The new pony in the room kept coughing up bits of crystal as he stumbled out of the bed. "Would somepony," he said to the two winged creatures. "Please get me some water? I got Random bits of crystal stuck in my throat."

Whisper facehoofed, "that may be one of the worst puns I've ever heard. And that's especially dark, even for you."

Blossomforth's breath caught a bit in her throat as he spoke, "that voice. It's you, isn't it? The one I heard in that dark place."

He coughed a few more times, wiping a bit of spittle from his mouth as he turned to face her. "Hello Blossomforth. It good to see you have recovered so well."

"I'm feeling much better thank you," she looked around them at all the shattered crystals messing up the room.

Whisper flew over and landed on his head, "so what happened to Random? And more importantly, where's Sombra? I don't sense him on you."

The figure sighed as he looked to the faerie on his head, "Random was too damaged to keep Sombra held back. It was too much for him and he broke."

"He's dead?" Blossomforth took a few steps back, her eyes narrowing to pinpricks. "Random's dead?!"

The stallion looked back to her in a hurry, "Oh no, that's not what I meant."

*WHACK* "Ow!" He looked back up to the faerie that just stomped on his head.

"Random!" Shouted the faerie at him, "pick your words better, you fool. You're going to traumatize the girl."

"Is that you?" Blossomforth stepped closer to him, meeting his gaze. "Are you Random?"

Random sighed, "It's not a simple question. I both am and am not. Random Fact is the name of the construct I use to keep the darkness known as the former King Sombra locked up."

Whisper tapped on his head a bit more, "back to my original question. What happened to Sombra and while you're at it, what was that magic you used? That magic didn't feel like yours."

His eyes lit up, "oh, right. I need to work quickly. I don't have long to fix this mess and it would be rude to keep Luna waiting." He turned and started digging through the wreckage of crystal that used to be Random Fact's body.

"Wait? What?!" Whisper jumped off his head and started hovering there. "Luna? You mean Princess Luna?!…What did you do?"

"I convinced her to loan me some of her magic. Since she's much stronger than me, I could just imprison Sombra by brute force. However," he pulled something out of the wreckage, smiling. "Right now she's stuck keeping him trapped until I can put Random back together."

Blossomforth was getting a rapidly increasing headache trying to follow everything that was going on. "I'm so...I dunno...I'm so confused." She laid down, holding her hooves over her head.

"Here we go!" He held up a small gemstone with a small pulsating light inside it. "It looks like the core's still in tact, I won't have to do anything too fancy to reconstitute him."

Random made his way out of the trashed bedroom and up to the smashed trick door in his office..."Um, Whisper?" He asked her with an annoyed look on his face.

She blushed while hovering there, "Yes?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, "why is this broken?"

She turned her head away, her pink mane covering her face a bit. "Would you believe it was a rampaging elephant?"

"Whisper," he said in a very flat and direct tone. "Who carried me down here?"

"Twilight Sparkle," she said under her breath in a barely audible tone.

Random Coughed loudly.

"Ok it was Twilight Sparkle!" Whisper shouted at him, looking a bit annoyed and red in the face. "She landed almost immediately after you blew yourself up and she would've taken you to the hospital if I hadn't done some quick talking."

"Sigh..." He climbed over the broken wreckage that was his lab door, "and you had her mix up a revival potion and shoved it down my throat. I get it. Ok, lets see the damage."

Random looked over the mess that was his lab. Most of it didn't look that bad, except for one of the combining diagrams on the floor had various solutions spilled all over it. He carefully levitated a small gem out of the middle of the sludge and, after giving it a tentative sniff, licked the glassy gem.

He scrunched up his face and started spitting out the foul substance. "Bleh, that a revival potion alright. A very weak one, but still the genuine article."

"Revival potion?" Asked Blossomforth who just walked in the room. "Actually, nevermind. My head already hurts enough as it is. Bad enough that my queen is already making sure I'm ok through the hive mind."

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "well tell her I said hi. And if this is too much for you, you can wait outside. You did just recover from your own ordeal recently."

"I'll be ok," she rubbed her head a bit. "She wants me to witness whatever happens here since we haven't seen the fae in so long."

"Suit yourself." Random started to scoop up several flasks and mix them into several small vials. He set them up at another array since the first one was a mess from having an unexperienced alchemist work at it and now it needed cleaning. He topped off every container with a gem of some kind and when he placed a gem on the empty vial in the middle, it caused all the contents of the other vials to evaporate into light. The lights spun and swirled through the air as they weaved through each other. The lights slowly and gradually made their way down to the gem capping the empty flask in the middle. The gem burned brightly as the light rapidly flew through it and filled the flask with a light so bright, it looked like a star. A few more seconds and it was all over. Not a single drop spilled and none of the gems or vials broke, ready to be used again at a later time.

"Yeah that's definitely not what happened when Twilight tried that." Whisper sheepishly admitted before suddenly going rigid and looking up at the ceiling in the direction of the stairs.

"Did something happen?" Random asked as he picked up the vial.

"Um, yeah..." She looked at him concerned. "Twilight just teleported in with two of her friends and...well...they feel weird."

"Weird how?" He walked out of the room with his prize as Whisper and Blossomforth followed behind.

"It's like something corrupting their magic. Oh! She left again."

"Yeah it sounds like there's something happening up there." He said as made his way down past the archive's shelves into another side room.

The room lit up as they stepped inside. The walls of the room were one large circle and various gemstones covered every inch of the walls, giving off the glow that lit the room.

"She's back again. Brought another two of her friends with her...wait...maybe there's three of them?" Whisper looked a little confused. "It's like two of them are taking up the same space."

"Yeah that can't be good. I better finish up here before Twilight sees me. She's well read enough that she may actually recognize me from one of her books and I really don't need that kind of attention just yet."

Random moved to the circle in the middle of the room and uncorked the small star he was holding. "Ok, stand back outside the circle. This shouldn't take too long. Well unless Luna tries to hold me up with a conversation." He brought the star to his lips and chugged down the whole thing. The room grew darker as the light was extinguished. He held the small gemstone he pulled from the ruins of Random's body to his chest, "Ok, here we go."

A shockwave blasted through the room as his eyes and horn lit up with a bright green. His cloak flew back and another bright green light could be seen where his cutie mark should be. As the light flooded the room intricate circle lit up on the floor and started filling itself in with all sorts of intricate designs. The design eventually lifted off the ground to eye level and started to shirk in where Random was standing. The light getting brighter and brighter the closer the circle got to him. Once it connected with his body, the whole thing became too bright to see anything anymore.

Luna was sitting there in the dream world holding the chain the dreamer had made of her own magic to pull Sombra back in. However when she looked at where the chain went, it eventually became the tail of this very large lunar wolf that kept Sombra in its jaws. Had that magic really come from her? She didn't know what was more unsettling. That her magic was capable of that or that she herself couldn't do that with her own magic. She looked up again at the limp form of the Crystal Empire's former king in the jaws of this beast. Probably best not to think about it too hard. She'll have to ask him how he did that once things calmed down a bit.

The doorway to the dreamer's home soon started glowing and the various pieces of crystal lifted away from it, making way for the dreamer to step through.

"Thou art late!" She yelled at him. "We hath thought thou wouldst have forgotten about us."

The dreamer turned around and looked at the broken doorway, giving her a good look at his light brown mane. Wait! He wasn't wearing his cloak over his head anymore. Maybe she could finally get a good look at him. She tried to spy a peek at his cutie mark, probably the easiest way to tell ponies apart. Unfortunately his cloak completely covered it, leaving her feeling a bit moody that she still couldn't figure out who he was.

The pieces of the doorway started to come back together, flashing brightly as they connected with one another and becoming a solid whole. This process went on for about a minute, until finally, the door was whole and looked like it had never been broken.

"Bring that chain with you, lets get him checked back in." The dreamer opened the door and stepped back into his dream. Luna held the chain in her mouth as she followed him, the wolf casually walking beside her. As she stepped through the doorway, they found themselves in wide open field between Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. She heard the door close behind her as she caught up to where the dreamer was standing, giving her a good look at his face. She had already seen his mane, but now she got a good look at his goldenrod colored coat. GRRR. She should know who he is, she just knew it. She looked at his eyes again and they were definitely the eyes she had just seen in her dream.

"Ok puppy," he addressed the wolf. "Go home." At those words the wolf placed its prize at his hooves and then turned to Luna, looking down at her. The form of the wolf gradually began to dissolve into mist and as more of the mist collected in front of Luna, it began to flow into her. Her magic feeling stronger with every passing moment until the last of the beast had gone, leaving her feeling very refreshed.

Luna breathed a sigh of relief, "we hope to never have to do that again." She looked over to the dreamer as he sat in front of Sombra.

"Hopefully I won't have to ask that of you again either," he said as he conjured chains of all sizes from the ground and bound the shadow beast. Some time after the wolf had pulled Sombra from the rift, he had started to lose his form until he once again resembled a shadow of some ancient monster.

"So pray tell," Luna didn't want to pass up this chance since he was actually talking. "Who are you?"

The dreamer looked lazily at her as he finished chaining up the beast, "somepony who can't wait to be done with this whole mess."

So more riddles then, very well. "Why are you keeping Sombra prisoner?"

His labors done, he turned to face Luna, "cause I have need of this portion of his soul."

Luna's eyes grew wide at that answer, "and doest thou also have need of the rest of it?"

The dreamer smiled at her, "ah, you're in the Crystal Empire right now and you just found the other part. I'll be coming for that soon."

That was unnerving how he discerned so much from a simple question. "What are you trying to accomplish?"

The dreamer sighed as he reached up and covered his head with his hood again. "Luna, do you know what happens when someone tries to ask more than three question of someone who's purposely being cryptic?"

"I'm not getting any more answers tonight am I?" It was too good to be true that she find all the answers tonight.

"Unfortunately during my brief respite in the waking world, it sounds like something else has come to my attention. I must attend to whatever has happened. Perhaps we shall talk again some other time."

"But wait?!" She was desperate for answers. She lunged at him as she suddenly found herself falling through a door in the floor. She looked up at where she had fallen from but the passage had already snapped shut.

It took a moment for her to realize she was no longer falling. As she took in her surroundings, she once again found herself in the corridor of dreams. He had kicked her out again.

Random opened his eyes as he felt the last of the excess magic he consumed from the potion fade away. He was already missing the freedom of movement he had felt before during the short while Luna had held the beast for him.

"Welcome back," came Whisper from her perch atop Blossomforth's head. "I see you're back to your other colors again."

He looked over himself. Grey coat, green mane, and he looked back at his flank. Cutie mark in the shape of a scroll. "Yep, looks like everything checks out. How's the noise upstairs?"

Whisper gave him a defeated gesture, "it feels like all the elements are up there right now plus one more. All of them except the plus one have something corrupting them. I didn't take the time to look."

"Well, want to go take a look then?"

"Sure," smiled Whisper. "It can't be near as eventful as what happened down here. One thing though...before we go upstairs."

Random raised an eyebrow, "and that is?"

"Ok, do it Blossomforth," she said with a giggle.

"Sorry about this." Random's attention snapped to Blossomforth just in time to see her pull down on some rope.

He figured out what the rope was for a little too late as it tore open a bag from overhead. Black soot poured out from the bag in one big cloud, covering him completely.

"Cough...cough...Whisper!" He shouted at the troublesome fairy. "Why?!" He shook the soot from his body, causing large plumes of the black dust to fall from him but still leaving him with a rather ashen appearance.

Blossomforth looked like she was about to burst at the seams while Whisper just gave him a contemplative look. "Oh I don't know. Maybe it's cause the last time Twilight saw you, you were pitch black from an explosion. We can't have you go up there looking perfectly clean."

"I could've just said I took a bath!" Random retorted.

Whisper snickered, "but then we would've had nothing to do while you went on your spiritual journey. Besides, it was kinda funny, wasn't it Blossomforth?"

Blossomforth was visibly chuckling, "heh, she's not wrong."

"Ok fine," he gave up, defeated. "Let's go see what's going on up there."

Random make his way up the stairs, continuing to shake and trying to brush more of the soot off himself. Blossomforth and Whisper were following up behind him, chatting it up about something or other.

He could hear raised voices behind the door to the lobby as he finished climbing the stairs. As he pushed it open though, the voices suddenly went quiet. Random looked out into the room, eyes going wide as he saw the state everypony was in. "Did I miss something?"

"Random?...Sniff, you're ok..." The little filly with singed feathers sat on the table and wiped tears from her eyes.

He slowly walked over to the table, "Twilight? What happened to you?"

"Sniff...Sniff...BWHAAA." She started crying again, tears just pouring down her face.

Random couldn't help himself, he scooped up the tiny alicorn and sat down as held her to his chest. He slowly stroked her mane as she cried into his fur. "Just let it all out," he looked around the room, raising an eyebrow at the other alicorn in the room. Wait? Another Alicorn? That's not quite right. He squinted at the strange creature, taking in the rainbow mane.

"Rainbow Dash? Is that you?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's me." "Don't forget about me, darling." The abomination answered back. His face went stark with the realization of what he was looking at and one of his eyes started twitching in irritation.

He took in the sight of the other two ponies bound and laying on the floor, but the smell coming off them told him more than he really wanted to know.

"Ok," he took a deep breath. "Can anypony tell me what happened?"

"Ah'll tell ya what happened," came a tiny voice from a tiny mare on the table. "We got our flanks kicked, that's what."

"By what?" He continued to stroke Twilight's mane as she cried into his chest.

"Sniff...Smokey," was the only word she said.

A chill ran down his spine at that word. Oh ponyfeathers, Smokey was capable of this kind of chaos. But only if...he made a steal. Who was it? Who did he catch?

He made eye contact with the zebra in the room, "and you are?"

"Allow me to keep it plain, Zecora is my name. I felt a disturbance near my home, but I did not expect to find Twilight young and alone. It is good I found her, for you see, she was sleeping on the edge of Everfree." Zecora answered him in her way.

"Well Zecora!" Shouted Appletiny. "Think ya can fix us up?"

Zecora looked at the tiny mare, "the cure for you, I surely can do. And I'm sure I can beat, what has those two in heat. But as for those that are winged and horned, I fear my best efforts will truly be scorned."

"I'll take a look at them if you can fix up the other two," Random offered the zebra.

Zecora nodded to him, "If you believe you can find what ails, then I shall tend to the other three without fail. Young Blossomforth, if you don't find it rude, I could use an extra pair of hooves."

"Oh," Blossomforth took a moment to realize she was being addressed. "Sure, I can help."

"Ok Twilight," Random pulled her away from his chest. "Let's take a look at you." His pupils lit up a bright emerald green as he looked down at her.

Little Twilight stopped crying as she looked up at his eyes curiously. "What spell is that? What is it doing?"

"Oh this," he smiled down at her, glad to see she stopped crying. "Nothing special, I'm just inspecting the magic in your body."

"You can do that?" Little Twilight looked at him skeptically.

"Of course you can. You've been studying ley lines recently haven't you?"

She blushed a bit, "yeah but that line of study is only theoretical. No pony even takes it seriously. My magic instructors even treat it like a joke."

Random scowled, "maybe I should have a word with your teachers sometime." He got out through gritted teeth. "I can see what's wrong with you by the way. You can't use your magic either can you?"

"Um," little Twilight was taken aback by the obvious displeasure he showed by her education. "No I can't." She answered timidly.

With a little green flick of his horn he picked her up and turned her back to him. Placing her in front of him, he pressed a hoof in between her wings and at the base of her head. "This is why ley lines and related topics aren't a joke." He gently massaged his hooves into her until she started to shiver under his touch. Eventually she collapsed onto the ground with a blissed out look on her face as the magic in her body started to flow normally again. "Feeling better?"

Little Twilight's horn lit up like there was nothing ever wrong with it. "Yes I do, but...I'm still small."

"Between having your magic unblocked and your own alicorn physiology," He explained. "That should clear up on its own by morning."

"Really?" She sat up and looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Yes really, but right now I need to take a look at the other two. They don't look too good." Random's eyes continued to glow as he stepped in front of the white-coated rainbow-maned...thing in front of him. He leaned down to look them in the eye, "so I can guess at a glance that's there's two ponies in there. Rainbow Dash, the one who stole my paper, but I don't know the other one." His horn and eyes lit up as he looked them over.

"I'm stuck with Rarity." "My name is Rarity, good sir." Said the joined pair.

"Ok that's painful to listen to," Random cringed at the sound they made. "You two are polar opposites, aren't you? Personality wise." He inspected their magic and wasn't happy at what he saw, "you're also deteriorating, how much pain are you in?"

"I can take it!" "It's not so bad."

"Uh huh," he reached out and poked them in the side of the neck.

They immediately started flailing backwards, shaking all over until they collapsed back to the ground. "What did you do that for!" "Watch it, you brute!"

Random sighed. "Yeah we need to see about getting you two unstuck right away. Wait here. Don't go anywhere," he said right before going back down the stairs.

About half an hour later Zecora had brewed up a tea that got Flutterguy and Pinkie Pie out of their hormones induced rampage. In the meantime, Zecora had Blossomforth run out to the local spa where they kept the bath salts used to treat poison joke. Flutterguy was nursing her tea while still acting a bit nervous from being the only male in the room. Applejack walked back into the room, having just finished her bath and was back to being normal size when Random made his way back up the stairs.

"Ok Raridash or whatever I call you," he held a vial with a purple fluid in it to them. "Drink this."

They lazily looked at the vial and tried to pick it up with magic but it just left them twitching.

"You're worse off than I thought. This is going to taste nasty." He stepped forward and held her head held back as he poured the fluid down her throat. Raridash's eyes went wild as the vile substance hit her senses. However she was too weak to do much more than shiver and twitch as the potion worked its magic.

"That is the grossest thing I've ever tasted." She said in perfect unison. "Hey, I can talk normal. What was in that stuff?"

Random pulled out a book and flipped to a page, eyes flying over the text. "You really don't want to know." He closed the book and tossed it aside. "Alright, lets get you two unstuck. Just sit right there." He brought out a piece of chalk with his magic and drew a big circle around the merged mare. Once the circle was done he started writing tiny formulas all along the edge of the circle. Little Twilight moved her small legs to sit next to him and watched him work. The precision with which he inscribed the floor left her sitting there slack jawed as she watched with wonder.

A few moments later he finished writing and put his chalk away. "Don't worry girls, I'm almost done." He lit up his horn and a bright green light appeared over Raridash's head and caused all the chalk to light up the same color. The design floated up off the ground and started to spin slowly as Random lifted his hoof up. Raridash whipped her head around in panic as she looked at the circle spinning around them. In one swift movement, he slammed his hoof down and at the same time, the ball of light and the diagram converged in on them with a bang. The light settled after a few moments to reveal a collapsed Rarity and Rainbow Dash back to being two ponies instead of one.

"What the?!" Said a shell-shocked Twilight. "How?!"

Random steadied his breath as the last vestiges of magic faded, "it would take too long to explain how a spell like this works, just know that it does. That being said, I'm tired."

"Aren't you still recovering from your own ordeal?" Asked little Twilight.

He got back up and looked down at her, "I am, but I'll be ok. I could use a little fresh air though. I think I'll go for a walk and then go back to bed."

"You sure you'll be ok?"

Random ruffled her mane, "yes I'm sure. Your friends need you now princess." He gestured to the two freshly separated mares as he walked to the front door. "I really do need some fresh air though."

He opened the door and stepped outside, closing the door behind him.

Little Twilight ran after him, struggling a bit to open the door. As she looked out into the night air, he was nowhere to be found. "Random," she said to no one. "Who exactly are you?"

Author's Note

This story has been the most writing I've ever done towards anything. I'm still enjoying it and I still have a plan on where this story is going.

A shout out to everyone who's still keeping up with my writing. Just remember to stay awesome or at least 20% cooler.

On another note.
Zebra rhymes...yeah, those are a thing.