Andromalius lied next to Celestia, who was sleeping peacefully. He, on the other hand, couldn't. He felt danger, it came from down below, from the frozen depth of the barren, snow-covered lands of the Frozen North. Andromalius felt it and was sure that danger will awake someday and bring destruction and pain. However, the hell stallion could do nothing, he didn't know what the danger was or how to defeat it. All he knew that it is present, and nothing more.

Suddenly, everything changed before Andromalius. He blinked and found himself on a green-covered island that floated in the void of white. There were many other islands: volcanic, tropical, deserted, arctic. The hell stallion couldn't understand what was happening.

"A-ah, the worthy one." a voice echoed through the void, seemingly coming from everywhere. Andromalius looked around but couldn't see the voice's owner. "Oh, let me show myself to thee."

Someone large descended from the sky and landed it front of Andromalius. The creature was a tall alicorn stallion. However, instead of a normal spiral horn, he had two demonic ones, and the wings were membrane. The fur was black, and the mane and tail were fire. The eyes, however, were bright-cyan. The cutie mark of the mysterious stallion was the Alicorn Amulet.

"Who are you?" Andromalius asked.

"My name is Caelinus." the alicorn introduced himself. "I am who created the amulet thou art wearing. I must tell thee, Andromalius, thou art the first one to bear it without falling under the curse."

"What curse?" the hell stallion tilted his head in confusion.

"A curse that I've cast upon the amulet. Any who is unworthy to bear it shall face the curse that driveth them insane. Any who wanteth to use my creation for evil deeds, and others who wanteth to use it for themselves, shall face the curse. That is a safety mechanism."

"I understand, I think. But why am I worthy?" Andromalius asked, stepping closer.

"Thou art the one who wanteth to use the amulet not for thyself or evil, but for the greatest task: freeing innocents from their everlasting prison.

"Let me tell thee the story of my sister and I. Dost not ask questions until I finish. So, it all began many thousand years before this moment...

"There were three ponies of different tribes that loved each other greatly. A pegasus and unicorn mares, and an earth pony stallion. Their love was not accepted by the rulers, so they were banished from their respective tribes. They were forced to starve, wandering across the land, facing hatred from their own kind. That was until the Demon Alliance, a union of all nations, found them and gave them shelter and food.

"Their love for each other grew as they overcame the obstacles and dangers in their way. And on one fateful night, both mares became pregnant. A year later they gave birth to two foals: a brother and a sister.

"The pegasus mare gave birth to my sister and named her Laelia. She had black coat and blue mane, and by the birth she was an alicorn, a pony with horn and wings and the strength of an earth pony. The unicorn mare gave birth to me. My fur was white and my mane was blonde, and I was an alicorn, too.

"The happiness of the family was never-ending, destined to last forever. The foals grew in atmosphere of love and harmony, they befriended many people and were loved amongst others. Their power grew as well.

"But one day, everything came to an end. The war that raged between three pony tribes and other nations came to its peak. Unicorns created a magical artifact, the Sphere of Purity. But I know thou knowest it. So, when all of the Demon Alliance was banished to Hell, only I and my sister remained on the Surface.

"We were hated for what we are, no one welcomed us in their homes. But we didn't fell, we stood together, united. Both of us decided to sacrifice ourselves for the good of all ponies.

"My sister Laelia believed that the hate between the tribes shall be replaced by friendship and love someday. She sacrificed herself and became one with magic, giving chance to anypony to become an alicorn if one is pure of soul and reached great heights.

"I sacrificed myself, creating the artifact thou art wearing. It shall give unlimited power of the first alicorns to anyone who is worthy enough to wear it. And I believe that thou shalt do something great someday and make me proud. Dost not thou let my trust in thee become wrong.

"And before thou askest... My appearance hath changed because of the Sphere. And until my end, I shall appear before others like this.

"So, thou mayest ask questions now." Caelinus nodded to the hell stallion.

"What will happen if I do free all the demons from Hell?" Andromalius asked.

"Their fate shall be in thy hooves. But the future cannot be predicted. Not even the embodiments of magic know what shall happen and what shall not. It is not known whether thou shalt complete thy task or not. But trust me, thou canst change the flow of history."

"Do you know anypony who became alicorns?" the next question came.

"I do." Caelinus nodded. "There were no alicorns for thousands of years. I believe that Celestia and Luna are the first ones since my and my sister's births. Then, Cadance became one. All of them reached great heights in many things. They have pure souls, yet none of them are perfect. But they do many things to make others happy, and never even once they had hurt innocents.

"I believe that Celestia hath problems, those that torture her very soul. Thou canst help her or leave her in the darkness. Thou art something truly different from her... Thou canst... fix her and guide her, even if thou art young. That maketh no differenth, though. Celestia is important, Andromalius. Dost not let her fall, or the world shall face darkness that shall be greater than Nightmare Moon could have brought in her time. Dost not let Celestia become Solar Flare."

"Solar Flare?" Andromalius tilted his head in confusion.

"I said that future cannot be predicted, yet some things can be." Caelinus said. "But there are always chances... Right now, the chance of Celestia becoming her evil counterpart is rather high. Luna was not helped in her time, she became Nightmare Moon. Celestia needeth help.

"I have trust in thee. Now, wake up and face the world."

With a blink, Andromalius found himself back in the dugout. Nothing has changed since he appeared before Caelinus. Celestia was still sleeping, the warmth of both cloaks that she was wrapped in kept her warm and comfortable.

The two were marching through the snowy plains again. Celestia has raised the sun, and it now warmed her a little. The sky was clear and blue.

However, Andromalius felt danger. The feeling crept inside him, resting in the corners of his mind. He tried to shake it off but the more he thought of it, the more scared he became. He often looked around, but everything seemed to be alright. The same white snow, the mountains on the horizon, the cloudless sky, the bright sun. However, there was dead silence. There was no wind, even the sounds of walking on the snow seemed to be muffled by something.

"Celestia?" he broke the silence. He hoped that the talk with break his feeling of danger.

"Yes, Andromalius?" she replied. Her tone was even.

"I always wondered..." he continued. "What is it, living for thousands of years?"

"It is harder than living for a normal amount of time." she replied. "At first, my sister and I realized that our friends and loved ones will die someday, and we'll have to live onwards. It was hard for us. But eventually, we moved on."

The ringing sound appeared inside Andromalius's head. He shook his head, trying to get rid of it.

"It doesn't matter when our dear ones will die, what matters is how will we spend life with them. I and my sister enjoyed our time with friends and loved ones, even if we didn't have many. Yes, we grieved over those who left us, but it is a nature of things. Ponies come and go, nations rise and fall."

The sound continued, Celestia's voice became louder.

"The next thing is stress, our greatest enemy. I and Luna have to deal with all kind of things, and some of them drives us crazy. We always have to take into account many things, have memories of terrible events, and so on. I don't think I can explain it in words, it simply must be understood by yourself. But eventually..."

The sound reached its peak. Celestia's face turned emotionless, eyes staring at nothing.

"We will all die."

Without any sound, she fell to the ground. Andromalis ran to her.

"Celestia?! Celestia!" he shouted, falling down. He looked at her lifeless body in horror. "Oh hell... What happened?.." he started to cry. "No! This can't be happening, this can't be..."

A malicious laughter echoed through the plains of snow, filling his soul with dread.

"No, no, no, no..." Andromalius chanted, tilting from side to side. "This can't be..."

Suddenly, the ringing stopped as Andromalius came to a realization. His eyes narrowed in rage, the hellfire rose from his body, melting the snow around him. His eyes and hooves went ablaze.

"This isn't real." he growled. "Come out!"

A small laugh echoed again.

"Thou art far smarter than I thought." a masculine voice replied.

A dark-gray muscular unicorn stallion appeared before Andromalius. His mane was black and flowed ethereally, his horn was red and curved. His eyes had cat-like eyes with red irises. He was dressed in a red cape and steel armor.

King of Monsters. King of Shadows. Tenebricus Umbra.

King Sombra the Enslaver.

"But if it is not real," he growled. "Can I hurt thee?"

A black crystal fell from the sky on Andromalius. He quickly dodged, the crystal impacted the ground, making everything shake, yet not hurting the hell stallion.

"Celestia and Luna shall be mine, the Crystal Empire shall be mine. And the first step to achieve my goals shall be thy death!" Sombra snarled, then summoned a dark sword. "I shall subdue, enslave, dominate! Thou hast no chance against me, I am immortal!"

"You are immortal only until you face certain death." Andromalius replied calmly. "Do you know who... No, do you know what I am?"

"Somepony I will kill." Sombra snarled, preparing to strike.

"Wrong answer." the hell stallion chuckled. "I am the Nightmare."

The Aura of Fear activated as intense as ever, stunning Sombra. He blinked in surprise, then swung his sword. A shield of fire appeared around Andromalius, blocking the strike. The black sword began to burn, and soon a chunk of it disappeared in flames. Sombra stared at his sword, confusion on his face.

"Thou shouldst not be able to do that! Nopony can protect themselves in their dreams from me!"

"Do I look like a pony?" Andromalius deadpanned. "You're very stupid if you think I am."

"Rrrrarrgh!" Sombra roared, then brought his sword upon Andromalius again. This time, it burned to ashes, not even making it through the hellfire shield.

"A nightmare is called one because it has power in dreams." Andromalius spoke. Then, he shouted in an amplified voice: "Tu eris timeo!"

And the great fear came upon Sombra, forcing him to leave the hell stallion's dream. It ended, and Andromalius woke up.

Andromalius and Celestia marched through the snowy plains, now for real. The princess of the day slept peacefully through the night, her dreams were undisturbed. Sombra was focused on destroying Andromalius and was too afraid to try to destroy Celestia while the hell stallion was around.

The mountains were still far away, but the two marched to them without stopping. Those mountains were of the furthest north, beyond which lies the unknown.

"Celestia, I have met a strange unicorn stallion in my dreams." Andromalius spoke. "And he wants you and your sister dead."

"Was he a stallion of gray fur, black mane, and does he have a curved horn of red?" Celestia asked warily. Andromalius nodded in reply, and Celestia sighed. "That is King Sombra the Enslaver. About a thousand years ago he wanted to enslave the Crystal Empire for unknown reasons. When I and Luna fought him, he cast a curse on the empire, making it disappear with him."

Andromalius frowned. However, he didn't say anything in return. He continued the way to the Regnum.

After five hours of travel, Celestia told Andromalius that she wants to eat. Making another dugout to hide from the harsh wind, he waited for her to finish her meal. Thankfully for her, her food was preserved by magic. If it wasn't, it would've frozen from the cold.

"Andromalius, I always wondered—" Celestia swallowed a piece of apple. "—What do you eat? I've never seen you eat."

"Because I don't." Andromalius answered. "It is strange... Before I became like this—" he gestured at his body. "—I had to eat often to keep myself fit. It is strange to not do it."

"And what did you eat when you were... normal?" Celestia took another bite of an apple. After she ate it, she said: "Please, tell me more of your previous life. If you want, that is.

"I will start with the question about my ration. As an omnivore, I could eat almost anything." he replied. "Fruits, vegetables, meat."

"So, you were a carnivore-omnivore hybrid?" she raised a brow. "I don't know any omnivores but alicorns. We must have meat to get protein for ourselves."

"Humans, those of my kind, aren't exactly carnivores." he shook his head. "We can feed only on green food if we want. We don't have any claws or other natural weapons suitable for hunting prey. We evolved from monkeys, and that is the answer." he paused for a moment. "Well, not exactly monkeys, we just had a common ancestor with them. And they are not omnivores, as far as I can remember."

"That is interesting." Celestia tapped her chin. "And how many humans are there, in the other world?"

"About seven billion, maybe more." he replied. "Well, we're the only sapient race there, after all."

"That is a large number..." Celestia said. "I don't think our world has even a half of it, even if most territories aren't discovered yet. A known part of the land is really small."

"Humans have already been almost everywhere, and that includes the moon." Andromalius stated proudly.

"That is fascinating!" her eyes widened. "But how did humans accomplish such tasks?"

"Development of technology, that's how. There is no magic on the Earth, that is for sure."

"Earth? Your planet is called Earth?" she tilted her head.

"Well, because humans live on earth, as in land, I suppose." Andromalius tapped his chin. "Though, the planet's name is maybe not entirely correct since most of it is water. I think we named it after, well, earth, because it's what we live on."

"I would like to see the Earth." Celestia said. "I wonder how does it look like, how does it smell, what kind of people live there."

Andromalius frowned and didn't say anything. He didn't want Celestia to know who lives on the Earth and what is happening to the planet itself because of them.

"Ugh, will this snowy plain ever end?" Andromalius groaned as the two walked another fifteen kilometers. It was near evening, and the destination was still very far away. The wind was harsh, and the visibility was low.

"No one knows how big is the territory here. Maps of those times are very inaccurate." Celestia replied. "No one has ventured here for a very long time, too. Wait... I think I see something."

There was, alone in the whole cold desert, a small tower stood. It had empty windows, old cracked bricks. The tower was pretty simple in design, looking like a cylinder with a diameter of about fifteen meters and a height of about thirty. And there are remains of glass on top of the tower, suggesting that there was a dome.

"I think I know what it is..." Celestia said, moving closer. "If what is written in the books is right, this must be the Astrological Tower of Hornguard, the capital of the unicorn tribe. The tower was spoken of as a hundred meters tall, standing on a hill... Oh my, there is a whole city buried under the tons of snow!

"It is written that the whole city was circular, about four kilometers in diameter. The walls of ten meters high surrounded the city, protected with ancient spells. I wonder what secrets are hidden under the snow..."

"Well, we have time to find out." Andromalius said. "Besides, maybe this city will one day be restored."

"That is actually a good idea!" Celestia agreed. "Let us get in there through the tower."