The humans hidden among the ponies

Twilight and the others blanched at the dirty and run down shape everything was in but the worst part was everyone in this mess was some kind of pony and many looked like they had not bathed in weeks and the looks of hopelessness and despair on their faces seem to cut though the air like a knife.

As they  followed him though the mess Twilight couldn't help but wonder why they didn't at least try to clean up a little

" Finally it's safe to talk now; My name is Nowberry. " Nowberry said as he continued walking.

" Oh good! So I take it Catrina is forcing you to live this way using some means to control all of you"  Twilight said as they walked  towards the back as Rarity did her best to walk in the cleanest parts..

But before Nowberry could answer another voice spoke up.

" She's doing that and more. " Said a female voice

They looked to see who was talking and there was a black long haired human girl who had been chained up to a rather large rock that looked worse for wear and tear..

" Oh my gosh~ OH MY GOSH! YOU'RE  A HUMAN !!! " Twilight

" Judging by you're reaction;  I'd say You are Alicorn from the outside which means that the one way magical path has opened and no doubt has closed again and the fact that one of you is Alicorn from the outside means you could be the ponies of promise I've been waiting for the last 2 years; I'll have many questions for you.." The girl said in a flat no nonsense voice

" So this is what a human looks like... You did a pretty good job of describing them Twilight though this one has a rather dull light peach color skin and what's with the black gem that looks like black version of your element? " Rainbow Dash asked

Suddenly the black gem crackled with a dark sinister black energy when the girl gave them a sharp look causing all of them to back off in fear..

" So then you are the ponies of promise.. Now maybe Queen Artimoon can finally be saved from her prison.  " The girl stated in a matter of fact voice as the gem glowed and crackled with a fearful dark energy that reminded Twilight of the spell Princess Celestia once used... No it was more like Sombra's power but it lacked the feel of  heartless malice and felt more... Un-natural and a sadness clung to it like a blanket...

" Beg pardon? But who are you and what's this about Queen Artimare and what was that about a magic path?" Twilight asked a little more than confused

" Don't they teach you ponies anything on the outside? Queen Artimare is the rightful Alicorn ruler of this land and perhaps this world if it is not her daughters who are raising the sun and moon for the last thousand years or more.. As for who I am;  My name is Darkdawn and I serve Queen Artimare or at least I did before I found out about the ponies of promise  and came here to the  magical path hoping to meet you here  and help you save Queen Artimare and now that you are here  I must now take you to the city of the Alicorn and humans .... The city of Alicornia."  Darkdawn said as the gem crackled with more power as she stared at them..

" That's silly;  Alicronia is a mythical city in the mythical land of; NO WAY! Are you saying this land is... Ponyland?" Twilight asked with a gulp as certain very, very old legends about ponies and where they originally came from came to her mind...

" Yes; This is Ponyland or rather what is left of it after King Sunburn starting using it both as a prison and for his many  experiments; .Some for the good of ponykind  but there were also much darker experiments like myself..  I was his attempt to make a human be as powerful and immortal as Alicorn... Unlucky for me... I was his successful experiment  but in spite of all my power this lousy magical seal of a rock and chains that Catrina somehow found and dug up out of one of his magical lab hellholes keeps even me chained up and unable to leave... For now. ..  Catrina is very foolish if she thinks she can take my power away from me so easily." Darkdawn said as the dark power blasted away at the dark rock and small bits of it flew off...

Twilight and the other ponies gulped and began to wonder if letting this girl escape was a good idea but it was clear that rock couldn't survive those dark magic blasts much longer..

" Twilight;  Any idea what this crazy human girl is talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked as she tried to look at Twilight but kept nervously looking back at this strange girl

" I am not crazy; I am Darkdawn; the bearer of the one and only element of DARKNESS!!! If you wish to escape and survive this land you will need me.!" Darkdawn said with firmness that spoke of truth as more bits of the rock went flying off as she blasted it again..

" Element of darkness? That doesn't sound very good or very healthy! I say we leave this horrid girl here and try to escape on our own! " Rarity said

" No Rarity; That would not be the right thing to do; We must help these ponies and we must help this girl because it's the right thing to do because it's not our place to judge someone because they have scary powers and besides she knows more about this land than we do and  I think this Queen Artimare is the mother of Princess Celestia and Luna but what I don't understand is why Discord made it sound like she couldn't be alive or what this element of darkness is because all six elements are back with the tree of harmony. "  Twilight

Suddenly Darkdawn burst out laughing casing the dark energy to hit the floor, the rock and the chains but for some unknown reason the blasts that hit the chains went to the rock causing it to grow a bit suggesting that the chains were more magical than the rock or at least  they had some kind of magic keeping her locked up but the display of power did more to cause the ponies to panic and move from possibly being hit than watching the magic that imprisoned her..

" Sorry about that but you totally deserved that one for thinking that Discord would tell the total truth about anything.. It sounds like King Sunburn's ex-pet is still up to some of his old silly tricks after all this time. It's not that easy to kill a Alicorn or cause them to die; Queen Artimare is very much alive and is well enough for a prisoner of this land. "  Darkdawn said in a voice that spoke of truth..

Twilight had to sigh even if she didn't fully know what this girl was talking about;  But all she could think of was the fact that she should've known better. She should've known Discord wouldn't tell the exact truth. He may be reformed but he was still a pain in the flank and worse yet ; HE  enjoyed being a pain in the flank..

" I should've known he wasn't telling the whole story or exact truth about it but I still don't understand how this element of darkness of yours can even exist... I mean if you want us to help you're going have to explain that one seeing there are only six elements. Twilight

" Hmmm.. I see... Sounds like much of the old history of ponies during King Sunburn's rule has been lost or destroyed... First tell me your story and of these princesses of which you spoke of.. You don't need to tell me everything but just enough so I can fill in a few gaps here as it's clear some history is unknown to me and that you lost some history. " Darkdawn  said as the element of darkness seem to calm down much to the relief of everyone...

Twilight told her of the princesses, the elements, nightmare moon, Luna and even the changeling attack and she kept on until she reached the part about herself becoming a princess and what led them to look for the humans that were brought to their world using the mirror.

" So that's pretty much the cheat sheet about what happen to us and to Equestria  but there are a lot more details but I think it's enough for now.. it's your turn.. " Twilight

" So much has been lost... More than should've been perhaps.. How sad but a deal is a deal and I'll tell you of the element of darkness which is nothing like the elements you know of . " Darkdawn said with a sad face.

" I thought so but how is it different? Twilight asked because she wanted to know more before she did anything..

"  My element is not from a tree of harmony as you called it; It was artificially created by King Sunburn using a small part of the heart of Equestria and a large part of the heart of darkness but the bottom line is I became the bearer of the element of darkness...  Forever torn between the power of darkness and of light..." Darkdawn

" I see.. But what is this about the heart of Equestria and this heart of darkness ? " Twilight as she grew even more puzzled.

" To understand that you must go back to the very creation of Equestria...Once long ago before the universes came to be there were two beings who's power was greater than a billion Alicorns.  One was good, honest and loving but the other was more selfish, heartless and worst of all very petty.  They each created their own worlds and universes.

The good one created Equestria  and all those who inhibit it and the human world that is connected to as well and at the same time she transformed herself and buried herself into Equestria becoming it's very center and she quickly became known as the heart of Equestria.

The  other being also created her own world and universe but her creation lacked any heart and soon crumbled apart as her demands from her own creations grew worse and worse and then when she saw how badly it had decayed she decided what she wanted was a new world; One that wasn't decayed and dying and she quickly set her eyes on Equestria but when she was how much better and happier everyone and everything was... She went from planning to wanting to taking over to wanting to destroy it out of pure hate and spite and to do that she transformed her own body to be like the heart of Equestria  but howeverr she made her own body as small as she could and she made it in the shape of a stake and then she drove her new body into Ponyland and plowed deep enough to where the tip just touches the heart of Equestria..

It was not long before she started causing  trouble for this world...  I think that Luna's change, the changelings and others are a but a few results of that trouble.. In fact I doubt it was real  hunger that drove the changelings... It sounds more like love energy gives them a bit of power which they crave like a drug they are hooked on which far better explains the fact they were so easily repelled by love energy which was supposed to feed them but that is aside the point...

While she created much trouble over time; The real troubles for Ponyland began when King Sunburn had learned to tap into both of their power with which I was one such result of this tapping as was Queen Artimare's imprisonment here when she deified her father and dared to free the human race from their bondage... " Darkdawn

" .... I see....  I guess somehow the real story of how Queen Artimare  got badly mixed up over time" Twilight asked as she tapped her jaw thoughtfully

" Yes it would seem a lot was lost.. No telling how much forgotten history has become mear legends ." Darkdawn

" Ok I understand as well as I'm going too for now... Now how does this imprisonment spell work? " Twilight

" There are 8  layers in all; the first is the one you went though or what we call the magic path; It lets others in but never out so that this land would get a bad rep.. Catrina is tapping into a small bit of it to keep these ponies and others here; The rest is mostly her cold hearted brutality.. I'm sure she showed you the Smooze.. "  Darkdawn

" Yeah; She showed us but are you not afraid of it? " Rainbow Dash

" Not really the element of darkness is quite the weapon and it protects me and she does fear and longs for  my power in spite of what she might say and even she can see it cannot be separated from me so easily as to try to dump me into the smooze and besides she'd have to free me to do that one which she knows what would happen to her if I got free...

In fact if she had not caught me asleep when she caught me I'd blasted this place until I found the spell stones that make the first seal work but perhaps it was for the best she did catch me since I'd have to wait for the six ponies of promise to destroy the spell stones since my power cannot do it because it's mainly a power fueled by my darker feelings and it can only be unlocked by the power of the promised six which would make that you.. Besides the stuff may be dangerous but it's weakness is simple enough; All you need is enough plain old salt and it'll die faster than a over salted slug... "  Darkdawn

" Huh! That is easy!  Rainbow Dash said though she found it hard to believe it was so simple but she had seen enough things in her life to know that sometimes it was the most simple things that worked the best.

"Yes it is... I guess I can make the bell appear now that we know more about what's going on here. " Twilight said with a smile

" You mean you could've called Discord this whole time? Why didn't you do that sooner? Rainbow Dash

" I told you I wanted to know more and besides we learned what happen to all the ponies that came here and now it's time we did something about it. "  Twilight

" You mean some of them.. The rest managed to slip though and a few ponies even got as far as Alicornia without even once seeing Catrina or the other dangers between here and Alicornia..." Darkdawn said flatly

" I stand corrected.. Some of them. " Twilight said with a smile.

" Yes let's save them and then we can have a get out jail free party when we are done!" Pinkie Pie said happily

" Eh works for me and I say we do it!. Rainbow Dash said eager to get out of this mess.

" You'll get no complaint out me leaving this horrid place! " Rarity said

" But let's be careful not to hurt any ponies or those cute little Bushwoolies because I'm sure once they know they can be free of Catrina they'll be good." Fluttershy said with a smile..

" Ah Sure wouldn't mind getting out of here!" Apple Jack

Twilight caused the bell to ring and Discord appeared and seem to be on what looked like he was painting of all things.

" Do you mind I was.... EEEEEEEEAAAAKKKKKK!!!!  Discord screamed when he saw Darkdawn and somehow he jumped into Twilight's front legs who looked very annoyed by Discord and dropped him on the floor.

" What is she doing here? I thought she'd be killed by now! " Discord asked as he got up off the floor and then floated to her and pointed to her with a magically made foam thumb hand that read.. I'm with stupid here...

" Nice to see you again too Discord.. Never thought I'd see Old Sunburn's pet again! "  Darkdawn said with a smirk

" That's slander! You know full well I was just amusing him because it amused me! " Discord said as he stuck out his tongue...

" Yeah right; Like the fact he was 100 times more skilled at magic than you were at the time had nothing to do with it!  Darkdawn said still smirking.

Discord happen to look at the ponies and most of them were looking at him with the same smirk..

" What? It was a long time ago! And don't even think of spreading it out because friends do not blab about other friends secrets even I know that one! Discord said as he tried to look  hurt..

" Fine, fine but if you think we will not talk about it every time you misbehave too much... " Rainbow Dash said in a threating voice

" That's blackmail! " Discord complained

" Yeah I know... That's kind-of why I said it. " Rainbow Dash with a huge blackmail of a grin on her face.

" Fine be that way! But I give no promise to not misuse one of your dark secrets to my advantage one day! " Discord said as one of his shoulder magically iced over as he turned his back towards Rainbow Dash

" Enough Discord! I didn't call you so you can have a fight with some pony... I need you to free Darkdawn. " Twilight

" WHAT? Are you crazy? There's no way I'm helping that girl! Discord said as he stretched his neck around Darkdawn until he had gone around her a few times and then stopped his head very near Darkdawn's head and stuck out his tongue at her again...

Darkdawn stood up and everyone could now see how dirty her clothes were from her imprisonment...

Come here a sec..  I got something to say to you Discord! " Darkdawn said  she quickly grabbed his nearby head and then whispered something into his ear

" YOU WOULDN'T DARE!" Discord looked at her with a very shocked face as he backed away from her a bit.

" This is me you're talking too and you know if you don't behave on your own free will around me; I  can and will use every dirty trick I know to get you to behave by force since you pulled so many dirty tricks on me back in the days when we were in old Sunburn's castle together. Darkdawn said flatly

" I guess this what they call karma... Fine.. I'll do it but I still hate you! : Discord said in a snippy voice

"  Oh please you never really hated anyone and we both know it.. Also while you're freeing me I could use clean clothes and you know the kind I like so don't even think of putting me into clown clothes again or something else outlandish or else. "  Darkdawn said with a smirk

Discord grumbled and said something about her still being a pain in the rear as the chains vanished and her clothes took on a green fantasy cloth armored look to them.

" OH! How nice! You seem to have some taste in clothes.. " Rarity said because she just wasn't sure what to make of humans or their clothes just yet...

Darkdawn didn't reply as she stretched a bit..

" You can take care of the other 11 stalls that the ponies are in.. I'll deal with Katrina because she might not go to prison willingly..."  Darkdawn said and then black lighting bolts hit the massive doors and it almost sounded like it was screaming in pain as sounds of wood cracking , bending and even warping of wood, stone and metal could be heard until..

KAAWWWWHOOOMMM!!  Pieces went flying all over the place but every time one piece got too close to a pony it got blasted away so in spite of the terrible damage done to the door.. No one was hurt.

Twilight and the others looked very pale as black smoke and fire burned a bit before Darkdawn  snuffed it out with a swirling mass of dark magical energy that also shoved the larger pieces aside like they were toothpicks..

" She has not changed much.. I'd be careful around her.. She always was a loose cannon because of what King Sunburn did to her to make her this way and part of her hates ponies because of him but at the same time she loves them because of what of Queen Artimare did for her.." Discord said as some old bad memories that he had made himself try to forget came back to haunt him.

"  I plan to have her watched every second.. Rainbow Dash; think you can outrun that power of hers in time to warn us if she's going too far if we are not close enough to watch her? " Twilight asked

" In my sleep! ! " Rainbow Dash said with a snort..

" Good! You and Discord will be watching and following her and before you even think of protesting Discord; it's that or listen to me lecture you about all those little half-fibs you told us about Alicorns and about what we learned from Darkdawn. " Twilight said as Discord started to look ready to say something.

" Oh poo!  I hate it when she ruins my fun with the truth like that!"  Discord said with a grumpy face..

Darkdawn didn't say much as she went out the door as she was quickly followed by Rainbow Dash and Discord.

" The rest of us will deal with the ponies; Fluttershy; Do you think you can talk the Bushwoolies into helping us? " Twilight asked

" I can try but it may not be easy as you make it sound." Fluttershy

" I'm pretty sure once they see we escaped and that there are enough of us to fight back they may think about it and besides I'm pretty sure they are only doing what Catrina said out of fear of her and if we promise to help them be free of her they will help but we will need your ability to reason with small animals; The rest of us will see about freeing the ponies and getting them out of here. " Twilight said

" Well then what are we waiting for? Am a hankering to get outta this place! " Apple Jack; With that said  they went to work on freeing everyone..

Meanwhile Darkdawn, Discord and Rainbow Dash were now entering the throne room.

" ACK! I thought I destroyed the last of that horrid Smooze ages ago!  " Discord said as he looked in horror at a sight that he had hoped to never see again.

" As did I but we both somehow managed to miss this Smooze pit  but that mistake will soon be fixed; I'll need about 5 tons of salt for this batch. "  Darkdawn said as she looked at it..

" I can't let you do that! " Catrina said as she came out of a rather shadowy area..

" Oh please like you can stop me! I may not have been the nicest creature of chaos you ever meant back in the good old days when I ruled Equestria but even I drew the line at using the Smooze pits being used to kill ponies! " Discord said as a giant glass salt shaker appeared over the Smooze pit.

NOOOOOO!!!! I'll not let you! Catrina said in a panicked voice and she made a huge jump onto the salt shaker but since it was made of glass she slid strait into the Smooze pit before anyone could react.

NO! I gotta save her! Rainbow Dash said she started to fly towards her only to be quickly stopped by both Discord and Darkdawn.

" No Rainbow Dash! It's too late already!  The Smooze is very poisonous as well as being quick to eat any victim that so much as touches it! She wrote her own death warrant the second she was foolish enough to even be this close to the Smooze. Discord said with a sad look.

" He's right; There is nothing we can do for her now but let the Smooze have it's one last victim. " Darkdawn said sadly..

Rainbow Dash watched in horror as Catrina's remains were dissolved into bones and her blood stained part of the Smooze in a crimson red and she silently made a vow to be faster and more alert from that day on...

" What a lousy way to go! Well no sense crying over it but I think I better speed this up before anyone else ends up in the Smooze! Discord said as he made the salt shaker turn into lots and lots of salt and then he lowered it gently into the Smooze .

" Good riddance to bad garbage! " Darkdawn said as the Smooze began to boil and quickly turned a rancid brown and it soon smelled like a sewer and finally it stopped moving and then it turned into what looked very much like normal soil dirt to Rainbow Dash..

" I never did understand how that nasty stuff turns into plain old soil dirt so quickly after it dies. " Discord commented as he looked at it closely to make sure all the Smooze was very,very dead which it was...

" You and me both! Well I guess Catrina will not be going to court in Alicornia after all.. Maybe it's for the best since things will only get harder from here on out because we got work to do." Darkdawn said as she looked around

"WORK?!?  Like more of that horrid awful actual work like the kind they expected me to do back in Ponyville? That's my cue to leave!" Discord said and he vanished into a puff of pink smoke.

" Hey get back here you.." Rainbow Dash started to say.

" No! We will get more done without him hanging around so much and besides he always was the very lazy type using his power to do almost everything for him. " Darkdawn said

" Yeah; You got a point there but from the sound of it the two of you had quite the history together. " Rainbow Dash

"  We butted heads more than a few hundred times and tell the truth it was kind of fun to do it again.. I guess you could say we are friends that like butting heads with each other too much to ever say we were or are friends to each other,; Not that Discord would ever admit he feels the same way but I always did but enough of that.. What say we all get out of this place? " Darkdawn said as she pointed to the exit.

" Sounds good to me! " Rainbow Dash said as the others rejoined them and soon they were outside where Rainbow Dash told the others what happened to Catrina and even the Bushwoolies  who had been convinced by Fluttershy to help them looked a little sad about it but not for long as soon everyone was celebrating their new found freedom all the way to the next day .

On the next day  as the sun was just above the mountains in the distance they were ready to deal with the spell stones..

" Ok Darkdawn ; Any idea where these spell stones are? " Twilight

Darkdawn looked around a bit.. Odd; I'm sure they should be close by because I can feel their presence ... In fact.. Of course! They'd be in Catrina's castle. " She said as she looked at the castle.

" Oh great! It'll take forever to find them in all that mess! " Rainbow Dash said as the others nodded in agreement

" Not if I blast it apart; the spell stones are too strong for me to destroy them but Catrina's castle is another story now that I'm free and I think this land will look much better without her ugly castle and with everyone safe and the Smooze dead I can now do this ." She said

Darkdawn's element glowed once more with her dark magic energy and with a few mighty blasts Catrina's castle ceased to exist leaving little more than a bunch of pebble sized rocks and debris that were quickly sent into a pile with her power causing everyone to look nervously at her and wondering just how powerful her element really was.

Darkdawn soon had cleared the debris aside to revel six spell stones made of a crystal that reminded Twilight of the crystal that she saw when the changeling queen had trapped her underneath Celestia's castle and hen she took a closer look at one and she was surprised to see that Pinkie Pie's cutiemark was on one and then she saw that the next one to it had her own cutiemark.

But how? Then she remembered that Darkdawn did say something about them being the promised six but it raised a lot of questions like how it got on it and who could've known beforehand or if other unknown forces were at hand but she now had a hunch on what to do.

" Girls look for the crystal with your cutiemark on it! " Twilight said as she went to the crystal with her cutiemark on it.

" Now let's touch it together!" Twilight said and the next thing everyone knew they had to shelter their eyes from the huge blast of red magic energy was released and when they could see again.

" NO WAY! The mountains! T-they're GONE! " Rainbow Dash said as she looked at where the mountains were to be seen in the distance as all the other ponies gasped in surprise.

" No not all of them; Just the ones that were part of the spell that made everyone think there were there; It was also meant to discourage from anyone from entering as well keep them from leaving. I dare say now that it is gone we will be getting some visitors and maybe even a few settlers moving in but I do hope they soon see that ponyland is nothing like any other land because thanks to the heart of darkness crashing into this land millions of years ago; The heart of Equestria and the heart of darkness effects it like no other land they ever seen before or will ever see again. " Darkdawn said

" That must've been some spell to make us think there were mountains there! " Rarity said as she though about how real they looked and even felt.

" You have no idea how powerful it was but it was plenty powerful. " Darkdawn said honestly.

" Yes that's obvious now but you know what? I like the way it looks like much better now with just it's lovely grasslands to see in that direction! " Fluttershy said happily

" And now all these folks can go home iffen they want too." Apple Jack said as she pointed at the now clean and happy ponies they had freed.

" I was born here as Catrina's slave so I think I'll stay here and help start a town to greet those ponies that will come but I'll need a name for it. How about Freepony? " Nowberry asked

" I think I'll stay too" Said one female pony as most of the others agreed with her but a few said they wanted to go home more.

" I think it's a perfect name for a town here!" Rarity said as the others nodded

" Just watch yourselves about getting too close to that nearby sabertooth forest; It's got lots of sabertooth tigers in it that would be more than happy to make lunch of any ponies that get too near it. A lot of ponies that got though Catrina or escaped from here were eaten before they could get very far. " Darkdawn said helpfully as she pointed towards a distant forest that could be seen towards where she was pointing.

Several ponies gulped at the thought of it.

" Maybe we should build a nice tall and thick stone wall with gates to match to surround the town first! " Nowberry said as the other ponies all quickly nodded in agreement

" I think I've seen enough of this place myself; So I'm out of here as soon as I find the boat." Gilda said

" In that case could you do us a favor and deliver a letter to Princess Celestia? I think I can trust you more than Discord and seeing how Spike is not here I really need somepony willing to take it too her and I hope you'll do it and maybe Celestia will be happy enough to reward you. Twilight said

Gilda seemed to be thinking about it and finally said " I guess you did set me free so I'll do it and maybe Celestia will give me my own party or something. " She said trying to look cool about it but was clearly happy about the idea of having a party thrown just for her in Canterlot.

" Thank you! Lucky for me I wrote it last night" Twilight said as she gave her the letter and soon Gilda was on her way back.

" We still got seven more spell stone sites to take care of so we better get going as soon as we pack enough food but right now I sure do wish we had a human or even Alicorn skyship right about now; It's going to be a long walk there as it is; I'll see if I can build a makeshift cart for the food. Darkdawn said as she began to look for stuff they could use on the trip.

" I'll help her. " Apple Jack said and soon joined her.

" Anypony have any idea what a skyship is? " Rainbow Dash asked but nopony responded and then everypony looked at Twilight.

" I have no idea but something tells me we will be wishing for one too before we get to Alicornia. " Twilight said with a worried grin.

To be cont.