed over her as Shining knelt down next to her and used his magic to unravel the constricting sheets. Barely had the last sheet come off did she fly into Shining, embracing him in a deep hug. 

"Its ok Cadnce, its ok." He nuzzled her back, careful of his helmet and armor. "Another nightmare?" 

"They get worse every time" she whispered, refusing to release Shining from her grip. 

"Princess Luna still hasn't been able to help with that?" he asked worriedly. 

"No" she sighed, finally letting go of her security, "Auntie Luna says my 'astral door' is locked, and she cant open it to access my dream. I don't know much about dream magic, so I'm not entirely sure what it means.  Not too mention with my sleep schedule thrown off, she cant do much to help me" she finally finished, downcast. 

"Don't worry, I'm sure the Princess will pull through, and the research division hasn't stopped checking the library for any information on those things" the last word he spat out, anger at the torment the strange creatures had on his special somepony. 

The love and protectiveness radiating off Shining warmed Cadnece's heart, as she nuzzled her husband once again. 

"Thank you Shiny, I love you" She smiled, her eyes meeting his own. 'Though" she smirked, "Research division?" 

He chuckled awkwardly, as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I felt Twily's group needed a more 'professional' title, for the troops of course!" Cadence rolled her eyes at her husbands antics. However, she soon became confused as to why Shining was here now. 

"Is something going on Shiny? I thought you were busy with Captain Iron wall?" 

Shining Armor's rather happy demeanor deflated quickly at the mention of the new royal guard captain, his face dawning a neutral expression. "Iron Wall wants to see us both, he has things to 'discuss' with us" 

"That's interesting...but I can imagine what he wants to discuss, we haven't exactly given him much to go on" 

"I suppose. Are you ready to go? Or do you need to freshen up first?" he motioned towards the bathroom.Cadence flinched at the sight of the darkened area, her dream still fresh in her mind. 

"....No, No im fine. Lets go" she said quickly. 

Shining tilted his head at this but did nothing else. "Ok, right behind you Cady" 

As the two walked over to the doors, Cadence pinched herself lightly and feeling a small amount of pain, she sighed in relief. Shining pushed the doors open without hesitation, already falling back into his guard demeanor. Waiting patiently outside their room were six crystal guards, all specifically unicorns. Immediately the guards formed up around the princess and prince, forming a protective circle as the group moved down the crystal hallway. Cadence couldn't help but grimace as she was reminded of the heightened state of security she had ordered. She was never big on the idea of commanding armies or guards, Shining was more then qualified to handle that. However, her dreams of late were a large warning flag to big to ignore and she was not going to be caught flat hoofed. 
Preoccupied with her thoughts, she barely realized they had reached their destination until her husband nudged her lightly. 

"Cadence?" His head turning to her, concern in his eyes. 

"I'm fine" She blurted out, trying to stop a conversation she desperately didn't want to have. Before he could reply, she had moved passed him, opening the large double doors with her magic. Stepping into the somewhat small sitting room, she was greeted by  the large earth pony stallion Captain Iron Wall, who was intently surveying a map, his face expressionless. Flanked around the room were multiple Canterlot guards, several paying no heed to the new arrivals. Noting the presence of the group, the captain sighed and finally turned his attention to Cadence. 

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza" He barely bowed. "Prince Shining Armor", he said, rising from the bow. Cadence wasn't sure if he was intentionally trying to get on her nerves but it was definitely working. Perhaps the lack of sleep was making her irritable. 

"Captain Iron Wall" She greeted, "I was informed you had something you wished to discuss with us?" 

He simply nodded. " Please, have a seat " he motioned to two sitting pillows near his own. Cadence complied undettered, but she felt Shining growl lightly under his breath. He and Iron Wall had a history, a grudge to be more specific. Although Shining could ignore Iron Wall's disregard for his position, he couldn't ignore him blatantly ignoring his wife's status. 

The trio soon returned to the seats, while the crystal guards joined their Canterlot counterparts in guarding the room. The large grey stallion sat quietly for a moment before addressing the two rulers. 

"I would like to start with the main point in our deployment here. You have given me, as well as all my patrolling troops, to look out for, these strange bipedal creatures. Not minotaurs, but something else entirely" He stated flatly. 

"Yes, that's correct" Cadence replied, unsure of what the captain was going for. He nodded again at her confirmation. 

"So. The whole point of this is to find some creature? Surely you could have handled this matter yourselves?" 

Shining Armor rebutled instantly. " Captain, these creatures are a threat to the Empire! We need to make sure we have the situation under control" 

The captain raised an eyebrow at this. "Yes, you've stated that to us. Yet you have failed to mention what specifically is the threat. You said it was the creatures. How so? I need more information. My troops are flying blind out there. Literally in some cases." 

The alicorn princess sighed. "Captain I wish I could provide you with more to go on, but all I can really tell you is that they are a threat and are minions of King Sombra" 

The captains eyes widened at this, his eyebrows both shooting up. "The dead unicorn king? You failed to mention that" 

"It was need to know information only. We arent positive on it and didn't want to cause a panic" Shining explained. 

"First you say they are his minions, now you say your not sure. Exactly where are you getting your information Prince Armor?" 

Cadence stepped in between the growing tension between the two. "Were still working on that- " The sound of thundering hooves echoing outside the door quickly reached the trio, the guards tensing up. A moment later, a pegusus stallion burst through the doors, his helmet off, revealing his blond mane and white fur. 

"Cloudkicker!" the captain shouted, jumping to his hooves, " What is the meaning of this?" 

The stallion in question saluted as he tried to catch his breath, his golden armor feeling extra heavy from his trip. 

"Captain Wall! We have apprehended several creatures matching the descriptions of our targets! A large force already has them captured and is escorting them here!" 

The room grew deathly silent as everyone took in the information. Cadence herself was shaking involuntarily, as she pinched herself yet again. Again, she felt a small amount of pain. 

This was no dream. They were here. 





"~I've been working on the the railroad, all the live long day!~" Jon's singsong voice echoed through the tunnel. 

"I swear to God, I'm going to kill your brother. I really am" Maria groaned, from beside Vincent, as the group continued following the mine tracks. 

"C'mon, he's not that bad" Vincent offered, causing a blank stare from Maria. " Alright, alright, he can be pretty annoying sometimes" 

" I heard that!" Jon called from ahead, Cole laughing next to him. The rest of the group soon joined in the infectious laughter, before going silent once more, the crunch of their boots against the gravel of the floor the only sounds echoing around them. 

" Though I have to admit" , Vincent looked around, the seriousness of their situation returning to the for front of his mind, " He definitely knows how to relieve tension" he sighed. 
The energy that had been keeping the group going seemed to have drained away in the burst of laughter, now allowing the dark and oppressive walls of the mine to close in on the group once again. Maria though, would not be easily defeated. 

" Relieve some tension huh? I know how we can relieve some tension....." She said to Vincent, her voice becoming sultry as she ran a finger down his chest. He raised an eyebrow at this, a little confused but not oppositional to the idea. 

"Seriously? Now?" He grinned, nudging her slightly as they walked. Maria offered a much harder nudge in return, nearly throwing both of balance. 

"Pfff no! I can't believe you fell for that!" At this, he gave an exasperated sigh, leaning his head back in mock disappointment. "Wow, thanks for getting my hopes up" 

Maria only snickered at her friends antics. "... But see? We relieved some tension!" She said, a small smile on her face. They both shared a laugh together as Cole and Jon looked back, unsure of what occurred outside their conversation. Both shrugged before returning their attention to the front. The laughter died down quickly again, this time leaving Maria in a more subdued mood. 

"..But seriously.. Your brother is making this a lot better then it should be. We may be in a life or death situation, but it seems more like an unscheduled detour" she weakly smiled. 

"Ya, keeps my mind off" , Vince eyed the walls around him, seeming to choose his next words carefully, "this place" he finally said. 

"Ya, it gives me the creeps, it just... Doesn't feel right, if that makes any sense". 

" it does, I don't know, it's just... It's feels like-"
"-we're being watched?" Maria finished, looking over her shoulder slightly. 

"Exactly" he replied, he too eyeing the darkness behind them, the light from his phone halting its encroachment on them. The conversation abruptly ended as neither had anymore to add to the subject. Attempting to keep himself occupied, Vince showed concern for Maria's ankle. "Hey, hows the ankle?" he asked. 

Maria sighed at this. She didn't like feeling helpless, and now Vince had deliberately pointed it out, though she knew his heart was in the right place. "Ya, its fine. What about you? Your head alright? Besides that fact it was never right in the first place" she smirked. 

"Ya ya, Its fine too. Though I feel one hell of a bump" 

"Holy shit!" Jon's voice suddenly rang out, as he sprinted away from the group, further down the tunnel, leaving the three remaining members to run after their friend. Each were concerned at Jon's sudden outburst and departure, voicing their concerns quickly. 

"Jon! Hold on a second!" Cole yelled. 

"Jon, get your ass back here!" Maria shouted. Vince, afraid for his brother only yelled his name, attempting to bring his brother back to his senses. 

"Jon! Jon!" 

This however, would not sway the excited member of the group, as he continued running down the tracks, the light from his phone bathing the mine walls as he ran. Finally, he seemed to slow down coming to a dead stop, allowing the rest of the group to catch up, finally spotting what had driven Jon to his mad dash. A mine cart lay on the tracks before them, loaded with various gems and crystals, they're unique compositions causing the light to bounce off them, eliminating the tunnel even more. 

"Jackpot!!!!" Jon yelled to know one in particular, as his hands reached into the cart, removing several of the precious stones at once. Shifting the rather smooth stones in his hands, he turned around to face his equally stunned friends. 

"We're rich!!!" He happily announced holding out the handfuls of stones to his friends. Slowly, they closed the distance , Jon happily urging them on. Finally, they grabbed a few gems from his outstretched hands, as if to confirm they were real themselves. 

"Wow" Cole whispered, toying with one in his hand, gauging it from every angle. 

"I don't believe it...." Vince said, shining his light into an ebony colored gem. 

" This is... Unbelievable" Maria blurted, eyeing the cart with wide eyes, her anger seemingly forgotten. The four soon found themselves enthralled by the cart and its cargo of unspecified riches. However, Vince soon broke himself out of his stupor, marching over to his brother, anger etched across his face.
" What the hell were you thinking Jon!?" He yelled, causing his brother to flinch back. 

"Sorry bro... I... Just saw it... And I kinda... Freaked out..." Jon replied, rubbing the back of his neck to avoid his brothers gaze. Vince would not be swayed by his brothers explanation and refused to let the conversation end there. Cole and Maria attempted to distract themselves from the brothers argument by looking around the area, too which Cole discovered something rather ominous. Near the rear of the cart were multiple chains with three different shackles attached to them. 

"Guys" 

"You could have killed yourself!" Vince yelled. 

" I was watching were I was going!" Jon rebutted. 

"Guys" 

"That's not the point! What the hell would I have told mom?!" 

"I didn't die! God damn Vince, I'm not a fucking kid!" 

"Guys!" Cole called. 

"What?!" Both yelled in unison, turning to face the one interrupting their argument. Cole simply held up the large shackles and chains for all to see. The reactions of the group were mixed, both Maria and Jon were confused at this new development, Vince eyed the chains but said nothing. Cole simply hefted the chains in his hands a few times. 

"Any idea why these are here?" 

"That's...different" Vince finally said , grabbing one of the shackles himself. 

" Those look like old school prison shackles" Maria added from over Vince's shoulder. 

"Or slave shackles" Jon muttered, returning his attention back to the mine cart, refusing to take interest to spite his brother. As the three continued to overlook the iron grey shackles, Jon took interest in the gems of the wooden cart. Each offered a promise of profit, many the size of a large rock. However, one in particular caught his attention. A long diamond shaped crystal sat near the bottom of the pile, it seeming to actually absorb some of the light from his phone. Jon's interest was immediately grabbed as he continued to eye it sleek black crystalline surface. 

He reached in to remove the particular crystal. At his touch, it sent a tingling up his arm that almost forced him to recoil in surprise. However, he gripped the crystal even tighter, removing it from the pile. Eyeing the unique gem, me mentally high fived himself for the discovery. 

"Now this, is a-" 

Cccrrryyyyyyyssstttaaaaaal

A voice seemed to echoed throughout the tunnel. It sent a chill down eaches spine, and made the cold tunnel grow even less hospitable. 

"What. The fuck. Was that." Maria whispered, looking to Cole and Vince who both had a mix of shock and fear on their faces. Jon remained stock still, the crystal trembling in his grip. He refused to turn his head away from it, for fear of finding the voices origin. 

"Guys" Vince barely whispered, his voice unusually stern, "We need to go. NOW. " Despite the hardness of his voice, his look of pure fear quickly dispelled any confidence he had. Each turned to same direction Vince was looking, only to have their own bodies lock in fear. In the darkness of the tunnel, two green orbs seemed to gaze at them from its place in the shadows. 

No, they weren't orbs, but eyes.

Near the centers were red irises, seeming to drift over every member of the group, each receiving a cold shiver as they locked eyes with the creature. Soon, the darkness began to swirl behind the eyes, and a form began to take shape. The eyes became connected to a head similar to that of a snake, complete with fangs. A sharp crimson horn protruded from its black head, and a neck seemingly made of smoke appeared. 

As it began to materialize, it slowly advanced out of the darkness, sending shadows across the lighted parts of the tunnel, quickly removing the remaining light in the area. 

"Run" Vince was able to croak out. When he realized his friends were still frozen in fear of this thing, his concern for his friends safety over-rid his fear of creature. 

"Run dammit run!!!" He yelled, pulling Maria and Cole away from the advancing creature. He glanced over at his brother, to see him slowly backing up, each step a tremble. The creature did not sit idle as Vince attempted to pull his friends away from it, as it reared up, it's angry gaze locking onto him. It let out a bone chilling screech that seemed to spur the remaining members out of their stupor. 

In seconds, the group was bounding through the tunnel, the smokey creature easily keeping pace. Unfortunately, the injuries the group had sustained earlier was affecting their flight, most noticeably Maria. 

"Fuck fuck fuck!!!" She hissed out, each step sending shooting pain up her leg. She was easily losing distance with the other three, and the creature was gaining from behind. Vince noticed her struggling, as quickly realized she wouldn't be able to outrun the thing. 

He skidded to a dead stop and with Maria right behind him, he used her own momentum to sling her over his shoulder, then pushing off with all his might, he continued their flight. 

The group soon breached through the tunnel into a large junction, several mine carts and other tunnel entrances around the large cavern. However, the creature did not let this new development effect it's chase, as it began to swirl into itself, becoming nothing than thick, black smoke that spread into the cavern like a plague. 

"There! That's our way out!!" Cole yelled, quickly noticing a large tunnel that rose upwards, where multiple mine tracks connected. 

The hope of escape from the terror behind them renewed the group as they surged up the incline to freedom. Each member was nearing their point of exhaustion, Vince's endurance was wearing thin, Jon's body simply couldn't handle The overall strain, and Coles stamina was running out. 

"Vince! It's right behind us!!" Maria yelled over Vince's shoulder. Despite knowing what awaited him, Vince forced himself to look back, only to realize it was a mistake. The swirling black smoke was feet behind him, it's very presence causing his heart to skip a beat. He was barely was able to comprehend what happened next, as the the cloud seemed to grow more impossibly black, before exploding forward. 


----(Cole's POV)----


My chest was burning, each gulp of air seemed to be so shallow, my lungs crying out at the insufficient oxygen. I was pushing forward with everything I had, and I could actually see light at the end of the tunnel. 

I know, a bit cleshae, but when your running for your life, formalities can fuck off. 

I was barely able to spare a glance behind me. Jon was dying, I knew he was never the athlete, but he probably hadn't pushed his body this badly in months, and at some point, it gives out, whether you want to or not. Maria was being carried by Vince, but I could tell he was straining. We were maybe 40 feet from the entrance now, it was boarded up or something, cracks a light seeping into the tunnel to join our own light. I realized that this was it, and pushed my body forward even more, my muscles screaming out in protest. Just when i thought we made it, that thing, whatever the hell it was, turned completely black. 
I'm not talking about black. I'm not talking about pitch black. This was darkness. 

Eternal darkness.


Before I could realize what happened, it exploded forward, engulfing Maria and Vince almost instantly, I barely caught his look of terror as they completely vanished inside the thing. I think my brain shut off at that point, It refusing to comprehend what I just witnessed. Jon wasn't spared either, as it took him into its depths seconds later. I didn't bother looking back anymore, I only focused on the light ahead, and only it. I was getting so close, I could feel the elation of freedom coursing throughout me. That made the next few moments all that more terrifying. The darkness finally reached me, and I was pulled in without hesitation. 
I saw nothing. I heard nothing. But I was still able to feel, and I wished I couldn't. Something was forcing its way into my mouth, into me. I could feel it entering me, crawling its way inside me. the closet thing I would have related to was sludge, but that didn't do this thing justice, not by a long shot. I gagged numerously, my body attempting to expel this foreign object, but it was stronger. Soon, it felt like my whole body was alight, everything just felt like it was on fire. 

And then. It was gone. 

In fact, I felt better, better then I had ever felt before. My body seemed to be completely renewed. Not only that, but enhanced. I felt great.

I felt strong. 

Suddenly the blackness receded immediately, and it spit out the others almost instantly. Realization struck me as I noticed we were all still running, the entrance only feet away. Throwing my weight forward via my shoulder, I bulldozed down the entrance, sending pieces of it everywhere. I flew a few feet before tumbling to a stop. Landing on my back again, I could feel the warm summer grass beneath me. 

Wait. Grass?

I looked around, and sure enough, we were no longer in a dark cave. We were outside, laying on grass, the blue sky above us, the 
sun shining down on us, I don't think I've been so happy to see that flaming ball of hydrogen in my life. Looking to the entrance to the mine, I noticed it had a sleek crystalline surface itself, and luckily it appeared the creature hadn't followed us out. I spotted the others splayed out nearby, Jon doing nothing but breathing, I don't think he comprehended anything at the moment but breathing.Maria was supporting Vince who was on one knee, his breathing heavy and was gulping air through his open mouth, his sharp teeth on display for all. 

Wait. Sharp teeth? 

I had to do a double take to confirm that in fact, his teeth were unnaturally sharp, and his canines were more like fangs now. This wasn't the only noticeable change, his brown eyes actually changed color, they were now a deep cyan, and his pupils are slitted, similar to a cats. I noticed immediately that Maria's eyes were also different, her teal irises turned a deep crimson, and was surrounded impossibly by a rather brilliant bright green, wisps of purple smoke escaping the corners of her eyes. Before I could gather any more observations on the changes to my friends, a rather stern voice spoke above us.

"HALT! BY ORDER OF THE EQUESTRIAN CROWN, I PLACE YOU ALL UNDER ARREST!!" 

Wait.WHAT?!?!
> Ch.5 Judge, Jury and Executioner 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"..This.. cant be real " 

Maria was gawking at the beautiful architecture that was the Crystal Empire, her head swiveling around to take it all in. She had an almost childlike wonder as she looked over each building and its unique design, each seeming to be impossibly made by crystal. The array of colors the city gave off was also not to be ignored. From deep ruby reds to glorious bright sapphire, to even the most elegant amethesyt, each color perfectly accented each other to make the city a true beauty, it unmatched then anything Maria had ever seen before. Of course, this did not include the massive Eiffel tower like structure that lay at its heart. Its overall color was an astounding aquamarine that seemed to truly glow in the radiant sun, it seemingly casting little to no shadows toward the surrounding areas. Its  four archways were perfect and elegantly crafted, and it seemed to soar into the sky, reaching a height she had to assume would be hundreds of feet, if not thousands, in the air. As it continued upwards away from its four bases, it displayed a large balcony with some type of golden railing, surrounded with what appeared to be another massive crystal, if the building was constructed from multiple pieces of course.

God, they couldn't have carved that thing from one crystal right? Right?!

As her eyes traced upwards, the building's structure soon changed. As it rose in height, two spires rose from its sides, slimming down the massive center slightly, its color scheme changing slightly to a deep topaz. Again as it approached the very top, two additional spires broke away, slimming down the palace to form an almost arrowhead like appearance. Finally, the structure's beauty finished off as it ended in a spearhead formation, with a gem the size of a small building adorning its center. How someone could build something of that size and magnitude, cupelled with its incredible beauty astounded her. 

Then again, we've built buildings just as tall, but then again they weren't made out of fucking crystal! 

"Keep moving creature" ,she felt a blunt poke to her rear end that nearly made her want to whirl around and nail the offending jackass. However, given her situation, she quickly stifled her growing anger, and instead chose to glare behind her at the small horse keeping pace behind her. Actually, to call it a horse would have been insulting (as they found out numerous times), because although it was equine in nature, it looked nothing like a horse. For starters, its general body shape was way off , its legs were much thicker and less defined than average horses and its muzzle was comparatively smaller, making it look, surprisingly, cuter. It was also puny in comparison, it barely stood three and a half feet tall, save for its armor. 

Yes, armor. The  white coated horse had gold plated armor that started with a blue star at their chest to gold armor till all the way till the tail, covering most of their sides as well. They even had some type of golden shoes on as well that adorned their hooves. What really took the cake was the large, roman style helmet that sported a blue plume at its top,and the helmet covered most of the equine's face, save for its muzzle, and its unnaturally expressive  blue eyes, which at the moment, were glaring right back at Maria. It was somehow managing to hold a spear in its leg, its blunt end raised, ready to poke her again. 

"If you do that again, I'm going to stick that in a place the sun don't shine" She said, trying to keep her voice as sweet as possible. This threat didn't go unnoticed, as several other 'guards' of the group's escort tensed up, causing the whole procession to stop. 
Her and her friends were in a diamond formation, Cole and Jon on the left and right, and her and Vince at the rear and front. Surrounding them in a semicircle were twenty or so of the horse guards, each looking like a clone of the one behind her, save for a few grey clones, but all were displaying a stoic or wary expression. What truly struck home was that some actually had horns and wings, like the unicorns and pegasi of myth! Even more, some were actually flying above the group!

How can they fly on those things? Theres no way they can get enough lift for that!

The absurdity of the situation hit Maria once again, and nearly drove her into another panic attack. 

Weve been arrested. By talking. Fucking  Mythological Horses. With Armor. What the fuck!!!


Even now, they had yet to see single other human, and had only seen these guard horses and the ....crystal horses.

That fact alone nearly made her loose it there and then. The cities residents, the small equines, actually appeared to be made of Crystal. Their bodies sparkled and they seemed almost translucent! Each even sported some unique brand near their rears, but she had absolutely no clue how the hell any of that was possible. How any of this was possible.....

"I said. Keep moving" the horse said again, its eyes narrowing at Maria. Choosing to count to ten instead of replying to the guard, she let out a deep sigh before walking again, the procession continuing on towards the palace. Attempting to keep her mind off the maddening fact that they were prisoners to talking equines, she looked over each of her friends. 

Vince, who was at the front of the group, had his arms and legs in cuffs. Unfortunately, when the freaky horses first approached them, he was either in shock or pissed off that someone tried jamming spears at him. Either way, he had punched one in the muzzle, resulting in him being dog-piled by the small equines. Now, he just glaring forward, seething in repressed anger. 

Cole, had been unusually quiet in their time since their capture. He had glanced at her and Vince a few times as they walked, and he looked like he always wanted to say something, but instead chose to shake his head. He was probably still in shock. 

Jon, was probably the worst. He had a strange grin on his face as he walked, and actually tried making conversation with some of the horses, only to receive a snort in response. She had no idea what was running through his head. 

As they continued down the large street, the normal hustle and bustle of the crystal ponies was interrupted, many being pushed to the very edge of the street to allow the group to pass. Maria was able to make out a few  hushed whispers through the clip-clop of the guards feet on the pristine crystal road. 

"What...are they?" 

"Such strange creatures....." 

The hushed conversations around them didn't little to alleviate Maria's mood, it feeling like they were on parade as trophies or some kind of freakshow. It appears Jon shared the same thought, but decided to react differently, instead waving to the equines as they walked, causing a few shocked gasps and more whispers. 

"Jon", Cole started, "What are you doing?" 

"Nothing much, just waving" He replied casually. 

Maria face-pawned. "We know that Jon. We mean why" 

"Oh!" He realized, "Well, just enjoying the ride is all" 

Vince, roused from his own thoughts, raised an eyebrow to his brother, confusion on his face. "Ride?" 

"Well, ya. This is a dream. None of this is real. You arent real, they arent real" he pointed to a few guards, who raised their own eyebrows at this," I gotta say, ive only lucid dreamed a few times, and this one takes the cake." His grin grew as he looked around. 

There was a momentary pause as the grouped walked in eerily silence. Then..

"WHAT?" all three of his companions said simultaneously. Jon simply shrugged at their reactions. "Sorry, but you are, well you guys are, not my real friends. Cant do anything about it. Honestly the others in my last dream reacted allot better. 

"Bro", Vince stated, looking his brother dead in the eyes. " This. Is not a dream", he said, Lifting up his shackled arms.

"Of course it is. I mean, that's a freaking unicorn right there! " Again pointing to one of the guards, who eyed the human warily. 
"And there's pegasuses!", motioning to the ones hovering above the group, " Or is the term pegasi?" he wondered, scratching his chin in thought. 

"Its Pegasi" one of the white coated guards spoke up.

"Oh cool, thanks". The guard just nodded his head slightly. 

"Jon, we are not a dream. This is real. It is happening!" Maria deadpanned, raising her arms around her. The guards continued to watch the exchange with mock interest, many not really listening. 

"Riiiight, and this cute little horesy knight in armor is real" Shocking almost everyone in the group, he reached down and grabbed one of the unicorn equines, pinching it on the cheek. 

"Whos a good horesy? Huh?" All the friends were left slacked jawed. 

"Yes he is! Yes his is!" The remaining guards had a mix of disgust, shock, and a few actually were tying to stifle laughter. 

"Does someone want a sugacube?" The guards eye twitched involuntarily. 

"Jon", Cole said calmly, "Let go. Of the talking pony" While Vince and Maria were watching in almost a trance like state, Cole was well aware that many of the guards were growing very hostile, and were moving inward. 

"Oh! So your a pony huh? Who's a good pony! Yes you is! Yes you-" In a blur, the unicorn smacked his hand away with a hoof, and 
turned sharply on Jon, his horn inches away from him. Suddenly, the horn was encased in an azure glow, causing the other three friends to go wide eyed, as the guard smirked triumphantly at him. Seconds passed. 

Nothing happened. 

The growing look of confusion on the unicorns face was a stark contrast from Jon's bored expression. Licking his fingers slightly, Jon placed his fingers over the horn, and extinguished the glow like a lit match. There was a small fizzle sound as the glow dissipated, Jon feeling slightly tingly all over his body. The small equine's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he crossed his eyes, attempting to gather exactly what just happened. 

Cole watched as Jon looked at his hand curiously, flexing and un-flexing the muscles. Looking around, he realized the remaining guards had stopped dead in their tracks, frozen in unparalleled shock. Many had their jaws well on the floor or just dumbly hanging open, with pupils shrunken to pinpricks. He was beginning to sweat at the heated tension slowly building. 

"Huh, that was weird" Jon muttered, turning back towards the group. The human's small statement seemed to snap the royal guards out of their stupors. 

"S-SEIZE THEM!!!" Barely anyone in the group had time to react before they were rushed by the frenzied troops. 

A rather small scuffle later, all in the group were heavily shackled, and the guards were keeping at a distance, their spears raised threateningly at the group. Most of the friends were stirring in repressed anger, save for Jon, who had broken out in hysterics from the revelations. 

" That hurt! That actually hurt! B-but this is a dream! T-This isnt pooossible! This cant be happening!!" He cried, his breathing heavy and erratic. "Im not here! Ya! Im in my bed, asleep. Heh heh, wake up". He pinched himself.

He was still in the same place. His heart rate nearly doubled as he began to hyperventilate. 

"Cmon, wake up!" He pinched again, harder. Still nothing. 

"DAMMIT WAKE UP!" He dug his fingernails into his right arm, actually braking the skin in some places. The group had been watching up hushed silence now grew concerned at their friends destructive outburst. 

"Bro, calm down, its alright. Its gonna be fine"  Vince said in a low voice, his brothers safety at the forefront of his mind. 

"Calm?! HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU BE CALM?! We have been captured by talking fucking horses! Goddamn horses! How are you not freaking out?!" 

"Hes just doing a better job at hiding it" Maria muttered under her breath. 

"THIS IS BULLSHIT! Let me out you horse freaks!" At this, Jon struggled against his shackles, throwing his weight around in an attempt break free from his prison. He just needed to go, needed to be anywhere but here. 

"Easy Jon easy! You need to settle down man, your not helping the situation" Cole tried to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Jon slapped away the offending appendage. 

"Fuck you Cole! For all I know your in league with these goddamn horses!" 

"We are ponies creature" one of the spear-wielders said. 

Jon whirred toward the guard, his glare locking with the guards own. 

"Fuck you too you mutated freak!" 

"Enough!" 

The shout was enough to stop all in their tracks. The loud outburst came from another large group of ponies moving directly toward the group. Most of friends noticed quickly that they had now entered a large square, the crystal palace looming over them ominously. Maria craned her neck to take in the shear size of the structure. 

"Wow", she all but whispered. However, the large group approaching them made their presence well known. It looked like someone had taken a crayola box and chose a color for each pony. From bubblegum pink to snow white, the entire spectrum of the rainbow was easily displayed in this new group. Three ponies stepped forward, followed by six more behind them, each wearing a strange type of jewelry. 

"So. You finally showed yourselves" A large white stallion in purple armor snorted angrily. He was slightly blocking the pink pony next to him, who happened to be wearing a golden crown. This pony seemed to have a mix of anger and fear in her eyes, but stayed focused on the group. The third pony, an equally large grey stallion, eyed the group over quickly. 

Vince, Cole, and Maria all realized that whatever was going on just became much more serious. No one appeared to be messing around, and the white stallion looked like it was ready to skewer them on its much larger white horn. Unfortunately, Jon was still in a bit of a mood. 

"Who the fuck are you?" 




"Who the fuck are you?" Cadence slightly recoiled as one of the creatures finally spoke. After weeks of horrifying nightmares of these creatures, the torment she could not escape, here they were. And yet, she didn't feel all that scared. Nervous certainly. Worried? Yes. Afraid? Terrified? Somewhat if any. Now actually seeing the beings in front of her, she was surprised to see they were rather different.They didn't have black bodies, although the overall body structure was the same. They were bipedal, and they were tall, one even standing just as tall as her Aunty Celestia. They're skin was rather pale colored, save for two which had a more brown tint to it.Interestingly enough, they all wore clothing an even had some type of saddlebags on their backs.  That's when she noticed two appeared eerily similar, their faces nearly identical. One appeared to be completely different from the other three and was also much shorter. A mare possibly? Her musings soon ended as Shining took a defense step in between her and the creatures, completely blocking her with his body. 

"Watch your mouth!" the crystal prince rebutted, knowing the original comment had carried an insulting tone. The creatures seemed to stir at the stallions commanding tone, save for the one who spoke out. 

"Ya? What you gonna do you freak?! Make your horn glow? I'm so fucking scared!" the creature roared back, Cadence wincing at the sight of the creatures mouth. In her short glimpse, she spotted several pointed teeth. Her basic instincts where kicking in as she realized she was in the presence of a predator. She noticed Twilight's group had also tensed up as well, Fluttershy shaking slightly. 

"Jon, shut the hell up!" the shorter creature hissed out, its voice caring a feminine tone. Its definitely a mare! Cadence thought. The shorter one made an attempt to kick the larger one but was stopped when the guards tensed up on its chains. 

"Uh, if its alright with everyone, can I ask why we are under arrest?" the tallest one spoke out, surprising everyone including its companions. Shining Armor was the first to acknowledge the tallest one, not at all intimidated by the creature's stature. 

"Don't play games with us" he approached the creature, "We know you are minions for King Sombra!" 

The creature for its part looked at Shining with a confused stare. "King Sombra?" it asked. The white stallion only glared up as it fanned innocence. "Like I said. Don't play games. We know your here to try and conquer the empire!" 

"What is this guy smoking? For that matter, what am I smoking?" the other creature asked. While she wanted to continue watching the exchange between her husband and the creatures, Cadence's attention diverted to Twilight and her friends. Twilight trotted to Cadence side while her friends formed a semicircle around the duo. 

"Twilight, were you able to find anything on the creatures?" Cadence asked hopefully. Up til now, they had only been going by her dreams, now they had some answers. Twilight cringed as she eyed her brother continuing to communicate with the creatures, the guards holding their chains tightly. 

"Yes. They're apparently called humans, if the book I found is correct. Cadence..", Twilight lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, "They're meat eaters! I wouldn't believe it myself if I they weren't right in front of me! Fluttershy even says their teeth are that of a carnivore! Not only that, but the book stated they are known to be tricksters. Cadence, we cant trust them!" Twilight finished, again eyeing the exchange worryingly. 

Cadence too felt the exchange take on a darker tone as the creatures silently watch Shining as he talked to the tall one, they're beady eyes tracking his every movement. They had yet to make an major movements against their guards, they seemed complacent for the time being. These were not the creatures of her dreams, and that worried her. If they were much smarter then they looked, they would be a much more dangerous enemy. 

"Twilight, get the elements ready. I'm going to gather the citizens. The crystal heart defeated Sombra once, it should have no problem stopping them" .




Maria was having a bad day. Correction, she was having the worst day of her life. Hopefully. First, a normal day of hiking with her close friends turns into a life or death situation with them trapped underground. Then they barely escape a shadow monster only to be captured my talking multi colored ponies in armor. To top it all off, it didn't even seem like they were on Earth because she was very certain someone would have noticed the large crystal city with talking ponies in it. And now they were being interrogated by a slightly larger pony in purple armor. She had come to a realization. She was sore, tired, injured, possibly delusional, and most importantly, angry. Correction. Pissed! 

The longer the white stallion spoke to Cole, the more the red hot feeling in her grew. It was radiating across her whole body and she was forcing back the feeling to release this building pressure. 

"-id you really think it was going to be that easy?" The stallion eyed Cole warily. 

"I don't have any idea what you are talking about. Frankly, I'm pretty sure we are surprised as you are" Cole replied calmly. 

"I already said don't play games! We know everything so you can drop the act! " Shining Armor yelled. Before Cole could reply, Maria decided she would speak for them. 

"He is telling the truth you ass! You think we wanted to come to pony land!?" She snarled, taking some joy in the as the feeling in her calmed some. However, it quickly spiked as Shining directed his attention to her. Despite her being the smallest in her group, the pony was still dwarfed by her. The stallion's eyes narrowed as he looked up to her, hers narrowing in return. 

"Lie all you want. The evidence says otherwise" He stated. 

"Evidence?!" She said, "What fucking evidence?!" The burning inside of her was beggining to reach a cresendo as she fought against the cuffs on her legs and arms, her muscles straining at her restraints. She did manage to edge her face closer to Shinings, careful of his horn. Shining would not take the challenge sitting down as he butted heads with the taller creature, smirking as his protected head pressed against its own. Maria barred her teeth as she felt the pain rock her head, and the feeling nearly exploded then and there. 

For a moment, the entire echange between the two went dead silent, casuing worried glances from the other firends, save for Jon who was starring at the ground as if it had insuklted his mother. Shining's eyes narrowed into slits as the creature showed its fangs, the malicious intent evident. 

"You won't get to her. You won't torment my wife ever again" he whispered coldy. Maria returned his death glare with one of her own as she replied quietly. "I feel sorry for the person that married an ass like you" she smirked as he adopted a surprised expression. 

"Be quiet you-" Maria didn't comprehend his next words as the feeling in her boiled over, spiking to a massive crescendo. She felt all the pressure release from her at once, erupting out of her body. Shining barely caught the look of her irises flash crimson before he was hurled backwards, rag dolling across the crystal street like a child's toy, rolling to a stop nearly 20 feet away. In his place lay a jagged black crystal, it spiked edge glinting in the vast sunlight. It seemed the heated tension had left the entire area, replaced with a deathly silence, save for the sound of Maria's heavy breathing, her gaze solely focused on the prone body of Shining Armor. Her irises blood red surrounded in a sea of sickly bright green as she sneered at the fallen stallion.   

"Holy shit" 

"How?" 

"What the fuck?!" 

The surprise from her friends snapped Maria out of her fog, the feeling flowing away as if it had never been there. She looked to the fallen stallion, to the massive crystal, to her own hands. She hadn't remembered anything of the past seconds, had she done this? 
What was this!? One mare though, clearly saw what had occurred, her body moving on its own to reach the fallen pony. 

"BBBFF!!" 




> Ch.6 I Didn't Start This Fight...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Maria! Duck now!!!" 

She did not bother to think, following the order with little concern for the outcome. Ducking forward, she felt her backpack be sideswiped, and barely noticed the thick blade of a spear pass her. She faltered slightly as she recovered, putting on a fresh burst of speed to keep her pace above that of her pursuers. 

"Get back here monsters! You ca-aaahh!" She barely caught the end of the voice before it was silenced by a loud boom, followed by a muffled clanking farther away. With no time to look back, she charged forward, her backpack swaying at her rapid pace. Her lungs burned for oxygen as she absorbed what little air she could between breaths. Her eyes scrambled to her surroundings, jumping at anything that moved. 

There was much to see. They were everywhere. Behind them, in front of them, in the skies, on the ground. They swarmed around like an angry bee hive, with intent to kill. 

Literally. 

If this was a dream, it was now a nightmare. Everything had gone to hell in a matter of moments, things had occurred that she couldn't explain, and now she was running for her very life. One fact she fought to get out of her head remained as she ran. 

It was her fault. What she did, whatever she did, had caused this. It was her fault. Between her fear and worry, the crushing guilt was eating her inside. This made her more and more willing to listen to the strange thought in her head, her own voice almost purring to her.  

"Let me help...Let me help"




"Maria! Duck now!!!" He yelled toward his friend, his blood running cold as the pegusus dived toward her. Heeding his command, she ducked just in time, the spear attached to the pony's armor cutting just into her backpack. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief, as she recovered quickly, continuing her flight ahead of the other two. 

He did not waver in his continued sprint, knowing full well of those giving chase behind them as well as ahead. Speaking of which, their brazen attacker had recovered from his miss; looking to cut into him and his remaining friend. His eyes quickly averted to his shorter friend who was dramatically different. He was leaking an almost black fire. Literally it was coming out of him, flowing across his body before wisping away into the air. Logically, it was impossible. Human bodies weren’t capable of such feats. However, what he deemed logical had near completely shattered in these few hours. 

"Get back here monsters!" His head snapped to the suddenly charging pegasus, its muzzle contorting into a very human like scowl as he ran towards the duo, as Maria was already well ahead. He knew immediately that avoiding the pony at this range was near impossible, especially accounting the pursuers around them. Somehow though, he wasn't entirely afraid, his gaze shifting to his friend(?) Jon, who was cocking his arm back, a small black orb forming in his palm. Not a second later did he thrust his arm forward, the small orb hurtling toward the oncoming pegasus. The guard spotted this oncoming attack, but with his current pace set, he would not be able to stop in time. Cole watched in utter shock as the orb contacted the pony directly in center mass, completely sending the pony flying like a rag doll into a building several meters away. The consequent boom that the attack caused spurred Cole to return his attention to the front; they still had a long way to go to escape the city. 

But as he ran, he could feel his faith inside crumbling away, leaving a very hollow, empty feeling. How could someone explain this? Logically it was impossible! Scientifically, it was possible....evolution could... no. What he witnessed back there could not be explained. What happened to his best friend. What was happening to his other friends could not be explained logically. 

He tried to focus on his running, careful of his strides, even as a voice, a thought, whispered inside his head. 

"Let me help....Let me help" 




"Maria! Duck now!!!" He heard Cole yell, and spotted one of the pegasi diving toward Maria. He grit his teeth in anger as he saw the pony diving toward his friend. They think they can hurt his friends too? After what they did to his brother? No. He wouldn't allow hat. However, Maria had already avoided the flying pony's attack, the guard only managing to cut into her backpack. 

The guard skidded on the street as he attempted to recover from his failed strike. Maria recovers well from her sprint, still staying well ahead of him and Cole. Her atheism was admirable. She had the best chance of making it out of the city as long as... 

"Get back here monsters!" His anger flared as he spotted the same guard as before attempt to charge them again. The gold clad pony sprinted forward, directly toward him and his friends. He sneered. Now. Now he would show him the error of his ways. He felt that same feeling as before we'll inside him, his body heating up as he felt something form inside his left palm, something powerful. He saw the oncoming pony. He felt the power grow in his hand. He resists the urge to laugh, this was going to hurt. A part of him was unsure if how he knew this, but the other urged him on, begging him to make this pony pay. 

And so he did. 

Thrusting his arm forward, putting all his power as if hurling a baseball, he flung a small black orb at the unsuspecting pony. He smiled as the pony's face contorted into shock, surprised at this oncoming attack. He mentally laughed. 

Fool.

The pony stood no chance against the orb as the minute it contacted him, it rapidly condensed, before exploding outward, sending the guard flying into a nearby building with an all to satisfying clang of dented armor.

He smiled again, noting the rather pleasing feeling as his enlarged canines moved against his other teeth. All the while happily obliging that thought in his head.

Make then pay... Make them pay!!




"BBBFF!"

The desperate cry resonated across the crystal square, amplified by the mare's new ability to dip into the famous royal Canterlot voice. The alicorn rushed over to the fallen stallion, concern for her sibling evident as she skidded to a stop, eyeing his still form with heartbreak. 

"BBBFF? Shining?" She whispered, lowering her head closer to her brother, taking not of the large dent to the front of his armor. Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks as she noticed the dark crimson that was beginning to stain her brother's once well kept fur, slowly spreading around the impact, some even leaking onto the crystal street. The world around Twilight crumbled as she watched the slow drip of her brother's blood, his very life essence leaving him. 

Her legs wobbled, they couldn’t support her weight anymore. She fell on her rump, stunned with what she was seeing. 

'Sugarcube?" Applejack spoke softly, Twilight looking up at her with tears in her eyes. Her friends had gathered around her, ready to comfort their friend. Twilight couldn’t bear to look at her friends, bringing her attention back to her fallen sibling. 

"Applejack...he's...I-I think...” She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t. 

"He is breathing!" Fluttershy spoke suddenly, leaning in for a closer check. Sure enough, a faint exhale escaped the injured stallion's muzzle. She knew though that this was not good, he needed to be seen by a doctor very soon. 

"Twilight, he needs a hospital" Fluttershy spoke as tears of joy ran down Twilight's cheeks. However, this joy was replaced by anger, as she looked up to the very creatures that did this to her brother. They weren’t getting away with this.  

"Girls! Formation now!" She shouted to her friends, who gathered together at the cry of the alicorn. Each of their necklaces glowed brightly, as they lifted off the ground, slowly rising into the air. 




Maria was slack-jawed as the six ponies with necklaces began to rise into the air for no particular reason. In addition, the strange necklaces they wore actually began to emit a powerful light, almost reaching a blinding level. As they rose, she realized the remaining ponies around them were beginning to retreat, though they kept their spears angled at them. Panic began to set in as she felt, literally could feel something coming from the six ponies. 

Cole was staring wide eyed, not noticing he was slack jawed as well. Vince and Jon looked on with mixed expressions of shock and worry. A rumbling seemed to grow across the crystal square as the ponies reached a point in the air, the other five positioned around the lavender one. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, blank orbs of powerful light. The rumbling reached a crescendo as the six were enveloped in a sphere of light before an honest to god rainbow erupted from the center of the orb, arching into the sky. 

The friends watched the rainbow automatically as it launched into the sky before it seemed to reach its arc, and began its decent back to earth. 

Directly towards them. 

"Oh shit!!" Vince yelled, his instincts screaming at him that this was very bad. Maria and Jon watching the rainbow, immediately forced against their restraints, desperately trying to break free like an animal caught in a hunters trap. Cole could only stare. Time seemed to slow for Vince as he looked to his friends, his brother and one of his closest friends struggling to escape. He watched his best friend simply stare, like a deer in the headlights. He didn’t like what was coming, somehow, he knew that. He needed to get his friends out of here. 

At any cost. 

"We need to move! Move Move Move Move Move!!!" He felt something stir inside him, an before the rainbow could crash down, three thick black tendrils erupted from his body, slamming into each of his friends and throwing them away from him. As the tendrils collided with their bodies, the chains that held them evaporated into dust, as if never there. However, this would not spare him. 

He looked up. The rainbow came down. 

He heard a scream. 

It wasn’t his own. 




Cole tried to collect himself as he stood up. Luckily, his backpack had taken most of the fall when he was hit. 

What did I even get..? 

It came back to him in seconds and his head immediately snapped to his friend’s former location. His blood ran cold as he spotted a stone statue standing where his friend had been. The statue sported its very own stone backpack, each detail perfect in all aspects. Its arms were raised as it tried to cover itself from some kind of attack. 

Cole didn’t need to be told what that was or who that was. 

It was Vince. His best friend was the statue.

No way. It’s impossible. It’s not possible!!!!!

"Oh my god" he heard Maria whisper next to him, her hand covering her mouth. 

"Bro?" he heard Jon weakly ask. The three could not tear their eyes away from what was once their living breathing friend, now nothing but lifeless, cold stone. That’s when they noticed the ponies began to descend, and they watched in shock as their hoofs touched the ground again. Each was breathing slightly heavy, as if exhausted. Then the lavender one opened her eyes, spotting the trio still there. She rotated between shock, surprise, and then anger. She pointed a hoof at them and roared, "Get them!!" 

That’s when they realized they still faced a legion of armored ponies. The guards only needed one commanding before advancing on the friends once again. The trio could only do one thing. 

They ran.




The crystal princess attempted to gather her ponies into position to power the crystal heart, even knowing full well of the state of her husband. She had heard Twilight's cry. She saw the elements unleash their attack. Somehow, they had only managed to defeat one creature, one of those humans. The other three were escaping. She needed to stop them. They weren’t getting away with hurting her Shiny. 

"Is everyone in position?" She asked a nearby guard. 

"Yes princess! The heart is ready!" He saluted. Cadence nodded. It was time to end this. 

"Citizens of the Crystal Empire!" she called out to her gathered ponies. "As your princess, I call on you once again to use your love to power our city's greatest treasure, the crystal heart, so that we can once again protect the Empire! Use your love for each other! For your friends! For your family! Let that love power the crystal heart and banish the evil that threatens it!" 

Sure enough, the crystal heart which had been floating lazily at its resting place directly below the palace began to spin more and more rapidly at her words. Now, that the citizens of the empire poured their own love into it; it began to reach a crescendo. 

Cadence smiled. There was no way those monsters could stop the heart, even Sombra couldn’t. This would defeat them. It would all be over soon enough. 

The heart was now spinning in a blur. Any second now, it would erupt with power and stop the humans. 

It spun. 

And spun. 

And lost speed. 

It lost more speed. 

The gathered ponies watched in horror as they're cities most powerful defense failed to activate, slowly returning to it original pace. 

Cadence didn’t understand. 

"What just happened?!" 




"Cole, were not going to make it, they're everywhere!" Maria yelled as another guard attempted to take a swing at her, only to be blasted away by the transformed Jon. 

"Just hold on! We can make it!" He cried, looking around in a desperate attempt to save his friends. All around them the ponies were advancing on them; their run had only lasted so long before they were boxed in. They found themselves precariously placed in the center of the crystal street, the armored ponies advancing on them slowly. 

Let me help.....

Maria heard the whisper. Cole heard the whisper. Jon would have too, if he wasn’t continually leaking black flame. 

Let me help....

"Look out!" Maria cried as a pegasus dived toward the group, all barley ducking as it flew away to make another pass. The ponies on the ground advanced with a mix of medieval weaponry which looked more then intimidating to the trio. 

Let me help...

They grouped back to back. The ponies advanced. The ponies were everywhere. 

Let me help...

Cole gulped audibly. Maria entered a shaky fighter’s stance. Jon looked out with contempt. The ponies would not be swayed. They charged in mass. It would be over in moments. 

Let me help!

"Ok!" Maria and Cole answered the voice together, unsure if it was even real.  Before they could utter another word, the sudden feeling of weightlessness gripped them, and they realized they were falling. Maria saw the rich blue sky for only a moment before everything went black.

As they fell, Cole had the strangest sense of Deja vu. 




The trio sat around their hastily constructed campfire, the crackling of the flames the only sounds escaping from the group. Jon watched the growing embers with a blank expression, casually watching as a piece of wood broke in two, only for both pieces to fall into the growing ash pile. Cole too eyed the fire, though his face betrayed a tired expression, the day’s events weighing his psyche down more so. Maria seemed to be the only member who wasn’t staring at the fire, rather, her gaze drifted in between her friends, lingering on Jon more then once. He had the hardest day no doubt.

Though, as she continued to watch her friends sit and stare at the fire, as if the world around them didn’t exist; she was still unsure of that fact, she found the inactivity to become rather uncomfortable. Attempting to take her mind of the situation, she gazed around the clearing they have set up camp in. The area was...not depressing, but, not comforting in the slightest. There was some grass in the clearing, though most of the area was exposed ground, offering little protection from the cold. 

That was another thing. The cold. 

She hugged her legs to her chest, hoping to conserve body heat. She ran her hands down her unprotected legs a few times; her warm hands welcome relief to the cold appendages. Maria was unclear on how the others were dealing with the cold, but she knew one thing, they were not prepared for this. Most of their actual camping equipment was left at the camp-

Wherever that is now...

-and their attire had been made for hiking in rather warm weather, not the cold night they now found themselves in. She shivered as a small gust of wind came through the clearing, causing the fire to flicker ever so slightly. Sadly though, neither of her companions even flinched as they stared into the pyre, content to sit and watch. 

Their actions had begun to frustrate her to no end. 

"So, were not even going to talk about what happened today?" Maria questioned. She was pleased to get a reaction out of the two, Cole turning to her, a downtrodden look on his face, and Jon; only his eyes moving to acknowledge her. Somehow, she felt uncomfortable at his particular look, the light of the fire casting a dark shadow along his face. 

Cole couldn’t answer immediealty. What did happen today? Truly? Had they been sucked into a land that seemed to defy the very laws of the universe itself? What could he say to that? 

While Cole was fighting an inner turmoil, Jon's eyes drifted back to the fire, already dismissing Maria and her question. 

"There's nothing to talk about”, he said plainly, his expression not even changing. The others looked to their sulking friend in shock. He couldn’t be serious, could he? 

"What do you mean 'there’s nothing to talk about'?”, she looked at Jon, "How can you even say that?” She couldn’t help but feel her eyes mist at the thought of the day’s events. 

"I just did" Jon replied evenly. 

Maria felt her teeth clench at the tone he used, he almost sounded smug that he was managing to get to her. After everything that had happened, he had the balls to act so, so calmly?! Hell no. Maria Anita Delfuero does not take that kind of shit. 

"So, what your saying is everything that happened today just happened?" her eyes narrowed as Jon's met hers," So, us nearly falling to our deaths, blindly walking in a godforsaken cave that could have become our fucking grave, or maybe the fact that we were captured like animals by honest to god ponies?!" She finally stopped, nearly yelling at her friend. Cole quietly looked on, taken slightly aback as Maria tore into Jon, who seemed unfazed by the verbal onslaught. 

"Or the fact", her fists clenched as she felt her eyes mist more," The fact that they turned Vince into fucking stone! Did your brother mean that little to you? That he just dies and you don’t even bat an eyelash!?" She finished, wiping her eyes with a free hand to prevent the flow of tears. 

A deathly silence descended on the group, the crackling fire the only noise between the three. Maria continued to try and clear her eyes, but it seemed to be fighting a losing battle. 

"Damn it Jon, just, just show something" She said between sniffles. Cole looked on in sadness, Maria, one of the strongest willed of the group, had been reduced to tears. He could understand though. Vince and her had had something, but they broke that off a while back. Maybe she still had felt something. 

"What do you want me to say?" Jon asked, finally speaking up. "You want me to say my only brother is dead? That I’m sad? Grieving? I watched my brother get turned to stone by pathetic excuses for horses. They killed him. Right now? I want nothing more to strangle those six. I could grieve later, right no-" 

Jon had no time to react to the right hook that sent him sprawling. Cole nearly had his jaw on the ground as he saw Maria standing where she had been sitting seconds ago, fist clenched tight from post swing. His eyes widened as he spotted that change in her, her irises becoming crimson with a light wisp of purple smoke near the edge. Not to mention, the small growing crystals beginning to sprout from the ground around her feet. He nearly jumped when she spoke, her voice seeming to carry an authority Maria didn’t have. 

"Revenge? Petty revenge?!" she shouted, moving toward the recovering Jon. She loomed over him, a cold fury in her eyes. Reaching down, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and to the surprise of both him and Cole, lifted him off his feet. This was a feat that would have been extremely difficult even for Maria. Although more than physically fit, she would have been incapable of lifting Jon's entire weight with a single arm. 

"You think Vince would want you do that?" she glowered at him as he struggled in her iron grip, " You think your brother would enjoy you joining him?! Fuck no! Have you even considered what your parents would think?! What...your family...would....think...." 
As the last words left Maria's mouth, she felt Jon's weight increase more and more; forcing her to put him down. He immediately broke her grip and stepped away. 

Maria hung her head. Thoughts of her own family began to fill her head, cherished memories rewinding in her mind. She could feel the guilt that she hadn’t even thought about them this entire day. She thought about how they’d react to find out they were missing; they had only meant to go camping for a few days, a week at the most. They had already been out for four days and had been planning on returning the day before. 

One day. That was all it had taken. 

She was tired. All she wanted to do was lay down. Ignoring the entire situation with Jon, she walked back to the campfire, sitting down next to the dwindling flames. She brought her legs to her chest once again, this time not out of warmth, but of comfort. 
She stared into the embers, failing to notice the small trickle of tears down her cheeks. She flinched as she felt a large arm rap around her, pulling her closer to another body. She looked up to find the face of Cole who nodded solemnly at her. 

He felt her lean into him, his grip increasing on his smaller friend in response. Across from the two, Jon returned quietly to the campfire, not bothering to acknowledge the two, though he did look to Cole as he sat down. 

The tallest member sighed, running a hand through his blond hair once again. He tried to fight back the depressing air that had begun to envelop the area, the self destruction of his friends waning on him. He looked toward the fire, noting that it would need some more wood soon, if they were going to keep it going the rest of the night. 

He sighed again. There was so many unknowns, too many to account for. He looked up toward the sky, spotting the rather large moon hanging among the stars. Despite its similar appearance, this was definitely not Earth's moon. Even the constellations were wrong. 

One thought ran through his head at this moment. One he knew was absolute fact. 

They were a very long way from home. 
> ...But We Will End It!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The early morning sun shone brightly over the Everfree forest, its rays piercing the thick canopy where they could, offering the flora and fauna an illumination that was none too excessive. All across the forest, the various inhabitants of the un-tame forest woke up to begin their day anew, from the smaller individuals such as rabbits and birds, to its larger, more carnivorous members like the hydra in its bog or the manitcore in its den. Yes, the forest was abuzz with life, the sounds of its creatures creating a chatter throughout its depths. 

However, this was not the case in one particular section. As the various animals bounded about, a silent warning was sent out across the area. Many of these critters stopped, instincts immediately kicking in at the sudden change. With practiced ease, the smaller animals bounded away, some moving to hide under the thicker foliage while others took to the safety of the blue sky. Even a passing cockatrice decided it was best to scamper away. It did not take any much thought to realize what was approaching. 

A predator. 

A creature to be feared. A creature that others hid from. This was a creature that could kill and many shuddered in their respective hiding places. This was the way of the Everfree. The predator hunts. The prey hides. 

A deathly silence rained as the predator approached the area, its steps echoing around the area. Surprisingly, multiple other footfalls sounded as well. Perhaps a pack of timber wolves on their morning hunt? Each animal that had not fled for the safety of other areas quietly waited, wary of any movement from the predators. However, just as quickly as the predators entered the area, they exited, moving deeper into the underbrush. 

Soon, the presence of the predators was all but gone and the forest once again teemed with life. The predators had moved on, possibly on the hunt for a particular meal. 

The three predators continued their trek, wary and fearful of what the forest had to bear. 

Though the three failed to realize, they were the ones to be feared. 




Maria checked her phone once again, only to find them saying depressing sight as before. 

No signal. 

Sighing, she returned the device to its place in her pocket and thought of the new day. Originally, when she had awoken that morning, she had nearly thrown the tarp off of herself in an attempt to stave off the nightmare that plagued her. Glancing around, she had nearly believed it had all been that, just a nightmare, and they simply slept outside of their tents for the night. However, fate had other plans and she had woken up into the world that was not her own. 

Now, as they trudged through the thick forest, her eyes couldn’t help but wander to the unspoken leader of the group, Jon, as he moved with a purpose through the wild flora. When Jon had awoken that morning, he had remained very similar to the disturbed character she had faced last night, though some of his original personality leaked through the hardened facade. It had been Jon that had mobilized the group, spurring them on toward an unknown destination. After a meager breakfast made up of water and power bars, the group had moved deeper into the forest, Jon at its head. 

Movement out of her peripheral vision broke her train of thought, brining her attention back to the present. 

Cole took a small sip of his water bottle, grimacing slightly at the warm temperature. The forest around them was managing to keep up a surprisingly high climate, not to mention that they had slept in the clearing for the sun to bathe them in its light. Finished with his drink, he returned it to the side of his backpack. They had been walking quietly for some time now and not wanting to break this silent peace, turned his attention to the forest around him. 

He had noted similarity's between this worlds inhabitants and Earth's almost immediately, spotting animals from blue jays to the occasional rabbit or squirrel, though that number had diminished quickly as they entered the forest, now they barely saw a trace of any animal. It was rather unnerving to say the least. 

Is it because of us?

Wasn’t that the question? Was it them? He couldn’t deny that something was wrong with them. Physically, mentally, or something else, there was something definitely wrong with his friends. Possibly himself as well. 

The black smoke from Jon, the eyes from Maria, had he had similar symptoms? He looked to his hand, moving the appendage around while flexing the muscles experimentally. Everything appeared to be normal. It was a normal human hand. 

Or was it? 

He shook his head. He couldn’t be sure of anything anymore. Not after yesterday. 

"Hey, you alright?" he heard Maria ask, and turned to find a worried expression on her face. 

"I’m fine, just thinking..." He started. 

"About yesterday?" she cut in quickly. He simply nodded a solemn expression present. Maria moved over to Cole, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, giving a light squeeze to boot. 

"Hey" she whispered, “I know, it hurts, but... we need to stay strong. I know that sounds a bit hypocritical coming from me, given last night. But" she looked to Cole, a new fire in her eyes, "I'll be damned if I lose anymore of my friends. So keep it together". 

He smiled. Looks like Maria was also feeling better. The hard slap to his back was also an indication. 

While the two were busy finding comfort in the company of each other, Jon continued his brisk pace, his eyes darting around with a calculated look. He smiled as he passed another familiar landmark. They were getting closer. He could feel it. 

Go into the forest. Look for a castle hidden amongst its depths. Do not worry; I will guide your path. There in the castle time chose to forget, will you find your answers. 

Jon adjusted his footing to avoid stepping in a small puddle. As he glanced down to avoid stepping in it, he caught the look of his bright cyan eyes. The reptilian like slits of his pupils gazed back at him. His smile broadened, his enlarged canines coming out as well. 

He really liked these eyes. 




I was legitimately starting to get nervous. It felt like we had been walking for hours, yet the time that passed seemed to be only thirty minutes. My iphone was still working properly at least.  I think. 

My gaze shifted over to Jon, watching him as he led us to god knows where. I was really concerned about him especially. Well, me and Cole both were. We weren’t thinking he was crazy per say...but he wasn’t all there I’m sure. My mind flashed the idea he was leading us somewhere to kill us or something. I banished the thought before it could play more scenes of me being murdered. 

It might not look the best to think these things about Jon, but I wasn’t sure of what he was capable of anymore. Last night was creepy to say the least. Then again, what I did was beyond creepy. 

But...it felt..nice. 

I groaned at the thought. Lifting someone off their feet with one arm was definitely an accomplishment, but what I did, was…different. I knew I could lift him off his feet. Even more then that. I just knew I could. It was...empowering to say the least. To know you held that power ove-

Damn it! Shut the hell up! 

I groaned again. Good job Maria, now your talking to yourself. Who's the crazy one now? 

I decided there it was time to ask our glorious leader exactly where he was leading us. 

"Hey John. Where exactly are you taking us?" I asked, hoping to keep the frustration out of my voice. 

This caused him to toss his head back, laughing as if I had said the funniest thing in the world. "Yes, where indeed?" 

I wasn’t sure if I should smile or cringe at that. It was classic Jon no doubt. He was that stupid funny. Like, really stupid. But with the under hint of crazy, that laugh wasn’t as innocent as it seemed. 

"I’m serious, where are we going? We've been walking for hours!" I knew it had only been 45 minutes, but that helped put an emphasis on my concern. He seemed to falter in his pace slightly before continuing. I think he was unsure of how to answer me. 

"Not too much longer. We're close. I can feel it" he answered rather quickly. Ok, red flags. Red flags everywhere.  I looked to Cole, who was giving me the same concerned expression. We slowed our pace ever so slightly, hoping to stay out of earshot of Jon. 

"Jon's worrying me" Cole stated under his breath. 

"Same here. I don't know what he's thinking, but I don’t like it". 

"If he tries anything, we need to be ready. But, let’s try not to injure him. He's hurting right now" 

"No promises" I muttered a bit darkly for myself. Hey, he wasn’t the only one hurting. We all miss Vince. The thought of him made my eyes water as various memories replayed in my head. I stifled a sob as a tried to clear my eyes. 

Not now Maria. You need to focus. 

Suddenly, the dense shrubbery began to part, revealing a rather large path in the middle of the forest. Sunlight poured through the now open canopy as we came to it. Immediately, Jon quickened his pace to get on the path, his boots crunching along the dirt. Disappearing behind a tree, we heard his boots stop. Me and Cole spared glances at each other. An unspoken motion was made and Cole crouched slightly, moving ever slowly toward the path and the tree. I stayed close behind, ready to act if necessary. The large tree blocked most of our view, so until we came around it, we were going in blind. 

Jon..I swear...

Finally, we turned around the corner and found...

Jon. 

Staring wide eyed at a medieval fucking castle! This was like nothing compared to that crystal castle. Sure, that was ridiculously tall and down right beautiful, this one looked closer to the castle from the movie Shrek. You know the one. Complete with half destroyed spires and crumbling ruins. Even had an honest to god wooden bridge that looked like it couldn’t hold a fly to save its life. Oh, and did I forget it’s surrounded by a big ass canyon? Because it in fact was. 

"Careful. You’ll catch flies like that." I heard Jon snark, only realizing that my jaw was hanging open. The thoughts of him murdering us in some psycho crazy state were off that table, but it was replaced by a million other thoughts. 

"H-how?" Cole weakly asked. Jon turned around, a small grin on his face. "Would you believe me if I told you it came to me in a dream?" 

Ok! Episode 2! Return of the red flags! 

"Jon...” I began to say, but he already turned away from me, walking toward the wooden bridge. I nearly lost it when he put a foot down on that shoddy piece of construction. 

"Jon! What the hell are you doing?" I screamed, hoping to stop the idiot before he killed himself. 

"What?" He raised an eyebrow at me like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. No, it’s not like your putting your life in the hands of a piece of wood that could give way at any second. 

Grabbing his arm, I tried pulling him back, only for him to lean away from me. I saw Cole moving to help me, but before he could reach us, Jon pried my arm off his, before falling on his ass. 

On the fucking bridge! It creaked and groaned with the strain from his weight. I held my breath, afraid that anything else would cause the damn thing to collapse. It swayed slightly under his weight before returning to an inactive position. 

"Jon” I whispered, eyeing the bridge carefully," Move very slowly". 

He seemed to understand, carefully taking a standing position, gripping the rope for extra support. I reached out an arm to him, Cole right behind me to assist. 

"Jon. Grab my hand" All we had to do was pull him in. My stomach dropped when he looked at my hand, and then looked toward the other side of the bridge. 

Oh no. 

He looked back and forth again. Indecisive. 

Don’t you do it! 

He started backing up. 

Damn it Jon! 

I lunged forward to grab him, only to miss as he jumped away. I grimaced as a fell flat on the ground, my chest taking the brunt of the fall. 

"Sorry! But I need answers!" He suddenly started jogging across the bridge, it swaying like a boat in rough seas. I swear the image of the bridge snapping and him plummeting to his death ran through my head so many times at that moment. Somehow though, he made it across and I prayed to god for saving his sorry ass. 

"Guys! Come on! We need to head inside!" He called across the canyon, his voice echoing loudly around the area. For a second I was afraid we would have an encounter with the alien ponies again, but none appeared. 

"Jon! What the fuck do you think your doing!" I tried not yelling, but it came out exactly that. Not heeding my answer, he started running toward the castle's entrance. 

Damn it all! 

"Cole let's go" I stated through grit teeth, taking a shaky step onto the already unstable bridge. I placed another step, slowly advancing across the bridge. If this bridge didn’t kill me, I was going to kill Jon. 




"Ow" was all Jon could say as he nursed his swollen cheek. The punch he had received from Maria had been less than friendly, showcasing the reason not to mess with the Italian. 

"You didn’t have to do that you know" He glared over to Maria, whose own glare caused him to look away. She let out an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand. 

"Ya Jon. I kinda did. Your lucky it wasn’t worse" She shook her head at her companion. 

Meanwhile, Cole gazed around at the anteroom they found themselves in. The walls were lined with pillars, forming archways across several doors which led who knows where. On the other side of the room lay two dual stone staircases, both looking in terrible disrepair. Even the floor around them was well aged, nature managing to reclaim its rightful place as beds of moss lined most of the floor. What particularly stuck out to him though, were the two banners that hung from the ceiling. Not only where what they depicted surprising, but the banners themselves were in pretty good condition. Mind a few tears here and there, but they looked only a few years old. 

This made no sense. 

The castle itself was at least hundreds of years old, given the growth of nature and the disrepair that was rampant across it. The stone and mortar around the area had crumbled away, not to mention the various remaining furniture was rotten or completely covered in dust. 

Yet the banners were as bright as ever, a striking contrast of deep blue and striking yellow against the dull grey stone. Both banners depicted some type of horse, or pony as he guessed.  It appeared to be a combination of the pegasi and unicorn. The one on the yellow banner was standing above a depiction of the sun, having a pure white coat with a pink mane and tail. While on the blue banner, a similar hybrid stood above a crescent moon with 4 stars in the sky. Its coat was a counter to its companion, having a dark navy coat with a sky blue mane. 

He was unclear at what they were meant to convey. Gods? Possibly a national flag? More importantly, had they been placed recently? Or was their some type of preservation system on them? 

One thing was obvious though. The ponies had been here before. It did not feel safe to him at all. 

"We should go" 

"What?" Maria asked surprised. Cole was a bit surprised too; he hadn’t realized he had said that out loud. Nevertheless, he stood by his decision. 

"We should go" he stated again, eyeing the two hybrids with a watchful glare, as if they were going to come out of the tapestries themselves. Maria cocked an eyebrow as she watched him just stare at them, arms crossed in annoyance. She was unsure what had gotten under Cole's skin so badly, but she felt similar when gazing at the two hybrids. 

She wasn’t quite sure what she felt. 

Anger was definitely close. Contempt? Possibly. Mayb- 

"Jon! The hell are you going?!" She yelled across the room, spotting her companion already climbing one of the flight's of stairs. He looked to her, then back to the top of the stairs. She didn’t bother thinking. She bounded after him once again, he rapidly climbing the stairs. 

He already disappeared down the right hallway before she even climbed the flight. 

I swear if I have to chase you one more goddamn time! 

She ran full speed after him, keeping him in sight thanks to the long hallway. She didn’t bother looking at the tapestries or pictures that adorned the wall; all she wanted was her quarry. Maria noted with some dissatisfaction that her boots had become thick with hardened mud, and were slowing her down considerably. 

"Jon! Get your ass back here!" She yelled after him. He didn’t even look back as he rounded a corner. Doubling her efforts, she flew around the corner...

Only to slam directly into Jon's backside. 

"Mothfucka!" she yelled, clutching her nose as pain eradiated across her face. She soon felt a liquid escape her nose, pooling in the palm of her hand. It wasn’t broken, but she had definitely triggered a bloody nose.

I’m going to kill-

Her words dyed as all thought process came to a halt. There, sitting only feet away at a small table, was none other than-

"Bro?" 




"I’m terribly sorry for getting your hopes up, but I simply chose this form to better communicate with you" Not-Vince said, motioning to his body. In all honesty, it was Vince. Even right down to the clothes he wore, however, the major difference was the cat like cyan pupils that had replaced his brown irises, not to mention the sharpened teeth in his mouth. 

"Just what are you exactly?" Maria asked with the utmost suspicion. This caused Not-Vince to chuckle, giving the trio a rather unnecessary view of his teeth. 

"Of all the years I’ve lived, only one other person asked me that question and I will tell you what I told her" He leaned in from his seat at the far side of the table. "A friend". 

"Right. Well, you'll have to forgive us if we find that a load of crap" Maria rebutted, standing a bit closer to Jon and Cole. 

"I can understand your fear. After what you've been through, airing on the side of caution is a wise decision. However, I must plead with you, I am only here to help", the warm smile he gave her reminded Maria all to well of Vince's own, and she felt herself relax abit. 

"I am sorry about your friend, truly I am. I had hoped to empower you in time-"

"Wait wait wait. You said empower us? Do you mean the transformations? The abilities?" Cole asked concerned. 

The entity nodded. "Yes, that was my gift to you, I had hoped you would have managed to escape the ponies with it, but seeing as you originally possessed no inherent magic, it will take more time to develop" 

The three looked at Not-Vince like he had grown a third head, which, he probably could. 

"Did you say magic?" Maria asked. 

"Yes I did. Why?" The entity tilted its head to the side, an alien move for Vince. 

"There is no such thing as magic" Cole stated. This caused the doppelganger to raise an eyebrow. 

"You wish to believe that after all you have been through? Surely you can’t be serious" 

This caused all three of the group to falter; it did have a valid point. Maria felt her fist clench as she watched the entity sit there in Vince's shape, almost mocking her. 

"What do you want?" She asked coldly. She felt her heart sink as a pained expression came across Vince's face. 

"All I want is to help you. I can’t undo what been done, but I can help you in other ways…”  




Ponyville at night- a time where the rather small community town was not alive with the sounds of ponies going about, unlike its larger city cousins like Manehattan or Trottingham. No, during the night, almost all ponies went to sleep, save for a few who where finishing their business for the day. 

One particular mare was locking up on her music studio on the far side of the town. Noting the door was securely locked on the building, she began to trot casually through the rather quiet town. She noted with bit of distaste that a fog had rolled in over the town. 

That weather mare not doing her job again no doubt....

Even the streetlights had difficulty piercing this veil over the town. Only the moon was able to shine through, though its starry companions were left hidden. 

She continued on her way, thinking about the poor day of rehearsal the Ponyville musicians club had had. 

Lyra really must stop losing her lyre. 

She suddenly felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she reflexively turned around. Looking around quickly, but spotted nothing around. Taking a few deep breaths, she reassured herself, though, she adjusted her bow tie to a less constricting level. 

Continuing her trot at a slightly quicker pace, she soon felt the feeling return. Looking back again, she spotted nothing once more, but continued her trot at a quickened rate. The feeling soon grew overwhelming, and before she knew it, she was galloping full tilt toward her home. Spotting the familiar thatched house in the distance, she all but bolted after the safety of her home. Rushing past the white picket fence that bordered her yard, she raced toward the door. Not bothering to look back, she fumbled with the key in her hoof before inserting it into the slot. Pushing the door open enough to slip in, she slammed it shut before locking the deadbolt. 

Rushing to the window, her eyes scanned the street frantically, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Minutes passed. 

Nothing moved outside in the street, and the only sound was her heavy breathing. 

Finding everything normal, and berating herself for her panic, moving away from the window...

Only to have something razor sharp and ice cold pressed against her throat. 

She looked up in horror at the crimson eyes of some bipedal creature with a brunette mane similar to a friend of hers. Though the cold look she received from the creature made her shiver in absolute fear. 

"Make a sound and you’re going to find it a lot harder to breath" it hissed out.  

She swallowed the large lump in her throat. Only one thought came to mind. 

Buck me.