The Kingdom Of Darkness

by Dragon-In-Black

First published 25th of July, 2023

When the Pillars return with the help of the element bearers, they, especially Somnambula try to find Stygian and apologise to him.

After the element bearers managed to free the Pillars from limbo, all they had to do now was find Stygian, and all would be right. The problem is that they do not know where their former friend was hiding or if he was alive. Starswirl hadn’t seen his former friend since he banished the other Pillars, so with nothing to go on, the element bearers and the Pillars ventured into the far reaches of Equestria, hoping to help their friend.

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Based on the idea ALoneWolf had in his take on my own story of Dictators Of Ponyville.—Side Chapter: Dreams

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The cover art is from Shido-Tara on Deviantart.

CH.1. The Dream

When Lord Tirek had come and destroyed half of Equestria, there had been a lot of trauma that had been left thanks to the centaur. Buildings were destroyed, and Ponyville took the most damage.

Discord, the lord of chaos’ betrayal had been heartbreaking and confusing since he had been the one to be tasked with apprehending Tirek. Interestingly enough, after the main six managed to defeat him, he smiled and said; “Some things need to happen for better things to happen,”

The sentence didn’t make much sense, but it was obvious that the lord of chaos knew something that the others didn’t.

Repairing Ponyville had been long and difficult but Discord did help and did apologise to every pony. Most did forgive Discord but a few were rightfully suspicious of him since he had now shown signs that if he was offered something great, there was a big chance he’d take it.

But then again, if it wasn’t Discord who would have helped Tirek maybe there would have been some creature else, perhaps someone far more dangerous than Discord.

Every pony had celebrated the defeat of Tirek and the return of their magic. The party had been long and hard and Discord had been there while sending winks towards Princess Celestia and the Alicorn of the Sun would simply playfully roll her eyes.

The main six and Spike enjoyed each other's company and partied late into the night until they decided it had been time to return home.

A lot of things happened when they defeated Tirek. One of the things was that Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike had lost their home and library which had exploded during Tirek’s rampage. But they were lucky because Twilight had received the final key to a box that belonged to the Tree of Harmony. With that power, they defeated the centaur and sent him back to Tartarus where he will rott for the rest of his miserable life.

However, as if sensing that the element of magic didn’t have a home, Twilight received a castle made from crystals. It looked like something belonging to the Crystal Empire. Inside the castle was a throne room where there were chairs for the element bearers that had their cutie marks on the thrones. The thrones were spread over a map of Equestria that would show their cutie mark which meant that there was a friendship problem that needed to be solved.

They had gone on countless journeys after that.

The friendship problem wasn’t the same every time. On one quest, they need to be together as a group while on another time, Applejack and Pinkie go on one. The map in the throne room decides which pony or creature is needed.

Speaking of Applejack, the farmer has been having trouble sleeping lately.

It isn’t that she has trouble falling asleep, it’s more so that she’s been having nightmares. They were tame at first, nothing terrifying just jumpscares here and there but then they became so much worse. She started dreaming about the day Tirek had captured her and her friends except Twilight because he wanted to negotiate with her.

The apple farmer then started dreaming about how Twilight didn’t care about them or that they were put out of their misery.

Those were the worst ones.

But tonight it felt different. Applejack didn’t know why, she hadn’t even gotten into bed yet, but she had a feeling that tonight would be different. Or she hoped so, otherwise, she would need to go to therapy. She might have been dealing with PTSD.

Applejack took off her cowboy hat and placed it on her bedside table where she had a lamp and got into her bed and thought about everything that had happened. She remembered when Twilight and Spike first came to Ponyville and were checking out the farm and making sure everything was prepared and stayed for food. Later that same night Princess Luna returned from the Moon in the form of Nightmare Moon who was believed to be a legend and myth from ancient times.

Then there was the Canterlot Wedding. Applejack cringed at the memory. Ever since her betrayal to Twilight that day she had felt guilty. Siding with Queen Chrysalis who was pretending to be Princess Cadance while the real one was imprisoned beneath the caves of Canterlot castle. Twilight did say that she forgave them, but she did always wonder if it was genuine forgiveness or just in the spur of the moment.

Then there was the Crystal Empire, believed to be a myth that had been banished alongside King Sombra, a tyrannical King over the empire. He had enslaved the Crystal Ponies and used them for labour and soldiers. While Applejack and her friends played an active role, they all agreed that Spike was the rightful hero of the Crystal Empire.

And now, Tirek’s escape from Tartarus had the entire kingdom of Equestria and Crystal Empire on high alert. Discord had been asked to apprehend the centaur but had betrayed them and sided with the centaur instead but regretted it afterwards. Taking down Tirek and restoring Equestria’s magic to the rightful creatures and ponies felt amazing.

While thinking over these feats, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder how her life would have been without Twilight.

Not that she disliked her Alicorn friend or anything, she loved her, but sometimes she wished she would have lived a simpler life, bucking apple trees and selling them to the ponies of Ponyville. On one hoof, she would have lived a simple and easy life while on the other hoof, she wouldn’t have gotten the friends she loved and adored with all her heart. She wouldn’t have saved Equestria the amount of times she did and she wouldn’t have been the element of honesty.

Applejack yawned and decided that it was time for her to sleep. She pulled back the covers and got into bed before falling asleep into what she hoped would be a blissful one.

~~The Kingdom Of Darkness~~

This was the strangest dream by far that Applejack had ever had. Normally her dreams were about her family and taking care of the farm, but she wasn’t at the farm. Turned her body to look in all directions, but she couldn’t find any civilisation for miles.

She wasn’t in Ponyville which confused her to no end. Her dreams always had something to do with her town.

Scratching her head, she shrugged. Maybe she was lucid dreaming? She had heard some ponies naturally had lucid dreams and that every pony had at least one lucid dream. Maybe she had succeeded? Well, she did if she can think and… feel? She was unsure about the last one.

Looking around, she saw that she was in some kind of desert with nothing but flat lands for miles on end. There was sand underneath her hooves that she didn’t feel, because she was dreaming… because she didn’t feel normal so it had to be a dream.

Her entire face started resembling a question mark. Where was she?

“Where the hay am I?” Applejack rhetorically asked and began to fidget with her hooves in the sands making small hoof-craters.

“You are in the dream world miss Applejack,” a voice suddenly spoke which made her jump, not anticipating a response.

She saw a bright light in front of her that was shaped like a circle and slowly began to fade slowly and revealing five ponies. Two stallions and three mares. The first pony who appeared was a stallion who was as big as Big Macintosh if not bigger. He was a light blue-coated pony with an orange mane, tail and beard.

The second stallion was a pegasus who wore armour that looked old, not like anything Applejack had seen the royal guards have. He was a yellow-coated stallion with a red mane and tail. He stood beside his comrade.

The first mare that appeared was a light lilac-coated pony who had a light darkish green mane and tail that was flowing in a non-existent wind similar to Princess Celestia and Luna. She gave a small smile at Applejack.

The second mare was a blue-coated pony with her mane pined up. Her mane and tail were reddish orange with stripes and wore a green dress to suit her perfectly. Similarly to her friend, she gave a smile towards Applejack

The last mare stood out the most to Applejack because she looked sad, her head hung low but did meet Applejack’s gaze. She was a light orange-coated pegasus with dark and light green stripes in her mane and tail.

Together they stood and smiled at Applejack who looked confused.

“Uh, I’m gonna forget in the morning but who are ya’ll?” She asked while scratching her head in confusion. The biggest pony there chuckled before responding.

“I’m Rockhoof, and this lad and lassies with me are my friends,” Rockhoof said while motioning for them to introduce themselves.

“Names Flash Magnus,” Magnus said while giving a small salute.

“My name is Mistmane young one,” Mistmane spoke while smiling.

“I am Meadowbrook, nice to meet you,” she smiled while waving slightly.

“My name is Somnambula, It’s lovely to meet you,” the mare attempted to genuinely smile but it looked forced. It didn’t reach her eyes, her mouth had only twitched slightly.

“Uh,” Applejack could have sworn to Celestia that those names were familiar like she’d heard them somewhere. “Howdy, I’m Applejack but I reckon you already knew that cus you said mah name earlier,”

They nodded together in confirmation.

“Indeed we do, miss Applejack. We know not only you but the other element bearers as well. You are the first we have ever talked to.” Rockhoof spoke on behalf of his friends who were watching Applejack’s facial features.

“Yah know mah friends?” Applejack felt a little guilty, but she felt a little defensive of them because she didn’t know these ponies other than that the names were familiar.

“Indeed we do,” Mistmane replied this time. “This might be very difficult to understand and to believe, but my friends and I are the original element bearers. We were once known as the Pillars,”

Applejack’s eyes widened. So that’s why their names sounded familiar. She had heard their tales from when she was a little filly! These are Starswirl the Beardeds friends!

“Wait, so ya’ll are saying that you’re Starswirl the Beardeds' friends?” Applejack asked, making sure that it was them. They smiled warmly at her and nodded.

“Indeed we are,” they answered in unison.

“Wow.” That was all Applejack could say. She didn’t know what to think or feel at the revelation that she was in her dream, talking to five of the original Pillars who saved Equestria countless times.

One thing was strange about the Pillars and that was that Starswirl wasn’t with them. Applejack and her friends had travelled to a small cottage on the outskirts of Yakyakistan and met Starswirl. She and her friends had been shocked. Starswirl the bearded was said to have lived over a thousand years ago and as far as any pony knew, he wasn’t an Alicorn so how the hay had he lived for so long?

The only thing he had said on the matter was that he was cursed.

“Ah met Starswirl a few months ago near Yakyakistan, he said he was cursed but refused to elaborate on how he got cursed. Imagine our surprise when we had a friendship problem near that area and came across his cottage,” Applejack explained while they listened intently.

“We certainly understand that dear, that’s why we are here. We wanted to warn you about a friendship problem that we wanted to give you, something we believe the map at Princess Twilight’s castle cannot feel.” Meadowbrook spoke with some fear in her voice.

Applejack raised a brow at that. The map of Equestria had never failed them before so why would it do so now?

“I can see you’re scepticism which is rightfully placed, but you must understand miss Applejack, so I will ask you this; do you know where the tree of harmony sprouted from?” Rockhoof asked which caused the farmer to nod her head.

“Uh, yeah, it was a form of seed wasn’t it?” She asked with a raised brow.

“Correct, through those seeds grew the Tree of Harmony as it is called. We, the Pillars, placed those seeds and they turned into what you now know as Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, Honesty and Magic. Through these seeds, you would learn the value of friendship, its true value.” Magnus sounded so proud when he spoke of the seeds but that soon turned into a distant, gloomy look.

“You see, miss Applejack there is a spell on those seeds that has slightly corrupted them towards a specific pony that will never show up on the map of Equestria.” Magnus continued, his voice cracked slightly.

Applejack was getting curious. Who could have been strong enough to corrupt the seeds of friendship? Discord? Maybe but he values friendship so he wouldn’t have done it now… but then again the seeds were planted over a thousand years ago so… wait no, he had been turned to stone at that point so he couldn’t have done it.

Applejack started to think about the villains she had faced that had existed a thousand years ago but realised that the seeds had been planted after the villains had all been defeated.

“Really? Who could be strong enough to do that? I mean, isn’t friendship stronger than all evil?” Applejack questioned but was caught in surprise when her snout was pressed against another snout and saw the furious eyes of Somnambula.

“Stygian is not evil!” She shouted with fury before she calmed herself and allowed a tear to escape. “Sorry…” she sniffed and Meadowbrook went to comfort her with a hug and soothing words.

“Stygian? Whose Stygian?” Applejack asked quietly to not set the orange-coated mare off again. Rockhoof and the others had sad looks on their faces.

“He… he was a Pillar just like us,” he replied much to the shock of Applejack. She had heard about them and read about them in myths and legends books and to an extent history books, but this… Stygian had never once been mentioned in them.

“He was? But I have never heard of him before…” Applejack mumbled and trailed off and suddenly blushed when she saw the look Somnambula was giving her.

“That’s because he wasn’t as famous as us lassie,” Rockhoof explained and sighed sadly and brought a hoof to his face as if to soothe a headache. Magnus lent a wing of comfort. “He was the one who brought us and Starswirl together. He read all he could about the villains we faced, he was a genius who knew all of our enemies' weak points. However, no pony ever noticed him and began to feel lonely,”

“He distanced himself from us and became cold. We didn’t notice at first because the fame had gone to our heads. We were heroes. The only one who noticed was Somnambula who had begun to ask him multiple questions, specifically if he was alright to which he would always respond that he was. Because of that, the rest of us never suspected anything. One day, however, we discovered that our amulets were missing and due to the fame getting to our head we immediately believed that some pony was after our fame.” Mistmane explained with a sad sigh escaping her lips.

“And the one we lashed out at was Stygian. We discovered he had taken the amulets and we believed he was trying to steal them for his selfish gain. We said so many hurtful things to him. The things I said to him, I will never be able to apologise to him.” Magnus allowed a few tears to escape and Mistmane hugged him to comfort him while having a few tears.

“He ran away in tears and we took back our amulets and made our way back to our castle where we had received our quests and packed his things to…throw them out,” Meadowbrook let out a few sniffles but continued her story. “I noticed at his throne that there was a journal which I quickly realised was his. I got curious and started to read his entries and that’s when I learned about his not feeling appreciated and wanted to simply make copies of the amulets. He never wanted to steal our power,”

“We wanted to give him the biggest apology ever and that’s when the doors burst open and we saw Stygian. Before we could react he spoke in a voice that didn’t sound like him it was as if a Changeling had impersonated him. It sounded so unnatural for him to speak like that and I remember the words clear as day. ‘You banished me from friendship, I’ll banish you permanently!!’ He then cast a spell on us that sent us to Limbo which we are still trapped in.” Somnambula explained. She had calmed down and explained her peace. They all looked at her and saw tears run down her face. “I still remember the hateful look he sent me before he cast the spell. I… I love him!”

They were silent and watched their friend be comforted by Meadowbrook who did her best to not cry but was failing. Applejack couldn’t help but think about Starswirl. He said he was cursed. Was the curse that he had to see his friends be transported into Limbo?

“Rockhoof… how come Starswirl never ended up in Limbo?” The question needed to be asked and they all expected it, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“He managed to dodge the spell just in time but I don’t know what he was cursed with. However, I suspect that there might’ve been a spell of immortality that Stygian cast as punishment,” the blue-coated earth pony theorised.

There was silence once more as they heard the weeping of their friend. It made them feel so guilty for what they had done, they had not only ruined a friendship, they had also ruined a relationship between Somnambula and Stygian.

“That explains why he looked so… sad when he said he’d been cursed,” Applejack spoke to herself but the others heard. “Ahm sorry that I reminded ya,” she apologetically spoke and hung her head.

“Miss Applejack, it’s alright. You need to know this because a great foe will be heading your way,” Magnus said will raising her head and gave her a small smile.

“A great foe? What do ya mean by that?” This was starting to get confusing.

“Miss Applejack, the foe we speak of is The Pony Of Shadows. I can assure you he won’t invade Equestria but we cannot allow the Pony to walk among us. Normally, we would have left the creature alone but this Pony has attacked creatures in the most brutal way possible but not just this Pony, he also has an army on his side that follows his orders to a T.” Rockhoof spoke in a serious voice, but there was sadness that Applejack slightly picked up on.

What was that about?

“So, the Pony Of Shadows won’t invade Equestria, but is there a possibility there might be a small interest from him?” Was the question that made the Pillars silent.

Somnambula stopped her weeping. Her eyes were red a puffy from crying and her head hung low and played with the sand under her hoof while Meadowbrook hugged the mare.

“...I suppose there is a possibility…” Rockhoof looked uncertain about the question. The Pillars and him had been stuck in Limbo for over a thousand years so maybe his old friend had gotten his sights on Equestria?

Suddenly a small white portal started to open which grabbed all of their attention. Rockhoof looked panicked at this and quickly turned to Applejack.

“Miss Applejack, I need to tell you why we picked you over Princess Twilight,” Applejack felt her eyes widen, that had been her next question. “We decided to pick you because we saw the trauma you endured and we wanted to not only tell you about the potential threat but also our experience and the trauma that has haunted us for over a thousand years. I will need you to find the Pony Of Shadows and defeat him,”

Applejack showed her determination and nodded.

“Don’t worry, mah friends and I shall slay the Pony once and for all!” She spoke with pride.

The portal gradually became bigger and bigger before it started sucking in the Pillars one by one. However, Applejack saw the horror that flashed in Somnambula’s eyes at what she said.

“No don’t hurt him he’s not evil!!” Was the last words the pegasus spoke before she was sucked inside.

~~The Kingdom Of Darkness~~

Applejack woke up and began breathing heavily, her eyes were wide and felt sweat pour down her body as she shook like a leaf during a windy day.

“Ah gotta inform the others!” She jumped out of bed, only grabbing her hat and rushed out of her room and headed towards the castle of Friendship.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with a brand new story that I hope you guys will enjoy. I’ve had this idea for a while now and by the time I’m writing here I’m still working on Dictators Of Ponyville. I don’t know when this story will be published which is sort of exciting so I will leave a date of when I started this story. 16/7/2023. That is all and I will write to you guys, next time.

P.S. I will be calling the Pillars Artifacts for Amulets just so you guys know, that wasn’t a typo.

CH.2. Informing The Princesses

After Applejack had rounded up her friends and informed them of her dream, even going as far as to show her memories for them to see, she wasn’t surprised when she saw the doubtful looks on their faces.

The doubt came from Rainbow Dash specifically while Rarity was neutral on the matter.

Twilight seemed intrigued by the story the remaining Pillars had given. It made her understand that he was hurting when they found Starswirl. It wasn’t a normal hurt that was easily treated. It was emotional hurt.

Pinkie Pie had been fascinated but hadn’t shown much interest. Fluttershy had been scared at first but had managed to calm down.

They were sitting around the map on their thrones with coffee and tea that Spike had been so kind to provide along with a few cucumber sandwiches for them to snack on as an early breakfast.

“Applejack, I hate to break it to ya, but I highly doubt that it was a real vision. It was just a dream,” Rainbow Dash explained while flapping her wings, hovering in the air with her hooves crossed with a doubtful expression.

Rainbow Dash was a blue-coated pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail and a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt cutie mark on her flanks.

Applejack wasn’t surprised by that. She would have been more surprised if she had readily agreed to it. It didn’t mean that she wouldn’t feel a little panicked. She knew that it was true so how do you convince your friends that a dream was real?

“ah didn’t expect ya to Rainbow, I just wanted to inform ya and what we do next is up to, Twilight,” she replied while looking over at the Alicorn who was studying the memories with intensity. Sweat drops were running down her face.

Twilight Sparkle was the newest Alicorn of Equestria. That made her a princess, and she was the Princess of Friendship. She was a lilac-coated mare with a dark purple bluish mane and tail with dark purple and pink streaks. Her cutie mark was a purple star with a couple of small white stars.

Rainbow looked over at their friend who was watching Twilight do her thing.

“This is so interesting!” She exclaimed as if Hearts Warming had come early. “I had no idea there was a pony named Stygian who brought the Pillars together but he has such a sad backstory. I wonder where he is now?”

They knew she was asking a rhetorical question, but it was a good question. Where was the stallion? He had banished his friends and cursed Starswirl but there were no records of a pony named Stygian committing crimes or stealing anything. There was nothing that suggested he lived in Equestria, but that could mean he wasn’t within Equestrian defences.

“Well, if he did that over a thousand years ago, isn’t there a possibility that he’s dead, darling?” Rarity asked. She was a marshmallow-coated pony with a purple stylish mane and tail with three blue gems as her cutie mark.

Twilight raised a hoof to her cheek and softly pressed. “I don’t think so, they spoke of him as if he was alive,”

“Twilight, if we play with the thought that Applejack’s dream was real, then it makes sense why they would say so,” Rainbow spoke which surprised everyone in the room. “They have been in limbo, they aren’t sure how long they’ve been there. Sure, they could say they’ve been there for that long but for all they know it could have been five minutes.”

The girls looked at Rainbow Dash, impressed by her words and line of thinking.

“Hm, you know what? I can buy that theory,” Twilight said, while using her magic to bring a few books and quickly skim through them trying to find whatever it was she was trying to find.

“HUH!! What if the Pony Of Shadows is Stygian!?” Pinkie Pie suddenly gasped in shock and looked at her friends who gaped at her.

“Uh, Pinkie, I don’t believe that is the case, the unnatural voice that Somnambula spoke of was simply rage. He must have been so sad and cried his eyes out which turned to anger and screaming which made his voice sound unnatural,” Twilight explained.

“But what about his magic and sending them into Limbo and cursing Starswirl?!” Pinkie asked with a rushed voice and stood so close to Twilight that they were touching nose to nose.

“Uh, well, due to the emotional trauma he must have been in, his anger took over and he learned darker spells that helped him do such deeds. Besides, laws and rules were different back then, than it is today.” Twilight theorised which seemed to satisfy the hyper-active mare and pulled out a piece of cupcake from who-knows-where and devoured it. “Although, I am curious about what Somnambula said about Pony Of Shadows not being evil. Hm, questions and more questions.”

“Well, what shall we do darling?” Rarity questioned while taking a sip of tea, looking over her friends who were watching Twilight studying. “Should we inform the Princesses of this considering the potential threat the Pony Of Shadows has over Equestria?”

The sounds of pages hitting pages stopped in their tracks and the books continued to hover in their air from Twilight’s magic.

“Um, I’m not sure… I do believe you Applejack, but it was a dream and for all we know it could have been just that; a dream. But then again, if we don’t inform the princesses it could end up disastrous.” Twilight contemplated whether to tell the rulers or not but eventually decided that it would be best if they knew about it.

“SPIKE!” Twilight shouted to the second floor of the castle. There were sounds of running that came from the second floor and the sounds didn’t stop until it entered the room, revealing a purple-scaled dragon with green spikes on his head and a green belly.

“Yes, … Twilight?” He asked while sounding out of breath.

“I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia, it’s urgent,” Twilight explained while picking up a book with her magic again. Spike ran to get parchment, ink and quill and came back, ready to write the message.

Twilight put down the book to concentrate. “Ahem! Dear Princess Celestia, I have urgent news for you to read. My friend Applejack had a dream about the remaining Pillars who are stuck in Limbo. They came and told Applejack about the trauma they had faced and an enemy that may or may not want to invade Equestria. The creature's name is the Pony Of Shadows. Some of us believe that Applejack’s dream is real but some are sceptical due to it being a dream, nonetheless, we wanted to inform you just in case so do what you believe is best.

Your faithful student, Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Uh, Twilight, are you still her student?” Spike asked confused. He had written it, but he was unsure if it was appropriate due to her title as Princess.

“I will always see myself as her student!” Twilight spoke with pride and had stars in her eyes as she thought about her mentor, or former mentor depending on how you looked at it.

Spike understood and sent the letter away with his fire breath. He turned to Applejack and decided to ask a question of his own.

“Applejack, I apologise for eavesdropping but I happened to hear your story and dream. I believe you I assure you, you have never lied, but one thing puzzles me.” Spike said while walking towards the Element of Honesty who looked at him quizzically. “The Pillars spoke of Stygian and the Pony Of Shadows, but I have never heard stories of them battling the foe they mentioned.”

The ponies around the room looked at each other and realised that the dragon was right. They had all seen the dream and they heard what the Pillars all said but they didn’t speak much about Pony Of Shadows other than that he was a potential threat to Equestria and to defeat him while Somnambula was screaming that he wasn’t evil. It was all very confusing and why would Somnambula—one of the Pillars—say that the Pony wasn’t evil?

“Uh, maybe they fought him while no other pony was around and never mentioned it?” Rainbow suggested while she hovered and shrugged.

“Hm, that makes sense but Starswirl never mentioned Pony Of Shadows nor Stygian. Perhaps both subjects were too emotional to discuss?” Twilight rhetorically asked while glancing up at the ceiling as if she would find the answers there.

“Twilight, that’s what I meant by never mentioning it to anypony,” Rainbow deadpanned at the alicorn.

Twilight blushed slightly and nodded her head in agreement. “Sorry, got lost in my thoughts there,”

“It’s fine, Twi. Well, they never said how they knew of Pony Of Shadows, ah only know what they told me.” Applejack admitted. “And Spike? It’s fine, you weren’t eavesdropping.”

The young dragon nodded with a smile.

“Should we ask Starswirl?” Fluttershy quietly asked, looking over at Twilight who had opened a book and began to read old myths and legends books. Fluttershy was a yellow-coated pegasus with a pink mane and tail and three butterflies for her cutie mark.

Twilight looked over the book to meet Fluttershy’s gaze and shook her head. “Not yet, I’d rather ask him later because I don’t know how he’ll react to us knowing his backstory.”

They looked at one another and had to admit that there was good logic in that. If he didn’t say anything to them before, why would he suddenly tell them everything? Sure, he could react with sadness and tell them the story or he could get angry and refuse to tell them anything about his history.

Besides, he had never once mentioned Stygian. Looking back to the memories they had though, they could see that he was thinking about somepony and they wondered if that pony was Stygian.

Was Starswirl too afraid to mention the pony because of what happened? Or was it that he was angry at the pony who had cursed him which ultimately was Stygian? Did he believe that it was none of their business? To be fair, it was his private life to a large degree.

“Ugh!” Came a frustrated groan. Startled, they looked to Twilight who had sported an irritated look on her face. “I cannot find any references to the Pony Of Shadows, it's as if the Pony doesn’t exist!”

“Well, maybe it's because it was all a dream?” Rainbow suggested while looking at the apple farmer with a pointed look.

“Are ya calling me a liar?” Applejack frowned. She wasn’t angry, she had expected this but it didn’t make it any easier.

“Of course not, AJ, I just believe you had an extremely realistic dream nothing more nothing less,” Rainbow explained and the others had to give it to the mare that there was a good point. “Besides, I highly doubt this Stygian is real. Sure, we may not have known what happened to the rest of the Pillars, but they maybe had a falling out and went their separate ways.”

“I’m going to have to disagree with you on that, Rainbow,” Twilight spoke while looking through a book which grabbed the other's attention.

“Why’s that?” The rainbow-maned pegasus asked with a frown.

“Well, I have found a record of a unicorn named Stygian,” she smiled and showed them the book she was reading with a picture of a unicorn with a dark bluish-greenish mane and tail with a brown coat.

They all surrounded the book with the picture. Rainbow looked shocked when she saw the unicorn she had said a few seconds ago didn’t exist. She looked towards the others who looked interested in the picture.

“Ugh! What is that thing he’s wearing?” Rarity asked while looking a little disgusted by the coat. The others deadpanned at her.

“His coat, never mind that now, we have evidence that Stygian indeed did exist at one point in time!” Twilight said with triumph. She had found his picture inside a book about the Pillars and their friends written by Starswirl himself.

There wasn’t a whole lot of information. The text was essentially about Stygian being friends with all of the Pillars and that was it, there was nothing about the background or what happened to him later in life.

“Um, does that mean that Pony Of Shadows exists?” Fluttershy asked timidly while looking at Twilight who frowned.

“No… it only proves that Stygian was a real pony that existed over a thousand years ago. To be honest, I don’t believe that the Pony Of Shadows is real, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take the threat seriously. It could be a title a pony earned,” Twilight explained while hugging Fluttershy who had looked a little scared at the prospect of fighting a pony who relied on shadows.

Spike started to take a sip of his tea while thinking over the possibilities there were. They didn’t have a lot to go on but they had managed to at least figure out that Stygian was a real unicorn pony who had been friends with the Pillars before they had been banished and cursed. It didn’t mean that the threat was non-existent about there being a Pony Of Shadows, but it didn’t mean that there was a threat either. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t a little creeped out, though. Something was telling him that Applejack’s dream was real. Very real.

Twilight continued to check through her books while the others waited for breakfast after Spike had drank his tea and asked if they were hungry. While he was in the kitchen preparing a proper breakfast, the other ponies not reading were making small talk while drinking tea.

When Spike came out with the breakfast, there was a sudden knock on the door. Spike put the breakfast on the table to go open the door while Applejack decided to give everypony a plate.

When the young dragon saw who was at their doorstep he immediately bowed in respect. But he was a little surprised that Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance were there. Had it something to do with the letter he sent earlier?

“Welcome, princesses!” He spoke with the utmost respect he could.

“Thank you, Spike, is Twilight here? We need to talk to her,” Celestia spoke with a kind and gentle, but stern tone. She was only stern when she was serious and it showed. And considering two other Princesses were standing outside the Friendship Castle, it probably was serious.

“Of course, our friends are here also. Come in, I’ve made breakfast,” Spike stepped to the side and allowed the rulers into the castle.

They went back to the room where the friendship map was located where they saw the other mares enjoying Spike’s pancakes and waffles he made for everypony. When the others saw the princesses, they all bowed except Twilight who hadn’t noticed there were other rulers in the room with her.

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike called out.

“Not now, Spike, I need to find more information about the Pony Of Shadows!” Twilight spoke in an irritated tone but it wasn’t Spike she was irritated at which he knew.

“Twilight, I would appreciate it if you put the book down for now,” Celestia spoke in her stern and serious voice while looking at her fellow alicorn with a little amusement in her eyes.

Twilight dropped her book in shock and saw the other princesses there and blushed. Three fellow princesses were there and she had unintentionally ignored them. Oh, how embarrassing!

“Sorry, Princess Celestia, I wasn’t aware you were here. Did you get my letter?” The lilac-coated mare asked with a tilt of her head.

“Yes, and that is why I’m here,” Celestia replied and used her magic to conjure up three chairs for herself, her sister and niece. The princess of the sun sat beside Twilight, Luna sat beside Fluttershy and Applejack and Cadance sat beside Spike and Rainbow Dash.

“The scroll you sent has terrified not only me but my sister as well.” Celestia began and a few gasped. They had never heard that Princess Celestia was ever scared of anything. “The dream with the Pillars—I can assure you—was real. All of it,”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped to the floor in shock. She hadn’t expected that.

Luna nodded. “Is true. I entered Miss Applejack’s dream and saw everything unfold. I tried to take it away at first because it seemed as though she was in distress but I couldn’t take it away. The only way for a pony to prevent me from taking away nightmares is if magic is being used,”

The element bearers gasped again in shock. Pinkie Pie fainted and was back on her throne as fast as a lightning bolt.

“Wait, so you're saying that there were other forces at play? Was the dream—”

“No, Twilight,” Luna interrupted. “The dream was real, they were the real Pillars of Equestria, the same Pillars who defeated countless enemies in the past. Magic was being used by them—I couldn’t find out who—to communicate with Miss Applejack.”

They all became silent at that. Applejack wasn’t sure if she was relieved or terrified because it was real. On one hoof it was a relief because she proved the ones having doubts that she wasn’t making stuff up but on the other hoof she was terrified. After all, there were ponies out there who can give nightmares while Princess Luna can do nothing about it.

“So wait, the Pillars came to warn us for real?” Rainbow asked in amazement.

“Yes,” Luna confirmed with a nod.

“Wow,” was her reply.

“Um, Princess Celestia?” The princess of the sun turned to Fluttershy and allowed her face to turn gentle for the easily frightened mare to ease the pegasus. “I was just wondering if you knew anything about the Pony Of Shadows,”

The others had forgotten the elephant in the room and made Twilight groan slightly for almost forgetting it.

“Sadly Miss Fluttershy, so will I have to say no, I do not,” Celestia admitted with a sigh. She hated when she couldn’t provide vital information to the ponies that needed it.

“I too, have to say I do not know anything. When I studied the dark arts I never came across such a name. But it is possible that this Pony used a different name…” Luna got lost and started to mull over the books she had read that could help them.

“I haven’t heard anything either but I’m not that old either, no offence,” Cadance said with a small blush at what she had said at the end.

“None taken,” Celestia replied while pouring herself a cup of tea.

“We only have one thing to go on,” Spike spoke making everypony turn to him to hear what he was going to say. “That the Pony Of Shadows could potentially threaten Equestria but there’s no guarantee. Applejack was simply asked to end the Pony. But one thing I’m very curious about.”

“And what is that young one?” Luna kindly asked while taking a bite out of her waffle.

Spike hesitated but when he saw their eyes and Pinkie's encouraging nod he explained; “When Applejack said she would slay him, Somnambula looked panicked and afraid and screamed that the Pony Of Shadows wasn’t evil and said to not slay him but she didn’t say anything when Rockhoof said that the Pony couldn’t walk among us anymore,”

The three princesses looked confused and troubled by what the dragon had told them. Cadance seemed intrigued by the development.

“Is she in love with Pony Of Shadows?” She asked and looked around and saw them shaking their heads.

“Nah, Somnambula loves a stallion named Stygian who…” Applejack sighed at this. “...He banished them to Limbo,” the princesses looked alarmed at what the farmer had said.

“Twilight, is it alright if we see the memories of this dream, Luna only came in during half of the dream,” Celestia asked while putting down her tea cup.

“Of course!” Twilight replied and used a spell to dampen the sunlight outside so it was dark enough for them to watch the dream. After casting another spell they started watching the dream.

Throughout the dream, no pony or dragon said anything. They watched everything from top to bottom, making sure to not miss any important details. Twilight started taking notes of the facial expression on the Pillars' faces for documentation purposes. Princess Celestia and Luna felt honoured to meet their mentor's friends who he had spoken so fondly of. While Luna had been inside the dream and seen it, she couldn’t intervene because of magic that frightened her slightly. Very few ponies matched her magic skills. Cadance was fascinated to learn more about Somnambula and her love interest in Stygian. If she ever got to meet the pegasus, she would give her love advice and see if she can help Stygian and her together.

…If Stygian wants anything to do with them…

“This is… troubling,” Luna spoke for her older sister who hadn’t said anything and seemed to be in deep thought.

“Is there a possibility that Stygian is the Pony Of Shadows?” Celestia asked after taking a bite of her pancakes. The others murmured, acknowledging the comment.

“Yes we did, but we don’t think he’s it. After sending the five Pillars to Limbo and cursing Starswirl, he disappeared without a trace. I have sort of made the assumption he’s dead. He is a unicorn but from what I’ve read he wasn’t a very strong one and could only cast very basic spells so his life span would be a few years shorter than normal unicorns.” Twilight explained while drinking some tea and took a bite from an apple from a fruit bowl Spike had come in with.

“I see,” Celestia replied and took a banana from the fruit bowl and peeled it with her magic. While she cut them into pieces to spread on her pancakes. “Have you asked Starswirl?”

“No, we haven’t we didn’t want to do it yet. I’m not sure how he would react if I told him I knew his backstory,” Twilight frowned and took a small bite from her apple.

“Twilight, you do realise that Starswirl is the only one alive right now not stuck in Limbo that can tell us about this new potential threat? If you are afraid of a scolding then you should get used to them,” Luna suggested while taking a sip from her tea and observing Twilight’s reaction.

“No it’s not that… well it’s partially that but when he spoke of the Pillars, he had this distant look and it seemed as though he was thinking about somepony but never said anything,” Twilight told the princess of the night. “I didn’t want to intrude because I felt that it was none of my concern. We all deserve some privacy,”

The princesses hummed in silent agreement.

While Princess Cadance was eating her pancakes, she couldn’t shake the dream she had just witnessed a few minutes ago. Somnambula had said that she loved Stygian and considering how she glared when she heard Rockhoof say that Pony Of Shadows couldn’t continue to exist, it made her wonder if Stygian was indeed the Pony they were all discussing. Her biggest clue was the glare Somnambula had given Rockhoof and her second big clue was when the pegasus had heard what Applejack had said she would slay Pony Of Shadows, she had screamed that the Pony was not evil.

Cadance took a sip of her tea.

It suggested to her that the Pony Of Shadows couldn’t be anypony else other than Stygian, it pointed her towards it. She didn’t have any evidence so she would keep it to herself for now since it was a possibility that she was completely wrong. If she gave them false hope and they started chasing a pony that could be dead then their effort would be all for nothing.

“Princess Cadance, what are your thoughts?” The princess of love was brought out of her musings and saw everypony and dragon looking at her making her feel awkward.

“Uh, other than the romantic interest between Somnambula and Stygian, I don’t know what to think. It makes sense that Stygian wouldn’t be the Pony Of Shadows due to being bitter at the Pillars but it leaves the question open about who it could be. Is it truly a threat?” She asked her aunts that nodded.

“Yes of course it is, you see, even if the Pony is not a threat to Equestria, the Pillars who were the first element bearers asked Miss Applejack and her friends to defeat the Pony. If they feel it necessary to not be interrupted by even I, then it must be very important.

Spike looked towards the table with his claws around his teacup. There was something wrong with Cadance's explanation. The ponies of Equestria saw the Pillars as heroes and never acknowledged Stygian so him only being bitter at the Pillars didn’t make sense. He looked over to Applejack who looked at the Princess of love with suspicion in her eyes. He wasn’t the only one who found the flaw.

Twilight had finished her food and thought about the dream and the information she’d learned or lack thereof. Maybe she should send a letter to Starswirl? That way she could give the stallion some time to write everything he knows if he ever decides to reply.

Without warning, she used her magic to teleport ink quill and parchment to the table and began to write with the help of her magic. The others noticed.

“What are ya doing, Twi?” Applejack asked with a raised brow.

“Writing a letter to Starswirl. I know he won’t reply immediately, but I still want to let him know that we know. He can decide whether he tells us what the Pony Of Shadows is or leaves us completely in the dark.” Twilight explained.

The others were surprised by this but not unhappy. It was a good start anyways and it might lead to something.

“When you're finished, I shall send it to him.” Celestia declared after she finished her tea.

When Twilight had finished her parchment letter, Celestia had sent it to the legendary wizard and told everypony and dragon that she and her sister had duties in Canterlot followed by Cadance being needed in the Crystal Empire.

That left the main six and Spike together in the room.

“So what now, darling?” Rarity asked while polishing her hooves.

“All we can do now is wait,” was the response which earned a groan from Pinkie Pie.

“But waiting is so boring! Can’t we just bring back the Pillars and go to the kingdom where the Pony Of Shadows resides so Somnambula can bring him back so they can get married happily ever after!?” Pinkie asked as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

They all stared at her.

“What?”

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone- Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness and I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter as I had a lot of fun writing it and I did my best to hold as realistic conversation as possible I don’t know If I succeeded, but knowing me I probably disappointed some. Anyways, thanks for reading and I will write to you guys next time.

CH.3. The Pillars Return

The element bearers felt a little giddy when they were making their way over to the historical place called Ponehenge. While it was a place that had been long forgotten by modern ponies apart from scholars and princesses, it was nonetheless, a historical place and was rumoured to have been the place the Pillars had their castle.

Well, Twilight found out it was a rumour due to a book she had read that the castle had been located elsewhere but the name of the location had been smudged over as if food of some kind had landed on it.

Ponehenge was also the place Stygian had taken the artefacts and had been kicked out of the Pillars and essentially disowned. No doubt the Pillars will feel a lot of shame and guilt if they manage to bring them back from Limbo.

The element bearers weren’t alone, though, Starswirl the Bearded was also with them. He had been shocked when Twilight had informed him that they knew the truth and that his friends had contacted Applejack through her dreams. They told him that they might know of one way to bring them back and that caused the old wizard to become giddy.

The main six had found the artefacts that the Pillars all used once upon a time, travelling to the far reaches of Equestria to find them which they had all succeeded in.

With all of the artefacts in their hooves, they made their way over to the historical site while chatting lightly about what would happen and what they should do about the threat that they had been warned about. Starswirl hadn’t been remotely surprised about the warning and had gotten that distant look when he heard about it.

“Hey, Starswirl sir, looking forward to seeing your friends again after so long?” Twilight asked and turned to the older stallion who had been lost in his thoughts.

“Yes I am, princess, I haven’t seen them for over a thousand years and now that I have a possibility to see them and hug them, I cannot wait.” He spoke with longing in his voice. “I only hope that we can find Stygian and apologise.”

The others looked at each other and smiled sadly as they saw the look in the old wizard's eyes. But there was one question that the group still had and it had been bugging Rainbow Dash the most.

“Sorry for being rude, but are you sure that you didn’t run into Stygian after you were cursed? I find it hard to believe that you gave up so easily,” she admitted which earned her a smack on the back of her head.

“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded while the others glared at the rainbow-maned pegasus.

“No, it's alright princess, she has a good point. But I must tell you Miss Dash that I never did look for Stygian because I never knew where he went he cursed me and told me he hated my mere existence and longed for the day I would fall before him. He told me that if I ever tried to bring back the Pillars he would go to Limbo just to kill them,” Starswirl explained. This caused them to be horrified and confused.

“Wait, wait, if he told ya that he’d kill yer friends, why are you following us then?” Applejack asked with confusion on her face. The old wizard wasn’t lying from what she could tell.

“Well, I will admit I was hesitant with following but If you're successful in bringing back my friends, I wanted them to have a familiar face to see. I don’t want them to believe I abandoned them or blamed them.” He spoke with a sad voice as he hung his head and stared at the dirty path they were walking on.

They had entered a forest not too long ago with large trees that covered the sky with their green leaves hanging on the branches and the dirty brown wood covered the secrets the forest held. The air was fresh and smelled of roses and grass.

Fluttershy looked uneasy at what Starswirl had spoken before. “Uh, Mr Starswirl? Has… has Stygian ever killed any pony?” Was the fearful question she couldn’t help but ask.

The others turned to the mare in shock. She looked so frightened at the prospect but she was the one who dare ask the question that was hanging over their heads. They turned to Starswil who hadn’t reacted to the question.

“I’m going to be honest with you Miss Shy, I do not know if he has… or will,” was the brutal truth that the wizard gave that didn’t make any of them feel safe.

They stopped talking after that and continued down the path they had been following for the last two hours and from the looks of things it would take a couple of more minutes before they reached the area of their desire.

While making their way to their destination, Starswirl was thinking about his friendship with the other Pillars. He valued them all and didn’t play favourites among them. Or so he had believed. The one Pillars who banded them all together and read about the beasts they faced together was now somewhere in Equestria and was planning something if the warning Rockhoof gave was anything to go by. Starswirl felt uneasy. What was Stygian planning?

Stygian had been such a sweet unicorn that always helped them and read about everything he could about the beasts they fought and even planned strategy. He was a true Pillar, without him, they could have never functioned. When he felt unappreciated he turned cold and distanced himself from them but he didn’t show any malice towards them which meant he didn’t hate them.

Looking back, Starswirl realised it was loneliness that had made Stygian want to show that he could be more than a researcher. But the second they saw their artefacts missing they kicked him to the curb and stripped him of his title as a Pillar. The tears the unicorn had shed when running away hadn’t fazed him back then but a few hours later he would regret it so badly that he had considered using a time-travel spell.

…And then Stygian came. Before they could utter any words he banished the five Pillars while Starswirl had managed to dodge the spell.

Starswirl felt his breathing quickening.

When Stygian noticed that Starswirl had managed to avoid getting sucked in he had laughed and said that there would be a far worse punishment for the wizard. Starswirl hadn’t believed there was anything worse than being sucked into Limbo but there was.

Immortality with no possible way to die.

He also remembered the words very clearly that Stygian had spoken in that… unnatural voice.

“Listen here, Starswirl, If I ever see you again I will uplift the curse and execute you, no questions asked. But if I hear that you try to make the other Pillars come back I will go to Limbo and show you their heads that I’ll mount on my wall as trophies! You better never speak of my existence to any pony unless you want your friends to die, goodbye,”

Starswirl hung his head before looking up and seeing the blue sky with only a couple of small clouds being gently guided by the breeze.

“I wonder where Stygian is at this moment?” Starswirl didn’t realise he had spoken out loud until he saw their gazes land on him with concern.

“Are you okay, darling?” Rarity asked gently making the old wizard chuckle.

“It might sound crazy, but yes and no,” he smiled at them. “I’m happy that I might see my friends once more but I’m also very sad because I have no idea what to do in regards to Stygian. I wonder if he’s looking up at the sky the same as I did?”

They understood what he was saying.

“Oh look, Twilight weird rock formations! Maud would love those!” Pinkie jumped excitedly around.

Twilight turned to what Pinkie was pointing at and felt her eyes widen in glee. They had found Ponehenge! Oh wow, how many ponies believed it was a mere legend from the books and how controversial it was whether it existed or not due to scholars saying it existed. Being a scholar herself, she had always been neutral in that topic but now she would side with the believers.

“Guys, we found ponehenge!” Twilight shouted which caused the others to cheer.

Much to their shock, however, Starswirl began to run towards the historical site which prompted the others to do the same. They couldn’t believe that a pony his age still had such speed, but then again, he would be seeing his friends again who he missed so they couldn’t blame him.

When they arrived at the site they couldn’t help but observe the area. Twilight studied the place from top to bottom trying to find anything that the scrolls mentioned was there. She found a few small clues but not all of them.

“Oh my, this place hasn’t been taken care of in a long time,” Fluttershy spoke while looking at the green vines that circled around most of the stones that still stood in place despite the years wavering them down.

“Well, most ponies forgot about it so it's no surprise that it hasn’t been taken care of,” Twilight replied while pulling out a scroll to read.

“Hm, so this is the place they have been in stasis?” Rarity asked with hesitation while looking around the vines that grew on the stone pillars that were broken. The stone circle around the area they stood had many small stones and multiple cracks.

“Yes, it was here that I would have placed the objects but I realised that there was a possibility that Stygian might use them to corrupt the elements but he still corrupted the seeds without using them, erasing all problems surrounding him. So I hid them in my friends’ places where they lived which you all managed to find.” Starswirl said and pulled out a book and walked towards a stone pillar and placed it there.

“Don’t worry Starswirl, we’ll find him after we save the rest of the Pillars so you guys can go and talk to him,” Twilight reassured which made Starswirl, yet again, gain that distant look in his eyes.

“I’m afraid it is not that simple, but I thank you for the encouragement,” Starswirl smiled sadly at Twilight who smiled back.

“So, shall we place the artefacts on the other stone pillars and watch as they return?” Rainbow Dash asked, holding the shield of Flash Magnus while hovering above Rarity and Applejack.

“Yes, just place them on the stone Pillars and I shall fire a spell that will open up a portal to Limbo. We won’t be sucked in but the remainder of my friends will come. To them, it will either feel like a dream or as if they’re waking up,” Starswirl explained while the others started placing the artefacts in the correct order.

When the artefacts were all placed out, Starswirl took a few steps away before he fired a spell at his book for a few moments which caused the book to flare up in white magic and shot a beam towards one of the artefacts and then another and another until it landed right back at the book. A shining bright light shined for five seconds before the five remaining Pillars who had been stuck inside of Limbo for a thousand years were released from their prison.

They fell to the ground only to be caught by their respective bearer and taken to safety from the flying rocks that had started to hover when the spell had been activated. When the rocks and dust had settled, the Pillars started to stir and slowly open their eyes which hurt at first due to it being the first time seeing sunlight since their banishment.

“Ugh, where are we?” Came the tired voice of Magnus who tried to look around but the sun he hadn’t seen for a millenia hurt his eyes.

Starswirl allowed a few tears to run down his cheek as he saw his friends after so long. He trotted up to Magnus and helped him up.

“You’re in Ponehenge my old friend,” was the old wizards’ reply. The other Pillar's heads turned towards the voice they had prayed for and wished to hear every day. When their eyes adjusted to the sun's unforgiving light, they saw the wizard that fought alongside them.

“Starswirl!” They shouted in happiness and got off the ground to meet their friend and pulled him in a hug. The main six couldn’t help but smile at the scenery before them.

“Oh Starswirl, I have missed you so much!” Meadowbrook cried.

“Yeah, she’s right, I thought that you were you know…” Magnus couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Oh, I never thought I would ever get to see you again!” Starswirl openly cried as he hugged his friends for dear life, as if afraid that it was all a dream and he would wake up soon. Luckily, that wasn’t the case, they truly were there and was no dream.

After they finished their hug, they smiled at one another, even Somnambula had a smile on her face that stretched wider than usual.

“Miss Applejack… lassie… you, you saved us!” Rockhoof said with a large grin on his face as he embraced the apple farmer in a hug followed by the other Pillars and the element bearers.

The farmer was as red as a tomato but embraced them with her hooves. When they released one another, Starswirl turned to the element bearers.

“Thank you, all of you for helping me get my friends back, but there is only one friend who is missing,” he gloomily spoke which caused the others to feel sad. They knew who the wizard was talking about.

“Stygian,” they spoke together. Somnambula’s facial expression was covered by her bangs. Meadowbrook lay a hoof on her shoulder and spoke soothing words into her ear.

“Starswirl, don’t you know where he is?” Magnus asked while hovering slightly above the legendary sorcerer.

“No, the last time I ever heard from him was when he had cursed me but I did hear rumours that a few villages had been… destroyed. Luckily, there weren’t any casualties. But a thousand years is a long time…” Starswirl spoke with hesitation in the end when he saw the look Somnambula was giving him. “But then again, it could have been the Pony Of Shadows doing since it fits him better…”

“Is it possible he’s outside Equestria?” Twilight asked with a tilt of her head.

“It’s possible, I haven’t heard anything from Yakyakistan while living there nor have I heard anything from the Crystal Empire so I do believe that he’s outside Equestria. The Pony Of Shadows on the other hand… I have no idea where to begin,” Starswirl said while tapping his chin with his hoof.

“Well, anypony hungry?” Pinkie Pie asked and pulled out a large tray of sweets from who-knows-where.

They all chuckled at the party pony’s antics.

~~The Kingdom Of Darkness~~

They talked and shared stories while they ate. The Pillars had many laughs when hearing the stories the main six had done and the Pillars—minus Starswirl—were amazed by the changes Equestria had gone through and were both looking forward to seeing the new and improved Equestria while also dreading it because of how long it has been since they disappeared.

After they ate, they began to walk to Ponyville where they could inform the Princesses that the Pillars had safely returned to the lands of Equestria.

While walking, they continued to share their stories and even spoke about their friendship with Stygian.

“I remember he gave me courage when I was too afraid to ask my special somepony for their hoof in marriage,” Rockhoof spoke with a smile on his face while allowing a tear to escape.

“Oh my gosh! You’re engaged?!” Rarity squealed before she stopped herself and felt bad. “Oh, sorry darling you must miss her.”

Rockhoof raised a brow. “What do ya mean lassie?”

“I mean that she’s well you know…” Rarity looked around awkwardly unsure how to finish her sentence. That was when Rockhoof understood and chuckled.

“Ah, Miss Rarity, she’s not gone, she’s with us right now,” Rockhoof explained which caused the group to widen their eyes and stare at the big stallion.

“Really?” They all asked getting very curious.

“I think you’ve teased them enough, sweetie,” Meadowbrook said while giving him a peck on the cheek causing the others to squeal.

“Oh, Meadowbrook I’m so sorry dear I didn’t—” but Meadowbrook put her hoof on the mare's mouth.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know you have nothing to be sorry for.” The Pillar of Healing assured.

“Well, I remember when Stygian and I would go and surf on the waves of the many beaches we came across,” Magnus spoke fondly while smiling at the memories he shared.

“Oh, yeah, you two did that a lot didn’t you?” Starswirl asked while turning his head to face Magnus who nodded.

“Yep, he was better than I was of course but It was always fun to hang out with him,” Magnus said.

“Stygian was so smart and would always give me the advantage in battle positions. He and I could talk spells and strategy all day long,” Starswirl entered the fray with a chuckle. The other Pillars chuckled with him.

“True, I still remember you getting into an argument about how you thought it was a better idea to charge towards that Timberwolf while Stygian believed that we could confuse it and land a sneak attack on it,” Magnus said while snickering. “They argued for three hours!”

They laughed while Starswirl blushed in embarrassment and turned away from them.

“I have no recollection of that,” it made the group laugh harder.

“I remember he would always give me to most exotic flowers he could find whenever he was visiting the flower shop or had travelled somewhere. He and I had many conversations about the different kinds and what they could do,” Mistmane spoke with a smile on her aged face.

“Yeah, he was very good with potions!” Meadowbrook spoke with a little glee in her tone. “I remember he would help me whenever I was stressed. He came and helped me with the different options and never once seemed stressed and always helped me with a smile.”

Somnambula remained silent throughout all the stories being told and debated whether or not she wanted to tell a few of her stories. In the end, she decided to join in.

“I always enjoyed Stygian’s company. He was fun and he always cheered me on whenever I needed help. He gave me hope and he made me laugh. I loved spending time with him… I would do anything to have him within my hooves…” Somnambula tearfully spoke. Meadowbrook comforted the pegasus.

The others became silent and continued on their way to Ponyville.

It was clear to everypony there that despite what Stygian had done, the Pillars still cared for Stygian and saw him as a friend while Somnambula saw the unicorn as something much more. The main six could only pray to Celestia that they could find Stygian and end the Pony Of Shadows.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter as always.

CH.4. Somnambula's Memories

When the Pillars and element bearers got back to Ponyville, many couldn’t help but notice the group of mares and stallions that they had never seen before. What struck them as odd was the new group of ponies looked fascinated by everything they saw—as if they hadn’t seen a town before.

Many shrugged it off as ponies who came from the outskirts of Equestria and perhaps were similar to the Crystal Empire—having their own traditions and lifestyles that might have been frowned upon by other ponies within Equestria.

With that, they left them be but many were understandably curious about the newcomers.

Twilight and the girls led the Pillars to the Castle of Friendship and showed them the way to the throne room where Spike was writing inside a book. When he noticed he wasn’t alone, he looked up and waved at the newcomers with a smile.

“Hello Starswirl, I see you’re friends are back safe and sound,” Spike observed and greeted the other Pillars who greeted him with smiles.

Starswirl chuckled with a smile. “Indeed and I couldn’t have achieved it, if it wasn’t for Miss Applejack,” he turned to the mare. “Miss Applejack, you should know that I will be eternally grateful for what you’ve done not just for me but my friends. If you ever need my help, just send me a letter.”

The apple farmer immediately blushed crimson when she heard the old wizard’s words but saw the stares everypony and dragon gave her. “Ah was just following Rockhoof’s orders…” she tried to dismiss.

“Ah, true lassie, but If you never informed Princess Twilight or the other rulers we would still be stuck in Limbo. For all you could have known, that could have been a very realistic dream and I wouldn’t have blamed ye one bit for it.” Rockhoof admitted with a small smile to the farmer. “But it’s a good thing you took it seriously as well—not that I expected you to return us from our imprisonment—this will give us an advantage over our foe.”

Somnambula subtly glared at Rockhoof without the element bearers noticing, but the Pillars felt her glare.

“And how do we hope to defeat our foe?” Somnambula asked using the word of the element she represented. The other Pillars looked at each other, feeling uncertain.

“Well, we have to find out first and foremost where Stygian is before we can make a move on the Pony Of Shadows,” Applejack replied after she recovered from the compliments she received.

“Yeah… that seems logical,” Magnus admitted but there were hints of sadness in them.

Twilight was reading a few scrolls that she had taken from one of the many libraries she had and was reading. While the others were chatting, she was beginning to question if Pony Of Shadows was real or not. The way the Pillars spoke of the Pony, made it seem as though they had battled it or at least faced the creature once upon a time. But… how could it be possible?

Pony Of Shadows was just a myth—legend—wasn’t it? She got lost in thought as she began to think over the many villains she had faced over the years. Nightmare Moon was a great example. She had discovered a prophecy that on the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, the mare on the moon would return to cast eternal night over Equestria. With her friends, she managed to defeat her and discover that Nightmare Moon was Princess Luna, the younger sister of Princess Celestia.

It was a myth—a legend that you told fillies and colts as bedtime stories that they would fall asleep to.

Then there was Discord, the lord of chaos. He brought disharmony upon Equestria and made the ponies throughout the land miserable until the Princesses defeated him and cast him to his stone imprisonment. But when he managed to break free and cause chaos once more, he nearly succeeded in bringing disharmony to the Elements Of Harmony. Luckily, Princess Celestia had anticipated something like that happening and sent all the lessons she’d learned and brought Twilight back to her normal self.

After turning her friends back to their normal selves, they managed to trap Discord inside another stone imprisonment until Princess Celestia freed him so he could be reformed.

While Discord may not have been the same myth and legend as Nightmare Moon, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a legend at all. Because it happened over a thousand years ago, many ponies—including Twilight—believed that it was a story that somepony made up and became popular and that somepony decided to create a statue from the descriptions the books had given.

Then there was the Crystal Empire that Twilight knew nothing about. There had been no books, scrolls, or even philosophers that had ever spoken or written about the empire made from Crystals. Princess Celestia had been the one to inform her of the empire and its history and she—or rather, Spike—saved the empire and became the hero that they essentially worship.

Finally, there was Tirek. Tirek was a centaur that consumed creatures' magic and grew in size and strength. He wasn’t a legend or myth, if anything, he was a creature that was mentioned quite a bit in scrolls from Starswirl himself—who meet Scorpan, Tireks’ younger brother—so it was no legend or myth but a fact.

But no doubt Tirek would be seen as a very dangerous villain and would no doubt end up in the history books and become a legend that way when the centaur passes on.

Having thought about all of this, it did make her wonder if it was possible that Pony Of Shadows wasn’t just a myth and legend but a real villain that once roamed Equestria—and from the sounds of the Pillars—still is out there somewhere, plotting.

“Starswirl,” Twilight called out to the wizard who was sipping a cup of tea given to him by Spike.

“Yes, Princess?” He asked curiously, making the others turn to Twilight.

“I know that this might be a very stupid question but… is the Pony Of Shadows real?” Her question was met with silence in the room.

The Element Bearers were confused and surprised by the question. Did Twilight—who adored Starswirl the Bearded above anything else, par Celestia—question him about the existence of a foe that they had been discussing for hours?

The Pillars were unsure of how to answer the mare’s question but it wasn’t a bad one. Rockhoof didn’t seem surprised by the question but looked sad. He couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded by the actions of his former little brother figure.

‘He wanted to be noticed, but no pony knows about his existence? What is he playing at?’ Rockhoof thought silently.

“Yes, he is indeed real, a very dangerous foe with sinister intentions towards us all,” Magnus replied to the Princesses’ question only to be met with a hoof to his face by none other than Somnambula who looked furious.

“Oh, no, Somnambula! Calm down please dearie!” Meadowbrook yelled while trying to hug the mare who glared at Magnus as if to petrify him. “He didn’t mean it like that I promise, just look at me,”

The Element Bearers were shocked at what they saw. They did not expect the Pillar of Hope to resort to such “brutish acts” as Rarity would say.

Somnambula looked at Meadowbrook who had a kind, sad smile that made her calm down and land on her hooves and stared at Magnus who looked surprised and blinked once, then twice before he soared near the roof of the castle and had a facial expression of a filly who learned Hearts Warming came early that year.

“I can feel pain again!!” He shouted in joy and flew around, much to the Elements Bearers' shock and confusion as he flew around like he found gold.

The other Pillars—including Somnambula—chuckled at his enthusiasm.

“Uh…”

Starswirl chuckled so much that he spilt some tea on his robes. When he noticed the other's stunned expressions he decided to explain.

“You see, Flash Magnus is a soldier through and through and inflicted a lot of pain on himself so he could withstand any attack but that led to some negative consequences that are best not mentioned here. Because of this, he has been desperate to find ways to feel pain but never succeeded. But it seems Limbo… ehm… helped him?”

“Yes, I finally can feel pain! Somnambula please do it again!” He landed before her and bowed like she was a wise mare with all the answers.

“Heavens no! Sorry that I did that… I just…” she lost her words and she looked to the crystal floors of the castle with Meadowbrook comforting her.

They were brought back to the topic and hand and it prompted Twilight to mull over what she had learned. So it was true that Pony Of Shadows was real but did the Pony have sinister intentions?

The lilac-coated mare glanced between Magnus and Somnambula. Magnus had said that the Pony had sinister intentions and in response, Somnambula had punched him, giving the signals that the pegasus didn’t believe that.

This was confusing.

Who was right and who was wrong? She didn’t want to make the Pillar of Hope angry at her but at the same time, she needed all the facts she could get. Rockhoof told Applejack that Pony Of Shadows couldn’t walk among the creatures of Equestria any longer which meant that this Pony had done something so terrible that they felt the need to warn them about him.

Somnambula had said that Pony wasn’t evil, though, so that begs the question of who was right and who was wrong. Twilight looked at her friends and realised that the emotions were too high for today.

When she looked out the window, she saw that it was getting late and suggested that they go to bed. The other Element Bearers decided to stay in the castle and the Pillars were shown different rooms that sat empty. Rockhoof and Meadowbrook would share since they were engaged, Magnus was given an empty bedroom, Starswirl also had an empty room and Somnambula had her room ready but she didn’t go to sleep.

She couldn’t sleep, there was nothing physically that was making her tired and her brain was trying to process everything that had happened.

Sitting at the foot of her bed, she looked at the wooden floors that needed cleaning and thought back to when she would spend time with Stygian. He was so kind, generous, honest, strong and gave hope whenever they needed it. He never gave up on them, not even once when they were close to losing a battle.

Their betrayal felt all the more heart-wrenching to her.

When she’d noticed how the unicorn she loved distanced himself from them, she believed that maybe he wanted to explore or perhaps believed that he had no purpose with them now that they became the Pillars of Equestria and weren’t needed anymore.

The thought terrified her so much that she made it a habit to always hang out with him whenever she had free time. However, even when they were around each other, she felt the distance between them. Nonetheless, he stuck around long enough leading up to the event when he borrowed their artefacts. She had been so distraught and angry.

Somnambula didn’t remember what she felt other than anger and sadness, but when she confronted him, something did seem… off. He looked surprised that they had found him and that is when they spoke the most brutal of words that would chatter any pony’s heart. A lone tear slid down her cheek and landed on the dusty wooden floor.

~~~~The Kingdom Of Darkness~~~~

The moon shined brightly over the beautiful Ponehenge which was a famous architectural site that many creatures—not just ponies—had the pleasure of seeing. Its remarkable beauty came from the carvings of the stones that had once resembled a star if you could fly and look down.

The marble stone was one of the most expensive and sought—stones in the entirety of Equestria. Many ponies and other creatures alike would do anything to have the pleasure of getting their hooves or claws on them.

Sadly only the richest of creatures could af afford it but it didn’t mean that no pony couldn’t admire Ponehenge if it wasn’t for the anger that radiated around it at the very moment.

Currently, the Pillars of Equestria were glaring at a unicorn who wore a brown robe that covered most of his body but not low enough so he would trip on his hooves when he walked or run.

Stygian—up until this point—had been considered a valuable Pillar that had knowledge that fascinated Starswirl, but that fascination had been misplaced. This pony was nothing more than a thief who stole from others for their own benefit. What they couldn’t understand was why he would do something like this.

“STYGIAN!” Starswirl roared at his fellow unicorn. The old wizard was breathing so heavily that smoke came from his nostrils. “How could you do this to us? How can you betray us so easily?!”

Stygian didn’t respond to that because he was never given the time.

“Yeah, how can you do that, huh?! After everything you did to help us, after we took you in… you betray us!?” Magnus was held back by Starswirl’s magic so he would attack the unicorn.

“Well…I just—”

“Save it, Stygian we don’t want to hear it. Obviously, you were trying to trick us from the start which you indeed succeeded with,” Rockhoof cut off and stared at Stygian in disappointment and stomped his hoof in anger. “To think I ever considered you my younger brother,”

Stygian didn’t show it, but he was hurt. He could do nothing but stare at the stone ground in peace.

“How could you do this to us, to Equestria?!” Mistmane looked at Stygian angrily. He didn’t respond immediately.

“I was just—”

“Save it, you filthy villain!” Starswirl roared once more, his anger getting the better of him. “You are no better than the Sirens or any of the villains we have ever faced at all. You wanted to see the power we hold, didn’t you? You wanted to power for yourself like a filthy thief, you’re greed became overwhelmed!”

“I can’t believe I ever considered you a good friend,” Meadowbrook glared at Stygian, the same glare she would use to the villains they faced. Being on the receiving end broke him physically and mentally.

“To think we spent so much time with one another, I cannot believe that you would betray us all. To think you were pretending to be our friend… I hope I never see you again,” Somnambula said.

After hearing those words, Stygian broke down in tears and ran away,

The Pillars angrily grabbed their artefacts and made their way to their castle where they put the objects on their thrones and began to move Stygian’s things.

They didn’t say anything as they removed the objects from his room and placed them inside boxes where they would send them to where he once lived. They had managed to be halfway done, when Meadowbrooks walked into the throne room and was surprised when she saw a book by Stygian’s side of the large table.

Looking around, she saw that the others were out of sight and moved towards the book and realised that it wasn’t a book—it was a journal. Stygian’s journal.

Instantly, she felt anger and wanted to throw it away in one of the boxes, but just as quickly as it’d come, it disappeared and curiosity got to the best of her and she opened the journal and began to read.

The first few pages held about his foal hood and teenage years which slowly switched over to his academic side of things. A few pages in and she was shocked to find how he found the Pillars and pointed them towards their first villains.

The text described all their strengths and weaknesses and what they could have done differently. Stygian also described the appearances of the villains and how they fought and relied on—quick observations.

However, the last few entries started to make Meadowbrook’s heart sink.

Dear Journal

Although I am also a Pillar, the other ponies don’t notice me as much. If anything, they most likely believe I was saved by them as well. My friends are enjoying themselves and I cannot blame them, they have saved the kingdom countless times and deserve to be cherished but what about me? Haven’t I done things that can be considered extraordinary? Well, I suppose being a tactician isn’t as cool as being the one throwing punches but I suppose That’s just how it is.

I am starting to feel lonely…

Meadowbrook heard the others enter the room and noticed what she was reading and began to read out of curiosity.

Dear Journal

I have begun to distance myself from the other Pillars. They seem to have caught on and have started asking questions but I do not know whether it is real or not. What am I saying? Of course, they care about me! They’re my friends, they would never do something to hurt me. They have stood by me whenever I needed them and I have done the same, the loneliness is getting to my head filling me with doubts. But I will admit that I am getting bothered by the amount of attention the other gets while I get none.

Maybe I should borrow their artefacts? No! I will resist the temptation!

The other Pillars started to piece together what this was leading to and their hearts started to sink.

Dear Journal

I just can’t take it anymore. My friends are all famous and cool because they are the ones who fight the villains but they don’t pay attention to me, I normally wouldn’t have been too bothered but they don’t even know me and always look confused whenever I talk to them as if I was part of the team… am I not part of the team? Haven’t I given them vital information that they needed to defeat even the strongest of foes? I will my friends do not ignore me, especially, not sweet Somnambula who I would do anything in the world for.

I have decided to borrow the artefacts to make copies. I do not want their power, instead, I want to use the copies to represent all the Pillars in one. Hopefully, they won’t notice them gone until I’ve created the copies. Maybe I’ll even earn their respect?

The Pillars felt tears well in their eyes and regret for what they had done. They looked at one another, Somnambula looked like a mess, her tears ruining her mascara but she didn’t care.

“We’ve been fools,” Starswirl uttered with a lone tear escaping his eyes and the others nodded in agreement.

“Come on, we gotta find Stygian!” Magnus sounded frantic when he spoke.

Before they could move, however, the doors to the castle opened and inside rushed the unicorn they were speaking of. But before they could even formulate the words they wanted to say they heard a unnatural voice speaking from Stygian’s mouth.

“You banished me from friendship, I’ll banish you permanently!!!” Stygian roared and muttered a chant they didn’t understand. Before they could even move, they were being sucked inside a large portal that led somewhere. Starswirl managed to dodge the spell just in time.

Somnambula was the last one to see Stygian and she saw his natural eyes that hadn’t been there before. His eyes when he spoke had been pure white but nothing felt natural with it. His eyes showed pure hatred and saw him spit on the ground before the portal closed.

~~The Kingdom Of Darkness~~

Somnambula cried silently inside her room and covered her eyes with her hooves as she remembered that hateful stare. She hadn’t believed that Stygian—her Stygian—held such emotion.

But he did, and it was all her fault. If she would have just spoken up about the unfair treatment then none of this would have happened.

Not bothering to get changed or brush her teeth, she cried herself to sleep, praying to the God’s that she could find Stygian again. Even if her lover was the Pony Of Shadows, she only saw Stygian.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. I want to thank every one of you who are reading the story and I hope that you stick for the ride. I will write to you guys next time.

CH.5. Princess Cadance & Pillar Of Hope

Somnambula was abruptly woken up from her slumber. She opened her eyes and scanned the room, trying to find the offending object that had woken her up from a rather nice dream. That’s when she heard it again.

There was somepony knocking.

“Somnambula, dear?” Meadowbrook asked from the other side of the door while pressing her ear against it, trying to listen. “There’s breakfast waiting for you in the kitchen, are you hungry?”

The pegasus got out of bed and stretched before making her way to the door with a small smile on her lips. When she opened the door, she saw that Meadowbrook was already fully dressed.

“Good morning, Meadowbrook slept well?” Somnambula asked kindly with her smile still on her lips.

“Yes I did,” Meadowbrook shared a smile while observing her friends’ body language. “You seem happy, did you have a nice dream?”

Somnambula would normally be very sad because she always thought about Stygian and… that particular day, but she had a lot of happy memories of him. The memories she had of him together with her, memories that only they shared and no pony else felt special to her.

“Yes, I dreamt of Stygian and I getting married,” Somnambula admitted with a smile. The Pillar of Healing had a kind understanding smile and nudged the pegasus playfully.

“Already thinking about marriage?” She chuckled. “Wow, next I hear you were thinking of foals—”

“Oh, I dreamed about that as well,” Somnambula said with a straight face, stunning the earth pony. “Just joking!” The Pillar of Hope laughed.

Meadowbrook couldn’t help but laugh along with her and felt at ease knowing that this was one of Somnambula’s ‘good’ days where she could laugh, joke and smile without it being fake like she had used daily at one point in her life.

But deep down, Meadowbrook knew that Somnambula would never regain that smile. Not without Stygian.

Suddenly, there was a growling noise and Somnambula blushed.

“You said something about food?” She asked with pink cheeks.

Meadowbrook led her to the kitchen where she saw Spike cook their breakfast while Rockhoof was enjoying his coffee along with Magnus who ate a batch of waffles and cereal. When they noticed Somnambula’s mood, they brightened.

“Morning,” Rockhoof and Magnus spoke together.

“Good morning,” the pegasus replied and looked around for Starswirl. “Where’s Starswirl?”

“He’s still asleep,” Magnus responded. “I talked to him before he went to bed and he admitted that… ever since we disappeared that he started to sleep most of the day away and was barely awake. So he probably won’t wake up for another few hours, if even that.”

The others stared at one another in sadness, feeling bad for their friend. He was usually the one who woke up bright and early, even earlier than Rockhoof so to hear that he had been dealing with the pain in a way they had not anticipated broke their hearts.

“Where’s Mistmane?” Meadowbrooks asked while looking around.

“She’s still asleep. She woke up late at night from a nightmare—couldn’t sleep until a few hours ago,” Rockhoof answered making the others feel saddened. They knew what the nightmare was about.

“Here’s your pancakes Somnambula!” Spike said and placed it on the table and began on another batch.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him and grabbed a fork and began to eat. The other Pillars conversed with one another while waiting for the others to wake up. While enjoying her breakfast, she couldn’t help but think about the dream she had.

It had been wonderful, she was being led by Starswirl down the aisle, all the Pillars and Element Bearers were there, and Stygian waited for her by the end of the aisle. Then, Starswirl would be the one who would wed them and they could kiss in front of all their friends. She would wear a white dress and he would wear a black tuxedo or maybe smoking.

Unknown to her, in the present world she had closed her eyes while having a smile to her lips while holding her fork with a piece of waffle on it.

“Somnambula?” Meadowbrook called. The pegasus suddenly awoke and looked around her and smiled at them.

“Uh, yes?” She asked trying to stifle her embarrassment.

“One of the princesses’ are here to see you, her name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” Magnus replied while motioning for the princess who stood in the doorway. Somnambula noticed her and the princess gave a small smile and a wave.

“Good morning, Cadance,” Spike greeted with a smile.

“Good morning Brave and Glorious!” Was her reply. The Pillars looked confused at what they called the dragon but shrugged it off.

“Can I entice you with some waffles, or is it an urgent need?” he asked while showing the waffles.

“It is not urgent, so I’ll join you for breakfast,” Cadance replied and received a plate of waffles with chocolate sauce. Taking her breakfast gratefully, she sat down and began to enjoy her morning.

“So, you’re the newest princess?” Rockhoof asked curiously while taking a swing of his coffee with Meadowbrook beside him.

“Oh, Twilight is the newest alicorn,” Cadance corrected while taking a sip of the tea that Spike had boiled for her.

“Oh, what type of princess are you then?” Magnus asked bluntly, only to receive a hoof to the head. “OW!”

Cadance giggled at the display. “I’m the princess of Love. I’m sure you know Twilight is the princess of Friendship,” they nodded. They were familiar with this.

Somnambula perked up when she heard what type of princess Cadance was. What was her business with Somnambula? Did she know about the love she had for Stygian? She facepalmed, of course, she knew about that, the Element Bearers had shown the memory of the dream Miss Applejack had.

“I suppose you’re here to learn about the love I have for Stygian?” Somnambula asked out of the blue, stopping the chatter they had with one another, even Spike stopped what he was doing to look at the Pillar of Hope.

Cadance swallowed the waffle she had in her throat. “Yes, that is primarily why I’m here, but we can talk about that in private if you want,”

“It’s okay, It’s not a secret exactly, everypony knows about my love for the unicorn. Everypony knows.” The orange-coated pegasus answered while giving a smile but it wasn’t a large one and looked forced.

“Okay… you sure?” Cadance asked while looking at the pegasus with concern. When it involved matters of the heart, it could be very difficult and can easily cloud emotions which could prevent any creature from doing their daily tasks.

“Yes,” she replied with a nod.

“Okay, how did you meet Stygian?” The princess of love asked while sipping her tea.

The Pillar of Hope blushed and made circles with her hoof. “Well, I meet him for the first time when he came with Starswirl to my home kingdom. He had heard of my deed that saved my homeland and had been astonished by my performance. We talked for hours, it was as if we had known each other our entire lives.” Somnambula smiled fondly, the pink on her cheeks diminishing.

Cadance noticed the look and became invested. “Did you ever do anything together other than stop villains?”

“Hm? Oh, yes we did. We read books together, went for walks, and talked. We had plans of travelling together but that stopped abruptly…” She trailed off and everypony and dragon knew what she was getting at.

“It must have been hard for you all these years,” Cadence soothed as best she could. “Not saying that it was easy for you lot,” she quickly rectified.

“Oh, princess, believe us, it has been the most difficult for Somnambula,” Meadowbrook spoke, Magnus and Rockhoof nodded in agreement. “We were afraid that when Starswirl dodged the spell that Stygian would…”

The kitchen became silent. This was one of the things that was always difficult to talk about. The possibility that Starswirl might get killed by Stygian was constantly on their mind. They didn’t want it to happen, but because of how hurtful their words had been… who is to say that Stygian didn’t gain dark thoughts? Especially now, when he had literal darkness on his side.

Somnambula allowed a tear to escape which was noticed by the Pillar of Healing who walked around the table to comfort her and apologised for her wording but the pegasus shrugged it off.

“Sorry, dear I shouldn’t have spoken that last bit,” she said while hugging the mare from behind.

“No, no, Meadowbrook. You’re right, there was—and still is—a large possibility he will do that.” The others felt uncomfortable and saddened by that admission. “I still remember that hateful look in his eye when the portal was closing…”

Without any pony or dragon noticing, a new pony had stepped inside the kitchen and was looking at the table with a saddened gaze.

“I’m sorry, Somnambula,” the others jumped slightly from the new voice and saw Starswirl standing a few feet away from the kitchen table while looking at them with a few tears. “It is all my fault, I should never have jumped to conclusions, I should have listened to him and heard his side of the story. Maybe then, you could have been together with him and had children and grown old together,”

Magnus looked shocked when he saw the old wizard there. Starswirl had said that he had gotten the habit of sleeping away his life and here he was standing early in the morning. Had he curbed his unusual habit in a single night?

The others were shocked over the fact that the old unicorn was blaming himself for what had happened so long ago. He had no reason to blame himself! They were just as guilty for what happened!

“Starswirl…” Somnambula tried but was interrupted by Magnus.

“Hey, you told me you have a sleeping problem—that you sleep away the day and night, how are you up at this hour?!” Magnus asked, gaining deadpanned looks from everypony and dragon.

Starswirl shook off the question. “I know we all had a hoof in it, but I was the one refusing to listen to him so I hold the most guilt.”

“I don’t think you do,” Meadowbrook replied while soothing the pegasus’ back gently while looking over to Starswirl with a small smile. “I am a healer, we healers take oaths to never refuse healing any creature no matter how evil, good, big or small. We never pick sides—even in wars—but I broke my code, I didn’t listen to Stygian which is essentially, breaking my code—I picked a side,”

They were silent from the admission, but Starswirl didn’t look convinced, if anything, he looked guiltier.

“You just proved it was without a doubt my fault.” He said while looking at the floor. “I convinced you all that he had taken them—which he did—but I never asked him why he did it, and when he tried to explain I told him I didn’t want to hear it. I forced you, unknowingly, to pick a side,”

“It’s not you’re fault, Starswirl, I was the one who loved him, I should have been able to see that he would never do something like that without a reason. I should have told you to be quiet and urged him to speak his mind,” Somnambula spoke while picking at her waffles.

Starswirl was about to retort when Spike asked if he wanted breakfast.

“Starswirl, you want breakfast, there are pancakes or waffles?” Spike asked while showing the old wizard the display.

“Oh, I usually don’t eat breakfast but those waffles look appetizing, thank you, Spike,” he kindly spoke and took a seat.

Cadance shot the dragon a grateful look as well as the others who noticed what he had done.

The breakfast continued without a hitch and the Element Bearers still hadn’t gotten out of bed which wasn’t unusual, but it was a bit suspicious of Applejack. Spike had gone to her room but found a note on the front door that she had left for the farm.

They talked to one another, sharing stories and experiences. It was very pleasant but there was one alicorn that wanted to have a question asked, but she didn’t want to dampen the mood so she tried to suppress it the best she could. However, luck wouldn’t be in her favour because Meadowbrook noticed the look the young alicorn had on her face.

“Is something wrong, princess?” She asked while looking worried. Cadance cursed her bad blank expression.

“It’s nothing to concern yourselves with,” she tried half-heartedly but as expected she was met with protests.

“Nonsense princess, you can tell or ask us anything!” Magnus spoke with confidence that showered over to the other Pillars and dragon who were in the room.

Cadance might regret this. She took a deep breath and waited for the backlash.

“I know I’m not the only pony or dragon that noticed that something was amiss. I will ask you all plainly but you do not have to answer.” She told them firmly and glanced at all of them who sported worried looks. “Is Stygian… the Pony Of Shadows?”

The silence itself was the answer. They all froze and felt their blood turn to ice, par Somnambula who didn’t react. If anything, it looked as though she expected the question. No pony or dragon said anything as they waited for something to happen. But the pony who spoke up surprised them.

“Yes,”

Everypony and dragon turned to Somnambula who played with her food. She didn’t seem fazed by the eyes that landed on her. The pegasus met Cadance's eyes and tried her best to not let out a sob.

“After we… kicked him to the curb, he met some sort of entity that is known as Pony Of Shadows. It is so ancient that it was forgotten by the ponies that it had even existed. Stygian—I don’t know how—met the Pony and became… fussed together. He came back to our castle and… banished us to Limbo,” Somnambula’s explanation wasn’t anything new for the other five Pillars, but for Cadance and Spike who had their suspicions, it relieved them but also terrified them that they were right.

“So I was right, he is Pony Of Shadows… Is that why you shouted that he wasn’t evil?” Spike asked while drinking a cup of tea.

Somnambula nodded. “Indeed. Even if the rest of Equestria see him as a monster, he will always be my Stygian—the unicorn I know and love,”

The others smiled sad smiles as they saw Somnambula have a grin, albeit small, grace her lips. However, just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.

“Probably the reason why I shouldn’t try to find him,” she answered to every pony’s shock.

“What?!”

“I would only get in the way,” Somnambula argued. “I would allow my emotions to get in the way. What if Stygian’s hatred is so great that he fires a lethal spell at me while I try to talk to him? I would be a hindrance.”

The others lowered their heads and were ready to believe it until there was a chuckle. They turned to Cadance who had suddenly started to laugh uncontrollably, much to their confusion and Somnambula’s irritation. She laughed for a good minute before she managed to calm down.

“Sorry for laughing, I know it isn’t a laughing matter, but I do not believe you’re emotions will be a hindrance, If anything, it will aid you when you confront Stygian,” Cadance spoke and noticed the surprise glimmer in the pegasus’ eyes. “You see, love and hate are two of the strongest emotions imaginable that know no bounds. You have proven to me that your love has no bounds. Stygian may be the Pony Of Shadows and maybe have done some evil things, but you don’t see that, you still see Stygian, the unicorn you love and want to be with. Your love will help you redeem Stygian.”

Somnambula felt something tugging in her heart when she heard that.

“No offence, princess,” Magnus began, drawing attention to himself. “I do believe every word you just said, but how do you expect us to do that when Stygian has an army that will follow his orders to a T? We can not fight against them. During our time in Limbo, a few soldiers of his ended up there and they told us about Stygian’s kingdom.”

“He rules a kingdom?” Cadance asked surprised, and tilted her head.

“Yes, although, we do not know where exactly. The only thing we do know is that the kingdom is made entirely out of darkness,” the Pegasus warrior explained while stretching his wings. “From the conversations, I had with them, they seem to be very strong and resilient, they won’t be knocked out by a simple hoof to the face.”

Spike looked thoughtful at this.

A kingdom made entirely out of darkness…

“Magnus… I must ask this; was King Sombra—the tyrannical ruler of the Crystal Empire—a subject of Stygian’s?” Cadance looked at Spike, mouth agape at the surprising question.

Starswirl looked thoughtful for a second. “There’s a small possibility that he is. King Sombra’s origins have always been shrouded in mystery no pony has ever seen his cutie mark except for one creature allegedly, a mare named Radiant Hope, but other than her no creature else.”

“King Sombra could have come from Stygian’s kingdom and was dumped in the outskirts of the empire to infiltrate it…”

The Pillars’ eyes widened. Had Pony Of Shadows strategically planned an invasion longer than they had imagined? Had Stygian been using King Sombra as a test?

Cadance realised the severity of the situation and began to write a letter to Celestia and Luna. The potential threat had suddenly become a very dangerous threat to the kingdom of Equestria.

Somnambula’s eyes had widened slightly, but she still didn’t look surprised. The lack of reaction was making Meadowbrook worried.

“Why should we be worried? I mean… we hurt him, shouldn’t we allow him to rule? Maybe I can confess my feelings to him…” Somnambula got lost in her thoughts. The others looked at the pegasus in shock.

“What…?” Meadowbrook whispered out while her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Somnambula! We cannot allow him to hurt other ponies because of what we did! I have no problems with him hating us and even punishing us, but involving other ponies and creatures that have no idea that we once existed isn’t the answer. They shouldn’t have to be punished for something we did,”

Somnambula didn’t reply. She finished the last of her food and got up from her chair and left the kitchen but stopped by the threshold.

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t mind living in darkness if it meant redeeming myself in his eyes,” with those words spoken, she left for her room.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I was meant to get this one out a few days ago, but life got in the way so here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

CH.6. Fortified Defences

After Somnambula had walked away from the kitchen, she had seen the Element Bearers make their way to the kitchen when she greeted them and told them to enjoy their breakfast. She could tell that they looked confused when they had seen her look gloomy but she told them that she thought about Stygian which wasn’t a lie.

Luckily, Applejack wasn’t there to detect that there was missing.

She explored the castle and enjoyed the many different rooms and sceneries it offered. It was fascinating that those seeds she and her friends had planted could turn into this.

The purple crystal walls were adorned with fabric that resembled the Elements Of Harmony and showcased what Somnambula assumed were their battles against different foes over the last few years.

There was a black-coated alicorn being defeated by the six mares. Then there was Lord Discord and she couldn’t help but giggle at this. It seems like her friends’ shenanigans caught up to him. When she continued to glance over she wasn’t surprised to see Queen Chrysalis being defeated by Princess Cadance and who she assumed was her husband. She wasn’t surprised when she saw King Sombra being banished either from the Crystal Empire—his darkness knew no bounds. The final villain she saw was Lord Tirek who she knew was the brother of Scorpan who was once friends with Starswirl.

While looking over at all of this, she couldn’t help but fear what Applejack had said.

“Don’t worry, mah friends and I shall slay the Pony once and for all!”

It didn’t sit well with her. She spoke of Stygian as if he was a monster. Stygian wasn’t a monster, he was just misunderstood! Sure, he had committed acts a villain would do, but every pony has done something like that at least once in their life.

Somnambula should know. She didn’t listen to him when he needed her the most.

What terrified her was that there was a significant possibility that he would end up on one of these pieces of fabric, showing that the Element Bearers defeated Stygian—making him look like any regular villain who had no feelings for other creatures.

The orange-coated pegasus felt a small force of anger rush through her veins. No pony had any right to criticise Stygian. They didn’t know what he had gone through, what the Pillars had done to him, and what led him to become the dreaded Pony Of Shadows that rules his kingdom somewhere outside of Equestria.

Looking away from the fabrics and walking ahead, she followed a red mat that stretched into every room and corner with decorations such as vases and small tables and a few couches to rest.

There weren’t many portraits but did stumble upon a few depicting Equestria during the princesses’ reign. The alicorn sisters stood together, one half depicting the sun and the other moon. There were ponies below them, bowing in respect.

Somnambula smiled. She pictured herself together with Stygian in such a way. Not with ponies bowing, but just her and Stygian smiling together.

There were many times they had been offered to take portraits together, but they never took an opportunity because they didn’t have the time or they were doing different things. The few times they did have time didn’t work due to them wanting to spend time off duty and enjoy themselves.

She hung her head as she trotted to the end of the hallway and turned left.

Somnambula deeply regretted now what she wouldn’t do to look at a portrait with the two of them. It would put some of her mind at ease.

After she felt satisfied with her exploration, she made her way to her room where she lay down in bed and started to think about what to do next. There wasn’t much she could do and after the breakfast, she wondered what the other Pillars thought of her. Did they blame her? Were they suspicious of her?

The latter wouldn’t be surprising. She knew that Stygian had done some terrible things with that entity, but she didn’t know how far those terrible things stretched. For all she knew, he could have gone as far as to wrongfully imprison a creature.

…There was, however, one thing that did worry her.

While the Pillars and Element Bearers may not say it to her for fear of her having a breakdown, she knew deep down that there was a possibility that Stygian had… killed.

She gulped. Somnambula knew there were possibilities of it happening because he was a king of his kingdom, and like many Kings with egos, they tend to erase the “unfit” creatures that didn’t fit into their ideal society.

Somnambula didn’t know if Stygian had ever gone so far, or if he will, but it was a possibility they will have to consider. She sighed and turned over to smash her face against the pillow.

“How can I help Stygian if I’m only a hindrance to the others?” She asked herself with a frown. She wasn’t convinced by Princess Cadances’ explanation that Stygian liked her as well and would listen to her.

The hatred from that day was burned into her memories like a tattoo, a reminder of what she and the others had done and spoken of him. How could he like her the same way she did, when he hated her for what happened to him? There was no way he would ever listen to her. It was sad, but it was reality.

Slowly, Somnambula began to fall asleep, the darkness enveloping her in a tight hug. Just before she could drift off, however, there was a knock on her door. Mentally groaning, she got off the bed and trotted to the door.

“Who is it?” She called out while rubbing her eyes with her hoof.

“It’s me, Mistmane, can I come in?” Mistmane asked kindly. Somnambula opened the door which revealed her aged friend who looked at the orange-coated pegasus in concern.

“Good morning, Mistmane,” Somnambula smiled kindly. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I did,” the mare replied with a smile of her own but the worried look soon came back to her eyes. “But I heard that you had an… episode this morning, are you alright, dear?”

Somnambula sighed and urged her friend inside and closed the door quietly behind the unicorn mare. Mistmane sat on the floor and Somnambula took her place, facing the mare with the rare mane and tail that flows similar to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

“I had a good sleep this morning,” Somnambula began and had a small smile that Mistmane took notice of. “It… was a dream but I hope that it becomes real someday. It was the wedding of Stygian and I.”

Mistmane giggled with her hoof to her mouth. “I can imagine why you had good sleep, It’s your biggest dream isn’t it?”

Somnambula nodded her head. “Yeah, Princess Cadance came for breakfast—which I’m sure you noticed—” Mistmane nodded her head. “She had questions about Stygian and I and I replied to all of them but then came the question about the identity of the Pony Of Shadows,”

Mistmane winced.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt you, dear,” Mistmane reasoned while stroking Somnambula’s arm with her hoof.

“Oh, no, she didn’t insult me I…” the pegasus lowered her head. “...said something I shouldn’t have,”

When the tears in her eyes welled up, Mistmane was about to move over but the pegasus held up her hoof.

“I… when they spoke about the Kingdom Stygian rules, I started to feel the dark thoughts cloud my mind and I… I told them that I wouldn’t mind living under his rule if it meant redeeming myself in his eyes,” Somnambula admitted and sobbed, embracing Mistmane who still had a hoof stretched.

“Oh, Somnambula dear, none of this is your fault. It’s the sadness that grabbed a hold of you,” Mistmane soothed. “I cannot guarantee that we will ever earn his forgiveness, but I promise you that I will do everything I can to help Stygian turn away from the darkness.”

Despite her generous words, Somnambula couldn’t help but feel as though they were empty—like they were empty promises. She didn’t voice this, it would be completely unjustified after the unicorn had gone out of her way to listen and talk to her.

“I hope so, I still remember the look he gave me,” Somnambula spoke while allowing her tears to fall.

“I know sweetie, I know,” Mistmane replied.

After Somnambula was finished with her crying, she went over to apply more mascara while Mistmane checked her mane and admired it. She was one of the very few ponies in old and new Equestria that had a flowing mane, this was something she took great pride in.

“Are the others… unhappy with me?” Somnambula carefully asked while feeling shame overcome her when she realised what she had said and done.

“No, they’re just worried about you, Rockhoof wanted to check on you but I suggested that perhaps you needed some ‘mare time’ so I came here,” Mistmane spoke while observing the pegasus. “Princess Celestia and Luna are here, I saw Meadowbrook speak with them along with Princess Twilight,”

“No doubt to send me to an institution!” Somnambula tried to joke but saw the disapproving gaze of Mistmane. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, you’re trying to deal with the pain… but in the wrong way,” Mistmane admitted

“Yeah…” the orange-coated mare gave herself a once-over before she was satisfied and trotted to the throne room together with Mistmane while talking about their worries such as their home—particularly if their homes were still existing and standing or if they had vanished through time.

When they reached the throne room, they saw the Element Bearers sitting on their thrones while a white-coated alicorn with a rainbow-flowing mane and tail spoke with an elegant voice. She was facing Princess Twilight and Meadowbrook while the others chatted animatedly with one another. The second alicorn was a dark-blue-coated mare with a mane flowing but with stars shining in them. The alicorn with the star-flowing mane spoke with Magnus about something, the pegasus looked relaxed and calm which was unlike him in many ways.

Because of his soldier background, he was always stiff and saw anything and everything as enemies. That was before he met Stygian and joined the Pillars, but even if he had gained a few friends, he was still stiff. Now, however, he seemed relaxed as if there was nothing to worry about.

Rainbow Dash was sitting beside the stallion while she listened to whatever he was speaking of.

Rarity and Applejack—who had finished her chores at the farm—were speaking with Rockhoof and Starswirl.

“I don’t think I have ever seen him this relaxed,” Somnambula commented while watching the soldier pegasus speak with the Princess of the night.

“Yes, I agree,” Mistmane observed. “I wish he would relax more, that stiffness cannot be good for his muscles,”

Without warning, a third voice spoke up. “I agree, I have tried to tell him he needs to relax but he never listens to me,”

The unicorn and pegasus jumped. They turned and saw Meadowbrook who had the decency to blush. “Sorry dears, I didn’t mean to frighten you,”

“It’s okay Meadowbrook,” Mistmane replied while holding a hoof to her heart. “I think my heart is falling back to the right place,”

Somnambula looked down to the floor and circled the beautiful crystal. “Listen, Meadowbrook—”

“I forgive you,” Meadowbrook replied shocking the pegasus who hadn’t even begun her speech. “I know you had another… episode.”

At that comment, Somnambula hung her head but was surprised when she felt a pair of hooves hug her. She knew the strength belonged to Meadowbrook. The hug lasted a while until the hooves went away. The Pillar of Healing smiled at the orange-coated pegasus.

“I know you miss him, we all do, but…” Meadowbrook looked down, unsure of what to say to the heartbroken mare. “...we cannot allow any pony to suffer the consequences over something we did. It happened over a thousand years ago. I read a few books about us and there is only very small mention of him. It only said he brought us together and that he was an academic and then disappeared—essentially,”

“...And when and If he invades, the ones deserving of it would have perished from the age of time,” Somnambula answered which gained her surprised looks, but they nodded in agreement.

“Yes,” Meadowbrook replied. “...But I do understand why you would have been okay with it,” this gained a startled look from the Pillar of Hope. “I too, feel guilty. If living under darkness would have been redemption in his eyes, I would have willingly lived in his Kingdom. But we can’t. You saw that… parchment we received, we cannot allow Pony Of Shadows to potentially invade Equestria and enslave all creatures living here,”

Somnambula lowered her head. “I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that he would enslave any creature,” her words didn’t hold anger or malice, just… sadness. Sadness that belonged to a broken mare.

Mistmane hugged the pegasus. “You have every right to, we don’t know for sure if the Pony would or will do something like that, but we cannot ignore what the parchment says,”

“...I know, I am willing to admit that Stygian may have… killed… some pony or creature, but enslaving them is…” Somnambula couldn’t find the right words, or rather, refused to say them due to fear gripping at her like claws from w feathery-winged creature.

Both the Pillars of Beauty and Healing looked at the mare, stunned by what she had said. They never would have believed that Somnambula would say—willingly—that Stygian may or may not have killed. Whenever they would say that specifically Rockhoof or Magnus, she was the first pony to throw a punch.

When she saw the shocked expression, she flashed them a sad smile. “I just have to learn to accept the truth. There is a possibility that he has… done such an act. A thousand years is a long time,”

“Indeed,” replied a voice making the mares turn towards Princess Luna who had trotted up to them, speaking just as elegantly as her sister but with a small hint of harshness but in a beautiful way. “A thousand years is a very long time. Many ponies lose to insanity after living over a hundred years—and I don’t speak of old age and disease,”

The three mares glanced at Starswirl who was now sitting down and drinking tea while sporting a gloomy look on his facial features.

“It must have been difficult for him,” Meadowbrook spoke with sadness while wiping a tear from her eye. “Living a thousand years, seeing his loved ones age up and perish before his eyes while not being able to move on to the next life. Any pony would turn insane.”

Princess Luna nodded while also sporting a look of grief.

“He was Celestia and I’s mentor, he taught us everything we knew, without him we would be lost… but I became lost down the road anyways,” She looked guilt-ridden and ashamed. “But today isn’t about the past, today is about the defences.”

“Defences?” Meadowbrook tilted her head.

Luna sighed. “Due to the potential threat of the Pony Of Shadows, we have no choice but to increase our defences. We have strong royal guards, but they have never faced a genuine kingdom that is a threat and I am ashamed to say; I am a little embarrassed by them,”

Mistmane wasn’t sure what to feel about that. “What do you mean ‘feel embarrassed by them’?”

“I mean what I said; I feel embarrassed by the fact they are royal guards. They carry Celestia and I’s seal on their chest and yet, they are easily defeated by the foes we’ve had to face. On one hoof it’s good because it means there’s peace, but on another hoof, it’s bad because they will get lazy and never need to use their weapons. So when the enemy comes…”

They understood what the Princess meant.

“So, what are the precautions you will be taking?” Meadowbrook curiously asked while looking over at the other ponies and dragon, in the room chatting and drinking beverages.

“We are just about to discuss it now,” Luna said and trotted away from them and approached her sister and whispered something into the older alicorn’s ear. Princess Celestia turned to face all the ponies and dragon, in the room and called out to them with the help of a spell, drawing their attention to her. When she had their attention, she cancelled the spell and smiled at them.

“Thank you all for being here, first of all, I want to congratulate the Pillars of Equestria for their escape from Limbo. I cannot imagine having to suffer such a terrible fate.” The Pillars looked gloomy at the mention of their former predicament. “I also want to thank Applejack for being brave and giving the warning to her friends even if it was just a very realistic dream.” The Apple farmer blushed at the compliment. “Finally, I want to thank the Pillars once again, for warning us of the Pony Of Shadows, I do not know who this Pony is or were, but I will assure you all, that my sister and I, shall find a way to help aid you in battle. I am willing to step off the throne and join in battle if need be.”

This caused a lot of gasps throughout the room, mainly from the new Element Bearers and Twilight. The Pillars and Starswirl didn’t seem too surprised, but that could be because it was the first time seeing her—par Starswirl.

Luna was another pony who didn’t seem surprised by this, but it could be because she was already informed of Celestia’s decision.

“What?! But princess! You are one of the rulers of Equestria! You’re too important to join a battle!” Twilight reasoned, her expression still holding a shocked look.

Celestia quirked a brow at her. “How am I, ‘too important to join a battle’? Last I checked, Princess Twilight Sparkle, it was my sister and I, that had no choice but to face the villains you have faced over the years. We had no choice but to fight them hoof to hoof or claw. So why would now be any different than it was a thousand years ago?”

The others felt the tension rising in the room, Princess Cadance, who had hidden herself in the back of the room out of view from them couldn’t help but frown at her aunt and sister-in-law.

She understood both sides of the story. Twilight wanted to protect Princess Celestia due to not having faced a battle in the last thousand years. Celestia, though, knows how to take care of herself and fight, so Twilight saying that she was ‘too important’ made it seem like Celestia either A had gotten lazy or B had never fought a day in her life which wasn’t true.

“Sister, she didn’t mean to insult you,” Luna tried to calm her sister while looking over at Twilight who had flinched at her mentors’ tone.

“Insult her…? I didn’t insult her! I… I simply believe that she shouldn’t deal with this because…” Twilight trailed off and looked at her friends who gaped at her.

They had never seen or heard of Twilight disagreeing with Princess Celestia. Ever. This was new to them and she was showing a side to themselves that they weren’t sure they liked. At least she didn’t mean to insult or be rude.

“Because what?” Celestia prompted while looking directly at Twilight who was still looking at her friends.

“...because you haven’t battled in over a thousand years…” Twilight had turned to meet Celestia’s gaze for a split second before lowering her head, admitting why she didn’t want to see the Princess of the Sun in battle.

The room was deathly silent. It was so quiet, a graveyard could have been Pinkie Pie’s loudest party. The Element Bearers and the Pillars were wise for keeping quiet, mostly for fear of adding fuel to the fire. Starswirl wanted to intervene, but he was only the mentor of Celestia and Luna, even then, he held no authority over what his former students did with their students.

Princess Luna kept her blank face in place while sipping on tea as she watched her sister also sport the blank look. Cadance, who was still hidden from view now understood Twilight’s reasonings but she didn’t agree with her sister-in-law.

“Warrior skills are not something you forget easily,” Magnus murmured to himself but everypony and dragon heard him. They turned to face him, but Celestia didn’t stop looking at Twilight.

“Certainly not, it would take many moons before all those skills are forgotten, even then, the brain can still remember the patterns so you can relearn easily,” Luna spoke with some pride, being the most prominent warrior of the two sisters.

“Yes, I agree,” Celestia said curtly, making the room flinch par Luna who was used to that way of speaking.

“Look, Princess—” Twilight tried but was interrupted by a raised hoof from Celestia.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia began making the lilac-coated mare sweat. “I understand why you are worried and have every right to be, but I am not above any pony or creature. I am just as killable as any pony or dragon in this room. The difference, however, is that I do have experience in battle. I have fought many wars—big and small and have either come out victorious or licked my wound and pride. I wouldn’t suggest joining a battle or war If I didn’t believe it warranted it.” Twilight felt her heart beat faster and her stomach was rolling. “This, for the first time in a thousand years, warrants my battle armour,”

The other ponies and dragon gulped, even Luna.

“Yes Princess Celestia, sorry about earlier,” Twilight apologised with a bow.

Somnambula was intrigued by the fact the royal sisters were warriors. Had they fought against King Sombra? Maybe they had maybe they hadn’t. But it was fascinating that two royals could fight like warriors it made her think about Stygian. Had the unicorn she knew and loved been training his warriors? Was he a warrior?

There was the sound of fake coughing which made Somnambula lose her daydream and was brought back to reality and saw Celestia look over at them once more.

“With that out of the way,” Celestia eyed Twilight. “I would like to inform you all that there will be a major increase in military activity. There will be bases all over Equestria, even in the most dangerous of areas,” the others looked shocked. This was no joking matter. “Because of the heightened activity, I must apologise, there will naturally be an increased tax rate which I know will bother a lot of ponies.” The Element Bearers grimaced and looked a bit annoyed. “But this will only be until we have cleared the threat of the Pony Of Shadows, I do not know how long the increased tax and military activity will last, it could be five weeks, months or even years.”

Somnambula fidgeted in her seat while Meadowbrook spoke soothing words into her ear.

“Princess Celestia?” Rainbow Dash asked while her hoof raised while she hovered in the air.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?” The princess asked while motioning for her to continue.

“Well, I was just wondering if you planned on sending any pony out on a search party,” Rainbow asked which gained her a confused look. “I mean, shouldn’t we try to locate the Pony Of Shadows? We know he has an army and If he has an army there is a chance—but isn’t guaranteed—that Pony Of Shadows rules a Kingdom of some kind. If we know where he resides, then we can observe them,”

Everypony and dragon stared at Rainbow Dash blankly. It was a good idea, but… it was risky.

“Well, he does have a Kingdom, lassie,” Rockhoof confirmed with a nod in her direction. “But we don’t know where it’s located, and even if we did know, it would be far too dangerous to venture into enemy territory.”

Somnambula was about to scoff but held back.

“And there is also a major possibility that we’ll be killed due to Pony’s orders,” Somnambula said, getting the urge to speak after holding back a scoff. The Pillars—par Mistmane—looked surprised by this. She was the last pony they believed would say it.

“...Yes that is something we also have to consider,” Magnus acknowledged while stretching his wings that had grown stiff.

Princess Celestia would admit that she never once thought about sending any pony or creature to find the hidden Kingdom. Now though, because Rainbow Dash had pointed out something that could be of use to not just her, but the Equestrian Kingdom as a whole, she was considering sending a few troops just to look over the Kingdom… if they can find it.

“Miss Rainbow Dash,” Celestia called, grabbing every pony and dragon’s attention with her elegant voice. “I will admit, I never thought of sending any creature out because… well because of fear. You see, what would happen If I send troops that get lost or caught by a Kingdom that has nothing to do with Pony? We could make the mistake of thinking that they are the Kingdom Of Darkness and go to war with them only to later find out that it wasn’t them. How do you think they would perceive Equestria?”

Almost all ponies and dragon nodded. Almost.

“Princess Celestia,” the old sorcerer in the room called out, making every pony and dragon face the bearded wizard. “No offence to you, but you are looking at a worst-case scenario that may or may not be likely to happen. What you’re describing is a very big mistake that can cost more than repair.”

The hidden Cadance nodded her head in agreement, what her aunt described was a little… extreme.

Celestia for her part, looked thoughtful before she adopted a sheepish look. She had jumped to the worst-case scenario.

“Thank you, mentor, for keeping me grounded,” Celestia spoke with gratitude. “Or try to,”

Starswirl chuckled. “My pleasure,”

“But as it stands, it is a possibility, but that is the outcome I pray to the God’s won’t happen. I meant what I said earlier, I am indeed afraid of Pony Of Shadows because I have never fought against such a creature before.” Celestia admitted to them with her head hung low.

Luna took this chance to speak up. “I for one, am more terrified of you’re former friend, mentor. Was it, not Stygian who managed to cast a spell that sent the rest of the Pillars to Limbo?”

The Pillars grew uncomfortable under the princesses’ gaze. Her look held no emotion or scrutiny, but it held power. The only one not fazed was Starswirl.

“Yes, that is indeed true, however, I don’t know if you remember this; there were no laws against such spells back then, him casting them into Limbo wasn’t illegal because there were no laws of the sort back then. Today, I’m sure there have been law changes.” The sorcerer explained.

Luna didn’t look or seem satisfied with the explanation, but she didn’t object or refute his claims.

“How about a vote?” Spoke a voice they had forgotten was there. They turned their gaze towards Cadance who was hidden in the corner and observed them with interest. “If the majority vote to stay in Equestria, we’ll stay here and prepare the rest of the defences. If the Majority vote to find the Kingdom Of Darkness, then the Pillars, Element Bearers and Spike shall venture out and search for the Kingdom that has been under our radar for who knows how long,”

The Pillars looked at one another, holding conversations with their eyes. Somnambula didn’t hear the end of Cadance’s speech before she made up her mind on finding Stygian’s kingdom. The Element Bearers looked uncertain whether they should go or not.

Princess Celestia and Luna liked the idea and decided to vote for the decision. Celestia ordered to raise their hooves for those who wanted to stay in Equestria. Princess Celestia, Luna and Twilight raised their hooves at this with a hoof from Fluttershy and Rarity. When they voted for trying to find the Kingdom, the majority had their hooves and claw up, signalling that they would search for the kingdom.

“Okay, because you succeeded with the voting, the ones that want to find the Kingdom shall find it.” Celestia declared with formality in her voice which made them nod in agreement. That was fair.

“Now, I must excuse myself, but I am needed back in Canterlot. I will be making preparations for the potential threat. Princess Twilight, can I trust that you set up a base of operations for the royal guards?” Celestia asked, turning her head to the lilac-coated mare that nodded.

“No problem, Princess, consider it done,” Twilight fidgeted slightly. She couldn’t tell if the Princess was still upset with her or if she had moved past it.

“Thank you, Luna, I shall see you in Canterlot,” Celestia said and walked out of the throne room, leaving the rest behind her. Luna had bowed when Celestia passed her.

Somnambula observed as the princess left, leaving them behind to chat and come up with other ideas they need. First things first, they needed a map, which they had in the throne room, the same room they were in right now. With it, they could potentially find out where Stygian might be holed up.

The orange-coated pegasus trotted up to the map and observed the many different towns and cities she had heard of and was glad still existed and then there were others she had never heard of.

The towns and cities she had never heard of held her interest for a while until her eyes traced the outlines of the map, trying to find the different Kingdoms outside Equestria which wasn’t difficult to do. She saw the Crystal Empire, Yakyakistan, Griffinstone, the Dragon Lands and Badlands.

‘I will find you, Stygian,’ Somnambula thought as she looked over to a far reach of the map. The others didn’t see it, but there was a small circular mist covering the small piece.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. By far, this is the longest chapter but there will be more chapters to come so go and look forward to that. I will write to you guys next time.

CH.7. "Secret" Revealed

Somnambula was sitting crossed-legged on the floor with her eyes closed breathing in and out, slowly. Meditation had been a big part of everyday life in her homeland. It was so common, that they were always surprised that other creatures didn’t know about it.

Being raised to meditate for hours a day, Somnambula couldn’t help but feel the need to do it. It wasn’t as if she was forcing herself to do something she didn’t want. It was a habit from her foalhood that would never die, no matter how hard she would try.

However, while she was meditating, she couldn’t help but see distorted images of Stygian. Distorted images showed hatred towards her.

Inside her mind, she stood a few feet away from Stygian. She felt relief seeing him in his wonderful state, the unicorn she had fallen in love with. He smiled at her. The same smile that made her tummy roll. She smiled widely and was about to run over to hug him when she noticed something peculiar.

The darkness around them wasn’t… normal.

She knew her eyes were closed but something about this darkness felt unnatural. She looked past Stygian but saw nothing. Just endless darkness that didn’t have a beginning or an end.

She looked above her. Same thing as before.

Somnambula looked over to Stygian again and almost shrieked. Stygian still stood in place, but instead of a smile was a sadistic grin that stretched disturbingly far on his face. His teeth were visible with sharp teeth and some drool leaking from his mouth.

Slowly from beneath him, a shadowy mist emerged like a small tornado and latched onto Stygian and slowly consumed him all the while, Stygian was grinning wider. His eye colour and pupils began to disappear, being replaced by the pure white menacing look that terrified her every night.

His horn was replaced by a longer, sharper horn that could cut bone like butter. To add a final touch to the distorted image, ‘Stygian’ showed a pair of skeletal wings with no feathers on them.

“You banished me from friendship, I’ll banish you permanently!!” The distorted Stygian shouted and cast a spell on her.

Somnambula screamed at the top of her lungs and looked around her room. A few seconds later, the Pillars and Element Bearers busted down the door, Rockhoof in charge with his trusty shovel and looked all around the room.

“What’s going on, lassie?!” He demanded while looking all over the room for an intruder. Meadowbrook kneeled before Somnambula and embraced her in a hug.

“I…I…” She didn’t know what to speak. Rockhoof calmed down while he looked to his fiance and friend hugging, waiting for the Pillar of Hope to speak.

Somnambula saw the concerned faces of all her friends and Element Bearers. She knew she couldn’t play it off as nothing. With a heavy heart, she told them what happened.

“I was meditating when I began to think of Stygian. Everything was normal at first, but I started to look around the darkness and realised that it didn’t feel natural. I looked past him and above me, but I couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. I stared back at Stygian and I shrieked. I saw a grin on his face, not a kind grin, a very… disturbing grin. Later I saw a dark mist in the form of a small tornado latch onto him and turned him into the… Pony Of Shadows!”

Somnambula began to sob into Meadowbrooks shoulder who could only hug her. She allowed a few tears to fall. The other Pillars lowered their heads.

Because of them, not only did they ruin Somnambula’s chances of love, but they also indirectly turned Stygian into an evil King. Magnus landed on his hooves and trotted away from Somnambula’s room which went unnoticed by all except Mistmane who followed him.

The Element Bearers were worried for the Pillar of Hope, especially Pinkie Pie who trotted forward and hugged the mare with such gentleness that it could rival Fluttershy. The room was silent as the orange-coated pegasus cried her eyes out.

When Somnambula calmed down she wiped away her tears. Her eyes were red a puffy she looked over to her saddle bag that was packed and ready. Could she really do this? Was she ready to find Stygian and confront him?

She mentally slapped herself. Of course, she was ready! She didn’t spend a thousand years in Limbo just to come out and not even see Stygian all because she grew a little emotional.

“Sorry about that,” She murmured quietly. “It was just my imagination. I seem to be out-of-touch with meditation.”

“Hey, it’s not you’re fault, it could have happened to any pony or dragon,” Meadowbrook soothingly said.

“She’s right, las, you shouldn’t feel ashamed of yerself simply because you saw a distorted image from yer imagination. I’ve had a few of them back in the day,” Rockhoof unashamedly admitted.

Somnambula smiled slightly. She knew her friends were right, but she gave them a false alarm. They thought that she was in danger.

“I know, but I screamed so loud you must have thought Pony Of Shadows had come to kidnap me or something,” Somnambula said while she hung her head. “But I wouldn’t have minded if it happened.” She murmured so no pony would hear.

“If you want dear, I can brew you a dreamless potion if you need it?” Meadowbrook suggested while rubbing her hoof on the pegasus’ back.

“Oh, no, we just packed I don’t want you wasting ingredients on me,” Somnambula tried but failed to convince the healer who smiled sadly at her.

“Dear, the potion isn’t difficult to mix, it is a very quick one compared to others. I’ll have a batch ready in twenty minutes. Besides, we’ll need it for the travel.” Meadowbrook said and looked over to the other ponies and dragon in the room who nodded in agreement.

Somnambula noticed that Twilight was looking at her with a tilted head. One of confusion.

“Somnambula, why would you think that Stygian would be the Pony Of Shadows, or is it a horrible thought?” The alicorn asked with her head still tilted.

Pinkie and Spike stared at her in disbelief while Fluttershy looked a bit scared. Rainbow and Applejack stared at her incredulously. Now wasn’t the time to ask such a question, it was insensitive.

“Do you honestly not know?” Spike asked with a little sarcasm that accidentally seeped into his voice and crossed his arms.

“Yeah, Twilight, by now you should have found out the truth it’s clear as day already. There are six chapters of this fanfiction and you’ve solved mysteries with far less!” Pinkie pointed out while pulling out a cupcake from her mane and popped it inside her mouth.

They stared at her in confusion and she facepalmed. “Sorry, I meant seven counting this one,”

Twilight didn’t know how to respond to that so she shrugged it off. “Well, would you care to enlighten me?” She asked and looked to Spike.

Somnambula bit her lower lip. She knew that this conversation would happen sooner or later but she had hoped to wait a bit so she could reveal it but now she was backed into a corner. It wasn’t as if she was trying to hide the information from them, but it was getting difficult when they continued to talk more and more about Pony Of Shadows and Stygian as separate entities.

…Well, to some extent, they are.

Somnambula saw that Spike was about to respond but she spoke quickly and loudly before the secret was revealed. “What he means is that the answer is obvious.”

Everypony and dragon turned to her with confusion. The Pillars were surprised by her response. ‘Is… she going to say it?’ Starswirl thought with shock.

Twilight quirked a brow. “What do you mean?”

Somnambula took a deep breath. “The answers you seek are right in front of you. In the memories I grew angry at Miss Applejack for stating that only evil creatures could corrupt the seeds of friendship The Pillars and I had planted so long ago. I said; ‘Stygian is not evil!’ and when we got to the topic of Pony Of Shadows, I subtly glared at Rockhoof for speaking of the Pony in such a way. When Miss Applejack said she would slay the Pony, I shouted ‘No don’t hurt him, he’s not evil!!’ Why would I say that?”

There was silence in the room. You could hear a pin drop. Rockhoof, Meadowbrook and Starswirl looked to the floor as guilt flooded them like a river. The Element Bearers looked a bit surprised but soon, Twilight and Applejack felt their stomach flip.

“Wait you’re saying…” Twilight couldn’t finish her sentence. She prayed to Celestia she was wrong.

Somnambula hid her expression behind her bangs. “You do not learn magic that quickly—sending ponies into Limbo.”

The Element Bearers gasped, except Rainbow Dash who looked at them confused.

“Uh, I’m missing something,” she said while looking around. Rarity was the one that replied.

“Darling, the Pony Of Shadows is… Stygian,” the fashionista now understood why the Pillar of Hope always looked guilty. It wasn’t just that she failed as a friend and love interest, but she felt guilty for losing that pony to something so… dark.

Rainbow Dash looked confused for a split second before her pupils turned to pinpricks. “Wait… the Pony Of Shadows is real and Stygian is the threat we’ve been discussing?”

Somnambula noticed how the purple-scaled dragon grabbed the side of his head in frustration and walked out of the room. She could have sworn she heard him mutter along the lines of; “never listening” and “head filled with air,”

She took note of Pinkie Pie—the pony who represented her Element in modern Equestria—being in a similar state of mind. She, however, voiced her complaints.

“I told you so!” She shouted with a large smile causing everypony to stare at her in wonder.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked while trying to process the information they just learned.

“I told you that Stygian was the Pony Of Shadows, I told you and voiced my theories but no! You just came up with excuses—but I’ll admit, they were good and believable—and never once took into consideration that there was a possibility that Stygian was the Pony Of Shadows!” Pinkie ranted while pulling out a milkshake from who-knows-where. “I told you so!”

Twilight and the other Element Bearers pondered on what the pink-coated mare had said. While it was true that the mare had spoken of the possibility that the unicorn was the dreaded Pony that haunted the lands of Equestria at one period in time, they believed that the Pony was a mere myth.

Twilight started to feel guilty when she realised that she never once considered that it was a possibility, always stating that it was a myth and legend. She had fought myths and legends before, hadn’t she? She had faced Nightmare Moon, Discord, King Sombra and Lord Tirek. All of them were believed to be mere myths that never existed. Yet, Twilight and her friends battled against them and won. Discord was even close to ending friendship throughout the land but they pulled through in the end.

Why was it difficult for her to believe that the Pony Of Shadows existed once?

Grogar was a villain from ancient Equestria and there were countless stories of him and depictions of his evil-doing from that time, many scholars are convinced that he roamed Equestria once—Twilight included—but that he either was dead or was trapped somewhere.

If Grogar was believed to have existed, and Twilight believed he existed, then why couldn’t she believe Pony also roamed Equestria?

Somnambula decided that they had pondered long enough. “To be fair, Miss Pie, the fault also rest in my friends and I, for not saying that the two ponies are one and the same.” She admitted. “I should have told you from the start but I never did and for that, I’m sorry.”

Pinkie Pie smiled at her gently and hugged her. “It’s alright, It’s not easy speaking about the one you love as a villain.”

The orange-coated pegasus agreed wholeheartedly.

“Alright, are we all ready to go?” Asked a voice in the hallway which revealed to be Magnus who had returned with Mistmane who looked at the orange-coated pegasus with concern.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, we’re ready but where will we go?”

They all knew that they needed to reach the outskirts of Equestria if they wanted to find the Kingdom, but they had not agreed on where they should start looking. Badlands were a great place to start which they agreed on, but they didn’t agree on which directions they should take.

“Well, we could go to a town called Kludgetown,” Starswirl replied while stroking his beard while thinking. “It is an unsavoury town I will admit, but you can learn many things there information-wise.”

They looked at the old wizard in surprise. He was the last pony on earth they expected to enter an “unsavoury” town. He was the definition of anti-dark magic, and here he just told them that he had been there. Or at least, knew where it was and knew they could learn information there.

“Wow, the great and powerful Starswirl went to a shady town,” Magnus commented and then grinned a playful grin. “Are you a dark wizard now?”

Starswirl rolled his eyes. “Haha, very funny. Avada Kedavra!” He loudly spoke the last words.

The ponies there looked at Starswirl confused while Twilight jumped with her hooves in her mouth, trying to conceal her squeal as best she could.

“Ohmigosh!! Ohmigosh!! That’s from Harry Trotter!” Twilight explained with a little excitement.

“Indeed it is, I take it you’ve read them?” Starswirl asked with a large grin, happy that at least one pony understood the joke.

“Oh yes, I read all seven of them!” Twilight excitedly explained. “Fifty-three times!” She added with some glee.

“Well,” Somnambula interjected awkwardly. “That’s nice and all, but shall we get going or do we need to wait?”

Blushing in embarrassment, Twilight nodded her head. “Yes, and I believe we can all agree that Kludgetown will be our first stop to find information. Sound good to everypony and dragon?”

Everypony nodded their heads and Twilight turned to find Spike but did not see him anywhere. “Has anypony seen Spike?”

“Yeah, he left a few minutes ago in irritation,” Pinkie answered usefully as she balanced on a ball she found who-knows-where and looked at Twilight while she stood on her front hoof while the rest of her was balancing.

“Thanks,” the alicorn spoke gratefully and left the room to fetch her best friend and number one assistant.

The other ponies in the room conversed while Somnambula gained a distant look in her eye. Meadowbrook noticed and waved a hoof near her face but the orange-coated pegasus was unresponsive.

The others saw what the Healer was doing and looked at her in question until they saw Somnambula’s distant look and became worried.

“I wonder how Stygian is doing?” Somnambula rhetorically asked and got up from the floor and trotted to her saddlebags and placed them on her back. She walked over to the window and looked out to see the birds sing their songs and ponies go about their day, not a worry in the world about what was happening outside the kingdom of Equestria.

“I wonder what his military is like. Sure, I spoke to a few that were sent to Limbo, but I wonder who disciplined his military is? They may follow his orders to a T, but how good are they in a conflict?” Magnus spoke excitedly about the possibility of seeing the army he sort of felt depressed but excited because his former friend had created them.

“I’m sure that they are the same as any army around Equus, Magnus,” Starswirl answered with wisdom and patted his friend on the back with a smile. “Although, I will admit, I am too, interested in seeing his military.”

“I wonder if they have good medicine? If not, I can always try and make as many batches as possible and give it to them. Being a Healer, I’ve taken oaths to never pick a side in a conflict and In this regard I will not.” Meadowbrook admitted and hung her head. “If they accept it that is…”

Starswirl patted her on the back. “I’m sure they will, I apologise that I forced you to make a decision all those years ago,”

“It’s okay, It wasn’t you’re fault. My emotions clouded my judgement.” Meadowbrook argued with a small frown on her face.

“I wonder how strong the army is?” Rockhoof wondered thoughtfully.

“Strong enough that you considered Stygian a threat,” Somnambula spoke with some bite, still facing the window refusing to look at any of them. The Element Bearers didn’t know if they should leave or stay because this was far more personal.

Rockhoof winced at her tone. “Somnambula, It was the Pony Of Shadows that I see as a threat, not Stygian I see them as separate entities.”

“And that’s the problem!” The pegasus mare finally turned to face her friends and Element Bearers, but her eyes focused solely on the Pillar Of Strength. “You see them as separate entities when they are the same. Will you throw a large boulder on Pony Of Shadows? Will you try to kill the Pony?”

Rockhoof gasped in shock. “Of course not lass! That’s still Stygian inside!”

“And yet, you told Miss Applejack that we couldn’t allow the Pony to live. You can’t I can. I have no problems with Pony existing. Besides, he hasn’t created any chaos like my old friend Discord did.”

The Element Bearers' eyes’ widened in surprise that the Pillar of Hope was friends with Discord. The same Discord that almost ruined their friendship.

“Lass… how much longer until the Pony Of Shadows starts his invasion of Equestria. Starswirl doesn’t know where Stygian has been hiding and we are uncertain whether or not he will attack Equestria for something we did a thousand years ago. How can we breathe and sleep easy when Stygian might plan… something,” Rockhoof frowned at his words. He didn’t want to say them but they needed to be said.

Somnambula sighed. “Fine,” she relented, surprising everypony in the room. “But don’t expect me to try to banish him or anything.”

“We don’t expect you to, dear,” Mistmane spoke with a sad smile on her face.

“Somnambula,” Starswirl spoke, catching her attention. “After what I said to him and refusing to listen, I can guarantee you that I am against the banishment of Stygian. If anything, I’m in your position.” He admitted. “I… would have no problems living inside his kingdom as a prisoner if it meant atoning for the sins I committed against him.”

“We’re… not banishing him are we?” Meadowbrook hesitantly asked and turned to her fiance who shook his head.

“No, I refuse,” Rockhoof reassured her. “After what we did, it’s the last thing that should be on our minds right now. Instead, I suggest that we head out but first, we need to be prepared.”

“Right,” Starswirl spoke and summoned his saddlebags and began to check to see if he had everything. “If anypony needs to finish packing, they should do so now.”

With that, Meadowbrook cast a last look at Somnambula who smiled at the mare in reassurance and then left the room with the other ponies along with Starswirl, leaving the orange-coated pegasus by herself.

“I love you…” she spoke to the empty room.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and will follow along as they try to find the Kingdom that was either long-forgotten or hard to find.

Thanks for reading and I will write to you guys next time.

CH.8. Unforgiving Sun

When Meadowbrook had finished a few of her potions and Twilight had finished some reading and grabbed a few scrolls she had found in the restricted section of the library in the basement, Somnambula found herself walking to the train station.

There wasn’t any chatter when they entered the train station other than a few curious stares from the town's ponies and travellers.

The orange-coated pegasus was still fascinated by the new times and the modern buildings she had never seen before even back in ancient times. She’d learned that the Apple family were the founders of Ponyville and had existed for roughly a hundred years and had expanded over the years, multiple ponies from all walks of life moving into the town and creating businesses, houses and apartments. It also helped that the element bearers and a Princess lived in the town.

Somnambula chuckled as she thought about an old friend of her’s that was also royalty. Prince Hisan had been the ruler she had once followed, but he was now long gone.

The Prince and Somnambula had become close after the pegasus defeated the sphinx, occasionally going out for formal dinners and sharing drinks. However, it wasn’t romantic like many ponies believed. It was just two friends having fun and sharing memories.

Besides, her heart belonged to somepony else.

Looking at Twilight, Somnambula couldn’t help but wonder what it was like being royalty. Not that she was interested in becoming a princess, but she was curious about what it was like dealing with high-end politics that looked so long, boring and tedious.

‘Hmm, I wonder if Stygian is dealing with snobbish nobles?’ She thought to herself just as Twilight walked up to the ticket booth and bought tickets for the Element Bearers, Pillars, and Spike.

“So, we have everything we need?” Twilight looked over at Starswirl who nodded.

“On my end, I have everything,” he replied and the Pillars nodded together. The Element Bearers gave the same response.

“Alright, there isn’t a train that takes us directly to the Badlands, but there is a train that will take us as far as Appleloosa, after that we need to walk for a few days,” Twilight explained, handing out the tickets.

“Right, but how come? Badlands not that bad—no pun intended,” Magnus asked confusedly as did the other Pillars.

“I will admit, that bandits can be tedious and violent, but they have never attacked trains to my knowledge,” Somnambula spoke while looking at her ticket.

Starswirl sighed with a heavy look. “That’s… because the bandits became more… aggressive over the years. A few hundred years ago, King Sombra worshippers hijacked a train and killed every pony, filly and colt in sight, they spared no creature,”

The Element Beares—including Twilight—gasped, horrified by what the old wizard revealed. Even Twilight had no idea why the Badlands had been considered ‘bad’ apart from ponies and other creatures who were banished there for committing heinous crimes. But, that did explain at least why there were no train tracks leading there, or at least a train that took that route.

“Holy smokes… why did they do that for?!” Magnus and Rainbow asked with rage in their eyes.

Starswirl shook his head. “Rumours have it that the followers were Crystal Ponies that agreed with King Sombra’s tyranny and were unhappy with the alicorn sisters. In response to King Sombra and the Crystal Empire’s banishment, they murdered every pony there on the train, knowing that the Badlands were outside of Equestria jurisdictions.”

The ponies and dragon looked disgusted. How can some ponies be so… evil?

“That’s disgusting,” Spike said, his face scrounged up as if he was smelling something horrible.

They agreed.

“Yes, that is why no trains enter Badlands and is advised that no pony or any other creature enter such lands. Being banished to the Badlands is worse than death in many ways, especially considering King Sombra worshippers are still around…”

The old wizard didn’t finish his thought.

“We’re going to have to be extra careful in the lands,” Twilight spoke with a little panic that Spike picked up on. “Starswirl, how… ‘safe’ is the wrong word for it, but… how exactly is it?”

“I understand what you mean. I would say that if we stick together we’ll be protected, so no splitting up, whatever you do. However, even if we walk in a pack, we have to be careful because every creature there has committed one crime even if it was just once in their life,” Starswirl explained. “And I’m not talking about stealing from candy stores,”

They shuddered at the thought of what he insinuated.

Somnambula remained silent as their train came to a stop in front of them. The doors to the different carriages opened, allowing the ponies inside to walk out. The conductor instructed ponies on both ends to either step on board or step off if this was their stop.

The ponies and dragon stepped on the train and took their seats. Somnambula shared a seat with the little purple-scaled dragon who opened an illustration book with characters inside it and began to watch…read? She shook her head and looked out the window and saw her friends and Element Bearers take their seats with one another while chatting about different things, trying to lighten the mood from the depressing topic from before.

Starswirl pulled out a heavy book and began to read through it while chatting with Twilight about something the orange-coated pegasus couldn’t quite hear.

The Applefarmer, Party planner and dressmaker sat together while doing different things like eating cupcakes, looking out the window and polishing hooves and checking mane and tail.

Meadowbrook and Rockhoof were sitting behind Somnambula, the former being worried for her pegasus friend along with the latter who was equally worried. The Pegasus could only assume that it was their way to show that they cared.

The Pillar of Hope spotted the animal caretaker, Fluttershy alongside Mistmane, Magnus and Rainbow Dash, sitting in one spot. The yellow-coated pegasus was looking through an animal magazine while Magnus and Rainbow Dash discussed military fighting while Mistmane kept looking at Magnus with a look she couldn’t quite catch.

The train started to move and before long, the Friendship Express was moving at a high speed heading to the next town over which was Appleloosa.

Somnambula looked out the window as the scenery changed from a green plain to a more yellowish plain, filled with sand, stone, cactuses and even a skull from a buffalo laying in the middle of nowhere but close enough to the train track to see what it was.

The pegasus cringed.

She did have a friend from long ago that belonged to a buffalo tribe until he was banished for killing a fellow tribe member for forcing himself on another buffalo. Luckily, her friend was there to stop it, but there was no evidence of it happening. Sadly, the female buffalo didn’t have a say because it was a patriarchal society back then, and without evidence of the attempted assault taking place, her friend was kicked to the curb and banished from the tribe.

Before her banishment, she met him one last time and had been happy to see that he met a dragoness that had taken an interest in him and if she remembered correctly, was pregnant with their first child.

The train ride continued onward with a few small bumps on the way along with a snoring Rainbow Dash that had fallen asleep a few hours into the ride. The others were quiet and did their own thing. Somnambula would have meditated, but she was afraid that she would see the distorted image of Stygian again.

Eventually, they made it to the train station where there were many ponies and other creatures that were mingling about, chatting and doing their daily errands.

The train stopped at the station and they all got out off the train. Applejack would have visited her family, but they were in a rush and they all agreed that they couldn’t make any detours. They needed to get to Kludgetown.

“Okay, we’re here, Ya’ll know which direction we’re going?” Applejack asked Twilight and Starswirl who were reading the map together.

“Yeah, from our location we gotta go south,” Twilight replied and put the map in her saddle bag and they began to walk at a small pace.

The ponies and other creatures didn’t pay them much mind and they were lucky to not run into Braeburn who no doubt would have made them stay for lunch and at the moment—at least for Somnambula—was the last thing they needed.

They walked through the town without any form of disturbance and continued into the desert that had no creature out there except for criminals and buffalo tribes that were scattered all over the place. They held together in a formation while looking out for anything suspicious or dangerous that could await them.

***The Kingdom Of Darkness***

After walking for several hours, most ponies were tired and couldn’t handle the heat apart from Somnambula and Spike who didn’t even react to it. Spike didn’t react because he was a dragon and bathed in lava, Somnambula came from a kingdom where the heat is the only thing they have apart from the random downpour that happens now and again.

“Heh, lassies and lads, we need to set up camp soon!” Rockhoof groaned while carrying his fiancé on his back.

Not used to the heat, she had collapsed along the way and was dizzy from all the walking and unforgiving sun. Rockhoof, who was used to such an environment after years of harsh training lasted far longer than the others who were panting like dogs and sweating buckets.

“But we haven’t even walked that far?” Somnambula said, looking at Rockhoof who stared back at her as if she had grown a second head. “What?”

“Darling… we… have walked… for… six hours…” Mistmane spoke with shaky hooves. She wasn’t the only one tired. Magnus, who was also trained under extreme circumstances couldn’t handle the far distance and heat that was getting to them. Rainbow Dash stopped flying two hours ago and was panting.

“What?” Somnambula looked behind her and there was nothing in sight other than cactuses, sand, and a few buffalo’s walking. “Oh,”

“Alright, we’ll find a secluded spot and get some food and sleep,” Starswirl said while looking around for any caves or places that aren’t easily spotted.

Somnambula decided to use her wings to fly and flew as high as possible trying to find any place they could get some rest which proved to be difficult when all there was were sand, cactuses and a lot of caves…

“Caves!” She shouted to herself and flew back down to her friends that had stopped to see what she was up to. “I found caves not far from here, maybe a five-minute walk,” she said and guided them to a cave she had seen.

The cave she had spotted had a large entrance, was red-orange coloured and was dark inside like most caves. The location belonged to a large mountain that not many ponies or other creatures would care enough about to look into unless they were explorers. When they saw it, they felt relief.

“The dark shadows should be good to cool off in,” Twilight observed and urged everypony and dragon to follow her inside.

True to her observation, the darkness was cold in a pleasant way. The effect was immediate, and they all moaned in delight to finally be out from the unforgiving sunshine. Twilight and Starswirl lit their horns that shined brightly throughout the cave, showing that it had once been a mining place with gems and holes filling the walls and roof.

There were wooden walls and a ‘roof’ holding everything in place every hundred hoof steps or so. There was even an old mining cart pushed to the side with a railway for the cart to be pushed through.

“Huh, an old mining place,” Starswirl muttered to himself with small fascination.

“OH! Look at these gems!” Rarity said with stars in her eyes and almost floated to them until Applejack knocked her head with her hoof, forcing Rarity out of her state.

“Sorry, Rarity, but we got things to do, we can come back for them another day,” Applejack spoke as she left the marshmallow-coated mare by the side of the cart track.

“Hehe…” Rarity nervously laughed and followed the others further into the mine.

It didn’t take long for Starswirl and Twilight to find a resting place. They had found a large resting place that must have been used for the miners when it was still in use. There were old rusty bunk beds that aligned with the mine walls with bedsheets and pillows that had lost their colour and had started to mould, which earned a horrified shriek from Rarity.

“This is an atrocity!” The unicorn cried as she levitated the pillows away from the bunk beds and cast a spell that lit them ablaze and placed them in the middle that had black scorch marks, showing that it was here the ponies from a forgotten past had made their food and kept them warm.

“Was that necessary, Rares?” Rainbow asked with her hooves crossed, hovering in the air while raising a brow at the fashionista.

“No… but now we have a fire at least,” she spoke with pink cheeks after she realised she had nothing to be worried about.

The others rolled their eyes while silently appreciating the small fire despite still being quite warm, but the fire wasn’t scorching hot as they feared when they saw the unicorn set ablaze on the pillows.

The rest of the small area had a tool kit filled with old rusty tools used for mining. Rockhoof was quickly taken by some of the items that he hadn’t seen before, amazed by their appearance and wondered how they were used.

There wasn’t any documentation there that they could read, but at least they had each other and a small fire that made them see better in the dark and keep them warm when they would sleep later.

Everypony and dragon began to set up their tents. Spike had opted to sleep alone, so he brought his own tent he used whenever the girls threw slumber parties and he needed to have someplace to sleep.

He showed his expertise by building up his tent in two minutes. He rolled out a small mattress made for camping and lay on it with a happy smile on his face.

Fluttershy and Rarity shared a tent and Spike went over to help them build make their tent which he did with the same speed. Their tent was twice as large, but that was because it was made to fit two ponies.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack decided to share and the farmer had no qualms about setting up a tent.

Twilight and Pinkie had no trouble sharing a tent. Pinkie managed to make the tent at a speed that not even Discord could match, leaving Twilight stunned but shrugged it off quickly.

Somnambula had the tent that she had bought and set it up with some difficulty, not used to camping. Magnus helped her, having been trained to set up camp. She decided to be alone so she could be with her thoughts while Mistmane and Magnus shared a tent.

Rockhoof and Meadowbrook shared their tent and before everypony and dragon knew it, it was time to eat.

Pinkie and Applejack had two saddle bags worth of food so it could last and Rockhoof had taken a note from them and had cooking utensils and food that was canned. The fire that Rarity had started earlier proved to be a useful tool.

They hurdled in one large circle while Rockhoof boiled vegetables and a fish he had collected before they left Ponyville. The water made sounds as it boiled at the crackling fire that echoed in the old dusty mine that soothed their nerves.

“How much farther until we reach Kludgetown?” Mistmane asked while rubbing her hooves that were sore from all the walking.

“Not much farther, it’s about another three-hour walk, but it will be quicker than today,” Starswirl replied trying to soothe his own hooves that were sore and ached. “I must admit, I need to strengthen my walking distance,”

“Well, at least it isn’t very far away,” Spike comforted. “But, when we get there, who can give us reliable information? It’s not as if we can get it for free,”

Starswirl hummed. “True… the best place to get information would be a pub, but that has downsides because most of the pubs I was in had very dangerous criminals, the type that make Nightmare Moon look like an angsty teen throwing a temper-tantrum,”

The Element Bearers were wide-eyed.

“WHAT?” Rainbow shouted, her jaw reaching the ground with a thud.

Starswirl sighed. “Yes, I know and understand that my statement is extreme, but believe me, I have come across criminals there that are far worse than the likes of Nightmare Moon and even King Sombra. Some of them have done things that… I am too afraid to even speak of it,”

“You shouldn’t, otherwise this fanfiction would be M rated!” Pinkie Pie spoke cheerfully, mouth full of marshmallows.

“Ugh! Pinkie, darling, please don’t speak with your mouth full,” Rarity said with her face wrinkled in disgust.

Pinkie swallowed the marshmallows and shrugged.

“If that’s true, Starswirl, then why go there at all? Isn’t it then… too dangerous for us to go there?” Twilight asked with a little fear in her tone. The thought that there are creatures more dangerous than Nightmare Moon and King Sombra terrified her.

“Ah agree with Twi, shouldn’t we just use a map and go to places we’ve never been to and hope that the Kingdom is there but is unexplored?” Applejack asked with a raised brow.

“AJ, this isn’t a vacation, we need to look for Stygian,” Rainbow spoke with her hooves crossed while looking at the mare with an odd look.

“Ah’m just saying, it could be more productive,” the farmer defended with a roll of her eyes.

“Well,” the old wizard replied before the farmer and pegasus could have a verbal altercation. “I wouldn’t normally have gone there, but if you know where to search, you can find an invaluable amount of information on many different topics. There’s a library of sorts that holds a great deal of information and is the only place that has never had theft,”

Twilight looked excited at the prospect of seeing a library while the others simply nodded their heads in agreement with the plan.

They finished their food and cleaned up before going to their tents and getting ready to sleep, doing their regular nightly activities before going to sleep. Somnambula looked at the roof of her tent with something stirring in her stomach.

‘Why do I get the feeling we will see something terrible tomorrow?’ She thought before drifting to sleep.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter for The Kingdom Of Darkness. I apologise that it took some time to write this, there are things in my life right now happening that I needed to take care of first and foremost before I could finish this piece. Now that it’s out of the way, however, I could finally publish this.

I will write to you guys next time.

CH.9. Kludgetown

When Somnambula was woken up early in the morning by Meadowbrook who told her that it was breakfast and that they would be leaving early and hoped to make it to Kludgetown by the afternoon.

Groggily, the orange-coated mare got out of her tent and ate breakfast in silence while the other ponies and dragon chatted animatedly with one another. Afterwards, they pulled down their tents and food, packed everything up, and made sure that they didn’t leave anything behind.

They left the mine in silence, but not before Twilight had somehow found old scrolls that she insisted on taking with her.

They had walked for about thirty minutes and Somnambula walked ahead of everypony and dragon. A mare on a mission. Her eyes scanned the lands before her but all she saw were large cave entrances and sand hills that decorated the place and let everypony and dragon know that they were in the desert.

Somnambula, again, didn’t feel the unforgiving sun due to her being used to such climates while the others showed a different story. Spike was also the only other dragon that didn’t react to the warmth.

The pegasus figured it would be an insult to the dragons due to them bathing in lava.

However, as they walked, Somnambula continued to feel the stares of her friends—particularly Meadowbrook. She knew the earth pony was worried for her, but the orange-coated pegasus just didn’t get it. Why were they so concerned for her?

Yes, she may have spoken about how she desired to live in darkness if it meant that Stygian would forgive them, but most if not all of them felt the same way, so why were they so… pushy with her?

She sighed for what felt like the millionth time and glanced back slightly, her eyes resting momentarily on the Pillar of Healing before continuing to look forward.

“What’s the first thing we should do when we reach Kludgetown?” Rainbow asked while panting as if she had flown around the planet five times without stopping.

Starswirl turned to her. “Go to the pub, not to get a drink, but to get information. If you want, you can check in into a hotel. I know of one pretty cheap but has a reputation of housing a few dark magic users, so be aware,”

Twilight frowned. “Why would they house those who practice dark magic?” It didn’t make sense to her.

“Twilight,” Starswirl spoke in a serious tone. “There’s nothing wrong with dark magic, it’s only considered dark because the spells you’re thinking of were used for dark purposes. Anyways, to answer your question; it’s because ‘dark users’ as they’re called, protect the different hotels, restaurants and shops across Kludgetown. They earn money out of it.”

Twilight didn’t respond.

“So we check into a hotel and then we go to a pub to get information?” Spike asked with a raised brow.

“Yes, it seems so…” Twilight replied, frown still decorating her face.

Somnambula listened to their conversation with a blank expression. While listening, she couldn’t help but feel as though they would discover something horrifying. Something they would have nightmares about. She didn’t know why.

She pulled out a large water bottle, dropped three drops to her tongue and put it back in her saddle bag. Her mouth had been dry for a while now, but those drops would relieve for a few long minutes.

“Aha!” Starswirl shouted, making everypony and dragon jump and turn to him with a small glare which he ignored. “Over there!” He pointed with his hoof. “Over that sand hill, we will find Kludgetown!”

Somnambula’s head shot towards the sandhill and flew there as quickly as possible, the others trailing after her with the same vigour but not speed.

The pegasus reached the hill that looked over a good chunk of the Badlands and saw a town. The town was very big so perhaps not a town but a city. The buildings looked… broken to put it simply. But life was thriving from what little she could see in the distance.

The other ponies and dragon came upon the sandhill behind her and saw the town. Starswirl let out a chuckle in delight. “That’s the town, alright. Looks bigger than what I remember but otherwise, is the same.”

“What are we waiting for?!” Somnambula yelled and flew away from them, intending to enter the town as quickly as possible. She flew as fast as her wings would carry her but did stop a good chunk away from the town so her friends could catch up.

She looked back and saw them running towards her and trotted the last bit before they started to walk together again.

The Pillar of Hope couldn’t help but feel impatience when they entered the town. The creatures around them ignored them as they walked through, too busy to care about a few foreigners.

From a distance, the town didn’t look terrible and life was thriving which was still true, but the houses up close looked a lot worse than any of them—including Starswirl—anticipated. There were holes, cracks, rats, mouses, dirt and garbage that littered entire streets and the houses looked as though they would cripple at any second.

Somnambula looked around, not feeling uneasy in the slightest. When she grew up in her homeland, poverty was almost everywhere, so this wasn’t new to her.

The other ponies, par Starswirl, looked uneasy though. Rarity bit her lip but didn’t look at the creatures around in disgust, it was… sorrow. Fluttershy also sported a sorrowful look but focused specifically on the critters that roamed the trash around the town.

The streets were narrow with wide space for drivable vehicles but very small space for walking. The houses were tightly packed with apartments that looked rundown.

“How can any creature live here?” Rarity asked, her face wrinkled in disgust at the lack of better buildings and trash-littered streets.

“They don’t want to live here, but they were banished from their homelands and probably had no place else to go,” Somnambula replied, surprising them. “Some were perhaps born here, so it's not surprising why they wouldn’t leave home.”

None of them replied to that.

They continued to walk through the streets but it soon became obvious about one particular thing that was noticed by Rarity. She looked at every creature closely and saw something that surprised her. She looked at a creature that walked passed them just to be sure.

“Is it just me, or does every creature here look… afraid?” Rarity asked while looking up at a few windows that were sealed shut.

“You noticed it too?” Fluttershy questioned in a whisper.

The others turned to face the two. Starswirl was the one most surprised out of the group. It may have been years since he was last here, but it shouldn’t have changed that much. He looked at a creature that stood by a corner and handed out a plastic bag to another creature that exchanged money and noticed that there was fear in both of their eyes.

The old wizard looked at another creature that was hunched down in a squatting position and looked around every five seconds… fear evident in his eyes.

“Yes…” Starswirl whispered so only they could hear. “...It would appear that these creatures fear… something,”

“They have a cruel ruler?” Pinkie theorised while eating a muffin that no one was sure where she’d gotten it from.

“The Badlands is famous for being an anarchist place, I would have doubted that was the reason they are afraid of whatever,” Starswirl started. “But, I am curious… There were rumours that there was a King here calling himself the Storm King who allegedly ruled Badlands. Hm, maybe that was true…”

They stopped outside of a large building made entirely out of black bricks with a sign on top written in gold. Capper’s Hotel & Resort.

“Ah, so he did open it…” Starswirl spoke to himself and walked inside, the others following.

The inside was a lot cleaner than they thought. The floors were polished and there was a sitting area with dark green-leathered armchairs and sofas and a coffee table with magazines on top, scattered.

The reception desk was made from cheap wood but was polished and painted in dark blue with a moon to the side. On the other side of the reception desk stood a cat that was writing something and didn’t look up when they moved closer to him.

Starswirl was going to be the speaking. “Capper, long time no see,” he spoke with a friendly voice.

The cat—Capper—looked up and did a double-take when he saw Starswirl before a large smile came across his features.

“Starswirl the Bearded… it certainly wasn’t yesterday! How have you been?” Capper asked while shaking Starswirl’s hoof.

“Like I always say; I could be better. But something truly amazing happened.” Starswirl spoke with a joyful voice. “You remember the story I told you about?”

Capper’s eyes widened but there was also something else in them that none of the ponies and dragon recognised. “Yes?”

“It’s them,” Starswirl pointed his hoof towards the Pillars. Capper’s eyes widened in shock. His mouth hung open and it took everything Somnambula had to not laugh.

“Wha— how?!” Capper demanded.

“Well, Miss Applejack—” Starswirl pointed towards the farmer. — ”had a dream from my old friends that warned them of a creature named the Pony Of Shadows. She informed her friends and the princesses and went to Stonehenge where we managed to return my dear friends,”

Starswirl didn’t want to have a large explanation and could always give one later.

Throughout the explanation, Somnambula noticed how the cat shifted uncomfortably at the mention of Stygian and at one point looked out a large window as if some creature was outside watching.

“Well, it’s good that they’re back. I assume you’re here to find…” he looked over at the Element Bearers as if unsure if he should say anything.

Starswirl noticed. “They know about Stygian and what happened all those years ago,” he assured.

“Ah,” Capper nodded. “Well, if you’re looking for rooms, then I can give you the finest ones as you are a friend of mine, It will be free of charge, the only thing I will charge for is the food,”

“That’s completely fine, I wouldn’t have minded if we paid for the rooms,” Starswirl replied with a smile at his friend who returned the gesture.

“Alright then,” Capper said and walked around the desk to properly greet them with a smile. “If you would follow me, I will take you to your rooms.”

Capper opened a brown wooden door with a silver handle and led them sic flights of stairs until he opened a similar wooden door.

The hallway was decorated with paintings of Kludgetown and flags of different towns that the group of ponies and dragon assumed were the “country” flags. There was a long red matt that led down the hallways with doors that led to the rooms they would use for their stay.

Rarity gushed over the painting details and apparently noticed a colour she hadn’t seen before and took a note and even asked a surprised Capper what colour it was.

“Up here aren’t many creatures that stay because it costs quite a bit to stay in these rooms. But you’re a friend of Starswirl whom I owe a massive favour to, this is the least I can do.” Capper explained while motioning with his paws before putting them behind his back like an army general. “Feel free to pick whatever room you desire, there’s no creature in them currently. All I ask is that you notify me what room number you have so I know which ones are occupied.”

They nodded in understanding and Capper left them and headed down to the reception.

Somnambula took that as her leave and began walking down a random hallway while the others did the same in different directions. The pegasus looked at the different numbers on the doors while she heard the soft crunching of the mat under her hooves that satisfied her ears.

She briefly glanced back to see if anypony or dragon followed her but didn’t see them. Shrugging, she walked to the end of the hallway and was met with a crossroads. There was a left and right path. The right path led down a hallway with ten rows of bedrooms while the left one only had five.

‘Doesn’t matter either way,’ she thought while turning to the left path and reaching the fifth door. ‘I will only be here for a little while… or longer depending on if we find the right information,’

The door to her bedroom had a golden five carved into it and a key inside the keyhole. She tried to pull it out but was surprised to find that the key refused to move. Slowly, she turned the key until she heard a ‘click’ and pushed the door with her hoof.

The door silently swung open and revealed a large bedroom. She walked inside and closed the door and was surprised when she saw that the key wasn’t at the front of the door but inside the bedroom door instead. ‘Enchanted keys!’ She realised.

Somnambula looked over to the bed and appreciated the grey-coloured bedsheets and soft fluffy pillows. The mattress wasn’t hard but not soft either, a perfect match for her.

She took off her saddlebags, tossed them to the bed and took another look around. There were a few magazines on a coffee table near a small living room with a large painting of the Alicorn sisters with a fire and moon background with bowing ponies. There was a black-leathered sofa that was highly uncomfortable for the poor mare.

Somnambula was delighted to see that there was a functioning bathroom with a bathtub where she could clean herself from the dirt and sand under her hooves that were starting to ache.

She removed her white cloth with golden half-moon, placing it near the sink and stepped into the bathtub where she began to clean herself.

***

When Somnambula finished, she felt content. Never in her life had she felt so clean. Her signature white cloth and golden half-moon were on her head again and she made her way to the bed.

‘After I… If I succeed with Stygian, I hope we can have a vacation, just him and I,’ she thought while pulling out her blindfold she used when defeating the Sphinx so many years ago.

She hesitantly draped it around her eyes and began to meditate on the bed, her vision going black.

However, just ten minutes into her meditation, she was interrupted by a knock on the door that woke her up from her musings. She forgot she still had the blindfold, tripped off the bed and groaned at the impact.

‘I forgot I had that on,’ she muttered inwardly. Somnambula took off the blindfold, made her way to the door and checked through the peephole and saw that Meadowbrook was there.

The orange-coated pegasus opened the door with a smile. “Hello, want to have some tea?” She asked leading the other mare inside.

In the living room was a coffee and tea brewer with a few small choices.

“That would be nice,” Meadowbrook smiled and followed Somnambula to the living room.

“I apologise for the couch, It’s highly uncomfortable, I don’t know how any creature can have this,” Somnambula whined. “Back in my homeland, I’ll admit, we didn’t have proper couches, but at least the floor was more comfortable!”

The Pillar of Healing laughed at her fellow Pillar’s complaints.

“Well, I believe it's either because they don’t have any other couches or because they want to show off their wealth,” Meadowbrook reasoned. “Besides, this was for the rich creatures, so… Capper was it? He wanted to mostly soothe and live up to the rich creatures standards,”

“I guess so,” Somnambula grumbled while pouring tea into two cups. “One or two sugars?”

“One please,”

The pegasus tossed one sugarcube inside one of the cups while she tossed two into her cup and placed them in front of Meadowbrook. They sat in silence while enjoying each other's company.

The silence was only broken whenever they took a sip of their tea and placed it on the table. It was nice in a way. It wasn’t often they would have time to spend it together so whenever they had the chance with the other Pillars, they would relax. Meadowbrook went to Somnambula to help her with the pain that she sadly couldn’t heal.

“How did you like the room?” Somnambula asked. “Is it any different from mine?”

“Not really,” Meadowbrook replied. “The only difference was that the bed was so fluffy!” She spoke while stretching the ‘o’s

There was silence again, only disturbed when they took a sip of their tea.

“Wait, how did you find me? This place is massive, you didn’t knock on every door did you?” Somnambula asked while looking over the earth pony who smiled guiltily. “Meadowbrook…”

“Well, to be fair, you just walked away and I was getting worried…” the healer trailed off with pink cheeks while looking away from the pegasus. “Anyways, what were you doing before? I heard a loud thud…”

It was Somnambula’s turn to blush. “I… was meditating with my blindfold when I heard you knocking and I forgot that I still wore it,”

They both giggled.

“Have you spoken to the others?” Somnambula asked while sipping her tea. Meadowbrook shook her head.

“No, Rockhoof and I share the same hallway with the Element Bearers but they weren’t outside when I went to find you,”

They finished their tea and started chatting about different topics and sharing good memories they had of Stygian while crying together when they remembered the horrible day when they accused him of stealing power.

The conversation then went back to happier topics, wondering what was going on inside and outside Equestria. However, their cheery conversation didn’t last for long because a short while into their discussion of flowers they had found, there was a knock on the door. Somnambula opened the door while Meadowbrook stood, looking from the threshold.

On the other side of the door stood the other Pillars and Element Bearers along with Capper who stood in the front.

The owner of the hotel had a sad look on his face and Starswirl looked at his friend in worry.

“Hello, Somnambula, Meadowbrook,” Capper spoke with a nod in their direction. “...Is it okay for us to come in? I wanted to discuss something with you. Something I suspect at least one of you have noticed.”

The seriousness in his tone made Meadowbrook and Somnambula worried.

At her nod, everypony, dragon and cat entered the bedroom and sat around the bedroom, the living room being too small to fit all of them together. They spread out so they wouldn’t be on top of one another.

When they were all seated, Capper began to speak.

“I’m sure that you have noticed the… quietness of Kludgetown?” He looked around and they all nodded their heads, none interrupting him. “Well, the answer to that is simple.”

He was wearing a red trenchcoat and gloves over his paws along with a red fedora hat. He pulled out a small vial of milk and drank it in one big gulp. Everypony and dragon were looking at him, waiting for him to reveal what was going on.

“A few years ago, there was a creature by the name of Storm King that invaded and took over our home.” A few gasped at the revelation. “We lived under a tyrannical King that enslaved us with outrageous taxes that no kingdom else would have been able to pay for but that was because we were all—and still are—criminals.

“We lived under the horrible Storm King for over a decade until one day, there were dark, gloomy skies that filled the terrain. For the first time in a hundred years, it rained. It poured down and darkness filled our town. Storm King was known for controlling the weather so many creatures—including myself—assumed he wanted some rain. How wrong we were…

“You see, the rain hadn’t come from the dreaded king but from a different source. A pony with a pure dark coat and white eyes walked the streets of Kludgetown with an army behind him, hovering and waiting for a command. Storm King demanded that the new pony leave the land and never return…”

Capper winced at something painful that they couldn’t see. A memory.

“However,” Capper looked to the floor before reaching into a pocket, grabbing another vial of milk and downing it in one go. “He didn’t anticipate resistance.”

Starswirl quirked a brow. “Resistance?”

The hotel owner nodded. “Yes, resistance. The Storm King lost but it didn’t end there. After he was defeated, his commander, a unicorn with a broken horn that I do not know the name of, challenged the military the pony had behind him. She was killed.”

The ponies and dragon gasped. In Equestria, hearing of murder was unheard of, much less mentioned. Twilight looked highly uncomfortable by the sudden dark topic that Capper brought forth. Starswirl and the other Pillars may not have gasped as loudly because murder was far more common for them in ancient times, but hearing a pony or any creature get killed still brought some emotions.

“Like I mentioned; the Storm King was defeated but he was also killed that day. Afterwards, the pony and his followers took the bodies to the centre of town and…” he flinched as if he had been burned by something hot. “...crucified them.”

There was dead silence in the room. The looks on the ponies faces were one of shock. Somnambula’s head was spinning and feeling fuzzy from the information. She leaned back to make it calm down but it would go away. Judging from the looks on the other's faces, they too, were in the same predicament.

The Pillar of Hope looked towards Starswirl who licked his lips, trying to moisten his suddenly dry lips. “Did… the pony ever introduce herself or himself?”

Capper didn’t respond for a long while. The silence was deafening. It was eating at the ponies and dragon gathered inside the room and Starswirl looked just about ready to ask again when he responded with something that Somnambula suspected but had prayed wasn’t true.

“He… introduced himself as the Pony Of Shadows,”

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and want to see more of it. Not that your opinions will stop me anyways. Hope you enjoyed!

I will write to you guys next time.

CH.10. Soldiers

Somnambula’s mind was blank. It was like a page with no words, only devoid of darkness surrounding her calm, rational mind. Her brain felt weird, and fuzzy, like a carriage wheel spinning.

The words the owner had spoken just hours prior still echoed inside her head like she was inside a tunnel. Her eyes were unfocused, still lost inside her head, not feeling the hunger that gnawed at her or the dry, chapped lips that begged for water.

It couldn’t be true, could it?

Somnambula didn’t notice the eyes that stared at her in worry and concern for her mental health. She couldn’t feel it anymore, all she could feel was the pain in her heart that throbbed like a vein transferring blood throughout the body.

‘Would Stygian go that far?’ Was the immediate thought that invaded her mind when she regained control of her thoughts. She understood that he was angry and did know that there was a very large possibility that Stygian would do something that none of them would be prepared for. Murder was one of them.

However, Somnambula had always believed that her sweet, precious Stygian would never go that far no matter how angry. Verbal abuse or even assault? Yes, that is to be expected depending on the level of hurt.

But murder? No.

Or well, the thought had crossed her mind multiple times. All of them had that thought. But Somnambula never thought that it would turn into reality…

She had prayed that it would only be a horrible alternative universe, but here she was, hours later, looking at something or some creature with the words getting entangled into her mind like a cobweb.

‘Stygian…’ came her sad thought that brought a tear to her eye that slowly made its way down her cheek as if climbing down a ladder.

“Somnambula?” Came a voice that sounded so far away. But it sounded familiar… like, she knew who spoke her name.

The pegasus regained mobility in her head and turned towards the sound where the voice had spoken. Beside the bed stood… Meadowbrook. She was looking at her with concern on her face. The earth pony took a hesitant step forward.

“Somnambula?” The mare spoke again, this time, firmer or was the first call also firm? “Are you alright?”

Somnambula tried to speak but no words came out of her. It was like her vocal cords refused to work. No words escaped her mouth, making the creatures around her concerned. She didn’t know how long they had been there. She was sure it had been hours, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe…

“Stygian…” her voice sounded hoarse. It drew shaky breaths from Meadowbrook and Mistmane. The Pegasus was aware that her voice should belong to some creature that had smoked for decades, but she couldn’t help it. “...he… killed a creature?”

The thought just wasn’t something she wanted to comprehend. Sure, she had thought about it multiple times, but still… hearing one of her fears being revealed like it was inside a box any creature could open, made her uneasy.

Somnambula stared at Capper who was looking at the floor as if checking for unclean spots. His posture was fragile, he was shaking lightly. His eyes didn’t reveal emotions but his body language could be read by every creature present. There was fear, anger and… sadness? They couldn’t be sure.

“Yes,” was the response they had all prayed wouldn’t be answered. Hoping that the former Pillar hadn’t resorted to such… drastic measures. “That was about… I think it was thirty years ago If I remember correctly,”

“Wait, thirty years?” Starswirl spoke up with furrowed eyebrows. But… we met six years ago…” the old unicorn’s eyes widened in realization.

The others looked at the old wizard in confusion. Somnambula didn’t know what the fuzz was about, she didn’t see the big deal until everything clicked inside her head. Her eyes widened and she noticed that every creature else also understood the significance… most of them.

“What’s the deal?” Rainbow Dash asked with her hooves crossed while looking at Starswirl who looked to be having a panic attack.

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy spoke weakly while trying to hide behind Twilight, as if afraid that the old wizard would become angry. “Thirty years ago, Stygian… ended the reign of Storm King and Starswirl met Capper six years ago.”

“I still don’t get it,” she replied while scratching her head. “I mean, it’s good for the creatures here right?”

The temperature suddenly dropped, the unforgiving sun from Badlands all but forgotten in that instant. The rainbow-maned pegasus shivered when she felt the icy wind caress her coat like an invisible stream.

“Good…?” Capper spoke, forcing every creature to stare at the cat, including Starswirl who looked at the owner with concern. “Good?! Do you have any idea what you just said?! Nothing here is good! After Storm King was executed, everything became worse!”

“Hey, hey! Calm down, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that!” Rainbow spoke with her hooves out, showing she meant no harm but Capper didn’t stop his tirade.

“When Starswirl came to the Badlands, I welcomed him with open arms because I know for a darn fact that the soldiers of Pony Of Shadows would have executed him, no questions asked. But to be completely honest; the last night, he told me the story of what happened but I was so shocked that by the time I gathered my thoughts he was gone! I wanted to tell him so badly but I couldn’t. I wasn’t sure…” Capper’s anger turned to cries, paws clutching his head as he slid down to the floor, eyes closed and salty tears escaping. “I wasn’t sure I could tell him the truth.”

Somnambula watched Fluttershy and Rarity make their way to comfort the cat that cried. “Every day, we live in fear. Starswirl may not have noticed due to the fact he entered from the area notorious for criminality—the ones that lack care and respect for any ruling,”

The old wizard trotted up to Capper and did something that was unheard of. He hugged him. Starswirl wrapped his hooves around him and hugged him as hard as he could. The cat returned the hug.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry I never told you!” Capper cried into the wizard’s shoulder but the old unicorn simply smiled.

“No need for apologies, Capper, I understand your fear, I… was also threatened by him,” Starswirl replied, surprising the Pillars. “He… threatened me with executing my friends, saying that he would return with their heads,”

Somnambula’s eyes widened in shock and fear.

“WHAT?!” Magnus shouted, his sclera dominating over his pinprick pupils. Mistmane managed to calm the pegasus down slightly but she too, was shocked by the turn of events.

Rockhoof lowered his gaze while Meadowbrook hugged her fiancé and cried while the strong earth pony enveloped her into a hug.

Spike, Pinkie and Capper didn’t look surprised in the slightest. That didn’t mean that the purple-scaled dragon and light pink-coated pony didn’t lower their heads in sorrow. From their point of view; they could only imagine what type of pain the other Pillars must be in. Not physical but mental. You think you know how much a pony hates you, but it turns out to be much worse than anticipated.

“It's true,” Starswirl sadly admitted. “After your banishment, he threatened to hurt me or you if I ever tried to find him or try to rescue you. I lived in fear like a coward. I should have spoken to him, and ask for forgiveness. I…” he trailed off.

The room was coated into silence, only broken by the sobs coming from the owner. The ponies and dragon didn’t know what to say or do to make the situation better. How do you lighten a situation about a friend and romantic interests that threaten indirectly their life?

~~~The Kingdom Of Darkness~~~

Hours later, Somnambula was looking outside her window. On a small stool in front of her, was a hot mug of tea with one sugar. She couldn’t sleep, not after what she had learned.

It sickened her. Not the fact that Stygian had killed a creature or that he—indirectly—threatened her life as well. It made her sick that she allowed her fame to infect her head, pushing the only stallion for her, away.

‘It’s all my fault,’ she somberly thought. How could she not? Out of all of the Pillars, she and maybe Meadowbrook should naturally follow their instincts and listen to a pony or creature in need. But it was mostly her fault. Somnambula bit her lower lip as a tear escaped her eye. She was supposed to be the pony that loved Stygian, and there she had been, accusing him of something that he had no intention of doing.

Sure, for some creature that didn’t understand Somnambula or the other Pillar’s pain, it would be justified. It looked as though the unicorn had stolen their artefacts to gain their power for himself.

When they had learned of what his plans were, Somnambula couldn’t help but feel disgusted with herself and made the promise that she would confess her feelings and apologise. One of her silent promises was to follow him until the end of time, no matter the circumstances.

Just when the pegasus had finished her tea, she heard muffled voices outside. It sounded like an argument of some sort. Curious, she looked out the window and saw three creatures down below inside an alley.

The alley was riddled with trashcans, dumpsters and filth all over the place. One of the creatures was hunched over something and cried his eyes out. The other two creatures were carrying weapons. Considering where she was located, it was easy to say it was a crime, but this somehow… it didn’t feel right. This didn’t feel like a typical crime. This felt like…

Silently, she opened the window to hear the conversation better. “YOU SICK, TWISTED—” one of the creatures punched the weeping one over the face. The crunch was so loud, that even Somnambula heard it which made her wince.

The creature that threw the punch lowered down into a squatting position and pulled out a shiny metal object that made the Pillar of Hope pale. The creature brought the weapon to the weeping creature’s throat.

“Listen here you little gangster, we have heard rumours that foreigners have entered the kingdom. Where are they?” The creature holding the knife asked with an intimidating voice.

“You… call yourself… soldiers?” The weeping creature spoke with unclear emotions. “You murder and pillage our home as if it is a playground… why do you care about some foreigners? They haven’t hurt you,”

Somnambula noticed the two soldiers exchange a look she couldn’t see before looking at the creature who had a knife to his throat.

“His majesty felt a presence. A presence that is a danger to us all. If those foreigners hold such power to wipe us out, then we must eliminate them!” The soldier spoke and smacked the creature in the face. “Not that it matters, our military is strong enough to handle anything!”

Suddenly, the second soldier started to move forward and made Somnambula jump back in shock and horror. The second soldier pulled out his sword and stabbed the creature in the throat without missing a second.

“Let’s get going, I have a feeling we’re being watched,” the soldier spoke casually and wiped the blood from his sword before placing it inside its sheath.

Somnambula quickly closed the window. If she had felt tired at all, she didn’t feel so now.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another chapter of The Kingdom Of Darkness. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and will continue to see future chapters because I have a few things in store for this.

I will write to you guys next time.