A craggy coast splashed waves of rippling whiteness against its banks as a shimmer of bright green light spat out a familiar form onto the ground. Daybreak bounced twice against the sand before skidding to a stop, his face buried in the ground. With cartoon-like antics he began pushing his legs and hands against the sand in an attempt to free himself. Feeling two pairs of pony hooves wrap around his waist and pull, Daybreak began to push harder and finally freed himself with a distinct 'pop'. Sitting himself in the sand Daybreak looked up and saw Rainbow and Daring taking a seat next to him, the Crystal Heart resting only inches away. Looking upon the two mares Daybreak saw an obvious look of anxiousness on their faces. Wit a slightly worried expression, and a feeling he already knew the answer, Daybreak asked them what was wrong. After looking back and forth between each other, the two mares nodded and Rainbow spoke up

"We wanna know why we left Aecious and Trixie behind...you didn't give us anytime to talk about it, and it doesn't feel right to leave them back there like that"

"I never wanted them to come along in the first place Rainbow, and especially not his far into it. They've done their part, they don't need to see this...they don't need to be a part of this, and neither do you two...I know I asked you to come with me Rainbow, but you've don't your part. What happens next won't be pretty, you and Daring can leave now...go home...back to Ponyville, back to your friends and families...you both can be forgiven and pardoned for what you've done...I can't...Princess Celestia told me herself, I'm banished from Canterlot for good, I can never return...I can't-mmmph!"

His speech was cut short as Rainbow's hooves grasped his face and crushed his lips against hers. His pupils shot wide as a deep red blush rushed to his cheeks. His eyes immediately found Daring Do, but did not find the look he was expecting. Instead of surprise or shock, maybe even anger, he found only a relaxed smile. Rainbow pulled away from him and rubbed her hoof across his face, softly caressing his fur in a way that only Twilight had ever done. A quick feeling of regret hit him at letting Rainbow leave their herd, but he quickly banished the thought, he knew she was happier with Daring Do. Rainbow backed off from him and nuzzled Daring, then looked back to him

"Dude you really need to know when to shut up. I knew from the beginning what following you might lead to. But I came anyways because I know that the end is worth it. I may not be able to follow you into your battle against King Sombra, but I'll follow all the way there and help any way I can"

Although her failing to mention his banishment did not go unnoticed, Daybreak was thankful for her words and her caring as much as she did. With a quick nod to satisfy them both, he picked up the Crystal Heart and motioned for them to follow him.

He had to admit, walking along a rocky coast line such as this one was relaxing. The subtle crashing of the waves at his feet, the smell of salt water and the fresh breeze on his fur, he could definitely see himself spending large amounts of time in a place like this after this ordeal. He felt a calmness rush through him as the cool water brushed his feet, allowing him to close his eyes and walk without much thought at all. Only a loud cough from Rainbow Dash awoke him from his blissful daze. He turned and saw Rainbow pointing awkwardly at the water

"Daybreak...umm...the fish.."

He glanced at the ocean, where Daring was standing a bit deeper, attempting to hide her laughter from the scene in front of her. A bit farther where the water was too deep for the ponies to wade, several fish where dancing across the surface of the water, wearing very fancy looking top hats. Daybreak had to give them credit, for not having feet, they seemed to tap dance relatively well, especially for being in such a large group. He face palmed himself in slight embarrassment

"Sorry...I got a bit distracted...must have gotten too relaxed...one sec"

With a snap of his fingers, the fish returned to normal and splashed back into the ocean, their miniature top hats slowly rising to the surface as they regained there natural senses and darted away. Daybreak gave a slight blush and turned from the two mares continuing on ahead. Daring quickly caught up to him

"By my guess we should reach a rocky chasm in a few hours if we follow this path, we can camp there for the night...then figure out what to do in the morning"

"I already know what we're gonna do...it's only a matter of making sure King Sombra takes notice enough to come"

"And what might that be?"

Daybreak tapped his finger to his chin, wondering how best to explain his plan

"I guess the best way to explain it would be to say...I'm gonna charge the Crystal Heart up with my magic and make it start sending off magical discharge. Anypony, especially King Sombra, who could recognize that kind of power would definitely come to investigate. Add to that the fact that Sombra wants the Heart very badly, I'm sure he'll be along to seize his chance to secure it again."

Daring could see some major flaws in this plan, but was sure Daybreak already knew that, so she held her tongue for now, instead happy that he had not insisted they act now, without resting. Rainbow suddenly zoomed ahead of them, clearly full of energy again

"Well then come on! Let's get to this chasm and rest up! I wanna be ready and rested when that curvy horned creep arrives!"

Glad she seemed to be getting back to her normal self, Daybreak followed after Rainbow at full speed and renewed vigor, Daring followed close behind, preferring to trot instead of fly. They ran onward to the horizon, speeding towards their goal with renewed courage and faith in their hearts.

.....

Darkness. That was all she could feel around her. Darkness in her mind, darkness on her fur, nothing but complete, unending darkness. It had been this way for several hours, or maybe several days or several years. She had lost track of time as she galloped forward, lost in this endless abyss that was darkness. There had been no attempt to free herself with magic, somehow she had just known that would be futile...but she also knew there was hope. She didn't know why she knew, but somehow she just knew, she had to keep running. She had to escape the abyss that was everywhere, she had to find her way back to him. Every so often she would hear things, see things, feel things around her. Most recently she had felt a familiar hand on her fur, it had caressed her for a few moments of comfort, but when she had looked down there was nothing, but the feeling had remained. Then it had vanished, like the voices, like the images, like everything had in this endless dark.

She remembered a fight and she remembered being struck by an evil magic during that fight, and after that...darkness. She had been here ever since. She had heard her name since then and heard things said about Daybreak, but in this place she was unsure what was real and what was a vision. She had already been tormented constantly by the disembodied voice of a unicorn she had come to hate. It teased her with the thought of freedom, tormented her with horrible visions of her friends in varying scenarios which she could not save them from. It sometimes showed her images of herself, laying there in the crystal empire, while everypony gathered and left. She heard everything that happened around her sometimes, and sometime she wished she could not hear it. The things she often heard were never good news. She always heard them discussing Daybreak though, and that made her listen, even though she always regretted hearing what she heard. She could not believe what the voices always said he was doing, she knew her Daybreak, he could never do these things. Never invade the palace, never battle the princesses, their friends...never steal from them, commit those treasonous acts...she refused to believe it.

"It's true...You know it is...why deny it and continue on in doubt

"SHUT UP!"

She yelled into the darkness that refused to leave her be. It always whispered to her, she was given no respite from its torment. So she kept running forward despite the clear aching in her legs to stop she powered on, not even sure where she was going, but anywhere was better than this abyss.

"He's doing it all for you...everything...and now he journeys to fight the King...he will fail...like you did...and he will fall...like you have...We will enjoy watching it from our place in your mind...Would you like to see?"

"NO! SHUT UP! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

She hoped the voice would leave, but it did not

"You cannot outrun us, we are in your mind after all...you can't banish us like a bad dream...I think you want to see...deep down you want to see what happens...Maybe we should show you"

Despite her protests, a watery image shimmered into view in front of her. She tried to run through it, but it seemed to be moving with her. She veered left hoping to avoid it, but it continued to flutter in front of her sight, refusing to let her look away.

"Look now...Look at his fate...the fate you caused for him because you failed...because you were not strong enough...not fast enough...not clever enough...weak"

"SHUT UP!!!"

Her yells were of no use, the image began to shimmer and show her a rocky chasm filled with falling boulders. She saw Rainbow Dash struck by debris and disappear into the dust cloud of rock with only her yells to hint at what happened next...the image changed...she saw Changelings swarm and pile and badly hurt Daring Do who could not hold back the endless horde...the image changed...she saw a pony she did not know, dressed in black robes being impaled into a rock face by black crystals, droplets of blood dripped from his lips as he smiled looking at something she could not see...the image changed...She saw Trixie...her hat and cape changed to red and black, her eyes filled with purple and red flames of dark magic as the Alicorn Amulet hung around her neck...sprawled motionless against debris...the image changed again.

Twilight tried to shut her eyes but found she could not, or either they were shut and the image remained anyways.

"NO! NO STOP IT! STOP IT!"

She screamed and begged for the images to cease but it cycled again...she could only keep running as she watched in terror as the image cleared and she was forced to watch. She saw Daybreak facing King Sombra, yellow flames licking there way up his arms and body, his claws clenched in anger, his mane and tail fur standing on end and flowing with energy like Celestia's or Luna's did. Then the image flickered and she saw Daybreak on the ground, his faming yellow aura gone, on his hands and knees, Sombra standing over him...The image flickered again...Daybreak was lying on the ground fully now...Sombra stood over his body with a long, black shadowy scythe stuck into Daybreaks back...An evil sneer crossed his face as he lifted the Crystal Heart into his magical grasp

"The Empire is mine at last!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The image vanished as her screams echoed into the abyss, her outrage destroying the image as her horn flared up in amazing power!

"Wait! What are you doing?!"

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUUUUUUUT!!!!!"

Her fury ignited the abyss in purple light as reality began to engulf itself in purple light and shattered around her!

.....

Twilight shattered the blue aura of healing around her as she sat straight up in her bed. Cadence winced in pain as her bubble shattered and she stumbled back from Twilight!

"DAYBREAK!"

She screamed for him as her eyes ignited in white light! The room around her began to change as her power transformed the objects around her. Cadence ducked her head as a beam of white lightning shot from Twilight's horn, missing her by inches and turning the vase nearest her into a salmon!

"TWILIGHT NO!"

Cadence tackled her off the bed without thinking, despite her own exhaustion she shook her sister-in-law repeatedly yelling her name until she got through! Twilight blinked her eyes and the raging power faded instantly, returning the room to normal as quickly as it had changed. She held her head in pain as Cadence helped her off the floor and embraced her in a hug. She returned the hug, but instantly wished she hadn't, as her body screamed in pain and she collapsed to the floor. Both her and Cadence looked down...and saw, there, still on her chest...was a raging swirl of dark magic, still attempting to slowly spread over her form. It gave a small lurch and moved a slight inch, expanding as it did so. Sombra's magic was a reminder to her, she was still dying...now she was just awake to feel it. She glanced to Cadence

"Where is he?"

"He's not here Twilight...I'm...not sure how to explain it to you..."

The look on Cadences face is what solidified the belief Twilight had, her visions were probably real. She didn't want to ask, but she knew she had to

"I think I might know..."

Twilight sat down on her haunches and explained what had been occurring inside her mind since Sombra had struck her, minus the vision of the future, she just couldn't bring herself to mention that. Cadence was surprised to find out that Twilight had been able to "see" everything that had happened so far, at least here in the palace, so she had the minor details. Cadence reluctantly filled in the blanks for her and watched as her expression grew more and more hurt as Twilight realized the full length of what Daybreak was doing just to save her. As if she needed more of a reminder, the dark energy on her chest gave a painful lurch upwards. It was beginning to touch the inside of her legs, for some reason it seemed to be spreading quicker than before.

"I need to find him Cadence..." She tried to show a look of determination, but all she managed was a pained expression from the earing ache now touching the inside of her legs

"Twilight...you're in no condition to go anywhere, he's out there right now getting ready to fight Sombra for you, to save you. If you go out there and get yourself killed, imagine what will happen. He could be more powerful than Discord right now for all we know...He can take Sombra for sure"

Cadence flashed her a smile meant to convince her, but Twilight did not seem to catch it as she was now wondering about a much more curious matter.

"Cadence...Where is Discord anyway? Why isn't he here, or out there trying to stop his son?"

Cadence hadn't thought of Discord since their last meeting, but bringing him up now, it was very odd he would suddenly disappear like this

"...I actually don't know...maybe he's keeping an eye on Daybreak...I have no idea...Celestia spoke to him in private after he briefed your friends on Daybreaks plan to steal the book...he seemed pretty upset afterwards...I mean like actually upset upset, like he generally didn't like it...but since then he's vanished...none of us have any real way to summon him without the elements...he usually just shows up"

"I guess we can't count on him for help then...not that we ever could to begin with...but it would have been nice for once..."

While Twilight paused to think, tapping her hoof to her chin like she always did, Cadence took this chance to try and get her back in bed

"Twilight...you really need to lay back down and let me put the healing spell back on you...Sombra's magic is spreading much quicker now that your awake, who knows how much time that has cut off your life!"

Twilight realized then, she was living on borrowed time unless Daybreak defeated Sombra soon...but she had seen in her visions that Daybreak and his allies would fail...she had to be there and prevent that

"No! I have to go after him Cadence!"

"That's insane Twilight! We have no idea where he even is right now, and Sombra's spell is spreading to fast, if you leave now, assuming you can even walk out of the door, there's no pony to keep you alive long enough for you to even get to him!"

"Actually there is! And she is more than willing to help Twilight Sparkle in her time of need."

Twilight's neck whipped around quicker than should have been physically possible for anypony who wasn't Pinkie Pie. Standing in the door way, surrounded by at least twelve guards, was Trixie, and another pony who she only recognized as the pony in robes from her visions. The leader of the group of guards stepped forward

"Apologies your highness, but we caught these two lingering in the area shortly after the Crystal Heart was stolen, they resisted our questioning and we were forced to apprehend them"

"If by apprehend us, you mean we allowed you to take us so we could meet with the princess, then yes, you 'apprehended' us"

Trixie flashed the guard a mocking grin to which she received a glare from him.

"You resisted arrest"

"I told you not to touch me and we'd cooperate...you touched me" The robed pony's face remained calm and free of any detectable emotion as he spoke, but hidden behind his stare Twilight could see he was obviously annoyed at something. She on the other hand, had never been more happy to see Trixie in her whole life and let out a gleeful squeak at the blue mare as she embraced her in a bone crushing hug despite the searing pain in her chest from the contact. Trixie's eyes shot open and the guards seemed unsure of what to do. Twilight made a small chuckle at their looks

"It's ok guys, she's safe.."

She looked at the robed pony from her visions, he had been with Trixie so he couldn't be that bad

"He's good too, you can go, thank you"

The guards bowed, the leader giving one last glare at the robed one and took their leave. Cadence regarded the robed pony as she spoke

"Why did they have so many guards with you, it's usually only one or two per pony?"

"I knocked out the first two groups that tried to arrest us...this is just what's left from the force that eventually restrained us..."

Cadence didn't see any change in his expression, but she thought she detected the smallest hint of mocking in his voice as he spoke. Meanwhile, Twilight had released Trixie and was questioning her with a smile that seemed to scare the blue mare into reconsidering her offer

"How are you even here? What do you mean about you being more than willing to help me? Can you do the health spell too...and whose this other pony?"

When she finally took a breathe Trixie took her chance to speak before Twilight could continue

"Well...introductions should come first...this is Aecious, he's the pony who helped us...helped Daybreak...break into Canterlot palace, although he was supposed to just help us and leave he decided to stick around afterwards and actually come with us for the break in..."

"Daybreak is a unique character, his emotions, like his power, change more than a raging storm on the ocean...I was curious to see how he would proceed...look where that got me...he left us behind"

Twilight detected a hint of bitterness in his voice, at least now it was clear why he seemed annoyed, even if his facial expression refused to change from it's stone-like state.

"I told you Aecious, he never really wanted us along in the first place...he probably thought he was doing us a favor by not bringing us..."

"Humph...he took the Rainbow one and Daring Do...why not us Trixie..."

"Are you two a couple or something?"

The question had escaped Twilight's lips before she could stop herself

"NO!" They both bellowed at her and returned to their argument. Twilight could see that this was going no where, so after giving a loud cough to draw their attention, she proceeded

"Trixie...you said you can help...how?"

"Why Trixie is so happy you asked! I can cast the health spell Princess Cadence has been using on you"

Despite the slight irritation the studious side of Twilight felt at Trixie switching from third to first-person midsentence, she held her tongue, and merely kept to the important details

"How"

"Why Aecious taught me of course...for a pegasus he has quite the knowledge of complex magic"

Twilight raised her eyebrows at him, but he merely shrugged, Cadence however, was not content with the lack of knowledge

"Where would a pegasus learn of such a complex spell in enough detail to teach it to another pony?"

For the first time, Aecious' expression changed. As he looked at Princess Cadence his hardened stare softened, just a bit, but still enough for the two princesses to notice

"I was taught alot of skills in my previous line of work your highness..."

Twilight became inquisitive then, and couldn't help herself

"And what would that be?"

His stare returned almost instantly

"Don't worry about it"

While being told off as such would normally offend even Twilight, she sensed there was a better way to get her answer, but it seemed Cadence had caught on too

"No I'm curious too, what did you used to do Aecious"

She filled her voice with as much compassion as she could manage to make her voice sound innocent and inquisitive. Yet again, at Cadence's words his stare softened and he spoke with more ease

"I was an assassin your highness"

The princesses had expected to hear that, even Trixie had suspected, but it was still a shock. Cadence had heard enough for now and instead posed another inquisition

"Why are you so willing to answer my questions but not anypony else's?"

His eyes twitched and his face showed a clear sign of discomfort at this question, Cadence was about to suggest that they focus on the important task at hand instead, but then he answered, and she was once again swept up in curiosity

"You remind me of another princess I used to know...you...look alot like her, your highness"

Cadence opened her mouth to question further, but Twilight placed a hoof over her lips and shook her head, Cadence understood, now was not the time. Twilight smiled and took Cadences momentary daze of curiosity to make it easier to leave.

"So Trixie, how long could you keep that health spell going?"

"A few days if I had to...so more than enough time for us, hopefully"

"And do either of you know where Daybreak might be?"

"If you have anything with his magical residue on it, I could probably find him. He used a similar spell to track me down, it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Well then let's go"

That seemed to break Cadence free from her thoughts, she bolted in front of the door, blocking the exit out.

"No way Twilight! You're in no condition to move around. Even if Trixie can cast my spell, what do you intend to do to help Daybreak? You going would only endanger the both of you more, you can't fight Sombra like you are now, and you'll only make Daybreak worry more. He needs to stay focused if he's going to win against-"

"Cadence I'm not just gonna sit around and wait for him to rescue me again! He's always been there for me when I needed him, and now he's out there creating enough chaos to throw Discord a birthday party, And he's doing it for me! I'm going after him!"

Cadence recoiled back at Twilight's fierce gaze, she remembered that look all too well. Memories of a crystal cave under Canterlot sprang back to her, she quickly banished the terrible memory and looked at her sister. There was no way that this small group in front of her should make that much of a difference when she thought of the forces that Daybreak and Sombra commanded. But she also knew that there was no arguing with Twilight.

Twilight watched as Cadence, reluctantly stepped aside from the doorway and allowed them passage.

"Thank you Cadence"

"Please come back alive Twilight...I don't wanna lose you...

She could see the tears well up in Cadences eyes, Twilight embraced her in a tight hug, wincing as she did so.

"I will come back, but right now he needs me"

She turned and thrust her hoof into the air, wings flaring outward as she did as she struck a heroic pose

"Alright! Let's go save Daybreak!"

Aecious rolled his eyes

"And assuming we actually find where he is, how do you propose we get there...hm?"

"I have...no idea"

"Perfect...off to a great start then aren't we..."

Cadence couldn't help but give a small giggle

"Come on now Aecious, play nice"

A huge blush instantly found Aecious' face as his lips sealed themselves so tight it seemed he might no ever speak again. Cadence found this rather cute

"As it so happens, I might have something here in the palace that can help you out...follow me"

She slowly strode out the door she had previously blocked and headed down a spiral staircase. Twilight and the others followed closely behind, wondering what Cadence could possibly have stored that would help them cross Equestria in time...