The hatred of the shadow

by TwinS

Rating: mature
Tags: King Sombra, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other, Adventure
Length: 69190

Two years since his attack and Malonex is still in prison. While his sister and old friend still try to turn him back to the light, he schemes to bring back his kind and bing Equestria eternal darkness.

Two years have passed since Malonex, the apprentice of king Sombra, tired to take over Equestria and was stopped by two mages of light. Since then he is kept in a prison in Ponyville, that was created by Twilight Sparkle.
Malonex spent his time in his prison, day after day, night after night, never seeing the light of the sun, while other ponies lived their lives.

Those who knew him never talked about him. They hoped that with the help of the light mages Malonex would become the pony again he used to be, before he turned into the monster he is now.
The two light mages are the only ponies that reminded themselves everyday of their task, hoping that their light will show him the right way, not knowing that they only create a bigger shadow.

With the voice of his king constantly echoing in his head, Malonex waits for his revenge and for the opportunity to bring his master finally back. He wants vengeance for his kind, the shadow ponies. A race of darkness that is trapped beneath the crystal empire.

Published 2016-03-22 01:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-11-27 13:49:32 UTC

Chapter 1 Living next to a shadow

It was the day of the Summer Sun Celebration and in the last two years many things have changed. Everypony was celebrating only two ponies in Ponyville weren't in the mood for party.

One of these ponies was named Bright Side, a unicorn with dark yellow coat, long golden mane and blue eyes. On her flank was a symbol of an bright yellow pony with rays of light coming from the heart. She was the personal student of princess Twilight Sparkle.

And the other pony was Rising Light, also an unicorn with an white coat and an short dark blue mane. His cutie mark was an silver hammer on an golden shield and his yellow eyes shined with determination. He always carried a shield and a hammer similar to his cutie mark. He was the new archmage and the leader of the magic council.

These two weren't in the mood for party because it reminded them the events of two years ago. Two years ago the half umbrum Malonex tired to take over Equestria and bring king Sombra back to live. Luckily he was stopped by Rising and Bright and trapped inside a light crystal.

Many ponies would see that as an reason to celebrate even more but the half umbrum used to be Fallen Dark, Brights half-brother and Risings former friend. Since they defeated him they put all their effort into reforming him and turning him back to his former self.

But even after two years they still didn't made any steps forward. Malonex was hold in a special prison in Ponyville that was created by Twilight. He also was still chained to the crystal, what meant that he couldn't regain his full strength. The prison was build next to the castle and an arena made of dark crystal. The arena was build by Malonex in the year he live in Ponyville before his attack.

It was now very rarely used. Only Rising used it regularly to train. Twilight and Rainbow only trained from time to time. They both had trained under the instructions of Malonex but as he turned against them all, Twilight and Rainbow lost most of their fighting spirit.

Bright and Rising visited Malonex every day. They tried everything that came to their minds to reform him. They even gave him alchemy equipment and hoped that he would, at least sometimes, have a good day.

This morning they were the only ponies left in the castle, except the guards. Twilight and Spike were at the celebration. The guards were sent by princess Celestia and princess Lune because the princesses thought that they would need extra security.

This was also the reason for the other new buildings in Ponyville. A bunch of barracks for the guards to live in. They were build right behind the prison.

So the two light mages walked through the hallway of the castle on their way to visit Malonex. The guards greeted them with simple nods so Bright and Rising didn't paid much attention to them. Bright was the first one who said something. "Do you have an idea what we can try today?"

Rising just shook his head and sighed. "I have no idea. I don't even think that he will be in a good mood today, so let's just try talking to him a bit."

They left the castle and walked to the prison. Four guards were guarding the entrance. Two of them stood directly in front of the door. As Bright and Rising walked towards them they stepped aside without a word and opened the door.

On their way through the hallway Bright looked at the locked showcases that were placed inside the walls. They were filled with everything dark magic related that was found in the last years. This prison was the safest place to store these item because the walls and locks are nearly indestructible.

They arrived at another door with two guards standing in front of it. They stepped aside and opened the door. Bright and Rising entered a large room with an transparent wall that cut the room in two halves, the only way to change the rooms was a magical locked door that only a light mage could open. The room was lighted by a special kind of crystals because it had no windows.

The half where Bright and Rising were now standing was empty. The other half was filled with alchemy equipment and one stallion walked around the room and mixing potions.

It was Malonex and he wore his umbrum cloak, a black cloak with purple lines and it had a hole in the hood for his horn. His horn was curved and red. He had a dark gray coat and a bit of his short dark red mane could be seen under his hood. His right front hoof and a part of his leg were made of dark crystal. His red eyes were focused on the potion in front of him.

Bright and Rising walked to the magical door and opened it. Before they even could step inside Malonex spoke up. "I am surprised to see you two here today. I thought you will celebrate with your friends."

They walked inside and closed the door behind them. Malonex put the potion on one of the worktables and turned to the two unicorns. Bright was the first on how said anything. "We couldn't celebrate on the day you turned to the darkness Fallen."

Malonex laughed shortly as he heard his old name. "It is now a two whole years since I reviled my darkness and you two are still referring to me as Fallen. When will you two accept that I will never change."

Rising stepped forward. He had a risky idea what he could try. "Fallen don't make the same mistakes your father made."

Malonex expression turned to anger. "The only mistake my father ever did was trusting you pathetic ponies. He was too weak to resist the lies that they told him, he stopped following the path of darkness. But I will not make the same mistake. I can wait for my revenge, even if I have to wait for thousand years."

Rising stepped forward and looked Malonex directly into the eyes. "And what makes you so sure that I would not kill you now?"

Malonex stepped closer too till they were only one step away from each other and smiled. "Because you didn't had the courage to kill me a two years ago and you still don't have it!"

Bright stopped Rising from saying anything more. "Stop Rising! We will not kill him as long as I sense light in him."

Malonex tried to take a step closer to them but as he moved towards them a light chain appeared around his hoof the hold him back. The chain was coming from the other end of the room. Inside the wall was a transparent showcase with in light crystal inside. The chains came directly from the crystal.

He took a step back again. "I have thousands of years to wait and plan and you two only have one lifetime."

He turned to his potion again and took it in his hoof to look at the green liquid inside. "That reminds me, I need fresh ingredients for my alchemy. Maybe some dragon blood?"

Rising looked with disbelieve. "Do you really want to ask that every time we visit you? For the last time we will not get you ingredients from living creatures."

Bright stopped Rising from starting an argument with Malonex again and stepped between the two. "Rising I think you should go back to the castle. It seems like you didn't slept well last night."

Rising grumbled and left the room and after he left the prison Bright turned to Malonex again. "Fallen I beg you to think over what you did, please think what our mother would think."

Fist the only answer she got was silence but then Malonex spoke up. "I never had a mother or a sister. I am a spawn of the warlord of the umbrum and darkness itself."

This sentence shocked Bright. She visited him now for two years every day and he said a lot of horrible things he would do when he comes free but this was the first time he hurt her. "Please I want my brother back. I want the Fallen back that wanted to find everything out about magic."

He placed the potion back onto the table and turned to Bright his eyes were glowing green and purple mist came from the corners of his eyes. "If that is what you want you should give up."

Bright felt a wave of darkness coming from him and the light inside him became weaker. She said nothing and turned away from him and left the room. As she heard that Malonex began to laugh she walked faster and began to cry.

As she left the prison Rising was standing there waiting for her. As he saw her crying he immediately walked to her. "What happened? What did he say?"

"I think it is getting worse. I could see the light becoming smaller."

Rising slowly petted her shoulder to calm her down. "But there is still a light. We just have to find a way to lighten it up again."

They slowly walked back to the castle and Bright did her best to stop herself from crying more. They walked through the hallway towards the dining room. As they arrived they saw that Twilight was already sitting and eating her lunch.

Rising smiled at them and greeted her. "Good day. Nice to see that you are already back from the celebration."

Twilight smiled back. "Good morning you too."

Bright and Rising sat down and Spike gave each them a plate with pancakes. Spike was a bit curious. "How is everything with Malonex going?"

Bright stayed quiet and Rising spared her to repeat what happened. "It is not going good. It seems like that it is getting worse and worse with him. We are running out of ideas."

Twilight held her hoof to her chin for a moment before she spoke again. "Maybe you should consider getting other ponies to help you."

Rising nodded a bit. "I already had this idea in mind but I don't know anypony how could help. And I don't want to give somepony else this burden."

"I bet I can find some ponies that want to help."

Rising just nodded and they all ate in silence. After they all finished eating they all went in different directions. Bright went to the library to go on with her magic studies, Twilight walked to the town to look for ponies that could help them with Malonex and Rising went to the arena to train fighting.

In the arena he took his hammer and his shield with an levitation spell and began to train different fighting styles. It was already evening as he saw that Bright entering the arena. She walked over to him and he stopped his training. "What is it?"

"I wanted to ask you I you could train me how to fight."

Rising put the hammer and his shield on his back. "You have to wait one more year till I will train you. Until then you better concentrate on your studies."

Bright sighed "Ok, but you better come inside, Spike is already preparing dinner."

He nodded as an answer and followed her to the castle. In the dining room they were greeted by Twilight and Spike who were already eating their dinner. Rising and Bright sat down and Rising was the first one who spoke. "So, could you find some ponies that could help us?"

"I asked my friends and they said they will try to think of a solution. Rainbow Dash even offered to come and visit him to see if she could help. I said to her that she could visit him tommorow."

Rising nodded and they began to eat.

Malonex was sitting in his prison mixing a few potions as a guard entered the room. The guard hold the plate with the usual food in his hoof. He opened a small hatch in the wall and pushed the plate through it.

After the guard was gone Malonex used his weak magic to see if there were any magical auras near bye. He looked around for a bit and as he was sure every guard was outside of the prison he took a few of the potions, with them in his hooves he walked to a special worktable and knocked against the downside of it. The table opened and Malonex took a bag out of the hiding place. He put the potion in the bag as fast as he could.

After he had the bag hidden again he took another potion from one of the tables and hold it behind his back.

One guard entered the prison again and walked to the door in the transparent wall. The guard knocked on the wall. "I am coming inside now to take your potions over night, don't try anything!"

He opened the door and walked through the prisons to every worktable and levitated every potions with him. As the guard reached Malonex he looked at him for a moment. "Are you hiding something?"

Malonex just stared back at the guard and responded. "Why would I hide something?"

The guard looked at him from bottom to the top. "What are you hiding behind your back."

He levitated the potion out of Malonex hoof and shook his head. "Why are you even doing this every day? Do you really think that one of us will ever fall for that?"

Malonex just turned away and began to meditate. "I would be a fool if I don't try."

"Whatever." He guard took the potions and left the prison.

After the guard was gone Malonex went back to the hidden potions and took them out again. They all were potions that would be destroyed if anypony would find out that he made them, so he hide them every evening.

As he was sure that they were all without any damage he place them back in the hiding spot and began to meditate.

He closed his eyes and saw himself in a dark room. He was surrounded by dark smoke. The smoke gathered in front of Malonex and it got red eyes glowing with dark magic.

Malonex bowed before his master. "My king, you wanted to speak with me."

Sombra nodded. "Yes, I have to ask how long it will take till we can escape from this prison. Your crystal hoof isn't the most comfortable place to spent time at."

"Probably a week. I still don't have enough magic to contact Lock Changer and he is the only way to get out of here."

"You should have killed this foolish mare when you had the chance. Then we could lie our way out of here."

Malonex mind filled with hate as he remembered. "I know, I was a fool believing that she is my sister. But for now we have to wait a little longer."

Sombra nodded. "And if we have to wait thousand years."

His master left his mind and he opened his eyes again. He looked at the clock in the room and saw that is was already late evening. He walked to the light crystal he was bound to and laid down on a solid crystal platform right next to it. His bed wasn't really comfortable but he got used to it.

He closed his eyes and after a few minutes he fell asleep. In his dreams he was in his usual empty room and began to meditate. After a while he sensed that somepony entered his mind, so he opened his eyes and looked around. As he looked behind himself he saw a door opening and bright light filled the dark void.

Princess Luna stepped out of the door and walked towards him. Malonex stood up and looked at her disapproving. "What do you want here?"

Luna stopped walking and looked at him. "I am here to talk. Twilight told me that you give Bright Side and Rising Light a hard time."

"I treat them like they deserve. Tell them that they should stop complaining. I am stuck in this room for two entire years now and will probably stay longer."

Luna was silence for a moment but then decided that she had to try. "Malonex I beg you to consider using your magic for good. You could do so much with it."

Malonex smiled shortly and stepped closer to her. "Yes you are right I can do a lot with my powers and I will use them. I will use them to get revenge for me, my father, my King and for my whole kind."

"You forget that Rising and Bright are your kind too. And you spent the whole years hurting them."

"You all aren't my kind. You all want to destroy me and turn me back to something I never was. Now go. I have no more patience for a conversation like this."

Black chains left the ground and grabbed Luna, before she could react they dragged her back to the door and threw her through it. The door closed and the chains tied it up from every side.

The rest of the night was quiet for Malonex and he spent the rest of the time feeding his hatred.

On the next morning he woke up because he heard some ponies entering the room. He stood up from the platform and walked to the transparent wall. At the wall he saw three pegasus guards, one of them was getting ready to watch him today, another carried a bag with his potions and the last one had his breakfast in his hoof.

The two guards entered the room. One of them took both the food and the potions. The other one took his spear and watched Malonex making sure that he didn't tries any tricks. The guard placed the food and the potions on one of the tables.

He looked over the potions one time again and made clear to the other one that they leave. While they walked towards the door of the transparent wall one of the guards began to wonder. "I am not a mage but why are you even making these potions? We checked them and most of them do nothing more than let different kinds of metal glow."

Malonex watched them leaving the room before he answered. "They are just a part of a more complicated potion."

The two guards looked at each other and raised both an eyebrow, but then they just shrugged and turned to the other guard who sat down on a little chair. "Whatever. Have fun watching him mixing. At noon somepony should come and take your place."

The guard nodded and the other guards left the prison. Malonex took his cloak on and began to look around for some ingredients.

Chapter 2 Viewing the possibilities

Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat in the dining room of Twilights castle. Rising and Bright greeted them as they entered the room.

Rising smiled as he saw that Rainbow really came to help them. "Thank you for coming Rainbow. You don't know how much we need help!"

Rainbow nodded with a determined smile. "He taught me how to fight and now I will help him."

Rising thought about this for a moment before he got a idea. "That maybe could be really helpful now. You are probably, besides Bright and Twilight, the pony who spent the most time with him."

Rainbow Dash jumped from her seat. "Then let's go. What are we going to do?"

Bright smiled at her enthusiasm. "I thought that we could simply start by talking with him a bit to see how he reacts to you before we do anything else."

They stood up to and walked towards the exit of the castle as Spike stopped them. "Twilight you got a letter from princess Luna!"

Twilight took the letter and read it. Her eyes scanned the complete scroll from the beginning to the end and as she was finished she had a smile on her face. "I think I have a idea."

The other looked at her and she began to tell them her idea.

Malonex was creating a new potion as he heard a group of ponies entering the room. The guard didn't look away for a second while he heard the group walking into the hallway so Malonex had no chance to use his magic to see who was coming. As they came closer Malonex could hear some talking but he couldn't understand what exactly they talked about.

After a while he saw the three mares and Rising enter the prison together with four guards. Malonex raised an eyebrow as he saw that the guards were carrying their spears and one of them held a horn blocker, a heavy metal ring with runes that prevent a unicorn from using magic.

By looking at the equipment of the guards he came to a simple conclusion. "So, I see it right and Celestia has decided to execute me in public after all?"

They were all a bit surprised by this and Twilight hectically shook her head. "No, we are not going to execute you. We thought that you maybe want to walk around the town a bit and talk with a few of your old friends."

"Ignoring the fact that I don't have any 'old friends', I don't have time for that kind of thing. I have work to do." He turned around and began to work on his potions again.

Rainbow leaned over to Twilight and whispered to her. "I don't think he has changed that much."

Twilight kicked against Rainbows leg and turned back to Malonex. "That wasn't a question. You weren't outside for two years. "

He ignored them and went on with his experiments. Twilight nodded to the guards.

The four guards opened the door to Malonex cell and walked inside. Three of them waited at the door and watched Malonex while the one with the magic blocker walked to Malonex.

The guard grabbed Malonex horn and put the blocker around it. Malonex gave the guard a deadly glare but didn't object in any way.

Now Rising entered Malonex room and walked towards the end of it. The others watched him from the other side of the transparent wall. Rising stopped in front of the light crystal Malonex was bound to and deactivated the security spell. He opened the showcase and took the light crystal.

Rising walked to the door and the guards left the room. Rising stopped as he saw that Malonex didn't moved a bit. "Are you coming with us or do we have to drag you?"

Malonex growled as answer but followed Rising. Twilight sighed in relive as she saw that they didn't had to force him outside.

Rainbow flew ahead and shouted. "Come on, let's go!"

Twilight was the first who followed her, behind her walked Bright and Rising. Malonex walked slowly after them and was followed four guards who were holding their spears ready.

As they were outside Twilight turned to the guards. "Thank you, but you can leave now."

"I am sorry your highness, but we can't go. The order is that as long as it is day at least one guard has to watch the prisoner and since he is outside now it was ordered that at least four of us should watch him!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Who ordered this?"

The guard immediately answered. "The general of the Ponyville guard."

Twilight rubbed her forehead and said. "Then go and tell your general that I want to talk with him."

The guard ran to the barracks to get the general and Twilight began to look around. She saw a few ponies curiously looking why there were so many guards but as soon as they saw Malonex they looked away. A few of them even ran away.

Malonex noticed these ponies and began to smile at their fear.

Twilight sighed as she finally saw the general walking towards them. The only difference between him and the other guards was that he had a small emblem on the right side of his chest, a small sun.

He walked towards Twilight and bowed before her. "Your highness, you ordered for me?"

Twilight nodded and indicated him to stand up. "Yes I did. I want to know why you changed the orders I gave to the guards!"

The general was a bit surprised and tried to explain himself. "I am sorry princess if I did anything wrong princess, I just followed the orders princess Celestia and princess Luna gave me."

Twilight noticed that the general seemed very sure that he did the right thing. "But that doesn't mean you have to sent four guards, who could be useful elsewhere, to follow us a whole day!"

"I just did what I thought was needed to keep this monster under control."

Twilight was getting impatient. "Then I am telling you now that there is no need for the guards, now sent them away."

"I am sorry but it would be foolish to let this extremely dangerous prisoner alone with the princess and her friends."

Twilight sighed about this stubbornness. "Then you will be the guard for him today, and by that I mean the only guard!"

The general saw that there was no use of arguing and bowed his head. "Yes your highness I will do as you command."

The general turned to the four guards who were still starring at Malonex. "You four are dismissed!"

The guards bowed shortly and walked away.

After the guards were gone Malonex walked towards the general. "How does it come that I am now two years in this prison and never saw you general? Too much fear to face me?" He smiled and waited for a reaction.

Twilight saw the anger in the face of the general and stepped between them. She pushed the general a bit away and whispered to him. "Enough of this. General I would prefer if you just watch and don't talk with Malonex. This is already difficulty enough!"

"I am sorry your highness." He took a few steps away from Malonex.

Rainbow began to lose her patience. "Are you ready soon? I don't want to wait all day."

Bright and Rising agreed and Twilight implied with a simple nod that it was time to go. Twilight lead the way followed by Bright and Rainbow with Malonex walking reluctant between them. They were followed by Rising and the general who were talking about the latest news from the hunt of the dark mages.

On their way they met many different ponies who all turned away as they saw Malonex and Bright began to doubt that this was a good idea as she saw the reaction of the other ponies.

Meanwhile Malonex began to question the idea of going outside as well. "It is nice to see fear on the faces of ponies again but could you please tell me why exactly am I here walking around again?"

Rainbow one the other side was still convinced that this would work out well and smiled. "We are going to Sugar Cube Corner to get something to eat and to meet Pinkie Pie and after that we walk around a bit and visit a few other ponies."

"Great. More time of my life wasted for some worthless idiots." Malonex growled a bit. Everypony else decided to just ignore this statement and went on.

They arrived at Sugar Cube Corner after a few more minutes of walking, Malonex noticed that they weren't going the direct way and showed him a bit more around than needed.

They entered it and were surprised by Pinkie Pie who jumped at them exited. "Malonex! You are out of prison. That means you are nice again. Can I throw you a welcome-back-party? Or would it be a good-again-party?"

Twilight interrupted her. "He isn't out of prison. We just wanted to show him the town after two years and thought that we could get something to eat here."

The next second Pinkie Pie had muffins for everypony.

They all thanked Pinkie except for Malonex who just ignored his muffing. As the others told him that he needed to eat he reminded them that he needs way less food then they do and that one normal meal was enough for him.

After that they left Sugar Cube Corner to go to the next place. Their next goal was Sweet Apple Acres and they arrived after only a few minutes and walked up a hill. Everypony except Malonex sat down.

Malonex didn't understood the reason for their visit. "And what are we doing here now?"

Bright simply responded. "We thought you would appreciate the quiet beauty out here."

"How did you came to that idea?" Everypony just ignored him and were quietly watching the nature. Malonex began to walk a bit around but not too far away from Rising who still had the crystal in his hoof.

After a short while he took a stone from the ground and sat down too. He laid the stone in front of him in the grass and turned his crystal hoof into a dagger. With the dagger he began to engrave small lines into the stone.

A few minutes later Applejack came from the farm to the hill and greeted them. "Good day you all." Then she saw Malonex sitting on the ground with the stone. "What is Malonex doing here Twilight?"

Malonex answered before Twilight could open her mouth. "They try to change me by showing me what I can't have when I am in prison and I have to say that I am not really convinced."

They all just looked at him for a moment before Bright began to deny. "No we aren't trying anything. We just thought that it would be nice if you see other ponies and the sun again."

Malonex looked at her and raised an eyebrow in disbelief and turned to Applejack. "Tell yourself whatever you want. But now I have a question. As you can see I tried to use the time and created this." He showed Applejack the Stone with engraved runes. "I wanted to know If there is a tree on the farm that I could use to test it."

Applejack was a bit unsure. "I don't know. What does it do?"

Malonex grinned a bit but his expression looked more sinister than honest. "It is a surprise."

Applejack looked at Twilight and Twilight took the stone from Malonex. After she looked at it from every side she decided that it was probably harmless. "I don't exactly know what this rune will do but it has many similarities to a healing rune. I don't think it is dangerous."

Applejack wasn't completely convinced but agreed and led them to a tree at the edge of the farm.

They all watched as Malonex stepped to the tree and began to press the rune on the stone against it. They watched in shock as the leafs turned black and fell to the ground. The tree turned darker and darker and began to wither.

After the tree was completely withered it began to decay. Malonex took the stone away and watched the tree decay till nothing was left but a dark grey stump in the ground.

It took everpony a short time to understand what just happened and Applejack turned to Twilight. "I thought that the rune was harmless!"

Twilight couldn't understand what her mistake was. "It should have been harmless!"

Malonex smiled at their confusion. Then he showed them the stone. From the dozens of lines only a few glowed red. The glowing lines formed a completely different rune. "The rune I engraved would be completely harmless, that is true but you should have known that I need to give the rune energy somehow or it wouldn't work. Normally I would have created the rune with my magic which cause all lines to have magical energy."

Twilight took the stone in her hoof and the lines stopped glowing. She looked at Malonex and then at the rune again. Malonex saw the realization in her face and grinned a bit. "By creating the lines with a dagger they were powerless. As I hold it against the tree I used my crystal hoof to give a few lines energy but I made sure that not every line got powered. I have to admit that it takes a lot concentration to let only a few lines get the energy."

Malonex took the stone from Twilight and crushed it with his crystal hoof. The general raise an eyebrow at him. Malonex simply looked back at the general. "If I haven't done it you would have. Isn't that right?"

The general didn't respond to him and turned to Twilight. "Princess we didn't know he could power runes with his crystal hoof. Should we check the prison of runes?"

Twilight whispered back to him. "That wouldn't be needed. The walls of the prison are nearly magic immune and it is impossible to power runes that are engraved in it. Every other material in his room can't withstand the energy that is needed for a rune. Just make sure that he doesn't take any other materials with him."

He nodded. "I will make sure of it your highness."

Malonex looked at everpony and after nopony said anything he began to tap on the ground. "Have you anything else planned or can I go back to my prison and work potions?"

Rising nodded and began to walk. "I think it is time to go back." The others followed him.

They walked back to the prison but as they reached the arena Rainbow Dash got an idea. "How about we go into your arena Malonex?"

The others stopped and Malonex stepped forward with a raised eyebrow. "Why should I want to look at my arena?"

"To think about the thinks that happened to you in there." Nearly everypony was a bit confused about this idea except Rising who understood what Rainbows idea was. "I think that is a good idea!"

Rainbow and Rising walked to the arena and Malonex fallowed them without a word. The general looked like he wasn't pleased with this idea but Twilight and Bright just followed them too. The general just sighed and walked after them.

In the arena Rainbow flew a bit around to search for something while Malonex walked to one of the crystal tables. He looked over the different crystal weapons he created over two years ago.

As he looked up again he saw Rainbow Dash standing right in front of him. "Why are we here now?"

"I thought we could duel like in old times."

Twilight and Bright just stared at Rainbow Dash and Rising already made his way to the middle of the arena.

Malonex turned his hoof into a blade. "I accept your challenge."

The general stepped forward. "I think I can't allow that. He could try to really harm somepony."

Malonex looked at the general, in his face was a bit a anger. "If I would harm somepony you all could easily overwhelm me. I still have no magic and I am still bound to the crystal. Do you think I am an idiot?"

The general stepped closer with a smile. "I think you are the greatest fool I ever met."

Malonex stepped towards him too and his expression began to fill with hatred. "If I were a fool I wouldn't nearly have take over all of Equestria in one day."

"If you weren't a fool you wouldn't have failed and wouldn't have been taken in prison."

Rainbow Dash interrupted them and shouted. "Stop it you two! Come on we have a duel to fight!"

In one second all anger and hatred in Malonex face left and he turned away from the general. The general growled one last time and walked to Twilight and Bright who were now standing at the crystal wall of the arena.

Rising stepped in the middle of the arena. He took out the light crystal and impaled it in the ground. "To make sure that nopony has any advantages I will make extra limits for the fighting ground." He used his magic to create a circle around himself, Rainbow Dash and Malonex. "These lines are exactly the limits that Fallen can move freely in. If Rainbow Dash leaves the area Fallen wins."

Both of them nodded and Rising went on. "Since Fallen is the challenged one he got to choose weapons and extra rules."

Malonex lifted his crystal hoof blade. "I use my hoof. Rainbow Dash can use every weapon she wants. No other special rules."

Rising nodded and looked to Rainbow Dash. "Then choose your weapon."

As a respond she smiled and took out a spear from behind her back. "I want to use my spear."

Before Rising began to count down Malonex looked closer at the spear. "Didn't I told you to go to a blacksmith over two years ago. You should really follow my advice and not use a normal spear from the royal guard."

Rainbow Dash was a bit surprised that he recognized the spear as a guard spear . "I didn't thought about getting a spear from a blacksmith after what happened two years ago. This one is just borrowed from the guards to train with it."

He just nodded and got into fighting position. "Then let's see what you learned after two years."

Rising took a few steps back and began to count down. "Three. Two. One. Zero!"

Rainbow Dash immediately flew into the air and Malonex made himself ready for the attack. After she was high in the air she rushed down at him. He dogged the attack with a jump to the left and tired to hit her with his blade but he missed her.

Rainbow Dash tried this again and again but each time it ended the same way till Malonex decided to trick her.

As she dashed at him again he jumped to the right instead to the left and hit her with his normal hoof in the side. The impact stopped Rainbow from flying and she fell to the ground.

She got up as fast as she could but as she saw that Malonex ran at her with his blade first. She felt pain in her right wing. It was probably hurt from falling onto it or even broken. She realized that she couldn't get into air and instead ran towards Malonex with her spear in her hoofs.

Their weapons clashed between them as they reached each other. They tried to hit each other multiple times till Rainbow tired to block an attack form Malonex. She hold her spear as a shield but Malonex changed the shape of his blade to an hammer.

The hammer broke the spear and hit Rainbow in the chest. The impact sent her to the ground. Before she could get up Malonex stood above her and hold his now again blade-shaped crystal hoof at her throat.

Rising stopped the fight. "The fight is over. Fallen wins."

"My name is Malonex!" growled Malonex back at him.

Malonex stepped away from Rainbow Dash and she got up. "No matter how you are called, you still haven't forgotten anything about fighting."

Malonex looked at her disapproving. "While it seems like you do. This was the exact same trick I used against you over two years ago and you fell for it again."

Rainbow mumbled something to herself so Malonex couldn't hear her. "Even after all that time and you going full evil some things still don't change."

Malonex heard that she said something. "What did you say?"

Rainbow looked away from him and quickly answered. "Only that it was a good duel."

He raised an eyebrow not really believing her. "I thought I heard something else."

He stood there in silence for a moment before he turned away. "Well then. Seems like we are finished here. I would like to go back to the prison then. I want to at last finish one of the potions."

Rising nodded and took the light crystal and as he looked up again he saw that the sun was already lowering. Malonex walked out of the arena and Rising followed him.

As he walked by the others he talked to them. "I think it is better when you all go somewhere else. I want to talk with him a bit alone."

The others simply nodded and they all left the arena together. Rainbow Dash Twilight and Bright made their way back to the castle, while Rising and Malonex walked back to the prison followed by the general.

Rising stopped at the entrance of the prison and turned to the general. "I think it is fine if you leave us alone now. I will make sure he doesn't has anything with him."

The general thought for a moment but then nodded and left without a word.

They walked into the prison. The guards tired to not look nervous as Malonex walked past them. They reached the main room and Rising turned to the guard that was standing there to guard the prison. "You can go now. There is no more need for a guard today. Come back tonight to get the potions."

The guard nodded without a word and bowed. As the guard walked away Rising called after him. "And tell the other guards that they are dismissed for today too."

As Rising heard all the guard leaving the room he indicated Malonex to stop. "Did you take anything with you?"

For a short moment Malonex didn't answer till he simply said. "No."

Rising nodded at this answer believing him and opened that door to the cell. Malonex walked inside without a word and Rising followed him.

After the door closed behind him Rising made his way to put the crystal back to his place. While he did so Malonex already began to work on his potions.

As he placed the crystal in its place and activated the spell to lock it Malonex spoke up. "You know that this all was a complete waste of time."

Rising sighed and walked to Malonex. "I understand why you hate me but why the others?"

"They are my enemies and I will treat them as such. They are traitors, all of them." Malonex said the traitor with his full hate.

Rising grabbed the magic blocker that was still around Malonex horn and took it off. "But you know that it doesn't has to be that way. You can forgive them."

"Why should I? My darkness is my power and I don't need friends. I will go on where my father failed"

"But today you saw how it could be if you turn around. You could teach others and you could be a part of the council again. Why should you choose to serve a master who is dead and can't even keep an empire."

Malonex turned around and grabbed Rising at the throat. "Don't dare to speak of my king like this!"

Rising didn't respond and Malonex let go of him. Malonex calmed down again. "This prison won't hold me forever."

Rising ignored this statement but as attempted to leave the cell he stopped for a moment to say one last thing. "You know that you sister still loves you and your friends want you back too."

Malonex closed his eyes for a moment and as he opened them again they glowed with dark magic. "Then tell them that I will make sure to crush your hops with every breath I do and that I will wait to see them all slipping into despair."

Rising sighed and left the cell. He walked back to the castle, on the way he tired to think of a way they haven't tried jet.

Chapter 3 A plan with complications

Malonex spent the rest of the day alone without any more visitors. He created the last potions he needed for his plan. 'Tonight I can finally begin with the first phase of my plan.'

At the evening a guard entered the prison to take the potions over night and like usual, Malonex placed one of them in the hiding spot and gave them the rest. After the guard was gone he sat on the ground and began to meditate.

In his mind he was in the black room again and his master was standing in front of him. "It is time my apprentice. The plan will start tonight."

Malonex nodded and they both closed their eyes. They concentrated and began to reach out with their magic.

A small black crow, made out of smoke flew out of the prison. With high speed it flew to his destination, Canterlot.

After an hour long flight the crow reached Canterlot in the middle of the night and it began to search. For hours it looked out for its goal till it sensed the unicorn. It found that its target was in a small house.

It entered the house through a open window and saw the simple inside of it. The target lived in a small room with one bed. On the nightstand next to the bed was a picture of a stallion with his wife and daughter.

The crow looked down at the bed. A gray stallion with a brown mane was lying in it. The strange thing about him was that half of his face was covered in dark crystal and his right front hoof was complete made out of crystal. The crow few inside of the head of the stallion.

The stallion saw himself inside a black room. He looked around for some time before smoke began to gather and Malonex was standing in front of him. "Greetings Lock Changer, long time not seen."

Lock was surprised to see Malonex but quickly got his mind back together. "I didn't expect to see you ever again after I heard what happened."

"So you know what I did and who I really am?"

Lock nodded with a smile. "And it doesn't matter to me. No matter if you name is Fallen or Malonex, you saved my life. So, what is the reason for your visit, I don't think it was easy for you to reach me."

"It took me two years to finally get that far and even now I can only talk with you this one time. I am here to ask for your help."

Lock looked at Malonex and asked. "You still want to free your race and take over Equestria?"

Malonex nodded and Lock smiled as responds. "Well I will gladly help you no matter what your plans are."

Malonex was surprised by such an happy reaction. He already prepared a mind control spell for the case that he wouldn't agree. "Why are you so relaxed after I said I would take over Equestria and probably kill many ponies with an army of darkness? Most ponies would immediately try to get away from me."

Lock just shrugged. "I don't care if your kind is the darkness. If you want to free your kind there is nothing wrong with that goal. And if your kind wants to claim Equestria it is in the hoofs of the princesses how this would go. If even one ponies dies it is their fault that they decide to fight."

After this sentence Malonex smiled the first time after a long time from his own happiness and not the pain and fear of others. "Then I need your help to get free of my prison."

"So what is the plan?"

"Next night you will steal my old equipment out of the laboratory I used while I was free. You will use the instructions I will leave behind. That is all I can tell you for now. I expect to see you in two days."

Malonex disappeared from the black room and Lock Changer woke up. He looked around and saw the black crow standing in front of a notepad. As it noticed that Lock saw it flew directly into the notepad.

Lock levitated the notepad to him and saw that words began to form. These were the instructions Malonex told him about. He read them and then stood up. He searched through his nearly complete empty house to find all thing he needed for his trip.

Malonex was back in his own mind and his master looked at him. "Did the plan work?"

Malonex nodded. "Yes and even better than we expected. It seems that he will support us with his free will."

A sinister smile appeared on Sombras face. "Perfect. Now we just have to wait and hope that he will execute the plan without any problems."

Sombra turned into a black cloud and fell apart. As Malonex was alone in his dark room he decided that this was not the time to meditate.

Malonex opened his eyes and was back in his cell. He knew that it was still late in the night and got onto his crystal bed for some sleep.

The next morning Malonex was woken by the sound of guards entering the prison. They walked to his cell with his breakfast. They placed it in his cell and one guard sat down to watch him for today. Another guard gave him his potions back.

Malonex took the potions back and began his experiments like every other day. After some time Malonex noticed that he needed an ingredient that he didn't had. He tried to do it without it but it failed.

He sighed and walked to the transparent wall to talk to the guard. "You. I need you to bring me a ingredient that I need."

The guard shook his head "No, I have my orders. I can't leave my post."

Malonex sighed, this was a problem. He needed this ingredient to finish the potion he was working on and if he waited too long the potion will lose its effect in a bunch of hours.

He decided to just wait till the next visit and hoped that it wouldn't be too late.

Malonex spent the rest of the morning creating other potions in silence but later he heard some ponies entering the prison. He heard voices talking.

The first one was Bright. "Are you sure? He wasn't in the best mood the last days."

He heard the voice of a filly answer. "We are sure! We want to help him too!"

He heard two other fillies agreeing to the first one. "She is right!" "Yeah!"

Malonex saw Bright entering the room together with a unicorn, an earthpony and a pegasus filly. As he saw them he remembered that he already saw them years ago and spoke to them. "So you three want to 'help' me?"

They stopped and Bright talked to him. "Yes, they are here to talk a bit with you."

Malonex looked down at them and grinned devious. "Are you already so far that you sent foals to change me? I guess you and Rising are out of ideas?"

Bright stayed calm and turned to the fillies. "If you are sure that you want to talk with him..."

She was interrupted by Apple Bloom "We are sure!"

Bright nodded, still not very sure herself. "Well then I leave you alone. Guard, you should come with me."

The guard hesitated for a moment but decided to follow her order.

She turned around and left the prison. The three fillies turned back to Malonex after she left the room.

Malonex turned around and began to work on a different potion as he heard the fillies talking to him. "Hey don't turn around we want to talk with you!"

He turned back and looked down at them. "Talking with little foals is beneath my dignity."

"Please! We just want to talk a bit."

Malonex just growled at them and turned back to his potions. They couldn't see that he was smiling. "Stop wasting my time."

Sweetie Belle stepped a bit closer to the wall. "Can't we do anything to get you to talk with us?"

Malonex turned around to them and looked at all of them with a short grin. "Maybe there is something I want and if you get it for me I will talk with you."

"They all smiled at him and asked at once. "What is it?"

Malonex smiled sinister. "Fresh dragon blood."

As they heard this they turned around and began to whisper to each other. After a few seconds Malonex turned back around. "Well if you can't do it than we won't come to an agreement."

He was pleased as he heard that they began to talk faster and louder. He head a few words like 'have to', 'no other way' and 'at least try'.

They turned back around and Apple Bloom talked to him. "We agree. We will bring you your dragon blood and then you will talk to us."

Malonex nodded and he heard them running out of the prison. He only had to wait a few minutes till they came back with a vial full with red blood. "We have to thank Spike later again."

"We have what you wanted!" They walked to the transparent wall and held the vial in his direction. Malonex just raised their eyebrow at them and waited for them to realize.

A few seconds later they realized that there was a wall and the door was magically locked. They ran away again only to return a later with the general. They dragged and pushed him towards the door.

Malonex waited a few moments till he talked to the general. "And I already thought that my view on the royal guard was too low but you can't even stop three fillies."

The general ignored that statement and opened the door. He threw the vial at Malonex who caught it with his magic and the general closed the door again and left the prison without a word.

Malonex looked at the blood of a moment and then walked with it to his potion. He put a few drops of the blood inside and put the vial away. After that he began to work on other potions.

He heard protest of the fillies. "Hey you said you would talk with us if we bring you the blood! Now talk with us!"

Malonex sighed and walked back to the transparent wall. "If you insist, ask me whatever you want."

They stepped forward now completely serious. "Why are you doing this?"

He raised an eyebrow a such an simple question. "Didn't the others told you?"

"They said a few thing but we want to hear it from you."

Malonex looked at each one of them before he answered. "They probably told you something about my magic corrupted me or even my master did it... No, the real reason is more personal. As I found out that I can use dark magic I was happy to know what I could do in my future but soon I found out that other ponies didn't had the best view on dark magic. I was hated and feared my whole life."

Malonex closed his eyes as he went on talking. "I learned to live in darkness and without anypony else. After years I knew that I was alone, the only free umbrum."

Malonex opened his eyes again and they were glowing with dark magic. "My kind is hated and feared because they dared to take a power enerypony else was too afraid to use. It is a old saying of shadow ponies that I learned from my father's book that said, 'only these who dare to go the farthest are these who are destined to conquer and rule.' My kind will take what belongs to us!"

He stared at the three fillies for a short time and then turned around and began to work on his potions. Apple Bloom was the first who talked to him again. "Wait, we have more questions!"

Malonex didn't even turned around to answer them. "Not my problem. I promised to talk with you I never said how much. Now go and do something else, I am working."

They tried to talk with him multiple times but after a hour of trying they gave up and left the prison without a word. As they left the guard walked back inside and Bright talked to them. They told her what happened and said that they were sorry that they couldn't do more. Bright thanked them for trying and told them that they should go home. After they left Bright went into the castle to start her lesson for today.

At noon Lock made his way to the train station in Canterlot. He wore a brown cloak to make sure that no other pony could recognize him or see his crystal face and hoof. He sat down in a empty seat in the train and looked through his equipment again.

Some anti magic shoes, a few throwing knives, a notepad, a quill, a jar of ink and a dagger for emergencies.

He looked outside of the train and sighed. "Time to leave everything behind and move on." The train stated moving.

The train reached Ponyville a few hours later and Lock left the train. He made sure that no pony saw his face and walked away from the trains station. Since he still had a few hours till it would get dark he decided to walk around a bit.

As he walked through the town he avoided to talk to any pony. He made his way towards the castle. As the castle doors came into view he saw a few guards guarding the castle and the arena and even more at the prison.

While he walked towards the castle he tired to look as unsuspicious as possible while he tired to spot every position where the guards were placed. The guards watched every step he did towards the castle. As he came closer to the arena he heard sounds of somepony training coming from inside it.

He walked to the entrance and saw Rising Light. He recognized him from the instructions Malonex gave him. He quickly looked around to see if Bright was somewhere near. The instructions said that Bright would be able to see through every lie but not Rising.

After he couldn't see her he decided to wait here and watch a bit. Rising noticed him after a while and called out to him. "Can I help you?"

Lock nodded and stepped closer, in his mind he get through his fake story one more time. "Actually yes. I am Quill Tip and I am here to see the pony who is named Rising Light."

Rising put his hammer and his shield on his back and smiled. "Well that is me. How can I help you?"

"I am here on behalf of princess Celestia. She ordered me to write down the events of two years ago for the history books. I wanted to ask you a few questions about what happened since every other pony I asked, that was there, only remembers how it stated and ended but not what happened in the time between beginning and end."

"Oh, I didn't expected that this was all important enough to be written down. Maybe I should get Bright first, she was there too."

Lock shook his head hectically that his hood nearly fell from his head. "No Mr. Light. The princess told me to only talk with you. She said that I shouldn't force her to go through these memories again."

Rising nodded slowly. "You are probably right. So what is your first question?"

Lock took out the notepad and the quill from his bag and levitated them in front of himself. "It would be the best if you would start by telling me the exact events with all the details."

So Rising began to tell him about the events and Lock just wrote them down. At the end Rising sighed. "Now he is in prison and we try our best to change him back to his former self. Well that was the whole story. Is there anything else?"

Lock nodded. "Yes there is. I am quiet interested on seeing the laboratory he once worked in."

Rising raised an eyebrow before he answered. "That should be possible. May I ask why?"

"Just curiosity." Lock tried to look as honest as possible even with the hood hiding most of his expression.

Rising nodded and they left the arena and walked to the castle. Rising led the through the hallway to the basement where they reached a closed door with a crystal on top of it.

"This is the door to his laboratory. Till now we weren't able to open the door because as you can see," he pointed at the crystal, "the door is locked with a crystal and no pony besides Fallen knows which spell he used to locked it and he won't tell us which one it was."

Lock looked at the crystal and lifted his normal hoof to his chin. "Maybe you should consider to hire a specialist."

Rising nodded. "We searched for one but none of them was able to open the door."

Lock tired to sound as disappointed as possible. "That is a shame. But I think I have to go now. I still have some writing to do."

Rising nodded and he led Lock out of the castle. At the entrance Lock turned around. "Thank you for your time. I wish you a good day."

Rising nodded. "Good day Quill."

Lock walked away and made his way back to the town. He looked at the sun and saw that it was already late. 'Not long and I have to start.'

He spent the rest of the time wandering around till the sun set down at the horizon and the moon lifted high in the sky. As everything was dark he walked quietly back to the castle and saw guards leaving the prison but that didn't matter to him for tonight, he had a different goal.

He walked around the castle till he found a open window. The window lead him into the kitchen of the castle. Before he went inside he took out the note with the description of the items he was suppose to get.

After that he climbed through the window and left the kitchen as fast as possible. He quietly walked through the castle to get the basement.

A short time later he was inside of the basement it was filled with bookshelves and he walked to the locked door to the laboratory. He got through the instructions once again.

'The door is locked with a heat beam that was cast through a dark crystal. The crystal needs to have my magical aura on it.'

Lock lifted the crystal leg in front of his horn and began to cast the heat beam. It went through the leg and turned darker. It hit the crystal and the crystal responded with a bright glow.

After it stopped glowing Lock pushed against the door and like expected it was open now. He walked into the windowless dark room. He used his horn to lighten up the room.

As he saw the room he remembered that this was where he woke up one time and met Malonex the first time. On the day that changed everything for him. He still couldn't remember how he got here on that day, but he remembered that it was Malonex who gave him the crystal parts to save his live.

He looked around the room and began to search for all items. First he searched for the easier stuff. The first was a red crystal spike, Malonex warned him to be careful to not get in contact with the tip. He also took a few of the books that Malonex said were important.

After he put the books and the spike in his bag he searched for the locked shelves. As he found them he took a look at the locks. 'These locks are really well made, I should ask Malonex where he got these.'

He closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He used his magic to unlock the shelves and after only the second he could hear all the locks on the shelves open at once.

He stepped to the first one and quickly found the book he should find at any cost. A black book with a dark crystal on the cover. Next came a few of the notes that were lying loose in one of the shelves. Lock saw a few protocols of complex spells.

In the next shelve was nothing more than just a sphere that looked like it was filled with dark smoke he could see many small green lights inside of it. He felt somehow uncomfortable looking at it so he put it in one of his bags as quickly as possible. Form the other shelves he took a few more items but mostly old books and a few bags full of bits.

After he was sure he had everything he needed he stopped the light of his horn and left the room. He used the heat beam cast through his leg again to lock the door.

The crystal glowed a bit and Lock changer walked to the door to see if it is locked. As he tried to push the door he heard two ponies walking towards the basement. Lock ran to the entrance of the basement and hide behind a bookshelf. He heard them walking down the stairs.

The first guard began to talk to the other one. "I tell you. I saw a light coming from down there! This laboratory is cursed"

"Did you had the prison-shift today or why are you so paranoid?"

"No I already did my turn at the beginning of this month. Now let's just look if there is something down there."

The second guard sighed. "Fine..."

A unicorn and an earthpony guard with spears entered the basement. They walked to the middle of the basement and looked at the door. Lock attempted to leave as he heard the earthpony talking again.

"I am sure I saw a light coming from here! Don't you unicorns have some sort of spell to see if something was here?"

"Fine I will do it. But I bet you I will find nothing..." After a short time the guard grasped in shock. "The crystal was affected by magic!"

"What?" The other guard shouted

"Quick we have to call alarm. The pony who did this must be still in the castle the aura is new!"

Lock began to panic and struggled to decided what to do. He saw the guards walking back to the entrance of the basement and he knew that there was only one way out for him.

He jumped out from behind his hiding spot and took out one of his throwing knifes and immediately threw it at the unicorn. It hit him in the forehead and he immediately sunk to the ground.

The other guard was to surprised to act and could barely lift his spear as Lock dashed at him. Lock used his crystal hoof to knock down the spear again and levitated his dagger out of his bag.

He used it to pierce directly through the throat of the guard. The guard tired to shout but only spit a few drops of blood on the ground.

A second later he fell to the ground too. Lock quickly took the knife and the dagger and used his magic to remove the blood. He put them back in his bag and decided the leave as fast as he could.

He sneaked back to the kitchen and jumped out of the same window he entered the castle.

He ran away and hoped that no pony would see him. As he was out of the view of the castle he slowed down a bit. He began to walk normal through the town. He made his way to the edge of Ponyville and left it. With slow steps he walked away from the town till he had reached a small hill.

He closed his eyes and began to sleep.

Chapter 4 Searching a killer

A new morning began and the guards got ready for work. The general was walking towards the castle to inspect the guards as a young recruit ran hectically towards him.

The recruit stopped in front of the general and began to pant. He tired talk but just sunk to the ground.

The general raised his eyebrow. "What is this behavior recruit? Take a deep breath and tell me what is so important!"

The recruit took a deep breath and stood up. He tried to stand as straight as possible and began to talk. "Two of the guards were gone missing after their patrol. They were suppose to watch over the hallway towards the basement. After they didn't came to their beds in their barrack they sent me to search for them."

The general became suspicious and began to hope that he is mistaken with his idea he had in mind. "What happened to the guards?"

The recruit took another deep breath and went on talking. "They weren't at their posts so I decided to walk down the basement. As I walked down I found the dead bodies of the missing guards! They both were killed with a knife or a dagger. We couldn't find more clues to the killer!"

The general silently cursed and then talked to the recruit. "Go to your barrack and tell every guard that we have to be careful!"

The recruit nodded and walked away while the general made his way to the castle. He quickly walked through the hallways to find the right room. As he reached the room he knocked on the door.

After a while the door opened a Rising stood in front of him. "General? I didn't expected you. What is the reason for you to speak to me so early?"

The general completely skipped greetings of formalities. "Two guards were found dead in the basement!"

Rising was shocked as he heard the general. "What? How did that happened and who did it?"

"That is the reason why I am here. We don't know who it did but I want to give a request to the magic council to sent a group of magic hunters to this castle as fast as possible."

Rising immediately nodded and began to write a letter to Celestia to ask for the hunters. The general waited for Rising. After Rising wrote the letter he walked towards Spikes room to let him sent the letter.

On the way he talked with the general. "Do we know what the killer wanted?"

The general shook his head. "Not exactly but the bodies were found in the basement and there is only one thing that would be worth the trouble."

Rising new that he meant the laboratory. "Are there any reports from the prison?"

"The guards just went to their posts a minute ago and I didn't got any reports from the other night patrols yet."

"I think extra security is needed general."

The general nodded and stopped walking. "I will immediately double the amount of guards at the prison and the castle. I will also order a night shift for the inside of the prison."

Rising nodded in agreement and the general walked away. Rising went on towards Spikes room and as he reached it he hectically knocked against it.

After a few seconds the door was opened by Spike who looked confused at Rising. "What is it Rising?"

Rising put the letter in Spike claw and quickly said. "This letter needs to be sent to Celestia immediately!"

Spike jumped a bit back in surprise about Risings outburst but then quickly breathed his magical fire to send the letter. As it was on its way Spike looked at Rising. "Now can you tell me what this letter was about?"

Rising sighed. "Two guards are dead! In the letter I asked Celestia as the archmage to sent a group of magic hunters."

Spike looked at him for a moment before he fully understood what Rising just said. "Wait what? When did this happened?"

"Last night. That is all we know and that is why I need the help of magic hunters, I hope they arrive soon."

Spike just nodded and Rising walked away. He decided to train early today and walked toward the arena. While he walked through the hallways he thought about the last days and tired to find anything suspicions.

As he reached the arena he realized that because he was so lost in his thoughts he forgot his hammer and shield in his room. He sighed and walked back into the castle.

As he walked though the hallways towards his room he heard Spike calling after him. "Rising! I already got a letter from Celestia!"

Spike stopped in front of him and gave him the letter. Rising looked at the letter before he read it. "That was fast..."

Dear Rising Light

I write this immediately after I sent out the hunters. They said they will reach Ponyville in this afternoon. I told them to hurry and I gave them your letter with all the information. I informed the rest of the magic council too. I am shocked to hear that this happened. Please make sure that no other pony gets hurt. I hope this killer will be found fast so he will face consequences for his actions.

Princess Celestia

Rising was relived as he heard the hunters will already arrive in three hours. He hoped that they could manage to find this killer. As he looked up from the letter he saw that Spike was already gone. 'Probably preparing breakfast.'

He began to walk back to his room again as he saw that Bright walked towards him. He greeted her with a smile. "Good morning Bright."

Bright didn't smile back. "Good morning. Spike told me what happened..."

Rising didn't knew what to say and after a few seconds of silence Bright just walked away and said. "I think today we should wait with talking to Fallen till we know more about the whole thing."

Rising just nodded without saying anything. As she was gone again he began to walk again. After he took his hammer and shield from his room he made his way back to the arena.

Rising entered the arena and wanted to start training but then he heard a voice from above him. "Hey there Rising!"

He looked up and saw that it was Rainbow Dash. "Good morning Rainbow. What are you doing here?"

She landed in front of him and took out a new spear. "I am here for training of course. I got a new spear after what happened and I decide to give it a test run."

Rising nodded with a smile and his horn began to glow. He enchanted their weapons with a spell that made them harmless but they would paralyze every target they hit.

After that they walked both to one end of the arena. As they reached the ends they looked at each other and got into fighting position. Rising began to count down. "Three. Two. One. Zero!"

Rainbow immediately flew into the air and Rising lifted his shield. He decided to use no magic in this duel. Rainbow Dash rushed at Rising with her spear forward.

They clashed against each other and with that they began to fight many duels. Sometimes Rising won sometimes Rainbow. It took them till noon till they finally decided that it was enough to one day and said goodbye.

Before Rainbow flew away she asked Rising. "How was talking with Malonex today?"

Rising sighed. "We didn't talk with him today."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Rising sighed. "Last night two guards were killed in the basement. We don't know who did it but I ordered some magic hunters to come here and look over them. Till they brought light to the situation we decided that the security will be at least doubled and that no pony other than the guards gets inside the prison."

Rainbow was silence for a moment but then she responded. "Well I bet there is nothing more behind it than some crazy pony. There sure is nothing more behind it."

Rising nodded slowly. 'I hope so...'

After a quick goodbye Rainbow flew away and Rising began to walk back to the castle to bring his weapons to his room.

As he walked toward the doors of the castle he looked at the sun and realized that he missed breakfast. He sighed shortly and entered the castle. He walked through the hallways towards his room. He walked inside it and placed his weapons next to his bed.

As he wanted to leave his room he heard Spike calling. "Lunch is ready!"

Rising smiled a bit and walked to the dining room. As he walked through the hallways he remembered that the hunters would arrive soon. That lighted up his mood a bit as he realized that they soon would know the answer to everything.

He reached to dining room and opened the door. He saw that Bright and Twilight were already sitting there and talked a bit. He silently walked to his seat and sat down.

A few seconds later Spike entered the room with the lunch. He gave each one of them a plate and they began to eat. Rising ate in silence and watched Twilight and Bright talking about Brights magic studies.

After they finished their lunch they talked for a bit longer. A bit later Twilight asked a question to Rising. "Spike told me what happened last night. He also told me that you ordered some magic hunters here. I wanted to ask you..."

She was interrupted by the sound of the doors that were slammed open. They all looked at the entrance and saw five ponies entering the room with quick steps. As they walked in everypony could hear the sound of metal hitting the ground. They all wore dark blue hooded cloaks and had their head lowered. The cloak was hold in place by an emblem. The emblem was a red star impaled by a blue dagger.

Rising stood up and walked towards them. As the five ponies were in front of him the bowed down before him.

Rising could now see that the group was lead by an unicorn and on each side of him was one pegasus and one earth pony. The leader talked first. "We are here as ordered archmage."

Rising loomed at the five hunters for a short time and then nodded. "Stand up. We have to talk about the details."

They stood up and lifted their heads. Now everypony could see their faces. They wore white masks with blue runes around the eyeholes. They looked at Rising and nodded. "We are familiar with the situation, we only need to know where the dead ponies are."

Rising nodded and indicated them to follow him. The hunters followed directly behind the archmage and after them walked Bright together with Twilight. They reached the basement where Rising pointed at the two dead guards. Nopony had moved them and Rising was relived about that because he completely forgot to give any orders about that.

As they entered the room Bright began to feel uncomfortable and even a bit weak.

The leader of the hunters shortly nodded at the rest and they all touched the left side of their masks. The blue runes began to glow and a white magic field covered the eyes. They began to look everywhere in the room.

Rising already knew about these runes but Twilight was curious and looked at Rising. "What kind of runes are these? I have never seen any like these before."

Rising was only partly surprised about that. "Probably because you never needed them. Theses runes create these tiny magic field in front of their eyes. When they look through them they are able to see the magical energy. You probably only learned the regular spell for that."

Twilight nodded a bit but Bright was confused. "I understand that this makes sense for the earthponies and pegasi but why does the unicorn need them?"

Rising smiled that she noticed that little detail. "If the hunters would use their magic they would leave a little bit magical energy behind which could interfere with their investigation."

They watched the hunters doing their work for a few more minutes till it seems like they are finished. The leader followed by his companions walked to Rising. "We have all the information we can get here. Do you want the information right now or should we discuss this in private archmage?" He pointed with his head toward Twilight and Bright.

Rising nodded shortly and turned to Bright and Twilight. "Bright I don't think it would be good if you hear the details about the death of these ponies. In fact I am not even sure if it is healthy for you to be near these dead ponies."

He had noticed that Bright started to act slower and that her legs were shaking a bit. As response she only nodded and walked away. After she left the basement Rising turned to Twilight. "Well it is your castle so I think you want to know the details too."

Twilight nodded and they both turned back to the hunters. The leader nodded and began to explain. "One of them was killed with a throwing knife, the other one with a dagger. Both weapons were hold by a levitation spell. The killer only used a weak spell so the aura of the user has already faded away for the most part. It is impossible to indentify it. Also the magical energy from one of the guards already faded more than the other so we can assume that there was a time gab from about five to thirty seconds between the two deaths. The blood has been removed from the weapons and has been found near the dead bodies. Besides that we couldn't find any other clues at the corpses."

Rising sighed. "That isn't very much information. This will not help us finding the killer."

But the leader wasn't finished yet. "But we found something else. The crystal that locks he door has affected by magic. We couldn't identify which spell was used on it but the magical aura is still very clear. The used spell must have been stronger than needed."

Rising looked at them shocked for a moment. "Can you find the pony the aura belongs to?"

The leader nodded. "There are not too many options who it could be. It is a aura of a dark mage."

Rising just stared at them for a moment before he got his mind back together. "What? That is impossible! The last free dark mage was caught six month ago and now I should believe that a dark mage that came out of nowhere managed to kill two ponies and escape without leaving anything behind!"

The leader was still sure that he was right. "I don't say a new dark mage was the killer. We assume that this magic aura belongs to the half shadow pony Malonex."

Rising looked at them disbelieving. "That is impossible. He is still in his prison. It is impossible that he managed to escape his prison."

The leader and his companion didn't even listened to him anymore. "I am sorry archmage but we can't waste our time any longer. We have to check the possibility that the killer was Malonex. It is a strict order of princess Celestia and princess Luna to keep all dark mages under control."

Without waiting for a respond they left the basement. Rising quickly walked after them as he realized where they are going. Twilight was left behind in the basement.

Rising caught up to the leader and walked to his side. "If it is necessary to do this then I have to insist that I will watch everything."

The leader just nodded and said. "If you insist archmage."

The walked towards the prison as Rising began to wonder. "How are you even going to compare the aura if you don't see them at the same time and even than you could make a mistake?"

As the leader responded his voice sounded completely emotionless. "First of all we are trained to make never mistakes and second we contained a bit of the left magical energy inside this container crystal."

He took out a crystal from under his cloak. It had a dark red color. "This crystal is enchanted to make it possible to test the similarities between two magical auras to nearly ninety-nine percent."

As they reached to prison the guards made immediately room for them. Rising noticed that the general already doubled the amount of guards. He hoped that this test would prove this as unnecessary.

The entered the prison and saw that Malonex was mixing his potions as usually. As Malonex saw them enter he sighed. "So much for my day alone."

Rising opened the door in the transparent wall without a word and the hunters entered the cell. Now Malonex noticed the red stars impaled by blue daggers. "Why have you called magic hunters here?"

Rising attempted to talk but the leader was faster. "Two ponies are dead and you are the main suspect."

Malonex cursed in his mind. 'This fool Lock killed two ponies and now I am a suspect. This will make everything a lot more difficulty.' On the outside he just laughed. "This is pathetic even by your standards Rising."

Rising responded with. "It was a aura of a dark mage that was found near the crime scene."

Now Malonex got angry about these claims. His eyes began to glow with dark magic but Rising knew that Malonex magic was limited by the light crystal and that he had no access to strong spells.

The leader of the hunters stepped towards Malonex, he levitated the crystal in front of Malonex. "I am sure you know how these work."

Malonex growled. He already knew what the result would be. He shoot a ray of energy at the crystal and it absorbed the energy. The leader took the crystal back and looked at it from a moment. "The auras match ninety-five percent, since we don't know which spell he uses at the crime scene we can give a ten percent tolerance. Thereby the result is that this was indeed his magic at the crime scene."

Rising couldn't believe what he heard. "But that is impossible. There is no way for him to escape this prison, it would not even be possible for him to break the bound to the light crystal."

The leader began to think for a moment. "That is true. I was informed about the details about this prison by princess Celestia. There is no way for him to escape from this prison without help."

Now Malonex was getting annoyed. "You fools just realize it now? Next time you chase after a clue that you know is wrong make sure to not bother me with your pointless actions. Now go away, you already wasted enough of my time."

The leader turned to Malonex and grabbed him at the throat. "I am not a fool and I waste as much of your time as I want. You have nothing to say you are just a prisoner."

Malonex began to smile. "If you insist to spent all day in this prison with me then I can't stop you, there are you right. But if you do that make sure that you take you mask off. I want to see your face when the guards tell you that they found more dead ponies and you realized that you are the idiot I said you are."

The leader stared at Malonex for a short time but then let go of him. He turned around a left the prison and the other hunters followed him. As Rising began to walk away he heard Malonex say. "And these ponies are some of Equestrias elite. This land really is as pathetic as it looks."

As Rising was outside the hunters began to talk to him. "We will search the entire area around this town to find the real killer. I would recommend to double the security around the castle and the prison."

Rising nodded. "The general already took care of that."

The hunters nodded and without any more words the turned around and walked away.

Malonex, now alone with the guards that was suppose to watch over him, began think about a new plan. 'This shouldn't have happened. This idiot Lock will ruin the entire plan.'

He heard the voice of his master in his head. "Clam down Malonex, the hope isn't lost yet. If Lock is carful he could still manage to free us. We just have to wait and see."

Malonex wasn't pleased with this idea. 'This is getting me to much out of control for my taste.'

Chapter 5 Fears come true

The hunters searched through the whole town to find the killer but they didn't found anything. At noon they came back to the castle and told Rising that they would watch the castle over the night from the arena. Rising agreed to their idea.

A the late evening they had build a small camp of tents inside of the arena. At least one of them was always watching the surroundings from the walls of the arena while the others would rest.

Lock walked back to the town at the evening. He wanted to hear if the dead ponies were found and he wanted to see if the security has been improved. As he walked through the town he got hungry and went to a cafe. After he got his sandwich he listened to the other ponies at the cafe if they knew anything.

After a while he heard something interesting. "Did you hear the news? Two of the guards are dead!"

"What? How did that happened?"

"I don't know any details but I know that it happened inside of the castle. They think it was a dark mage and he is still free!"

"A dark mage? Here? I thought that every kind of dark magic is illegal!"

"But it is true and they fear that this mage will try to free you know who!"

"Really?"

"Yes I think so. They already ordered some magic hunters to here and they are searching for the killer. They already went around the whole town asking ponies questions..."

Lock heard enough he stood up and walked toward the castle. He saw one of the magic hunters standing on the walls of the arena watching everything.

He also saw the improved security at the prison. 'This makes everything way more complicated.'

He began to think of a plan and after a while he got one. He made his way back to the place where he rested the last night and began to work on his plan. He created a small container crystal ball.

He created tiny hooks so he could throw it at fabric and it would stick there. After that was finished he lifted his crystal leg in front of his horn and used a energy ray to give the crystal Malonexs aura. He used his spell to see auras and moved the crystal ball around and as planned it left a trail of Malonexs aura behind. Lock created another two of these, he also caught a small bird and a rabbit. He attached to each of them one of the crystal balls.

As Lock was done he looked at the sky. It was already night and he decided that it was time to start. He walked back to the town and walked between the buildings and tired to find a pony.

After a while he found a mare who walked around with a small bag on her back. Lock smiled at his luck and took of his cloak. He sneaked behind the mare and said. "Turn around."

As the mare turned around the screamed as she saw Locks crystal face half and began to run. Lock threw the crystal ball at her bag and it the hooks stuck in the fabric. Lock shouted after her. "Run as fast as you want I will get you!"

After the mare was gone he let the bird and the rabbit go and they both ran in different directions.

Lock began to ran towards the castle.

The hunters were watching the area as they heard the scream of the mare. The leader immediately reacted and talked to his companions. "Fast! This could be the killer."

They all left the arena and ran inside the town. They walked around till they found the place where the scream came from. They looked around and the leader gave the signal to activate the masks. The runes began to glow and they saw the three trails leading in different directions.

One of the pegasi turned to the leader. "Where should we go?"

The leader had to think for a moment but he knew that they needed to hurry or they would lose track. "We split up. I will go alone. If one of us finds him he uses the signal."

The others nodded and the ran in different directions. The pegasi followed the trail of the bird, the earthponies that of the rabbit and the unicorn leader ran after the pony.

Lock reached to castle and saw that there were two guards guarding the prison. They were so busy talking that they didn't noticed Lock running towards them. As he got closer he shot two paralyzing bolts at them.

Both guards fell on the ground unable to move or talk anymore. Lock ran inside of it and saw that there was one guard watching Malonex. As the guard heard Lock coming he hadn't had enough time to grab his spear before he got hit by Locks crystal leg.

After the guard fell to the ground Malonex stood up from his bed and walked with a smile to the worktable with the potions. He took out the bag and walked towards the door of his cell.

Lock looked at the door for a moment and quickly noticed the magical seal on it. He hurried to cast his magic and used his special talent to break the spell. After that he ran past Malonex and began to work on the enchantment that in placed on the light crystal. He quickly disabled every security spell and took the crystal on his hoof.

Malonex nodded at him and he put the crystal in his bag. They both then began to ran towards the exit of the prison. As they reached it a small energy bolt flew past them and as it reached to outside it exploded in a loud red explosion. Malonex turned around ready to cast his magic and saw the guard that Lock knocked out falling exhausted to the ground.

Malonex used his magic to let a crystal spike grow out of the ground beneath the guard stabbing him in the chest. After the guard was impaled by a big crystal Malonex turned back around and they began to run.

They heard guards calling after them so Malonex opened the bag with the potions. He threw one behind them and it created a smoke cloud. The guards simply ran through it but a few guards fell behind because they stumbled in the smoke.

After a short time they reached to forest where Malonex took out another potion. This time he threw it against a tree and it created a fire that began to speared. Five of the guards managed to follow them before one of the trees fell to the ground blocking the path.

Malonex noticed that there were also five pegasi in the air above them. He took two potions out of the bag and threw one of them to Lock. He pointed at the sky and Lock knew what he meant. Malonex threw his potion at the five guards behind them while Lock threw his in the sky.

Both potions exploded in massive dark fireballs. The guards on the ground began to scream as they burned to death while the pegasi turned into small fireballs that fell from the sky. Lock had to dodge to not get his by one of the falling pegasi.

After they weren't followed anymore they decided to run till the sun rose and so they ran.

At the same time the hunter managed to catch up on the false trails. The pegasi found the bird and as they saw the crystal ball one of them took out a small stick. He broke it in half and threw it into the air where it exploded in two small green fireballs. After the signal was finished they started to fly back where they started.

The earthponies saw the signal and began to run faster. A short time later they found the rabbit and activated their signal.

As the leader saw the two signals he already could see the pony. He ran after it and the pony began to run faster as it noticed that it was followed. The leader began to shot paralyze bolts at the pony and managed to hit his target very quickly. As the pony fell to the ground the leader began to smile and walked towards it. But after he could see the pony his confidence began to fade. He saw that this was an earthpony.

He looked for the aura and quickly found the crystal ball. After he took it he let the mare go and she immediately ran away. The leader looked at the ball for a short time and the crushed it under his hoof in anger. He took out his signal and activated it. Then he walked back to the beginning of his trail.

As the sun filially lifted over the horizon Malonex and Lock stopped. Both of them had to sit down and get a few breaths of air before they could talk. Lock was the first who talked. "I think they weren't able to follow us."

Malonex stood up and looked back in the direction where they came from. "You are probably right. I think we can take a break for now, but we don't have long till the hunters will catch up."

Lock took out two sandwich from his bag and gave one to Malonex, who took it and began to look how many potions he had left. "While he looked he talked to Lock. "I must say I am impressed. After I heard that two guards died. I thought that it would be impossible for you to finish the plan."

Lock nodded. "I didn't thought that this would work either but still, thank you."

After Malonex was finished looking through his bag they ate the rest in silence till Lock had a question. "So, since this plan is finished, where are we going now and what is the next plan?"

Malonex thought for a moment if he should tell Lock but decided that Lock had earned to know where they were going. "Well first I need to know where we are now, it has been a long time since I last saw a map of Equestria."

Lock gabbed inside of his bag and took out a map. After he enrolled it on the ground he looked over it for a short time and then pointed at the forest in the north-west of Ponyville. "At the moment we should be in this forest near Ponyville."

Malonex looked at the map for some time and then spoke. "We are going to follow the forest towards west till we reach the mountains. from there we and heading towards north. We have to avoid getting near any of the small towns on the way."

Malonex looked on the map once more. "On the way we have to stop at least two times. First we are going to visit an illegal tavern located in the north-west from here, it could take a few days or a week to reach it. After that we are going to meet with allies. When we have them we are going straight towards the crystal empire."

Lock looked at them map for a moment. He followed the route Malonex had described and it looked like it could take at least one weeks till they would meet the allies and even longer till they would reach the empire. "Well, I hope I have enough to eat."

Malonex rolled the map up and gave it back to Lock. Before they started walking Malonex had to take care of his master. He concentrated on his crystal hoof and on his master inside of it. The presents of his master concentrated on one point and a small round crystal grew out of his hoof. Malonex took the small crystal and looked at it of a moment.

He could see black smoke moving inside of it and then a red glow. Malonex place the crystal on the ground and black smoke covered a small area on the ground. Lock was watching everything curious.

They both heard Sombras voice. "Finally free from this hoof. I see that you managed to escape. I am impressed by both of your actions. But mostly by you Lock. Ponies that are able to sacrifice so much for their goals are always welcome as my allies. Normally they are too fearful to risk anything."

Lock smiled a bit. "Well thank you, but I have to say that it wasn't very hard for me to make this decision."

Sombras voice responded. "You made the right decision. Not long till all of Equestria will realize that it should have surrendered long ago. I have to meditate now to regain my strength."

The smoke disappeared back inside of the small crystal and Malonex put it inside of his bag. Lock looked at him for a moment. "Can he hear us now?"

After Malonex shook his head Lock sighed. "Your king sure likes to be dramatically, to be honest I don't care about his revenge. I just want to help somepony to fight for his goals."

Malonex nodded. "Well, till now this is the first time I can honestly say that I appreciate someponys help."

After they finished their food they both stood up and Malonex began to talk. "I think we should start now. We are going to walk till the night then we are going to rest. After that we will walk the whole day without breaks and only rest at night. We have to make room between us and the hunters. No more magic till we are able to face them."

Lock nodded and they began to walk through the forest.

In Ponyville Rising was woken up by lots of knocks on the door. He got up from his bed and walked to the door. As he opened it he saw the general standing in front of him with panic in his eyes. The general breathed heavily in and out and Rising raised an eyebrow. "What is the matter general?"

The general took one last deep breath and answered. "Malonex escaped and at least twenty guards are dead!"

Rising stared at the general with shock. "What? That better is a really bad joke!"

The general shook his head and Rising wasn't able to say anything anymore. He walked past the general without a word and walked through the hallway of the castle. He left it and made his way towards the prison. At the entrance he saw a group of guards watching everypony that stepped closer. As they saw Rising they made room for him and he entered the prison.

Rising could already see the impaled guard as he entered the prison. He ran towards it and as he was inside the main room he saw that he hunters were standing there analyzing everything. As Rising saw them work he got furious. "What are you doing still here. Go and find Malonex! NOW!"

The leader turned around slowly and looked at Rising for a moment. "We are not able to track him down till he uses his magic again."

"What? You have a big clue to track him down right there." Rising pointed at the crystal.

The leader looked at the crystal for a while before he responded. "This crystal was created hours ago and only with weak magic. Every magic inside of it we could have used is already gone."

Rising got more and more frustrated. "Then follow the trail of his aura. Every unicorn, especially the mages leave one behind. "

The leader shook his head. "We already tired that but the light crystal that he is bound to blocks his aura for the most part and thus weakens the trial he leaves behind. The only thing we can do is wait for him to revile his location through a strong spell and hope that his aura becomes stronger again."

Rising growled and hit the next wall with his hoof. "Why weren't you there as he escaped. It was your job to guard him."

The leader waited for a moment and sighed. "We were tricked by another pony that helped him escape."

Rising wanted to shout a them for their foolishness but he hold himself back. "Go back to Canterlot and tell the princesses what happened. I also need a damage report before noon and the exact direction were they left."

The leader looked to his companions and nodded. They left the prison and Rising closed his eyes, trying to get his mind back together as he heard somepony entering the prison. He looked up and saw that it was Bright. "The general told me what happened. Is Fallen really gone?"

Bright already turned around and wanted to walk away. "Then we have to go and get him before he can do anything to himself or to others!"

She began to walk and it took Rising a short moment to realize what she meant but as he did he ran after her. As they ran he used a spell to grab her at her tail. "Stop! You don't even know the direction he went."

Bright didn't wanted to listen. "But we have to get him."

Rising shook his head. "I already asked the hunters if they could track him down but they said that even they couldn't find him till he dose something that will reveal his exact position."

Bright let her head hang and Rising stepped closer to her. He pet her shoulder. "Come on. Let us go inside. You will go and just learn as usual while I will do everything I can to bring Fallen back, ok?"

Bright slowly nodded and they walked back to the castle. Bright walked to the library while Rising made his way back his room. There he sat down at his desk and began to write letters for the high mages. He wrote them to watch out for signs of dark magic. As he wrote the letter the leader of the hunters came and gave him a complete damage report. Rising was relived and shocked at the same time as he read that 'only' twenty-one ponies died.

After that the hunters left for Canterlot and Rising gave them the letters. As the hunters were gone it was already noon. Rising wanted to meditate for a moment but as he closed his eyes he heard Spike calling for dinner.

Rising made his way towards the dining hall. While they ate Rising noticed that Bright was lost in thoughts and just poked her food. "Are you ok Bright?"

She just nodded and finally began to slowly eat. Rising tried to calm her down a bit. "You don't have to worry. If we are lucky we can manage to find Fallen before he even reaches one city."

She again only nodded but she began to eat with normal speed now. To bring her on different thoughts Twilight began to talk with her about her magic studies which lighten up Bright mood a bit and Rising thanked her for that.

After they all finished Rising spent the rest of the day searching through different books to find something that he could use to find Malonex while Bright went back to learning and Twilight decided to tell her friends what happened.

Chapter 6 The new companion

Malonex and Lock were walking for a whole day without any special events and they didn't had much to talk so they were silent most of the time.

It was noon as Lock wanted to ask Malonex something to finally break the silence. "Hey Malonex, what do you think about science?"

Malonex raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Lock began to explain. "Well I once worked as security guard in a laboratory and the scientists always talked about how their inventions would change the world and that magic will be unneeded one day."

Malonex laughed a bit about these claims. "I have already heard of some ponies that think they could find a way to replace magic but at one point they all accepted that magic can do thing they will never be able to do and they leaned to work together with magic and not against it."

Lock nodded a bit. "So, what is your opinion on science?"

Malonex thought for a moment before he answered. "I have nothing against it, don't forget that magic is its own kind of science but I still would always prefer my magic instead of some inventions. I have no use for machinery when I have the power to defeat every creature that tires to oppose me."

Lock nodded a bit and they walked in silence again. After a while Lock got the feeling that they were watched and whispered to Malonex. "I think somepony is watching us."

Malonex nodded slightly and began to look for magic auras. Sometime later he found something. He whispered back to Lock. "You are right, there is defiantly somepony. The aura is very well hidden."

The didn't stopped walking for even a moment. Lock looked around a bit but he couldn't see anypony. "Where is this pony I can't see it."

Malonex began to search in his bag for the right potion. "The pony is hiding extremely good and somehow also hides his aura, I don't know how."

Lock began to get nervous. "What are we going to do?"

Malonex found what he searched and showed the potion to Lock. "We will stop for a moment and sit down. When I tap three time on the ground I will crush this potion. It will spread a gas that weakens everypony physically that breathes it. After a few seconds the gas will vanish. You will use your magic to create a air sphere around your head."

Lock nodded slightly and they both stopped and sat down Lock acted like this was normal and took out a sandwich for himself and began to eat.

Malonex began to tap with his hoof and at the third time Lock immediately created a air sphere for himself.

Malonex threw the potion at the ground and the gas began to spread. After only one second it covered a big area. He waited patiently and watched as the aura reviled itself, probably wasn't the pony able to hide it anymore. He saw that it was sitting on a branch and it began to sway.

A second later the gas already vanished and the pony fell from the branch directly between Malonex and Lock on the ground.

It was a light gray pegasus mare with a spiky dark orange mane. Her cutie mark was a black wing that was made of smoke. A second later a bag fell on the ground next to her. Malonex looked at the mare for a moment and then looked at Lock. "She will not wake up again in the next three minutes. Tie her to a tree. We will ask her question when she wakes up."

Lock did as he was told and took out a rope from his bag. He tied her to the next three and then he took out another sandwich for himself. Malonex began to meditate.

Like Malonex said, the mare woke up after three minutes and mumbled. "Wow, what happened?"

She opened her eyes and looked around with bright orange eyes. As she saw Malonex and Lock sitting there she tried to ran away but then realized that she was tied to the tree.

Malonex heard her struggle and opened his eyes. He stood up and walked to her while Lock laid on the ground and looked at the sky.

As Malonex looked directly at her he used his magic to see her aura and something about it looked strange for him. "Who are you?"

The mare looked away. "My name is a secret."

Malonex heard Lock saying in a sarcastic tone. "Hello 'A-secret' my name is Lock."

Malonex just groaned at that joke and asked the next question. "How were you able to hide yourself from us?"

The mare looked at him and smiled. "You are about to find out."

Malonex noticed that the magic inside of her began to act and she started to turn into a shadow. The rope began to loosen but Malonex reacted. He sent out his shadow and it connected with the one of the mare. He used his magic to force her to get out of her shadow again. The mare looked shocked at him. "What? How did you do that?"

Malonex eyes began to glow with dark magic and he lifted his crystal hoof, that had now the shape of a blade, to the throat of the mare. His expression turned into a devious smile. "Try that again and you will wish you are dead. Tell me where you learned that? And stop playing brave I can see your fear in your eyes!"

The mare began to panic. "From my father!"

Malonex lifted the hoof even further so the mare could already fell it at her throat. "Who is you father?"

The mare answered quickly. "Insidius!"

Malonex was about to cut through her throat but stopped and her heard that name. "What did you say?"

The mare looked at him confused. "Insidius. Do you know that name?"

Malonex thought for a moment. "Yes, I know this name."

The mare began to smile at him. "Then you must be Malonex, son of warlord Tenobris! I knew I could find you! I searched for you everywhere in Equestria."

Malonex stared at her for a moment and then lifted his hoof again. His face was now filled with anger. "What do you want here and why do you claim to be the daughter of my father's advisor?"

The mare guickly answered. "Two years ago we sensed a great darkness and since then we tried to find Tenobris. We wanted to help him with whatever plan he had."

Malonex thought if he should believe her and decided to ask her a question she could only answer if she really was Insidius daughter. "What were the last words my father and Insidius said to each other?"

She immediately answered. "Insidius said: 'I will follow your orders, our enemy will cower in fear' and Tenobris responded: 'Yes, in fear and in my hatred'!"

Malonex was surprised, he didn't expect her to know this. After a while he decided to cut the rope and the mare smiled at him. Malonex expession was still cold and he said "Tell me your name and what happened the last years that took you so long and if you are lying..." His eyes began to glow for a moment.

The mare nodded happily even though Malonex scared her a bit. Lock looked at her, he was interested in hearing the story. "My name is Tacit. Two years ago we sensed that a great darkness was released and then vanished."

Lock interrupted her. "That was probably the events at the Summer Sun Celebration."

Malonex nodded and looked back at Tacit, who began to talk again. "We tried to find Tenobris and at one point we found out that he already died and that he had a son named Malonex who tried to take over Equestria. We tried to find you but as we began to travel towards Canterlot we heard of the new law that made every kind of dark magic highly illegal."

Tacits expression began to darken a bit. "One of our old neighbors told the guards that my father practiced dark magic and before we knew it we had magic hunters in our necks. We had to run through forests and sleep in caves. For the a whole year we managed to flee but they never lost out trial so we couldn't reach you. One day my father broke one of his legs and after one day the hunter caught us."

Tacit looked at the ground and sadness filled her eyes. "As they reached us they said they could see that we both are dark mages even though I am not even a unicorn. My father stood up against them and told them to leave us alone. The hunters said that they would give us one chance to give up but my father told me to flee and that he would stop them. I flew in the air and began to flee as fast as I could."

Tears fell to the ground. "Some of the pegasi hunters tried to follow me but they were shot down by my father. I heard their shouts and screams as they tried to defeat my father. Then I heard a loud explosion and as I looked back I saw that there were my father and the hunters fought was a big crater. The trees at the edge were burning in dark flames. I flew back to see what happened but as I arrived I found that nothing survived."

Tacit took a deep breath and looked up again. "I decided to search alone but it took me a long time to even find out where you were because I couldn't sense you like my father could. After nearly one year of searching I finally found your prison but I had no clue how to get you out of there, I wasn't even sure if you really were Malonex. I watched the prison for the rest of the time. Then you broke out and I followed you."

Malonex looked at her for a moment and then turned around. "Well then sit down. We are going to rest for an hour. Either you are ready to travel or we will leave you behind and I give the orders here!"

Tacit smiled and they all sat on the ground together. Lock gave everpony a sandwich and they began to eat in silence until Tacit wanted to start a conversation. "So where are we going?"

Malonex stopped eating and began to tell her. "First we are going to a tavern where I can get rid of this cursed crystal that I am bound to."

"You are bound to a crystal? How does that work?"

Malonex looked at Lock. "Could you take out the crystal?"

Lock nodded and began to search through his bag and after a while he found the crystal and place it on the ground and Malonex began explaining. "This crystal once was a natural dark crystal. After the dark magic was replaced with light magic it got the characteristic to oppose every kind of magical attacks. Only a very powerful spell can destroy it."

Tacit raised an eyebrow in confusion. "If it is impossible to destroy it with magic why don't you just..." She stood up and lifted her hoof over the light crystal and before Malonex could stop her she stomped down. The crystal responded by kicking her against the next tree and giving her a burning mark on the hoof.

Malonex walked to her and looked at her hoof. "If it would be that easy, don't you think I would have done that by now. Didn't Insidius ever taught you anything about light crystals. They are nearly indestructible."

She just groaned as answer and Malonex began to look if she was hurt somewhere. Lock now walked to them too. After Malonex was sure that only her hoof was hurt he turned to Lock. "Lock go to my bag and give me the light green colored potion."

Lock nodded and a second later he gave Malonex the potion who opened it and let one drop of it fall on the burning mark. "That should stop the pain and help you hoof healing. Next time ask me before you do something like that. This magic is way too dangerous for actions like this."

She nodded a bit and stood up again and they walked back to where the light crystal was still lying and sat down again. While Tacit was still looking at her hoof, Lock came a question to mind. "Speaking of magic, how were you able to turn into a shadow you are not even an unicorn?"

Malonex began to grin a bit. "She wasn't able to do it. She made the pitiful attempt to do that."

Tacit looked insulted at Malonex. "I can turn into a shadow perfectly, you just interrupted me!"

Lock stopped them before Malonex could say anything. "Well how does it work now?"

Tacit giggled a bit. "I thought unicorns know everything about magic. That is a natural ability that every shadow pony is born with. I don't know how exactly that works."

Without another word Lock looked at Malonex who knew what he wanted. "The ability to turn into a shadow is the result of a high amount of dark magic. That is also the reason for the gray coat and improved vision at night. You can compare it to pegasi and their ability to fly and walk on clouds."

Lock nodded a bit. "Well I am no expert in magic so I am just going to believe you for now."

Then Malonex stood up. "I think we better get going. If we want to reach our goal we have to walk for some days."

Malonex and Lock lead the way while Tacit followed them smiling. While they walked Malonex whispered to Lock. "Keep an eye on her. You are responsibly for her from now. If she it seems like she plans to thwart my plans kill her and if she interferes my plans you will face the same consequences as her."

Lock looked at him surprised. "You can't ask this from me. I can't watch her all the time."

Suddenly Locks crystal parts began to feel like they were on fire. Malonex leaned closer to him. "I appreciate your help but here applies a solid hierarchy and I will not tolerate it if you disobey my orders."

The pain finally stopped and Lock looked at Malonex and rolled with his eye. "Fine I will do it but you could just have said that..."

After a while Malonex began to lead the way and Lock and Tacit walked behind him talking. It was most of the time about what happened in Equestria over the last years till Tacit came a question in mind. "Are you a shadow pony or half shadow pony?"

Lock was surprised by that question but then remembered his crystal face half and his crystal leg. "No, Malonex gave me these. Why do you ask?"

Tacit answered. "I just didn't thought a normal pony would help one of my kind. Can I ask you why?"

Lock raise an eyebrow. "Well that is kind of a personal thing but I think I can tell you."

He took a deep breath before he began. "I will try to keep it short. One day a pony brainwashed me and tried to make me steal form Malonex but one my way I was attacked by some monsters. Malonex scared the monsters away and gave me this."

He pointed at his hoof and his face. "I forgot everything that happened and Malonex told me. After that we confronted the pony that brainwashed me and as the pony was brought to prison I went back home."

Tacit looked at him for a moment. "That explains why you know him but what made you help him to probably conquer your home?"

Lock laughed a bit about that direct question. "Well you aren't as foolish as I thought. Well to explain it to you. After I got home to my wife and foal they were shocked at what they saw. At first it wasn't that bad. I learned to accept that they couldn't act completely normal around me anymore."

He stopped there for a moment and gulped before he went on. "On the day of the Summer Sun Celebration I decided to make a surprise for my family so while they went to the ceremony. I decorated the house, I bought a cake and waited for them to come home. But as they came back my wife told me what happened. She said that she wasn't in the mood for a party and then told my daughter to go to sleep. After she was sure that the foal was sleeping she told me get rid of my hoof and face."

His voice began to be quieter. "I asked her why and she said because a monster made them. So I began to defend Malonex and said that he fights for what he thinks is right. She said that she doesn't care what I think about him, I should only get rid of these crystals before they make me a monster. I said that this wouldn't happen and that I would die if remove them."

He stopped again and Tacit petted his shoulder. "She screamed at me, she said that either I get rid of them , no matter if I would die, or she wants to never see me again."

He took another deep breath. "I began to shout at her. I said that I am thankful that I still live, even if I have to live with this hoof and half of my face always covered. I said that I am no monster and neither is Malonex. After I said that she told me to leave. I should pack my stuff and never come back. She said she didn't want her daughter to be raised by a corrupted monster..."

Tacit was shocked as she heard that. "What did you do?"

Lock sighed. "I left without a word It took my stuff and never went back. But I didn't gave up on my daughter, so I went to the princesses. I wanted them to give me the right to raise my daughter. I asked for a audience and only a day later I was ordered to the castle. But it never came to the audience, in fact I never saw one of the royal sisters."

Tacit raised an eyebrow. "Why that? I thought they called you to the castle."

lock laughed a bit but it sounded bitter. "They didn't call me for a audience. As I arrived I was taken to the dungeons by some magic hunters. They stared questioning me about my live and where I got my hoof and face cover. After I told them everything they said that they had to research before they could let me go."

Tacit asked Lock a something before he could go on. "What should they need to research?"

Lock just shrugged. "I don't know maybe they just searched for an excuse to hold me there. I spent four months in a lonely prison cell without any way to get out or even see the sun. After that they threw me out and said that I am not allowed to come near the castle ever again. This was the moment I gave up on my old live. I began to work as a locksmith and tried to earn enough bits to live. One day Malonex called me for help and I decided that had nothing in my live anymore so I helped him."

Tacit walked in silence for a moment before she managed to finally say something again. "I am sorry for you that you lost so much. But may I ask why you want to support us umbrum?"

Lock laughed a bit this time with happiness. "Because the only pony I can call a kind of friend thinks that it is right."

Tacit wasn't sure he she could believe him. "Even if that means killing some of your kind."

Lock waited for a moment before he answered. "If it comes to war I will not support any side but I will support the pony that saved my live and risks his to free for a, now over thousand years trapped, kind. Does that sound like a dumb idea?"

Tacit shook her head resolved. "No and I never thought that but I didn't expected that a normal pony would ever understand."

After she finished her sentence Malonex laughed a bit devious. "But I still have a few other plans than just freeing the umbrum."

After that Malonex was quiet again and Tacit looked surprised at Lock who just shrugged and smiled. "Maybe he is a bit evil but if he wasn't this all would be very boring."

After that Lock and Malonex both began to laugh and Tacit began to question the idea of going with these two.

Chapter 7 The tavern

The trio walked for days and as they came closer to their goal Tacit began to wonder what Malonexs plan could be. Since he never included her when he and Lock were discussing the plan, she didn't had the smallest clue.

One day Tacit was walking besides Lock while Malonex led the way. Tacit tried to convince Lock to tell her what Malonex plan was. "Come on! I know that you know the plan I heard you two talking about it!"

Lock just grinned a bit. "You still didn't dare to ask him yourself? I have to disappoint you. I don't know much more than you. I know that he is planning to recruit some ponies and perform a ritual but that is all I know."

Tacit began to whisper. "Don't lie to me! I have seen you and Malonex going through some notes. Please tell me what they were about."

Lock raised an eyebrow. "You know that it isn't a good idea to spy on Malonex he doesn't take things like that really well."

Tacit grinned a bit devious. "Tell me what was on the notes or I tell Malonex that you told me to spy on him."

Lock began to talk a bit louder. "What? But I didn't do that!"

Tacit smiled. "Not my problem."

Lock looked at her a little bit annoyed. "You little..."

He was interrupted from Malonex who was still walking right in front of the two. "Are you two arguing again?"

Tacit immediately answered. "No we weren't."

Lock was silence for a while before Tacit hit him in the side and he said with a sigh. "She is right, we were just talking a bit."

Malonex just responded with. "Then be a little bit more quiet. I have to concentrate."

After Malonex was silent for some time, Tacit began whispering again. "Now tell me what he showed you!"

Lock just groaned. "Fine. He showed me the instructions for the ritual he plans to do. That is all I could understand, the rest was too complex for me."

Tacit wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Do you know what the ritual is for?"

Before Lock could answer they were interrupted by Malonex. "I already explained that to you Tacit, it will break the spell that keeps me bound to the light crystal Lock is carrying all the time and if you have any more questions about the plan just ask me and stop bothering Lock with this. Also stop pretending you were a good enough liar to fool me, you aren't."

Tacit waited for a moment before she responded. "You heard everything?"

Malonex nodded. "Yes, it wasn't hard since both of you are really bad at whispering. Could you now please be quiet for a minute? I am trying to find out why we still didn't cross the river we were suppose to see an hour ago."

The rest of the time Lock and Tacit were quiet while Malonex was looking over the map while they walked through the forest. After one hour they reached the river Malonex meant and only a half hour later a tavern came into view. It was a small wooden building.

It didn't look very welcoming. The windows were all shut and curtains were blocking any view to the inside. On the sign that hung over the door was only the picture of two crossed dagger.

Before they went any closer Malonex stopped. "When we are in there I am the only one that will be talking understand?"

Lock and Tacit nodded and Malonex went on. "Lock take your cloak and hide your face under the hood. It is better if nopony in there knows how one of you two looks. Tacit do you have a cloak or something like that?"

She nodded and took out a gray cloak and put it on, even her wings were hidden under it. After Lock took his cloak Tacit looked at Malonex for a moment before she asked him. "What about the hole in your hood Malonex. Doesn't make you horn quiet obvious who you are?" She pointed at his red horn that was sticking through the hole of his hood.

Malonex simply responded. "Yes but the ponies there already know me and will recognize me no matter what I do. Now be quiet and follow me."

Malonex opened the door and they entered the tavern. On the inside it was very dark, only a few candles were lightening the room. The room was filled with a bunch of wooden tables and a bar at the end of the room. There were a few barrels stocked behind the bar and two staircases, one leading up and the other leading down to the basement. The tavern was full of sinister looking ponies and other creatures sitting at every table.

They all looked up as Malonex and his companions entered the tavern. Malonex ignore their glares and walked straight to the bar. While they walked the guests began to turn away again. As they walked through the room Tacit looked closer at a few of the ponies. She spotted some ponies that were making some sort of deal over a strange colored gem. As they noticed Tacit the immediately hide the gem and gave her a angry stare. She also saw a group that was playing poker and another that was throwing knifes at a poster of the princesses that hung on a wall.

As they reached to bar Malonex took a seat on one of the empty seats while Lock and Tacit remained standing. The barkeeper, a dirty looking earthpony, gave Malonex a disapproving glare. "I thought you had agreed that we will never see each other again..."

Malonex grinned a bit. "I reconsidered it after I was attacked by some of your assassins a few years ago. The rest of the group was very talkative about their client after I was done with the first one."

The barkeeper growled a bit. "What do you want this time?"

"I need some information about the position of the group I told you to keep an eye on and I want to hire all ponies here for my plans..."

The barkeeper smiled a bit. "That will cost you many bits."

Malonex took a bag of bits out without a word and placed it on the table, loud enough to be heard by every pony in the room. They all looked up by the sound of bits.

The barkeeper looked at the bags for a moment and then began to laugh. "Well I think we can come to an agreement. The last rumors about the group told me that they have their camp five days towards south from here. And about the other order..." As he said that nearly the whole room stood up at the same time. "I think I can arrange a large group in one hour."

Malonex nodded and gave the barkeeper a hoof full of bits and took the rest of the bits with him again. They left the bar without any more words and the barkeeper began to talk with his guests. They walked through the tavern and Tacit heard a few ponies talking and laughing about the, what they thought, easy earned money.

As they reached the outside Tacit began to ask Malonex questions that bothered her since she saw all the bits he carried. "Wasn't that a bit much money for just helping with a ritual? I mean I noticed that you have a lot with you but that was still a bit much."

Malonex grinned a bit. "I will get the money back after the ritual is finished. Now let's go and make the needed preparations."

They walked a bit away from the tavern and Malonex gave them a note with a picture of the needed rune. They all began to draw the lines on the ground and Tacit began to wonder what for he needed to recruit all these ponies. After they finished the last line Malonex told Lock to place the light crystal in the middle of the rune and walked into the center of one of the circles.

There he sat down and closed his eyes. "You tow should go back to the river we crossed. You will wait there for two hours and then come back here."

Lock already turned around to go as Tacit stopped and asked. "Wait what? Why that?"

Malonex groaned. "Because I don't need two ponies distracting me from the ritual and I don't think you want to be affected by the ritual after you saw what exactly it does."

Lock simply nodded and walked away and Tacit followed him. On their was Tacit asked Lock about what is going on. "Why did he sent us away? I thought he needs the help of other ponies for that ritual so why did he sent us away?"

Lock shrugged. "I bet I could tell if I had understood what the ritual does but for now we just have the believe that he knows what he does and as far as I know is that the case most of the time."

Malonex was waiting as he heard a big group of ponies coming closer to the rune. He stood up and looked at the group. Before they could say anything he started to give instructions." Everypony goes to one of the circles and just stays there. When the ritual starts you will no longer be able to leave so don't even try to run away."

Before they followed his instructions one of them stepped forward. "Before we do anything we want the payment!"

Malonex nodded and threw a bag of bits towards them. He noticed their disappointment as they realized that it was only half filled. "You will get the rest when the ritual is finished."

They all growled a bit but each one of them walked to a circle. Malonex began to concentrate.

First the lines began to glow red dark smoke began to spread over the ground. Malonex eyes began to glow green and purple mist came from the corner of his eyes. The circles began to glow brighter and over each pony, except Malonex, began a small dome of magical energy to form. From each dome began a beam of energy to shoot at Malonex.

The lines on the ground began to glow brighter and everything that was close to the ritual began to whiter. The trees lost their leaves and the wood began to lose their color. The grass in the area began to turn gray. This process began to spread till it created a from the air noticeable gray area in the forest. Red fog quickly began to cover the area.

The ponies in the red domes began to panic as they realized what kind of magic this was but they couldn't escape and were trapped under the domes. Malonex began to looked at the magic auras of the ponies. He saw how the spell grabbed their auras and slowly dragged them away from their bodies. As their magic and live was drained away their bodies they began to disintegrate till under each dome was nothing left but a pile of bones.

The screams of fear and pain echoed through Malonex head as he absorbed their live and he began to chuckled.

Malonex felt how the magic was transferred to him and he began to concentrate on the light crystal in front of him. Then he canalized all the magic he got from the now dead ponies and cast the spell on the crystal. Since he had his eyes closed now he could only hear the crystal shatter.

He felt that the ritual stopped and opened his eyes. He saw that the entire area around the rune was colorless and gray. The dead piles of bones show no sign of being alive a short while ago. He felt that his magical began power began to regenerate a his normal rate.

Before he could do anything else he heard ponies coming in his direction. As they came into view he saw that it only were Tacit and Lock.

As they saw what happened here Lock just stopped for a moment but then just walked straight towards Malonex. "Well I hope your ritual worked because this will soon draw attention to us and I don't think we can escape them again."

Malonex nodded and looked at Tacit who was staring at the piles of bones that were lying in the dead grass. "What is it Tacit?"

She just stared for another few seconds before she responded. "I am sorry I am just a bit surprised. I thought you just needed a bit help and then you would sent them away again."

Malonex looked serious at her. "I hope you aren't afraid to kill because you will see much more death on this journey."

Tacit looked around again and gulped shortly. "That is not the problem. I already assassinated a few ponies in my life but I never saw something this extreme."

Lock walked to the sack of bits that was still lying in the middle of the rune and took it. "I must say that I am very impressed. I know that you once were a high mage but I never could imagine what a high mage can do with his magic."

Malonex nodded a bit. "Well I have to say that I didn't created this spell. This credit belongs to my father."

Lock nodded and laughed a bit. "Just remind me to never bother you when you have a bad day."

Malonex wanted to respond before he heard the barkeeper shouting from the distance. "What have you done? You know how many hunters will now come here to investigate? I have to give up my tavern because of you! You are going to pay for this!"

The barkeeper ran towards them with a dagger in his hoof but before he could come any closer Tacit turned into a smoke cloud and flew at the barkeeper with high speed and without any noises. She flew right through him and he stopped running. For a moment it looked like nothing happened and Malonex got ready to kill him but suddenly blood began to leave the throat of the barkeeper through a thin but deep wound.

The barkeeper sunk to the ground and his blood began to spread over the dead grass. Tacit turned to her normal form again and Malonex saw that she held a thin knife in one of her hooves.

For a moment they just stared at Tacit without saying anything. She on the other side was a bit confused by their surprised expression. "What? I told you a few seconds ago that I already killed a few ponies. Did you thought my father didn't taught me about fighting and killing?"

Malonex began to smile a bit. "Good to see that you are prepared for our journey. That means Lock is the only one of us that has no fighting experience."

Tacit smiled proudly and followed Malonex as he began to lead the way. One second later Lock got his mind back together and ran after them. "Hey! I can fight! I was a security guard once!"

They went back to the tavern and entered it. It was now completely empty and Malonex began to looked around. "We have to hurry. It is only a matter of time till magic hunters will come to investigate the ritual. Search for everything we could use and that is easily to transport. Food and drinks have priority, but nothing alcoholic."

They nodded and began to search around. Lock quickly found the storeroom in the basement and collected everything the he thought would stay edible for at least a week.

Tacit searched around though the main room while Malonex went upstairs. There he found a room that looked like it was the place where the barkeeper lived. It was a small room with only a bed and a desk in it and nothing else.

Malonex walked to the desk, a scroll was lying on it. Malonex began to read it . The scroll was a report from a scout According to the date it was written one day ago.

Still following the H. Managed to hide for now. Position is three day north of the tavern. Will sent this scroll after H. build their camp. I listened to their scouts and they said they would reach their goal in a half day. They then plan to change their location again after two weeks it nothing unexpected happens.

End report.

Malonex growled a bit. 'That barkeeper should be grateful to be already dead.' He took the scroll and put it in his bag.

After he found nothing else interesting he walked back down where Tacit and Lock were already waiting for him. He nodded to them and they left the tavern together.

As they arrived at the outside Tacit and Lock both looked at Malonex. Tacit was the first who spoke. "So, where are we going next."

Malonex took out the map and looked over it. "We are heading north to meet with our allies."

Lock and Tacit both raised an eyebrow. "I thought that they had their camp in the south."

Malonex gave them the scroll from the scout. They looked over it and nodded and Malonex told them their next steps. "We have to leave and get as much space between us and the ritual place as possible. Soon the magic hunters will come and search for me. It will take a few days till I regain my full power and as long as you don't want to fight them without my help, we have to avoid fighting them till then."

Tacit and Lock both nodded and Malonex and they began to walk towards their next goal. After a while of walking the sun began to set and they began to prepare themselves to rest. as they were eating their dinner Tacit began to wonder. "Do these allies know that we will come."

Malonex shock his head. "Not really. They don't even know that they going to be our allies neither will they be happy about this idea but I think I will be able to convince them."

The others nodded and they began to eat but after a while Lock began to talk again. "You know. I thought about what you said earlier about me and not being able to fight and I wanted to ask if one of you could teach me."

Tacit immediately shook her head. "I sure can't. I am not very good at teaching and even I know that it would be better if a unicorn trains you."

Lock now looked at Malonex who began to think. "I think I could train you a bit. I already trained a few ponies but I think this has to wait till we reached the Crystal Empire. Till then I could only teach you a bit about spell that could be useful and other standard information about combat."

Lock smiled a bit. "Thank you, but I have to warn you. My magic is not the strongest neither am I the fastest learner."

Malonex smiled a bit at that statement. "Don't worry I am used to slow learner."

Chapter 8 A hunt

It was noon in Ponyville and Rising was looking through the latest reports about activities of dark magic that Celestia had sent him. Most of the time these reports turned out to be just a bunch of fools that tried to use dark magic and they all got sent to prison for their crimes.

There was never even a hint about Malonex location or the pony that freed him and after he looked through the last report he became frustrated. He wanted to meditate to calm his mind but as he closed his eyes he heard a knock on the door.

He walked to the door and opened it. In front of him was a guard. "What is it?"

The guard quickly bowed and then answered. "A group of magic hunters just arrived in Ponyville and they said that they want to speak with archmage Rising Light and princess Twilight Sparkle!"

Rising needed a moment to realize what the guard just said. After he was sure that he understood him right he began to walk away. He quickly walked through the hallways of the castle and left it through the entrance.

As he left the castle he saw nine hunters, three of each kind, waiting there and only a second later he heard Twilight coming out of the castle. He turned around and saw her looking confused at him. After she stood next to him the hunter approached them and bowed down.

Rising became a bit annoyed of all that bowing. "You can stand up."

Without a word they all stood up and looked at Rising through their masks. Rising nodded. "Now tell us what the reason is for nine hunters to show up without any kind of announcement."

One of them immediately answered. "Three hours ago a scout witnessed a great event of dark magic in a forest near Ponyville and we assume that the creator of this event is Malonex. The princesses sent us here investigate this event and to capture the pony who caused it."

Twilight nodded and Rising asked another question. "Then why are you here? You have to follow that clue as fast as you can!"

The hunter nodded. "Yes will go on our way immediately but the princesses told us to inform you about all this and they also ordered that you two should follow us with twenty-four hours delay. So you can take him after we manage to capture him. This runes stone will allow you to find us as long as we have the other one." He gave Rising a stone with a complex rune engraved in it.

Twilight and Rising nodded. "Thank you for telling us. We will be ready to take him with us after you captured him."

The hunter bowed again and made their way to three carriages. The pegasi went each to another carriage while the rest split up so that on each carriage was one unicorn and one earthpony.

The flew away and Rising looked at Twilight who was a bit overwhelmed with these sudden events. Rising didn't wait for her and went to a few guards. "Prepare my carriage. Tomorrow I will go."

Twilight now finally got her thoughts together and walked to Rising. "These are wonderful news. I am going to tell my friends that I will be gone tomorrow."

Rising nodded. "I am going to tell Bright about that." Twilight nodded and walked away while Rising made his way to the castle.

He walked towards the library and there he found Bright reading books. She looked up as she heard him enter the room. "What is it? I heard carriages landing outside."

Rising walked to her. "Magic hunters arrived a few seconds ago. They said that they may have found Fallens location and are now going after him. Tomorrow Twilight and I will go and hopefully take Fallen with us."

Bright expression lightened up immediately. "Really? Can I come with you?"

Rising thought about it for a moment but then shook his head. "No, it might be dangerous..." As he saw her disappointment he came up with an idea. "How about you go to the general and make preparation for his prison so something like this can't happen again?"

Bright looked at him and her mood seemed to had lighten up a bit but she was still not smiling. "Yes I can do that."

Rising nodded and smiled at her. Then he decided to prepare everything for tomorrow and went to his room.

He took his bag and began to pack a few blank scrolls, a quill and an inkpot. He thought if there was something else he needed and began to look around his room. Then he looked over the weapon rack with his hammer and shield. First he didn't want to think about having to use them but then decided to take them with him too.

The hunters arrived at the place where the ritual took place after one day and landed at the big gray area. While the earthponies began to look around with their masks active, the unicorns began to analyze what happened here, they analyzed the piles of bones and the dead body of the barkeeper. The pegasi were flying in the sky to see if there were other places like this. As the unicorns couldn't recreate what kind of spell caused this, they began to help the earthponies to find a track.

Soon their found a trail of dark magic that lead them to the west. The pegasi came down and they got on the carriages again. After a short time they reached the tavern and began to look through it. After they decided that there was nothing important to find inside of the tavern they made their way back outside. There they discussed what to do next. "We only have one trail we can follow. The best would be to immediately follow it."

The other nodded. "The trial leads to the north and after analyzing it I think that they are at least three day ahead from us. Since they are traveling by hoof we can catch up on them in at least one day."

The other nodded and they went back to their carriages. Only a moment later they were back in the sky and began to follow the trail of Malonex.

At the same time in Ponyville Rising carried his bag to the carriage. He was wearing his white cloak, blue lines that formed a complex pattern have been added on it after he was made the new archmage.

Twilight walked next to him. It was time for them to follow the hunters and they wanted to start as soon as they could. A few guards were standing ready to pull the carriage for them. After they placed their bags on the carriage Rising stopped Twilight for a short moment. "I think it would be better if you get your shield and sword. Only for the case that we have to help the hunters."

For a moment Twilight had to think but then she nodded and went away to get her weapons. Rising was looking in the sky and bagged internally that they wouldn't need their weapons. As he looked at the sky he saw a quick shadow flying above him.

He first thought that he hallucinated but then suddenly Rainbow Dash landed in front of him. "Hey Rising!"

Rising greeted her with a nod. "Good day Rainbow. If there is something you want make it quick, Twilight and I are leaving soon."

Rainbow nodded. "That is why I am here. I am coming with you!"

Rising sighed and wondered why he didn't already expected this. "If I say no you would just follow us, so I am saying yes but you will come with us on the carriage. No flying ahead!"

Rainbow smiled and cheered. "Yes!"

Rising stopped her form cheering more. "Do you have your spear? It could be possible that you will need it."

Rainbow stopped and face-hoofed herself. "Why didn't I thought about that. I will go and get it!"

Rising heard that Twilight was already coming back with her weapons and stopped Rainbow. "That would only be a waste of time and we are already late..." He pointed at one of the guards that was guarding the castle. "You there! Give her your spear."

The guards fist looked around the make sure that he was the one he meant and then quickly walked over to Rainbow Dash and gave her the spear.

As she took it she nodded to him. "You will get it back to you when we come back."

The guard just nodded without a word and walked back to his post. One of the other guards gave him an old spear that looked like it needed to be sharpen.

Now Twilight reached the carriage and looked surprised as she saw Rainbow Dash standing there. "Oh hi Rainbow. What are you doing here?"

Rising answered before Rainbow could even open her mouth. "She is coming with us and now please hurry. I don't want to let the hunters wait."

Twilight didn't disagreed with him and just walked on the carriage with her weapons on her back. Fortunately the carriage was big enough for at least five ponies, so they could all fit without any problems.

As everypony was ready to go Rising gave the guards the signal to fly. On the way Rising took the stone in his hoof and closed his eyes for a moment. As he opened them again he could see the exact path the hunters had taken and he told the guards where to go.

While Rising was busy with giving the route to the guards Twilight began to look at her weapons. She had a old iron sword that already had a few rusty parts and a wooden shield.

As she saw Risings golden shield and silver hammer she became ashamed of herself that she still didn't got real weapons. She decided that she would go to a blacksmith after they were back home.

After she was lost in thoughts for another few minutes Rainbow noticed that Twilight was staring at Risings weapons. "Hey, what are you thinking?"

She was pulled out of her thought by Rainbow and looked up surprised. "What? Oh you mean me? I was just thinking about getting my own weapons. I used this old equipment already way to long."

Rainbow nodded and looked at the spear. "I thought about that too. Do you know a blacksmith that could forge us some good weapons?"

Twilight shook her head and then they heard Rising. "I know a blacksmith that could forge you some weapons."

Both mares were surprised as they heard him and Twilight looked surprised at the guards that were pulling them. "Don't you have to concentrate on the trial of the hunters?"

Rising now turned around to looked at them and shook his head. "I have checked the route and we will probably just fly straight to the west for the next hours so I can take a break. Now back to the weapons."

"So you know somepony that could forge us weapons? What is his name?" Asked Rainbow him quickly.

Rising had to think for a moment before he answered. "To be honest, I don't know him personally. I only know of him because he was the apprentice of the blacksmith that forged my hammer and shield. Sadly he died a year ago but I heard that his apprentice took over the shop. The old blacksmith told me once that he was the best apprentice he ever had. I bet he could forge you good weapons, maybe even some armor."

"That sounds cool. Can you tell us where we can find him?" Asked Rainbow immediately after Rising stopped talking.

Rising smiled at her enthusiasm. "Sure, the shop is in Canterlot. I can go with you there. I am curious if he really is that good as the old blacksmith told me."

After they all stopped talking Rising turned back around and watched the trail again. There was still no sight of a slightly change of the course to he decided to meditate a bit. While he closed his eyes he heard Rainbow and Twilight talking about the idea of getting an armor too.

It took them the whole day to reach the place where the ritual took place and Rising saw that the hunters had stopped there. It was already night so it was hard to see what exactly was down on the ground. Rising was only sure that there was a gray area. "Land down there on the gray spot. I want to see what happened there."

Soon the guards pulled the carriage to the area and the ponies got off. Twilight and Rising began to search around to find out what the reason for this destruction was while Rainbow decided the fly into the air and if she could see something similar somewhere. It only took Rising a few moments to notice the piles of bones that were lying in a circle.

He walked to the middle of the circle and found the shattered shards of the light crystal. He looked at the shards for a short time before he recognized them. He walked back to Twilight who was suspired as she saw Rising running towards her. "We have to hurry!"

"What happened?" She was first confused as Rising showed her the shards of the crystal but then she realized what he meant. They both ran back to the carriage and Twilight shot a signal in the air to call Rainbow back.

As got on the carriage they only had to wait for a few seconds till Rainbow reached them. She landed on the carriage and looked confused at Rising who was immediately giving commands to the guards. "What is going on? Why are you two looking like you just saw a ghost?"

Rising turned to her after the guards began to pull the carriage. He showed her the shards and began to explain. "These are the shards of the crystal Fallen was bound to. He used some sort of spell to destroy it and now his magic is free!"

Rainbow still didn't get why they panicked so much. "What is the big deal? I am sure the hunters can handle him. I mean they have extra equipment and other stuff like that to capture him."

Rising shock his head. "Even if they would manage to defeat him under normal conditions, they aren't prepared for a fight. They think that his magic is still limited and they also have no clue about the kind of magic they are fighting against."

This even surprised Twilight. "But I thought they are trained to fight mages, especially dark mages!"

Rising sighed. "Dark mages may be their main target but the fact is that no pony has any real information about dark magic besides the fact that it is very dangerous. Till now the hunters only have fought against ponies that had no clue of what they were doing with their magic. This is the first time that they fight an actual master of dark magic."

Meanwhile Malonex and his group decided that it was time to rest of for this day. They all sat down and Lock began to look through his bag to see what they would eat.

As Lock was searching Malonex began to meditate while Tacit tired to find her daggers in her bag. "Where are those stupid daggers. I know that I put them somewhere here."

Malonex tired to concentrate but over time Tacit began to get more and more upset till Malonex lost his patience. "Tacit, be quiet! I want to concentrate!"

She stopped for a moment but then turned to Malonex. "It is not my fault that my daggers are gone. I put them at the same place as I always do but they aren't there. I looked everywhere and..."

Malonex opened his and looked at Tacit. "And what?"

Tacit looked at the ground ashamed of herself. "And I only take them out when I use them...", she sighed and went on "and I used them last night to cut a few branches because I was bored. I forgot to put them back in my bag."

Malonex growled at her. "You are as disciplined as a foal." Malonex began to cast his magic and created four crystal daggers in front of him. He gave them to Tacit. "Use these till you can get new ones. I made you two extra because they can break much faster than normal daggers. Don't try to block an enemy attack with these."

Tacit took the dagger and put two of them in her bag. Then she smiled at Malonex. "Thank you!"

Malonex growled and closed his eyes again. For some time it was quiet till Malonex could sense something coming towards them.

Tacit wanted to put her daggers in her bag as Malonex stopped her. "Don't put them away! Lock, stop looking through your bag. Something is coming towards us really quick."

They followed his commends and they also both took out a few of their throwing knifes. Then they all stayed quiet for some time. Malonex concentrated on the aura that was coming closer till it suddenly vanished. He turned his hoof into a blade and stood slowly up. His companions stood up too.

They all listened into the silence of the forest till they heard a strange tone. They jumped away from each other and watched as a dozen of thin spikes rammed into the ground where they stood a second ago. Malonex shot a energy bolt in the direction where the spikes came from.

The red light of the bolt reviled three pegasi hunters. A second later Lock created a big light source above them. The hunters had spread on the trees around them.

The hunters gave up their hiding spots and jumped down from the trees. A second later Malonex group was surrounded by nine hunters. The group jumped back together and each one of them faced three hunters. Malonexs eyes began to glow with dark magic, a smile appeared on his face and he chuckled. "Nine hunters? These are more than I expected. Good that I am not alone."

The pegasi immediately flew towards them and began to throw more spikes. Malonex turned into a smoke cloud and flew towards the unicorns. While Tacit and Lock dogged the spikes. They both began to throw their knifes at the Hunters who dogged them without much effort. Lock wanted to fight together with Tacit against the pegasi but the hunters noticed this technique and the earthponies began to attack Lock, forcing him to change his target.

Now each of them had to face three hunters on their own. While Malonex began to bombard his enemies with different spells the others had a much harder time.

Lock began to shot with energy bolts at the hunters hoping that they couldn't doge them. To his surprise they didn't even tired to doge them, instead they used their metal shoes to just smash the bolts.

Lock soon realized that his magic was useless and ran at them to face them in close combat. They drew their swords and waited for his attack. While he ran towards them he threw away his cloak and reviled his crystal parts. The hunters where a bit surprised but soon they attacked Lock. As the first one swung his sword at him he used his crystal leg to block the attack and sliced through the throat of the hunter with his dagger.

The other two weren't so easy. They began to attack Lock and their fight turned into a back and forth.

Tacit struggled to fight enemies that where as fast as she was. They began to push her back more and more. Suddenly one of the hunters got a dark crystal spike from Malonex rammed in one of his legs. As the hunter screamed in pain and surprise Tacit jumped at him and slammed her dagger in his chest.

As the hunter was dead she turned back to her enemies to see that one of them was gone. She quickly spotted him sneaking up behind Malonex. She wanted to help him but as she took a step towards him, the second pegasi attacked her to keep her away from his companion.

Meanwhile Malonex smiled as the first of his enemies burned down to ash in dark fire. He also heard that his help for Tacit had reached its target but what he didn't heard was the hunter slowly walking toward him with a sword.

While Lock was fighting his enemies he saw the hunter behind Malonex. Unlike Tacit he managed to get a free path towards the hunter. He quickly threw a knife at the hunter, the knife his him in the back of his head. As the hunter sunk to the ground Malonex finally notice him. His hate began to multiplied as he realized how close one of them got to killing him.

He sent a shockwave of dark magic against the two left unicorns which knocked the unicorns against the next trees. Malonex created crystals that tied them at the tree and turned into a shadow.

First he crawled beneath Locks enemies as a shadow and began to stretch. Lock noticed the black area and concentrated on keeping them inside of it. Soon the shadow began to leave the ground and two shadow claws grabbed the hunters at their throats. The hunters were lifted from the ground and the claws made it impossible to breath.

While the earthponies were strangled, Lock noticed that the unicorns managed to free themselves and started to shot energy bolts and at him and Malonex. Lock created a barrier for him and Malonex and they both looked out for Tacit.

As they found her they saw how she decapitate her last enemy. After the two eathponies finally stopped moving the shadow vanished and the two hunters fell dead to the ground.

The two unicorns where the only ones left now. Malonex expression changed to an evil grin and he began to concentrated his spells one of them while Tacit and Lock began to attack the other.

Lock managed to hit the hunter with his crystal hoof with full force. The hunter slammed against a tree and heard several of his bones breaking. Before the hunter even lifted his head Tacit had stabbed him in the chest with one of her daggers.

Meanwhile Malonexs enemy struggled to hold up his barrier. Soon the barrier shattered and the hunter fell on the ground by the impact. Before he could get up again he was impaled through his stomach by a big crystal. The hunter tried to say something but only blood left his mouth and soon he was dead.

Malonex closed his eyes and looked out for more enemies with his magic. After he was sure that they killed all of them, Malonex walked to the one that was impaled and took the cloak. Under the cloak the hunter wore many belts with thin spikes in them. "Take their spikes and look if you can find anything useful. Also you takes a pair of metal shoes Lock."

The other nodded and soon they searched through the dead bodies of the hunters. Tacit took one of the belts and looked closer at the spikes that were attached to it. "Malonex, what is so important about these spikes?"

Malonex turned around and showed her one of the spikes. "These spikes are only used by magic hunters. Do you see these runes?" He pointed at the harmless end of the spike. Now Lock walked to them too and looked at the spike. He quickly saw a small rune at the end.

Malonex grinned a bit as the saw their confusion. "If a pony gets hit by these spikes the runes will activate and block all their magical abilities. They are extremely difficulty to make and even one false line makes them useless."

Tacit nodded understanding and Lock turned back to collecting the belts.

Chapter 9 Plans and preparations

Chapter 9 Plans and preparations

Malonex and his group went on with their journey and Malonex told Lock to wear the metal shoes. At the evening as they sat down to rest for today Lock had slipped the metal shoes on and he began to wonder about the material. "What kind of metal is this? The hunters were able to block my magic with them."

Malonex looked up from the map. "This is a rare metal for from north. I don't remember what it is called but as far as I know it comes from a land far away from Equestria. The metal can only be found near strong sources of magic and if it is forged right is gains the ability to resist magic completely."

Tacit now turned around too and looked confused at Malonex. "If they can protect a pony against every magic why didn't you and I took a pair too?"

Malonex sighed disappointed. "You really don't understand magic don't you?"

Tacit lowered her head a bit and Malonex began to explain. "They are useless for us because we can't turn them into shadows or smoke when we wear them. They would fall off every time you change your form and, in my case, it would also block all my shadow-spells. I also weren't able to use my hoof anymore."

After a long way of walking Malonex said. "I think we should stop for today."

With that they all sat down and Lock gave everypony a sandwich. While they began eating Lock remembered something he wanted to ask. "Malonex, I have a question. After all this is over and there is no plan left to do, what do you do then?"

Malonex stopped eating for a moment as he heard Lock but quickly went on and began to tell. "Well I assume that king Sombra will offer me a the position as his adviser like my father was suppose to be but I am not really interested in this position. I think when this is over I would prefer to keep my title as archmage that my king already promised me years ago and go on with my studies."

Lock looked a bit surprised at Malonex. "Really? I thought you would want to be a teacher. I mean you know everything to teach others magic."

Malonex nodded. "As archmage I will be the headmaster of every magical academy but I don't think I will teach anypony. Maybe I will search myself an apprentice but for the most part I want to concentrate on my own experiments."

Lock nodded and then looked at Tacit. "And what are your plans?"

Tacit looked surprised up as she heard her name. "What? Oh, I don't really know. I still have to learn a lot and I hope I can find a teacher but besides that I just want to travel around the world and see different countries. What about you Lock?"

They already had finished their sandwiched and Lock lied on the ground. "My plans? I don't have some real plans either. I will just look how things go and see what comes next for me. Speaking of what comes next, when will we meet our allies?"

Lock threw the map towards Malonex who caught it and looked over it for a moment and then looked up again. "It should take us at least two more days then we will reach their camp. After that we can finally leave this forest and go to the empire."

Lock nodded slowly. "Well I think we should all rest now."

The others agreed with a simple nod and Tacit lied on the ground for sleep while Malonex began to meditate. That was enough for him to get the energy back he lost over the day and he decided that, after the hunter attack, at least one of them should always be awake.

Meanwhile the carriage with Rising, Twilight and Rainbow had reached the end of the trail of the hunters. Rising put the rune stone away. "Guard! Get down there as fast as you can. We have to know what happened there."

While the guards lowered the carriage Twilight began to worry. "I can't see any magical auras down there..."

Rising nodded slowly. "Me neither but the trial ends here that means the hunters either lost the stone, they captured Fallen or..."

He went silence and Rainbow began to get impatient. It took them a few minutes to finally reach to ground and Rising cast a strong light spell. They still had a few steps to walk till they reached area of the fight.

They walked for a few moments till they reached the first corpse. As Rising saw the dead body he immediately walked to it. As he came close he realized that the head was missing. He began to walk faster in the direction with Rainbow and Twilight following him. Only a second later they reached the area of the main fight. "Go! Try to find any survivors!" said Rising immediately.

It took them a moment to get over the picture in front of them but soon they walked in different directions to investigate. Soon they found every dead body and gathered them. Rising counted them and came to a conclusion. "Eight bodies of hunters and a pile of ash. There are no signs of other ponies and I can't find Fallens magic aura trail!" Rising stomped on the ground in anger.

Twilight was worried about Rising but she also had another concern. "I know that you need time to think about what to do next but what about the dead bodies?"

Rising took three deep breaths before he turned to Twilight and Rainbow. "We are going to do it like it is done with every magic hunter that died on a mission."

With a quick spell he set the pile of dead ponies on fire. Rainbow and Twilight both jumped back in surprise.

Before one of the could ask a question, Rising began to explain. "When a pony becomes a hunter he leaves behind his old live. He no longer has a name, a family or a home, so If a hunter dies his bodies gets burned to ash by his companions. It is also a security function for the case that their bodies were used for a spell or are infected by anything."

Both Rainbow and Twilight didn't dared to say anything against that and the three watched the fire slowly devouring the bodies. As the last body was gone Rising used a spell to stop the fire and turned around without a word. Twilight and Rainbow followed him in silence.

Soon they arrived at the carriage where the guards were already waiting for them. Rising stepped on the carriage and the mares followed. As everypony was ready Rising talked to the guards. "Bring us back to Ponyville as fast as you can!"

The guards immediately left the ground and flew towards Ponyville. Soon Rainbow couldn't bare the silence anymore and talked to Rising. "So Rising, what are we going to do next?"

Rising sighed and answered after a few more moments of silence. "This was our only hope of getting him. Now we have to wait till he gives us his location again and till then a lot of time could have passed by. As soon as we get to Ponyville I will personally go to Canterlot and talk to the princesses and talk about the next steps. I will also call for a meeting of the magic council. Twilight, you have to get Ponyville a better security. Double the guards and sent our patrols over night and day. We have to make sure that every place Fallen could go for is save till we know where he is going."

Twilight nodded and for the rest of the ride Rising stayed quiet while Rainbow and Twilight tired to get other thoughts by talking about other subjects.

After one and a half day they reached Ponyville again. As soon as they reached the ground the guards broke to the ground. They panted heavily and were unable to get up. Two other guards noticed them and walked to them. They helped them up and carried them to the barracks.

The mares stepped of the carriage and Rising put his hood over his head. "I will leave now. Tell the others where I am. I may be away for a longer time." He turned to the next two guards he could see and called out for them. "You two guards! Come here and put this carriage to Canterlot as fast as you can." The guards nodded and ran to the carriage. A moment later they pulled that carriage into the sky, directly towards Canterlot.

Twilight and Rainbow both nodded and headed straight towards the castle. They opened the door and went inside.

As they walked through the hallways they heard somepony running towards them and a moment later Bright was standing I front of them with an hopeful expression. "You are finally back. Everypony already began to worry that something bad happened. So how did it went?"

Twilight sighed and Rainbow looked away. "Malonex escaped and all the hunters are dead."

Twilight could see how her enthusiasm vanished and disappointment took its place. "Oh... and where is Rising?"

"He is going to Canterlot to speak with princess Celestia, princess Luna and the magic council about the next steps."

Brights head slowly lowered and she looked at the ground. "Oh, ok. Then I think I will go studying..." She slowly turned around and walked away with her head hanging.

After she was gone Twilight turned to Rainbow. "Could you please talk to the general about the needed security and please also tell the others what happened. I will try to cheer up Bright a bit."

Rainbow nodded and flew quickly out of the castle and Twilight began to follow Bright to the library. She walked through the hallways and on her way she noticed that they were guarded by more guards than usual. Twilight decided that she had to talk with the general about that later.

Soon she arrived at the library and opened the door. She quickly spotted Bright sitting at a table with her head over a book but it didn't looked like she was really reading it, instead it looked like she was lost in thoughts. Twilight walked up to her and looked over her shoulder. "What are you reading?"

Bright startled and looked surprised. "What? Oh, it is the book..." She levitated the book around and looked at the cover. "Levitation for fillies and colts, a guide for the young generation."

Twilight giggled at Bright who immediately shuts the book and walked to a bookshelf. "I must have taken the wrong book."

She then levitated a few books about advanced magic to herself and walked back to the table but she didn't started to read. She just looked at the covers. Twilight hated to see her friend and student like this. "Come one Bright. I bet Rising and the princesses will do their best to make sure that no more ponies get hurt."

Bright closed the book and looked at the ground. "That is not the problem, well partly it is but mainly I am worried about Fallen."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Why should you worry about him. He is in no danger, we want to capture him not kill him."

Bright slowly shook her head. "That is not what I meant. I meant that even when we manage to get him back, that there might be nothing left of Fallen."

For a moment Twilight didn't knew what to say and just looked at her student. After some time she opened a book and smiled at Bright. "Everything will be ok and now stop this sadness. How about we start with a new lesson today?"

It took Bright some time till she lifted her head but as she did her expression lightened up a bit.

Meanwhile Rising was on his carriage on the way towards Canterlot. The guards pulled the carriage as fast as they could and Rising began to close his eyes. He began to clear his mind and tired to get rid of his frustration.

After one more hour they reached Canterlot and Rising told the guards to land in front o the Castle. The guards did as they were told and pulled the carriage to the right place. He looked at the sun and saw that it was already afternoon what meant that Celestia should be at the throne room right now.

He stepped of the carriage and looked at the guards. "Go to the next barrack and wait for me to call you back. This might take a day or two, till then you can spend your time however you want."

The guards bowed before Rising and then walked away, while Rising already turned to the castle and made sure once again that his cloak was sitting properly and that his hood was over his head.

As he walked to towards the Castle the guards recognized his cloak and stepped aside for him and while he walked through the hallways a butler walked up to him to speak with him. "Sir archmage, it is an honor to greet you here. Should I tell the princesses about you arrival?"

Rising nodded. "Yes and tell them that I have important news about the hunt."

The butler nodded and quickly left through a side door. Soon Rising arrived at a big doorway that leads to the throne room and a guards stepped towards him. "The princesses are informed about you arrival and they ask you to wait here till they call you in."

Rising nodded and took a few steps back to sit on the ground and began to meditate. His mind became empty and he could focus his now clear mind on the task. Soon he heard one of the guards calling him inside.

As he walked inside the throne room he saw Celestia and Luna sitting each on their own throne. He walked till he was nearly directly in front of them and bowed down. They greeted him with a smile. "Greetings Rising Light. Us was told that you have news about the search for Malonex."

Rising stood up and nodded. "Yes, all hunters are dead and Fallen escaped without leaving a clue behind."

The expressions of the princesses immediately changed as they heard him. Celestia asked. "Do we know what his next goal might be?"

Rising shook his head. "No. Another thing I have to tell you is that Malonex managed to destroy the crystal and by now he might have gotten his usual power back."

Luna looked shocked at Rising. "We have make sure that he can't harm any more ponies!"

Rising nodded. "We have to sent guards to every place. I will meet with the high council and we will sent out the hunters to search for him. We also have to spread the news about his escape."

Celestia nodded. "We have to get him under control again. Rising we thank you for telling us so quickly. Now go and call the high mages we will take care of the rest."

Rising bowed again and turned around to leave the room but Celeatia stopped him. "Rising, you know that it might not be possible any longer to get him alive."

Rising stopped and let his head hang. "I know but we have to get him no matter the cost!"

He left the throne room without another word and walked to the corridor of the high mages. He walked through the long hallway towards the meeting room of the council. He entered the room with the big table. There are missing two chairs since two years. Malonex old chair and Risings old chair. Rising walked through the empty room towards the archmage chair and sat down.

He began to concentrate his magic and after a moment the table opened and reviled a bright blue crystal. Created by the former archmage with the help of arcane magic.

He touched the crystal with his hoof and closed his eyes. 'High mages! The archmage summons you to a meeting in one day! Don't bring you apprentices, this is an emergency.' The crystal turned gray as it lost its energy, it would probably take a few days till it has regained enough to sent another massage.

Inside the crystal six different symbols began to glow. A silver hammer on a golden shield, a mirror, a horn surrounded by a cloud, a complex rune, a ice shard surrounded by fire and a black crystal surrounded by purple flames. These were the cutie marks of the high mages that lived while this crystal was created three years ago.

Rising opened his eyes again and then sensed something coming from his back. He took his hammer and his shield from beneath his back and looked at them. The blue crystal in the middle of the shield was glowing. He touched it and immediately heard the massage he just sent in his head.

Rising looked at the big crystal again and saw how his cutie mark vanished. Each high mage has one of these blue crystals and Rising hoped that the others would get the massage as fast as he did.

He left the room and outside was already a butler waiting for him to step outside. "Sir, the princesses told me that I should bring you to the guest room. They told me that you can rest there till the high mages arrive."

Rising nodded at the butler. "Then lead the way." The butler bowed and they walked through the castle.

A short time later he reached the guest room and the butler bowed again. "If you have any request tell just ask a guard to get the butler and I will come as fast as I can sir."

Rising nodded and with that the butler left him alone in the guest room. Inside the room was a big bed a desk and a chair, all of that was designed with gold, silver and blue. The room had a window with a view over Canterlot. The curtains were blue and Rising immediately decided to close them.

The room was immediately dark and Rising used his horn to create a small light sphere. He closed his eyes and in the light of the sphere he began to meditate for the rest of the day.

While Rising meditated the massage began to reach one high mage after the other and they all made their way to Canterlot.

The next day Rising opened his eyes. He stood up and walked to the curtains and after he opened them he could see the sun. There was only one hour left till noon. As Rising realized that he looked out with his magic. He looked at the meeting room of the magic council. He saw the familiar four auras already waiting for him.

He turned away from the window and made his way towards the meeting room.

As Rising reached the door he heard the voices of the high mages coming from inside. He could hear them talking about what they thought was the reason for him to call them here so quickly.

He didn't waited any longer and opened the door. As he stepped inside everypony stopped talking and looked at him. He greeted them with a bow of his head and they did the same. Without any more words he walked through the room towards his seat. While he walked he looked at each one of them. They all took of their hoods.

The youngest one and the only mare in the room was Rain Bringer. She was the weather mage of the council and wore a white cloak with a cloud like design over her light blue coat. As she took of her hood it reviled her white short mane.

Next to her sat the grumpy looking Formulas Rune. The light gray stallion made sure that his glasses were on the right spot while he took the gray cloak hood of.

Next to him was the slightly older Mirror Illusion. The brown stallion with the black smooth mane and mustache. He already had his night sky designed cloak off and seemed to be the only pony in the room who was relaxed.

The last one was the oldest pony in this room. It was the big red stallion Ice Eruption. His coat and ash gray mane seemed to have became a little bit pale over the last year. He was the last one who took the hood of his ice blue and fire red colored cloak off.

He noticed that the room looked quite empty with only four ponies inside it. He sat down, looked around and nodded. "Good that you all came so quickly. I think it would be the best if we skip the formalities and go directly to the important point..."

Before Rising could say anything else he was interrupted by Formulas. "I can't allow this! Archmage or not you have to follow the protocol."

Formulas earned a sigh from Rain and Mirror and a growl from Eruption. Rising wasn't in the mood to argue with Formulas and decided to make this quick. "We will vote to abrogate the protocol for emergencies. Who is for abrogating them may now lift his hoof."

Everypony except Formulas lifted their hoof and Formulas looked shocked at the others. Rising rolled his eyes and stopped Formulas from saying anything. "I am sorry for my rudeness but now is not the time for something like this. We have bigger problems at hoof."

He looked around to see if he got their full attention. "You all know that Fallen escaped nearly a week ago and I was searching for him till now but the newest events change the situation dramatically. Three day ago Fallen managed to free himself from the crystal that blocked most of his magic. Now he already managed to kill nine hunters, around twenty civilians and has gotten himself at least one supporter. His magic becomes stronger with every hour!"

Every high mage was shocked about this. Eruption was the first who managed to say something. "We cannot let this happen! We have to sent hunters to every city for security."

Everypony agreed to his advice and Rising nodded. "Formulas, you will take care of sending them out. I trust you that you will make sure that every innocent pony is save. Rain tell every last one of your weather mages and pegasi to look out for abnormal events."

Eruption spoke up once again. "I will sent a few of my students out to different cities. They will assist the hunters with their task."

Rising was relived as Eruption said that and nodded. Eruption was known for training only the best. Every of his students is skilled in magic and in combat. Rising was still wondering how Eruption was able to find so many excellent students.

Rising now turned to Mirror. "Mirror, you do what you can do best and hold an eye open."

Mirror Illusion smiled at Rising and nodded slightly. "As always."

Rising nodded and Mirror already stood up to leave but Rising stopped him. "There is one last thing I have to ask from you. The council has lost two member over the last years and I want you all to look out for possible new high mages. This council can't properly operate with a small number of members. "

The high mages nodded and Rising stood up. The others did the same and they all bowed before each other.

Rising watched them leave one by one and soon he was alone in the room. He walked to his seat once again and opened the table as he looked at the crystal he saw that every cutie mark has vanished except the black crystal with purple flames. It was Malonexs cutie mark and Risings heart began weigh heavy as he saw it.

Chapter 10 Talking to a parasite

The trio walked through the forest and Malonex was looking at the map while Lock and Tacit where walking behind him.

They were so absorbed in their conversation that they didn't noticed that Malonex had stopped. Lock bumped into him and Tacit stumbled over one of Locks hoofs.

Malonex turned his head a bit and looked at them lying on the ground in the corner of his eyes. "We will rest early today. We nearly reached our goals and if we go any closer their scouts will find us before we can find them."

Malonex sat on the ground and began to meditate. Ever since the ritual Malonex magical power has increase and it seems it became even stronger than before his imprisonment. Lock has watched Malonex when he meditated and sometimes red fog began to surround Malonex after some time.

Tacit began to look if she still had all her weapons while Lock sat on the ground and watched the clouds in the sky. He began to think about the plan again and than a question came in his mind. "Malonex, about how many allies are we talking about?"

Malonex opened his eyes. "It is over two years ago since I last met them but since they number increases steady I think they have around two millions of soldiers."

Lock got up and stared at Malonex. Tacit had stopped looking though her bag and looked questioning at Lock. "What group has such a large number of members."

Lock shrugged and turned to Malonex who had his eyes closed again. "Can you tell us the name of the group?"

Malonex opened his eyes once more and looked at both of them. "I guess it would be better if you know what we will face."

They both sat on the ground and Malonex began. "The group I am talking about is over thousand years old, to be honest to call them a group is understatement. I am talking about a whole race that serves under only one leader."

Malonex waited to see if they would find the answer themselves but in the end he told them. "The race I am talking about are the changelings."

Tacit was too surprised to say anything while questions began to form in Locks mind. "You want to tell me that you want to recruit Chrysalis and her army? How do you think you will manage that?"

Malonex grin widened. "I already had a short conversation with the queen. I think she will remember me and understand that it would be better for her to have me as ally than as enemy."

Lock wasn't quite sure. "Do you think you can trust her?"

Malonex chuckled devious. "I don't trust her at all but I know that she is a smart leader and she will see that this will be the best chance she will ever get too help her kind."

Lock raised an eyebrow but didn't question anymore and just laid back on the ground. "Well I don't know anything about ruling a race but if you say so."

Tacit was still a bit confused but still didn't said anything but after a few moments she finally managed to open her mouth. "You want to form an alliance with these monsters?"

Malonex expression turned grim and he looked at Tacit with a disapproving stare. "You rather don't call them monsters because if they are monsters then we are demons."

This made Tacit close her mouth. She didn't dared to say anything against that and looked thoughtfully at the ground for the rest of the day.

Malonex closed his eyes again and began to meditate. The air around him to fill with red fog while he began to concentrate on his magic. Soon he felt his masters magic reaching out for him. Malonex created a black room in his mind and a moment later his master formed in front of him.

Malonex bowed before his master. "My king, how can I serve you?"

Sombra indicated his student to stand up and looked at him. "How long till we will reach our allies? I am getting impatient in this small crystal!"

Malonex lifted his head. "Tomorrow we will meet with the Queen and then we will go for the empire. I promise that it won't take much longer till we can go to the main part of my plan."

Sombra expression formed an evil smile. "Well done Malonex, this alliance will give us the opportunity to finally attack Equestria directly."

Malonex nodded. "We can finally get our vengeance and free our kind."

Sombra looked at him with a grin. "Perfect and if the queen doesn't cooperate you know how to correct her..."

A devious smile began to spread on Malonex face and he bowed with his head again. As he looked up again he could see that his master has vanished and felt that Sombras aura was gone again.

For the rest of the day Malonex didn't opened his eyes while his companions spent their time with a conversation about the things they knew about changelings.

On the next morning Malonex stood up first and called his companions. "Get up! I want to reach the changelings before noon."

Lock stood up with a groan and Tacit got up as quickly as usual. She looked up in the sky and saw that the sun just rose over the horizon and she could hear that the first birds began to sing.

Malonex had to wait a couple of minutes before the others were ready to go. While he waited for them he looked out with his magic and as he expected he couldn't find anything alive near them except a few animals.

Soon they were walking again and Tacit noticed that the forest to became more and more quiet as they came closer to their goal. She wanted to tell Malonex but as soon as she opened her mouth Malonex interrupted her. "From now none of you will even say a single word. We could walk into a scout any minute now. And take your cloaks on." With this he put the hood over his head. Now the horn was the only thing that could make it possible to recognize him.

Tacit closed her mouth again and they walked in complete silence from there. She and Lock put their cloaks on and lifted the hoods over their heads too.

Suddenly Malonex stopped walking and Lock and Tacit looked confused around. They couldn't see the reason for their sudden stop. Tacit was about to ask Malonex about it as he began to speak. "Step out of the dark and face us. You can't hid in the shadows."

A moment nothing happened but then they heard the sound of dozens of insect wings from above them. They could see how changelings flew out of the treetops and others climbed them with head first down. Soon the group was surrounded by at least thirty changelings.

Tacit and Lock took out their weapons but Malonex lifted his hoof to signal them to calm down. "I am here to talk with your queen."

One of the changelings stepped forwards, he was the only one in the group who wore an armor. "Why should she want to listen to what you say?"

Malonex grinned a bit and answered. "Because she will be interested in what she can gain from an agreement with me."

The changeling looked disbelieving at him and spoke. "Fine we will bring you to her but if you dare to try anything we will end your live and that of your companions."

As the changeling turned away Malonex began to smile. "I promise that it won't come to that."

The changelings began to march forward while keeping the group in the middle. Tacit looked up a little bit any saw that they were heading towards a mountain.

The changelings always kept an eye on them. They expressions showed mostly dislike towards them, maybe a bit hunger too.

After a short time a cave came into view. A green light escaped through the entrance and a few changeling were guarding it.

The changeling that lead the group stopped in front of the guards and talked to him. "We have captured three ponies and they say that our queen would be interested in talking with them."

The changelings that surrounded then made way to let the guards see them. "Take the cloaks of and give us all your weapons and bags, then you may enter."

Tacit notice that Malonex wasn't pleased with giving his cloak to them but he did it anyway.

Tacit and Lock did the same and both also took of the belts with the spikes. They also gave the guard their bags. The guard looked suspiciously as he saw Malonex crystal hoof and Locks crystal face half and leg but then just looked at Malonex. "Didn't you hear me? I said give me your weapons."

Malonex looked at the changeling. "Are you blind or just incompetent? Can't you see that I don't carry any weapons?"

The guard first looked at Malonex and then at the pile of weapons that was now lying in form of him. "After I saw how good you companions are equipped I assumed that you would be a bit better armed than nothing."

Malonex looked at him and he began to get impatient as the guard looked at their weapons for quite some time. Then the guard walked to the leader of the group and whispered. "Probably again some of these riche ponies that this barkeeper keeps sending here. Hopefully they will scream like the last ones." Even though they spoke too quiet for Malonex and Lock, Tacit could understand every word very well. She suddenly didn't feel safe anymore without her weapons.

The leader laughed and the guard finally turned back to the three. "Fine, you can come. I will bring you to our queen," then he turned to the group of changelings that brought them here. "And you go back to your scouting mission and this time you don't come back earlier."

The leader nodded and his group marched away. The guard entered the cave and Malonex and his companions followed him.

Torches were attached to the walls of the cave and they were burning with green fire. Some places of the cave were covered in green goo and the more they walked into the cave the more goo was there. While Malonex, Lock and the changeling just stepped into it Tacit tired to go around the goo as good as possible but soon the goo covered nearly the entire ground and since she didn't want to alarm the changeling by flying she just gave up and stepped into it.

On their way they could see many passages that lead to big rooms. Some of them where filled with changelings others seemed to be filled with weapons and in some of them they could see changelings training in combat.

Soon they arrived at an entrance to the main part of the cave. They entered it and saw a big room with big green fireplaces lighting up the whole room. The green goo covered the entire walls and there even were a few pony skeletons sticking in the goo on the wall. In the middle of the room was a stone throne with changelings standing on each side.

On the throne was sitting the queen of the changelings busy with talking to one of the soldiers so she didn't noticed them entering. The guard stepped forward and coughed. "My queen, these ponies begged for an audience."

Chrysalis looked up and saw Malonex and immediately recognized him. "You fool! Why did you bring him here without blocking his magic? Soldiers attack the shadow pony!"

Malonex smiled and his eyes and horn began to glow with dark magic. The guard that lead them here tired to run away to call for more changelings but as he reached to entrance it was closed with dark crystal.

As the way was blocked, The soldiers jumped at Malonex to attack him. While they were still in the air Malonexs shadow began to stretch and leave the ground. The changelings were hit by the shadows and knocked against the walls of the cave where they got tied against it by the shadows so they couldn't move. Their mouths were covered so they couldn't scream either. The fire that lighten the room turned to a purple color filling the room with purple light.

Chrysalis stood up from the throne and looked angry at Malonex who lifted his hoof to stop her. "Stop. I am not her to fight against you. I want to talk with you in a civilized manner."

Chrysalis expression turned a bit more calm and she asked. "What do you want then?"

Malonex stepped a bit closer to the throne. "I want to ask you to form an alliance with the shadows."

She lifted an eyebrow at him. "I didn't agreed to this offer over a thousand years ago why should I do it now?"

Malonex nodded. "Yes you didn't agreed as my father asked you and you called him and our race pathetic but I know that this time you are the one who needs help more than me."

She laughed at him. "There is nothing I need your help with and there is nothing you can offer me to make me help you!"

Malonex began to grin. "Don't try to fool me. Your race is starving and the chances that you can find enough food for all of them is rather small but if you form an alliance with me I can get you everything you want. Food, the land of Equestria and most importantly revenge."

Chrysalis looked at him for a moment and then she nodded. "Fine I will hear your offer but first you free my subjects and open the entrance."

Malonex smiled and the shadows that tied the changelings to the walls vanished and they hit the ground. With another spell the crystal that blocked the entrance disappeared back into the ground. The fires turned back to the dark green color they had before and Malonex watched as changelings ran into the room, trying to protect their queen.

As the first changeling tired to attack Malonex and his group, Chrysalis stopped them. "Stop! They are not our enemies. I want that everypony leave except the guards and him." She pointed at Malonex.

One of the changelings stepped forward. "What should we do with his companions?"

Chrysalis had to think for a moment and decided to make Malonex an offer. "I will let them walk free till after our conversation, if you promise to leave in peace when we don't come to an agreement or else I have to keep them as prisoners for the time."

Malonex raised an eyebrow at her. "Trying to fool me won't get you far. You know that if we don't come to an agreement this won't end in peace so don't pretend it would."

Chrysalis looked surprised of a moment but then quickly nodded. "Fine. Take his companions as prisoners till the end of our negotiations but treat them good. Don't ruin this chance too early."

The changeling nodded and lead Malonexs companions outside of the room and Malonex watched them till they were out of sight. "Before we can start I need to ask for my bag. Without it I can't represent the will of my kind."

The queen looked at him a bit confused but still turned to one of the guards. "Very well. Guard, get his bag here as fast as you can!"

The changeling bowed and flew away. They waited patiently till the changeling returned with the bag holding with his magic. He dropped it on the ground in front of Malonex.

Chrysalis leaned back in her throne and looked down at Malonex. "Now tell me your plan and what you have to offer."

Malonex chuckled shortly and began to search through his bag. "Oh I am not the one who will represent the shadows in this. That is the job of my king."

He took out the small crystal and placed on the ground. A moment later smoke began to surround the crystal and rose up. It began to take form and soon it had the silhouette of king Sombra. Red eyes began to glow in the dark of the smoke.

The eyes of the queen widened as she saw the creature in front of her. "What is this?"

Sombra turned his smoked head to her and spoke. "I am king Sombra, lord of the umbrum! I would prefer it if you call me by my name."

The queen looked even more surprised as she head the name. "You, I heard about you. You are the one who let the Crystal Empire disappear. But you were killed twice and your kind is trapped under the Empire!"

The shadow began to laugh. "You can't get rid of darkness so easily. Now let us talk about our alliance."

The queen leaned forward in her throne, suddenly interested in what he had to say. Malonex watched his master and the queen talking and he saw how they slowly created an alliance.

Meanwhile Lock and Tacit got lead through the cave. The more they walked the more changeling left the group till only the leader and two more changelings were guarding them.

They walked around for a bit till they reached a small room where the changelings sat down and began to talk. Tacit and Lock had no other choice to sit down with them. They heard the changelings talking about what they would do with their prisoners after their queen finally killed Malonex but Lock and Tacit were sure that it won't go that way.

Hours later they heard the sound of Malonexs crystal hoof knocking against the ground of the cave coming towards them and stood up. Malonex entered the small room and looked at his companions. "The alliance is made we will head towards the empire tomorrow morning. Now follow me."

The changeling looked at him with open mouths, while Tacit and Lock stood up and walked to Malonex. He immediately turned around and began to walk through the cave. On the way Malonex levitated each of them their bags and weapons back.

After a few moments of walking they reached a room with three stone platforms. Malonex put his bag on the ground and pointed at the platforms. "We will sleep here for tonight."

Wile Tacit just laid down on one of the platforms Lock wasn't really pleased. "Really? A rock bed?"

Lock tired to find a way to make his bed more comfortable, while Malonex began to meditate but Tacit stopped him with a question. "Malonex, can I ask you a bit about changelings?"

He opened his eyes. "I am not an expert about changeling but I will do my best. What is your question?"

"Two main things. First, what is this green goo and second thing is that I noticed that some of the changelings wore some kind of armor why are only a few of them wearing armor."

Before he answered he levitated one of his books out of his bag and looked through it. "Well I don't know anything about the goo but I can tell you more about the armor just let me look where... Ah, there! The armor is made of a rear metal which no one know how to find it. Changelings are the only creature who were able to find it."

"What is so special about it?"

Malonex closed the book again. "Well, it is rear but nearly worthless. It is not better than any other metal and it is hard to forge it to the right form. The reason changelings use it is that it changes shape with them. Every normal piece of clothing would stay normal when they transform while these armor transforms with them."

Suddenly Lock got to word. "Are we really going to walk the whole way to the Crystal Empire?"

Malonex chuckled a bit at Locks displease. "No, the plan is that we and fifty changelings will fly forward while the army and the queen marches after us."

Lock looked a bit confused at Malonex. "I know you can fly as a smoke cloud just fine and in Tacits case the question answers itself but how am I going to fly?"

Malonex had to think for a moment before he knew the answer. "Well, either Tacit can try to carry you or you have to walk with the rest of the army after us."

Lock groaned and let himself fall on his bed. "Seriously? I was here for the entire journey and now when things get interesting I will miss everything."

Tacit giggled a bit and Malonex just closed his eyes again even though a smile was on his face for a short moment.

Chapter 11 Heart attack

In the early morning Malonex opened his eyes and looked up. He knew that it was soon time to go and woke his companions up. "Get up!"

Lock slowly lifted his head and stretched his back. "I would have preferred to sleep on grass and dirt instead of these hard rocks."

Meanwhile Tacit was still sleeping on her bed. Malonex looked annoyed at her and cast an energy beam at her. She was knocked down from her bed, against the nest wall and then on the ground. On the way she screamed in surprise. Now on the ground she asked. "Why did you do that?"

Malonex began to gather the books he had looked through at night and answered. "We will go in a few minutes and I will not wait till you finally consider to wake up."

Tacit groaned and got up from the ground. Malonex gave her a dismissing look. "Now stop wasting time and hurry up. I will wait outside the cave."

Malonex left without another word and Lock looked a bit surprised after him. "Seems like somepony stood up with the wrong hoof..."

Tacit nodded slightly and made herself ready to go. There wasn't must do do exect making sure she had lost nothing. Only a few moments later she was ready and waved Lock good bye. "See you!"

Lock waved back. He was ready to go too but he decided to walk around in the cave for some time till the rest of the army would follow.

Tacit walked through the cave and soon reached the outside of the cave where she saw Malonex talking about the plan once more, with his back to the entrance. "... and if one of you messes this up I will make sure to sent what is left of you back to you queen after I am done with you!" As demonstration he shot as a rock next to them with a red lightning and it exploded into dust.

A few of the changelings managed to stay calm but of few of them gulped as they saw the remaining pile of dust. Now Tacit noticed that half of the were wearing armor.

Malonex looked around once more and then levitated twenty-five syringes out of his bag. "You all know what the plan is and with these syringes you can trick the security system of the empire, just take a hair of the pony you are impersonating, add the hair into the liquate and inject yourself with it. For three days no pony can find out that you are changelings."

The changelings who were wearing armor took the syringes and the rest just waited. Tacit now walked up to them and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around. "So you are finally here. Then we are ready to go now."

The changelings nodded and got ready to fly while Malonex turned towards north. Tacit stepped next to him and leaned a bit towards him. "Can you tell me the plan? Please!"

Malonex didn't look at her and just cracked his neck to get ready to start. "I will tell you everything you have to know when you need to know it. Until then just follow me and don't leave the formation!"

Tacit sighed but accepted it and got herself ready to fly. Soon Malonex turned himself into a smoke cloud and began to fly Tacit followed shortly after him and behind them flew the group of changelings. They flew in high speed and Tacit began to wonder how long this journey would go.

For some time the only sound they heard was the wind but soon Tacit had to ask Malonex. "How long will it take us to reach the empire?"

As Malonex answered, his voice sounded strange, it didn't came from him and she could hear a echo in it. "When we stay at the current speed we will reach our first goal within one day."

Tacit raised her eyebrow. "First goal? I thought we go straight towards the empire."

"Yes and this will be our second goal but on the way we will stop for a short time and then fly the rest without any breaks."

Tacit nodded and they flew in silence for some time till Malonex spoke once again. "Tacit listen to me, this is important!"

His serious tone made her a bit worried. "What is it?"

Malonex tone got a little bit more quiet. "When we reach the first goal they is no going back anymore. So I have to ask you this one time, are you sure you want to be a part of this? This fight has just started, there will be a lot of death and destruction once we reached the empire and then there will be no other way for you then to be a part of it. Maybe you have to fight maybe not, but sure is you will be a part of a war! If you leave before we reached our goal, I will let you go..."

This made her think for a while, she didn't knew if she could manage that but then she remembered her father and what Equestria had done to him and nodded. "I will be a part of it!"

Malonex was glad to hear her answer but he had to give one last warning. "That is good to hear but if you try to run away after we reached the empire or even try to betray us..." Red eyes began to glow in the cloud of smoke. "then death is the biggest mercy you can hope to get from me!"

The glow stopped and Tacit nodded slowly. She stayed quiet from there on and the flight went on with nothing happening. Soon they left the forest behind and the sun began to set.

While the sun slowly lowered in the horizon Tacit began to struggle to stay awake. Her wings began to flap slower and she had a hard time to hold her eyes open. At one point she was about to fall but Malonex caught her with a levitation spell. "I am awake!" She shouted but it wasn't very convincing because of the yawn that followed directly afterwards.

Malonex was still holding here. "Stop this and go inside my shadow. There you can rest for the night."

Tacit was about to object but another yawn escaped her mouth. "Fine but what about you? When will you rest?

Malonex chuckled a bit. "I don't really need sleep. My magic helps me to stay awake."

Tacit locked behind herself at the Changelings following them."What about the changelings?"

Malonex just responded."They are trained soldiers. They could fly for four days without a rest." Tacit looked back one again and now she noticed that they seemed like they just started flying and not like they were already flying for hours.

Without any more words Tacit accepted his offer and flew down to his shadow and turned into one herself. She flew over the ground inside of Malonex shadow. I wasn't the most comfortable place to rest but she actually managed to sleep.

The group flew nearly the half night till Malonex could see their first goal, the train tracks towards the Crystal Empire.

They stopped in the air and the changelings turned to Malonex. "You all know your task. Now get into position!"

The changeling nodded and flew into a bunch of bushes next to the tracks. As the last one was hidden Malonex turned around and saw the train coming towards them with its lamp lighting up the night.

As the train reached Malonexs range he summoned a cloud of black smoke and sent it inside of the train.

The sleeping ponies didn't noticed how the smoke entered the train while they slept. They breathed in the smoke and soon they all weren't only asleep but they were under the effect of Malonex spell. They would not wake up for the next few hours.

As the smoke vanished the changelings left their hiding spots and flew inside the train. Always two of them entered through one window, one with armor and one without.

The ones with armor took a hair from the mane of a pony and added it to the liquid in the syringes. The ones with the armor injected themselves the liquid and transformed into the ponies while the ones without armor took the ponies and flew them out of the train. Malonex watched the twenty-fife unarmored changelings leaving the train with the ponies. The ponies would probably serve as a meal for the rest of the hive.

Soon after he saw that the train was out of his sight Malonex began to follow the tracks. While he flew he could see the sun rising and heard a sound from beneath him. Soon Tacit appeared next to him and yawned. ""Good morning."

As she flew next to him she needed some time till she noticed that all the changelings were gone. "Where are the changelings?"

"They are in a train towards the Crystal Empire and they should reach it a few hours." was the only thing Malonex said.

After a few moments Tacit realized what Malonex said."And what are we going to do?"

"We will follow them. They should have enough time to prepare everything for our arrival. When we reach the empire you will take out the guards on the way to the castle without anypony noticing you, the rest is my job." answered Malonex with a tone that made it sound like that should have be clear already.

She nodded as answer and they flew for the rest of the day in peace. They saw the train on its way backfrom the empire to Canterlot and soon they reached the mountains that cut the empire from the rest of Equestria. They saw the tunnel for the train and landed on the ground.

Malonex gave Tacit some quick instructions. "When the train comes towards here you have to turn into a shadow and hide inside the shadow of the train. After a few hours the train should reach the empire. Go into the shadow of the first pony you see to get past the security at the station. You use the pony to get inside the empire where you leave the shadow. You will wait till I find you and then we will head towards the castle. You know the rest of the plan."

Malonex put on a extra cloak to hide his horn. Tacit nodded and they both turned into shadows. Tacit did everything like Malonex told her and as the train came she went into its shadow. After two hours of waiting while the train traveled through the snow they finally reached the empire. Tacit was relived as she saw that there was no snow inside of the empire.

At the station Tacit did how she was told and went into the shadow of the first pony she saw. From the shadow Tacit saw guards at every train door scanning the passengers and their luggage.

Tacit groaned as she noticed that the pony whose shadow she was in had started a conversation with a guard,

The pony asked. "May I ask why there are so many guards?"

With a nod the guard said. "Sure, it is better when more ponies are informed about the recent events. There is a criminal who is traveling around Equestria and we have to make sure he can't enter any city."

While she raised an eyebrow, the pony asked. "This all just for one criminal? Isn't that a bit much?"

"It is not just a normal criminal! The criminal we are searching is the dangerous Malonex!" Clarified the guard.

"That monster is free?" Asked the pony with a gasp.

The guard nodded but ensured. "Yes but you have nothing to fear, there is no chance for him to get inside of the empire!"

"Well that is good to know." The pony nodded thanking.

To Tacits relive the pony finally began to walked into the empire and soon they were out of sight of the guards. Tacit left the shadow of the pony. She crawled behind the next house and turned to her normal form again. After that she stepped on the street and looked around to see Malonex.

Suddenly a pony grabbed her at her shoulder and as she was about to push the pony away as she realized that it was Malonex.

As they walked next to each other Malonex began to whisper. "The guards are watching from the top of a few small towers. There are always two guards on one tower. I will head straight towards the castle and you will take out all the guards on the towers on the way. After you reached the last tower you will wait there and watch out if guards walk towards the castle and take them out if needed!"

Tacit nodded and flew up in the sky. After she was out of Malonexs sight he began to walk towards the gigantic castle. He watched a small gray point flying through the sky from tower to tower without a noise. Each time he saw how the guards had vanished after Tacit was at their tower.

On his way towards the castle a small grin began to form on his face and soon he reached the center of the empire.

As he saw the crystal heart he looked around and saw that no pony was around so he took a step closer. He looked at the heart for a moment but then turned around to one of the big doors of the castle. He opened them and walked up the staircase leading to the main structure of the castle.

While he walked Malonex kept his head lowered.

He soon reached the hallway leading towards the throne room and there he saw two guards waiting in front of the door. "Stop there! If you want to talk with the princess and the prince you have to take of you cloak."

Malonex smiled a bit and took off his first cloak and reviled his dark mage cloak. For a moment the guards just stared at the crystal hoof and the horn but then they lifted their spear. "In the name of Equestria, you are under arrest!"

Malonex lifted his head and the guards saw his eyes glowing with dark magic. Dark smoke began to cover the ground and two shadow tentacles dashed out of the ground directly towards the guards. They wanted to shout but before they could even open their mouths the shadows had grabbed them and smashed them into the wall behind them.

Cracks formed in the wall and Malonex heard the bones of the guards break. He sent a red lightning through each tentacle. First the guards screamed in pain and then they bodies just fell lifeless to the ground. Malonex went on towards the throne room and he used his magic to slam the doors open. The black smoke entered the throne room.

He saw princess Cadence sitting in the throne and Shining Armor standing next to her. They grasped in shock as they saw him and Shining Armor immediately reacted. "Alarm! Guards, get this pony!"

The guards that stood on the sides of the room stepped forward. Malonex grinned and his horn began to glow with dark magic. Shining Armor noticed that quickly. "Shields!"

Shining Armor summoned a shield around himself and Cadence and the guards tired to do the same. Malonex sent out a shockwave of dark fire that filled the entire room. Some guards didn't managed to defend themselves quickly enough and were burned to piles of ash in a second, while other guards managed to block the attack but they were knocked against the walls by the impact.

Now the royal pair and Malonex were the only ponies standing in the room and for a moment they just looked at each other. Suddenly twenty-five crystal guards dropped down from the ceiling of the room and stood next to the princess and prince. Shining Armor smiled. "One of my guards already warned me that you might come here! Because of that I got my best guards here to wait for you! Now give up peacefully and we won't kill you."

Malonex laughed a bit and looked at Shining armor with confidence. "Did you really thought it would be that easy?"

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow and in this moment the guards burst into green flames and a moment later the armored changelings had taken their places. They turned towards the royal pair and looked aggressively at them.

Shining Armor and Cadence turned each to one group of them and closed their eyes. In a bright glow they created a shockwave that knocked the changelings against the walls. Malonex was hit by the shockwave too but he only slide a few steps back. He looked around and saw the unconscious changelings.

Malonex stepped towards the royal pair that was facing him now directly. Malonex began to shot a rain of red lightning at them and Shining Armor summoned a barrier. The lightning smashed against the barrier and Shining closed his eyes in concentration on the shield.

Cadence stepped forward to help him but he stopped her. "Stay behind my shield or he will get you!" Malonex as so busy with his spells that he didn't heard them talking. "Cadence you have to get ready to go. I can't hold this shield much longer, so when I say now run to the left!"

She nodded and then he opened his eyes and shouted. "NOW!" He used a spell to shot his entire barrier at Malonex and while he was busy destroying the projectile Shining Armor turned to the left and shot a magic bolt against the wall. This created a hole in the wall and Cadence immediately run towards it. Shining Armor turned back to his enemy only to see a lightning flying towards him.

He got hit by the lightning and felt how the pain overwhelmed him. He slowly fell to the ground and struggled to keep himself from passing out. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was a black cloud of smoke leaving through the hole in the wall.

Cadence flew through the air and quickly landed on the ground. While she ran towards the heart she heard something running behind her.

She began to channel her magic and turned around. As Malonex came into her view she shot a light beam at him that hit him directly and knocked him a bit away.

She turned back around and ran towards the crystal. She nearly reached the heart as suddenly a giant crystal claw grew out of the ground and grabbed the heart. As black smoke began to spread from the claw Cadence backed away from it. She wanted to fly away but before she could get far enough away from the smoke, shadow chains came out of it and grabbed her wings.

More and more shadow chains came out of the smoke and grabbed her legs and her head and dragged her to the ground. As she was unable to get away a pony began to form out of the smoke.

In the next moment Malonex stood in front of her. Half of his face looked like it was broken away and smoke streamed out of it."You are the first pony that managed to hit me," the destroyed part of his face slowly began to rebuild itself, "but next time you should consider using a spell that can actually hurt somepony."

His eyes began to glow green and purple mist began to stream out of the corners of his eyes. "I have a massage for you. This land now belongs to the darkness!"

The magic began to affect Cadence and her eyes began to glow green too. She began to scream in pain and fear and tears began to run down her face before she passed out and sunk to the ground.

Chapter 12 Releasing a darkness

Malonex looked at the unconscious princess Cadence for a moment before he heard a changeling landing behind him. "Uhm... What are the next orders?"

Malonex slowly turned around and walked towards the changeling. He lifted his crystal hoof to the throat of the changeling and turned it into a blade. "What was that in the throne room?"

The changeling backed away from Malonex. "Well...we..."

In that moment Tacit landed behind Malonex and he spoke to her. "Remind me to talk with the queen about her so called 'elite' again!"

Tacit nodded and replied with a simple "Ok." While Malonex already looked back at the changeling. "Now make yourself useful and get the prince and the princess in the throne room."

The changeling nodded and bowed in fear. A moment later a few of the changelings came and took the princess away while Malonex and Tacit began to talk a bit. "So, what it the next plan?"

Malonex walked towards the big crystal claw in the center of the castle and used a spell to let it open, releasing the heart. "Till now, no pony has noticed what happened but soon the first ponies will come to see what is going on here. You have to trick them to go away, we will not be able to keep them under control if they find out what happened. We have to keep everything quiet for one day, then the army should arrive here."

Tacit stepped next to him and looked at the heart. "How should I trick them?"

He took a piece of paper out of his bag and gave it to her."This is a copy of a special permission from the mage council. Show it to the ponies and tell them that the council has sent you and that there was an attack on the princes s and the prince. Tell them that no pony is allowed to come close to the castle. Maybe you can get a few guards to build blockades on the street."

She nodded but before she flew away she ask Malonex. "What are you doing till tomorrow?"

Malonex took out a sack made of some sort of black silk and used it to store the crystal heart without touching it. He tied up the end and put it in his bag. "I will prepare the ritual for the finale step of phase one."

Tacit looked curious at Malonex. "And what is the final step?"

Malonex grinned a bit. "I will finally free our kind. Now you should hurry."

Tacit looked a bit perplexed at Malonex but then she flew away without another word. Malonex, on the other side, walked back into the castle. He made his way to the throne room and as he reached tit he saw the prince and the princes lying next to it. Their hooves, horns, and Cadences wings were covered in green goo.

The changelings were waiting for him to give them his next orders. They bowed as he walked past them to sit down on the throne.

As he sat down he spoke to them. "Take the shape of the guards again and leave the castle. Build blockades on the streets towards the castle and get as many guards to help you as possible, tell them there was an attack on the prince and the princess. No pony is allowed to come close to the castle till the army arrives!"

The changelings bowed and changed their shape to the crystal guards and walked out of the room. Malonex leaned back in the throne and took out a book form his bag. It was a red book with a purple eye on the cover. Ever page of the book was filed with descriptions of dark spells, rituals and curses. It took Malonex years to finally master the spells that are described in this book and even now he didn't knew if they would work.

Malonex knew that this book wasn't written by the umbrum or any dark mage that came after them. He didn't knew who the author was but he knew that the spells described in it were more powerful and dangerous than anything he has ever seen.

He quickly searched for the right page and began to read. He studied the ritual for hours, to make sure he wouldn't make a mistake, until he heard somepony entering the throne room. He looked up from the book and saw that it was Tacit. She walked smiling up to him. "Every street is blocked and the guards are watching the blockades. The changelings are patrolling around the castle."

Malonex nodded and levitated the book back into his bag. "Perfect. The only thing we have to hope for it that the army reaches us before the shield around the empire collapses. But if I calculated everything right, the shield should last for at least five more hours."

Tacit nodded. "What are we going to do till then?"

Malonex answered. "I will meditate for the rest of the time. I have to get mentally ready for the ritual. You can do whatever you want."

Tacit smiled and turned around. She left the throne room without another word and began to explore the castle. Meanwhile Malonex closed his eyes and dark magic began to fill the air around him.

After some time he heard a strange noise from outside of the castle. He opened his eyes and walked to the destroyed wall to look outside.

He saw how the shield spell that protected the empire against the snow collapsed and the snow began to fall. But that was not the only thing that entered the empire. From every side changelings began to invade the empire and soon Malonex heard the screams of terror as the ponies began to run. With a small grin he sat back on the throne.

He began to wait for the arrival of the queen but soon he heard the sound of hectic running towards the throne room.

A moment later the door was slammed open and a guard ran inside the room. "Princess Cadence! The empire is under attack..." In that moment the guard realized that the princess and the prince were lying next to the throne and saw that a dark stallion in a black cloak was sitting on the throne. "Wait, you are not the princess!"

Malonex smiled and his eyes began to glow with dark magic. "Exactly!" In the blink of an eye Malonexs shadow rushed forwarded and left the ground. It flew towards the guard and impaled him.

The shadow lifted the guard high in the air, where it disappeared and the guard dropped on the ground. Malonex summoned a shadow minion who carried the dead body of the guard to the side of the room.

In the moment as his minion disappeared he could hear more ponies coming towards the room and only a second later queen Chrysalis and a bunch of changeling soldiers entered the room.

They walked up to the throne and Malonex looked down at them. "Did everything worked out like I planned it?"

Chrysalis nodded and answered. "My troops are patrolling through the empire in this very moment. They will have taken every pony as prisoner in a few hours."

Malonex grinned. "Then I will move on with my plan. I would recommend you and your soldiers to not leave the empire till I am done."

Chrysalis stepped forward. "I demand to be present at the ritual."

Malonex looked at her and stepped off the throne. He decided that there was no point in arguing with her. "Fine. Then let's go to the edge of the empire."

Malonex walked away and left the castle without another word. Chrysalis followed him and a moment later they were on their way through the empire. While Malonex walked on the street he looked around to see how groups of changelings were marching everywhere.

While they walked Malonex heard Tacit flying above them for a moment and then landing next to Malonex. "Where are you going?"

"We are going to the edge of the empire. I need more space for the ritual." answered Malonex.

Tacit then quickly asked. "Can I come too?"

Malonex shook his head. "I think it is better if you stay here in the empire. Look if you can find Lock somewhere and then you two can come after the ritual is done."

Tacit nodded and flew away again and after a few minutes of walking they finally reached the end of the empire.

Malonex looked upon the frozen land of the empire. In the distance they could see the mountains that cut the empire form the rest of Equestria. The sky was filled with clouds and snow fell slowly to the ground.

Malonex made a few steps forward, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Everypony stepped back and watched everything that he did.

His horn began to glow with dark magic and he opened his eyes again. They were now completely black and red mist came from the corner of his eyes. Black smoke came from under his cloak and began to spread over the ground around him.

Then Malonex began to speak in an unknown language. As he began to speak his voice became loud and dark.

(Great darkness! We call you to aid us, so we can fulfill your will.)

The air became cold and his voice echoed over the whole empire.

(Give us power to free shadow from light.)

The earth began to tremble and the wind began to rage over the empire. The clouds turned black and began to circle in the air, creating a big cloud in the sky. Warping the entire empire in darkness.

(Give us power to unleash ancient hate on this world.)

Black red lightning began to shot from Malonexs horn, striking directly at the cloud. The lightning storm form his horn stopped and red lightning began to strike inside of the cloud. Leaving the empire with threatening red flashes as the only source of light.

(Give us power to finally conquer this world in your name.)

As Malonex spoke the last words the cloud began to shoot with lightning at the ground of the frozen land. The thunder could be heard everywhere in the empire and the earth began to tremble even more. He could hear the earth crumble open as more and more lightning began to strike down. Soon a big lightning struck down in the middle of the area and the light blinded everypony for a second.

As they all could see again they saw a big hole in the ground and black smoke began to leave it. It began to cover a big area in the frozen land and soon Malonex looked upon a gigantic black cloud.

For a moment it seemed like nothing happened anymore but then the smoke began to slowly vanish and it reviled millions of dark colored ponies.

Malonex eyes turned normal again and he used his magic to raise his voice. "Brothers and sisters of darkness! I am Malonex, son of Tenobris and master of dark magic and I freed you, with the help of our new allies the changelings, in the name of our king! It is time for us to finally rise again! Whoever speaks for you shall meet me in the castle of our kingdom! Everypony go into the empire and find a place to rest! "

In this moment Tacit walked up to him with Lock following behind her and Malonex turned to them and spoke with his normal voice. "Make sure that everypony gets a place to live in the empire. The changeling should have brought enough tents."

Tacit and Lock nodded and while Malonex made his was towards the castle, followed by Chrysalis, Tacit and Lock watched how the shadow ponies began to walked towards the empire. Soon Tacit and Lock began to talk with the changeling generals about the accommodation for the changelings and the shadows.

They walked together with the generals towards the mass of shadows pony and began to coordinate everything.

Meanwhile on the way towards the castle Chrysalis began to talk. "You realize that we don't have enough recourses for so many ponies."

Malonex nodded. "I don't plan to wait long till the first attack. Tomorrow I will bring the king back and then he will sent out the first troops."

She nodded and soon they reached to throne room. Malonex took out the small crystal an placed it on the throne.

While they waited for representative of the shadows Chrysalis spoke again of her concerns. "You know that if they don't follow us that we are doomed."

Malonex chuckled a bit. "They will follow. They will always follow their rightful king."

A moment later the door was opened and two ponies stepped inside, the one walking ahead looked much older than the other one.

The older one bowed before Malonex and Chrysalis. It was an old unicorn in a black steel armor. His mane was short and light gray, he also had a light gray goatee. His coat was colored in a darkish gray. The unicorn was something around the high of Malonex. He also wore a purple cape on his back and Malonex could see that he carried a sword under the cape.

The younger shadow pony was a robust looking earthpony. He was a half head bigger then Malonex and wore a heavy looking armor. Under his helmet Malonex could see a bit of his dark purple mane and his purple eye looked at Malonex suspicious. He didn't bowed like the unicorn and just growled a bit.

The unicorn lifted his head and Malonex saw that his left eye was only a crack wide open and seemed to be completely gray, while his other eyes was as wide-opened as possible. The eye was completely black and it seemed to be filled with purple smoke that swirled inside it. The eye never blinked and it was impossible to guess where the unicorn was looking.

The unicorn waited for a moment before he began to talk. "My lord, I am Gladius, the last survivor of the war against the empire, the last of my generation and swordmaster of the umbrum. This is my son Tremor the leader of the army and headmaster of the war academy. It is an honor to speak with the son of my old friend."

Malonex nodded. "My father mentioned you in his book. More loyal than anypony else and the best swordspony in the army. But we are not here to talk about the past, we are here to discuss the future."

Gladius nodded and with that Malonex turned towards the throne and concentrated to call his master. The small crystal began to glow and smoke began to spread. The smoke gathered on the throne and formed the shape of Sombra.

Gladuis bowed again and this time Tremor did the same. "We are here to serve my king."

Sombra laughed. "That is good. From now you will follow every of my words and these of Malonex, my right hoof and head mage!"

Gladius nodded and stood up again. "The dark army is ready to follow every order you give us." His son stood up too and nodded.

Sombra nodded pleased and spoke again. "Now that this is settled, what are the numbers of warriors, mages and the number of unicorns, earthponies and pegasi?"

This time Tremor stepped forward. "Around 70 percent of our adults are perfectly trained warriors. Many younger are still in training. The number of the different tribes is still equally matched but the number of powerful mage has decreased to under 2 percent"

Sombra acknowledged that and turned to Malonex. "Malonex you will speak with the dark council about that and prepare everything for my resurrection. Till then I have to discuss a few things about our recourses and next steps, so I would prefer it if everypony except the queen and Gladuis leave this room."

Gladius spoke up before Malonex and Tremor could leave. "I am sorry but I have to excuse myself. I am not the leader of this army, this task falls to my son."

With that he nodded to Tremor and walked out of the room with Malonex while Tremor stepped proudly forward. As Malonex and Gladius had left the room the old swordspony talked to Malonex. "I will bring you to our dark council."

Malonex nodded. "Good, I plan to take my title as new dark master as soon as possible."

Gladius nodded slowly and spoke slowly. "It will not be that easy. We already have an archmage, which means that you have to discuss that with her."

Malonex just chuckled a bit. "This will not be a problem, she will give me my title or she will face the consequences of disobeying me."

Gladius head turned in his direction for a moment and then responded. "I can see in your aura that you have mastered the darkness like no pony has ever done before. You truly are a master of darkness, you managed to free us from the spell of the crystal queen and the king supports you. I see that you have earned yourself this title but I don't think Venae will accept it."

Malonex began to wonder who this pony might be. "Can you tell me a bit more about the archmage? I don't like to be unprepared."

Gladius began to grin a bit. "You really are like your father, always wanting to know the details about the enemy no matter how weak he seemed. Her name is Venae and she is an alchemist and blood mage. She is eccentric and takes very much pride in the fact that she is one of the few who has a dark name. You have to know that having a dark name is a great honor and is only granted those of great power."

Soon they walked through the empires streets and talked a bit about the events of the last weeks. On the way Malonex saw Tacit and Lock walking in their direction.

Tacit smiled as she saw Malonex and they walked up to them. "Hey Malonex! We managed to get everpony a place where they can stay for a while but we had to put the slaves in one quarter of the empire. Who is that pony?"

Gladius looked at Lock and Tacit for a moment and then remembered what Malonex had told him about them. "You two must be Lock and Tacit. My name is Gladius, the swordmaster of the shadow ponies. It is an honor to meet you."

Lock nodded shortly and Tacit began to bow as she heard the name. "It is my honor, my father told me so much about you."

"Insidius was a good friend of mine. It is a shame that he and Tenobris both died, they have always ruled our kind for the best. I have hoped I could speak to one of my old friends once again but it seems like this will not happen..." A glance of sadness appeard on the face of the oly pony before it disappeared one again.

Tacit began to talk with Gladius about Tenobris and Insidius, and they began to walk again. Lock and Malonex walked next to each other. "Hey where are we going?"

Malonex answered. "I am going to take my title as archmage!"

Lock raised an eyebrow. "How do you know where the council is? They could be everywhere."

Malonex chuckled a bit. "If you look out for magic auras it is hard to miss a group of elite mages."

Lock stopped for a moment but then something came into his mind. "That is probably true but I think I already saw them. A group of ponies in black cloaks similar to yours with the hole for the horn and everything, only without the purple lines. One of them spoke to me like I should do everything she asked for and as I said that I work for the new archmage she just laughed and said that a half shadow who knows a few dark spell is nothing compared to her and that the son of the warlord that lead them to their biggest failure shouldn't think to high of himself."

Malonex raised an eyebrow. "It seems like she wants to make this personal. We will see who is the big failure."

Lock looked at Malonex for a moment and then laughed a bit. "You know that each time you say something like that somepony dies or worse and I am glad that this pony never was me."

Chapter 13 Forging plans of blood

The four ponies walked through the street of the empire for some time. They saw that a few of the shadow ponies have already started patrolling around while others were discussing some things with the changelings.

Soon they reached the library of the empire and Malonex opened the door. Immediately after he opened the door he was greeted by a mare in a black mage cloak. "When it isn't Malonex, the so called right hoof of the king. We just talked about that the king will soon realize that he choose the wrong mage."

Malonex began to grin. "If I were you I would beware what you say or else I have to take more from you than just your title."

The mare became furious. "How dare you to talk to me like that, I am the archmage of the dark council,. I earned my dark name by studying dark magic for years and didn't get it from a father who failed the only task he had."

This made Malonex laugh. "You think you earned your name more than I do? I learned dark magic alone with only a book about the basics and a book that contains the most complicated dark spells ever found and my dark powers are greater than yours will ever be. My father failed his task that is true but I didn't. I conquered this empire and I freed you all. No matter what you did to earn your name it is nothing compared to me!"

Gladius stepped forward. "Venae! I demand that you give up your title and swear to serve Malonex. The king has chosen him and he has proven himself in more ways than you ever could."

Venae stomped on the ground and every mage looked at her. "You want to be the archmage, then fight for it. I challenge you to a duel to the death!"

Malonex nodded with a grin, everything was going like he expected. "So be it. Come outside, I don't want to destroy the books."

He turned around and left the library with a flattering cloak and Venae walked after him followed by a bunch of mages and at the end Gladius, Tacit and Lock followed.

Outside Malonex already took his cloak off and turned his crystal hoof into a blade, Tacit could see his mouth moving as he spoke a quick spell and then the blade burned in purple flames.

Venae took of her cloak and Malonex saw her long blood red mane and her dark gray coat. Her cutie mark was a drop of blood. Around her neck she wore a necklace with a dark red gem inside of it and she wore red claws on her hooves. She smiled at him with her red eyes, already sure of her victory. "Let us begin."

With that they began to shot energy bolts at each other but each of them summoned a barrier to block the attacks.

Malonex summoned two shadow monsters, big wolf like monsters with big mouths, sharp teeth and long claws, and commanded them to attack Venae who dodged every attack and used her claw to counter them.

Now her horn began to glow again and she dragged a massive amount of blood from her necklace. The blood turned into a deadly red shards and she shot it at Malonex. He created a mass of black crystal shards and shot them against hers. Their projectiles exploded into dust as they collided.

Malonex let his shadow crawl under her and created a crystal claw that tired to grab her but she jumped and used her blood to cut the claw into pieces.

He began to shoot with red lightning at her as soon as she touched the ground and it hit her directly at the head.

As Malonex looked at her he could see that parts of her face were completely blown away but instead of falling dead to the ground she began to laugh. "Did you really think that would kill me?"

Malonex grinned a bit. "No. I still want to see what you can do." And with that Malonex levitated the crystal remains of the claw into the air and priced it directly into her.

Her expression turned to pain for a moment but in the next moment she used a shockwave to destroy the pieces and the wounds began to close themselves. The blood that she had lost began to levitate into the air and they took the shape of four ponies.

Malonex saw them and shot with crystal shards at them but the projectiles just went right through them. Malonex noticed that and shot a dark fireball at one of the blood ponies and like he expected burned them to the ground till nothing was left.

The other blood ponies began to attack while Venae began to shoot with energy bolts. Malonex stomped on the ground and created a wave of dark fire that flew directly at the remaining blood ponies. They all burned down and the bolts were blocked by Malonexs barrier.

Venae hasn't noticed that Malonexs shadow had stretched beneath her and in the next moment she was shredded by a web of crystal spikes. She fell into a pile of blood and rebuild herself a few steps away from her previous position.

She wanted to get ready for her next attack but then she noticed that Malonex wasn't even looking at her, instead he was looking at the crystal web. In a blink of an eye the crystals disappeared and Malonex looked at something in his hoof. It was a necklace and in this moment that she realized that her necklace was missing.

While she began to panic Malonex just laughed. Malonex looked at Venae and raised an eyebrow. "How pathetic. One simple trick and you already lost."

In this moment the rage to over Venaes mind and she shouted. "Apprentice! Come here!"

A shadow pony in a gray cloak ran to his teacher and bowed. "How can I aid?"

Venae grinned evil and Malonex got ready for an attack. First the apprentice was confused but in the next moment his expression turned to horror as he felt a magical grip inside of him.

Malonex saw how the apprentice began to writhe in pain and then streams of blood began to leave the body of the apprentice through his eyes, ears and mouth.

Venae levitated the blood over her head and close her eyes. The ball of blood began to split up and soon thousands of small blood drops levitated over Venaes head. Malonex watched everything with great interest. The droops began to spin and as they stopped they have turned into small red crystal shards.

Venae opened her eyes again and looked at Malonex with rage. She shoot a bunch of shards at him and Malonex summoned a crystal wall in front of himself and shards priced into the wall and the crystal began to crack but it managed to stand. Malonex jumped on his wall and began to shoot with lightning at Venae.

While he was busy shooting he heard a strange sound beneath him and looked down. The shards had began to glow and Malonex could sense a rise of magical energy inside of them. He jumped away from them and one moment later they exploded.

As he dropped on the ground he saw that Venae had surrounded herself with the shards and created a deadly red storm. Malonex watched unimpressed and levitated the necklace in front of himself. He began to lead his magic inside of the gem and in that moment the tornado stopped.

Venae looked with surprise around and tired to let them move again but she noticed that her magic wasn't under her control anymore. All the shards exploded at once and Malonex began to smile. He sent out his black smoke to cover the entire ground and Venae began to back away in fear.

Malonex stepped slowly closer to her while she tried to get space between them. Suddenly black shackles rushed out of the smoke and grabbed Venae at her legs, another grabbed her around her neck and forced her to lower her head.

She struggled to get free but it was for no use, she could only look up and watch as Malonex stepped closer. Malonex stopped right in front of her and took the necklace in this crystal hoof.

"This duel is over! Give up!" But she still tired to get free somehow and Malonex raised an eyebrow at her behavior. He said nothing and just grabbed the necklace with his magic.

Venaes eye widened in horror as she saw that small cracks began to form. "NO! STOP! PLEASE HAVE MERCY!"

Malonex stopped and a grin formed in his face. "Give up and give me my title."

Venae sighed and let her head hang. "Fine, you win. You are the archmage!"

Malonex let the shackles disappeared and threw the necklace at her. He turned around but he sensed magic behind him. He turned back to Venae and saw a blood shard flying towards him. He shot an energy bolt and let a shadow tentacle leash out. The energy bold collided with a blood shard and the shadow grabbed Venae at her throat.

The shadows dragged her closer to Malonex and he looked deep into her eyes. "It seems like you never give up and lie through your teeth. I hereby strip you of you membership of the council." The black tentacle let go of her and she stumbled a few steps backwards. "Now bow down before your new master, my apprentice."

Everypony looked surprised at Malonex and Venae hesitated to do anything. "Do I speak unclear? I said bow before your master!" He waited for a moment and then smiled pleased as Venae bowed down in defeat.

"That is better. Now go. I expect to get a list of all mages with names, rank and abilities till tomorrow morning or else I will think again about your live." Venae wanted to say something but as she opened her mouth she got an disapproving look from Malonex, instead of saying anything she just growled and walked away.

The other mages looked at Malonex waiting and he responded angry. "That counts for each one of you!" And as he said this all the mages immediately ran after Venae.

As they were gone Malonex cracked his neck and put his cloak back on. While he was busy removing the dust from his coat he heard the others walking up to him and Tacit asked. "Why did you let her live after she tried to stab you in the back?"

Malonex raised an eyebrow about her question. "She is of more use as an ally than dead. I think that I can teach her much and she has still much to learn. Also it wasn't her fault, she lost control over herself."

Tacit asked. "I thought control is the most important tread for a dark mage and that it is needed to use it without letting it consume you, so what could get an archmage to lose hers?"

This time Galdius answered. "She hates the light and every not-shadow pony because they took her family and everything that was important to her away from her. She knew that Malonex has their blood and so her hatred was turned to him."

Tacit looked confused between Gladius and Malonex. "But how did you know that?"

Malonex chuckled a bit. "I saw it in her expression as she looked the first time at me. It was the expression of a pony that sees the killer of everything she loved. I wanted to see this expression towards me now for two years on another pony and now I saw it on the face of my ally. But I will teach her to control her emotions and she will see that I am more shadow than she is."

Malonex looked at the sky but only the dimmed light of the sun managed to get through the clouds. "I need some rest for the resurrection ritual tomorrow. Let's go back to the castle and looked if we can find any rooms for us."

He didn't waited for an answered and began to walk towards the castle. While they walked Lock noticed that Tacit was unusual quiet. "Tacit, do you have something on your mind?"

Tacit looked up and began to explain. "I was just wondering how a pony can have so much hatred."

Lock looked a bit confused at Tacit. "What do you mean, you wonder how? She was imprisoned her whole live and her whole family probably died down there."

Tacit nodded slowly. "I know but how can she blame the ponies for the death of her family?"

In this moment Gladius walked up next to them and answered the question. "Because they are to blame. While we were imprisoned under the empire we were constantly exposed to waves of light energy from the empire. Our lifetimes are connected to our darkness so the light slowly poisoned us. It killed the weak and the old, the foals that are born with weak darkness die after a few seconds and we were unable to do anything against it. The light weakened our mages and not even half of them managed to resist."

Tacit looked at Gladius thoughtfully. "I guess I would be angry too if I had been there but still, is that enough to turn a pony so bitter and angry?"

Gladius expression was serious. "Thousands of years ago I had probably answered no but now I would lie if I would say that. My son Tremor is even bitterer than she is and I saw why. It may have been not on purpose but trapping us was more cruel than if they would have killed us all on the spot. Our kind suffered great loss down there and these who are now free won't forgive so easily. I am the only one alive of us that has seen the sun before and I saw them all die. Not only soldiers but also civilians."

Gladius stopped for a moment before he went on. "I helped to bury each one of them but I managed to stay positive. Hope began to rise in me and my wife as our son Tremor was born and we saw that his darkness was strong enough to life but it was shattered again as years later she gave birth to a daughter who died after a week. I learned to live with this death but Tremor never got over it and after his mother died a month later he was never really happy again. Since then Tremor is the cold blooded warrior he is now."

Tacit and Lock both were a bit suspired to hear what Gladuis and his kind went through. Lock wanted to leave it by that and began to look around but Tacit felt sorry for Gladius and she wanted to tell him but as she opened her mouth he stopped her. "Don't say that you feel pity. Keep it to yourself and save it for the weak, they need it more."

This made Tacit close her mouth again and she didn't opened again till they reached the castle. One they way they walked by the door to the throne room and Malonex turned to one of the changeling generals and spoke to him. "You! I want you to get every slave till tomorrow noon into the stadium of the empire and make sure that they are submissive, I don't want that the ritual gets delayed because of unruly fools."

The changeling didn't hesitated to nod. "As you say!"

The changeling bowed and walked away. On the way he took a few of the soldiers with him. They began to walk again and while Malonex walked he looked around a bit. " I think a floor higher should be a corridor with a bunch of guest rooms. You can go where you want but I have to get a bit rest, these ritual and the duel was very exhausting."

With that he turned away and walked towards the next staircase. Meanwhile Lock took another look around. "So... What should we do?"

Tacit just shrugged but Gladius had an idea. "We should go to the armory. I have seen your equipment and I think you need some new weapons till you can find a blacksmith to forge you something better."

Tacit wanted to answer back but then remembered that she had lost her daggers and only had the crystal replacement from Malonex and just nodded. Since Lock had just one dagger and a few throwing knifes he followed without any hesitation. So they followed the swordspony through the castle in the hope to find the armory.

Meanwhile the plans for the war were made in the throne room. They had mostly settled how they would split the army for the different cities but there was one last thing to discuss that Sombra asked about. "What about additional targets outside of Equestria? Are there any lands that could try to support them?"

Chrysalis thought for a moment. "There are multiple lands but only two of them are in our reach. The first is Yakyakistan but they only have a small passage over the crystal mountains to reach us and they probably won't notice what happens here for some time. The others, who I am more concerned about, are the griffons. They next city is Griffenstone, at the moment it is in a bad state and in itself not really important in any way but they could use it as a base to send soldiers and recourses to Equestria. I don't think it is possible to conquer it and hold it against the forces of the rest of the Griffonkingdom but we have to make it impossible for them to use this city."

Sombras smoke head nodded a bit and turned to Tremor. ""Then I think it is the best if you get a troop together and take care of that problem. Use this as an opportunity to strike fear in the hearts of our enemies. Make these griffins clear that they don't want to be part of this war."

Tremor nodded. "How exactly should I deal with them?"

Sombra didn't needed to think. "That is not important, just make sure that they can't use the city as a base anymore. Do whatever you want."

Tremor bowed down. "I will immediately leave. I will come back as fast as I can and when I am back the griffons will have drowned in rivers of their own blood."

He stood up and turned around. With big steps he left the room and made his way to the outside of the castle to get a few shadow ponies for his attack.

Chapter 14 The evil in the distance

Rising was sitting in his room in Canterlot and meditated. The curtains were blocking the light of the sun out of his room and he had summoned a dim magical light.

Suddenly he felt something far away. It was a great darkness and Risings head began to hurt as he tried to look at it. He was thrown out of his peace and opened his eyes in surprise.

The light had vanished so Rising stood up and opened the curtains. It was already noon and the sun shined directly from above. Rising began looked over the land of Equestria and took a deep breath to clear his mind.

After his head felt better he looked out of the window a bit longer but as he looked towards the north, towards the crystal empire, he could see black clouds blocking any possible view on the empire. He could see red light flashing inside of the clouds and fear struck into Rising heart.

In this moment a guards slammed his door open and ran inside. He was breathing heavily and was struggling to stay on his hooves. "Archmage Rising Light, I am sorry for bothering you like that but the princesses called you because of..."

Rising lifted his hoof to stop the guards. "I already know why. I will immediately meet with the princesses." The guard nodded unable to talk anymore and after Rising walked past him the guard took a deep breath and left the room too.

Rising walked through the castle with quick steps and his white cloak was fluttering behind him. On the way towards the throne room Rising puzzled about what could have caused something like these clouds.

Soon he reached the doors to the throne room and without any hesitation he pushed them open. Inside he saw the princesses sitting on their thrones and they were talking to a guard in front of them.

As Rising stepped closer the guard bowed and walked away. Rising took another step forward and bowed. "You asked me to come here?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes Rising. A great darkness surrounds the Crystal Empire and every attempt to sent magical letters fails."

Risings expression turned worried. "Do we have any idea what it could have caused?"

Luna looked down at him with sympathy. "We can't say anything for sure but the hunters said that the aura of the darkness is similar to the aura of Malonex but they are not completely sure."

Rising looked at the ground for a moment. "If he, or whoever else, managed to take over the empire, we can't know what else he can do. We have to sent massages to all of Equestria. We have to warn the guards in every city and we have to sent the hunters to guard the borders towards the empire. The cities close to the empire have to be secured by hunters and guards."

Celestia nodded. "We already came to that conclusion but the problem is we can't sent massages their either and the train hasn't returned from the empire which means that it will take a few days till they get the massages. Now we can only hope that they see what is happening and defend themselves. We can't sent hunters because they are all on missions and we are unable to communicate with them."

Now Luna spoke up. "Rising you have to tell the other members of the council about what happened. A few of the should be still in Canterlot."

Rising nodded and bowed again. "I will immediately talk to them."

The princesses nodded back and Rising turned around and left the throne room. As the doors closed behind him he immediately made his way towards the room of the council. 'Maybe I can reach Formulas in Manehattan with the crystal and warn him.'

Soon he reached to room and slammed the door open and quickly walked to his seat. After he sat down he began to concentrate his magic and quickly afterwards the blue crystal was released. Rising saw that Malonexs cutie mark was still there but now the crystal was glowing in his normal blue again. 'Please work!'

He reached out with his hoof, closed his eyes and touched the crystal. He let his magic connect with the crystal but as the crystal started let his magic reach over all of Equestira to reach the others the crystal stopped suddenly. Rising felt a sudden pain in his hoof and it began to spread everywhere in his body.

Rising screamed in pain as he took his hoof away from the crystal. He opened his eye and saw that it started to glow more and more. Rising reacted as fast as he could and summoned a barrier around the crystal. Only a moment later it exploded in a magical shockwave but Rising was able to contain it inside of the barrier.

As everything was quiet again he deactivated the barrier and looked on the table. Where once the crystal stood was now nothing more than a burn and a few cracks in the table. Rising let out a disappointed sigh and used his magic to let the place where the crystal stood back inside of the table. After that everything looked like before and there was no sign of the destruction of the crystal.

For a moment Rising thought he had himself under control but then the frustration won over him and he used his magic to aim at Malonexs old seat and shot a light bolt against it. The bolt collided with the backrest and it destroyed parts of it.

For a moment Rising was just standing there looking at the destroyed seat till he finally calmed down and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and concentrated himself on fighting back his anger and frustration.

As he opened his eyes again he decided to talk with Ice Eruption again, so he made his way to the outside of Canterlot to the closest park.

As he wandered through Canterlot he began to curse himself for taking the cloak with him because the ponies could recognize him. While he walked they began to ask him what these dark cloud over the empire mean and why somepony they know doesn't return from the empire.

Every time he answered that he doesn't know and that he will make every information he get public. But there were also those who just wanted to talk with him because he was the archmage. For these ponies Rising just used a quick spell to shove them aside and told them to not bother him with unnecessary conversations.

After some time he reached the park he searched for and there he happily noticed that nearly nopony was there and those who were there seemed to be uninterested in him. Rising began to walk a little bit slower through the park and looked a bit around.

The park was a big area with a few stone paths between fields of grass. Some benches were standing at the way. Different kinds of flowers and trees were planted on the grass.

Rising walked around for some time looking for Ice Eruption. He knew that Eruption still hasn't left Canterlot and that he was in the park most of the time. but he didn't knew where exactly and what he is doing there, so he had to walk through the whole park.

Suddenly he heard a voice form above him. "Greetings archmage."

Rising looked up and saw that Eruption was levitating himself over the trees. A moment later the levitation stopped and Eruption landed on the ground in front of Rising and bowed down. "How can I aid you?"

Rising smiled a bit. "Stop the bowing, I am here to ask you a favor not to give you a task."

Eruption stood up and ask. "And what kind of favor might that be?"

Rising and Eruption walked to a bench and sat down. Rising looked a bit at the quiet nature before he answered. "Something dark is happening in the Crystal Empire."

Eruptions expression turned even more serious than usually. "I know, I sensed it while I meditated."

Rising sighed. "I fear that Fallen has somehow managed to take over the empire and that he plans to do the same with other cities. We might have to fight and I fear that we are not ready for that. We have many soldiers in Equestira but our number of ponies who can challenge him is extremely small."

"You want me to train a group of ponies to be ready to fight against him?" Erpuption asked, already knowing Risings plan.

Rising looked at his old friend. "Yes, we need an elite to finally get him under control. We can't let him go on like this or we will reach the point where it is impossible to stop him."

Eruption nodded. "I will do as you command. I already have a few ponies all over Equestia that could be trained. I will gather them and start with their training."

Rising was relived as he heard that Eruption already had a few candidates but he had to say one last thing. "I also need you to train a few extra ponies. The first is the princess Twilight Sparkle and the other is her friend Rainbow Dash, they already have a bit experience and both already have fought against him. The best would be if you go to Ponyville and look for some more candidates. Some of them are tougher than they look like."

Eruption thought of it for a moment but then answered. "I will sent out my students from Canterlot to get the others and I will take a look in Ponyville. I will see if there are possible candidates or not and don't worry, I can see if a pony has potential or not."

Rising smiled and got off the bench. "That is good to hear but you have to keep all this a secret. I don't want to cause panic all over Equestria. If it hasn't starting to spread already."

Ice Eruption nodded and they both bowed before each other and walked different paths. Eruption made his way to call all his students in Canterlot together, to sent them on their ways while Rising walked back to the castle.

On his way back he looked a bit around to see if there were signs of panic or fear in the ponies. To his relive most of the ponies were just curious of what is happening but except that they were all calm.

As he reached the castle one of the guards talked to him. "Archmage, I have a massage for you."

Rising just nodded as a sign for him to speak and the guards said. "The high mage Rain Bringer wants to talk with you in the meeting room of the council."

Rising was surprised for a moment but then just nodded. He entered the castle and made his way to the meeting room.

As he opened the door he saw that Rain was looking at the destroyed seat. Rising closed the door of the room and began to talk. "You wanted to speak with me?"

Rain turned surprised around. "What? Oh I haven't seen you enter. Yes I wanted to speak with you but first, what happened here?"

She pointed at the destroyed seat. Rising had to think for a moment. He didn't wanted to admit that he did this in frustration so he thought of something else. He walked to his seat and opened the place where the crystal once was. Rain was shocked as she saw that the crystal was destroyed "I tried to use the crystal but something stopped it and so it exploded. I tried to contain it but some of the energy was set free and it hit the seat."

Rain looked at the empty place for a moment. "That explains why my crystal turned gray and lost all its magic. I guess the reason why the crystal exploded has to do with my reason to call you here."

Rising already knew what this reason was. "That comes from the dark clouds over the crystal empire. It seems like they block any kind of magic communication. "

Rain sighed. "I already assumed that. I already talked with a few of my weather mages and they are trying to make sense of these clouds. The things I already could find out are, first the obvious, they are magical and contain strong amounts of dark magic, second the clouds have seemed to have more abilities than just blocking communication. I don't know what he can do with them but I know that he can use them for spells."

Rising slammed his hoof on the ground. "I already guessed that but I hoped I was wrong. How could he do something like this? He managed to take over the empire with the most efficient weapon against him without me noticing. It is my fault, I should have never let him escape."

Rain walked up to him and pet his shoulder. "It is not your fault that he escaped. He had help from another pony. That is another thing I wanted to tell you, I have done a few investigations and found out that only one pony has bought a ticket to Ponyville and he never returned. After some time I found out the name of this pony, it is Lock Changer, the pony Malonex rescued two years ago."

Rising looked at her and began to think. "I have heard about that. The pony was under a mind control spell casted by prince Blueblood and was forced to steal something from Fallen. On his way the pony was attacked by monsters and heavily injured. Fallen scared the monsters away and rescued Lock by giving him crystal body parts. But what reason could he have to help Fallen and break the law?"

Rain expressions darkened. "You can probably thank the hunters for that. He never was in any way a criminal and was a honest pony but two years ago he was thrown out of his house by his wife and wanted to talk with the princesses to give him the right to raise his daughter. But the request for this audience never reached the princesses, instead it was intercepted by the magic hunters. They created a trap to get him and threw him into prison. There he was kept for months without any real evidence that he had done anything and as he was freed again he had lost his job. His neighbors told me that he acted more and more strange."

'So much about our disciplined elite.' Rising asked. "Who were these hunters who did this? I want to speak with them!"

Rain sighed. "That isn't possible, the group that did this died on one of their missions a long time ago."

Rising growled and then sighed. "Well, thank you for telling me all this. Maybe it can help us somehow to stop him."

Rain nodded and bowed. "You are welcome. I will go now back to my studies to find a way to stop the clouds from spreading. I wish you a good day archmage."

Rising nodded. "Good day to you too Rain Bringer, and say Storm hello for me."

Rain nodded with a smile and left the room. Rising walked to the window in the room that faced directly towards north. He looked at the black clouds that still covered the entire sky over the empire. The red light flashed had stopped but it seemed like the clouds had already spread a bit over the borders of the empire. Rising felt a pain in his heart and sighed. 'What are you doing there Fallen? Why couldn't you just escape and flee into another land.'

He looked out of the window for some time and took a deep breath. He looked into a dark distance and knew that that this darkness will not be tamed as easily as he had hoped years ago.

Chapter 15 Preparing for the darkness

Twilight was walking through the castle as she heard coughs from the library. First she didn't mind it but then the coughs became louder and louder. Twilight began to worry and walked towards the library.

As she reached the door to the library the coughs had stopped and Twilight was even more worried as she heard nothing at all coming from inside the library. She opened the door and looked inside. She grasped in shock as she saw Bright lying on the floor, not moving. Twilight ran to her and touched Brights forehead, it was extremely hot and Twilight called out for the guards. "Guards come here!"

Only a second later two guards stood there ready to do what she wanted from them. "Your highness, you have called us?"

Twilight pointed at Bright. "Bring her to the hospital as fast as you can!"

The guards didn't hesitated for a moment and one of them levitated her on his back and they ran away. Twilight stayed behind to see if she could find a reason for what happened with Bright. The only thing she could find where the book that Bright used to study today but nothing that could make her fall unconscious.

After Twilight couldn't find anything, she decided to go to the hospital as well and left the castle. She walked out of the castle but on the way she sensed something strange. Her head began to hurt and for a second her sight went black. She turned towards the strange feeling and saw that it was coming from the Crystal Empire. She saw the black clouds with raging red flashes inside of it.

She was worried what it might be but at the moment she was more concerned about Brights health. She went towards the hospital and reached it after a few minutes.

The doctor lead her to the room where Bright was lying. As Twilight saw that she had closed eyes, she turned to the doctor. "When will she be alright again? Do you know what happened to her?"

The doctor took out a clipboard and looked over it. "I don't know what caused this but I assume that she is under some kind of magical shock. I can't tell how long it will take till she will wake up. This depends entirely on how good she can get over the shock and how quick she can get used to whatever magic caused this."

Twilight nodded and looked sad at Bright. "Is there something you can do to shorten this process or to wake her up earlier?"

The doctor lifted his hoof to his chin. "I could try to isolate her from the magic but there are multiple reasons why I wouldn't recommend to do so. The first reason is that I don't even know if I can isolate her and the other thing is that she would get a shock again once she gets in contact with the magic again and in this case the shock could be even stronger. If we just let her get over this by herself the risk that this happens again with the same magic will be minimized."

Twilight sighed and nodded but now the doctor had a question. "Do you maybe know what caused this shock? Normally such a shock is the result of an magical illness but I couldn't find any symptoms for that."

Twilight looked up and thought for a moment. "I don't think it was some kind of illness, I think it has to do with her special talent. She can see the good and the bad in a pony and how to reached it but I have the theory that her ability goes far further. I think she has the ability to feel the light and the darkness that surrounds her."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "If that is the case, than I must say it is surprising that something like that never happened before."

Twilight first nodded a bit but then responded. "When I think about it again, something like that already happened two years ago but back then she just was unconscious only for a few hours. But as I said that was now over two years ago."

The doctor began to write on the clipboard. "My I ask what happened back then? I might be able to find what caused this."

Twilight thought about it for a moment but then shook her head. "There is nothing to find out. She couldn't handle the hate and darkness that was spread as her brother murdered a group of Diamond dogs."

The doctor wrote it down and looked up. "I heard about these events, her brother is the dark mage Malonex if I am not mistaken..." He paused a moment to think before he continued. "I have to disagree with you princess, there is something to find out from this! Since she already experienced something like this we can assume that she already is able to withstand a great amount of darkness which means that whatever caused this must be something even bigger and darker. And since it seems like this wasn't a onetime contact but she seems to be still influents by it, the thing that caused it must still be active and possible to find."

Twilight had to think for a moment but then she finally realized. "You are right these are important information! I think I have an idea what could have caused this but first I have to make a few investigations before I can be sure."

The doctor placed the clipboard on a table and nodded. "Then I wish you good luck. I will take care of your student. I will let you know when her state gets better but it could be that she will not wake up in the next days."

Twilight nodded and looked at Bright for a moment and sighed. While she left the room the doctor looked at her with sympathy.

Twilight left the hospital and immediately made her way back to her castle. On the way she noticed that a few ponies were looking worried at the black clouds in the far distance even though they were barely seeable. Twilight stopped for a moment and concentrated to see the magic. She could see that the clouds not only covered the entire empire but that they also spread a dark aura over everything close to them.

'This is probably the reason for Brights state but what exactly is happening there?' Twilight began to walk towards the castle again, now even more concerned of Bright health but now also about what was happening in the distance.

As she reached her castle she saw that her friends were hectically talking with Spike. "I already told you, I don't know what is with Bright and neither do I know what is happening in the empire!"

Twilight walked up to her friends and spoke up. "What is wrong?"

Rainbow answered. "I saw what was happening in the empire and got everpony together and as we arrived here Spike told us that you were at the hospital to see if Bright was okay."

Now Rarity spoke up. "We were so worried as Spike told us what happened to Bright. Is she ok?"

Twilight nodded. "She got a shook from the darkness that comes from these clouds. She will be okay but it will take some time till she wakes up again."

They all sighed relived and now Applejack asked. "And do ya know what the hay is going on in the empire?"

Twilight shook her head sadly. "I don't know, they doesn't seemed to be natural at all but I can't tell what actually cause them."

Fluttershy began to worry. "I hope that they don't stay. The animals seem to be scared sincere they appeared and I fear that the creatures of the Everfree forest are influenced by them too."

As they wanted to go on talking they were interrupted by the sound of a carriage landing on the ground behind them. They all turned around and saw Ice Eruption walking up to them. The big stallion quickly bowed down in front of Twilight. "Greetings your highness."

Twilight was a bit suspired by his appearance. "Uhm... Hello high mage Ice Eruption. I didn't expected to see you today."

Eruption stood up and looked down at the group of ponies in front of them, he was at least one head taller than each one of them. "I didn't plan this visit either, I was sent by the archmage because of the latest events."

Twilight friends decided to stay quiet so Twilight answered. "You mean the clouds over the empire."

Eruption nodded. "He assumes that Malonex created them and that he has taken over the empire. He ordered me train a few ponies so that we have a group of ponies that is strong enough to face him. He told me that I should get also you and you friend called Rainbow Dash."

Everypony was just staring at him with and open mouth. "I can't force you but Rising told me that you two would be very well qualified to be trained by me. If you decided to come with me get ready to leave in one hour, you don't need to bring anything with you, just inform everypony else and say goodbye. I will look around the town for more candidates."

With that he bowed again and turned away and only a few moment later he was gone and Pinkie was the first who talked again. "Whoa. You two are so lucky that sounds like so much fun."

Rainbow flew in the air. "Yeah! I can finally train professionally again!"

Rarity noticed the worried expression on Twilights face. "Are you alright darling? He said you don't have to do this if you don't want."

Twilight thought for a moment but then looked up with an resolved expression. "If Rising thinks that this is a good idea then I trust him. I will go with him."

Applejack nodded. "Then we will stay with you and help you however we can!"

They all nodded and smiled at each other. They began to talk a bit about the future train but soon Eruption retuned. "So have you decided if you come or not."

Rainbow and Twilight nodded together. "Yes we want to be trained."

Eruption nodded and signified them to follow him but he immediately stopped as he noticed that the others were following him too. "Didn't I tell you to say goodbye before I come back?"

Applejack nodded. "Sure ya did but we are coming too!"

Ice Eruption shook his head with a resolute expression. "Only those who will be trained are allowed to come with me!"

Applejack just responded. "Than ya have to train us too!"

Eruption looked over them and gave each one of them an intense stare. "You all are not qualified for my training. I don't have time to train ponies without any experience at all, also you all are no warriors, I can see it in your eyes."

Suddenly he looked at Applejack again. "You may have the physical ability to fight but you are too stubborn and pried, I also see that there is something that keeps you here that you have to take care of. That is an distraction that will lead to death!"

Next he turned to Pinkie. "You mind is too spread and unfocused. You have to little self-control."

After that to Fluttershy. "I can see the fear of death in your eyes and I see that your heart couldn't ever hurt another pony, even when he is consumed by darkness."

And at least he turned to Rarity. "You may have the spirit to support your friends but you not only leak of physical ability but also the magical ability to fight."

He sighed. "I am sorry but I don't have time to train ponies that I know will have strong struggles only to have them maybe reach to basics one day. I only agreed training these two because they already managed to get over the basics."

Twilight looked at Eruption with wide open eyes. "How did you see all that?"

Eruption smiled a bit. "To me all ponies are open books. I lived long enough to notice little details in ponies that show me what they are made of. Only one pony managed to hide his true self from me till now..."

His expression turned sad for a short moment before he heard Spike complain. "Wait a moment! What about me?"

"You are a child." said Eruption with an slightly confused expression.

Spike was about to answer as he was interrupted by Twilight. "Please Spike. Stay here. You have to take care of the castle in my absence and mostly you have to take care of Bright when she wakes up. Tell her what happens and make sure that she stays calm."

Spike closed his mouth again and nodded determined.

Eruption waited for other to object again but they all stayed quiet so he began to walk again. Twilight and Rainbow walked after him and waved their friends. Their friends waved back and shouted goodbyes after them.

They stepped on the carriage that brought Eruption here and Eruption took the seat at the left, Twilight sat next to him and Rainbow sat down on the right. Eruption gave the pegasi that dragged it the commando to fly.

Immediately the pegasi began to pull the carriage in high speed and Eruption leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. While Rainbow looked around and watched the landscape beneath them Twilight just now realized that this was a different carriage than the one Eruption usually used and asked him about it. "Eruption, why are we using this carriage? If I remember it right you had a special one like every high mage."

Eruption opened his eyes again. "The old one had an accident. It fell of the stone platform after I parked it at the training arenas."

Twilight looked a bit surprised. "Oh, will it be repaired soon?"

Eruption grinned a bit. "There is not much to repair. It fell into a volcano."

Twilight was about to ask where these arenas were but she decided that she would see that early enough and so she began to watch the landscapes like Rainbow did. Eruption closed his eyes again and began to meditate while they flew through the sky.

It took her some time that they were heading in the direction of the empire and she needed to ask. "Where exactly are we heading towards?"

Eruption answered without opening his eyes this time. "My arenas are on a small inactive volcano near the borders of the empire. You don't have to fear anything the volcano will not erupt the next years."

The pegasi pulled the carriage for the whole day and night but because of their high speed the borders of the empire were already getting noticeable closer. Twilight saw that not much has happened at the empire. The clouds were still covering every view on the empire but it didn't started flashing again. Twilight didn't knew if she was supposed to be relived of worried because of that.

Rainbow Dash was still sleeping in her seat as Eruption suddenly spoke up. "We will soon be there! This is my training ground!"

Rainbow woke up and looked sleepy at Eruption and Twilight. Eruption was pointing in the distance and Twilight was staring with an impressed expression at the direction. Rainbow looked in the direction of Eruption and then she saw what Twilight was impressed by.

Eruptions training ground was a constructed of different arenas. The top of the mountain looked slightly odd because it seemed like half of the top was cut away vertical. The left side was like every mountain covered in snow while the other side seemed to be missing and instead lead to the inside of the mountain.

On the left side, on the highest point of the mountain, was the first arena. It was twice as big as the one in Ponyville and next to it was something that looked like a building where over fifty ponies could live. There was stone path with torches lighting the way from the building to the first arena. At the entrance the path split and also lead to stairs that lead to a big stone platform on the right side of the mountain.

The stone platform was on the edge of the open mountain which now reviled to be a volcano, one half of the platform was hold over the cliff down the volcano and the other half was hold over the lava of the volcano. The platform was filled with a lot of carriages and there was a part that was broken away and Twilight guessed that this was where the old carriage fell down.

The platform had three stone paths leading in different directions, the one that leads to the top of the volcano, one that lead over the cliff and one that lead directly inside of the volcano.

On the cliff of the volcano was some kind of wooden structure. The structure lifted a big building over the deep abyss. As they looked closer Twilight and Rainbow saw that beneath the building was another kind of arena. A big number of wooden platforms of different sizes were held beneath the building by big ropes. They could see how the platforms swung around in the wind.

The path that lead down into the volcano lead directly to another pair of arenas. Of which one was simply build into the stone and was nothing more than a normal arena while the other one was hold with chains over the seething sea of lava.

These arenas really looked like they were made to train only the best.

Chapter 16 Let the training begin

While Rainbow and Twilight were staring at the arenas, the carriage made its way to the platform to the other carriages. Twilight saw that a group of maybe thirty of ponies leaving the building on the top of the mountain and made its way down to the stairs, towards the platform.

As they flew closer Twilight noticed that there were a bunch of guards walking around. The strange thing was that their armor was red instead of golden and their weapons were colored in ice like colors. Twilight asked Eruption. "What kind of guards are these?"

"These are some of my old students that decided to stay here and serve as guardians. They will protect this place and everypony with their lives." he answered with a little bit of pride in his voice.

Twilight nodded and looked at these ponies for another moment, their expression were serious and they seemed to be ready to kill everything that isn't wanted here.

As soon as the carriage landed on the ground the group of ponies from the building approached them and they bowed down. Eruption stepped of the carriage and looked upon them. "Stand up my students."

They all stood up and Twilight and Rainbow were addressed by the pegasi that had pulled the carriage. "Come with us to the rest of the group."

Rainbow was a bit surprised. "Wait, you are students too?"

With a grin the two pegasi nodded simultaneously and walked to the big group. Twilight and Rainbow followed them and then they looked up to Eruption. After Eruption saw that they all looked at him, he began to speak. "I greet you all here in my domain! Each one of you was chosen by me to be trained. Normally I would have only trained one of you but the latest events forced me to train more of you at the same time."

The group began to whisper to each other, what Eruption noticed with an upset expression. He stomped with his hoof on the ground with created a loud sound and everypony was quiet again. "This doesn't mean that there are no rules. You all will do as I say without hesitation. Everypony that can't live with that may leave now or never."

He waited for a moment but no pony moved even a inch. A small grin formed on Eruptions expression. "Seems like I chose the right ponies. Now let's go back to the reason why you all are here. First I wanted to only train a few of you but the archmage asked me to train an elite of warriors, so I decided to train a group of you. I will train you, so you be able to face the dark mage Malonex. The half umbrum managed to escape a short while ago and now it seems like ha has taken over the Crystal Empire. It will be our task to fight him and kill him."

This time the group stayed quiet and just waited for Eruption to go on and so he did. "We will start immediately. The building on top of the volcano is the place where the ponies who are worthy will live for the time you are here, most of you probably already know that. The wooden building over the cliff there is the armory. You will all go and take you preferred weapon, no armor, and then come to the stone arena for the first trainings round."

With that he walked away and the group walked towards the wooden bridge that lead to the armory. Twilight and Rainbow walked with the group and soon they entered the building.

The entire building was had only one room per floor which meant that many different weapons were place on tables and stands. At the end of the room where two stair case with one of them leading down and the other up. Over each staircase hung one sign, the one over the staircase leading up was the word "Armor" on it and on the sign over stairs that lead down was the word "Arena" written.

Rainbow immediately made her way to the spears but Twilight watched the others for a moment first. She noticed that they all quickly found their weapons and that the weapons they chose were very different. Twilight then walked to the swords and took one of the normal one-hoofed swords and one middle sized shield.

Only a few moment later the whole group walked out of the building towards the two arenas in the volcano. They walked down to the sea of lava and walked past it towards the stone arena.

They all walked inside of the arena through the entrance and spread a bit across the open space. As the last pony was inside, Eruption stepped into the middle of the arena. "I told you all earlier that I will train more than one of you but that doesn't mean you will all be trained, I will choose only eight of you."

The ponies began to whisper as they realized that many of them had to leave soon. Twilights expression turned worried but Rainbow just began to smile. "Come one Twilight, I bet he will train us anyway. After all he was told by Rising to train us."

Twilight wanted to respond but was interrupted by Eruption who started talking again. "You will fight against the things I will let you face. If you manage to defeat them you will be trained if not you will leave. If more than eight manage to win, the best will be trained. You can fight alone or together with one partner. You have five minutes to win, which should be more than enough. There are no exceptions." As he spoke the last sentence he looked at Rainbow and Twilight.

The same on Rainbows face vanished for a second before it came back. "No problem. We can do this together."

Twilight was about to respond as she heard somepony behind her. "Are you two ready to fight?"

She turned around and saw that it were the two pegasi that pulled the carriage. Each of them had one katana strapped on their sides with a belt. Rainbow responded confident "Sure we are ready!"

"We hope for you that you are right. By the way we are Hack and Slash Eruption." said the left one and the right one followed. "And we already know who is going to win." They both began to smile.

Twilight was surprised. "Wait a moment! Eruption? You two are related to Ice Eruption?"

They both grinned and nodded. "Sure we are. He is our uncle." Now Twilight noticed that they really looked similar to Ice Eruption. They both had a red coat and an ice blue mane that nearly reached to their shoulders.

"What do you mean with you know who is going to win?" asked Rainbow quickly afterwards.

The left one began to talk. "Well, we pull the carriage of our uncle now for over a year and we have seen each one here fight except you two and since we know our uncle we can guess who is going to beat the challenge and who not. We know of four ponies in this room that will definitely win, which means if we count us there is still space for you two. If you are good enough."

"Sure we are good enough. I am the fastest flyer in Equestria and she is a princess and the most powerful spell caster existing! We are going to be the fastest to win!" said Rainbow with great pride but she was met with small chuckles from the twins.

Now the right one talked. "I highly doubt that. Even if you are faster than we are, you will never win faster than Vortex. He will probably finish everything in less than five seconds."

In this moment Eruption spoke up again. "That is enough time to talk. Now let us start. I will use these orbs," he lifted a blue orb over his head that seemed to contain a fire, "to create monsters of ice. You have to fight against them and get the orb from them. If you fight together you will have to face a monster twice as big and fast. You are the first Vortex!"

A pegasus in a black cloak and a lowered head stepped forward. the cloak was ripped at multiple places and reviled his light gray coat and his short black mane that was nearly completely hidden under a hood. He carried a scythe in his right hoof and dragged it over the ground, creating a unpleasant sound by doing so.

One of the twins whispered to Twilight and Rainbow. "Just watch and you will see what we meant earlier. Where he comes from he has earned the nickname Death. We talked to him once, not a very friendly guy and always seems to seek for something to defeat."

Twilight thought that this name fit his appearance. In the next moment Eruption threw a orb into the air where ice began to form around it. As it landed on the ground it had take the form of a tiger but it was bigger than three ponies on top of each other.

It looked aggressively at Vortex who didn't even lifted his head. Then Eruption asked. "Ready?"

Vortex answered with a sinister rasping voice. "I am ready."

Then Eruption suddenly shouted. "Begin!"

In that moment Vortex flew into the air and grabbed his scythe with both hooves. He began to dash down at the tiger, who didn't knew what to do, and Vortex began to spin forwards like a wheel, slashing down with his scythe again and again only to lift it up again behind himself. He was on so high speed that from the side he looked like a gray sphere with a black point in the middle.

Only a moment later he reached the tiger and began to cut through the ice that formed the head. As the entire head was destroyed he stopped spinning and turned the scythe around. He swung his weapon under the body of the tiger and hit it directly at the chest. With a quick drag he freed his weapon again, with the scythe he also dragged out the impaled orb.

While the Ice tiger broke down Vortex swung his weapon without a word and thereby threw the orb back towards Eruption who caught it with his hoof and used his magic to repair the hole inside of it.

Vortex landed on the ground again and walked slowly away, dragging the scythe behind himself. While he did so the other ponies watched him in awe. He sat down and began to watch the others from under his hood. Even though his face was well hidden in the shadow of the hood Twilight was sure that she saw a devious grin on his face.

Eruption began to announce the next fighter. "Gold Fire!"

The next pony that stepped forward was a gray unicorn with a golden mane. He was nearly as big as Eruption and carried a big broadsword on his back. The flat side of the blade was as massive as the pony who carried it and it had one and a half times his length.

One of the brothers leaned over to Twilight and Rainbow and spoke. "Oh he is always fun to watch fighting, even though he is a bit slower than most ponies here."

"Ready?"

"I am ready." He answered with an serious expression and a firm tone in his voice.

Eruption created a new tiger and again gave the commando to begin. Unlike Vortex, Gold Fire waited for the tiger to attack. With his sword in the strong grip of his magic he began to slowly walk around the tiger who followed him with every step. Suddenly the tiger jumped forward and tired to hit with the claw.

Gold Fire jumped back and used one of his legs to kick the claw away while he swung the sword with the flat side against the head of the tiger. The tiger was knocked away but landed on its paws.

Gold Fire immediately ran towards it with a battle cry and used the sword to cut the front legs away with one strike. As the ice monster landed on its chest he jumped onto it and rammed the sword into the tiger. He rammed it with such speed that everypony could hear the sound of the metal hitting the stone-ground. Gold began to run over the back of the tiger and dragged the sword with his magic behind himself.

After he reached the end, Gold Fire jumped away and watched the tiger falling into small pieces. He walked up to the mountain of ice and took the sphere out of it. He threw it to Eruption who nodded approving.

Gold Fire heaved his sword on his back and walked next to Vortex and sat down too. They both sat in silence next to each other.

Without letting much time go by Eruption called out. "Whirlwind!"

Twilight could hear the twins sigh. "Now we come to the most unpleasant ponies we, and maybe you, will have to tolerate. We once fought against her. She has an ego bigger than the sun and is annoying when she manages to beat you. If you manage to beat her she gets aggressive and either try again till she wins or walks cursing away."

With that in mind Twilight watched an eathpony mare walking into the middle of the arena. Her weapons were a pair of claws that she wore on both front hooves. Her coat was colored in an orange tone and her short mane was some kind of dark gray. Her yellow eyes were focused on the crystal in Eruptions hoof.

"Ready?"

"Winning is something I am always ready for!" she said with an self-confident smile.

Eruption summoned now the third tiger made of ice and called out to begin.

Whirlwind didn't hesitated for a moment to attack the tiger. She jumped onto the back of the tiger and began to cut with her claws into the ice. The tiger began to shake to get her of but she dug her claws into the ice and managed to stay on the back. As the tiger realized that it was of no use it laid on the ground and rolled on its back.

Whirlwind jumped off the back and landed in front of the tiger. She waited there for the tiger to stand up again. The tiger gave her an angry glare and opened the mouth to roar at her. In that moment Whirlwind jumped at the tiger, directly into the mouth. Twilight and Rainbow both gasped in shook but all the other ponies just stayed quiet and watched.

Only a second later cracks began to form in the ice, then the ice shattered and Whirlwind jumped out of the tiger with the orb in her metal claws. She lifted it triumphant in the air and looked at Eruption who just levitated the orb out of her hoof. Upset about his lack reaction she walked away and took a seat next to Vortex.

"Magus Token!" This was the next name that was called out.

Like the times before Hack and Slash gave a quick comment to the fighter. "This is the last one that will definitely win. He is an very impressive mage and a smart guy. We know him since we were foals."

In the arena walked now a purple unicorn with a blue mane and goatee. The only thing he carried was a book and a quill that were strapped on his side by a belt . He didn't carried any weapons with him what Twilight surprised "I thought all magic fighters normally use weapons. Where are his?"

"You can say he is some kind of exception. You have to know he has an very interesting ability. He can sent his magic out and give it a physical form."

Twilight looked at the brothers a bit confused. She used her magic to see his aura but as she did so she saw a normal aura, nothing that indicated that he had some kind of special magic. But as she looked again at him normally she saw that his iris was constantly glowing in a bright blue.

"Ready?"

First Magus didn't answer but suddenly blue smoke began to form above him. Then the smoke began to gather and form solid form. The material they created looked a bit like blue metal but it glowed and was a bit transparent. The magic began to form letter in the air till it formed the sentence. 'I am ready'

One of the brothers quickly explained. "He can't talk since he was born."

Eruption threw the orb again and like the last time the ice tiger landed on the ground. A second later Eruption told them to begin.

Again smoke began to spread above Magus till it formed a big cloud. The tiger didn't waited for him to attack and just jumped right at him. Magus move a piece of the cloud in front of himself and let it take the form of a big shield. The tiger smashed against the shield and it began to crack but it did not break.

Magus used another part of the cloud to create a gigantic hammer which he used to hit the tiger in the side. The ice monster fell onto the ground and Magus sent a big part of the cloud after it. He used it to create chains to hold the tiger in place.

As the tiger struggled to escape, Magus sent out the rest of the cloud. The hammer and the shield turned into clouds again and followed the rest. The cloud began to cover the area around the struggling tiger. For some time it seemed like nothing was happening but then the smoke began to take the form of around fifty spears.

Only a second later all spears slammed into the tiger, thereby piercing through every part of its body. The tiger stopped moving entirely and Magus let the spears turn into smoke again and then let the smoke disappear. As the spears left the body of the tiger it fell into small pieces. Whit a simple levitation spell he let the orb fly to Eruption who took it with his hoof and began to repair it from the scratches the spears had caused.

Meanwhile Magus made his way to the others who had finished their test and sat down. He took the book and the quill and began to write something down.

Twilight wanted to ask the brothers if they knew what he was writing but was stopped by Eruption announcing the next name. "Hack Eruption!"

"Oh, we are next." They both quickly smiled at Twilight and Rainbow Dash before they walked away.

They walked up to the middle of the arena and Eruption nodded. "I already guessed you two would fight together."

"As always." they both said simultaneously.

Eruption threw the orb into the air and ice began to form around it. A new tiger landed a second later on the ground. This time the tiger was twice as big as the other ones both brothers drew their katana out of the scabbard and got into combat position. Eruption called the beginning and the tiger immediately attacked the brothers.

This one was faster than the other ones but the brothers still managed to lift their swords and used a simple chop to beat the claws away from them. That forced the tiger to land directly in front of them. In so close distance the tiger tired to bite Hack who flew into the air to dodge. As the tiger missed, Slash dashed towards the head and a scratch directly over one of the eyes.

As the strike damaged the eye, the tiger tired to bite Slash now who just kicked the tiger in the face to get away. This time Hack rushed down from the air and cut with his katana over the other eye of the tiger.

The ice monster screamed and jumped back a bit. Hack landed next to his brother and they both got ready for the next attack. The now blind tiger stayed still and waited for something to find his enemies with.

Hack and Slash both flew into the air and Hack immediately rushed down again. He flew by next to the tiger and while he did so he cut a few times into the legs of it. Meanwhile Slash flew to the other side of the tiger and as Hack finished his part, he kicked against the monster which caused it to fall to the side on his back.

Hack and Slash quickly got back into the air and looked down at the tiger that was struggling to stand up again.

In the next moment both brothers dashed down at the tiger and held their katana ready to attack. As they reached the chest of the monster they both began to cut into the ice multiple times. Only a few second later the ice broke under their attack and the orb was free. As fast as they could the brothers grabbed the orb and took it out.

The ice fell into pieces and Hack and Slash threw the orb to their uncle who caught it and began to repair the orb again. Hack and Slash walked to the other winners and sat down next to Gold Fire. They began to talk with him a bit while Eruption already finished repairing the orb and called the next pony. "Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight gulped nervous and hesitated to walk but Rainbow kicked her in the side. Rainbow nodded and they walked together in the middle of the arena. A few ponies began to whisper but most of them stayed quiet like the before.

Eruption looked down at Twilight and Rainbow and nodded. "So you two will fight together? Well then, are you ready?"

The both nodded and Rainbow said. "Yes we are totally ready!"

Eruption nodded and threw the orb into the air and a big tiger like the one Hack and Slash faced landed on the ground.

"Begin!"

Twilight drew her sword and lifted her shield while Rainbow pointed with her spear towards the tiger. She flew into the air and began to fly around the tiger.

The tiger ignored Rainbow and instead turned to Twilight. It quickly jumped at her, to avoid getting hit she jumped a few steps back. The tiger landed directly in front of her and Twilight used the opportunity to strike against the head.

Her attack hit the head of the monster and left a deep mark in the ice. In that moment Rainbow Dash flew down at the tiger and priced with the spear into the back of the monster for a short moment.

The tiger lifted its head to look up to Rainbow Dash. Twilight used that moment to pierce her sword into the lower jaw of the tiger. As the sword was inside of the tiger, it immediately moved its head around and slammed Twilight away with it. The sword remained inside the tiger leaving Twilight weaponless.

Rainbow Dash started dashing down at the tiger again and again to leave a few scratches in the ice. Twilight began to shoot bolts of energy at the tiger but they didn't do more than just leave a few scratches.

The tiger jumped at Twilight who lifted her shield and managed to block the claws but she was still thrown away by the force of the attack.

Then Twilight saw that a few cracks had formed where Rainbow had pierced her spear into the back of the tiger. She looked at Rainbow and pointed at the direction. Her friend nodded and began to concentrate her attack on the damaged spot.

Twilight did the same and her bolts began to rain down at the tiger. As Twilight saw that more and more cracks began to form she nodded at Rainbow and pointed at her shield. First Rainbow looked confused but then saw how Twilight pointed at the shield and then at the damaged spot. Twilight used her magic on her shield and it began to glow with purple magic.

Rainbow then nodded back and got ready for their attack. Meanwhile the tiger tired to attack them but every time he jumped to get them they managed to get away quickly enough.

Twilight then threw her shield to Rainbow Dash who caught it. She dashed down at the tiger while Twilight distracted it with her magic bolts. While Rainbows speed began to increase, the enchantment of the shield began to blow brighter. Rainbow held the shield forward and smashed right into the damaged spot.

The shield created an explosion of purple energy and the crack form the back began to spread over the whole tiger. It exploded and as the dust vanished was Rainbow standing there with her spear and Twilights shield in the other hoof. Twilight flew down and levitated the open lying orb to Eruption and took her shield back from Rainbow. Then she took the now free sword and put it back into its scabbard.

They walked where the other six were sitting and sat down next to Hack and Slash. One of the brothers smiled and kicked Twilight in the side. "Looks like you two know more about combat then we expected."

The other brother nodded approving and now Gold Fire spoke up. "You fought good there princess Twilight and you too Rainbow Dash!"

Twilight and Rainbow nodded thanking and one of the twins looked to the others. "What do you all think of the first fight you saw them fight in?"

Whirlwind, who was the last in the line, just turned her head away and said. "They are barley good enough to be here."

Blue letter appeared in the air over the still writing Magus . 'I think you two did good, not perfect but good.'

Vortex was the last one who said his opinion. "You two may have managed to win but that is nothing to be proud of. This wasn't a real challenge." After he finished his sentence he turned back to the arena. "But it was still impressive." He added with a slight smile and he watched the first pony that lost today.

The others followed the example of Vortex and watched the others try their best. One by one the remaining ponies tired to fight the tigers but Twilight and Rainbow realized Hack and Slash were right about who is going to win. Only a small number of ponies managed to actually defeat the tiger and those who did either took very long of only barley made it.

In the end Eruption called his guards to lead the defeated ponies away. Twilight watched as the disappointed ponies walked out of the arena.

After the last pony was gone Eruption turned to the remaining group. "I congratulate you all. Your training will begin now!"

Chapter 17 The Return

Tremor looked upon his army as they got ready for their first attack. It was only a small troop of maybe seventy soldiers but after everything Tremor heard about Griffenstone he knew that this would be enough.

The day was even darker than the days before, the clouds have become thicker and lanterns with dark fire were placed all over the empire, thereby warping every part in a sinister light, but the empire still remained a bit of its bright and colorful look.

Tremor hated the bright colors in that the empire was still colored and was almost relived that he could leave it for some time, even if he would miss the return of his king while he was gone.

As all his troops was ready he stepped in front of them and raised his voice. "My fellow Umbrum! This will be our first attack on this world! We will make the first step towards a golden era for our kinds, an era of despair for everypony who dares to oppose us! They will feel pain for every Umbrum that died under the ground! They thought that they had defeated us all long ago but soon they will see that their only reward will be the taste of their own blood! We will show this world what it means to suffer and to fear! "

With a smile Tremor watched his soldiers stomping on the ground and listened to the sound of their shouts. Tremor began to speak even louder to be heard by his troops. "Let us go and let us bring them their end!"

With that he turned into a smoke cloud and flew into the air. The other umbrum did the same. So, Tremor and his army began to fly towards their goal.

The path was a long one but Tremor had studied the maps of Equestria since he was a colt and, even though the ones he had were probably a bit old, he knew that they would reach Griffonstone in less than one day if they fly on high speed.

Malonex watched the cloud of smoke flying away from his room. 'Finally it has began. There are only a few things left to do before I will have my revenge.'

He heard the sound of somepony knocking against his door. "It is open."

The door was opened and Venae walked inside. She bowed before Malonex and said. "My master, all the salves are gathered in the stadium and our king demanded that you shall immediately begin with his resurrection."

He nodded slightly and looked down at the empire in front of him. 'Soon my king will be back and Equestiras last hope is gone.'

"Then I will talk with the king. Now, where is the report about our mage that I ordered yesterday?" said Malonex as he turned around.

He waited for a moment till Venae finally levitated a long scroll from under her cloak. "These are all unicorns that are powerful enough to be called mages."

Malonex levitated the scroll to his desk and nodded. "Well done, I will look over it after the ritual. Go and tell Gladuis, Tacit and Lock that the ritual will begin soon."

"Yes master." said Venae and bowed again.

She turned around to walk away but Malonex stopped her. "Don't even think about harming one of them."

She looked up in shock and took a step back. "What? How..?"

A grin appeared on Malonex expression ."You should really learn to control you anger. I can sense that you would like to kill me every time you have to call me master. It makes every of your actions predictable and inefficient. If you don't get it under control I will make sure that it will be fear in the future."

Her eye widened for a moment and she bowed again. "I am sorry master. I will take myself under control!"

"Good. Now leave! Also inform the queen of the changelings , I think she wants to be present at the resurrection of our king." Malonex said pleased and only a moment later Venae was gone. Soon after her Malonex left the room too and made his way to the throne room. As he walked past the guards he noticed that always one changeling and one shadow pony was guarding the path.

Soon he reached the throne room and one of the guards opened the doors. He walked inside towards the throne. On it was the Sombra shaped smoke cloud sitting. There was no other pony in the room, not even a single guard. Malonex bowed down before his king.

Sombra looked down at Malonex and spoke. "You have finally come! I was already getting impatient to finally get out of this form!"

Malonex lifted his head and looked directly into the red eyes of his king. "We can immediately start with the ritual master."

Sombra nodded. "Good, but from now on call me king and not master. You are no longer my apprentice. You already know more about dark magic than the any other powerful mages I know."

"Thank you my king, I studied hard and learned everything I could." He said lowering his head again.

Sombra just responded "I expect nothing less from my archmage. Now let us go, it is time."

Malonex lifted his head again and nodded. The smoke left the room into the crystal and Malonex levitated it to himself.

With the crystal next to him in the air he walked out of the throne room again. Malonex walked through the halls of the castle and as he walked by the guards bowed down.

He left the castle and made his way to the stadium. On the way he saw that there was more order in the streets now than the day before. There weren't so many unnecessary ore any hectic running through the streets.

Malonex noticed that many ponies were on their way to the stadium too. As he entered it he saw that the seat places were filled with mostly shadow ponies but also a big number of changelings.

Malonex to the place where the seat of the royals where and saw that the seats of the princesses have been replaced normal seats. Malonex saw that queen Chrysalis was sitting in one of the seat with guards sitting next to her. She looked up as she heard Malonex coming closer. One the other seats were Venae, Lock, Tacit and Gladius sitting.

Malonex nodded pleased at his apprentice and turned to the field of the stadium. He looked down upon a crowd of crystal ponies. They were all chained in heavy shackles and they were sitting lined up and a few soldiers were walking between the lines, watching every move of the slaves.

Malonex created a crystal platform in front of himself and placed the small crystal on it. As the crystal was now exposed to the view of everypony in the stadium, Malonex increased the volume his voice with magic. "My fellow shadows! Long have we waited for this moment and now it have finally come. I will resurrect our king and seal the fate of this world!"

The shadow ponies began to cheer in together while Malonex already saw fear filling the eyes of the slaves. Malonex spoke up again. "The true king of Equestria will return and with him our kind will finally have what should have been ours long ago!"

As the crowd cheered more Malonex began to conjure his magic. Malonexs eyes began to glow green and purple mist streamed from the corners of his eyes. His magic reached out to the sky and he could sense that his dark cloud responded.

Red lightning began to flash inside of the clouds as Malonex began to take control over the magic. Wind began to blow over the empire and the slaves looked up in fear. Every soldier that was down in the stadium flew away fearing they might be influenced by the magic if they are too close to the slaves.

Malonex lifted his crystal hoof into the air and more lightning began to flash inside the clouds. Every sound in the stadium was drowned by the sound of thunder and wind. As the connection to the darkness grew stronger his eyes turned black and the mist turned red, just like they were when he freed his kind.

With one big flash of light a red lightning struck into Malonexs hoof and Malonex felt how dark power was lead into the hoof. The hoof was filled with purple and green light and red lightning swirled around the crystal.

Malonex turned to the crystal ponies that were shivering in fear. He pointed his hoof towards them and in the next moment a gigantic swarm of black beams shot down at them, creating a connection to every single pony. The ponies began to scream in pain as green light was sucked out of their bodies.

The energy followed the black beams back to Malonex who grinned as he began to feel the fear, despair and pain of the slaves. As the last bit of energy as streamed into Malonexs hoof the black bounds were cut and the slaves collapsed on the ground, powerless and weak.

Malonex stomped with his crystal hoof on the ground and watched as purple lines began to creep over the ground. The lines began to form a complex rune that surrounded Malonex and the crystal. The dark lightning had stopped but the wind was now blowing even stronger than before.

The dark flames that had lighten up the arena were blown out by the wind and the runes of the ritual were the only thing in the stadium that created light. Black clouds began to fly around the crystal and soon a small tornado surround it. Purple and green light began to glow inside of the black tornado. Black smoke began to leave the tornado at the bottom and crept over the ground of the whole area.

The whole empire turned darker and dark crystal began to grow everywhere. The castle turned into black crystal and the air began to fill with red fog.

Suddenly the whole tornado burst into dark flames and blinded everypony in the stadium for a moment. As Malonex opened his eyes again he saw that the dark fires were burning again.

As the last bit of smoke vanished Malonex saw that there where once the small crystal was, was now a big gray stallion. He was as high as Celestia and Chrysalis if not higher. His horn was curved and red and his eye were constantly green glowing with purple mist surrounding his eyes, even though he wasn't even using dark magic. The black mane of the king was flowing constantly and he wore a steel armor and a dark crown.

Malonex bowed down before his king and so did the entire stadium.

Sombra nodded to Malonex, who then got up again and Sombra turned to the stadium. His deep voice began to spread over the crowd. "My subjects, finally I am back and do my task as your king. I will lead our kind to the ultimate victory. This day will be know in history as the day where the light of the world began to fade and darkness took everything! Now go my subjects and prepare yourself, soon we will begin!"

The shadow ponies and the changelings began to cheer and stomped on the ground. King Sombra turned around and looked at the group behind him. "When will we be ready for our first attack on Equestria?"

Gladuis quickly answered. "We have to wait till Tremor comes back to coordinate the army in one day. I could take a while till we will be ready to march into war."

Sombra looked over the now leaving crowd again and a grin formed on this face. "That is fine. We have the time and when Tremor returns we can begin!"

Meanwhile Tremor had reached Griffonstone. The troop flew low and stopped at the foot of the mountain and they got ready to attack.

Tremor nodded at his shadow ponies and they turned to smoke clouds again. "Bring them terror and death!"

The smoke clouds quickly reached the old tree that was on top of the mountain and the half of the shadows began to fly around it while the rest started flying through the streets and between the wrenches.

The griffons began to panic as they saw their city getting warped in black clouds. Tremor watched from the sky how the city was devoured by a dark cloud and as the troops landed on the ground and began to attack the griffons, Tremor landed too.

He walked through the streets of Grifonstone and listened, with a smile, to the screams of fear and terror all around him. Because of the smoke the view was very limited but sometimes Tremor saw how his troops impaling a griffon or cut someponies head of. He walked past many dismembered corpses and he saw that blood covered most of the ground.

He himself walked to the next building he was and tired to open the door but it was locked. He lifted his hoof and smashed the door away. The hinges broke and the door fell flat on the ground. Tremor heard grasps from the inside. With loud steps he walked towards the sound of fear.

He reached a room where he saw a pair of griffons cowering together. The male griffon stood with a knife in his claw. "Stay back you monster! We heard the screams of the others!"

Tremor stepped forward and smiled at he saw that the claw of the griffon was trembling in fear. Before the griffon could react Tremor grabbed the throat of the griffon and slammed him against a wall. With the other hoof he twisted the claw of the griffon till he could hear it break, which made him drop his knife.

Tremor watched as the griffon struggled to breathe. The female griffon watched with horror as the griffon was slowly strangled in front of her. Tremor smiled as the griffon stopped moving and just hung motionless in his grip. He dropped the dead body on the ground and he lifted his lifted his shoe made of dark metal and let it quickly slide over a wall. The shoe ignited with dark fire.

He stepped towards the other griffon who tried to back away but soon she bumped into the wall behind her. Tremor grabbed the head of the griffon with the burning hoof. The dark fire spread over the head and the griffon screamed in pain. The dark fire began to creep over the griffon while she tried to get the hoof away with all her force but it was for no use. Tremor stared her directly into the eyes while first her feathers and then her flesh began to burn away. The fire burned to the skull and began to devour the rest of the griffon .

As the in ash covered bones fell to the ground Tremor released his grip around the skull and it dropped on the ground and smashed it into pieces with a forceful stomp.

He made his way out of the building again with a smile and on the way he used the burning hoof to set the house on fire.

Tremor began to walk through Griffonstone with an evil grin and as he walked by he set everything on fire. Behind him began a path of fire that began to spread over the old tree that hold the city.

As he had reached the end he looked over the cliff of the city and with a quick stomp his shoe stopped burning.

Tremor then closed his eyes. For some time he embraced the sound of pain and destruction. He heard cries for help coming from the burning buildings and the sound of breaking bones and dying screams echoed from everywhere. He took a deep breath. As he sniffed the air he was filled with the smell of smoke and burned flesh.

While he embraced his masterpiece he heard a shout from behind him. He turned his head and saw that a griffon was flying towards him with a spear pointing at him.

Tremor smiled and as the griffon reached him he took a step to the side and grabbed the griffon at the neck. He slammed him on the ground and laughed. "How pathetic."

He pressed the griffon down with one hoof and with the other one he grabbed one of his wing. He began to pull the wing and it was slowly ripped from the back of the griffon who screamed in pain. Slowly the flesh and the mussels began to rip and Tremor threw the torn off wing away. Then Tremor grabbed the other one. Again he slowly ripped it of the back and threw it away. The now wingless griffon was screaming and writhing in pain.

Tremor watched the agony of his victim with delight and began to chuckle. He dragged the griffon at the neck towards the cliff the griffon left a trail of red blood behind him. Tremor lifted the griffon up and hold him over the deep abyss. The griffon looked down and saw how the blood of his back began to drip down into the cliff. As the horror began to fill his eyes Tremor grinned and let go of the neck. He watched as the griffon, unable to fly, fell down into the depth with a scream of terror.

He turned away from the cliff and looked at the burning city in front of him. He turned into a black cloud and flew into the sky. Tremor flew above the city and shouted with a echo in his voice. "It is time to retreat! NOW!"

A moment later the shadow ponies left the black cloud that surrounded the city. The black cloud began to slowly fade and the now burning city was viewable again. The whole tree was burning in the dark fire that Tremor has created.

Tremor knew that soon the entire tree will have burned down to the roots. Without the roots the entire mountain will collapse leaving nothing but destruction.

As his troop flew away they spotted a small group of griffons that managed to escape. One of the soldiers asked Tremor about it. "Some griffons are escaping. Should we hunt them down?"

The troop already got ready to change the course but Tremor stopped them. "No! Let them spread what happened here. The world shall see what happens if they stay in our way!"

Chapter 18 Darkness works alone

King Sombra sat in the throne of the crystal empire. The now darker clouds dimmed the already weak light from the outside and there were only two dark flame torches in the whole throne room.

In the room were only he, Malonex, queen Chrysalis and a few of her Changelings. Sombra looked down on the changeling queen who asked. "What is the next step of our plan?"

Sombra looked down at her with a smile. "This world belongs to me, so I will take it and you should stay out of my way!"

Chrysalis eyes widened at him. "What? What is that suppose to mean?"

He looked down at her with an evil grin. "That means you are no longer needed! You will leave this empire till noon or you will regret it!"

"That is a betrayal!" claimed Chrysalis with a stomp on the ground.

In that moment Sombra grabbed his nearest guard at the throat and stared him into the eyes. The guard began to scream with pain but no pony could see the cause of that. in the next moment the pony turned into a changeling and dropped a knife on the ground.

Sombra threw the now dead changeling to the hoofs of his queen. "It seems like I wasn't the only one with that idea!"

The queen looked back at Sombra and said."And what makes you think I will just leave without a fight."

Sombra began to laugh. "One of mine once managed to kill hundreds of your soldiers without a problem and what do you think will millions of my kind do to your little hive? Admit it, you are no race of warriors, you are infiltrators and that part is done."

Chrysalis began to grumble something and Sombra spoke to her again. "If you still think you would have a chance, I will give you one last warning. It would be foolish of you to fight me in my own domain. If you dare to attack your kind will be wiped from this land in an instant."

Malonex, who thought Chrysalis might still attack began to channel his magic, which cased his eyes to turn black. As the red mist appeared around his eyes, thunder began to echo into the room.

Chrysalis growled in anger but accepted her defeat. "Fine! We will leave for now! But this is far from over!"

Sombra leaned back into his throne and smiled. "I am already waiting for the day we meet again. Now go, your little bug army should already be waiting at the edge of the empire!"

And with that the queen of the changelings left the empire with her army but on the way swearing that she will have her vengeance for this betrayal.

As they were gone Malonex turned to his king. "Is there anything you need me for my king?"

Sombra shook his head. "Not now Malonex. For now you should concentrate on your studies again and get the dark mages under control."

Malonex nodded. "I don't think that I need to get them under control anymore after the ritual. They fear me too much to disobey me."

His king nodded pleased and Malonex left the throne room after he bowed before his king.

After that was done Malonex made his way towards his room in the now darker castle. He wanted to begin reading the information Venae had brought him about the mages.

On the way he noticed that he was followed by somepony and as he turned around he saw that it was Venae. Malonex raised his eyebrow at her. "Why are you following me? If you have nothing better to do use the time to study dark magic."

Venae nodded. "I would do that master but the problem is that there is nothing to study for me, everything I know about magic came from my old master and every book our kind brought to Equestria seemed to be destroyed."

Malonex looked at her the lifted his hoof to his chin. "If that is the case... I want you to get me somepony who can copy books in a short time and bring him to me. I want that my books will be used for the future training of our mages. When you finished that wait for me in front of the castle. I will meet you there and we will look for a place to start you first lesson."

Venae nodded and bowed down. "I will do as you command master."

Malonex already turning around spoke to her again. "Drop this act. I can tell that you lie and it is not going to help you either."

She growled a bit but before could walk away Venae stopped him again. "I almost forgot, Gladius wanted me to tell you that he is training Tacit and Lock. He said that he knew that you won't have the time to train them."

Malonex just nodded slightly and walked away. He quickly walked to his room and entered it. There he sat down in front of his desk and took a few of the books from a shelf. He began to quickly look over the pages to see which of these books should be copied.

A while later somepony knocked against the door and entered. "You asked for somepony to copy the books, lord Malonex?"

Malonex stood up from the seat and levitated the books to the shadow pony in front of him. "Yes, these book need to be copied, you should make around one hundred copies for the start. When you are done give the copies to the pony responsible for teaching the new mages."

The pony looked concentrated for a moment like he was calculating something and then he answered. "My team and I will begin immediately! But this will take some time, maybe a few weeks if we find a printing press, without one it might take a few months."

The shadow pony put the books into a bag and Malonex nodded. "Then you should better hurry. It is important that these books are finished as fast as possible."

The Umbrum bowed down. "Yes my lord!"

He turned around and left the room with quick steps. Malonex watched him leave and then made his own way out of the castle too. He left the castle through the doors and like he ordered Venae was waiting there for him.

She was sitting in the place where once the crystal heart was. She sat there with closed eyes an Malonex knew that she was concentrated on her magic. A few drops of blood circled around her and bit of purple mist left her closed eyes.

Malonex walked up to her and spoke up. "So your old master taught you about meditation and you still can't control your emotions."

Venae opened her eyes and the blood flew into her necklace. She turned to her master and shrugged. "My master always said that control would just waste my time."

Malonex looked at her with displease but then began to look around a bit. "We will talk a about this a bit more later, now tell me if you know a place for your lessons. The best would be a place where you can perform your spells without harming anypony."

Venae nodded and pointed in the direction of one of the streets. "Down this street Gladuis had started to train other warriors. There it should be possible to train magic without any problems."

Malonex nodded and they began to walk down the street. He noticed that there were much less ponies on the street since the changelings were thrown out of the empire.

Since Malonex summoned the dark clouds the snowfall in the empire has stopped but without the crystal heart the cold winds could enter the empire. The clouds still blocked the light of the sun for the most part and the dark streets were only lightened by the dim light of dark flames that have been placed everywhere now.

Venae looked around too and said. "It is so much better since these ugly bugs are gone."

Malonex looked at the mare and slightly nodded. "I have to agree that I can't stand them. Their kind is weak and unnatural and should be whipped from this land. Once I had the opportunity to kill the queen and most of her hive."

She looked surprised at him. "If you despite them so much why did you let them life then?"

Malonex began to grin a bit. "Seems like you have more to learn than just magic. Hate may be the source of our power but that doesn't mean we should let it control our actions. If I would have killed them back then I wouldn't have been able to invade the empire and free you all."

Venae nodded slightly and began to look around again while they walked towards their goal. Malonex noticed that many shadow ponies have began to get ready for the war. Most of them were carrying weapons from one point to another and others were training with their weapons.

Soon they reached the place Venae meant. It was a area out of the empire with a few weapon stands close to it. Malonex saw that there were many different shadow ponies teaching other fighting or fighting against each other for training.

Everywhere was the sound of metal clashing against metal and battle cries echoed over the field. Malonex noticed that the number of unicorns was rather small and the few unicorns that were there didn't used much besides normal levitation to move their weapons.

Malonex already knew that the number of powerful mages was very small but this was a disappointing picture for him. They walked a bit between the others and walked to an empty area a bit away from the rest.

Malonex told Venae to stop and sit down. He began to walk around her and looked at her with his magic. He stopped in front of her and reached out with his crystal hoof. "Give me your necklace."

Venae looked a bit surprised and hesitated to give it. As Malonex noticed her hesitation he asked again now with a sinister tone in his voice. "Give it to me now!"

This convinced Venae and she took it off to give it to him. He looked closer at it and said. "This blood crystal is forged well. There are not many ponies with the ability to use blood magic and only a few of them managed to use it on your level," Venae began to smile with pried as he said this but he wasn't finished. "but you are still far away from being a master."

The smile vanished from her face and Malonex continued to go one. "When I started my studies about dark magic I also learn a bit about blood magic. Since it isn't possible to study it without doing a bit harm to other ponies or yourself, most of my studies where completely theoretically," His horn began to glow with magic and a few drops of blood began to fly out of the red gem, "but it seems that I wasn't so far off with my information."

He gave the necklace back to her and she immediately put it back on. "Earlier you told me that your old master taught you that you just need your emotions to be there and control is not important. Well let me tell you that, if I would meet this pony, I would cut him his horn off so he could never again use magic and after that I would cut his tongue out so he could never again teach somepony such foolish ideas. If he would hear him say it, I probably would burn him to ash right on the spot without any hesitation."

Veane looked shocked at Malonex, she knew that he seemed to be against out of control emotions but she didn't thought that it would get that far. "What is the big problem. My master always said that if you lose control you become powerful and unpredictable."

Malonex groaned at this respond. "It seems like you had the worst dark mage as teacher that ever existed. First of all, if you lose control you may become unpredictable for your enemy but if you are a master of dark magic you don't need to lose control over yourself for that. Now let's go to the bigger problem, if you lose control not even you can predict what you will do. You could kill all your enemies but you could also kill your allies or yourself. For example, if I lose control over myself these clouds would start shooting with lightning everywhere. They would destroy everything and in the end I gained nothing from it."

Venae nodded without any other respond, so Malonex took this as answer that she understood what he said. "Your first task is to summon all your anger and hatred. Keep it under control and use the power to create a blood statue. Then you will immediately push your emotions away again."

As Venae heard the instructions she raised an eyebrow at Malonex. "Why should I push my emotions away if I have full control?"

Malonex looked a bit surprised, he didn't expected that she would come to that conclusion. "I think you misunderstand the way your emotions strengthen you magic. The emotions themselves are of no other use than to be a source of power for your magic. When a pony uses magic he slowly drains his energy till he is completely exhausted and there is the advantage of dark magic. Through your emotions you can work against this drain. But I noticed that you seem to lack the ability to use your magic and summon your emotions at the same time." That confused her even more and Malonex began to get impatient about her cluelessness.

Before she could asked he gave her the answer. "The reason why I want you to push the emotions away again is because you don't need to have them in your mind all the time You just need to learn to control them when you summon them to strengthen your magic. No pony can hold his hatred and anger forever, if you would try that now you would lose control sooner or later and I can tell you that it would be very unpleasant for you to lose control over your blood magic. And now stop asking question and begin!"

Venae closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Malonex felt how her dark power was getting stronger and stronger. Streams of blood began to flow out of the necklace and began to circle around her.

Malonex saw how the purple mist began to come from her eyes and the blood began to pulsate. As Malonex noticed that the blood started to fly faster and it took the shape of spikes. He knew that she was losing the control and shot a wave of small red lightning at her. From the sudden pain she was thrown out of her concentration and the blood fell to the ground. Malonex stopped the lightning and Venae fell to the ground.

Malonex looked disapproving in his now in shook heavily breathing apprentice. "I said keep it under control! Try again!"

Venae growled and go up from the ground. She sat back down and began to concentrate again.

This time she didn't lose control. She managed to create a statue of herself and pushed her emotions away. She got up and smiled at her master. "I did it. I wasn't archmage without a reason."

Malonex took a closer look at the statue and after a while he shot a energy bolt at the statue and it immediately exploded. "You managed to keep yourself under control that is true, yet your first attempted was closer to the goal than this!"

Venae looked confused at him and began to contradict. "What? That doesn't make any sense! I managed to summon my emotions, controlled them, created a statue with their power and then push them away again!"

Malonex nodded and responded. "But that wasn't the task. I wanted that you summon ALL your anger and hatred, not only enough to use your magic. Try again and this time use all of you power!"

"But why should I do that. If I know how much I can control I can just leave it at this point." asked Venae still not happy with his explanation.

Malonex chuckled a bit. "That is a possibility but I thought you desire power. If you just stay in your limits you will never achieve anything. Do you think I could have freed you if I stayed in my limits? No, a dark mage always has to strive for more. If I would only summons so little emotion to gain power I would have never been able to gain enough magic to create these clouds. Now try again!"

Venae nodded and closed her eyes again. As Venae began to concentrate again Malonex only party watched her. He mostly concentrated on a complex rune he began to draw around her. He create dark crystal that dug through the ground to make to rune lasting.

He only really turned to her when he sensed that she was losing control again and the only thing he did was shocking her with a little bit of lightning and then telling her to concentrate more.

After he was done with the rune, an area of over ten steps in each direction was covered in crystal lines. One side the rune had one extra line leading a bit away. The line ended a few steps away in a small hollow in the ground, it was not even a hoof deep but still noticeable.

Malonex looked at this finished rune and began to concentrate his magic again. He created a big circle made of crystal pillars in a big area around the two mages. The pillars were curved so they slightly pointed to the middle of the rune where Venae was sitting. In the space between the pillars Malonex created walls of dark fire, making the area unable to be entered without flying. If somepony was standing outside, he wouldn't be able to see if somepony was inside the area.

As he was done he sat down in front of Venae again and began to watch her. After a few more attempts to control herself Malonex told her to stop and open the eyes. She was a bit surprised as she saw that the area now looked like the preparation for some kind of ritual.

Before she could ask any questions Malonex already answered her. "This is where I will teach you dark magic. These pillars will absorb any magic that will leave this area and the flame walls will keep unwanted guests away. These runes will help me teach you in the future but for today your lesson is over, we are probably already here for some time."

Malonex realized that he didn't knew the actual time and he couldn't see it in the sky either, because of the clouds. 'Next time I will take my pocket watch with me.'

Malonex stood up and Venae did the same. The walls of fire lowered so they could step over them without a problem. After the wall rose up again behind them Malonex spoke to Venae again. "Since I am the new archmage I can't teach you every day. I expect you to study in the library of the empire form morning till at least 5pm ask, ask the ponies who are in charge of the books to give you the first copy. I expect to find you there! You will not even come close to this area or try to practice you control without me. And don't go around and tell your friends about this place!"

Venae looked a bit depressed to the ground. "I don't have any friends."

Malonex responded. "Well, that is a good way to start."

Chapter 19 A legend from long ago

On another area in the training ground Gladius was watching Tacit and Lock fighting against crystal monsters he had created. He stood a few steps away from them in his black armor and his purple cape floated in the wind.

His normal eye was closed while his black eye was wide open. The purple mist inside of it was swirling around more than usual.

He watched them as they struggled to defeat the things he created. After a while they managed to win and took a break. They both sat down and began to eat the last sandwiches Lock still had with him from the journey. Gladius walked up to them and spoke to them. "I am quite impressed. You are more skilled than I expected. I think I can teach you to become powerful fighters."

As he said so, Lock quickly responded. "I am sorry that I have to reject your offer but I don't think I will continue my training. I don't think fighting is something for me, I will rather stay at what I can, the making and breaking locks."

Gladius nodded slightly. "It is your choice young one. What about you Tacit?"

Tacit just smiled. "Of course I will continue. After everything my father had told me about you I was super exited thati would meet you and am more than happy to accept your offer."

Gladius smiled slightly and pointed a bit away from them. "Then let's go to your next test. You will fight a group of enemies alone."

Tacit nodded and rushed to the area he pointed. A second later she was surrounded by crystal creations and began to fight them. Meanwhile Gladius and Lock watched her till Lock spoke to the old master again. "You know Gladius, I thought about you shadow ponies for some time now and there are a few questions that came into my mind."

The old master turned to him and told him to sit down in front of him. As they sat on the ground Gladius spoke up. "Then go ahead and ask me. I will tell you everything I can."

Lock turned his head surprised to the still fighting Tacit. "Don't you have to watch her."

Gladius smiled a bit. "Oh I am watching her without any problems. My eye allows me to see everything through the crystal I create. That is why I don't use shadows for training like most other teachers do. Now what are these questions?"

Lock nodded and said. "Well, I hope the first one doesn't sounds rude but how old are you?"

Gladius began to think for a moment and after he while he gave the answer. "Something around three thousand years. I stopped counting the exact year after we were imprisoned. I am the last shadow pony that was at the first attack on the crystal empire."

Lock nodded but in his head began new questions to form. "What about your king? I know that he was responsible for the disappearance of the empire thousand years ago , so how old is he and for that matter, why is he missing his cutie mark?"

"He is not much older than thousand years," responded Gladius, "but he is not missing he cutie mark. The fact is he doesn't have one because he can't have one. You have to understand that unlike normal shadow ponies, he is a direct son of the darkness. He may be called a shadow pony but in reality he isn't a pony. The darkness created him to be our leader and king."

Lock first nodded but then another question came into his mind. "Wait if he is the only one who comes directly from the darkness, where are did you all came from then?"

Gladius expression turned serious. "This is a long and dark story you ask to hear. Don't expect anything cheerful."

Lock just leaned back a bit and waited for Gladius to begin. "Very well. This tale begins a long time ago, before the founding of Equestria...

The tension between the three tribes was big and many ponies assumed that a war would come soon. Nopony noticed that the borders began to freeze. They were too busy to argue about foolish things to see the cold that they carried into their lands.

But there was a group of ponies from all three tribes that saw that death began to reach out for their land and family. They exchanged secret messages and talked about their plans to leave behind their homes before the cold death would come.

Soon they created a organization of the most determined and wisest ponies. They called themselves the fourth tribe. They were united under a pair of ponies who were only called the king and the queen. There is no knowledge left about them after all these years. No names, no titles and not even what tribe they originally came from.

As the frost reached the first city of the old land, the king and queen called out for their kind and before anypony noticed it they were gone with a fleet of ships. While they left their home in the opposite direction from where Equestria will be found, they watched as the first snow fell down of the land and how the cold clouds of the Windigos began to spread over the land.

They traveled over the ocean for a long time till they finally saw their new home, the island Unitas. This land was filled with harmony and peace. The ground was perfect to plant and harvest, the animals where peaceful and welcoming and the island was well guarded by its only intelligent inhabitants.

These inhabitants weren't ponies or any kind of creature that exists today. There were two big monoliths in the center of the island. One that created a guarding and warming light in the night and one that spread a shadow over the island that hide it for attackers and held the wild under control. Light and darkness themselves lived on that island and they welcomed the fourth tribe with hope, the hop that the kind of ponies wasn't doomed to die in cold.

The king and queen walked to the monoliths and promised to create a domain of peace and harmony on this island. Light and darkness agreed and allowed them to build their kingdom around the monoliths.

And so the fourth tribe began to build their own kingdom of peace. They began to build a big city and a castle and created temple around the monoliths.

The future for the tribe looked perfect and the royal pair looked at their subjects with joy as they saw what they managed to do for these ponies.

The years went on and is seems like the peace would never stop till one day a fight between light and darkness began, to this day nopony knows what had brought them to do so but clear is, that it was a catastrophe for the tribe. They could only watch how their land suffered from their fight.

Their food began to decay, their old and young ones became sick and their city began to fall apart. Plagues raged over the island and killed most of the wild. Storms began to devour the land and destroy the houses of the ponies. Earthquakes shock the island and turned the city into a stone tomb for many ponies.

As the chaos finally stopped and the ponies dared to leave their homes they saw what happened to their land. The normally kind royal pair turned furious and stepped into the temple of light and darkness. They asked the existences why they created war in this place they promised to guard in peace.

The answer of the both sides were the same. They told them that it was in their nature to fight each other. For the years of peace light and darkness existed next to each other, their hate for each other would grow and had to be freed one day. It was the only way peace could exist on the island.

They told them that they are always in war with each other and that their will created a eternal conflict in the whole world. Till one day, one of them would finally overthrow the other and claim the power of the other.

As the king and queen realized that their own guardians where a threat to their kind they began to worry. They asked them to give them a vision of their future on the island.

Darkness refused to do so by saying that seeing into the future was like listening to mysterious whispers, it is always a danger to do and never are the information set into stone. If it looked into the future it could see something completely different a second later because future is always changing.

Light whoever agreed, it wanted to know if its conflict with darkness would harm their creation of harmony. So it looked into the future and saw what it never expected to see and in its shock a blinding light waved over the empire.

A second later the light monolith as turned gray and the royal pair felt a betrayal. They left the temple puzzling what the wave of light meant.

Only a day later their fear of betrayal was confirmed. A poison began to spread over their kingdom. As the royal pair saw their kind dying. They rushed to the temple and bowed down to the gray monolith and plead for help. They wished for the light to stop but it was of no use. The light would never again speak to the fourth tribe. It has seen them becoming the kind of darkness and now it strived to destroy them.

The king and queen plead for days never leaving the temple and never stopping begging, till one day the queen was affected by the poison and she fell down on the ground. This struck the king in the heart.

He touched her hoof and felt a cold, the cold of death which he tried to rescue them all from, the cold that the light promised to defend them from. The cold began to creep from the body of his wife directly into the heart of the king closing the wound light had brought with hate and a thirst for vengeance.

It was in this moment that the darkness called out for his ponies. They gathered in the temple and the king bowed down with tears of sadness and frustration running down his face.

Darkness saw the despair of the ponies and made an offer. It could remove the poisoning curse that the light had placed on them but to do so the ponies had to become its servants. They had to turn away from the light forever and become creatures of the darkness. Their lives would be bound to the darkness forever.

After they knew that the light had doomed them they didn't needed much time to decided. So the king agreed to the conditions of the darkness.

As the pact was made the darkness spread itself over the whole island. Destroying every bit of live besides the ponies. It covered the sky of the island with a gigantic shadow, ensuring that never again the light of the sun, moon or stars could reach the island.

The hearts of the ponies began to fill with hate for the light and dark magic began to fill every part of their bodies. Their coats turned gray and their manes darkened. Fangs grew in their mouths and their eye began to glow with energy.

The new born fourth tribe rose up again and looked up to their king. The king was no pony anymore, he had turned into a living shadow. He was bound more to the darkness than anypony else and from there one he was known as the first son of the darkness and his subjects were now the first generation of the umbrum.

The darkness commanded his new kind to get ready for their war against the light. With hatred inside of their hearts they began to build an army.

For years they trained to fight the light, knowing that the light will get ready to face them too. One day the king felt that his time has come to an end.

He called his subjects to the temple of darkness and told them that it was time for their kind to return to the rest of the world. It was time to conquer the world and banish the light. But the kind told them that he couldn't lead them there. His time on the world was over and now another pony has to become king.

He asked that the umbrum that thought he would be worthy should step forward and the king would decided if he would be the king.

But no umbrum dared to step forward. Even though many viewed themselves as the most powerful and wise under them, they knew that none of them could live up to a son of the darkness.

As no pony stepped forward the kings heart fill with sadness. Without a leader their kind would fall apart and they would die before they really lived. Then suddenly one stepped forward and bowed down before the king. It was a young unicorn warrior with the heart of a true leader.

It was Tenobris, Malonexs father. He stood up again and spoke to his kind and to the darkness. He said that he knows that he isn't worthy of being their king. But he said that he would be their leader and warlord till the next son of the darkness would rise.

The kind accepted him and with this the first son of the darkness was called back to his creator. Darkness then sent out his army to finally make the first strike against the light. Tenobris followed the orders and they left the island with their fleet.

They didn't turn back to their home. Not even as the cold fire of darkness began to devour the island. As the darkness vanished for the first time in years . The light of the sun fell on the place where the island once was but there was nothing left. The complete island was gone forever, taken away from the world by the darkness it was surrounded in for years.

The army soon reached the fist land. This was around the time when I was born. I was there when Tenobris left the rest to spy on Equestria alone. He left us under the rule of his friend Insidius and traveled over the land of Equestria.

He watched as the cities to rise and he began to study the magic of the land. He created many spells and looked for our first goal. As he returned years had passed and I was already the sword master of the Umbrum.

He called us to the frozen land of the north. There we got ready for the fight that would nearly doom our kind.

... This is our story." Gladius looked at Lock and waited for a respond.

Lock needed a moment to think before he asked. "Does that mean the darkness changed you to become its servants."

Gladius shock his head. "Not completely, the darkness gave us its power and removed the light inside of us but that doesn't mean we are its minions. We have chosen to do what it asks us to do because we think that it is the right thing, not because we are forced to. If we would want we could stop."

Lock nodded understanding. "Did your kind ever regret that you made this pack with the darkness."

Gladius shook his head. "I never did. The darkness gives us live and it taught us to survive in a world that is ruled by the greatest enemy of our kind but there were some who decided to forgive what the light tried to do to us. They left the rest and went on a journey, to find their light again as they said, but they never returned."

Lock nodded slightly and looked into the black clouds in the sky. "Do you think that the umbrum are ready to march into war again?"

Gladius sighed. "I don't know. Soon my son will return and then we will see if they are ready to fight. But this time they will fight with more spirit than ever before. Your friend Malonex has inspired them."

Chapter 20 Grab a blade with new allies

Not so far away from the empire Twilight and Rainbow Dash woke up in their rooms in the building on top of the volcano. A guard was walking through the hallway of the apprentices. He slammed each door open with a simple kick of his front leg and walked to the next door.

It was time to eat something, and Rainbow and Twilight already had to learn the day before that. They would get nothing to eat if they were late, so both of them quickly got up and got themselves ready for breakfast.

Food was always served in the ground floor of the building. The dining room was a hall with many tables and benches, big windows let the light of the sun brighten the room. As they entered this room for the first time they had wondered why this place was so big if they were just eight ponies being trained but this place wasn't only for the apprenticed but also for the guards.

At this time of day it was time to change posts, so many guards were eating and talking. Rainbow and Twilight got their plats from the chef and looked for a free places. Quickly they saw the other apprentices sitting on a table close to the exit.

They walked up to the table and sat down to them. "Good morning."

The others greeted them except Whirlwind who commented. "So the princess and her friend have decided to eat with the peasants."

Only a second later she got a hit against the back of her head from Gold Fire. "Stop this. Here we are all just students of Eruption nothing more. They just missed the time for lunch yesterday."

She grumbled a bit as answer and began to eat her food again. The food wasn't anything special but it wasn't bad either.

Hack and Slash were already finished and stood up. "You should hurry up. I bet our uncle has already planned a lot of training to day and the longer we need the more will we have to train." said Hack before they left the building.

Twilight noticed that Magus was reading in his book while he ate and she spoke to him. "What are you reading there? I have seen you writing in there while you watched the others."

'These are some notes I made about everypony here. I plan to learn how you all fight to optimize our teamwork.' He didn't looked up while he created the words in the air.

Whirlwind couldn't stop herself from making a comment. "Like I need even one of you. I will defeat Malonex alone and will be praised for doing so."

Gold Fire was about to put her in her place again as Vortex spoke up. "I have enough of your foolish self praising. We are not about to fight a normal out of control dark mage, we are training to fight one of the most dangerous dark mages alive and if we fail no pony will have chance. So keep your tongue in check or you are of no use here!"

No pony responded and they all just looked at Vortex with surprise. After some time Vortex stood up and walked away. The rest of the group ate their food in silence from there on.

One after the other was done and left the building till only Twilight and Rainbow were still sitting there. As they left the building they quickly walked down the stone stairs towards the main platform at the cliff.

Ice Eruption was already waiting for them and the others were sitting in front of him. Twilight and Rainbow quickly sat down and looked at Eruption who acknowledged that they were all there. "For today's training you will fight each other and then you will teach each other how to improve. You will all be watched by my guards while you do so."

They all nodded and Eruption went one. "Hack and Slash, you two know each other the best and you will find your weaknesses faster than anypony else. Whirlwind and Gold Fire, you need to learn to fight other styles than the ones you grew up with."

Whirlwind growled in annoyance but Eruption ignored her. "Twilight you have to learn to fight other mages more. You will fight against Magus Token. And at last Rainbow and Vortex, you two are the fastest and probably the best fighters at the moment."

Vortex nodded slightly while Rainbow already got up. The others wanted to go to the armory too but Eruption stopped them. "You can choose your arena yourself. I guess you already know where they are, this time you can use armor. I will leave now!"

As Eruption walked away Twilight walked to him and spoke up ."Can I ask where you are going master?"

Eruption stopped for a moment and said. "I will walk alongside the borders of the empire and see if I can find anything out without entering it. I will return tomorrow!"

With that he got on one of the carriages and two guards rushed to him to pull it.

Twilight watched him flying away as somepony suddenly touched her shoulder. She spun around and saw that is was Magus. 'Come one. The others are already in the armory getting their weapons and armor.'

She nodded to them and they walked into the armory. Magus helped Twilight choosing which kind of sword was the best for her and he also gave her a bigger shield than she used yesterday. After that they went upstairs to get armor. The floor was filled with the red armors the guards always wore.

The other apprentices were busy getting their armor on, so Twilight just took one armor and began to put it on. Like with the weapons Magus decided to not wear an armor.

As every apprentice was done they got together to choose who gets to fight in which arena. In the end Gold Fire and Whirlwind took the fire arena over the lava sea. Hack and Slash went to the stone arena from yesterday while Rainbow Dash and Vortex got the arena beneath of the armory which. That left Magus and Twilight with the arena on the top of the mountain.

After they were all done they walked to the arenas they had chosen. Twilight and Magus walked up the stone stairs of the mountain to get to the arena in the snow. They entered the arena and noticed that it had began to snow and the wind had began to blow. The sky had darkened and the arena was only lighten up by some fireplaces that were build in the walls of the arena.

Magus and Twilight walked to the middle of the arena and looked a bit around. Twilight saw that a guard in the red armor stood over the entrance and watched them from above.

As he noticed Twilights look at him, his expression turned impatient and shouted down. "Hurry up you two. I don't want to stay here when a blizzard starts!"

Twilight looked away from the guards and looked back at Magus who had created a armor made of his magic. It looked like the normal guard armor but it was completely made of the blue metal. The armor was weakly glowing, creating a small bright point in the arena. Magus eyes were completely consumed with a blue glow just like his horn. 'Are you read?'

Twilight nodded and lifted her shield and sword. Twilight waited for Magus to attack while he did the same to her. They began to walk in circles around the middle of the arena.

Till at one point, Twilight rushed towards Magus with her sword ready to strike. But as she reached him he created a sword himself and blocked the attack.

Twilight on her side already expected that and swung her shield. The shield hit him in the side and smashed him a few steps away. He jumped another step back and shoot a big net at Twilight at the same time.

Twilight just flew into the air to dodge and the net flew under her, but then Magus surprised her. A few blue ropes appeared and he grabbed them with his magic. With a quick pull the net, that had landed behind Twilight, began to fly again.

It got her from behind and she was captured inside of it. As Magus saw his enemy captured, he swung the rope with the net through the air. Twilight was flying through the air but she managed to concentrate enough to teleport out of the net.

She stood directly in front of Magus but he wasn't done with his trick yet. The net lost its form and so did the rope and only a second later they had turned into a swarm of daggers.

Twilight saw the daggers flying towards her and lifted her shield. The shield was just big enough to block his attack. She was able to withstand the pressure of the daggers hitting against her shield and began to charge a strong energy beam.

As the hail stopped she lowered her shield and unleashed her magic. Magus saw the blast flying towards him and summoned a solid shield. As the blast collided with the shield cracks began to form on the surface of it.

Twilight waited for Magus next move but he seemed to just wait. The shield he had summoned was still there. Then Twilight noticed that lines began to glow on the shield. A rune began to form with the purple light of her magic.

As Twilight saw that the glow began to get stronger, she summoned a barrier to black whatever attack might come next.

Magus then used his magic to activate the rune and only a second later a rain of purple bolts began to shot towards Twilight.

Twilights barrier broke and she was knocked a few feet away and landed on her back. As she struggled to stand up she saw Magus in the corner of her eye. He was writing something in his book and in that moment Twilight felt a paralyze bolt hitting her from above.

After the bolt hit her she was lying in the snow unable to move. Magus walked up to her and deactivated the spell. Magus reached out with his hoof to help her up.

As she stood again she saw that he already had created his words. 'You did good but you have to work on your ability to predict your enemy's moves. You are tricked too easily.'

Twilight smiled a bit and nodded. "Then please help me to get better. I don't think there is much that I could teach you."

'I think that I have a lot to learn but for now let's start with you.' and began to channel his magic.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash wasn't so thrilled to train with Vortex. There were several reasons for that.

The first one was that the day before she had seen that he is a pretty good fighter, second was the arena they had chosen, the wooden platforms were only hold by a few ropes that were tied to the armory and the wind was blowing to strong to fly for long, it would only be possible to fly short distances without getting grabbed by the wind , and the last reason was that she thought that he is extremely creepy.

They stood on a platform that was build beneath the armory from where they could climb down a ladder to reach the first platform. A guard was standing there to watch them.

As Vortex began to climb down the ladder the guards talked to Rainbow Dash. "Make sure that you don't take every platform down."

Rainbow was a bit confused but just nodded and then climbed down to. Vortex was waiting for her on the first platform and as she reached him they began to walk jump from platform to platform to reach the middle of the arena.

While they jumped Vortex talked to her. "Ice Eruption says you are the best fighter besides me, I hope you aren't as big of a disappointment as the other that said they were the best."

Rainbow responded. "I think I am pretty good. I already trained for a few years and the teachers I had before were extremely good fighters themselves."

They had reached the middle but before they began Vortex wanted to ask a little bit more. "Who were your masters?"

"Well, to be exact I had two masters. Over the last two years I trained with the archmage Rising Light. But over the last year we trained less and less because he had much to do. Before him I had Malonex as my teacher."

Vortex looked at her with disbelieve. "The traitor taught you?"

Rainbow Dash was a bit surprised by the word traitor but answered. "Yeah, Three years ago I saw him teaching Twilight about magical combat and asked if I could join. Since then I started training to fight. First I just wanted to waste a bit of my time, then, as I got better and better, I wanted to be good enough to beat everypony in Ponyville and in the end I wanted to be strong enough to beat Malonex in a one on one duel."

Vortex chuckled a bit. "Looks like we are aiming towards the same goal. Since I was young the only thing that I wanted was to be the best fighter in all of Equestria. You should be grateful that you are granted this possibility. This is probably the best place to learn to fight and you will get chance to face Malonex again."

Rainbow sighed. "But this isn't the way I wanted it to happen..."

Vortex looked up a bit and his ice blue eyes came up from beneath his black hood. "I know what that tone in your voice is. That is the sound of somepony who wants to give mercy to a pony that is neither worthy of it nor would it accept it. Let me give you the first advice that I learned as I was young. Always spare your mercy for those who deserve it and don't waste it on ponies that will stab you in the back when you spare them."

Rainbow listened to every clod and bitter word. She knew that she had to get rid of her mercy for Malonex if she wanted to face him one day. She nodded slightly and Vortex was satisfied with that answer. "Then let us begin."

He walked a few feet away and jumped on another platform. He drew out his scythe and waited for Rainbow to get ready. She jumped to another platform too and took her spear in one hoof.

After a few seconds of waiting Vortex jumped into the air and made a big swing with his scythe. His cape flattered behind him and he spread his wings. Rainbow jumped backwards on a bigger platform and saw how Vortex cut every rope and the wood fell down into the abyss.

Vortex himself used the rest of the jump to get on the same platform as Rainbow. She did the first thing that came into her mind and dashed forward. As she came closer to him he jumped up again and began to swing his scythe with extreme speed. Rainbow did her best to block every swung of him. The sound of their weapons clashing against each other began to fill the air and after a while they both realized that this was getting them nowhere.

Vortex quickly changed his hail of attacks to a other strategy. He began to spin forward and turned himself into a wheel of death. The force behind his slices became stronger and stronger, making Rainbow realize that it was impossible to block much longer, so she used the next moment where Vortex had his scythe behind himself to jump away.

Vortex attack didn't stop so he cut the platform they stood on a second ago in two pieces. Both pieces were only hold by two ropes and thereby making it impossible to stay on either half. Vortex himself landed on the thin wooden that was still held in the air and grabbed one of the ropes with his free hoof.

He looked around to see where Rainbow Dash was. As he looked around he couldn't find her till he heard wing flap from behind him. He quickly turned around and lifted his scythe, only barely quick enough to block the spear from Rainbow.

He got pushed away from the thin wooden plank he stood on and landed with his back on a small platform.

Rainbow used her spear to press him on the wooden planks and to keep him there. Vortex turned his scythe around and kicked Rainbow in the stomach with it. She fell down of the platform but before she was too far Vortex used his scythe to pull her up again and threw her against another platform.

Rainbow needed a bit time to recover but Vortex immediately jumped on her platform and held his scythe at her throat. As she tried to lift her spear but Vortex stomped on her hoof with his own and she lost her grip on her weapon.

For a short moment Vortex just stared at Rainbow with his cold eyes but then he got of her. He jumped onto a bigger platform and watched as Rainbow slowly stood up and took her spear.

She wanted to say something but Vortex was faster. "You did better than I expected. You are fast and strong but you are also too hasty. Your attack, where you pushed me to the ground, would be a fast way to defeat an weak enemy but if you fight somepony who is as strong or stronger than you, this just puts you in a dangerous situation. Also your style only works as long as you have only one enemy and as far as we know Malonex has somepony who is helping him so you have to learn to change you target quickly."

Rainbow wanted to deny what he said but then realized that he was right. She nodded and locked to him. "I guess you are right but that doesn't mean that your technique is perfect! During your attacks your vision on your enemy becomes loose and a quick fighter can use that to leave your sight and attack you from behind."

Vortex looked at her a moment without saying anything but then a grin appeared on his face. "Well then. Let us begin with the real training now!"

Meanwhile not so far away in the empire, Malonex was looking into a crystal he had created in his room. He used it to see through his dark cloud everything that was inside of close to the crystal empire and only a while ago he found a very interesting place on a volcano. He smiled as he watched the ponies training in the hope to defeat him.

Malonex began chuckled a bit. "So, they are already planning to kill me with a small troop? I think it is time that somepony takes care of them." He began to laugh as he watched them fight each other, not knowing what would come to them.