Okay, handwritten chapter, been a while since I've had one of these. Please, enjoy.

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The shadows twist and writhe within,

The evil now will surely win.

Abandon hope for all is lost,

In the darkness of the world of Lauren Faust.

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Spike awoke in the darkness. His rush of emotions had left at some point and he returned to his normal size. He sat up and rubbed his head, hoping the dull ache would fade away. The small dragon hissed and pulled his claw back. Just touching his head brought on a flare of pain and caused stares to burst before his eyes. His claw felt warm and sticky and he quickly began wiping it on the floor.

He was in a room that seemed to be made of stone. The floor was cold and covered with a gritty layer of dirt and pebbles that stuck to his claw as he wiped. It was completely dark and he stumbled violently after taking one small step. 'If I could just make a quick fire and see where I'm going,' he thought. He pulled in a deep breath and felt his chest expand rapidly. He was about to release the pressure when he noticed a strange quality to the air.

The air had an odd, almost oily, quality to it. He stopped quickly, something about the taste and smell of the weird gas were familiar. His instincts told him this was a substance that would easily burn. Spike thought back as far as he could and a hazy memory began to rise.

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'Okay Spike, now remember that you need to be very careful. One spark and this will all go up.' The purple unicorn filly carefully poured a large beaker full of a thin brownish liquid into a large pot that was being heated by a constant stream of fire form the small dragon. Just a week before they would have used a smaller, more focused heat source, but Spike's new fire breath was easier to use and didn't require a long, awkward explanation of why they needed fire in a book filled room in the royal palace.

Spike stemmed the green flow long enough to ask, 'why are we doing this again?' Twilight used her magic to force his head back towards the boiling liquid.

The unicorn, though still very young, had quite the developed vocabulary; to the extent that, when she launched into a complex explanation, though Spike could make out about one word in three, he only actually knew what a handful of them meant.

'Spike,' she said suddenly, startling him awake, 'are you even paying attention?' He had dozed off and woke with a start as she spoke. A quick puff of flame escaped him as he jumped to awareness. It shot straight towards the liquid Twilight had been experimenting with. Twilight's eyes widened, 'Oh Celestia, n-'.

The explosion powerful enough so that the vibrations caused in their tower room cracked the millennia old foundation. Twilight had been forbidden from preforming experiments without supervision. She was also banned from using fire in any way while at the castle. Her mane took more than a month to even start growing back. Everypony laughed at her and called her cue ball. Her brother even laughed for a long time. He started calling her Twilee because she reminded him of the kung-fu action star Hooves Lee. She blamed Spike for everything.

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Spike waved a claw through the air and could feel the gas push against him. 'It's so thick in here,' he thought, 'no wonder it's so warm when I breathe in.' Smoke billowed from his nostrils. He began remembering the explosion in its entirety; an idea took form in his head. His scales were toughened by now and he wouldn't even feel the flames form an explosion. The problem with his plan was that there was enough gas here to completely pulverize the rock for at least a mile in each direction. He could easily survive the explosion, but not the rocks afterwards.

He approached a wall and cupped his claws together, carefully keeping them airtight, though this was difficult to do without seeing. He placed his cupped claws against the smooth stone surface of the wall. Placing his snout into the tiny hole he had left, he inhaled quickly and let out a tiny controlled burst of flame. If any escaped, he was dead for sure.

The explosion, though small, was quite loud and nearly blew his claws off the wall. He'd been expecting this and was able to brace himself before being pushed away. Once the noise and force had stopped, he counted slowly to ten and removed his claws. A large hole shot deep into the wall and thick cracks ran outwards from it. He groaned as his exploring fingers slid across these. There was no way he could keep another blast in this.

Spike punched the wall in frustration and was curious to find that a good portion had crumbled away. The blast had weakened the rock to where it crumbled easily at the rough touch of his sharp claws. A few long minutes of scratching and kicking saw him out of the thick rock wall and into a kind of storage room.

A large jumble of objects lay on the floor including a large, oddly shaped rubber plug. He picked this up and turned around, shrugging. Spike jammed the plug into the hole and was surprised to find that it was an exact fit. Wariness began to overtake him and his eyes darted around for anypony that could possibly be a threat.

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"Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it."

-Dave Berry

"Hell is the possibility of sanity."

-Daria

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Pinkie and Pinkamena watched as Spike sat up. Pinkamena had taken the Fluttershy outfit and had tricked Spike. Pinkie had been looking forward to doing that herself, but she did get the crusaders and Rarity; fair is fair after all. 'Besides,' she thought, 'the memories are there and technically I did do it.'

"He was quite upset when he found out," Pinkamena said, an air of approval in her voice. She respected the virtues such as loyalty and honesty and even followed them in her own way. As a piece of the darkness she had come to understand the light and its abilities and found understanding in them. The light ruled for good reason and it was that reason that would allow for the rise of darkness once more.

"I figured he would. Spike gets so emotional all the time for emotions being all 'girly stuff'." Pinkie continued watching while she spoke. "C'mon Spikey, c'mon," she whispered, crossing her hooves. He began to inhale, ready to light his surroundings with his breath. A smile started to cross Pinkie's face. "C'mon, just breath out really fast," she whispered, leaning ever closer to the floating image of Spike.

By the time Spike finished pushing his way through the weak rock, Pinkie's mane and tail had lost all color and were perfectly straight. Pinkamena, on the other hoof, seemed bouncy and poofy how Pinkie usually was. "Pay up," Pinkamena said, "twenty bits." Pinkie scowled and hoofed the money over.

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"Evil is a point of view."

-ANNE RICE

"There is no flying without wings."

-French Proverb

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Celestia and Luna wandered through the halls. Through pure numbers the strange creatures they found had been able to sate them… so far.

"Where now sister?" Luna asked as they came to a split in the hallway. One branched off to the right, another to the left and another hallway went straight up.

"I do not know," Celestia's horn lit up as she explored the halls with magic. "They all appear to be the same."

A sudden grinding nose saved them from choosing. Thick steel doors slammed into place in every doorway including where they had entered from. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Luna yelled, "WHO DARES ACCOST US IN THIS MANNER?" The only answer was a strange, echoing giggle. A small slit opened in one of the walls and Celestia quickly jammed her horn through it. She was rewarded with a yell of pain and surprise and it came back dripping with a crimson liquid. Celestia grinned and readied herself to do it again. A strong feeling hit Luna as the alicorn approached the hole. "No sister, don't!"

Celestia jammed her horn through the hole once more, this time it glowed with powerful magical energy. A quick snapping sound followed a metallic clicking. Celestia screamed and pulled back in, her horn was gone and blood spurted from the remaining stomp. She reeled in pain and the blood covered Luna and the walls. "Luna," she said, her face drawn, "help- me." A look of terror in her eyes, she fell to the floor. Luna spun, looking for what her sister's eyes had flicked to.

A pink mare was flying through the air with a large white horn in her hand. It dripped with a strange yellow liquid and a horrible grin covered her face. Luna prepared a spell, but just as she was about to cast it, Pinkie came crashing down. The horn plunged into her shoulder and her vision instantly began to blur. She wavered, unsteady on her hooves. The magic she had built up began shooting off wildly, bouncing around in the metal encased trap. A large black bolt bounced off the ceiling and smashed into Luna's hoof. It began rotting as soon as the dark energy hit it. Luna screamed, even in her drugged state she could fully feel the pain of her leg rotting away beneath her.

"Wow," Pinkie said, poking at the smoking stump, "that looks like it hurts." She began poking at it more fiercely, the waves of pain ever increasing in the drugged alicorn. Soon it became too much and a black blossom exploded across her vision. She crumpled to the floor, splashing up a mixture of her melted leg and her sister's blood. "Time for some fun," Pinkie said, easily picking up the enormous alicorns.

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"Maybe this world is another planet's Hell"

-Aldous Huxley

"Not all those who wander are lost."

-J.R.R. Tolkien

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A large crowd of ponies moved through the fields. The princesses had warned them of incoming danger and ordered them to leave the town until they were called back. Strange noises had come from town and, while they had been waiting at a make-shift camp, a dragon flew out of nowhere and began fighting an immense shadowy figure. Everypony decided it would be best to get as far away as they could.

A blue unicorn stood watching over the retreating ponies. His sharp eyes were carefully keeping watch, ready for any sign of danger. His horn glowed dimly and several swords circled the rock he was on, pointing at everything that passed before returning to their endless circling.

The crowd moved awkwardly, nopony could keep from looking around almost constantly. Somepony had overheard a conversation at the library talking about some kind of monster that was responsible for the disappearances. Every noise as the column moved, every stray cough, every breaking twig was another possible attack. Only one pony seemed completely at ease. He walked along, watching the ponies around him hungrily. He seemed to flicker occasionally, but surely that was just a trick of the light. The sun and moon were both circling in the sky now that the princesses were busy dealing with whatever threatened the small town.

One pony was especially jumpy. The red pony jumped at every noise around him, no matter how small. "It's okay Jitter," somepony said, putting a hoof on his shoulder, "just keep going." He nodded and continued on, the light glinting strangely off the jackhammer on his flank. The yellow pegasus flew off again, keeping watch over the stragglers. Her orange and yellow swirled mane seemed to glow by the dual light of the sun and moon. She squinted against the bright light and flew down to comfort another pony who seemed ready to bolt.

The column continued onwards and a strange hissing echoed through the air. The blue unicorn on the rock began yelling orders, but few ponies listened. Swords and axes shot through the air, surrounding the fleeing ponies, ensuring that they didn't crash into anything in their fear. Slowly, those who could hear began gathering around him. They began looking for direction, but as the hissing grew louder Little Strife realized he had none.

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"You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper"

-Robert Alton Harris

"All the darkness of the world cannot put out the light of one small candle."

-Unknown

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Okay, shorter chapter than usual once more. The only way to continue these scenes would be to write another full chapter. The end is near, have you prepared? Lots of fun coming up and I apologize for the lack of updates and substance lately. I promise these next four chapters will make it up to you… unless, of course, there ends up being more or less than four chapters. I'm expecting this to end in four and that's if I go all out in the next couple chapters, otherwise it'll be less than four.

This wasn't the OC scene I was talking about btw. I just needed a filler while I thought of what to put next and this came up. It does, however, set up for the scene, so get ready, it'll be the next chapter.

If you're reading this on fanfcition (dot) net then you need to look me up on fimfiction (dot) net. I have the exact same names for me and my stories there. Just go there and read the blog post on my profile, it's very important to those who read my stories. If you are on fimfiction while reading this, go check out the blog anyways. It has everything I could possibly say about my stories at this point including future update times, writing schedules, story plans, etc. It isn't that long so go see it really quick.

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