"Alright!" Said Mane happily. "Let's see... a crystal, three bird black feathers, a glass of an alcohol based drink, one piece of charcoal, one piece of sulfur. Only one thing missing, and lock the door, I can't be disturbed."

"What is It?" Pinkamena closed Mane's bedroom door and turned the key. "And can I stay?"

"Of course. Wouldn't be gentle to not let you stay after asking you a favor. And what is missing is..." Mane pulled out his small folding knife. "A drop of virgin blood..."

Pinkamena quickly extended her hand closed with a finger out with an expression of helping out, whatever he was about to do.

"Why are pointing at me?" He asked puzzled.

"You need a drop of virgin blood, so..."

"Er... alright..." Mane grabbed her hand gently but stopped. "Wanna do It yourself? I can't do It."

"I understand." Pinkamena grabbed one of her knifes and made a small cut in her thumb, allowing a tiny stream of blood to drop in a shot glass. "Wait..."

"What?"

"If you have done this before... where have you been getting the virgin blood?" She looked at him intrigued.

"Simple. From me." He answered surprise. "Where else I would get It?" The answer blew Pinka's mind.

"Anyway, what are you gonna do with this?" Pinkamena wrapped a piece of cloth around her thumb. "Some kind of potion?"

"Nah." Mane drew a pentagon in the floor with the charcoal. "A ritual..."

"From what I've seen from you I'm not surprised... But for what?"

"Remember when I said I had a help of some guys I wished to not talk about?" Mane started putting the materials in their order.

"You're frighting me." She felt uncomfortable indeed.

"Tell me, have you ever heard these names: Discord, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Chrysalis and King Sombra."

Pinkamena gasped from the the first four names. She gave a step back and simply stared at Mane with her eyes wide open.
So besides being related to King Sombra himself, he knew personally the Five Devils.

"Mane..?" She whispered.

"What is It now?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, you're dealing with a force bigger than you."

"I know that. And yes, It's good idea for me and they are obviously more powerful than me, but I have a something to attend to."

"Attend? What, one of them told you?" She laughed shortly.

"Yeah! My dear dead uncle." Mane smiled.

"WAIT! How?! He's dead!" She shouted agitated.

"One, we all have a soul, an after life. Two, I have dreams... bad ones. Three, It's not the first time Sombra visited me with those two things together."

"Soo... let me get this straight. If Luna puts me in your dream, and King Sombra visits... I can get to meet him?"

"Never saw that happen that way, but I don't think Luna would go along with Sombra."

"Oh... didn't think of that." Pinkamena sat on Mane's bed which belonged to a tyrant many years ago, making her feel uneasy. "I still have several questions, but I won't interrupt you for now."

"Thank you. You may want to seek protection in the first part. Don't let anypony interrupt me."

"Got It!" She stood up and entered the cabinet and looked through the back between the door and the huge of furniture. "Go for It, and good luck."

"I was born lucky." Mane winked at her with a smile, and she blushed.

Mane sat on the rock brick floor in front of the pentagram with the materials distributed around It in a certain order. He closed his eyes and meditated for some seconds. With his eyes closed, he grabbed the piece of charcoal, crumbled It on the drink and mixed with his finger and took It to his mouth. Then he ignited the piece of sulfur in the center with his magic, and burned the feathers in the tiny blue flames, filling the room with the smell of a volcano and burning feathers. The crystal in the center started glowing from the inside, as the blood inside the tiny glass started moving on It's own.

Pinkamena though the first part had ended, but as soon she opened the cabinet door a flow of dark purple magic engulfed Mane with a shock wave, making some of the furniture tremble.

*Knock knock!* "Hello?" A voice sounded from the door. "Is everything alright? The whole place shuddered near your room!"

The pink mare left the cabinet and went to the door. "Everything is alright!"

"Pinkamena?" It was Quill. "It smells like damn sulfur from Mane's room! What are you doing?"

"It's Mane, not me."

"What the actual fuck is he up to? We have an alchemy laboratory and he knows of It! And... why do I feel a huge magic flow going on from the room? And not the good kind!"

"Inked Quill! I'm telling you, everything is aaaaalright. No need to worry, he's under control." Pinkamena cheered her voice.

"What do you mean he IS under control?! I'm calling Copper Spear!" And the old unicorn walked away loudly.

"WAIT! NO! Oh shit oh shit..."

In another realm...

Red. Hot. Lava. Screams. Sulfur. Hell...

"Well... been a while since I was here..." Mane whispered to himself.

"Welcome." Said a voice from behind. "It's been a while, hasn't It?"

"Nightmare?" Mane guessed.

"Indeed!" The stallion turned around to face the dark blue alicorn in her black armor. "How are you?"

"With my legs hurting and a hole in my back." Mane joked while shaking hands with her.

"I see... you know. We were there that day."

"I knew I felt something weird in the air. So, let's go!"

Nightmare Moon guided Mane through the corridors of warm stone, with sometimes a hand of a lost soul trying to grab one of them, but the powerful alicorn would simply stab the live flesh arms with her dagger. Demons flew in the distance over the sea of fire and magma feed by the molten rock waterfalls. They headed to the chore and a boat with a live skeleton of a stallion waiting. He glared at them with his non-existent eyes under his tattered robe's hood.

"Hello... live one..." His voice was deep and raspy.

"He's not dead, Charon." Nightmare explained in a frustrated way. "He's on a visit."

"Bah! Who would want to visit this rotten place anyway... Just get on the boat."

Mane pulled a gold coin from his pocket and gave It to the skeleton. "Happier?" He asked.

"Ahh..." He dragged his voice. "Shinny... let's go then."

The boat traveled swiftly in the magma, with some disturbances coming from the deeps, but Charon would hit the souls back with his stick. Arriving to the other side, Nightmare kept walking with Mane following her, eager to meet with the others.

They entered a stronghold made of crimson bricks, and after walking a corridor full of demonic statues and torches, in a room with five thrones of obsidian, there they are...

Tirek, sitting in the center looking at the visitor. On his left, King Sombra in silence and an empty throne. On the right, Discord and Chrysalis laughing together for some reason. Those three stopped and looked and Nightmare Moon with Mane following her and they smiled.

"Mane!" Said Chrisalys.

"The Last Sombra!" Completed Discord.

"So you came after all..." Concluded Sombra with a laugh.

"Welcome, young one." Tirek stood up. "Please... take a seat." With a finger, he made an obsidian throne appear behind the grey unicorn from the earth, in the center of the giant throne room, which Mane gladly accepted. "Sooo... you followed your uncle's advice."

"Yes, and for starters from my part, I fucking hate your guts." Mane said It calmly.

"HOW DARE YOU!!!" Tirek roared and raised a fist, but Nightmare Moon made him stand back before sitting on her throne.

"Why did you gave me your power without any warning?!" He complained.

"It was an experiment." Nightmare explained.

"You don't know if you don't try, am I right?" Discord mocked.

"Shut your mouth Discord. He came here for a reason." Sombra stood up. "He's here to ask for something."

"And what It might be?" Tirek asked raising an eyebrow towards Mane.

"I want a fraction of your powers." Mane said.

They all stood silent, and started to laugh evilly with their voices echoing through the place. All except Sombra who looked at them with disgust. Tirek stopped and still laughing he looked at Mane.

"Haha... Mane... you must have gone insane!" Chrysalis laughed.

"Your body can't contain all that power, you know that." Discord consented.

"I'm aware... but like Discord said. 'You don't know if you don't try'"

"Oh... you're serious." Nightmare was surprised just like the rest of them, except Sombra.

"Hey, I didn't do that painful ritual for telling you jokes! It still hurts a bit in my head." Mane complained.

"Sombra, you don't seem moved by this." Tirek looked at him standing in front of his throne with his arms crossed. "Do you know something we don't?"

"Yes..." Sombra looked at all of them. "He has the blood of the Sombras running on his veins. I say he would survive just like I did back in the years."

"He actually has a point..." Discord looked up while thinking. "Sombra was also a simple unicorn, and he survived!"

"Are you sure about this, sweetie?" Chrysalis asked with a seducing voice.

"I'm here for this." Mane answered with a gesture.

"Alright..." Tirek stood up from his throne. "You must be aware of the use of these powers. First, we may provide you a fraction of our powers, and you can use them anytime and how you like. But different ones have different magic levels, and their use have different counter effects."

"There are small ones and big ones for what we can give to you." Nightmare Moon explained. "The small ones, sometimes you can feel a headache after their use. But the bigger ones may knock you out for a night or many."

"It's due to the overuse of magic." Discord's turn, while drinking a soda he just spawned. "You may be familiar to this, after that day at the motel. You felt how the use of Tirek's wrath did a number on you after It was over."

"And It seems..." Said Chrysalis. "That pink girl has an effect on you. You calmed down pretty quickly with her presence... after knocking her out of your back before you realize what you did to her."

"I... er..." Mane gagged. "She's my closest friend so far."

"Yeah right..." Chrysalis giggled. "I know what is going on in your mind." She winked at him.

"Get out of my case!" Mane snarled at her.

"Folks, let's not forget our task here." Sombra called the attention. "I'll start. You already know and I told you this before. You have the 'Crystal Sense' and the 'Shadow Body'. Being from the Crystal Empire and my power on you, you can turn on your crystal body whenever you want without the presence of the Crystal Heart. And turn your body in a cloud of black smoke... except your face, which you can change size but in a limited. For a bigger power, I give you the power of mixing those two in one, making you a fighting beast."

"My turn!" Discord stood up cheerfully. "I give the power of manipulating space and time. It might sound too powerful, because It is. I'm sorry I don't have a small thing to offer you, but when you do this, you can stop time for one minute! ONE minute!" Discord made the number with his finger of his eagle arm. "And the space part, you can do anything you want while It's stopped. You can't kill anypony like that... unless you think hard."

"I shall give you the power of persuasion." Said Chrysalis with her lusty tone. "You may talk in a way that almost nopony will negate whatever you say. And I've been seeing you and that girl together... so I shall give you a passive power of an everlasting bond with her. Her presence can calm you down faster than that time, giving your conscious a moment of peace and come back to reality before you inevitably pass out from the overuse of magic from a big power like Tirek's or Sombra's. For a bigger power, I shall give you the power of changing your body to whatever character you want, but males only, and to turn your bonded companion into any mare you want. This only works with her and I'm familiar you've done this before when you went to the Crystal Empire, but only lasted some minutes. With my help, you can stay like that for a hour."

"My turn...." Nightmare Moon stood up from her throne. "I grant the power of fear. What is more scary than the night itself, when something unknown lurks in the dark? You may lose your fear of the dark and become the fear Itself to your opponents..." The other four giggled at Mane's cowardice. "For a great power, I give you the power of the night. At nighttime, your senses get sharper and your energy slightly raises. Your ears will hear sounds from a mile away, you will run silently without notice, and your night vision gets better. Slay your enemies with such speed and stealth that they won't even know what hit them. But ONLY works at night."

"Let's end this." Tirek looked at Mane with a menacing pose. "I have a passive for you, better control in the powers we offer you. For a bigger thing, I have what made me almost destroy Equestria... my endless wrath. You experienced It before and the results were a bit more than I expected. But with my passive gift, you may have a better control over yourself. My power gives you an endless streak of energy and superior strength which you can use with your 'Crystal Sense'."

The Five Devils ended their list of offers, and Mane felt uneasy with all those offers. He started consider if he would survive the procedure. Sombra noticed his hands trembling and walked down to his nephew's throne.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" He putted a hand over his shoulder. "You are free to leave."

"No. I won't leave." Mane stated. "I want to help Equestria. I want to save It from the scum polluting It. Not in any of your names, but for the sake of the world I live in. I want to make It better before my time comes, either by age or in battle. And your offerings are indeed good, and I understand they are just fractions of your full powers. All of one would make my body explode in a devastating magic boom."

"Glad you understand that part." Tirek stood up with the rest of them, while Sombra walked back to his spot. "This will hurt, you know?"

"I'm aware of that." Mane stood up as well with the throne behind him going back to underground. "Not the first time I've been in pain or close to death."

"Believe me, dear Mane..." Sombra shook his head slowly to the sides. "This will be way worse... and I know by experience."

"Before we begin, you may want to consider something." Said Chrysalis with an imposing voice. "This may be the last time you can perform the ritual using your own blood..."

"Why is that?" He asked confused.

"Think about It after this... if you survive." She giggled.

"Don't jinx It!" Discord grunted.

"Are you ready?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"Yes..." Mane answered calmly, closing his eyes in acceptance.

Back in Mane's room

Pinkamena kept holding the door while the soldiers kept ramming It. Mane has been there in the floor for almost a hour glowing dark purple without any reaction to what was happening around him.

"DIANE! OPEN THIS DOOR!" Screamed Sigil from the other side.

"I-I can't!" She answered. "Mane told me to!"

"We don't care! It's smells like a damn volcano is about to erupt!" Copper Spear yelled. "DESTROY THIS DOOR!"

"Fuck!" Pinkamena jumped away from the door, and It got destroyed into pieces when two soldiers burst they in, followed by Sigil, Copper and Quill, to find Pinkamena in a defensive pose in front of Mane, while he was sitting on the floor, eyes closed and meditating, with the same purple aura they saw that day at the motel. "Don't do anything..." She asked to.

"We won't if you tell us what the hell is going on!" Quill shook a fist in the air.

"He made... a ritual." Pinkamena answered not sure if It was a good idea to tell.

"For what?" Sigil asked puzzled by the scenario. "As far I remember, I told you both we are a cult with no intent of bringing King Sombra back! It's a golden rule in our place, and you are breaking It!"

"You better find a better excuse!" Copper pointed at her.

The pressure was real. The results of interrupting Mane were unpredictable, and those three were looking at them with faces not meant to joke around. He could enter in a coma and never come back, or worse.

"You see... uh..." She started sweating looking for an explanation. "He's King Sombra's nephew. He's maybe communicating with him, asking for advice... or... ask how is life going as a ghost." She showed a nervous smile.

"Why do I have a feeling you are lying?" Sigil muttered.

"I'm not!" Pinka cried.

"That's It! Tell him to wake up!" Quill ordered.

"I can't! I have his orders to not allow anypony get close of him!"

"You two, end this facade..." Copper looked at the two soldiers and pointed at Mane, but Pinkamena instantly tackled them, but they kept forcing their way.

"NO! If he told me to, you better not do It!" Pinkamena screamed while fighting against the soldier's advance.

"Out of the way, miss!" Grunted one of the guards while trying to shove her away.

"Make me!" Diane provoked.

"Argh! Is this what I train you for? COME ON!" Copper yelled at his fighters, making their push even stronger.

"NO! PLEASE!" Pinkamena screamed. "MANE! WAKE UP!"

"Hold her!" Sigil ordered, and the soldiers grabbed the startled mare by the arms. "I'll end this myself."

"DON'T!" Pinka screamed at her.

"Shut up!" Sigil yelled, while approaching Mane's immobile body. But as soon she extended her arm to his shoulder, a spark of magic gave her a electric shock along her arm, making her step back. "I see..." The cyan mare closed her fist and pointed towards Mane's head.

Suddenly, Mane's body came back to life and he shook violently on the floor. He screamed, but those were screams of pure agony. He squirmed like a gaint fish out of water, kicking the legs of the bed and scattering the leftovers of what he used in the ritual, breaking the glass with Pinkamena's blood and spilling It on his ragged jeans.

"What the hell?!" Quill screamed baffled by the current scenery.

"Pinkamena, what did he do to himself?!" Sigil asked in panic.

"I don't know!" She yelled while releasing herself from the guards grip. "Ma- AHHH!!!" She knelled down to assist her friend, but as soon she touched his body, It was hot, hot like a iron coming our of a furnace. She stood up with haste and stepped back from the agitated colt.

His body started forming a purple aura like before, and his screams pitch raised to a bigger level. Then It changed to a greenish one, moments later It changed for dark blue, grey and a crimson red for the final. The aura ended and in a blink of an eye, he stopped screaming just like his agitated moves. They all stood there without knowing what to do, and Mane's body steaming from the heat inside him, laying on the floor completely passed out.

"What the fuck just happened..?" Copper broke the silence.

"You're asking me?" Pinkamena looked at him upset. "I don't get this side of him! He just told me he needed this list of stuff and he was gonna do a ritual! I don't know anything else after that!"

"Hey, Mane Shaker! Wak- DAMMIT!" Sigil touched the body and she felt the heat herself. "It's like he came out of an oven!"

"See?" Pinkamena complained.

"Shall we take him to the infirmary?" Copper suggested.

"It's for the best..." Quill agreed with anger. "And he's gonna have a hard time after waking up... I'm gonna tell him some words about what I told him before about overdoing his magic limitations. His brain must be all fried after what we saw here."

Author's Notes:

damn this one was hard to write