"TWILIGHT?!" Spike shouted

"Well this just got more convoluted," Ark muttered as Spike dashed towards the purple alicorn. Twilight was no different as she galloped down the stairs, and Spike jumped towards her. She caught him and hugged him as tightly as she could, Spike felt some air leave his body but not too much to cause harm. As the two shared a deep hug and whispered to each other Ark looked at them with a ghost of a smile.

The way they hugged reminded him of his little sibling and himself. Vergil and he had always stuck together, and whenever they saw each other from being away that's how they always greeted each other. Ark's small smile turned to a frown as he looked at the ruined ground and felt reality slightly fade away.

"I wonder what he'd be doing if he knew what I was up to right now," Ark muttered.

'Big brother!'

Ark's heart stopped as a haunting and childish voice shook inside his head, and he snapped towards the source. He saw nothing but ruined books and furniture, but the pounding in his chest had not subsided.

'I can't wait to work with you big brother!

WOW! You're so cool!

We'll always be together won't we big bro?'

Tears began inch out of his eyes as the voice continued to echo around him and a few small sobs tore themselves from his throat. His eyes once again settled on the pair who were still hugging. He let out a shaky sigh and wiped his eyes, but that didn't stop fresh tears from taking the places of their predecessors.

'That was once us wasn't it Vergil....' He reflected on the old memories of his brother. Ark hadn't thought about his brother in a while, but that didn't ever make it any harder when he thought about what his brother could've been had the event not happened.

"I'm so glad you're ok Spike!" Twilight exclaimed prompting Ark's attention away from his thoughts back to the pair.

"I'm glad you're safe as well Twilight! But how did you get here? How did we get here?" Spike threw question after question towards Twilight. Twilight frowned as it wouldn't be easy to explain, but before she could explain her eyes met with the brown ones that were watching herself and Spike. Her mouth widened in shock as she stared at the stallion who stared back at her confused.

"I don't understand why you're surprised, but anyway we can have a nice reunion later when we're in a safer spot. Listen I know h--," Ark was cut off by a large purple beam blasting him in to the wall. Cracks sprung like a spider web from the impact and he fell to the ground dazed, and Twilight scowled at him with her horn still glowing.

Spike was flabbergasted, the only time he had ever seen Twilight so furious was when she tried to figure out Pinkie's Pinkie sense. Spike watched as Twilight grinded her teeth and began to stomp towards Ark who was trying to pick himself up.

"Y-Y-You're the cause of all this mess!" Twilight screeched, her voice bouncing off the walls. Spike flinched and his eyes widened, they couldn't afford to give away their position so he ran to the door Twilight came out of and pushed it shut.

"How could you do this to innocent ponies!? You've tortured them and turned them in to these...these things!" Twilight caterwauled. Ark stood up and shook his head to break the daze, as his vision stopped rotating he met his eyes with Twilights.

"I knew you were known to be intense, but this is just foalish and asinine!" He quipped with a small glare.

"FOALISH!? ASININE!?"

"You heard me 'princess', but now is not the time to start attacking each other. These things are drawn to sound so you need to shut the hell up before you end up bringing all the corrupted down on us," he snapped barging past her to shut another door. Twilight stared at his blatant disregard for her position and she followed him.

"I'm not done with you!"

"I don't give a buck!"

"You caused these ponies suffering so explain yourself!"

"I don't have to explain myself to a self-entitled brat like yourself!"

"That's rich coming from a second-rate apprentice!"

Ark stopped mid step and his hooves began to shake in poorly contained rage. "Second-rate am I?" he sneered out. He spun around and pointed his hoof right in front of Twilight's face.

"I've studied each and everyone of Starswirl's archived spells of transmutation! I've lifted an entire building and built it by my own magic alone! I've taken down guards with just using magic while standing in one place! So before you can call me a second-rate apprentice, check your Celestia damned privilege!" he thundered stomping down a hoof, but Twilight wasn't phased.

"I've studied under Celestia herself and deciphered ancient text otherwise deemed unreadable! I've saved Equestria alongside my friends numerous times! I've ascended to an Alicorn state and that hasn't happened to anypony in centuries! So you check your privilege before you think you can talk me down," she countered with stomp of her own and pushing her face closer to his. Ark's eyes narrowed even further and he pushed his forehead in to her's crossing horns in threatening way.

They began to push against each other, and both horns began to glow. Before they could unleash whatever spell they could on each other, two purple hands interjected and pushed them apart.

"BOTH OF YOU! Now isn't the time for this! We need to work together and we can't do that if we're all holding a sword to each other's throat," he bellowed glaring at both of the ponies. Ark and Twilight starred in surprise at the drake's sudden confidence boost, and they turned back to each other.

"Spike makes a good point, we'll finish this later. But make no mistake I don't trust you and I demand an explanation after this, but until then we'll hold a truce agreed?" Twilight asked holding a hoof out for a shake and deactivating her magic. Ark took it and shook in silent agreement, and they stepped away from Spike's hand who then sighed in relief.

"Great...I'm glad we avoided that so now I think introductions are needed. Twilight this is Arkaytis, AKA Ark. Ark this is Twilight Sparkle," Spike said hoping to mediate the atmosphere.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Arkaytis."

"Charmed."

"Alright now Ark, can you explain what's going on now? With Twilight here we might be able to find a solution and a cure for these ponies," Spike queried hoping that Ark would come through.

"Well first things first Spike, the only cure for these ponies is a quick and painless death," Ark responded.

"That can't be true!" Spike muttered in disbelief.

"I apologize Spike, but I don't know what else to tell you or Twilight. I've been here for longer than I should've trying to find a cure and the only findings I have are in this journal," he explained pulling said journal out with his magic. It was quickly snatched by Twilight who began to scan each and every detail within and outside the journal.

"Basically these ponies are victims of liquid dark magic injections. We were trying to replicate a ritual used by the ancient dark alicorns to create a 'super pony' so to speak. One that could possibly rival an alicorn in strength and mind, but the problem was that it came with pretty nasty side effects," he continued as Twilight looked at the notes, but kept an eye towards Ark.

"Injections!? What kind of drugs were you making?! This isn't Breaking equestria!" Spike cried. Ark giggled at the reference having watched the show plenty times.

"Hahaha, very funny Spike but I digress, while they were technically classified as drugs they were administered by professional doctors. After the ponies who got administered the injection were left alone for a while that's when we realized that there were certain stages to them becoming what they are now namely three stages," he finished.

"Three stages? Your journal talks about it but I haven't seen any diagrams detailing any of the symptoms," Twilight said flipping through the journal looking at each of the pages.

"Last few pages are the pictures," he answered. Following his words she turned to the back pages of the book which held three versions of corrupted stallions and mares all with varying symptoms. The book lit up with blue magic and the pictures floated off surprising Twilight and she dropped the book. The pictures floated over to Ark and they expanded into full grown apparitions as if they were the real thing.

"The first set here are the first stages of the injections. They start out with a paling coat, coughing, and nausea. There could be some vomiting here and there, but usually they retain who they are and seem to be alright. Apart from the paling coat there are a few black veins, but that's it," he projected and explained the first set. They smiled tiredly and waved as if they were normal, but then they disappeared back into the book. The second pair trotted forward and they appeared in a considerably worse condition.

The second set of ponies now had visible black veins and their coats had paled even more along their eyes had started have a piercing light. They seemed even more exhausted, sick, and even in pain.

"The second stage as you can see portrays many of the same symptoms albeit they are much worse and very apparent. Following the veins and coat comes the eye color change and more extreme nausea. Logically, this causes enough pain to deteriorate their mental state and they'll claim that they "hear voices" or "something is watching them" and it causes even more erratic behavior," he continued as he showed each of the symptoms of what he witnessed from the victims.

The mare and stallion looked extremely paranoid, and their eyes were darting in each direction. They ran around in fear, fell on the ground and curled up into a ball, and silently screamed at emptiness. Twilight and Spike stared at the ponies in shocked silence, Spike was horrified at what could theoretically happen to him and Twilight.

Twilight was more disgusted than scared as this had proved that whatever happened here, Ark was partially responsible for these ponies death's. She stayed silent as Ark continued to explain. The second set of ponies disappeared back into the journal and the last set of corrupted had shambled forward, and boy was that a sight to see.

Their mouths hang open revealing rotting teeth with a black liquid flooding from the back of the throat. The black veins spread like webs from the inside of their faces outward and disappeared into their upper bodies. Their coats were now a near bleached white and their manes had lost their natural color and were now greyed. Their eyes were the worst of the symptoms, they were now a piercing yellow and black veins had replaced the red veins and the same black liquid slightly leaked from the bottom of the eyes.

Spike's eyes widened in horror, these ponies looked like zombies and the way they breathed didn't do anything to deter the thoughts that sped through his and Twilight's minds.

"The final stage might as well be a death sentence as they have lost their entire sense of self. The symptoms have worsened even more and they now are no longer aware of their actions, as you can see they act like zombie ponies to say the least. But on the bright side they cannot infect through biting or salivation so I'm safe as I have been bit in the shoulder many times," he noted with a smile.

Spike and Twilight remained silent as they watched the ponies shamble around looking for no one thing particular, but still they acted as if they were missing something of value.

"Unlike stage two where they are partly gone and have a smaller chance of being saved, stage three there is no chance that a cure could or even would work on them," he finished as the two flew back into the book and with the demonstration finished it fell into Ark's magic and he placed it back in his saddlebag.

Twilight and Spike didn't say anything as they stood there processing the information that they had received. Spike didn't know what to think as the pony who had saved his life was also responsible for the damnation of others. Twilight realized that there were misconceptions in what she read about Ark, but at the same time how could somepony with such a kind heart be so merciless?

"Let me get the straight," Twilight began slowly, "You created the liquified dark magic, you had professional doctors administer it to ponies without their will nor consent, something happened and now they are all confined to a fate worse than death. Have I missed anything?"

"No," Ark shrugged.

"You have a lot more explaining to do once we get out and fix these ponies, but for now we just need to find a way out so do you know where the exit is?" Twilight asked quietly. Ark raised a brow at her, but shrugged in response.

"I know where the exit is, but there is bad news and worse news what would you like to hear first?" he asked.

"The worse/bad news," Spike and Twilight said at the same time.

"The exit is locked and the key is with my used-to-be boss," he remarked. Spike and Twilight groaned seeing as the universe was against them and every other survivor.

"But there is a silver lining, I know where my boss is," Ark said with a smile, "He is in an alternate library that's a few hallways down from this one, but there probably are more corrupted in there because he never worked or researched alone." Twilight's eyes lit up at the prospect of more books, but it quickly died when the mention of more corrupted came up.

"So how do we get there?" Spike asked shakily.

"Through this door we'll come to the main entrance hall and the alternate library is located down a mirroring hallway," Ark explained trotting over to unlock a barricaded door.

"Well I suppose we should get going," Twilight said while gathering a few books that had a lot of studies over the Alicorn society. Ark and Spike nodded and they pushed the door open back in to the halls. The halls around them still held signs of decay and cracking, the tables were still knocked over and/or broken, and a few adjacent doors hung open.

Spike walked next to Twilight, instinctively placing a hand on one of her front forelegs, and grimacing at the aging architecture. Twilight had noticed this action and made sure to walk a little closer the young drake, but she turned her attention to the stallion in front of her. Ark walked past the destruction, barely sparing anything a glance, all he had was a steel gaze cemented forward.

'Arkaytis is strange, despite all that's happening around him he doesn't bat an eye. But most stallions tend to maintain a macho stallion demeanor, yet unlike other stallions his standing isn't forced.' Twilight thought.

Ark continued to trot down the decrepit hallways with the pair following behind him. They soon came to another door and Ark placed his ear to the rotting wood, and he held it there for few seconds listening for sound. Pulling his ear away he pushed the door open and cringed at the smell that flooded his nostrils. Pushing himself in to the room he was met with a gruesome sight.

Inside the main entrance there were seven corpses of what appeared to be three doctors and four workers. Their bodies were decaying and all their mouths hang open. The coagulated blood was stained to the floor and their bodies and they all lay in the direction of the entrance. As the trio kept their lunch inside their stomachs they turned to the towering door.

"Why would you need such a large door if you're going to coming in and out," Spike asked.

"Well long before our time this temple must have been above ground so ponies could just come and go," Twilight answered. Spike mouthed an "oh" as he stared at the door. The main entrance branched off into three places: the place they came from, a mirroring passage across the room, and down the center it lead into a foyer.

The columns, though aged, still maintained a pristine white, the floors were black and white marble and they all seemed to center towards the foyer. The walls still maintained the same murals, but a few had faded too much to understand what was shown.

"Sheesh, whoever made this place really was obsessed with this story," Twilight quipped. Ark and Spike snickered in response to her snark, but what was odd was the first mural that showed four alicorns two of which were Celestia and Luna what appeared to be their parents.

"Well we better get that key if we wanna get out of here," Ark said trotting towards the next hallway. Twilight and Spike wordlessly followed him and they were lead down many more hallways and past more doors until they were standing in front of another grand door. Not even needing to put his ears to the door he could here the shambling and raspy breathing behind the door and Ark couldn't even distinguish how many corrupted.

"So how're we gonna get that key?" Spike wondered aloud.

"Well we need to get in first and find the boss, then we need to distract them to get the boss, get the key, and get the buck out of here," Ark answered.

"But how do we get in there?" Twilight asked. Ark pointed to a broken window on the wall leading inside, and in few flashes they were standing on the window sill looking out into the library. The library was similar to the previous one, but this one had much more destroyed furniture and more corrupted. There were nine corrupted in the library and many walked around aimlessly.

"There, that's the key and my boss," Ark whispered pointing at a large corrupted but it was in the farthest point of the library and far away from the window they stood on.

"Come on, there's a few adjacent shelves that's shield us from view below us let's go," Ark muttered and he teleported down. The noise drew them attention of the ponies but Twilight had flown down before they noticed them and she clonked Ark on the head.

"*inhale*" Ark started before Twilight and Spike covered his mouth and they shushed him quietly. Ark's eyes widened at his own stupidity and smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. They removed their hands/hooves from Ark's face and they looked around the room, luckily the corrupted didn't notice the trio and they continued their aimless walks.

There were five stallions and four mares, the large stallion that Ark had pointed out was a stage three corrupted while everypony else were in between stage two and stage three so there was no spark of life in their eyes, just the piercing yellow eyes. Ark took out his journal and a quill and ink and began to write, Spike and Twilight looked over the writing and began to read.

Alright guys I have a plan, Twilight you and Spike need to throw something to get their attention
I will sneak around to my boss to drag him away. However we need there to be at most three surrounding
the boss. So what we could do is pick them off or cause a distraction and try to keep them separated from
each other.

They nodded but Spike picked up the journal and began to scribble in response.

So how do me and Twilight cause a distraction? Throwing books could work but they might land too close to us and give us away
We could also knock over some of the cases and pin a few down but that would really give us away.

Twilight lifted it from his grasp and began her scribbling

That could work, but we need to pin at least six of them down and make sure that the big pony isn't pinned too far
under the bookcases. So Spike and I will distract them and you get the boss's attention got it?

Ark nodded and put the journal, ink, and quill back in his bag and they got in to position. Ark locked his eyes on his boss and and the three closest to him, he turned over to Spike and Twilight who nodded in response.

"HEEEEEEEEEEY OVER HERE!" Spike bellowed his voice ricocheting off the walls and the corrupted all snapped to the source. Spike stuck his tongue out and pulled an eyelid down, but all that was bring attention to him. The corrupted shambled closer to the space in between bookcases but there weren't enough to make the job easier. Spike frowned and soon he had an idea to egg them on a bit more, turning around to a neighboring bookshelf he pulled book after book and launched them at the corrupted.

"SPIKE DON'T DAMAGE THOSE BOOKS!" Twilight hollered drawing some of the corrupted's attention.

"NOT THE TIME TWILIGHT!" Spike hollered back. Three were in the first space, two were in the second space, one was in the final space. Jumping back from the book cases and his back landing against back shelf he gave the signal to Twilight who launched her magic against the shelf causing it to topple over and they fell like dominos.

BAM BAM BAM BAM

The first five corrupted were pinned between the books and bookcases, but the last one had managed to slip out and grab Spike. Spike screamed and he shot out his hands to keep the pony from biting in to him. Its rancid breath flooded near his being and it was quickly overpowering him.

"SPIKE! Don't worry I'll-," Twilight was cut off as another corrupted almost grabbed her and she held it back with her telekinesis. Spike looked at the shelf and back to the pony, using all his might he launched his hand to his right and he took the head with him. It banged against the shelf and left a visible bruise, but it just made the corrupted angrier.

It's teeth neared Spike's face and his movements grew more and more frantic, he tried to push it back into the shelf but it resisted. Suddenly, he heard magic activate in front and behind him and a purple beam flew right next to his face while a blue beam shone behind the corrupted. They both hit the head of the pony and the impact dropped Spike to the ground, he pushed himself away from the pony who was grabbed by Ark and shoved hard into the shelf repeatedly.

"KEEP. YOUR. FILTHY. HOOVES. OFF. OF. HIM. YOU. CELESTIA. DAMNED. BASTAAAAAARD!" he screamed punctuating every word with every slam. The pony's head was now black and red with the blood and dark magic mixing and Ark hit it once more before letting it fall to the ground. Ark stood there panting, and Spike wondered how somepony could be so brutal.

Twilight was still dealing with the other corrupted despite having shot the alternate beam, Spike picked up book and ran towards the pair before jumping and hitting the corrupted's head and knocking it back. Twilight pulled a mountain of books and launch them all on to the corrupted and it didn't move after the barragee.

Suddenly, the boss barreled into Twilight and pinned her down and Spike's mind shut down before he could process what happened. His vision just flashed as he ran towards them and then he was up close followed by a green flash of fire that launched the boss off of Twilight. He saw a green flames burning harmlessly on his hand and the saw the world spin and blur.

Ark was amazed at what he witnessed, but it was short-lived as the boss rose up despite being slightly on fire. Twilight grabbed Spike and flew up and stared down at the pony, but before they could get to another plan the large corrupted let out and earth-shaking roar.

*GRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

It echoed throughout and outside the library and Twilight and Ark could only look in shocked silence.

"Celestia dammit," They both said in response to the increasing banging on the library door.

Author's Note

Chapter 3 is down and # left to go. Hope you who read this have enjoyed and continue to enjoy it! I have an idea for a hollow knight crossover but don't know how to go about it. Any ideas?

Next time: Chapter 4: Arcane and Dark Arts