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"Grab the Elements!" Twilight commanded. "I don't know how useful they'll be directly, but if you get in trouble, whisper 'help' and the rest of us will teleport straight to you."
Twilight explained with the hurried energy she only used in dire emergencies. The others fell silent in accordance. “It knows I saw it! We need to hurry!”

“What are we looking for?” Applejack said.

“I have no idea, but I know where it is now and that’s all the lead we have at the moment,” Twilight said.

“Princess, what do you want us to do?” Stonewall asked.

“All guards stay here,” Twilight ordered, taking out a parchment and quill and writing a letter. “Along with the rest of you. It knows it got you once, it may try a second time. We need to keep that from happening.” She rolled up the letter which levitated over to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, I don’t have Spike right now, so I need you to deliver this to Princess Luna. She’ll still be awake and she can get Celestia, too. Be sure to show it to a guard first, they should take you straight to her.” Rainbow tried to interrupt. “I know you want to stay and help but you’re the fastest of all of us, and right now, we need to alert the other princesses of what’s going on and you’re the best one for the job.” Though uneasy, Rainbow complied. “Everypony, move out!”

Twilight had never seen a general behave in a field situation, but Stonewall thought she made a convincing one.

* * * * * * *

A chorus of crickets and the occasional frog croak lit up the late night soundscape beyond Fluttershy’s cottage. A clean and even dirt path deviated from the main road, leading into the choking foliage and festering swamps of the Everfree Forest. A scattered arrangement of hoof clops galloped up the path, vanishing into the oppressive darkness. Each of the four explorers clutched a small travel lantern, their only guidance in the tar blackness.

“Everypony, keep alert! I have no idea where it is!” Twilight said.

“Do you even know what ‘it’ is?” Applejack asked.

“Not in the slightest,” Twilight answered.

“I say we stay together,” Fluttershy suggested. “Please?”

“I’m gonna agree with Fluttershy on this one,” said Pinkie, hunkering down and scanning the tress, teeth chattering and muscles trembling. “I don’t think giggling’s going to work on these ghosties.”

“I have no idea what we’re up against, so we need to be careful. But we may need to split into groups,” Twilight said. “It’s the best way to cover ground and track this thing. Remember, say ‘help’ if you find it.”

The others were not so pleased with the command, but given the situation, could think of nothing more effective. Catching the thing, whatever it was, took precedent. With solemn and stoic acceptance, the group parted ways into the darkness.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie stuck together while Applejack and Fluttershy went another. Twilight’s gallop slowed to a canter, punctuated with brief but regular pauses while she listened, straining to hear anything beyond the sounds of the forest night. Pinkie Pie stuck close to Twilight, seemingly unfocused on the search for the creature.

“Stay alert, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “We won’t help anyone if it gets past us.”

“Sorry, Twilight.”

The voice halted Twilight in her tracks. It sounded scared, lost, but mostly deeply concerned, none of which were common from the bubbly pink party horse. Twilight turned to her friend.

“Pinkie? Is something wrong?” Twilight asked.

She’s never sounded this scared.

“Well, no…” Pinkie’s feeble and shaky answer was unconvincing. “Yes. Something’s wrong.”

This has to be serious.

“You know the Pinkie sense?” Pinkie asked.

As if I could forget the radar-like, intuition-powered sixth sense. Never did find an explanation.

“Yeah, why?” Twilight answered. “Are you feeling it right now?”

“I’m not sure,” Pinkie said.

Not sure? Now I know this is bad!

“I have this feeling,” Pinkie said. “Something’s different about this one. It’s not the usual Pinkie sense, either. It’s more like a really, REALLY bad feeling…” She shifted her shoulders. “We shouldn’t be here.”

“It’s going to be alright, Pinkie,” Twilight said, reaching a hoof out to comfort her friend. “We’re going to catch this thing and then we’ll celebrate back in Ponyville. You’ll see.”

“I don’t know if I can believe you, Twilight,” Pinkie said, making a visible effort to look hopeful. “But I’ll try.”

“Thanks,” Twilight said. The doubts nagged when she realized she hadn’t convinced herself. “Come on. We have to keep moving.”

The two continued their hunt. They both scanned the trees, but Twilight now saw what made Pinkie Pie so nervous, at least part of it. The sounds of crickets deadened the sense of hearing of anyone in the forest. Twilight estimated her hearing range had diminished down to less than twenty meters, maybe less. Certainly she wouldn’t be able to hear past the tree line.

The tree line… Where’d it go?

A slow, creeping fear tickled up her spine when Twilight realized the trees were no longer visible. Despite her illumination spell and the trees staying right where they were, the clearing looked like it expanded into nothingness.

“Pinkie,” Twilight called. “stay on guard.”

No answer.

“Pinkie?”

Silence.

Icy terror paralyzed Twilight mid-step. Pinkie was nowhere in the clearing. No trees could be seen, either. The bow on top, the single thing that made everything else infinitely worse was the biting, smothering silence that suddenly filled the forest.

Twilight had never felt more alone.

“Help,” she whispered, eyes growing wide and breath catching in her chest.

“Help,” she repeated, out loud this time but the quiver of fear still present. She focused for a moment, forcing her illumination spell to burn as bright as she could possibly make it. Despite the exertion, her circle of light expanded no further, as if the darkness pushed back.

“Help!” she screamed into the oppressive night, eyes stinging against the chilly night air. Sweat dampened her coat, inviting the cold to stab and bite at her flesh. “Help! Help! Please, Help! Pinkie Pie! Applejack! Fluttershy! Rarity! Rainbow Dash! Spike! Help me! Please!” Tears streamed down her face as she ran, shouting in every direction. The tendrils of despair tightened around her heart. She discharged magic blasts with little heed to where she aimed. Slowly, her energy drained and fear crept into her mind, mutilating every thought, making her crumble, wheeping like a foal, “Somepony… help me… please…”

I failed…

The realization fell upon her like a rockslide. She had no idea what to do or where to go. She had no one to talk to and assess the situation and no one to offer insight or advice. She’d give the horn off her head to be back in her warm bed at her library, to hear Spike’s loud snoring and the hooting of Owloicious. She wanted to read and write letters to and from the princesses. She wanted to have tea with her parents and brother. She wanted to feel safe and comforted.

She wanted to know where her friends were.

Her friends. Those five eccentric and vibrant ponies who brought joy to each day and made the sun itself shine a little more brightly. A nagging fear tugged at her mind, growing more stubborn and aggressive by the second.

I brought them here. I brought them to it. It has them. I’m sorry…

Hoofsteps emerged from the darkness, faint at first, but becoming more defined as the source drew near. Twilight raised her head to face the new arrival, putting a spotlight out to no avail; the darkness hung like a curtain, halting all light across its threshold. Two legs of pony origin stopped just at the edge of vision.

“Miss Sparkle…” a hissing, oily voice called, choking the air with each syllable. “I had hoped you’d last a little longer this time.”

This time?

“Your experience with my substance has grown since last we met,” the thing jeered. “You handled that talentless performer with great form.”

Performer? Does he mean Trixie?

“Who are you?” Twilight finally asked.

“Well, now! Isn’t that the question of the hour!” said the thing. The voice sounded more definitively masculine that time and strangely proud of itself. Twilight also noted the origin of the voice seemed to move despite no matching shift in posture could be detected on the mysterious stallion. “You’re a clever girl, dear. Figure me out.”

“I don’t have time for this!" Twilight shot back, force growing in her voice. The threat was a bluff, but maybe she could goad it into letting something slip. “My friends will be here, soon!”

The stallion did not respond right away. It stood there for a moment, then it’s legs and shoulder twisted like he was grabbing something from his side, or maybe back. The tinking of metal pierced the dead silence as a golden band spattered with mud fell on the dirt in front of her. The centerpiece of the jewelry made her freeze, eyes going wide.

A blue crystal shaped like a balloon.

Pinkie…

He reached back and pulled another dirtied golden band, this one with an orange crystal in the shape of an apple.

No…

Another one fell with a pink butterfly.

No, please…

A purple diamond.

I’m so sorry…

A red lightning bolt.

That one stayed behind… He got to the survivors…

Finally, a scroll fell on the ground, bent and partially crumpled.

“No…”

“Nopony’s coming to help you, princess,” he said, words like a twisting knife. “We have all the time in the world. Just you, and me. Now, then. Who am I?”

Twilight’s mind raced, stumbling every so often over a morbid thought of her friends. His showcase of the Elements of Harmony stood out to her. Something about the relics seemed illogical, but Twilight would have to come back to that.

“I know your substance… Trixie was of your substance…” Twilight spoke aloud, listing the pieces to better understand what she had. “You hoped I’d last longer this time… We met before and I lost to you. A part of you was in or on Trixie when she came back. You trap ponies in their worst negative thoughts and attitudes.”

As her brain worked, Twilight’s voice gained strength and her head rose, the flicker of defiance burned in her eye.

“There was only one time I’ve ever felt exactly like that,” she said and lifted her gaze to stare the stallion where his eyes should be in under the veil of shadow. “And that was when I tried to enter your treasure room.”

She got to her hooves, standing and staring her opponent in the eyes. She may not have been able to see them, but she could feel exactly where they were.

“King Sombra.”

Raucous laughter erupted from the shadow-veiled stallion.

“Wonderful job, Twilight Sparkle! Wonderful, indeed!” he roared his approval. “I’d expect no less from Celestia’s most trusted pupil!”

“How are you even out here?” Twilight asked. “The crystal heart shattered you, I saw it.”

“Exactly, my girl! It did!” Sombra said, his jovial demeanor unsettling in the circumstances. “And what does that tell you?”

“It tells me I’m not dealing with all of you. I’m dealing with one part of you, but which part is it?” Twilight thought for a moment. “Your vocabulary has grown since last we met.”

“Oh, thank you for noticing!” he said. “You haven’t the faintest how dreadful it was to think such complex thoughts and not be able to speak enough words to string into a complete sentence.”

“One gives up things on the path to power.”

The air chilled.

“What do you know of power?” Sombra demanded. “How hard did you work? What did you sacrifice? You were given your wings and your title by somepony else who didn’t earn it either.”

“How do you decide what earns power?” Twilight stabbed back. “Maybe the power we have is not the power you want! Then again, if it is the kind of power you’re after, and you think you need to sacrifice and suffer for it, maybe there’s a reason you don’t already have it!”

A blast of energy knocked her to the ground, the resulting wind spilling into the darkness.

“I know what I must do, and I know you can’t stand up against me!” Sombra shouted down at her.

Twilight steadied herself, caught her breath, then spoke.

“You relied on fear to beat me last time.” Her voice was calm as she articulated her thoughts, twisting and working them like a scalpel into Sombra’s chest. “I have no reason to believe you wouldn’t be doing that right now. You made a big mistake, though. The Element of Generosity has mud on it.” She looked up at the darkness where Sombra stood. “Why would that be? Rarity’s out of town, so she couldn't have brought it out here for it to get dirty.” Sombra backed out of sight, movements skittish and apprehensive. “I have nothing to fear but Fear, himself!”

A blinding lavender light exploded from her horn and burned into the night, sending the shadows scattering and fully illuminating the clearing. She stood and watched the Elements and crumpled scroll vanish in whirling whisps of oily smoke.

Illusions.

Magic coursing through her bones and veins shone from her eyes and horn like a pastel sun in the grim night of the Everfree. For the first time, she beheld her adversary. Clearly, this was itself another victim.

The pony who stood before her was a red Pegasus stallion with light brown mane and tail and a black quill for a cutie mark. His eyes were closed as though sleepwalking and his wings fully opened but dragged limply upon the ground. Over his muzzle floated a black cloud, clinging to the face but clearly not anchored to it. The cloud appeared to have teeth, viciously sharp and predatory that moved independently of the rest of the head. It bore the downward curve of fear.

“Sombra,” Twilight said, voice booming in the cold night. “Let him go.”

“You’re too late for him, princess!” he snarled. “You saved the others, but this one’s mine!”

Ordinarily, this would be where the hero said something snappy and heroic before making the next move. Having read many such adventure and action books, Twilight understood this trope made for good reading and gave stories a cinematic quality. This was not one of her books and doing so just seemed out of place, here.

Instead, Twilight rushed the shadow king, charging with every ounce of strength in her muscles, and stabbing the mouth on the shadows. With the action, she shouted the same spell that earned her wings in the first place.

“All of us together! Together, we are friends!”