When Two Worlds Meet

Chapters

A Sorcerer's Vision, Part 2
The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 1
The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 2
The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 3
The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 4
Seeking Reasons
A Happy Reunion And The Truth
Inside The Crystal Castle Part 1
The 'Forbidden Spells'
Into The Human World Part 1
Into The Human World Part 2
The Search For The Ebony Blade
The Search For The Ebony Blade, Part 2
The Search For The Ebony Blade, Part 3
The Sacred Forest
The Sacred Forest, Part 2
A New Problem Arises
The Wedding
Two Years Later......
The Journey To The Desert
The Forgotten City
The Final Showdown
The Death Of Darkness
Inside The Crystal Castle Part 2
A New Future, A New Day, And A New Legacy Begins
A Sorcerer's Vision, Part 1

A Sorcerer's Vision, Part 2

Upon his return to Twilight's castle, Darkness found her, in her library, awaiting his return. Upon seeing him walk into the room, she immediately asked, "So, what did the princess want to talk to you about?"

Darkness replied, "Whoa, easy, I just walked in, give me minute to process all that she talked to me about."

Twilight nodded, and said with sadness, "I'm sorry, Darkness, I didn't mean to..."

Darkness said, "It's okay, that's all the time I needed anyways. Anyways, I can see why she wanted to talk to me first."

Twilight said eagerly now, "What is it? It has to be of some huge importance, if she wanted to tell you about it first."

Darkness nodded and said, "Indeed it is. First off, she told me about your foal sitter, Cadence and her own efforts to try unseal the entrance to the castle." Twilight said nothing, she just sat down, and listened intently. Darkness continued, "The spell that was cast is no ordinary spell, I didn't tell Celestia that, because it is a spell only I recognized, a spell that only I've ever casted. To think somepony else can cast that spell, troubles me."

Twilight interrupted, and said, "Darkness, you really do keep a lot of things to yourself, you are so secretive!"

Darkness replied back, "Its none of your business why I keep secrets, besides...... the world is not ready for such power. Look what happened two years ago! I don't need that kind of knowledge falling into the wrong hooves, so yes, I am, only to protect Equestria, and all those that are within it. But.....it seems somepony has found something they probably shouldn't have."

Twilight said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I guess I didn't realize why you did that."

Darkness , "No need for all the apologies. At any rate, it's okay, my motives and my actions have always been rather unclear to many, it"s easier that way, less complicated, keeps me and anypony from getting too close, there's no pain or loss that way. Whew, I got off subject, anyhow, seems, that's not the only problem at hoof. On top of the Crystal Palace being inaccessible, is the fact that something was stolen from it, that much is known, for now anyways, there seems to be a rather foreboding disturbance, that all the princesses have been detecting lately, and they don't know what it could be, 'it's different from two years ago', as Celestia said it. She came to me about it, because of how ancient, and old it felt, I have to admit, I felt it too, but to me, it was so much stronger, to me, it felt very, very familiar, which it a great cause for concern and worry. Anyways that's all I have, I was then asked by Princess Celestia if I wanted to help with all this, and I said yes, and now, I have returned here to get started on some research."

Twilight said, "I see, the problem is worse than I thought, I suppose we better get started, yes?"

Darkness said, "Yes, but before that, there is one thing I need to look up on first, I've already told Princess Celestia about this, and she said it would be a good idea to start my problem first."

Twilight asked, "And what might that be? You look fine to me."

Darkness shook his head and said, "Ah, yes, physically there is nothing wrong with me, I am immortal, after all. No, this is something quite different. You see, I have been having the same vision, over and over. I am placed in front of some sort of portal-like object, and a partially completed phrase echoes in the distance, and it goes something like this: 'When two worlds meet, the reformed sorcerer will have to choose between two different fates'. So now I ask, does any of that make any sense to you, Twilight? I know, deep down, that this is of great importance, otherwise the vision would've faded off long before now."

Twilight said nothing for a really long time, her head down, deep in thought, then finally, she looked up at Darkness, and said, "Hmmmmmmm, this is very important, that much is clear, but as far making any sense out of the phrase, I'm afraid I cannot help you in that respect. However, I have been able to figure out that the portal-like object that you are placed in front of, maybe it has something to do with the immediate future, when that is, I do not know, I am sorry Darkness, but I don't think I'm going to be of much help to you."

Darkness said, "I understand, you did what you could."

Twilight said, "Hey! I know! Why don't you try and go visit Zecora? If anypony could help with that sort of stuff, it would be her, she might be able to help you, and help to get a clearer picture on all of this, and who knows? You might find something that will help us out with our current problems. I shall stay here, and begin research on what we can do about opening the entrance to the Crystal Castle."

Darkness agreed, "That's a good idea it would be best. We will be able to find out more this way. Anyways, I shall go and visit Zecora, and see what I can find out. Oh, and also, wouldn't it be a good idea, to invite your other pony friends along, to aid you in your research?"

Twilight said, "Yes, that would be a great idea, they have been such a good help in this sort of thing before, I'll invite them over, we will all be here when you return. And be careful, ever since what Darkness Night did to the forest, it's never been the same, it's still healing, the forest is still very sick, so watch your back, only Celestia and myself know what creatures have been created because of it."

Darkness said, "I'll be careful, and what could happen? I'm sorcerer pony, for crying out loud, but then again, I understand, I'll be careful, just in case."

As Darkness got closer to the entrance to the Everfree Forest, the air around him grew cold, and fog surrounded him everywhere, and as he stood there for a second, he could hear a distant scream, and his eyes grew heavy, and closed, and he began to have flashbacks. It showed him of Darkness Night's awakening, and what he did to the forest, and just as fast as the flashbacks started, they ended all of sudden, and his eyes returned to normal, and somehow, he had been hovering a little in midair, and as he opened his eyes, he fell back to the ground. He felt weak, and fell down, and for a while, he just layed there, his eyes wide with fear. For what seemed like hours, he was finally able to get up, and he said to himself, "So, that's what he did, no, this is what I did to this forest.....unforgivable!!!!!......one more reason I'll never forgive myself for what happened.......arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!" Darkness stood there, lifted his head up high, and screamed at the top of his lungs, at himself. and said, "Unforgivable!!!" As he finished, he began to cry, and said, "How can I ever be forgiven? I am the cause of so many deaths...so much destruction......."

Zecora must've heard, for she began to walk out of her house, and she said, "That sounded like......I wonder what he could be here for? No matter, I shall wait till he gets here." As Darkness finished, he wiped his face, and stepped into the forest. He looked around, and all he saw was many of the trees were dead, dying, or sick. All Darkness could do, was put his head down, and shake his head. He pushed on, trying to not look at all the damage the forest had suffered, and continued to suffer, until he reached Zecora's house.

A voice rang out, "Come in, Darkness, I have been waiting for you."

Darkness opened the door to Zecora's house, and there Zecora was, meditating on her stick, and she saw Darkness, she got off, and asked him, "Darkness, is it? Why have you come here? Something tells me this is more than just a friendly visit, yes? What is it that you seek? Answers? The Future? Present? Or the Past? And I assume that was you at the entrance of the forest that I heard?"

Darkness said, "Actually, I came here to try and see if you might be able to help and see if you might know of a way to get into the entrance of the Crystal Castle, and maybe further insight on the strange disturbance, and maybe an answer to a vision I have been having, and yes, that was me, some things don't leave a pony like myself alone, constant reminders and hauntings of a much.......darker past....and other sad memories......"

Zecora shook her head, and said, "No need to explain, you cannot forgive yourself, can you? You blame yourself for what Darkness Night did to Equestria, correct?"

Darkness bowed his head down, and said, "Yes......it is something I can never atone for...."

Zecora said, "I see....and the answer to the disturbance, I have been feeling it as well, and I will tell you, from what I can tell, this disturbance, is only something you can deal with, and yes, it is a great, ancient evil. And yes, you do know who it is, think about it, you will remember in the right time but the only way you can deal with it, is you have to realize that what happened two years ago, was not your fault, it wasn't even you, we all knew that it was Darkness Night. When you come to grips with this, this ancient evil will not stand a chance against you, Equestria's final hope."

Darkness said, "I see, so what about the Crystal Castle?"

Zecora walked over to her pot, began putting some ingredients together, and began to stir, and she motioned Darkness to come to the pot, and she said, "There is a pony that has discovered one of your magic secrets, perhaps this pony already knew, all of your magic secrets and more, its almost as if......strange...I'll look into that further.... However, it looks like this is also the same pony who stole the Mirror to the human world, this much I know. The only way to open the entrance is by you, and by an item that your ancient civilization once had, 'The Talisman Of Dreadnaught', but it seems it has been lost. Seek this item, use it on the entrance to the Crystal Castle, and the way will be open."

Darkness said in shock, "Hey, I know that talisman! I remember now! My father wore it when he was fighting those three sorcerer pony elders, in the great war! My mother left me everything that happened before I was born, in her diary, and I remember reading that. She said in her diary, that after my father defeated those elders, a massive magic explosion engulfed them all, including my father, and it blew the talisman off his neck. She was nearby, she was going to help, but after seeing the magic blast, she was forced to flee, for it was coming towards her, but not before she saw where the general direction and area the talisman might've landed!"

Zecora pointed her hoof towards him and said, "Tell Twilight and the others about the talisman, and begin to search for it."

Darkness nodded his in agreement. Zecora said, "For the vision you have been having, you may not have known this, but you and I are distant cousins."

Darkness scoffed and said, "Cousins? Not possible!!!! Hahahah!! How can that be? Only those with wings, a horn, and with a pretty potent magic power were the only inheritants of the sorcerer pony legacy! How is this possible?"

Zecora said, "My family was once just like you, we were sorcerer ponies, yes, but, long before the great war, my ancestors abandoned their sorcerer ways, for they had visions that their race was going to be completely eradicated. Cowardice..... perhaps, from something that may or may not have happened. But, to save themselves from this terrible fate, just in case in happened, they left the sorcerer pony city capital, and moved to a far distant land where they lived their lives as a Earth pony would, and, in time, they lost their powers, their wings, their horns, and finally, their immorality, over thousands of years. And just in time too, because a couple of years later, the great war began, and the sorcerer pony race was wiped off the face of Equestria, with the exception of you and your mother of course."

Darkness was stunned a little by this new info, said," I see...I didn't know, nopony did."

Zecora laughed, "Of course not, you really think my family would just blurt out that they were once sorcerer ponies, and lost it all, to avoid a possible end to their race, to everypony they met along the way? Ha! No, they kept it a deep family secret, and they made sure to keep it that way."

Darkness nodded, and said, "Makes sense, I wouldn't have said anything either, so this explains why you can see certain things?"

Zecora responded, "Yes, but it is limited, despite my family's efforts, we still possessed some sort of special ability, in a particular field of study in some way, shape, or form, as in my case, it is obviously potions, and the like."

Darkness only said, "Makes sense."

Zecora said, "Anyways, we have gotten off of subject, I just thought that this was something you needed to know. You are the last, true sorcerer pony, after all. Now on to the vision. What does the vision show you?"

Darkness began to recount the vision once more, and said, "Well, I am in it, and I am standing in front of a portal-like object, it's all very blurry around me, but in the distance, I hear: "When two world's meet, the reformed sorcerer will have to choose between two fates', and then, the vision ends."

Right after Darkness ended, she said, "Think about that vision more, close you eyes." He did as commanded, and Zecora said, "Try to see if you can't look around, can you see anything else?"

As Darkness closed his eyes, and focused on the vision, and began to look around, he said, "Actually, I do.......Twilight......and the rest of her friends are....standing right by my side...and.....the portal.....is beginning to have sparks flying out everywhere....the ground begins to shake.......as the portal begins to suck everything into it, then lifts the ground from underneath all of our hooves....uhhhh!!!"

Zecora began to shake him and said, "Stop! That is enough! Even for the most powerful sorcerer pony that ever lived, which I have just witnessed the longest time ever in a vision, and control one's consciousness at the same time. Despite that fact, being able to do this, can take much of a pony's energy away in a matter of seconds. You was in that vision for about thirty minutes! Are you alright?"

Darkness staggered to his feet, shook his head, and said, "Yeah, I'm alright, and little lightheaded, but otherwise okay, it's nothing. I'll be fine, I just need to sit down for awhile."

Zecora said, "That would be best, would you like some tea?"

Darkness said, "Normally, I'm not a tea drinker, but in this case, I'll drink some tea, just this once."

Zecora said, "Oh, this is no normal tea, this tea will help you recover from the exhausting effects from how long you were in that vision." As Zecora began making the tea, and moments later, finished and as she handed the special tea to him, she asked, "So, did that clear things up? Did you get the answer you seek? Or at the very least, understand you vision better?"

Darkness drank the tea, and as he finished, he said, "It helped clear up a couple things, but it still does not answer how Twilight, her friends, and myself got there."

Zecora said, "Only in time, will the answer come to you, the answer will reveal itself when it is the right time, now, go back to Twilight's Castle, Twilight, her friends, as you have much to do, and it seems time is our enemy once again, because, we do not know how much time we have until the ancient evil will fully awaken, and if that happens, you will have to face it, and vanquish it. If you cannot come to terms, with what happened, two years ago, Equestria is doomed, there will not be a single living thing on this planet by the time this ancient evil is done. So hurry, we have limited time!"

Darkness shook Zecora's hoof, and said, "Thank you for everything, I really am honored to have you as a as a cousin, and don't worry, I won't tell anypony, your secret will remain safe with me."

Zecora said, "Good, now, get going! Time is running out! You must hurry!" Darkness said no more, as he quickly left Zecora's house, and trotted as fast he could to Twilight's Castle.

The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 1

As Twilight and her friends were reading in the library, they began to hear a trotting in the distance, and then it grew louder and louder, until the front door opened, and Darkness rushed into the library. Twilight and her friends stopped what they was doing, startled as to why Darkness rushed in so.

Twilight asked, "What's wrong? What did you find out at Zecora's? Did you find out a way to get into the castle?"

Applejack stepped in, and said to Twilight, "Twilight, please, give him a minute, he just got here."

Twilight said, "Sorry"

Darkness said, "It's fine, anyways, yes, I found out a way on how to get into the Crystal Castle, we have to look for something from my ancestor's time, it's a talisman, created by one of the sorcerer pony elders. It's called 'The Talisman Of The Dreadnaught.' It's primary purpose was to give the wearer the ability to undo any barrier, but at the same time, give the wearer the protection against most magic spells, and give the wearer, and boost to their magic power. However, the elders, never could get magic boost part of it to work, but they did manage to get it to give the wearer magic armor, so in other words, whoever wore it, would be more resistant to physical and magic attacks, which in my father's case, for the most part, came in handy. But that's not all I found out, I also found out that ancient evil disturbance, is definitely something from my ancestor's time, and I was told that I am the only one that will be able to defeat it, or him or her, or whatever it might be. But, there's one problem, I have to come to terms with what happened two years ago, or Equestria has no future in a couple of weeks, possibly, so once again, time is against us....again. But this time, it's not me.... Anyways, I also found out my vision has something to do with the immediate future, something soon, how soon however, I do not know, I spent too long in the vision, and had to sit down for a minute."

All Twilight said, was "I see."

This time, Rainbow Dash piped in, and said, "Well, let's get to it, then! If we don't have very long before Equestria is wiped out completely this time, then let's find this talisman thing of yours!"

Applejack said, "Whoa there nelly! Darkness hasn't even told us where to look yet." She then looked at him, and addressed him, "Do you even know where to begin to look?"

Darkness said, "In fact, I do, my mother told me of the general location of where it might be. How did she know this, you ask? Because she saw it get blasted off my father's neck, when the magic of the three elders exploded as they died. Long story short, she was going to help him in battle, but had to flee because of the explosion, but not before seeing the talisman fly off in the distance, as she was trotting away."

Rainbow Dash was growing impatient, because she said, "And that is where exactly?'

Rarity commented, "Well, looks like somepony woke up cranky today."

Rainbow Dash, now upset, said, "I did not! Equestria's fate is in our hooves!......again..."

Twilight was the one who spoke, and said, "Easy, you two! This is no time to be fighting among ourselves! We need to stick together! If one of us leaves because of some petty argument, Equestria suffers a sad end."

Fluttershy said nothing, she just stayed behind everypony, and just listened.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity both sighed, and apologized to each other, and then Twilight said, "Good, now that that is settled, Darkness? Can you tell us where it might be?

Darkness said, "Yes, but you're not going to like where." Everypony listened very intently, as Darkness continued, "It's well, how should I say it, remember where that waterfall once was? The talisman landed somewhere in that area, but in order to get there, it means going through what's left of the Everfree Forest."

Fright was everypony's faces, except Darkness's, and Rainbow Dash said, "No way! No way am I going in there! The original Everfree Forest was fine, but now, it's nothing like it once was. I'm not going in there!"

Rarity said, "Me neither! That, and it's even muckier than before!" Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy agreed with Rainbow Dash.

Twilight said, "Are you not going either, Applejack?"

Applejack said, "Of course I'm goin'! Ain't no forest gonna scare me! Sure, it's still got a lot of Darkness Night's evil within it, so what? We have each other, that's all that matters' as long as we stick together' we will accomplish anythin."

Twilight said, "Well, I know for a fact that Darkness is going, and he's not afraid, are you?"

Darkness said, "Of course not, it is just trees, and on top of that, I am a sorcerer pony, after all. But even without that, my kind was raised to face our fears, and I grew up on my own, facing the things, that scared me most, no matter how great. Ha! How great my kind was once, the glory my kind once represented, the inspiration we instilled in so many! But all to be corrupted and brainwashed all by one pony, and he got what he deserved....death. Oh, sorry, didn't mean to reminisce. Looks like I got a little carried away, heh heh!"

Twilight said, "It's okay, we all understand you........to a point, I think..... anyways, Applejack, Darkness and I are going. What's the matter? Too chicken?

They all, except for Fluttershy, said, "No way! We can face anything!"

Twilight said, "Good, shall we get going? The sooner we find the talisman, the sooner we can wrap this mystery up."

Applejack said, "I couldn't have said it any better."

Twilight said, "Darkness said, "When you're ready Darkness, we shall get going."

Darkness said, "Well, there's no time like the present, so now is probably as ready as I'll ever be. I'll take my mother's diary with me, so we don't get lost trying to find the general area she was talking about. Anyways, let us be off."

Rainbow Dash said, as they headed for the Everfree Forest, "Here we go again, off to save Equestria once more."

But then Twilight said, "But this time, it's different, we have Darkness with us this time."

Rarity asked everypony, "Is it just me, or is it kind of weird that somepony we fought against, is now our friend, and is helping us?"

Fluttershy, who had been quiet all this time, finally said something, she said, "Not at all..um...at least....I don't think so, it's not like we haven't done it before. Discord's our friend, and he was once our greatest enemy.'

Applejack thought about it for a moment, and then said, "Ya know, Fluttershy's right. I mean seriously, who in Celestia's name, would've thought, that anypony could befriend the 'master of chaos?' Or so he says."

Discord popped in just long enough to say, "Applejack, I heard that! That was the 'old' me, I'm reformed now, I think I've shown that more than once." And then, Discord disappeared, right after he waved, and "Oh hi Darkness, catch you later!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said, "He's right........again.."

Darkness was the one who said something this time, "Alright, everypony, we're at the entrance to the Everfree Forest, nopony splits up, stick together, and don't lose sight of one another, as you all know, this forest is still very sick, it still suffers greatly from.....Darkness Night's evil magic. I can feel it........much of his evil will still lingers within this forest. Hopefully, in time, this forest will fight it off, and heal, as with all things."

Twilight said, "This forest will, it will, and you was able to say his name with pausing so long this time, that's an improvement, and remember, we are all here for you, and so is Luna, so you no longer have to deal with this alone." And everypony shook their heads in agreement.

Darkness with a scowl said, "You are only here because I thought it was good idea to find the talisman faster with a few extra hooves, you are all nothing more than that, other than being another annoyance, and I only need Luna's support, I don't need some silly ponies who think they are my friends trying to support somepony who does not need it, look after yourselves, and don't fall behind. .....I wonder how Luna's holding up though, I hope she's doing okay..."

Applejack reassured him, "I'm sure she's doin' fine, she's a tough one, after all, we all know that from experience."

Darkness said with emotions on his face, " What would you know?......Anyways I got off subject....back to the task at hoof. Remember everypony, stick together, I'll lead the way, just follow my lead and we'll be fine." Everypony just nodded, and stuck close together to each other, as a very heavy fog drew in, making visibility almost impossible, and hiding the path.

Darkness said, "Whoa, even though I'm a sorcerer pony, I barely see my two front hooves in front of me. I'll have to see what I can do about that.... Okay everypony, I'm going to try this...I may be a little rusty, I haven't used any magic in a while, but I'm going to try one of the ancient spells from my ancestor's time.....man, I haven't casted a spell in too long. Everypony, just stay put, I'll be right here, just stand back a little. We need to see that path, if we are to get to our destination. Alright..here goes nothing.." Darkness concentrated, his horn began to glow the color of dark blue, his eyes filled with a white light, everypony watched front a safe distance, and then, all of a sudden, a massive shockwave emitted from Darkness's horn, and he aimed it at the fog, and the fog dissipated, and then vanished, clearing the path.

Everypony then came up to Darkness, and hugged him, and each one congratulated him, as Darkness sighed in exasperation, and

Rainbow Dash said, "That.....was...awesome!"

Twilight said, "That spell was definitely from your time, the power of that spell, and how your horn lighted up....that was amazing!"

Rarity said, "Simply spectacular, darling!"

Applejack said, "Ah I knew you could do it! You haven't lost your touch! You still got it!" Pinkie Pie was talking so fast, that nopony could make out what she was saying, but she was amazed as well.

Darkness pushed them off and said, "Guys, guys, get off of me! You are just helping hooves that's all, now, let's not make a big deal out of a simple dissipating spell."

Fluttershy said, " We are sorry Darkness, it's just.... we were just excited because we've never seen anything like that."

Twilight agreed, and said, "Fluttershy's right, we haven't, the magic you possess, has been gone and lost a long time ago, so it's really something to see an ancient spell get casted. Anyways, we better move on, everypony ready?" They shook their heads yes, and Twilight said, "Lead the way, Darkness." Darkness dug out his mother's diary from his pack, and began reading, and walking at the same time, but also looking up every now and then to make sure he was on the path, and that everypony was still following him.

Darkness said, "Okay, according to my mother's diary, we are heading in the right direction, there's only one turn, so the path getting there shouldn't be too difficult. We're about to come up to the turn, and when we get there, we'll go right."

Pinkie Pie said with a smile, "Easy peasy, we'll have that talisman in no time!"

Darkness said, "Not to be a damper on things, but it's not the path that leads to the talisman that's hard part, it's about finding it, and getting back, that's going to be the hard part. Because if I believe I heard right, I believe you said it, Twilight? That the waterfall was destroyed by Darkness Night, when you guys were looking for Snowshy's Element Of Harmony?"

Twilight answered, "As a matter of fact, I did mention that, and we all barely made it out alive. The foundation to the waterfall crumbled into three pieces, and then shattered into many, once it all crashed to the ground."

Darkness said, "I see, I just hope the talisman is still in one piece, or we all could be in trouble. Then we'll have to find a different way to unseal the entrance to the Crystal Castle." As Darkness looked up from the diary, he saw a fork in the road, one way going to the left, and the other going to the right, Darkness lifted up his left front hoof, pointed to the right path, and said, "This is it, we already halfway there, we'll go on the right path. Let's go." Nopony said anything, they just nodded in understanding, and followed Darkness down the right path.

The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 2

As everypony walked down the path, it wasn't long before they all came to an opening and as the haze cleared, they all saw a horrible sight: the ground where the waterfall had fallen and crumbled to pieces all the plant life had died and there were cracks everywhere, as parts a pieces of the waterfall were all over what had once been a beautiful, lush grassland. Everypony was horrified at what they saw, all except Darkness, who just stood blankly looking out over all the damage that had been done, and then without warning....his head began to hurt horribly and his eyes closed. Everypony saw this as Twilight and the others kept calling out his name, his mind flash-backed and it showed him what had happened here. It showed him Twilight and others entering the grassland, the waterfall, finding Snowshy's Element Of Harmony, and as they began to try to leave the waterfall, they got split up by Darkness Night's evil magic, as he blew the waterfall apart into three pieces while Twilight and her friends were still inside trotting for their lives, and barely escaping from being crushed from the falling rocks and rubble as it all crashed to the ground, crumbling into many pieces.

As the memory ended, Darkness regained his senses once more, as his eyes opened and he found himself on the ground shaking and weakened as Twilight and the others were looking at him with concern.

Fluttershy was the first to ask, " Are you okay? It was so sudden, we were all quite startled."

Darkness got up, and said, " I'm fine...."

Applejack said with concern, " Are you sure? You don't sound like it."

He looked at them all with his deep blue eyes and said, " I'm fine, but then I don't know anymore...."

Nopony said anything they all just stood there with worry and then Twilight started to say, " Darkness..."

All of a sudden, in a flash of emotion, Darkness trotted off into the middle of the dead grassland, and shouted out to them, " Look!!! Look at what I've done!!! I almost killed you all!!!! There is no forgiveness in what I've done to any of you........or.... to anypony!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Darkness started to cast massive explosions of magic power in random directions as he shouted out, "UNFORGIVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And with a flash, Darkness made the explosions dissipate and subside as he stood there breathing heavily, with a streams of tears going down his face. Thankfully everypony had found cover, and came out as soon as the explosions stopped and went as fast they could to Darkness.

Rarity was the first to say something this time, as she said so with a tearful voice, " Darkness.....it's okay......it wasn't you. Please don't blame yourself, don't......don't suffer by yourself.....we all are here for you..."

Darkness looked at them all with tears still streaming out of his eyes, and looking at the ground and said, " Despite how I've treated you all, you....still....don't leave me...you all still don't blame me.....why? WHY I ASK?? Why do you all still remain here? Following and trying to support my like this?"

Rainbow Dash replied, "Because friends never abandon each other, no matter horrible they are treated, it's the loyalty and friendship they have with each other that helps them see through the darkness, and show each the light. At least, I think so." Everypony shook their heads in agreement with bright smiles.

Twilight then said with determination, " Rainbow's right, so no matter how you treat us, we will all stand with you no matter what, until the very end, and even then, we will all continue to be here for you, even in the next life, if it must be so."

Darkness just stood there, eyes full emotion, looking at everypony, not knowing what to say, and then, what seemed like a long time, he nodded in respect, and said, " I guess I'm stuck with you guys then, now let's get going as soon as daybreak, too much time has passed to look for the talisman now, let's make camp here. It's safer this way, in case something tries to attack us, at least one of us will see whatever it might be before it gets too close." Everypony agreed, and Darkness said, " Then it's settled then." Everypony began to take out tents and Darkness put up his left hoof and shook it, and said, " Wait! Allow me." And with a flash of his horn, seven tents were assembled, but as everypony began to look at them, they were not ordinary tents, they looked...different.

Twilight asked, " Ummmm, might I ask what all these exactly are?"

Darkness said, " I'm not surprised you all do not know, very well, I shall tell you: these are tents from the golden age of the Sorcerer ponies, they are enchanted to protect the one inside of them from danger of sort and alert any one of us, in case none of us are on watch, the tents will be. These tents will see and record everything it picks up, while we are all asleep."

Rainbow Dash said, " That is so cool! Sounds good enough to me!"

Darkness said, " Just in case any of you ask, I have also marked each tent with each pony's cutie mark, and each one is personalized to each individual pony, myself included of course, not like I need one, but just in case."

Twilight said, " I was just about to ask that."

Darkness replied, " Well, now you know, now, you all should get some rest, time is against us......all of us...again. See you all at daybreak. I'll keep watch, I don't sleep much till later."

Everypony nodded, and went to their separate tents, and as Twilight was heading to her tent, she stopped in front of Darkness and asked, " Are you sure you'll be fine? I could always keep watch over everypony."

Darkness said, " Don't be concerned about me, my sleep cycles are different from all of yours, if need be, I could stay up for a week if need be before needing rest, I'll be fine, now, no more questions, we all need to be in top form tomorrow." Twilight nodded in respect and headed for her tent and then Darkness said, " Twilight?"

Twilight stopped and said, " Yes, Darkness?"

Darkness, kindly instead being cold about it, said, " Good night, sleep well, all of you, tell the others that for me, will you?"

Twilight said with a smile, " Of course, I will, and are you beginning to care about us now? That's not like you."

Darkness simply walked past and said, " Hmph, that's none of your business." Twilight had a confused expression on her face for a moment and then went to the others to relay what Darkness had asked her and went to her tent. Darkness walked up to a high cliff, overlooking the camp, and stared with an sad expression into the moonlight sky, and said, " Will I ever be free? Only you have ever understood anything I do.......I really could use your support, your smile, and you right next to me right now......." He said nothing else as he just sat there, keeping watch over the camp with a somber expression on his face.

Day broke out hours later, and Darkness stood up from where he was, he had dosed off for a while, it looked like, and he looked at the camp: everything was still there, and soon he saw one after the other come out of their tents.

As Applejack came out of her tent, she looked around, and saw that Darkness's tent was not there. With a worried tone, she asked everypony, " Did of you see or hear Darkness leave? Don't tell me he's abandoned us?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head no and said, " As cold as he is to all us, I don't think he could bring himself to abandon us."

Twilight agreed and said, " Rainbow's right, Darkness may not the friendliest towards any of us, but he would not abandon us, he's probably within the area, still keeping watch. Besides, I feel like he's near us."

Fluttershy said, " I feel the same way too Twilight, in fact, it looks like Darkness is on that Cliff behind us, look!" A bright, blue light shown on top of the cliff, and a black figure began to fly and move closer to their position.

Twilight said, " I can't tell if that's him or not, but whatever that is, it's heading towards us, prepare yourselves, just in case!"

Fluttershy began to say, " But..."

Rarity cut her off and said, " No buts dear, just ready yourself, or hide."

Fluttershy started again, " But there's nothing to afraid of..."

Twilight said, " Enough!! Here it comes!!!" Everypony prepared themselves, and got into fighting stance as the figure drew closer. As the sun began to shine brightly and rose up behind the figure, everypony could clearly tell what it was: Fluttershy had been right: It was Darkness, with his black coat, black mane, deep blue eyes, large, beautiful black wings, and a sharp-pointed horn, he flew closer to them and then his wings began to slow, and he descended and landed in front of them all, as they all could now see his cutie mark, it had a book, with a quill on it, and a very long sword, that ran across, and beside the book, and Darkness had an amused look on his face.

Darkness said, " Look at all of you, you all look like you are ready for a fight...at what? Me? It's me isn't it? Do I look that threatening?"

Everypony relaxed and Fluttershy responded, " Not exactly, they just couldn't tell who it was, from how far away and how high you were, but I tried to tell them it was you..."

Twilight said, " We are sorry, Darkness, we should've listened to Fluttershy..."

Darkness said, " Enough, I get it, now let's be on our way, we have much to do. Follow me to ruins of the waterfall."

As they all walked along, Rarity leaned over to Applejack and said, " It is just me, or is Darkness saying 'we' more often than usual?"

Applejack replied, " Yeah, I noticed that too, I think he's beginning to care about us a little, that much I can tell. But I can also tell that he's still keeping us all at a distance, and I haven't heard him once say or call us his friend's."

Twilight walked beside the two and said, " Yeah, I noticed that as well." They all sighed and Twilight said, " I wonder if he will ever open up to us? I wonder, will he ever accept and call us his friends? Or will he simply leave us all behind once this is all over?"

Applejack replied, "I know how you feel Twilight, I feel the same way, and one can only hope. We can help him break free from his torment and not just us, Celestia wants to help too, but she can't and neither can we till he comes to terms with it himself first."

They all looked down with sad expressions, and Twilight said, " I hope someday, he lets all of us, Luna, and Celestia set him free."

Rarity replied, " I know, we all hope so too." Nothing more was said as they all continued to follow Darkness towards the ruins of the waterfall.

The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 3

Darkness turned around and faced the others and said, " Before we go any further, I sense the power of the talisman, but before we all start the search, I have a question to ask:.........what drives you all to continue to follow me like this? I almost killed all of you not once, not twice, but a total three times, the most recent one being here. I would understand if you all returned to your homes, I won't blame you all if you do....."

Rainbow Dash finally bursted with frustration and said, " No way we are leaving you now! We've never ran from problems like this!" Rainbow Dash calmed down and said, " But seriously Darkness, the hope of Equestria rests on all of our shoulders, it's no longer just your burden to bear. So, you know, let us help you, let us free you from your torments, you cant help anypony if you can't come to grips with yourself."

Rarity, " You know, I hate to say it but Rainbow's right, you can't help anypony or this world for that matter if you don't first solve what's troubling you. So Darkness, before any of us continue, what's on your mind? Let us in, we want to help you, so does Celestia and does Luna."

Everypony shook their heads in determination and agreement, and then Twilight asked, " So Darkness, what will it be? A memory? Or the present?

Darkness said nothing for a while, as he looked at everypony with fear of letting anypony in, and after what felt like an eternity, he sighed and said, " You are all right, now I see why Luna sent me to all of you, very well, I'll tell you all, just don't make me regret this, come, follow me, there's something you all need to see, don't worry we still have time, the talisman isn't going anywhere."

Twilight asked, " Were are you taking us?"

Darkness looked back at them and said, " To what was my home when I was born in and until I turned 190,000 years old, that would 19 in your years."

Applejack asked, " Are you sure you want to do this And aren't you immortal?"

Darkness said with strength, " It is high time, I face my fears and my memories, once and for all. Sometimes, you have to do the things that scare you the most, to do the things you don't want to do. I've been hiding from all this far too long. And yes, I am immortal, but if I were to lose my immortality, that's how old I would be, but right now, to me, it's just a number right now."

Twilight asked, " I know this may be not the right time, but how old are you now?"

Darkness shook his head and said, " It's fine, as of right now, I am 220,000 years old."

Rarity said, " You know, you look rather dashing for a 220,000 year old."

Darkness said, " Indeed, we sorcerer ponies age much more slowly that any of you do, and again, if we were to lose our immortality, that is. What would be one year in our aging process, is 100,000 to yours, I have lived to see many generations pass, and some, disappear completely, it is a never-ending cycle, and one of the core essences of life itself, all things have a purpose."

Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, " Well, that explains how you know so much."

Darkness, " Enough questions for now, there will be time for history lessons later, for now, let's together face what I've been hiding from for too long."

Twilight said, " I agree, I have many questions, but they can wait till this threat is taken care of."

Darkness stopped, and stammered out a "We're here." His face grew pale, and his emotions took over, as he no longer could stand.

Everypony went to his aid, and Applejack said, " Are you alright?"

Darkness stood back up and said, " Not really, but I can't fail here, let's keep going, let's visit my mother, shall we? I haven't seen her since I....."

Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder, and said, " It's okay, we know what you mean, don't force it."

Darkness nodded and stopped once more in front a very old, but ornate gravestone, and said, " Everypony, meet my mother, Abrillia, the only survivor from the Great War Of Equestria, as far as I know anyways, she was also the only sorcerer pony that managed to hide from what has been forgotten as the ' The Blood Cleansing' or it is also was once known as the ' The Great Hunt' as well, either title refer to the same event, this was a horrible time in history, following the fall of the capital and stronghold of the sorcerer ponies, that the three tribes of Equestria, the earth, unicorns, and pegasi ponies began to seek, search, destroy, butcher, and execute any surviving sorcerer ponies that managed to get out of the main capital, during this siege, there was no stopping these three tribes hatred and unforgiving blood lust against any surviving sorcerer ponies....Unfortunately, and sadly enough....she drew her last breaths shortly after giving birth to me......but not before asking me to never to give in the darkness that layed dormant within me, and it was in that last moment, with her last breath, she gave me my name. She died peacefully, and a year later in your time, I made this gravestone and buried her here......" Darkness couldn't say anymore as he kneeled before the gravestone and cried.

Twilight said, " She survived so much, only for her life to end here, I wish we all could've met her, I bet she was a wonderful and kind pony."

Darkness looked up at them, and said, " She was, I know so because she left me this." In his left hoof, he held, a very old diary. Darkness said, " In this book, she had written down her entire life events, and everything she saw and knew, she put every quality and personality trait about herself, and I know I was meant to find this book, because in the first page, she put, ' To my colt, my future stallion, may it help you, and guide you, seeing as I no longer can, have faith, Darkness, never lose sight of the light'. She continued to help and guide me, even in death.... But there is more to this book than meets the eye: it is more than just a diary."

Fluttershy, who had been quiet for some time, asked, " What do you mean?" Darkness opened the middle of the book and said some ancient incantation, and appeared on the left page, was four old-looking sorcerer ponies wearing hats, capes, very long beards and very ornate staffs.

Twilight said and pointed out, " These ponies look very old, who are they?"

Darkness said, " A fair question, Twilight. These are the four highest-ranking elder sorcerer ponies, during the beginning of the siege of the sorcerer pony capital, these four ponies who had followed the corrupt king in all his schemes, but thankfully, they came to their senses on this day, and with all their strength, put their souls within this book, for you see, my mother was also part of the elder sorcerer pony council, there were 18 of them in total. Anyways, when they physically died, their souls would be taken to the inside of this book, where their knowledge would survive, so the truth, could someday be told. They then turned on their king, killing him on his throne chair, and cursing his body to forever to stay within the throne room, never knowing rest. But as the king began to draw his last breaths, he took all four elder sorcerer ponies by surprise, whom all believed he had already died, and used his one-of-a-kind sword, a cursed sword called, ' The Nightmare's Revenge'. He killed them all in one swing to the back of their necks, beheading them all, after that, he died from his wounds as crawled to his throne chair and died sitting on it, sword in hoof. This is also how I know how this world began, and all events I was not around to see, those elder sorcerer ponies had retained all of this knowledge, and even after death, they live on, in this book which is indestructible."

Twilight asked, " How it that even possible? Retaining one's own soul in a material item? I didn't think that level of magic was achievable!"

Darkness responded, " Not in your lifetime, no maybe in a princess's lifetime, maybe, it is a level magic that has been lost when the sorcerer pony race was wiped out, that magic survives with me, the last true sorcerer pony. Whew, we have gotten off subject, let's continue on, but can you all wait, just a little longer, I want to talk with my mother."

Twilight said, " Take all the time you need, right everypony? We here for you, do what you must."

Everypony nodded in agreement and Darkness tearfully said, " Thank you all, that means a lot to me." He then turned the gravestone, and began to speak to it in a tearful tone, " Mother, it's me Darkness, your son, I ask for you forgiveness, I failed you......I let your death go in vain, the darkness took over and it almost annihilated this world and everything in it....I couldn't hold on...But because of these ponies that stand behind me, they united everypony in this world together, and vanquished the darkness, it...no longer exists in me, it now lies in piles of ashes, which have all been separated, and are under heavy guard and security." Darkness cried deeply and loudly, and then continued, " To think, you sacrificed so much for me.....and look what I've done...wait...what is that?" He looked up on top of the gravestone, and saw his mother, standing on top of it. She was a very beautiful, graceful, but kind-eyed mare, with a crimson red mane, light purple eyes, a deep blue coat with black spots here and there all over her coat.

She stood on her gravestone, looking at Darkness, with kindness and pride, and then she began to speak, " My son, you have suffered much, you have lost much, but look at what you have gained. Yes, I am talking about the ponies standing behind you." She drifted over to them and addressed Twilight and her friends, and she said, " Twilight and friends, yes I know your names, your deeds have spread far and wide, even the dead listen too. I ask you six, please, as a mother's last wish, please! Look after my son, he may be cold at times, but he had suffered for so long by himself, after today, I no longer can speak to him, so I want you six, his mare, Celestia and Luna, to please look after, comfort, and protect my son, he means everything to me. So I ask, can you do this for me? For a poor mother who can't protect her only son?"

Twilight stepped forward and said, " I know I will, I will do everything I can to make sure no harm comes to him."

Rarity stepped forward and said, " Count on it!"

Pinkie hopped forward, and said, " Count me in!"

Applejack stepped forward, and said " I will do whatever I can for him."

Fluttershy shuffled forward, " I-I-I-I'll try."

Rainbow Dash marched forward and said, " Yes Ma'am! It would an honor!"

Abrillia said with much emotion, " Thank you all. Be sure to ask Celestia and Luna as well. My son may not seem like he needs protection, but this is not the case, he needs friends to help him through times like this, without friends, he will never see the light and will fall prey to evil once more."

Twilight said, " We understand."

Abrillia nodded with gratefulness and went back to her son, and she said, " I don't have much longer, your father calls me home, I have watched over you, tried to protect you for as long as I could, I am now passing that responsibility on to Twilight, her friends, Celestia, and your soon-to-be-wife, yes, I know about that too. I am happy for you my son, I wish you and your soon-to-be-wife, the best." Her figure began to flicker, and she said, " It's time...." She looked at Darkness with so much pride, and said, " Continue forth, my son, have faith, continue your task, this evil must never fully awaken, for it is an evil you know, but was not born to see. You have friends now, let them be so...and whatever happens.....never......lose.....sight.....of......the.....light..." She continued to smile brightly with such happiness and pride at her son as she faded away, but not before she said, " Farewell, my son, I will always watch over you with pride."

Darkness got up, crying heavily as he said, " No! Mother!! Please!!! Don't leave me!!!! I need you!!! No......" Everypony went to Darkness and all hugged him together, as they all gave him encouraging and comforting words. They all let him go as he said, " Thank you everypony, you are all my......my....friends and I happy and honored to call all of you that.."

Rarity said, " The honor is ours." The book began to shine brightly and Darkness opened the book as he now saw, a new sentence on the first page, and it read: ' Darkness my son, it is now the time you wear what I made for you when I was alive, it will help you fight the evil you will face, it is my last and final gift to you. You will find it nearby below a tree, next to my grave, buried in chest, wear it proudly.'
Love---your mother, Abrillia

Darkness closed the book and said, " A chest? I didn't think anything was there." He went beside his mother's grave, and using his magic, began digging, and soon enough, the dirt revealed a large chest. He lifted the chest with his magic, set it on solid ground, and opened it. Inside the chest was armor, a black and red chestplate with a intricate design in the middle, four gold horseshoes, four gold hoof gauntlets, four pieces of black and red leg armor, and a tattered black cape with red underneath it, which also bore the intricate design and a ten foot skinny sword. Darkness looked at Twilight and the others, do you mind if you all wait here awhile, I go inside the shack and put this on?"

Twilight said, " Of course, go ahead."

Darkness said, " Thank you, I won't be long." He took all the armor and went inside the shack, moments later, he came out wearing his mother's final gift: it all fit it perfectly.

Rainbow Dash keep looking at the sword, and asked, " What in the hay, is that thing? And what's that design? And is it just me, but, I remember being told by somepony, I don't remember who, but I remember being told, that this shack was torn down years ago, how is it still up?"

Darkness replied, " It took me a minute to recognize it, but this the sorcerer pony knight's insignia, but this was only put on the elite knights, a small group, known as 'The Crimson Blades', and although that group, was involved in a lot of horrible deeds, I plan to change all that someday. As for the answer to your question, yes, this shack was torn down, but when I came back, after school, I rebuilt it, but that was a good many years ago, I wasn't here for long, so this place has fallen into disrepair."

Rainbow Dash said, "Oh, okay, got it, that makes more sense now."

Darkness continued, and said, "And this is a sword that an elite sorcerer pony knight would use, it's called a 'katana', this was made a bit longer than what would normally be used, so that way I have more range to attack without getting too close. A sorcerer knight didn't rely purely on their magic, they also relied on their wits, their strength, their honor, and their hearts. Every sorcerer pony knight takes up an oath not to harm the innocent, or a force of good, and vanquish evil, wherever it may be, and if it comes to it, sacrifice their own lives for the safety of those they care about. And it is this oath that I take. Darkness raised his sword to his face and said, " I, Darkness, son of Abrillia the magician, blacksmith, and historian, and also the son of the great sorcerer pony general Azul, my father. I take the oath of a elite sorcerer pony knight, to protect the innocent, whenever they are in danger, protect this world for as long as I live and into the next, from all evil, wherever it might be, at the cost of my life, if it must be so. I also pledge to protect Twilight, her friends, Celestia, and my soon-to-be-wife, from any and all harm that may come to them or threatens their lives, at the cost of my own." Darkness motioned Twilight and the others to him and motioned them all the hold his sword, and he said, " This oath is completed as I am now donned an elite sorcerer pony by Twilight and her friends." And he kneeled and bowed his head, Twilight and the others together, with Darkness's sword in their hooves, tapped both his shoulders once and then his head, and put down the sword. Darkness stood, with a renewed look and a smile on face as he said, " It is done, now, let's go get that Talisman!." Everypony nodded, Darkness picked up his sword, strapped to his right side, as they all headed once more to the ruins of the waterfall, as everypony followed. Darkness said to himself, " This time, I will not fail you mother, and.....thank you.. Now I can truly protect you my love Luna, and my friends and Celestia too. I only wish I could've conquered my past sooner.....But I now have a chance to set things right, and I will take it." The sun shone brightly overhead as everypony headed onwards towards the ruined waterfall.

The Search For The Talisman Of Dreadnaught Part 4

As they all headed back to the ruined waterfall, and where they were before, Darkness stopped, who had a searching look on his face and said, " As I thought, the talisman, is still here, somewhere...but there's something else.."

His face contorted in pain, and everypony rushed to his aid as he began to tremble, and Twilight asked, " Darkness? What's wrong? What is it?"

Darkness struggled to stand, but got back up on all four hooves, and struggled to say, " That ancient.....evil....it's presence is stronger....now argh!!! Whomever this is......it feels....very familiar......almost as if....it's somepony.....I may or may not have met....it is beginning to awaken...argh!!!!" Darkness began to breath heavily as his face grew pale, and Darkness said, " Whatever it is....it's powerful.....and it's speaking to me in my mind... Can....can of you hear it?"

Everypony listened, but they shook their heads no, and Rarity said, " Whatever your hearing, it's only choose to speak to you, listen to it, we may be to figure out who or what it is, at any rate, it might be a clue of some sort as to why it's affecting you so badly."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said with a scoff, " For once, Rarity's right about something for once, but yeah, you should listen to what it has to say Darkness."

Darkness said, " Alright, but I got a really bad feeling about this, I am going to shut off all my senses, so I can hear it better in mind, I will need everypony to keep danger away from me just, in case, because I cannot defend myself, while I do this."

Everypony nodded, and formed a defensive circle around him, and Applejack said, " Whenever' yer ready, because we are."

Darkness nodded, and took a deep breath, and said, " Alright, here goes." Darkness his eyes, and went limp, and his eyes went purple, as his entire consciousness went completely into his mind, and heard the voice clearly, it was frightening voice, it sent chills and goosebumps all throughout Darkness's body as the voice said, " Hello, Darkness....heh heh heh HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! I HAVE RETURNED!!! IT HAS BEEN A LONG SLEEP!! JOIN ME OR DIE WITH THE COMMON RABBLE AS I TEAR THIS WORLD APART!!! VERY SOON, I SHALL FULLY AWAKEN AND CONQUER THIS PLANET, THIS GALAXY AND BEEN ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE ME, BENEATH MY HOOVES!!!! HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!" Darkness came to, the maniacal laughter still echoing in his head, and he realized as he looked at himself, he was covered in goosebumps and had chills all over. As Darkness stood back up, they went away, and his eyes went back to normal.

Everypony all then stood in front of Darkness, all with worried expressions, and Applejack said, " You gave us quite the scare, you just went limp and yer eyes went purple and you began shaking and shivering, are you alright sugar cube?"

Darkness said, " I okay now, but let me explain what I heard, and it will all make more sense." Darkness then went into explaining and describing everything the voice had told him. And as he finished, he noticed their faces went pale, and the same happened to them, as it did him, all of them shivered, had chills all over, and had goosebumps. A couple moments passed, as the chills, shivers, and goosebumps went away from all of them.

And Twilight said, " I know this may a be a good comparison, but I thought Darkness Night was really scary, that voice gives me the creeps."

Rarity said, " Me too! I don't like what that voice said at all!"

Darkness agreed, and said, " Indeed, all the more reason why we must hurry."

Twilight said, " Well, we know it's pony, that much is clear, and we definitely know now that it's something ancient. But...how did the voice know you Darkness? I think that's what troubles us all the most, and it looks like it worrying you quite a bit as well."

Darkness said, " It does, and that's bad if this voice knows me, because that only means one thing..."

Rainbow Dash said impatiently " And what would that exactly be?"

Applejack scolded Rainbow Dash and said, " Rainbow Dash! Be patient! And let Darkness explain!"

Darkness waved it off, " It's quite alright, anyways, it could only mean that's somepony from sometime in history, I know that's not very clear, but seeing as we can't really narrow it down right now, anypony from ancient times, there were a lot, I'd rather not see return, I've read about them enough in my mother's diary."

Applejack said, " Uh oh."

Twilight agreed, " I agree, that's not good at all."

Darkness said, " Indeed, whoever this pony is, it must never fully awaken, or we could all be toast. Now, enough talk, we must find that talisman, and get to what's left to the Crystal Castle! It seems we are running out of time.....again." Everypony shook their head in agreement. Darkness said, " Now, I don't want this to sound like I'm giving orders, but search this area, we must hurry!"

Rainbow Dash said, " Even if it was, I think I speak for everypony, we would follow you anywhere, and listen to whatever you say. You are a sorcerer pony, after all, you're the best chance this planet and everypony in it has for it's very survival."

Everypony agreed, and Darkness said, " Thank you all, you really are such good friends.....I wish you guys would've been born sooner, then the prophecy of Darkness Night would've never happened.....anyways, um, now let's get looking! Oh, I almost forgot, the talisman won't be hard to miss, but it is small, it should be a dull yellow color, with lots of symbols on it, on a dull brown necklace, if I remember it correctly from the diary....yeah, that's right." Everypony nodded, and began searching.

Rainbow Dash took to the skies, and began to search above the woods, but saw nothing, and she muttered to herself, " Hopefully, the others are having better luck. All this for such a small thing."

Pinkie Pie was skipping along, as she usually was, near the edge of the grassland, near the outskirts of the woods, humming to herself, until she tripped over a rock and face planted on the ground, as she picked herself back up, shook her head and said, " Owie! Stupid rock!." She went over and kicked the rock with one of her hooves, and the rock shattered, as she now jumped around in pain, but something caught Pinkie's attention, and stepped closer, she noticed, a very old-looking yellow item, but it, looked like it was part of something: it looked broken. She looked around for any other pieces, but that was all. She picked it up, and looked at closely: it had a few weird-looking symbols on it and was attached to a part of a brown necklace. Pinkie gasped, and said, " This had to be it! I need to find the others!" And she took off in the opposite direction she was heading, back to where they all had split up. Fluttershy and rarity, was at the ruined waterfall, searching around a pool of water, it was all that remained of the waterfall.

Rarity piped up and said, " You know, Fluttershy, it's amazing that this lake stayed intact, it should've broke the ground around it that keeps the water in it, apart." Fluttershy said nothing, she was just staring ahead of her, with a look of fear in her eyes. Rarity waved a hoof in front of her and said, " Fluttershy? Are you even paying attention? I was talking to you!! Wait...what are you staring at?"

Fluttershy still said nothing, just stared ahead of her, and started to whimper. Rarity followed what Fluttershy was looking at, and saw what she was looking at: it was a small, but dark cave. Rarity rolled her eyes, and said, " Fluttershy, really? Does that cave scare you that much?" Fluttershy shook her head frantically, and Rarity said with annoyance, " Alright, fine, I'll go and search the cave. But why don't you search the lake?"

Fluttershy relaxed, and said, " O-o-o-okay."

Rarity was no longer listening, as she had already entered the cave, and before long, she couldn't see her own hooves, and she said to herself, " Great.... but easy solution!" And with a flash, a light appeared on top of her horn, and it lit up her surroundings, as she said, " Now, that's better, I can actually see my hooves now. Still Fluttershy, of all the things to be scared of, there's nothing to be afraid of, it's empty, a little cold, but empty." She started to look around, and said, " You know, this area looks familiar...." As she thought she said, "Oh!" And a flashback appeared in her mind, as she remembered when Twilight, the others, and herself was in the waterfall, in the area where Darkness Night took out the floor in the middle of the big, circular area. Rarity said, " Gosh, that was awful! We had to stand on two hooves and shuffle around that area!" A shining glimmer took her out of her reminiscing, and she went forward, and lit up what was shining. It looked like a diamond, a blue one. She moved a couple rocks away from it, and the ceiling began to shake a little, and Rarity said, " Even after all this time, this ruined waterfall, it still unstable, I better be more careful. I don't want to be trapped in some icky, cold cave!" She pulled out the blue diamond, but also noticed there was something else in it, it looked like a piece of a yellow small item with a bunch of symbols on it, and Rarity said, " This has to be it, but it's only a piece of it. Still, I should get back to the others and see if they found the others. Besides...I rather not spend another minute in here." And with that, Rarity left the cave, and heading back where they had all split up, with blue diamond, and the piece of the talisman encased inside of it.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, was searching the surface of the lake, however, the lake had suffered some loss, it wasn't all that deep anymore, it was now shallow. But that made things easier for Fluttershy to see anything at the bottom. She stopped searching because she heard the sound of hooves, and saw Rarity come out the cave, with something in her mouth, and Fluttershy asked, " What is that Rarity?"

Rarity stopped, put it down, and said, " It's a piece of that talisman, but as you can see, it's encased in a rather beautiful blue diamond, if I might add, but I need to get going, and see if the others found the other pieces. See you where we all split off, Fluttershy!" And with that, Rarity picked it back up, and trotted back where they had all last seen each other.

Fluttershy said, " My goodness, if Rarity found a part of it, perhaps, I can find one too." She went back to searching the shallow lake. She searched, and searched, and searched, sifted through the dirt at the bottom of the lake, but found nothing, just a couple of bits, and shells. As she moved the dirt around some more, she found a rather large, but intricate shell, Fluttershy picked it up, shook it, hoping there might be something inside, there wasn't, just more dirt. Fluttershy sighed, and said, " Well, at least now I have a nice shell, I can put on my shelf, when I get back home now." Fluttershy looked down, picked up the shell and began to go back, when she noticed a black figure was following her. Fluttershy jumped with fright, and accidentally broke the shell, and she stopped and looked closer, it was just her shadow. She sighed with relief, but was disappointed, and she said, " Well, I did, have a shell." As she looked closer, one the broken bits were shiner than the others, and she squinted, it looked like a very small sliver of something yellow...with a part of a weird marking on it. Fluttershy picked it up, and looked closer, and it was attached to a short brown string, it looked like it was part of a necklace. Fluttershy gasped with excitement, and began to rush back where she had last seen the others.

Meanwhile, Darkness had been looking, flying and searching all over the grassland, the woods, but didn't find anything. He sighed and said to himself, " This stinks, I don't see anything, well, no point in flying around aimlessly, the talisman is definitely not going to be seen from above, that means it is somewhere on the ground. Damn. Well, I better get back to the others, I'll go back to where I last saw them and wait, at least one of them has probably found it already. I just hope they had better luck than I did." And with that, he flew around, and headed beck to where he had last saw the others, and then he saw Rainbow Dash flying around, he called to her, and asked her to head back to where they had all last seen each other, she nodded, and began to fly in that direction, and so did he. Applejack and Twilight, had decided to search the middle of the grassland, and so far, hadn't found anything.

Twilight said to Applejack, " Maybe it's not on the ground, but under it."

Applejack asked, " What do you mean, under it? Like we have to dig to find it?"

Twilight responded, " That's what I'm thinking."

Applejack said, " Fine by me, I'm not afraid of dirt, unlike Rarity."

Twilight said, " Rarity may be like that, but she still is the most generous pony I know,"

Applejack sighed, " Yer right Twilight, I'm sorry."

Twilight said, " It's okay, searching for small items can sometimes be stressful. Now, let's start digging here, it seems like a good start."

Applejack said, " Let's get to it then." They both began digging, and after while they both ran into something. They both uncovered it a little more, and it looked like a statue, maybe an altar of some sort. Applejack asked, " What do you that is? Because it sure ain't that talisman."

Twilight agreed, and said, " Not it's not, but maybe it can give us a clue as to where we should be looking. Besides, this looks like a button right here."

Applejack said, " Perhaps, that's not a good idea, we don't know what that is, but just be careful, okay Twilight?"

Twilight said with a small chuckle, " Relax Applejack, what's the worst that could happen from pressing a button?" Applejack didn't say anything, as Twilight pressed the button. Nothing happened for a while, and then the ground began to shake, as Twilight and Applejack got out of the way, as something began to rise out of the ground.

Applejack said, " See? What did I tell you?" The ground stopped shaking as they saw what had come out the ground, it was a very worn statue of a pony with a horn, wings, a helmet, some kind of armor with a strange insignia on his chestplate, a long cape and he had one hoof out, as if issuing an order to charge, as if he was leading an army. Applejack looked at the statue, and said, " He looks important, wonder who he is? And haven't we seen that insignia somewhere before?" As Applejack pointed out the intricate symbol.

Twilight responded, " He does look important, and yeah, we have seen that insignia somewhere before...."

Twilight and Applejack gasped and said at the same time, " The Elite Sorcerer Pony Knight insignia!"

Applejack pointed out and said, " It looks like he's holding something in his raised hoof." Twilight looked and saw what Applejack was talking about: indeed there was something in the statue's hoof, something shiny.

Twilight said, " Let me use my magic to pry that off."

Applejack said, " Okay, I guess that saves us from climbing that statue then."

Twilight said, " Yeah, it does, and that was the idea." Twilight said no more as she concentrated her magic through her horn, and magic formed around the shiny object, and after a little bit, it came right off, But as soon as Twilight had the shiny object, the statue slammed and sunk back into the ground, as two stone doors closed above it. Twilight said, " Yikes, it's a good thing I used my magic."

Applejack said, " Yer telling me." They both looked at the object Twilight now had in her hoof, and they could tell that it was yellow, it has strange symbols on it, and was attached to part of a brown string, and it looked broken. Applejack looked at Twilight and said, " Are you thinkin, what I'm thinkin? Cause, you know what this looks like to me?"

Twilight responded, " I am, and it looks like that talisman, although...it's broken. That means there are pieces of it within the area, hopefully."

Applejack said, " Well, let's get back to the others, and wait for them, were we last saw them, they have probably found the other pieces by now, possibly."

Twilight said, " You're right, let's get going then." As soon as Twilight had finished speaking, the two began to head back where they had last seen the others.

Darkness and Rainbow Dash were the first ones to arrive, followed by Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and then finally, Twilight and Applejack, as they all met by the entrance to the grassland. Darkness asked, " Did anypony else have better luck than Rainbow Dash or myself?"

Pinkie Pie said, " I think I did."

Twilight said, " Possibly."

Darkness said, " Okay, so what did everypony find?" Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, each handed out what they had found out, and gave them to Darkness.

Twilight asked, " Is that the talisman?"

Darkness nodded and replied, " Yes, it is, but I wasn't quite anticipating it to be in four pieces, but this is definitely what we have been looking for, I can feel the power emanating from it."

Applejack asked, " So now, what do we do with it?"

Darkness shook his head sadly, and said, " At the moment, nothing right now, we need to head and get to the Crystal Palace. Once we are there, I will hold the pieces up to the enchanted barrier, the magic from the barrier is the same as the magic in this talisman. The magic will make the talisman whole again, and then I use the pieced-together talisman and break the barrier."

Rainbow Dash asked, " And then what? We storm in?"

Twilight said with concern, " I'm not sure that's the greatest idea."

Darkness said with a smirk, " You know, Rainbow Dash, as much as your courage is to be admired, no, that would a bad idea. None of us are sure what awaits us once that barrier's out of the way. It would foolish and a waste of time, for us to be stopped there, because we rushed in and were caught by surprise."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and said, " Well, still, it's a option."

Darkness said, " If all else fails, I'll consider it a last resort. Fair enough?"

Rainbow Dash said, " Deal!"

Darkness said, " Now that's out of the way, Twilight, please send a message to Celestia, and Luna, of our progress, and my own progress, and tell them where we are heading next. Also tell them, to please tell Princess Cadence and Shining Armor of our coming arrival, and to meet us at the entrance to the castle. We may need the extra help."

Twilight said, " That's a very good idea, and a sound plan, just give me a moment, I need to concentrate." Twilight pulled out a piece of parchment out of her bag, wrote down everything, Darkness told her, and with a flash a purple light, the parchment was gone. Twilight took a deep breath, and said, " There, all done and sent."

Darkness said, " Alright then, let's head to Twilight's castle for any supplies we might need before we go to the Crystal Empire. What's left of it anyway." Everypony nodded in agreement, as they all headed back into the forest, and back towards Ponyville.

Seeking Reasons

Two hours later, they had all arrived at Twilight's Castle; it was late at night, and Darkness said, " Perhaps it's best for everypony to get some rest, we have quite a journey ahead of us, besides....this may be the last time any of you see Ponyville in a while, and if we fail, none of us will see Ponyville again. We will start to set out three hours after daybreak, that gives all of you time to pack what you need, and say goodbyes to those that mean the most to you, and spend some time with them, if need be. But we must set out three hours after daybreak, everypony understand that?"

Everypony understood, Applejack said, " You make it sound like we won't be back."

Darkness said, " Exactly, we may not be able to, depending on how this all ends. Many things could go wrong, so that's why I'm giving you all time to find the reasons with each of yourselves as to why you take on this task, why you want to continue this journey. And if nothing else, what or who are you fighting for? I want you all to find these reasons on your own."

Rarity said, " Alright, Darkness, just don't leave us behind, you wouldn't, would you?"

Darkness said, " No, I wouldn't abandon my friends. I still don't understand many things, and I struggle with why I carry on this fight, so I myself, will go out and find that reason, but I will be back when it's time to set out. Look for the brilliant black wings in the sky, that's how you will know that I have not abandoned you all."

Fluttershy said " Be careful!"

Pinkie Pie said, " Yeah, we don't need our friend and best hope to leave us!"

Darkness said, " Don't worry, now I'll be off now, but I will be back, see you all later. Sleep well, all of you."

Twilight said, " Thanks Darkness, and good luck finding your reason."

Darkness scoffed, and said, " There is no luck involved in finding something like this." And with that, he walked out of the door, and flew away, and out of sight.

Rainbow Dash commented, " He's still so cold."

Applejack said, " That's just how he is, all we can do is try to understand him a little better. I think I speak for everypony, but Darkness has been trying to understand all of us."

Fluttershy said, " That's true, and he has changed quite a bit since we first met him. At least, I think so, he seems nicer, in a unique way."

Twilight said, " That is true, Fluttershy, but he is rather difficult to figure out, he may seem cold, but perhaps that's just one of his many different ways showing his care for all of us. If he didn't care about any of us, he would've left us long before now."

Rainbow Dash persisted, " But still....he's so....I don't know, he seems so indifferent about what we mean to him. Arghhh!!! Why does he have to be so difficult?"

Twilight said, " Rainbow, please, calm down, maybe we are all just looking at it all in the wrong way, perhaps a different way of looking at things is in order."

Rainbow Dash said, " Alright, but he still doesn't make any sense right now."

Rarity said, " Maybe not right now, but the answer will come to one of us or all of us at once, eventually."

Twilight said, " I think that's enough chat for tonight. I'm going to bed, we all have another big day ahead of us, we'll all need all the rest we can get."

Rainbow Dash said, " Okay, well, I'm going to crash, night!"

Applejack said, " Me too, goodnight everypony." One by one, everypony went to their beds, and they were all soon sound asleep, as a shadowy hooded figure watched them through one of the outside castle's windows. Morning came, and everypony woke, got out of bed, and everypony except Twilight had left the castle to go find their reason and prepare for the journey ahead, Twilight had slightly overslept. She stretched and got out of bed, walked out of her room, and began to walk towards the exit of the castle, when something caught her eye: she looked over at the left side castle window that looked outside, but as she diverted her attention, whatever it was, was gone. Twilight said to herself, " I thought I saw something...hmm...maybe not." She continued towards the door, opened it and headed towards Canterlot, as Twilight said to herself, " If I am to find the reason why I continue this journey, I should probably start there." As she went up the path, the figure reappeared from behind Twilight, behind a bush, and took off the hood, and cloak, to reveal a light blue mare, with a light pink mane, and icy blue eyes, and she was wearing a necklace of some sort, with a expression of worry in her face, as she watched Twilight head towards Canterlot. She stood there and waited a while, just watching Twilight, and then with a flash, she was gone.

Meanwhile, Darkness was high in the mountains, at the peak of the tallest mountain, overlooking Equestria, as he said to himself, " Why do I continue on? Why or what do I have to fight for now? What do I have left?" He looked down, and said, " I don't. I don't have anypony that means so much to me, to really fight for now, my mother's dead, and passed on, my father was dead before I was born, anypony else that meant something to me, is gone, disappeared, or dead......Twilight and the others are only my friends....Luna's all I really got left in this world....*sigh*" He looked up at the stars, he couldn't see them as well as he could see them when it was night, but he said, " Luna, my only love in this world now, what should I do?" He said nothing else, as he stared into the sky, and then said, " Of course, you are my reason Luna, and so are my friends. I think I'm beginning to understand why I continue this journey now." He said nothing else, he just stared up into the night sky, wondering what was going to happen next. Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Rarity was at her store and home, spending time with Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle asked, " Why are you spending so much time with me all of a sudden? You never spend so much time with me."

Rarity expression saddened and she said, " Because, Sweetie Belle, I realized, that you may do things that irritate me, quite a lot, actually. But this journey that I am about to go on with Twilight, Darkness, and my friends, we may not be able to come back. I don't want to it all to end knowing that me and you, as sister's, last talked to each other in bitter tones, never spent a whole lot of time with each other, and me leaving without saying goodbye. It was a regret I just couldn't live with, and I also realized I may have been a bit too harsh on you, and I'm sorry for that. My business has had me on edge lately."

Sweetie Belle was silent for a long time, and then said, " Wow, sister, I never knew you felt like that, and I'm sorry for all the times, I've broken stuff, and drove you insane at times."

Rarity hugged Sweetie Belle, and said, " It's okay dear, and I'm sorry too, for taking it out on you. You are still just a filly, after all, you're still learning. Just ask, if you don't know exactly what you are doing when you use something of mine, and I'd be happy explain it to you, and help you to use whatever it is, the right way, okay? Does that sound good to you?"

Sweetie Belle looked into Rarity's eyes, and said, " Promise, Rarity?"

Rarity nodded with a tearful smile, " I promise, as your sister, I also want to spend more time with you, once I come back from this journey, okay?"

Sweetie Belle cried, and hugged Rarity tighter, and said, " I love you sister!"

Rarity cried too and hugged tighter as well, and said, " Me too, sister, me too." The two just sat there, crying, hugging each other, and rocking back and forth.

Back in Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was at her home spending time with her family and Applebloom, and Applebloom said, " Sis, you've been acting really strange lately, what's going on?"

Applejack said, " Because Applebloom, Me, my friends and Darkness are going on a journey, and if we fail our mission, we might not be able to come back. So I wanted to spend time with those I've had so many good memories with."

Applebloom said, " Wow, all this, just to go to the Crystal Empire?"

Applejack said, " No, Applebloom, after that, its just this might be the last time, we stop in Ponyville or in this case, Sweet Apple Acres."

Granny Smith said, " You better come back Applejack, this here farm wouldn't be the same without you."

Big Macintosh only said, " Eeyup!"

Applebloom said, " Yeah! we have still some much to do and I've got plans for just the two us, and..."

Applejack put a hoof on Applebloom's mouth, and said, " Whoa there, Applebloom, you keep talking that fast, you're going to hurt yourself." Everypony laughed and Applejack said, " But thanks everypony, when all this is over, I will find a way back, I will come back, because you guys and my friends are the reason why I even started this journey to begin with, and its why I continue this journey now." Everypony hugged and just sat there, looking through the family picture book.

At Fluttershy's home, Fluttershy, was in her backyard, and she said to herself, " My reason...to continue this journey. Gosh I'm not quite sure, there's so many, I don't think there's one particular one. But if I had to choose..." Just then Angel, Fluttershy's pet, come by, tugged on her tail, she turned around and saw that Angel was holding up food for Fluttershy. Angel handed it to her and she as she took it, she said, " Goodness, Angel, you're being rather nice today, usually you're..not so nice. Why the change?" She started and finished eating, put down the container and picked up Angel, who actually wanted to be picked up. Angel began to make sounds and Fluttershy said, " The journey? Not coming back? Oh you must mean my journey to save Equestria, and to the Crystal Empire and beyond. But you are right though, there may be a chance I might not be able to come back." Angel's expression saddened, and began to cry while sitting on top of Fluttershy's head. Fluttershy picked Angel up from her head, and held Angel in her hoof, and hugged Angel, who hugged back and Fluttershy said, " Don't be sad Angel, there would be no way, nothing to stop me from coming back to see all my furry little and big friends and you my adorable little Angel." Angel brightened up and looked up at Fluttershy and made some more sounds. Fluttershy said, " Promise? Of course I promise, I could never leave you behind. Especially leaving you unsupervised for that long, it would be a mess." Angel snickered, hugged Fluttershy, hopped down to the ground and scampered off to the house. Fluttershy stood there for a while, looking around, and then said, " I think I know why I continue on, I do this for my friends, for Darkness, and for all my furry friends here, and for Angel. I will come back, I have to, I couldn't bear leaving all of my friends here behind. In fact, I'd rather not want to leave them at all." She called all of her creatures and said, " I'll be away for a while, so I want you all to behave and keep Angel out of trouble, but don't worry, I'll be back soon." All of her creatures shook their heads in acknowledgement and took off as Fluttershy herself went back inside the house.

Pinkie Pie was back at her store, Sugarcube Corner, happily humming to herself, as she was in the kitchen, baking many different things, hours later, as she sat there, eating what she had made, she stopped and pondered about what Darkness had said, and she said to herself, " My reason to continue this journey, mmmmm.....I've not really thought about much. But now that I think about it, why I continue this journey, I will fight for Equestria and for my friends. I'm not going to let some evil meanie take away what means the most to me. Sure, Sugarcube Corner means a lot too, but not even close to how much my friends mean to me. Besides, without my friends, or even Equestria, I wouldn't be able to throw parties for anypony, or gifts, or surprises either. I fight and keep going on this journey for my friends and for Equestria!" Pinkie Pie smiled happily to herself and went back to eating her deserts.

Rainbow Dash however, was not doing anything, she was at her house, in Cloudsdale, laying on her bed, with her hooves on her head, with a face of frustration and strenuous thought. Rainbow Dash said out loud, " Ahhh!!! I don't know why I keep going! I don't even now why I even keep fighting, or keep searching for things to keep this world, my home, and friends safe." Rainbow Dash began to roll around on her bed, still thinking with much effort, and then she stopped, and thought about what she had just said, and she said, " Wait a minute, I think that's it! I go on this journey because, I couldn't just leave my friends behind and go hide somewhere, I couldn't do that to them. I wouldn't want to do that anyways, I just wouldn't feel right. Sure, it would be so simple, just to pack my things, wave my friends off, and disappear, while they head off to maybe their deaths. But then, no it would not be easy to leave everypony behind, I shared so many memories with all them, and they have always been there for me when I needed them most, even when I was the academy, they we still there for me. No! I am no coward! My friends need me as much as I need them." Rainbow Dash got off her bed and stood up and said, " I will see this journey till the end, and if I die, then I will do so with my friends!" With a fierce determination in her eyes, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took to the skies.

In Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle was in the throne room, with Princess Celestia, discussing many academic subjects, and it was during the subject of friends when Princess Celestia asked Twilight, " Twilight, Darkness said you all should find a reason, himself included, have you an idea what yours is? What drives you to continue to put yourself in harms way, against an evil none of us are completely sure how to battle, a journey that is once again, going to take you and your friends, far away from your homes. Why do you continue to do this? What is the reason that drives you to do these things?"

Twilight stopped and stood, in deep thought, and moments later, Twilight answered, " I'm not sure, but I do know this: I fight for my friends, for the sake of those who cannot defend themselves. I go on this journey, wherever it leads us, because I believe in the future of this world, and i don't want it to be destroyed because either me or one of my friends was too cowardly to stand up to the task and face our fears. To be honest, my friendship with all my friends is what drives me. To see them safe and sound, at the end of each of our travels. To see how much they learn from each other or from somepony else. Or how they can rise above themselves and fight for the greater good of all Equestria, and not ask a single thing in return, but to go back home and be still as happy, and maybe even happier, then when they left for each adventure. This is why I go, Princess Celestia, I go and I fight for my friends and for the future and survival of all Equestria." Princess

Celestia smiled and nodded in agreement, and said, " It seems there is nothing else for me to say, you know what you must do now, and you already seem to know, that even if you falter, or stumble, your friendships that you have with your friends will be your greatest strength to help pick you back up, and to help you to keep going. With that said, Twilight Sparkle, go forth with your friends, and prevent this catastrophe from happening." Twilight nodded, and began to trot off, and Celestia called out, and said, " Twilight! Good luck!"

Twilight stopped, turned around and said, " Thank you Princess Celestia." Twilight turned back around to the exit, and began to trot back to her own castle.

A Happy Reunion And The Truth

As the mane six were returning to Twilight's castle, they all saw that Darkness had gotten there first, and he was standing there, talking, to some mare, in deep conversation, with a look of softness on his face. It was very apparent that he knew this pony rather well. He saw the others approaching, hugged the mare and turned around, and so did the mare and waited for the others arrival. Rainbow Dash was the first to get to the castle, as she flew rather fast, landed in front of Darkness, ignoring the mare beside him and shot the question, with much skepticism, " Alright! Who's the stranger Darkness!?"

Darkness shook his head, and said, " There is no need to alarmed or for concern, and don't you think that's rather rude Rainbow Dash? This 'stranger you just called happens to be my long lost sister, you jerk!"

Rainbow Dash backed up, with her head down, and said rather sadly, " I-I I'm sorry Darkness, I was just trying to look out for you..." She turned to Darkness's sister, and said, " I am very sorry Darkness's sister, I was just trying to protect Darkness from getting hurt anymore, I may not know much about him, but I get the feeling that Darkness has suffered enough already, and continues to suffer under many torments and nightmares..."

Darkness's sister nodded and said in calming tone, " It's okay, Rainbow Dash, I understand, and I'm very glad to hear that my big brother has friends that are doing their very best to protect him. My name is Snowshy, by the way. He may not look it, he may not even show it, but you are right, he has suffered enough already, I don't want him to suffer anymore, he deserves happiness for once."

At this point, Rainbow Dash was on the verge of crying, as she rushed and hugged Snowshy, " Thank you..."

Snowshy hugged back and Rainbow Dash backed up, and Snowshy addressed Darkness, " So, big brother, these are 'the amazing friends' you cant stop talking about and praising? They are all good ponies, they are very great friends, I can tell by the looks on their faces and how Rainbow Dash acted."

Darkness shyly said, " Umm....Yes these are my friends, I trust them with my life, and I haven't told you yet but they all together helped me get rid of at least one of my torments and sorrows. Uh...sister...quit it! You are going to make me blush in front of my friends!"

They all just laughed, and Applejack said, " Darkness, we all knew, deep down, that you really cared about us, we just had a tough time trying to see that when you expressed it in a way none of us are quite used to. We still are kind of having some troubles interpreting it all, come to think of it."

Rarity rolled her eyes, and said, " Geez, you really are so honest.."

Darkness was the one to say something now, and he said, " That's good, I'd rather hear what's truly on all of your minds, rather than you all hiding the truth of how you feel."

Snowshy nodded, and said, " My big brother is right, and yeah, he does have a rather complicated way of expressing his emotions, that kind of happens after so many years of pain and anguish, and sadness beyond what anypony should've have to go through. He's gone through it all so long....., he's forgotten what it feels like to have emotions, feelings, friends and happiness. He's been without so many things for so long....his recovery will be a slow one. That's why I've been looking out for him from a distance, so he doesn't get into a friendship that will make his suffering much worse than it already is."

For the very first time, tears began to well up in Darkness's eyes, and all he could say was, " You guys...sister...."

They all came together, and they all put their hooves on Darkness, and Snowshy said, " We are all here for you big brother, please, don't suffer anymore on your own, your friends and myself will help you find the happiness you have long forgotten. We want to help you, but you have to trust your friends, and continue to trust me. I think I speak for everypony here, we would never hurt you, if anything, protect you to best of our abilities."

At this point, Darkness was sobbing uncontrollably, as he hugged them all tightly, and they all hugged back, and Darkness said through the tears, " I'm sorry, but just let me cry........just....just....just...this once! Thank you everypony....I'm so glad I met you all my friends....and I'm so happy to know I have a little sister looking...out for me.." Darkness couldn't say anymore, as he buried his head under the hugs, and continued to sob.

They all just stood there, continuing to hug Darkness, and Twilight said, " It's okay Darkness, take the time you need, this is your moment."

After a while, Darkness lifted his head, and they all let go of him and backed up, and he wiped the tears from his face, and said, " I think I feel better now, and a little strange, a comforting feeling..."

Snowshy said, " That's normal for somepony who's gone through so many traumatic events, it just goes to show that the feelings you thought you lost forever, are all, one by one, coming back, this is going to be hard for you, but you're not alone this time, we are all here with you."

They nodded with great joy, and Darkness looked around at his friends, his little sister, and he realized something, and he said, " You're right, sister, I'm not alone, not anymore. Thank you all again so much, in time, I hope to regain all my emotions, and feelings back someday, and with all your help, that dream, is no longer impossible! Finally, after so long...I'll be whole again...someday. I know it will not be easy, but I can conquer whatever it is with my friends, and my sister, by my side, fighting beside me, supporting me. I only hope that someday I can return the kindness and caring you all shown today and continue to do so."

Snowshy said, " The only thing we all want to see is to see you smile the way you used to, before everything."

Everypony nodded happily, and Fluttershy said, " Your sister's right, that's what we all wish for you."

Darkness nodded in gratefulness, and said, " I swear to you all, I will accomplish that, no matter what it takes!"

Snowshy said with a smile, " Now there's the determined big brother I used to know!"

Darkness said, " One step at time, one day at a time, one year at time, I will get there, and I want you all to be there when it finally happens."

Applejack said, " You know we will be! There's no way I'd miss something like that, you are like family to all of us now, and I'm sure you're happy to know you have a sister you didn't know you had. By the way, why do you say that?"

Snowshy replied, " I think I can explain that... You see, when my big brother was born, he did not know that our mother was pregnant with two children, not one, as our mother's diary suggested. You see, shortly after my brother was born, he remembers his mother talking to him, asking to promise to keep the evil he had been cursed with, the color of his coat and mane is what the curse had changed it to, and he was asked to keep the evil contained, and never falter against it. She had a read an prophecy containing one of her soon-to-be-born children. I'm pretty sure you all know that prophecy, it was talking about my brother, a stallion that would rise from the depths of a forest and lay waste to the lands, turn it into desert, enslave any survivors, and make them suffer as he had earlier in life. This coming evil had a name, it is the incarnation of evil itself, known only as ' Darkness Night, The Ultimate Evil'."

She continued, " Our mother went to great lengths to prevent this tragic disaster, hence the katana, the armor, the diary, her colt's promise, and from a distance, spiritual protection. However, our mother, did not die after giving birth to Darkness, the one that had been given such a huge destiny, a rather heavy burden right at birth, he is also the chosen hero of the gods, hence why he only has a first name, depending on the path he chooses when the evil in banished, will determine his true fate, his destiny, and give him his final, and true second name. Anyways, our mother had simply passed out from exhaustion, she heard the cries of her newborn, she could feel his sadness, and it grieved her deeply. Darkness had cried himself to sleep, but that was when our mother regained her strength, went into labor with me, and I was born two days after Darkness was. It was my birth that killed our mother, but not before she told me everything I have just told you all, I remember it clearly, she crawled towards me, and she said, ' If you can understand me, listen carefully.' And then she began to tell me what I have already said, when she had finished, she looked me deep in the eyes, and said ' You will understand this one day, but I want you to stay away from you big brother, until the right time presents itself, but I also want you to promise to look out for him, but do not reveal your true identity, until the evil within him is banished, please promise me! Now, go!'. Snowshy solemnly looked at the ground, and said, " Our mother, then with all the strength she had left, pushed me near the exit of the forest, and then she took a couple more breaths, with many tears, and said, ' Go Snowshy! Go!' And then she collapsed and moved no more..." Snowshy then looked up again, and said, " I don't know how long I crawled, and through all the tears, I had found the exit and rolled out of the Everfree Forest, and it was then I rolled into my future adoptive parents. They had been strolling the outskirts of town, discussing where they was going to adopt a filly, when I came rolling out of the forest, and into them."

Snowshy said, " As you can imagine, they were rather startled and shocked to have a newborn filly just roll into them. They both guessed that my true mother was dead, besides they could tell, with how hard I was crying. They took me, and they both said, 'The gods of Equestria has blessed us with a filly in need of parents.' They raised me as though I was their own, but they had suspicion of what I really was: a sorcerer pony of ancient lore and legend. Please understand what I'm about to say next, they did, what they did, to protect me. They knew as well as anypony, the world was not yet ready for something this powerful to come back into the world, so they did the only they could: they had the doctor secretly do a procedure to remove my horn completely and cover the stub with my mane. They did this, because they did not want me hunted down and killed. Yes, I remember the pain vividly, but I understood. They did what they had to, they really didn't want to, but they had little choice, it was either the horn gets removed or I would get taken away from them. They did this because someponies had seen me when I walked all over town with my adoptive parents and began to put together a hunting party. So when they stormed the house, they found me, with no horn, and turned right around and left, thinking nothing of it, apologized, gave compensation for their intrusion, and dismissed the whole thing as if they all were seeing things and might have been a little overly paranoid over nothing, little did they know, they were right all along, I was a sorcerer pony. Now, I am an 'enhanced version' of a pegasus, with a life cycle of sorcerer pony."

Snowshy looked around and all except Darkness was puzzled by this and she said, " What I mean by 'enhanced pegasus', is that despite my horn being removed, I still have some power, and I use this power through this, my element of harmony."

Darkness was the one that spoke this time, and he said, " Okay, I have three questions: first one is, I know when I was first...reformed, you kept calling me brother, I, at the time, I had dismissed this as nothing more than an emotional moment for all us, for those that fought, and for me, for finally being free from Darkness Night, I have to ask though, why didn't you tell the truth about all this? Why reveal all this now? And seeing as your element of harmony only works when you love a soulmate of yours, how can you still use yours, when Shylight is dead? You may or may not know this, but as I journeying with my friends here, when we were at the waterfall, we all made a stop into the forest, and after coming to terms with one of my torments, and listening to our mother's last wishes, before she finally left for the spirit realm, we all made camp, as my friends rested, I took a stroll through the forest, I might as well have been walking down a path of sorrow, as I remembered one sad memory after another, when it was in that moment I stumbled upon the remains of Shylight, the holder of the seventh element of harmony. From what I could see, not only was he in pieces, but I could see singed trees, and burning grass, in a wide circle around Shylight, and his element of harmony was in pieces...shattered, and scattered everywhere. I knew exactly what had happened, the fool, had attempted time travel, by using and binding the power of his element of harmony, to open a portal...idiot. His attempt was successful however, I couldn't clearly tell where the portal had opened, but my guess is, whatever he saw when he came out on the other side of the portal wasn't exactly pleasant or what he had in mind. As he turned around to return to the present time, his element of harmony exploded from the stress of time was putting upon it. Let me make this perfectly clear: an element of harmony cannot be used this way, because you have no control of what time you will go to, and it is only a one-time thing, and you will not be able to go back, to try and return to the present time, will only result in your annihilation. I once told Shylight about the wonders and mysteries of time travel, perhaps this is my fault, but it became his life's work, his obsession, it was driving him mad, that was the major reason why he stayed in the forest, his mind was no longer stable, but he never told anypony about his secret 'project'. However, Shylight was able to return to the present time, but definitely not alive, it was at the moment, as he probably was just about to exit the portal, when his element of harmony exploded, and blew him and his element of harmony to pieces. In the end, a mad fool, got exactly what he deserved, a mad fool's death. But don't worry, I buried his remains and what was left his element of harmony, once a element of harmony has been torn apart like that, there is no repairing that and I made sure to all that find his gravestone, I put a warning on there to all those who attempt what he did, and it says: ' TO THE TRAVELER THAT FINDS THIS GRAVE, THIS PONY DIED, MESSING WITH A POWER THAT SHOULD BE RESPECTED AND LEFT ALONE. DEAR TRAVELER, LEARN FROM THIS MAD FOOL, ALL THOSE THAT ARE NOT CHOSEN TO TRAVEL THROUGH TIME, WILL ONLY END UP LIKE THIS FOOL. DO NOT FIDDLE WITH TIME, IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, RESPECT IT, AND MOVE ON."

As Darkness finished, Snowshy spoke, " Yes, brother, I knew about Shylight's death, my element of harmony showed me what happened, and your guess is right, that is exactly what he did. To answer your questions, I couldn't tell you then, because it just wasn't time, and besides, you just got freed from Darkness Night, all that would've been a bit much don't you think? And I can still use my element of harmony, because I found my true soulmate, so it is okay."

Darkness said, " After hearing all of this, it all makes sense why there were so many tears on the first pages of our mother's diary.......she knew since the first day I was born, she knew what was going to happen, and went to every extent to make you were protected from it all, and that I would face my destiny head-on."

Snowshy said, " You're right, she wanted you to have courage, we all want that for you too, don't falter now, together, we have a world to save!"

Everypony else said, "YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"

Darkness motioned for everypony to quiet down, and he said, " Wait! I just thought of something, I thought you retired from hero work, and went to go live a quiet life, sister?"

Snowshy smiled, and said, " I was actually wondering when you was going to ask that, but it is okay, there many other things that needed discussing before this. I like you, Darkness, began to feel the disturbances in the air, the wind, the animals have all gone into hiding, the entire world seems to be....I don't know how to put it....afraid and tense. Whatever it was, it was giving me the chills, so I went into a personal investigation myself. Because everypony knows that you never leave Luna and your castle, or your study. And I didn't want to contact you yet, something was still off about you, like you had shut all emotions off. I started in the forest where I lived, not the Everfree Forest, there is another forest, it's known as the 'Sacred Grove', but that info is not important right now. I came up with little info, and all I could get out of any of the animals as I traveled, was this, 'IT R-R-RETURNS! WE ARE DOOMED!!....IT RETURNS!! THE LAND WILL BLEED!!!......' Every animal I spoke to kept saying this over and over, and every animal that said this, went into hiding and refused to speak any more. At this point, I was getting rather worried myself, and then I heard that after two years, Darkness was going to go to Ponyville, a week before Luna and Darkness's wedding. Also, at the same time, I had heard something had been stolen at the Crystal Castle, and that some strong magical barrier, that nopony can break, had appeared at the entrance to the castle. I figured to myself I must gather all the info I can before Darkness gets here. The other thing I found out is some old pony historian told me that it is an ancient, foreboding, evil, with a mind of insanity and madness, a heart of greed and conquest, filled with vengeance. And it will not enslave anything, it will kill....everything. After he told me this his eyes grew wide with fear, and died of a heart attack. Darkness!! We cannot let this disaster happen!"

Darkness said, " I know, sister, none of us intend to let this terrible event pass, but now we know for sure it is definitely something ancient, now we just have figure out how far back to go, but we can figure this out later we have a more pressing task at hand."

Twilight spoke, after being silent for a while, " You're right Darkness, we do, but what about those visions, you have been having?"

Darkness said, "I haven't seen any more, since, I went to Zecora's place, and I can figure all that out, at a later time, it's not all that important, we have an empire to save."

Snowshy asked Darkness, " Brother, are you and your friends going to the crystal castle? If so, I wish to come with, it's about time I came out of retirement anyways. Besides, I will not stand by while all of you risk your lives for the sake of Equestria!"

Darkness said, " As a matter of fact, yes sister, that is where we will be heading, and I was going to ask you to come along, if you want to. It just wouldn't be the same without you around, besides, this way, we can catch up on all the years ago that have been missed due to everything before."

Snowshy simply smiled and said, " Thank you Darkness."

Rarity said, " I think speak for everypony else here, but we wouldn't have it any another way darling."

Darkness said, " Alright then, everypony ready?" Everypony nodded with fierce determination, and Darkness said as he looked with a new sense of strength and smile, out to the road ahead, " Okay! Let's go! Let's get on that train!"

Everypony else said, " YEEEEAAAHHHH!" And they all trotted, together, altogether as friends.

Inside The Crystal Castle Part 1

As everypony began to reach the train station, they all heard the conductor yell out: " Allllll ABOARD!!!! Train to the Crystal Empire leaves, in three minutes!!!" Everypony heard this, and trotted faster, and got on to the train.

Rainbow Dash said, " Whew! We made it!"

Just then, the train and cars jolted a little, and began to move, as the train whistle blew as the conductor yelled out: " We will be arriving in the Crystal Empire in 30 minutes due to minor weather fluctuations! This is our way of taking precautions so you all arrive at your destination safely, thank you, enjoy the ride!"

Rainbow Dash looked around, and said, " Hey, where's Darkness? Did he make it on?"

Snowshy said, " Oh, he did, he's in the back of our car, just over there, see him?"

Everypony looked, and sure enough, there was Darkness, standing there, looking out the window, with a distant look in his deep blue eyes, and said in a quiet tone, " No time for celebration yet....it has only just begun....." Everypony was going to see if he was okay, and

Snowshy stopped them, and as if she knew what they were thinking, said, " It's okay, he's not distancing himself from you guys, he's like this because he's preparing himself for whatever lies ahead when we get to the Crystal Castle."

Twilight said, " Oh, I see, I guess we should do the same we when get there then."

Snowshy said, " That sounds good, but its not just that, I can feel it too, the disturbance......it's getting stronger now....he knows it as well as I do, we are running out of time.. And I know you all know this too."

Everypony nodded, and Applejack asked Snowshy, " How much time do you reckon, we have left?" Snowshy said, " I don't really know.....I'm not sure Darkness knows for sure just yet either...."

Applejack said, " Well, don't worry about it sugarcube, you guys will figure it out....I just hope we aren't too late-"

Darkness finished her sentence, as he said, "We are not too late, not yet." He had walked from the back of the car to them, while they were in conversation. Darkness then said, " We should save our strength for our task at hand, we shouldn't talk until we get to the barrier, alright? Shove your worries aside, let me handle the things that trouble you, I will have an answer to your questions when I figure it all out, until then, focus, on the task at hand, step by step, day by day, hour by hour, take small steps, and we cannot fail. Focus, and we will all talk later."

Snowshy said, " I know what you just said, but, I'm worried too, will we make it? Will we stop the disaster?"

Darkness smiled, walked over to Snowshy, put a hoof on her shoulder, and said, " I understand, you are worried about all the lives in this world, you've always been like that, and that's why they call you a hero, I get that. I understand your concern, but don't worry, sister, we will make it, we have to, we must stop this, or with everything we've got, die trying. I will not let this happen to this world, no matter what it takes."

Snowshy said with some relief, " Thank you brother, that's relief to hear."

Darkness said, " Alright, no more talking till we get there, okay?" Everypony nodded, and began to ready themselves, as the train continued to head towards the Crystal Empire.

20 minutes later, the train stopped, and the conductor said, " Crystal Empire train station!!! Next stop, Appaloosa, in one hour! Thank you!"

Rarity said nervously, " Well, this is our stop."

Darkness walked past them, with no fear in his eyes, and said, " Let's go, we have a job to do."

Rainbow Dash commented, " How can he keep his cool, and not be afraid, in a time like this?"

Snowshy said, " He doesn't like talking about it, but when he was younger, he fought a lot of battles, a ton of enemies, just to survive. There was a time, when he left Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest, and traveled the world in search of answers to save himself from sadness, pain, and the past that tormented him. It was on these journeys, he encountered many monsters, and things you can only dream you wouldn't want to face, it was there, he honed his skills, as a swordstallion. He once told me this, a couple days after the events of Darkness Night, he said, he couldn't show the enemy he feared them, he would always tell me, before I retired and went my way, ' that fear is a form a weakness, instead, turn it around and use your greatest weakness as a strength and use it against your enemy, bend and dodge with the wind, free your mind, and focus, and you can never lose, remember this well, Snowshy, you or somepony else might need this to help you or somepony else out one day.' I think it was then I realized truly that my real mother wasn't lying to me, I had found my brother that day, and I took his advice, and I think we all should do that."

Twilight said, " It reminds of what you said, about him being 'chosen by the gods of Equestria' I can clearly see why now, he is truly an inspiration, I say we all give it shot, if it works for him, it can work for us too!"

Everyone shook their heads in agreement, and Fluttershy said, " Umm...I think we better catch up Darkness."

Rarity said, " Yeah, let's get going."

As Everypony was catching up, they saw Darkness was waiting at the inn, as they caught up to him, he said, " I thought you guys were behind me, oh well, I should've looked behind me. Anyways, let's go." Nopony said anything, they just followed him to the Crystal Castle, and when they reached the entrance, they were greeting by none other than Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Both Cadence and Shining Armor rushed to Darkness and the rest, and began to bow before Darkness, and Darkness held up a hoof and said, " Stop doing that, geez, Princess Celestia was trying to do the same thing. I'm not a ruler or anything, a simple hello does just fine."

Shining Armor spoke, " My apologies, Darkness, it's just Princess Celestia asked us to show our respect and thank for you, and the rest of you for coming here, and you are a Sorcerer pony after all."

Darkness quietly said, " Still makes no difference..." And he walked off, and then he turned around and said, " Oh, I suppose, I'll be at the inn, getting ready, meet me there in an hour, until then, I guess you can all catch up on things with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor."

Everypony smiled, and began to converse with Cadence and Shining Armor, but Snowshy just watched Darkness head off into the inn, with a look of concern, when Twilight came up beside her, and she said, " Worried about Darkness right? I don't know about you, but does it seem like he's taking his job, just a little too seriously? He avoided a lot of good conversation with Cadence and Shining Armor, why would he do that?"

Snowshy said, " Yeah, I am concerned about him, and yeah, maybe you're right, maybe he is taking his job a little too seriously. My guess is he avoided conversation with Cadence and Shining Armor is well, he couldn't really talk to ones he almost killed, and he can't bear to look at the damage he's done to this place."

Twilight responded, " I should've guessed, I was close, and it makes sense, but Snowshy, it wasn't his fault, it was Darkness Night that did all this."

Snowshy said, " That is true, but it was still physically him, it may not have been him mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, but it was still his physical body that got used to do these horrible acts. And he takes the responsibility for it all..."

Just then, the rest came up beside them, and Cadence simply said, " He shouldn't, we all knew then who was at fault."

Shining Armor said, " Cadence is right, we had all heard of tales of something like Darkness Night when we were young, but we all dismissed them as old pony tales, fantasy, just something to scare us into bed. I think I say this for everypony, we never thought the tales were telling an ancient prophecy, and that they were, in fact, very true."

Snowshy said, " Yeah, you all are right, I wish just my brother would see it that way and stop blaming himself for all of it, I don't like seeing him like this, it saddens me to see him like that.... But we better go inside the inn, it's almost time, let's go everypony."

Cadence asked, " Mind if we tag along?"

Snowshy smiled and said, " I'm sure Darkness won't mind."

As Snowshy said that, they all headed inside of the inn, as they opened the door and walked into the main area, and they immediately saw Darkness, in a corner of the room, sitting in the back of a big table, with a big piece of parchment in his hooves, he looked up and he saw them, and waved them over. They all walked over to the table, sat down, and Cadence was the first to speak, " Darkness, I hope you don't mind, that me and Shining Armor came with your friends and Snowshy."

Darkness said, " Not at all, in fact, it's good seeing as you are the rulers of this area, it's good for you to know what's going on."

Applejack asked, " What do you mean?"

Darkness smiled and put down the big piece of parchment he was holding, and spread it out, and he said, " I'm glad you asked, Applejack. Everypony, please take a second to look at this, you might find it interesting, I picked this up, the last time we made camp and I was in the mountains, and I stumbled upon it." Everypony looked, and saw what looked like very old instructions, to build....something....it was hard to see it.

Snowshy looked up at Darkness and asked, " What is this?"

Darkness said, " A very good question, I'm not sure myself, hey! Not even I know everything. My guess is this is important, but as you can clearly tell, the sketch is in bad shape, and a good part of the parchment ink has faded. But if you look at the title, it's called, ' The Grand Project' "

Rainbow Dash commented, " Well, somepony had little imagination for a great title."

Darkness snickered for the first time, he then looked around, and said, " What? That was good, I was kind of thinking the same thing, we don't have time to be wondering about all the little strange things about me, do we? No? Alright then, back to the what I was going to ask. I can't really tell what this 'project' is, but what are all your thoughts on this? I wanted to get some input on this before we get to work on that barrier. So, ideas? Thoughts?" Whatever this is, It bothers me, I'm not sure why, but I got a bad feeling about it."

Snowshy said, " I got the same feeling from it too, but all I can see, it's huge, maybe a giant statue?" Darkness said nothing, he just sat there, with one hoof supporting his chin, and he waited for somepony else to put their input in.

Rainbow Dash said, " I was thinking it's possible it could be instructions for a huge coliseum!"

Fluttershy said, " I really don't know, to be honest."

Pinkie Pie said, " Nope! I got nothing!"

Rarity said, " Me neither dear."

Twilight said, " I can only see a part of it, perhaps...a prison?"

Applejack said, " Maybe it's one of those temple do-hickeys."

After everypony finished, Darkness spoke, " Hmmm, interesting, I guess there's no solving this mystery now, is there? I figured as much, I just wanted to see what you all thought, and I have to admit, very interesting answers, I guess until I figure out how to restore this parchment, there's no getting to the bottom of this, but this will have to wait till after we are done here, but thank you all for input, it gives me some insight that you all think too, that this was meant for a sinister purpose. When I figure out how to restore this, I will let you all know, until then, let's get to the barrier, shall we?"

Cadence said, " I'm sorry, Darkness, but we never said anything, we really had no ideas either."

Darkness said, " It's alright, it's the trying that counts, remember that, ruler of the Crystal Empire."

Shining Armor said, " Thanks Darkness."

Everypony shook their heads in agreement, and Darkness said, " Alright, let's solve this, let's go." Everypony got up from the table, left the inn, and started to head to the Crystal Castle,

Cadence stopped everypony and said, " Everypony, wait, I wanted to show you all, the progress we have made so far in the rebuilding of this town and the castle, and just by looking around from this point, you can see it all." Darkness looked down, and Cadence said, " Please, Darkness, I know this is hard for you, but you, out of all of us, need to see this the most."

Snowshy said, " She's right, brother, as you once told me, face your fears today, be free and happier tomorrow."

Darkness looked up, and said, " Alright."

Cadence continued, " As you can see, 95% of the town was destroyed, and it left many homeless, and 80% of the population was killed, that we know of so far, due to what happened, the castle itself was reduced to one floor, and the basement caved in, from the shock of the rest of the castle crashing into the ground. However, despite the damage, we have made very good progress in rebuilding this once-glorious town, the castle can wait, our subject's homes are way more important right now. However, we are still finding bodies, of those that got killed, well, I'm sure you knew the spell Darkness Night used, but it threw everything and everypony everywhere, and a different spell was used to shatter the castle to bits. But anyways, we've had reports, that some Crystal Empire homes have been scattered as far as Griffonstone. In just two years time, we've repaired and rebuilt so far, about 20% of the homes that were destroyed, we still have much work to do, but we've had quite a few newcomers come here and settle here. We've had a 15% increase in the population, so that helps out, me and Shining Armor figure that within at least ten years time, the town should be back to the way it was, and in another five, the castle should be back to the way it was, so we still have a lot on our hooves. But I just thought I'd let you all know this, especially you Darkness, Shining and myself wanted you to see, that despite everything that has happened, the pony spirit is alive, in times of hardship, disaster humbles us all, and shows us for a lot of us, to always appreciate what we have, where we live, and our lives, every single day. Look around, Darkness, despite all that has happened to this Empire, it's only made the survivors stronger, and better ponies, of course, sure those days, were pretty scary, but the stories of each survivor is passed down, from generation, to generation, as stories of hope, and banding together for a greater cause, and to live each day with each other, and appreciate each day of living, with each other, and never forget where they came from."

Darkness said, " Somehow, I will find a way to conquer all that haunts me...but right now....that's not important. But Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, thank you for showing and telling me this. Now, everypony, no more delays! We must get to that barrier!" Everypony followed Darkness as he rushed to the barrier, and he pulled a small sack from one of his side packs, dumped the contents into his left hoof and held them out before the barrier. The area around them all, was instantly covered in a white light, and then it slowly dimmed, as the light receded back to the source. Everypony stood in awe, as they saw the shards form together to remake the Talisman Of Dreadnaught. Darkness then held up the talisman close to the barrier, and with a violent gust or wind, the barrier had been dispelled, and the talisman, turned to dust, in Darkness's hoof. Darkness then turned around and said, " Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, I'm afraid this is as far as you two go, the rest of us will proceed from here, should you two be harmed or lost, it would spell disaster for the Crystal Empire, and make the current situation that much worse."

Cadence said, " I agree, Shining Armor and I will tend to things out here, while the rest of you take care of whatever there may be inside, and recover what has been stolen. We wish you the best of luck!"

Darkness said, " Thank you, everypony, shall we get going? But proceed with caution." Everypony nodded, and followed Darkness into the Crystal Castle, alert and focused.

The 'Forbidden Spells'

As they all walked in, the doors to the castle, shut themselves tightly, Rainbow Dash tried to open them, but they would not budge. From outside, Princess Cadence, yelled through the doors: " Are you all okay?"

Darkness replied, " We're fine, but until we figure what's going in here, I'm afraid, we will be out of contact for a while until this is under control. In the meantime, contact Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, and tell them to keep the populace calm, and I am asking you to do the same here, the last thing any of us need right now, is complete and total panic. If everything ends up not going to plan, you princesses will have to finish the job if we fail, call it a secondary back-up plan."

Princess Cadence replied, " I understand..I will contact the Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, and tell them what you have asked of us. And Darkness....all of you...good luck in there, and may the sun and stars watch over you all and guide you all in your time of need, may they guide us all..."

Darkness only said, " You too." And with that Darkness nodded his head, to the others and they all followed Darkness down the hallway that lead into the main chamber.

As they continued to walk, their steps began to feel heavier, the air grew thicker to breathe, and a chill was rising, and Snowshy said, " Darkness, do you feel something in the air? Something is very wrong here, it's like something doesn't want us here."

Darkness shook his head, " I know, I feel it too, but its not a spirit, that's for certain, no, it's almost like something has been..."

Before Darkness could finish his thought, the entire area, was suddenly surrounded in darkness, and the air grew very cold, and the ground began to feel like it was moving beneath all their hooves. Darkness froze in his tracks, and held out a hoof to bar the others from taking another step.

Rainbow Dash said, " Hey! What gives?!"

Darkness said, " Do not move, I know what this is, trust me."

Twilight and Snowshy both asked, " What is this? And how do you know what's going on here?"

Darkness said, " I do not know what's going here, and neither do any of you. But I do know what this is though, a 'Forbidden Spell', has been cast in the entire inside of the castle, and one of the more horrible ones, I might add."

Snowshy said, " A 'Forbidden Spell'? I don't think you ever told me about those, is there more than one?"

Darkness said gravely, " Unfortunately, yes, there are 14 'Forbidden Spells', each them are devastating in their own right, and some are...well, are things that you would only want to happen to you in your darkest, scariest nightmares, and the one that has been cast in here, happens to be one of those."

Twilight said with concern, " Darkness, I know it might be a lot to ask, but for all of our well-being, could you tell us what each them are and what each 'Forbidden Spell does? And could you tell us more about the one we are currently in?"

Darkness said with a sigh, " I was afraid you was going to ask that... Alright, I'll tell you, besides, there's no telling if this is the only 'Forbidden Spell that's been cast in here. This might take thirty minutes or so to explain but, It might be a good idea for you all to know them and to know how to deal with them, in case I'm not around, or in the area. Okay, as I said, there are 14 'Forbidden Spells' , they are named this, for the utter destruction, and death they all cause, one of these spells was invented, 10 of them were found, and three of them were given to a race older than the sorcerer ponies, as a gift from the gods of Equestria. The race I talk about are now only known as the ancient ones, a race that is 500,000 years older than the sorcerer pony race, they had a very deep understanding of this planet, and everything they did and built, was in complete harmony with nature. They were the original protectors of this planet, after they had only existed for 250,000 years, the gods of Equestria, saw the ancient ones fit to possess extraordinary, and rather immense power, they gave the ancient ones three powers, and they are known as 'Planetary Wrath Forbidden Spells', one was called, 'Acidic Agony', this spell would turn the entire world into one giant acid pool, disintegrating any land or living thing that remains. Another one was called, "The Storm Of Cleansing', this spell called upon, the power and wrath of the wind, rain, and lighting, and tear anything and everything apart, and turning the entire planet into a giant lighting storm, the likes you have never seen, and then submerge any and all land under trillions of gallons of water. And the other one was called "Planetary Clash', it called upon the forces of gravity, and would bring several, if not, many small planets within the area, and pull them into this planet's atmosphere, colliding it all with this planet, turning everything into small rocks and dust."

Darkness continued, " Now, you might be asking, why would the gods give such frightening powers to those such as the ancient ones? The answer was simple, to have and use these powers as a last resort to prevent any great evil force from using this planet for the wrong reasons, so the gods gave the ancient ones these powers to take out those evils that cannot be defeated any other way and were only to be used as a last resort. Thankfully, the ancient ones were strong enough to ward off any evil force, so these spells, were hidden away in their most protected temples. However, the ancient ones, had a fascination with these spells, and wanted to make their own, that would target one thing or area at a time, they invented something unicorns now call 'magic'. The ancient ones were the first ones to discover and make some of the most useful spells that a lot of unicorns still use today, everything from simple levitation to age spells, they were the ones that made it possible. Anyways, the ancient ones downfall, came at the invention of one spell that they called, 'Soul Flame', right off, they knew it was not a spell to be commonly used and they classified it as a 'Forbidden Spell'. This spell first cast a normal flame and then called upon the souls of the dead, and combined it with the flame, creating the 'Soul Flame', a purple flame, that when used against somepony, would cause, unhealable, permanent damage, starting by damaging the inside of the pony, and then the outside. Once the damage has been inflicted by this terrible flame, it cannot be healed by any magic or medicine, it is a very agonizing and slow death. But I'm getting off track, as the ancient ones cast this spell, and successfully merged the souls of the dead with the flame, and were about to use it on dummy targets they had made, the spell ended up being more powerful than they could hold together, and spell went ballistic, and blew up in a gigantic explosion, that engulfed their entire city, and then created a giant hole where the city had once been, except for their library, which was on the outskirts of the city. My guess is what had happened, is when the casters could no longer handle the spell, it exploded from all the magic, and went back where the souls had come from, thus the explosion made the hole needed for the souls to return to their rightful resting place, which is deep in the crust of this planet, where the souls of the dead find their eternal rest."

Darkness took a breath, and continued, " Any survivors, were either burning or falling to their death, thus marked the end of the entire race known as the ancient ones. However, there is a rather scary twist to all this, I once found the site of that very hole, and went to the bottom, and what I found shocked me: the ancient ones have been transformed something you've all encountered, the changelings. The way this happened is rather a simple answer though, as I continued to research the bottom of that hole, it was all there, I found the truth, and I knew that what my mother told me through her diary was true, I found the ash remains of the buildings of the city of the ancient ones, the outlines of them, anyways, I knew if I tried to touch them, they would only fall apart, I found ash remains of the ancient ones, and I found harsh writing on the walls all around me that told the story of what happened afterward. The survivors, that had survived the fall, continued to burn, but seeing as the soul flame, was no ordinary flame, after about an hour of burning, it changed the survivors, not just their bodies, but their minds, their insides, their way of thinking, all their memories were wiped clean, their personalities before...were gone...the flame changed.....everything, Those that somehow miraculously survived all this, began to realize they were no longer who they used to be, some ancient ones had horns, others only had wings, at first. Alicorns in that age, was a nothing more than a fillies dream. The survivors, knew and could feel the changes, they all had wings and horns, but they no longer could go outside, without the sun and the air of the surface causing damage to them, so they began to adapt to life underground, therefore, it was 400 years after the soul flame experiment went wrong, it gave birth to a whole new race altogether, and their first ruler came up with the name, when they discovered their new powers, the changelings. To this day, they are the only race that I know of that can shape shift into anypony with little to no effort, and their way of food, is also not a surprise, like I said, the flame changed everything about the survivors, including what they could eat, they no longer could eat what any other pony eats, it kills them, they can only feed on love. Before I could research any more, the entire hive down there, must've heard my steps, and began to awaken, and began to swarm at me, so I got out of there as fast as I could, as soon as I was miles away from the hole, the changelings turned around and went back, it would seem they have adapted that they can come to the surface, but not for long, but I do not know how long they can stay on the surface, I still don't know, but anyways, that's the soul flame."

Darkness paused for a moment, and then continued, " Now, as i said, there were ten of these 'Forbidden Spells', that were found, by the ancient ones as well, and the spells were embedded into precious giant gems, and very old rocks, in the form of rune symbols, which the ancient ones deciphered,and then they apparently destroyed the rocks, and gems, but they never used these spells, but hid them away in bottom of their library, all wrote down in scrolls where my kind found them. Anyways, one was called 'Power Storm', it sounds like 'The Storm Of Cleansing', but its not, it draws upon the pure power of the pony that uses it, and comes out in the form as pure energy, or purple lightening, I believe if I'm correct, Darkness Night used this spell in the form, by turning the entire sky into a purple lightening storm, but he had the power to do so, usually, it can only be cast from one's hoof, in a wide area, about as big as Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest combined for about maybe ten minutes, before it burns up the caster, but Darkness Night is an exception to that rule, he could've used it as long as possibly an hour or so. Then there is one that was called, 'The Meteors Of Sadness', again, it sounds familiar to 'Planetary Clash', but unlike that one, this spell only used many large meteors that would be sent down to a target and cause a massive explosion and shock waves upon impact, again, this was a spell Darkness was attempting to use, but he was defeated before he could finish the incantation words, or summoning words. Now, I know what you're thinking, but some of these spells, that were found, can only be used by using and saying the language of the ancient ones, words of power, for the spell to work, Darkness Night, if I'm correct, was trying to use two of these 'Forbidden Spells at once, but was interrupted as he was saying the words to the second one, and only managed to finish the words of the first one. The next one was called, 'Army Of The Dead', this is pretty simple to explain, any fallen warrior or anypony that is already dead, would be brought back from the grave to obey the commands of who had awoken them, usually it was to fight in a massive war that would wipe out their enemies, because well, you can't usually kill something's that's already dead, unless, you have somepony with a holy sword, but there was only one such sword, and that one was lost in a battle long before any war ever happened."

Darkness said, " Whew, this is a lot of explaining, but it needs to be done, now, the one we are in is called, 'The Corridor Of Nightmares', as the name implies, it's a nightmare, only this one becomes very much real, only a pony of high power can use this one, and does not require any words, but does require a big blue crystal to trap a soul and power within it, in order for this spell to work. It usually was only used in a small area, but it can be used for entire floors and buildings, it all depends on the size of the crystal, in our case, the crystal has to pretty big, to cover this entire room. It's a torture spell, executioners, and interrogators, loved using this spell, in ancient times, for confessions, or for a slow, paranoid death. It takes away all light of the area, and blinding the victim with pure darkness, it turns the air to a northern chill, and makes breathing a challenge, and if you don't know the layout of the floor of the area you are in, one wrong step, and the victim, falls into another dimension, known as the netherworld, that harbors monsters that tear apart the victim, limb from limb, slowly, one at a time, a rather agonizing slow, death, if you ask me. Whoever cast this in here, did not want any pony, like us, snooping around, looking for answers. The next one is called, 'The Fires Of Anger', this one is another simple one to explain, it calls upon the power of the pony again, but manifests in the form of fire, that be used to turn the entire surface of a planet, and put it completely on fire, that cannot be put out, and this spell can also make any core of any planet, and turn it into a lava pit, which can be used to make a planet explode from the inside out, there is no survivors to this one, anything that still lives is killed by the sub-zero temperatures of space. The next is a strange one, it is called, 'The Swords Of Justice', this one is probably, one of the more better ones, this spells requires the words of the ancient ones, but only a pony of a pure heart, can use it, or it will kill the caster. It calls upon the magic from within the caster, and turns it into the form of gigantic swords that rain down from the sky, unfortunately, it kills anything that the swords come into contact with, this spell usually wipes out all living things on a planet or several, but it does not destroy planets, just the life on them. The next one is very powerful and devastating and has never been used, ever. This one is called, 'Galactic Destroyer', as the name says, it has the power to destroy galaxies instantly, however, only the 'chosen one', can use this spell, the sheer force and power, would disintegrate any other caster, it calls upon the sheer will of the caster, of the 'chosen one', and compresses an entire galaxy into itself, creates a black hole, and then destroys everything, by having it all explode, and then everything that's left, gets sucked into the black hole, and then closes the black hole, a very nasty spell, but shockingly, I found out, that I happen to be the 'chosen one' of power, that can pull this spell off, but so can Darkness Night, my cutie mark is proof of this, it matches the symbol that is in my mother's diary, she knew of this one, and found the symbol of the 'chosen one' in one of the scrolls the ancient ones wrote down."

Darkness took another breath, and said, " Okay, it's taking a little longer than expected to explain, but I'm almost there, I got three more to go. Alright, the next one is called, 'The Tornado Of Revenge', as the name says, it can only be used by one that has vengeance or revenge in their hearts, but they must also have a strong will for the spell to be successful. It calls a huge tornado to tear apart anything in its path, sadly, this was the spell Darkness Night used to tear the town of the Crystal Empire into the sorry state it is in today. The next one is called, 'Time Compression', this one is extremely bad, because it throws all timelines, the past, present, and future, and brings them altogether, and then compresses then all, and turns them all into nothingness, where nothing lives, ever, this can affect galaxies, the last time it was used, it killed the caster in process, and compressed the caster as well. The good thing is, if the caster dies, everything returns to normal, but the caster can never come back, and they are stuck in a world that exists, but then doesn't exist. It is known as 'The World That Never Existed', there's not much info on that world, because all those that attempt to go there cannot come back, it is a one way trip, nothing lives there, except those foolish enough to go there, or got sent there. It was usually a spell used in ancient times, as a way to imprison criminals and villains by sending them there, it's use was stopped, because rulers later found a much better way to deal with evildoers, and thus was the knowledge of the spell hidden away, but it was first written down, by the ancient ones, on a small scroll, along with all their other scrolls at the bottom of their library. Now, I know I mentioned that the 'Planetary Wrath Spells' were hidden away in the ancient ones temples, but they also kept a written copy of those spells in their library as well, so just to make that clear to you all. Anyways, the last one, is one that really nopony, not even the ancient ones know much about, everypony has been to afraid to use it, seeing as the other 'Forbidden Spells', were bad enough, so only the name was written down in the ancient ones scrolls and a warning about the final 'Forbidden Spell'. It is known as 'Portal Summon', now, it sounds like a simple definition of this spell, but even I do not know what this one does, nor would I want to know, the other 'Forbidden Spells', are bad enough. Of course, it doesn't mean to say, I didn't try to do research on it, but there is literally no info on this spell, just the name and the warning the ancient ones wrote down. If I remember correctly, I did get the chance to read that scroll, my mother stole it from the great library of the sorcerer ponies, and infused it, in her diary, all the ancient ones wrote down, was, 'DO NOT SUMMON THIS SPELL, THIS IS NOT TO BE USED OR TAMPERED WITH, IF YE VALUE THY LIFE, FORGET YOU SAW THIS SCROLL.' That was their warning, whatever they knew about this spell, they refused to write it down, that knowledge went with them, when they wiped themselves out by accident, which makes no sense, why they wouldn't write it down, they wrote down all the others, just not this one, and this has been a complete mystery that many generations of ponies have tired to solve, but to no avail."

Twilight said, " I am so sorry, Darkness, I know we are pressed for time, but I just thought it would be important for all of us to know what to do, should we encounter this sort of thing again, and how to deal with them, but it sounds like only five of them, can be stopped."

Darkness replied, " Unfortunately, you're right, I forgot to mention, that if any of the other spells are used, there's no stopping them, unless you can manage to kill the caster before they finish casting the spell, that would be the only way, but with some of them, it would already be too late by that time."

Snowshy was the one who spoke this time, " Brother, you said something about a big blue crystal, that is needed for, 'The Corridor Of Nightmares', right? So we need to be looking for a big, shiny, blue crystal, and then what do we do once we find it?"

Darkness said, " Ah, yes, I did mention that, once we find it, all we need to do is to physically destroy it, not with magic though, no, we will need to simply throw it at a window, it will shatter the crystal, and well, the window in the process, but it will dispel the entire area we are in by the spell, and the room will return to normal."

Snowshy said, " Thank you, I suppose we better get looking then, but I think somepony that knows their way around here, should lead, sorry, Darkness, but this is your first time in the Crystal Castle."

Darkness said, " Again, you're right." Darkness turned around and addressed the group, and said, " Does anypony now the entire layout of this floor of this castle? If so, step forward, and lead the way."

Applejack stepped forward, and said, " I know that way, everypony follow me! We'll find that crystal thingy." Applejack then turned around and asked Darkness, " Do you have any ideas where the crystal might be?'

Darkness said, " I have a couple, but I think we should try to look in the throne room first."

Applejack said, " Sounds like a plan, let's go then, it might be best if everypony follows in a straight line, so that way nopony gets lost or falls off."

Everypony agreed and Rarity said, " Sound advice Applejack, let's get going then." Nothing else was said, as everypony followed Applejack, one step at a time, as they slowly made their way to the throne room.

Into The Human World Part 1

Moments later, Darkness, Snowshy, and Snowshy, were traveling at the speed of light, and Darkness looked to his left side, and said, " Twilight! We will have to talk loudly! We are traveling at the speed of light! So it can get a bit loud traveling this way As I said before! Don't let go of my hoof, and don't either of let go of each other's hooves, okay?!" They both only nodded, and Darkness asked, " Twilight! What am I looking For?! Just tell me what this 'human world' looks like, and I'll take care of the rest!"

Twilight responded, " Look for a big building with a pony monument in the middle, I think! and a large, oh I don't know! It would look kind of like a courtyard to you in the front of the building!"

Darkness said, " That's not a whole lot to go on! But, I'll see what I can do! Everypony! Hold on tight! This could get rough!"

Neither said anything, they just held on with everything they had, a couple moments later, Twilight said, " Hurry Darkness! I don't know how....much...longer...I can....hold on!"

Darkness said, " Just hold on! Almost...there!"

Twilight said, " I'm slipping!"

Darkness said, " Just hold on!"

And Darkness, with everything he had, he flew as fast as he could, with all his strength, and Twilight said, "Darkness! I can't hold on!"

Darkness said, " Just a little more! There! Hold on!" Darkness began to see the world as Twilight had described just ahead, and he flew to it, and in an instant, everything went white. It was then, a few moments later, Darkness saw the ground, but he was flying so fast, the ground was coming up too fast, so all he could do was slow down, or try to.

At the same time, he already felt something was missing, felt his sides: his wings were gone! All Darkness was able to do was brace for impact, moments later, he crash-landed into the ground, tumbled over several times, before he came to a stop, slumped against the monument. He looked around, and he said, " Ouch.....Hey, where are the others?"

Right about that time, he heard, "LOOK OUT!" Darkness looked around to see where the voice was coming from, by the time he looked up, it was already too late, Twilight and Snowshy were coming in from above, right above where Darkness was.

All Darkness could say was, " Aww...Crap." As Twilight knocked Darkness over, and landed on his back, followed shortly by Snowshy landing on Twilight's back, and Darkness said, " Please...get off...of me...can't breathe.."

Snowshy got off of Twilight's back, and then Twilight got up, and Twilight said, " Sorry, Darkness, I tried to warn you ahead of time, to move out of the way.

Without looking up at them, he simply got on all fours, and then Darkness said, " Yeah, a little hard to do that, when I was still recovering, but its alright, it could've been worse. Well, I have to say, that trip was little more intense than expected, I guess the first time, taking more than just me through that, couldn't be helped. And by the way, where did my wings go? Twilight, you've been in this world, what's going on?"

Twilight said, " Uhh...before I explain, you might want to get up, humans don't get around on all fours, and you might want to look at yourself as well."

Darkness said, " What do mean get up? I am up, oh, I guess fine, I'll look at myself, I'm still the same, I have hooves just like the rest of you..............What the? What kind of sorcery is this?" Darkness looked at himself, and then he looked up at the others, and they had no wings, and Twilight had no horn either. He then touched his head, and his horn was gone as well.

Twilight said, "Darkness, you need to get up, get on your feet, on your two feet."

Darkness then held out what he thought what would be his hoof, only to see it had changed as well, his golden gauntlets had five points, that all moved, as he moved them, and then he tried to use his powers, but nothing happened, and then Darkness said, " This is ridiculous, I already don't like this world, I can't fly, I can't even use my powers, and I have to stand on two...uhhh....what did you call them? Feet? What in world is that? But, I suppose, I'll try." Darkness then tried to get up on his feet, and only fell back over, and Darkness said, " I really don't like this world...the sooner we get that blasted mirror, the better, the sooner we can get back to back to our own world."

Both Twilight and Snowshy just laughed at Darkness, and Snowshy said, " Brother, you can be so silly at times!"

Darkness scoffed, and said, " humph...silly, you try getting up on these weird things!"

Snowshy said, " I think I already got it down, try centering your center gravity, that'll help, that's what I did."

Darkness said, " Alright, alright, alright, I'll try that." Darkness tried again to stand on his feet, and balanced himself, a bit wobbly at first, but finally got to the point where he didn't fall over, and Darkness said, " Geez, this is so weird, a world with no magic, no wings, and these things called feet, how strange. Also, Twilight, what the heck are these five-point thingys, that are on me?"

Twilight snickered, and said, " This must be your first time in this world, isn't it? They are called, 'hands', and the five-point thingys, as you called them, are 'fingers', they each move, as you move them, you can also move one at time, if you want."

Darkness tried, and got his fingers to move one at a time, and he said, " I think I got it, now, anypony know where to find that mirror?"

Twilight said, " Yeah, we don't say that either, we are humans now, so you would say 'anybody'."

Darkness said, " Ugh, even the speech here is weird...Anyways, fine, does 'anybody', have any ideas where to find that mirror? I want out of here as soon as possible, this world is already driving me nuts."

Snowshy said, " Just guessing here, but maybe we should check out what looks like a school."

Darkness said, " Good thinking sister! Although, what a strange-looking school, but before that, I want to check if I can at least use my dimension-traveling powers." Darkness held out his hand, and closed his eyes, waited a few moments, and nothing happened, and Darkness said, " You have got to be kidding me! Now, how are we going to get out of here!?"

Twilight said, " Well, seeing as we got here that way, and the portal is right through that monument, but we can't go trough it, for at least, another thirty months."

Darkness said, " Yeah, I don't think so, I am not staying here that long, no way! There has to be another way to go back, right?"

Twilight said, " I'm afraid not, you said it before, you getting us here by your powers, was our only way of getting here, so it will be our only way back, so we will have to find a way for you to able to use your powers in this world."

Darkness said, " Fine, I suppose we can worry about that later, now let's check out Snowshy's suggestion, and check that school building thingy."

Both Twilight and Snowshy chuckled, and Snowshy said, " Yeah, I really think that would be a good start." Right about then, other humans stopped, and stared at Darkness, and were pointing at him, and laughing at him.

Darkness said, " Humph, what do they think they are laughing at?"

Right at that moment, one human came up to Twilight and said, " Welcome back, Twilight! Some landing though, but who are your new friends? And what's up with him wearing armor? Is he like a knight or something?"

Twilight said, " Oh! This is Snowshy, and that's Darkness."

The human said, " Snowshy and Darkness, huh? Well, nice to meet you both! If you are a friend of Twilight, you a friend to me! But Darkness...what a strange name...you never answered Twilight, is he like knight or something? Also, I just noticed, what's up with the katana?"

Darkness said, " These 'humans' are weird creatures indeed, humph! Calling my name strange.."

The human said, " He even talks like he's ancient or something, Twilight? Is he like from some old time or something?"

Twilight sighed and said, " I suppose there's no hiding it, yes, he's a knight, he's part of an order that was once known as 'The Crimson Blades', and yes, he's from a older time, but he's from my world."

The human said with much excitement, " That...is....so COOL!" The human then went over to Darkness, and held out both his hands, and began to shake Darkness's left hand, and said, " Wow! You even have really pointy golden gauntlets! Can I get your autograph? Are you immortal? Can you fly in Twilight's world? What kind of sword moves can you perform?"

Darkness gritted his teeth, and took his hand away from the human, and said, " Humph.."

The human backed away, and went back to Twilight and said, " He's not very friendly for a knight."

Darkness said with frustration, " Grrrrr.....How about some sword lessons, 'human'? How would you like them apples?"

Twilight said, "Uhh, anyways, we are looking for something, a mirror, with some symbols, have you possibly seen it anywhere around here?"

The human said, " A mirror....hmm.....I afraid not, but you might want to ask some other people around school. They might know something. And of course, you can always ask principal Celestia, and to look around inside school, and tell her what you are looking for, if nobody knows."

Twilight said, " Thanks for your help, we was planning on going inside."

The human said, " With a grumpy knight guy like that? Talk about strange..."

Darkness said, " Grrrrr.....!!! That's it! I can't take this! Fine! Twilight, Snowshy, please go check inside the school, and I'll check the outskirts, of this courtyard, and then I'll check other locations in the area."

Twilight said, " Okay, but don't go too far, the humans might freak out if seeing you like that, especially with a sword that long."

Darkness said, " Okay, okay! I got it! I'll stay close by the school! Just find that blasted mirror already! These humans are driving me nuts already! I really don't like this world!"

The human said, " Well, I got to go, I'll be late for class! Go luck finding that mirror!" The human whispered to Twilight and Snowshy, " Uh, for the record, Darkness is really cool, he just needs to chill a little, just saying, alright! Got to go! See you all later!"

Twilight waved to the human and said, " Alright, Darkness, we are going to go inside the school now, we'll back as soon as we can."

Darkness said, " Okay, okay, find that mirror, I want out of this stinking world as soon as possible." And with that, Darkness took off.

Snowshy said, " Let's go, Twilight." Twilight nodded, and with that, the two entered the school.

Into The Human World Part 2

As Twilight and Snowshy entered the school, Snowshy asked Twilight, " Where should we start looking?"

Twilight said, " Good question, I have no idea. I suppose we should ask around, see if anyone's seen it, we know it's in this world somewhere, just where?"

Snowshy said, " Okay, I'll go this way, and ask everyone this way."

Twilight said, " Then I'll go this way, and start asking around, and we'll meet up back here, okay?"

Snowshy said, " Sounds good." Nothing more was said, as Snowshy went left and Twilight went right, and as Snowshy was walking, she thought to herself, " I wonder if brother's having any luck?" Meanwhile, Darkness was walking around in what looked like to him, a coliseum, only without the building, as he was walking around, he overheard one human saying something about, ' a soccer field', he assumed he was walking in this area.

He said, " Well, a ' soccer field', I assume that's some kind of sport, oh well, I'm not here to learn ' human customs', I suppose, I should ask around, ugh, I can't wait to get back to Equestria, I need to stop talking to myself, and probably not say that so loud." He walked over to the human nearest him, and he said, " Uhhh, hello, I was just wondering, my friends and I are looking for something.."

The human interrupted Darkness, by first laughing out loud, pointing at his armor, and said, " Well, if you're looking for the renaissance fair, I afraid, that's not for another eight months! But, how can I help you? What are you looking for?"

Darkness did his best to ignore the rude humor of the human, and he said with a little annoyance, " My friends and I are looking for a mirror, it has a purple frame, and gems embedded into it, I think, if my friend described it to me right, but have you seen this item?"

After the human got done laughing, the human said, " A mirror with a purple frame....let me think.....ummm, I afraid not, if you weren't wearing the strange armor, and the scary-looking sword, I would tell you to go inside the school, and ask around, but you might have security called on you, so if your friends don't wear the same thing you do, I would wait for them to find what you are all looking for, sorry."

Darkness sighed with aggravation, and said, " Thank you for assistance, anyways human, I'll have to wait on friends then..."

The human said, " Wow! You even talk kind of funny! Are you acting like that or are you really...?"

Darkness said, " It is none of your concern, human." And Darkness walked away from the human, and went back to the statue, and sat down, and Darkness said, " Well, I guess, I have no choice but to wait here, damn, this stinks. I really hope Snowshy and Twilight are having way better luck." And with that, Darkness looked up at the sky, and back down to the ground, and got ready to take a nap, and he said, " Well, at least sleeping is still kind of the same..." And with that, Darkness dozed off, as another human stopped for a moment, stared, and then went inside the school.

Hours later, Snowshy and Twilight met back up at the entrance of the school, they both stopped, and Snowshy asked, " Did you find out anything, Twilight?"

Twilight sighed, and said, " Nothing, you?"

Snowshy said, " I have a few leads, but they point to either the unidentified items that Principal Celestia keeps in her office, or the gym backstage, a couple humans were telling me, sometimes, some things get lost or misplaced back there, and everyone forgets about it until someone comes along and asks for certain things every now and then."

Twilight said, " Well, let's go pay Principal Celestia a visit, and she if she knows anything."

Snowshy nodded, and Twilight lead the way, and as they were walking, Snowshy looked behind her to look outside, and saw Darkness napping beside the statue, and she gave out a sigh of relief, and she said quietly to herself, " Whew, thank Celst- I mean thank goodness he's okay, I was afraid, he might do something brash, to get out of this world, I'm glad he'd didn't, and decided to stay put instead."

Twilight said, " Anything wrong, Snowshy?"

Apparently, Snowshy had stopped walking without realizing it, and Twilight had finally noticed Snowshy wasn't following, and Snowshy shook her head, and said, " No, everything's fine, I was just wondering about some things, but nothing to worry about though, it's all fine."

Twilight said, " Okay, let's go, the sooner we find that mirror, the better, I'm not sure Darkness can stand much more of this world. Personally, I actually don't mind this world."

Snowshy said nothing, she just followed Twilight and said quietly to herself, " So you were concerned about Darkness too, he really does have good friends."

Minutes later, they had arrived at Principal Celestia's office door, the door was closed, so Twilight knocked on the door, and a voice answered from inside, "Enter." They opened the door, and walked inside, and the voice said, " Please, close the door behind you, if you wouldn't mind." Snowshy closed the door, and as they looked around, the voice said, " Please, sit down, I'll be with you in minute." They sat down in the seats in front of a rather large desk, but as they looked, they was no one behind the desk, and then from underneath the desk, came out Principal Celestia, and as she saw Twilight, she said, " Oh! Twilight! So good to see you again! I thought I wouldn't see you again for a while, but good to see you anyways. Oh and sorry about that, I was just trying to hook up my new computer, the board of education thought it was time for me to upgrade my old computer. I see you brought a new friend with you, what's your name? Are you here to enroll? Or are you here on other business?"

Twilight spoke, " There are actually three of us, the other one is waiting outside on school grounds, because...well....because of what he wears, and we'll leave it at that, and no, we are not here to enroll."

Snowshy said, " It is nice to meet you, Principal Celestia, I am Snowshy, sister to my brother, who waits outside for us."

Principal Celestia said, " Stays outside on school grounds for what he wears, huh? I won't ask, so if none of you are here to enroll, what does bring you here?"

Snowshy said, " We are looking for an item that was stolen from our world, a mirror, the one that allows us to come to this world, and we need to find it, before it's too late. It's not a very big mirror, and it has a purple frame, we was wondering, if you have seen it or know anything about it?"

Principal Celestia said, " I knew you were from Twilight's world, I could tell. A mirror, huh? The same one that allows you all to come into this world? Then, how did you get here? Never mind, that's not important right now, a stolen mirror...give me second, let check my unidentified item list here....." Moments later, Principal Celestia said, " Ah, here we are, yes, I found this on school grounds, 'a strange mirror with a purple frame, and a very clear reflection..' I put it in the gym backstage, because it wouldn't fit in my office, you should check back there, I put an off-limits sign on it, so it should still be there. You can take it, I hope it's the one you're looking for."

Snowshy and Twilight looked at each other and Snowshy said it first, " That sure sounds like.."

Twilight finished the sentence, " The mirror we are looking for!"

They all stood up and Celestia held out her hand, shook Twilight's and Snowshy's hand, and said, " Good luck, and come back soon, you are all welcome here, and oh, Snowshy, I would like to meet your brother, but tell him to wear something more 'school appropriate', next time, okay?"

Snowshy said, " I will, and thank you for all your help."

Principal Celestia said, " Glad to be of help, see you all another time, make sure to close the door behind when you leave, I got to finish getting these wires hooked up..."

Celestia then disappeared from sight, as she went back underneath her desk, and Snowshy and Twilight left her office, and closed the door, and Twilight said, " Well, we are almost there, then it will a matter of how to figure out to get back home."

Snowshy said, " Yeah, we'll figure that out, once we get the mirror, anyways, lead the way to the gym backstage, Twilight."

Twilight nodded, and said, " It's this way." They went down a long hall on the right, made a left and then a right turn as they walked into a large, open space, that was the gym, and Twilight pointed, and said, " The stage is up there, what we are looking for is behind that curtain."

Snowshy said, " Yeah, I see the curtain, let's go." They went to the stage, climbed up on it, and went behind the curtain.

Twilight said, " Wow! There's a lot of stuff back here, let's get looking, it shouldn't be too hard to find."

Snowshy nodded, and they spread out, and began searching backstage, and it wasn't long before Snowshy yelled out, " Twilight! Over here! I found it!" Twilight rushed over, looked at Snowshy had found: sure enough, it was the mirror they had been looking for.

Twilight said, " Okay, I'll carry the mirror, now let's head back to Darkness, he's probably going nuts right now." Snowshy only nodded, and the two carefully got the mirror off the stage, and Twilight carried it the rest of the way back to Darkness, and Twilight said, " I assume Darkness is still where we saw him last, is he, Snowshy?"

Snowshy said, " He is, I'll probably have to wake up though, I think saw him napping."

Twilight sighed, " Thank goodness, at least he didn't do anything brash." Snowshy laughed, and said, " I see you were thinking the same thing." Nothing more was said, as they made their way back to Darkness.

Moments later, Snowshy and Twilight had made it back to Darkness, and sure enough, Darkness was still napping, fast asleep now, at this point, Snowshy bent down, and tugged at his armor, and said, " Brother, hey, wake up! We found the mirror."

Darkness opened his eyes and got up groggily, and said, still half-asleep, " That's good, now let's figure out how to get the heck out of this stinking world and back home." When Darkness woke up fully, Snowshy and Darkness stood back up, and Twilight put down the mirror, and Darkness said, " Wait, I have an idea, I once overheard from a human, that you, Twilight, used the power of your element of harmony, even with this world, having no magic, how did you do that? Perhaps, we could try the same thing, to activate my powers, just long enough, to get us back home."

Twilight said, " The bonds and friendships, I made with my human friends, which look a lot my friends, in Equestria, used our friendship feelings that we had for each other, and concentrated on that, for a common goal. It's worth a try."

Darkness said, " Alright, everyone, and someone, grab the mirror, and hold each other's hands, and do as Twilight just said, I just hope this works..."

Snowshy said, " You and me both, brother, we all hope it works, otherwise, we are going to be stuck here, for quite a while."

Twilight picked up the mirror and Darkness said, " Yeah don't remind me..."

At that moment, a voice yelled out, " WAAAAAAIIIIITTTT!!!!" Everyone looked, and saw it was a human, and the human said, " My name is Lunar Ebony Blade, and I want to come with you guys."

Twilight was about to speak, and Darkness held up a hand, and said, " No, let me handle this."

Twilight nodded and said, " Okay."

Darkness turned to Lunar Ebony Blade, and said, "Why, in whatever you humans say in this world, would you want to come with us? What we have to do, is extremely dangerous, and there may or may not be no way back to this world for you. And besides, what is your talent anyways, Lunar Blade?"

Lunar Ebony Blade began to explain, "I don't know why, but ever since I was born, I've always felt like I was meant to do more than just...this." And he held out his hands towards the school, and then put his hands down, and continued, " Ever since I saw you Darkness, for the first time out here, something within me told me, that whatever I was meant to do, had something to do with you and your friends, and I don't mind if there's not a way back here for me, and I don't mind the danger. And as for my talent, I don't really know, I was just given this really old piece of paper, by my mother, and she told me, that my father wanted me to have it, he died in a horrible accident, anyways, I can't read the paper, it's written in a language that nobody seems to know or decipher, and something just tells me, it may be connected to you guys in a way, I think."

Darkness looked at the others, and said, " Well? What do you guys think? Should we take him along?"

Snowshy said, " I see no harm in it, besides, the more help we have, the better."

Twilight said, " I agree with Snowshy, we should take him along."

Darkness sighed, and said, " Fine, but don't come crying to me, Lunar Ebony Blade, if you don't get the results your are looking for. Now, if there are no further interruptions, everyone, and you too Lunar Blade, come over here, and hold someone's hands, and focus on your friendship that you have just made."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " Okay." And he came over, and did as Darkness had instructed. Everybody closed their eyes, and focused, for a while, nothing happened, and then Darkness could feel his powers, and he wasted no time, and he began to use his powers. It wasn't long before his eyes grew white, and what had happened in the Crystal Castle began to happen on the courtyard, the strange symbols began to appear, and began to slowly rotate around them beneath their feet, and then it began to speed up, and then in a flash, Snowshy, Darkness, Twilight, and Lunar Ebony Blade were gone from the human world."

The Search For The Ebony Blade

Seconds later, they were back traveling at the speed if light, back to their home, Equestria, as everybody was holding on to each other's hands. Darkness said, " Alright! We've been through this before, well, except for Lunar Ebony Blade. So Lunar Ebony Blade, just hold on, the first time traveling this way, can be kind of rough!"

Lunar Ebony Blade only said, " Okay!"

Moments passed by, and Darkness could see Equestria, and he headed for the portal, and he said, " Alright! We are almost there! Prepare yourselves!" And with that, Darkness slowed down, a little, and went through the portal, and everything went white. Seconds later, everypony regained their vision, and could see they were coming in fast to the floor of the castle, and Darkness said to himself, " Finally, I got my wings back, so I'm not going to crash-land this time." He slowed down, and spread his wings out, and softly landed back on the castle floor, and the others were not too far behind him, except, for Lunar Ebony Blade, who was having troubles with his wings, and landed roughly on the castle floor.

Twilight put down the mirror and turned around to Lunar Ebony Blade, and said, " Are you alright?"

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " I'm fine, I'm just not used to this."

Darkness said, " You'll adjust, and I am so glad to be back home! Ugh! That was the worst dimension, I have ever been to! Never again! Ever!' At that moment, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were coming down the hall to greet them.

Pinkie Pie got there first and said, " Welcome back! We were worried you wouldn't come back! Are you okay? Did you find the mirror? Who's your new friend? What's his name? Whys?...."

Darkness put a hoof to Pinkie Pie's mouth, and said, " Easy, Pinkie Pie, calm down, and yes, I'm glad to see you all too. As far as our new friends is involved..."

Twilight explained, " He's a human, that wanted to come along with us, just before we was just about to leave, but perhaps he should speak for himself.." Lunar Ebony Blade, a tall, steely- gray pony, that had steely-gray eyes, a black brushed back, and relaxed mane. He also had black hooves, a black spiky tail, and he also had rather large wings for a pegasus and a cutie mark that had a white moon with a blurry sword going across the moon at an angle.

Lunar Ebony Blade, stepped forward and said, " My name is Lunar Ebony Blade, and as I told them, I came with them, because I had always felt I was meant to do more than what my life was like, and something told me that they had something to do with it, I can't explain it, it's just a feeling I have, plus, I have a strange feeling you guys might be able to decipher what the writings on this piece of paper says, and what it means."

Applejack went over to Lunar Ebony Blade, and said, " Well, it's good to meet you, Lunar Ebony Blade, and I hope we can help you, but right now, we are in the middle of a crisis.. And did you guys get the mirror?"

Darkness pointed to the mirror, and said, " Twilight and Snowshy found it."

They all sighed with relief and Rarity said, " That's good, now it can go back where it belongs."

Darkness said, " Indeed, let's return the mirror to its rightful place, Twilight, if you wouldn't mind." Twilight nodded, picked up the mirror, headed to the throne, and the rest followed her.

She went to the right side of the throne chair, and put the mirror in the corner, within eyesight, as if there was somepony was on the throne chair, and Twilight said, " There, the mirror is back where it belongs, we should be able to leave the castle now."

Just then, they all heard a distant 'click', and the creaking of large doors opening, and Darkness said, " Speaking of, looks like the castle has already began to unlock itself, let's go, and let Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, know what's going on." They all said nothing, as they headed towards to exit of the castle, to find Princess Cadence, and Shining Armor, waiting for them, and they rushed to greet Darkness and the others.

Princess Cadence said, " Are you all alright? I can assume you all found the mirror, otherwise, you would still be trapped in here. It startled us at first, when the doors began to open...." Princess Cadence stopped, because she had noticed Lunar Ebony Blade, and she said, " Who's the new pony?"

Twilight said, " We are all fine, and this is Lunar Ebony Blade, he joined us for his own reasons."

Princess Cadence said, " Well, Lunar Ebony Blade, if Twilight says you are okay, then I can accept that. Let me introduce myself, I am Princess Cadence, and this is my husband, Shining Armor, we are glad to meet you."

Lunar Ebony Blade just said, " Good to meet you both."

As they all stepped outside into the town of the Crystal Empire, Twilight gasped, and said, " Oh! I almost forgot!" She then turned to Lunar Ebony Blade, and said, "You mentioned something about ancient writings on the piece of parchment? In our world, what we write on is called parchment, so that's what it is now."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " Yeah, I did mention the old writings, do you know somepony that can help?"

Both Twilight and Snowshy turned to Darkness, and looked at him, and Snowshy said, " Well, I can't think of anypony better, that knows, 'ancient writings', than Darkness."

Twilight said, " Darkness, can you help him?"

Darkness said with a scoff, " Fine....I suppose, but it would be better to do this in the library, we should head there."

Princess Cadence said, " Well, good luck, myself and Shining Armor better get in the castle, and check for any damage, thank you all for your help , thank you Darkness."

Darkness said, " I'm just glad we all figured it out. Now, let's go to the Crystal Library, shall we everypony?" Everypony nodded in agreement, and they all headed for the Crystal Library.

A couple moments later, they all entered the Crystal Library, and Darkness turned to Lunar Ebony Blade, and said, " The parchment, give it to me please, and I'll see if I can't decipher what is says."

Lunar Ebony Blade put a hoof in his pouch, and dug out the old parchment, and handed it out to Darkness, and said, " Here you go."

Darkness examined it, and said, " Well, this is very old.....hmmm." He took the parchment, and sat down at a nearby table, and so did everypony else. Darkness then dug out his mother's diary, and began flipping pages, until he found what he was looking for, and said, " Here we go, the dictionary of all known languages, new and old." He began to look at the parchment, then dug out a fresh piece of parchment, then looked back at the old parchment, then the diary, and scribbled down a few words. Darkness repeated this step, for two hours, until he closed the diary, gave back the old piece of parchment back to Lunar Ebony Blade, and had a very serious look on his face, and only said, " Hmmmmmmm......well, this is interesting...I never would've thought...."

Rainbow Dash couldn't take it anymore, and she said, " Well? Could you read it? What did it say?"

Darkness said, " Oh, sorry, I spaced out there for a moment, well you won't believe this, but our friend here, but Lunar Ebony Blade: you are part of a very old royal family line and an old legend, and more importantly, you have been chosen by gods of Equestria, to inherit, a legendary sword, a sword only known as 'The Ebony Blade', now where it's located, and what this sword does the parchment didn't say. But it did mention something about, ' the land to east and northeast of the frozen north, is the land of the royal family.' Whatever that means."

Everypony thought about for a while, and Twilight said, " You know, the sounds awfully like the Crystal Mountains, doesn't it to you all?"

Snowshy said, " It does, and do you think that's where we should head?"

Darkness said, " Well, it's a start, and with nothing else to go on, I suppose it can't hurt, and besides, Lunar Ebony Blade, will need something to defend himself, there's no telling what lies ahead of us from here on out. I say that, because of us fixing the problem in the castle, I'm getting a 'bad omen', feeling, and I don't like it."

Snowshy said, " I got the same feeling, something has been stirred."

Darkness said, " But that can wait, 'bad feelings', can wait until after we get Lunar Ebony Blade here something to defend himself with. Besides, I personally am a little curious about this 'legend', this is one legend, I have dismissed as nothing more than an old mare's tale, we will see if there's any truth to it. Now---arghhhh!" In a large amount of pain to Darkness's head, he slumped off the table, and put a hoof on his head, as everypony rushed to his aid, and in that moment, he began to hear the ominous voice from before this whole journey was started.

The voice said, " Well, well, Darkness, I see you managed to recover the mirror and return it back to it's rightful place. YOU FOOL!! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I laugh at you, Darkness, not only did you all fall for it, but you all have helped me realize my glorious resurrection, that much sooner, and soon....the resurrection of my army will be at my hoof tips! And you all will get to live to witness YOUR FAILURE!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA!" And with that, the voice faded, and the pain went away.

As Darkness stood back up, and sat back down into his chair at the table, he found everypony looking at him, and Snowshy asked, " Brother? Are you okay? What just happened? You just kind of passed out."

Darkness said, " I did? Huh...well, anyways, I heard that strange voice again. It seems us fixing the problem at the Crystal Castle, and returning the mirror, has somehow helped out, this unknown enemy. Anyways, the voice really sounds like a stallion, he kept talking about 'his resurrection', and 'the resurrection of his army', as well, and then the voice faded."

Rarity spoke, " This is not good, how much time do you think we have Darkness?"

Darkness said, " That's a good question, it's too unclear right now. All we can do, for the moment, is find Lunar Ebony Blade, his weapon, and then we should have a clearer idea of what's going on, by then. Hopefully we can figure it out by then..."

Snowshy said, " You and me both brother."

Darkness paused, and said, " Oh! That reminds me, that old parchment, also kept talking about something, 'When the time strikes midnight, follow the path of moonlight, for the chosen heir, to realize his destiny.' I'm not really sure what that means, but I have a good feeling, once we get to the Crystal Mountains, that the moonlight, might show us the way to the Ebony Blade."

Applejack said, " Well, at least it's a start, it's better than nothing."

Darkness said, " You're right. Well, everypony, we should head out tomorrow, so I'll go to the inn, pay the fee for tonight, and when you are ready for bed, go to the inn. However, don't stay up too late, we have a very long trip ahead of us, the Crystal Mountains, are treacherous, at this time of the year, and the road to those mountains, haven't been used in centuries, so this trip could take some time. Anyways, rest up, and I'll shall see you all tomorrow." As he finished speaking, Darkness got off his chair, and walked to exit of the library, and went out of sight.

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, were the first to leave the table, as they left the library and headed for the inn, while the others still sat at the table, and Twilight then turned to Lunar Ebony Blade, and asked, "I was going to ask, are you sure you still want to pursue this 'Ebony Blade'? The Crystal Mountains, are going to treacherous, as Darkness had explained."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " I'll still go, some treacherous mountain, will not stop me, especially now that I know that I am the heir to not only a legendary sword, but to my very own kingdom, I'll do whatever it takes, to get through this."

Twilight said, " Okay, but I wanted to make sure you understand the dangerous, this trip will be."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " I understand the danger, but still, I must go, you heard Darkness as well, I will need something to defend myself, it's like he has a feeling that things will only get worse from here on out. Also, why do you all let Darkness make all the decisions, and let him lead you guys?"

Snowshy said, " That's actually a good question, I follow his lead, because..well..how to put it..."

Twilight finished Snowshy's sentence, and said, " Because we all believe in him, we all have faith in him, plus, he is a sorcerer pony, his powers are way beyond our own. If there is anypony to count on, in times of trouble, it's Darkness, he can defend us, if we can't defend ourselves. Plus, he way older than any of us, so he knows what needs to be done to avoid disasters in times like this, and because he fought against Darkness Night, in his mind, by himself, for many years, before finally succumbing to Darkness Night's evil."

Snowshy said, " Yeah, what Twilight said, I couldn't think of a clear to explain it."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " Okay, that makes sense, I guess I should've known it was something like that, okay, that's all I needed to know."

Everypony then got up from the table, and Twilight said to Lunar Ebony Blade, " Well, we are all going to inn, Darkness probably has our rooms paid for, so we was all thinking, of just staying there to talk for a while, and then head to bed, you should probably get some rest, it's been quite a day for you, I can imagine."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, " Sure, I'll come with." Everypony then left the library and headed for the inn, where they all talked until it turned dark outside, and one after another, headed for bed.

The Search For The Ebony Blade, Part 2

Darkness, of course, was outside, on a cliff, on the outskirts of the town, keeping watch on the inn, he knew by now, everypony, was asleep, by now. He looked up at the stars, wondering what might be in store for him, and the others, the following day. But he figured he better get some rest, laid down, and said, " Better get some rest, no telling what tomorrow might bring." As he finished his thought he went asleep shortly after.

The next morning, everypony woke up, and left the inn, and realized, that Darkness was not in the inn, and Twilight said, " Did anypony see Darkness?"

Snowshy said, " It's okay, if I know Darkness, he more than likely, was keeping watch on the inn, from a distance, and slept there, he should be here soon, we should get whatever we might need for the trip, while we wait for his return."

Applejack said, " Good idea, when ya'll get what you need, meet up here."

Rarity said, " Sounds good to me, see you all in a few!" They all nodded, and they all spread out, to various stores, to prepare for the trip ahead. Minutes later, Darkness flew into town, and landed in front of the inn, and saw a letter on the inn's sign, and that was clearly written by Pinkie Pie.

Darkness picked up the letter, and opened it, confetti came out, and Darkness began to read it: " Hi Darkness! If you are reading this, we all are shopping right now, to get ready for our journey to the Crystal Mountains, we'll be back in few! Bye!"

Darkness said, " Good idea, I should probably get some maintenance on my sword, no telling what we're going to run into." As he put the letter in his pack, Darkness headed for the blacksmith, as Lunar Ebony Blade, was heading back to the inn. 30 minutes later, everypony else, headed back to the inn, and as they all got there, they all saw, that Darkness was waiting, having a conversation, with Lunar Ebony Blade, and as Darkness saw the others, he waved they over.

They all came over, and Snowshy said with a smile, " What did I tell you all? I knew it was a good idea to go shopping. I knew Darkness would be back by the time we got done preparing, and I guess you did too Darkness?"

Darkness said, " I did, I got my sword sharpened, and some other things. I hadn't thought about it, when I first got it, so I figured it could use some maintenance, when I read Pinkie Pie's letter."

Pinkie Pie jumped in, and said, " You got the letter?"

Darkness chuckled, and said, " Heh heh, Yes, Pinkie Pie, I got the letter, and the confetti too."

Everypony laughed, Snowshy said, " Okay, we are all ready, so what's the plan brother?"

Darkness dug out a map from his pack, and said, " I figured it was high time to get a map as well, anyways, as you all know, the path to and through the Crystal Mountains, has not been used or repaired, in centuries, so we will have to tread carefully. Also, from what I've asked and gathered from the locals here, they knew about the legend, and they say it's all real, that the mountains, are overrun, by monsters, and a 'different breed', of Dragons, pffft, whatever that means. When I asked what they meant, they didn't know, so we should be on alert, there is a high possibility, we could surprised and ambushed by these monsters, and these 'strange dragons', at any time, when we get to the path to mountains, and through the mountains." He then spread out the map, and ushered everypony over, and they all looked at the map, and Darkness began to point on the map, as he spoke, and he said, " Alright, here's where we are right now, there's no train tracks anymore that go out that way, so will have to travel, on hoof. I figure if we follow the road that should still be there, and avoid any side roads, we should be fine, however, there are no maps, as far as the mountains themselves go, the mountains, have changed a lot over the years, due to the weather, so all the maps I have, are no longer accurate, so it'll be a lot of guesswork, as we travel through the mountains. Alright, now, everypony good with the plan? Or does somepony have a different route or idea in mind, now would be a good time to bring them up."

Snowshy spoke as she pointed to different area on the map, and she said, " I like your idea, brother, but, I think the main road to the Crystal Mountains, will be too risky, and we'll have a higher chance, of running into more monsters, plus, Lunar Ebony Blade, is still defenseless, as we could all be involved in mid-battle, another monster could come out of nowhere, and hurt Lunar Ebony Blade. I think we should take the side road, it follows closely to the mountains themselves, and it would still lead us to the entrance of the mountains, it'll just take us a little longer to get us there, but it would be safer, for Lunar Ebony Blade, to avoid as much monsters, as possible."

Darkness said, " Hmmm...I hadn't considered that....That's actually a good idea. Very well, that's the plan then, anypony else?" Darkness looked around, and everypony else shook their heads no, and Darkness said, " Okay, we'll take the side road, and as my sister said, it will take a little longer, but we have less risk of running into trouble. However, I know for a fact, that this road, is in worse condition, than the main road, so no telling if there will be pitfalls or not, or broken bridges, and who knows what else. So be on your guard for that. But that still leaves these 'strange dragons', we don't know if they will be hostile or not, so all of you, keep your eyes out for that, otherwise, that about wraps things up. Everypony ready?" Everypony nodded, and Darkness asked Lunar Ebony Blade, " Are you ready for this? You still want to go? I would completely understand, if you didn't want to."

Lunar Ebony Blade said with a determined face, " I'll go, I've come too far, to just walk away. Besides, I need to know and see the truth of my ancestors for myself."

Darkness nodded in respect, and said, " Very well, we will all do what we can, to help you get there."

Everypony cheered, and Lunar Ebony Blade spoke, " Alright! Let's do this!"

Darkness smiled and said, " You heard him, let's go!" Nothing more was said as everypony followed Darkness, their spirits high. It wasn't long before they all were on the main road, and Darkness said, " Okay, the side road should up ahead, somewhere, I can't see anything with all this snow, and this wind....it's making it that much harder to see and hear anything."

Lunar Ebony Blade was the one that saw the side road first and pointed it out to Darkness and the others, and said, " There it is! It's just up ahead! To the left!"

Darkness said, " I see it! Everypony, follow me to that road!" Everypony just followed, and didn't bother to speak above the sound of the wind, as they got to road, they could all clearly see the road was in bad shape, there were giant holes everywhere, and the stone bridge ahead of them, looked like it was ready to collapse. Darkness said, " Everypony! Watch your step! We'll take this road slowly!" Everypony nodded, and followed behind Darkness, one behind the other. As they got to the bridge, everypony could clearly see that the stone, had cracks in everywhere, and the ropes that kept the supports together, looked like they were ready to snap at any moment. Darkness turned around, and said, " Okay! This bridge is in bad condition! So, everypony, avoid the cracks! Hopefully the bridge will hold up until we cross it! Alright! Let's go!" Everypony nodded, and they all began to cross the bridge, and as they were halfway across, they all heard a very loud crack, and they all saw the ropes snap, and Darkness yelled, " Go! Hurry!" And they all trotted as fast as they could, and Fluttershy, Snowshy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight were the first ones to get across. As Darkness looked behind him, he saw the bridge collapsing, and he knew the others were not going to make it, so he stopped in his tracks, and ushered the others to keep moving.

Those that were already across, watched Darkness stop, and Twilight asked, " What's he doing?!"

Snowshy said, " What he has to!" Nopony said anything else, as they watched and waited for the others to cross. Darkness spread out his wings, and lifted a little off the ground, closed his eyes, and focused, as a purple symbol, suddenly appeared on the bridge. The bridge was still collapsing, but slowly, and then, it stopped falling apart, and then, slowly, it was as if the bridge began to repair itself. At this point, all but Lunar Ebony Blade had crossed, and he was almost there, he trotted past Darkness, and made it across, then Darkness opened his eyes, and flew to other side of the bridge and the symbol disappeared , and the bridge collapsed in seconds.

As Darkness landed, Twilight asked, " What was that?!"

Darkness said, " No time for explanations! This snowstorm is getting worse! We'll talk about it later!"

Twilight said, "Okay!" And they continued down the road, avoiding all the pitfalls.

As they came around a corner, they could see, what looked like a hut, and Darkness pointed it out, and said, " We should rest up there, until this storm settles down a bit!" Everypony just followed, and as they got to the door, Darkness opened it, and ushered everypony inside, closed the door, shutting out the snowstorm. The door was opened a few minutes later, as Darkness came in, with some wood, and closed the door behind him. He went to the fireplace, placed the wood inside it, and conjured some fire from his horn, and cast it on the wood, causing the wood to go on fire, in seconds, and after a few minutes later, a rather hot fire, began to warm up the hut.

Darkness then sat at the table, that was nearby a window, and dug out a jug from his pack, and began to drink from the jug, and Twilight came over to the table, and sat down in a chair, opposite Darkness, and asked, " How long do you think this storm will last?"

Darkness put the jug down, and said, " Hard to tell right now, but if I was to guess, maybe a couple hours, at best, by then, it should calm down enough, we can continue."

Twilight said, " I see. I wanted to say, thank you for the getting the fireplace going for all us, that was rather kind of you, we all appreciate it."

Darkness didn't look up, and said, " I just did what I had to do, that's all, no need to thank me. But I appreciate it though."

Twilight said, " Well, whatever you call it, thanks."

Darkness said, " Sure, not a problem."

Snowshy came up to the table, and sat down in the chair beside Twilight, and asked Darkness, " Now, that we can hear each other, what did you do back there on the bridge?"

Darkness replied, " Well, that's a simple answer: I simply used a reconstruction spell, and slowed down time a little, only on the bridge, and gave the others enough time to cross, and when everypony had finished crossing the bridge, I let my concentration go on the bridge, and let it fall apart."

Snowshy said, " A reconstruction spell? It looked powerful."

Darkness replied, " Powerful to all of you, a simple spell, to me. Now, don't get the wrong idea, it's just, I don't need to learn spells, as you all need to, my imagination, is my only limit. If I can get imagine it, I can cast it, at will, that's all."

Twilight said, " Still, though, it would take me years to learn a spell like that."

Darkness said, " Don't belittle yourself, you can do anything you put your mind to. And besides, Twilight, I'm pretty sure your friends see you do a lot of spells, that other unicorns, could only dream of pulling off, am I right?"

Twilight said, " Yeah, they have, and yeah, you're right Darkness, still, it would take me some practice to pull off what you did."

Darkness looked up at Twilight, and said, " Well, when this is all over, perhaps, I can teach you or anypony else that wants to learn, magic, history, whatever it might be. Perhaps I can teach you Twilight, a spell or two, the sorcerer pony way, and help you to better use your gifts as well."

Twilight nodded, and said, " I would appreciate that, and I look forward to it."

Darkness chuckled, and said, " Of course, that will have to wait, until this is all over, and after Luna and I's honeymoon."

Twilight said, " I can wait until then."

Darkness said, " Very well, then. Now, we should all rest up, while we have some time, the storm's not going to calm down anytime soon." Darkness looked out the window, and said, " The storm's getting worse, a good nap for everypony might be best, from the looks of things, we are going to be here a while." Everypony went to sleep shortly afterward, and after four hours later, they all woke up, to find that the wind had stopped, but it was still snowing, and Darkness said, " Well, now's our time, the storm has settled enough, that we continue now, so let's keep going." Everypony got up, and began to leave the hut, and Darkness was the last one to leave, he went over to the fireplace, put it out, and left the hut.

As they walked outside, Snowshy pointed out a large opening in the mountains, and said, " That looks like the entrance to the mountains, out there."

Darkness saw the opening, and said, " It does. Only one way to find out, let's head for that." Everypony agreed, and followed Darkness, down the road, and Darkness said, " Well, because of all this snow, it filled up all the pitfalls, well, at least that's a plus."

An hour later, they all had reached the opening and Snowshy was right: this was the entrance to the mountains, but as they got closer to the entrance, something huge, was blocking the cave, that lead into the mountains.

Snowshy said, " What is that? I got a bad feeling about this..."

Darkness said, " Careful, everypony."

As they got closer, the big thing, moved, to reveal, that it was a rather gigantic grotesque-looking, but not dead, black dragon, was sleeping, as it fully awoke, it noticed Darkness and the others, it remained in front of the cave, and said, " Begone! Ponies! Trespassers will not be allowed into the sacred home of ' the accursed ones!' You have no business here! Turn back, before I destroy you all!"

Darkness motioned the others to stay, and said, " I'll handle this." He began to step forward, and said, " May I have you ear great dragon? I just want to talk."

The dragon said, " Fine, speak, pony."

Darkness stepped closer, until he was in front of the dragon, and he said, " First of all, what happened to you? And what are ' the accursed ones'?"

The dragon said, " You....look...familiar...somehow... But perhaps, you ancestors, once knew me, as Anthrox, The Dragon God. And the 'accursed ones', are myself, and my tribe of dragons, that were cursed by your pitiful ' Gods Of Equestria' You look like one who knows what happened from there."

Darkness said, " I remember reading about you from my mother's diary. Yes, I think it went something like this: ' The dragon god, and his tribe, were punished with a terrible curse, by the Gods of Equestria, for the dragon god, and his tribe, for tampering with things that should never be tampered with.' I found out, as I continued reading, you and your tribe, began tampering with time, worlds, and fate itself."

Anthrox said, " Yes, and your stinking Gods of Equestria, wouldn't stand for that. I was trying to show them, that all things need to able to do what they want, and not leave it up to fate. But no, the Gods of Equestria, did not agree, and as punishment, my tribe, and myself, were turned into this, I was stripped me of my dragon god status, and the dragon lords took over. My tribe and myself, were then punished even more by your gods of Equestria, and they turned the rest of our kind on us, and we were banished from our ancestral home, and we found refuge here, in these mountains. Plus, we could no longer stay in sunlight for long, without turning to ash, that was something that your Gods of Equestria, cursed us with as well, when we arrived here."

Darkness said, " If I'm correct, this happened, many millenniums ago."

Anthrox said, " You would be right pony, and when I free myself, and my tribe from this curse, I will destroy, all ponies, and then I will have my revenge, on your gods!"

Darkness drew his katana and said, " We can't let you do that, we only wanted to get through the cave, but I for one, cannot allow a potential threat, to cause any harm, to this world! I, Darkness, the last member of the 'Crimson Blade Knights', will not let you do this!"" Everypony came up behind Darkness, nodded to Darkness, and readied themselves for battle.

Anthrox's face flew into a rage, as he said, " Did you say, 'Crimson Blade Knights?' The elite knight unit of....the sorcerer ponies? Arghhhhh!! I hate the sorcerer ponies! Your kind, Darkness, is responsible, for many of my fellow breatheren's deaths!"

Darkness lowered his blade, and said, " What are you talking about?"

Anthrox laughed and said, " You arrogant sorcerer ponies, it seems your kind didn't put that bit in their books, before they lost the war, did they? The sorcerer ponies, were once allies, will all dragons, and used us as siege weapons of war, and your kind on purpose, let millions of my kind, die, so your kind, could hide, in your fortress and stronghold. I should know, I was there, as I witnessed what they had done, I gave the order to my remaining troops, to withdraw, I would not let my kind be used like that. I sat back, and watched you ancestor's precious 'stronghold', get stormed, and overrun, by their enemies, and your 'fortress', get shot down. I considered that justice, and I assumed you all were wiped out, but it seems just one of you survived, huh?"

Darkness said, " Two, actually, my sister and I."

Anthrox said, " I will not let the sorcerer pony race to continue to exist! I will crush you both, and your friends, for you foolishly coming here!" Darkness tried to speak, but Anthrox, rushed at them all, and they all had to run out of the way, as Anthrox said, " You will not make it out here alive! Face the wrath of Anthrox! Face judgement by my claws! Grrrrrrrr!!!!!" Anthrox began to breathe a black fire, and shot it at Darkness.

Darkness blocked it with his sword, and as Darkness was still recovering, he said to Lunar Ebony Blade, " Lunar Ebony Blade! Get out of here! Find a safe place until this is over!" Lunar Ebony Blade nodded, and took off, as fast as could, away from the fight. Anthrox had not noticed, because the others rushed at him, away from Darkness and Lunar Ebony Blade, from the other side and some fired magic at Anthrox, others, the elements of harmony. In a massive shockwave, Anthrox, stomped on the ground, stunning everypony within the area, and then, in one angry swipe of his claw, hit all of them, sending them flying in all directions, into the mountain's rock face, knocking them all out, leaving only Darkness left. Darkness said, " No!"

Anthrox then turned to Darkness and said, " Well, that just leaves you, doesn't it? I will enjoy exterminating your kind once and for all, and then the rest of the pony races, will die by my claws!"

Darkness finally had recovered, picked his sword back up, got into fighting stance, and said, " Not while I have anything to say about it! As long as I stand, you will not harm anypony else! You will pay for harming my friends! And my sister!" Darkness then rushed at Anthrox, and

Anthrox smirked and said, " This should be fun." And before Darkness could strike the dragon, Anthrox raised his claw, and deflected Darkness's strike, and Anthrox said, " So predictable, the sorcerer ponies have grown weak, and pitiful, in my absence, proving once more, your kind was nothing without me and my troops help."

Anthrox then tried to strike Darkness, but was deflected back, and the sheer force of the two, pushed them both back, and Darkness said, " I'm just getting started! Hyahhh!" Darkness then took to the skies, and came down, in a deafening strike, Anthrox tried to block, but Darkness had aimed his sword, in a direction, that sliced Anthrox's left claw clean off. Anthrox screamed in pain and rage, and came at Darkness, at a frightening speed, breathing black fire, and swinging his right claw at Darkness with everything he had. The two were in heavy battle, strike after strike, blow after blow, as one or the other would block the others attacks. Darkness began to focus with all he had, and began to use one sword attack, after another, and then he began to come in from different directions. Anthrox was having a hard time following Darkness, as Darkness was moving faster and faster, by the time Anthrox realized what Darkness was doing, and tried to deflect his attack, he was too late, Darkness dealt a massive wound to Anthrox's wings, cutting them both clean off.

Anthrox was in a fiery rage at this point and said, " You little......you will pay for that...." And Anthrox began to breath in deeply, and let out a massive wave of black fireballs. Darkness moved swiftly, dodging one fireball after another, and then when Darkness was in range, he closed his eyes, and focused deeply in his mind, and called upon the inner strength from within him. When Darkness opened his eyes, his eyes had changed colors: his eyes had changed to white, and his body was engulfed in white aura. Anthrox's face began to pale, as he saw what Darkness was engulfed in, and with everything Anthrox had, breathed a massive wave of black fire, to stop Darkness's advance.

Darkness continued to charge forward, and was engulfed in the flame, but was unfazed and not harmed, by the fire, and with 40 different sword slashes, stabs, and cuts, in all different directions, at the speed of supersonic light, at Anthrox, and it was in this moment, that Snowshy had awoken back up, looked up, to see Darkness fighting Anthrox, and seeing Darkness engulfed in a white aura, and moving all over the place, attacking Anthrox from all angles, Snowshy got up, and watched in awe. Anthrox could not follow Darkness's moves anymore, he was moving far to fast, and could no longer defend himself, from Darkness's relentless attacks, as he was stabbed and wounded from all sides, and Anthrox began to feel weak, and began to slow significantly, and his legs began to waiver. Darkness then, to finish off Anthrox, came in from above, and with 9 different slashes, aimed them all at Anthrox's head, and ended up on the other side of Anthrox and the gigantic dragon fell, deeply wounded all over, and was no longer able to stand. Darkness then with a slash in the to left, lifted his sword, spinned it very fast in his left hoof, and put his sword back in its straps, his eyes then returned to normal, and the aura faded away. Snowshy went over to Darkness, and the others had began to reawaken, stood up, and saw Darkness standing in there, and Anthrox lying down, with wounds everywhere, and rushed over to Darkness. Lunar Ebony Blade, no longer heard anything, and headed back to find everypony standing with Darkness, and went over to them.

Twilight said, " Are you alright Darkness? Ohhh.... my head, what happened after we got knocked out?"

Darkness said, " Obviously, as you can tell, I defeated Anthrox."

Rarity said, " But how? The last we saw you, you were recovering from Anthrox's black flame attack, and telling Lunar Ebony Blade, to get to safety."

Snowshy answered with much excitement, " With some kind of really fast multiple sword attack! It was amazing to watch! I never seen anything like it!" The others were speechless, as they were trying to process, what they had just heard, and Snowshy turned to Darkness, and asked, " How did you do that?"

Darkness said, " By calling upon, my inner powers, and I focused them into my sword, and I'm not sure about the white aura thing, I just kind of lost it, and went crazy."

Rainbow Dash said, " Well, whatever you call it, it sounds awesome! I wish I hadn't been knocked out, I would've been able to see it."

Snowshy said, " It really was something to see. So you didn't conjure up the aura, or the change of your eyes?"

Darkness said, " Like I said, I'm not sure what that was, but as I focused, I thought about keeping you all safe, and I didn't want to see you all hurt anymore. I don't know, it's like I said, I just lost it, and went ballistic, performing sword slashes, and moves, I only dreamed about doing, it was the strangest feeling though. But whatever it was, it helped me to defeat Anthrox. We should all be thankful for that, I think."

Applejack said, " I'd have to agree with that, we should be thankful for whatever that was."

Darkness said in surprised tone, " Still, I had no idea I could do that..."

Darkness was interrupted, by the voice of Anthrox, as he said, " Ponies of Equestria, come here, I have something I must tell you....(cough)." They all went over to Anthrox, and stood in front of his head. He turned his head, and looked at them all, and said, " Forgive me, I have been a fool....(cough, cough!). I let my anger, my hate, my vengeance, for the sorcerer ponies, and the Gods of Equestria, blind my judgement and my vision, and not only did I brainwash my tribe, but they suffered because of my hatred." Anthrox breathed heavily, coughed violently, and continued, " I realize why my tribe and myself, were punished so....I..I...I should've seen it, I know it's a little late, but I understand now, that there are some things in this world, that really should be left to fate. Your Gods of Equestria, know and understand, this vital principle. I deserved to have my god status stripped away from me then, I deserved this curse, and I deserve to die. Perhaps, a dragon lord, is all that dragons truly ever needed, the time of the dragon god, is over." Anthrox coughed again, and pulled out something from his chest, and handed his right claw out to Darkness, and said, " Here, I want you to take these, the first item, is my tribe's sacred stone of power, it's power has long faded, but it is still a symbol of honor for my tribe and myself, this stone will allow you all to pass through the mountains safe roads, present this to gatekeeper, on a road, that steeply goes down to the right. Then show it to the commanding officer within a camp nearby that area, the stone, in your possession, will show, and prove to my tribe, that I have been defeated, and have died, but died honorably, and it will be proof, that the age of dragon god is over, and a new beginning for my tribe. If you get the chance, I want you to tell my tribe, to get out of these mountains, and start their lives over, I'm pretty sure the curse will wear off, in couple days, after I'm gone. The other thing...(cough!), I want to give you, an amulet, made of my own scales, when I was still a god, it is the last source of my power, you may not need it Darkness, but give this to somepony, that you may know, that needs some magic protection and magic enhancements."

Darkness took the items, and said, " Thank you, Anthrox."

Anthrox said, " No...need to thank me, you all showed me what I should've saw all those years ago." Anthrox then looked over to Lunar Ebony Blade, and said, " You look like an descendant of the Lunar Blade family, if you are, you should claim what's rightfully yours, arghh! (cough, cough!)" Anthrox looked back the others, and said, " Farewell, my little ponies, and Darkness, may we meet again, in the spiritual realm, may we drink a traditional dragon beverage, and share stories of our greatest deeds. And Lunar Ebony Blade...good luck in all your endeavors...arghh!" Anthrox's breathing then became very labored, and then weaker, as Anthrox's eyes closed, and he became still, and his breathing had stopped. With a rather violent flash surrounding his body, and a small shockwave, Anthrox's power began to dissipate. His body began to turn into what looked like black, with many holes, torn tattered cloth or parchment, and it all slowly rose to the sky, and then turned into nothingness and faded away.

Darkness said, " Rest in peace, Anthrox, may you find redemption, and forgiveness, in your next life." He then turned to the rest, and gave the amulet, to Snowshy, and said, " You need this more than I do, I couldn't think of anypony else that could put this to good use."

Snowshy accepted the amulet, and said, " Thank you, brother, I'll take good care of it."

Darkness then said, " Now, shall we go?" Everypony nodded, and Darkness began to head for the cave that lead into the mountains, with everypony else following close behind.

The Search For The Ebony Blade, Part 3

As they all headed inside the cave, it became very dark, and it became impossible to see and Darkness said, " Everypony, hold on a minute." Seconds later, the entire area, was lit up, by Darkness's light magic, and Darkness said, " There we go, much better, alright, let's keep moving."

As they headed deeper into the cave, the entrance behind them, could no longer been seen, and as Rainbow Dash looked behind her and saw she couldn't see the entrance anymore, she began to grow impatient, and said, " Ughhhh....how much father? This cave seems to go on forever!"

Darkness said, " Seeing as there are no maps in the area we are in, your guess is as good as mine, and it doesn't go on forever." Darkness began to smirk and said, "However, I could cast a spell that could do that."

Rainbow Dash shook her head and said, " No, I'm good, let's just get out of this cave."

Applejack said with a smirk, " What's the matter? Afraid the big bad cave with get you?"

Rainbow Dash defensively, " No! I'm not scared, I just don't like cold, damp places, that's all."

Darkness pointed his left hoof out, and said, " There, up ahead, we are almost near the exit." As they neared the exit, their vision turned to white, as their eyesight adjusted to the snowy outside once more, and Darkness said, " Well, if I remember correctly, Anthrox said something about heading towards a road that 'heads downwards', so we should look for that."

Minutes passed, then hours, as they continued down the road, looking for the road that went down, and finally, Lunar Ebony Blade pointed it out, and said, " Hey everypony, isn't that it over there?" Everypony looked where Lunar Ebony Blade was pointing: sure enough, there was a road ahead of them to the right, that steeply went down.

Darkness said, " It sure looks like it, well done Lunar Ebony Blade."

Rarity said jokingly, " Aw, did you just compliment somepony, you just met?"

Darkness looked away, and said, " Perhaps I did, is that wrong?"

Applejack said, " No, it goes to show, you are regaining your original sense of self."

Darkness said, " Perhaps, but I still feel like, I have much more work to do on that. Anyways, I got off subject, let's head to the road on the right." Everypony simply just followed Darkness to the road on the right, and when they reached it, it went steeply down, very steeply down. Darkness said, " Well, it definitely goes down, it's cliff, a steep one, at that."

Twilight said, "Are you sure this is a good idea? It almost feels like a trap."

Snowshy said, " Twilight's right, it does feel that way."

Darkness said, " Trap or not, we must push on, besides, it looks like we can slide down." Darkness went to the edge and looked back and said, " Well, you all coming or what?" And Darkness did something nopony expected, he jumped off the edge and yelled, " Geronimo!"

Everypony just looked at each other in bewilderment, and Rainbow Dash went to the edge and said, " Well, if Darkness think's it's fun, then forget it, I'm going too!" And Rainbow Dash did the same thing Darkness did and yelled out, " Whoopee!"

Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Lunar Ebony Blade, and Snowshy, all jumped off the edge as well, followed by: "Ouch! My Hair! Wheee! Yeehaw! I can't look! Oh Crap! This is fun!"

Twilight sighed, and said, " Ah, what the heck, why not." And she too, went to the edge, and jumped off, as she was screaming in fear. They were all sliding down, rather fast, and down a very long steep hill, from the looks of it, it was kind of hard to tell, when everything looked all blurry. Rainbow Dash looked behind her, and saw the others were having fun, except for Twilight, of course, that was to be expected. Rainbow Dash looked back around, and spotted Darkness, and tried to go faster than him.

Darkness saw Rainbow Dash, coming in from the side, and smirked, and said to himself, " You want to race me huh? Fine then, challenge accepted." He yelled out to Rainbow Dash, " You're on! Last one to reach to gate, is a loser!"

Rainbow Dash yelled back out, " I never lose!"

Darkness said, " We'll see about that!"

The two sped up ahead of each other, one after the other, until finally, they became neck to neck, Rainbow Dash, was hitting speeds so fast, that she could clearly see the sound barrier, was about to break, she could barely move her head, from going so fast, and looked over at Darkness, who smirked at her, and she saw that he was about to break the sound barrier as well. A blur of rainbow colors, and black and red, streaked down the cliff, leaving behind a fiery trail behind them. Darkness began to speed up some more, until he saw the blur of giant gates ahead of him, and they were coming up fast, but Darkness did not stop, he went even faster, Rainbow Dash saw the gates an instant later, and saw that Darkness was pulling ahead, and Snowshy and Lunar Ebony Blade, coming in from her left and right sides, as they clearly must've seen Rainbow Dash and Darkness racing each other, it seemed like Lunar Ebony Blade and Snowshy wanted to race as well.

Rainbow Dash said, " If I'm going to lose, I will not lose to them too, and she sped up with all she had, and so did Lunar Ebony Blade, and Snowshy, and now, there were four fiery trails, lighting up the cliff, going down, as a mixture of all sorts of colors came down in a blur. Darkness was getting closer to the gate now, and he spread his wings out a little, and with a spectacular show of flying skills, he flew upwards, going even faster and in small circles, and then came down, slowing down a little but still causing the entire area, and the gates to shake, as he came down on all fours, at still a very fast speed, and folded his wings, and waited for the others, who were not that far behind. As he watched, he could see Snowshy, Rainbow Dash, and Lunar Ebony Blade, were all tied, their faces, focused on beating the other, Rainbow Dash, gave it all she had, and pulled ahead by a little more than Lunar Ebony Blade, and Snowshy, and made it to the bottom, and slowed down just enough in time, to where Darkness actually dodged out of the way to avoid being collided into, and Rainbow Dash came within inches of running into the gate, before coming to a stop, in which she said, " That was way too close", and she sighed in relief, and began to try and catch her breath. Snowshy pulled ahead of Lunar Ebony Blade, and came to stop, on Darkness's left side, and Lunar Ebony Blade, came to stop, in front of them both.

The others arrived shortly after, except for Twilight, and as the others came to a stop, Rarity asked, " Where's Twilight?" Right about then, they heard a scream of terror, as Twilight came rolling down the cliff, and skidded a bit, and then came to halt in front of them all.

As Twilight got up, and brushed herself off, she said, " We are never doing that again okay?"

Darkness said, " Why not? I had a blast, and from the looks of it, the others had a lot of fun too."

Snowshy said, " Yeah! We ought to do this again some other time! I want to try and beat you down the cliff next time brother!"

Darkness smiled, and said, "You're on for next time then."

Twilight looked down, sighed and said sadly, " Am I the only one who wasn't having fun then?"

Darkness went over to her, and said, " Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, alright? If I may, I want to tell you this: I once thought like you did, overthinking things, always thinking everything would go wrong, but it was all of you, and my sister, that showed me, that there are times in life, that you just have to push your fears aside, and just go for it. If you don't, you'll end up like me, riddled with regrets, and haunted, by all the things, you could've enjoyed, but threw away, just because you thought it may or may not be safe enough. I don't want you to end up like that."

Twilight looked up, and said, " Darkness, that is the first time...I've ever heard you actually saw anything to support any of us, besides your sister. You do care about us, don't you?"

Twilight, at this point, had tears in her eyes, as she spoke, and Darkness replied, " Yes, I do care about my friends, you guys have taught me thing or two, and I don't want you all to suffer, as I have, you all deserve better than that. You all have been around each other, for quite a long time, and you all have a very close friendship with each other, never take that for granted, for some, fate is not so kind to them."

Twilight said, " Are you talking about you? And how you were treated when you tried to befriend the outside world, by trying to go to school?"

Darkness looked down and said, " I am." Darkness then looked back up, and with a smile, he said, " But things are different now, what is past, is past, I have friends now, so I'm not alone anymore." Everypony except Lunar Ebony Blade, came over to Darkness, and hugged him, and then they let him go, and backed away a little. Darkness said, " You guys mean so much to me, it makes me smile, every time, to be around you, to talk to you, to fight alongside you even. You all give me hope, and a strength to carry on, no matter what troubles are put in front of me, I do what I do, for my friends, for my sister, and for my soon-to-be wife."

Snowshy said, " Is that...?"

Darkness finished her sentence, and said, " Yes, that is my reason, this is why I continue to carry on, why I continue this journey with you all, and it is all the reason I need, to see you all safe and sound, when this is all over. I want to celebrate our accomplishments, together."

Rarity stepped forward, and said, " It means a lot to us all to hear you say that."

Snowshy said, with great joy" I knew you would find yourself, sooner or later! But I know, that you still have to find the rest of you, you'll get there."

Darkness said, " I know, but when I do, I want you all to be there, when that day arrives." Darkness then turned around and examined the gate, and said, " Well, it's locked, and it doesn't look like I can break it with anything, and it looks like, any kind of magic, will be repelled,with some of these symbols that are on here, well, the gate's here, but where's.....? Darkness was interrupted, when a large figure, came up above them, and was heading in Darkness's direction. Darkness and the others, quickly got out off the way, as the figure, crashed in front of the gate, creating a large amount of dust. As the dust settled, and everypony got back up, they all looked to see a smaller, but still rather large black dragon, standing in front of them, with a look of disgust.

The dragon said, " Get out of my sight, little ponies, before I change my mind, and destroy you all instead."

Twilight was about to get ready to fight, when Darkness raised up a hoof, and said, " Wait! Let me use what Anthrox gave me." Twilight nodded, relaxed, and backed away.

The dragon said arrogantly, " The purple one has good sense, to back away from a fight she cannot win, I would suggest you do that same."

Darkness stepped forward, " We are here, because we are in search of a legendary sword, have you heard of it? It's called 'The Ebony Blade.' We were directed that this blade, is beyond these gates, somewhere."

The Dragon scoffed, " Oh yeah? And who directed you here? Pony?!"

Darkness only said, " Anthrox did."

The dragon looked shocked for a moment, and then regained his composure, and said, " That's ridiculous! He would never let the likes of you pass, or even direct you here unless..."

Darkness finished the thought, " Yes, you would be right, I killed him, but not before he came to his senses, in his last moments, as he became full of regret for what he put his fellow tribe, through."

The dragon, stunned, sat down, rather hard, and said, " I see....he did, did he? If he did, then you must have what is required, show it to me, then I will know, without a doubt, that you are telling the truth." Darkness took of the sacred stone from his pack,and handed it out to the dragon, who took it, looked at it for a while, and then gave it back to Darkness, and then said, " There is no doubt, that is our tribe's most sacred stone, Anthrox kept it close to him at all times, it was our symbol of pride and honor..... So he really is gone....I have to ask you pony, did he say anything else to you?" D

Darkness said, " He did, he said, that if any of us got the chance, to tell his tribe, to get out of these mountains, a start your lives over. He said that within a couple days, the curse will wear off."

The dragon said, " He...he...he said that? His final wish was for us...to start over? I see....in his last moments...he became himself again.... And he's right about the curse, we all knew, that in order for this tormenting curse to end, the Gods of Equestria, came to us, one day, when we all had just begun to settle in these mountains, and Anthrox was on patrol that day and they told us, that as a final sentence of punishment, that if any of us ever wanted to go back to the outside world, outside these mountains, Anthrox must die, to pay for his crimes. They said Anthrox has lost his way, and has let evil and hatred into his heart. By the time Anthrox came back from patrol, the Gods of Equestria had already disappeared, and all of us that heard, never said a word about the final sentence. And from that day on, we all knew, as long as Anthrox lived, we were never going home, of course, I think Anthrox had his suspicions, that there was more to the curse, than what he already knew. However, its not to say that some of our tribe didn't try, Anthrox was just too strong for any of us, so year after year, day by day, we continued to suffer this curse. Until now, finally after all this time...! I didn't think it could be done!" The dragon got up, and shook Darkness's hoof, and said, "Thank you, pony, you've done us a great service! Oh, my apologies, I'll open the gate for you." The dragon went up to gate, and spoke an ancient tongue of the dragons, and the gate unlocked itself, and the dragon turned back around, and said, " Up ahead, is our main camp, show that stone, to our commander of the troops, and she should let you pass, you don't need to explain anything to her, just tell her that the gatekeeper will explain everything later. She'll let you pass."

Darkness said, " Thank you...uh..what's your name?"

The dragon said, " I'm sorry! Where are my manners? My name is Drake, Drake The III. Nice to meet you all."

Snowshy said, " Good to meet you, Drake The III."

Drake The III said, " I can't wait tell the commander this! But I'll wait till you show her that stone."

Darkness said, " Thank you, we should get going now." Everypony passed through the gates, as Drake The III, happily waved them farewell.

As everypony continued down the road, it wasn't long before they all noticed a large glow in the distance, and Darkness said, " That's got to be the camp, let's head over there." Everypony followed close behind Darkness, as they got closer to the camp, and as they neared the camp, there were two dragons, guarding the gates, that lead into the camp.

The dragons spread out their wings, over the gates, to bar their path, and the dragon on the left said, " Stop right there ponies! The likes of you are not welcome here!"

The dragon on the right said, " Why has the gatekeeper, let you all pass?! What business do you have here?! Speak!"

Snowshy stepped forward, and said, "Please, brave dragons, we come in peace, and we mean no harm, we only want to talk to the commander, the gatekeeper let us pass, because of the item we possess."

Darkness took out the stone, and showed it to the dragons, and both of their faces were stunned, but they didn't say anything, for a while, and then, they withdrew their wings, and the one on the right said, "You may pass, ponies. Go see the commander at once! You will find her, at the end gates of the camp!" The dragons said nothing else, as they opened the gates, and stepped back, and beckoned Darkness and the others to proceed.

As Snowshy passed the dragons, she said, "Thank you."

And the dragons said, "No, need, we should be thanking you." As everypony was inside the camp, the dragons closed the gates, and

Darkness said, "Okay, this camp is way bigger on the inside, than it looked on the outside. I suppose, we should head for the edge of this camp. If I were to guess, it's probably just down there somewhere, I'm pretty sure the gates won't be hard to miss."

Rarity said, "I hope you're right....the dragons in here, don't look too friendly."

Snowshy said, " Just relax Rarity, don't make any sudden moves, and we'll be fine."

Rarity was trotting in place, as she said through panicked breathing, "Easy for you say!"

Rainbow Dash bumped Rarity, and said, "Yeah, Rarity, what Snowshy said, just calm down, and be cool about it."

Snowshy said, "That's not entirely what I said....But I guess it works."

Darkness said, "Hey everypony! We are almost there, and that looks like the commander, the one over to right of the gates, with all that gold armor."

Everypony became quiet, and followed Darkness as they headed for the gates, and as the commander dragon saw them, she flew in a fit of fury, and ran at them, and stopped in front of them, barring their way, and she had four claws wielding four broadswords, and her other four legs, kept her on the ground, and she said, "Ponies! I hate ponies! Why have you all foolishly come here?! And how did you convince the gatekeeper, and the front camp guards to let you through?! You have five seconds to respond, so you better start explaining, and quickly, before I change my mind!"

Darkness beckoned the others to stay, and stepped forward, and said, " We come in peace, at the request of the gatekeepers that let us through, because of what I have."

The commander dragon put down her weapons a little, and said, "All this way, for an item you have? Show it to me, it better be important, or the gatekeepers that let you pass, will pay dearly!"

Darkness said, "I assure you, it's very important." Darkness one more time, dug out the stone from his pack, and gave it to the commander dragon, and the commander dragon took the stone, and examined it for no more than a few seconds, and her face was full of shock, and sadness, at the same time. The commander put away her weapons, and ushered the other dragons in the camp, to stand down, as she sat down, in front of Darkness and the others. As the commander dragon began to tear up, she said, " My name is Urusel, daughter to Anthrox, and as you can tell, commander of the troops. If you don't mind, I wish to keep the stone."

Darkness nodded, and said, "My name is Darkness, and it belongs to your tribe anyways, I was going to say to keep it."

She paused for a moment, and then continued, "Thank you....Ponies, you have done my kind, my tribe, a great service, and we are all indebted to you all, ponies, but I have to ask, because I know he is dead, what did he say, in his last moments? And who killed him?"

Darkness said, "I did, and he said, that in couple days time, you all will free of the curse. What he said, were actually his last wishes for his tribe. He wants you all to leave these mountains, once the curse lifts, and start your lives over."

Urusel said, "It is a shame, he came to his senses, while he was drawing his last breaths, but perhaps, it was meant to be. We all knew what had to be done, besides myself, none of my tribe, stood a chance against him. You must understand, that just because my father turned to evil, I still loved him dearly, as my father." Urusel began to cry, and she said, "I knew what had to be done, I....I Just! I..I Couldn't do it!"

Darkness said, "I understand, trying to kill somepony, like your father, is no easy task, and you shouldn't blame yourself, for you not being able to, it's something you shouldn't have to do."

Urusel said, "You understand what it feels like to try to do something like that, to somepony, you love like that, and then try and kill them? I have to ask, where are you parents Darkness? Do you love your parents as dearly as I did my father?"

Darkness sighed, and said, "Sadly, both of my parents are dead, my father died, fighting for what he believed in, and my mother died, after giving birth to my sister. My sister, is all the family I have left, so in that sense, I understand what you are going through, in the case, if I ever had to fight my sister, I couldn't do it, I would rather die, than raise my sword against my sister."

Urusel said, "I see, I'm sorry for your loss, I've now lost both of my parents too, my mother died, somewhere in these mountains. When she saw how horrible my father had gotten, it broke her heart, and she left while him and I slept, and she took a path, the even we don't take, but it has a snowstorm in the area, that never fades or calms down, none of us, saw her leave. My father figured out where she went, and looked for her, down that path, but was forced to come back to camp. He never found her body, so the snow buried her body. I think it was in that instance, he lost any sanity he had left, and continued to get even more vile, as the years slowly went on by. And well, you know how my father died, you were there."

Darkness said, "I'm sorry for your loss as well, but don't let their deaths bring you down, let their deaths give you and your tribe strength, you all still have each other, find hope in that, and start over in your new life, that your father, in a sense, has given to you all, by his sacrifice."

Urusel stood up and said, "You're right, I shouldn't let their deaths bring me down, let their sacrifices give me strength..." She went over to them all, and hugged them all, and tearfully said, "Thank you all ponies. Thank you.." And she let them down, and she said, "Hold on a minute, I'll open the gate, but first I must address my tribe."

Darkness said, "It's fine, do what you need to do." Urusel gave an order of attention, and all the dragons within camp, came forward, and all sat down, behind Darkness and the others.

Urusel stood on top a large crate, and said, "My fellow dragons, and tribe, a new age begins for us in a couple days time." She then pointed to Darkness and the others, and said, "These brave ponies, have defeated and killed, my father....Anthrox. Anthrox told them, that in a couple days, the curse will lift from us." She paused for second, and said, in a strong tone, "But we should not let his death, give us sorrow, because we all knew what had to be done. In his final moments, he told these ponies, his final wishes for us, as a tribe. He wants us to leave these mountains, and start our lives back over, in our ancestral home. As a tribe, my fellow Dragons, after everything we have been through, we are more than that: we are all family, we have looked out after each other, since when we were all younger, and we should continue to be that way. After all, all we have is each other in the end, the age of the dragon god is officially over, and our new lives, will begin soon." Every dragon, stood up, and cheered Urusel on, and then they quieted down, and Urusel raised a claw, and she said, "As of this moment, I think that there should be a lord of our tribe, what do you all think?" Not a single one disagreed, and they voted for Urusel, and Urusel nodded in respect, and said, "Then as of this moment, I am declaring myself 'dragon lord' of the black dragon tribe family!" She raised the stone in the air, and said, "Let this be proof of my lordship! And when my time comes to step down, a successor, will be chosen, be it my own offspring, or another dragon within the tribe." The other dragons agreed to this, and Urusel said, "Then it's settled, all of you! Find all gatekeepers, that are not guarding the camp, to return at once! After that, prepare for our departure, from these mountains, in a couple days time, get our supplies, shelters, and anything else we have, get them all packed, and ready to go." Every dragon began to scatter, some took to skies, to inform the gatekeepers to return to camp, while the rest, began packing everything.

Darkness said, "Look at them, it's like the life in them, has come back."

Urusel looked at them all, and said, "It's only because of all of your brave efforts, that this would be possible. Finally...after all these long years....I get to go home...at last. Father, rest in peace. I'll handle things, may you find peace in your next life." As she finished, she went over to the gate, spoke the ancient language of the dragons, and the gates opened, and Urusel turned back to Darkness and the others, and said, "Be careful, ponies, beyond this camp, is an ancient, and untouched wild forest, it is known as 'The Sacred Forest." The guardians, in that forest, will not hesitate to attack you, should you go off the beaten path. I would assume, that you seek what is beyond that ancient forest, we were told, by my father, that at one time, ages long ago, a family known as 'The Lunar Blade Family', once had a massive kingdom, beyond the ancient forest. Father also told us, that after all these years later, only one 'true', Lunar Blade, of the family remains, and he/she, is the heir to the throne, and worthy to wield and carry a legendary blade of power of the moon, the "Ebony Blade.' At least that's what my father told us all."

Darkness said, "I see, that's why Lunar Ebony Blade's old piece of parchment said to, 'follow the path of moonlight, and the true heir, shall realize his true destiny.' It makes perfect sense."

Urusel gasped, and said, "If that parchment said that, uh, where is this 'Lunar Ebony Blade', you just spoke of?"

Darkness ushered Lunar Ebony Blade forward, and said, "He's here, we found him, in another world, and he felt like me and my friends, had something to do with his true talent, which he doesn't know what is though."

Urusel said, "He sure sounds like the one, the only way to find out, is to reach the Ebony Blade, and if he is the one, his true talent, with come to life, before his very eyes. If he isn't the one, well, he forfeits his life, as the sword will kill him."

Darkness said, "Meaning?"

Urusel said, "Meaning if he is not the true descendant of the 'Lunar Blade Family," He will not be able to get near or touch the sword, without dying in a matter of seconds."

Darkness said, "I had to ask..."

Urusel said, "I have to get going, I must get my tribe ready for our departure, and good luck, ponies, you might need it."

Darkness said, "Thank you, so everypony ready?" When everypony nodded their heads, Darkness said, "Alright, on we go to the Sacred Forest!" Everypony then followed Darkness, as they left the camp, and began to head down the path that lead to the forest.

The Sacred Forest

As they all were stepping down the road, they saw the entrance to forest, and went through, and what they all saw amazed them: a beautiful, untouched wild forest, full of life, so warm and sunny. Snowshy was already completely at home being in this forest, she began hopping here and there, giggling, laughing, and catching butterflies and Darkness looked at the trees, and said, "Snowshy, please don't go too far."

Snowshy said happily, "I won't, don't worry, I'll be careful."

Darkness said, "Okay, anyways, I don't know if the rest of you can see this, but look at these trees, just by looking the bark on these trees, I tell that this forest has been here for centuries, and it still, after all this time, remains the same way it was, when this forest began to grow, it's really quite something, I can see why they call it the 'Sacred Forest', we should keep in mind the guardians as well, we need to stay on the beaten path."

Lunar Ebony Blade tapped Darkness on the shoulder, and said, "Darkness, is that what I think it is?" Darkness turned around, to see what Lunar Ebony Blade was pointing at: off the beaten path, just ahead of Darkness and the others, was the strangest thing Darkness had ever seen, it looked like symbols of a moon and a sword, one was on a large stone, then there were two others spread out on the ground, one going to the left, the other to the right.

Darkness said, "You guys all see this too, right?" Everypony looked where Darkness was looking, and they all confirmed they were seeing the same thing, and Darkness said, "Now, that's weird, it looks awfully like..."

Lunar Ebony Blade finished Darkness's sentence, and said, "My cutie mark!"

Darkness looked at Lunar Ebony Blade's cutie mark, and said, "Well, the sword is blurry, until we find your true talent, you only have half of your cutie mark. It's definitely a sword, but what kind, I cannot tell. Although I have a hunch of what it could be..."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "You're thinking it's the 'Ebony Blade', aren't you?"

Darkness said, "Like I said, it's a hunch, without any factual proof, it's just a guess right now."

Snowshy stepped beside everypony, she must've been listening for a while, because she said, "I know what Urusel told us, to not go off the beaten path, but I'm getting a strange ominous feeling from those symbols, I didn't feel anything until Lunar Ebony Blade, saw them."

Darkness said, "Now that you mention it...I'm getting the same feeling, it's weird." Darkness paused for a moment, thought about it for a few minutes, and said, "I know this is probably a bad idea, but I really think we should check this out, however, be on your guard, I don't know what these guardians look like, so they could be anything." Everypony went over to strange symbols, carefully, and slowly, and as Lunar Ebony Blade got closer to the large stone with the symbol on it, it began to glow, a light blue.

Everypony noticed, and Darkness stopped everypony, except for Lunar Ebony Blade, to stay put, as even Darkness stayed with the others, as Darkness said, "Whatever this is, it is clearly connected to Lunar Ebony Blade, let him handle this."

Everypony agreed, and Rarity said, "I was going to say something like that." Everypony watched, as Lunar Ebony Blade, stepped up to the stone, and touched it, and it reacted, with the stone turning purple, and the symbol, turned a bright gold, as it all of a sudden it became very bright around the stone, and a heavy gust, emitted all around the stone, as everypony had to hold a hoof up, to block the light from hurting their eyes.

A little while later, the light faded, and the gust went away, but the symbol, and stone were still glowing, when they all heard, a strong, ominous voice all around them, as it said, "Welcome to the Sacred Forest, travelers, those who come here, and seek what is on the other side of this forest, must first prove themselves worthy to pass through this untouched forest." Nopony said anything, as they intently listened to voice, and after a while, the voice spoke again, and it said, "You must all prove your value, in strength and bravery and your friendships, all of these will be tested."

Darkness was going to speak, but then thought better against it, and beckoned Lunar Ebony Blade to speak, and Lunar Ebony Blade said, "How do we start?"

The voice said, "The one that bears the symbol, that has awakened me, start with symbol to your left, there, your first test shall start when you enter a tree hollowed out from the inside. Good luck travelers." The stone and symbol stopped glowing, and the voice faded away, and Lunar Ebony Blade went over to the symbol on the left, and stood on it. It reacted, by glowing with the same colors as the stone did, and then, just ahead of them, a giant, earthen door lifted itself up, and opened a pathway, directly in front of the symbol.

When the door finished opening, the symbol stopped glowing, Darkness said, "Seeing as this all seems to be linked to you somehow, Lunar Ebony Blade, perhaps, you should lead, until we get out of this forest."

Lunar Ebony Blade said openly, "Okay, but I'm not good at navigation."

Darkness said, "Looks like it's a one way path, so I don't think we'll get lost."

As everypony began to set off, Twilight came up to Darkness and whispered, "Darkness, are you sure this is good idea?"

Darkness said, " Of course, all we can do, is have faith in Lunar Ebony Blade, to guide us, out of here. He bears the cutie mark, after all, have some faith in him, as all do in me, just give him a chance."

Twilight said, "Yeah, you're right, we should all give him a chance, it's all we can do."

Fluttershy seemed to have heard, and said, "That's right, it's all we can do."

Just then, as they all reached the opening where the door was once closed, a strange tree-like being appeared out of thin air, and it had a key, as it gave it to Lunar Ebony Blade, as it said, "The tree is just up ahead, good luck."

And the being turned in bark chunks, and faded away, as everypony continued down the road. It wasn't long before they came to huge tree, that had a door in it, and Darkness said, "That looks like what we are looking for, hey Lunar Blade, try out that key that tree being gave you, and see if it works." Lunar Ebony Blade, went over to the door, attempted to put in the key, and thankfully it worked, the key melted into the door, and the door opened, to reveal a dark area behind the door.

Darkness said, " Figures, I can't see anything, let's see if I can send some light in there, to see what's in there." Darkness casted a light spell, and sent the light into the area, only to see it get engulfed by the darkness, Darkness said, "Okay...that didn't work as expected, looks like it's an enchanted tree, that absorbs any spells cast on it. We'll have to walk in there, as is, and hope it brightens up in there."

Everypony went inside the tree, and they heard the door shut itself behind them, and sure enough: the area brightened up, and the ominous voice said, "This is the test of bravery and strength, may you be successful." As the voice stopped talking and faded away, the area started to split apart, separating them all from each other, and they all thought to themselves the same thing: they might have their own test, that each of them might have to face by themselves, and then, everything went white.

The test first started with Darkness and all he could see was white all around him, and then a familiar voice said, "Darkness, the one that bears two destinies, and the one chosen by the Gods Of Equestria, this is your test of strength and bravery."

Darkness called out, and said, "Is that you mother?"

Just then, somepony that looked just like his mother, appeared before him, and said, "I am not your actual mother, I have just chosen a form from your memory, that you are accustomed to."

Darkness said, "Could've used any other form, instead, you decide to choose somepony whose's..dead."

The look-alike figure ignored him, and said, "In a few moments, everything you have ever been afraid of, everything that gives you strength, will be put to the test. Be warned, however, if you fail, even you can die, in this realm."

Darkness said, "I had a feeling I got transported to an inter-dimension, and I understand."

The figure then created a door, and said, "Once you go through the door, you test will begin, good luck Darkness."

Darkness said, "Yeah, no pressure then." Darkness then stepped forward, opened the door, and went inside.

The white faded to reveal, what looked like to be a large, grand city, and Darkness realized where he was: he was in what looked like the slums of the capital of the Sorcerer ponies, and Darkness said, "Of all places, why here? I was never here, well, not technically, I wasn't alive when this city existed, although, I have read about it, through my mother's diary, but that is besides the point. And....it's strangely empty, I don't see anypony walking around, I read these streets were always busy....this is getting weird." Darkness stepped forward, going through the alleyway and streets here and there, till when all of sudden, he was picked up from his hooves, as he was taken to another area. This area, was a clearly the same area, but now there was fire everywhere, and ponies, trotting, in a panic, everywhere, in all directions. Darkness said, "What is going on here?" Just about then, he saw a heavily-armored pegasus, with a look of pure hatred, as the pegasus chased down a small group of sorcerer ponies, and which he trapped then down a dead-end alleyway, and before Darkness could follow, all he could was the screams of ponies, crying out in pain, and fear, and then silence. The pegasus came back out of the alleyway, covered from head to hoof, in blood, panting, and then took off, and Darkness knew what had just happened, and he was beginning to understand what he was supposed to see. Darkness said, "I don't even want to look anymore. I get it, I remember this, when I was just a colt, I didn't know then, how to control my time travel powers, and I ended up in this time, and the time, this city fell, I remember being horrified, and unable to move, not realizing, that I was only seeing what happened long before my time, and that I physically wasn't here, I was here in mind and spirit." Darkness took a deep breath, and said, "I was afraid, for I knew they were sorcerer ponies, it was a bit obvious, as I watched in horror, one after the other, being brutally slaughtered, and cut down, by pegasus, earth, and unicorn ponies. I remember I didn't know what to do, I felt like crying, and then I thought of being anywhere, but here, I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was back in the Everfree Forest. I remember not being able to sleep for days. For the years that followed, the horrifying sights I had seen bothered and haunted me."

Darkness looked up at the sun, and back down, and said, "But now, I'm no longer afraid, if I could interact, I'd fight back, with all I had. Sure, I had other fears then, and I have some new ones now, but that's what makes each pony, a pony, it's part of our nature, and yes, even sorcerer ponies can feel fear, but now, I can face whatever scares me, because I no longer have to face them alone, I will continue this journey, no matter what it takes!"

Just then, the look-alike mother figure appeared, and said, "Congratulations, you understand and have learned from your fears, but you are only halfway through this test, next, your strength will put to its limits." The figure opened another door, and turned to Darkness, and said, "Good luck." Darkness said nothing, opened the door, and went through it. When he vision cleared, he saw he was standing in front of a massive army of sorcerer ponies, and in the middle of them stood, one wielding a black and crimson red sword, that also had a big fiery eye, inlaid in the middle of the sword and Darkness instantly knew what the sword was, it was the infamous 'Nightmare's Revenge'!

Darkness then said, "There's only one pony I know of that wields that wicked thing, and that would be.....no way!" He looked back over to figure, it was blurry, so he couldn't make out what he looked like, but the sword could easily be seen, and Darkness said, "This gets stranger by the minute..." Right about then, the figure ordered the army to attack him, and Darkness drew out his katana, and readied himself for battle, as the army, charged at Darkness, all except for the figure wielding the cursed sword. As they drew nearer, Darkness charged at them, and began hacking and slashing, and to his surprise, some kept up with his moves, while others couldn't block his moves fast enough. After what felt like an eternity, Darkness was beginning to wear down, and his moves began to get more slow, and he said to himself, "I can't keep going on like this forever, I need to use magic." As if the figure knew what Darkness thinking, the figure held out the sword, the sword went out of the figure's hooves, floated there, and sent out what looked like a sonic shockwave, and as it went through Darkness, his head began to throb and a sharp pain went through his head. It went away shortly afterward, but when he tried to use his magic, he was unable to.

Darkness said to himself, "Great, now of all times, my magic's being canceled out." Darkness continued to hack and slash, but his moves were slower, due to fatigue, and the sorcerer pony army, one after another, parried his attacks, and at the same time, counterattacked, and because Darkness was getting worn out, he couldn't block most of their attacks. Darkness began to weaken, from all the strikes, and as struggled to keep himself up, he said, "Not...good." He then realized something, and said, "I....cannot....die...HERE!!!! I have my friends counting on me, and I want to continue to be there for them, protecting them, and being there for them, as they have for me. I will not lose, as I think about my friends, they are my strength, they are all I need, and one of my reasons to continue on!" Darkness, renewed, with the thoughts, and memories of his friends, took out the entire army, with an impressive lighting-fast speed, slashes. Darkness head a noise from behind him, turned around, and saw there was another army, and he said, "You have got to be kidding me! Where did they come from?" He charged at them, and took the skies, and when he was high above the army, he folded his wings, and said, "Enough of this!" As he plunged his sword into the ground, causing the earth around Darkness to collapse, swallowing the army. Darkness panted, and turned to face the mysterious figure, and the figure called back the sword, and slashed the air in two directions, and faded away. Darkness said, "What's going on? Is it over?"

Just then, the mother figure appeared before Darkness and said, "You have accomplished the impossible, without the use of your magic, and relied on the strength of your friends. Well done, you have passed your tests."

Darkness said, "This might be a weird question, but what about my friendship test?"

The figure said, "That test was a combination of the two, to teach you, that despite all your powers, even sorcerer ponies, need each other, their friends, in their time of need, and for times when they need you as well. You have earned your right to continue on through this forest, you will now be sent back to the tree, where you will wait for friends to complete their tests."

Darkness said, "I see the lesson here, and I shall wait for my friends. I can't wait to tell them the news!" The figure nodded, and everything went white for a few seconds, and as Darkness's vision cleared, he realized he was back in the tree. He looked around for the others, but could see nopony, and he said, "Looks like I was chosen first, I can only hope the others make it."

Next was Snowshy, and Twilight Sparkle, and when their vision cleared, the looked around and they saw each other, and were happy to see each other. For a while, all they could see was white, and then it cleared out, to what looked like to be the Everfree Forest, with Canterlot beside it. This confused them both, but then, they were separated, as Snowshy was being pushed towards, the forest, while Twilight was being pushed towards Canterlot, and Twilight called out, "Good luck Snowshy!"

Snowshy replied back, "You too!" and that was all they saw of each other, as they readied themselves for their first test.

A voice said to both of them, "This is your test of bravery and strength, Snowshy, sibling to Darkness, but you yourself, are a chosen one to bear an element of harmony, and Twilight, the one who bears the element of magic, good luck to you both." The two, nodded their heads, as the voice faded away, as they both continued on forward. As Snowshy went deeper into the forest, she saw something rather familiar, it looked like something she had seen before, and in that instant, she knew what it was: it was her mother's shack! As she trotted towards it, hoping to see her mother, her vision flashed, and cleared, and she saw her mother, on the ground, and a little Darkness was asleep, with dried tears in his eyes. Snowshy knew what this was, and was hoping this wasn't what she thought it was. Moments later, her mother began to breath heavily, and gave birth to Snowshy, as the events of that day, played out before her very eyes once more.

Snowshy began to tear up, and tried to look away, but somehow, couldn't, she watched in horror, as her mother told her to leave the forest, and was given instructions of what to do, when Snowshy got older. A little Snowshy was then shoved to the edge of the forest by her mother, as her mother tearfully told her to go. Then, at that moment, a crying little Snowshy, began to walk outside of the forest, but tripped, and rolled outside the forest. Snowshy said, "I know what you are trying to show me: this was a day, where I was fearful of what would happen to my big brother, and saddened by the death of my mother. It was one of the worst days of my life, but in the end, I was given a new chance, to have parents, by being adopted, and yes, and although it's not exactly the same, it was still a chance at life, to continue to live, so that one day, I could fulfill my mother's drying wishes, and to find my big brother as well. So despite all that happened on this day, there was hope, just as there is hope for all of us, to complete our mission, to keep Equestria safe from harm, and go home heroes and proud."

The voice said, "Congratulations, but do not celebrate just yet, next, your strength, will put to its limit, good luck." And with that, a door appeared, and Snowshy went to it, opened it, and went inside.

Snowshy found herself, to what looked a lot like the fields that were on the outskirts of Ponyville, and as she got a sense of her surroundings, she realized where she was: this was the fields that everypony that had any magic talent, fought against Darkness Night, with the way the skies looked, and with everypony heading in a general direction, and sending their magic to what looked like those who had elements of harmony.

She was going to head there, when she heard a familiar voice, that said, "Not so fast Snowshy."

She turned around, to see Darkness, his sword drawn, and in a battle stance. She asked, "Brother? What are you doing? Don't you recognize me?"

Darkness scoffed, and said, "How dare you to try and deceive me into thinking that I'm talking to my sister!"

Snowshy stopped, and thought to herself, "Wait a minute, this isn't my real brother, he would never raise his sword against me. So...what am I supposed to see? Oh...I get it, a test of my strength, by going up against somepony, I would obviously lose to."

She said to the look-alike Darkness, "Look, I don't want to fight you, whether you're the real Darkness or not."

The look-alike figure said, "You don't have a choice." And with that, he began to trot towards Snowshy, sword poised to strike.

Snowshy sighed and said, "I guess I don't now, but all I have, is my element of harmony, it should be enough."

Snowshy began to fire her power of her element harmony at the figure, which the figure dodged one attack, after the other, with relative ease, and in which case the figure said, "If that's the best you can do, you've already lost."

When the figure jumped up high, to strike a heavy blow, it was in this instant, that Snowshy began to think about a lot of things, and then it hit her, and she said out loud, "Stop! I will not fight you!" The figure was confused, and missed, and ended up stunning itself, with the handle of the sword, and Snowshy went over the figure, helped it up, and said, "Real or not, I understand, I may not have your strength in battle, but my strength lies elsewhere, my compassion to support and help those, that otherwise, cannot deal with things in their lives, on their own anymore, I can show them, that even in the worst and darkest of times, when all seems lost, there is always hope, and things can and will get better, to never give up, no matter how bad things get."

The figure, brushed itself off, and said, "I see you understand where you true strengths lie, congratulations, you have proven yourself worthy to this forest."

Snowshy said, "Wait a minute, what about...the friendship test?"

The figure said, "That test, was included, in these tests, you have proven, that despite how strong you may or may not be, it is better to have friends to be there for you, to help you, when you need it most. You will now, as with Twilight, who has also proven herself, be sent back the tree, where you should wait for the rest of your friends, to complete, and pass their tests." Snowshy said nothing, as everything went blurry and white, and then cleared a few seconds later, as she found herself, alongside Twilight, and back in the tree. Snowshy looked around to see if anypony else had passed their tests, and she saw Darkness, reading some old book. When Darkness felt like somepony was looking at him, he put the book down, marked his page, and turned around, and saw Snowshy and Twilight had returned.

He got up from his seat, and went to greet and congratulate them, and he said, "Well done, you two, I knew you could do it! There's no way you two could fail such a thing!"

Twilight asked, "What do you mean? Where you thinking we weren't going to pass?"

Darkness said, "No, I just knew you guys would pass, and besides, I have never doubted you guys, in whatever you do."

Snowshy said, "Thank you brother."

Darkness said, "Anytime, well, I suppose, we should wait for the others. Why don't you two join me at the table, and we can talk about what we all learned while we was in that test, does that sound good to you guys?"

Snowshy said, "Why not, I'm curious to hear what you and Twilight were put up against in your test of strength." And with that, they all went to the table, sat down, and began discussing, how their tests went, as they waited for the others.

The Sacred Forest, Part 2

Next were Lunar Ebony Blade, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, and as their vision cleared, they all looked around, and saw each other, and Applejack said, "Well looks like we get to face this 'test thingy', together, which if you ask me, isn't a bad thing, it might make things easier."

Nopony said anything, as they looked ahead of them, and saw a combination, of what looked like Canterlot High School, Cloudsdale, and Manehattan, all of them intertwined into each other, and Rainbow Dash said, "Why do I get the feeling, that we will be tested, as we all go through a darn maze?"

Applejack said, "Look, I really don't care for it much either, it looks confusing in there."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "By choice or not, that's where we are going."

Rainbow Dash said, "You know, I'd have to agree with him."

Applejack said, "Me too." Everypony then headed for the strange maze and saw there were three openings, each one color-coated to each one of them, with Lunar Ebony Blade, in the middle path, Applejack on the left, and Rainbow Dash on the right.

Applejack said, "Looks like this where we split up. Good luck y'all in there!"

Rainbow Dash said, "Don't think I'll need it." Lunar Ebony Blade said nothing, and went into the opening, that had his coat's color, and the others did the same. As Lunar Ebony Blade cleared the opening, a door came out from the ground, and closed the opening behind him, and he stopped and heard that somewhere nearby, that the others had been closed within the maze as well, and he continued forward. As he went further, he went left, the right, then right again, until the maze shifted direction, to make a straight path to what looked like a graveyard up ahead.

Lunar Ebony Blade only said, "I think I'm going the right way. Oh well, I'll get there eventually."

As he entered the graveyard. the maze closed behind him once more, by shifting the direction of the path behind him, and he said, "This maze is weird, I'll be glad when I get out of this mess." Suddenly, a light shone on a gravestone, just ahead of him, and he went to it, and read the words on the stone, and it said: 'Here lies Lunar Ebony Blade, the one only destined to fail at his destiny.' Lunar Ebony Blade sighed, and said, "I get it, I know what this is trying to teach me, I'm concerned that I might not succeed, but I know better. Despite what challenges lie ahead, I will accomplish my goals, as I claim what is hopefully mine."

The light faded, the gravestone crumbled, and a voice said, "I see you understand, that you cannot falter here, congrats, you have passed your first test, next, your strength will put to its absolute limits, good luck." And with that, the ground caved in from beneath Lunar Ebony Blade, as he fell in, seeing only white once more. When his vision cleared, he found himself, within a large a forest, that he was sure of, when suddenly, something that was engulfed in flame, came rushing towards him, and created a huge flame circle around Lunar Ebony Blade, as the entire forest around him was in flames, allowing no escape for Lunar Ebony Blade, and then the fiery figure landed in front of him. He could clearly see the figure clearly through the flames, a massive warrior pony, wearing a fiery orange and black armor, from head to hoof, wielding a black-looking short sword.

The figure said, "So, you must be the last Lunar Blade, correct? If you truly are from the Lunar Blade family, you will be able to defeat me with ease. However, it seems you are not armed, fine, I will give you a sword, take this."

The warrior tossed a silver short sword to Lunar Ebony Blade, who caught it, and the warrior said, "Now, come! Defend and prove yourself, that you are how you say you are, do not hold back, if you wish to live!" And with that, the warrior's flames, grew even bigger around him, as he charged at Lunar Ebony Blade, with a thundering pace, as Lunar Ebony Blade readied himself, and raised his blade. The warrior laughed, and as their blades clashed, they were both pushed back, and the warrior said, "Hmm, not bad, but you only blocked my weakest attack, now for the my full strength! Die impostor!" Lunar Ebony Blade didn't wait for the warrior to get to him this time, and rushed at the warrior, sword ready to strike. The warrior seemed amused, as the blades clashed one after the other, and as the warrior began to stab or slash Lunar Ebony Blade every time he left himself open, Lunar Ebony Blade could feel himself weakening, and he knew could not keep this up forever, and he began to give it all he had. The warrior laughed hysterically, and could no longer hold his blade, dropped it, and began to lay on the ground laughing uncontrollably, and the flames had been extinguished. Lunar Ebony Blade saw his opportunity to strike, and trotting as fast he could, raised his sword, jumped as high as he could, and just at that time, the warrior began to roll around, exposing his underbelly, Lunar Ebony Blade, thrust his sword down, as hard as he could, screaming a war cry and his face full of rage. As the warrior heard the war cry, and looked around, it was too late to roll away, as Lunar Ebony Blade's sword, was buried into the warrior's underbelly. The warrior screamed in pain, and began to weaken, and said, "Well done, few would've thought of that, only one of the Lunar Blade family would scream a cry like that.... Now, finish me off, DO IT!"

Lunar Ebony Blade lowered his sword, and said, "The battle is over, you lost, I'll let you live, and let you wonder around in shame, being utterly defeated by your greatest weakness: your arrogance. I only exploited your foolishness. I have friends that have taught me many things, I may not have been in this world for long, but my friends have taught me, that yeah, it is cool to fight yourself, but why fight alone? When you have a better chance, of fighting alongside those you care for and love. Fighting alone, and being victorious all the time, can make ponies like you, arrogant. A true warrior celebrates his or her victories, but also learns from defeat as well."

The warrior nodded, picked himself up, and said, "You are indeed a Lunar Blade, strong, but honorable, there is no doubt you are who you say you are." The warrior took a heavy breath, and said, "Congratulations, you have passed all your tests, you are now free to pass through this forest. Wait for your friends, as they have their own trails to pass, and as for your friendship test, it was in this test too, and you proved what it means to you, to have friends and what they mean, and what you can learn. Don't stop learning from them, it's not always battle lessons. Good luck, as you continue your journey from here, farewell." Lunar Ebony Blade's vision went white again, and he felt the sword melt away and his vision cleared moments later, as he saw he was back in the tree, and saw Darkness, Snowshy, and Twilight, at the table, in deep conversation, and then he felt a tap on his right and left shoulders, and looked to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "I take it you guys passed?"

Rainbow Dash smiled, and said, "You bet we did! As if there was any doubt! I got to say though, it wasn't much of maze, it all for looks, perhaps to try to dampen our spirits."

Applejack said, "Well, it didn't work, we faced our tests head-on anyways. Let's go tell the others, what we went through, and see what they think."

Rainbow Dash said, "I can't wait to hear what cool stuff they had to go through!" Lunar Ebony Blade said nothing, as the three joined the others at the table, as greetings and congratulations were passed around, and then they began to talk of what they went through, as they waited on the last three, to pass their trials.

Rarity's vision finally began to clear, and she saw that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, were with her as well, and Rarity said, "Does this mean, we all face our tests together? I am okay with that, as long as Pinkie Pie keeps herself under control."

Pinkie Pie said questioningly, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Rarity said, "Never mind."

Fluttershy said, "Don't you think that was kind of...mean, Rarity? That's just Pinkie Pie, being herself, is there anything wrong with that?"

Rarity said, "No, I suppose not, I'm sorry Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie said happily, "It's okay, everypony gets like you do, every now and then!"

Rarity said, "Yeah, I suppose so, but it still doesn't make it right.. We better get going." They all began to walk, towards what looked like Rarity's boutique store in Ponyville.

As they continued heading towards it, Fluttershy said, "Rarity, doesn't that...look like your store?

Rarity said after a few moments of looking at it, "Yeah, now that you mention it, it awfully does look my store."

Pinkie Pie said, "Why is our test-thingys leading us here?"

Rarity said, "I really have no idea, but I'm sure we will find out." As they got to store, they opened the door, a giant whirlwind, burst out of the store, as it swept up Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, and carried them away, as the store itself, sucked Rarity inside the store, and the door slammed shut behind her. Rarity went to the door, tried to open it, but it would not budge, and Rarity sat down, and said, "I really do hope, that the others are all right.." Meanwhile, the whirlwind began to die down, as it began to lower Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, and then dropped them off in separate locations, and as they recovered, Pinkie Pie went into what looked like Sugar Cube Corner, and Fluttershy went into what looked like her cottage. Meanwhile, back at Rarity's look-alike store, Rarity said, "I can only hope, that the whirlwind died down, and they are back on the ground, and why is it dark in here? Where is it? Ah! There it is!" Rarity turned on the lights to the store, only to see that is was empty, and Rarity said, "Okay....that's weird."

A voice said, "Look familiar?"

Rarity said, "Yeah it does, but why is it empty?"

The voice said, "Look up at the stage, your greatest fears will come to life, this is your first test, good luck." The voice faded, and the stage lights came on, and the stage curtains opened, as the spotlight moved to the center of the stage, as Rarity recognized the first thing that was displayed. The voice then said, "Do you remember this?" Rarity nodded, and the area around Rarity changed, as she found herself, in an empty area, and the voice said, "Now, you will live the life, that did not happen, but will happen now, you have no store, no friends, nothing, and you have no cutie mark either." Just then Rarity's cutie mark disappeared, and Rarity began to panic.

She then calmed herself down, and said, "No, no way! I know the truth! I have a store, more than one now, in fact, I have my friends, and it is because of the sonic rainboom that day, that the rock split in half, revealing what I was missing from my clothing."

The voice said, "How about, if that rainboom never happened?"

The scene around Rarity again, to reveal a younger Rainbow Dash, failing to perform the sonic rainboom, and Rarity said, "It doesn't matter what you try to do, to try and convince me otherwise, what has happened, has already happened, there is no changing the past, and even you if could change the past, you more than likely, would never exist either."

The scene changed back to normal, and Rarity's cutie mark reappeared, and the voice said, "You have a strong faith and strength with your friends, always keep the truth close to you, and in your mind. Congratulations, you have passed your first test. Your strength, in a few moments, will be tested, let's see if you succeed." Rarity's vision went white, and cleared within a few seconds, as she found herself, in the Cloudsdale arena, and she herself, had wings. From overhead, she saw a rainbow streak fly her way, and land in front of her.

It was what looked like Rainbow Dash, and the look-alike Rainbow Dash said, "What are the likes of you 'fancy ponies' doing here? Did you use magic, like last time, to get wings?"

Rarity said, "I-I-I don't know. What's going on? And Rainbow Dash, it's me, Rarity! Your friend, don't you know who I am?"

The figure scoffed and said, "Yeah, I know who you are, but I don't associate myself, with 'fancy ponies'. Now take this lance, and we will settle this, right now!" The figure trotted to the other end of the arena, and said, "Ready? One........Two......Three.....CHARGE!!!"

The figure was coming at Rarity full speed, and Rarity began to ready her lance, when she realized something very important, and dropped her lance, and held her hooves out, and said, "WAIIITTT!!! Please, listen to me!"

The figure stopped, and said, "What are you doing? Defend yourself!"

Rarity said, "Look, Rainbow Dash, whatever I did, that upset you so much, I am sorry. As my friend, you may not consider me one anymore, but I will never stop, considering you my friend, Rainbow Dash, you are one of my closest friends, along with Twilight and the others! I would never stop being friends with you all. So please, Rainbow Dash, forgive me?"

The figure began to cry a little, wiped it's tears away. dropped the lance, and said, "You now understand, that your strength, too, also is with your friends. And don't worry, you did nothing wrong. Congratulations, Rarity you have passed all your tests, you are free to pass through this forest, wait for the rest of friends, and your friendship test was within this last one as well. Good luck to you and the rest of your friends, as you continue this journey, farewell." Rarity's vision, was once more full of white, and cleared moments later, to reveal, that she was back in the tree. She also saw Darkness, Snowshy, Twilight, Applejack, Lunar Ebony Blade, and Rainbow Dash, all at the table, in deep conversation.

She felt like somepony was looking at her, and she looked over to her right and to her left, and she saw Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, and Rarity said, "So, we all passed, huh?"

Pinkie Pie said, "Of course! It may have not have been easy, but I learned a thing or two!"

Fluttershy said, "Me too."

Darkness looked over, and saw Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie standing there, and he motioned everypony's attention, and said, "Is this everypony?" Everypony checked, and they all nodded, and Rarity and the others, joined them at the table, and Darkness said, "Good, very good, I just want to make sure we are not forgetting anypony."

Twilight said, "Nope, we are all here." Darkness said, "Well, we should keep going, we've come to far now, to fail. Lunar Ebony Blade, if you would, please, lead the way." Lunar Ebony Blade nodded, and left the table, and went outside the tree, as everypony followed him, as Lunar Ebony Blade went to the symbol and the ground, to the right this time, as stepped on top of it, as everypony had stopped little ways away from Lunar Ebony Blade.

The symbol reacted, and a voice said, "You have all proven yourselves worthy, to pass through this forest, well done travelers, now when it reaches midnight, follow the path of moonlight, it will guide you though the true path out of this forest, may the gods watch over you all, farewell." As the voice faded away, symbols appeared all over the trees, and any hidden guardians, simply faded away, the sacred forest was now safe.

Darkness said, "Now it makes sense, what that parchment that Lunar Ebony Blade has, it all has to do with this. If you were not part of the Lunar Blade family, I doubt, we would've got this far. But anyways, in about thirty minutes, it will be midnight."

Snowshy said, "How do you know?"

Darkness said, "I've watched Luna when she raises and lowers the moon, every time, when it reaches midnight, the moon will be in the center of the stars, and from the looks of it, it's almost there, it takes the moon every thirty minutes to move a bit."

Snowshy said, "Oh, okay."

Darkness said, "Sorry, I know, it's hard to explain, but I know it's close, I just know it."

Twilight said, "We trust you Darkness, it's okay."

Thirty passed by, and sure enough, the moon was now in the center of the stars, and as everypony looked at the ground, a moonlit path appeared, and turned to the left, and Darkness said, "I knew it, I knew I was right, although I was a little worried there for a second."

Twilight said, "You shouldn't, believe in yourself a little more."

Darkness said, "Yeah, I'll work on it. Lead on, Lunar Ebony Blade." Lunar Ebony Blade lead everypony, as they all followed the moonlit path, as they went left, left again, then right, then left again, then right again, and then they came to long road, to a clearing up ahead.

Rarity said, "From the looks of it, I say we found the exit." Nopony said anything, as they all followed Lunar Ebony Blade to the end of the road, and went through the clearing. They all found themselves out of the sacred forest, and in a gray, and lifeless open plain.

Darkness said, puzzled, "I don't get it, this is it? Where's the Ebony Blade?"

Snowshy said, "It might've been stolen."

Darkness said, "How unlikely that might be, it's still a possibility. No, this can't be it, Lunar Ebony Blade, we should keep going, maybe we are not seeing something here." Lunar Ebony Blade nodded, and continued forward, as everypony followed behind him.

Rarity said, "I don't see any kingdom, or rubble for that matter."

Darkness said, "You're right, I don't either, not even sand. What happened here? Hold on, everpony, wait a minute." Everypony stopped, as Darkness picked up the dirt, and then let it go, as the wind carried it away, and he saw embers within it. Darkness said, "Whatever happened here, it turned everything to ash, that's why there's no rubble. Whatever caused this, it was immensely powerful to turn a kingdom, to ash. Alright, we can continue Lunar Ebony Blade." They all continued forward, and just then, to gigantic statues holding gigantic halberds, cracked the ground and landed in front of Lunar Ebony Blade and the others.

Nopony said anything as the statue on the right said, "Just a little beyond this point, lies what's left of the sacred castle, of the Lunar Blade family. From this point, only the one, that is a descendant of the Lunar Blade family, can pass."

Lunar Ebony Blade turned around, and said, "Will you guys be fine here?"

Twilight answered, "We'll be alright, we came all this way for this anyways."

Rarity said, "Yeah! So go on, dear, we'll be okay, after all, this is for you."

Lunar Ebony Blade turned back around and faced the statues, and said, "I am the last descendant of the Lunar Blade family, let me pass."

The statue on the left said, "Come forth, and look into my eyes." Lunar Ebony Blade did so, as the statue bent down and looked deep into his eyes, and after a few moments, the statue raised itself back up, and the two statues moved to the sides, and the statue on the left said, "You may pass, now prove yourself to the blade." As Lunar Ebony Blade went past the statues, they barred the path once more, while everypony else waited there. Meanwhile, Lunar Ebony Blade, went down the moonlit path, and he saw that even the castle, was now nothing more than ash, but something was in the middle of what would've been the castle, just up ahead of him a little. As he got closer to it, he saw the it was the Ebony Blade: a slightly curved short sword that looked like the color of onyx, with the edges of the blade, a dark purple, and also with a pointed edge also extending out on the other side of the sword. From what Lunar Ebony Blade could see, all but the handle, was in a transparent, but rather large light blue crystal. Lunar Ebony Blade went over to the sword, got up on the crystal, and stood, behind the blade, as he took hold of the handle of the sword and began to try and pull it out.

The sword then began to turn a bright purple, and purple lighting came from it, and engulfed Lunar Ebony Blade, as he screamed in pain, but he did not let go of the sword, he continued to pull. Little by little, the sword was beginning to get pulled out from the crystal, the more Lunar Ebony Blade pulled on the sword, the more he was engulfed in the purple lightning. Finally, with one last massive pull, Lunar Ebony Blade, pulled the sword out from the crystal, and the lighting no longer hurt, in fact, he felt fine, better than fine, he felt....powerful!

Suddenly, Lunar Ebony Blade's eyes turned purple, and his body was engulfed in a purple aura as well, as he heard a voice in his head tell him: "Go forth, wield me in all your battles, for I have chosen you as my master, and I give full control over the sword." In that moment, he understood where the voice was coming from, the sword had a mind of its own! He looked at himself, and he realized he was now wearing onyx black, and purple armor, on his body, and he had gauntlets to match the armor, but no helmet. He didn't mind that though, he rather not have a helmet, and then he began to test out the sword, by performing different moves, slashes. cuts, and thrusts. When he had finished, he raised the sword high into the air, as the sword shot purple lightning into the air, and then pointed the sword in front of him, as he shot a enormous blast of purple lightning, and as he did this, purple lightning, surrounded his body, and began to spark everywhere.

Meanwhile, the others were still in front of the statues, and they began to purple flashes in the distance, and then they saw the purple lightning shoot up into the air, and Darkness said, "He did it...wait a minute, what's that? Oh boy...everypony, get out of the way!" Everypony and the statues saw the lightning heading in their direction, and everypony except Darkness, was able to get out of the way, who wasn't able to get out the lightning's path quick enough, and Darkness said, "Oh crap, here we go.."

In that moment, Darkness was hit with the lightning, as it took Darkness off his hooves, and took him with the direction the lightning was going: backwards, and all anypony could hear from Darkness before he was out of sight and earshot was "Arghhhh!!!!" The statues stayed out of the way, as Lunar Ebony Blade was making his way back to them, and as he got to them, he realized he had a sheath, on his right side, and put the sword away, and the aura, purple lighting, the armor, faded away, and his eyes returned to normal.

Rainbow Dash said, "That.....was.....AWESOME! It so worth coming all this way!"

Twilight said, "Congratulations, Lunar Ebony Blade, how do feel, are you okay? You was kind of..engulfed,,in what looked like.."

Lunar Ebony Blade finished her sentence, and said, "Purple lightning, yeah, I feel fine, better than fine. And this sword...it just feels natural to me." Lunar Ebony Blade looked around and said, "Hey, where did Darkness go? Did he leave already?"

Rarity said, "Oh yeah, about that....Well, you see..."

She was interrupted, as a slightly smoking Darkness came walking back to them, and stopped in front of them all, and said in a grumpy tone, "Let's just say, I was hit by that sword's purple lightning as it came this way, and yeah, it flipping hurt! A little smoky, but otherwise, I'm fine."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "I am sorry about that, I guess I got carried away."

Darkness shot him a look, sighed, and then said, "Yeah, well, next time, don't aim it, in the direction of any us, I may of only just got maybe a scratch or two from that, but if that hits one of the others, more than likely, they'll be ash."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind, I'll be more careful."

Snowshy said, "Are you sure you're okay Darkness? That looked like it hurt."

Darkness swept his shoulders off, and said, "I'll be fine, if anything, it took me by surprise, by its sheer force and power, that was quite something. Still, never again! Once was enough."

Everypony laughed, and Darkness said, "After what just happened, Lunar Ebony Blade, I think it's time, you get taught properly, how to use a sword."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "What do you have in mind?"

Darkness said, "First, everypony, move away from this area, I will teach you. You will face up against me."

Twilight said, "Are you sure?"

Darkness said, "There's nopony better than me, to do so, my talent, with sword, is part of my cutie mark, after all."

Rarity said, "He has a point."

Twilight said, "You're right, okay, we'll all move behind you two, and stay about thirty feet away."

Darkness nodded, and said, "That'll work." Darkness and Lunar Ebony Blade waited for others, to get out of the way, and away from harm, as they all stood away from the two, and watched, as Darkness said, "Okay, first off, don't use that purple-lighting thing, your sword does alright?"

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "I don't even really know, how I used it, or how I did it."

Darkness said, "With your sword, I can guess, as long, as you're not channeling, your energy or your rage, through it, and not actually aiming at anything, it will not activate. Now! Ready yourself!" Both Darkness and Lunar Ebony Blade got into a fighting stance, as Darkness said, "Okay, good, first thing's first, you need to be in a stance, that you can get full use of your body's sense of motion, and your sword, of course, with every sword is different, some are heavy, and some are light, while others are balanced. From I can tell, your sword, is a rather heavy one, so you want to put yourself, in a stance, that gets a lot of use, from your hooves, your current stance right now, would get you killed, and you wouldn't be able to effectively use the sword you are carrying now. Try positioning your hooves a little more apart, but keep a lot of your weight on them."

Lunar Ebony Blade moved his hooves just a little more apart, and said, "How's this? Is this better?"

Darkness said, "Much better, good. You have the basics of a battle stance down, your a quick-study at this, and a bit of a natural. Alright, let's start, with basic moves first. Whenever you are facing one, two or more enemies at a time, different moves, and attacks, are needed, I will teach you, some basic ones, to start with, and later on, your own, you may find moves, and attacks, that you may discover later on. Alright, attack me!" Lunar Ebony Blade, began to charge at Darkness, and sluggishly, tried to stab and swing at Darkness, who simply dodged, and swung back, hitting Lunar Ebony Blade's sword, and pushing him back quite a ways, as Lunar Ebony Blade, skidded to a stop, and dug a little ways into the ground. Darkness said, "With those moves, I could've easily killed you. In a real fight, the enemy, would not have pushed you back like that, they would've went in for the killing blow, you left yourself far too open, and your moves were way too slow. Try again, but this time, remember the stance, and swing your sword, harder, and faster, and charge at me quicker. You must not let the enemy, figure out your moves, or will lose, you must give your enemy, no time to think, and give them no mercy. Do not think of me, as Darkness, imagine me, as one of your enemies, understand?"

Lunar Ebony Blade nodded, and Darkness said, "Alright, come at me!" Lunar Ebony Blade charged, this time much quicker, and began using swift, but brutal attacks, as Darkness dodged some, and blocked others, and then struck Lunar Ebony Blade's sword again, and pushed him back, as Darkness said, "That's much better, against anypony else, you would've stood a chance, and possibly won, but I've been doing this a lot longer, and as you continue to practice you will get better, for now, anyways, you will do fine. Next, we will practice, blocking, and what you can do with a block, depending on the situation. I will attack you, and I want you, to instantly think of any way that you can block my attack, and use it to your advantage. Are you ready?"

Lunar Ebony Blade readied himself, and said, "Yeah."

Darkness said, "Very good, then, here I come!" Darkness rushed over to Lunar Ebony Blade, and began to attack him, as Lunar Ebony Blade, did his best to block the attacks, and actually shoved Darkness back a little, as Darkness said, "Very good! Very good indeed! You already have a natural ability at blocking, and in the same moment, you used the momentum, of your sword, and drove away your attacker, giving you time for recovery and for you to strike back, you may not have drove me back very far, but against somepony else, it would be enough, and more than likely, much farther. You have this down, let us move on. Next, we will practice advanced techniques, that you can use, when the odds are against you, or are in a bad situation. We will be using both blocking, attacking, dodging, and how to get around your enemy, to hit or figure out his or her weak points. So before we start, I will attack, you block, and try to figure out a way, you can drive me back, and counter-attack, by either getting around me, or attack head-on. Do not hesitate, the enemy will not wait for you, understood? Now, are you ready?"

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "Yes."

Darkness said, "Alright, here we go!" Darkness once more, rushed at Lunar Ebony Blade, and began to attack, but a little more relentless this time, as Lunar Ebony Blade, blocked some of the attacks, and dodged some of the others, and drove Darkness back. In that instant, Lunar Ebony Blade, moved to back of Darkness, and began to attack, where Darkness turned around quickly, blocked all of Lunar Ebony Blade's attacks, and sent him back quite a ways once more. As Darkness raised up a hoof, and said, "Stop, that is enough. Well done, Lunar Ebony Blade, you got the basics down, and that's all that really needs to be taught, the rest, is unique to each sword fighter. That is all I can teach you, the rest, is for you to discover."

Both lowered their swords, and stood as they normally would, and Lunar Ebony Blade said, "Thanks for the lessons."

Darkness said, "It was a pleasure, and you needed it anyways, now, you should be able to more effectively use your sword now." Darkness waved everypony over, and as they all got to Darkness and Lunar Ebony Blade, Darkness said, "I just remembered something."

Twilight said, "What's that?"

Darkness said, "It all makes sense now, this sword, is where the 'Forbidden Spell, 'Power Lighting', came from!"

Snowshy said, "I think I follow, but how do you know?"

Darkness said, with a little excitement, "In my mother's diary, she wrote down, all the history she knew, plus, those four elder sorcerer ponies are in that book too. Well, while reading somewhere in there, I was reading nursery rhymes that sorcerer pony fillies and colts, were told, and there was one that caught my attention, and I think it went something like this: 'Long ago, a hero, went to a land far away. To a land far from the reaches of explored land, to save a kingdom, from the evil it had within. The hero managed to save the kingdom, with a sword of power, in his grasp. A sword embedded with a power gem inside. Thus the kingdom was safe from harm once more.' As I read that rhyme, I never really understood that one until now."

Applejack said, "I don't think I get it either, what did you figure out, Darkness?"

Darkness explained, "That rhyme, is referring to the Ebony Blade, and the 'land far way', is referring to the Lunar Blade kingdom. I had always thought this entire thing was nothing more than something to put little ponies to sleep, but I would've never imagined that there is more truth to this fable, than meets the eye."

Snowshy said, "Okay, so what about the 'power gem', that the rhyme mentions? I've never heard anything like that before."

Darkness said, "Well, that too, I thought was nothing more than a legend, but if I remember correctly, these 'gems', are immensely powerful, and were made by the Gods Of Equestria, a final gift, during the times of the ancient ones, the ancient ones left them, where they were made, not knowing what to do with them. Apparently, there were eight gems, each one, contained a different property, and each one had a different name. Some have been destroyed, by the great war against the sorcerer ponies, I think at least six of them, were demolished, but I read that at least two of these 'gems', still exist, one was called 'the gem of power', the source of the power lightning. And the other is 'the gem of fire'. The only thing about the gem of fire, is it was said, that is was taken, by somepony other than the ancient ones or the sorcerer ponies, and was thrust into the earth, and as it came into contact with the core of this world, it made the core, instead of rock, into molten lava, and thus has been lost. So, in other words, Lunar Ebony Blade now carries, the only gem left in existence now."

Twilight said, "Wow...I had no idea such powerful items existed."

Darkness said, "Neither did I, I had brushed all this off, as all mere nonsense, and fables. But the truth, is right before my eyes, I was wrong the whole time, this whole fable really does exist."

Snowshy said, "This kingdom looks really old Darkness, do think...maybe?"

Darkness said, "I know what you're thinking Snowshy, no I don't think any of this happened during the time of the sorcerer ponies, or the ancient ones, for that matter. No, whenever this happened, it must've been sometime after the fall of the sorcerer ponies, however, when that was, I can't tell, everything's ash, if some of the architecture or maybe a book or two had survived, I might've been able to see what era it was first around."

Snowshy said, "Okay." Just then, Darkness's head throbbed once more, and he was in massive pain all over, the made him kneel, and he passed out, as everypony could only watch in horror.

Darkness then heard the familiar voice again, as it said, "Fool! hahahahaha! Because of all the time you've wasted here, my preparations are almost complete, my army, shall be coming to this time, in a few hours time, everything will be crushed or kneel before me! And you will have a distant front row seat, as you watch me tear your world and your friends apart! And oh, because of your efforts, in the Crystal Empire, I forgot to mention, you helped me realize, just how weak that mirror is, to be able to sucked from my grasp, and thrown into another dimension so easily, and for you to just carry back. No, I realized I need something bigger, something that can't be moved, like....like the PORTAL SUMMON SPELL!!!! YES!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! I'M A GENIUS! AND YOU CANNOT STOP ME IN TIME!!! I SHALL USE IT.....HOW ABOUT....RIGHT IN FRONT OF PONYVILLE! HAHAHA!"

The voice faded away, as Darkness began to come to, picked himself up, and saw everypony looking at him with worry, and Snowshy said, "It happened again, what did you hear?

Darkness said, "We need to get back to Ponyville fast, and I'll tell you, on the way."

A New Problem Arises

The statues went over to them, and said, "Let us help you, we can take you as far as Canterlot." And they kneeled down and held out their hooves.

Darkness said, "Well, that speeds things up, alright, everypony! On to the statues!" Everypony went onto each of the statues hooves, and the statues put their other hoof over the other, as they closed over them, raised their hooves high, and with all their might, opened their hooves and threw everypony high into the air, in the direction of Canterlot. Everypony went flying, at a very fast speed, towards Canterlot, and Darkness said, "Those of you who can fly, grab hold of those who can't! And wow, we're almost there! Everypony! Try to slow down a little!" Those that could fly, grabbed those who couldn't, and began to flap their wings in the opposite direction, to try to slow down. And after a few moments later, they all landed in the middle of Canterlot, and right in front of Celestia's castle. Darkness said, "Good job everypony, now, we need to high tail it to Ponyville."

Snowshy said, "Why? What's going on?"

Darkness said, "Come on, I'll tell you while we're trotting our way to Ponyville."

Twilight said, "Okay."

Everypony then began to trot as fast as they could, towards Ponyville, and Snowshy asked Darkness, "Brother, please, what's going on? What's wrong in Ponyville?"

Everypony trotted up beside Darkness, and they all wanted to know too, and Darkness said, "That ancient evil voice, said that he is going to use the forbidden spell, "Portal Summon', right in front of Ponyville, and bring back an entire army from the past! Plus, he is going to make this portal big enough to where it can't be moved! I don't know what will happen, if he succeeds, but Ponyville, does not need to suffer another tragedy. No! I will not allow it! We must save Ponyville before it's too late!"

Snowshy said, "I see, and I feel the same way about Ponyville too, we cannot let this evil, get his way, we need to, if possible, stop him here, as well!" Everypony looked at Darkness, and all nodded, and showed him, that they felt the same way too.

Twilight said, "Darkness we all feel the same way, we don't want Ponyville to harmed either!"

Snowshy said, "We are in this together big brother!"

Darkness said, "And together, we shall take this evil down, and save Ponyville!" Everypony whopped, and cried out, and together, they all continued towards Ponyville, and after a while, they made it to downtown Ponyville. Darkness said, "Alright, almost there...! To the front of town, everypony! No time to lose!"

Everypony nodded, and trotted to front of town, and when they got there, they all looked around, and saw nothing, and Twilight said, "Darkness, are you sure, it's here? Are you sure you didn't....?"

Darkness finished her sentence, and said, "No, it just seems we beat him here, he should be coming any minute..." Darkness was cut off, as a shockwave erupted out of nowhere, and knocked everypony off their hooves and pushed everypony back a ways and from what seemed to appear out of thin air, was floating a transparent pony.

The pony said, "Darkness, well, well, well, look what we have here! You made it after all, your ancestors would be proud!."

Darkness and everypony got back up on their hooves and Darkness said, "Do I know you?"

The pony said, "You don't know me? Humph, a darn shame. Fine, perhaps, you know me better, by what I would be wielding, if I wasn't dead, I am the proud owner, and user of The Nightmare's Revenge! Hahahaha!"

Darkness was stunned, he knew who this was now, he knew the name, but he was gripped by fear, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, and everypony went over to him, with much concern, as Twilight said, "Darkness? Are you okay? You know who this pony is?"

The pony asked Darkness, "What's the matter? Are you afraid? Speak!"

Darkness regained his composure, and said, "No...it can't be...it's not possible! You are...Bolverk! The last king of the Sorcerer Ponies! The mad king!"

Everypony was shocked, and Twilight said, "Oh no, not good....."

Bolverk began to laugh maniacally, and said, "Muwahahahaha! I am surprised you actually know that sword! Unfortunately, because I am dead, and nothing more than a spirit right now, my physical body is still locked up, in my throne room, in the castle capital of the sorcerer ponies, damn those elder sorcerer ponies for betraying me! But they got what was coming to them, I assure you."

Darkness said, "Yeah, I know, and you had to be stopped then, and must be stopped now!"

Everypony nodded, and came up beside Darkness, and Bolverk lowered himself a little, as he looked at Darkness's friends, and said, "How pitiful, you, Darkness, surrounding yourself, with such filth such as them, you are disgracing your ancestors! And how can you stop me? I am already dead! Muwahahaha!"

Darkness pulled out his katana, and said, "With what has been imbued into this sword, I can stop you!"

Bolverk laughed and said, "Now, now, little pony, let us not be too hasty, I have a proposal to offer to you, and you won't be needing that weapon."

Bolverk, raised his left hoof, and wrenched Darkness's katana from his grip, and threw it behind Twilight and the others, and Bolverk said, "Now, with that out of the way....Darkness..........Join me! Together, these pitiful ponies, will bow before us! They will either bow, or die! What do you say? What are willing to sacrifice? Your own kind? Or this present time?"

Darkness said, "What do you mean?"

Bolverk sighed, "For all your knowledge, you can't figure it out? Think about it....Oh fine, I'll tell you, but first, in our last mind conversation we had, I told you about how the mirror escaped my grasp, correct? Even though I am only a spirit, I can interact with anything that has spiritual energy in it. That mirror has such energy, I was able to pick it up, and warp to another dimension with it, however...it did not go as planned. I was trying to go back before the time of the great sorcerer pony war, but the dimensional rifts, denied me, because I was not a chosen one, for dimensional travel, so I was expelled from the rift, and was thrown back out as I watched the mirror, go into some portal, with a big courtyard, as some tall white creature, and multi-colored hair, picked up the mirror, and took it away into a big building of some sort." Everypony looked at each other, and they knew what Bolverk was talking about: the human world, and principal Celestia.

Darkness said, "Now, I understand, so that vision I had.."

Bolverk cut Darkness off, and said, "Yes, that was me, as well, I sent you that vision, so you could see what choice you would have to make, and I knew about the prophecy, so I figured, It was time to make it come true!"

Bolverk then continued, "What I mean by what are you willing to sacrifice, is when I use the portal summon forbidden spell, what you don't know, is when I do so, I will bring back the entire sorcerer pony race, from the past. However, when I do this, anypony in the present time, will be sucked into the past, and because none of you existed then, you will simply die, and cease to be. So what will it be, Darkness? Your kind, or them?" Everypony looked at Darkness, but Darkness couldn't say anything, for the first time, he didn't know what to do, what to say. Bolverk began to raise himself back up, and said, "Tick tock Darkness!" A few more minutes went by, and Darkness still couldn't say anything, and Bolverk said, "Time's up! I will decide for you then!" And after Bolverk had finished speaking, he raised both his hooves, turned to the right, and began speaking the ancient words of the ancients, as blue flashes, came from everywhere and four giant blue crystals, came out of nowhere, and began spinning in a big circle, in front of Bolverk. Shortly after, the crystal spread apart, and giant gate began to form, and floated a little above the ground for a minute, and then landed on the ground, and a see-through blue area began to form in the middle of the gate, and blue sparks began to fly out of it from every direction. Bolverk was laughing manically, and said, "YES!!! Soon, I will reign supreme, once more! Hahahaha! Muwahahaha! Ahahahaha!"

Twilight started shaking Darkness, and said, "Please snap out of it! We got to do something!"

Darkness seemed to snap out of it, and with a fierce determination, and said, "I will.....not...let this world perish, just because, you want to bring back something, that was gone long ago! As much as I would love to see more of my kind, I cannot let millions be killed, just to see them! No, what is past, is past, and so are you!"

Bolverk turned to Darkness, and said, "What did you say?" Darkness raised his left hoof, and called back his sword, which was placed back into his grip, and rushed at the gate, as well as everypony else, and plunged his sword into the middle of the gate, as the others, attacked and destroyed the crystals, from all sides. Bolverk was stunned, from what Darkness had said, but didn't realize what Darkness and others were doing, till he regained his composure, and then he saw what Darkness and his friends were doing, and he said, "Wait, what? No! You fool!"

The gate began to spark everywhere, and Darkness and the others, got away from the gate, as it began to collapse on itself, and a very strong vortex began sucking in things, anything that was within the area, mostly trees, and dirt, and wood, and Darkness said, "Hold on to something!"

Everypony, and those in town, held on to anything they could, as the vortex got worse, and Bolverk tried to escape the vortex, but was sucked in, and he said, "NOOOOO!!!!! Damn you, Darkness! I will...return!...And I will kill you and your friends!" The gate began to fall apart, and was sucked into the vortex, as it the vortex got even stronger, as houses, and various items began to get sucked in, and everypony held on, with everything they had. The entire gate had been sucked in, as Bolverk himself, cried out screams of fear, and then a huge massive explosion of blue exploded above everypony, from where the gate had been, and then as the explosion expanded, it quickly retracted as the vortex sucked it up, and the vortex closed, and everything went still.

And Darkness said, "Returning? Yeah, right, don't count on it."As the dust settled, everypony began to go over to Darkness and the others, and began to stomp their hooves, in celebration.

Twilight and the others began to celebrate too, as well, and Darkness laughed with joy, and said, "We did it....we actually did it! I can't believe it! I can't believe we pulled that off!"

Snowshy said, "You better believe it, because we all just did, now, with Bolverk gone, Equestria is safe from his madness."

Darkness said, "You're right, little sister, he had to stopped then, and he had to be stopped now." As Twilight and the others hugged Darkness, he said, "You guys, (sniff), are the best friends, I could ever have."

Everypony let Darkness go, and Twilight said, "We feel the same way, I think we can all say, life just wouldn't be same without you as a friend."

Everypony nodded, and Darkness saw somepony behind Twilight and the others, as the pony said, "Well done dear."

Darkness said, "Luna?" Everypony stepped aside, so that way Darkness could see who it was, and sure enough: there was Princess Luna, with tears of joy in her eyes.

Both Darkness and Luna, rushed to each other, and embraced each other, in a tight hug, and kissed and Luna said, "I'm so proud of you...."

She began to tear up again, as Darkness wiped away her tears, and he said, "Please don't cry."

Luna said, "I'm not sad, I'm just so happy, for you...for all of you."

Darkness said, "As long as it's tears of joy, no more sadness, my dear. I'm here now."

Luna smiled very happily and said, "It's almost time."

Darkness said, "That's right, we have a wedding to attend to, which is only a few hours away." Darkness waved to his friends, and his sister, and said, "And I want you all to be there, you hear me? Oh, and I know this is kind of last minute, but I want you, Snowshy, to be my first mare, do you accept?"

Snowshy smiled happily, and said, "Of course, thank you for the honor Darkness."

Darkness said, "I couldn't think of anypony better, than to have a sibling to be right there." Darkness paused and then said, "And the rest of you, here in Ponyville, are more than welcome, to come, and bring your friends and family too, if you want."

Twilight said, "We wouldn't miss it for the world!" Darkness waved again to his friends, as he and Luna, began to head to Canterlot, as Twilight, the others, and everypony else in town, began to head in the same direction.

The Wedding

With only a hour to go, last-minute preparations were being done, as Darkness was having trouble of what to wear, as he said, "Well....hmmmm....should I wear this? Maybe not.....oh come on! Figure it out!"

Right about then, Twilight and her friends came into the room, and saw Darkness having troubles, and Rarity said, "You know, I don't think I ever seen you this flustered."

Darkness turned around, and said, "I just want to wear something worthy for Luna to see me in, and as you can see...well....I'm not having much luck with this."

Snowshy put of hoof on Darkness's shoulder, and said, "Just be yourself, just wear what feels best to you, that's the stallion's Luna fell in love with, and if nothing else, put your doubts aside, and just go out there, as you always have, brave, and determined."

Darkness said, "Yeah, but still, I want to wear something special..."

Snowshy stepped back, as Twilight stepped forward, as she said, "Darkness, you're worrying about it all too much, think about it. As Snowshy just said, be just who you are, be the stallion, Luna fell in love with. What I'm trying to say is, just be you."

Darkness thought about it a moment and said, "You know what, you guys are right. I got it! I'll just wear the cape to my armor, only without the armor."

Pinkie Pie said, "There you go!"

Applejack said, "See? And I'm sure Luna will love it."

Just about then, the attendant came in, and said, "Sorry Twilight, but you and your friends, should better be getting to your seats, we are literally, minutes away." Twilight and the others nodded, and waved to Darkness, and left the room, and attendant said to Darkness, "Nice choice, just to be honest, It's way better than what I was thinking you would wear. I was thinking you was going to wear something really fancy and ridiculous. And please, don't be offended, but I just don't think that would suit you very well."

Darkness nervously laughed, and said, "Funny story..."

Darkness was cut off, as the beginning notes of the piano, began to play, and the attendant said, "No backing out now, go out there, and be you. Sorry, I heard Twilight and the others, and I agree with them, just be the one Luna fell in love with."

Darkness said, "Thanks, and its no problem, it's good to hear advice and some ideas from somepony else." Darkness took a deep breath, and said, "Alright, here goes." Darkness went outside of the room, and walked down the aisle and down to the altar, as he saw Princess Celestia, and Snowshy waiting for him, both of them, smiling brightly. As he came up to the altar, he went up the stairs, turned right, walked a little to the right, and turned around to face the crowd, and he could clearly see everypony from Ponyville, the Crystal Empire, and Canterlot had showed up for the wedding. Darkness tapped Snowshy on the left shoulder, who was just a little ways to his right, as he said quietly, "Wow, what a crowd, looks like we got everypony here, and then some."

Snowshy smiled, and quietly said, "Yeah, it's not everyday, a sorcerer pony, and one princess of the night, get married. It's quite the occasion, and you, myself, and our friends, have done some much for the ponies that have attended, that they are all here to show their respect and joy for you and Luna."

Darkness said, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Nothing more was said, as Darkness looked over to the left, and saw Princess Celestia, smiling with a couple joyful tears in her eyes, and she mouthed the words, "I'm so happy for you and Luna."

Darkness nodded, and mouthed the words back, "Thank you." Just then, the piano began to play again, as the main doors to the room, began to open, as Luna, followed by two of her guards of the night, came in the room, as her guards followed her down the aisle a little, before going to their seats, as Princess Luna continued down the aisle. Darkness felt his jaw drop a lot, and felt Snowshy's hoof, raise his jaw back up, as he saw what Luna had choose to wear, it was the most beautiful dress Darkness had ever seen: starting with what she wore on her hooves, very pretty looking hoof shoes, and the dress, all covered with stars, it did not drag, but it was not too short, and was covered with the theme of the night, all of it, a dark purple-bluish color. Darkness whispered, "Wow...." As Luna came to the steps, she went up the steps, turned to the left, walked a little to the left, and turned to the face Darkness first, in which she smiled so happily at, and Darkness did too, and then she turned to face the crowd.

Celestia, then walked in between the two, and began to say, "Before I begin, may I just wish my joy towards these two, for it is something, that I never thought I would get to see, my sister, getting married." She paused, and said, "We are all gathered here today, to witness, the marriage between, my sister, Princess Luna, and the sorcerer pony, Darkness, as they share each and every moment of this day, with each other." Princess Celestia then turned to Darkness, and said, "Darkness, do you take, Princess Luna, to be your lawfully wedded mare? To cherish, to hold, to love, for bad or for worse, in sickness, and in health, from now until eternity?"

Darkness said, "I do."

Princess Celestia nodded, and turned to Princess Luna, and said, "Princess Luna, do you take, Darkness, to be your lawfully wedded Stallion? To cherish, to hold, to love, for bad or for worse, in sickness, and in health, from now until eternity?"

Luna said through some happy tears, "I do!"

Princess Celestia back away a little, and said, "First mare, the rings please." Snowshy then opened a small box, and placed one ring on Darkness's horn, and the other, on Princess Luna's horn, and then walked back, and Princess Celestia said, "Then it is with great joy and honor, that I now pronounce you husband and wife, Darkness, you may kiss the bride." Princess Luna and Darkness went over to each other, Darkness then picked Luna up, and they kissed. Everypony celebrated, most of them in tears, as they back to walk down the steps. Luna then at that moment, tossed, the flowers she was carrying, up into the air as all mares, dashed to get it, and Snowshy ended up catching it.

Darkness, still carrying Luna, went outside, and placed her in her carriage of the night, and got in the driver's seat, as everypony followed the two outside, and as he was about to give to command to guards to go, when he heard Twilight calling his name, and he saw Twilight getting through the crowd, and she came up to the carriage, and she said, "Wait a minute, when you two come back from your honeymoon, can I take history classes, on Equestria's early history?"

Darkness smiled, and said, "Don't worry, I didn't forget, with Bolverk gone, and now that Equestria is now safe again, I don't see any reason why not. However, it will have to wait until I finish my work."

Twilight said, puzzled, "Work?"

Darkness said, "My work, on writing down all the history, that has been kept for you all, by your ancestors, the world needs to know the truth, so another tragedy like what happened to my ancestors, and the ancient ones, does not repeat itself. But I promise, as soon as I finish writing it all down, in volumes, I will come by your place, and you can ask all the questions you want about history."

Twilight smiled, backed away from the carriage a little, and said, "I'll wait until then." Darkness nodded, and gave the order, to the guards, as Luna and Darkness kissed again, as the carriage rose into the sky, and out of sight.

Snowshy and the others walked up beside Twilight, and Applejack said, "Darkness looks so happy."

Rarity said, "They both do, I never seen the both of them so happy."

Snowshy said, "I bet big brother's thinking, 'This is the best day of my life.' I've not seen him this happy in a long time."

Twilight said, "This is a big day for both of them, they deserve the best, they both have went through enough, they deserve happiness for once."

Everypony nodded, and Pinkie Pie began jumping up and down, and said, "Now, who's ready for the after-wedding party?" Everypony nodded, and followed Pinkie Pie, back to Ponyville, to Sugar Cube corner, as they began to celebrate, eating cake, and enjoying themselves till morning, where then everypony went home, for some rest, and enjoy the days of peace, with everything back to the way it was, peaceful, and still.

Two Years Later......

Darkness was in his study, working non-stop, on writing down the early history of Equestria, and on this day, two years later, he was almost finished, and he said to himself, "Just a couple more pages, and this will finished, and then I hope Twilight's been patient, I still owe her history classes. Let's hope she hasn't forgotten.."

Luna came into the room, sat down beside Darkness, and said, "I'm more than sure that Twilight hasn't forgotten, in fact, it looks like a letter from her, is coming in from the mail service." Luna had heard the flapping of wings nearby, and went over to the window, as one of her guards, flew to window, gave her a letter, saluted her, and flew off.

Luna went back to Darkness, who had just finished writing, and gave him the letter, as he opened and read aloud: "Dear Darkness, I know you have been busy with your history writing project, but I have a good feeling today, you are almost finished, so I was hoping, if your schedule is free, in say, a few hours, I want to invite you to my castle, I have my quills and parchment ready! Sincerely, your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Darkness looked at Luna, and said, "So, Twilight's a princess now, huh? Looks like I've missed quite a lot."

Luna chuckled, and said, "Well, between you spending time in here during the day, and the rest at night, with me, and you never leave the castle, so yeah, I would say you've missed a thing or two. You know, your friends haven't seen you in two years, I can only guess to how they feel, perhaps even worried about you. Also, there's something I want to tell you.."

Darkness said, "Well, if you're implying about my health, no need to worry there, I'm immortal, after all, and even if I get sick, I recover, eventually. But yeah, it's been a while since I've seen them, and they are my friends, gosh, I hope they haven't forgotten me. And what is it you want to tell me?"

Luna said, "Again, they wouldn't forget a friend like yourself. I wanted to tell you, that...well, um, I'm pregnant, with two foals, but it's not yet been determined, whether, they are both colts, or fillies, or one of the other."

Darkness said, "Yeah, you're right...again, as always. Just like you are still as stunning and beautiful, the first day I ever saw you." Darkness stopped for a moment, and great joy filled his eyes, as he said, "Two foals? That's wonderful news! I am so happy! We're going to parents!"

Luna was blushing a lot, by what Darkness had said, as she said, "Oh! Quit it! You're making me blush! And I am so happy you think so."

Darkness smiled, and said, "One more thing I fell in love with, the first day I met you."

Luna smiled through the blush, and said, "I am really so happy I met you."

Darkness said, "Me too."

They embraced each other, and kissed, and as they finished, Luna said, "You still have plenty of time, before I need to raise the moon, perhaps now, that you are done with your writing, maybe now, would be a good time to visit your friends, and hang out with them for a while?"

Darkness said, "It was as if you read my mind. But are you sure that's fine?"

Luna said, "I'll be fine, you should pay them a visit, they would be more than glad to see you, and your little sister too, I'm sure that would make her day too, I hear that Snowshy, has stayed on hero standby, after going into hero retirement last time, and with the threat last time, she decided to wait, like ten years or so."

Darkness said, "Again, I can't help but say, you're right. Yeah, I think I will, it's been too long, since I actually went anywhere, and as you said, I have plenty of time. I see, Snowshy's decided to not retire from hero work, yet huh? But I'll be sure to be back, before it's time for the raising of the moon."

Luna smiled, and said, "I'll help you get some things packed, I have a good idea, where you'll spend a bunch of your time."

Darkness said, "As always, you always seem to know what I'm thinking, before I'm saying it." As Darkness finished speaking, the two left his study, and went together, to pack some things, Darkness would need, for his visit. It wasn't long afterward, and they had finished packing Darkness's things, as Darkness went over to the castle doors, and began opening the castle doors, and before he was about to fly off, he said, "I'll be back soon, okay?"

Luna waved back, and said, "I know, you just have fun with your friends, okay?"

Darkness went over to Luna, hugged her, kissed her, and said, "Don't worry, I will, and I promise, it won't be long, and I'll be back."

Luna said, "I know, I'll just miss you in that time."

Darkness reassured her, "Before you know it, I'll be back, and I'll be here to watch you raise the moon for tonight."

Luna smiled, and said, "Okay, you better get going, I did you the favor, and I sent letters to Twilight and the others, telling you were going to visit them today, and might I say, I got teary excited response letters back."

Darkness smiled and said happily, "Luna, my wife, always looking out for me, I'm glad I have you in my life. Alright, I'm off by back soon!"

Darkness went to the edge, waved to Luna, and flew off, as Luna waved back, and she said to herself, "Now, what to do to keep my mind preoccupied, until he gets back? Oh! I know! I'll go visit my sister for a while! I haven't done that in while. Guards! These doors are to remain locked, until myself, or my husband return, understood?"

The guards stood front and center, and said, "Yes Ma'm!"

Luna said, "Good, now, to go visit my sister for a while."

And with that, she flew off in the direction, of Canterlot. Meanwhile, Darkness had decided to fly towards Twilight's castle first, and landed in front of the door of her castle, and knocked on the door, he waited a couple moments, followed by the door opening, and was tackle-hugged by an excited Twilight, and Darkness hugged back, and said, "Yeah, it's good to see you too, now, can you let go? Too....tight...can't breathe.."

Twilight let Darkness go, as he got back up, and dusted himself off, as Twilight said, "Sorry, it's just been some time, since I last saw you, and I thought..."

Darkness stopped her, and said, "How could I forget my friends? Are you kidding? You guys are the best! No, it's just on this day, I finally finished my work."

Twilight said with excitement, "Does this mean?"

Darkness said, "Yup, it's time for me, to answer all those history questions you had."

Twilight said, "Well, come in! We'll sit in my study, and I already have everything ready to learn! Oh! I can't wait!"

Darkness laughed, as he followed Twilight, to her study, and said, "Always the eager one to learn." A few moments later, they had reached Twilight's study, and Darkness went to the podium, and began to dig out his now finished books on the early history of Equestria, and Twilight sat nearby, in a desk, quill and parchment, at the ready. Darkness said, "I don't teach in the same fashion, I teach as you ask the questions, sound good?"

Twilight said, "That's fine, this is just so exciting!"

Darkness said, "Twilight, focus, so now, where do you want to start, and what subject, do you want to know about?"

Twilight got her excitement under control, and said, "Right, sorry Darkness. I have always wondered, I remember Darkness Night, always being called, 'The Ultimate Evil', and I couldn't help thinking, that there were others, so I was going to ask, are there really others? And what are they?"

Darkness said, "It's fine, Twilight, we get excited about all sort of things. Now, as to your question, that's a very good question, and an interesting one at that. Yes, Twilight, there are others, you see, as it goes, you have Darkness Night, 'The Ultimate Evil', and then have the others, the 'Grand Evils', these evils, are pretty formidable, but Darkness Night, easily overpowers them all" Twilight was writing all this down, and as she finished, she asked, " 'Grand Evils'? What are they?" Darkness said, "Ironically, you and your friends, have met them all, at one time, or another. The 'Grand Evils', are as follows: Discord, The Spirit Of Chaos, King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, Nightmare Moon, and The Dazzlings. Which, some are gone for good, and at least one of them, has been reformed, that I know of."

Twilight was shocked a little, and said, "They are the 'Grand Evils'? How is that possible?"

Darkness said, "Let me explain, you see, long ago, in the very few first days, that the world had been created by the Gods of Equestria, the ancient ones, foresaw a prophecy, given to them, by the Gods of Equestria, that one Ultimate Evil would rise one day, followed, by it's most fiercest lieutenants. These beings were all once spiritual, bit over time, they have found way to be born into this world, all except for Darkness Night. For as you know, Darkness Night, has no actual physical form, but he alone, can still cause, misfortune, bad luck, things like that. Also, the Ultimate Evil, is a cosmic being, who was born from the death of an entire evil galaxy, that the Gods of Equestria had destroyed, the remains of that galaxy, came together, to form what was for thousands of years, just what was once called, 'The Black Star'. This 'Black Star', eventually took form, a transparent, black form, that is, and was drawn to this world. As long as there is things like arguments or any kind of evil in any world, Darkness Night will always continue to exist. Have you ever wondered why, you all were able to defeat Darkness Night that day?" Twilight said nothing, as she was intently listening, and writing it all down, and Darkness continued, "The answer may shock you, but by any means, Darkness Night cannot be defeated or killed. Unless, you have unity and friendship, these things are his weaknesses. You all defeated Darkness Night that day, because you all showed a strong will, a strong unity and bond with each other. When you all did that, it weakened Darkness Night, just long enough, for all you that fought against him that day, to pretty much, burn him to ash, but he still lives, he just can't do much but cause a bit of bad luck here and there, and don't curse him, that just strengthens him, he feeds off of any kind of negativity, without it, his powers slowly weaken. Darkness Night needs a living host to posses, in order to cause any real damage, but it has to a powerful host, or Darkness Night's evil, would simple tear apart the host's body. Did clear things up for you Twilight?"

Twilight has just finished writing, and said, "Wow, I had no idea, I have to ask, but did your mother, and those elder sorcerer ponies, study subjects like this?"

Darkness said, "They did, and it's all in my mother's diary, but it's now also in all in my volumes, I wrote, which there are about 80, to be exact."

Twilight's jaw dropped, and then she lifted it back up, and said, "No wonder it's taken you two years, and I assume, they are pretty large books, right?"

Darkness said, "Yeah, each of them, would take some time to read, but anyways, next subject, anything else you would like to know?"

Twilight said, "Yeah, I had just one more question for today, and then I think I'm good for today, this is a lot of info to take in already. Anyways, I wanted to know about Bolverk, and the sword he wielded, 'The Nightmare's Revenge.' And that's all I want to know for today."

Darkness said, "Another very good question, and that one has quite the story to it. I'll start with Bolverk first. You see, Bolverk was known by many names, many different things, and many different deeds and I will list just a few of his names now: he was known as 'Bolverk The Mad', 'Bolverk The Revolutionary', 'Bolverk The Bloody', and 'Bolverk The Conqueror', and again, these were just some of things he was known by and known for." Darkness took a breath, and continued, and said, "Now, you must understand, Bolverk, well, wasn't always 'mad', you see, he was born in the slums of the great sorcerer pony capital, Azrekl, a city of power, wonder, learning, magic, trade, and a combinations of all sorts of ponies, that used to walk down its cobblestone streets, and alleyways. Anyways, 'ahem', I'm getting off subject here, during Bolverk's early years, the monarchy, and it's officials, were corrupt, and Bolverk couldn't stand to see his fellow sorcerer ponies suffer anymore. So he took up arms, wielding the 'Nightmare's Revenge', and rallied many others with him, as he had ideals, of a future, and a monarchy, that wasn't corrupt, that lived in harmony with it's citizens, to where the monarchy was in equal power with it's inhabitants. Many fought beside Bolverk, believing in his ideals for a better future for all of them."

Darkness waited for Twilight to catch up, writing it all down, and then continued, "However, once the current monarchy and it's officials were overthrown, it seemed, Bolverk had other plans from the very beginning, whenever he went mad, it had to have been somewhere during the sorcerer pony civil war, but perhaps, he was like that from the very beginning, it is hard to say. Anyways, once he was crowned king, he immediately began to show his true colors, he ruled with fear, dominance, intimidation, and torture, for those that even dared to speak out or stand up against him. Not even his own kind was safe, from his madness, for a time anyways. It was during his first few years, he began his 'conquest', by first calling a meeting with all the other pony tribes, the Unicorns, the Pegasi, and the Earth ponies. However, he had this meeting set up to fail, and break ties, with the others three pony nations, even before meeting began. As it turns out, he ordered his most trusted royal knights, to take places, around key areas or the room, and by whatever means necessary, cause the other pony tribes to declare war on the sorcerer ponies, or each other. Now, I know, who would order such a thing, especially if you already knew what it would cause? The answer was Bolverk wanted to eradicate the other pony tribes, believing they could not longer be trusted, and were below him and his kind, and did not deserve to continue to live, and live on land, he had believed, was rightfully his, and he would get those lands, no matter the cost, truly, it was pure madness. And thus, when everything went according to plan, he had not only had just started, what would be wrote down as, "The Great War', but he also began his 'Reign of Conquest', at the same time, where he would take his royal knights, and his finest generals, my father was included in these battles, but nopony really saw that Bolverk, was leading them all to ruin, until it was too late. To this day, it is still the biggest and longest war in history. They all blindly followed their king, believing in everything Bolverk did, was justifiable, in some way, mindless devotion, I guess you could say. Bolverk with his army, went from town to town, city to city, village, killing anypony that was not a sorcerer pony, he did not care what they were, he did not even spare the children, in his eyes, in his mind, they were a blight to the world, to his ideals, and he would stop at nothing to realize this."

Once Twilight had caught up, Darkness said, "This decimated all three tribes, down to nothing more, to three small villages, and this was halfway through the war, in a desperate effort, they saw they needed to come together, to face this threat, or would soon meet extinction, so all three tribes made an alliance, that has remained strong, even up to today, and faced Bolverk's army. The three tribes used every skill, every single tactic, and resource they could think of, and for the first time, Bolverk's army was actually pushed back, and Bolverk was forced to retreat. In the following 800 years, the Pegasi, and Unicorn tribes, had discovered a new way to actually harm the sorcerer ponies, you see, normally, a sorcerer pony cannot be killed, by anypony but a sorcerer pony. Well, to get past this problem, the Unicorns, came up with a spell, that when combined with a Pegasus's swords, it could not only kill a sorcerer pony, but it would permanently banish that sorcerer pony's spirit, from the mortal realm, forever. Bolverk knew nothing about this, as he had decided to stay inside his stronghold, in the capital, another mistake on his part. In just a year later, sorcerer pony outposts, and armies, all over were being pushed back, or killed, and it was clear exactly, where the three pony tribes were heading for: the sorcerer pony capital. At the same time, many sorcerer ponies, within the capital, and in the surrounding areas, began to come to their senses, and four of Bolverk's most trusted elder sorcerer pony, wizards, assassinated him, on his throne, but not before he took them with him, without Bolverk to give commands, any armies that lay outside the city, fell into disarray, and were killed. Towards the last few 400 years of the war, only the capital remained, and the floating fortress, which was known as "Fortress Blackcrown", and the three pony tribes went after the floating fortress first. The fortress was able to lift off of the ground, by using a 'Levitation Gem', but it order to lift something as big as the fortress was, it needed more power, before the war started, innocent souls of sorcerer ponies, were sacrificed, and were trapped within this giant gem. The three pony tribes must've figured out the fortress's only weakness, if something was shot at and exploded on the gem, it cause the entire gem, to go into overdrive, and cause the entire gem to explode. An explosive catapult bomb, was shot at the gem, and it blew the entire fortress into four pieces, and the fortress came down like a rock. Because the gem was so powerful, it literally melted two of the parts of the fortress, to ash, the other fell into ground so hard, it flew small pieces of it everywhere, making it beyond repair. The last piece landed in a lake, a remained there, until the Pegasi tribe, many years later, found it, and used it, as the foundation for what would later be known as 'Cloudsdale.' "

Darkness took a breath, and said, "And thus, once the fortress was down, it didn't take very much longer for the three tribes to take down the capital, and stormed the capital within eight years, and amidst the chaos, my mother, and a small group of others, managed to escape the city, and this marked the end of 'The Great War', and reign of Bolverk, and well you know the rest Twilight, the rest of my kind were hunted down, so that way they could never rise again, out of fear, making my mother, the last survivor of the sorcerer ponies."

Twilight said, "Truly, I have to say, Bolverk was insane, what was he thinking? It's good thing he was taken care of, and that we took care of his spiritual form too, it could've been worse, and spelled disaster for everypony. But, how long was the 'Great War?', I'm just curious."

Darkness said, "I agree, and It's fine, let's see....the 'Great War', lasted 2208 years, with halfway of the war, being 1104 years, I'm guessing Shylight, didn't tell you the truth about this war, and tried to make it seem like a short war, I assure you, it wasn't, so does that help clear some things up?"

Twilight said, "It does, and yeah, Shylight once told us a brief story on the war, but he didn't look at any of us, while he told it, so that means he was lying to us the entire time."

Darkness said, " I should've known, now, on to the accursed sword, the 'Nightmare's Revenge', but it wasn't always called that, in fact, that's not even what it once was. The sword, was once known, as the holy white sword, "Azural", a mad and rather evil lone sorcerer, that lived in a giant tower, was experimenting, with some kind of spirit spell, the spell backfired, putting one his eyes into the sword, and blowing his tower, and him, to pieces. A warrior, known as Forlorn, took the sword, and used it in battle until he died, and his second in command, took the sword, to a sunny grove, and thrust it into the tallest hill. That was when the third general of the sorcerer ponies, many years later, took the sword, and began killing innocents, the general, having faced too many battles, in his lifetime, was driven mad, by those battles, and when driven to further madness, as the sword's eye finally opened and began to 'speak to him', telling and commanding to him to kill innocents. However, when the general came to his senses, he killed himself with the sword, where his family took the sword back where it came from. You see, the holy sword, is a sword that can change form, according to what acts it has been used to carry out, and after being used to kill so many innocents, it changed into wicked, crimson blade, and created an earthquake, separating the grove from the mainland. This new island, was constantly surrounded by raging storms, and red clouds hung over the island, and thus was called 'Nightmare Island'. Only those truly mad enough, to go out to the island, to retrieve that sword, could make it to the island, it's owner, a year or two later, called it the 'Nightmare's Revenge', a symbol of revenge, and an instrument of madness."

Darkness waited a minute, and then continued, "However, whatever powers the 'Nightmare's Revenge' has, is unknown, because anypony that tried to study it, was either killed, or driven insane. If one of a true heart, can ever wield that sword, and carry out righteous deeds, the sword might revert to it's original state, whether that ever happens or not, I do not know."

Twilight finished writing the rest down, and said, "I see, so that sword alone has had a lot of sad history, hasn't it?"

Darkness said, "Yeah, it has, anyways, that's all for today."

Twilight said, "That's fine, I have plenty of material here already, but I would like to know more about subjects like this."

Darkness said, "I figured you might say that, so I made a copy of two of my books so far, here you go." Darkness used his magic, and put on Twilight's desk, two, rather large, books, with one that read: 'Myths and Legends, A History', and the other titled: 'The Sorcerer Ponies, The Complete History, Vol.1'.

Twilight said, "Thank you Darkness. And thanks for the discussion today, it was worth the wait."

Darkness said, "It was a pleasure, I better get going now, I promised the others, I would spend some time with them, see you another time." Darkness waved, as he began to leave, as Twilight happily waved and watched him leave. After spending time with the rest of his friends, Darkness looked up, and saw that the sun was beginning to lower, and he said to himself, "Time to head back, it's been a great day, but I'm ready to just watch the moon rise with Luna." As he finished speaking, he flew off in the direction of Luna's castle, and it wasn't took long after, he landed at main doors to the castle, the guards recognized him, saluted him, and opened the doors, where a very happy Luna, was waiting for him on the other side.

Darkness went to her, they embraced each other and kissed, and then let each other go, as Luna said, "Welcome home, my dear."

Darkness said, "It's good to be home. It's almost time for the raising of the moon., shall we?" Darkness held out a hoof, Luna took it, and they went out to the balcony, as Luna raised the moon.

The two sat down, and Luna said, "This is perfect, just the way it is, I wish every day can be like this."

And she layed her head on Darkness's chest, as Darkness said, "It will be, as long as I'm here, I see no reason why it can't be. And I'm just fine with the way things are, things are just perfect, just they way they are."

Luna smiled, and said, "I'm so glad to hear you say that." Nothing more was said, as they both continued to sit there, and together, looked and enjoyed looking at the night sky until it was time to lower the moon.

The next morning, Darkness was awoken up, by a large pounding on Luna's and his bedroom door, Darkness got up, went over to the door, opened it, as one of Celestia's guards was at the door, and rather frantically, said, "My lord, you presence is requested, at Celestia's castle!"

Darkness said, "Understood, you are dismissed." The guard saluted, and flew off, as Darkness got himself ready, put on his armor, and cape, and his sword, kissed Luna, and told her where he had to go, and she nodded, and fell back to sleep. With that, Darkness took off to Celestia's castle, and was at the main doors of Celestia's castle, within a few minutes, and the guards automatically opened the doors, seeing Darkness come flying in. And Darkness landed, and went inside, and went to the throne room, which the doors had already been opened. Darkness went in, and the doors closed behind him, as he saw Twilight, her friends, and Snowshy were all here as well, and Celestia waved him over, and he went over to them all. Darkness said with a concerned look, "If you are all here....oh no...what happened?"

Snowshy was the one that spoke, and said, "I think we may have a problem."

Celestia said, "Bolverk has somehow managed to return."

The Journey To The Desert

Darkness calmly said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, everypony, let's not start just jumping to conclusions here, with whatever has threatened Equestria this time. And how do any of know, that this new threat, has anything to do with that mad pony anyways?"

Snowshy said, "Perhaps, you might to want to look outside the window."

Darkness went over to the nearest window, and looked outside, shocked him, as he said, "No way, that's not possible." Darkness couldn't say anything else, as he continued to look outside in horror, he saw the entire ground, had rather large cracks springing up everywhere, with a green glow coming out from the cracks. Darkness turned around, went back to everypony and said, "Okay, okay, there's a reasonable explanation to this, that glow, it looks like a changeling attack, right?"

Everypony looked at him, and said nothing, and Snowshy said, "I know you would rather not believe that it's him, but it's not the changelings, the changelings, if you would've looked closer, at the cracks that are forming, don't look like, walking skeletons, wearing ancient armor, do they?"

Darkness paused, and said, "Okay, I'll look closer." Darkness went back to the window, and looked closer at the cracks, and sure enough, he could clearly see, that all sorts of skeletons, and half-rotten corpses of all sorts of ancient warriors, from the looks of it, were beginning to climb up through the cracks. Darkness left the window, and went back to everypony, and said, "Okay, this is bad, but Bolverk, was sucked in through that vortex, as the gate collapsed on itself, and sealed itself, so I still don't think it's possibly him."

Everypony thought about it, and Rainbow Dash said, "Yeah, you're right, Darkness, maybe we wrong, but who could be possibly could be doing this? That much is clear, somepony is using some sort of spell or something...like...."

Rainbow Dash was cut off, as an all too familiar laugh, echoed in the air, and then, the spiritual figure of Bolverk appeared before them all, and he said, "Hahahaha! That's right, I'm using the forbidden spell, 'Army Of The Dead'! I tried bringing my army back, by bringing them from the past, but you, Darkness, and the rest of your pitiful 'friends', got in my way, and foiled my plans! Not this time you will! This is only the beginning! Soon, I will return to my 'original state'!"

Darkness said, "That's not possible either!"

Bolverk only laughed maniacally, and said, "It is! And there is no way you can stop me! Muwahahahaha! Ahahahaha!" Bolverk then disappeared from their sight, as his voice and laughter, echoed and faded away.

Darkness said, "Okay, correction, it looks like it is clearly Bolverk after all, this is not good."

Rarity said, "Hold on a second, I have a question, what did he mean by 'original state'?"

Applejack said, "I was kind of wonderin' that myself."

Darkness said, "Bolverk plans to not only just raise an army of the dead, but also, to return to his physical body. If he succeeds that, he will try to break the seal, that keeps his physical body, within the throne room, of the capital of the sorcerer ponies, but the thing is..."

Twilight said, "What is it?"

Darkness said, "The sorcerer pony capital, was destroyed, except for the throne room, which was sealed, before the city was stormed, and it's location has been forgotten, luckily, I happen to have a map, in my book here, for some reason, I had feeling, that one of you might have questions to something, so I brought the diary along." Darkness opened the book, as he started to flip through pages and said, "Hmm...let's see here...ah! Here we are!" Darkness pulled out, a very old-looking map, and held it out before everypony, as everypony looked at it. Darkness said, "As you can see, this is a map of Equestria, during the time of the sorcerer ponies, my mother, as she was escaping the city, ran into a dying historian pony, who gave her the map, as he said, "History must be preserved'. Anyways, if I'm correct, let's see here......" Darkness began moving his hoof across the map, and then he stopped, and pointed to a location on the map, and said, "Yes! There it is! This is where the capital was, and if I match the location, with a map of the Equestria of today..." Darkness dug out another map, from his pack, and held it out with his magic, and began to overlay the map he just dug out, over the other one, and he said, "There we go, according to this, the location, is what you all call today 'The San Palomino Desert'."

Rainbow Dash said, "Ugh! Why did it have to be a desert?"

Darkness said, "I take it you don't like deserts?"

Rainbow Dash said, "Do you? The extreme heat, sand everywhere, no water....."

Rarity said, "Not to mention, it would be hard on my hooves, and ruin them!"

Darkness put away the maps, and said, "Well, I don't really like it either, but like it or not, that's where we are heading, we need to get to the capital, before Bolverk does, and destroy what's left of his physical body, it would be best to pack a lot of water with you, we need to go, as soon a possible, or well......."

Twilight said, "Or what?"

Darkness sadly said, "Or there won't be anypony left alive, if Bolverk succeeds."

Twilight said, "Oh."

Princess Celestia said, "We cannot let some ancient mad pony, ruin our lives, and take them away from us, on behalf, of Canterlot, and Equestria, take these with you."

Nopony had realized, that everypony from Canterlot, Ponyville, and The Crystal Empire, was standing in the room, as they all, now stepped forward, and began giving Darkness and the others, as much water as they could carry, and Darkness asked Celestia, "How long have they been standing there?"

Princess Celestia said, "I called everypony, that could show up,for this worldwide emergency, I'm glad I did, I figured that this was problem, everypony needed to know. Plus, with that undead army rising out there, I figured that everypony needed a safe place, to stay until they are taken care of."

Darkness said, "I get it, a good idea, because well, we kind of needed the help, and yeah, everypony needs a safe place to hold out, until we take care of this threat."

As everypony now had plenty of water, Princess Celestia said, "Now, go, and get to that capital, before Bolverk does, we, no, all of Equestria is leaving all our hopes, with you."

Darkness and the others began to set out, as Darkness said to everypony in the room, "Yeah, no pressure now, but I promise you all, my friends, my sister, and myself, we will do all that we can, to stop Bolverk, and his army."

Everypony began cheering them all on, as they continued out of the castle, and down through Canterlot, and as they came to outskirts of Canterlot, they all felt the ground to shake violently, as numerous fallen warriors, began to climb out of the cracks, and were coming right at them, and Darkness said, "We don't have time for this! Everypony! Cut through them, and trot as fast as you can until we get to the desert!" Everypony did as Darkness suggested, and trotted, alongside Darkness, as fast they could, as the violent shaking of the earth only got worse, as they all heard Bolverk's laughter echo through the air, the closer they got to the desert. After two days time, and fighting numerous undead on their way to the desert, they had finally reached the outskirts of the desert. Darkness stopped, looked around and said, "Everypony, take a break for a while, looks like we beat Bolverk, I don't see his spirit anywhere, of course, that doesn't mean to say that he isn't far behind. Besides, we are not going anywhere, till we figure how to get past that." Darkness pointed to the area, in the middle of the desert, and everypony saw what Darkness was pointing at: a massive, powerful, violent whirling sandstorm, encircling a huge area.

As Twilight was still catching her breath, she said, "I take it...that's the capital...right?"

Darkness said, "It sure looks that way."

Twilight asked, "Any ideas how we are going to get past that?"

Darkness said, "Come to think of it, there is a story, that the three tribes, told each other, throughout the generations, but has been forgotten over the years, but if I remember correctly, it went like this: When the great city fell, and was stormed, it's mad ruler, dethroned, betrayed by his own kind. The gods punished the ones that had caused so much pain in the land, by cursing their beloved city, by making sure nopony could ever enter its boundaries ever again. And thus, as long as there remains nothing living in the city, it can never be entered from the outside."

Rainbow Dash said, "So you mean, we came all this way for nothing?!"

Darkness said, "No, not exactly, I just didn't think that story had any truth to it either."

Twilight said, "You should know better than that by now."

Darkness said, "Maybe, I'll see if I can't work on that, after this is all over." Darkness sighed, and said, "Well, it seems, we have to wait for Bolverk, to actually return to his physical body after all. However, once he does, the curse will lift, and we can enter what you all know it as 'The Forgotten City', and destroy Bolverk, before he can find a way to break the seal. Nopony after the war, called it by its true name. The three tribes, did their best, to forget my kind, and its cities, ever existed. In a way, I don't blame them, but it's still kind of sad."

Rainbow Dash said, "Great....now we got to wait...wonderful."

Darkness said, "Look, I'm not thrilled by the idea either, but unless, you have some kind of way to make us invincible from that whirlwind, I'm all ears for any ideas."

Rainbow Dash said, "No, I don't..I was just saying..that now we got to wait."

Darkness said, "I get it, waiting for somepony, that puts everypony in danger, to do the one thing, we originally set out to stop, we now have to wait for him accomplish. And from the looks of it, we don't have to wait long, look!" Darkness pointed to his far right, and everypony looked, and to the far right, high in the sky, was Bolverk. Darkness said, "Everypony! Hide! The last thing we need, is for him to see us! He doesn't know we are here yet!" Everypony said nothing, they all just quickly found a place to hide, as Bolverk had the feeling, he was being watched, and he stopped, looked around, and when he saw nothing, he continued, went through the whirlwind, and out of sight. Everypony came out of their hiding place, and Darkness said, "Whew...okay....that was a little too close for comfort. Any moment now..."

Cracks began to form behind them, and the greenish glow, began to pour out, and Rarity said, "The whirlwind better come down soon, or we may not see another tomorrow, because it looks like too many for us to handle!"

Darkness said, "Come on..." A deafening crash rang out through the air, as the whirlwind, died down, and the city rose slowly from beneath the sand and once the sand and debris settled, Darkness said, "Everypony! Now! Go! I'll slow them down!"

Everypony went, except for Lunar Ebony Blade, as he stood alongside Darkness, and said, "Mind if I help?"

Darkness said, "Why not. Let's drive them back, and trot for it!" Lunar Ebony Blade nodded, drew out his sword, as Darkness drew out his, and together, they drove the army back, as Lunar Ebony Blade blasted them, with massive volleys of purple lightning, as Darkness slashed and mowed down any of the undead, that foolishly stood in his way. Darkness and Lunar Ebony Blade stood back a little, and Darkness said, "That'll have to do. Let's catch up with the others!" Lunar Ebony Blade said nothing, and went to go catch up with Twilight and the others, as Darkness did the same. It wasn't long, before they both caught up with the others, and they all stopped, as they had reached the main gate, that lead into the city. Darkness stood in front of everypony, and said, "Hold on just a second."

Rainbow Dash said, "Oh! Come on! Bolverk's going to break the seal!"

Darkness said, "It's a very powerful seal, even though it is fading, but don't worry, I'll make this quick. We are about to face the physical form of Bolverk, and it will not be so easy, as it was defeating him, in his spiritual form, even though it will take some time, for him to return to his full power, his sword, the 'Nightmare's Revenge', will make him, a fearsome foe. If we are to succeed, we must not falter, we must give it all we got, or he will win, and all of Equestria, will be powerless, to stop him. Okay everypony, ready?" Everypony had very serious faces on, and nodded, and Darkness took a deep breath and said, "Alright, here we go!" As Darkness finished speaking, he and the others, pushed open the main gates, and went into the city.

The Forgotten City

As everypony got through the main gate, the violent shaking stopped, and Darkness said, "Everypony, bar the gate, with whatever you can find, Lunar Ebony Blade and myself, may slowed down that army, but it won't stop them, we need to keep them out of the city, for as long as possible. We need to get to Bolverk, and kill him, again. Once he's defeated, the spell will disperse, and fade off." Everypony found some old carts, and other large old things, and put them in front of the gate, and Darkness said, "That should do, alright, let's get going."

Everypony could immediately tell something was wrong with Darkness, as they all walked along down the street, and Snowshy asked, "What's wrong?"

Darkness said sadly, "I had always imagined you would all get to come here and visit this city....but not like this, I didn't want you all to see it...like this... I also know, that this land, it wasn't always a desert, it used to be a beautiful land, full of life, full of lush trees, and grasslands, and forests, the Gods of Equestria, when they cursed the city, they cursed the land too, a testament, and reminder of the pain and suffering my kind had caused, and as long as evil remains in this city, so shall the land remain a desert. I have seen what it used to be....by sending my consciousness, my soul, to the past, that is how I know, what it once was like, it was quite something let me tell you."

Twilight said, "We understand, this has got to be hard for you, because this time, you're physically here, and with the state it's in..."

Darkness said, "Yeah, it's hard, but we got to keep on moving, I used to send my consciousness, my soul, here all the time, when I was younger, and although I couldn't interact physically with anything, it is still unlike anything I have ever seen. But we best keep on going...Maybe someday, when this is all over, I can take you all there, and you can see it for yourselves."

Rarity said, "I for one, would love to come along, the next time, you go there."

Applejack said, "I usually not one for cities, but if it is as good as you say, I'll come along, after this is all over, of course. And perhaps, maybe once Bolverk is gone for good, maybe the land, will go back to the way it once was." One by one, everypony said the same thing, and

Darkness said, "You guys are the best. And yeah, maybe it will."

Rainbow Dash said, "That's what friends are for!"

Darkness seemed to have his spirits back up, as he said, "Okay, right now, we are in the slums of the city, if I'm right, the path to the stronghold, is straight down this road to the right."

Darkness pointed, as they continued to walk down the road in the middle, and everypony saw where Darkness was pointing, and Rainbow Dash said, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's head down that road!"

Everypony made a turn to the left, and began to head down that road, and Darkness said, "This road is rather long, as we got to follow it, all the way up that giant cliff."

Darkness pointed in the direction of the stronghold castle, which lay on the very top of the cliff, and everypony saw where he was pointing, and Rarity said, "All the way up there? And why so high?"

Darkness said, "Simple, it prevented any enemy, from storming the castle. Well, at least that was the idea, but it couldn't prevent an army of millions, from taking over the city, and storming the castle anyways."

Rainbow Dash said, "Oh, right."

Just about then, the shaking returned, and from beneath them, as cracks began to form, and Darkness said, "Well, so much for sightseeing! Everypony! RUN!!" Everypony trotted as fast they could, as the dead began to rise out of the cracks, and after what felt like forever, they had reached the bottom of the cliff, and everypony took a quick break, and continued, as they all trotted up the long path, that lead up to the castle.

The shaking was getting worse, as a all-too familiar voice said, "What's this? Intruders in my city? Ah! If it isn't Darkness and his so-called friends! Arise! My Army! Take care of these fools!"

Darkness said, "So much for the element of surprise! Bolverk knows we are here! Just keep going!" The shaking was getting worse, as a large part of the ground began to collapse behind them, as a massive swarm, of dead, rose out from it, and Darkness said, "Don't look back! Keep going! We are almost there!" A few moments later, everypony reached the main doors of the castle, and opened the doors, as Darkness ushered everypony inside, and they all closed the doors behind them, and barred the doors, with whatever they could find, and Darkness said, "Let's hope that keeps them out long enough for us, to defeat Bolverk. Alright, let's keep going, the throne room, should a few rooms ahead of us." Everypony just followed Darkness, as they went left first, then left again, the forward three rooms, then right, and then a sharp left, when they came upon, a strange, but rather ornate large doors, with a massive blue glowing symbol on them.

Snowshy said, "Is this...what I think it is? The throne room?"

Darkness said, "It is, but everypony stand back a little, I think I know what particular spell this is, and it might push us back a little, once I break the seal." Darkness closed his eyes, held out his front hooves, and began to speak the words of the ancient ones, as eight orange symbols appeared in front of him, and Darkness opened his eyes, and with one of his hooves, moved the symbols in front of the massive one, and the orange symbols began to slowly spin, and then little by little, it got faster, until both the orange symbols, and the massive one, both turned white, and faded away, as a rather violent shockwave, pushed everypony back a little, followed by a the sound of a 'click'.

Darkness said, "There, the seal is broken, now all that's left, is to.."

Rainbow Dash finished Darkness's sentence, "Defeat Bolverk! Yeah! Let's do this!" Everypony all readied themselves, as Darkness began to open the throne room doors, and everypony went inside, alert and ready for battle.

The Final Showdown

As everypony cleared the throne room doors, the doors automatically shut themselves hard, as a voice from somewhere in the room said, "Welcome to your ancestral home, Darkness." Everypony knew who it was, as everypony looked, around, and saw that the throne room, was very large, and Darkness just pointed to the back of the room, which could not be seen because they were so far away.

Rainbow Dash began to get nervous, and said, "I don't like this guys, this room, gives me the creeps."

Rarity said, "I don't like it either, but keep it together, all of Equestria is counting on us."

Rainbow Dash nervously laughed and said, "Yeah...heh heh....no pressure. Yeah keep it together, yeah sure, got it." Nopony said anything else, as they made their way down the room, and down what looked like a red carpet, with gold stripes, what was left of anyway. Slowly, they had made their way to the back of the room, where they came upon the throne itself as the remains of the four elder sorcerer ponies, lay in front of it: it was a large throne, with the entire throne, made out out of, what looked like onyx, and decorated, with rather large statues of gold-plated armored statues standing at the sides of the throne, as the throne itself, was covered in massive swords, and various skulls over it, as a slumped figure sat in the throne. As everypony got closer, they all saw it was the remains of Bolverk, half way rotted away, the eyes were gone, and he was wearing ornate red armor, and a sword, was clutched in one of his hooves, with a closed eye, in the middle of the blade.

Everypony knew what the sword was, and just about that time, Bolverk's spirit came through a nearby wall, and said, "You're too late! In a few moments, I will arise again, and cut down your friends, and once I'm done with them, I'll cut you down! Because thanks to you, you broke the seal for me. I should've known, that such an easy spell, that kept me shut in here. But soon, that will all change, along with your world! Yes! Soon, the world will know what true terror is! When I'm done with your pathetic world, those that do manage to survive, will either bow to me, or I shall kill them all! hahahaha!" As he finished speaking, nopony said anything, as Bolverk went into his body, and a green light began to glow from within Bolverk's body, and the slumped body, began to move, as Bolverk, put away his sword, got up from his throne, and stood before them, as he said, "Darkness, I offer you, one last time, join me! Think of all the possibilities! We, you and I, are gods, before the rest of this pathetic world! They should be kneeling before us! Help me dominate this world, and I shall see to it, the utopia, we both desire! Bow before your king, and swear your allegiance to me!"

Darkness said as he barred his teeth, and said through them, "I have...no KING! I do not owe any allegiance to you! You were gone, long before I was born! And I will never betray my friends! My friends and I will stop you, this ends right here! Right now!"

Darkness drew his sword, and got into fighting position, as everypony else did, as Bolverk laughed, and said, "Very well, you give me no choice then! I have given you the chance of a lifetime! And you stubbornly refused it! Fine! As king of the sorcerer ponies, I hereby charge you all with treason, and getting in the way, of the rebuilding of this great nation! Today, this is where you shall all fall, and join your ancestors!" And Bolverk drew his sword, and readied himself.

Darkness said, "Not while we all draw breath! You must be stopped! We will see to that, we have to!"

Bolverk laughed, and said, "Desperate, are we? Fine, come at me then!" Everypony let out a war cry, as they all charged at him, as Bolverk himself, stood still, with no expression on his half-rotten face. And as everypony began to try to strike, he simply held up his sword, and the fiery red eye opened, and let out burst of energy, that deflected all their attacks, and pushed them back.

Twilight said, "Wow, that sword is powerful! How we going to get past that?"

Darkness said, "I think I have an idea, everypony, leave this to me!"

Rainbow Dash said, "Are you crazy? Bolverk will tear you apart!"

Darkness said, "I just remembered something, only a sorcerer pony, can defeat a sorcerer pony, and unless, you have the same banishing spell, embedded into your elements of harmony, or your sword, Lunar Ebony Blade, I afraid the rest is up to me."

Twilight said, "What about your sister?"

Darkness said, "Because she had her horn removed, she is only half sorcerer pony. I'm sorry guys, but the rest, lies in my hooves now, please, hold off the army, and keep them out of this room."

Rarity began to say, "But..."

Darkness said, "Just go! Just all of you, trust me, just this once, please!"

Everypony began to back away a little and they went to the middle of the room, as Rainbow Dash called out and said, "You better win, you hear me?! You have to!"

Darkness said to himself, "I know."

Bolverk only mockingly laughed, and said, " A one-on-one battle eh? It would seem, your 'friends', know when to retreat, from a battle, they cannot win, and neither can you, even with that sword, and the spell, it will do you no good."

Darkness said, "Shut up already, and let's end this." Bolverk said nothing else, as the two, matched blow for blow, strike for strike, slash for slash, blocking each other's attacks, as they were fighting all around the back of the room, at a very fast speed.

This went on, for what felt like forever, until finally, Bolverk flew back, and said, "Enough of this already! Fine, if I can't kill you, with sword, I'll kill you the 'other way'!" And with that, he held out a hoof, and a purple flame, appeared within it, and Bolverk thrust the flame, into himself, as he became engulfed with the flame.

Darkness said, "You got to be kidding! Another forbidden spell? The 'Soul Flame'?" Bolverk only smirked, and began casting the soul flame even more, and began shooting at Darkness, as Darkness quickly dodged them, all over the room, at this point. Everypony else, had to move back, but then the throne room doors burst open, as wave of the undead army, tried to pour through, and everypony else, were forced to defend themselves, and began to try to keep them away from Darkness and Bolverk.

Bolverk laughed maniacally, and said, "Dance, Darkness dance!" And Bolverk began to shoot soul flame fireballs, into the air, and in random areas in front of him, Darkness dodged them, one after the other, and then with everything he had, he began to try to throw his sword, and Bolverk said, "Stop!" Everything except for Bolverk, stopped, as Bolverk went over to Darkness and said, "Didn't know I could do that, did you? Like you, I was chosen, long ago, by the gods, to protect time. For all your gifts, even you can still be affected by time itself! Ahahahaha! I will enjoy killing you!" Bolverk then unfroze time, and raised his sword, for the killing blow at Darkness. Darkness knew Bolverk had the ability all along, and simply quickly turned around, and used the momentum, of his sword, and thrust his sword, into Bolverk's skull. Bolverk was surprised, and said, "Ugh! How...is this possible? Darkness said nothing, as he screamed in rage, and was suddenly engulfed in a blue flame, and thrust his sword harder, into Bolverk's skull. Bolverk said, "Ugh! No way! Impossible! 'The Holy Blue Flame'? That's not possible! Not even I could achieve that!"

Darkness's blue flame around him, only grew bigger, as even his eyes and sword, were now, covered in the blue flame, as Darkness gave it everything he had, and pushed the sword deeper into Bolverk's skull. Bolverk dropped his sword, as his own blood came forth from the wound, and he said, "If.....I will die again...and be permanently banished from the mortal realm.....so....shall...you!" Everypony else managed to drive off, the army, for now, as they all turned around, and saw what was going on. Bolverk screamed in anger, and shot the soul flame at Darkness, and pushed him off of him, as Darkness was pushed back.

Bolverk saw the others, and began to try cast the flame at them, but was beat down, by Darkness, and as the two locked and grinded swords, Darkness yelled out, "RUN!!! Get out of here!"

Twilight said, "We are not leaving without you!"

Darkness said, "If you don't, once Bolverk dies, the whole place, will coming down!"

Snowshy started to say, "But brother..."

Darkness said, "Please! I beg you! As my friends, Go!" And with that, Darkness summoned a force field, and pushed them all out, and blocked them from entering the room.

They others began to retreat as Twilight said, "Just get out of here, once Bolverk's taken care of, okay? Let's celebrate once it's all over, okay?" Darkness gave a nod, and Twilight left with the others, as Darkness was pushed back by Bolverk again, as Bolverk casted a massive blast of soul flame, and aimed it Darkness. Darkness continued to charge again, and was hit with the soul flame, Darkness screamed out in pain, and in rage, as the blue flames, only grew bigger, and Darkness continued his advance.

Bolverk increased the size and power of the soul flame, but Darkness kept on moving, and then with a violent leap, buried his sword, into Bolverk's skull, as Bolverk began to weaken, he raised his sword, but Darkness put his blade through the eye of Bolverk's blade, killing the sword's powers and Bolverk's army of the dead spell began to dissipate, as Bolverk said, "Damn you!.....You are coming with me!"

Bolverk began to focus all his remaining power, and shot it all himself, causing the magic within him, to explode, as the entire room, Darkness and Bolverk, were covered in a powerful soul flame explosion, as the castle began to collapse.

Meanwhile the others, were still in the castle, and when they saw the castle was beginning to crumble, Twilight said to herself, "He's done it." She then addressed everypony, and said, "We need to get out of here!" Nothing more was said, as everypony trotted like they have never trotted before, as falling debris, and parts of the ceiling fell everywhere, in front of them, beside them, and all around them, as they all dodged the falling parts of the castle, and when Twilight saw the exit, she said, "We are almost there!" Everypony dashed through the doors, which had been burst open by the undead army, and began to continue trotting down the cliff, as the cliff itself began to cave in, and then Twilight saw the gap. and when everypony came to it, she said, "Everypony! Jump!" Everypony with every bit of effort, jumped over the large gap, and turned around, as they watched, the cliff, and the castle, crumbled, and fell into the caved-in hole, a massive wave of dust covered most of the area ahead of them, up, and then they all saw the purple explosion gush up, as it rose high into the sky, and blew up in a massive, tower-like way, even higher in the sky.

And Rarity said, as they watched the explosion, and as everything around them was either on fire, by a normal flame, or was on fire by the soul flame, "Do you think..he made it out?"

Twilight said, "He had to of, I didn't see him fall into the hole."

Pinkie Pie said, "So where is he?"

The Death Of Darkness

As the dust settled, everypony began looking around, and they all began to see grass, trees, and other plant life, sprout forth from beneath the ground, and in a few moments time, the entire area, was no longer desert, but a beautiful landscape, with them all now standing in middle of a grassland, with the city a little ways behind them. Twilight said, "Does anypony see Darkness?"

Rarity pointed in front of her, and said, "There! Is that him?" Everypony looked to where Rarity was pointing, and out a ways ahead of them, was a battered, limping figure, with black and red armor, and a katana.

Twilight said, "Yeah, that's Darkness, but..something's wrong...."

Fluttershy said, "He looks badly hurt."

Twilight said, "Let's go, and heal his wounds." At the same time, they heard the rush of wings and the glimpse of a blue-ish mare with a sparkling mane, as it landed not too far away from Darkness, and began trotting towards him.

Snowshy said, "Is that who I think it is?"

Twilight gasped, and said, "It's Princess Luna! Let's go!" Everypony began to trot towards Darkness, as he continued to limp towards them. When he saw Luna, he smiled, his sword fell out of its straps, a little ways behind him, seeing as the straps had been badly burnt and Darkness began to falter, and began to fall, and Luna got there, just in time, and caught Darkness in her hooves, as she sat down, and layed him on her lap.

Darkness said to her, "Luna....I'm glad you're here...I'm glad I got to see you..at least one more time....Are the others okay?"

Princess Luna said, "What are you talking about? We'll have you healed up soon. And yes, the others are fine, they should be here shortly."

Darkness said through heavy breaths, "Good, good, I'm.....I'm glad they made it...I'm so glad.."

Princess Luna said, "Save your strength, my dear, the others will be here."

Darkness put a hoof on her face, and brushed it a little, and said, "I have to say this, because I may not get another chance to, but when our children are born, I don't want my legacy, my deeds, to make them feel less of themselves, and for good or for evil, their path, their destinies, will be up to them. So please, let them choose what they want to do with it, okay?" Darkness then put his hoof back down, and put it on his chest.

Luna said, "Okay, I will."

Darkness said, "Although, however, As much as I would love to see them, and cherish each and every day with them, it was just not meant to be, and I want you to tell them, how sorry I....am for that....I wish I could be there....I would rather they don't choose the path of evil...but if it comes to that....what must be done...must be done....somepony like Bolverk....must never come to emerge again....okay?"

Luna said with tears, "What are asking me, is to go against our children, if they go evil. How can I do that?"

Darkness said, "You, will not be the one that does, I am telling...you if it ends up that way...somepony must rise up...and put down the evil.."

Luna said, "I can only hope, that our children, choose a good path then." Darkness only nodded, and both of them, began to hear hooves, coming their way.

Everypony got there, shortly after, and once they were all there, Darkness smiled, and said, "I'm glad....you all made it..."

Twilight said to Princess Luna, "How is he?"

Princess Luna said, "From the looks of it, badly injured, from the inside out. But he'll be fine, once we get him to a hospital and use some of these."

Princess Luna took out some purple potion, and opened the bottle, and Darkness held out a hoof to stop her from pouring it on his wounds, and he said, "Don't....you only make it worse..."

Princess Luna said, "Are you crazy? Just take this, and you'll be better soon."

Darkness said, "I'm afraid, that's.....not meant to be.....I've been injured and afflicted by the soul flame, there is no cure..I'm afraid..this....is where my journey...ends."

Princess Luna put away the potion, and said, "The soul flame? Perhaps potions won't work then, maybe a spell will..."

Darkness said, "No...! That will only make it worse, the spell, was made, to make anything that might remedy the injuries, the soul flame causes, to only speed up the process, making the injured one die faster..."

Princess Luna began to sob loudly, and began to cradle Darkness, and said, "No! I won't believe it! There has to be something!"

Darkness held up a hoof, wiped away her tears, and gave her a loving look, as they kissed, and he said, "It's the truth, it's only a matter...of time... But...before I pass...there is something...that I must do....Please....Snowshy...Twilight...come here and step forth..."

Snowshy and Twilight did as Darkness had asked, and he said, "Come closer." They did, and he said, "For you, my sister, I give you...this...it is the 'Stone Of Transformation', it's a stone, I forged, back...when we was in the Crystal Empire, from...a rare metal...called Rainbow ore..I had been saving it for something special...I couldn't think of anypony better...than to give it to you....Once you touch it....it will be connected to your mind...and it transform into whatever you need...a weapon...armor...anything you could ever need..."

Snowshy took the stone, and said through tearful eyes, "Thank you, brother, I'll take good care of it."

Darkness nodded, and said to Twilight, "For you, Twilight....ugh! I have for you, 'The Staff Of Arvak'....This staff once belonged to the mad sorcerer, who made the holy sword...It has the ability, to enhance the user's magic power, and learning ability....Use with caution, and use wisely....Twilight....or you'll end up mad...like Arvak."

Twilight took the staff humbly, and with a shaky voice, said, "I'll be careful, thank you."

Darkness said, "The rest of you, come here....I have things for you too." Snowshy and Twilight stepped back, as the others came to Darkness's side, and he said to Lunar Ebony Blade, "For you, I give you 'The Boots Of Ogron'....they speed you up, as you trot, but also as you swing your...sword."

Lunar Ebony Blade took the boots, and said, "Thank you."

Darkness looked at Applejack and said, "For you, I give the horseshoes, and rope, of a famous sorcerer pony farmer....with them....it will help..you...do farm tasks...that are otherwise...too much for one pony to handle...the rope will never break, and the horseshoes...will never rust."

Applejack took the horseshoes, and the rope, and sadly said, "Thanks Darkness."

Darkness then spoke to Fluttershy, as he said, "For you, I give you....what was once...a monster book...but I remade it....to contain..all the info on every....creature in Equestria....all known ones....and unseen ones....."

Fluttershy said through her tears, "Darkness....thank you.."

Darkness then said, to the remaining three, "Pinkie Pie....I give to you....'The Organizer's Chart', it once....belonged to a famous party planner in the sorcerer pony capital, who only went by the name of....'The Organizer'. With it...you'll never lose track of any and all parties you have planned. To you, Rainbow Dash....I give you the lance, sword...and armor...of Commander Hurricane herself....I found out....two years...ago...that you are a descendant of her...and when I found out....I found these things..with a note saying...'Please pass this on to my descendant', the armor will never...rust...scratch...bend...or melt....use them well.... And for you, Rarity...I give you the robe, and crown of Princess Platinum herself....I also found out...that you are a descendant of her, and I found these items for you....with a note that said, 'Pass this on to heir of the throne of the ice kingdom'....it also came with a map, as to where this kingdom is located....it is up to you..what you do with your heritage..." Each one took their items, and tearfully thanked Darkness, and took a step back, as Darkness looked back at Princess Luna lovingly.

Princess Luna looked back at him, with much affection, and was still sobbing, and Darkness said, "My dear....don't cry..."

Princess Luna said, "How can I not? I'm losing you, at there's nothing I can do to help you!"

Darkness said calmly and in a loving, soothing tone, "My time with you....has felt like millions of years worth of memories....my life may end here.....but yours does not...none of yours do.....I may be gone soon...but look at what you've gained...all of you.."

Princess Luna said, through the tears, "And what is that? I'm losing the one thing....I cared for most! The one thing I cherish the most!"

Darkness said, "You all....have....a future now...you all have a tomorrow.....you all still live." Darkness put a hoof, on Princess Luna's face, wiped away her tears, and said, "You...,must live....for our children....if nothing else....continue to live...for me...."

Princess Luna said, "But I can't live without you!"

Darkness said, as he drew her in, and kissed her, and she lifted her head back up, so he could speak, "You can...because I will always be with you....when I pass...I give my soul to you....my soul...with turn to a indestructible crystal....I will live on, through the memories we shared, and the lives we all saved today."

Princess Luna began to sob harder, and said, "But it won't be the same, without you actually there! I wanted to spend an eternity with you!"

Darkness said, "And so did I....but that is not meant to be.....fate seems to have other plans for me..." Darkness ushered the others close, and he said, "I...want you all....to do the same....keep on living...for me...for your friends....for everypony.... and for this world....because it....is under your protection now.....keep it...safe...so that one day....all species of ponies....may someday...all get along...and accept each other one....day." Darkness's breath began to grow short, as he raised a hoof, and said, "My...friends....my sister..........my dear....sweet Luna....continue to live....live strong.....and thank you...all for......everything.....I leave the rest to you all...my dear.....my sister.........my friends....." Darkness's hoof slowly lowered, and then fell to the left, as Darkness drew his last breaths, and died, in Luna's hooves, and as Darkness's head grew limp in her lap, as everypony lowered their heads, and mourned the loss of their friend, as Luna held Darkness close, crying uncontrollably, and rocking back and forth. And as if the planet mourned the loss, the sun was a bit less brighter, than it usually was, Darkness's soul, then turned into a beautiful, transparent, see-through rainbow-colored crystal, and landed in front of Princess Luna.

Inside The Crystal Castle Part 2

Step by step, Applejack and the others slowly, but surely, entered the throne room, and everypony stopped, and looked around with their eyes, everypony dared not to get off the path, and risk, a rather horrible death. Applejack spotted it first, and she pointed it out, and said, " Everypony! Look! There it is! It's on the throne!"

Snowshy said, " Well, brother, that was a good guess, are you sure you don't know what's going on here?"

Darkness said, " No, I just started of thinking of the obvious places first."

Snowshy said, " Yeah, that makes sense, sorry for doubting you brother."

Darkness said, " It's fine, I'm used to it, by now...."

Applejack said, " I hate to interrupt, but how are we going to get that crystal? I'm guessing flying up there is bad idea, right?"

Darkness said, " You would be right, one of us will have to get on the throne and get as close as we can to a window, and throw the thing, be careful, though, it might be set with traps."

Applejack said, " Good thinkin, Darkness, shucks, I'll go get it, I know my way around here anyways, the rest of you, just stay where you are."

Rarity said sarcastically, " Oh, yeah, sure, very funny Applejack, no rush, it's like we're all going to die or anything!"

Applejack said, " Would you calm down? And have a little faith while you're at it." Applejack didn't say anything else, as she slowly, got to the throne chair, picked up the crystal carefully, and stood still for couple of seconds. When nothing happened, she got off the chair, and went to an area that way away from the rest of the group, and she said, " Okay, here goes nothin." And with that, Applejack threw the crystal as hard as she could, in front of her, and the crystal shattered, and the darkness opened up a small glimmer of light, proving to the others, that Applejack had hit a window. All of sudden, a violent rush of air came out of nowhere, and rushed out of the window, and it took the darkness with it, and then it all dissipated, leaving behind the room the way it once was before the spell was cast.

Rainbow Dash cheered and said, " Good guess and good job Applejack, I never doubted you!"

Rarity scoffed, and said, " Is that so, Rainbow Dash? You were the one that was most worried that Applejack wasn't going to hit a window."

Rainbow Dash said, " I don't know what you are talking about Rarity."

Everypony laughed, and Darkness said, " Okay, now that the castle is back to normal, we should be able to open the castle doors now."

Everypony went back to main entrance of the castle, and Rainbow Dash got to the doors first, but they wouldn't budge, and she said, " What's going on? I can't open them! It's like they are locked!!"

Twilight gasped, and said, " Oh! I just remembered, Shining Armor was telling me, that he cast a new spell that he's been working on and perfected, and the day, that everything went wrong in here, he cast a spell on the entire castle, that makes the castle lock itself, when there are evil threats are within it's walls, and it will also lock itself if something gets stolen. So if the doors, are still locked, then that means..."

Darkness finished her sentence, and said, " Then something's missing, but I'm not sure what. But we already took care of the 'Forbidden Spell', what is the castle trying to tell us?"

Snowshy said, " I suppose we should look around for clues, maybe we'll find something."

Fluttershy spoke, " I agree with Snowshy."

Darkness said, " That seems to be the best course of action, we should start looking then and spread out, we'll find out what's going here, faster, that way." Everypony nodded, and spread out, and two hours later, everypony heard a scream, and Darkness said to himself, who was in the main corridor, " That sounded like.....Twilight! It sounded like it came from....the throne room!" He turned around and trotted as fast as he could, and he could hear in the distance, that the others heard it as well, and were all heading as fast they could in the same direction. They all got there at the same time, and almost ran into each other, and they all looked around the throne room, and found Twilight with a look of shock on her face, in the top right corner of the throne room, that was closest to the throne room chair.

Everypony rushed to her, and Pinkie Pie said, " What's wrong Twilight? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Twilight looked at them all with much shock, and worry on her face and said, " I'm fine, but I think I know why we can't leave yet."

Darkness said with concern, " Okay, Twilight, we're listening."

Twilight calmed down a little, sat down, and said, " I also just remembered, a couple days before everything happened, and you Darkness, came to Ponyville, I got a letter from Princess Cadence, telling me that she had ordered her guards to move the mirror that is also a portal to the human world, to have it moved to the throne room, within eyesight, so that way, if anything tried to come through, she would see it, but to also prevent anypony from stealing the mirror. So the guards moved it right beside the throne room chair, to the right of it. She told me this, in case, I wanted to visit, that way I would know where it's new location was. As I came in here, I remembered that, I looked around, and it's not here. And I remember visiting the castle the same day I got the letter, and it was right here, and then I went home, and then a couple days later, nopony could get into the Crystal Castle, and the mirror is not here!"

Darkness sat down, with one hoof on his chin, and said, " Hmmmm....now it makes sense why we can't leave, this 'mirror' belongs here, and the castle knows that, but apparently somepony of high power stole it, and then cast a powerful magic barrier, and a 'Forbidden Spell, just to cover their tracks, and to keep out anypony that might try to investigate the situation."

Snowshy began to look around and tapped Darkness on the shoulder, and said, " Twilight's right, the mirror's gone, but it feels like, it's not even in this dimension, like it's almost...."

Twilight gasped again and said, " Like it's been taken to the human world! Oh no! What are we going to do? What are we going to do?"

Twilight began to fret, and walk around in small, frantic circles, and Darkness said, " Calm, down, Twilight, everything will be fine."

Twilight said, " No! You don't understand, without the mirror, we cannot get to the human world! It was our only means of getting there! Without it, we're stuck here!"

Darkness said, " I see, but we can still go there."

Twilight looked Darkness dead in the face, and said, "How?"

Darkness said with a smirk, " Me, I can get us there, just tell me what this 'human world', looks like, and I can take us there."

Snowshy asked, " How can you do that?"

Darkness said, " Simple, seeing as I am the 'chosen one', and also a chosen 'time protector', I can not only travel through time, whenever I please, but I can also create and close portals to different worlds, and dimensions, it came with being a 'time protector'. I'm sorry everypony, I should've told you all sooner, I just didn't want you all to fear me, and think less of me....so I kept my 'special powers' a secret from you all, including you, Snowshy."

Everypony was stunned, and little hurt, and Snowshy said, " So, you're saying, you didn't trust us enough, to tell us what you could and couldn't do, in case we might need your help someday? I thought you trusted us all, I guess I was wrong."

Darkness said, with sadness, " No, it's not like that, I just didn't want you all to distance yourselves from me, if you knew I could do that..."

Snowshy said, " Now, why, brother, would we think that? Your powers make you who you are, they are a part of you, and you don't use them for evil, you have a good heart, we all know you would never do anything to hurt anypony."

Darkness said, " I'm sorry, I just didn't want to lose any of you as friends, I also didn't want to lose my sister."

Rarity said with scoff, " Like that's going to happen, we would never abandon you, Darkness, you're our friend, I, for one, think it's very cool, that you can do that. Instead of fearing your powers, embrace them, and trust us, as we have always trusted you."

Darkness said, " Thank you all...I wish I would've told you sooner now, I don't know what I was thinking...."

Rainbow Dash said, " Well, no time, like the present, you can always tell us now, what can you really do?"

Darkness nodded, and said, " I owe you all an explanation, and yes, you're right, Rainbow Dash, there is no time like the present."

Darkness took a deep breath, and said, " I can do many things, I have the entire history of the world, and events in my head, up to my birth, my mother documented and wrote down everything she discovered, and the four elder sorcerer ponies, contributed all their knowledge, as well, which, with all that together, these five ponies, were among some the most proficient minds that knew history, so I got the chance of a lifetime, to learn the history of the world, all the way up to my birth, from there, I don't really know much of the history of the world from that point on, I stayed within the forest most of the time, I didn't come out, except for the years, I tried to go to school, which ended in disaster. Also, I can time travel, to anytime, to anyplace, I do this, by taking my consciousnesses, my soul, and casting a magic barrier around myself, and sending my consciousness and my soul, to any time. For places, I simply make a portal, and take my body and all, wherever I want to go, the same goes for different worlds, and dimensions. And well, you all know the rest of what I can do, I am a master at fighting with the sword, I am also very proficient in history and my personality is a unique one, which I have difficulties trying to express myself, and well, that's pretty much it, the rest is just small stuff, I just told you all the major things."

Applejack said, " Wow, Darkness, that is impressive, I didn't know you could do all that."

Twilight said, " I'm pretty sure, no matter how hard I tired, could I just send myself to different world or dimension, it's a unique skill, that only you can do, and I agree with what Rarity said earlier, you should embrace your talents Darkness, don't fear them, or they will control you."

Everypony agreed, and Darkness said, " You guys really are the best friends a pony like me could ever ask for, and the best sibling ever as well."

Twilight said, " That's what friends are for!"

Snowshy said happily, " We got your back, brother!"

Darkness said, " Okay, thank you all, really, so, what is this 'human world' like? And what is a 'human'?"

Twilight said, " It might be better to explain when we get there, but only myself, you and Snowshy can go, if the others go, there would be consequences, for two of the same kind of...uh...humans in the same dimension, is not a very good idea."

Darkness said, " I understand that, very well then." Darkness stopped for a moment and then said, "Alright, now that we know that the mirror been stolen, and now that we know where it's at, shall we go get back what belongs in this world?"

Snowshy said, " Sure, but can you actually take us all with?"

Darkness said, " Well, it will a bit of challenge, but I've done crazier things, we have no choice, now do we?"

Snowshy said, " I suppose not, will it hurt any of us?"

Darkness said, " No, just as long you all hold on tight to each others hooves, the first time, traveling this way, can be quite, how can I say this, 'quite a rush'. So hold on tight, and DO NOT let go of each other's hooves okay?"

Snowshy said, " I just had to ask, didn't I?"

Darkness said, " You all will be fine, but Twilight, be sure to hold on to my right hoof, you'll be my guide, to tell what I'm looking for, it can also get very loud traveling at the speed of light, so speak loudly, okay? And somepony can hold my other hoof, if they want."

Twilight said, " Okay, but I tend to grip excessively when I get nervous."

Darkness said, " I'll keep that in mind, now that is settled, everypony, grab each other's hooves tightly, and form a small circle" Everypony did as Darkness asked, and he said, " Ready? Okay, one, two, three, here we go!" Darkness's cutie mark began to glow, as well, his eyes and horn, as he closed his eyes, and focused, and many strange circles, and 40 stars, with many points, and other strange shapes, began to form around the group, as it all moved, slowly, at first, around the group, and then it all moved faster and faster, beneath all their hooves, and then it all began to glow brightly, and then in a flash, Twilight, Snowshy, and Darkness were gone from the crystal castle, and the last thing they all heard was the others telling them good luck.

A New Future, A New Day, And A New Legacy Begins

Hours later, everypony, from all over Equestria, and Twilight, her friends, Snowshy, Lunar Ebony Blade, were just outside Canterlot, in a big area, as everypony sat down, and Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Twilight, and her friends, Lunar Ebony Blade, and Snowshy, all stood in front of everpony, as Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had Darkness's sword in their hooves, and put it on a table nearby as Princess Celestia went to podium first, and said, "Before I say anything else, I would like, Princess Luna, to say what she wants to, she has the right after all that has happened today."

Princess Celestia stepped back, and Princess Luna stepped forward as she was now wearing Darkness's soul crystal, on her, in the form of a necklace, and she said, as she began to tear up a little, "Everypony, today, as you know, Bolverk has been defeated, and permanently banished from this world.... But I lost my husband in the process, but he fought, and gave up even his life, so that we all, can continue to live, and grasp hold of this future we have been given. So I ask you all, don't let his sacrifice go in vain, let us continue to live, and let's start out today, making and building a future, worth telling throughout the ages, and as my husband wished, that one day, all species of ponies, and creatures alike, will set aside their differences, and all get along, and accept each other for who they are, not for what they look like, or what species they are. So I only hope, that one day, his final wish for this world, can be realized someday...thank you."

Everypony in the audience, had either been tearing up, or was crying at this point, as they all clapped their hooves a little, and went quiet, as Princess Celestia stepped up to the podium, and said, "Today is a day of mixed blessings, for on this day, Equestria has been saved from total annihilation, but at the loss, of somepony, I know, we all respected, and looked up to. Darkness faced much hardship in his life, but he didn't let that get in the way, of seeing what was truly important. I, for one, want to realize his last wish for this world, so I ask you all, that someday, we can, together, realize that dream! Let us remember today, for what we have all gained, and what we have lost, on this day, it shall be a holiday, a day of rest, a day of remembrance, today shall be forever be known as 'Darkness Day', where we will celebrate our victory on this day, but remember the heavy cost of what was taken away from all of us, in order for us, to continue to live, and keep this world safe. So, I ask you, let us never let his selfless sacrifice go in vain. I for one, considered Darkness, a close friend of mine, and he will be greatly missed, but not only did he, his friends, and his sister, give us a future, and a tomorrow, he gave us, the history, that we never knew. Let us learn, and let us continue to live, for him, for our friends, for each other, thank you all. And now, I think his friends, had something they want to say."

Princess Celestia stepped back, as everypony said or did nothing, they just paid attention, and listened, as Twilight went to the podium, and said, "I speak for myself, and my friends, because we all feel the same way, we all lost a friend, we deeply respected, and cherished. I only wish, that there could've been some other way, but in the end, we wouldn't have been victorious, if he hadn't been there, as he once said us, 'Only a sorcerer pony, can defeat a sorcerer pony, unless you have the same spell, embedded into your sword, or element of harmony, I'm afraid it's in my hooves now'." Twilight paused, as she began to tear up, and with her voice shaking up every now and then as she spoke, she continued, "In end, he knew what he had to do, and he knew that he had to be the one, to end it all, so let us always remember for what he, gave to us, and what he left behind for us all, let it not be in vain, thank you."

At this point, the crowd, was all crying, as Twilight stepped back, and Snowshy went up to the podium, and said, "My brother, even in his earlier years, was always unique, he wanted to be himself, and when society then, shunned him, and treated him badly, for that, he fell into despair, and fell victim to Darkness Night. When Darkness was returned to his original self, he once told me, 'I have caused so much pain in this world, if I have to give up my life, then so be it. It is the least I can do, I have a debt to repay, and I'll give anything, to keep those I love, and this world safe from harm.' My brother never stopped believing in a better world, a better place, with not one care for his own safety, he truly loved this world, and everything in it. So from now on, let us continue to live, and realize his final wish, thank you."

Everypony clapped their hooves together, through the tears, and Snowshy stepped back, as Lunar Ebony Blade came up to the podium, and everypony went quiet, as he began to speak, "I may be from a different world, and I may have not been here for very long, when this all started, but I have to say, Darkness was a one-of-a-kind friend, he knew what he had to do, he knew the risks, and he did it anyways, because that's how much he wanted to keep us all safe, so let us just realize his final wish, his dream, one day, thank you."

Everypony clapped their hooves a little, as Lunar Ebony Blade backed away from the podium, as Princess Celestia went up to the podium, and said, "Thanks to Darkness, Darkness's friends, and his sister, they have told me, where, he wanted to be buried, so if you will join us, on the highest hill, in the Unicorn Range, we hope to see you there, thank you." Everypony began to follow Princess Celestia and the others, and they all headed for the Unicorn Range, and 30 minutes later, they had all arrived, as everypony stood around Darkness's grave. His grave also had a large statue in front of it, as it had him holding his Katana in front of him, with a serious, but determined face. Just then, eight strong ponies, came slowly through the crowd, carrying a very large and beautiful casket of Darkness, as Darkness himself, was inside, as the top of the casket was opened, and his eyes closed, and his hooves crossed, close to his neck. The eight ponies, layed down the casket on the ground, right in front of the open hole, and Princess Celestia, said, "Before he is buried and layed to rest, for those you, that want to pay your respects, may do so now."

Everypony of all kinds, of different species, and even the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, the griffons, and the dragons showed up, to pay their respects. One by one, as everypony passed, flowers, ornate metals, prized possessions, were layed on the casket.

When Princess Luna got to the casket, she kissed Darkness's lips, one last time, and said, "I will always love you...rest in peace. I can't wait till we meet again, in our next life."

And with that, she moved on, sobbing a little, as Snowshy went up to the casket, hugged Darkness and said, "Thank you brother...for everything...I promise you...I will keep this world safe. I will never forget what you've done for us. I will miss you."

Snowshy then put a gem, with the color of her mane in the casket, beside Darkness's head, and moved on, and Twilight and her friends, went up to the casket, and each said something to Darkness, hugged him, and each put a a gem, each one the color of each one's coat, beside Darkness's head, as Twilight said, "Now, even in death, we will be there for you, rest in peace, Darkness, leave the rest to us."

Twilight and her friends then moved on. Lunar Ebony Blade went up to the casket, and said, "Thank you, for what you did for us all. Rest in peace."

And Lunar Ebony Blade put a gem, the color of his coat, in the casket beside Darkness's head, and moved on. After everypony got to pay their respects, Princess Celestia said, as everypony now was standing around the grave once more, "Princess Luna, I think you should be the one to give the order."

Princess Luna nodded, as she said through tearful eyes, "Thank you, my sister....You are free to put him to rest now."

The eight ponies, closed the casket, and picked it up, and carefully lowered the casket, into the open hole, and began to bury it, as Princess Celestia, said, "Darkness, rest in peace, may you find the joy and peace in the next life, as you did in this one. Farewell, we will never forget you." At this point, even Princess Celestia started crying, as everypony did as well, and after the hole was filled up, everypony went to the statue, and layed all sorts of flowers in front of it, and began to leave.

Queen Chrysalis, the changelings, and the dragons went up Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and the others, and as Queen Chrysalis said, "Because I respected Darkness, and for what he stood for, we, the changelings, have agreed, not to attack for ten years, after that, we will be back, and will come for you all."

Princess Luna said, "Very well, and we will be ready for you."

Queen Chrysalis smirked, and gave an order, as she and the changelings began to leave, and the dragon lord stepped up, and said, "Because of Darkness's noble sacrifice, we hereby want to make an alliance with you all, if you ever need our help, just call us."

Princess Celestia said, "Thank you, and we accept, may we deepen our friendship together." The dragon lord nodded, and gave an order, as the dragons began to fly away.

Twilight and the others went up to Princess Luna, as Twilight said, "I can only imagine how you feel right now, but if you ever need anything, just call us."

Princess Luna said, "Thank you all, I really do appreciate it."

Twilight then said, "I heard Darkness talking about 'your children', what did he mean by that?"

Princess Celestia said nothing, and Princess Luna had to answer, and said, "I am pregnant, with two foals, and I found out, just before we got here, that I will having a colt, and a filly."

Princess Celestia then said, "I can only imagine, how happy Darkness was."

Princess Luna replied, "He was overjoyed, even though, at the time, we didn't know, what I was having."

Princess Celestia said, "But he would've been so happy nonetheless."

Princess Luna said, "I know he would've been. Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll just stay here for a while. And I want to take Darkness's sword sent to my home, if you don't mind." Princess Celestia nodded, and gave an order to a nearby guard, to send Darkness's sword, to Princess Luna's castle, and she was done giving the order, the others nodded, as they began to leave, as Princess Luna sat in front of the statue of Darkness, and sobbed.

Twilight said to Princess Celestia, "Will she be alright?"

Princess Celestia said, "I don't know, but she won't be for a while, in the meantime, I volunteered, to take on her duties, as Princess Of The Night, by raising, and lowering the moon, on top of my own duties, for as long as she needs."

Twilight said, "That's very kind of you, if we can help, in any way, let us know."

Princess Celestia said, "Thank you all, I'll let you all know soon, if I could use some assistance. Now, I must go, I need to get ready, to lower the sun, it's getting close to time, to raise the moon." As Princess Celestia finished speaking, she flew off, towards Canterlot.

Everypony else then left, except, for Snowshy, Twilight, and Lunar Ebony Blade, as Twilight asked Lunar Ebony Blade, "Now, that it's all over, and Equestria has been saved, and you have realized your true talent. And even recovered your family's sword, what will you do now? And where will you be staying? Are you going to stay here, in Equestria, or will you go back to the human world?"

Lunar Ebony Blade replied, "I have decided, I would rather stay here, than go back to the human world, there's nothing worthwhile for me, in the human world anymore anyways. And as far as what I will do now, I don't know, I guess I'll figure it out, as time goes on. However, I do know, I would like to rebuild my family's legacy, and home, someday."

As he finished speaking, Twilight said, "And I can say, for everypony, that we all would be very happy, to see that someday, and I'm sure, Darkness would be happy too."

Lunar Ebony Blade said, "He probably would be."

Just about then, Snowshy said, "Well, I think I'll go into a temporary hero retirement for a while, and enjoy some much-needed time, with my special somepony, see you all later!"

And with that, Snowshy flew off, and Lunar Ebony Blade left, as Twilight said to herself, "Today is new day, today, a brand new future, begins. With a true tomorrow in sight, we can work together, and keep this world safe, we owe it to Darkness, and to our friends. A brand new legacy begins, as now history, will finally know the truth, of the truth, that was kept from us." Twilight grew silent for a moment, and then began to walk home, and she then she said to herself, "Yes....a new day begins, and a new legacy, it has only just begun.....I can only wonder, what the future holds for us all..." Twilight said nothing else, as the sun began to lower, and the night sky filled the sky and the moon began to rise.

A Sorcerer's Vision, Part 1

"When two world's meet, the reformed sorcerer will need to choose between two different fates..." Darkness opened his eyes, meditating in his study, as he did at this time of the day. He sighed, and said, "If only I could see more, this is only part of it, I know it, oh well, I guess there's always tomorrow, although I would like to get to the bottom of this..."

Just then, his study room door opened, and in walked Luna, and Luna asked Darkness, "Did you have that vision again? Has you found out anything new?"

Darkness shook his head, and said, "Sadly, no, it's still just a portal-like vision, and that phrase again."
Luna came towards Darkness, kissed and hugged him, "You shall figure it out, after all you are a sorcerer pony after all, the last one of your kind."

Darkness grew saddened by that and said, "Yeah, I know, don't remind me, it's still a very lonely feeling knowing I am the only one of my kind left but I feel like its my duty to set things right now for all my ancestors and rewrite history as it happened and not some assumption."

Luna said, "You shouldn't worry now, because you are not alone anymore, you have friends now, Twilight, Spike, and the rest of her friends in Ponyville, and, you have me as well. And I will help you accomplish these things but you must remember it must be done for more than just that."

Darkness smiled, and hugged and kissed her back, and said, " I know, I know, I understand, you're right as always. However.....hmph..... I have no need for such things... I have you my love, this castle with you and I have this study, and I have all the books that I am writing to fix history so everypony will know the truth about what really has happened not only during the times of my kind, the sorcerer ponies, but during the very beginning of all things. "

Luna said, " Stubborn, as always, but perhaps you should visit them, after all, you haven't seen them since..."

Darkness put a hoof on her mouth and said, "Please don't say it, those days, I'm still struggling with, I still blame myself for what happened."

Luna said, "Then visiting your friends would be good for you then, and perhaps you can finally forgive yourself for what happened two years ago. You know nopony ever blamed you for what happened, everypony knew it wasn't you, it was Darkness Night, and he has been vanquished, and his remains have been split apart, and are in very well protected and strictly guarded areas." Darkness said nothing, he just had his head down, deep in his thoughts, a deep sadness in his eyes.

Luna said, "I shall prepare a transport for you to go to Ponyville tomorrow, and it's alright we still have a couple of weeks before we need to start any preparations for the wedding."

Darkness said, "But I...."

Luna said, "No buts, you need to go see your friends, whether you call them that or accept them as that or not, and besides, they might be able to help you make more sense out that vision of yours. Plus, it would be good for you to get out of this study, you spend a bit too much time here, gaining knowledge, and studying is good, and fixing history is admirable but spending half the day here, and the other half during the night you spend with me, you need a break from all these books, and you could use the fresh air as well."

Darkness smiled, hugged her, and said, "I could use some fresh air, I guess, and as far as the rest of what you said...pffttt...I don't......need......silly....things...such...as...friends.... And yeah, I suppose Twilight might be able to help me figure this out, something about this vision tells me, this is way bigger than what happened two years ago. You're also right, it's true, perhaps I spend too much time in this study."

Luna said "Then it's settled, but I have to ask, could you spend the night awake with me and watch me raise the moon?"

Darkness said, "Of course dear, I'll sleep on the way to Ponyville, I never sleep during the night. The night is way too beautiful to miss." Luna smiled, and the two walked out of Darkness's study, and went to the open balcony of Luna's castle of night, and as the sun fell out of sight, Luna raised her head, and with her magic raised the moon. The stars appeared, the moon rose, and the two watched the night together until morning came, where by that time, Darkness had packed some things, and got on the transport to Ponyville Luna had prepared for him.

Luna stood back in the distance, with a concerned and saddened, tearful expression on her face, and she said, "May the moon and sun, free you from your burdens, my love. With all my heart, I pray for your sadness to end, I just want to see you smile full of hope and happiness. Celestia, Twilight and friends........help him......."

By midday, he had arrived at Ponyville, he thanked his transporters, and walked the to now crystal tree castle and home of Twilight. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Twilight came rushing towards Darkness and said, "Darkness! Oh, thank Celestia you're here! I tried to send you a letter, but, I'm still working on sending letters with my magic, without Spike being here."

Darkness said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second.......,where's Spike?"

Twilight responded, "I let him go on a vacation with some of his dragon cousins for a couple of months. He just found out about them, and don't worry, they won't harm him. And as far things go on around here, I'll be fine, I have my friends, helping me out, until, he comes back."

Darkness said, "Okay, good, whatever I guess, now what's got you riled up? Make it quick, I don't have much time to spare."

Twilight said in grave tone, "Somepony has stolen something from the Crystal Palace!"

Darkness asked with a smirk, "Somepony stole something and you don't know what it is? That doesn't sound like Twilight Sparkle at all, she almost always knows what's going on....almost."

Twilight said with frustration, "This is not the time to be funny."

Darkness said, "Fine....I see you have no sense of humor anyways."

Twilight sighed and said with a look of concern, "No, I'm sorry, I caught up in the moment...... and are you okay, Darkness? You don't seem like you care about any of us......"She stopped as Darkness had given her a dark look. and she said" But....um....anyways, I was told if I happen to find you, that you are to see Princess Celestia immediately. And once your done, come on over to my house, and we shall discuss this matter further."

Darkness said in his usual way, "Uh oh, Princess Celestia wants to see me, what did I do now?"

Twilight laughed and Twilight said, "You didn't do anything, it's just Princess Celestia wanted to talk to you first before you came see me."

Darkness said, "Very well, I'll go see what the Princess wants. Oh, by the way, could you take my things to your house for the moment till I find a place to stay? Just be careful with those things, a lot of what's in there is extremely fragile."

Twilight said with a smile, "Of course! And you can just stay at my castle, there's plenty of room, it's not like I'm going to be using all those rooms, and what's in these bags?"

Darkness rolled his eyes and said, "Right now, that's none of your business, if I allow it, you'll find out soon enough, now I better get going, before Princess Celestia starts sending down her royal guards next." With that being said Twilight took Darkness's bags, and took them to her castle, while Darkness flew off to Canterlot to see Princess Celestia.

An hour later, Darkness arrived at the gates of Princess Celestia's castle, and guards barred his path and said, "Halt! what is your business here...." As soon as they recognized who it was, they immediately unblocked his path opened the doors and stepped back and said, "My apologies, Darkness."

Darkness said, "No need for that, you"re just doing your job. So no offense taken, so now that the formalities are over, move aside, I have business to attend to." The guards saluted him and quickly stepped aside, and Darkness walked through the door,

As he walked down the long hallway, he looked to the throne chair, and there he saw Celestia sitting scribbling away on some piece of parchment, as she always did, and as Darkness got closer, she noticed his approach, sealed the parchment, gave it back to the servant, and dismissed him.

As he finally stood in front of her, he began to bow, and she stopped him, saying, "You have no need to do that, I should be doing that to you, it seems you have already forgotten that."

Darkness said, "Hmph, maybe I have." Before anymore was said, Princess Celestia ordered all guards in the room and at the doors to leave and shut the doors. Once they all had left and the doors were shut, Darkness was the first to ask, "So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about? I have little time to waste."

Princess Celestia said in a serious tone, "Well, as you know, Twilight has already told you that something has been stolen from the Crystal Palace, but that problem is, we don't know who has done it or what was stolen. On top of that, the Crystal Palace is inaccessible, it's like somepony has used some sort of magic, a very powerful magic that is, to seal the entrance to the castle. It is a magic unlike anything I've ever seen, Princess Cadence, Twilight, and myself have already tried to disarm whatever kind of spell it is, we have tried every sealing, disarming, or unblocking spell we know, and nothing has worked. We even tried using all three of our powers combined, but to no avail, we all came up with the same results. From what Twilight has been able to find out, is that the spell is an ancient one, and we only know of one pony who is very proficient in the ancient ways....you. However, we know full well it wasn't you, for you have been in Luna's castle of night since the defeat of Darkness Night."

Darkness said, "Great....I see, now it makes sense why Twilight is in a state of panic."

Princess Celestia said, " But that's not all...it seems, the world is out of balance once again, but this time it's different, it's only affecting the princesses, nopony else seems affected by it....,it's not like like it was two years ago, something else is wrong, it feels very foreboding and old, but distant, and nopony has any idea what it could be. So I ask, can you feel it?"

Darkness stood for awhile, and he felt as well, but stronger that what Celestia has just described, and replied, "I do, I feel it, it feels.......familiar somehow....it's almost like I know it.......however, what it could be is unclear. It feels like it's from a rather far away location, which is making it rather hard to find."

Princess Celestia said, "This is troubling, if you want, we could use your help in helping us gain access to the Crystal Palace, and finding out what the cause of this disturbance is. I cannot order you to do any of this, for you are above us all, so I ask you, Darkness, will you help us?"

Darkness said, "Hmph, why wouldn't I? I owe this world my life, it seems I have no choice, and I"ll start off by stopping by Twilight's castle, and doing some research, and maybe find an answer to a vision I've been having lately."

Princess Celestia asked, "Vision?"

Darkness said, "Yes, for a while now, it's a vision that shows me some sort of magic portal-like object, and a phrase that is only partially complete."

Princess Celestia said, "Twilight might be able to help with that."

Darkness said, "I am sorry Princess, but I have much research to do if I am to get to the bottom of these problems, so I must be going, as soon as I finish, I shall head to the Crystal Palace, and see what I can do about opening up the entrance to the Crystal Palace."

Princess Celestia said, "You're right, but please try to hurry, I don't know how much time we have to spare, and yes, as soon as you are ready, I would like you to take Twilight and her friends along with you. You will need all the help you get. Now, go, and may the sun and the moon watch over you."

Darkness said, "Thank you, princess. But I watch over myself" And with that, he turned around and headed back to Twilight's castle to begin research.

As Darkness left, Celestia looked out the window sadly, and a couple tears flowed out of her eyes as she said, "Now Luna, my sister, I understand why you said he is suffering......I hope the same as you do sister....may Twilight and her friends help free him from his torment...I can only hope."