Return of Evil and A New Beginning

A quiet day turned to panic as Spike was doing some cleaning in the library. Moving his cleaning to the basement where he noticed that the Elements of Harmony (that was returned to them since Discord removed them from the tree, only to destroy them in the end and yet have them be restored and placed back in their glass display case) were gone. Spike panicked and ran to Twilight to tell her the bad news. Later that day, the Mane 6, Spike, and Dante were standing around the glass case, bear of the elements, wondering where they could’ve gone, or if anyone took them.

“Spike, are you sure you didn’t see anything suspicious before you came down here” Twilight asked in panic.

“I just walked down here and noticed that they’re gone” Spike pulled out a scroll that he found on the sight “but I did find this.” Twilight levitated the scroll in front of her and opened to read it. The rest of the gang gathered behind her. Just then, an orb of light flashed in the room, blinding everyone and distracting them from reading the scroll. Celestia appeared out of the orb when it faded. Everyone, except for Dante and Twilight bowed at her presence.

“Everypony, I have some terrible news.”

“Yeah” Dante responded before moving aside to show Celestia the empty case “We know.” Celestia gasped.

“So, he even took them as well.”

“Who” everyone asked.

“King Sombra” Celestia said with a worried tone.

“But, but princess” Applejack began “I thought he was defeated years ago. How the hey did he come back?”

“I don’t know, but I do know that he’s back, not to just take the Crystal Empire back, but the whole land of Equestria.”

“Hey” Dante shouted as he held the scroll open “Check this out.” He showed everypony the scroll to reveal a map with a riddle on it that said

To get you elements back, you must first find yourselves, before finding your hearts.

“Well, that is the worst riddle I have ever read” Dante said. “I mean, I remember him being illiterate, but come on.”

“You two knew each other back then” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh yeah, I kind of hung out with him out of pity. Everypony either hated or feared him. Even though I was evil before, I still had some sympathy, but barely.” Celestia levitated the map in front of her for her to read.

“Well, you ponies now know what you must do.” Dante’s eyes then flashed red and black for a quick second, and then returned to normal.

“Wait, wait, wait” Dante interrupted, walking up to Celestia while cracking his knuckles “Why don’t I go alone and get the elements myself” he pulled out his staff “I would like a personal get-together with him” he said with a big grin on his face.

Celestia smiled “Very well, Dante. But before you go” her horn formed an orb of a dim, white light at the tip. She lowered her head, having her horn meet with the top end of Dante’s staff. The staff then formed an aura around it, matching the color of Celestia’s orb. Her horn then produced a bright light, bright enough to blind everypony, Spike, and Dante. When the light faded, Dante looked back at his staff, only to see it different, at the end of it, where Celestia meet with her horn, stood a Pegasus with its wings spread out. “I’ve enchanted your staff with a magic spell. Your staff is now the Skyblinder Staff. You can use it to light your way and defeat Sombra, once and for all.”

Dante examined the new staff. “And how is that” he asked. He pointed it to a corner in the room; it then began to shine a dim light. Pinkie ran in front of the staff to examine the glowing light.

“Ooo” she said out of curiosity. The staff’s light grew brighter, releasing a large beam of light directly at Pinkie. She stared directly towards the light beam. “Pretty colors” she said slowly. Dante aimed the staff toward the wall next to him away from Pinkie. She lost sight and balance and was stumbling around the room while everyone was watching her.

Celestia and Dante turn to each other. “Dante, according to this map, you will be traveling through treacherous obstacles. Are you sure you want to take this journey alone?”

“Yeah, I would like to face Sombra alone. Hopefully slapping some literary sense into him” he held the map up “so he can at least learn how to write a decent riddle! Seriously, is he trying to be scary or threatening, or what?” He walked up the stairs to the castle with the rest of the ponies and Spike following. They followed him out of the castle and to the edge of town. Dante stopped to browse the map. He closed it and turned his attention toward the gang of eight. “If I don’t come back within three days, come and rescue me. Otherwise I will be back by then.” He opened the map back up and browsed it some more. “I might be wrong though, it may take me at the most seven days.” He closed the map “So, if I’m not back within a week.”

“We’ll come and get you” Twilight interrupted.

Rarity walked up to Dante, levitating a scarf with her. “Here you are darling, just in case it gets cold on your way.”

Dante grabbed the scarf and fashioned it around his neck. “Thanks Rarity, thank you all. I will see you soon.” He walked away into the distance and vanished.

“W-wait” Fluttershy started “can’t he just teleport to there? Does he have to face all of that s-s-scary stuff?”

“YES” Dante shouted back from the distance. He shadowported back to the eight “I thought that going on an adventure would be more fun than just taking a fast travel route.” He shadowported back to where he left off.

Six days later, everypony was starting to worry. They thought that even though Dante wanted to adventure to his destination, that he would at least not waste his time back. The six ponies and Spike have been gathering around the castle entrance to wait for Dante’s arrival. Spike started to have a coughing fit. He was choking and gagging until a letter was coughed up. The six ponies rushed towards Spike (to see if he was okay) and the letter (to read what it said). In mixed fonts, it read

Come and get him

Everypony was panicking, except for Rarity, who was making sure that Spike was alright.

“What does it say” Spike asked. Twilight handed Spike the letter. After reading the letter, Spike then joined the ponies in their panic. “We have to go save him” he shouted.

Twilight held up a quill and paper and started writing. “I’ll inform Celestia about this.” She finished the letter, handed it to Spike, and Spike sent it to Celestia. “In the meantime, we need to track down Dante in order to save him from King Sombra. Spike, you stay here and wait for Celestia.”

“On it” Spike replied. The six ponies ran out of the castle and onward towards the path Dante took.

The Mane 6 has run through the path that began the treacherous quest. But they were stopped by a large gate blocking them from going any further. A mysterious stallion took form in front of the six and walked up to them.

“You six can’t enter here” he yelled “At least not without a fair fight.”

Rainbow Dash flew up to him. “Um, we don’t want to start anything, but have you seen a two-legged guy, about” she held her right hoof up “yay high, long mane, and probably kicked your butt which explains your black eye?”

The stallion then changed his facial expression to fear and shock, with his right eye, which was blackened by Dante, twitching. “You mare’s know him” he asked in fright.

Pinkie hopped up to him. “Yeah, how’d you know” she asked in joy.

“L-lucky guess” he moved aside swiftly “here, how about you girls g-go right ahead, no need for violence.” The gate opened up and the six nonchalantly passed on through. After the six passed through, the stallion began to remember the horrors that he had to deal with facing Dante, being attacked by that figure with red and black eyes and watching as he carried on like nothing happened.

The six continued onward. They kept walking through a dense forest until Fluttershy noticed a baby rat alone. She gasped at the sight of it and rushed over towards it.

“Oh you poor thing, where are your parents little guy” she asked in a worried tone.

Rarity gagged. “Darling” she started “why would you want to take care of” she tried to hold in some vomit “that thing?”

“Oh Rarity, he’s no thing. He’s a delicate little creature who lost his parents. That’s all.”

As the five were watching Fluttershy hold the baby rat, a giant rat jumped out of the bushes and ran after the six. They swiftly turned their attention to the giant beast after them. The baby rat in Fluttershy’s hooves and ran into the forest. The six screamed and then ran away from the rat chasing them. Then, two more giant rats appeared out of the woods and joined the first rat.