Will of The Shadow Monarch

by Silvermyr

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Thriller, Mystery, Crystal Ponies, Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance
Length: 23341

Where there is light, there must also be a shadow, and the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. While king Sombra might be gone, he was never a pony to disappear quietly. As Cadence's pregnancy nears the end, his revenge is starting to unfold.

It has been a little over a year since the Crystal Empire returned. The darkness left behind the insane king is slowly starting to fade away into the past, leaving a bright future ahead; a future gilded by the promise of the princess’s own foal. Rest assured, the feeling of joy in the empire is all but palpable.

Still, where there is light, there must also be a shadow, and the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. While King Sombra might be gone, he was never a pony to disappear quietly. Last time he left the empire with a curse. This time…

He left them with a piece of history the crystal ponies would rather forget.

Suddenly, the foal’s birth goes from being the most anticipated moment the empire’s history to the most dreaded one. So begins a race against the clock, with the life of Cadence’s unborn daughter hanging in the balance.

[This story draws inspiration from the game Darkest Dungeon, but not as much as to be considered a crossover. No knowledge about that game is needed to understand this story, but those who do know that game might recognize some things.]

There is now a sequel: Brave the Ulvenweald

Published 2017-02-04 09:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-06-04 19:47:55 UTC

A Stillborn Trail

Entry nr. 1

Why do I live?

I am far from sure what answer I am looking for, but I still feel the need to write the question down. It has left me no peace since first I thought of it. Something about that question intoxicates me, intrigue me, vexes in a way nothing else have done before. Am I looking for the philosophical answer? The biological answer, or maybe I just seek my destiny… the meaning of my cutie mark?

I don’t know what I seek, but I know I seek my answer alone.

And I know it is important somehow. I just know it.

*****

”Crystal Empire! Terminal station everypony! Connective trains to Stalliongrad and Vanhoover leaving in half an hour and forty-eight minutes respectively!”

Twilight Sparkle was not going to Stalliongrad or Vanhoover, though she made a mental note to do so at the earliest possible opportunity. Since she had read through the books she brought for this train ride faster than she had expected, she had been forced to read some of the folders she could find. Both cities were founded soon after the unification of the pony tribes and could certainly give some insight in the history and architecture from that time period.

Anyway, that was not what Twilight was here for. She levitated her small, now thoroughly read, portable library into her saddlebags and made her way through the crystal train. This was the first time she was here alone. Both during the Equestria Games and when she first helped save the empire from Sombra, she had been here with her friends. Now however, she had been asked to come alone for whatever reason. She suspected it might be because Cadence’s time was nearing. Perhaps Shining Armor wanted to spend some time with his little sister before such a momentous change in his life?

The very thought made Twilight giddy. The moment she had gotten the news she had collected the data from thousands of hospitals from all over Equestria and calculated the statistical length of Cadence’s pregnancy down to the picosecond.

According to that, the foal was due in just a few weeks. She was going to be an aunt in just a few weeks! She hopped off the train.

”Hey, Twily!”

”Shining Armor!” She smiled at her brother and hugged him quickly. ”Oh, how nice to see you again, its been too long!”

”It really has,” Shining said and started walking slowly towards the Crystal Castle. ”Sorry about that, really. Things have been hectic lately, with Cadence’s pregnancy and the Empire still needing time to adjust to a whole new world. I don’t seem to have much time left over anymore.”

”Don’t worry, I know,” Twilight said. ”Since I became a princess, I have had more things to do than ever before too.” She paused and looked around, spotting two crystal foals, a colt and a filly, running past them with grins sparkling brighter than their coats. Twilight made a contented sound at the display. ”Though I see that your time must have been well spent. Everypony looks so happy.”

Twilight had expected her brother to chuckle sheepishly and blush, like he often did when praised. She had not expected him to sigh and fold his ears slightly down and to the sides, giving him a sad expression.

”Thank you, Twilight, but… I’m sorry to say not all is as well as it seems in this empire anymore.” Shining threw a glance over his shoulder and then lowered his voice. ”In fact, that is why I asked you here. I was hoping maybe you could help with something.”

”Anything, brother, but what’s happened?” Twilight asked, frowning. It was not like her brother to worry like this. His go-getter attitude and confidence made him nearly impervious to it; he was a pony who attacked any problems head on as soon as he saw them without wasting time to worry.

”Wait a little while,” Shining said. ”I will explain at the castle, and I have an appointment too. Somepony who needs an audience.” It was not lost on Twilight that Shining Armor seemed all but distressed for a moment when he mentioned the ”appointment”. Yet another mystery she would have to ask about later.

She nodded absently and plunged her sizable intellect into trying to figure out what Shining Armor meant. The foals she had seen looked nothing but ecstatic, and most of the adults she could see looked as crystally as always, chatting with one another or eating at the cafés. Besides, she had not seen any news about something extraordinary going on in the empire. Everything seemed just… normal. Twilight tried and ultimately failed to come up with any ideas for the rest of the way to the castle.

”I will be back as soon as I can,” Shining Armor mumbled absently and left Twilight in a large, round room. Somewhat confused, she sat down behind one of the crystal tables that stood by the wall. She went back to thinking. What was Shining Armor so stressed about, and what had happened to the empire? Since when was her brother nervous about meeting somepony? Too many questions, too little information.

”Oh my! Twilight Sparkle herself? What an honor, what an honor indeed!” Twilight broke out from her thinking and saw a dark blue unicorn with amber eyes trot up to her with a confident smile on his lips. He was dressed in a sterile white doctor’s robe and had a stereoscope hanging around his neck. He took her hoof and shook it vigorously. ”I must be the luckiest pony in the Empire, meeting both you and Cadence in one day. Only Celestia and Luna left, and I will have met all the princesses in person. Not many ponies who can say that.”

”Uh… yes? Hello, mister…?” Twilight stammered, somewhat perplexed by such a lengthy, laudatory greeting from a pony she had never seen before.

Apparently her companion caught up to her uncertainty, for he continued in the same hearty, easygoing manner. ”Oh, sorry. Golden Heart’s the name! Immigrant doctor and alchemist at your service. But I’m sure you could do my job in half the time any day, of course.”

”No, Golden, I’m not a doctor or an alchemist” Twilight said with slightly flushed cheeks.”I don’t know anything about medicine.”

”And humble too, I see,” Golden Heart said heartily. ”Your brother wasn’t lying when he talked about you. I am sure you could figure out any of my procedures in a matter of days if you really put your mind to it. After all, you were hoof picked by the immortal Solar Princess herself, weren’t you?”

”My brother has been talking about me? With you?” Twilight asked, dumbfounded and uncertain how to handle all the praise she received. ”When? And what are you doing here anyway?”

”Not sure what I’m doing here to be honest,” Golden Heart said in a voice that could be both serious or joking, unclear which. ”Your brother and… sister in law? Yea, sister in law, has asked me here twice every day for the last month. Apparently they want regular checkups at their foal’s health, and that’s what I’m doing.”

”Every day for a whole month? Twice?” Twilight asked, certain that she had misheard. That sounded like something she might do herself, she could admit, but she was well aware that she could become… just a teeny bit anxious at times. Her Smartypants doll, want-it-need-it spell and the ensuing stampede quickly flashed through her head, but that was her! Shining and Cadence had always been much more down-to-Equestria than she was, so why would they worry so much?

The feeling of uncertainty returned with a vengeance. What was going on? Twilight hated not having full control over a situation, and suddenly it felt like she was fumbling in darkness. Uneasiness settled into a heavy pit in her stomach.

”Yup, every day,” Golden Heart confirmed, his tone just a little amused. ”It was fun to meet the princess and prince at first but… let’s just say that monitoring the day-to-day growth of a healthy foal is not the most interesting duty I have ever had.” It looked like Golden Heart was about to say something more, but then stopped himself. ”Then again, if I can bring some peace to them by being here, then I can only be thankful.”

”Bring peace?” Twilight asked. ”What do you mean by that?”

”Nothing,” Golden Heart said, strangely fast, his amber eyes, thus far warm and confident, had suddenly hardened, if only for a moment.

”What do you mean?” Twilight asked again. ”He is my brother. Please, I must know if there is something worrying him. He has not… exactly been himself today.”

”Sorry, Princess, but if he wants you to know, he will have to tell you himself. You can’t expect me to go behind his back, no matter how good the course might be,” Golden Heart said with a heavy sigh. ”But since this is his and Cadenza’s first foal, I imagine they want to take every precaution they can think of.”

”Precaution against what?” Twilight asked insistently. She felt her heartbeat beginning to go up, and the atmosphere had shifted from the casual, carefree tone Golden Heart’s cheerful greeting had set to a colder, more secretive one. It felt like the entire world was dressed in a cheerful, crystal blanket, obscuring her vision of what was really going on. Her brother’s strange worrying, the distress she had glimpsed briefly when he went to his appointment, and now Golden Heart’s hints at… something. It all made her wary. Of course, it could still be nothing, but…

Something felt off.

A door opened.

”Again, I am so, so sorry, Rose Quartz.” Shining Armor’s voice was somber, low and insistent. Twilight left her place and looked down the corridor. Her brother stood in a doorway, talking to a red crystal pony. Twilight could not quite place her hoof on what was strange with his companion. ”It was a strong thing to come to us with your concerns. We really do appreciate it, Cadence and I.”

”I’m sorry, my prince,” the other pony, a mare by the voice, said choppily, sobbing quietly. ”I-I sh-shouldn’t have come. Not now. Not when she is-” Her voice disintegrated in a torrent of incoherent sniffles and moans.

”Shh,” Shining Armor said and hugged the crying pony tenderly. ”I’m sorry.” He let Rose Quartz cry on his shoulder while the mare collected herself slightly. She then pushed Shining Armor away, made an awkward bow and then began walking away, stiff as if she was trying to prevent any muscle from shaking. Small moans still escaped the mare as she went away.

Twilight stared. She went up to her brother. If something had felt off before, now it felt positively malign. There was something at work here, something that had made… this foreboding scene play out in front of her. She had no clue what, and so had no idea how to prepare. She felt lost and blind; walking around aimlessly while some unknowable threat lurked over her brother, her sister-in-law and their unborn foal, ready to pounce.

”Sorry for leaving you, Twilight,” Shining Armor said, sounding tired. ”But this was something I had to do. Come, Cadence has been waiting to see you.”

”What was that all about?” Twilight asked. ”Shining… what is happening?”

”We don’t fully know,” Shining Armor mumbled. ”That’s why I asked you here.” He looked up from her eyes to something behind her. ”Golden Heart. I assume you have met my little sister?”

”I have. She is positively charming if I do say so myself,” the brazen, carefree voice of Golden Heart came from behind Twilight, causing her to startle slightly. She had not heard him come, and his voice felt out of place in the nasty atmosphere.

”I know, she is the best little sis a pony could ever have,” Shining Armor said tenderly, causing Twilight to blush. ”Anyway, come in both of you. I will explain the situation to Twilight while you do your magic.”

”I don’t know, I wouldn’t call it magic,” Golden Heart said as he went past her swiftly. ”I’m just doing my job. Or, no, actually; helping the princess with something like this is an honor, not a job.” Twilight caught a glimpse of Golden Heart’s cutie mark. It was a golden staff with a pair of snakes around it. She followed into what seemed to be a meeting room, only to quickly be ushered through it and past another door.

When she came in, Golden Heart already stood by a large, soft, backwards inclining chair, talking to Cadence. Twilight looked at the other alicorn, taking in the changes since last they met.

Cadence's belly was large, but not nearly as large as many other pregnant ponies. She still maintained the aura of grace and vigor that always followed her. If anything, her pregnancy seemed to make her even more beautiful than ever before. Her coat was more vibrant and powerful in its colors and had also taken on a glossy, smooth sheen that Twilight had never seen before. It was like her pregnancy heightened her colors and beauty beyond that of a normal pony, alicorn or no.

And Cadence’s eyes were red. She had been crying just now. Twilight even forgot their traditional greeting. ”Cadence! What’s happened, are you alright!?”

”Yes, Twilight,” Cadence said, smiling despite the sadness in her eyes. ”I am alright, there is nothing wrong with me.” The purple alicorn looked pleadingly to the doctor at her side.

”Not with the foal either from what I can hear,” Golden Heart said, nearly the same moment he put his stereoscope to Cadence’s belly. ”But you will have to wait while I perform a more… substantial study.”

”I know, I’m just so worried,” Cadence said bashfully.

”I can’t fault you for that,” Golden Heart replied and took out slim syringe from his white robe. With a practiced motion, he quickly planted it in Cadence’s left foreleg and drained a few drops of blood.

”Okay, Twilight,” Shining Armor said heavily. ”I don’t know where to start… It’s been about a year now since the empire resurfaced and Sombra was defeated. With all the love in the air and renewed hope for the future it did not take very long for some crystal ponies to fall in love with one another. Perhaps it was their way of defying their tyrant king, but for whatever the reason ponies fell in love and… uh… did that.” Shining Armor squirmed uncomfortably, like the chair he sat on suddenly had grown spikes from the seat.

”Ponies got pregnant, Twilight,” Cadence filled in for her husband. ”The rejoice for the first free foals the empire had known for a millennia was as great as you would expect… but then…” Cadence choked back a sob.

Shining Armor spoke again, his voice low and hollow. ”Stillborn. The first foal was a stillborn.” Shining blinked, and Twilight saw tears falling through the air, glittering like diamonds.

”So was the next foal. And the next one after that,” Golden Heart said gravely. ”In this last year of freedom there have been eleven pregnancies and no living foals born.”

Twilight gasped and cupped her hooves over her mouth, horrified as the full weight of Golden Heart’s statement descended upon her. No newborns meant that the spirit of the empire would soon be crushed if it weren’t already, and in time the entire crystal pony race would die out. It explained Shining Armor’s strange behavior too: of course he was jumpy and scared. This was not a problem he knew how to solve, and yet the deadline for when it had to be solved crept closer every day. Of course Cadence wanted to check up on her foal’s health every day!

”But- but how… why?” Twilight stammered, struggling to hold back her own tears. She could not cry, not now. Shining Armor must have called her for consolation and company of his oldest, closest companion. She had to be strong for him and Cadence.

”I don’t know,” Golden Heart replied. ”I can’t find any reason, and I have assisted in most of those births myself. Everything looks fine at the last checkup, just before labour sets in, but in the end… I have no idea.”

”They call it ’Sombra’s Vengeance’,” Shining Armor mumbled. ”The mares who… the mothers, they say it is Sombra cursing them from beyond the grave.”

”Nonsense, there is no such thing as curses,” Twilight said. ”The third basic theorem in magic says, quote: ’magic is an instantaneous motion of arcana potential. Once cast, a spell cannot be fundamentally undone as the difference in potential has already been applied.’”

”Care to translate that one?” Golden Heart asked in a deadpan tone.

”Magic is instantaneous,” Twilight grumbled reluctantly. ”A spell cannot be cast and then be dormant until a specific thing happens; that’s not how magic works.”

”I believe you, Twi, but it doesn’t help. Something bad is happening in the empire and… and I worry,” Cadence said meekly and placed a fore hoof over her unborn child. ”I can't… I don’t want to think about…”

”Don’t,” Twilight said and placed her own hoof on top of Cadence’s. ”I promise, I will look into this and prove that whatever happened has a rational explanation… I don’t know what yet, but I promise I will find it. Perhaps the magical feedback from when the empire resurfaced is the reason…” Twilight was unsure of that explanation herself, but she did not want to say that. Cadence needed good news.

It could, theoretically, be the magical feedback. Powerful spells did have a proven effect on ponies in their surroundings, but those effect were mostly limited to headaches and nausea. Then again, Sombra’s curse was likely one of the most powerful spells ever cast, and the crystal ponies had all suffered a direct hit from it.

Anyway, it was the best idea she had, so she should look it up.

She turned to the doctor. ”Golden Heart, is the cause of… the reason,” Twilight corrected, carefully avoiding the word ”death,” ”known at all? Do you know the medical reason it happens?”

”Yes and no,” Golden Heart replied. ”Most common seems to be necrosis in the heart, though suffocation and cardiac arrest has also been seen. Problem is that I can’t figure out why that would happen in the first place, and in less than an hour too. I don’t see how a heart can more or less decay in such a short timespan.”

Cadence gave a whimpering shudder and folded her wings over her growing child. ”Perhaps we could take that someplace else,” Shining Armor said with an angrily glare at Golden Heart. The blue unicorn nodded and left the room. Twilight wanted to throw up at the pictures her mind conjured up, but forced herself to follow him. Shining Armor stayed behind with his shaking mare.

”Why am I so dumb?” Golden Heart mumbled bitterly to himself once he was out in the meeting room they had passed earlier. ”Why didn’t I think about that myself? Some consolation I am!”

”Did you write any reports or something about this? Those should be the best lead to figure out what is happening. I would like see them myself if I can.”

”Don’t even ask,” Golden Heart said quickly. ”Whatever you want, I will help you with it any way I can. Only… you are sure it can’t be some… curse or something? I have been helping mares giving birth for nearly twenty-five years now, and I have never seen anything like this.”

”It is not a curse.” Twilight was certain. ”And I will prove it. There is a reasonable explanation, and I will find it, that I promise.”

”Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” Golden Heart said. His amber like eyes met Twilight’s. ”If you find the reason for this, I think you will be hailed just a big a hero as Spike the Brave and Glorious is.”

Twilight cracked a minuscule smile at that. It ended when Shining Armor came out of Cadence’s room. ”Watch your mouth next time,” he hissed angrily at Golden Heart. The blue pony seemed to accept Shining’s anger and only nodded submissively. ”Twilight, what do you want to do? I think you know best what to do in this situation, so please tell me.”

”You should stay here with Cadence,” Twilight said. ”She needs you by her side more than I.”

”Both Cadence and I disagree,” Shining Armor said. ”She will hold up with her servants and nurses to keep her mind off things, and I can’t help our foal from in there. With you, maybe I can… and frankly, Twilight, I can’t sit idle anymore. It’s driving me crazy!”

”I agree,” Golden Heart said quietly. ”There are many reports to go through, so any extra pair of eyes will do us good.”

”But Cadence-”

”She is a strong mare, Twilight,” Shining Armor said. ”She will be happier to have both of us looking for a solution.”

Twilight nodded. She did not want to wast another second on this debate. ”Okay, come on! To Golden Heart’s hospital!”

*****

Entry nr. 56

I thought the answers were hidden around me. I thought that if only I searched long enough I would learn why I lived. I have never been so wrong. The answers are not around me.

The answers are inside me.

Flesh, sinew, bone, blood… all of them are filled with my life. As long as I have them, I can live. But, as with any well formulated query, an answer will lead to a new question. I wonder now, what unifies all life I see around me? Clearly we ponies live, as do the bats in the sky, the worms under my hooves and the lichen on the tombstones. But the lichen does not have any of the fundamental parts to live, and with the other creatures they are vastly different from my own.

So what is it, the common denominator? What makes life possible?

Where Worlds Overlap

”Just a word of warning,” Golden Heart said as he levitated a dozen or so dossiers onto the desk in his office. ”There are some… rather detailed descriptions in these. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but for the untrained eye they probably come off as… well, morbid. Just thought you should know.”

Twilight nodded, swallowed and magicked over the first of the eleven dossiers. She had decided just to sift through them briefly. They did not have the time to read everything closely, and for that matter they were looking for some connection between the deaths, not the details of each individual case.

She made it through four and a half before she had to stop. Twilight loved to read more than any other pony, but not even her interest for just about any subject could harden her heart so much as to endure the lengthy descriptions of small foals with misshapen, sometimes partially decayed hearts. Whenever she read another word of the horrifying descriptions her mind turned to the poor mother whose happiest day suddenly turned to the greatest tragedy of all. She interrupted her horrible thoughts before they got any further.

”You don’t state any medical reason in any of there reports, do you?” Twilight asked Golden Heart, who read through some other papers. ”You basically just confirm the cause of death without stating a conclusion as to why those causes were present in the first place?”

”Sad but true,” Golden Heart answered. ”As I said, I can’t find any medical reason for this to happen at all.”

”Well, then if we work from the idea of the magical feedback causing this somehow, do you have anything to back that theory? Have you checked if there is any out-of-place magic? On the mothers or in the room where you operate?”

”Uh…” Golden Heart said sheepishly. ”No, that I have not checked. Look, I’m a doctor, not a magical theoretician! I have no clue how to do something like that.”

”Why didn’t you ask for help with it then?” Shining Armor snapped. ”Do you think Cadence or I would have spared any expenses to solve this?”

”I did not realize magic could be a factor in the first place. And, apparently, neither did you or anypony else!” Golden Heart replied impatiently. ”I had no clue magical feedback even existed until a minute ago, much less was dangerous.”

”Stop this, it doesn’t help,” Twilight interrupted Shining Armor’s answer.

The white stallion shut his mouth. It did not take long for his face to fall. ”I’m sorry, Golden Heart. I’m just so…”

”Stressed? I forgive you,” the blue unicorn said with a shrug. ”You have a good reason, after all. Now, Princess Twilight Sparkle, what do you propose? How do we investigate your feedback theory?”

”We need to measure the magical field around the affected ponies,” Twilight said. ”That would be the mothers…”

”What about the foals?” Golden Heart asked. ”Shouldn’t they be affected too?”

”Well…” Twilight cringed inwardly. ”I suppose… if their…” she fought down a pang of queasiness ”if their bodies are still intact…”

”That should not be a problem,” Golden Heart said. ”In this empire the dead are not cremated, as in the rest of Equestria, but embalmed and entombed in what we call the Crystal Vault. Even if the embalming process disturbs your whatever method you use for measuring, I think Rose Quartz’s foal should still be intact.”

”We would need Rose Quartz’s permission before we do something like that though,” Shining Armor pointed out.

Twilight swallowed. She did not want to do that. She had never seen a dead pony before. In fact, the only dead creature she had ever seen was the frog she had to dissect once in her biology class. It was worth mentioning that her report on that assignment had been an all-time low; she only got an A minus. She couldn’t help it; she could not concentrate on anything aside from the horrible fact that she was supposed to be cutting up something once alive.

Luckily for her grades if not for Twilight herself, Minuette had loved that assignment and gleefully hacked the poor frog to mincemeat.

Something told Twilight that seeing and performing magic on a dead foal was going to be much worse than a dead frog. Still, if that was the way to get clarity in this, then that was the way she had to go. She performed Cadence’s breathing exercise. ”Right. Then we go to Rose Quartz and ask her permission. But first…” Twilight turned to Golden Heart. ”I would like to measure you too.”

”Certainly. Why?” Golden Heart asked curiously.

”Because I want to have something to compare to,” Twilight lied. ”The magical feedback could take any shape, as I don’t know how the original spell worked. You have not been affected by that spell, nor faced any of Sombra’s magic, like me and my brother have, so you will be a completely clean reference point.”

”If you need to, then fire away,” Golden Heart said resolutely. ”Uh… will this hurt?”

”Might tickle a little,” Twilight said, willed her magic into her horn and let it engulf Golden Heart. Twilight blinked in surprise. His magical field was surprisingly strong, almost like her brother’s, and he was the captain of the royal guard. But then again, if he had been a medic for twenty-five years, that might not be so strange after all. Anyway, he was entirely clean. There was no indication of him having used dark magic. ”Thank you, Golden Heart. Let’s go to Rose Quartz’s.”

”Do I need to come?” Golden Heart asked. ”I still have other patients to care for, and I could go to The Crystal Vaults to make sure Anubrisk does not touch the foal’s body.”

”Anubrisk?” Twilight asked.

”The embalmer,” Golden Heart elaborated. ”He prepares the bodies of the deceased for their blessed sleep. Though just between the three of us, I don’t think it’s healthy to spend more time with the dead than the living. He is somewhat… unhinged.”

Twilight looked to her brother, who confirmed with a nod. ”He is a bit strange, but most ponies consider him kind still. He always has some free gem berries outside his home for foals to eat off, for example.”

”Oookay…?” Twilight said, uncertain what she should do with that information. ”Well, you go to him then. We will go to Rose.”

Golden Heart nodded. ”You be sure to tell me if there is anything more I can do. Good luck to you both.”

Shining Armor nodded and took the lead to Rose Quartz, as Twilight did not know where to go. ”I see you are astute as always, little sis,” Shining Armor said with a wry smile. ”Didn’t think you had it in you.”

”We can’t afford to take any chances,” Twilight defended bashfully. ”I had to scan him; if there was any pony who could have done this, then it was him. You heard him yourself, he was present when most of the deaths happened.”

”I’m not reproaching you, Twi, I’m just surprised.”

”Do you think he realized?” Twilight asked. She folded her ears back in embarrassment.

”I don’t think so,” Shining Armor said, enjoying his sister’s mortification more than he should.

*****

Entry nr. 134

I think I have attacked my query from the wrong angle. I can’t find any answers from my studies. No matter how many subjects I vivisect, the true nature of life itself continue to mock me. I sense something elusive here; a potent power I cannot identify. Or rather… couldn’t Identify.

Yet again I find the answers are hidden in plain sight, so obvious they were cloaked. So vast I overlooked them. The answers lie in my magic. Life and magic must be connected. Just as magic takes infinite forms, so does life.

Life and magic… in the end, they are one and the same.

*****

Twilight had never seen anything remotely similar to this. Now she understood what it truly meant for a pony to be broken. She and Shining Armor sat in Rose Quartz’s living room with the heartbroken mare. The walls were made from a dark red crystal and now recently decorated thoroughly in black, just as the mare in front of them.

Rose Quartz’s eyes were red and puffy from crying, and her mane wore signs of having been torn into. Since Twilight and Shining Armor came into the house she had not said any coherent words, just cried and wailed in sorrow greater than Twilight could understand. They had gently coaxed her to sit down and then waited patiently for her to gather her bearings enough to speak.

Twilight loathed this. She did not want to ask her this favor. How could she remind yet again that Rose’s foal was gone? ”But there is no choice,” The pragmatical side of her mind told her. ”Nothing more can be done for her foal, but if another tragedy like this can be avoided, then it has not been all in vain. We need this information.”

Rose Quartz let out another heart wrenching wail and then hiccuped silently, her whole body shaking and tears running from her eyes. With a jerky, erratic motion she sat up from her slumped over stance and looked at her guests. Since that was the first time she seemed to recognize their existence, Twilight prepared for the inevitable.

”H-hello…” Rose said meekly. ”C-can I help you?”

”I… think so,” Twilight began tentatively. There was no gentle way to ask what they needed to ask, but she still hesitated. Her brother came to her rescue.

”Rose Quartz,” he said with the soft, caring voice Twilight recognized from when they were younger and he helped her when she had hurt herself. His voice was rich and smooth; there was something with it that instantly conveyed a sense of trustworthiness and calm. Rose’s expression seemed to clear slightly when she heard him, like his melodious voice was able to penetrate her sorrow and reach out to her. ”I am so, so sorry to ask you this, but… but we need your help.”

Rose Quartz nodded, causing a few tears to drop from her crystalline cheeks.

Shining Armor continued. ”We… we need to visit the Crystal Vault and investigate… some circumstances about your daughter’s…” he trailed off. Rose begun to tear up again, but the only sound that left her throat was a small whimper, like her tears had run out.

She nodded. ”I-if it helps other m-mothers…” she breathed in choppily, each hiccup sending a spasm through her body. ”Okay,” she whispered.

”Thank you, Rose,” Shining armor whispered without breaking eye contact. ”You have no idea how important this can be. You truly are a strong mare. I am sorry we can’t stay any longer, but know that if there is anything Cadence and I can do to help you, you have but to ask.”

”I know,” Rose mumbled. Then she sat silent and stared down on her floor. Twilight and Shining Armor both came to the silent conclusion that she needed to be alone more than she needed them to stay with her, and silently left the sorrowful mare.

”You were fantastic, big brother,” Twilight said with as much enthusiasm that could be found after such a meeting. ”You got her to listen without breaking her heart. That was… very good of you.”

”I wish I didn’t have to comfort her,” Shining Armor said silently, sadness all to evident in his voice and expression. ”This was supposed to be her happiest day…” Twilight pretended not to hear her big brother’s sniffle. Instead she lifted her eyes from the street and looked forward, towards the pyramid shaped building a little distance outside the town that housed the ancient burial chambers of the Crystal Empire, The Crystal Vaults.

It really was a strange building. Not only was the pyramid shape completely unique in the empire, but the location too was strange. A good ten minutes brisk trot out of the empire proper stood the sky-blue pyramid alone on a beautiful green field. The pyramid apex was covered in gold, but aside from that there was no decorations whatsoever. Just the glossy, completely smooth crystal surface.

”What is this place, exactly?” Twilight asked, happy to talk about something else.

”This is… where life and death collide… where two worlds overlap…” somepony said from behind them in a slow, cryptic mumble.

Twilight yelped in surprise and spun around, wings flared in an instinctive reaction to make her look bigger. Shining Armor turned in a much more controlled manner. ”Embalmer Anubrisk,” he said calmly to the pony in front of him. ”Perfect, we were just looking for you. Has Golden Heart told you why?”

Twilight hardly heard her brother; she was fully occupied with looking over the pony in front of her. For a moment, just a moment, she even managed to forget why she was here. Her analytical mind latched onto the pony in front of her, trying to figure his strange outfit out.

Despite the pleasant weather, Anubrisk was dressed in a heavy wool robe, one side cream white and the other black as coal. The rim of the elaborate robes had a lustrous gleam of gold that ran uninterrupted between the two colors. The opulent clothing stood in great contrast to the pony wearing them, as Anubrisk’s face looked strangely thin, almost malnourished. His coat was pale yellow, further adding to his seedy appearance.

Strangely, he was not a crystal pony either, as he clearly had a coat of fur. Twilight looked to his forehead, but could not see a horn under his hood, so she concluded he was an earth pony, as no pegasus would ever walk around in something that so hindered their flight.

”Golden Heart spoke… you wish to see, yes? You seek council with the departed?”

”Uh… yes?” Twilight said though it sounded more like a question than a confirmation. ”We need to examine Rose Quartz’s foal,” she added for clarity.

”It is good… nopony shall have to depart to the hereafter alone…” Anubrisk mumbled. ”Follow me… and be respectful please; these are hallowed grounds.”

”Of course,” Twilight said solemnly. The three ponies went up to the pyramid and into a nearly invisible hallway. Twilight blinked a few times, trying to understand where the entry came from. She realized that the entrance had always been there, only everything was in the same blue crystal so it was nearly impossible to see any contours.

Anubrisk descended on a wide staircase, and Twilight and Shining Armor followed with slight difficulty; even the steps were hard to make out in the flawlessly cut blue crystal. Once down, the three ponies proceeded into a long corridor, uninterrupted for what looked half a mile. A generous amount of fluorescent rocks imbedded in the walls showered the corridor in a comforting blue sheen, and the sound of their hoofsteps echoed hollowly. ”It's like a glacier,” Twilight thought in a fit of philosophic inspiration. ”A cold, eternally still place. No wonder the poor embalmer is like this if he spends all his days down here.”

”Anubrisk?” Twilight asked, silent as to not disturb the peace of their walk. ”May I ask something?”

”Naturally, young one… but remember the generations of ponies who are watching you now…” Anubrisk replied without slowing down.

”Well… why do the crystal ponies embalm their dead?” Twilight asked. ”I mean, the rest of Equestria cremate theirs, so… why don’t you?”

”Why do you cremate yours?” Anubrisk asked stilly.

”I think that is because it was a way for ponies to, metaphorically at least, be touched by Celestia’s sun and thus ascend into her heaven,” Twilight answered.

”Celestia… she betrayed our empire in its hour of need… left us in the clutches of the Shadow Monarch… The Crystal Ponies will not pay her respect…” His voice had hardly changed, yet there was no mistaking the heavy bitterness in it.

”Celestia did all she could,” Twilight replied, doing her best to keep her anger away. ”She liberated you from Sombra in the end.”

”Shh,” Anubrisk whispered. ”The spirits of the deceased are listening to you… be careful what you say around them, for if you linger on death’s door… you risk being invited in…”

”Was that a threat?” Shining Armor asked warningly. Twilight swallowed. She knew she had nothing to fear from this old earth pony, and as she had already confirmed he was not all sane, but still… the conviction with which he spoke and the mysterious voice sent shivers down her spine all the same.

”No… it was but a warning…” Anubrisk said. ”You stand now before the central vault… From here one can visit all the departed in this empire from the last two millennia.”

The ponies came out of the corridor and into a large, circular room with corridors branching out from it. Twilight quickly counted to as much as twelve offshoots, plus the one behind her. In the middle of the room the floor rose up slightly, creating a small platform. Twilight looked into one of the many offshoots and saw beautiful crystal sarcophagi line the wall.

Anubrisk quickly trotted over it and into one of the doorways. Twilight and Shining Armor followed into what evidently was Anubrisk’s private room. It was rather small and completely dominated by the large crystal slab in the middle. Beside it on a table stood some jars filled with something Twilight did not recognize, and beside the jars laid some rather gruesome looking instruments of the embalmer’s trade.

On the stone slab laid a thin, sky blue piece of silk cloth over a small, vague pony shape. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat.

”Can you feel it…? The wall between our world and the other is perilously thin here…” Anubrisk said, which hardly helped Twilight to gather her bearings. It was time.

She performed Cadence’s breathing exercise, felt her big brother’s hoof on her shoulder and then strode forward to perform her study of the body.

*****

Entry nr. 168

Life magic exists.

When I light a candle there is a shadow on the wall. Balance is maintained that way. Whenever I light a candle, there is instantly a shadow. Whenever a pony screams out in pain, another screams in ecstasy, and for every act of good there must be also one of evil. Such is the nature of this world; balance must be maintained.

Life Magic exists. There must be Balance. Where there is life…

There must also be death.

Fearful Symmetry

Entry nr. 169

They don’t understand. They are afraid because they don’t understand it. The ignorant fools consider death the end. But I know better. Death is not the end, it is nothing. Nothing more than a barely noticeable transaction in a cycle as infinite as time itself.

I have seen the truth now. But they won’t listen to me… most ponies won’t, corrupted as they are by the insular sisters who would consider themselves rulers of this land. Why won’t they see the good in death? Or the evil in life? A forest cannot live without the nutrients provided through a forest fire, and we ponies too need death to cull the weak so that our species can thrive.

But all is not lost. There are ponies out there who think like me, ponies who can see the chaos and suffering brought through life and the order and tranquility that can only be found in death.

A few ponies will follow me. To death and beyond.

*****

”Are you ready… to stand face to face with death himself?”

Twilight wanted to throw the unhinged embalmer from the room, but alas she could not come up with a tactful way to do that. She tried her best to shut him out, but since he was the only one to speak, that was hard too. ”Yes,” she answered shortly.

Anubrisk nodded and lifted the sky blue cloth. Twilight caught the glimpse of pink, but closed her eyes in the last moment. She could not bear to look and she did not really need to. She swallowed and willed forth her magic. Tentatively she reached out with it towards the foal’s body.

It did not feel… dead. It just felt like any soft object, like pillow or something, though there was a disturbing weight and stiffness to it. Either way, the foal’s coat was completely untouched by any magic. She increased the power of her spell slightly to get further into the foal’s body.

Her magic wormed it’s way through the foal. Soon she only had the central parts left to scan. She willed even more power into her horn to scan the lungs and heart.

It felt like somepony had directed a blowtorch at her horn. Twilight screamed out in pain and surprise and quickly retracted her magic. Panicked she opened her eyes and stared straight at the dead. She felt like her heart would stop.

Pain in her horn form the sudden magical onslaught, and pain in her heart from what she saw.

The little pony just… laid there, peaceful like it was asleep. The foal had curled up slightly as if it was cold, as if it had tried to cling on to the last thread of life as it died. It was so small! How could something so small be… dead? What kind of a world does something like that? Twilight felt tears well up in her eyes, and they had nothing to do with the pain in her horn. She wanted to walk forward and touch the little one, just to be sure. Maybe it was just asleep, exhausted from its journey into the world. Maybe she could warm it up and then it would wake. Wake and stare curiously at her.

It couldn’t be dead… not really.

But it was. Twilight knew that, though she wanted with all her heart to be wrong.

Only now did she become aware that somepony was shaking her, and rather violently at that, and screaming in her ear.

”TWILIGHT, WHAT HAPPENED!? ANSWER ME!” Shining armor bellowed with a voice trained to be heard over the mayhem of a battlefield.

”Silence! The dead are resting here!” Anubrisk hissed forcefully, yet somehow silent.

”I-I’m okay,” Twilight mumbled through her quiet sobs for the poor little pony in front of her. ”I just… I can’t watch…” She turned away and cried silently to herself. She did not know this foal, but it just felt so wrong nonetheless.

So much lost, so much happiness and so many adventures… dead because of some alien magic. This little life would never be lived. Twilight cried even harder at that thought. She did not notice how, but she found herself hugged by her brother. She thanked him by burrowing her face in his snow white coat. Feeling his powerful heartbeat against her ear helped. He had always been there for her. She was not alone, she was never alone.

She swallowed down the rest of he tears and stood like that for a little while, hiccuping and swallowing. ”Thank you,” she said into his coat once her voice had stabilized enough to carry. She squeezed harder before she let go.

”What happened, Twilight? Why did you scream?” Shining Armor asked.

”I… I felt something. Some magic in the… the foal.” Twilight mumbled. She felt her brother stiffen. ”I need to check again, I think.”

Shining Armor silently let go of his sister to give her space to work. Twilight concentrated and reached out again with her magic. She was slower this time. She could not tell what kind of magic she had felt, but it was a volatile one. She had to handle it with respect. She touched it gently. It did not hurt her this time. She prodded it carefully, and then grasped it.

She barely had the time to think before the magic in the foal rushed towards her, leaping through the conduit she had created between herself and the body. Instinctively she expelled the magic from her horn and directed it where it could not hit anypony; straight into the ground. A ray, black as night, rushed onto the floor and a small cluster of crystals appeared at the impact site. Twilight did not really need to see them. The moment she had felt the magic shoot from her horn she had recognized it from the one time she had used Sombra’s signature magic.

”Dark Magic…” Shining Armor said grimly. ”Is… this what you found, Twilight? Is this what has… killed them?”

Twilight nodded. ”A lump of Dark Magic in the foal’s heart…it cannot have occurred naturally, only a hooffull of ponies in history even knows about this magic.” Twilight swallowed. ”This was deliberate. Somepony… killed them…”

”Crystal, Snow, Wind and Joy, listen to my plea… deliver us from the clutches of the Dark One. Might his blasphemous magic never stain our souls again… Crystal, Snow, Wind and Joy, please, hear me…” Anubrisk mumbled frantically, his head bent in a bow. Twilight saw him shake slightly under the robes. Twilight assumed he would not help their course much in his current state.

”We don’t know for sure yet,” Shining Armor said silently. ”This is just one of the dead. There are eleven more… maybe it… it is just a unique occurrence in this foal…”

Twilight was rather sure this was not a natural death, but she saw her brother’s point too. If they wanted to accuse somepony of something as hideous as this, then they had to be sure they were correct.

And to be sure of that they would have to perform the same scan on the other foals.

She hardened her face in resolve. If that was what was necessary, then she would do it. Cadence’s foal and countless others might depend on this. She could not afford to be afraid. She would not be afraid.

”Anubrisk, we need your help. Where are the other stillborn?”

Nearly four macabre hours later Twilight retracted her magic from the last foal after a rather haphazard scan. She had discovered rather fast that the dark magic was pretty easy to sense once she knew where to look, something that had sped up the process considerably. The longer they had progressed though, the clearer it became that it was exactly as horrible as they had suspected.

”I’m… not going to ask who could have done this,” Twilight mumbled, her voice thick. ”But I am going to ask how they can have learnt it. Only Sombra himself should know…”

”You are certain it can’t be… him, yes?” Anubrisk asked. ”The spirits of the departed are afraid, Sparkle. He-Who-Is-Shadow holds power beyond the mortal realm… the souls are no longer safe should he be back…”

”He is not back,” Twilight said. ”He was blown to bits by the crystal heart; he will never come back.”

”Then… who…?”

”I imagine it must be some renegade,” Shining Armor said grimly. ”Think of it. The only way to figure this out without Celestia herself teaching it would be through whatever artifacts Sombra left behind. Everything remotely dangerous we found in his castle was taken into custody and sealed away in one of the Crystal Castle’s treasure rooms so that they would never be seen by anypony. That includes his spell books.”

”And you are completely sure nopony has seen them?” Twilight asked.

”I put up the strongest protection spells I know,” Shining Armor said. ”Nopony gets past those.” Something dawned in Shining Armor’s face. ”Though the room where we found the books is unguarded… but it should not be accessible at all if you can’t use dark magic. It was in Sombra’s castle, not ours… and there is nothing left there.”

”That is a mystery we have to solve later. Take me to the room where you found the books!” Twilight said. ”For now, that is the only lead we have.”

”Right, little sis.” Shining Armor turned to Anubrisk. The embalmer looked like he had calmed down from the initial shock now, but he still had a wary glint in his sallow eyes. ”I would ask you to keep this a secret. If it comes out anything related to Sombra is ahoof, panic will ensue. That must not happen. Understood?”

”I’m… silent as the grave…” Anubrisk hissed in that veiled voice of his. ”And the dead will not speak your secrets… I promise…”

”Obviously,” Shining Armor though. ”Okay Twily, back to the castle. Sombra’s study was just behind the crystal throne room itself, where Cadence’s study is now. You teleport ahead, I will come once I have checked on Cadence quickly. You will have to use Dark Magic to conjure up Sombra’s room, so make sure no crystal pony sees you, alright?”

”Right,” Twilight said. ”Meet me in Sombra’s room.” With that, Twilight ignited her horn and felt the familiar tug at her fur when the arcane forces turned the world around her inside out.

*****

Entry nr. 313

Twelve acolytes and me. Thirteen. A scared number.

A sign?

A sign.

*****

When she opened her eyes, she stood in front of the Crystal Castle’s throne. A couple of guards, including one really hunky-looking orange one, looked at her with badly masked surprise.

Twilight felt her cheeks flush for just a moment before she slipped through the discrete door beside the throne. She had never been here before, but it was easy to recognize Cadence’s decorating hoof at work. Most of the room’s decor went in blue and pink, with a large window taking up an entire wall. There was a neat, tidy desk beside it, sharp quills and filled ink pots standing ready to be used. Twilight saw a book on the desk too, and read the title before she could look away.

”Your First Foal, From Birth Until Five Years,” Twilight read the title. ”I promise you, Cadence… all will be well.” Twilight shook her head. ”Right, let’s see, you evil king. Show me your secrets.”

She reached into the darkest depths of her heart, into the few true dark emotions she remembered. The memory of when Tirek ruined The Golden Oak Library came floating up to the surface. The feeling of utter loneliness she had felt when Discord first returned and her friends were brainwashed. She tapped into those feelings, the feelings of hatred, sorrow and despair and willed them into her horn. Immediately came the bitter taste of bile in her mouth and the splitting headache, but she powered through. She felt the darkness in her horn rebel, trying to lash back against her, but she forced it forward out of her horn with a powerful, almost violent command.

A flash of dark red light sprung from her horn and forced itself into the castle wall. The result was immediate.

The room was largely the same, only… darker. The window was still there and a desk twice as large as the old one stood beside it, this one devoid of writing materials. An empty bookcase took up half of the last wall, while a narrow passageway claimed the rest.

”Strange… he did not mention any other room. Where does this lead to?” Twilight thought. A quick look around told her that there was nothing to be gained from the room she stood in, so that only left for her to explore the mysterious passage. She lit up her horn.

A steep staircase stretched downwards before her, uncomfortably much like a fall rather than a walk. It was also built for a pony taller than her. Twilight had to jump from step to step as the narrow passage restricted her ability to fly. Her hoofsteps sounded like thunderclaps to her ears in the echoing walkway, and the shifting shadows from the unlit wrought iron torches on the walls seemed to follow her. Twilight folded her ears back instinctively. She was not stupid enough to pretend she was not a little afraid. The last pony to walk down these stairs might very well have been Sombra himself; caution was top priority.

She continued down for what must have been between fifteen to thirty minutes before the stairs finally stopped in front of a simple wooden door, black as ash. Twilight illuminated it, but she did not spot any of the crystals she had faced when she went through the last of Sombra’s doors.

She swallowed and carefully pushed the door open, every nerve tense as a bowstring, ready to fling her back to safety if she triggered some trap or the like. She knew Sombra had a habit of setting traps.

Not this time though. Nothing happened once she opened the door, so she peeked inside.

The room was large. Much larger than what was sensible after such an uncomfortable way to it. It stretched far in front of Twilight, and she could not see the roof at all. It was hidden behind a thick, pitch black haze that seemed to drink up whatever light she directed at it. She went in, cautiously.

Strange, green-black torches started to burn on their own accord, casting a twisted, contorted kind of light over the room. She gasped and looked around. Empty thrones stared at her from the sides, each one disturbingly similar. Thick, black slabs of basalt seemed to have sprouted from the ground and formed the eerie thrones. In front of each one stood a massive book stand with a heavy book on each. Twilight swallowed. The book stands were all shaped like a ponies standing on their hind legs with the books on their backs and forelegs out to the sides. Each of the statues were impeccably crafted, and each one seemed to be in agony. Twilight almost though she could hear the statues cry in pain from holding the massive books up for the many centuries they must have been here.

She performed Cadence’s breathing exercise. The very air felt old and chilly in her nostrils.

Once she had gathered her bearings, she counted the thrones absently. Thirteen, six to each side of her and one slightly larger in front of her. She went closer to it. The creepy book stand looked with pleading eyes on Twilight, begging her to remove the burden from her back.

This book stand was an Alicorn.

Twilight paused, then looked around.

No other stand was an alicorn. Warily she went around the book stand and stood in front of the book. It was black, with a complex star on the cover, formed from silver thread. ”A triskaidekagram…” she mumbled. ”Thirteen points…” She paused for one more moment, before she opened the heavy book on a bookmarked page.

The first thing that struck her was the odd feeling of the pages. They were heavy, thicker than she was used to. Durable and with a slightly leathery feel to them. Then she spotted the faint symbol behind the wall of text on one of the pages.

Twilight screamed in horror when she realized what it was. It was a cutie mark! The pages were the tanned hides of ponies! Twilight wanted to throw the book away and burn it, then drink enough cider for her to forget she ever saw this horrifying tome. She did none of those things. Instead, she preformed the breathing exercise again and started reading. It was clear that this room not had been searched by her brother, so anypony could have come here.

This might be the answers they were looking for. The books sure were horrifying enough.

Entry nr. 313

Ritual: Regis Mandatum Maxima

Mk fcdrg c gagkml bnfw abap bgsayevie wvrz ntf jfremx yixm oamwge dw a evljeifgr hhig mwi mli zokv nfxrecavw eeuzuzafkke. Mdi cdxucz nyg sfll wmox wtrvi sa cwttrmq uuxmsnev lgls opka mdi ydkhv zlqmw xoe oarzlz kaer ghattviq uigsw. Rs gxvbswl zb fkwe jxhgf ycvvgmnqfmv wzfviwfek, c pycvvwmm zvskmr vs fwz exmytmid jscc, tw gnr zupe im dtrmsekveu ysbh opqglwbobn.

Lpk ebpylg quuh mczmf ag wiiecm fg xlr dsa. A dela mmdvzfakk bf hwcrk wro kyrkhj yvggrqlzk mv byx wtvrav oei zvmtfw ko kcszof anneh fp kpaeso mgxg Tuh Eevymu Lxee, axvei akvwt ulv tzqxgewv brkoid vw dggnpbfwd vq Oees ww mli Hnzclcszrx ut vvcabkq, ofm brkoi lo ivgfj fhyj, apfaqihvzxh fl a dgsjiu fuosmwium. Zue jqzhth xspw eprd ym sfe vq flx uqxax; xuijvevr kbodt jioe enrn lpk fnj vpvghgr trl twax. D eyymqtbirglq roniusox dlrnfmrrr eqmum wxezqpv hz qiiwd hs flx yqknep, eeuktzrj gbq wiiswa kiejg zubnxpzr mkbfrxw anfwqew. Apzl, lsjengr jihz na sihuazk ghw tkflav dvgrkttaxw lo oh aj mom xkiegekv plvlgs, iisje kways szk phitwzxenm tlgsueaw. U, qrzmcy, leie gplp wxpwqfhvd av jbifo zubo atol tjs cgmysl Pdxp hm byx Yruadnonig, hmuok eeojuen xwgyl. Plpmi iu bzramfg cuqzxubzgk xuik tikydy cz xsikavm ghw agzx sej, cswgjpp.

Tw lhr yqvlla rki vrcaveu, xkr gmjr jauzosium yuthp ommnm cyc vyh os lzrhjmem tsay tnofh df na dekadgfr tzm yhfisydrg rfzaxwk. Oafq xal trlx ghp au cfrvhgqe, ozld bnr sskxvyegp rmtj o aykx gf gkq thug phy avsz vo iiyvpq.

Ulzs kpgyl uwtpeqhp ole twestp.

Twilight stared. She understood the first two lines, and from that she gained that this was indeed some type of spell book, but what did the rest mean? She flipped back and forth to see if there was anything understandable. ”Lancea Obscura… Cornu Ignis…” she read a few headlines, but all they did was tickling a morbid curiosity. The whole book seemed to be written in the same gibberish, aside from the entries and names for the presumed spells.

”Must be encrypted or something…” Twilight mumbled. Her magic did not pick up any indication of an encryption-enchantment, so it must be a classical, written code. ”But with what key?”

”Little sister!? Are you down there!?”

Shining Armor’s echoing voice nearly made Twilight jump out of her skin. She was surrounded by book stands that looked like they were tortured and held a book written on pony hides. She did not need any sudden screams.

She swallowed her heart down in her chest again. ”Yes! I’m here! I think I’ve found Sombra’s spell books or something!” She heard the clopping of hooves coming from the staircase. Twilight returned to the book in front of her. She stroked it absently with a hoof, as if she could brush away the layers of secrets and reveal the information they so desperately needed.

”Whatever spell they used on the foals must have come from here…” Twilight mumbled. ”Why else would this door even be open and this page bookmarked?”

”Twilight?” Shining Armor warily stepped through the doorway. He looked around quickly. ”How did you find this room? When we searched Sombra’s study last time the doorway was not there.”

”I was afraid you would say that,” Twilight said. ”It was open when I got here. Somepony must have come and unlocked the door. I think he or she was after this book… it was bookmarked when I came.”

”What does it say?” Shining Armor made his way over to Twilight and stared down another page full of balderdash. ”Uh… what does it actually say?”

”No clue,” Twilight said. ”I guess it must be encrypted or something.”

”Encrypted… of course!” Shining Armor exclaimed. ”Give me a moment, I think I have the key!” The white stallion rushed out of the room and up the stairs as fast as his hooves could carry him. He was hardly gone for more than a minute before he returned. His confidence however, was gone, replaced by a harrowed look.

”Twilight, this is not some renegade mage. This is… this must have been planned, possibly since before Sombra was banished. We have underestimated the threat… badly I fear.”

”What happened?” Twilight asked.

For the first time Twilight could remember, Shining Armor performed Cadence’s breathing exercise. ”The entries at the top of the pages. They remind me of a book we found on the desk when we searched the room upstairs. I did not read a lot, but I think it was some sort of journal. Sombra’s own. Cadence read parts of it, but she told me it’s mostly filled with strange, semi-philosophical questions and answers about life and death. Anyway, I thought that journal might somehow be the key to this cypher.”

”And what’s the catch?” Twilight asked.

”The journal was moved. I knew exactly where I placed it, and now it was not there but nearby. Do you see? Somepony figured out where the journal was, broke through my protection spells and came here. Somepony knew about this room and how to access it, and they knew how to read this book too. Whoever this was must have been given directives from Sombra himself once; nopony else would even be allowed inside his study.”

”Do you think Sombra trusted anypony with this kind of… knowledge?” Twilight asked dubiously. ”He… was a tyrant, right? Who would even want to learn his sort of magic. Besides, he is gone now, so why would anypony do… all this?”

Shining Armor looked around. ”The thrones…” he said slowly. ”thirteen thrones and thirteen books. Six one each side and the largest one in the middle. Sombra would not have made this room like that without a reason. There… might have been another twelve ponies… and if one of them was banished with the empire, he or she could still be alive today.”

”I suppose… but is there any proof that Sombra actually had followers like that? We need to be sure. We can’t afford to start looking for the wrong type of pony right now. Is there any reference to this kind of thing anywhere?”

”There is an easy way to check,” Shining Armor said and levitated up a rather inconspicuous book. ”Perhaps Sombra referenced them in his journal?” He went up beside Twilight, set the journal down on the creepy book stand and opened it in the middle.

Two blank pages stared back. Shining Armor frowned and flipped backwards in the book with his magic until he came to a page filled with a host of disturbingly exact letters. Twilight looked down, captivated for a moment with the penmanship. Not even the letters she received from Celestia looked like this; perfect lines and every letter impeccably written. Twilight somehow knew that if extracted two e:s from different parts of the page and compared them she would not find any difference.

”Entry number 154…” Shining Armor mumbled. He flipped forward, then stopped. ”This journal ends at entry 168… but there is plenty of pages left for writing after that.”

Twilight flipped backwards in the horrifying spell book. ”And this book starts at entry 169… which is also thirteen times thirteen, by the way… same number as the thrones.”

”Never mind that,” Shining Armor said, annoyed. ”This makes no sense; somepony moved the journal and unlocked this room! The journal and the spell book must be connected, so why don’t the entries match? It will take us way too long to comb through all Sombra’s 168 entries to find a reference that may not even be there!” Shining Armor stomped in anger. ”Curse you Sombra!”

” BBBFF…” Twilight said soothingly. ”I’m sure I could figure this out, I just need a little time-”

”We don’t have time,” Shining Armor bit her off. ”Every day Cadence’s time grows closer, we have to solve this soon!”

The stallion breathed heavily for a few moments. Then he seemed to shrink down. He hung his head and sighed. ”Sorry, little sis. I’m just so worried about all this… I thought we had him with the journal, so to find another dead end here… sorry.”

”I understand, brother,” Twilight said, patting him lightly on the shoulder. She felt she managed a mirthful tone. ”And this isn’t a dead end; we just need somepony else who knows more about Sombra and his potential allies. Maybe the ponies who lived here during his reign can tell us more about whatever allies he might have, and his spell books. I even know the right pony to help us with this!” Twilight’s face lit up.

”To the library!” she called triumphantly. ”Time to battle wits with Sombra on my home ground! Let’s see how he likes that!”

Despite everything, Shining Armor cracked a small smile.

*****

Entry nr. 497

They are done. My twelve loyalists have finally taken the ultimate step and swore themselves to me, now and forever. All have hearkened the Command of the King, as they should.

A simple bargain; eternal knowledge, eternal kinship… all for just eternal loyalty. As they understand, deals with me does not end in death; quite the contrary actually.

But I digress. My twelve have been disoriented since the ritual at the panorama of my empire was complete, but that is to be expected. I am confident they will soon be back to their work, more efficient than ever. I eagerly await the next few days…

Author's Note

Those of you who can crack the encrypted part gets a cookie (hint: it begins in a Caesar cipher)! If you can't, don't fret; I will give the decrypted text later.

The Plague Doctor

”Oh, Princess Twilight, Prince Shining Armor!” The librarian bowed down respectfully to the both of them behind her counter. ”I’m sorry, but you asked yesterday, my prince, and I have not gotten any new first-time-daddy books since then. I have sent a request to Canterlot, but it will take them some time.”

”I’m not here for that right now,” Shining Armor said maturely. ”This is a more… delicate matter.”

The librarian got a sly glint in her spectacles. ”Well, if you are still looking for the Poni Sutra…” The librarian lowered her voice in a conspiratorial whisper. ”West wing, on the highest shelf.”

”N-no! I’m not…” Shining Armor threw a quick look at his little sister.

Twilight was not sure why he looked so flustered, but decided to help him out of what seemed like an uncomfortable subject. ”Miss, we are not interested in… what did you call it? The Poni Sutra,” Twilight said and made a mental note to look into that book. She knew her brother had an excellent taste in books. ”Actually, we were looking for information about… the same pony I asked about last time, if you recall?” Twilight asked silently as to not alarm the few other crystal ponies milling about the library. The elderly librarian swallowed and looked about warily, as if she expected the ancient king to pounce from a corner.

”I see… well, perhaps you would come with me into my office and we could talk in private.” The librarian nodded nervously and put up a small ”on lunch” sign on her desk. Twilight and Shining Armor followed her into her office. The three ponies sat down on chairs around a crystal table. ”Right, so you need information about Sombra? I won’t say I know him any better than any other pony though, just so you know.”

”Actually,” Shining Armor began, ”it’s not exactly Sombra we are interested in this time. We think, at least.”

”This might be a strange question, but… did Sombra have any ponies loyal to him? We are thinking about… maybe twelve ponies.”

”And they were probably mages,” Shining Armor filled in. ”Does this tell you anything, miss Manesbury?”

”How did you learn about this?” The librarian, evidently named Manesbury, asked silently. ”M-my prince, please don’t be angry but… we crystal ponies wanted to forget them. I thought about telling you, but they are all gone for sure. We… we didn’t want to open old wounds; thought we could just let sleeping dogs lie.”

”Miss Manesbury, I’m afraid I don’t follow,” Shining Armor said in a soothing, calming voice. ”What did you want to forget? I fear there might still be some relevance still to this… legend, if you will, and my sister and I really need to know.”

Manesbury bit her lip. ”Well… I really don’t think so… I mean, they are dead by now. It’s better to look to the now instead of dredging a past that is better undisturbed.”

”But you can’t just… refuse to think about something that scares you like this!” Twilight exclaimed. ”That way you never conquer your fears!” In a sudden burst of inspiration, she continued. ”You are still afraid of Sombra, right? Well, then you need to start talking about him, start showing one another that you can stand up to that fear. He will never come back, so you can’t let fear control your lives. If you do, if you spend your life looking over your shoulder, then he still wins, dead or not.”

Manesbury sat silent. ”Please,” Shining Armor begged. ”This… might be crucial for the birth of mine and Cadence’s foal… we are looking for a way to end the stillbirths.”

”Alright,” Manesbury whispered. ”I will help, but don’t talk about this around others, please.” She cleared her throat. ”Well… I know of the twelve you are talking about, though I did not think they were that many. I think you’re referring to The Pale Knights.”

”Pale Knights?” Twilight repeated. Yet another element in this empire’s history she had never heard of.

Manesbury nodded. ”They were Sombra’s closest ponies and the officers of his guard, I think. While the normal guard wore black armor with eerie, glowing eyes, The Pale Knights instead were dressed in white robes with hoods and masks. They were Sombra’s eyes and hooves among his subjects…” Manesbury started shaking slightly. ”They used to patrol the streets sometimes. Ponies stayed inside then, but they could still come and confront you about something you had said alone in your home months ago. It is said they could kill and torture with mere a whisper and that their very shadows were poisonous. If… one ever said something that could be considered rebellious, then you… vanished. When I was walking home once with my friend I looked away for a moment. Then she was gone… disappeared in a flash of darkness. I never saw her again… just gone without a peep.”

”Damn you, Sombra,” Shining Armor mumbled darkly. ”So these Pale Knights, do you know anything more? Would you or anypony else recognize one today?”

Manesbury shook her head. ”They always wore masks, horrible masks, and their voices were contorted.”

Twilight nodded. ”I know this might be a strange question, but… do you know anything about Sombra’s journal?”

The librarian looked like she had been struck by lightning. Immediately she sat up, stiff as a stick. Her glasses fell of from the jerky motion, but she did not care about picking them up. ”How did you know about his journal? He kept those a secret… a well guarded secret.”

”We think we found one,” Shining Armor said. ”Or part of one, at least. But if he kept them a secret, how do you know about them?” It was not lost on Twilight that her brother had tensed up slightly and his eyes radiated just a little suspicion.

Manesbury lowered her head. ”Once, when Sombra’s bookkeeper was gone for some reason, he commanded me to… to the castle to sort through his library and find something… a book of some sort. I found the book quickly and went to tell Sombra so I could leave. I saw…” She sniffled. ”Sorry, I still have nightmares about this…” She hiccuped once and swallowed. ”Sombra was in his study and… and had a crystal pony there, chained by the desk. He was writing something… the pony by the desk was crying. Sombra… laid down the pencil and… and took the hoof of the pony. I don’t know what, but… he mumbled something and placed the hoof on the page he had just written and…”

Manesbury closed her eyes and a shudder ran through her body. ”I still hear his scream. The pony screamed like he was being torn apart, and blood washed over the page, filling the letters written there. It just lasted for a few seconds, but… I can’t forget it!”

”Did the journal look like this?” Shining Armor asked carefully and produced the book from earlier.

Manesbury eyed it warily. ”It might be… I didn’t see it very well that time, but the size looks about right.”

”And if you are right, then it can be… activated by some spell and by placing a hoof on it?” Twilight asked.

”DON’T!” Manesbury exclaimed shrilly. ”You did not see him; he screamed as loud as he could! You can’t touch that!”

”I will,” Twilight said with conviction. ”I’m an alicorn, and we need the answers in this book. This will solve the cipher in the spell book, and once I know how the killing spell works, I can figure out a counterspell.”

”Well… that I can help with,” Manesbury said slowly. ”Not the spells, but I think I know how Sombra encrypted his spell book… maybe.”

”What? How?” both Twilight and Shining Armor asked in chorus.

”He used the same system on all his texts, and some of those are here in this library. And crosswords and codes just so happens to be a hobby of mine. His code system was actually quite simple, yet very hard to crack. You see, for each letter-”

”Lancea Obscura!”

The strange, bone-chilling cry bounced around the office, startling both Twilight and Shining Armor who were immediately on their hooves. Manesbury however, sat still on her chair. She coughed weakly once and the slumped forward. Twilight looked, horror and confusion fighting for supremacy in her head.

The shadow Manesbury cast on the floor under her has somehow twisted itself, left the two dimensions where it by all right should be and shot out of the ground like a spear, impaling the librarian.

”AMETHYST!” Shining Armor screamed and dashed to her side. The aged mare was breathing shallow and fast, blood gushing out from the hole in her chest. Twilight watched as if nailed to the chair, unable to comprehend what she saw.

A pony was dying in front of her. The thought hammered inside her head, but she was unable to grasp it. Ponies did not die like this! She could not accept it! It was impossible! Yet her eyes kept feeding her horrible picture after horrible picture, each one hacking away the idea of it being impossible.

”AMETHYST, CAN YOU HEAR ME!?”

”No. She hear only His Majesty’s whispers now.”

The unnatural coldness to the voice was enough to snap Twilight from her stunned terror. She whirled around the where the sound came from.

There was nopony there, only the crystal wall and humble door out to the library. Without thinking, she put up a shield around her brother and the librarian. Her heart thumped painfully hard in her chest and ever fiber of hair on her coat stood up. Where was the sound coming from? Who was doing this?

”A shield…? I come here expecting a challenge, yet all I find is this…?” Twilight did not answer, but instead willed more power into her shield. This was the kind of magic that could resist even Starlight’s attacks. ”Not enough. There are many ways to negate a shield… Gressus Obscura! Especially when you are already behind it. Lancea Obscura!”

Twilight looked behind her, afraid of what she would see.

Amethyst Manesbury laid dead before Shining Armor, definitively killed by a deep cut in the throat.

”Nopony can escape His reach. Wherever there is shadow, there is a little bit of Him. He is everywhere, a force as omnipresent as time itself.”

”WHERE ARE YOU!? COME OUT OF HIDING, COWARD!” Shining Armor screamed. Twilight instinctively flicked her ears backwards in submission to her older sibling. Alicorn or no, as with any little sister, an enraged older brother was among the most terrifying things there was.

And Shining Armor was beyond enraged. He looked positively insane.

”What are you so upset about? This slave was His Majesty’s property, as are all ponies in this miserable little parish. Their lives are His for the taking.” The voice turned sweet, like poisoned honey. ”You and your mare included… and the little foal in her womb.”

”You… you wouldn’t dare…” Shining Armor stammered, suddenly very pale. ”You won’t touch her… YOU WON’T LAY A HOOF ON CADENCE! YOU HEAR ME!?”

”King Sombra has need of her… she should be honored. To serve His Majesty is the greatest gift a pony can receive in this world.”

Twilight ignited her horn and readied a teleportation spell. They could not stay here; Cadence was in danger.

”Cornu Ignis.”

Twilight screamed and put her front hooves on her horn as if to snuff out an invisible fire. It felt like when she had touched the dark magic in the dead foal, only a hundred times worse. It was like her horn was burning from the inside out. She slumped forward and was left lying on the floor as excruciating pain ransacked the most sensitive part of her body. She scraped with her hooves on her horn in a futile attempt to get to the pain and sooth it somehow. When it did not work she retorted to simply jerk her head violently in powerlessness. Then, as sudden at is had come, the torture stopped. Twilight looked up, quivering and teary-eyed.

Shining Armor stood beside her, horn blazing and a soft purple force field around them. At his silent command, the force filed expanded and filled the whole room. A heavy thump sounded from ahead of them as a formerly invisible pony slammed into it and fell down on the floor. Twilight barely had the time to see his long white robes before the furious Shining Armor rushed at him. The alien pony looked up just a moment before Shining Armor brought all of his body weight to bear on the other pony who meekly tried to raise his hooves in futile protection.

”Regis Mandatum!” The alien pony choked forth as Shining Armor half crushed him against the wall. Twilight saw the unmistakable sheen of dark magic shine under the white hood.

Twilight finally caught up to the situation and shook her head to get rid of the residue tears. She carefully willed the magic back in her horn, afraid that the pain would return. It did not, and Twilight unleashed her freezing spell, catching both the unknown pony and her brother.

Now Twilight could get a good look at the assailant. He wore long white robes with small, sharp silver ornaments set at various long ends that did not seem to serve any purpose, and a disturbing, featureless mask of gray steel over his face. There were only two eyeholes, grey eyes behind them and nothing else but a smooth surface where there should be a face.

”Okay, now you are going to answer for your crimes!” Shining Armor growled once he had been let down, his eyes looking like they might plop out of their sockets. ”What have you done to my wife!?”

”You are too late,” the other pony answered calmly. ”The others were but the preparation for the ritual. One to breach the wall between this world and the next.” While the face was hidden behind the mask, there was no mistaking the smile. ”You are too late, the final ritual has already begun. Hail to His Majesty Sombra! Impetus!”

Twilight stumbled and lost concentration when a pair of hooves groped for her throat from behind her. She flapped her wings instinctively, but only managed to twist herself halfway around so that she fell to the ground on her side. Still, it was enough to see the face of her attacker. Manesbury’s crystal coat was awash in blood from the wound in her throat and chest, but nevertheless she grappled blindly after Twilight, her eyes black as pitch. A wheezing sound oozed from her mouth.

”Twilight!” Shining Armor let go of the Pale Knight and sent Manesbury flying with a powerful kick. The mare rose up like nothing and swung a clumsy flail in Shining’s direction.

”Tenebris Captionem!” The Pale Knight called. ”Hope you enjoy His Majesty’s teleportation trap, Sparkle! I understand you are familiar with it!” He bolted for the door.

”No you don’t!” Twilight yelled and leaped after him. She did not want to use her magic if he attempted to use the torture spell again.

”Fumus…” The pony shifted, and Twilight flew straight through him. She grappled as best she could, but her hooves had nothing but smoke to grip. She regained her balance and looked back to see the enemy dodge Shining Armor as well.

”Imperceptus…” and he was gone. Twilight, stopped and looked around, dumbfounded. She knew there was invisibility spells, but she had not expected to face them here. The door slammed shut to her side and she could hear the key klick in the lock. Twilight flew at it, but she already knew it was locked. She teleported, but the moment she was out it felt like gravity began pulling her tail and hind legs, sucking her back into the room again.

”Twilight, What’s happened?” Shining Armor, asked the moment she came into the room again. His hooves were bloody after the wrestling match with Manesbury’s now unmoving corpse. ”Why didn’t it work?”

”Sombra’s spell,” Twilight answered. ”I faced it when trying to find the Crystal Heart. It’s some kind of trap that stops you from teleporting.”

”Then stand back,” Shining Armor said and ignited his horn. A pink beam of energy shoot to the door, bounced off an invisible barrier and back at the two siblings. Twilight protected them with a shield.

”Oh no! This is bad!” Twilight squeaked when her analytical mind caught up. ”We don’t have time to be locked in, Cadence is in danger! We have to get out!”

”Don’t you think I already know that!?” Shining armor spat angrily. ”Come on, help me blast through this shield! He is only one pony, and you are an alicorn!”

”But he is one strangely powerful pony,” Twilight thought glumly and began the tiresome work of chipping away at the barrier.

*****

Entry nr. 657

My studies are proceeding at ever-greater pace. My apprentices are performing beyond my wildest imaginations. Such a thirst for knowledge, such a vision to create! And such a daring to unleash their creations. Together, the very foundations of this world will quake and roil at our hooves!

All the while, my own studies have moved in a strange, new direction. It seems like… there is a stable axis around which death itself revolves. I have yet to decipher the meaning, but it seems like there is a physical reality of… nothing but death. A plane, if you will, not unlike the known elemental planes.

The plane of death. If it exists, I must find my way there.

*****

”That would be all for now, yes?” Golden Heart asked as he closed up his bag. ”Or is there anything else you would like to ask? After all, you won’t see me again until tomorrow.”

The small gibe was not lost on Cadence. After all, she too could understand that Golden Heart must be bored with coming to her this often. This was the third time today. ”No, that would be all. Is everything alright?”

”About the same as when you asked last time, fifteen minutes ago,” Golden Heart replied dryly. ”Your foal is just fine.”

Cadence bit back the request for him to elaborate. She would not get any information she did not already have, and she could not justify keeping the doctor any longer. If his good mood was anything to go by, he had something enjoyable waiting back at home. ”You seem happy, Golden. May I ask why?”

”No reason, really,” Golden replied merrily. ”Just a special day is all. But I’m sure you know that too. You are just much better at hiding it than me. Do you have any plans for tonight?”

”I’m afraid I don’t quite understand what you mean. Is today a holiday of some kind?” Cadence tried to recall, but she could not for the life of her remember anything like that. She always kept careful track of her calendar, as a princess she had to, but there was nothing written today, she was sure. She knew she had been a bit unfocused on her duties lately with her pregnancy and never-ending worry for her foal, but she still doubted she would have missed any holiday.

”Not exactly a holiday, but a special day for sure. Today it is exactly one year and forty-three days since the fall of His Majesty, or thirteen months and thirteen days. A moment, if you will.”

The doctor turned around and started digging in his bag, while Cadence was still stunned from the fact that Golden Heart had referred to King Sombra as ”His Majesty”. It was not unheard of, as a few ponies still believed Sombra could hear them and were afraid of his punishment, but Golden Heart was not even a crystal pony. How did that make sense?

”There, done.” Golden Heart turned around to face her again.

Cadence gasped and stood up quickly. Golden Heart had changed his doctor’s robes for another garment she had never seen. It was white and made of wool with long threads and ribbons hanging at random places with a nasty spike at the end of each. What captivated Cadence about it, however, was the mask Golden wore. It was a plague doctor’s mask, fashioned from dark gray steel. ”Your Majesty, hear my prayer.” Golden Heart called loudly. ”Grant me the power I need to do your bidding, and grant me the clarity to never stray from your vision. I pledge my soul to you, now as millennia ago.”

Cadence had no words for what she witnessed. She knew Golden Heart. Who was this side of him who called out to King Sombra? Cadence had never seen any of her subject willfully addressing anything related to him, let alone praying to him.

Golden Heart stood up again, and focused his eyes on her.

”Guard!” She still did not understand what she was seeing, but she knew she it was not something good. Cadence put up a force field around her at the same time two ponies barged in and placed themselves between her and the doctor. While she was not nearly as good with shields as Shining Armor, she still had a basic grasp on them. Also, her love-based magic had proven effective last time Sombra was involved. She backed away slowly. The guard followed. She had to get away. A shiver wormed its way down her spine. Her foal was in danger, and neither her husband or sister-in-law was here.

”Now don’t be difficult. His Majesty needs you to serve. You should be honored,” Golden Heart smirked and carefully stalked closer. The guards tipped their crystal spears towards him.

”Sombra is no more, Golden,” Cadence said slowly without taking her eyes of the blue pony. The mask unnerved her. ”You don’t have to do whatever he has told you to, not anymore.” She stopped. Now that she had a little distance, she wanted to reason with him. Golden Heart was clearly not himself now, so she had to help him. He was her subject; it was her duty as princess.

”Sombra is everywhere. Dead or alive, he will never truly be gone,” Golden Heart replied coldly.

”Golden Heart,” Cadence said loudly. She straightened herself and fought down the impulse to flare her wings. She could not show any weakness. She fixed a regal gaze on the deranged pony. ”Listen to me. I have felt you. Every day I feel you, and every day I know you are a good pony at heart. Whatever Sombra did to you, or made you do, I absolve you of it now. Sombra is gone, he is but a disease to the joy and good in our empire.”

”Disease…” Golden Heart repeated slowly, as if he was tasting the syllables. ”A fitting choice of words.” He started walking straight towards Cadence without taking his eyes of her, oblivious and uncaring to the guards in his way. Both guards stepped forward, spears still lowered.

”Stop!” one of the guards demanded. ”I command you to stop!”

Cadence saw the doctor crack a smile, and she shied back from it. It looked like something a cat might give when it found a litter of mice. A smiled filled to the brim with evil. ”Malleus!” The doctor purred, and the guards both fell on the ground accompanied by a screams in pain and surprise. Cadence paled and involuntarily took a step back. She saw her guards sweat, cough and sneeze mucus and blood, despite having been healthy moments ago. Wounds and swellings started to grow from their hooves and upwards over the span of mere moments, until the guards both laid still. Realization clicked, and she felt her last meal revolt in her stomach. No! She could not vomit now; she had to keep her shield up! She had get away!

”No shield can help against me; my weapon is already within you, Cadenza.” Golden Heart said sadistically. ”Caesar Obscura.”

At first, Cadence felt nothing, then there was a small sting, almost like that of a paper cut, on the top of her stomach. She hissed as it became worse. It was like an invisible scalpel slid over her belly.

Caesar Obscura. Cesarean section.

All rational thought went straight out the window. He had attacked her foal! Cadence screamed out in fear and instinctively shoot off upwards, away from the invisible scalpel. She knew it must be below her, so the only safe direction was up! She found the shield spell in her way.

So she lowered it.

”Tetanus!”

*****

Entry nr. 699

I need to die. I have come as far as I can in this life. I need a practical experience now to cement and perfect my knowledge. I cannot do that here in the realm of the living. But I know now that there are alternatives.

Of course, my sacred mission in this misbegotten world is far from over, so I cannot leave permanently. As a King, I am responsible for this world too.

My choice has been made. I need to make suitable preparations, and then I will journey where nopony has gone before.

Author's Note

Disclaimer: I can't actually speak latin, so don't even bother pointing out the grammatical errors I made with the spells; I know they are probably horrendous. I imagine most spell names could be understood relatively well from context, but I thought I should point out one thing.

Golden Heart's Spell "Malleus" comes from the latin name for glanders, an infectious disease in horses.

Twisted Words and Twisted Worlds

Entry nr. 813

Luck seems to be on my side. The Princesses have sent a scout here, pegasus stallion. He will be the perfect catalyst to begin my journey.

I have been meditating over this quandary, and I know now I cannot leave the world like this. I must give it a chance, else what king am I? I will give the Princesses one final chance to see my magnificence first. If they fail my test, fail to see the glory… then I have done all I can, for this time. Then they have refused to open their eyes, and my only option will be to cut off their eyelids.

I just had the pegasus brought here.

He will be my messenger, my catalyst.

*****

Cadence felt like she was hovering in darkness. She looked around, dazed and confused about her surroundings. There was nothing to see; nothing but the darkest depths of blackness. She was not even sure whether her eyes were open or closed. She neither heard, nor felt anything either, not even warmth or chill on her coat. It was like she was suspended in a perfect temperate equilibrium where nothing else could exist. Not even light or sound. She probably groaned, though she could not hear it. Why did she feel so sluggish? Had she even moved at all? ”H-Hello?”

Not even an echo answered. Her voice seemed to be drained of sound before it left her lips; she could not even feel her lips move. She took a step forward without moving. It made no difference; not even room worked like it was supposed anymore.

”Tetanus Somnum!”

That she could hear, even though it was impossible to say where the sound came from. It seemed to come from within her rather than outside her. It was like she had thought it herself.

A myriad of sensations assaulted her. Smell returned, carrying a weak fragrance of roses, and a cold feeling bit into her coat. A shudder passed through her, and she felt her wings ruffle slightly to instinctively keep her warm. She still could not see anything, but felt the soft touch of a fabric over her eyes. A blindfold. She could hear though; weak sounds of many ponies moving carefully in front of her.

She stood raised up on her hind hooves with her forelegs stretched out and upwards. She could clearly feel the chilly metal manacles that kept her suspended in the unnatural position. She willed magic into her horn, only to feel like it was sucked right out of her.

Cadence’s first instinct was to perform her breathing exercise, but she could not do that with all her hooves locked in place. Instead she took a deep breath of the fragrant air. The rose smell did little to calm her. ”Hello? Who is there? What is this?” She was proud that her voice was stable.

”I am here, Princess,” Golden Heart answered. His voice was neutral. ”Are you well?”

She snapped her face towards the sound. ”What are you doing?” she asked, trying not to let her fear show. There was something about the blindfold that terrified her. She could not see anything and her growing child was completely exposed. How could she protect her child like this? No magic and no sight. ”Golden Heart, what do you want?”

”Don’t be afraid. His majesty does not want to kill the subjects he plans to rule… well, not more than necessary at least. But fear not, you are far to valuable for something like that. Anyway, just hold still for a moment.”

Cadence yelped when she felt something cold around her mouth. Before she realized what, somepony had put as small metal lump on her molars, preventing her from closing her mouth completely. She thrashed, but to no avail. Bound like this she was helpless.

”Done. All is exactly as per your requests, my friend. Now what? There are still four of us who has not shown up. Can we proceed without them?” Golden Heart asked somepony else.

”We can. The sacrifice is the deciding factor. We could do this with only four or five of us here, eight is more than enough.” The mare's voice was harsh and stiff like an icicle. She continued, calling loudly with a charismatic tone that sent shivers down Cadence’s spine. ”Ponies of His Majesty, we shall begin at last! After today, He will walk among us again! Can you hear me in your sleep, my King!? Your deliverance is at hoof!” The ecstasy of the voice somehow only made the speaker sound grimmer rather than kinder, like she knew she was ruthless and was proud of it. ”My fellow acolytes… let us all bow out heads in prayer.”

Cadence heard a multitude of ponies and fabric shuffle over the floor and positioning themselves around her. The eerie cacophony of what sounded like a dozen voices speaking exactly in synch hit her ears. Egged on by an ever increasing feeling of dread she thrashed against her bonds yet again, but the cold metal remained firmly in place. It screeched slightly as if to remind her that it was still there, keeping her still while these madponies did Celestia knew what.

King of shadow give us sight
Take these offers, give us might
Make so we can end your plight
Through this chalice of blood so bright

Somepony rose up right in front of her. She heard liquid being poured. ”His Majesty’s wisdom provides. Through the power of his slaves who have so selflessly given themselves to our course, might he be reborn.” A resounding swallow. ”The sweet taste of life’s many possibilities. I now grant the Chalice of Life and Death to you, my fellow acolyte. When you have drunk your fill, pass the cup to others who thirst.” Three quick steps made her aware that ”the Chalice of Life and Death” had switched hooves.

Another swallow. ”The sweet taste of life’s many possibilities. I now grant the Chalice of Life and Death to you, my fellow acolyte. When you have drunk your fill, pass the cup to others who thirst.” This was Golden Heart’s voice.

Her blindness was maddening. She wanted to know what was happening. For all she knew they might have a dagger over her foal right now and she could do nothing about it. She thrashed again, until suddenly her head was held still firmly by magic. She trampled slightly with her hindhooves, but it was an empty gesture. She was completely subdued and could only listen to the eerie mantra as the chalice slowly made its way around her, back to the sermon leader directly in front of her.

”Might you accept the sacred quest which His Majesty King Sombra has bestowed upon you… Drink deep from The Chalice of Life and Death.” The leader spoke solemnly. Hoofsteps closed in. She felt the rim of metal gently on her lip.

”NO! NO PLEASE!” Cadence screamed when she understood. Her confidence fell like a house of cards. Her mouth was still kept open, and her head was kept still. ”STOP! STOP! I-” she coughed violently when she felt the vile liquid on her tongue. The sour and slightly metallic taste removed any remaining doubt of what she was drinking. She tried to spit, but could not when she felt a hoof over her mouth.

Left with no alternative, she swallowed, and immediately felt the urge to throw up.

”The bitter taste of life’s only certainty,” the monotone voices chanted together.

*****

Entry nr. 824

What better laboratory than a blood-soaked battlefield? Both my acolytes and I have learned more from these last few weeks of war than we have in years of pondering ancient texts.

Of course, I will be defeated, but it matters not. It was the point, after all.

Still, I would prefer to have as much time to study the art of warfare as I can, so I believe it is time my acolytes took a bit more of an active role…

*****

With a sound like shattering glass, the invisible wall fell for Twilight and Shining Armor’s combined assault, after what felt like hours of being locked in. Shining Armor wasted not time barreling out of the room and dashing as fast as he could towards the Crystal Castle. Twilight stopped for a moment and locked the door to the office behind them, after having grabbed the journal. They could not do more for Manesbury now, and it would do no good for the rest of the empire to be dragged into this mess. After the momentary delay, she was right by her brother’s side again, racing and praying to Celestia they were not to late.

Through the streets, past the doors, up the stairs and into Cadence’s room. They both stopped dead in their tracks. Two guards laid there, their bodies malformed with large swellings and wounds that seemed to have burst open on their own. Twilight backed away, disgusted, and fought the urge to retch at the smell and sight. Cadence was nowhere to be seen.

”NO! NO, DAMMIT, NO!” Shining Armor wailed in utter despair. ”THIS CAN’T BE TRUE! TELL ME IT’S NOT TRUE, TWILIGHT!”

Twilight stood frozen, mouth slightly agape as she tried to fathom the horror in the room before her. Shining Armor’s piercing scream interrupted her. ”WHERE ARE THEY!? WHERE DID THEY TAKE HER!?”

Twilight forced herself to look away from the bodies on the floor and instead focus on the wall. She needed to think clearly and carefully, now more than ever. They had collected a lot of puzzle pieces, but still had no idea what they were chasing or where.

It was time to patch together the whole picture.

She was about to perform the breathing exercise, but stopped herself. She did not want the smell to remind her of the horrors. ”That mad pony in the library,” she began, her voice somewhat thin. ”He said they… the Pale Knights, I assume, were after Cadence for some kind of ritual, right?”

”Never mind!” Shining Armor said, nearly hysteric now by the voice. ”No time to think, we need to move! ”

”We need to figure out where to!” Twilight said loudly. ”We can’t afford to run around at random now, help me here! He said something about a ritual right, and that the others were just a preparation. Who are ’the others’?”

”The other foals, must be,” Shining Armor said quickly. ”It must have been the Pale Knights behind it, and then this is also their motive. They prepared for something.” Twilight blinked. She knew the royal guard was drilled since day one of their education to think rapidly, but that deduction took the word ”rapid” to a whole new level. ”I can’t understand what they would prepare for though…” Shining Armor said. They backed out of the room and closed it.

”I think I can…” Twilight whispered, overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the scheme they were facing. ”That madpony’s final word, ’Hailed be King Sombra’, or whatever… do you think they plan to reawaken him?”

”Reawaken?” Shining Armor asked. ”But he is dead; you can’t just wake the dead up again.” Shining Armor hesitated. No doubt Manesbury’s groping body flashed through his memory. ”Can you?”

”I don’t know, but they seem to think so. Think about it.” Twilight started pacing in the corridor outside Cadence’s room. ”The bookmarked page in Sombra’s spell book had the headline ’Regis Mandatum Maxima’, and the spell used on Amethyst was ’Regis Mandatum’. Don’t you see? If we presume they bookmarked that page, they were looking for an empowered version of the spell that revived Manesbury. Who else would they want to reawaken?”

Shining Armor nodded grimly. ”So they might try to reanimate Sombra, or something, but where would they be? Where can we find them?”

”I…” Twilight hesitated. That was the crux of the matter, but she did not know. Not yet. ”Our only lead is the journal. Now that we know how to read it, maybe it contains some records that can help?”

”Why would it?” Shining Armor did not say, even though it was the first thing that came to mind. He dared not say that. Twilight was right, the journal was their only clue, and if it did not give any answers, then…

…then what could he do to help his mare and foal? Nothing. He dared not think about it.

”Yea, that’s probably right,” Shining Armor said instead. ”Give me that journal. I will activate it.”

”No, I will,” Twilight said, sounding almost angry. ”I am an alicorn; my injuries are healed in a matter of minutes! We don’t know what spells Sombra might have heaped on his book, but we know I will live through them. You are not touching it!”

”Twilight, this is my problem, my wife we are looking for and my subjects in danger. Not yours.”

Twilight did not answer, but flipped the journal open on an empty page and threw it on the ground. Before she even had the time to think any more, she placed her hoof on it.

The shock and pain was instantaneous. She yelped as she felt like somepony was slicing open the tender underside of her hoof with a red hot razor. She closed her eyes and fought every instinct in her body that told her to move her hoof. She endured for only a few seconds before she peeped in pain and her instinct won.

Still, it seemed to have been enough, as blood seeped out on the yellowed parchment, running like in small channels on the page and staying there, forming words in the same immaculate penmanship she recognized from earlier in the journal. A little bit of her blood dripped over the side of the book and presumably started on the next page.

She stood like that for a few seconds before she placed her hoof on the book again. It was not as painful this time, for whatever reason. Perhaps her alicorn body reacted to the pain by reducing it? She should have to look that up.

”How… do you feel, little sis?” her worried BBBFF asked when she removed her hoof for the second time.

Twilight shook her head and looked down at her hoof. It was already healing. New, soft fur closing over the small wounds. The pain was already reduced to a nothing more than a slight throbbing. ”I’m okay. Come now, we must find something in this.” Twilight put the journal on a nearby table and opened the first ”secret” page.

Normally, Twilight would have savored every picosecond of reading a document like this. She was probably the only pony aside from the insane king himself who had read it, and she knew it would prove invaluable in understanding the mind of one of the most enigmatic ponies in recorded history, not to mention patching together the fragmented history of this empire.

This time, however, she only scanned every page as fast as she could to deduce whether it held any information they needed before moving on. The pages were all but a flurry in front of her, each one hardly opened before she had already moved on.

”Where is it? Where?” she mumbled frantically as she scanned worthless, semi-philosophical page after worthless, semi-philosophical page. ”Come on, Sombra, where are your secrets? I must find them. I must.”

An entry caught her eye, and she straightened out the journal. ”Entry 497… this might be it!” She poured over the page and the short message. ”Twelve loyalists… Command of The King…The Panorama! This is it, brother, look here!” Without waiting, she read out loud. ”My twelve have been disoriented since the ritual at the panorama of my empire was complete! That must be where Sombra initiated his Pale Knights! Maybe that’s where Cadence is now!”

”A Panorama…” Shining Armor mumbled. ”The Castle apex! That is the only place where you can see the whole empire!”

”But then everypony in the empire would see the ritual too,” Twilight protested. ”And try to stop it, right?”

”…Which suits Sombra’s arrogance,” Shining Armor said darkly. ”He knows they can’t touch him up there.”

The two siblings turned away and ran as fast as their hooves would carry them.

*****

Entry nr. 824

I have begun sending my acolytes out in pairs of two or three. The results are staggering. For the first time, the Equestrian army were forced to pull back from an outbreak of glanders and a host of especially engineered battle constructs.

I have underestimated my students’ prowess. With enough blood paid, one of them can indeed be captured, or even killed, not that they will stay dead for very long. But two? Or twelve, heaven forbid?

That is a lot of blood.

*****

Call him back, our king, our knight
To whom I am acolyte
He who never felt but spite
He whose heart is black as night

Cadence thrashed again, but it was as futile as before. ”His Majesty’s wisdom provides. Through the power of his slaves who have so selflessly given themselves to our course, might he be reborn.” A swallow, yet again signaling what was to come. Candace steeled herself for the horrible taste to wash over her tongue again. ”The sweet taste of life’s many possibilities. I now grant the Chalice of Life and Death to you, my fellow acolyte. When you have drunk your fill, pass the cup to others who thirst.”

Again she was forced to listen how the vile chalice slowly wandered around the room to the ponies gathered around her. This was the eleventh or something time they did this. How long would they force her to endure it? Wasn’t it done soon? She must have been standing for hours now. She was stiff and cold, though the utter helplessness and horrible, horrible blindness was far more breaking. She had long since folded her wings over her growing foal, a final, desperate effort to keep her little one safe.

”Might you accept the sacred quest which His Majesty King Sombra has bestowed upon you… Drink deep from The Chalice of Life and Death.” She tried again to avert her mouth, but in the end it only brought her a fraction of a second.

A collective gasp surged through the gathered as soon as the blood touched her tongue. ”It’s working! It’s really working!” Somepony, a mare, said breathlessly.

”The walls… they are breaking…” another pony whispered in a strange, veiled voice.

”My fellow acolytes, the time is nearing. Only one last iteration is needed now. Thirteen minutes, and then it will be said and done.”

”Thirteen minutes? Thirteen minutes!?” Cadence thought, despairing. She had been here for a lot longer than that, and nopony had come. Shining Armor and her sister-in-law was running out of time! She felt a tear form in her eye.

”Cadenza, Slave of His Majesty, see what you have wrought and rejoice!” Before she even understood what he had said, the blindfold was gone.

*****

Entry nr. 829

Kill. Raise. Repeat.

The dancing steps of war.

*****

”What is the thing with Sombra and stairs?” Twilight asked irritably as they arrived behind the enchanted door and she once again stood face to face with the near endless stairwell. Good thing she knew how to handle it at this point. ”Okay brother, hold on tight!” She felt the familiar lurch as gravity flipped and she started flying, or falling, depending on how one saw it. ”Be ready to fight! They will not be handing her over freely!” Twilight called back and readied her opening array of spells, including one to shift gravity back.

The light on top of the stairwell approached. She prepared to spring into flight.

”Take that!” She called, unleashed her reversal spell, shot from the ground, looped and conjured up a shield to defend her from the imminent attack. She let the shield expand, pushing her opponents back and giving her enough time to sling an energy beam as well as assessing the situation properly.

There was nopony there. The only sound was the wind tugging at her mane and tail.

And her brother’s heartrending cry.

”But… but then where?” Twilight asked nopony in particular. ”There are no other panoramas, it has to be here. It just… has to.” But there was nopony else there. The apex was deserted, and they had wasted invaluable time going here. It was more than two hours, at the least, since they exposed the madpony in the library, and Twilight was well aware that even the longest rituals she knew did not last more than just above two and a half hour.

They were already struggling badly with that time frame, and even worse; she had no idea where to go now.

”Twilight… where to?” Shining Armor asked, meeker than she had ever heard him. Twilight turned to her brother.

He looked at her with wide, terrified eyes, eyes she had never seen before. He was perplexed, and despairing at his own inadequacy. Twilight knew, for she felt the same. One of the most important ponies in their lives were at stake, and they did not know where to look. Time was running out. In fact, though Twilight refused to admit it, the chances of Cadence and her foal still being alive were perilously slim already.

But Twilight would not let any of that show. Now, if ever, she needed all her wits about her. She performed Cadence’s breathing exercise. ”Okay, if they are not here, then it must be a metaphor. ’The panorama of my empire’ must mean something else. I… can’t think of any alternate meaning to ’panorama’, so we need to interpret ’my empire’ some other way. Do you know anything about Sombra that helps? Anything he might have considered his empire?”

Silence.

Insufferable silence, reminding them loud and clear that Cadence’s life was ticking away.

”Maybe… the room where we found the spell book? Would he consider his acolytes the only true ponies of his empire, and the throne his panorama?”

Twilight decided not to question it, as they could not afford to be standing here any longer. They had no time to think anymore, and any place had a higher chance of finding Cadence here. So, she nodded. ”We only need to get out of Sombra’s part of the castle! Then I can teleport to Cadence’s study!”

”Don’t wait for me! You can fly down the stairwell. Get out of here and find Cadence! I will round up what guard I can and come after!” Shining Armor called urgently.

Twilight nodded, dashed back to the stairwell and flew with a speed that would have yielded an invitation to the Wonderbolts if they had seen it. In a purple blur she was at the bottom, out of the door and flying up the stairwell at the other side. It took her only a few minutes, but in her mind it might as well have been hours. ”Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” she whispered frantically to herself, forcing her wings to flap a little faster every time.

She teleported and appeared in front of the dark staircase down to Sombra’s secret room. She stared at the entrance for just a moment. It looked like a dark maw, ready to swallow her. Without pause, she set off again, this time running down the stairs, every moment aware that she would probably fall forward and break her neck. It had taken her more than twenty minutes to get down last time. Now she did it in five.

Breathless and teary-eyed with anxiety she opened the door, igniting her horn.

The room was dark and silent.

”Silent as the grave,” Twilight thought involuntarily, before even despair set in.

Silent as the grave.

She stopped. Thought.

The grave.

She bolted up the stairs. What a fool she was! Oh, what a fool she was!

*****

Cadence blinked rapidly. The light stung her eyes and forced her to look down. The floor was brighter than she had expected, all sky blue, almost like in her castle. Around her rear hooves were scribbled a host of black lines, stretching around her like a spider’s web. No, not a spider’s web, a star. When she lifted her eyes, she saw that she stood in the middle of an intricate star. She followed one of the lines to a tip with her eyes and saw a chalice standing there, and behind it stood a pony. He or she was still as a statue. Cadence had never seen a pony move so little. She could not even see breaths behind the long robes.

”Your Majesty? Can you… can you hear me?” The sermon leader asked silently, her face filled with wonder like a foal’s on Hearthswarming Eve. Cadence could see the elation in her face and hear it in her voice, despite the sermon leader wearing a blindfold of some sort. The leader's ears were focused towards Something just above Cadence. The bound alicorn bent her neck backwards to look.

Just above her head, something had appeared. If she had to describe it, she would say it was a crack in reality itself. As the world was forced aside, instead was bared a terrible vista of emptiness. The rumble sounded again, and a blood red bolt of lightning snaked out from the rift to strike the ground in front of her.

”The barrier… is cracking…” somepony whispered, reverence palpable in the voice. ”Just… a little more…”

Then, sudden as a gust of wind, she felt like her head was split in two. Cadence groaned and closed her eyes reflexively, but the thundering headache did not recede in the slightest; if anything it became worse. Something about it made her wrap her wings even tighter around her foal. There was something amiss with the pain in her head, like it was not only pain, but something else too, like…

…like laughter. Horrible, horrible laughter bounced around in her ears, becoming stronger and stronger by the second, until she felt like her head was going to explode. She opened her mouth and screamed with a voice that was not her own.

”CRYSTALS!”

The sound left her throat and the rift above her at the same time, drowning out even the unearthly thunderclaps that fell closer and closer. Cadence screamed in horror, part from the sound that had come from her own throat, and part because of what she saw. Mirrored in the crystal floor in front of her was the twisted rift in reality, and hovering in the middle, two fuming, noxious eyes, eyes that watched her every time she had a nightmare.

”It is time…” the sermon leader said solemnly. She knelt down, taking no notice of the barrage of discolored lightning that danced around her. Cadence looked away from the dreadful eyes to follow the sermon. Her eyes locked on to something behind the sermon leader. Even in the midst of the calamity around her she still found herself surprised to see a foal, younger than any she had ever seen, coming up to the leader, stopping before her. Discolored lightning bolts scorched the ground around the pair, but neither of them cared.

The sermon leader said something, but it was drowned out by the thunder. The foal fell to the side, and a red glob of liquid floated up from its mouth and into the chalice. One instant later the foal was completely annihilated by a collected blast of lighting strikes. The sermon leader heightened the chalice and screamed over the thunder.

Might our world and yours unite!
Cleanse this land from wicked blight!
Hear, my king, your time is nigh!

Sombra, come, to judge and smite!

”His Majesty’s wisdom provides! Through the power of his slaves who have so selflessly given themselves to our course, might he be reborn!” The leader took up the chalice in his hooves and drank deeply, a drop of blood clinging to her lips. ”The sweet taste of life’s many possibilities! I now grant the Chalice of Life and Death to you, my fellow acolyte! When you have drunk your fill, pass the cup to others who thirst!” She passed the cup to the pony next to him. She recognized the plague doctor mask.

Swiftly, urgently, the cursed chalice wandered around her for the last time until it was once again in the hooves of the sermon leader. ”My king. All has been done as you described. I beseech you now, drink deep from your chalice, and return to us.” The leader bowed, holding the chalice up to Cadence, lightning striking everywhere.

A sheen, black as death, lifted the chalice to Cadence’s lips. This time she could not even shake her head. Her body did not obey. She opened her mouth and drank deeply, greedily, as much as she could.

She swallowed, and a spike of pain racked her body, this time in her lower chest, just above her foal. A whimper escaped her lips.

”Finally…” the leader said breathlessly. ”My friends, the time we have long waited for has finally arrived. Might He again be born, in blood and pain of the most loved pony in existence.” She bent his head, and produced from inside of her robes a dagger.

Cadence recognized it.

The crossbar and handle was the finest of gold, inlaid with a ruby large as a strawberry, and the blade was formed from a dense, ashen material, with a tip red as blood. These madponies had found their king’s severed horn and fashioned it into a dagger.

Their leader strode up to her, the dagger in her hoof. Slowly, reverentially even, she heightened it over her belly. Hoofsteps sounded from everywhere, as the cultists each placed a hoof or their magic around the dagger handle, holding it steadily over her growing foal.

Any sound she might have made died in her throat. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could conceive of that even began to describe this. She stared, beyond terrified, at the gleaming dagger point, so close to her vibrant coat. Her mind was utterly blank, unable to form a single coherent thought.

”Resign yourself to your glorious fate,” Sombra whispered in her head, his voice cold as the North wind.

The cultists heightened the dagger. Then it came rushing down, and she screamed, loud and shrill enough to fracture the crystal walls.

A purple glimmer joined around the dagger, halting it less than an inch over her foal. She looked up and about, dazed in terror.

Just behind the gathered cultists stood a disheveled Twilight Sparkle, struggling to keep the dagger away from her.

Then finally, Cadence reached her limit. She could not keep up anymore, so her body simply shut down. The last thing she heard as she fainted was a distant explosion.

*****

Twilight strained to keep the dagger away. Despite having seen just how strangely powerful the Pale Knights were already, she was surprised by the sheer power they held together. She groaned and forced more power into her spell. She had to think of something; if the Knight she had met in the library was an indication, she could not face them all together.

”NO! NO! IT IS NOT DONE! THE RITUAL IS NOT DO-” One of the Pale Knights began, only to be interrupted by what felt like a magical tidal wave. A pulse, similar to the feeling of getting hit in the face by a tornado, struck Twilight, and evidently the Pale Knights too. Without a sound, everypony aside from Cadence were sent flying backwards and into the Crystal Vault wall hard enough to leave an imprint. The boom followed the moment after, making Twilight’s ears ring.

She laid still on the floor for a few moments while her body patched itself together. Thankfully her system was so saturated with adrenaline and magic she really did not feel that much.

”The ritual… has failed,” Twilight thought, uninvitedly. She did not know why she thought it. The thought felt out of place. ”So I imagine you have won this time, little foal. Bear that knowledge with pride, for the only two who have foiled me before were the royal sisters.”

”Sombra!” Twilight called out, looking around before focusing on the rift in reality and the burning eyes inside it. ”So all of this was your doing then?”

”It was, through my twelve faithful,” Twilight thought. A ripple passed through the rift, and it began to shrink. The eyes flicked quickly to the encroaching sides. ”Alas, I cannot stay in your world. But fear not, we will meet again, when all is said and done. Until then, read my journal, Sparkle. You will find it interesting, I promise.” A silent, ice cold chuckle. ”And before I forget…”

With a choked cry, Twilight felt the mother of all headaches. Her horn burnt, literally and figuratively, with magic, more than she knew she had. Through the rapidly collecting tears, she saw the sheen of dark magic reflect of the walls, and if the agonizing pain was any indication, it was more powerful than any she had used herself. ”Infundere!” Twilight choked out with a voice that was not her own. With a rumble, the accumulated dark magic shot from her horn and struck someplace, though Twilight could not see where through her tears. Then there was sweet release from whatever baleful presence had taken hold of her as the rift collapsed in on itself.

She staggered a few steps and then slumped down on the cold floor to catch her breath. As she laid by the elevated podium where they had nearly sacrificed Cadence, she looked over the scene before her.

Cadence still stood chained in the star’s centre, fainted. Scorch marks from the strange lightning marked both floors and walls. A groan reached her ears. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw one of the Pale Knights weakly stagger up on his or her hooves. Another one got up with the help of the wall.

”His- His Majesty is gone?” one of them mumbled. ”The hay happened?”

”Never mind,” somepony said, a stallion with a familiar, featureless mask. ”There is nothing to gain here anymore. We need to escape. As long as we remain in this world, there is still hope.” Twilight knew she had to stop them, but her legs refused to move. Sombra’s dark magic spell had taken too much out of her, and left her with the nausea that always followed the use of dark magic. If she could just stall them for a little bit… she had left a hastily scribbled message for her brother in Sombra’s study. He would be here soon with the crystal guard. Alas, Twilight’s magic seemed to be more or less gone from her now.

”Bring the Princess, we will try again once we have a new hideaway.”

”No point in that.” Twilight recognized Golden Heart’s voice. ”Her time is due in mere days, and it will take longer to prepare a new ritual. Let us all leave.”

”Not on my watch, you won’t,” Twilight’s beloved BBBFF said from the doorway into the vaults, dressed in his purple armor and with a long spear in his magic. She had never been so glad to see him. ”Give up. The entire Crystal Empire guard is assembled outside the only exit. Surrender now and nopony else has to die for your former king’s insanity.”

”We don’t… have to…” Anubrisk’s veiled voice stammered from a mummy- shaped mask. ”There are many ways out… ways from before even His Majesty’s time. Follow me…”

”Guard!” Shining Armor barked, and at his command appeared two full ranks of armed Crystal ponies. ”Seize them!”

”In His Majesty’s name, prepare to be judged and sentenced,” one of the cultists said. It sounded like a battle cry of some sort. She knew the cultists were scary powerful, but at the same time the guard were almost three times as many, and the cultists must be tired after the failed ritual.

”Lancea Obscura!” one of the cultists called.

Shining Armor ignited her horn in response and created a small burst of light under each ponies of his group, removing the shadows. Twilight grinned tiredly. Her brother had always been creative with his magic like that. ”You are going to need more than that old trick,” Shining Armor said disdainfully. "Seize them!"

”You should be careful what you wish for,” A cultist said in a matter-of-factly tone. She wore a mask shaped like a blindfold made of iron. Two guards swung their swords at her from different sides, only to have them by the shadows leaping up from the ground and blocking them with a metallic twang! ”Else you might just get it.”

”And I’m gonna give it to him,” Golden Heart said as he casually took a swords cut to his front leg. It did not bleed, nor did it seem to become the deranged doctor at all. ”The rest of you, get out! It was my responsibility to keep this a secret; it is only fair that I clean up this mistake.” He grabbed his attacker, gored and him with his horn, causing the guard to stumble back. ”Malleus.”

”If that is your wish,” the blindfolded one said casually as she slashed with the horn dagger, sending three attackers stumbling backwards. ”We will see each other soon, my friend. Fellow Knights, we depart!”

”You won’t!” a guardpony screamed and jumped after one of the cultists, a foal by the looks of it. Said foal twisted out of his grip, jumped up on his head and with a chillingly practiced motion snapped his neck. The little pony blew an audible raspberry.

”Trash,” the foal, a filly by the voice, said aloofly.

”Face my innermost magic, gifted to me by His Majesty himself,” Golden Heart said and gathered a crackling cloud of dark magic around his horn. ”Umbra…”

”Stop!” Shining Armor screamed and sent an energy beam straight into Golden Heart’s horn. While it would have stunned any other unicorn, it had no effect on a pony who evidently did not feel anything.

”…Pestis.”

A dark green shimmer, almost like an unearthly flame, rose up all around Golden Heart’s body. The pony made a nauseated throw with his head and then staggered down on his knees, almost like he was about to vomit.

He lifted his head, and, with a foul, throaty sound he did exactly that, belching forth a cloud of malformed, green vapor. Twilight was out of his way, but he still hit almost all other ponies in front of him, including the shield Shining Armor put up around himself in the last moment.

For a moment, all was deathly silent.

Then ponies started to scream out in pain.

The cloud faded, and Twilight stared at the ponies of the guard, all of them writhing on the ground with rapidly building, sickly yellowish buboes growing all over their bodies. Only her brother stood protected in his shield, but he seemed just as dumbfounded as Twilight with what was happening around him.

”I… submit,” Golden Heart hissed tiredly, unearthly vapor still leaking out of his mouth. Twilight saw the blue pony slump down. ”I submit. Nopony can go down here now, the mummies and your guard are already infected. My friends will soon be safely away.”

”We will just see about that!” Shining Armor said savagely and sprinted towards the hallway where the other cultists had disappeared to.

”Shining… help Cadence,” Twilight pleaded. She had no idea what disease Golden Heart had conjured up, but she knew that her foalsitter should not be anywhere near it, nor anypony else.

Shining Armor stopped dead in his tracks. Twilight could see longing burning in his eyes. He wanted to hunt down the cultists, he wanted it so badly. But he would not, Twilight knew. He always put other ponies before himself; that was why he became the guard captain at such a young age. He stood still for just another moment, then he turned around and extended his shield around Cadence and Twilight.

*****

”Is it now that the torture begins?”

The mood in the guest room-turned-prison cell felt like a cold winters morning. The four princess’s feelings towards the deranged doctor did the impossible and went even lower. Twilight wanted to brutally lecture Golden Heart for even suggesting such a thing, but she felt her mentor’s aura of cold, restrained contempt and decided to let it speak for her.

Nopony said anything. The Cadence and Twilight still tried to take in the change they saw in Golden Heart’s scornful leer from his normal carefree persona, while Celestia and Luna searched through their memories for when last they must have seen him, during the crystal war.

”Long time no see, is it not?” he asked with a challenging look towards Celestia. ”Might I hope you still remember me?”

”We still hold a remembrance day for all those who died in your plagues during the war,” Celestia answered, her voice cold like marble, devoid of any feelings.

”Glanders truly is worthy of a remembrance day. It is still my go-to killing disease,” Golden Hearts said, he glanced at Cadence. ”As those two guards that interfered with my kidnapping of you learnt.”

”Golden Heart, we are not interested in hearing more of thine twisted words,” Luna said distantly, as if she even in her voice did not want to be close to this pony. ”We have come to pronounce thine punishment for all crimes thou hast committed.”

”It has been decided that you are gong to be imprisoned in a secret location forever, or until you are considered reformed and can start paying of your debt to Equestria,” Twilight continued, studying the pony in front of her. ”And you should know that only the fact that the Elements of Harmony are gone is what is saving you from being bound in a statue or on the moon.”

”Of course,” Golden Heart said dismissively. ”A millennia ago as now, you would never kill a pony if you have the choice. Not even after seeing me return after so long you are willing to end me. Let me tell you something; that mentality is the reason my friends and I took the risk of attempting this when you would be on high alert, Cadenza. We knew there was nothing to lose.”

”You will never be free again, Golden Heart.” Celestia spoke with such simplicity, such utter clarity, that Twilight felt no doubt. Celestia had declared it, so then it would be true. There was no alternative. ”Sombra is the sole loser after this ordeal.”

”Nothing is permanent. A decade, a century or a millennia more; eventually the highest prison walls will crumble and the strongest bars will rust. And when they do, I will still be there, waiting.”

*****

Twilight stared blindly into space as the horror dawned upon her. She had thought of it momentarily when she first heard Sombra whisper to her, but only now was the meaning clear. The only two who have foiled me before are the royal sisters. He did not consider Twilight and her friend’s first visit to the empire a failure, and now it was clear why.

He had never meant to be banished; he wanted to die that day one thousand years ago, so that his Pale Knights could revive him with the knowledge of the Plane of Death! He had been banished instead, halting his plans for a thousand years.

But Twilight and her friends had killed him with the help of the Crystal Heart.

Now his plan was in motion again.

She lowered her eyes to read the final, damning journal entry once more.

I hear the keep rumbling. Not even my crystal traps will stave off the sisters for very long now. Still, I have the time to pen you these, my last words to my so loyal followers. Your king will leave you now, and you must do the same. Consider these my last order to you for this time.

Hide.

I will buy you all the time I can, and then I will die. Use that time to run away and hide among other ponies. You will be called again one day, when my power is great enough to cross the boundaries of death and life itself. And when that day come, I know you will listen. Upon my call, you will resurrect me so that I may share my secrets, just as I once resurrected you.

I know you will never forgo your craft; you will continue, with or without me, to ply your trade in life and death and back again.

The symmetry of this arrangement pleases me. I raised you from death once, and you will do the same to me. The dead reviving the dead…

…on and on, down the years.

Forever.

Author's Note

Now, here is the decrypted spell from chapter two.

Entry nr. 313

Ritual: Regis Mandatum Maxima

To bring a spirit back with knowledge from the former life intact is a challenge even for the most notorious necromancer. The ritual can only take place on certain hallowed days when the night lasts for longer than thirteen hours. As opposed to most other necromantic processes, a physical vessel is not required here, as one will be manifested upon completion.

The ritual must begin at twelve on the day. A main sacrifice of power and purity according to the spirit one wishes to summon shall be placed onto The Sacred Star, after which the thirteen verses as described in Call of the Unhallowed is recited, one verse at every hour, accompanied by a lesser sacrifice. The ritual thus ends at one in the night; thirteen hours from when the sun reached its peak. A sufficiently powerful channeler might attempt to speed up the ritual, reciting the verses every thirteen minutes instead. This, however seem to require the lesser sacrifices to be of the greatest purity, whose souls are completely innocent. I, myself, have only succeeded in doing this with the ritual Call of the Unhallowed, using newborn foals. There is nothing preventing this ritual in working the same way, however.

As the verses are recited, the main sacrifice shall drink one cup of innocent pony blood as to catalyze the summoning process. Once the last cup is consumed, kill the sacrifice with a part of the pony you wish to revive.

This shall conclude the ritual.

Other than that, let me know what you thought about this story. It was my first foray into actual dark territory.