As the bus drove towards the school, Sombra watched the city and its buildings.

When they came to a red light and then the bus stopped, Sombra told the others that when he and Luna were in the Shadow Creature world, they saw similar buildings.

They talk about this for a few words, and then Rarity shudders at what she has heard, and then declares: "Luckily you beat it!"

Then she and the others thank Sombra for defeating the shadow creatures and preventing the war from spreading to this world.

But at this, Sombra shook his head and declared, with a kind expression on his face, "This is not only thanks to me, but also to the people of the whole empire, my friends and family!"

He then thought back fondly to the Empire and the other people he cared about, because after the things he had done in his past, they had not only forgiven him for them, but offered him a home, friends, family, and for that he would be forever grateful.

While he was thinking about this, the bus arrived at the school.

After they got off the bus, they walked into the school and then into the school hall.

While they are waiting in the school hall for Cadance, who has gone to get the key to the library, Sombra looks around and spots a crystal in a display case.

He then walks over and takes a closer look at it, noting what kind of crystal it is.

Once he has determined the name of the crystal, Cadance appears, and the group starts walking towards the library.

Once inside the library, Sombra and the others note that, fortunately, there was no great destruction.

Sombra then walks over to one of the crystal-encrusted walls, which is about a metre above the floor and apparently consists of 2 sheets of lying 30x20 centimetres, tightly connected

He analysed this for half a minute, and after a few seconds he announces it:

"These are different crystals, one is..." he interrupted to the puzzled looks of the others.

"Different crystals?!" stared Cadance, puzzled, "I only see one kind of crystal!"

"True, these crystals seem to look alike, but their structural complexity and abilities are completely different...

Take the crystal that covers the school," Sombra pointed to the top 30x20 centimetre crystal sheet, "and some of the ones here in the library. Those are called Echolitium.

It's an extremely rare crystal that begins to glow when a faint connection is made between the real world and the Otherworld.

They don't just glow, they also absorb energy," Sombra explained.

"There is something to it, after all!" said Twilight, touching her hand to her cheek, " The Halloween holiday is mythologically believed to be a connection between the otherworld and the real world... By the way, you know all this because of dark magic?"

"As for the information related to the crystal, yes, but the knowledge of the otherworld connection was given to me by a friend of mine from Death, or Thanatos as he is now called."

"From Death! ..." said Twilight in surprise, "From Death, the one who accompanies the dead to the Otherworld? ... I thought it was a legend!"

"I assure you he's real, and he's not the only one, there's a whole race doing the job.

Who are none other than the Fursoans...

Unfortunately I can't tell you about the history of their race, because for some reason they don't remember it!

Why this happened is a mystery!"

"That's sad!" said Fluttershy softly, and sadly at the same time, and then with a faint smile she continued, "I hope they will get back the lost fragment of their past!"

"Me too!" said Sombra sadly, after he sighed with his head bowed, and then pointed with his hand to the crystal sheet underneath the one he had just analyzed.

And the second crystal is called Nexulixsium! These crystals can be linked together, but to do so we need some kind of signal receptor that can either observe an area or conduct energy through it.

But, the radius of this is at most 10 kilometres."

"And what's the explanation for the midnight black liquid?" asked Applejack.

"There's only one explanation...Someone or something is sucking large amounts of energy from the Echolitium!

If you suck a large amount of energy out of it in a short period of time, it can be damaged, and that leads to crystal tearing.

True, I didn't mention it, but it's an important thing, crystal tearing can also crystallize objects, or even living things -seeing the frightened faces of the others, he started to reassure them.

But don't worry, in a few minutes the liquid caused by the crystal tearing and the crystal formed from it will turn into air and leave everything intact."

"The energy drain is the Nexulos, ... wait Nexulix, ... not Nexulox, Ah anyway, so that's because of the crystal, right?

"Nexulixsium," Sombra corrected Rainbow Dash, "and yes, it's definitely sucking it!"

"But, how is it that this event happened yesterday, with Halloween being today?" asked Sunset, puzzled.

"Probably the connection is made first, which is not as strong at first," Sombra began to explain, "and probably will intensify over time...

But I'm more concerned with where is this energy being sucked, or being sucked, from," Sombra mused as he touched one hand to him cheek, "and why?"

"Whether good or bad must be the purpose," Twilight began her explanation, "we must still find an answer to this oddity!"

"But how shall we find it?" asked Rarity.

"Most likely there is still a trace of the connection, and if we could run a vibrational pulse through the crystal similar to the resonance of the crystal, we could trace the signal.

But unfortunately I don't know how that's possible!" replied Sombra, shrugging him shoulders and pointing him two palms upwards.

Listening to Sombra's explanation, Twilight thinks for a moment, then declares that there may be a solution.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Shortly after Sombra and his team enter the lobby, the scene is shown on a futuristic monitor from the point of view of someone standing in front of the monitor.

The "camera" doing the watching is a Nexulixsium crystal, placed among the other crystals in a display case.

The monitor reflects the figure, whose appearance is perfectly visible because of the weak light from the monitor, while also showing that he is probably in a cave.

This figure appears to be a humanoid robot with a black symbol on its grey metallic torso, a 30 centimetre diameter ring with various symbols in a circular pattern.

The ring contains 4 identical circles and 3 texts consisting of several symbols, with 1 symbol in each of the 4 circles.

Out of these 4 circles, 3 are equally spaced, while the fourth circle is located in the middle of the ring and is touched by the outline of the other 3 circles.

The 3 circles, which are arranged in a triangle, have one of their circles, which is positioned parallel above the circle in the middle of the ring.

Within this circle is a symbol of a raven flying at an angle.

Clockwise, in the next circle, is a stylised diamond.

Clockwise, in the last circle is an 8-pointed star.

The fourth circle, which is in the middle, contains a 4-pointed star.

Between the three equally spaced circles, there are 3 multi-symbol texts.

The symbols of the 3 texts are of different styles in relation to each other, but the style of the symbols between the stylised diamond and the 8-pointed star is the same as the style of the symbols on the ring.

The text between the soaring raven and the 8-pointed star, which appears to consist of 5 symbols, is barely visible due to a midnight black matter that oozes from the robot's body.

(Such material also leaks from the robot's body in several places.)

The full, large symbol, and the other, smaller symbols that go with it, are visible normally.

Returning to the robot's body, its arms are also grey, while its fingers are black, as are the robot's legs, which are grey, but there are no fingers on the feet. The left arm has a midnight black substance oozing from it, but just barely.

The robot's neck, which is the length of an average human neck, is dark grey.

Its head is oval in shape, flattened at the front but not at the back, with rounded edges. Its mouth consists of only one strip, one centimetre thick and 5 centimetres long, while its two eyes are oval and yellow in colour, only one of which is a robot eye, the other being more of a yellowish glowing eye.

It has no ears or nose.

Once this one sees the team entering, it starts talking to itself.

"I wonder what they want? ... And why do they look so familiar? Especially that man..." he pointed his mechanical hand at Sombra as he stood with his back to the crystal.

Then, suddenly, Sombra turned and started walking towards the display case, apparently seeing the crystals placed inside.

When this person looked more closely at Sombra, he noticed a pin on his suit and was surprised to see it depicting 3 Red Crystals in the form of a fan.

"What? ..." he asked in a surprised, deep, slightly robotic, masculine voice, "It can't be... But it is..." he was suddenly angry, and then he slammed his mechanical hand on the table in front of him, which dented, and then he began to speak loudly, his voice a mixture of surprise and anger.

"ARE YOU STILL ALIVE? ... And how did you get here?! ... -after a while his anger finally subsided, -If this guy is really that bastard, I'm in big trouble! ... Because of this, unfortunately, I have to make a lot of changes to my plan... But I don't care! ..." he declared firmly.

"I'd like to kill you, but the power you have, it would be a shame to let it go to waste!", (he would smile mockingly if he could), "I can't wait to have your power!" he declared in a mocking tone, and then with his hands raised, he started a devilish and maniacal laugh, which we could see behind him, as the 'picture' grew more distant.

Author's Note

The link below will take you to a google drive folder with an image of the part of the robot where the strange Symbol is located.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yZnRu8u9wTgU5u5JBugnLhcgjpW-Ycxn