Searching for the bastard turned out to be an even worse chore than before. Ever since he sent me into that other reality I haven't seen Discord since. Which means I'm stuck in this dimension until I can figure out how to escape. If I knew where my universe was this wouldn't be such a big deal. However, I am currently unfamiliar with this side of the multiverse, or whatever it's called.

I sighed my frown deepening. "Shit, my stupid curiosity and hero instincts got me into this mess. Of course this would have happened!"

I knew there was no use in complaining, but I figured it was better than doing nothing. "Hey, other me, ever thought about using my help." I heard Atone say in my head like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I rolled my eyes stubbornly continuing my walk through the lands. "I don't need your help to get out of here. Besides, Spacetime cracks are everywhere on this side of the multiverse. Eventually another one to the Equis I'm familiar with will appear."

"True, but how much time will that take? Hours, months, maybe even years. You and I both know Spacetime cracks appear at random. Latching on to that hope is not going to get you out fast enough....." Atone seem to pause in thought before I could feel his trademark grin appear. "Perfect, I picked up a cave nearby that has enough magical radiation to teleport us. It's northwest; about a hundred clicks away from this spot." Atone eventually informed me.

My frown somewhat deepened by that analysis. However, it didn't seem like I had much choice when it came to trust right at the moment. "Got it."

I ran off in the direction Atone said to go. There was a few small problems mapping my way straight northwest, but overall it did not take long after to find what I was looking for. A solid structure of an enterance to a cave system was spotted in the middle of my line of sight. However, upon further speculation, it seemed much older than at first glance. I didn't mind it at all heading deeper inside.

As I walked, my horn lit up using a classic illumination spell. Anything living in the dark usually stayed away. Examining my surroundings further, I noticed that the cave system appeared to be normal enough in this world. Talking with myself seemed to be irrelevant at the moment.

Instead, my mind flashes back to the times I fought for my world's Equestria. It brought a smile to my face. That feeling quickly faded as uncertainty overpowered the happiness thinking up new scenarios. What if they find out about who I was before their hero? What if they tried to hunt me down? What if they shun me from society?

They were all quite real possibilities. After all, friends of mine usually end up dead.... and not from natural causes either.... My mind focused back to my surroundings before a faint outline of a building crossed my vision. I squint my eyes moving closer to the outline. However, seeing massive stone ruins was not what I expected to see though.

Rusted jewelry scattered the ground with broken clay and steel potries both with different ancient art styles forever broken into millions of pieces. Some of the furniture that was supposed to be in here had rotten through or snapped under its own weigh. Several tapestries were also hung among the walls of the ruins too. Some even had visible pictures woven into them. I let my illumination spell grow in light and volume giving me enough light to make out the symbol and tbe rest of the room.

The symbol itself was black in nature while the rest of the tapestry was faded red in color. The symbol looked like an open eye wirh a swirling vortex around said black eye. In the pupil of the eye was a different color altogether. It was a sinister dark purple letting any travelers know who sees this symbol to be wary of it.

My mind froze in place seeing the ancient symbol. It couldn't have been that close to this current era. Guilt swelled in my chest as I looked back at the worn out symbol in front of me. A part me hated that symbol of pure evil, yet I knew all along that some secrets eventually wouldn't stay secret anymore. I needed to focus my anger on something, however, I didn't throw a single fist in anger. I just stood there silently. I knew deep down in my black heart that my days of being a despicable king have long since past. I began to walk away further into the cave pinpointing the source of the magival radiation.

It didn't take me long to find the source of the energy Atone found. No living creature was anywhere to be found anyway. My natural scanners showed no life either. I paused entering into a more spaced out room. My eyes widen in awe seeing the sight before me.

A stable worm hole was opened in front of me shimmering in his infinitely bluish light whirring away. I looked around me seeing visible whole pieces of ancient art work done by the people before me, yet my relief grew to slight worry.

"If stable worm holes can be formed, then that means other species advanced enough to use them could eventually invade other realities with ease."

I maybe a heartless bastard on most days, but seeing any world suffering from an alien invasion would not be a great way to go. I walked up closer to the swirling vortex lightly touching my hand on the worm hole while lighting my horn. Immense magic flowed through me as my eyes blacked out into white.

When my vision settled I had a bird eye's view of the entire multiverse. My eyes widen further in shock seeing the sheer size it grew into in just a few eons and more. Definitely has gotten bigger than when I was first originally around. I floated around through the empty space before my abilites picked up on multiple unusual powers in many different universes. Each one varied in strength, power and skill. But, it didn't make it any less unsettling and intriguing.

I hovered over the stretch of the multiverse somewhat examining each of their soul strength. To my surprise, they were all very much intact which could only mean one thing for my analysis. I expand my search, but this time examined each of their base magics. And my prediction was right. Someone.....or rather, multiple somethings were purposefully messing with reality and destinies in some of the cruelest ways possible.

My anger spiked, but I quickly smothered the emotion to safe amounts. I'll need to address why gods of any kind would toy with mortal life like this. I paused thinking back to the last two realities I have been in already.

"Then again, some of these realities have a way to go beyond 'fucked up' in most gods' eyes. I'll keep this experience a side note for now. I'll run out of time soon if I don't get back to my reality."

With that in mind my vision went white once again. It took only a brief second for my magic to reconstructed itself before I stetched myself out causing a few popping sounds to happen. "Well, whatever the heck is going on with the universes now it'll have to wait a little bit." I said to myself.

My horn lit up once more before the blue worm hole flickered black briefly. Once the spell began to take affect I jumped into the worm hole.

5:39pm ???

Third Person

Twilight couldn't believe her own eyes when she saw the castle in front of her. The mysterious architecture had looked terrifying to put it in simple terms. Unnaturally dark grey clouds formed over the structure threatening the alicorn to make one false movement. But all the appearance did was enhance her driving instinct to run. The main source of her reaction was the castle structure felt....sinister in nature. She gulped autoably before getting closer to the structure. A stone path eventually exposed itself to her making it easier to track down the structure in the distance.

This Sheartop mountain didn't seem normal either compared to the rest of Equestria. It looked much too similar to the Everfree then she could have imagined. She wondered if parts of the forest expanded in different locations without nopony knowing. Whatever the case, the map called her here for a reason.

"This must be some type of friendship problem, right?" She rhetorically said to herself, more for reassurance. It didn't ease her mind any less however.

She was able to get to the giant double doors, that towered her about two feet higher than normal double doorways. Twilight stealed her nerves using her magic to open the double doorways by force. They obliged allowing her passage in. The aura of death and damnation grew stronger causing Twilight's fur to stand on end by the sudden apprihension feeling in the air.

She continued forward, however, her horn sparkles to life to provide some light in the area. Twilight analyzed the stone hallway for any threats, but she found no immediate threats present. The Princess of Friendship took several more steps inside. Once she was far enough inside, the double doors automatically shut themselves simultaneously.

Twilight's head whiplashed back figuring out the same conclusion. Her horn lit up in magic, but all the magic did was harmlessly bounce off of the steel door frames. She groaned in annoyance, but continued down the winding halls none the less.

Near Mt. Sheartop at the Castle

Celestia reappeared at the double doors paying that Twilight wasn't here. However, her spirtual tracking spell confirmed her presence inside the castle's walls. The previous threat made by the demon reared its ugly head again in her mind, but she shook it off quickly. Her horn lit up in her fiery flames before bursting like a flamethrower onto the steel double doors. Flames engulfed the wall for at least a few minutes later until she deactivate her fiery magic.

Once the smoke cleared, it revealed that her attack did almost nothing to the door frames. Celestia's eyes widen in shock.

"What? Nothing is that strong to the blazing sun's fiery rage."

"Indeed. Whoever built these doors were excellent craftsponies... For being such physically inferior than....us." the bitch in my head almost snarled.

"I do not need commentary in the background." I mentally replied back.

The figure in my head was about to retort back, but I went ahead and used my magic again on the double doors this time increasing the intensity of the fire. With a satisfying snap to the cast steel hinges the entire frame melted into a heap of molten metal shortly after. Celestia stepped inside somewhat satisfied she still had her touch. However, the sudden cold aura wrapped her warm body in a death grip causing her to involuntarily shiver. She had no idea why this castle was so dark and creepy, but it seemed almost alive in its own sense. Celestia dismissed the thought looking further into the castle to find Twilight.

6:00pm Sheartop Castle

Twilight walked into a room that had perplexing pictures on the interior walls. There were strange hieroglyphics on the walls that were unrecognizable for her to decipher them at the moment. She was about to walk back out of the castle before something shiny gold caught her eye. The sparkle of gold seemed to be a distance away from her, but nonetheless Twilight decided to follow the mysterious light.

As the Princess of Friendship approached the light she recognized some of the symbols on the wall. For a brief moment, she examined the familiar hieroglyphics.

The picture depicted ponies from all three tribes: Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies. But what really caught her off guard was the amount of Bat Ponies and Alicorns that were also depicted in the hieroglyphs.

"How were there so many Alicorns back then when there is only four known now?" Twilight thought to herself.

They all surrounded a large group of bipedal creatures made from the strench of darkness itself. In the middle of everything depicted was a single being. The picture only made out the piercing red eyes and the manical sawlike teeth smile from the black figure. It seemed to be telling the soldiers made out of darkness what to do pointing at the ponies.

She moved on to the next depiction on the wall to gasp in surprise. There was fire and bodies of ponies littered everywhere. The soldiers of darkness seemed to be gathering up the survivors of the fight while the figure in charge's smile never faltered from the depiction before.

Her heart pound in anticipation as she moved on to the next depiction. The five tribes all wore shackles of some sort, that connected to each other, all single filed in a straight line. Their faces of despair and loss of hope made the depiction unbearably real. The shackled ponies were being lead up into a labor camp as depicted. However, the figure in charge just simply took the grounds of their lands taking their resources and gold to its own personal collection. The figure turned it into an almost barren wasteland, almost void of life.

Twilight looked to the next depiction looking for more clues to find something unexpected. The same barren wasteland of slavery was there still, but an another bipedal creature radiated a strange light off him that caused the soldiers of darkness to kneel under its will covering their eyes almost like they were in agony. The ponies around the light figure praised the light being for some reason. She would have want to get more details, but the cracks in the wall prevented her from seeing the disfigured depiction of the light being to get a good picture of what it looked like.

Frustrated and confused Twilight continued on her way returned to following the strange golden sparkle again. Her mind automatically drifted back on the depictions she saw.

Twilight never knew about this part in Equestrian history. Many of the books in all the major libraries never told anything past Discord's reign over Equis. But the depictions on the walls looked much older than a few thousand years old. Her mind almost denied the notion of something being that old, but her logical side knew that the planet she lived on is much older than anyone would like to admit.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she finally made it to the room the golden light was in. The golden light continue its glow right in the middle of the room. Twilight had to squint to get a better picture, but what made the glowing was a jade colored sword. The blade was unique as in she has never seen anything like it. The handle of the sword was made out of a black kind of leather with a strange ember gem on the top of the hilt. The gem itself swirled in a sort of small vortex endlessly like time itself. It's blade looked long and straight while looking as green as a leaf. It seemed to be embedded into the stone of the room's floor not something that can be pulled out bu strength alone. Just looking at this mighty sword made her eyes instinctively close by the power it radiated, yet she could feel the sword call out for her.

So hesitantly, Twilight extended her hand out to grasp the sword. When her palm touched the sword, her vision became distorted until she blacked out.

The Sun Princess groaned in frustration. This quest turned out to be a lit harder than she expected it to be. All the tunnels and artifacts in the castle looked exactly the same making it difficult to figure out where to go. On top of that, Twilight's spiritual tracker signature dropped a while ago making it ten times harder to find her. Plus, it didn't feel right to be in this place. It was like something was watching her, but she couldn't tell what. The entire castle was stone cold silent making the creepy castle increasingly more foreboding.

Her instincts were now screaming to escape this dreadful place even though nothing has warranting such an action from an immediate threat. Celestia knew what she must do now.

"If I can't find her with my magic alone. Then I'll just have to burn myself through the castle walls to find her. Her magical signature must be blocked by the walls themselves."

Celestia's magic ignited into a burst of flames as they attempt to melt the wall in front of her apart. It seem to work for a couple of seconds before the castle walls seem to regenerate itself quicker than she could melt it. Her eyes widen in silent shock.

Those who bring judgement in my house will face justice.

Celestia barely had any time to react before a thick orange fog almost immediately rolled in throughout the hallways. Celestia coughed violently automatically using her hands to cover to. A thick wet substance coded her finger tips startling Celestia. She looking at what she coughed up instantly seeing it's blood, her blood. Her eyes widen further feeling her lungs enflaring from the inside. Her horn sparked again this them making a shield around herself. This seem to keep the orange fog at bay while she coughed up more blood on the stone cold floor. She laid on the floor for a while more before performing a healing spell mainly focused on her lungs.

"Where did that voice come from?" Her mind wondered, but more importantly, she couldn't help but also wonder how did the fog nullify her immortality so easily. Once she caught her breath, the sun princess continued through the hallways keeping her magical shield up to make sure the fog didn't come any closer to her.

Twilight felt strangely weightless almost like she was floating on a cloud in the sky. Yet, her vision didn't seem to be working right at the moment. All she could visibly see is a dull bright white underneath her eye lids. She tried to open her eyes, but something seemed to be preventing her from doing so.

Even without her sight to aid her, she could feel a presence around her. It was strong, inviting; almost like how Celestia's sun warm ray's of light just barely caressing her fur. It made her feel relaxed to the point where Twilight couldn't careless about her inability to open her eyes.

"I assume this is your first time speaking to a being with uncanny powers, child?" A smooth, deep masculine voice asked her.

At first, Twilight seemed confused about what he meant by that until it made sense to her. "Do you mean to tell me you are a god of sorts?" Twilight asked back a little nervous of what the mysterious stallion would say.

She could feel a smile break from just his presence alone while he chuckled slightly at the notion. "Perhaps. But nowadays, many beings across this universe don't need our interventions as much as before. However, the sword has choosen you specifically for a reason I can not fathom why. So to save us both some time, I'll answer one question you might have."

Once again, Twilight just lays there in blind silence clearly confused on what he was going on about, but the message was clear as Celestia's day The sword she had touched beforehoof had picked her for some reason. Which gave the scientist egghead a headache. Last time Twilight analyzed weapons of any kind, they can not have a true consciousness without some sort of soul fragment attracted to it.

Forcing herself off that train of thought she searched through what was most important to answering her thirst for knowledge; making a quick mental check list of her options. In her excitement, she had almost completely forgotten the reason she came to Sheartop Mountain to begin with.

"Yes. I do have one important question I would like answered. It involves a friend of mine," The Princess of Friendship took a deep breath before stealing her nerves again in front of this powerful being. (Even though she couldn't see him.) "Who was Shadow Faze before his life as the hero of Equis?"

There was a noticeable pregnant pause from the god that plucked her out of her realm. Twilight began to shift nervously in her blind state. Had her question angered the god? Instead:

"You mean Shadow Faze, as in Lord Calamity Dovostro, is alive?" The being said a bit taken aback by how his voice seemed to change just the slightest. Almost as if he was relieved. Before she could extend the conversation further, Twilight began to feel something pull her into a slow descend downward. "If I know him, then it would be better if he explains his reasons for himself, little one. Heed my warning though Twilight Sparkle, defend yourself well for his mere presence brings upon death and evil into the hearts of all ponykind."

With that warning fresh in her mind, the descend of falling down grew faster and soon became too much for the alicorn to bare when she finally passed out in midair.

Celestia had eventually grew tired of the castle's trickery before she took it upon herself to scorch the the entire building around her. Many walls were currently ignited ablaze while her darker side relished inwardly proud of her handiwork. Suddenly, a bright green light, intensely brighter than her sun, blinded her temporarily causing Celestia to reflexively raise her hand over her sensitive eyes.

A few moments passed as the bright green light formed into a beam that sent a tremor throughout the entire castle. The light and temor vanished just as quick as it appeared. Once Celestia regained her vision she dashed to the spot where the commotion had happened to find nothing left of the room itself. The only thing that made it clear that something had happened here was the gaping hole made in the stone ceiling. Her horn flickered to life again as she scanned for Twilight spiritual signature only to find out that Twilight was back in Canterlot.

"She was just here in the castle a moment ago. What happened?"

"That's something we'll surely find out, won't we?"

Celestia had to hide the grimace from her muzzle before her horn lit up again teleporting out of Mt. Sheartop castle's range.

A lone being observing from the side lines pulls up her cowl again concealing her flawless features back in the darkness before before using her large wings to fly away from sight.

Author's Note

New ponies, new enemies and new lores. Those are always good to have in a story, I say. Who was that "god"? Why was that winged creature observing Celestia? Well, next chapter will shed some more light on who the black stallion unicorn was. So, until next chapter......

Note: The next chapter after that will be about Nightmare for those who like Nightmare in this madness.