We all ran for the cave mouth from which we had entered the Fissure, myself in the lead, Allen and the six ponies close behind, and the Crystal Knights leading a relentless pursuit.
“Allen, what are those things?” I yelled behind me, “I thought the Crystal Guardians were history!”
“So did I,” he called back, “but these ones must be localized here; they weren’t awakened when you and I first arrived in Equestria!”

I don’t know why, but something seemed different about Allen. I didn’t know if it was the pitch of his voice, or maybe the color of his skin, but something about the kid didn’t seem right. Maybe it was my imagination; after all, I hadn’t seen his human form in over a month.
“Any way we can beat these things?” I asked desperately, leaping over a rock that jutted out in my path.

Allen shook his head. “No point, seeing as they outnumber us. Just keep running; I don’t think they are allowed to leave this place!” he yelled, sounding breathless.

I nodded and looked straight ahead, seeing a Knight had emerged from the ground ahead of me. I pulled out my swords and swung at the creature, the blade I found at the stronghold cleanly slicing off its head, but the sword Celestia had given me shattered. I glared at the broken handle and threw it to my right, and it bounced across the canyon floor.

I heard Pinkie scream, and I turned to see she had tripped over a Knight emerging from the ground. I skidded to a halt, motioning for the others to keep running as I sprinted to help the pink pony.
“Get away from her!” I screamed as I leaped into the air, driving my sword into the creature’s back as I descended. Another Knight tried using my distraction as an opportunity to strike me, but I quickly turned around, causing it to instead hit the Knight already impaled on my blade. I withdrew my weapon and quickly slashed at my attacker's abdomen, and then turned back to Pinkie.

“Let’s go!” I yelled, and we ran after the others. After more wild running, I noticed some Knights were emerging from the canyon wall above the exit, and had begun to chip away at the rocky face.

“They’re trying to cave it in!” Allen cried, and we all kicked our running into high gear. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy soared into the air and slammed their back hooves into the Knights above us, knocking them aside before they could do any more damage.

I stopped by the cave’s mouth, making sure everyone else got away alright, and continued to flee once they had gotten out of the canyon. I looked behind to see the Knights keeping up their pursuit, but the moment they entered the tunnel they were instantly disintegrated, becoming a pile of harmless crystal dust.

“Yeah!” I shouted triumphantly, “that’s what you get when you mess with me!” I whooped victoriously. “We did it, you guys!” I looked back at the others, but they weren’t looking at the decimated Knights; they were focusing on Allen. He was slowly walking away from the group, chuckling quietly as he headed back towards the surface.

“Allen, are you okay?” Twilight asked slowly.

Allen turned around and looked me in the eyes. “I’ve never been better,” he said in a low voice, and a cruel smile stretched across his lips. That may have been strange enough, but the one thing that I thought was odd was his eyes. Rather than being the dark-brown eyes of a nervous teenager, as they had been moments before, they were filled with cruelty and contempt, and seemed to glow an icy blue.

I knew those eyes well; after all, they were the last thing I saw the last time I died.

“Don’t let him escape!” I shouted, suddenly charging at the boy with my sword drawn. He quickly turned and sprinted down the tunnel, surprisingly fast despite the chase we had just had with the Knights. I widened my eyes and stopped as Allen suddenly turned around, holding his right hand straight outward. I tried to get closer, but I was held in an invisible grip that prevented movement.

“Good to see you again, Drayke,” Allen said, his voice suddenly growing deep and distorted. His brown hair slowly paled until it was a bleached white, and there was a whitish-blue aura surrounding him as a suit of black armor formed around him.

The same armor worn by an ancient warlord who tried to take over Equestria nearly a month earlier.

“Sanguis,” I growled, and tightened my grip on my sword, “how are you still alive?”
Allen laughed in Sanguis’s voice. “One of the many advantages of my curse; if I am not slain properly, I can simply latch onto a host, the easiest being the whoever killed me. Rather poetic, isn’t it?” he said, and waved his left hand. I turned and saw Twilight and her friends being levitated towards him as they struggled vainly against his magic.

“So, what’s the plan this time? Dominating Equestria, or something a little more ambitious?” I spat mockingly.
Allen shook his head. “Oh, no,” he said slowly, “I have something much bigger in mind. Of course, I will be taking this world as my own in due time, but I cannot do it by myself; I’ll need some like-minded individuals who would also like to take over,” he explained ominously.

I narrowed my eyes, noticing I was slowly being pushed back. “What do you mean?” I asked angrily.
Allen smirked maliciously. “When history repeats itself, things never go exactly the same way,” he mused, and released his grip on me. I was free to move, but an invisible wall still kept me from advancing on the possessed boy. As he turned to leave, a swirling, dark portal opened up behind him, and he started walking towards it, pulling the struggling ponies behind him.

“You won’t get away with this!” I yelled desperately, pushing against the invisible wall in a pointless effort to break through.
Allen looked over his shoulder. “Although this may sound cliched, I believe the only proper response to that threat is, ‘oh, but I already have’,” he said mockingly, and waved a hand as he and the others passed through the portal. Just then, the cave began to shake violently, and I turned and ran as the began to collapse, starting from the point Allen had disappeared from. I peered over my shoulder, widening my eyes as the crumbling rock got ever closer, and in my distraction, tripped on the uneven cave floor.

“Shit!” I yelled as I faceplanted into the hard ground, and had exactly one second to wince in pain before the wave of rubble buried me, sending me into an endless abyss of blackness.

~-~-~-~-~

“Luna,” the lunar princess heard a soothing voice call from the corner of her room. Luna sat up in her bed, gazing into the darkness curiously. She knew that voice, but could it really be who she thought it was?

“Allen,” she said hopefully, “is that you?”
There was a bit of movement, and Luna could just make out the shape of her husband standing in the shadows. “Yeah, it’s me,” he reassured her. “I… changed a little while I was gone, but it’s me.”

Luna jumped up and ran to him, sobbing happily as she nuzzled the boy’s neck. “Oh, I don’t care if you’re a human, a pony, or anything in between,” she cried, “I just don’t want you to ever leave me again.”
The boy chuckled quietly. “Don’t worry,” he said, his voice suddenly growing dark as he gripped her shoulder tightly, “you won’t have to worry about anything soon enough.”

Luna gasped and fell to the floor, her strength suddenly drained from her body. she struggled to cry out, but her voice wouldn’t obey her.
“What’s the matter?” the boy asked, his eyes suddenly glowing blue in the darkness as he leaned down next to her, “trying to call for help? Why don’t we go fetch your sister? I’m sure she would love to come with us,” he whispered in her ear, and stood up as he waved his hands, binding her in black chains with his magic, and dragged her down the hall towards the throne room, blasting any guards that tried to interfere aside with bolts of dark energy.

~-~-~-~-~

Celestia sighed as she gazed out of one of the many windows in the Castle Canterlot throne room. Everything seemed to be falling apart lately; her brother-in-law’s disappearance, her niece's distant attitude, and sending her former student and her friends with an unpredictable human on a dangerous quest. She prayed for some bit of good news to come her way.

The solar princess heard the throne room doors open, and turned to see Allen walking towards her. Her spirits were lifted for the briefest of moments, until she noticed two things: first, his strange appearance, for not only was he a human once again, but his hair was a snowy white, his eyes glowed a light blue, and he wore a suit of jet-black armor. What was worse than this, however, was who she saw he was dragging behind him.

“Allen!” she shouted angrily at the sight of her chained sister, suddenly leaping from her throne as her horn became bathed in a bright, golden glow, “what are you doing?”

The boy smirked wickedly and let the chain fall to the floor. “I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” he said, his voice deep and twisted, “but that is understandable; after all, isn’t this our first time meeting each other in person?”
Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Who are you, then, and why are you pretending to be Allen?” she asked coldly.

The man pretending to be Allen laughed. “Why I pretend to be this pathetic fool will be clear soon enough; as to who I am, I think you can recall a slight disturbance at the Crystal Empire a few weeks ago…” he said slowly, giving the princess of the sun a clever look.
Celestia gasped. “Sanguis Cruciatus,” she whispered with disbelief. “you say Allen is a fool, when you stand before an alicorn of my power and mock me?” she snapped, suddenly floating in the air as her eyes glowed a blinding white. “You are responsible for numerous deaths, both recently and long ago, and now you have given me the opportunity to avenge them!”

After saying this, she aimed her horn at the boy and fired a massive blast of energy at him, completely removing him from view as he became enveloped in a beam of magic as powerful as the sun itself. She concentrated the beam for several seconds before she stopped, certain she had defeated the enemy.

“Is that the best you can do?” Allen asked, who was, to Celestia’s surprise, completely unphased by the attack. “From what I can tell from this boy’s thoughts and memories, you are supposed to be a goddess. Your precursors would be ashamed if they saw what you just did!” he said, laughing cruelly.

Celestia took an uncertain step backward. “How is this possible?” she breathed, “what sort of power do you possess?”
“I have all of this boy’s powers,” he replied darkly as he conjured a web of black chains in front of him, “and my own, all fueled by the magic within his friends.” He waved his hand, causing the chains to fly forward and entangle Celestia, giving no opportunity to escape. She struggled to try and break free, but it felt as though her strength had been ripped from her body.

“Well, that’s three alicorns,” Allen said thoughtfully, “four if you count myself, I suppose, as well as the other five ponies. Now, we just need to wait for the last one.”
Celestia gasped for breath as she struggled under her prison. “You… will never find… Cadence… She will know that… we have fallen… and she will hide,” she said, glaring up at the human.

Allen smiled. “Oh, you don’t get it, do you?” he said with false sadness. “I don’t need to find Cadence; Drayke is going to bring her to me.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes. “What makes you think that?” she growled.

Allen grabbed the chains binding Celestia and started dragging her toward the doors. “I think we both know there is more to your niece's depression than the death of her husband,” he said smugly, and a group of guards burst in, blocking his exit.

“Stop right there!” one of them shouted as they surrounded him, each one daring the boy to move.
Allen sighed hopelessly and let his shoulders fall limply. “Oh, darn,” he said sarcastically, “my plan is ruined by the arrival of the heroic royal guard. I have no choice to submit and let you take me away,” he moaned, falling to his knees and holding out his arms expectantly. One guard approached to slap a pair of shackles on the boy’s wrists, but stopped when he noticed that Allen was… laughing.

“What’s so funny?” the guard pony asked slowly.

Allen reached out and grabbed the guard by his neck. “Sorry, but I’m a terrible actor,” he admitted, and threw the guard to the side, causing him to slam into two of his comrades. The rest of them charged, trying to subdue their princesses’ attacker, but he quickly jumped out of the way and stood by Luna’s barely-conscious form, summoning a black crystal sword and holding it against her neck as he did.

“Make another move and she dies!” he roared, all traces of Allen’s voice suddenly gone for a moment. Luna slowly looked up at him through pain-filled eyes.
“Allen, please,” she whispered, “don’t do this.”

The human glared down at her, putting a little bit more pressure on the blade. “Allen is dead,” he hissed. “and so will all of your wretched race in due time.” He looked back to the guards, who were still deciding whether or not to advance. “Well? What’s it going to be?” he demanded. “I would rather not kill her, as she is a vital part of my plan, but I can easily replace her if need be.”

The royal guard looked amongst themselves nervously, and finally stood down, regretfully allowing the human to take their beloved princesses.
Allen smiled. “Fools,” he spat, and waved his hand in front of him, materializing a wave of crystal spikes that immediately shot forward and impaled his enemies. Then, he walked over to Celestia and grabbed her chains, and dragged her and her sister to a swirling portal that had formed in front of the royal throne.

“Where do you plan on taking us?” Celestia said, clenching her teeth at the tremendous pain her prison was causing her.
Allen chuckled darkly, just one step away from the twisting abyss. “That is an interesting question, Princess,” he said quietly. “Technically, we are going nowhere.”

With that, he stepped into the portal, dragging the princesses of day and night with him to his final destination.