This is a tale of three realms never meant to meet having a chance intersection. Two of the realms are the worlds of Equestria and their respective accompanying parallel worlds, those across mirrors and populated by humans. One is the Equestria many would know, but the other is an Equestria that went down a similar; but distinct path. This was a grimmer world of ponies, still full of joy and happiness but without the constant peace. Enemies from the 1,000 years past continued to threaten ponykind to this day, despite the similar actions taken to defeat them.

Perhaps the change was caused by an insignificant factor, perhaps it was caused by the even greater darkness that swelled into Princess Luna’s heart than in the other Equestria, leading her to launch a second dark age even after Princess Celestia managed to defeat her.

That dark age’s aftershocks were responsible for the various cultists and dark magic users that periodically stirred trouble for the population at large. Centuries later and whatever change responsible for the divergence a thousand years earlier continued to split the path in the present. This time Princess Celestia, wanting a family ever since the loss of her sister, adopted a promising young filly named Sunset Shimmer. Years later and Sunset, not Twilight Sparkle, proved to be a magical prodigy and hatched the egg of a baby earth drake. It was Sunset Shimmer who found herself sent to Ponyville by her mother and teacher, and it was Sunset who coincidentally found herself a bearer of the long lost Elements of Harmony alongside six of the locals.

Nightmare Moon and her cultist army of power-crazed ponies and demonic monstrosities were largely beaten down after a great battle across the Everfree and nearby Ponyville. Nightmare Moon was physically reverted to Princess Luna, but in this time and place, the change was just a loss of power and not psyche. Luna was still driven to monstrousness, still harboring a hatred for her big sister and those who defeated her army, forcing her to be confined to Canterlot while Celestia worked to try and reconnect with her sibling. But even as her life seemed to calm back down, aside from a sadly eventful reunion with a magic school rival turned criminal, Sunset Shimmer was restless. The Everfree was as unwelcoming as it had been on a nice day, but lately it seemed like something was even worse with it. Exactly what remained elusive, but the nagging feeling of dread was too strong for the headstrong princess to ignore. And while she had softened to a degree since her arrival, she still wasn’t quite at the point of including others with her ploys, both to keep them running smoothly and to keep others out of danger. Thusly, she set off alone before sunrise, leaving none to know where she’d gone.

And that is what has happened so far in this Equestria many know not. As for the third realm involved? Well, let’s just say as different as the two Equestrias are from one another; neither would have any context for what they’d soon encounter from the world beyond. There were giants upon the earth those days, and those days had come again.

Princess Sunset Shimmer quietly counted her hoofsteps as she tread through the fringes of the Everfree forest. Life hadn’t been the best for a lot of ponies, much less the adoptive daughter of the monarch, and the damage to Ponyville showed it. Repairs were still underway from the dragon attack accidentally spurred by the Element bearer’s old school rival and there was even some damage leftover from the Nightmare Army’s invasion during Nightmare Moon’s return.But, life was going back to normal… Or at least it was until she started hearing rumors of strange travelers going into the Everfree. When she found a knife one of them had dropped, she discovered it not only had a hidden lunar symbol on the pommel, but also had traces of dark magic sixty times the norm. Her worst fears were coming to fruition.

She’d suspected one of Nightmare Moon’s generals went back into hiding and thus wasn’t slain or captured in the final battle, either as some sort of contingency plan to fall back into obscurity like they had 1,000 years ago; or due to having just been away from the main fight at the time. And as far as she was concerned now, she’d found evidence just a hair away from confirmation.

In truth, Princess Celestia probably would have taken Sunset’s word for it on the matter even without absolute proof; but her daughter was anything but so simple. She was stubborn, on a bit of an edge since the dragon fiasco; and determined to get evidence too strong to oppose before she made her case.

And that was why she was following faint hoofprints into the most dangerous forest in Equestria near sundown, alone to try and avoid any detection. In hindsight, not her best plan. But, still a plan that bore some success. Keeping out of sight, Sunset Shimmer soon found to herself looking at exactly what she’d been looking for and dreading it at the same time. Dozens of dark magic mutated ponies, shadow knights in thick armor and robe clad warlocks, walking amongst an ungodly amount of heinous creations from the nether realms summoned by the latter party. Hovering over head were several flights of similarly mutated, armored shadowbolts and bat winged nocturne ponies. There were hauntings of shadow wraiths, spectral masses of dark magic that bore a skin crawling gaze forth from their glowing eyes. Amidst them and pony alike were entire packs of monstrous lupines, dire wolves, and these ones seemed to be magically mutated and enhanced judging from the spectral mist surrounding them. The glint of hellish blades betrayed the location of at least two ‘Blades of Nightmare’, serpentine monstrosities literally composed of dark magic strand bound blades and all but impossible to fight with anything short of powerful magic. And looming over many were the hulking forms of a half dozen behemoths, oath sworn ponies who’d mutated beyond recognition into towering, five meter tall reptilian goliaths to act as both shocktroopers and living siege weapons. This wasn’t just a simple cultist band or fragmentary force, this was an entire reserve army.

And they were on the move. A dark chill flew over Sunset Shimmer, indicating someone unseen at the front of the force was packing away the most dark magic she’d ever encountered save for Nightmare Moon herself. Orders were being called out to the army, but from her safe distance Sunset couldn’t quite make out what they were saying exactly. The intent seemed clear enough however, as a vast majority of the troops got up from where they stood and started to march on ahead deeper into the dark forest. Only a single warlock and a few wraiths stayed behind, moving off into a secluded portion of the glade.

While her first instinct was to run and alert Princess Celestia as soon as possible, the separation of the smaller force caught her attention. An attention that was only increased when she noticed that small group literally vanish right before her eyes. Keeping mind to stay in cover and behind some shrubs, Sunset approached where they had left and felt a familiar tingle in the air going across her muzzle. It was a sign magic was afoot, confirmation coming when she stepped forward more and the tingling washed over her like a bubble, the group instantly becoming visible directly in front of her. Restraining a gasp Sunset Shimmer lurched her head back and instantly lost sight of them despite their position just ahead.

Blinking her eyes for a moment to think it through, she poked her head forward again and instantly gained sight of the group after the tingling feeling went past her eyes. Thankfully, the group's backs were turned to the sunlit mare.

-Cloaking magic. It must have a filter to keep anything outside from looking at the beings within it. From the outside it looks like an empty forest.-

She thought, glancing around and seeing a very mild distortion in the visible space going in a circle around the group.

-That’s how they’ve been keeping their camps hidden in the Everfree from fly-overs.-

She glared at the group, content she was still hidden as she watched on.

-But what is this group up to?-

The warlock, a lean unicorn, or at least former unicorn given how monstrous her own nightmare magic had tainted her appearance with near black fur and a sickly gray mane, barked orders to the wraiths on hoof as she faced a peculiar looking obsidian pedestal with a glowing, green-white sphere atop it.

“Keep me covered just in case, and I shall grant the reinforcements asked!”

She hissed, the shapeless specters obeying and forming a semicircle around her. The warlock's eyes lit up as her horn ignited, the mare muttering some sort of hexed utterance to the sphere in a vile sounding tongue. The sphere pulsed in unison with her and flashed. After the flash a shadowy substance gushed out of the sphere and formed into the approximation of a large earth pony; devoid of any features save for its glowing eyes not unlike one of the wraiths. It was a Shadow, albeit an oddly green tinted one, a stock troop staple of Nightmare Moon’s forces. Sunset Shimmer raised a small eyebrow.

-Never seen that kind of pedestal before...and it seems potent. Why hand something like that away to just make a few Shadows? They’re usually pretty easy to make in a batch of four or five for a single warlock without any outside help.-

Sunset got her answer when the Shadow marched off as the warlock cast the spell again. This time the flash spurred the creation of two Shadows. Then another flash spurred four. Then another spurred eight. Then sixteen. Soon an entire new army, a sea of Shadows was marching off in the direction of the last army with no sign of diminishing in number. Sunset Shimmer felt her face whiten a bit.

-If I let them keep at it, no telling what the limit might be. Can’t go back to alert mom yet, I have to stop this army generator!-

Sunset Shimmer regarded the cloaking field. These things were perfect for concealment because they could mask both light and sound. There was a ten second interval between the last Shadow wave crossing through the cloak and the next one being created. Shadows weren’t very bright, but they aren’t oblivious. If she attacked with any of them being able to see or hear her it could mean trouble between their mass numbers, limited space, the wraiths, and the warlock herself. That meant she had ten seconds to try and fight through the wraiths, interrupt the summoning spells, and hopefully stop the warlock from casting it again.

Timing herself just right, Sunset rushed out before the next wave of shadows could be created with her horn glowing brightly. The ensuing volley of burning waves and fireballs struck the wraiths before they could even react. The wraith directly between the herd and the warlock was evaporated almost instantly, allowing the flood of the fiery magic to fly through where it had been. The burning energy grazed the side of the warlock's cloak, searing off the lunar emblem as they dodged out of the way the best they could. The remaining magic hit the pedestal, causing it to spark and crackle with hexes as its targeting portal was thrown off focus. Drifting away from the opening to the nightmarish realm that it was tearing the shadows free of, it began to run wild as it tried to center itself again on a new focus point. The black and pale blue motif across the pedestal and sphere began to fade away, charred gray, orange, and red replacing it as those colors leeched across the surface. The summoning started to enact again, this time with a portal opening above the structure and unleashing a magma-covered hand. The warlock, not oblivious to the intense convection heat given off by the newcomer's arrival, barked orders to the wraiths to keep the unicorn mare busy as she worked to reorganize the portal.

Sunset Shimmer dodged to and fro, kicking off the ground with her back legs to avoid lunging wraiths. The glimmer of magic caught her attention, the unicorn blasting away a wraith just in time to see the warlock getting the portal back under control. Stomping her hoof and igniting the air around her with a shout, she threw out a wave of energy that burnt the remaining wraiths to a crisp as they charged her. Now free of obstruction, Sunset Shimmer wasted no time in firing a continuous beam of pyro-magic at the warlock. Seeing the onslaught coming both from the blinding light and burning heat, the cultist was forced to wrestle herself away from trying to control the pedestal and devoting her magic to putting up a shield.

Sunset Shimmer and the warlock's magic willed against one another, struggling to and fro with irradiating energy causing the pedestal controlling the portal to go completely haywire. But instead of deactivating, the overcharged artifact erratically pulsed as it locked on to something else from a distant domain! Just as Sunset Shimmer was beginning to overpower the warlock, the cracking and sparking pedestal exploded in a blast wave of energy like a bomb had just gone off. Shockwaves ripped through the air and practically blew out the eardrums of anyone around who was close enough to hear it and not the echoes. Sunset Shimmer was thrown back against a tree trunk with the nightmare cultist being caught in the brunt of the blast.

It took at least ten seconds before Sunset's vision returned and her ears stopped ringing loud enough to be deafening. By the time her senses resettled, she didn't know what it was exactly she was looking at. The pedestal was completely gone, nothing but a scorch mark with shattered fragments of broken stone and crystal that lay about the immediate area. The portal above it however was still open and something was coming through it. The exact visage of the beast was hard to distinguish, its features largely masked by the inky covering it bore that was so black it looked more like a hole in space than a shadow. It wasn't enormous however, least not in what appeared to be body size. In that regard it was in the upper end for a larger stallion as it stepped down onto the ground with four limbs. When the wings on its back made their presence known however, it looked easily four times the size it did before; having a wingspan to rival Princess Celestia's herself. The only distinguishable part of its body, its glowing eyes, were quick to lock onto the nearest source of sound.

The warlock had survived the explosion, barely, but was mortally wounded from internal damage. The hellish magic that had been holding her body together was giving out in that respect and now starting to consume her. Bit by bit, the unicorn mare's form started to dry and crack like old clay, before fragmenting away in the manner of ash to become little more than shadow-hued dust. But even as she faded away into nothingness, she bore a demented grin across her black-bloodied maw; spitting a bit of inky ichors in Sunset's direction.

"You're too late. The night mare shall return and the day... will... die... Heheahaha!"

The cultist's manic laughter, one with a fanged grin and smile far beyond what was seemingly possible, was all that remained of her as a breeze blew by and whisked her corpse away. The shadow beast and Sunset Shimmer looked to the place the warlock once was, the latter trying to figure out just what happened. She'd seen plenty of dead cultists before, but that spectacle wasn't normal. Nor was the ungodly chill blowing through the breeze that carried her ashes and seemed to blow through her as much as it did blow past her. It stunk of malice and dark magic so badly that she unconsciously wrinkled her nose through her panting. Her mind snapped back out of analysis mode and back to pressing matter, shifting focus to the shadow beast. The one that was looking at and now walking right up to her. Whatever sharp protrusion of a mouth it seemed to have flexed up and down, almost like it was trying to speak or click its maw but was unable to do either.

It crouched slightly, moving its wings and reaching out with a blotted out set of black talons as if seizing a prey. Sunset figured it must have thought she was worn out after the fight and wished to take its sweet time mauling her, a fact she was eager to correct.

Jumping back, Sunset Shimmer's eyes and horn ignited with a charge and she soon sent a volley of three fireballs at the monster. They hit it square in the chest, blotting out its void of a form briefly with smokescreen. However any sort of hope for a dire hit was soon squashed when it came walking out of the smog completely unfazed. Sunset's mind was sent into a whirlwind. Her fire magic was a specialty and it had unfailingly managed to harm in some capacity any shadow force it had gone up against. Most odd however was the fact this shadow beast was rapidly losing the former part of its title. As if it were a coating of paint burned off by the flames still dancing across its form, patches of the creature's darker-than-night form was going away and revealing hues of dull red-brown on the limbs, flanks, and wings; and a sandy tan across the throat and chest. The creature itself seemed to notice this, pausing its march and looking at its now half revealed paw in a curious manner.

It looked back up to the sound of Sunset calling out and got an almost comically large flamethrower spell hitting it in the face. The magical flames swallowed up its form entirely and Sunset Shimmer didn't stop the jet of magically born napalm until a pair of featherless wings ripped out from the sides of the stream. In a shouting gust they beat the air and sent their owner flying up into the air space above and free of the flames. Sunset Shimmer cut the flamethrower off and looked to the newcomer.

She could tell right away it definitely wasn't a shadow beast, but just what it was exactly was also elusive. It looked like a gryphon, but there wasn't a single feather on it. Instead the epidermis beyond the furry hindquarters was covered in a very fine mesh of skin and scales across the body and a line of scutes on the chest, stomach, and throat. And she couldn't quite recall ever seeing any gryphon with a pair of red horns on its head. The explanation as to why this was so completely out of her field of guesswork, so one couldn't blame her for being confused upon her first encounter with a converted kaiju.

Though in truth, Rodan was just as confused as she was; not knowing where in the realms he was or how he got here covered in black stuff. Confusion was mixed with annoyance. While her fireworks had failed to seriously harm him past some small singes on account of the magic, intent behind the attack had been clear and he was all too observant of the glow on Sunset Shimmer's horn indicating she was about to try again. Rodan rolled his eyes and shook his head, snorting embers out of his beak's nostrils as a glow built up across his horns, eyes, and throat.

"Oye, lady you really don't know how to hurt me do you?

He quipped, earning an annoyed growl from Sunset as she loosed another flamethrower.

"Return to sender!"

Rodan shouted before throwing his glowing jaws open and firing a quarter charged plasma beam that ripped through the flamethrower like a wedge through split wood. It struck Sunset Shimmer on her flank and knocked the unicorn backwards and into a thicket of shrubs.

Rodan cut the beam off, lowered back down to hover just a meter off the ground and quickly headed for the shrubs to check on his assailant. Having remembered what happened when Godzilla Junior crashed into Canterlot, his motive wasn't to start a brawl until he could figure out what was going on. Information was priority number one both before and after he saw that dark pony somehow turn to ash. He wasn't trying to seriously hurt or kill the unicorn, just knock her down long enough for her to stop attacking him. If she could pull off a fire display like that he wasn't wanting to chance her having some sort of attack that could hurt him. He approached the thicket.

"Hey, if you've still got wind in your lungs and can be level-headed enough to stop lobbing fire at me, I'll fly you to a hospital if you need it."

The shrub leaves began to shift, not from movement within but from heat. They withered and turned brown as the water evaporated out of them, before finally igniting. Rodan felt a surge of power emanating out from the now burning cover and an illuminated outline become visible through the flames. A powerful, echoing voice ripped across the air once the outline got close enough that the equine form became visible.

"You dare?!"

-Uh oh…-

Rodan shot into the air quick enough to kick up a shockwave, fortunately just barely fast enough to avoid getting hit by the three meter wide beam of fiery magic shooting past him. Taking enough time to glance back to see the affects of the fire blast, Rodan was left wide eyed upon seeing it had managed to cleanly burn through several trees and a boulder in a perfect, circular cut before being cut off. Rodan looked back at the shrubs and didn’t even need to think before his eyes focused in on the source of the blast.

Sunset Shimmer didn’t know what exactly this monster of a gryphon had hit her with, dark magic can cause all manner of unpredictable and dangerous mutations seeing as Nightmare Moon wanted only the best for her army. But, in the milliseconds between the beam being close enough for her to feel the heat coming off it and actually being hit by it, she’d fortunately realized what it’s chief component was. It was rare for one of the shadow beasts or cultists to use fire magic, but that was either what this monster was using or at least it was something very similar. Similar enough for her to use those blood enchantments Celestia had helped her get. Blood magic was a dangerous deal and could easily be a double edged sword. But once one had their specialty, it was more than easy to exploit it. In her case, it turned her into a fire magic sponge. Nothing less one would expect from the adoptive daughter of a sun goddess and sibling to a dragon.

Rodan had just shot her with a power-up.

The unicorn princess stepped into the clearing again, her hooves burning small bits of flame into the dirt and grass beneath her. A thin red and orange aura slithered across her outline; emanating from the bright glow that had consumed her cutiemark. With every pulse from her heartbeat, bits of light coursed through her veins and arteries in a way that was visible through her skin. The charge up had also added an echoing distortion to her voice.

“Do you know what burnt gryphon smells like?”

Those were the last words Rodan heard before he saw another stream of fire magic, easily twice the size of the last one, shooting towards him. Acting on instinct, he fired up his mana streams and tore open his jaws into an air splitting shriek that was chased by his own fiery beam.

Almost like some bizarre parody of a snowball fight, Rodan and Sunset Shimmer hit each other again and again with one flaming attack after another. Each successive barrage becoming more and more powerful. Every time the struggles were about to cease, either by Rodan trying to dive down and tackle the unicorn or Sunset attempting to use some other magic on the gryphon, it would fail due to Rodan being too fast to lock onto by spell but the fast charging pyro-spells and Sunset’s teleporting keeping her constantly out of range. And with enough airspace for Rodan to fly around with and the constant power boosts she was getting negating any stamina problems; neither one of them was running out of steam any time soon.

Rocks melted, ground was charred, and trees burned by convection heat alone frying them. Another struggle of mana charged plasma and magic fueled fire resulted in another stalemate. At this point Sunset Shimmer’s aura glow was bright and large enough that it was beginning to give her an alicorn-like outline, and Rodan’s glyphs and runes were beginning to swell with light themselves from the power increase.

Rodan looked at the determined unicorn, at himself, and the burned scenery around him in that order.

-Alright, I’m fighting a cute little fire-spewing unicorn, I have no idea where I am, Lea’s gonna chew my ear out for getting into a random scrap; and somehow I haven’t turned back into a kaiju yet. This day can stop being weird now!-

Sunset Shimmer, braced for another heat beam or lunge, was ready and raring to fight despite this gryphon’s odd immunity to her flames. She hadn’t heard of a gryphon with blood affinity magic before, but with Nightmare Moon’s mutations she wasn’t going to write anything off as impossible. While the situation was more than dire, she couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t enjoying this to a degree. The beast’s heat blasts tasted funny, like they contained some sort of trace magic not yet known to her, but the power rush she was getting off it was beyond exhilarating. Dragon fire had nothing on this!

That known, she was both surprised and a bit disappointed when the gryphon instead put his arms up in a T-shape and lowered himself to a hover at ground level without any sign of attacking.

“Alright, this ain’t working. Timeout, timeout!”

Sunset Shimmer paused.

-Okay, nothing is impossible with these monsters…. but that’s weird. Not even Shade ever tried to call off a fight when he worked for them. And mutations are fanatical to the end, but this thing hasn’t said a single word about his devotion. This. Doesn’t… make any.. Huh?!-

She tried to articulate herself at the baffled looking gryphon. But as her aura glowed and burned to a degree equal to Rodan’s runes, the only thing the living fireball could mutter was-

“What?”

Rodan, still looking like some super charged creature of legend, held a paw up in a “stop” motion.

“Okay, I’m in Equestria right? I kinda could guess by the cutesy pony look but I’m trying to be sure.”

“Um… Y-Yes, you are…. Are, you part of the Nightmare army?”

Sunset Shimmer muttered as she blinked her now brightly glowing eyes. Wayward leaves blowing in the wind past the two were catching fire without even touching them, but both of them looked so thoroughly confused they didn’t even notice. Rodan lowered and tilted his head.

“The who!?”

That answered Sunset Shimmer’s question well enough. That was the thing about mentally deranged fanatics, they were good about being sly, scheming, and sociopathic. Lying however, let alone without time to think and after a lot of excitement, was not one of them.

“You were summoned by them to the Everfree Forest.”

Rodan grunted, trying to think back to what happened right before he recalled showing up here. His mind was a pretty big blur when it came to details, not helped by the fact he couldn’t recall doing anything worth remembering right before this fiasco happened. He could have been laying on a cloud Rainbow Dash showed him to sleep on for all he knew before getting yanked over here by some “Nightmare Army”. He grumbled lightly under his breath. Second time getting thrown somewhere random and bumping into a fiery pony, and it wasn’t any less unpleasant.

The only fortunate thing was that he was still in Equestria and the name “Everfree” meant he was in the place Lea fought a bunch of gyaos in. So at the very least he was somewhere he knew.

“Okay good then, sorry for the random fight. Do you know which way to Canterlot? I don’t know what’s going on, but since it’s day time I can talk to Princess Celestia right?”

Sunset Shimmer’s head shot up a bit to attention, speaking in a tone that seemed to mask surprise with slight indignation. How could this stranger be so casual about seeking the holy sun’s avatar?! A mix of mild annoyance and surprise however caused her to slip up and not refer to Celestia as such.

“What business do you have with my mother?!”

A pause settled over Rodan as he just stood still and looked at Sunset Shimmer. His runes dimmed and he dropped down to the ground back in his normal state with his head craned sideways like a curious bird. Her having a kid didn’t seem like something Celestia would skip over on the overview she and Luna gave the kaiju, or something every single pony he’d talked to who’d mention the princesses would just forget to mention.

“... Your what?”

Sunset Shimmer scowled, dropping her own super charged state. As indignant as she was, she could tell she wasn’t dealing with any threat. Just a confused idiot. She put her hoof to her chest while holding her head high and her eyes closed.

“I am Princess Sunset Shimmer! Daughter of her highest, Celestia! What business you have with my mother, you can have with me.”

There was a good number of ways ponies and beyond reacted to knowing who adopted and raised her. Fear, respect, admiration, happiness, and sometimes jealousy. Patting her on the head and going “Awwwww!” was not one of them and her eyes snapped open. Rodan was snickering while cracking the goofiest expression he could with a beak.

“Awwww! You’re a pretty girl pony who wants to be showy and says she’s a princess! That is just adorable! You’re like a little human toy!”

Sunset Shimmer’s face scrunched up and she fumed visibly while blushing bright red.

“I am NOT a liar, you cretin!”

Rodan stifled a laugh, the insult falling short entirely. It was one perk of being in magical-ponyland. Unlike on Terra, where the inhabitants getting ticked off looked anywhere from weird to terrifying, magical-ponyland-ers just looked like a puffed up ball of cuteness. Truly adorable even when pissed off.

“Oh I know, I know. You’re in the “Princess” phase Lea told me some human girls go through. It’s alright to dream but you shouldn’t set yourself on just one goal. Heck, you got some real impressive fireworks!”

“NrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR!”

Sunset Shimmer vibrated while steam practically shot out her ears. Rodan, completely ignored it. He turned and took a few paces away from the unicorn while waving one of his paws, in unison with one of his wings due to muscle memory, in an offhanded gesture.

“I paid attention during the tour. There are four Equestrian Princesses and you’re not one of them. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and Princess Twilight. And last I checked, you’re lacking in both the name and wing department to be any of them. So just tell me which way to Canterlot so I can find Celestia, because I’ve just had some weird stuff happen and this fight was just a waste of time.”

Between her anger and bewilderment, Sunset Shimmer lost almost all of her calculative demeanor and stuttered.

“I-Wha-Princes- Princess Twi-WHO?! Shining Armor’s baby sister?! She’s not royalty nor is she an alicorn!”

Rodan stood still for a moment, his face flattening.

“... Buuut, she’s one of the Element of Harmony bearers right?”

“NO! I AM!”

Sunset Shimmer snapped back.

“... So do you think I'm stupid or a liar?”

“And are you daring to call me the same?!”

“........”

“........”

“........”

“.........”

The pause between them lasted a good minute as Rodan thought everything through and Sunset Shimmer simmered down. As he thought through more and more possibilities to the point his head started hurting, Rodan’s face grew more and more deadpanned. He finally tossed the second to last possibility, “time warp”, out the window and turned around towards Sunset Shimmer with a creak in his limbs.

“.... Yooou’re serious about not pulling my wing, aren't you?”

He grunted, earning a half glare and a shaking head from Sunset Shimmer.

“I never jest.”

She muttered, a tad snippy. Rodan sucked in his breath, looked his eyes up to the sky, and groaned loudly while praying to Tanaka he never had to go through this crap an additional time to see if “third time” really was the charm. Restraining himself for a moment, he lurched forward and fired a sudden heat beam over the treeline to his right and off into the horizon; with such suddenness it caused Sunset Shimmer to jump back.

He continued firing for several long moments, practically roaring into the beam before cutting it off. Looking back to Sunset Shimmer as the smoke from his nostrils veiled his face before he snorted it away, Rodan took back in his breath.

“Oooookay, in this situation again. Name’s Rodan. Fastest kaiju in the skies, Guardian Beast Omega, recent entry into the Wonderbolts competition; aaaaaaand I am pretty much positive based off your memo and the weird magic I’m not where I’m supposed to be….”

===========================

At the front of the nightmarish horde was a large, wide tent being carried by a pair of behemoths and flanked by several packs of dire wolves and a set of four warlocks. Slit-pupiled eyes peeked out from the tent warily. Small rays of sunlight slipped through the seam of the tent, giving its primary occupant mild discomfort and a sense of the weakness of mortality. A sliver of light crossed her eye and the equine hissed through a fanged maw and closed the curtain. The pony was a very large mare, one of noticeable height if she were standing up instead of reclined. The color across her short, glistening fur was a lighter gray-blue contrasting with an ebony black mane. Between the eerie colors, pointy ears, and predatory eyes she had both a haunting beauty and an uncanny sense of danger to her appearance. She flicked her wrist, manipulating and stretching the shadows on the tent floor to dig into a chest and bring forth a crystalline glass and bottle forth; pouring herself a drink. Sanguine red stained her lips and fanged maw for a moment before the ancient vampire licked herself spotless. Countess Mircalla of the Crooked Peaks had to keep up appearances after all; being a youthful 1,020 years strong and now leading the largest remaining force of the Nightmare faction demanded such.

And yet, it wasn’t the company of murderers, cultists, shadow monsters, and mutations that had the countess stressed. Rather it was the unworldy mass sitting across from her. She didn’t have much of a pulse anymore and her mountain citadel was surrounded by perpetual blizzards, having a chill was something she hadn’t felt in a millennia; and yet somehow she could still feel cold being near this thing. It was, unnerving.

It kept to a shape resembling something of a blackness approximating some sort of aquatic form or beast, light streaming from the pulse of glowing, azure runes across its body and from a jewel-like protrusion on its forehead. It called itself Mizu and she didn’t know where it came from or what sort of monstrosity it was. That mattered little compared to what it had done when it managed to appear in the middle of their camp without even the dire wolves sensing it coming. What did count for something was the hexes and tools it had supplied her army like the summoning pedestals, strange magicks the millennia old vampire lord hadn't ever seen before; and the fact it was talking to her again. Not through words, for its mouth either didn’t move in sync with its voice or didn’t budge at all when it spoke. Instead the dry tones that compiled together to make words rang across her numbed mind.

Mircalla nodded and replied by word.

“Yes, we still have it…… You want to see it?”

Mizu stayed still as a statue as it gave Mircalla its response.

“Alright.”

The countess reached back into the chest with her tendrils of bent shadow. The item in question was a piece of blue starlight metal armor. Just bringing it forth seemed to cause the surrounding light to dampen and fill the ambience with a dark magic. The armor was emblazoned with a slightly dented crescent moon on its sternum guard and clearly built for a larger pony; one who nearly brought Equestria to her whim. All of the army knew its visage well, for it was one they swore fealty to. Nightmare Moon’s breastplate.

And it still had a lot of dark magic in it, more than a mere trace of the night mistress’s power. Some of that essence, some of that strength that bolstered Princess Luna remained. Countess Mircalla held it up and looked to the eyeless entity before it.

“You want to know what we plan for it?”

……

Countess Mircalla restrained herself from an uneasy breath.

“This armor, it contains part of Nightmare Moon’s visage, her power. We’ll reunite it with her diminutive state that she's currently in, the state that Solar tyrant forced her into. With it, and the dark magicks between us and those you’ve helped supply us; our ruler will be restored…”

The countess muttered, looking over the armor. To any in her army still intelligent enough for coherent thought, they’d be reveling and praising the artifacts for their mere association. For Mircalla however, age had given her time to think of other matters. Ones she was quick to push aside after a momentary wince.

-Not of your concern. You are the last of the Night Generals, and you will fulfill your duty.-

The vampiress looked to the aspect with a stern glare.

“What do you want to know of it?”

Mizu’s glyphs pulsed with a light. It outstretched a claw-like tendril and ran it across the floor of the tent, tracing a pattern that soon ignited into a glowing rune that seemed to suck all the heat out of the tent. It silently addressed Mircalla.

“You, want to do what with them? In exchange for what, besides the payments already called for?”

The node on Mizu’s head, or what Mircalla presumed was its head, pulsed with a light. The chestplate and the rest of Nightmare Moon’s surviving armor hovered up and out of their container; floating above the glowing rune. A pedestal of obsidian, identical to the one Sunset Shimmer had destroyed earlier, emerged from the floor rune. The armor shifted slightly, wisps of energy floating up from the pedestal and into the armor. Dents were pushed out, cuts filled; and burns regenerated as the armor was put back into prime condition. It then floated towards Mircalla, not in a manner of to hand itself over; but in a manner to be worn. The vampire countess narrowed her eyes, speaking in a monotone that begot neither surprise nor lack of it.

“Celestia, you want Nightmare Moon to hand over Celestia… And you suggest I take on our ruler’s visage, for?”

Nightmare Moon’s helmet floated before her face, turning around and positioning itself so it could easily be slid on. Mircalla could see Mizu through the eye gaps.

“Assurance huh? Comforting to know safe keeping is a term familiar to even where you come from.”

Mizu’s response left the countess closing her eyes and shrugging as the helmet was fitted onto it. Her fur began to darken and her body shifted, growing in size and form to fill in the armor. This thing, this “Mizu”, had her pegged good for her own desires, ones not ever spoken aloud. If it had the power to do all these things however, Mircalla was left wondering how wise it was to deal with this unknown. Nightmare Moon was known for overconfidence after all. Mircalla was just wondering if she’d just traded bargaining with one demon for another, or if she could even care at this point.

After all, she had a duty to perform.
......
............
................

The tent marched on for a time, before a call to stop was made. With the afternoon sun streaming through the trees, the side of the tent opened itself up. Many of the army gasped and were at a loss for words at the being who stepped out, both from the massive amount of dark magic they could sense emanating from her and the figure's resemblance and yet distinctiveness from their sovereign. Fur cast in a navy blue as dark as midnight, ebony hair with a white streak flowing and rolling as if underwater, lined with a glimmerance that shown through her starlight armor. Countess Mircalla took in a breath, looking to the first sunset she’d seen full on in a thousand years. In the distance, peeking above the trees in some patches, was Canterlot mountain.

She cracked a fanged grin, chuckling lowly.

It was Nightmare Mircalla's first time seeing the sun in a thousand years, and once they’d achieved their goals, Nightmare Moon would make sure it'd be the last.

Author's Notes:

Shimmer'verse by Evowizard
Proofreading by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Artwork (coming soon!) by Faith-Wolff