Arch of Shadows

Twilight jerked awake, as if something had struck her. Frantically searching the room, she spotted a lone piece of parchment, addressed, “Luna and Twilight”.

As if that were not obvious enough that it were for them, no one else remained in the chamber, suggesting that it was a letter detailing where Celestia and Cadence had went.

Shaking off sleepiness, the alicorn trotted over to the letter, and began reading its contents:

Dear Luna and Twilight,

A possible lead has directed my attentions towards the Crystal Empire. While I am gone, I am expecting you two to stay in Canterlot, going no further than Ponyville. Discord should be handling any sort of riots...

Twilight gasped in alarm, perking her ears for signs of mayhem. The silence was less comforting than a battering ram to the front door.

Riots, in Canterlot? In her panic, Twilight had not noticed Luna approaching the letter with a sleepy expression.

“What does it say?” Luna slowly blinked, likely pondering over whether to bother reading the letter or not.

“There is or was a riot in Canterlot!” Twilight spoke far more calmly than she felt, though she was shouting in exasperation.

Luna raised a brow, perked her ears towards the door, and then shook her head.

“If they are rioting, then they must be as quiet as your friend Fluttershy. I do not hear any rioting.”

“Princess Celestia sent Discord to quell it.” At saying this aloud, Twilight's eyes suddenly widened as if she only just now realized the implications of a rampaging Discord. “We better check on the city!”

Just before Twilight could dash off, Luna, now more awake from this second outburst, held out a hoof.

“Do not be so hasty. I believe you failed to read the rest of the letter.” Luna assumed that Celestia would have more tact than to end on such a worrisome note, as under different circumstances even Luna might would have rushed out without a second thought.

Realizing that she had stopped halfway through, Twilight returned to the letter, quickly scanning over the remaining contents.

...riots, but do not worry. Focus on dealing with the big problem at hand. Oh, and Shining Armor says hi.”

“My brother was here?” Twilight's puzzled expression and incredulous tone spoke volumes about her reaction.

“I have no doubt that my sister has decided to take action right here in the real world.” Luna furled up the letter. With a single hoof swipe, she sent it rolling towards the throne, apparently disinterested in putting it up somewhere.

“Why didn't she wake us?” Twilight's ears and wings drooped, the thought of her brother visiting and not greeting her weighing her down. “I bet we all could have figured it out faster.”

“As Discord would put it, when you sleep with me, you sleep with death.”

Luna recounted Discord's joke vividly, as even while sleeping she hardly missed a beat of what was going on in the real world. “You do not wake until I say so, and I decided to keep us asleep for the sake of story flow. No need to interrupt in any awkward places.”

“Well then, I guess we should go straight back to sleep then.” Twilight seemed to accept that answer, though it did not improve her outlook.

Luna shook her head, taking to the air in flurry of feathers. “Not yet, there is something around here that I need to check on. Go grab lunch and return here.”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but her rumbling stomach beat her to the punch. Relenting, Twilight walked off to the kitchens while Luna hovered in the throne room. When Twilight had left the room, Luna dived straight for the floor.

Rather than crashing into the floor, she went straight through it. Within moments, she was in a different location of sorts, presumably beneath the castle.

It was dark, pitch black really. The air chilled to the very bone, and the dead silence would have unnerved any other pony. Luna used her horn to light up this area, illuminating a large crystal cave of sorts.

Canterlot being built originally to mine the valuable crystals was not a huge secret. What was a secret was that the mine was far older than most realized.

For the longest time, this had been the source of the Ponī Republic's valuable gems, until they discovered the Crystal Empire to the north.

The mine was not abandoned until the fall of the Empire, but it had been partially reused after Discord's defeat. Ironic how falling Empires both opened and closed the mine. Luna smiled at the thought, but did not relish in it long.

There was no time to lose, especially since Twilight was soon to return to the throne room. No doubt she would take Luna's absence the wrong way, particularly if Discord still ran free around Canterlot.

Searching the crystal caves, Luna walked into a tunnel, soon emerging into very large cavern.

Most of the cavern led to a sheer drop down below, so far down that even with Luna's horn light, the bottom could not be seen; anyone without a light source, or without knowing such a trap existed, would drop to their doom down below.

No doubt scavengers had learned that the hard way. Luna did not have time to check on the strange odor wafting from the place.

The part of the floor that remained at standing level narrowly led towards a center platform, the crystalline structure dully reflecting Luna's horn glow. On this platform sat a large tome encased in magic.

“Seems no intruders have yet to break that,” Luna mused as she glided over the large gap, having little need to try her luck with the bridge. Landing in front of the large tome, Luna dispelled the barrier spell, and looked at the cover.

Laminated on the front was the head of a unicorn with a curved horn; Sombra's personal icon. Of course, next to it also was a crescent moon, Luna's own iconic image.

The cover had been made by Luna herself in her spare time waiting for their departure from the Crystal Empire.

“Let us see what kind of magic we are dealing with here,” Luna muttered to herself as she opened to the first page with her magic. The idea to check this tome had come to mind when Celetia had mentioned something about possible leads in the Crystal Empire.

Right on the front cover was a disclaimer, or as Luna preferred to call it, a warning:

This is the edited version of House of Umbra: Dark Magic, so certain things may have been omitted or lost in translation. Under penalty of despair, misery, and utter destruction, do not read or attempt any of these while charged with emotions.

Luna doubled check her own self for a moment. Other than nostalgia, she really was not in a highly emotional state, unlike the last time she had come here. Yes, the last time she had come here she had been quite jealous of Celestia, and had been reading in frustration.

Lesson learned; heed warnings that she had personally helped to craft.

This edited version lacked many of the endless notes that Sombra's family had taken while composing the volumes, but was far easier to read, not to mention the footnotes contained some of the important bits.

More importantly, Luna knew of this version's last resting place, though she suspected that the original had been stashed away in the Crystal Empire somewhere.

Reading the table of contents, Luna found the particular chapter that she desired.

Courtesy of Luna – The World of Dreams

Flipping to it, the pages made a crispy, wind-blown noise that suggested that the book was far newer than it really was.

Luna's ears perked as she heard what sounded like hoofsteps. Echoing through this very room? Highly unlikely. She listened again, but they instead sounded like they were coming from above.

“Maybe they have done some digging in the thousand years I have been gone,” Luna mused as she gazed directly above her. The tall ceiling released bits of dust as whoever stood above rushed from one end of the room to the other.

Deducing that it must be the kitchen above, and that Twilight's meal must be underway, Luna gazed back towards the tome. She would not have time to revisit the entire chapter in mind; she would need to cut to the chase if she wanted to be back in time.

Scanning over a few passages, Luna paused at a particular turn of phrase, her face scrunching up as she read.

Nightmares are largely illusions; however, just like fantasies, they can become quite real, and vice versa. The most powerful kind of dream magic has the power to turn illusions into reality, and vice versa.

This would allow the user to, in theory, create anything that their mind can come up with, and for good reason, is a very difficult and restricted feat. Even Luna has trouble with it.

The uses are endless, as one would imagine. One can turn the past into a recordable dream that can be set to play; this allows for the subconscious storage of information, only to be played when certain dreamers and dream walkers trigger it.

The only danger to this is that the dreamscape may also house alternate realities, so what we think of as alter egos are very real in that world.

Nightmare Moon came to mind when reading that. Ears still perked upwards, the continued sound of scurrying encouraged Luna to continue.

If you put your own history into the dreamscape, someone would have the ability to play it out to an alternate universe, or even to those around you, with or without your consent.

It is implied that control of dreams is required to do this, but it is not that straightforward.

Luna stiffened, her eyes narrowing in on that last sentence. It seemed very straightforward; in order to alter dreams, then one would need to have the power to control dreams. One cannot just control something that they have no ability for.

No, since we all have alter egos, formed by the different parallels alluded to in chapter two and the dreamscape's own design, then the danger of this technique is not in that others will abuse it, but we unwittingly allow ourselves to abuse it.

Perhaps for political or military gain. I will have to seek Luna's council when she returns from Equestria in order to know for sure how that would work out.

Luna chuckled bitterly, slamming the tome shut. After leaving the Crystal Empire, Celestia and she would not return as friends, but as banishers.

Of course, if she had to guess, Sombra had written this shortly after they had left, and had probably not yet fully enslaved the populace of his own kingdom and instigated their intervention.

Nonetheless, Luna felt that this was an important piece of the puzzle; it became clear to her that the answer, in reality, was probably not in the Crystal Empire, but right here inside her own mind.

However, if she were to tell Twilight this right now, she would no doubt ask how she had figured this out. Telling her about this book was punishable by death.

Luna laughed at this thought, likely looking hysterical were anyone to be watching her crack up next to this giant book. Who was going to punish her, herself? Not even Celestia knew about this version as of yet.

Luna abruptly stopped laughing. No, Celestia did not know about this edition, but she did know about the original volume hidden away in the Crystal Empire.

Even if Celestia had a remote clue as to what was going on by now, that tome would likely be the first place to look, and she would recognize Luna's hoofwork in the print. And start connecting imaginary dots together.

The last thing Luna needed was for her sister to start suspecting her of causing trouble again. Celestia dealt with betrayal rather well, but she would no doubt preemptively strike to prevent a second double crossing, real or imagined.

That meant that Luna needed to solve this mess before Celestia found that tome that held undeniable proof that her attempt at overthrowing her all those years ago had been very much premeditated.

That put a time limit on things. It would take roughly two days for her to arrive at the Crystal Empire if she went by chariot using her standard pegasus flyers. It would take her a few more days just to find the tome, though if she employed the entire Empire she could probably find it in just one.

Three days maximum time, as Celestia would definitely put the crystal ponies to work in solving this mystery.

Without arousing Twilight's suspicions, she needed to send her off in order to personally deal with this without interruption; but how could she pull that off?

She did not stop at a suitable point for this kind of transition. She needed to show Twilight something else that might put her mind into overdrive. She needed a distraction.

Looking towards the book again, Luna made a half-grin as an idea came to mind.

As she encased it in magic once more, she gently tapped it with her hoof. “I guess how I ended up helping in your creation will have to do. I will have to skip some things, but I am sure she will not proest.”

The book just floated there, as if agreeing with the idea. Luna frowned, as she realized that she had just been talking to the book as if it would answer her.

Shaking her head, Luna retreated from the cavern, making her return to the throne room in the opposite manner in which she left.

Upon getting back, she dropped to the floor with a clop. Carefully she dusted herself off to pass the time, impatiently awaited Twilight's return.

After what felt like hours (but was more like a few minutes) Twilight strode through the doors regally, the guards watching her go in with stern expressions right before closing the doors behind her.

Luna had been hoping that Twilight had brought them both lunch, as privately she wouldn't have minded snacking while explaining to Twilight the next jump. Twilight, however, had apparently already eaten, a single crumb stubbornly hanging onto her right cheek as proof.

“Toast?” Luna used magic to levitate the distracting piece of food from Twilight's face.

Twilight had apparently paid the grooming little mind, and instead eyed Luna. “You did not go anywhere while I ate?”

Seemed like an innocent enough question, but Luna knew that Twilight was just trying to get some answers. Typical student to interrogate in such a harmless manner.

“I did, and I just figured out where our next visit is going to be.”

Luna smiled, but Twilight seemed skeptical of the response. Perhaps in part because she had so obviously dodged the question posed. Celestia's prized student pressed no further into the matter, and instead propped herself up onto one of the cushions from earlier.

“So where are we going next?” She laid down to get more comfortable, likely assuming that Luna would put her to sleep again with minimal warning.

“Mother decided that it would be best if I made some friends while in the Crystal Empire, and that I should keep my distance from Sombra.” Luna mirrored Twilight's actions, wanting to get somewhat comfortable for this next bit.

Twilight eyed Luna inquisitively, lost in the sudden time skip. “Wait, why would she want to keep you and Sombra apart? You two hit it off so well.”

Sombra smacking her rear would have been a startling response to that question, but that was not the whole story anyways, so that answer would probably do more harm than good.

Luna paused for a moment to try to figure out the best way to explain without having to describe that particular incident.

“Mother had some other plan in motion, the likes of which I was oblivious to for a some time. I and Sombra really connecting would have interfered.”

Twilight rested her head onto her front hooves, her face scrunching up in thought. “So, how did that friend search go?”

“Much better than recently,” Luna joked, giggling at the comparison, “Not being the long-lost sister of the in charge ruler, and not being the one who tried to overthrow her so that you could shroud the world in eternal night out of jealously most likely improved the situation.”

Twilight couldn't help but giggle, Luna's joke having a surprising amount of truth to it. Aside from those two things, there really had been no reason for any pony to fear her, much less be terrified of her very image.

“Let us get started shall we?” Luna's horn glowed, and Twilight drifted off to sleep much more subtly than before. Once asleep, Luna forced herself to doze off, though made sure to direct her dreaming.

Twilight would catch a glimpse of what brought her and Sombra together to pool their knowledge for the sake of that tome; and no doubt she would also paint her mother in a more, motherly, sort of way.

The death of Nightshade, Emperor of the Ponī Empire, had shattered the faith of many of their subjects. Many of them had given up relying on the alicorns and struck out on their own.

Their settlements would have varied degrees of success, but needless to say, Solaria still tried to keep an eye on them, and often oversaw their operations.

This gave Luna and Celestia an almost unprecedented amount of autonomy over their own lives, though Solaria sternly warned Luna to stay away from Sombra once more before heading off.

Wanting to distract herself from Sombra, Luna sought out a passtime.

Finding friends among the remaining Ponīn ponies had not been greatly difficult once Luna began participating in sports.

No longer confined to her room, Luna felt a sort of freedom in being able to fly, teleport, or run wherever she so chose, whenever she so chose.

She thus fit in perfectly with some of the former Guard members, who, for the most part, had hardly anything else that could keep up their physique but play games.

No creatures intruded on the city's grounds, and the windigoes kept their distance as well. With so little to defend against, the large Guard nearly disbanded, though some of them remained doing standard patrol duties and such.

Most of the games that the off duty Guard members participated in were very physically taxing, in order to both keep them in shape and as an opportunity to show off.

Luna strongely recalled that one of her favorite games from the old days was a sort of ultimate discbee of sorts, where a pony hurled a disc in a certain manner, and another pony had to catch it and move about to certain places.

Increase the number of participants and things very quickly got heated. At the forefront of this was Luna herself, who, as the only alicorn playing, clearly had an advantage over any other individual participant.

Despite being royalty, the stallions and mares, crystal and non-crystal alike, did not go easy on her, and made it a point to try to take her out early using almost every dirty trick in the book.

This sort of violence, the tackling and even occasional punching, seemed to be right up the princess' alley. In one particular game, the score was tied, the participants were dirty, and for a rare opportunity in the empire, no one felt all that hungry.

Not because food had suddenly started growing from crystals like rainbows, but because they were too focused on the game.

Luna, despite taking a horn to the jaw and some hooves in places she would have rathered those now knocked out ponies not having touched, was clearly holding up better than many others.

Her team was battered, many receiving the same treatment; they fared worse, for obvious reasons of alicorn vs regular pony resilience. Their opponents didn't look too much better, but it was all in good fun.

The disc was their toss; in order to win with one minute left, they needed to very quickly, and decisively, get that disc from their opponents.

Luna, knowing that the other side of the field was the goal, took the disc in a single hoof, and with a powerful toss, hurled the speeding projectile clear across the field.

Their opponents had been expecting this, and a particularly fast pegasus intercepted it.

“Don't let Hurricane make it past this line!” Luna shouted to her teammates as she drew a line in the dirt where she stood, whom roared in eager compliance.

Luna and two flyers quickly took to the skies, bearing down on Hurricane and her two supports as if they were going to war.

In response, the opposing formation tightened on Hurricane, their attention on Luna in particular. The unicorns below fired a few stun spells upward; unicorns on the other side blocked or intercepted them with their own spells, making this a mostly aerial duel. The earth ponies largely stationed themselves at the two ends of the field.

Wings outstretched, Luna waited till the formations nearly collided for her to perform one of the oldest tricks in the book; the passing snatch.

By barreling past her opponents, her formation literally letting the game of chicken take its course, their opponents though that they were home free as they swerved out of the way of the seemingly reckless alicorn.

But Hurricane was not so easily tricked, and immediately flew around to chase Luna, whom had focused her magic for a levitation spell to retrieve the disc from Hurricane's very hooves during the pass.

Why they didn't carry it in their mouths would be a mystery, unless one were to look at the dirty and even slightly bloody disc. Only desperate times would make a call for that.

Much to her surprise, the rainbow maned flyer was gaining on her, and fast. Luna decided that diving was the best course of action, since she needed to be on the ground to score anyways.

With twenty eight seconds left, she began her descent, hovering the disc directly in front of her as her own group flew back in an attempt to intercept Hurricane and her teammates.

However, a sudden boom nearly knocked Luna's eardrums out, causing her to lose her grip on the disc. She clamped her hooves to her ears, cringing at the loud and seeming close noise. Suddenly, something rocketed past her, the lag behind it wrapping Luna in a doozy of vibrant colors.

Before Luna knew it, the ground came up in view, and she abruptly landed on her front two hooves. Or, attempted to anyways.

While that lessened the initial impact, Luna still found herself rolling, hitting the goalpost with an audible CLANG, her body vibrating from the collision.

Falling back into the ground, consciousness flickering, Luna couldn't help but wonder what she had just been hit with. Already she could feel her body attempting to heal itself of its latest injury, numbness surging with feeling again.

Then came the pain. Luna wailed, a pounding headache taking precedence over the rest of her aching body. Her ribs felt like they had given some ground at last, and her arms were ablaze with a stinging fire.

She felt a few other things might have also been injured, though pride topped the remainder on her list.

“What the hell was that?” Luna rolled over onto her stomach, her face contorted in pain as she looked towards her dazzled teammates. Many of them were also on the ground, and they all were staring towards the other side of the field.

Shockingly enough, Hurricane had somehow made it clear across the field, discus in hoof, and was slamming it into the ground, while her own teammates hoisted her into the air, despite their injuries.

Limping to the center of the field, the contestants said “Good game” and shook hooves. Some more pained than others, but all with a smile on their face.

Luna and Hurricane were last up, for obvious reasons other than Luna having to practically be dragged to the center field.

“I think I will name that a Sonic Rainboom,” Hurricane proudly stated, “I have never felt a rush like that! Like, a need for speed that just overwhelemed all other forms of utter sensibility! I cannot even describe with one word...”

“Yes yes, it was awesome.” Luna cut her off abruptly, her own struck ego partially causing the interruption, “It surely did a number on me. Next time though...”

Luna slowly, but painfully winked, “Next time, your rainbow will have the stars to compete with.” They all laughed, some holding their ribs, and then limped from the playing field.

Luna tried to maintain her pride and limp from the field on her own power, despite her front hooves screaming just from holding her in one place.

Thankfully, Luna could save some dignity by flying towards the castle, where she would get some sort of royal treatment.

Her wings were in far better shape than the rest of her, and though landing would no doubt be a touchy issue, at least some weight would be lifted from her injuries.

The discus had been granted to Hurricane, and now that Luna was in the infirmary, she realized just how light she felt without her usual trophy.

The infirmary was quite plain; not a crystal in sight. White walls, white tile floors, Luna began to wonder if she was even in the Crystal Empire anymore.

She lay in a bed of sorts, its size barely fitting her entire length. It didn't matter, Luna preferred dangling her hooves over the sides anyways.

While the nurses proclaimed that she would be fine enough to be left alone, Luna knew better than to think that they would not report her injuries to Celestia.

After all, with Solaria gone, there were few other ponies with any sort of power over her. A soft knock at the wooden door confirmed that the nurses had galloped to rat her out to her older sister.

Celestia's entry was accommodated with a gasp. The white alicorn rushed to Luna's side, dripping with restrained concern.

“Oh my goodness, are you alright?” Celestia worridedly inquired, checking the princess over, “Are you hurt?”

Luna still reasoned that Celestia had been told about her injuries, so rather than elaborating, Luna merely looked her sister in the eye, sarcasm prepared specifically for this moment.

“What do you think?” Luna jokingly jabbed, playfully clutching her left set of ribs. Desiring to change the subject, Luna decided to elaborate in a more excited manner the stunt that had sent her to the infirmary.

“You should have been there! Hurricane did this really awesome stunt in the field...”

“Luna, you need to be more careful,” Celestia chastised, as if she were talking to a foal, “You can't just be running around injuring yourself, not with food supplies so scarce.”

“Would you rather I sit around all day and mope about the one meal a day situation that, in hindsight, is not that bad?”

Luna continued to joke, failing to see the seriousness of the matter. “I am sure that will make things better.”

“No, but perhaps you could pick up a good book,” Celestia suggested, “Try reading from the volumes in the library. Sombra in his spare time pours over the place like its his job, and even writes in some tome of his.”

“It is his job,” Luna retorted, “He has to know as much as possible about ruling if he is to have any redemption with his subjects.”

“And so do you have need for that knowledge." Celestia's stern expression, cast down upon Luna, almost made Luna feel like a mere foal again, being chewed out for not taking her lessons more seriously.

“You are someday going to be ruling a vast empire alongside me. Now you may not busy yourself with political theory as I do, but starting tomorrow you and I are going to be going to the library, together!”

Luna now had a serious face on, as she realized that Celestia was not joking at all on the matter.

“What? And spend my valauble time and physique in a library?” Luna decried, “I would rather suck your horn than bore myself with political thought and philosophy!”

Rather than lash out at the stubborn princes, Celestia merely closed her eyes. When she re-opened them, a mischevious smile grew on her face.

“Well, you will not be playing that discus game for awhile, so, as an alternative, in your free time, I am going to be bringing some of Sombra's personal favorites,” Celestia cooed as she turned around to leave, “I will make sure to have him deliver the last one personally.”

“I see what you did there, and I am not going to be convinced simply out of necessity!” Luna shot as Celestia walked out of the room, giggling to herself.

Now that Celestia was gone, Luna really did buckle, and send curses through the nearby wall. Not for Celestia's actions, but much rather the pain all that talking and movement had induced. She lay back down with a gentle whimper, not looking forward to the next few days.

The scene began to swirl and return back to the crystalline city, with a single room coming into view. The crystals all brilliantly shone, making the dark blue occupant stick out like Celestia's horn (seriously, it can be very hard to miss in most shots).

She looked miserable, that mare really did, and the books surrounding her seemed to do little to ease her suffering. A large frown was on her face, as she playfully lifted her wings up and down, as if testing their dexterity.

When no pain shot through, Luna leapt from her cushion laden resting place on the floor and practiced walking around.

It had been some days, weeks maybe if Luna counted right, and while a small bit of pain could still be felt in her front hooves, for the most part, she could gloat to her sister that she was all better, and head out to injure herself yet again.

Well, that was the plan anyways, till a dark stallion materialized from seeming nowhere. Sombra was in almost full armor, appearing much like he did on his day alive, minus the royal drape and an addition of wings and wing holes in the armor.

The mere sight of Sombra, smiling wide with a large tome in his magical grasp, sent Luna's heart into a race against her mind.

For some strange reason, she had the urge to start trading cuffs with Sombra; after all, it would be a fine test to see if she was truly fully healed.

“Hello Luna,” he greeted as his form fully closed in, “You look back in your element.” He set the large book to the side, the worn cover practically begging to be burned and replaced with something that had probably not seen the creation of Discord.

“As if.” Luna strutted back to her cushions, huffing with a rather melodramatic pout. “There are no doors, no windows, if I didn't know any better, I'd say Celestia did not want me leaving this room.”

“How intuitive.” Sombra joked, tilting his head to the side. “You do realize that you can just teleport out right?”

Luna had attempted that, but every time she tried, Celestia would somehow always end up where she teleported herself to. She would be ushered back to her room under threat of tattling to Mother about her injuries.

Anything but that! Why not send Sombra, who she was forbidden to see anyways, to add icing to the cake while you're at it? Celestsia logic 2.0. She swears that her sister was out to get her and Sombra into trouble at this point.

“Oh what's the fun in using magic for everything?” Luna attempted to mimick Discord's tone, though she lacked the condescending bite that made the statement so humorous.

Sombra did not laugh, but he did outstretch his wings, motioning towards the large tome that he had placed on the other side of the room.

Luna's eyes rolled; yet another bit of reading material. “Come now, you cannot be serious. Another book? What am I, a librarian?”

“Celestia suggested that reading would do you good." Sombra walked over to the tome, tracing a hoof over the cover. He gazed at the book fort that seemed to be built around Luna's bed.

“However, I can see you haven't touched the others except to move them out of your space.”

“Damn straight,” Luna replied, surprising Sombra with her tone, “They are always getting under my flank, constantly forcing me to shift onto yet another book. I eventually decided they would be more useful as fortifications.”

“Well,” Sombra challenged, giving Luna a look over as he brandished a quill pen, “How about you write one of your own, and see how easy it is.”

Luna looked at Sombra as if he had just struck her with a hoof, the likes of which had emerged from his mouth. In many ways her eagerness to attack Sombra resurged with that suggestion.

“Write one? Write a book?”

“Just journal for Celestia's sake,” Sombra snarled, eyes flashing green, “Keep yourself occupied. You will be staying in here under Celestia and I's orders until further notice.”

That tore it; Celestia ordering her around was one thing, but Sombra now doing it struck a raw nerve. Luna levitated and flared her wings in protest.

“What! You have no more authority over me than Celestia!” Luna jeered, “Only Mother can order me around, and even then, it is still my choice as to obey or not.”

“I like 'em feisty,” Sombra licked of his lips. To this day Luna is perplexed about why Sombra did that. Luna largely ignored the gesture at the time and started flying frantically around the room in some vain attempt to work out some of her pent up energy

“Just teleport outside,” Sombra retorted, wisely backing away from the cushions, “It can't be that hard.”

Luna finally began spinning around the room faster and faster until, at long last, she came to a plop on her cushions. Books and feathers flew everywhere as the mess temporarily covered the entire room.

Sombra was dazed, though he had dodged the books and had cleared the landing zone, just long enough for Luna to land a hoof to his face. Caught off guard, Sombra staggered to his left, Luna's strike coming from the right, and braced himself for a potential fight.

Of course, when Luna came around this time, he caught a glimpse of her entire form, just before she tackled him in the side. The tackle hardly hurt, but the landing did, and Sombra cried out as Luna pinned him to the ground.

Smiling triumphantly, Luna suddenly found it odd that she had so easily overpowered Sombra; by the time she caught on to just how easy it was, now she was suddenly tackled from behind.

A short wrestling match ensued as Luna attempted to turn the tables of gravity on her opponent. Sombra kept attempting the same, and as they rolled and rolled around in an attempt to achieve dominance, they were careful not to let their horns touch each other.

Nopony wins a magical headbutt. Just as Sombra seemed to have the upper hoof, Luna managed to get her hind legs underneath her potential captor. She kicked at the plated stomach, launching Sombra from her much like a spring would launch a game character in a game.

The armor was not dented even, a red glow from Sombra's oddly curved horn suggesting that he had enchanted it prior to this fight breaking out. He clearly had been anticipating this.

“Illusions huh?” Luna jeered as she rose back to her hooves, “That doesn't quite seem your style.”

“I am not crazy Luna." Sombra spread out his wings and smartly landed on all fours. “I am not going to take on a natural born alicorn who is too stubborn to use her own powers to leave this room. Come to think of it, I think the crazy one here may be you.”

Luna charged up magic in her horn, before loosing it on Sombra, not taking well to the implication that she was crazy for her actions. Sombra shifted to have the blast deflect off of his armor and bounce onto the crystals.

The constant ricochet of the blast dangerously came close to both combatants. Luna, however, used this to her advantage and began firing more blasts, realizing that Sombra's armor was the key to his sturdy defense, along with his horn.

If she could barrage him with enough shots, then eventually he would have to resort to showing off his other defenses.

Sombra realized that Luna was merely going to pepper the room with fire; there was enough of him unarmored for luck to strike one of those spots at some point.

He didn't know what spell she cast, but Luna could tell that Sombra had caught on to her tactic at least.

He put a bubble shield over himself, red in color, and stomped a hoof to the ground. With dazzling speed, the crystals in the surroundings began to shape and form to Sombra's bidding, moving rather fluidly at the beck and call of their master.

Luna reasoned that this was Sombra's offense, a sign that she had forced him to become more serious. That was a good thing; for some odd reason, she did not want Sombra holding back in this fight.

The crystals did not change color, but the geometric shapeshifting still bothered Luna, as they moved to entrap her into an even smaller space. Luna needed to take a gamble; time was her enemy as long as Sombra controlled the crystals around her.

There was only one reasonable solution left, and that was to close the distance with Sombra. Absorbing one of her own blasts in the flank, Luna felt a numbness that could only be described as a stun spell's touch.

Even still, there were far more blasts firing around, and she needed to dodge them and the crystals if she were to attack Sombra directly.

An appropriate challenge, one which Luna accepted as she attempted to take flight. She barely dodged the spiral ones from the ceiling, and had to resort to hoof over hoof dashing and leaping just to keep from getting compressed into a bloody mess.

Sombra's shield was no more, he likely having to give it up in order to focus on crystal manipulation. The space was getting tighter and tighter, and before long, Luna realized that Sombra was luring her towards him for some strange reason.

Well, that worked just fine; dodging a sudden rising crystal in front of her, Luna narrowly leapt over it, her underside lightly skimmed by the tip prior to landing on the side of yet another crystal.

An uncomfortable scratch was the only damage done, but Sombra once again sent four quick jabs of crystal towards her single position.

In order to dodge a compass direction attack like this, Luna had to think back to her training. If magic would not do the trick, then sheer force was the only answer.

With a powerful forward buck that rattled her teeth, Luna shattered two of the oncoming crystals; in that same, fluid motion, she also leapt from the other two as well, narrowly getting her sides nicked by their doing.

That was a little close, and it seemed as if Sombra's aim was getting a little better. Always up to this sort of challenge, Luna shifted weight back to her front legs, using her back ones to balance as she flipped past the point of no return.

As her eyes came forward again, she could see Sombra charging towards her, intent on ramming her in the side.

With a flap of her wings, she swiftly righted her flip mid-air, and met Sombra's head directly. Horns clashed as she headbutted the careless stallion on his uncovered head.

Luna saw stars, quite literally, and felt her entire body being enveloped in light before suddenly blacking out to the sound of a magical blast.

“Why are the two of you fighting?” Twilight's question froze the scene in a black backdrop. “I thought you two were supposedly bonding.”

"You know what they say about apples and trees," Luna answered before resuming the scene, not bothering to elaborate on her meaning.

A faint voice seemed to call out to Luna, as if it desperately wanted her to wake up. Flutter vision activated, light seemed to come in movie frames as Luna started to come back to her sense.

Standing over her was none other than Solaria, with a concerned look on her face, along with a hint of anger.

Luna wanted to say something, but nothing in her body was responding. Damn magical headbutt must have surged their combined magics together and released it in a blast. Luna had not anticipated that the old unicorn joke would hold such a truth to it.

“This is all your fault!” The accusing tone diverted Luna's eyes between her mother's legs, some distance from where she lay. On the other side, hardly in any better shape, was the shallowly breathing Sombra.

His eyes were crossed, as if he had been struck dumb, and his armor was in complete tatters; bloodstained fur quickly made Luna realize that, despite her own beating, Sombra seemed much worse off.

Then again, as she looked over as much of herself as her position allowed (as she could not move anything but her eyes at this point). She was covered in some scratches, nasty bruises, and second degree burns.

Sombra got the raw end of the stick, and she got the burning end of the stick.

Solaria nuzzled Luna's head gently, likely noticing her coherence to the situation, and then turned towards the angry Celestia.

“Temper Celestia, temper. I will handle this." Celestia backed off from Sombra, herself covered in... Well wait a minute, she didn't have a scratch on her. What was she so worked up over then?

Celestia still looked at him with scorn, but by now, Luna realized that she was no longer in a close spaced. She was in open air.

Looking up, she saw the night sky, which seemed to be bathed in strange lights. It was mesmorizing, but not so captivating as the sound of her mother scowling.

“As of today, Sombra, you are officially descended! Endangering your subjects and my daughters with your reckless act of self-indulgence! Return to the form as you were!”

She then struck him with a beam of light from her horn. Sombra's color scheme dramatically changed, as his entire form became crystalline like the subjects around him.

His wings detached from his body, smoke being left at the spot where they used to be attached to his body. Sombra did not even flinch, and not a drop of blood fell as Solaria warped the feathered appendages away.

In hindsight, it was strange that she did not just turn them to ash right there and then.

His horn then took on the color and sheen of a ruby, while his body was reminscenent of diamonds. Most importantly, as Luna caught the first fixed gaze of Sombra as he regained his senses, she could see his eyes sparkle like the night stars.

It was strange, but Sombra faintly smiled at seeing Luna.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hornbutt unicorns?”

His tone seemed almost joking, as if he had not realized yet what had happened to him.

Celestia stomped her hooves to the ground, her bruises and cuts now beginning to come into vision as Luna noticed her minor injuries as well. Either she had just gotten them or Luna had been less focused in her vision than she had thought to catch sight of them before.

“How can you possibly be happy with what you have done?” Celestia shouted, causing a ringing in Luna's ears, “You nearly killed us you demicorn!”

This struck Sombra like a lightning bolt, or at least the pain of losing his wings finally catching up with him. The spots where his wings had been did not bleed, but Sombra howled out in pain nonetheless.

“Daughter of a... Gah!” Sombra roared, his body weakly convolusing as all his strength was poured into his misery, “Did I get hit with a meteor before getting my wings stolen by a comet?”

“Odd way to describe it, but yes,” Solaria calmly stated, as if this were nothing out of the ordinary, “I stripped you of your wings as a consequence for your actions.” In a poof the wings vanished, likely going to some unknown plot in the ground.

Luna wanted to speak up, to explain that Sombra technically was only responding to her first strike, but her throat was far too dry, scorched even. Even worse, her jaws had such a heavy clamp on them that she could have sworn that magic was holding them shut.

Sombra blinked, and attempted to rise; pitifully, he fell to the ground, eliciting a gasp from a growing crowd of ponies. Non-crystal and crystal pony alike had apparently gathered for the commotion, though guards were attempting to keep them back.

Some of them were even shouting Sombra's name in worry, though Solaria ignored them as she stepped over the fallen alicorn and addressed the crowd.

“As of now, the Crystal Empire is officially under Equestrian control. In a few months, Discord shall witness the return of the land's rightful rulers!

Your prince (she enunciated the word with such emphasis as to make a point) shall be allowed to recover, but from here on out, you all answer to Equestria's rulers!”

Luna began losing consciousness again, the last thing she saw being a shocked Celestia backing away, shaking her head towards her mother.

Again the scene stopped as it faded to black, Twilight no doubt having yet another question regarding what just happened.

“That really doesn't make any sense,” Twilight pointed out, “Why would Solaria need to remove Sombra from power? She was rightfully in charge anyways wasn't she?”

“Well no." Luna tried to speak slowly, not out of mocking, but in an attempt to reiterate an earlier point. “We had come as refugees, immigrants, to the independent kingdom. Sombra, politically and socially, was in charge of everything.”

“But militarily?” Twilight sounded as if she did not want to appear daft regarding the subject. “Was Solaria in charge of that?”

“Solaria was very much in charge, much to Sombra's chargin. He couldn't do anything about it, though, without starting armed conflict, and that was the last thing he wanted with the Crystal Heart so connected to the citizens. It led to his downfall.”

“But, didn't he retake it later? Did he not enslave the populace?”

“Yes, but that was out of vengeance,” Luna concluded with a tired sigh accompanying her statement, "Sombra had lost face with his subjects before, but this was on a very different level."

When Luna next awoke, the events prior to her blacking out came rushing back to her. She could see that she was in that closed off room again, but this time, on the other side, was a sleeping Sombra.

He looked so peaceful; visually rather appealing, twinkling like a dozen stars under no moonlight, and Luna began to realize how many celestial adjectives were constantly being applied to anything near her.

Coincidence or not, it was getting a little repetitive, so she decided to instead think of him as a diamond ring with a ruby on the side, err, top. Yeah, that's more down to earth.

His peacful sleep was interrupted as she shifted positions to assess her own condition. Most of her injuries had been bandaged up; chances were, magic had been used to speed up the healing process, as nothing seemed to ache or strike a jolt of pain with movement.

Her throat felt as dry as a savannah watering hole in the dry season; it needed a good glass of water at the least. As if on cue, a hoof clopped on the other side of the bed to get her attention.

When Luna turned to face the owner, she saw the saddened face of Celestia, a glass of crystal clear water hovering in her yellow aura's grasp.

“Hey sister,” Luna weakly rasped, clutching the water with her own magic. She slowly downed the drink, the refreshingly cool water wetting everything it touched, assauging her of thirst and permitting some minor talking yet again.

Drops of water ran down her neck, wetting her bandages ever so slightly. It felt good, but not half as good as the chorus that her throat felt like singing for the relief.

“Mother is upset with you." Celestia fiddled with her hooves, as if reciting lines from a script. “You could have done serious harm out there. Despite public appearances, this is as much your punishment as it is Sombra's.”

Luna slowly looked towards her still attached wings, before turning back towards Sombra. Not even nubs remained, and the terrible stripping seemed masked by his very peaceful expression.

Luna gave a small smile, but had to look again towards Celestia with a half-frown. “What is my punishment compared to his?”

Celestia looked Luna dead in the eye. She had probably already considered that response, and stood up straight as if she were about to address the state of the kingdom.

“Well, seeing as I am no longer going to be betroth to Sombra, once he recovers, Mother will make him a regenent here while we go and retake the old lands of Poni.”

Wait, did Luna hear Celestia right? This was the first time that she had heard of this arrangement, and a pang of anger turned Luna's melancholy into vice.

“Since when were you betrothed to Sombra?” Luna sat up, thrusting her head forward to speak straight into Celestia's face. "He seemed a little more interested in fighting me the last time we spoke.”

“Royal marriage, it would have been more appropiate for the eldest to get married silly.”

Celestia smiled and walked around to the other side of Luna's bed, defusing the tension by reducing the distance between the two. And of course teasing the clearly irate Luna.

Luna did not bother with getting into her face again, but shifted so that she would be facing her sister still.

“Neither of us were hyped about it, obviously. Sombra is just not my type.” At this Celestia laughed, bitterly, and gazed over towards the still sleeping Sombra. "A little head strong for my tastes."

He wasn't Luna's type either, but this news only just now reaching her ears seemed to infuriate her, though her injuries made physical expression of it difficult.

“How long do you think it will take for him to recover, and I hear this for myself from his lips?” Luna growled after saying this, resigning to working out her anger on the floor with a stare down.

“I don't know." Celestia turned her head to look at Sombra, and then back towards Luna. “But by the looks of it, you two will have plenty of time to yourselves.”

Celestia gave a weak smile at Sombra, as if she had a shred of respect for him left. And who knows; as far as Luna was concerned, maybe she did. However, there was no telling if Luna read too much into Celestia's gesture there.

She then looked towards Luna sternly, once again returning to her actress tone. “This is a direct order from Mother; no horse playing! We don't want to have to rebuild this castle from the ground up again, among other worries.”

And with that, Celestia teleported out of the room, vanishing in a flash of yellow light. Luna blinked, guessing that Celestia's shift was due to reflection. After all, it hadn't all been Sombra's fault...

“Guh, I had a terrible nightmare." Sombra groaned and rolled over with his back to Luna, apparently having been disturbed by Celestia's departure. “I had a dream that Solaria took off my wings. Isn't that a hoot eh Rocky?”

Stiffly and in a painfully slow fashion, Sombra, felt for his wings; Luna winced as she could only imagine Sombra's face at the realization that it had been no dream. Sombra rose ever so slightly, as if he might have been laying on them.

His searching concluded with him howling in pain, his entire body locking up as he collapsed back into his bed, huffing and puffing. Apparently his feelings had returned as well.

Soft sobbing could be heard, Luna wincing as she could sense the new low that had been brought to the prince. Sombra turned over, revealing tears streaming down his scrunched up face, pain and misery painting itself a definition with this expression.

Now looking towards the startled mare that now shared his room, Sombra's tear streaked eyes blinked as he realized that Luna was watching him. Attempting to hide his apparent distress, he shuffled till some of the blankets were over his face.

Seeing Sombra attempting to hide beneath his bed sheets almost elicited a laugh from Luna, though she held back out of fear of injuring his already fragile state of mind.

Well, she reasoned he was in such a state, as waking up to find his wings gone would no doubt send any other pony spiraling down a dark road.

“I saw that. And I think this will only get easier once we talk about it.”

Sombra whimpered in response, apparently not agreeing with the statement. Luna jumped from her bed and began to walk towards Sombra; she moved shakily at first, but became more steady with each step, despite her body petitioning for more rest.

In a surprising twist, Sombra heard her clopping hooves and came out to meet her halfway, bringing one of his pillows. He had wiped away much of his tears, and though his eyes were still watery, he seemed to halt any further sobbing.

His horn fizzled when he attempted to use magic, so he just dragged the pillow (along with half of himself) along. He seemed to ignore the pain, determined not to allow Luna to come the whole way to him.

It never ceased to amaze Luna how Sombra could even limp after what he just went through; but then again, many of his injuries seemed to have been patched up with magic as well, though it was evident that "patched" was the proper word for it.

Once again mere muzzle distance from each other, the moment would have become awkward had Sombra not started to collapse. Luna swiftly moved to try to help him out, extending out her head, neck, and shoulders as a sort of support.

Now just slightly underneath Sombra, Luna could feel his rapidly beating heart, and how it seemed to be near bursting out of his chest.

It was probably due to all that effort into salvaging his own ego, coming to meet her a quarter of the twenty steps between their respective sides of the room.

Luna began to doubt the wisdom in not returning Sombra to his bed immediately. After all, the poor stallion had nearly just collapsed to the hard floor for goodness sake.

Luna nuzzled Sombra as he dropped the pillow, curious as to what his reaction would be. As if it were possible, his heart started to beat even faster, till it resembled something trying to pound from his chest and strike her lower neck with the force of a barrage of punches.

“Do not worry Sombra.” Luna tried her best to sound as sweet and soothing as possible, as she feared anymore beating and his heart might give out from the exertion.“As long as I'm here, you will not have to go through this alone.”

Luna's mane suddenly became saturated, a combination of sweat and tears flowing from Sombra. She had apparently failed in calming him down, but at least he was letting his emotion out.

Luna was at a loss as to what to do now; Sombra did not sound comforted, though at least his heart rate returned to a more normal beating speed.

He attempted to weakly nuzzle Luna back, but this increased weight made Luna's still weakened frame cry out in protest.

“I think it would be a good idea to lie down now, before we both collapse.”

Sombra laughed, actually laughed, and, as suggested, the two laid next to each other, their shared pillow the only inanimate comfort they had brought.

"At least now we can be together." Sombra parted with Luna's mane to give her a wide smile. "Even if it is for just a little while longer. Marriage to your sister would have complicated things."

Luna was dumbstruck by this information dump, as it implied that, to some extent, Sombra had purposely gotten himself stripped for the sake of getting out of his arrangement with Celestia.

Of courses, Luna thought this to be a ludicrious notion, and that maybe Sombra was joking as a way of getting past his own misery.

"Once an alicorn, always an alicorn, I think. There are not exactly many descended ponies to ask about that." Sombra laughed again, sniffing and wiping away almost any remaining facial fluids on the pillow.

Not even mildly disgusted by this, Luna painted a silly grin, attempting to façade her discomfort at Sombra's way of dealing with the matter.

"Oh well, that is just one of those things we will have to work on." Sombra's gaze wandered over to Luna's bed, his seeming cheeriness not diminishing for a moment.

"My family has been keeping a Tome for a long time now regarding discovered knowledge, including that of dark magic; perhaps now you would like a peek?"

Did Luna really have a choice in the matter? As much as she would have preferred something far less studious, she decided that her gutter would have to wait.

"Sure," Luna replied, turning her head to view the faintly glowing Tome, "Perhaps I can even help you write some new entries, though I think it would be better to have a different book for the final version."

"A second edition?" Sombra seemed intrigued by the idea, his ears shooting up like raised spears. "That actually sounds like a good idea..."