The spark of Redemption part 2: Journey into the soul world

"You, you, promised. You told me."

"Told you what? What did I tell you Luna?" Sombra stood just beyond the Crystal Empire city limits.

"You promised me that your actions would bring us together forever." Luna stood just behind him.

"Yes, and thats what i'm doing. When I successfully take the Crystal Empire, we will rule Equestria as King and Queen. We will rule with eternal love and power, and we will destroy all those who oppose us!" Sombra stood in pride, he had thought that what he was about to do would would bring him and Luna together, but when he turned around and faced Luna, he saw only horror and fear in her eyes.

"No Sombra you can't, you promised me you would stop."

"No, I promised I would bring us together."

"Thats not what you're doing, you're tearing me apart!"

"A small price to pay I suppose." Sombra turned back around, there was silence for a split moment.

"I know how much you have suffered, but I promise you attacking the Crystal Empire will make it worse!" Luna walked up beside him and put her hoof on his shoulder.

"No, I know our destiny. Who has the power to stop me Luna? Who would dare?"

"I would dare. I love you Sombra, i'm so so sorry you choose this. I also know you wont hurt me, but don't think for one second that I wont hurt you if you go in there."

"I'm doing this for you, I wont fail you my love." Sombra was ready.

"I know."

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16 months later

"Whats the baby's name!?"

"Who's the father!?"

"What is Celestia's secret project for!?"

"Is it a boy or a girl!?"

"Please, please, everypony! One at a time! We will answer any questions we can!" Cadance and Twilight stood up in front of a large crowd of eager, excited, and curious news reporters. Each one of them had a small notebook and pen to write down everything the princess's said, everything. "Yes you first. Blue unicorn, go." Cadance pointed to the first reporter she saw, a blue unicorn stallion.

"Is the baby a filly or colt?"

"The baby is a alicorn filly we suspect to have the immortal trait like her mother does, although we are not sure yet. We are also unaware of the power this foal posses, for all we know it could be an incredible amount." Twilight took point. "You, red mare pegasus." Twilight pointed to another reporter

"Who's the father?" Cadance and Twilight looked at each other for a moment, they had to choose their words carefully.

"The father and Celestia's secret project will remain classified until we decide to disclose that information. One more question." Cadance pointed towards a purple mare unicorn.

"Yes, why is the father's identity classified?"

"Because its classified! No more questions about the father! Come Twilight, we are done." Cadance and Twilight walked back inside the castle, the reporters were still trying to get their attention behind them.

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Luna carried her small, sleeping baby and rested laid her in a baby crib. Moonlight cuddle up against the pillow of her small soft bed. Luna levitated a blanket around her, warming Moonlight as she slept. Luna then gave her a warm kiss on her forehead, turned, and closed the door to the room.

"It truly is a beautiful filly Luna. Even though he was a dark king, I would say Sombra did a fine job." Celestia sat on the edge of Luna's bed.

"Yes he did, even though he double crossed me, and attacked the Crystal Empire......twice, I still believe he is a great pony. I just wish he was her to see Moonlight."

"Well, if Twilight and I are correct, that may just yet happen." Celestia got up from the bed and walked towards Luna.

"Tell me, how can we do it." Luna got curious. Moonlight was taken care of, for now. Now her mind drifted to another matter, rescuing Sombra.

"No Luna, how can we do it. Twilight and I have found a way into the soul world, but you're not coming." This of course got Luna's attention.

"Wait, what? Why?" Luna didn't raise her voice very high, not wanting to wake her new born sleeping baby.

"Luna you have a huge job to do, taking care of Moonlight. If this plan fails, we could be stuck forever in the soul world, and she has already lost a father. Loosing a mother would be very bad." Luna calmed down, lowering her head.

"Yes, I know. I didn't think I would allow myself to go. I need to stay with Moonlight, but I do want to know. How can we enter the soul world, and who is going?"

"As of right now myself, Twilight, her husband Flash Sentry, private Nightcore of the night guard, and Lilly Tulip."

"Lilly Tulip? Why her?"

"She says she wants to save the ponies who didn't make it through the Crystal Empire attack with Chrysalis, saying she must because she did survive. It is obvious to us though she wants to save Brave Heart, if he is even in the soul world."

"Brave Heart? Her husband?"

"Yes."

"So, how are you going in?"

"Twilight and I created a spell that when casted on the stone itself, could create a hole through its almost impenetrabel magic wall. Then if the stone will accept our presence, which it should saying I created the stone, we would enter a reality were the natural laws of life, don't matter. A never ending void of suffering."

"And if it fails? If the stone doesn't accept your presence?" Luna was considering all the possibly terrible outcomes, which there were tons.

"Since the stone only answers to Sombra, because he disarmed Chrysalis, there is a chance it might not accept our presence. If the stone feels threatened by our presence, we will be destroyed instantly."

"Well, that sounds dramatic. I'm kinda glad i'm not going now."

"Very funny Luna." The conversation continued until a weak and high pitched cry surrounded the room. Apparently Moonlight had awaken, without the presence of her mother.

"Oh yeah, baby. Well, good luck sister." Luna turned around.

"We probably wont be going in until tomorrow. we must prepare more." Luna opened Moonlight's door to comfort her crying baby. Celestia meanwhile, turned the opposite direction and left Luna's bedroom, to the presence of two royal guards outside the room, guarding.

"Shhhhh, it's ok. Mommy is here." Luna picked up her baby and held her close, she was still crying, her small tears running down Luna's chest. Luna gave her another kiss on the forehead. "I promise, I will always be here when daddy can't, always."

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Wack!!! "Ah, fucking mosquitos!"

"Private Stone Break! Silence! Fall in line!"

"Yes sergeant!" The private continued walking through the brush. It was thick, his light gray color was dirty. Not to mention it was humid, very very humid. Apparently searching through the thick jungle brush was harder than the entire search team had thought.

Two days since Captain Royal Shields sudden disappearance, including his entire squad which made up of twelve other royal guards. Searches had gone on for hours straight, with multiple different squads searching their asses of, with no luck. Not until this squad found the first lead anypony had found. Small tracks not left by a guard.

The tracks got deeper and deeper as the squad of ponies walked further down the narrow mud path. The tension was building as the mysterious tracks continued. They could tell it wasn't their tracks. Their armor on their hooves would make much larger and deeper holes in the mud. The tracks continued until they lead them to a small open field, where they saw in horror. The leftovers of the High Tower gang.

Twelve bodies laid on the ground. All their hooves were nailed to the forest dirt. Each on of their bodies was pale, as white as the clouds. All of their blood was either spilled on the ground, or high tower used the blood to write words on their bodies. Each body had different writings on their stomachs.

One body had 'Unicorn shit' written on his stomach. The body next to that one had 'Pretty Mare humper' written on it. The one next to that had 'Son of a hore' written on it. Each one of the bodies had a terrible hate message written on its stomach, written in their own blood. The guards watched in horror. They had never seen such terrible gore and hate in their lives, and this is after the second Crystal Empire attack.

The guards called in for back up. They set up a perimeter and called in for investigators as well. Nailed to a tree was a white sign, with a red bat wing symbol written in blood on it.

"I know that symbol." One of the privates recognized it.

"You know this symbol private? Tell me, tell me everything you know!"

"It's, it's the um." He thought for a moment, the words were on the tip of his tongue. "It's the High Tower terror group symbol." The Sergeant's eyes widened in shock.

"We must hurry this info to princess Celestia! Fast!" All hell broke loose.

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"Are you sure about this Lilly? We could be destroyed immediately if we do this." The group all turned their heads toward Lilly, she seemed to be the Pony in the group not really meant for a journey like this.

"Twilight, with all do respect, I may not be fighter, but I got fight. Because of this I feel like I must try to help." Flash walked up next to Twilight.

"Lilly, we all already know you only agreed to come because Brave Heart might be in there." Nightcore walked up from behind Lilly, she was soon surrounded.

"It's ok guys, if he is in there, then it gives me more rights to go in with all of you."

"Your bravery will never be forgotten Lilly, your passion to save your husband proves you love him very much, and I admire that a lot." Celestia entered the room, Luna was pushing a baby carriage behind Celestia. The room the rescue team was in was odd shaped. They were deep inside the dungeon blocks underneath the Canterlot castle. In the center of the room rested the soul stone, laying on a stone mount. Nightcore and Flash were both carrying two saddle bags, while Lilly and Twilight only carried one smaller saddle bag. They were filled to the brink of supplies and tools to prepare for the dozens of different bad outcomes to arrive. Some of those outcomes no tool could fix though.

"Flash Sentry, Private Nightcore, Lilly Tulip, and Princess Twilight Sparkle. I thank you for risking your lives for this journey. Our bravery could save thousands of lost souls. Or, it could destroy us all. But the price of freedom is high, and its a price i'm willing to pay. If this works, I will never rest in the hell until every single soul is free of its hellish gates. If necessary I will do it alone, if necessary I will do it alone for years, but i'm willing to bet I wont." Celestia took point. Only Celestia and Twilight knew the spell, after casting it, Celestia then would only have a split second of time to teleport all of them through the stones magical outer wall before the opening closes, and they are destroyed by the magic barrier.

"Sister, I wish you luck, I wish all of you luck." Luna, pushing Moonlight in a baby cradle was still standing behind them.

"Luna, I promise if this goes right I will return with Sombra." Celestia turned.

"How will I know if you all are dead? Not saying you will die of course."

Celestia pulled a bottle out of Twilight's saddle bag, it had green smoke within it. "Luna, the green smoke represents our souls, if they are lost, the smoke will turn red. If we manage to make it in, it will turn gold and green. But as long as there is green, there is hope." Celestia gave the boddle to Luna, Luna handled it with care, not wanting to drop it of course, that would be bad.

"Be safe, all of you. The world would never be the same if all of you never return."

"That is why we are not going." Luna turned her head to see Cadance and Shining Armor walk in.

"Good luck sis. Flash, I trusted you to marry Twilight, but now you must protect her."

"Oh Shining, I can take care of myself." Twilight reassured Shining Armor that she would be ok.

"Ok fine, but don't get to comfortable with my little sister, you know what I mean!" Shining pointed towards Flash who had his head tilted back.

"Ok sweetie, thats enough." Cadance stopped this before it escalated. "Shining Armor and I will take over here until you guys return."

"If they return." Shining Armor lowered his head a bit, he was a little worried they wouldn't make it.

"They will return Shining, I'm sure of it." Luna however, was confident they would return.

"Yeeuu hehe!!!" Moonlight was playing with her stuffed animal toy, laying in the baby carriage behind Luna.

"Hey cutie, when I return, we will play all day, promise!" Twilight said her goodbyes to the baby.

"Are you sure this green smoke thing will work Celestia?" Luna was still unsure.

"Yes, I promise it will....I hope. Alright everypony, say your last goodbyes. We must go now." Celestia turned around and faced the stone, she walked towards it until it was merely inches away from her face. Nightcore, Flash, Twilight and Lilly were right behind. "Twilight, get ready, remember, just how we practiced. You will cast the spell and I will teleport us through the opening."

"Yes princess, got it." Twilight turned to Shining and Cadance."Shining, if we die, I trust you to tell mom and dad, and you also must explain this to my friends, I fell they all wont understand what this risk is for."

"We will Twilight, and you will survive, you have to."

"Ok Twilight, on the count of three!" All five of them going in huddled close in one group, that made it easier for Celestia to teleport them through the opening once Twilight casted the spell.

"One!"

"Two!" Celestia and Twilight both raised their horns, they were ready. Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor took this moment in, for this could be the last time they ever see them.

"Three! Go twilight now!"