"It appears we cannot destroy the monsters, my lord," one of Sombra's guards reported to his master. "For every one we defeat, two more take its place. Thankfully, they appear to be docile. Even the ones we've attacked haven't so much as harmed a single soldier."

"Is that so?" Sombra asked, his expression calm. "In that case, there is no point in wasting any more energy on them. Return to your duties."

"Yes, my lord." The guard left the room, closing the door behind him. Without the light of the hall, the edges of the throne room fell into darkness. Sitting in solitude, a wicked grin spread across the dark ruler's face. Suddenly, a vortex of dark energy spawned in the room, then quickly dissolved away, leaving a vaguely human figure in its place.

"Things didn't quite go as planned, I take it?" the figure asked.

Sombra wiped the grin off his face, and rest his muzzle on a hoof. "I'm afraid not," he replied. "I'll need you to head back to Equestria."

"As you command," the figure replied, a sick glee filling his voice, "master Lucifer."

A cyan hoof rose from the edge of a snow covered cliff, pulling a frozen Rainbow Dash up with it. The howling northern winds had chilled her to the bone, and her wings were practically frozen to her back. As she struggled against the harsh snow and ice of the northern Equestrian mountains, she looked back in irritation on the events leading to this unenviable climb.

The day before was a very big contender for the worst day of her life. As if the nightmare and the Plundervines weren't bad enough, Celestia had burst into Canterlot Boutique to tell her that Daniel had run off to some other dimension with one of her best friends. Almost immediately after she had finished, the shy turned lime green in Equestria, and the creatures from Rainbow's nightmare, no longer hidden by silhouettes, rained from the heavens. It didn't matter that they were harmless; the mere fact that they existed unnerved her. And of course the world would give her no time whatsoever to worry about Twilight, or look for a way to get her back. No, her butt tattoo had to start flashing at that exact moment. So she flew all the way back to Ponyville to see what was going on, and what did she find? The magical friendship map was now overlapped by another Equestria, the new image pulsing and fading, as if the map couldn't decide which version of Equestria was correct. The new map, when it was visible, was a barren brown, reeking of desolation, a stark contrast to the original's crystal blue. Rainbow saw her cutie mark floating above the map. Just hers. It was floating somewhere far to the north of the Crystal Empire...

...which was why shy was now freezing her tail off at the top of a mountain. The longer she was on this quest, the more she questioned it. For one thing, the map had called on only her, a single one of her group of friends, for the first time ever. That was strange enough, but to have it send her to an isolated frozen wasteland, where there was nopony to even have a friendship problem in the first place? Okay, the yaks were up here somewhere, but Rainbow was pretty sure they were much farther west in the mountains than her destination. She was starting to think that somepony had screwed with the map. After all, if Starlight Glimmer could link a spell to it, who was to say it couldn't be tampered with? If this was a prank, it certainly wasn't very funny. With her wings frozen, Rainbow had no quick way off the mountain if she decided to call it quits. And if she didn't leave soon, or find some sort of shelter, she could very well freeze to death.

Just a little more, she told herself. If this was a joke, it was at a far greater risk to her than could have possibly been intended...but if it wasn't, then somepony else was stuck in these mountains. Rainbow wasn't going to make any assumptions if it meant somepony's life, so she decided to keep going, see how far she could go before reaching her limit. She hooked a hoof onto the next piece of jagged rock, and slowly hauled herself up. Why didn't the map call Applejack again? she thought. Her natural sturdiness would have made the orange farmpony a much better candidate for this journey, but if the map called on Rainbow, then there must be something only she can do.

As she pulled herself over the next rock wall, she couldn't believe what lay in front of her. Cut into the rock face was the entrance to an ancient ruin, the stone of the structure a harsh gray that seemed to radiate cold. A set of hoofprints led into the gaping maw of the entrance, implying that somepony else was already inside. The footprints of some other creature also stood out in the snow. Rainbow barely noticed these as she added her own set of tracks to the list, searching for shelter and warmth in the foreboding ruins.

Oddly enough, the ruins really were much warmer than the frozen peaks outside. After going a few feet in, Rainbow lay down by the wall and began to shiver, relief coming to her as her body began to warm. Her wings thawed out, and she stretched them out, more than happy to see them mobile again. She wasn't quite as warm as she would have liked, but she had thawed out enough to consider exploring the ruins. It looked like the ancient hall stood right where the map had led her. She got on her hooves, stretched her wings one last time, and proceeded deeper into the decrepit temple. As she went forward, she encountered numerous death traps...most of which had already been sprung. Darts protruded from the walls in several places, having apparently missed their targets, and swinging axe traps had lost their momentum, leaving them as pointless obstructions hanging from the ceiling. Many of the pits contained the skeletons of multiple species, implying that whatever ferocious beasts were meant to be below had long since passed on with their hapless prey.

This all looks like something straight out of- As Rainbow contemplated her surroundings, she bumped into a familiar mare. She wore a green explorer's vest over her dark tan coat. Her mane and tail were a spectrum of black, and a large rimmed hat covered her head. Her cutie mark was a compass. As she turned around, her light red eyes, the same color as Rainbow's, reflected the cyan pony's surprise. Daring Do was standing in front of her. After trekking all over the world just to meet her the first time, Rainbow had run into her idol again by mere chance.

"Stalking me again?" Daring asked, her surprise covered over by a stern demeanor.

"N-n-no, nothing like that," Rainbow answered, flustered. "I'm here on, uh, business." Even though she was telling the truth, in her state, anything she said sounded suspicious.

"So your 'business' required you to risk your life climbing a thousand-foot-high freezing mountain range?"

"Well, so does yours," Rainbow retorted. Daring cracked a quick smile. "Uh, since I'm here and all, could you, maybe, tell me why you're here? Please?"

"You know what? Why not?" Daring answered after some contemplation. "But in return, you have to tell me why you're really here."

"I'm fine with that." Rainbow was starting to calm down. She'd had an adventure with Daring Do once before. She could make it through another without nerdgasming.

"The treasure deep within these halls is the Chalice of Reflections," Daring started, walking forward. Rainbow quickly realized that she planned to keep progressing through the temple as she talked, and trotted forward to keep up. "Apparently, the ponies who lived here made it by enchanting a cup with water from a Mirror Pool."

"Wait, A Mirror Pool!?" Rainbow nearly shouted. "You mean there's more than one!?" She filled with dread as her vision went pink.

"The whole area froze over long ago," Daring answered. "Good luck trying to find it now." Rainbow had sighed with relief and moved quite a ways ahead before the full impact of her words hit Daring.

"Anyway, the effects of the chalice are far different than those of the pool...s," Daring continued. "Supposedly, if it is filled with water, the surface becomes a window to another dimension." Rainbow stopped. Until then, the shock of meeting Daring again had practically made her forget why she was there in the first place. Now it was all coming back, because things suddenly made sense. Perhaps the chalice could allow her to pull Twilight back from the other Equestria. Perhaps this whole trip was the map's idea of a rescue mission.

"Alright, your turn," Daring demanded, breaking Rainbow out of her thoughts. Remembering their deal, she told Daring about everything that had happened the day before, and how the map had led her here.

"Wait. You mean your new friend's the reason the sky's messed up and there are monsters everywhere?"

"Seems like it, yeah."

"You've got some taste in friends." As Daring Do said this, she looked ahead, and saw another set of traps that neither pony had activated. Panic spread throughout her face. "Oh horse apples!" she cursed, unfolding her wings and zipping ahead. Rainbow quickly followed suit, and asked what was wrong.

"Ahuizotl's here too," Daring answered. "Argh, I was so busy talking to you that I completely forgot!"

That makes two of us, Rainbow thought, suddenly glad they hadn't run into any traps during their conversation.

At the end of the hall sat a square room, with a small dais at the rear. A pedestal sat on this dais, upon which was the Chalice of Reflections. Oddly enough, it was just a gold cup, fancy, but not very valuable or easily recognized as special. A large shadow fell over the chalice, cast by an odd dark blue monster. His belly, muzzle, and forepaws were a lighter blue, as well as the paw-like appendage at the end of his slim tail. Red and yellow bands stretched across his forelegs. His teeth were sharp, much more menacing than the coward behind them. Ahuizotl picked up the chalice, and began to laugh maniacally.

"Yeah, sorry to spoil your day, but I'm gonna have to ask you to hand that over," a voice in the shadows demanded. Ahuizotl turned around, hoping to catch site of this mysterious figure, but he saw nothing.

"I won't be doing anything of the sort!" Ahuizotl retorted. "Why don't you come out and try to take it from me?"

"Well, if you're not going to give it up," the voice started, "I suppose it can't be helped."

A dark portal opened up behind Ahuizotl, revealing what looked to be the same room on the other side. Before he could react, he was suddenly kicked in the crotch out of nowhere. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain, trying to process what just happened. The voice chuckled, as if the shot was just for his own amusement, before another portal opened directly in front of Ahuizotl's chest, this one much smaller than the first. Ahuizotl felt the figure's foot connect through the portal, and he was pushed through the one behind him. Then both portals were gone, and Ahuizotl and the treasure with them.

Rainbow and Daring arrived just in time to see the figure emerge from the shadows. They stopped short, though Rainbow, taking longer to stop, ended up fully inside the room. The being before them was human, wearing a suit of a dark midnight blue, a dark purple cloak draped down his back to waist level. He had blond hair, longer and flatter than Daniel's, a few strands sticking upright off of his forehead. His deep purple eyes gleamed with insanity and malicious intent.

"Rainbow Dash, I presume?" he asked nonchalantly. "For the fastest pony alive, you sure are slow. I'm afraid my work's all done here."

"What!?" Rainbow shot back, steam blowing out her nostrils. Not only had this guy insulted her, but he had just taken away the one thing that could have brought Twilight back. He needed to pay.

"Oh? You want to take me on?" the man asked, his eyes gleaming with sick delight as he raised his right arm. "Fortunately, I've got all the time in the world to play with you." A gray blur sprang forth from his sleeve and embedded itself in the door frame behind Rainbow. Once it had stopped, she could see that it was a long chain of knives, shaped like diamonds, with a hole in the center of each to allow them to link together. The chain retracted back just as suddenly, causing the entrance to collapse before Daring could react. Rainbow was trapped in that room with a psychopath.

"Well, now that you're about to die, you should at least know the name of your killer," the man began, bowing in a sarcastic mockery of respect. "My name is Faris Elfriede. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Rainbow's rage boiled over, and she lunged at Faris...but then she jerked to the left reflexively, narrowly avoiding a knife chain that somehow came out of the floor. Looking down at its base, she saw that some sort of portal had opened, through which the chain had emerged. She looked at Faris. A knife chain extended from his right sleeve into the floor at his feet, where another portal lay. It appeared this mysterious human had the power to punch holes in space...and a weapon designed to use this power to its maximum effectiveness.

"You get it, don't you?" Faris taunted, a sick smile cracking on his face. "Where will my next attack come from, I wonder?"

Rainbow found herself dodging knife chains from all different angles, only managing to avoid them because of her quick reflexes. Hoping to end the chaos, she rushed at her assailant. In response, Faris pulled back one of his knife chains, and put his first two fingers in one of the knife holes when the chain was short enough, holding the remaining chain, slightly longer than arm's length, like a flail. He slashed the air in front of him, forcing Rainbow to pull back. Once she had, he shot another knife chain well above the pony's head. With a flick of his wrist, the chain broke, raining knives upon the cyan pony. She barely managed to avoid the knife storm. What she failed to notice was that more portals had opened where some of the stray knives fell, as well as portals above those spots, keeping the knives falling in an endless loop. Rainbow rushed forward one more time, only to feel a sharp pain in her stomach, as one of the falling knives, accelerated by the constant fall to bullet speeds, was sent through the ground under her. She fell to the ground in pain.

"Aw, looks like I broke it," Faris mocked, Rainbow writhing at his feet. "And I was starting to enjoy this."

In anger, Rainbow rose quickly from that spot, delivering a vicious uppercut to Faris. Angered, the man forced her back once more. She didn't have time to stick around as she landed, narrowly avoiding several knife chains-or rather, one knife chain sent through several portals at once-sent to skewer her like an iron maiden. The fight was much fiercer now. Having actually been hit by this lowly pony, Faris' fun had ended, and he was now doing everything he could to take her down. The ceiling ultimately took the punishment for this, getting punctured again and again as Rainbow avoided the never-ending onslaught. Eventually, it gave way, opening the room to the freezing cold winds of the mountains. Rainbow managed to dodge all of the falling debris, while Faris just teleported over it. In fact, he seemed to hover where he came out. Faris shot multiple chains upward, forcing Rainbow higher and higher in the frigid air, until they apparently reached their limit.

"Running away, are we?" Faris taunted from below, although a hint of irritation had entered his voice.

Rainbow took the bait, and flew down toward him. Faris looked up, and cracked a smile, as he opened a portal behind her, hoping to kill her with this last shot. He shot a knife chain out of his sleeve and through an entrance portal, near enough to his arm that his end of the chain was nearly invisible. The other end flew through the sky, down toward its clueless target...but at the last second, Rainbow dodged out of the way. To Faris' horror, the chain continued further, and before he could react, the chain skewered him. Painfully, he pulled the knife chain out of his chest. The large wound it left behind gushed out not blood, but wispy dark shadows. He grimaced, half in pain, half in anger.

Now! Rainbow thought. Ignoring the freezing cold, she flew down as fast as she could. A mach cone began forming around her, getting narrower and narrower. Finally, a blast of rainbow light shook the frigid peaks as she broke the sound barrier, a rainbow now streaking from her body. As she approached her target, she put out her hooves, started spinning...and landed right on Faris' wound. Her body acted as a drill, pushing deeper and deeper into the hole, until she finally broke through to the other side. She landed in the remains of the treasure room with enough force to crush the rubble, reopening the door frame with Daring Do behind it. Faris fell to the ground, yet he somehow managed to get back up, despite the pony sized hole through his body that was leaking dark energy. This energy seemed to be leaking from all of his body at this point, as if his own strength was abandoning him.

"Guess you're stronger than you look. And smarter," Faris congratulated the rainbow-maned pony. "But it doesn't matter. I did what I came here to do, and I'm afraid your world's going to end."

"What was that!?" Rainbow demanded, angered.

"What, you didn't notice the ominous sky of green ominousness?" Faris taunted, though talking was obviously painful. "Enjoy the time you have left, because pretty soon, this whole world will cease to exist."

With that, Faris' body disappeared into the dark energy and evaporated. Only then did Rainbow let herself feel the pain of that knife Faris had shot into her gut, which had disappeared along with its owner. Then she noticed her cutie mark. Normally, her mark would flash again to signify a job well done.

This time, it had gone dull.

"Rainbow, what's wrong with your cutie mark?" Daring asked, concerned.

"I...I think I failed," Rainbow answered. She had just noticed it now, but thinking back, her mark had gone dull the moment Ahuizotl was pushed through that portal, and the Chalice of Reflection with him. That was obviously the goal of her mission, but...aside from getting Twilight back, what did any of this have to do with friendship? She shook her head. She'd have time to think about these things later. For now, she moved to leave the ruins, to do the one thing she knew she had to.

"Where are you going?" Daring asked. She was a little miffed that her expedition had just been sabotaged, but the only people she could be mad at were both long gone.

"Back to Canterlot," Rainbow replied. "Celestia needs to know there are more humans in Equestria...and that they're not nearly as friendly as the first."

Wispy black smoke began to form within Sombra's throne room, witnessed only by the dark king himself. The smoke coalesced, reforming Faris' body with his chest intact. He breathed heavily, having just come back to life.

"You were defeated," Sombra noted.

"Forgive me, my lord," Faris apologized. "The pony was a much better fighter than I had anticipated. I let my guard down."

"And your mission?"

A wicked grin spread across Faris' face. "A complete success, my lord."

"Very good," Sombra replied, the same grin stretching across his muzzle. Two more bursts of magic power, one of fire, one of ice, appeared as two more human figures entered the room. "It won't be long now. Soon this pathetic world shall cease to be."

The fire figure joined Sombra and Faris in maniacal laughter...while the ice figure just stood somberly in the shadows.

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter's so long.