Sombra was still lounging peacefully when I manifested once more. Shapely, dumbly obedient mares brought food and drink then exposed themselves by facing away from the stallion and bending over.

"Ah Luna." he sighed, his eyes closed blissfully. "Come to destroy me so soon? So soon after I humiliated you?"

"No." Our voice was was cold and breathless. Sombra's eyes snapped open in surprise. Almost startled, the stallion sit up from his reclined position. "Death is far too short."

"Luna? What have you done-?"

We grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the floor, the mares and crystal furnishings evaporating into dream dust as he impacted the ground.

"You are naught but a nameless worm." We rasped in his ear, the timeless cold of the grave on our breath. Immediately, the dream formed into a panoramic of the Crystal Empire, the dark crystals infecting everything. The wind seemed to blow in a manner that seemed infinitely fast, yet impossibly slow. As the wind picked up, the crystal buildings began to round, their sharp edges smoothing out and disappearing.

"Look at all you have wrought!" We exclaimed angrily. "How long do you think it will last?"

The buildings began to crumble under their own weight.

"A decade? A century? Millenia?" We asked rhetorically. "You may inscribe your name into every rock. In every darkened river stone and every fiery coal of a volcano!"

Now the buildings were mere suggestions low to the ground, covered in snow.

"How long will they last? How long before your name fades from memory?" We rasped, slamming his head into the deceptively hard floor.

"How long do you think We'll last?" We hissed in his ear. "We're already older then everything you've known. From the mountains to the rivers, We've seen them form. How much longer will We last? And how much effort do you think We'll unleash to personally find every rock and pebble you've bothered to ever pick up, from colthood to death, and ensure every mention of your name is ground into dust?" I snarled.

The wind blew the snow away, forming dunes that rose and fell, before they disappeared entirely, and were replaced by the hard bedrock, that too began to wear away.

"Hear Us now and Hear Us well Worm." We growled, our muzzle almost entirely in his ear. "We will personally destroy every record, both natural and Pony made, that you ever existed. From the crystals, to the history books. We will wipe out your House's progeny. We will burn and salt your family's fields. And your name will NEVER be remembered."

The bedrock wore away, forming new sandy dunes that flowed like ocean waves.

Sombra was hyperventilating by now, his eyes wide, and his former calm was no where to be seen. This was his fear, the fear that he will never be remembered. The fear that time will grind him away from history. The fear that no matter how much he has or does, nothing he can do will cement himself in history.

He feared the darkness of the grave.

In hindsight, it was a very common fear with dark wizards. Whom come into power for some reason or other, only to realize that it won't last past their deaths. So they try to grab as much as they can, all in the vain attempt to prolong their lives.

And that's all that Sombra was. A foal throwing a tantrum about going to bed for the night. The reason this tantrum was so noteworthy, was how far Sombra was willing to go to get his name into a history book. Literally anything and everything was on the table. Most dark wizards set their sights high, ruling a kingdom was no small feat after all. But Sombra had no interest in a single land. He wanted everything. The world, his name in every history book, and the guarantee of safety from death.

Sombra's eyes were unblinkingly wide when the sands of the former Empire flowed so that a single grave marker was pushed to the surface, inches away from his muzzle. The name "Sombra" could be read on its surface, but the wind slowly wiped away the engraving.

And that did it.

The dream collapsed with an almost comical pop as Sombra woke up. Leaving us floating above the city wide congregation of nightmare infested dreams.

We couldn't help ourselves. We began to cackle.

But that cackle died as suddenly every nightmare infested orb vanished into thin air.

Where there were once thousands of sleeping ponies, there were now none.

Fearing the worst, We woke up.

The war camp was in a confused turmoil when we stuck our head out of the tent. Ponies rushed to and fro in the night, shouting to each other. No commands were being issued, just the same confused and concerned conversation being repeated hundreds of times.

"What happened?!"

"I don't know!"

"Where'd the city go?!"

"I'm not sure!"

Throngs of soldiers mustered along side the siege weapons, their jaws agape in awe. We pushed our way through the crowd before we came to the front.

Our jaw also dropped.

The city, its infected crystal architecture, the brain washed soldiers, the towering palace tower in the center... It was all gone.

Gone.

All gone.

All that remained was a spherical indent in the ground where fresh dirt and stone now lay exposed.

Dimly, We became aware of our surroundings again. Our presence, despite being the largest pony in sight, was barely noticed next to the city-that-no-longer-was. We shook our head in disgust and pushed our way back to the camp proper. A discussion was sorely needed.

The Commanding Pavilion was in just as much shock as the rest of the camp. Even the constant feasting had finally halted as the accompanying nobility gathered between the gigantic tents for a clear view of the now barren valley. We found Celestia in one such spot, her eyes wide and her mouth fallen.

"Lu- Luna..." she stammered when she noticed us. "D-do you know the cause of this?"

"We do not." we admitted. "We do have theories however."

"Such as?"

"It- It is possible We scared Sombra to such a degree he enacted some fell magic. What exactly that spell would be, We do not know."

If Celestia had noticed our new speech pattern, she made no comment, but merely turned back to gaze over the desolate field.

"I want battlemages combing over every inch of where the Empire stood."

"We concur."

Court had reconvened the next morning in the tent palace. The atmosphere was much more subdued then the previous day. The nobility barely spoke, they would occasionally share nervous glances each other. As a consequence, their accompanying servants stood quietly behind them, waiting for any orders from their master. Celestia watched with rapt attention at a mare who read off a scroll.

"The battlemages of the 3rd Legion report the remains of an unknown spell in the affected vicinity. From what they can gather, the city was sent... Elsewhere in time."

Mutterings amongst the attendees interuppted the mare.

"Is that possible?"

"How did Sombra accomplish such a thing?"

"Where- When did they go?"

"Enough." We called out, silencing the crowd. "Proceed." We said, turning towards the messenger.

"Y-Yes your Highness..." the mare stammered. "The 3rd is still examining the spell matrix... They think they can reverse engineer a time table that the City will return. But they expect the research to take two weeks."

"Thank you Private. Tell the 3rd to proceed." Celestia commanded. The messenger mare half bowed, and half nodded, turning to one of the generals to receive the official paperwork.

"... So... What now?" a noble stallion quietly interjected.

"Now;" began Celestia. "Until we know where the City has gone, we'll reconsolidate the army into a fortified position. The command echelons will pull back to the Everfree Castle. The army will stay here for a month. If the city returns, they will be in position to stop a second invasion before it even starts. After one month, half the army will withdraw back to Equestria and resume their regular posts. After one year, An outpost with emergency communication spells is to be established permanently in one of those far mountains." Celestia pointed into the distance, where mountain tops were visible on the horizon. "From there they would be far enough to at least send some warning if the city returns, but still close enough to easily observe the land." There were grumbles of acceptance. "Excellent. Now then, I believe many of us have packing to do?"

With the dismissal, the Court shuffled out of the pavilion. Several of Celestia's bureaucrats approached the white Alicorn and started to quietly discuss something. Nopony approached us, so we found ourselves left to our own devices.

We- I grit my teeth silently as We- I thought just that.

The vanishing of the Crystal Empire was wholly unexpected. We- I had thought that Sombra would not, could not flee. The fact that he would someday return was... Abhorrent.

And with the thing in our- My head...

The only Pony who had lost was u- Me.

Yet the position was not untenable...

Oh yeah... Everything is coming together...