Clause Chronicles

Twilight woke with a start, her head buried in a pile of books.
She had been researching like crazy ever since the disappearances in Canterlot.
However no matter how many books she poured through, she could find nothing.
Sea Breeze had been trying to help her, but he wasn't anywhere near as fast a reader as she was.
Twilight looked around.
Shining and Gold had long since left to search for any leads in town.
It was just her and Sea now.
Twilight enveloped a nearby tome in her magic, lifting it towards her.
Twilight stopped herself, examining the book closely.

"I don't remember seeing this in the Library before."

"That's because you haven't."

Twilight whirled around to the source of the voice.
Sombra was sitting near the library door, staring straight at her.

"S-sombra, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Sombra rolled his eyes.

"Cut the pleasantries and read."

Twilight skimmed through the pages...

Once, when the world was young, the sun and moon were ruled by chaos.
Time was nonexistent, and the world was nearly torn apart by the rampant cosmic energies.
Two Princesses rose up against the chaos, sealing it away for eternity.
The sun and moon, however, continued to clash.
When all hope seemed lost, the two princesses bravely bound their souls to the sun and moon.
By doing so, they acquired powers far beyond that of any unicorn.
The sun and moon rose and set with the Princesses, maintaining harmony and balance in the world.
Beyond the borders of this world lay another.
A Dark, colorless world.
Just as two Princesses rose up to fight for balance, harmony, and light, in this world, two brothers rose to fight for different virtues.
Darkness, Chaos, and control.
The two brothers ruled their world with an iron fist.
The two worlds went unnoticed by each other, until the control between worlds was lost.
A unicorn sister refused to lower the moon to make way for her sister's dawn.
In this act of recklessness, the border between the two worlds began to overlap.
Crystal was the only substance capable of fully joining the worlds together.
As the Sun and Moon were bound to a single soul, an empire built of crystal passed into the dark world.
The younger brother, Sombra, took control of this empire, using it to gain leverage into the light.
The now single princess, fearing for her worlds safety, sealed away the darkness.
One brother was imprisoned that day.
The other was not.
Stewing over the loss of his only family, the older brother swore vengeance against the Princess of the Light world.
To this day, the worlds remained intertwined yet separate.
And the brother waits in darkness for his chance to plunge both worlds into Chaos, to avenge his fallen brother.
A single legend tells of two ponies capable of ending the brothers' nightmare forever.
Yet the details have been long lost to time...

Twilight looked to Sombra, her eyes wide.

"Y-you... Have a brother?"

Sombra nodded.

"Yes. And he believes me to be dead. That is why he is abducting ponies, dragging them through to the dark world. He's trying to get to Celestia. To corrupt her, as I had once done to Fluttershy."

Twilight's head span.
This was all a little too much.

"H-how do we stop it?"

Sombra looked to the ceiling.

"I'm not sure we can. My brother was always the crueler of the two of us. Even if he was to learn of my safety, he wouldn't call off his attack. He's been alone for thousands of years. And he solely blames Celestia."

Twilight frowned.

"If he's only after Celestia, why did he abduct all those other ponies?"

Sombra hung his head.

"He'll probably be intent on causing as much Chaos as possible before he fully takes over."

Twilight gulped.

"W-what can we do to stop him?"

Sombra sighed.

"There might be nothing we can do."

Twilight frowned.

"There's got to be something."

Sombra turned to leave.

"I've told you enough already. I'm going back to Canterlot."

Sombra trotted from the Library, leaving Twilight with only her thoughts.

~

Twilight and Sea galloped through the Ponyville dawn.
Sea panted and heaved.

"Why are we running?"

Twilight called back to him.

"We have to find my brother!"

Twilight and Sea eventually came to a restaurant.
Gold and Shining sat at one of the tables.
Gold heartily munched on a sandwich, whilst Shining politely Grass Pancakes.
Twilight approached the messy scene with a mite of reluctance.

"Hello Boys."

The two looked up from their meal.
Shining grinned.

"Hey sis, what's up? You find anything?"

Twilight frowned.

"Why are you so happy?"

Shining blushed a tad.

"It's hard not to be with HIM around."

Shining nodded towards Gold, who looked to be choking.
Twilight rolled her eyes, before turning to Shining again.

"I've got to tell you something..."

Twilight talked for what seemed like forever, explaining to everyone what Sombra had told her.
Shining rolled his eyes dramatically.

"Oh, so NOW he tells us he knows whats going on. This information would have been helpful several days ago when the attacks started."

Twilight shook her head.

"That doesn't matter, we know now."

Sea Breeze stepped in.

"Yeah, Don't be so hard on Twilight."

Shining blinked.

"I wasn't... I didn't mean to... Sorry."

Gold put a hoof to his chin.

"Hey, I'm thinking..."

Shining grinned.

"That's dangerous."

Gold frowned, but continued anyway.

"If reversal means he sucks ponies into his creepy dark world, that must mean Brae is okay. The question is, how do we get into the other world to save him?"

Twilight thought for a moment, before formulating a plan in her mind.

"I know how we're going to get in."

Everyone turned to her.

"How?"

Twilight gulped.

"Live Bait."

Shock all around.
Gold cleared his throat.

"If it means I'll have a chance to save Brae, I'm all in."

Shining's mouth was agape.

"What... No! No way! It's far too dangerous!"

Gold grinned.

"This coming from the pony who pushed me out of a flying carriage several months ago."

Shining's eyes narrowed.

"That was because I knew you'd be okay. This is different!"

Twilight slammed a hoof on the table.

"We don't have time to argue, every moment we waste, the dark world engulfs more of our world!"

Gold grinned triumphantly.

"Then It's settled. I'll get myself caught, and take him down from the inside."

Sea Breeze wasn't about to be outdone in front of his girlfriend.

"Green's in there too. I'm going with you."

Twilight regarded Sea with a look of admiration.
Shining had buried his face in his hoof.
Twilight turned and trotted back towards the library.
There was planning to be done.