1. Dark Shadows

THE LAND OF THE BLACK SANDS, THE SEVEN DESERTS

"Tell me again what exactly he said," Aladdin demanded as the Carpet and the Genie-jet carried the usual crowd toward Mozenrath's fortress.

"They're going to use some sort of plan to take every kingdom back," Twilight replied worriedly. "I think they have some kind of weapon!"

"That wouldn't surprise me," Aladdin told her. "Mozenrath always has some kind of weapon…and Jafar always has a backup plan."

"But we can stop them," Jasmine insisted. "We've done that every time so far."

"I'm just worried that they've got something worked out that will beat us," Twilight admitted. "We keep chasing them around. They know they have to split the Elements up somehow. Eventually, they're going to stop targeting kingdoms and start targeting us."

"So we'll stop them before it happens," Aladdin assured Twilight.

Twilight wrung her hands. "I hope so."

---

The Mamluks had come out in full force, surrounding the gateway to the fortress. They drew their swords threateningly. They hadn't counted on the six Equestrians having retained their bows from Galifem and using the arrows, transformed into ropes, to tie them up. The Genie helped out here and there, encasing the zombies in ice blocks and occasionally halting them by making their shoes tapdance furiously, which Pinkie found hilarious.

Eventually, the group fought their way past the thick army and into the fortress. Aladdin and Twilight led the charge toward the laboratory; Jasmine, the Genie, the Carpet, Iago, Abu, and the other five Equestrians followed.

Aladdin and Twilight threw open the laboratory door. The room was empty. "Where are those two snakes?" Aladdin wondered out loud.

"ELEMENTS!" a familiar raspy voice cried out; everyone turned to see Xerxes staring at them. The eel quickly turned and dashed down a hallway; the others pursued. Xerxes led them all the way to another door, which he quickly ducked behind.

Twilight pushed to the front of the group, and the others let her take that position. She wrenched the door open, yelling, "GIVE IT UP! IT'S OVER!"

The room beyond was circular, with light blue walls, and it contained only two things. One was Mozenrath, arms folded, grinning. "It is over," he said. "For you."

The other item in the room was a great blue crystal, twice the size of a human being, set in a golden stand. At first, Twilight was stumped. She didn't recognize it. When Mozenrath called out "IXTALA!", however, she remembered what she'd read about it.

She screamed in terror.

Aladdin reached out to her, but a translucent red wall went up in the doorway, cutting Twilight and Mozenrath off from everyone else. A great beam of blue light emitted from the crystal; Mozenrath pressed against the wall so as not to be captured by it. The light surrounded Twilight and physically dragged her toward the great blue stone; she dug her feet into the floor, trying to resist.

"What IS that thing?" Rainbow Dash cried.

"A Crystal of Ix!" Twilight cried, still fighting the drag of the beam. "It entraps magical creatures and—NOOOOOOO!"

The beam swept her off her feet. She could fight no longer. A brilliant flash of blue filled the room, blinding everyone who watched; once it cleared, Twilight was inside the crystal, frozen and motionless.

Mozenrath, now safe, stepped away from the wall. "As your friend was saying," he explained, "the Crystal of Ix traps anything magical inside it, and anyone on the outside who knows how to use it can drain the magic of whatever's in it for themselves. Now, what do you think I could do with the very Element of Magic herself? No, no, don't tell me. I want to get creative."

"YOU LET TWILIGHT GO RIGHT NOW!" Pinkie screeched.

"Set her free," Aladdin added, "and I MEAN IT!"

Mozenrath rolled his eyes. "I needed to split up the Elements if I was going to win," he sighed. "I thought you all knew that. I couldn't take any chances, even with the plan I have set up for the rest of you."

"The rest of us?" Iago repeated, horrified. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO THE REST OF US?"

"It's simple," Jafar said, materializing behind the group. "He is going to use his second wish."

"Of course, I couldn't wish you all dead," Mozenrath embellished, "but I had to get you out of my way SOMEHOW. So I picked the next best thing. Jafar, for my second wish—"

"NO!" Aladdin cried, realizing what was coming; he lunged at Mozenrath; but was blocked by the red wall.

"—send all of them to the Netherworld," Mozenrath finished.

"Your wish is my command," Jafar replied happily.

For a moment, all was red, as though a great red light had flashed. When it faded, the same hallway came back into view, but the colors were muted.

From inside the Crystal of Ix, Twilight couldn't move, couldn't call out, couldn't react at all. She could only watch and listen as she saw all of her friends disappear at once.

---

THE LAND OF THE BLACK SANDS, THE NETHERWORLD

The hallway appeared the same, albeit a bit lighter in color. Twilight was still frozen inside the Crystal of Ix, and Mozenrath and Jafar were now walking towards each other. Jafar called off the wall of red so Mozenrath could leave the room.

"WHY YOU BIG MEANIE!" Pinkie screamed, lunging at Mozenrath only to pass right through him. "Huh?" she exclaimed, hitting the floor.

"They really did it," Jasmine realized. "They sent us all to the Netherworld! Even Genie!"

"SAY IT AIN'T SO!" the Genie cried.

"What's the Netherworld?" Fluttershy asked cautiously.

"One of the places you can end up when you die," Aladdin told her. "Mortals can go there too, but it means we can't interact with anyone or anything in the living world."

Mozenrath passed right through the entire crowd as though they were air. "This just might have been my best idea yet!" he gushed, moving toward Jafar with his right hand outstretched as though to casually clamp the genie's shoulder. His voice had a strange reverberating sound to it, as though heard through a tin can; all sound came through that way.

Jafar walked past Mozenrath, brushing off the attempt at physical contact. "Are you sure it was wise to keep her?" he asked, approaching the Crystal.

"Relax," Mozenrath replied. "Her powers will come in handy. Besides…you know as well as I do that if we didn't split them up, they'd use their powers to knock out everything in the Netherworld."

"Fair enough," Jafar resolved, admiring the expression of horror on Twilight's motionless face.

"Oh, and the best part is that while we can't see the dead," Mozenrath pointed out, "the UNdead definitely can. That should be a warning to any lost souls that are still around and listening."

"Uh-oh," the Genie squeaked.

"We have to get out of here without any of the Mamluks seeing us!" Jasmine realized.

"Quick! Let's go!" Pinkie turned to run, dashing down the hall and around the corner.

When the others caught up to her, they found her standing in the hallway, staring ahead in terror. Mozenrath's undead servants faced her in droves, seeing her with perfect clarity.

"Um…oops?" Pinkie squeaked.

"Don't worry!" The Genie gave a wave of his hand. "Their weapons are in the physical realm! They can't do anything to us!"

In a mass gesture, the zombies all tossed their swords over their shoulders. They charged forward, and two of them seized Pinkie Pie in their rotting hands.

"Of course, their bodies are sort of between worlds," the Genie added, "and that could be a problem…"

"HELP MEEEEEEE!" Pinkie squealed.

A THUD was heard; vines began growing around one of the zombies that held Pinkie, binding its arms together so it couldn't hurt her. Pinkie managed to squirm free of the other one's grasp only because of its undead nature—its arms fell off of its body, and consequently off of her.

"EEEEEWWWWW!" Rarity cried.

Applejack fitted more arrows to her bow, sending out more of the growing tendrils as the zombies advanced. "Wanna help me out here, Genie?"

"No problem!" The Genie fired sparks at the zombies, pushing them back. However, more surged forward. He then snapped his fingers, and a brick wall appeared between the zombies and the not-quite-dead heroes.

"Ya think that'll hold 'em?" Applejack asked.

The bricks were kicked down from the other side and scattered; zombies surged forward.

"Nope," the Genie squeaked.

Aladdin drew his sword, and Jasmine struck a battle stance, holding her fists outward. However, before either could touch the oncoming horde of the undead, Pinkie skidded in front of them, wheeling out the party cannon.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" she yelled, mashing the cannon's button and spraying confetti, streamers, and glitter over the zombies. Many were bowled over, confused.

"LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!" Iago screamed, and the group turned and ran from the undead horde that pursued.

As it turned out, the fortress was packed with even more zombies. They seemed to come from every corner, blocking access to most hallways. Soon, the group was cornered in a storeroom filled with barrels.

"Looks like we'll have to fight our way out!" Aladdin determined.

"I'm ready!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, drawing both her swords.

The zombies clashed with the trapped mortals. The Carpet wrapped them up, spinning to dizzy them. The Genie fired more tap-dance spells. Pinkie fired the party cannon again and again. Jasmine and Fluttershy dealt out roundhouse kicks. Rarity and Applejack fired more arrows. Rainbow Dash became a maelstrom of punching, kicking, and bladework, leaving quite a few of her opponents in pieces, well aware that they could just put themselves back together. Aladdin, knowing the same, slashed out with his sword. Iago and Abu hid behind the stacks of barrels like the cowards they were.

In the chaos, barrels were slammed into and knocked over. They spilled out a substance that seemed at first to be tar, but upon closer inspection was actually made of bubbling, wet black sand. "DON'T TOUCH IT!" Aladdin warned; this became harder to do as the sand spread across the floor.

Even the undead knew not to touch it. They backed off, allowing their opponents to edge out of the room. The battle continued out in the hallway and into the atrium.

As the fighting went on, many of the zombies began to realize they were outmatched, and ran. Those that didn't ended up falling to the floor in brittle pieces, their arms crawling about to try and pick up all the fallen fragments before they made their own escape. At last, the heroes stood in the Netherworld counterpart to the atrium of the fortress of the Black Sands, completely undeterred by zombies.

"We…we did it," Aladdin panted.

"Let's agree never to do that again," Rarity huffed. "That was quite disgusting."

"So this ain't the worst possible thing that coulda happened?" Applejack teased.

"The day is young," Rarity replied haughtily.

The sound of slow applause from one pair of hands caused everyone to turn. Standing in the hallway was a man who looked undead, but his colors were vibrant and the sound of his applause unmuffled, implying that he was entrenched firmly in the Netherworld and nowhere else. His skin had a purplish tinge to it, and his robes were even more brilliantly violet, including a ragged cape held in place by a skull-shaped brooch. A tall gold headdress completed the picture.

"Well done!" the purple man congratulated. "I didn't know if you could fend off an entire army of the undead. Turns out you can! Too bad for you, that was just the warm-up act!"

"Rarity?" Aladdin croaked.

"Y-yes?" Rarity stammered.

"Now you can say it's the worst possible thing."

"Who is that?" Fluttershy asked, trembling.

"Oh, you must be new!" the purple man gasped with realization. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ayam Aghoul, and you happen to be traveling with all of my worst living enemies! Which, of course, makes you also my worst living enemies!"

"Now how'd a thing like that come about?" Applejack asked. "Some argument you never settled?"

"A funny thing," Aghoul told her. "First, I wanted to marry the princess without her consent, but apparently that crossed some sort of line, so I was banished to the Netherworld. After that, I tried conquering this world through the Shadow Realm, but, alas, THAT was also deemed offensive, so it was back to the Netherworld for me. All I wanted was a little revenge after that. Was that too much to ask? So I tried to kill Aladdin and his friends here a few times. But again, Ayam Aghoul was declared a naughty, naughty boy, and once again…Netherworld. But now that you're all here with me, and there's no way you can possibly banish me to the realm of the living, I can finally have the revenge I've been wanting so badly!"

"He is BAD NEWS!" Iago insisted. "You can't take him! That's it! We're doomed!"

"I'd like to see him try," Applejack replied, nocking an arrow and shooting it.

From nowhere, Aghoul produced a large scythe, which he used to cut the arrow down midflight. He then whistled. Also from nowhere, a horde of skeletons appeared, filling up the atrium of the fortress of the Black Sands. About ten dog-shaped reptilian creatures appeared alongside them. The zombie Mamluks also reappeared from every entry, aware that their army was now bolstered.

"Oh, Mozenrath's soldiers have been my friends for a long time," Aghoul explained. "After all, HE wouldn't listen to them about their undead concerns. No, it's all, get me this! Get me that! Stop my brother from getting into the palace! Personally, I'm a fan of you all being in the palace. It makes my job that much easier!"

"What do we do now?" Fluttershy asked softly as Aghoul walked forward, scythe in hand. The skeletons and reptiles of the Netherworld, along with the undead of the Black Sands, also closed in.

"Just play along," Aladdin hissed. He turned back to Aghoul. "Oh, no! It looks like you've finally captured us all!"

"What are you playing at, boy?" Aghoul snapped.

"Oh, nothing," Aladdin said with a shrug. "Only that…oh, NO! Sultan! Not you too! How'd you get all the way here?"

"THE SULTAN WHO ALSO HAS THWARTED ME?" Aghoul raged. "Oh, he definitely won't get out alive." He and all his minions turned to face the point where Aladdin was staring. Of course, no one was there at all.

"RUN!" Aladdin commanded, and Jasmine and Fluttershy quickly broke through the circle of undead warriors at its thinnest point with a double kick. The group rushed back down the hallway from whence they'd come, with the Genie, Applejack, and Rarity looking over their shoulders to fire a shower of sparks, a plant-based arrow, and a water-based arrow respectively at the now-pursuing horde of zombies, skeletons, and reptiles.

"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!" Aghoul commanded from the back of the group.

The group of heroes skidded back into the same room that had held the barrels; the floor was almost completely covered in the menacing black sand that bubbled like magma now.

"What IS that awful substance, anyway?" Rarity asked.

"Some enchantment of Mozenrath's!" Jasmine said quickly. "He uses it to transport prisoners to another dimension where they sink into the sand!"

"And the zombies won't go in?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Of course not!" Iago pointed out. "IT'S A DEATH TRAP!"

"No," Applejack corrected, "the death trap is behind us. We got one choice, and we know they ain't gonna follow!"

Before anyone could protest, Pinkie leapt up into the air, gripping her knees and yelling "CANNONBAAAAAAAAAALL!" before hitting the surface of the black sand with a great splash.

"It's our only choice!" Jasmine confirmed before jumping into the sands as well. Fluttershy, Aladdin, Applejack, the Genie, Rainbow Dash, Abu, and Iago quickly followed.

"You can't be serious!" Rarity moaned, looking at the sands before her into which all her friends had just disappeared, sinking down farther than the floor should have allowed.

She looked back over her shoulder to see Aghoul gaining ground, swinging his scythe. "You're a pretty one!" he called out. "I might spare you if you become my next wife!"

"That's even MORE disgusting!" Rarity cried before doing a swan dive into the black sand.

Aghoul skidded to a stop before the bubbling sands, the zombies, skeletons, and reptiles halting alongside him. He briefly considered following his quarry into the realms below, but he'd been told by the zombies in the way of communication only the dead share what lay down there. "Eh," he remarked. "They're as good as dead anyway." He shrugged, turning to leave them.

---

THE SINKING SANDS, THE REALM OF DARKNESS

Falling out of a pitch-black sky, Pinkie Pie landed with a splash in a knee-deep sludge of black sand, sinking up to her neck as she was still curled in a cannonball position. Jasmine, Fluttershy, Aladdin, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the Genie soon fell into the sands alongside her, landing on their feet. The Carpet swooped in above them, Abu grasped onto Jasmine's shoulder, and Iago hovered.

"PINKIE!" Aladdin cried, reaching down to grab Pinkie by the shoulders and hoist her out of the sand and into a standing position. "These are sinking sands! You were almost sucked in!"

"Oh my gosh!" Pinkie gasped.

"What is this dreadful place?" Rarity asked. "It's all…dirty!"

"This is the place Mozenrath sent his prisoners to once," Jasmine explained. "I think he enchanted it somehow. The sinking sands will keep pulling us under!"

"Never fear!" The Genie snapped his fingers, and everyone was suddenly seated inside a large wooden rowboat, the Genie now wearing a fishing hat, jeans, and a flannel shirt. However, relief was short-lived; the boat collapsed into planks that were immediately eaten by the sand.

"Carpet can hold three!" Aladdin realized.

The Carpet, sensing its cue, swooped down to the others.

"So who's gonna get on?" Applejack asked.

"You go," Aladdin told her. "I can manage this."

"No," Jasmine said. "Aladdin, you have to get on Carpet."

"If no one else will, then I will!" Rarity insisted, scrambling on top of the floating rug.

"You two go together," Applejack told Aladdin and Jasmine. "After all, you're the leaders of your kingdom. If you sink, who's gonna rule?"

"But if you sink, what happens to the Elements of Harmony?" Aladdin retorted.

They were interrupted when a voice suddenly echoed throughout the darkness: "This way!"

"That voice," Aladdin said. "I…I know it from somewhere."

"Look!" Pinkie Pie pointed.

Even though the sky and the sand were both dark, shadows were still visible, shadows that belonged to no one present. They flickered across the surface of the sand, beckoning with twisted hands for the others to follow.

"I guess we go…" The Genie's right arm turned into a giant arrow like that of a weather vane, pointing down the lane the shadows were marking. "Thataway!"

Applejack stepped toward the shadows, finding that the more she moved through the sand, the more she stayed afloat. "C'mon, everypony!" she beckoned.

"Last call for the Carpet," Rarity announced. Pinkie scrambled on next to her, but no one else took the offer; Aladdin and Jasmine simply forged ahead down the shadowy path. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy spread their wings, lifting themselves out of the mud and hovering along with Iago and the Carpet; the Genie transformed into his hovering, legless form as well. Abu jumped onto Aladdin's shoulder for the ride.

"I am glad Twilight isn't here after all," Rarity told Pinkie.

"Me too!" Pinkie said emphatically. "At least she's in the living world! We can go back and save her!"

Rarity gave Pinkie a teasing smile. "But more than that, I think she would have gone completely insane at how bad that last pun was. 'Ayam Aghoul,' really!"

Pinkie stopped to think it over. "Wait a minute…AYAM AGHOUL! I JUST got it!" She collapsed onto the Carpet with laughter.

---

SHADOW COUNTRY, THE REALM OF DARKNESS

The shadowy path brought the group through the swampy sands until the sand thinned out, becoming shallower and shallower, and eventually disappeared, giving way to rocky ground. The sky became lighter and lighter, making the shadows clearer; some were humanoid, but others appeared to be the shadows of creatures such as Ifrits and imps. Soon, grass appeared on the ground, and Rarity and Pinkie finally felt safe enough to step off the Carpet and walk.

At last, the shadows led the group to a valley bathed in the light of a perpetual dawn, a soft sunlight over the grass and sparse trees. Mountains rose in the distance. Shadows played throughout the area.

"I know this place," Aladdin realized. "This is the Shadow World. All the shadows in our world come here at night so they can go back to us during the day. I've been here once!"

"I didn't know the Shadow World was connected to the black sand dimension," Jasmine thought out loud.

"Neither did I," the Genie admitted. "And I usually know these things!"

The voice echoed again: "You're almost there."

"Now I remember who that is!" the Genie cried. "Farabu!"

"Fara-who?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"The caretaker of the shadows," Aladdin told everyone else.

From behind a tree, a tall, graceful shadow stepped out. She was only identifiable as a shadow because her body was made up of misty darkness with a slight sparkle to it; otherwise, she appeared as a solid person, even without color. Pinpricks of light formed her eyes. From her shape, she appeared to be wearing a grand robe and headdress.

"Welcome back, Aladdin," she said. "And the Genie as well. I was not expecting you."

"Are…are you Farabu?" Fluttershy asked.

"That is my name," the graceful shadow answered. The five Equestrians immediately bowed in respect.

"Why did you call us here?" Aladdin asked.

"And how did you know where we were?" Jasmine added.

"I did not know that you would be among the ones I led to the Shadow Country," Farabu admitted. "I sensed only that five of the six Elements of Harmony had appeared somewhere in the Realm of Darkness, and in a quite dangerous place at that."

"So that awful place," Rarity said for confirmation. "It wasn't something Mozenrath created?"

"No," Farabu told her. "It was only one of the many lands in the Realm of Darkness, just as the Shadow Country is."

"But I thought your world was just this," Aladdin admitted.

"The Realm of Darkness is vast," Farabu explained. "It is the source of all shadows and the culmination of darkness in the cosmos. It is in yet another country that the Shadow Walkers rest for seven years until they can walk in the worlds of light."

"So you sensed us?" Applejack reiterated.

"I did," Farabu confirmed. "After all, I am no stranger to the Elements of Harmony. Long ago, when there were but two, they visited my realm. They were two young sorceresses. One specialized in magic of light, but the other was a master of darkness, and quite fascinated by all this world had to offer. I had to warn young Luna of all its dangers."

"And the other one was named Celestia!" Pinkie cried.

Farabu was taken aback. "How do you know of Celestia and Luna?"

"They're the queens of our country back home," Rainbow Dash explained. "We kinda inherited the Elements from them, sorta."

"I would ask you to carry my regards to Luna," Farabu said, "but it seems you currently cannot return to the realms of living and light. And yet you are mortal. How did this come to pass?"

"We got wished into the Netherworld!" Pinkie told Farabu.

"Wait," Aladdin broke in. "So we can't just go back to the Seven Deserts from here? But we're not dead!"

"You were wished into a state of physical nonexistence, despite your mortality," Farabu informed him. "You cannot simply pass into a realm of living and light without a gate. You have form here because in the Realm of Darkness, everything that is formless takes on form. For instance, my beloved children the shadows."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Applejack argued. "We ain't dead! We should just be able to get back!"

"I do not make the rules," Farabu told her sternly. "It is physically impossible for you to pass into the world of the Seven Deserts as it stands. You must use a gate."

"Well, we thank ya kindly for savin' our lives," Applejack said, and the others nodded.

"I could not let the Elements of Harmony perish," Farabu replied. "And, had I known that Aladdin and his Genie friend were among you, I would have quickened the pace of my response as much as possible. After all, I owe them the value of my entire country."

"What did you do?" Pinkie asked Aladdin.

Aladdin shrugged. "Long story."

"Well?" Rarity asked. "Where are we going to find a gate from the Realm of Darkness back to the living realm?"

"For you," Farabu corrected, "you must travel back to the realm of light and living through the Netherworld, where you lost your physical form."

"Let's see," the Genie thought out loud. "There are three known gates from the Netherworld to the Seven Deserts. There's the enchanted necklace!...but we thought it was too dangerous to keep around, so we launched it into cosmic orbit. Oh, there's the figurehead of the Black Viper!...but that one was even more dangerous, so we also launched it into orbit."

"And you never thought that you might NEED those gates in case something like this happened?" Rainbow Dash snapped.

"HEY!" Iago argued. "Nobody exactly plans on being mortal in the Netherworld! Take it from somebody who knows!"

"And how did you get in and out of the Netherworld?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"The Eye of Gazeem," Iago answered. "One of Jafar's old evil treasures. Of course, it was the monkey's idea to mess with it."

Abu immediately began chattering fiercely, pointing at Iago to indicate that whatever incident had passed was the parrot's fault.

"The Eye of Gazeem!" The Genie snapped his fingers. "THAT'S the third gate! I almost forgot about that one!"

"Lemme guess," Rainbow Dash sighed. "Orbit?"

"No," the Genie said, mulling it over. "We stuffed it back in Jafar's lab. Though we really should have thrown it—"

"THAT'S IT!" Rarity cried. "We can get out!"

"But it only works if someone else touches the Eye from the living world," Aladdin informed her. "When we're in the Netherworld, we can't touch it."

"What of the sixth Element?" Farabu asked. "Is he or she not somewhere in the realm you left?"

"She was," Pinkie wailed, "but then she got trapped in a big old magic-eating crystal!"

"We have to rescue her," Jasmine asserted.

"Then there is a way you can reach the Eye," Farabu announced. "It is a risk, and something that is new to me, but it seems to be the only way that remains."

"So tell us!" Aladdin urged.

"If you don't mind," Fluttershy added.

"A while ago," Farabu explained, "Ayam Aghoul found his way into this realm from the Netherworld. He had with him a spell written on a parchment scroll. It allowed him to create a living shadow, something I had believed impossible for one who was dead. You see, almost all magic is associated either with light or with darkness. The creation of a living shadow with a physical form requires a lot of dark magic. This shadow was able to go to the realm of the living and, to a degree, interact with physical objects. I will admit I have seen the technique used before, though not exactly the way he did it. If one of you could create a living shadow, that shadow could go into the realm of the living and touch the Eye of Gazeem, opening the gateway from the Netherworld to your world. However, just like all my shadows, it would only be able to go during the day, or very briefly if there was enough light at night. If it did not return to this realm by nightfall, when there is no light left to cast a shadow, it would perish…as would its bearer."

"I don't like the sounds of that," Applejack admitted, "but we ain't got any choice."

"We should at least wait for the next morning," Jasmine realized. "So we can give the shadow enough time."

"A wise decision," Farabu said. "Of course, this rests upon if any of you even have enough potential for dark magic within you to create a living shadow. If you do, I can find out easily, and help you with its creation. After all, Aghoul left his scroll here for me to read and figure out his spell. Might I?"

"Go right ahead," Aladdin told her.

She stood before Aladdin. "You have almost no magical power of your own," she told him before moving on to Jasmine. "You possess some magic…but it is all light. I cannot find any darkness within you." She then moved to the Genie. "Great power, but an imbalance toward light. You could not create a living shadow, even with all your semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic power." To Iago. "No magic whatsoever." To the Carpet. "Quite magical indeed, but again I see the imbalance toward light." To Abu, who hopped up and down on the ground to get her attention. "No magical potential whatsoever." To Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "You each have some power within you, but not enough." To Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. "Within you, there is extremely bright light and extremely deep darkness. However, you do not have enough power to channel your darknesses."

Finally, she stopped before Rarity. This gave Farabu pause. "It is you," she announced. "You have the dark magic within you required to create a living shadow."

"ME?" Rarity cried. "Why, but that's absurd! I don't have any darkness in me!"

"We all have light and darkness to some degree, with a few exceptions," Farabu told her. "We also all have goodness and badness in us. These are not synonymous. Dark magic can easily be used for evil, and that is usually its purpose, but it can also be used for good. Light magic is easily used for good…but that does not mean it cannot be warped. Your tendency toward dark magic does not speak to your character. What does is how you use it."

"I want to save my friends," Rarity said sternly.

"Then you shall," Farabu told her, "using dark magic. After all, I am pure darkness, but I watch over all my shadow children with the greatest of care. Princess Luna also had much darkness inside of her. Did she not prove herself?"

"She was driven to evil!" Rarity cried.

"Yeah," Pinkie pointed out, "but you helped us fix her and get her back to being good! And she still watches over the night! That's pretty dark!"

"Well…" Rarity thought it over. "If I must, I shall. You will help me with this…living shadow?"

"Of course," Farabu assured Rarity. She put out her arms. "Take my hands."

Rarity reached out, clasping hands with Farabu. The shadow keeper's hands felt like warm flesh instead of the misty darkness they appeared to be. Rarity felt magical energy flow from Farabu's hands into her own and throughout her whole body, and down at her feet, something snapped.

"There," Farabu said, letting go. "She is ready."

Movement in Rarity's peripheral vision prompted her to look to the right. She jumped. There seemed to be an exact replica of her, only made of the same darkness as Farabu, with just two spots of light for eyes. The shadow moved independently of Rarity, putting her hands up to her face in surprise. Rarity determined the shadow was mute, else she would have been yelping in surprise.

"Admittedly, Aghoul's shadow could speak," Farabu said, "but this is the traditional living shadow used by most dark wizards and witches. I could not grant her the same powers of speech. Take heed: most could consider a living shadow an Echthros, one of the cosmic enemies of harmony and order."

"She doesn't look like an enemy," Rarity said.

"Of course you wouldn't think so," Rainbow Dash groaned. "She looks like you!"

"Can you help us find the Eye of Gazeem?" Rarity asked her shadow. The shadow nodded.

"We left it in Jafar's lair in the palace at Agrabah," Aladdin told the shadow.

"That'd be in the Northwest tower," Iago specified. "You need directions, or can you go through walls?"

Rarity's shadow was experimenting with this very thing. She discovered that if she wanted to, she could pass right through the nearby tree as though it was not solid. However, if she wished, she could also touch the tree, slamming her hand against the bark.

"You can find it, then?" Rarity asked.

The shadow nodded.

"You may stay here until morning light," Farabu told her. "Here, you will both be safe. If your shadow should fail to find the Eye tomorrow but come home with the other shadows at sunset, you will also be safe. If it rejoins your body, it will automatically return to this realm, no matter when you reunite. But if anything should prevent her from either returning here or rejoining with your body at that time…you will die."

Rarity gave an involuntary "yipe" before clearing her throat. "It's a risk I have to take," she told Farabu somberly.

A wave of shadows began to fly in from over the horizon, and others left. "Nightfall has come upon the Seven Deserts," Farabu said. "Morning has broken on the other side of the world. Rest now, creatures of day. I will wake you at daybreak over the Seven Deserts."

"Guess we're sleeping here for the night," Aladdin yawned, lying down in the soft grass. "This isn't too bad."

"Not too bad?" Iago spat, settling down on a branch. "I've been in gilded birdcages that weren't this uncomfortable."

Everyone lay down on the ground to rest, with the exception of Iago, who preferred his tree. While the sky did not darken, fatigue swept over the group, and all fell to sleep eventually.

Rarity was the last to fall asleep, worried about her shadow's big day ahead. When she did reach unconsciousness, she lay next to her shadow, her hand intertwined with its own.

---

"Wake up," Farabu said sharply. "Morning has come for the Seven Deserts!"

Rarity bolted awake, her shadow doing the same. The others groggily stretched into consciousness.

Shadows were leaving the ground of the Shadow Country, taking flight. They moved en masse into the sky and out of the Realm of Darkness.

"Go on," Rarity told the shadow. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

The shadow nodded, then took off with the others, flying up into the air.

"You'd best return to the Netherworld," Farabu told the group. "Find the Eye of Gazeem there so you can leave through the gate Rarity's shadow creates."

"We kinda fell in here by accident," Aladdin admitted. "Got a way out?"

Farabu ran a hand through the air, ripping a seam in it the way Mozenrath had back at Galifem. "Through my magic, you can travel at the speed of darkness," she said. "I wish you well."

"Thanks again!" Rainbow Dash said.

"It is nothing," Farabu replied.

Everyone walked through the portal, leaving Farabu behind.

---

THE LAND OF THE BLACK SANDS, THE NETHERWORLD

"And we're back here," Applejack sighed.

"At least we're outside the fortress this time," Jasmine pointed out, looking up at the fortress on its high ground. They stood in the village below.

"Does the sun seriously never rise here?" Rainbow Dash complained. "Freaked me out for a second! I thought it was already night!"

"You remember what Farabu said about dark magic?" Iago reminded her. "Darkness was a favorite of old Destane's. He started the grand tradition of the sun never rising over the Black Sands, and I guess Mozenrath just thought eternal night went with the drapes or something. Talk about dark magic. If anything is, it's that gauntlet."

"But your magic is nothing like that," Aladdin quickly assured Rarity. "You're using your powers to help us, and Mozenrath would never do that."

"We have to get to Agrabah," Jasmine reminded everyone. "The Eye of Gazeem is waiting for us there…"

"And Ayam Aghoul is waiting for us here!" Pinkie remembered.

The Genie shifted into the form of the jet. Everyone took their usual seats. The Carpet only carried two now, and Twilight's absence stood out. However, they lifted off as though nothing was different, as though nothing was wrong.

---

THE LAND OF THE BLACK SANDS, THE SEVEN DESERTS

Rarity's shadow took refuge in the glimmering blue light of one of Mozenrath's magic-detecting crystal streetlights. It shone brightly in response to her existence, as she was a creature of nearly pure magic. She flitted from streetlight to streetlight.

At long last, she was able to escape the Black Sands, and emerged into a desert over which the sun shone brightly. She knew she could not possibly walk to Agrabah in time, but her instincts alerted her to the way of shadow travel.

She flattened against the ground, appearing as an ordinary shadow, even though she was cast by no one. In this form, she was able to speed along the desert sands even more quickly than the Ponyville Express could have gone. Watching the sky above to make sure of her position, she made her way to Agrabah.

---

Chapter 13:

· Moz had the zombies attack because he didn't want it to be too obvious that he was baiting the heroes to come. If there hadn't been a resistance army, suspicions would have been raised.

· BTW, you have to forgive me constantly cheating by saying "the group," "the heroes," or "everyone." It's hard to type all those names.

· The Crystal of Ix is one of Moz's favorite weapons in ATAS. He uses it in 2 eps. It really does trap magical beings and allow him to leech their power. Now, I had some trouble figuring out if Twi should be frozen. When Moz caught the Genie in it in "The Hunted", the Genie could move and speak, but he was still trapped. When Moz was accidentally trapped in it in "The Secret of Dagger Rock" (how did he get out of there anyway?), he was completely frozen. I've decided that genies/djinni can move and talk inside crystals, but humans/humanoids/ponies in human form can't.

· The Netherworld is THE place people go when they die in the Aladdinverse, but in this crossover multiverse, it's obviously not the only one (GREEK UNDERWORLD HINT HINT). Anyway, mortals CAN go there. It happened.

· I decided the zombies can see and interact with the dead because in one ep, the name of which I can't remember, Aghoul said the Netherworld was filled with zombies. When we see the Netherworld in "As the Netherworld Turns," the only dead encountered are ghosts, but Aghoul says in that one that he can summon skeleton minions if he wants.

· Canonically, Moz's zombie army is…breakable. But it doesn't hurt them to lose limbs, and I'm pretty sure they can put themselves back together.

· HELLO, WORST PUN IN THE ALADDINVERSE! Ayam Aghoul is a four-episode wonder with a huge fanbase because his schemes have ranged from forcing Jasmine to marry him to attempting to overrun the world with undead…and also, because he has a certain charisma. I feel like the writers knew they had only one chance to use the "Ayam" route, and they played it just right.

· Aghoul and Moz have never interacted in canon. That thing about Moz's zombies talking to Aghoul? My fanon.

· The skeletons are Aghoul's canon minions. The reptiles are based on one monster, "Joel," which he summons in "As the Netherworld Turns." The scythe is also his canon weapon as of that ep. I kinda gave him a level up in badass, but he's up against a big crowd including a djinni. I wanted to get across that he's a threat.

· The bubbling black sand is from the ep "Black Sand." It works exactly as I said: anyone who sinks into it goes into a dimension of sinking sand.

· The Realm of Darkness is going to be a world I cobble together out of several "darkness" lands from different franchises…like the Shadow Realm from Yu-Gi-Oh! or the realm of darkness from KH, for example. There are actually THREE different places alluded to in the Aladdinverse that are pure darkness in my eyes: Moz's black sand dimension, the Shadow World (which I renamed the Shadow Country, since it isn't a world), and the Shadow Realm, which is NOT the same thing, but instead the place where the shadow walkers go in the seven-year span.

· Farabu is from the ep "The Shadow Knows." I originally wasn't going to include her, but a comment from GAvillain inspired me, and I came up with this entire sub-arc. It allowed me to have more fun than I would have with my original draft, which was just going to have them trapped in some dungeon and at Aghoul's mercy. That's right—I wasn't even gonna use the Netherworld. I feel this version is better. Anyway, Farabu is the guardian of shadows in canon.

· I…don't actually have a list of Celestia and Luna's travels. I'm just going to throw in their backstory as I come up with it. It's mostly the "prequel" generations of everything.

· Why can't they go from the Shadow Realm to the Seven Deserts directly? Because…I needed an excuse to do the living shadow bit…

· The necklace, the figurehead, and the Eye of Gazeem are all from different Aghoul-related eps. And I checked. They DON'T destroy the Eye in canon. Which is actually really weird, because they usually have the Genie launch dangerous artifacts into orbit.

· Aghoul's living shadow was a reference to "The Shadow Knows," where he tried to steal all the shadows of the world. If they don't go to the Shadow World at nighttime, their owners die. This is canon. I added the bit about light at night so physics made sense. In canon, Farabu had no idea what the living shadow was, but I wanted her to be able to make one, so I said she just hadn't seen anyone dead use it.

· The overview. Jasmine is all light because of Kingdom Hearts continuity, where there are seven Princesses of Heart that have pure hearts free of darkness. I'm actually going to be using that device a lot, and I'll explain what I'm doing princess-wise in the second storylet, the one that comes after the Seven Deserts. Each of the Elements has SOME magical power, since they are, after all, the Elements of Harmony, and can do the rainbow thing. Pinkie and Fluttershy have "bright light and deep darkness" because canonically, they're the nicest and friendliest in a normal day, but if you piss either of them off, THERE IS HELL TO PAY.

· Rarity and dark magic. If you couldn't tell, I am going to be playing "Dark is Not Evil" HARD. After all, in Final Fantasy games, the "black mage" is nearly always one of the good guys, and just has a different and more destructive spell set than the "white mage," who is usually the healer. Farabu is darkness, and she's not bad. Most of the characters in The Wardstone Chronicles (I know it's called "The Last Apprentice" in my country, but that title sucks) are witches that use the dark arts, but many use them for good. And there are Umbra Witches, who tend to act heroically in Bayonetta (Yes, I said "Bayonetta"). I'm just gonna say they're masters of darkness who aren't evil. So yeah, I have a LOT of basis to play with this in a multicrossover. I'm just going to say that it's as Farabu said: dark magic is associated with evil because it's the most easily used for evil, and the same for light and goodness, but the two analogies are NOT EQUIVALENT. Now, why Rarity? Because she's a unicorn/witch, honestly. It works better for my story in the long run if both the main magic users among the Elements have access to the Dark Arts. And Twilight isn't here right now.

· Rarity's living shadow is mute because there seems to be a precedent of that in things like The Princess and the Frog and Once Upon a Time. Shadows just don't seem to talk.