A Tale of Shadows and Chaos

by cuddlyluna

First published 26th of September, 2018

A post series finale adventure where the characters are thrust into action to stop time itself from falling apart.

Discord frequently enjoys looking ahead in time just to see what comes next. Though one day when he looks too far into the future, he sees what he believes to be certain destruction for everything he knows and loves. Will our heroes be able to win against impossible odds? Join the cast for an adventure that will both reveal the past and save the future from a villain who has thus far gone unheard of.

This story takes place just after Twilight Sparkle's coronation in the season 9 finale. Fair warning, this story will include references and material from the IDW comics. You do not have to have read the comics to understand the story, it would mostly just give you an understanding of who some characters are. I will, however, try to introduce the important comic characters as if it was their first appearance.

Chapter 1

It was the night of Princess Twilight Sparkle's coronation. Discord was invisible as he happily watched his friends from above doing one last group hug before they went on their separate ways. As he watched, part of him wanted to join in, but he ultimately decided against it as he silently slipped back into his own dimension.

As Discord entered his house and fell onto a couch, he felt proud of himself for leading Twilight as far along as he did. Of course, Celestia was to thank as well, it was her idea to release him from stone in the first place after all. As he was relaxing, he began to wonder if there was anything left for Twilight to accomplish. Discord started to count on his fingers about all the possible things, silently speaking to himself as he went along.

"The terrific three are stone, Sombra is banished again, Cosmos is on the moon, The shadows are..." he stopped, looking down at a new instantaneously grown fourth lion claw. Many long stashed away thoughts were filling his mind as he spoke of shadows.

"Unresolved.."

He laid back on his couch trying to relax, forcing a smile onto his face. "Oh, I'm sure they will get around to dealing with it. I mean they must have figured out that the force behind Nightmare Moon and Stygian is still on the loose... right?"

He sat comfortably for a few seconds until he suddenly tore out the famous book with the green-eyed golden steed on the cover, rapidly flipping pages as he used magic to reveal the future to him through the pages of the book. "I mean they are the elements of harmony after a-" He paused as he looked at a still image of the future. "Woah, Twilight, stealing Celestia's look much?" His face curled into a grin as he continued to browse the future. "Some odd couples here and there, but I won't object." He flipped a page and saw himself caring for an older Fluttershy, Discord smiled for a minute and had to wipe away a tear before his face straightened up. "Come on Discord, Focus!" he said as he got back to the task at hand.

As he went deeper into the future, his face slowly turned to a sinking fear until he slammed the book shut between his hands. "They don't fix it." Discord spoke to himself.

Discord stood up and went to open his door to form a portal looking down at his friends, now just casually talking before they go home for the night. "What do I do? What CAN I do? They just got finished dealing with MY test and..." Discord paused and clenched his fists tight. "I have to do something.."

Twilight's friends were saying their final goodbye's as the alicorn sisters were leading Twilight and Spike to their new royal suite. "We will walk back to the room with you and grab our things, We packed up ahead of time so we'll be in and out," Celestia said to Twilight as they started towards the castle entrance. "We don't want to miss the train, I have always wanted to go on an extended-" Luna was saying, until being cut off by Discord making a loud thud as he landed on his two feet near the group. The remaining main 5 plus Starlight turned around curious to see what was happening.

Twilight, Spike, and the alicorn sisters could obviously tell Discord had something important to say, but instead of speaking, he just stood there with a finger raised for a few seconds as if he was about to say something. Twilight spoke up. "Yes, Discord?"

Discord began to bite his lip hard and shut his eyes tightly. Until suddenly forcing a smile. ".. Need a hand with the luggage?" He asked making the sisters look at each other curiously. "We do have quite a few things that we will need to fit on the train, I'd appreciate the assistance," Celestia said with a smile, luna nodding with an expression of gratitude as well.

Twilight's friends glanced at each other and gave passing shrugs; they turned around and started to make the trip back. Fluttershy watched for a moment with a smile seeing as how Discord was working on making up for his mistake before she followed the rest.

It was quiet as they walked throughout the castle. The guards were likely still celebrating, though it wasn't much of an issue as it wasn't probable that Equestria would be attacked for quite some time. Celestia and Luna were not in a particular hurry to grab their things, as they put aside some time to clear things up with Twilight and still get to the train on time.

"My sister and I did arrange to have a place for Spike to sit at your side, it should be completed in a few days. The guards will pick it up for you and move it next to yours," Celestia said as they went along. Spike quietly punched the air with a "Yes!" as Twilight chuckled some. The new princess of Equestria took a deep breath before speaking one of her final questions. "I know I should have brought this up sooner but, will I have to watch over the dream realm for now on? How would I make time to both watch over the day and watch over dreams?"

Celestia erupted into a burst of fierce hard laughter for almost a minute, having done so alone for a thousand years. Luna shot her a glare as Celestia finished by wiping her eyes with her hoof, coughing slightly. "Erm, sorry," she said as her sister stepped up. "I will continue to watch over dreams for the time being, though I'll visit occasionally and give you lessons on how to do it yourself until you are able to do dream duty during your sleep.

Twilight gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Luna.". They had just reached the royal suite where Twilight and Spike would be staying. Discord, true to his word, teleported the chunk of packed suitcases behind him and left them to hover and follow him. Spike wasted no time flapping off to where he would be sleeping with a big yawn. "It's been a long day, so I'll just let you all say your goodbyes.

"You don't want to tell us bye, Spike?" Luna asked with a playfully cocked eyebrow. Spike in return gave a fake annoyed sigh as he walked over to give Celestia and Luna a hug around the leg, each bending over for a quick nuzzle, knowing it would be a while before they meet again. Spike then flew up with his wings to get on Discords level with his arms crossed. Discord gave a small smirk as he put up a fist for a fist bump, Spike decided to give a grin and bump his eagle hand. "I'll see you guys around."

After Spike flew off to bed, it was just the Sisters, Twilight, and the Lord of Chaos left. "Well... this is it," Twilight said, watching Celestia and Luna. They went in for their probable one-hundredth hug of the night, really not wanting to let go. "Come visit us any time, don't forget to write," Celestia said as she took her wing off of Twilight.

"Oh, I see how it is." Discord said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes with crossed arms. Twilight narrowed her eyes at first but then flew up to wrap her arms around Discord with an honest smile. "Thank you, Discord."

Discord returned the hug, cherishing the moment until Twilight pried herself out of his arms. "-For not being entirely too much trouble," she said with a big smirk on her face. The whole room had a laugh, and the sisters started their goodbyes until Celestia remembered something.

"Ah, our neckpieces and shoes, I almost forgot," Celestia said as she started to remove them, Luna noticing as well and doing the same. "I'll be sure to put them on display somewhere in the castle," Twilight said with a little smile. Twilight then looked down at herself and removed her things as well. "Erm.. will I have to wear the jewelry all the time?" Twilight asked which got a giggle out of the sisters. "Star Swirl insisted that we do it for regal reasons, it's up to you if you carry on the tradition," Luna said. "You get adjusted to it." her sister chimed in.

The alicorn sisters started on their way to the train station with Discord following. Twilight waved as they walked on and slowly closed the bedroom door, wiping a tear from her eyes as an entirely different life was waiting for her in the morning.

"Not going to lie, I expected some tears from you as well, Celestia. You have spent years preparing Twilight for this." Discord spoke as the group exited the front gate of Canterlot, starting on a downward path to a train station just at the bottom of the mountain.

"I'm afraid I already have all the tears out of my system," Celestia replied. "Yeah, we'll see about that when we get to the house," Luna said with a smirk. Celestia glared at Luna as Discord grinned behind her, but then reverted back to a more serious expression.

He checked to make sure no one else was around, and then questioned Celestia. "Alright, tell me, how long have you kept the act up?" Celestia cocked an eyebrow and then faced forward with her eyes shut and an innocent smile across her face. "I'm not sure I follow." She responded in a sarcastic tone.

"Don't begin to try and justify firing a laser at a magic absorbing bell!" Discord started, getting followed up by luna. "Says the all-powerful draconequus who also had his magic taken."

"Well, you could probably assume that I faked it already. After all, I am the one that can see the future, what's your excuse?" The Lord of Chaos snapped back at her. Celestia waltzed in between her sister and Discord. "Having known a time travel spell for over a thousand years." She spoke as she winked and flicked her tail in his direction.

"Yes, Tia has convinced me to let Twilight handle the serious big bad threats. Believe me, after dealing with many dream Chrysalis', you feel one hundred percent ready to take on the real thing if need be." Luna said as she pranced left and right in the front, followed by flicking one of her alicorn wings forward without even a hint of her horn glowing. Suddenly, in came a thunder cloud which struck the ground in front of them with lightning. Luna finished her stunt with a hair flip and a hoof casually pointed at the two.

Discord looked impressed; Celestia wasn't as much. "Ponies are trying to sleep, Luna!" Luna blew her lips and waved off the hoof she had pointed at them. "On a night like this, they should be expecting last-minute fireworks."

Luna turned around and went on her way, now nearing the train station. Celestia stayed behind with Discord to say a few things. "You weren't the only one with secrets, Discord. I only snapped at you a few days ago to keep up the act. Honestly, I should thank you, for I was never bold enough to send such challenges at Twilight directly. Tough, it would have been nice if you had informed me first." She finished off.

Discord gave her a smile and responded. "My apologies, Celestia. It is in my nature to keep everyone on their toes." Celestia chuckled a little and began to follow her sister over to the train station, suddenly, Discord called to her stopping her.

"How... far have you seen into the future, Celestia?" The white alicorn turned to face him. "I haven't seen past a few years or so, why? Is there trouble?" Discord rubbed his hands together forcing himself to hide his worries. "It's..."

"... I was just curious if you saw what Twilight is going to look like further down the road." He said, suddenly switching to his regular Discord-ish self.

Celestia laughed for a bit. "Luna and I got a real kick out of it," She took a sigh and turned around. "Well, don't want to miss the train." Discord nodded and followed with the sisters' things hovering behind.

Kibitz, The royal advisor, was sitting on one of the benches at the train station. Next to him were all the sister's pets in separate fairly sized cages. One birdcage for Celestia's Phoenix, two birdcages for Luna's owls, and a simple rectangle cage for Tiberius the Opossum. The old white stallion turned to see Discord transporting all of the sister's suitcases. "I seem to recall that you only wanted the pets brought to the train station, you denied the offer for me to find someone to help with the rest of your items," Kibitz said to the two.

"I just couldn't bring myself to have a servent work tonight, Discord just happened to turn up and offer," Celestia responded. Just then, the train pulled into the station, making a call for destination Silver Shoals. Kibitz took a deep breath and checked his pocket watch. "Raven would have been here to see you off as well, though she is likely to spend all of tonight triple-checking paperwork." Luna would be in the process of magically carrying her owls into the train when she spoke. "We told her bye a while ago, so you can check her off any secret parting list you have."

Celestia would approach Kibitz and nod her head to him. "Thank you for helping to keep my life in order Kibitz, I trust that you will go easy on Twilight for the first few weeks." Kibitz slipped his pocket watch back into his coat as he responded. "Royal duties are what they are, but I shall see what I can do. It has been an honor to serve you, Celestia."

Celestia nodded and turned to see Luna stepping back out of the train to get the remaining pets. Celestia called out to her. "Hey Luna, would you like to say something to your favorite royal advisor?" Luna rolled her eyes and went to playfully bump Kibitz in the side with her hoof. "See you around, Kibitz." She said with a smirk across her face, taking Philomena and Tiberius into the train. Kibitz glared at her and fixed his coat, Celestia and Discord containing their laughter in the background.

After a moment, the lunar alicorn popped her head out the door. "Thanks for the help, Discord! Visit us anytime!" Discord gave her a wave and snapped his fingers to stack the suitcases into a neat pile within the luggage car. Celestia stepped over to face Discord in the front. "It'll be the large white and blue house near the shoreline, but I assume you would have found it regardless." Discord grinned and looked off in the distance. "Well, you were right in that assumption, bu-"

A yellow colored aura formed around Discord's beard, and suddenly he was jerked down to Celestia's level, the alicorn pressed her lips against the draconequus' cheek. Discord's face turned bright red as he had a look of blank surprise. "Until next time, Discord," Celestia said as she walked onwards into the train.

Discord bounced up like a spring, still surprised she went for that. Through the window was Luna with her face against the window, it was clear that she was elated beyond imagine at seeing this. Celestia took a seat next to her and began waving through the window, her cheeks visibly red as well. It took a few seconds for Discord to register the world around him as he began a goofy wave back with an equally silly smile.

After the train pulled away, Discord stood still for a minute. "I always assumed that she had a thing for you," Kibitz said as an off comment. Discord shook his head before he responded. "She was just in the moment, I do not believe I will ever have a romantic relationship with anyone again." Kibitz raised an eyebrow, "Again?" he questioned towards him. "Cosmos, purple and pink lady with the serpent hair. Wait, you were tied up that day. Before her, there was... someone else." Discord recalled out loud, looking up at the night sky as he was riddled with memories.

The draconequus broke the silent awkwardness with a question. "Want me to send you home?" He offered with his eagle hand ready in a snapping position. Kibitz felt that he should say something more, but knew he simply wasn't the pony to be having a heart to heart with the lord of chaos. With that note, he figured he should accept his kind offer before he feels the need to fulfill some chaos quota for the day and turns the uphill path to Canterlot into grease. "I would appreciate it, Thank you," Kibitz said hastily.

Discord snapped Kibitz back to Canterlot, staying to linger under the moonlight as he watched the night sky.

"What am I going to do?"

Chapter 2

It has been two months since Princess Twilight Sparkle has started ruling over Equestria. Twilight has sent many letters to the other alicorns asking for their opinions on decisions, though over the weeks she has slowly started to trust her own judgment. Things were going fairly steadily, until one day Raven Inkwell interrupted breakfast.

"Your Highness, a mysterious letter has arrived for you," Raven said as she entered the room. Spike would currently be finishing a pancake. "More spam mail I'm guessing." He said, rolling his eyes after nobly having experience as the royal mail sorter.

"I don't believe so, it's only seven words. I must comment that it is the neatest writing I have ever seen, and it doesn't appear to be from a typewriter." Raven responded. Twilight set aside her food as she levitated the letter over to her.

Twilight Sparkle,

Assemble your friends, go to Hollow Shades.

- an Acquaintance of a Friend

Twilight was baffled as she read it allowed. "Why would anypony want to meet in Hollow Shades?" Spike would fly over next to Twilight to look at the letter himself. "This sounds fishy Twilight, should we just wait and see if they show up to the castle to talk?"

Twilight would remove herself from her chair and paced around the room for a minute. "Spike, can you think of any villains still on the loose?" Spike rubbed his chin as he thought. "Depends if you count Flim and Flam." Twilight whirled around to give Spike an unamused look. "This is serious, what if the pony of shadows escaped from Limbo?"

Spike took a breath. "Twilight, I'm not a master wizard but I believe it takes some serious magic to open up Limbo. I think the pony of shadows will stay locked up for a while." Twilight figured that Spike made a fair point, she levitated the letter over to herself once again. "This pony didn't even provide a date or time, it must be urgent."

"Should I inform Kibitz to put today's duties on hold, your highness?" Raven asked the princess. Twilight would pause and look away. "I'm not sure, I don't want Equestria to think their new princess is abandoning her people to go on friendship adventures."

Raven paused for a moment, she then approached Twilight to put her hoof on her shoulder. "Twilight, it is the job of Equestria's ruler to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens. If you feel that going to Hollow Shades to meet this pony will protect our nation, then, by all means, you should go." A smile formed on Twilight's face as she nodded to her loyal adviser. "Thank you, Raven."

"Spike, let's get to Ponyville," Twilight said as Spike hopped off the table edge towards Twilight. When he was standing next to her, she teleported both of them out of Canterlot Castle's dining room and to the town of Ponyville.

Each of her friends were eager to drop what they were doing for another mission. The group decided to take the train to the closest destination, a small village next to Foal Mountain which acted as the place to stay for all the mountain's visitors and sightseers.

As they sat on the train, they discussed the letter and who they might find waiting for them in the dark ghost town. "Well, an acquaintance of a friend can mean practically anypony, they shouldn't have bothered to address themselves at all." Rarity spoke her opinion allowed.

"Maybe they are just nervous?" Fluttershy suggested before Rainbowdash jumped in. "Or what if they are some time traveling pony who talks with Discord and doesn't want to reveal their name to the public?"

The group didn't take Rainbow's suggestion seriously, except for Pinkie, who gawked at her considering a time travel organization. "That would have been my eleventh guess," Pinke said, with Applejack leaning in. "And your first guess?" She said with an eyebrow raised.

"Cranky Doodle in a trench coat with top-secret plans for Gummy's birthday next month," Pinkie responded with the notion that what she said was entirely possible. Applejack just rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. Before long, the train stopped at the mountain village. It was getting late in the afternoon, so most of the visitors were either eating dinner or checking in for the night. The Mane Six plus Spike did not waste time and traveled on an overgrown off-path that lead to Hollow Shades.

When the group finally arrived, they found the town as deserted as ever. They examined large crack in the ground leading to what archeologists have referred to as The Well of Shade. Fortunately, an organization that was there before them had left some makeshift stairs down to the halls that lie bellow. Twilight would be roaming the main hallway as she called out. "Hello? Anypony there?"

A grey pony wearing a suit jacket and a fedora would be walking towards them as soon as they called out. "I appreciate you coming, heroes of Equestria. I have been observing all of you for quite some time now." Twilight would look at him and slowly turn to face him. "I don't know where or how, but I have seen you before."

The grey pony would give the princess an emotionless look. "You may call me September, you have been called here for a task of great urgency." Applejack would step forward next to Twilight to speak. "Answer this first, who is the acquaintance you mentioned in the letter?"

September fixed his coat, not wanting to waste too much time chatting. He did, however, predict the group would have some questions that wanted answering. "Discord and I encounter each other every so often, he does not find me particularly entertaining so he rarely addresses me. He did ask a favor of me recently though, and since it concerned the wellbeing of existence as we know it, I accepted."

"Discord has been acting a little fishy lately." Pinkie stated. "I just assumed it was the tea making him jumpy, I started adding two sugar cubes instead of one." Fluttershy innocently added. Twilight was motionless, she had only been ruling Equestria for two months and existence was already at risk. Applejack patted her side, attempting to keep her together. She went on to speak in Twilight's place. "What's the situation?"

September pulled out a shard of what looked like a very colorful piece of broken glass. "Time itself is shattering, and your friend believes you are the best hope of stopping it." A thousand questions hit Twilight's brain all at once, most of them being incomprehensible confusion. "Time!?" she spattered out. September just looked at her as blank as ever. "Using the process of elimination, I can make an educated assumption that this is the work of shadows."

Twilight would fall down into a panicked state, Pinkie and Spike would attempt to comfort her as Rarity stepped up. "We banished the entity that is the pony of shadows to Limbo, how could shadows still be an issue?" September would hand the time fragment to Applejack, who was successfully able to hold herself together despite the news.

"You may have saved Stygian and Princess Luna from the shadows grasp, but there are many dimensions out there where more have succumbed to the dark influence. They have been gaining power for quite some time now, I would suggest you find help from creatures who have lived long ago." September said, before turning around and walking.

Rainbow Dash shot in front of him to stop him from walking off. "Wait, you aren't going to help us? You know more than any of us do!" September would calmly start to walk around her. "I am just an observer, also I have my own agenda that involves other points of space-time affected by this crisis. I wish you luck." September would walk behind a pillar. When Rainbow chased after him, it was only an empty hallway ahead.

The group would look amongst each other having trouble grasping the situation. Twilight would take a long, deep breath; get up; step forward; and turn to face her friends.

"Spike, take a letter."

Chapter 3

Somewhere inside a dark ancient-looking palace, the statue that contained Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow would be teleported into the center of a throne room by the power of a shadowy force. Without another hint of magic, the group would slowly revert from stone to their normal selves.

Chrysalis would continue snarling until she went wide-eyed and plopped onto the floor from not having any limbs on the ground; Cozy looked around removing her hands from her face; and Tirek eventually set his arms down to get a glimpse of the room.

Cozy would be the first to speak. "Does anyone remember what happened after that rainbow laser hit us?" Tirek would comment as he looked around the room. "I suppose you aren't aware of the environment around you when you are stone. Par for Discord, though he plays by his own rules."

Chrysalis would snap to face Tirek's direction. "Speaking of Discord, if you hadn't fired at him we would have won and wouldn't be waking up in some murky ruins!" Chrysalis would take another look around. "Though calling it ruins is a bit harsh, this place seems very well-kept." Cozy glow would fly in. "Now is not the time to play the blame game, maybe we are getting a second chance here."

As she said that, a shadowy pony would form not too far from where they were standing. It would be Sombra, shaking his head from confusion and then turning to look at his almost-allies. Cozy would just wave cheerfully. "Back from the Ether, I suppose," Tirek said. Sombra approached them, speaking as he did. "Perhaps it was foolish to fight Twilight and her friends alone, I do appreciate being returned, and thus accept to follow through with Grogar’s plan."

Cozy flew up to him. "Long story short. We think Grogar was Discord all along for some reason, and then we lost to Twilight and her friends, and then we got turned to stone, and now we are here." Sombra had to take a minute to register the situation. As he was piecing his mind together, a familiar ram was teleported in from behind Sombra.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and shoved Sombra out of the way, her horn glowing as she walked towards Grogar. "Drop the disguise Discord, just tell us what you want." Grogar shook his head rapidly before confronting the former changeling queen. "What are you on about, I'm not Discord!" Tirek walked up next to Chrysalis, keeping his arms at his side as he wasn't going to try to fight without any magic. "We saw you turn out to be Discord when we shot you with the bell."

Grogar closed his eyes and huffed. "Well that Grogar wasn't me at the time, I knew you three had the bell all along and we're going to betray me as soon as you got the chance." The two in front looked surprised, Cozy landed on Tireks shoulder. "So why didn't you just snatch the bell from us and go to take over Equestria?"

"Because I was sure that I couldn't do it alone, so I planned to wait until you attacked Equestria yourselves and then follow up afterward with the Alicorn Amulet," Grogar answered. Tirek rubbed his chin in thought. "That does sound like a solid plan, so what went wrong if I may ask?"

"Discord caught me in the act, stole my magic, and caged me in Tartarus. Apparently afterward he acted as myself." Sombra stepped up to comment. "Perhaps we have underestimated this Discord creature, and that is where our faults lie."

They would hear a sound and could tell another creature was being teleported into the room. "Ooh! Another member to the group!" Cozy exclaimed as she leaped off Tirek onto the floor. Before them appeared a creature that most of them have never seen before. "Eris?" Chrysalis let out after having to jog her memory. "You know her?" Tirek asked. "She invited me to her crazy casino once, I declined her offer because I was too busy plotting revenge against Equestria."

Eris stood up towering over the quadrupeds intimidatingly. "I DEMAND THAT-" Tirek, the only one to match her size, cut her off. "None of us know where we are or who brought us here, save your breath." She squinted her eyes at them and focused on the room she was in. "Actually, this place looks familiar, though I can't say I have ever been here before. I suppose it beats floating through your own realm indefinitely." The tall bird-like creature said as she folded her arms.

The strange sound was heard again. "And here comes number seven!" Cozy Glow said excitedly. "And hopefully the last," Chrysalis stated. Appearing on the floor was a being that bore resemblance to Eris, though less bird-like and more reptilian. She was curled up and asleep until she slowly perked up and did a heavy yawn. The pink reptilian creature was instantly in full alert as she rapidly snapped her claws, no magical effect happening as she snapped. "WHERE-" Chrysalis cut her off, sounding annoyed at this point. "We don't know anything."

The girl was shooting her head left and right trying to figure out what was going on, Eris decided to speak to her. "Who are you, you look familiar?" The reptilian glared at her. "Cosmos, why do you want to know, crazy bird lady?" Eris kept her arms crossed as she replied. "You sort of look similar to me and my cousin, Discord."

That sentence instantly grabbed the attention of everyone in the room, especially from Cosmos. “Discord!? Is he here!?" She began to run around the palace full speed on all fours.

“Discord my shining hero, you have changed your mind and saved me from my imprisonment, where are thou so I may-"
"Oh no, Discord isn't here, unless Grogar is still Discord, but I don't think he is," Cozy said, Causing Cosmos to slide to a stop from realization, seeming upset by the news.

"Well, I hope that you have gotten acquainted with each other." A new voice spoke from all directions.

Everyone was shaken up a little, Chrysalis gritted her teeth and walked forward with her horn glowing once again. "I don't know who you are or what your plan is, but I am not teaming up with a ragtag group of idiots again!"

"Oh come now, Crystal Princess, I thought you were always up for one last attempt at revenge." the voice replied. Chrysalis' eyes went from narrow to wide open as she said that, her horn dimming down.

"Though, if you must know who I am, allow me to introduce myself." A cloud of black mist would appear, slowly revealing the one behind the mysterious voice. "I am the Spirit of Shadows, Queen of Darkness, Empress of Shade. I am Algea." Before them was tall dark draconequus like female, she had large black wings and a curved horn protruding from her head. A cloud of darkness concealed her face, with only her eyes being visible through the darkness.

A majority of them stood speechless. "That sure is a lot of titles," Cozy said breaking the silence. "Indeed it is, Cozy Glow. Now, I am aware that a majority of you have never heard of me before, though you might be aware of my creations. To list two examples, I was the one that convinced dear Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon. I was also responsible for converting useless little Stygian into the great Pony of Shadows." Algea stated.

Eris spoke up to the Shadow Queen. "Your Pony of Shadows managed to spread across dimensions and drain my powers, because of you I have spent countless years trying to cause enough chaos to have them restored." The dark figure turned to her and bowed her head. "My apologies, Princess Eris. Shadows and Chaos have not always fit together so neatly, though with you and Cosmos here, that will soon change. Rest ashore, I will have your powers restored. That offer goes to all of you, I would not want my loyal troops not being prepared on the battlefield."

"Except we are not loyal troops, what is stopping you from disposing of us after whatever plan of yours is complete?" Grogar asked. "After my plan goes through, I will have accomplished all I have set out to do, what remains in the world is between all of you settle over." Algea calmly responded.

Cosmos would cough loudly to get the room's attention. "You are aware that with my powers restored, I can shift reality with a whim. Why do we need these pests?" she said, gesturing at the rest of the group. Algea approached her, and Cosmos could feel an unshakeable fear that she had never felt before in all of her existence, despite Algea not being hostile at the moment.

"You have yet to see the full potential of Harmony. Despite that, your lover will be your greatest obstacle. You will need the aid of those who are here to succeed." Cosmos would back down, accepting her word as truth.

"In case you don't know, I have an entire casino full of villains across multiple dimensions that would gladly help," Eris added. "I am afraid this plan will destroy dimensions as we know it, even now, your castle is likely empty and full of nothing other than the restless shadows of its former inhabitants," Algea responded to her. Some of the group turned to look at each other, feeling that this whole scenario was getting more serious by the minute.

"So, what is this plan?" Sombra asked the shadowy figure. "I am glad you asked. As Eris pointed out earlier, shadows have been conquering dimensions since the beginning of history as we know it. At the moment, we are very close to having enough power to devour all of existence and replace it with shadows." Algea began.

Cozy raised her hand frantically, Algea gestured her hand to her. "Can you describe how close very close is?" Cozy Glow asked. "Roughly thirty years, give or take a few depending on Harmony's interference." Algea casually replied. Some of the group rolled their eyes and put their hands on their face.

"Do not worry, we will not wait that long. Since I have directly taken command, I have arranged to use the power we have to destroy time itself." The room was deathly silent for a minute. "That sounds awfully extreme, I don't believe there will be anything left to rule over," Tirek said.

"In a world of Light, as most of you are accustomed too, time is a necessity. In a world of Shadow, time can be broken and you would hardly notice any difference in your lives, aside from the fact that you could no longer travel through time." Algea explained.

"All we need to go through with this is to make sure everyone here is on board." Algea finished, everyone in the room was simply looking at each other, not knowing to respond or not.

"No objections? Excellent." She spoke. Suddenly, everyone in the room would be surrounded in dark energy, they began to panic as shadows slowly engulfed them.

All that could be heard was wicked, maniacal laughter echoing throughout the palace.

Author's Notes:

I am aware that the season finale specifically says that Discord was the one that assembled Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy. Though in the premiere Grogar says that it was his own doing. Putting two and two together, most people might agree that this suggests Discord was Grogar the entire time.

However, for the sake of this fanfiction and not having to rebuild Grogar's character from scratch, the story is that Discord simply brought Grogar back, and it was Discord anonymously convincing Grogar to assemble the team he did to attack Twilight.

If you like this theory then you are free to use it wherever. The reason I'm putting it here is I can't fit that tidbit anywhere in the story, and even if I could I feel it would be a little late to address a fact that is more plot hole avoidance than it is interesting or relevant.

Chapter 4

It has been an hour since Princess Twilight had contacted the alicorn sisters. Despite it being sundown, the sisters wasted no time coming to Canterlot to help in any way they could. Twilight and her friends were gathered in a meeting room with the sisters being given the explanation of what is happening.

"So what you are saying is Discord was aware that time itself was in danger, and only now has he informed us, via third party," Luna said, trying to clear things up. "If we are to believe that mysterious pony, then that is the case. Luna, do you remember the days before your transformation into nightmare moon? He suggested that this crisis is the work of shadows, so any information on them would be helpful." Twilight asked.

"It was very long ago; my memories of those days are hazy. To be honest, It's hard to recollect long after we turned Discord to stone." Meanwhile, Celestia was busy examining the time shard. If she applied magic to it, she could view the battle between the pony of shadows and the protectors of Equestria. She carefully levitated it down onto the table. "I should have interrogated Discord further on that walk to the train station. He mentioned the future and I didn't think much of it at the time."

"It ain't your fault, how were any of us supposed to know? That Discord is always actin' strange, which I suppose makes sense given the circumstances." Applejack responded. Spike would be sitting with his arms crossed as he spoke up. "You know he hears everything we say, right? I think he's just avoiding us because he knows he's in trouble." Celestia would take a deep breath and stand up from her seat, walking to an empty space in the room. "Discord, if you show up now, We promise that we won't get angry at you."

No response.

Fluttershy spoke up. "Why don't we just go to the chaos realm and talk to him there?"

“If he is avoiding us now then it is hard to say if we would get much from him by showing up at his house. Even then we shouldn't bank on him knowing much if he asked us to find out how to stop this crisis." Rarity said, putting her detective skills to work.

"You have a point there," Luna spoke. "Did September give you any advice on where to start looking for a resolution?" Rainbow was the first to answer. "He said that we should talk to the oldest ponies we know. No offense but you two are kind of old."

“What he actually said was to find help from creatures who have lived long ago, we tried contacting Star Swirl as well, but it seems he was already asleep." Twilight corrected.

Celestia would turn around to face the group. "I have many memories I could tell, but it's hard to say which ones pertain to the situation. I suggest we look through our archives to see if any reveals the shadows' involvement throughout history." Twilight couldn't stop herself from getting excited, it was visible all across her face.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked at Pinkie. "How come every drastic event has to be met with a book diving session?" Pinkie Responded, "Honestly I always just skim for pictures, I mean there is like a bazillion books, how would we ever find what we need by actually reading everything?" She said as she bounced on towards the Canterlot Library. Rainbow just pondered on why she never thought of that herself.

It was late in the night as most of the group was sleeping on makeshift beds made in the restricted section of the Canterlot Library. Towers of books from the Star Swirl wing were teleported into neat piles so they wouldn't have to split up. After a good few hours of searching, Celestia and Twilight had lightened up a little bit as they enjoyed spending some time with each other.

"Remember the old days when we used to have an entire dark magic archive, and I had to tell you there was a monster behind those doors just to keep you from going inside?" Celestia said to Twilight as she glossed one book after another from a tower next to her, this caused Twilight to bust out laughing as if they were all here for a fun reading sleepover.

"It would have likely sped up our search if we kept it, when Luna was restored we had to spend two whole days separating the real from the superstition and moving them here." Twilight was laying opposite to Celestia browsing through her own stack of books. "You know I wouldn't have minded coming over to help out, you won't find a better book-sorter than myself." Celestia giggled as she responded. "I sent you a letter, but Spike wrote back saying you were too busy dealing with a time-related disaster that day. We all know how that turned out."

Twilight snorted and pressed her hoof against her face with a big smile across it. Applejack would then approach them, happy to see they loosened up. "Try not to stay up too long havin' fun, odds are Star Swirl will send us on some crazy adventure tomorrow."

“We'll try," Celestia responded. "I remember it being hard to get little Twilight asleep when she had books all around her." Applejack chuckled some and turned around. "Your beds are over there next to you, I'm going to turn in for the night. Goodnight girls."

They both told her goodnight and carried on talking and book skimming. "I remember Luna being difficult to get to sleep as well, she slowly became nocturnal as time went on. Isn't that right, sister?" Celestia called out to Luna, who was sleeping with a book over her head. "Not so much anymore, since she got good at dream duty in her sleep," Twilight responded with a smirk across her face. She closed a book and stretched a little, turning to Celestia eager to bring up a topic.

"You know, I've been an alicorn for a few years now, and I never did learn much about alicorns themselves," Twilight said, looking at Celestia with big starry eyes. Celestia looked over at her former student. "It seems someone is expecting a story." "I mean we have to know absolutely everything we can if we want to stop the shadows." Twilight added, trying to make reason of her statement.

"I believe you are just curious, Twilight." Celestia smiled over at her and closed a book, sliding it away. "Fine, come over here and I'll tell you the tale. You won't find this in any book here, I assure you." The purple alicorn excitedly rose to her hooves and scurried over to join Celestia on the simple bed made from sheets on the floor. Twilight leaned in close eager to hear the never before told story.

"My sister and I were not born alicorns, Luna was an earth pony and myself a unicorn. This was likely because of our unicorn mother and earth pony father. Our family lived alone in a sturdy house out in the woods. I believe sometime after Luna's birth, the never-ending windigo winter began. They must have concluded that Luna and I wouldn't survive the journey to a town, so they made-do with what they had.”

"With the farming expertise of our father and the magical prowess of our mother, we were able to survive fairly well. Though one day, a starving manticore paid us a visit." Celestia stayed quiet for a minute as Twilight nuzzled against her former teacher and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "Our parents knew it would chase down all four of us if we fled together. They gave us all the supplies they had and sent us out the back door, while the two of them faced the manticore."

Twilight would have tears in her eyes from the story. "I'm sorry that happened to you." Celestia quietly shook her head. "No one is to blame, if ponykind had gotten along in the first place then there wouldn't have been an eternal winter. I can never remember our parents' names, just their faces, and their undying love."

"Of course, that is not where the story ends. My sister and I trekked through the snow for days, if my mother hadn't thought me fire magic then I fear we wouldn't be here today. Eventually, we ran out of food, and a harsh blizzard came as the sun went down that night. We found shelter in a cave, though it was so cold that I couldn't get a single flame to start. Luna asked what we were going to do, all I could do was hug her and tell her that everything would be ok. I was almost certain we would not wake up in the morning, but something tremendous happened overnight."

"We were chosen."

Twilight was confused, she poked her head out to look at her face better. "What do you mean you were chosen?"

“We woke up in the morning, each with a pair of wings and Luna now bearing a horn. I couldn't explain it, even today, I don't understand what exactly happened. A few hours after we woke up, some mysterious alicorns in robes found us and told us to follow them, so we did. They lead us to a castle they named Canterlot, which this castle is named after."

"The years with those alicorns were strange, to say the least. They wouldn't tell us their names, we simply addressed them as sir or ma'am. They thought us about the tree of harmony, spells, as well as what it meant to be an alicorn. They didn't grasp well that luna was still young, so she didn't pick up on much other than flying tricks and the Canterlot voice. I, however, learned a great deal, I even impressed Star Swirl when he took us in later down the line."

"One day, the eternal winter simply vanished, the alicorns said the believed that it was a sign, and they sent us out into the world. As you know, Star Swirl found us and had us become the rulers of Equestria." Celestia could tell by the look on Twilight's face that she had a million questions about the story. This made her face curl into a smile. "Why don't you narrow the questions down to three, and then you have to go to bed."

Twilight thought as she listed the questions in her head by importance, and finally spoke up. "What does it mean to be an alicorn?"

“What they believed was some are chosen by the spirit of harmony to be alicorns, which uphold all that it stands for, represented by the elements. I assume they believed their role was to pass on their knowledge to us while hiding themselves away from the rest of the world. While the role of my sister and I was to defend ponykind and preserve harmony. "

Twilight nodded slowly, and then asked her next question. "Did you ever visit them again?"

"Only once, When Luna became nightmare moon and was banished, I had no one left to turn to. I returned for guidance, but there was only one alicorn left. What she did was teach me a spell that could transform worthy ponies into alicorns, and told me to be the very best ruler I could be, for a bright future was on the horizon. She even decided to tell me her name as a last request."

Twilight curiously loomed in. "What was her name?" She asked, until suddenly realizing her mistake and covering her mouth, followed by a pout. "Gotcha," Celestia said, pointing her hoof at her and winking. "Her name was Gusty the Great."

Twilight was overjoyed at the mass amount of history given in one night. "You have to write a novel about this, Celestia! The world has to know!" Celestia chuckled a little. "I suppose I have the free time now that I'm no longer a princess. For tonight though, you need sleep."

Twilight gave a little sigh as she curled up on the blankets and rested her head on her pillow. Celestia would give her a nuzzle. "I have complete faith in you Twilight, I shall see you in the morning."

"Goodnight." The purple alicorn said softly, as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 5

It would be roughly thirty years after Princess Twilight Sparkle has become the ruler of Equestria. Flurry Heart has been ruling beside her mother and father for a little more than a year, despite having the physical body of an older filly. Celestia and Luna claim that it is normal for alicorns to reach adulthood slower than normal ponies, so there was not any concern to be had.

At the moment, Flurry Heart would be entering the Crystal Empire's library, removing her royal accessories as she was not accustomed to wearing them all the time as of yet. Her teacher, Sunburst, would be sitting at a table reading a book as she entered. "Have you been practicing the amniomorphic spell like I asked?" not turning to look at her yet.

"I used it to make a mirror to the dinosaur dimension. Before you ask, I made sure no dinosaurs could escape into our world." Flurry responded, walking over to him proudly. Sunburst would close the book and look to her. "Very good, now, I hope you are prepared for today's lesson. We are going to be going outside to practice gravity manipulation."

"That sounds great and all, but I have something to show you first." Flurry Heart would pull a crystal looking shard out of a pouch she had on her. "I found it while in the other dimension. Like always, I immediately come to you when I find one. You still haven't told me what they even are."

Sunburst would look at her with a slightly worried expression, levitating the piece over to him. "That makes twenty-six, I believe." Sunburst would hesitate for a minute as he held the piece in front of his face. Flurry would eventually approach him and poke her head out in front of him. "You seemed pretty casual about it when I found that one a week ago, now you are all dramatic about it."

Sunburst took a deep breath and started to walk to his private study. "Come with me." Flurry Heart curiously trotted after him and closed the door behind them as they entered. The room was only lit by a single lantern and the rising sun that shinned through a lone window. The orange wizard set the piece on his desk, having to gather himself before he spoke. "This is a shard of time itself, I only know this because the time spell is the only spell that has a direct effect on it."

Flurry Heart just looked at the piece of time lying on the table. "How could that be true? Time can't break, right?" Sunburst would open a desk drawer full of them and insert the newly acquired piece. "I'm afraid that it can. Only the princesses and I know about this at the moment. Celestia has written to me that she attempted to travel to the past and see if any of the pieces were there long before we found them, but was only able to go a few weeks back and no further."

Flurry would angrily confront him. "Why aren't we doing anything about it then, why do you have me learning gravity spells and making mirror portals when time is falling apart?"

"Because there is nothing we can do, all we can hope is that it doesn't affect our daily lives, and we carry on living as normal," Sunburst said to her, not changing his expression. "Well I am the princess of hope and I say we do something." Flurry shot back at him, standing firm. The two stayed silent for a minute, until Flurry brought up a point. "Can't we ask uncle Discord for help?"

"You know as well as I do that he hasn't been seen since Fluttershy passed away." Sunburst would walk over to stand in the doorway, hanging his head as he was deep inside his own mind. "The princesses and I have already met to discuss the issue, but we will meet again tomorrow, and I will convince your mother to let you attend."

Flurry Heart walked up to stand beside him, showing a bit of worry as she looked up at him. Sunburst would form a smile on his face and put his hoof on her. "We will figure out something, as long as we keep our heads high. Now, it's important for every princess to know the gravity spell." He would say as he started to walk out the door, Flurry Heart felt a bit better and followed him outside.

After a few hours of practicing with rocks, the student and teacher were done for the day. As Sunburst was going over what he had planned for tomorrow, a glass-like shard fell from the sky and landed in front of them, having the two stop in their tracks. "Is that another piece?" Flurry asked as Sunburst went to pick up the piece fresh from the sky. As he was examining it, a piece would fall just behind him. "Get inside." Sunburst hastily spoke as the two dashed into the castle.

After the stair climb up, Cadence was waiting for them in the main room. As she spoke, more pieces fell from the sky as was visible through the windows. "What is happening, why are so many falling at once?" Cadence said as she was fully alert. "I believe we are witnessing a catastrophic event. We need to get to the glyph room." Sunburst replied, Cadence nodded and the two alicorns followed him.

They entered a room with a large blue magic glyph already drawn in the center, this was for intense spells and simular to glyphs that unicorns used to stand on while raising the sun and moon to enhance their power. "What's the plan here?" Flurry Heart spoke out as Sunburst ran to a shelf and snatched a book with his magic, hastily setting it down in front of Cadence and flipping it to the correct page. "Memorize this." Sunburst then turned to Flurry to explain himself.

"Regular, safe, Time travel is what we normally use when we need to do something time-related. There is an alternate unsafe method that should ignore the missing time gaps and send you to where I need you to go." Cadence had pressing questions for Sunburst, but had to trust his judgment and continued to memorize the confusing spell laid out in front of her as quickly as possible.

Flurry Heart responded with many questions. "Why are you sending me, where am I going, can't one of you come with me?" Sunburst slowly shook his head. "It's too risky to use it on more than one pony, and I don't know what will become of us, so it is best that you go. The first instance of this is too far back, but with an alicorn's help, we can get you close to the second instance, which you will then need to seek help from Star Swirl, the only pony with a chance to fix this."

Cadence's eyes were full of tears as she had been forcing herself to swallow her emotions and focus on the spell and only the spell. She closed her eyes and stood upright. "I got it." Flurry would turn and approach her, looking up at her mother. She had to find the courage inside of her to do this for Equestria. "Mom, I promise that I will fix this."

Cadence looked at her and gritted her teeth, quickly wrapping her hooves and wings around her. "We love you so much, I know that you will be alright." Flurry Heart had to stay strong and make herself not cry and worry her mother even more. Cadence pressed her lips against her forehead and smiled at her, doing her best to make Flurry feel at ease.

Flurry's legs got shaky, so Cadence had to levitate Flurry to the center of the Glyph. "On three," Sunburst said. Flurry and her mother locked eyes as Sunburst counted, Flurry's eyes getting more and more watery as Cadence held the smile. "One, Two, Three."

Cadence's and Sunburst's horns glowed as they shot a beam that formed into a circle around Flurry, the beams accelerated faster and faster until Flurry vanished into light.

Flurry would appear in the restricted section of the Canterlot library with a shockwave of energy, knocking down bookshelves and sending some of the group against the wall. Everyone would be wide awake instantly, only to see an older Flurry Heart standing there. Tears fell from her eyes as she started to sniffle.

Everyone was shocked to see Flurry appear before them. Celestia was the first to approach her and comfort her, assuring her that everything was alright. Between the sniffles, Flurry managed to tell the group her mission.

“We have to see Star Swirl.”

Chapter 6

As Flurry Heart told the group that they needed to go see Star Swirl, Celestia would calmly tell the child that they are going as soon as they get a letter response.

Luna approached Flurry and Celestia. "Flurry Heart, It is obvious to all of us that you are from the future. Why have you come to this specific period in time?"

Flurry Heart took a deep breath and attempted to calm down. "Time started to fall apart, so Sunburst and my mother sent me to what they thought was the second time there was an instance of time-shattering. At least, he hoped to get close to it. He said the first instance was unreachable."

Twilight would look to Celestia and Luna. "How would future Sunburst be able to pinpoint that?" Celestia would look to her former student and begin to reply. "Remember just before you became an alicorn? That place is called Caelum, and there you are able to view the past. Sunburst of the future must have found a way to access it and use it to view problems with the timeline."

Spike would fly in and give his input. "Thought-provoking question here, how can the future fall apart and all of us still be safe?"

Luna would think to herself. "A question best reserved for Star Swirl to answer." Suddenly, Twilight's horn would glow and a letter would emerge. "Who seems to have just responded."

Twilight would unravel the letter and read allowed. "I will be there as soon as possible, do not separate." As soon as she finished reading, Star Swirl would teleport into the room, already facing Twilight. "Forgive me for not coming sooner, Show me the shard and I will begin to-" He would be inspecting the room to see who was all inside, his glance stopping at Flurry Heart.

"Perhaps this is more urgent than I first anticipated."

The group would get Star Swirl up to speed as he sat down inspecting the shard of time. He didn't have any useful answers to the group's questions, all he could do was ponder at the moment.

Star Swirl would close his eyes and gently set the shard down. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I only know as much as all of you. However, all hope is not lost."

"Long ago, Scorpan and I used to write to each other after we banished his brother to Tartarus. One subject that always fascinated him was time travel, he would write his theories on the timeline and I would write back. When the pillars and I went to face Stygian, I made time to visit Scorpan one final time."

"I knew that I would no longer be the one to watch over time, so I entrusted that responsibility to Scorpan. I left him copies of all my scrolls and bid him farewell. I have not seen him since, for I feared he had passed away long before I returned. Though, seeing as how his brother still lives, the same case could be for Scorpan."

Applejack was the first to respond. "So, where do you think Scorpan is?" Starswirl would walk over to a globe in the room, spinning it to point southwest of Equestria. "It takes more than a week for a pegasus to get to the former Taurus Kingdom, though if all four alicorns in the room combine their strength, all of us can teleport straight there, assuming one of them has been there before."

Celestia would stand in the middle of the other alicorns. "I have been to Taurus, lend me your strength and I will send us there" The other alicorns did not waste time locking horns with Celestia. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and with a magical echo, they were there.

Twilight and Celestia would go ahead and raise the sun to end the night. When the area was lit, they saw that all around them was a red rocky desert. There did not seem to be any sense of direction, for all the distant mountains looked the same. Star Swirl would glance around and point himself in a direction. "You did a fine job getting us close, it is not far in this direction." He started off, the group catching up to walk with him.

The main six have faced worse walking trips in their life, so this wasn't so bad by comparison. In less than two hours travel, the group arrived at a small house in the middle of nowhere. Nothing was nearby except for a well out front.

Some of the group went for water, while Twilight and Celestia went to knock on the door. There was no response. She then would unlock the door with her magic and step inside, it seemed like a normal house at first glance.

Star Swirl entered behind her. "Do not be fooled, this is no ordinary house." The old wizard would magically levitate a bookcase to the side, revealing a candlelit staircase leading down. He would start down the stairs thinking nothing of the strangeness of a hidden passage, Celestia and Twilight looked to each other, and then followed after him.

What the three saw at the bottom of the stairs was a large room with books and crystals resting on shelves. In the middle of the room rested a sleeping gargoyle who was sprawled across a desk and chair. Star Swirl would approach him and magically shake his arm. "Scorpan."

Scorpan would start to wake up, putting on a pair of glasses that laid on the desk. "Star Swirl," He began, in a half-awake state. The gargoyle stood up to greet his friend. "You've been free from Limbo for some time and you only now visit your old friend?" He said with a smile across his face. The unicorn smiled back and rested his hoof against his arm. "It is good to see you again, Scorpan."

Twilight was having to keep herself together in the background, she thought to herself that she has met plenty of historical figures in her life and this would be no different. She coughed into her hoof and stepped forward to greet him. "Hello Scorpan, I am-"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, It is nice to meet you face to face," Scorpan said, cutting her off. The rest of the group would arrive at the bottom of the stairs to see Scorpan shaking the hoof of Twilight. Flurry Heart would gallop over and approach the gargoyle. "It's nice to meet you and all Scorpan, but we came to you because of a crisis."

Scorpan let go of Twilight's hoof and adjusted his glasses, taking a deep sigh. "I believe I am already aware of the situation. At the moment, I am trying to find a solution to the problem. So far, I don't have any solid answers."

The ponies would look at each other a bit concerned, but Scorpan would attempt to give them some hope. "Well, based on how old Flurry Heart is, we still have many years before a crisis takes place. With all of our minds together, I guarantee we will fix this."

"Now! Who is in the mood for some breakfast? I normally only prepare for one person but I'm sure I can get all of us something." Scorpan continued, walking up the staircase back into the normal house above. "Finally, someone with their head straight," Rainbow said, trotting after him. Luna would stay behind for a moment to talk Twilight and the others. "This is likely a good opportunity to ask him some questions. We don't want to interrupt his research."

The others agreed and accepted Scorpans offer to eat. Many of the group sat on the floor due to an understandable lack of chairs, however, the food was surprisingly good. A hermit with years of practice apparently learned to decently cook somewhere along the way.

Twilight would only be a few bites in before she spoke up. "Scorpan, if you don't mind, some of us have a few questions for you,"

"You are all my guests, ask away any questions you have." He said, stirring around his bowl of soup with a spoon. Star Swirl would go first. "You and your brother have lived far longer than most other creatures."

"Long ago, a plague broke out in Taurus. Because our nation was feared by all those that surrounded it, we received no aid. Other than Princess Celestia, who was unable to help. Tirek and I's mother, Queen Hayden, cast a spell on us. She told us that it would protect us for as long as her love would last. As you can see, we have yet to perish."

"That plague is why we came to Equestria in the first place, I simply wanted my brother and I to find a new home. Tirek wanted to expand a nation that no longer existed, hoping to earn his deceased father's respect."

The group was a bit quiet, Spike asked the question that he had been saving for a while. "Flurry says that in her future, all of time started to fall apart. How does it make sense that it doesn't affect us." Scorpan put his wrist against his chin as he thought. "It's something I do not understand, my best guess is because the event that caused time to fully shatter has yet to happen."

Flurry would stand up and walk up to Scorpan, looking him eye to eye. It was clear that she was determined to sort out this disaster. "When was the first time this happened?"

Scorpan would set his soup bowl to the side and rise up out of his chair, facing the staircase. "Long before any of us were born. If you are all done eating, I can show you."

Pinkie would frantically pull the rest of her food into her mouth, talking in a muffled voice. "Done."

Back downstairs, Scorpan would start off by saying essentially the same things that Sunburst had told Flurry Heart. "By using the more dangerous method of time travel, you are not only able to go further back, but can bypass missing segments of the timeline. However, the first instance is too far back to be reached by any method, and on top of that, it seems to be magically immune to change from past events. It is as if it's separated from all timelines, yet present at the same time."

Scorpan would be talking as he seemed to be preparing something. A few moments after he was finished, he turned around holding a strange crystal. "Using this, you can view segments of it. Since this is visual only and I have seen it before, I will narrate as best as I can."

"A long, long time ago."

Chapter 7

"A long, long time ago, our world was not inhabited by creatures like us, but rather ones not like anything you would see today. Above these creatures were gods that shaped the world, and ruled over it."

"One faithful day, conflict broke out amongst the gods. The population of the race that once ruled over the land was wiped out. Only a few gods remained after the conflict. Together, these gods created Harmony, The Spirit of Order."

"Harmony was an equine like most of you are, as such, the life she brought to the world primarily consisted of creatures like yourselves. Harmony would also give sentience to creatures that had formerly been animalistic, such as griffons and dragons."

"As Harmony watched over the world, she stumbled across a lone child, the last surviving member of the race that lived before our time. She took her in as her daughter, and the child ruled alongside Harmony."

"But with order, came chaos. Unknowingly to everyone, Discord formed as a result of Harmony's creation. Unlike his counterpart, Discord was alone in the world. He traveled the world attempting to find creatures like himself, but to no avail."

"Eventually, Discord and the child found each other. The child saw Discord's loneliness, so the child spent time with the draconequus. Over time, the two became friends. Harmony would encounter Discord with her daughter, and seeing as how she cared for him, Harmony accepted him. They would go on to become a family of sorts."

"One day, the two spirits met with the gods, though the gods did not approve of Discord. They saw him as a creature that was too dangerous to be kept alive, and insisted that he must be destroyed. The draconequus did not care for their opinion, and left to return to his home, only to find his daughter missing. Nowhere across the Earth could the child be found."

"Both spirits were full of anguish. Harmony would stay in her temple for weeks on end. Discord, however, had a far more extreme response. He couldn't bear the one thing he had in his existence being stolen away from him, driving him to insanity. Discord lashed out against the gods, and took their lives in his enraged state."

"In response, Harmony confronted Discord. She first attempted to reason with him, but Discord was too far gone. Their battle raged for hours, the world was reshaped from their strife. As they fought, Discord gained the upper hand, having greater combat abilities than Harmony."

"To save her world, Harmony sacrificed herself to banish Discord to the darkest depths of Tartarus. The remains of Harmony fell to the Earth, and grew into a crystal tree. The Tree of Harmony."

The magical vision would disappear, and its energy would flow back into the crystal. "Discord eventually escaped and regained his power, though Harmony has yet to reform her true self. The important question is who shattered that segment of time?"

"I did it."

Everyone would turn to see Discord standing there, he had his arms behind his back and a straight, serious look at them. Deep sadness hid in his eyes as he focused on the group.

The room was quiet for a minute, some things begged to be spoken, but it was difficult to speak from the tensity of the room.

"Why?" Twilight asked, standing before him with a hurt expression.

"I could not let anyone interfere with my creation, nor did I want the outcome of the battle between Harmony and I changed. I wanted my origins to remain a mystery, and until now, I succeded."

Celestia approached him to speak. "Why did you kill the gods?" Discord's eyes would light up red from his emotions. "They had it coming! It was either them or me, and all they ever did was abuse their power and destroy the old world!" He exclaimed, the room fell back into silence as the group looked upon him, afraid.

Discord would shut his eyes and cool off for a minute. "Perhaps I took too much after them. There could have been a better solution, but it's impossible to change that event."

"What of the girl?" Luna would say after she let the room settle down for a minute. Discord kept his eyes shut. He would turn around towards the wall, not being able to face them.

"Fluttershy."

"Yes?" Fluttershy answered from the back of the group, still shaken up about the whole situation.

"The only reason I gave you a chance, was because of her. You remind me of her. I see her when I see you. I thought I could move on, letting you fill the gap that her disappearance had on me. The feelings I have had for you all of this time, are feelings towards another. I'm sorry."

The room was dead silent, so much so that the faint wind from outside the house could be heard. The ponies in the room were always curious about how Discord came to be, but none expected the reveal to be quite like this.

Discord would slowly teleport out of the room, leaving the group to find an answer to the situation themselves. Fluttershy fell to the floor in tears, with others coming to comfort her. Star Swirl would approach Twilight and the sisters. "Alright, neither Discord or Scorpan can give us much information on how to stop this. Does anyone have any ideas in mind?"

Twilight would reply first. "Going off what September said, Shadows are the source of these recent time shatterings. Since we have no luck to repair time, our next best course of action should be to confront the shadows directly. Though I wouldn't know where to start with that plan."

Luna would speak next. "I think I have a plan, but we should speak with Stygian first. If we are to face off against shadows, another pony experienced with them might prove useful."

The three agreed with Luna's idea and went to check on Fluttershy, who was still crying her eyes out. "I never knew any of this. He was broken inside all of this time." Fluttershy said between her breaths. Twilight would kneel down and put her hoof on her.

"I know how hard this must be for you, but we need you to stay strong, Fluttershy. It takes all of us together to save the world." Twilight would help her up and wrap her in a hug. Fluttershy hugged her back, still sniffly. "I'll, try my best to pull myself together."

Star Swirl walked over to Scorpan. "Thank you for everything Scorpan, We would appreciate it if you continued your efforts here. Meanwhile, we will do our part against what we believe to be the forces behind this."

Scorpan nodded, putting his hand on his old friend. "Take care of yourself, all of you. I wish you the best on your journey."

The rest would give their farewells to Scorpan, and would be off. Once they were all outside, The alicorns would put their horns together and return to Equestria. Through Luna's input, they made it to the doorstep of Stygian's house. As Twilight knocked, a conversation would be heard inside.

"Just a minute!" Stygian called out in a light-hearted tone. When he opened the door to see almost every important pony ever, he was a little shocked. "I erm, remember Flurry Heart being a little... younger."

Twilight shook her head about all the craziness of the situation "There is a lot to explain, can we come inside?"

"Yes, sure, though I have another visitor over that you might recognize." Another grey pony would appear in the doorway behind Stygian, happy to see a familiar face.

"Shadow Lock?" Twilight curiously walked inside, with only the other alicorns and Star Swirl entering, as the rest decided to stay outside.

Shadow Lock walked with Twilight to a living room and sat down with her. "Hey Twilight, I didn't get word that my ancestor Stygian was himself again until we bumped into each other at your coronation. We've been catching up since then."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you two connected. I would have wrote you a letter about it, but princess life made it slip my mind that Stygian had a modern-day family member he could meet with."

"Don't worry about it. So, what's the story behind the crew you have assembled?" Stygian said, levitating a cup of coffee up to his lips. With the others coming to join them in the living room.

Twilight would get them up to speed, the story made them both fascinated and concerned. Stygian would eventually get a chance to talk once Twilight was finished. "That all sounds important and all, but why have you come here? I'm just a regular unicorn, Star Swirl is the magic expert here."

Luna responded. "Because like me, you have prior experience with shadows. You were also there when we revisited that dimension."

Celestia looked over to her sister. "Care to tell us what you are referring to?"

Luna would take a deep sigh. "Stygian and I revisited that nightmare of a dimension that the pillars rescued us from that one time, only to find it under new ruling. Eris, a creature claiming to be the cousin of Discord, had a Casino there and apparently drove out the shadows. We ended up stopping her only for an alternate Daybreaker version of you to take charge."

The other alicorns gave her a confused look, while Star Swirl would concentrate on his ancient knowledge. "That dimension is close to what may be the very heart of shadows. If we really are to confront them, that mirror is our best bet."

Stygian would think to himself for a moment. He ended up walking into another room to unlock several locks. Stygian returned with a box, opening it to contain the last piece of the mirror portal. "I guess I'm in."

Twilight and the rest were happy to have another on board, Luna then looked over to Shadow Lock. "I would like you to come as well, since you are aware of the situation."

Shadow Lock hesitated for a second, but nodded and agreed to come along. The group would teleport into the Canterlot throne room, with Raven Inkwell forcefully having to hold back Kibitz from Twilight to prevent a rant about missing two whole days of royal duties. "I'll take care of him, do what you need to do your majesties," Raven said, with Twilight smiling and responding with a nod in thanks.

When everyone was in the mirror room, Luna explained her plan. "Once we put the piece in, we will all enter except for Shadow Lock, who will stay behind and remove the piece. This will prevent any bad guys from entering our world. After that, our best bet is just power through everything and find an entrance to the shadow world that might lie further within. When we want to return, one of the alicorns or Star Swirl will create a minor cross-dimension distortion in front of Shadow Lock to let him know to put the piece back in."

The group ok'd the plan. Twilight was finishing writing three copies of the same letter and teleporting them off. "Just to be safe." Twilight stepped forward first. Shadow Lock started to levitate the piece, but Twilight first turned around to address everyone. "I don't know what we will face, but be ready for anything. I believe in all of you."

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Thanks for the confidence boost, but we are all ready to fight. Sooner that piece gets in, the better."

Twilight grinned and nodded to Shadow Lock, who inserted the piece into the slot. Twilight bravely walked inside.

On the other side, It was a floating island with a familiar tree castle on it with a purple sky. However, there was no creature in sight, and no sounds could be heard. Rainbow would follow right behind her with her hooves up, but was let down that no one was around. "Hey, what gives?"

Luna stepped through, looking very confused. "This place was packed last time we were here. Don't let your guard down yet, they might all be inside."

As the group walked into the castle, they found the indoor section to be deserted as well. Luna lead them up the stairs to what formerly served as Eris's throne room. Where the throne would normally be was instead a pitch-black portal. Shadowy energy radiated from the spiraling vortex that was in front of them.

The group exchanged looks. They carefully, one after the other, stepped through.

Chapter 8

Through the darkness of the shadow palace, Algea would be sitting on her throne with the now alicorn Cozy Glow sitting on one of the armrests. The Spirit of Shadows leaned against the other side of the throne appearing amused by Cozy Glow.

"So yeah, that's how I was going to knock Cloudsdale out of the sky. But obviously, I never got that far." Cozy said, revealing plans that never were able to be put into action.

"Soon enough child, you will have the opportunity to implement your ideas into the world." Algea would rise up out of her throne, walking to the center of the room. "Come, allow me to show you something." Cozy Glow would curiously flutter over to where she was. Algea did a hand motion, and from the floor rose a shining ball on a pedestal.

"What you see before you is the Eclipse Sphere. Sacanas and Grogar could only attempt to replicate the power of this artifact. It wields the ability to truly absorb the power and magic of a spirit."

Cozy would suddenly realize something and fly up close to Algea. "Wait, are you saying only that thing there can absorb Discord's magic?"

Algea would caress the sphere with one of her clawed fingers as she responds. "I thought you figured out by now that he only toyed with most of you."

Cozy would lower herself down to the ground to think, looking back up to Algea a bit nervously. "Just how powerful is he?" Algea hesitated before she walked to a large window that revealed the empty void outside the palace. "He struck down the gods all by himself."

Cozy was a bit quiet as Algea casually walked back to her chair. Algea would then point to Cozy to bring up a point. "On another note, I appreciate your loyalty by not attempting to use the artifact on myself. I am the only one who can control it, for future reference."

The little alicorn stuttered a little in response, glancing left and right. The spirit spoke over the fear-induced panic. "Think nothing of your thoughts of betrayal, Cozy Glow. I see much of myself in you, and I would have considered the same thing against a being less intelligent. Now, why don't you go check on the others."

Cozy would wipe away sweat and nod. "Will do!"

Cozy would begin down the hall and stop by to see Tirek first. She knew Tirek better than the rest, so she opened his door without knocking. "Hey there Tirek! How ya doin' with your magic and stuff restored?"

Tirek would have his room made into a large target range. He was using his natural magic fused with his newly acquired shadow abilities to create devastating blasts at cutouts of ponies. "What do you want Cozy Glow, haven't we talked enough already?"

"Algea told me to go check up on the others, so I thought we could chat a little! After all, it's good for friends to chat every now and then. And you know what they say, friendship is magic!"

"Magic is the power that lies in my hands at this very moment, go bother someone else," Tirek said as he shot a blast out of his hand that incinerated all the targets in front of him.

Cozy decided to leave the grumpy centaur be. She walked out of the room and went to Chrysalis's door. "Hey Chrysy, how's it goin'?" Cozy said as she eased her door open. Chrysalis would be laying on a bed with her head dug into a pillow. She didn't react to Cozy entering the room.

"Oof, I've never seen you like this before. Want me to ask Algea to get you the log?"

She glared at Cozy Glow and stood up on the bed. "I don't need the log!"

"Well, do you need someone to talk to?" Cozy would point at herself with a big innocent smile across her face. Chrysalis would roll her eyes in response and plop her head back into the pillow. Cozy decided to fly over and sit on the bed next to her. "Say, I heard Algea call you a crystal princess, what was that about?"

Chrysalis would make a sigh of annoyance. She would sit upright and look at Cozy Glow. "Promise to leave my room afterward and I'll tell you." The little alicorn nodded her head and leaned in curiously.

"Are you aware of the lost princess Amore, former ruler of the crystal empire?"

"Twilight gave us a whole lesson about her when I was still at the school. She said that Sombra shattered her into crystal pieces."

Chrysalis looked her in the eyes with the most genuine expression she has ever revealed to her. "I... believe that I used to be her."

Cozy would stand up on the bed. "But how? that's impossible, right?"

Chrysalis shrugged and looked away. "Algea likely knows better than I. What I'm sure of is that I'm not like the other changelings. Also, I found a crystal with some umbrum magic in the pond where I was hatched. Only from studying it was able to make the magic nullifying throne."

Cozy would sit back down and rub her chin with her hoof for a moment. "Do you have any of her memories?"

Chrysalis would be looking off out of her window, staring into the dark empty expanse. "I don't know, I've been a changeling for hundreds of years. Memories tend to get fuzzy after a while."

Cozy would sneak up next to her. "Why don't you talk to Sombra about it?"

Chrysalis would glare at her and then form a sarcastic smile. "Sure, why don't I go talk to the heartless shadow king that killed me and then left my existence as the queen of bugs." Chrysalis would scuff and look away again. "His kingdom will be the first I topple when Algea turns us loose."

Cozy would hop off the bed and start on her way. "I'll just jot that down as a maybe. See ya Chrysy." As she went off down the hall, Chrysalis magically shut the door behind her.

She would arrive at Grogar's door and knock twice. "Grogar, wanna catch up?" The light cheery voice asked.

"No." The low pitched voice replied.

"Alright, see ya later!" The alicorn said before going on to the next door.

Cozy would trot over to Sombra's door. "Hey Sombra, what's up?" She said as she opened up the door to find Sombra sitting down with his head pressed against the wall.

"After all these years, I can finally see more clearly."

The little alicorn was confused. "Uhh, what?"

"Have you ever been too far down the wrong path, beyond the point of no return?"

"Well, I mean-"

"I may not have chosen to be an umbrum, but it was I who agreed to their plans."

".... What are you-"

The shadow king began his tale. "When I was young, there was only one light in my life, Radiant Hope. She was the one pony that decided to have me as a friend. Hope was destined to be something more than she was, while I was destined to become the monster I am now. One day during the crystal faire, the darkness inside of me escaped. Before I fully transformed, Hope contained me. Though she gained fame from her newfound abilities. Out of fear of her abandoning me, I fled to the frozen wastes. Out there in the unforgiving cold, I found my creator. And the creator gave me power. Now that I reflect over it all, sitting alone in a palace of shadow. I regret what I did with the magic given to me. It was not destiny or corruption that was my downfall. It was I that let myself become the monster that I am."

Cozy just stared at him confusingly. She forced a quick smile on her face. "Alright, good talk!" She quickly shut the door behind her and went on down the hall to see Cosmos.

"Hello Cosmos, please don't tell me your life story!" She said as she flapped her way in. Upon examining the room, she would find Eris in there as well.

"I don't understand you, Cosmos." Eris would be saying to the other spirit of chaos. "That creature in the throne room gave us all of our powers back, plus some more abilities, and you aren't the least bit concerned."

Cosmos would be leaning over the edge of a bed bouncing a ball to pass the time. "Going through with whatever her plan is beats being trapped amongst the stars. Honestly, there might be some excitement in it. Shadows and Chaos coming together, Having another spirit to talk to, and Discord finally becoming my husband."

Eris gagged at the thought. "I still have no idea what you see in that freak. Besides, aren't you worried that she will do something drastic to Discord to get him out of the way?"

Cosmos scoffed as she kept her attention on the ball. "She isn't a match for him. The only reason I have any power over Discord is that I worked my way into his little chaotic heart. Something that you aren't very good at, birdie." She said, followed by her looking at Eris with a smirk.

Eris wasn't having any more of her, she marched out of the room towards the throne room. Cozy dodged out of her way and curiously followed after her.

Upon reaching the throne room, she would find Algea upon her throne looking into the Eclipse Sphere. "Are there any concerns, Eris?"

Eris would walk up to her. "What exactly are you, I demand to know!"

Algea would shift her gaze to her. "I am a spirit of chaos, like yourself. What more is there to know?"

"We aren't shadows, and I find it hard to believe a regular spirit of chaos would repower two competitors. You are something else, you have to be."

Algea would wave away the sphere with her magic, making her way down to Eris afterward. "We are formed when Harmony is created. When the spirit was originally conceived, so was Discord. When she was struck down and reborn, you came along. When the pillars replanted the Tree of Harmony, Cosmos had dawned. I am the result of Twilight's students reviving Harmony."

"That still does not explain the shadows, or how you are involved with events of the past if you were created recently," Eris responded with her arms folded.

Algea would turn away from her and begin to her throne once more. "You will understand in time." She would stop in her tracks suddenly, sensing something. Eris seemed to have sensed it as well. The two teleported away to the front of the castle.

"Hey, wait for me!" Cozy said, teleporting after them. When she arrived, she saw a group of heroes unconscious on the floor.

Algea would step forward and loom over them. "Well my friends, it looks like our mission just became much easier."

Chapter 9

Hours have passed since Shadow Lock witnessed the heroes enter through the mirror portal. He grew drowsy as the day reached it's closing sunset. As the stallion struggled to stay an alert guard, a voice called out from the entrance.

"Hello, anypony there?" a pink alicorn spoke as she descended some stairs to find Shadow Lock standing next to a mirror.

"Princess Cadance, what are you doing here?" the dark unicorn asked, perking up from the event of a visitor.

She would step down and approach him. "Twilight wrote me a letter to come here if I did not hear back from her. She said that it was of great importance, how long has she been gone?"

Shadow Lock let out a sigh as he turned his head. "A few hours, she entered that portal with her friends and the alicorn sisters."

Cadance walked over and scanned the mirror up and down. "That explains why she asked me to lower the sun." As she looked it over, she leaned her head in close to examine the hints of magic that ran through the glass. "This mirror portal, where does it lead?"

Shadow Lock thought about what he heard the others saying about it. "An evil shadow casino I think."

As her eyes widened in surprise, two others started to make their way down the staircase.

"It has been a while since I've been down here." Sunset Shimmer said as she descended. "You're lucky, Twilight hasn't shown me this room before." Starlight responded.

The two unicorns spotted Cadance and another unicorn next to a mirror missing a piece. They hopped off the stairs and looked at them with puzzled expressions. "Hey, so what is going on here? Where's Twilight?" Starlight began. Cadance steered towards Shadow Lock also wanting to be filled in on the situation.

"Here is the quick version." He began. "Time itself is falling apart, the Lord of Chaos might have some involvement in it, some pony in a suit said it's the shadows doing, they went into an evil casino dimension to stop it."

The three mares stood frozen. "Twilight probably should have mentioned the time thing in her letter," Sunset said to the others.

Shadow Lock would levitate up the missing piece of the mirror. "Not to put too much stress on you, but you three might have all of existence resting on your hooves," he said, sliding the piece into the mirror, causing it to light up.

"I guess we don't have much choice then." Starlight said. She took a deep breath and bravely stepped through the mirror, followed by Cadance and Sunset.

As soon as they were through, the mirror began to turn black. Shadow Lock backed away as he didn't understand what was happening. Suddenly, the mirror shattered, and it's pieces dissolved into dust.

All Shadow Lock could do was watch the ground. He shut his eyes as his head fell. Only a miracle could save them now.

On the other end, the mares were concerned about the sudden shadows destroying their escape. Starlight took a deep breath and began towards the casino. "Come on. If we find them, we will have plenty of magic power to make a portal home."

After a quiet walk through the empty casino, they soon found a pitch-black portal that lead to the unknown. Starlight began to step towards it, until Sunset called from behind her.

"Wait. I know that I have been away from Equestria for a long time now. But is there any chance that some portals can be dangerous?"

Starlight would ease her foot back to the ground as he turned back to her. "I suppose, what makes you say that? Aside from the shadows and darkness."

"A team consisting of the most powerful beings in the known world has not returned. There is a chance that the portal in front of us has something to do with that."

Cadance pitched in. "She has a point. Shadow energy is something that not even Celestia has a full understanding of."

Starlight would put her hoof on her chin for a moment. "Alright, let's say the portal is dangerous. Does anyone have any ideas for us to make it through safely?"

They would think for a moment. Sunset would speak up, hesitantly speaking. "I... know a spell that transforms the user into a demon. I think a demon could safely make it through the portal."

"Alright, I suppose we don't have any other options. Go ahead." Starlight responded.

"The problem with it is that it requires a magical artifact. I could only do it when I had the element of magic. I think another one of similar power would do, but we empty hoofed at the moment."

Starlight started to become nervous. She looked to Cadance hoping she had a solution to the issue. Cadance just shook her head, she lit up a magic barrier around herself and approached the portal. "I guess we have to risk it."

"... Stop." Starlight said. Cadence curiously spun to look at her.

"I have an artifact." Starlight quietly admitted with her head hanging down.

Sunset would hold out her hoof. "Alright, let me see it."

Starlight would remove something from the back of her neck, hold it up to her horn, and uncloaking before everypony was the alicorn amulet. Cadance and Sunset approached with baffled expressions.

"Please don't tell Twilight! It's not evil anymore, I just needed a way to keep up with alicorn magic!" Starlight pleaded.

Cadance looked to Sunset. "Situation at hoof, we can discuss the amulet when time is safe."

Sunset agreed and took the amulet, strapping it to her neck. "I'm going to transform and step through first, after that I will revert before I lose control. You two follow behind me and I'll make sure nothing bad happens to either of you."

"It's still risky, but it's better than going in entirely unprepared," Cadance stated. "Whenever you are ready."

With a deep breath and the glow of her horn, Sunset erupted into a demonic version of herself. After getting her bearings, she quickly hopped through the shadow portal. Upon reaching the other side, she reverted to normal, surprised she successfully made it through.

Sunset found herself in a palace seemingly made of shadows. Outside the windows revealed nothing other than an empty expanse of purple and black. She kept her breaths quiet, walking around the entrance as silently as possible.

As she was examining the area, Starlight and Cadance fell through the portal, entirely unconscious upon arrival. Sunset was worried at first that the plops of them landing would alert someone, but the coast seemed clear.

Sunset cast alert on both of them. Cadance managed to quietly stand up without much issue. Starlight would begin mumbling forcing Sunset to plug her mouth with her hoof.

"Shhh!" Sunset helped Starlight up. She wobbled a little but returned to her senses after a moment.

The group stood in a triangle formation to make sure nothing snuck up from behind. "I'll take the lead down the main hall, you two watch my back," Cadance said softly, proceeding down the only way forward from there.

As the group began, a shadow whooshed past them from behind, startling Starlight. "I think they know we're here." She whispered to Cadance.

"Stay ready to fight, we might have a chance if they come at us one at a time."

Starlight gulped, feeling uneasy without her amulet to back her up. She looked over to see it on Sunsets neck. The yellow mare noticed her friend watching it and made a motion asking if she wanted it back.

Starlight held her hoof up to say no. She knew Sunset was less up to scratch on magic from not being in Equestria. She continued along nervously until she bumped into Cadence suddenly.

"Why did you stop?" She whispered to a frozen Cadance. After no response, she turned the corner to peek. Before the team was Twilight and her friends, out cold and trapped in a magic casing.

"My Flurry." Cadance quietly said to herself as she watched a filly version of her daughter in the pile.

Sunset scanned the room. Aside from an empty throne, there was a shining ball sitting on a pedestal. "Maybe if we break that ball over there, they'll be free."

Cadance's eyes went from fear for her child to full-on aggression. After both the sphere and the pedestal refused to levitate, she spread her wings and charged in as fast as she possibly could.

Just before she made it to the sphere, a shadowy figure appeared between her and the artifact. The figure caught her in a magical grasp and held her.

"I would appreciate it if you would be more careful with things that are not yours." The shadowy creature spoke.

"Release my child or I will end you where you stand!" The wrathful mother exclaimed as her horn lit up brighter than ever before. Members of the original group would begin to awake from the commotion.

With a wave of the creatures hand, the magic flow between her and her horn would be canceled. The same would happen to both Starlight and Sunset as they were teleported next to Cadance, also locked in a magical grasp.

"I sensed you enter, though I decided to let you stumble upon the big surprise yourselves. I am Algea, Spirit of Shadows."

Cadance was still huffing from anger, so Starlight decided it would be best if she did the talking. "Why do you want to destroy time? What could you possibly gain from that?"

"Absolute victory is what I would gain. Shadows do not require time to exist as your kind does."

Twilight would begin speaking form within the magic barrier. "Equestria surrenders. We are willing to meet any demands you may have, just leave the timeline alone."

Algea turned to Twilight, looming in towards her. "I have been dying to meet you face to face Twilight Sparkle. Might I say you are the most adorable little pony princess I have ever seen."

Algea made the barrier vanish. Immediately after, all the heroes were unable to move anything from the neck down. The spirit appeared directly in front of Twilight's face.

"My demands happen on a whim, you have nothing to offer me. Your adventures end here."

The group silently exchanged looks, this seemed like the end for all of them. Slowly, a light would begin to appear above them. From the aura above, a powerful bolt of energy would strike the Eclipse Sphere, shattering it.

"NO!" Algea would have massive amounts of energy running through her claws as she looked up. Above her was a partly transparent Twilight looming in the air with light all around her. Algea fired a blast of energy at the figure, while she used a shield to disperse the blast in a ring formation.

The ring destroyed everything it came into contact with. The entire palace became slightly shorter from its impact. Before more harm could be done, the transparent Twilight brought the heroes into her light. The aura faded after, letting darkness fill the area once again.

The other villains entered the throne room. "What happened, we saw the blast cut through the ceiling," Cozy said.

Algea would have her eyes firmly closed. She lifted her open hand and crushed it into a fist. This action brought the pieces of the Eclipse Sphere back into one.

"Prepare to attack."

Chapter 10

The heroes would be suspended in a realm of blinding light. As it cleared up, they saw themselves before the student six's Castle of Harmony. Standing near them was the transparent Twilight that saved them prior.

Rainbow Dash stood up and walked up to her. "Hey Twilight, I appreciate the rescue, but when did you become all ghosty sparkly?" She asked, waving her hand through the figure.

"Rainbow, I'm over here. That isn't me." The real Twilight stated from behind. Rainbow Dash backed away to the group a bit freaked out.

The transparent Twilight began to speak. "This is the form I have shown before to your students. However, since the event of you bringing the world together in harmony, I have obtained enough power to reveal my true form."

The figure closed her eyes and glowed brightly. From the light came what seemed like an alicorn, but was much more majestic than anything they have ever before seen. She had a shining silver coat, crystalline horns, and the mane that consisted of all the colors of the rainbow.

"I am Harmony, the Spirit of Order."

The group struggled to find words to say for the event. Celestia slowly approached her, never expecting this to happen. "I have speculated your existence for years. I never once expected to meet you face to face."

"You and your sister have done well watching over the world in my absence. I would like to thank all of you for your efforts. Equestria would have surely fallen if you did not hold courage and faith in your hearts."

Twilight would be hyperventilating again. Applejack patted her back, but even she locked eyes with the figure as she did so.

Fluttershy was shaky as the stepped toward Harmony. "You and Discord... were a family once?" She asked with a face that reflected the sorrow she had been feeling.

Harmony looked at her, feeling Fluttershy's emotions inside of herself. Despite all of her power and wisdom, she had to decipher how to explain her complex emotions regarding the subject. "Discord has caused many disasters over the years. Because of you and your friends, you have changed him for the better. Those days are behind us, time is of the essence."

Harmony would turn around and point to the sky with her hoof. "As you all know, our world is being destroyed. Algea will be here any moment to deliver the finishing blow."

The group looked out with fear in their eyes before Harmony approached the group once more. "I require the aid of all of you. I can hold the reality we know together as you face the enemy. It will be difficult, but I have complete faith in you. I ask, will you help me?"

Twilight took a long breath to get her head together. She stepped to the front and nodded her head. "We will do whatever it takes to protect what those we love."

The spirit of order smiled upon seeing the justice they held. "You truly are the Guardians of Harmony." The moment was interrupted by loud cracks of thunder. Black lightning split the sky as ponies could be heard fleeing in the distance.

Harmony would ignite her horn in light and shoot at the sky with a constant beam. "Go, I will keep the shadows at bay."

The team rushed through the Everfree forest as there was a battle between light and darkness in the sky, pieces of time falling where they collided. Upon clearing the trees to end up in the fields between Ponyville and Canterlot, Tirek would smash down in front of them.

A large evil smile filled his face. "Same place as last time, what a coincidence." He would begin cracking his knuckles as he approached the group. "Last time, we won before your friends stepped in. You don't stand a chance this time, princess."

Rarity spoke up. "How is he here? Did Algea really have to bring other villains back?"

"He is not the only one to return, dear Rarity," Sombra said arriving behind Tirek.

"She brought ALL of us back!" Cozy said as the other shadow villains revealed themselves. Cozy hovering above Tirek with her alicorn wings stretched out wide. ".... Except for the storm king but as you can see, we already have plenty of storms." She said as she smugly pointed at the shadow lightning behind her.

The unicorns and alicorns of the group had their horns lit up. They talked amongst themselves about possible options. Twilight was very nervous, as just 3 of them without shadow powers got the better of them a few months ago. Sunset was whispering to Starlight about the amulet, but Starlight admitted that it would magically combust trying to battle against that much power.

Celestia would turn her eyes to Luna, giving a small smirk and a wink. Luna looked back thinking Celestia was crazy, but as she stirred for a real fight too, she smiled and nodded along.

The white alicorn began to confidently stride forward. "If you surrender now, I will consider not making you all into lawn accessories."

The villains erupted into laughter, all except Grogar and Eris as they weren't aware of what as funny. "Oh no, Celestia is gonna get us, better magically summon a white flag." Chrysalis joked. "What is she gonna do, kindly convince us to stop?" Cozy added.

"Perhaps we can recruit some bunny rabbits to deal with her. Maybe one or two, but three seems a bit excessive." Tirek snarked.

Cosmos decided she would control Celestia to make her do something humorous. As the invisible wave of chaos energy approached her. A quick yellow forcefield swiped around her for a moment. This reflected the energy back at Cosmos.

Cosmos eyes went wide for a second before she started acting odd. "Hi I'm Celestia, I can't even block basic spells - Wait something isn't right - What body am I in - I FORGOT HOW TO STAND ON TWO-" she said as she spun her arms rapidly and plopped on the ground.

Seeing this made Eris double-check her idea to just turn them all into guinea pigs and call it day. Staying well behind everyone else next to Grogar seemed like a much better idea suddenly.

Celestia flipped her hair and watched the rest of them, spreading her wings out wide as she did so. Tirek turned to her furiously, blasting her with an immense amount of energy, blowing chunks out of the ground as the trees got sent miles away from the force. From back behind Celestia, the laser seemed to be redirected upward.

As Tirek halted the laser, he saw Celestia and the rest a good distance back, perfectly fine. Even the animals in the blast zone were teleported to safety behind Fluttershy.

Tirek was infuriated as he raised his hands making a crushing motion with them. Celestia whistled across the distance. "It's coming down, you might want to move." Pointing at the sky with a hoof.

"What's coming down!?" Chrysalis yelled. The rest would look up in the sky and scatter in different directions. By the time Chrysalis glanced up, it was too late. Tirek's blast bombarded her, leaving her scorched and covered in ash with only her eyes being distinguishable.

". . . oh." Chrysalis muttered, followed by a coughing fit. Celestia flicked her tail at her as she walked through the scorched grass around Chrysalis. "I may or may not have adjusted the sun to bounce it at you. You could just be incredibly unlucky. Karma I guess." She chuckled.

Those who remained were now scared of the white alicorn. When she approached and pointed her horn at them, they made motions to signify that they had backed off. "Enough is enough. Where is Algea?" Celestia took a quick look around. " ... on that note where is my sister?"

"THE LUNAR PRINCESS HAS ARRIVED!!!" Luna exclaimed from over the horizon.

Before anyone could truly register what was happening, Luna would start to become visible. She would be riding atop a gigantic tidal wave on a surfboard, using her magic to keep it narrow and channeled. As she traveled along, she levitated the moon dangerously close to the earth to draw in as much water as possible.

Before anything could be done to stop it, the wave crashed atop the villains. Temporarily flooding the entire area between Ponyville and Equestria's Capital.

Luna used the moon's gravity to bring the water back to the ocean and then to its rightful place in the sky. Now that everyone and everything was soaked, Luna would be standing there with a big grin on her face. "I always wanted to do that."

Celestia just looked at her, also soaked, with her disappointed big sister face. Luna didn't seem to mind, so Celestia just rolled eyes and turned to face the villains that were knocked over like bowling pins.

"Where is Algea?" Celestia said, more annoyed this time.

Cozy spoke up in the most defeated voice she has ever used. "We give up. Algea said she'll come to face Harmony after we dealt with you."

"Hm. Well now I suppose all that's left is to wait for her to arrive and then friendship blast her. Let's tell the girls to get ready, Luna."

The former princesses began to walk back to the group, all of them looking relieved that the situation was so effectively handled. As they did so, a purple and black circle appeared above.

Algea smashed into the ground halfway between the sisters and her alliance of villains. As she rose to stand up, she faced them with her eyes narrowed. "You couldn't even beat one of them? We have two chaos empresses here, what happened?"

Cosmos would look away as she spoke. "Well I mean I didn't know that she could block chaos energy."

Algea would just look at her for a minute. "Then aim somewhere else and manipulate that to stop her, you two have near-infinite power and you can't beat a mortal pony!"

Cosmos would raise a finger up, and then slowly move it to her chin as she thought about the errors that were made. Eris would walk past Cosmos placing her hands behind her back.

"Mistakes were made. At the very least, we can assist you directly now."

"Don't bother, Hopefully, you all with be less pathetic to watch in the new world," Algea said, approaching team friendship who was ready to combat her.

Algea would stare down Celestia who stood in the front of the pack. Algea could magically sense that she was well equipped with magic. "You hold great power, Celestia. It is a shame that you never became Daybreaker, this entire world could have been all yours."

Luna spoke for Celestia, allowing her to focus on keeping the group safe. "There is no way you can win now Algea, Harmony may spare you if you help put time back together and leave our world alone."

"Do you really think you have won? Do you believe that the rainbow blast those six in the back are charging is going to solve anything? I implore you to try it, really put all you got into it."

From behind Celestia, the eyes of Twilight and her friends would turn white. Twilight spoke as the power flowed through her, lifting her and the rest of the main six off the ground. "Everyone, if she wants all that we have, let us give her all that we have."

Cadance joined beside Celestia and Luna, her horn glowing fiercely. Followed by her was Flurryheart, Star Swirl, Sunset, Starlight, and Stygian. Spike was also there to give it his all with fire breath. As soon as the friendship rainbow came out, they all fired at once.

The power behind the blast was on a scale never before seen. The shadows in the sky in that direction were incinerated upon contact. Far back from Algea, the shadow villains stood surrounded by light in every direction other than the ground.

They believe they had lost, but far ahead they saw a figure remained. The blast seemed to be going around her, which was the reason they all didn't all turn up like Chrysalis.

The blast would slowly die down. Upon examination, Algea remained in front of the group. She had teleported in the Eclipse Sphere at the last second to block the blast from hitting her. The heroes couldn't believe what happened.

Algea ran her clawed finger along the Eclipse Sphere. "That would have worked if not for this right here. It seems you have failed the spirit of order in protecting the world. Shame."

Algea had the sphere levitate next to her as she approached the group, her hands leaving a trail of energy as she walked. Before she reached them, a figure teleported between the two.

"I'm going to need you to stop right there." Discord said with his arms folded. Everyone behind him was relieved that he had shown up to save them.

"Discord, so you arrived. From what I can sense, our powers are evenly matched. Is it even worth the effort? If I were you, I would just bring all my friends to the chaos realm and live there. It is only this world that will be destroyed by the shadows."

"Perhaps we are on the same level. That's why I did not arrive alone." Discord said, as Harmony flew down next to Discord. "This ends here Algea." She spoke with her wings outstretched.

Algea looked at both of them. "... hm, it's strange that you would refer to me like that."

"What are you talking about?" Discord replied, doing his best to stay ready for any surprise tricks.

"I know that enough shadows can obscure one's true self," Algea said with her head facing the ground as the shadows began to fade from her face. After they vanished, she looked back up to them with the face of a human.

"Though, I thought you would recognize your own daughter."

"Megan?" Discord said softly to himself. Both of the spirits stood completely still as they witnessed this. This was Algea's chance. The Eclipse Sphere lit up and targeted Harmony.

Upon striking her, the light in the sky fending off the shadows was absorbed. The spirit of order slumped over on the ground with pale eyes. "Harmony!" Twilight called from the back. With no one hold reality together, time began to fall at a rapid pace.

Discord focused all his energy on preventing time from raining down. Using chaos to prevent dimensional collapse instead of light and harmony was much harder. Discord fell to his knees doing his best to save his friends.

Algea approached him holding a shard of time in her hand. "Forgive me, father. You and mother will forever remain in what is left of my heart." Discord looked up at her unable to speak, his attention focused to the shard which began to glow.

Suddenly, high up on a hill, silhouettes of almost every creature of Equestria appeared. Several ponies were floating in the air, with an alicorn shining brightly in the middle. Discord realized what was happening. It was the moment where the world pulled together to stop the Legion of Doom. Except they were not aiming at the Legion of Doom...

... they were aiming at him.

Twilight began to gallop forward. "Discord, no!" However, it was too late. The rainbow beam fired from the silhouettes and struck Discord directly. When the light cleared, Twilight saw Discord as a grey version of himself. He struggled to stay up as his eyes turned pale. The draconequus fell forward completely drained of all power.

Twilight and the others rushed forward to tend to him and Harmony. They were both limp and expressionless, despite any effort to bring them to their senses.

Twilight looked up to Algea, who was staring back down at her with a serious expression. Storms of shadow grew as time fell more and more rapidly. Visions would grow blurry as Equestria fell to darkness.

The age of shadows has begun.

Chapter 11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 12

Eris would lead the group through the strange landscape towards the temple. Upon walking in, they saw that it was a beautiful palace to behold. Stained glass lined the walls, and gardens grew under the tall ceiling. They would soon walk up to find Algea wrapped up in a black cloak, facing away from them.

"So you have decided to come and attempt to restore the world to what it was before." Algea's voice echoed from all around the palace.

The group watched her, Algea sat motionless. It was as if she was lost in meditation. Eris didn't waste time and began charging magic through her hands, but Spike ran ahead and called out to her.

"If anyone can fix this, it's you! Everyone else hates living in shadows, why doesn't it bother you?"

Algea was silent for a moment. She would soon deliver her reasoning.

"Many years ago, I was stolen away from this temple. I was taken deep into Tartarus to be before the original spirit of shadows. My captor used its creation, the Eclipse Sphere, to take the spirit's magic and pass it to me."

"What was cast upon me was not like any other. I was no longer a human, but a concept. The force of shade and corruption. This put me in line to eventually manifest as an unstoppable creature, as concepts tend to
do in our universe."

Algea would rise up and turn to face them. Her past self that was delightfully evil was gone. What looked at the group was the face of someone that looked to be lost in eternal sadness.

"Corruption is the reason I did this. Like Shadows and Chaos, it is an essence in this world, but one without a spirit. Its purpose is to make one's own hopes and wishes feel absolute. With order, it would create a world free of individual thought. With chaos, it would cause a complete absence of logic."

"With Shadow, it drives one to eliminate all light in existence. Replacing it with a world of eternal silence and darkness. As we speak, the last remains of light are being removed from the universe. I cannot rid of corruption, I am only able to realize how it flows through me."

"Forgive me for destroying the world you knew. Perhaps you will all learn to accept eternal shadow."

The group listened to her speech, some having an understanding of what she has been through. The other spirits in the room realized how much corruption influences them. Eris thought about this only for a few moments. She shook her head and fired a blast of magic at Algea.

Algea blocked the beam without moving her body. As the blast was halted, she motioned her arm to fire back at them. Eris blocked but was blasted back trying to hold back the beam. The others joined in, but even when united, the amount of force behind it caused them to slide backward.

Grogar would appear to the side of them and aid them with holding back the laser, with his help they were finally able to hold their ground.

"You should have told me once you assembled them! Stygian, Spike! Find the others and use the element to wake them!" He exclaimed.

They nodded to him. Spike jumped on to Stygians back as he galloped off down a hallway. They heard the sounds of battle as they searched the temple.

"We have no idea how big this place is, we might never find them!" Spike said as he held on tightly to Stygians neck. They spotted them in the corner of their eyes and slid to a stop. "Oh, that's convenient."

They approached the group lost in slumber. They looked back and forth trying to decide who to wake first. Spike bumped Stygian and pointed to Harmony. "I think we should start with the actual goddess."

Stygian nodded his head and struggled once more with his spell. He pulled it off but felt even more drained afterward than he did before. Even though she did wake up, she continued to lie down. She was greyer than normal similar to Discord. She managed to speak with them.

"Stygian... wake Twilight," She said weakly. Stygian was already breathing deeply. He shook his head, not knowing if he had it in him. "I don't know if I can. It's so difficult to cast magic."

"You have to... please." Harmony said as she continued to lie on the floor. Spike put his hand on him for encouragement. Stygian looked at him and took a sigh. He closed his eyes once more, pointing his horn at Twilight. After much effort, he cast the spell. Stygian slumped over on the floor immediately after, completely drained.

Twilight would open her eyes and look around the room. A battle could be faintly heard from elsewhere in the temple. She rose to her hooves in a panicked state. "Spike! What's happening?" Twilight asked, Spike pointing towards Harmony.

Twilight leaned in close to Her. "Harmony, what is going on?" She asked with fear in her voice. Harmony weakly looked up to her.

"Twilight Sparkle. I need you now more than ever before. All light in the universe will soon be eliminated unless we act now." She spoke quietly.

"But what can we do, The sphere took away your power?" Twilight responded, growing nervous.

"Long ago, I absorbed the spirit of light. That is what the sphere stole from me. The power of order still is within me. Now, I pass it to you." She said, softly pressing her horns against Twilight.

Twilight tried to question her decision, but the power was already being given to her. After a dramatic blessing of magic, Harmony faded away.

Twilight stood up. "Harmony... Harmony!" Her eyes filled with tears. "We can't do this without you!" Twilight fell onto her knees, not having faith in herself.

Spike was the only one able to be there for her. "Twilight, I've been with you since day one. If anyone in this room can fix this, it's you."

Twilight slowly picked her head up to look at him. Spike put his little dragon hands on the sides of her head. "You are the only hope we have right now." He said in a watery voice.

Twilight pulled herself up to hug him tightly. "We'll get through this, Spike. Stay here, I don't know what's going to happen in there."

All Spike could do was give a nod. Twilight released him and gave him one last look in the eyes. She kissed Spike on the forehead and ran down the hall towards the sounds of battle.

Her emotions were skyrocketing, Her magical limitations were shattering. She was more ready for this than anything else. She entered the room to find Algea the only one left standing.

Algea turned to face Twilight. "So you came here to fight me, I assume?"

"We're not fighting here," Twilight responded, before casting a powerful spell. She successfully broke through all barriers, pulling both of them into Algea's spirit.

Algea regained her senses and examined the area. Her hands no longer had claws, for she was her human self. A blond-haired child in a short red robe, pants, and sandals. The attire she was wearing during the incident. The only thing off about her was the black and purple energy flowing through her skin.

Twilight emerged from the darkness. "Megan, I brought you in here to allow you to see your true self."

She continued to examine her hands until she let them fall and dangle at her sides. "This version of me is dead. Soon, it will be gone forever."

"Megan, Your parents have gone thousands of years without you! They miss you! They want to be with you again! Only you can make that happen!" The little alicorn said to her.

Algea tried to fight it, feeling her emotions attempting to break free. "I'm Algea now. Stop calling me Megan."

"Megan, please. You can stay with us, we can make existence a better place!" Twilight desperately said.

Algea looked up to Twilight, but she only saw her mother looking back at her. She began to breathe rapidly, pulling all the magic and energy she had towards her, and firing a beam at Twilight.

Twilight blocked it, but knew she couldn't hold against it for very long. She felt that there was only one thing to do. Twilight closed her eyes, and focused all the energy she had towards one goal.

The magic cut through the energy that Algea was emitting and struck her directly. This caused a large flash of light, and forcefully brought both of them back to the Palace of Harmony.

Algea carefully opened her eyes, she felt different. She checked her hands, the energy from before was no longer flowing through her. She also did not return to her draconequus like form.

She sat up, observing herself closer. "I'm... Megan, again. How..."

"WHEW, that's a relief!" a voice said from behind a barrier. Cozy Glow popped out and ran towards her. "I guess the world is saved then! Right? Uh? Did we miss any steps?" She asked an injured looking Eris as she stepped up.

"I don't know, can you fix everything?" Eris said, looking down at her.

Megan looked at the two, and then back down to her hands. "I... I'm unsure..."

Eris frustratingly threw her hands up in the air and walked over to another section of the room. Cozy put her hoof on her chin. "Well, shoot. Maybe Twilight can do something. Hey! Twilight! Wake up!" She said walking over to the purple alicorn lying on the ground.

"Twiiiiiiliiiiiight." Cozy said, shaking her back and forth. "Come on, you've been sleeping on and off for the past few months, we got a world to fix."

She grew annoyed and placed her ear against her chest. Cozy's face went from annoyed to shocked instantly.

"She's..."

"ERIS!!!" Cozy shouted to her from across the room. Eris heard her and was too wounded to fly or teleport, so she stumbly ran over instead. Eris put her hand on her and instantly knew the situation. She tried to revive her with the strength she had left, but it was to no avail.

She stood up with a defeated look on her face, shaking her head. "We've lost her."

Megan couldn't believe it, she scrambled over, picking her head up. She couldn't bring herself to speak as tears formed in her eyes. It didn't help the situation when Spike peeked into the room.

Megan started to lose her senses. She saw Spike call out for Twilight and run to her, pressing his head against her with his eyes pouring with liquid.

It would seem that everyone in the room had given up hope. All Megan did was close her eyes and hang her head.

"This is my fault."

Chapter 13

Time passed as the emotions died down. The will to press on was lost, as it seemed they hit an unbreakable roadblock.

Stygian would slowly enter the room, seeing all four of them in a saddened state. "Hey, has anyone seen Harmony?" He asked as he rubbed his head.

"She's gone," Spike said, not turning to face him. He just laid over Twilight, looking off into the distance.

"The.. same can be said for Twilight." Cozy added. "We're kind of stuck here."

Stygian examined Twilight, he bit his lip and looked downward. He was distraught to find the pony who freed him from shadows originally to be deceased. Despite the emotions, this was the time for action, as he wasn't planning on spending eternity here.

He closed his eyes and he walked past Twilight and Spike, trying to shut the image out of his mind. "Alright, group up."

Eris didn't give any motions. "Don't bother, there's no point."

"We can come to that conclusion once we exhausted all possibilities, now group up," Stygian responded, attempting to take command.

Eris huffed, not enjoying being bossed around. But she was drained of magic and literally had nothing else to do, so she walked over, same with the other three.

Once they were standing together, Stygian began. "Alright, is there any chance you or Cosmos can fix this?" he said towards Eris.

"If you are fine waiting a few thousand years for chaos energy to build up, we probably could painstakingly spend an eternity finding the time pieces and putting it back together one piece at a time," Eris replied.

Stygian nodded. "Alright, any faster ideas?"

They were quiet for a minute as they thought. Spike looked towards Megan to ask a question. "Do you still have Algea's powers?"

Megan held out her hand and attempted to get some spark of shadow magic. It wasn't as easy as it was before, but she did get a small shadow orb in her hand.

"YEAH! Alright! Progress!" Cozy said, cheering up a little.

"It still isn't enough to put reality back together," Eris stated, causing Cozy's ears to droop.

They thought for a minute, but Stygian spoke up. "Wait! Pretty much everything ever is shadows right now, right!?"

Spike's eyes widened as she turned to Megan. "Yeah! You can get them to help us!"

Megan was skeptical at first, but it was worth a shot. "Alright, um. I'll give it a try."

She walked over to an open space, holding out her hands as if she really didn't know what she was doing.

".... uhh.. SHADOWS! COME.. forth?"

Nothing seemed to happen. Cozy looked at the others. "Alright so I'm going to start going wild and smashing stuff and maybe that'll generate chaos fast enough so in like only 100 years we-"

The palace would start to shake violently. Soon emerged a massive wall of shadows, all looking towards their empress. Megan stood there confused and afraid.

"Uhhh.." Megan turned around to look at the others.

They had about the same reaction as her. Eris pointed furiously at the shadows. "Say something!" She quietly exclaimed.

Megan turned back to the shadows, who were eagerly awaiting their master to speak.

"Ahem! Um, Shadows of the Universe. I ask that you put time back together, please." Megan asked.

The shadows wouldn't move. "Time is unnecessary in the world of shadow." One of the shadows said.

Megan thought for a moment. An idea came to mind as she ran off elsewhere in the palace.

Before long, Megan returned holding the Eclipse Sphere. "Alright, I have a suggestion. What if Shadows and Light came together?"

Both the group and the shadows were confused. Megan sighed and gave her reasoning.

"The reason that they can't be together is because of corruption. So, what if we just took that away? We have this, so might as well give it a try." She said with a smile.

The shadows trusted their leader and accepted her idea. Megan nodded happily and looked down at the ball, giving it a shake trying to get the energy out of it. Suddenly, a brilliant orb of light and a much fainter orb of darkness emerged from the Eclipse Sphere.

"Alright, now! Eclipse Sphere! Steal away all the corruption of these shadows, and everyone else!" She said full of high hopes and energy. The sphere would begin to pull a purple substance from all around, freeing both the light and shadows from their selfish desires.

Eris suddenly had second ideas. "wa- wait MAYBE WE CAN DO MINE AND COZY'S IDEA!" The sphere went on absorbing the corruption from others in the room.

"I FEEL TINGLY! AHHH!" Cozy said in a panic. Soon, it would have cleansed all of the shadows in the palace. Megan would hold the sphere in her hands and look up to the shadows.

"Now, as my final request of you. Please restore our world. Light and Order. Shadows and Chaos. It can all coexist together. We just have to make it happen."

The shadows would scatter in all different directions. The strange orb around the palace would start to clear away. Light and Time would begin to be restored to the world.

Before everyone, the orbs of Light and Darkness would take physical form. They didn't have any words for each other, though they exchanged a nod of agreement before they faded away.

Soon, the floating island was returned to where the crater was. It was a relief for the sun to be shining through the glass overhead.

The people in both rooms would begin to wake up after the extraordinary events. The villains felt a little different on the inside as they woke up. The heroes entered the main palace room to witness the light shining once again.

Chrysalis slowly pulled herself up. Now a white unicorn with pink hair. "Ugh. What happened, did the world get fixed?" She asked, looking around at everyone wide eyeing her. "What?" She would glance down at her hooves and flip out. "Oh no, I'M BEAUTIFUL AGAIN!!!"

After that went down, attention turned to Twilight Sparkle. She would slowly rise into the air, causing a beam to form that connected Twilight and Megan. From it, Harmony was able to reform once again. Once restored, she would walk over to Twilight, press her head against her, and restore her.

Twilight opened her eyes to see Harmony smiling down at her, she smiled back, knowing that the situation must have been resolved. Spike would almost aggressively hug Twilight's neck. Twilight looked down to see that he had tears of joy in his eyes. "Wow, what got you so worked up?" She said with a small laugh.

Harmony would turn to face Megan. Megan stood there, still clutching the Eclipse Sphere. She would carefully set it down and then ran as fast as she could to hug her mother's neck.

"I'm so sorry, for everything." She emotionally said. She felt limbs holding her tightly. "It's alright now, It's good to see you again."

While the group was hugging and enjoying their victory, they lost track of the sphere. When Megan was done with the impactful reunion, she went over to retrieve it, only to find it missing. "wha- I put it right there, right?"

She would be magically grabbed and held down. Someone levitated the Sphere, aggressively aiming it at the most powerful ones in the room. Grogar would reveal himself.

"Alright, we are almost through with this whole thing. All you folks have to do is kindly step forward, and she won't get hurt." The goat said, eyeing the room.

Megan thought for a moment. She remembered something that had been erased from her memory for the longest time. "... Grogar, you're the one that captured me. You put me in line to become Algea."

"Correct, and I'm not about to let all these years go to waste." He said, aiming the sphere at Harmony. He would be cut off by feeling a tap on his back.

Once he turned around, he released Megan from surprise, as he saw a very angry looking Draconequus staring down at him.

Discord picked him, tore open the portal to the puppet realm, and smashed him in before it could open wide enough, cracking the air around it. Grogar weakly slipped through and tumbled in, followed by Discord closing the portal with a snap.

He blew his claws and looked over at everyone. They were a bit surprised at what just happened. Discord shifted back to his regular Discordy self, leaning against the air casually. "So, Megan. How have you been holding up?"

Megan grinned and ran over to wrap her arms around him. As Discord returned the hug, it was clear by his face that this was genuinely the happiest he has ever been in his existence.

Celestia nodded and turned to face all the villains, who suddenly got defensive as she watched them. "Alright. Princess of Equestria, You can make the call."

Twilight looked over and saw this. She walked over to them, spreading her wings. "Don't cause any more trouble, alright?"

They agreed in unison, and Twilight went back over towards her friends.

Sombra looked over to Chrysalis, who was now clearly Amore. "Chrys.. erm, Amore. I am eternally sorry."

ChrysAmore looked around the room at how everyone was acting and rolled her eyes, feeling that she had to go along with it. "Fine. Apology Accepted."

Discord appeared between them, stretching his arms out wide to wrap everyone in the room in one gigantic hug. "Thank you all EVER so much for this! You all went through with my plan PERFECTLY!"

Harmony dropped her glorious goddess voice for a more natural voice. "What?" She asked, her eyes darting over to Discord. Discord immediately realized his mistake and released everyone.

"WELL, uh. You see, while I was in Tartarus, I had some spare time, so.. ONLY HERE AND THERE... I .. set up a few.. things.. intentionally.. knowing the outcome." Discord said, spinning his fingertips.

The entire room looked at him. He just awkwardly rubbed his hands together. "Well, I mean. It all worked out in the end, so-" Discord was cut off by Harmony turning everything from his neck down to stone.

"YOU"
"FAKED"
"! ? ! E V E R Y T H I N G ! ? !"

He was a bit panicked but gave a smug reply to his former lady. "Well I mean, the emotions were real."

Harmony spun around and swiftly kicked him dead center, cracking the stone and causing a few pieces of him to fall off.

Discord's face seemed to indicate that what she did actually hurt. Harmony flew up to his face as if she was going to finish him off then and there.

"Love, uh, I know that you are very angry at me, and that's understandable, but I want you to know just how sorry I feel-" Discord started, Harmony grabbed his head gave him a solid kiss on the lips.

She backed off after a few seconds to stare him in the eyes. "we. are. DONE!"

Harmony landed on the ground to look at the group. "So... I believe this calls for a celebratory event at Canterlot."

They agreed and began to walk off. "Alright, sounds fun! I'll be there! Don't wait up!" Discord called out.

They snickered at Discord as they walked past him. "See you there, Dad," Megan said. Rainbow dash went up and bumped him. "Discord got told!" She accidentally knocked a piece out of him, she attempted to put it back in.

"It's fine, just go." He said, Rainbow nodded and flew to catch up with her friends.

Cosmos fell into Discord's stone arms, romantically wrapping her arms around his neck. "Sooo.. If she doesn't want you anymore."

Discord started to sweat. "Umm. Well." He sighed. "I'll give it a week if you behave."

"Month or I leave you here," Cosmos said, crossing her arms knowing she had the upper hand.

Discord gave a more annoyed sigh. "Fine, a month."

Cosmos hopped down and picked up Discord, tucking him in under her arm, rushing off to Canterlot.

"Cosmos you are forgetting my legs."

Chapter 14

It was a beautiful night for a celebration. It was also more packed than normal. There haven't had this many guests since the storm king was beaten.

It seemed that a good chunk of the world realized that, like always, Equestria was the one to resolve the disaster. This was good for Twilight as the other leaders further trusted her abilities to keep the peace.

Megan would be sitting at a table with her parents and new friends. "for real, there's an entire dimension with people like me?"

Sunset nodded. "Yeah, I'll show you around whenever you like. Assuming you don't turn into a pony once you cross the portal." She said with a laugh.

Twilight laughed along but then turned to Harmony. "Uh, would she?" she questioned.

Harmony thought for a minute, and then sent a small amount of magic her way. "She won't now. Speaking of that dimension. Discord."

He would poke his head up nervously, as he was most of a statue placed in a chair. Harmony reverted Discord back to his former self. "Make sure no one in that dimension remembers the whole shadow apocalypse."

"Yes, Ma'am." He quickly said as he hopped through a portal, it closing behind him.

Starlight would be rubbing her hooves nervously, she looked over at Sunset. Sunset would smile and give her a nod, motioning to Twilight.

Starlight coughed into her hoof some. "Twilight, before I tell you this, I am ready to accept any punishment you decide."

Twilight curiously looked over at her. "Punishment for what?"

Starlight carefully thought through how she would explain herself. But ultimately decided to just tell her the truth first. "I... used the Alicorn Amulet all this time since you've known me."

Twilight seemed more surprised than anything else. Starlight went on. "I would have told you before this all happened but, you know when like you want to do something, but too much time has passed and like it's at the point where you are too nervous to do the thing because you should have done it a lot sooner." She gave a small whimper. "I'm so sorry."

Twilight responded. "I always wondered how you were so good with magic." Twilight rubbed her chin as she looked at Starlight, she looked like she was about to break out in tears.

"Apology accepted," Twilight stated. "On one condition. You organize a school lesson informing the students about your mistake, and how to avoid it."

Starlight scooted over and hugged Twilight. "I'll make sure of it." Starlight said. Twilight hugged her back with a forgiving smile.

Discord would now reappear, sitting back down. He was twiddling his thumbs as he looked at Harmony. "Do I still have to be stone?" She glared her eyes at him, turning to face the group.

"What do you all say, How much trouble has he been?" Harmony asked. Discord was seen making a pleading motion from behind her. The group communicated through whispers, facial expressions, and hoof gestures. They seemed to reach a conclusion amongst themselves. "I guess he can go free," Twilight said.

Discord was relieved. Leaning back in his chair wiping some sweat off his forehead. Fluttershy would walk up to him. "Discord, I thought about what you said before... Now that Megan is back, are we still friends...?"

Discord smirked and hugged her with one arm. "Of course we are. I couldn't think of a better pony to have a chat over tea with." He looked across the table. "And that reminds me..."

He teleported himself and Fluttershy to the other side, hugging the group again. "... I am so blessed to have friends like all of you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

They smiled and returned the hug. They were cut off by Twilight pressing her hoof against his head. "Less wacky antics though."

Discord rolled out a scroll and put on some glasses. "Hmmm, I guess I could cut down on the Chaos Quota. Are you more tolerant of mud puddles or missing books?"

His list would suddenly ignite and burn into ash, Harmony could be seen watching him with a stern look from the other side. Discord gulped. "We erm, can sort that out later." He walked off on four legs like a scolded dog, the group chuckling as he did.

On the balcony of the castle, away from the other guests, the former shadow council was sitting at separate tables. Among the groups was Scorpan and Tirek, Sombra and Radiant Hope, Eris and Cosmos, and Cozy Glow was going from table to table. The reunions were going smoothly.

Eris was resting her head on her elbow. "I always thought I would have more to do once I was rid of corruption. Right now, I'm more empty than I have ever felt in my entire existence."

Cosmos slid her drink off the table and scooted close to her. "Same here, so I had an idea! It's crazy, I know, but hear me out!"

Eris unexcitedly looked at her. "I'm open to ideas, shoot."

Cosmos set down a laptop on the table, the others looking over at the out-of-place technology. Cosmos then frantically pressed keyboard buttons and then slid the screen over to Eris could see it better. "Let's become streamers."

Eris looked at the screen, and then casually looked back to Cosmos. "What in Oblivion is a streamer?"

Cosmos went on. "This world doesn't have it yet but basically we review stuff, vlog, play games, perform, pretty much whatever you want." She said as she was pulling objects from nowhere and setting them on the table, finishing with putting a VR headset on Eris.

Eris just looked off not reacting to the headset being put on her. "... Well, I have nothing better to do."

Cosmos claw swiped to open a portal to the human world, snapped her claws to turn them both into people, and then dragged Eris and everything else through the portal, it closing behind him.

The others just looked on a little surprised. "Well, that was weird," Cozy said. She stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. "wait, COSMOS! can I come too!?" She said out towards the open. The portal opened back as she appeared, watching her.

"Eh, sure, come on." She snapped her claws turning Cozy into a person, scooting aside keeping the portal open. Cozy happily jumped through. "Anyone else?" Cosmos asked. No one else seemed eager. "Pass," ChrysAmore said.

Cosmos shrugged and went back inside, closing the portal. ChrysAmore continued to sit alone, holding a drink in her hoofs. She seemed ready for the celebration to end so she could just fly off and go back to being alone.

Cadance would walk outside to meet with her. "I remember your hair being more curly in the artwork." She spoke.

CrysAmore didn't turn to face her. "Why don't you go back inside. No one would want to come talk with the old bug lady."

Cadance sat down near her. "You know, I have always dreamed about meeting with you. I know it's pretty strange how it actually turned out but, here we are."

CrysAmore didn't reply, she just continued to look off.

Cadance went on, trying to lighten the mood. "You know, now that I see you in person, the two of us look pretty similar. With the pink and purple."

CrysAmore rolled her eyes. "I looked better in black and green."

Cadance smirked. "Perhaps. But do you have any reasoning on why we look similar, both represent love, both ruled the crystal empire?"

CrysAmore inhaled. "I don't know, I don't WANT to know."

Cadance kept at it. "Maybe I have a piece of you in me?" She said with a smile.

CrysAmore glared at her and stood up from her chair, walking a small distance. She shapeshifted back into her old Crysalis self. "Well congratulations, you are better at being me than I am at being me. Why don't you just rename yourself to Amore and go back to replacing my entire existence."

Chrysalis seemed to finally break down, she stood there hanging her head. Green tears forming in her eyes. Sombra and Hope got up from their table to try and aid Cadance.

Hope stood next to Chrysalis. "You know, it doesn't have to be like this. It's never too late to change, especially for a changeling."

Chrysalis spread her wings. "I've been a horrible witch for many years. It's too late..."

Cadance galloped up to her. "Wait!"

Chrysalis turned her head to the side to look at her. Cadance spoke with her honestly. "I admit that I have been treated very well ever since Celestia took me in when I was young. It is difficult to imagine how you feel. I just want you to promise me this..."

"... When you are ready, I would like you to meet me in the Crystal Empire. We will figure out something, I just want to make this right."

Chrysalis thought hard about this. Part of her wanted to refuse just leave a stain on Equestria's reputation to be the one villain they couldn't reform. But as she thought, she came to the conclusion that it was time to leave revenge behind. Chrysalis nodded, not being able to speak because of the emotions inside of her. After that, she flew off into the night.

Sombra and Hope stood by Cadance, giving her comfort to help her know she did all that could do tonight.

Princess Flurry Heart would join them on the balcony. "Hello everyone, did I miss anything?"

Cadance turned to Flurry and approached her. "Do not worry about it, why did you come out here?"

"I just came to say my goodbyes, Harmony and Discord are ready to send me back to my now fixed timeline."

Cadance understood and hugged her tightly. "We're all proud of you. And now I know that you will grow up to be a fine young princess."

Flurry returned the hug. "Well, you and dad are to thank for that."

Cadance kissed her on the forehead. "Alright, you need to head home. I'm sure that there is a future Cadance that wants to see you very badly."

Flurry nodded and galloped off, Twilight Sparkle would pass by her, walking up another flight of stairs to find a nice quiet place to reflect.

She looked down at the happy creatures enjoying the party down below and gazed at the beautiful sky above.

"Well, this will probably be my last adventure for a while. Hopefully, the next one isn't as serious." She said to herself, resting on the railing.

Down below, Twilight spotted a particular grey pony. September could be seen looking up at her. September had the same expression as always. The stallion gave her a simple nod as thanks, and walked off, vanishing to the unknown.

Twilight seemed satisfied with herself, she then heard a voice come from behind her. "I'm sorry to interrupt your moment alone." Discord said.

Twilight turned around, and before she could say anything, Discord waved his hand to cause a white door to appear. He motioned Twilight to come inside. Twilight was curious and carefully stepped through the door.

Through the door, was Caelum. A place that Twilight had been before, but as she ventured onwards, things became unfamiliar. She passed through yet another door, venturing deeper into Caelum, possibly deeper than even Celestia has seen.

She found herself in a white hallway, with bright light shining through the glass windows. Up ahead, Discord was waiting for her.

The draconequus began to speak in his serious voice. "... Where you are standing right now, is eternity. True Caelum, the afterlife, heaven, this place has many names."

Twilight went wide-eyed, she turned her head to look out the window. Outside were landscapes that she could have never imagined before, it was more beautiful than anything she had ever seen in her entire life. She stood there, speechless.

Discord continued. "I just thought it would be a fitting place to have such a conversation. I know I already thanked you twice, but..."

Twilight looked at him as he approached her, he kneeled before her. "Even with all the power I have over existence, I could have never done what you and your friends accomplished. Before I knew you and the others, I had no purpose. All I could do was try and forget, fancy up reality to drown out the sadness."

"Twilight Sparkle, I will never be able to express how thankful I am. As long as eternity goes on, I will be in your debt." Discord finished, holding out his paw to her.

Twilight looked to him, and then downward to think. "... You don't owe me anything, Discord."

Discord was a little surprised to hear this, Twilight then raised her head to look at him. "Because true friends don't keep track of favors." She said with a smile across her face.

Discord's eyes welled up, he pulled her in to hug her tightly. Twilight returned the hug. As they did so, Twilight felt two others put their arms around her. When she eventually pulled away, she saw Harmony and Megan before her as well.

"Discord had already spoken how we all feel. We will be sure that the deeds of you and your allies are forever remembered." Harmony said.

"Thank you again for freeing me of being an evil shadow person, now I can be a nice shadow person instead." She said, slightly jokingly.

Discord rose up, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I hate being this serious. Since you won't let us reward you, our thanks will have to be enough. But I suppose there is one small present I can give to you."

They would appear in Canterlot's throne room, and with a snap of Discord's claws, there was a large stained glass telling of the great adventure.

Twilight's facial expression alone told that she loved the new addition. "Wow. I guess it deserves a name, huh? Megan, do you have any ideas?"

Megan stepped forward, seeing a glass telling of her transformation from Algea back to Megan. "Hmm, how about... A Tale of Shadows and Chaos? It's the story of how we overcame them."

Twilight nodded. "A Tale of Shadows and Chaos it is. Well, back the party I assume?"

Discord began to wiggle his whole body. "Agreed, I need to get all of these gooey emotions out of my system." Megan giggled and began to push him towards the door, the other two following behind.

And thus, the world was safe once again.

The End.

Author's Notes:

Well, thanks for reading my story. Honestly, there are plenty of issues with it, but in the end, I like how it came out.

I really hope that you enjoyed it, It's my personal send-off to my little pony, friendship is magic. Part of the reason I wrote it was to give Discord, my favorite character, a proper backstory and finale. While I don't mind simple theories about him saying that he's just a randomly created creature of chaos, or he had a race that died out, I feel like this does the character the most justice.

Obviously, the season 10 comics are going to make the logic in this story outdated, I'm already aware that there are more tree's of harmony now apparently. If season 10's finale turns out to be amazing and too good to not make canon to this story, I might do a minor rewrite. I do like the IDW team's ideas, but I don't believe they are leading up to a spirit of harmony, and there's a chance that it might be too hard to incorporate one with season 10's canon included.

Either way, it is what it is. Here's to being a brony and lore speculating over a kid's show for all these years.