Thoraxis burst into the pet store, out of breath from running all the way there. Because of the events of the night before, he had slept in. In other words, he was late. Chiphoof's wry reaction to Thoraxis's entrance summed it.

"Oh, ho, ho. Well if it isn't Mask. Late on the first, full day."

"Sorry sir, I felt a little sick this morning," Thoraxis replied, in a tone feigning embarrassment. "A small fever caught me by surprise."

"Oh, hogwash!" Chiphoof piped up. "You look as healthy as a horse."

"Hey, you should be happy I was able to actually make it in," Thoraxis replied. "I stopped heating up after... a few hours. I got, like, no sleep."

"Hrm... I suppose..." Chiphoof mumbled into a small chuckle. "Either way, you'd best get to work. Better late than never."

"Can do sir," Thoraxis said with a small, eager salute. "So, what do you plan on having me work on today?"

"Well, the ferrets need to be fed, the puppies need to be taken for individual walks, the parrots papers need to be changed..." Chiphoof started to list off, to Thoraxis's ire.

Lunch break eventually came around, and Thoraxis, coin bag around his neck, made his way to Sugarcube Corner, through the bustling, busy streets. The candy-shaped building came into view, and without a second thought, the disguised changeling entered it. Thoraxis began walking through the store, peering at its multiple items, until, suddenly, a pink shape popped into view, followed by a burst of confetti catching him by surprise.

"Hello!" Pinkie Pie greeted, hooves outstretched. "I've never seen you around here before! I'm Pinkie Pie, and I'm here to make you smile!"

Once Thoraxis calmed down, he immediately recognized the frisky pony from the night before, and his heart began to race. His mind turned to playing it cool, and he tried to follow up on it.

"Eh... thanks, but, uh... no thanks..." Thoraxis said, brushing her away. She only jumped in front of him again as he walked past again.

"Wait a second... oh! I know who you are!" she shouted. Thoraxis gave a shocked look, and held his breath, ready to fight, or flee.

"...You're that pony Mr. Cake told me tried to eat that sugar without paying yesterday!" she said again, a large smile on her face. Thoraxis let out another sight of relief, and closed his eyes.

"Y-yep, that's me! Guilty as charged..." he said in a nervous chuckle, scratching his head with a hoof.

"Are you here for something?" she asked. "If you want something yummy, I know where to find it! I work here."

"Well, then. Do you, um... have anything with a lot of sugar in it?" he asked, uneasily. "...And made with love?"

"Pfff... almost everything here's made with sugar, silly... And with an extra amount of love!" She puffed proudly, before giving him a strange, curious look, and rubbing her chin. "Say... Why did you decide to ask about the love part?" she asked. "Not very many people ask about that part."

"No reason, really," Thoraxis lied. "I just like to know my food is made with... avidity."

"Oh. Well, that kinda makes sense," she spoke again, cheerfully, not noticing anything wrong. "So... what would you like? We've got normal cakes, cupcakes, pound cakes, muffins, english muffins, lemon-muffin surprise, muffiny muff-mu-"

"Can I just have a normal cupcake?" he interrupted.

"Of course!" she said, bouncing into the air with an apparent, vigorous glee. "...Just so long as you're willing to pay for it this time."

"Oh, don't worry, I am" Thoraxis answered with a smile, jingling the coin bag he had with a hoof.

The day ended sooner than Thoraxis expected. He hurriedly trotted to his new home through the darkened streets, and black forest, unmolested by the ponies of the previous night. It wasn't long before he made it to the old shack in the woods, and walked into it.

After checking one last time, to make sure nobody had followed him in a small moment of paranoia, Thoraxis closed and locked the door behind himself, and changed back into his true form in a wisp of green balefire.

"Time to get to work on my room," he sighed, looking at the ground in the center of the building. Without hesitating, he began digging into the dirt with his gnarled hooves, scattering rock and pebbles everywhere as he instinctively carved a pathway into the earth.

After nearly an hour of digging through the course, rocky, and root-filled dirt, Thoraxis had made a large tunnel, connecting to an even larger chamber, twelve feet into the ground. He sat down, pleased with his work, the closed-in walls of the tunnel's chamber giving him a feeling of home. For the first time since he had arrived to this strange town, he let out a smile of pure, easygoing happiness.

"Maybe... maybe things'll turn out alright here after all," he said to himself in an optimistic tone, walking up to the nearest dirt wall of the freshly-made room, and placing a hoof on the cool soil. "Maybe It'll-"

He stopped talking when he felt something peculiar, but very distinct, from underneath where his hoof pressed. It felt like a weak "pulse" of movement, if not something similar to a tremor. Curious, he dug into it for a few seconds, until he suddenly hit something solid.

He patted the metal, smooth, flat object, and tried to dig it out further, until its big, rectangular-shaped end was sticking out. Knocking noises proceeded to come from inside, as if a living creature was stuck inside.

Grabbing the corner of the box in his mouth, he pulled as hard as he could on it. Using some magic to assist, and clawing at the dirt that the rest of this heavy "coffin" was in. A few strenuous minutes, and with a final grunt, the changeling tugged the box out of its resting place, watching as it landed on the tunnel's ground with a heavy thump.

"What is this?" Thoraxis asked himself, finally getting a good look at the perfectly rectangular, steel-colored, iron sarcophagus, while more, rapid knocking noises came from inside it, partially shaking the object. There were thick chains wrapped around every corner of the box, and they all lead to a single, keyhole-less lock in the center, on top of where the cover laid, strapping it in place.

Just above the lock, near the head of the coffin/box, was writing, chiseled into the metal. It had an absolutely ancient feel to it, judging from the writing style, but Thoraxis was able to make out what it said with ease.

No pony, be it an earth, pegasi, alicorn or unicorn, can break this lock... the text started. ...Underneath this cover lay something that should not be unleash-

"Blahdy, blahdy, blah" Thoraxis sighed, reading the last of the stereotypical warning. After seeing another bout of movement from whatever was inside the box, his eyes shifted back to the lock.

"It said nopony could open it..." he started, his horn glowing, and an arrogant smirk appearing on his face. "...But it didn't say anything about being a changeling!"

A green beam exited from his horn, and hit the lock in a continuous stream. After a few seconds, he could hear the metal sizzling. After a few seconds more, the lock had become all but mush, and the chains, no longer attached to anything, receded, and dropped away from the coffin, to the ground, with a clatter.

As he was about to examine what laid inside, the lid of the coffin unexpectedly flew to the roof of the tunnel on its own, in what sounded like a sudden explosion from underneath it, causing Thoraxis to jump back with a small squeak of fear. The lid fell back to the ground with a crash of force, and a crunch of dirt, laying still right after.

When Thoraxis hastily opened his eyes, they fell upon the metal box he had unlatched. A black mist had begun to pour out of it like a fog machine, and the changeling could sense right off that it was some form of magic. Not any kind he had ever seen before, but definitely magic.

The black cloud continued to pour out, covering the ground in its inch-high haze. As soon as it brushed past Thoraxis's legs, he felt how icy cold it was, and a shiver went through his body.

Still curious, Thoraxis swallowed his fear as he let out a gulp, and walked up to the box, peering inside. He saw nothing but the inky, and seemingly bottomless blackness.

Suddenly, a voice came out of the blackness, and Thoraxis instantly jumped back, deeply startled.

One word came from inside the murky darkness of the iron coffin, and it was all it took to shake the changeling to the very core of his being like nothing else had ever done in the time he stayed at the pony's town, or before. One whisper that had the sound of pure evil and corruption echoing in its wake. One hiss of a term that usually meant something good, but in this case, even the most foolish of ponies could've heard it was from something that meant only malevolence.

"Freedom..."

Princess Celestia woke up with a gasp at the word, spoken in its all-too-familiar voice, that entered her dream, instantly transfiguring it into an utter nightmare. She had broken into a sweat, and her eyes were wide open, an expression of terror strewn about her face. Tossing the sheets off herself, she slowly got to her feet, and stepped off of the bed, her legs still shaking. No sooner had she done so, she heard the door to her her room fly open, revealing her sister, Princess Luna.

"Sister... I had a dream... of him," Celestia said, in a fear-filled tone, very unlike her.

"I know. I saw it" Luna responded, walking up to her. She let out a hoof, and caught her elder sibling in a hug.

"Easy, big sister. It was but a nightmare. It was not real" Luna comforted. "You must remember. He's gone now. He must have passed on while imprisoned for the past fifteen-hundred years."

"Perhaps..." Celestia spoke, slowly regaining her posture. "...But we never knew, and we could never be sure. We purposefully wiped out minds of his location, in readiness for the situation that he ever corrupted one of us, remember?"

"I remember it well" the smaller of the alicorns said. "But you must also remember, we made sure no pony, alicorn, unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony, could ever free his prison of its bindings."

"But... Why did it come to mind?" Celestia asked. "Do you think it was a repressed memory?"

"It must have been" she spoke back, reassuringly. "It has to have been."

"I hope you're right... But... It felt so real. Like he was standing in the room, clad in that accursed armor... His voice speaking to me... But that wasn't what caused me to awake."

"What was it, then?" Luna inquired. Celestia looked back at her, concern on her face, before giving her reply.

"It was his eyes."

Watching in horror, Thoraxis began to tremble as what appeared to be a large, darkened, steel-colored helmet, chestplate, and various other pieces of pony-shaped armor began to magically float into the air on their own, no magical halos to pinpoint who was doing it. Part of the mist floated up from the coffin, and began to amass itself into the armor, fitting itself in, and stretching out, until it eventually created what appeared to be a ghostly, black, equine shape, donned in the gear.

Thoraxis could see right off that whatever the mist and armor was trying to personify, was no ordinary pony. It was way too tall and slim, possibly even able to rival Queen Chrysalis, or Princess Celestia in height an appearance, and the fact that the mist had an unfilled hole on its helmet's forehead, presumably where a horn was supposed to go, and a pair of translucent, shadowy wings forming by its side, gave him the revelation that this thing was attempting to take the shape of an alicorn. An extremely dark blue, transparent, etherial mane of large size seemed to grow out from the base of its "neck," all the way to in between its "ears," with what appeared to be dozens of twinkling, minuscule stars lining it. Its tail looked very similar to it.

The last things to appear on this phantom alicorn's body, were two, glowing, green eyes, each one slowly opening on its otherwise featureless face of darkness, revealing red irises, and slitted pupils. A purple strand of the haze appeared to leak from the corners of both the eyes, trailing off only a short way from the rest of the main body. It stepped out of the coffin, rearing to its full height, towering over the changeling, its head narrowly missing the ceiling.

"Oh... hello." a deep, commanding voice, that sounded as if it had a slight echo to it, spoke, the eyes focussing on the hapless changeling. "I've not met a pony with such a demented appearance such as yourself. It would please me to know the identity of my rescuer. Tell me, peasant, who are you?"

Having enough of what he was seeing, and hearing, Thoraxis, instead of answering, turned tail, and fled out of the burrow he had created, as the creature looked on.

"Hmph," the animated armor huffed, his cold eyes following Thoraxis. He briefly rubbed a hoofplate on the hole of his helmet, noting the missing horn with another small hum. "Even free at last, and my power is gone. Hmm…"

Thoraxis, at the surface of the tunnel, cursed himself for his insolence, and watched the hole for several minutes, waiting for whatever monstrosity he had released to walk through it. Soon enough, the figure slowly walked out of the pit, and gazed at Thoraxis when its full, tall body was out. No longer afraid, Thoraxis held his ground, a snarl on his face.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The changeling asked. A small, rumbling laugh sounded from under the animated armor's breath, assuming the mouthless shade even could breath.

"I... heh... I have gone by many names when I was last walking along the surface of this land. My true name... Is Moredread Enmity. I also go by many other, well-earned titles, but I just can't think of any off the top of my head," the being revealed. "...All that laid their eyes upon me would see their blackness of soul, and heart, and doubt, and despair. I do not see you trembling on your legs, lowly creature. Do you know who I am?"

"I'm a changeling, I'll have you know, whose name I'm not going to give, and I... never heard of you," Thoraxis spoke, blatantly. The malevolent eyes coming from the helmet suddenly widened in what appeared to be complete surprise, and slowly turned on its blackness-made neck, until it was looking at the changeling directly.

"What?" he asked. "Are you dumbstruck? What do you mean you haven't heard of me? I was the one that committed some of the greatest atrocities upon Equestria! I ruled with an icy, iron hoof! I created dark magic! I am the first of the umbrum! I am the most cruel being to have ever walked upon the face of this land!"

"Still not ringing any bells," Thoraxis said again.

"How?" Moredread demanded to know. "Has this land forgotten me in the centuries I've been gone?"

"A-apparently... so," Thoraxis answered. "I've heard of all the evil and powerful beings that threatened this land in the past... and you weren't among the names given."

"Who are they?" the suit of armor and darkness asked, in its cool tone. "Who dares to take it upon themselves to call themselves a threat to this plane of existence?"

"Well... there's Discord..." he started, thinking back to the tales he heard of the spirit of chaos. "I heard of a centaur named Tirek, but he's been locked in Tartarus for centuries. There was some evil unicorn named King Sombra, and I think my queen, Chrysalis might qualify-"

"Wait... the third name... say it again..." Moredread suddenly asked, as if intrigued.

"King Sombra?" Thoraxis questioned, hesitant to continue the conversation with the possessed, alien object, that clearly reeked of evil. "He... was a wicked unicorn and master of dark magic that took control of, and ruled the crystal empire."

"He was an umbrum, like me," the helmet said, proudly. "He was to be created by my loyal umbrum if I was ever defeated. But... you speak of him as if in past-tense. Why?"

"Because he lost his rulership about a thousand-or-so years ago, when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defeated him as soon as he started ruling" the changeling started to explain. "I heard a rumor today that he tried to regain control of it again, just a few months ago, but Celestia's students and friends once again beat him. I think he's dead now."

"So, the descendants of my experiments have failed me... as Celestia and Luna had promised me they would..." Moredread said, his voice, and head, lowering into a solemn, and depressed way, eyes closing. "Years of planning... centuries of isolation... eons of waiting... all for naught!"

He looked back to Thoraxis, reopening his eyes again. "Who is the current ruler?" he inquired, in a whisper.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Thoraxis asked, uneasily.

"Who is the one considered the undisputed leader of this land?" the armor asked again, loudly, stomping toward Thoraxis on his metal hoofplates, staring deeply into the changeling's fear-filled eyes with his own, hellish ones. The same, purple mist still leaked from their green sclera, making things that infinitely more terrifying for the smaller being.

"Those princesess... Celestia and Luna!" Thoraxis finally yelled, cowering, covering his face with his hooves.

As soon as he said that, the animated armor lifted its hornless helmet/head and, after a small delay, erupted into a storm of what sounded like joyous laughter, deeply disturbing the changeling by the sudden turn of emotion.

"Thousands of years in hate-filled isolation, buried under rock, and dirt, and stone, with nothing but my thoughts, and the accursed, closed-in spaces of that tomb to keep me company... all my plans dashed forever… even now, I'm completely powerless... and I cannot rid myself of this feeling of pride!" he spoke again. "Well done my little butterfly! Well done my little moth! I had not expected you both to keep this realm stable for this long! Hah! Hahaha! Well done!"

The changeling was extremely confused at this point, but the expression of terror stayed on his face. "What are you talking about? Who are you?" Thoraxis once again asked. The being turned back to him, refocusing its supernatural gaze on him.

"...One who is no longer the same, twisted old alicorn that wishes to continue dark pursuits of yore..." Moredread finally spoke, after taking in what sounded like a breath. "Now, you speak to one that seeks only simple retirement after ages of imprisonment. If you'll excuse me, "changeling," I have a letter to write..."

With those final words, the possessed armor calmly, and slowly, turned about, and walked back down the hole it had emerged from. Once out of sight, all Thoraxis could do was lean against the wall, and wonder as to how life in this town would really turn out after all.