Now that Twilight had regained her emotions, she could feel the weight of what had just transpired pressing down on her. It was almost enough to make her wish she hadn't recovered her emotions at all.

Almost.

As she followed Grogar out of the Ritual Chamber and back into the corridors of his restored castle, she couldn't help but dwell on the fact that she was an undead, soul sucking monster.

It hadn't really felt that way until now, and she'd been content just to even exist after what had happened to her when her magic went out of control.

Now she felt like things were different.

She was full of energy, more so than she'd ever felt when she was alive, and it all came at the cost of one mare's soul. Smart though she may have been for a filly her age, Twilight was still a filly.

She understood what had transpired, she could make her own conclusions and even try to analyze the process behind the arcane ritual she'd been a part of. What she couldn't do however, was sort out her own feelings about the whole thing.

Thankfully, she had a slew of other questions to keep her mind occupied. Grogar had said he'd explain everything once the ritual was over, and now that it had ended, it was finally time to get the answers she'd been craving since the Mourning Moon had risen.

"This place has held many names, Twilight Sparkle," Grogar began suddenly as he and Twilight trotted past the entrance of the castle and back out into the moonlit night, "the Shadow World, the Dark Realm, the Land of Darkness, and even Purgatory."

Twilight remained silent as Grogar led them, not towards the town, but further up and around towards the steep cliff overlooking the town and everything beyond.

"So what's the actual name?" Twilight asked, her eyes once more drawn to the pale orb in the sky, "or wait, does it even have one?"

"It does," Grogar confirm, stopping just at the edge of the cliff and looking down at the lively town below, "unfortunately, that name has long since been forgotten—lost along with the original inhabitants of this world."

"The original inhabitants?" Twilight parroted, turning back to Grogar with wide eyes, "there were ponies—er, other creatures that lived here?"

"Indeed," Grogar replied with a nod, his red eyes drifting from the town to the barren lands beyond, "this world is a mystery, one I spent a good deal of time trying to unravel during the first few decades of my first imprisonment."

"And what did you find out?" Twilight asked, turning to give the demonic ram her full attention, "wait a minute," she gave the empty landscape a significant glance, "how did you even find anything out? There's nothing out there."

"Oh, there's plenty out there," Grogar replied with a deep chuckle, "you'll find that a bit of stubbornness and luck, a wealth of time and effort, and a healthy thirst for knowledge will get you quite far, child. I merely continued to search until I found what I was looking for."

Twilight mulled this over for a second before coming to a realization.

"Wait, so... did you..." she scanned the empty black horizon before looking over to Grogar with eyes widened in shock, "...did you travel all the way out there?"

"I did," Grogar replied simply, "I wandered that barren wasteland for nigh on forty-five years searching for answers. Not much else to do when you're an immortal and the entire world is an empty prison."

"Forty-five years," Twilight muttered in disbelief. She let that sink in for a moment before speaking again, "how did you find your way back here? How did you not get lost at all?"

"Losing my way is an impossibility, my child," Grogar answered with a dismissive wave of his cloven hoof, "when I and my kingdom were banished to this forsaken place, we became inexorably linked to one another.

"In many ways, I am Tambelon, and Tambelon is me," for a moment, his gaze lingered on the town, "it does not matter where I go or how far I travel, I will always find my way back to this place, and when I inevitably leave this world once more, Tambelon will follow, as it did in ages past."

Twilight moved closer to Grogar and turned her own gaze towards the town. As the ram's words ran through her mind, Twilight's eyes slowly fell to the bell around her neck, a single question forming as she pressed a hoof to it.

"...Am I a part of Tambelon too?"

The question caught Grogar by surprise, though his only outward indication was a slight raise of his bushy brows as he turned to the filly. He frowned thoughtfully for a moment before turning away with a small, sardonic smile.

"I suppose you are," he finally replied, "you are bound to me, Twilight Sparkle. I have named you as my child, and in the end, all things that belong to me also belong to Tambelon."

Twilight grimaced at that.

She wasn't so sure she wanted to belong to Tambelon, nor was she comfortable being considered Grogar's child, but despite these sentiments, she couldn't help but feel an odd sort of pride well up within her.

She decided to push the confusing thoughts to the back of her mind along with the earlier ritual. Instead she focused on what Grogar had been talking about before.

"So what did you find out there?" Twilight asked, getting back on topic, "from the way you were talking, you must've found something, right?"

"Indeed I did, my child," Grogar replied with a somewhat wistful frown, "in all those years of searching this dead, blackened world, I found a story, well, more of a message really."

"A message?" Twilight asked, furrowing her brow in confusion, "you spent forty-five years traveling the world and you only found a message?" at the look Grogar gave her, Twilight shrank back, "I-I mean, with how everything looks now, I guess it would be hard to find even that much... sorry, Father."

Grogar grunted noncommittally before looking up at the moon above.

"Yes, all that searching and my most important discovery, was an old half formed message given by an older spirit," he allowed himself another small smile as he looked back down at the filly, "a spirit I stumbled upon beneath this very moon."

"There are spirits out in the wasteland?" Twilight asked.

"Only one so far as I've seen or sensed, aside from those within Tambelon of course," Grogar replied, taking a seat near the edge of the cliff, "that soul was the only thing I found in the time I spent wandering the wastes, and once it had passed its message onto me, it vanished and I've not seen it since."

"Oh," Twilight tilted her head slightly before taking a seat next to Grogar, "did the spirit at least tell you its name, or the name of this place?"

"Alas, it told me neither, though I did have my suspicions," Grogar answered with a single shake of his head, "no, the only words I could glean from that lost soul were those of a tragic tale, an apology and nothing more," his expression turned thoughtful, "though I could tell the spirit was vaguely equine in form."

"So it was a pony!" Twilight cried excitedly. The glee died rather quickly, as she realized what that meant, "wait... so does that mean this all used to be Equestria?"

"It is possible given the evidence I gathered on my travels," Grogar replied, "still, whether or not this was once a world like your own or a some other such planet of different equines entirely, all that remains now is endless ruin."

Twilight felt a pang of sadness as she took a moment to think on that. She could scarcely wrap her head around the extinction of an entire race let alone a whole planet of sapient creatures.

"And this spirit was the only living thing you found?" she asked uneasily, "you didn't find anypony else, or any other kinds of creatures?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't living," Grogar corrected, "but that was the only encounter I've had outside my displaced kingdom. The rest of the world lies in ruin and thaumic decay so far as I've seen."

"Thaumic decay?" Twilight asked, both intrigued and eager for the change in topic, "I've never heard of thaumic decay before. What is it?"

"Well, a more apt term might be thaumic 'corruption', as the ambient mana doesn't really disappear over time," Grogar explained before pointing to the constantly disappearing and reappearing swirls above, "do you see those colorful eddies constantly swirling about the sky?"

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, following Grogar's hoof and looking up, "I noticed that when I first arrived. What is all that?"

"Mana," Grogar answered, "to be more precise, it is ambient mana that has become so thick and, for lack of a better word, bloated with negativity over time that it becomes visible to the naked eye and manifests as such. The change is such that it also has a drastic affect on internal mana as well."

"Negativity," Twilight repeated quietly before raising a questioning brow at Grogar, "you mean negative emotions? I know emotions are important in casting a lot of spells, but they can have this kind of effect on ambient mana, too?"

"Indeed, they can," Grogar replied gravely, "it is often the lingering spirits of the dead and their intense emotions that affect mana in such a way. If I remember correctly, your world in the Land of Light doesn't really have much in the way of ambient mana, and I doubt talk of Necromancy and the dead is common practice, so it is little wonder that you are not aware."

"I know certain 'thaumic anomalies' around Equus have been documented over the years," Twilight replied, staring at the sky with newfound awe, "but I've never seen anything like this."

"I'm sure you haven't," Grogar replied with a knowing nod, "I've watched the Land of Light from my prison for countless ages, and what I've noticed over time is that there are generally two conditions required for those 'thaumic anomalies' to occur, do you know what they are by chance, my child?"

Twilight straightened up and spoke without missing a beat.

"Based on what I've read in the past," she began, raising a hoof, "thaumic anomalies, or pockets of ambient mana, have been found to occur wherever massive amounts of magic had been cast at once," she faltered for a moment, her expression becoming unsure, "I'm... not too sure about the other condition, but another thing I noticed was that many of the 'hotspots' appeared wherever a great battle of some kind was fought."

"And?" Grogar pressed, "go on, why do you think that is, knowing what you do now?"

Twilight grimaced in thought, but it didn't take her long to put the pieces together and she replied with a victorious grin.

"If ambient mana is affected by the intense emotions of the dead, then it must've been a combination of all the mana released by the spells cast, and the lingering emotions of the soldiers that fought and died in battle!"

"Precisely," Grogar responded, much to Twilight's own delight, "though it doesn't necessarily have to be negative emotions that cause the effect you see, oft times that is the case, as those that died peacefully don't leave behind lingering emotions like that."

Twilight turned her attention back to the sky and shuddered slightly.

"What could've happened to cause all of that?" she wondered allowed, before glancing at the moon, "and does the Mourning Moon have anything to do with it?"

"The answers to those questions, child, lie within the message spoken by that lone spirit," the ram replied, sweeping his burning red eyes over the land before him, "unfortunately, much of what the spirit revealed to me was not so clear, but it did speak of a dark horror, and a great catastrophe that wiped out all life on the planet in one fell swoop."

"What kind of dark horror?" Twilight asked, spurred on by her own curiosity despite knowing full well that she'd rather have not known at all, "and what was this 'great catastrophe'?"

"I'm afraid I do not know for certain, child," Grogar replied, almost sounding bitter, "the soul was already fading by the time I found it, and I could only make out a few details here and there. They were important details to be sure, but I'm certain I did not get the whole of the story, and now I fear I never will."

"So now there really is nothing left," Twilight muttered, before her ears perked up and she frowned at a sudden thought, "but what happened to all the other spirits? If there's nopony left, then there has to be more souls somewhere, right?"

"Believe me, Twilight Sparkle, I have searched," Grogar answered, slowly shaking his head, "but even with my considerable knowledge of the arcane and the undead, I could not find another soul, living or otherwise."

He frowned and turned back to Twilight, his expression contemplative.

"This is merely a theory I've concocted based on the spirit's story and a few tests of my own, but I believe that the spirits of the dead were somehow put to rest... all but the one that remained.

"This, unfortunately, was not before their powerful emotions, the mana unleashed by this great catastrophe, and the general ambient mana in the air, all combined and did unspeakable damage to this world's thaumic field, corrupting it beyond repair.

"That corrupted mana gradually warped the thaumic field enough that the world began to stagnate because of its effects. New life would not rise from the ashes of this dead land, and it seems as though all time for this world has ceased to be, impossible as that may sound.

"Flora would not grow from the barren earth, debris left behind from the catastrophe would not rot or rust or otherwise break down as it should've, the air itself remains stale, save for an odd wind that blows about every now and then, carrying the scent of death, decay, and ash."

Twilight was still trying to come to her own conclusions, even through her own disbelief at what had transpired in the past. She still struggled to come to terms with the fact that this might've been another Equus like hers once upon a time.

The thought was enough to make her head spin, and she somehow found it easier to accept that this place was some kind of higher or lower plane of existence rather than an alternate universe set in a possibly different timeline from her own.

And if that was indeed the case, then why?

Why were Grogar and Tambelon banished here of all places, and how did it happen? She wanted to ask what Grogar thought, but there was another question gnawing at her. It was the one question she'd had since the beginning.

"And what about the moon?" Twilight asked, gesturing towards the orb in the sky, "how does that fit in?"

"Ah, the Mourning Moon," Grogar replied with another small smile, "that perhaps, is the most interesting piece of the puzzle. The spirit mentioned the breaking of the cycle, but did not explain all too well what that meant, so I came to my own conclusions.

"I believe, that 'the breaking of the cycle' refers to the cessation of the actual cycle of life and death," Grogar swept a hoof out in front of him, "and it is a belief I have managed to verify through no small amount of trial and error."

"Much like you, I too wondered at the appearance of that moon and its mysterious power upon my own arrival. Upon that fateful meeting however, I began to see things as they truly were."

"As they truly were?" Twilight asked, "how do you mean? What did you see?"

"What I mean, child, is that there is no longer an actual moon to brighten the night sky, nor is there a sun to banish the darkness," Grogar answered, "it took time and a great deal of effort to confirm my suspicions, but I've since discover that what you see above you is in fact, the true form of the spirit I met so long ago.

Twilight's eyes widened in surprise, as she snapped her gaze from Grogar to the moon. Grogar paid her shock no mind as he continued his explanation.

"It is the spirit that forever mourns the death of the planet, the spirit that forsook oblivion and stayed behind to watch over this stagnant and desolate land. Through its power are we made stronger, and only by its light can I awaken my precious kingdom from its slumber.

"So that strange energy I felt before, and that spell you cast was all because of that spirit," Twilight surmised, "but what about those words you spoke? Did you learn them from the spirit when you met it?"

"The spell was a marriage of my own power and that of the Mourning Moon," Grogar explained, "it, and the incantation I spoke were both something I myself created based on my study of how the twisted mana saturating the air and the power of the Mourning Moon affect the dead."

Twilight's young mind had been working nonstop as Grogar spoke, her thoughts whirling with the many revelations she'd heard so far. Assuming that this world had been another Equestria in ages past, and that the Mourning Moon was indeed the spirit Grogar had met, there could only be one explanation for who that spirit was.

"You said Princess Celestia had a sister," Twilight began, her eyes locked on the moon, "you said there was one sister of the sun, and one of the moon. I didn't think about it earlier, but there was an old ponytale I read once. It was the story of the Mare in the Moon."

"Oh?" Grogar responded, raising an eyebrow at the filly, "do tell."

"Well, basically it talks about how the Princess of the Sun banished her sister, the Princess of the Moon, to her namesake for one thousand years when she fell to darkness and became Nightmare Moon. I thought it was just an old ponytale somepony wrote as an homage to Princess Celestia, but..."

"Child, that tale is far more true than you know," Grogar snorted, "and there is quite a bit more to the tale than that, I assure you. That however, is a story for another time. Tell me, what conclusion have you come to?"

"Well," Twilight answered uncertainly as she filed away Grogar's words for later, "if this place really was Equestria like I think it is, then that spirit you talked to—the one that took the shape of the Mourning Moon... could it be that sister? The Princess of the Moon?"

"Ah, who can say for sure, child," the ram answered with distant eyes and a wistful tone, "it may very well be, but I'm afraid we'll never know for certain. Though the moon grants us power, it cannot speak on its own behalf—not as it is now."

"Oh," Twilight replied, somewhat disheartened, "have you tried speaking to the spirit again?"

"I did, once," Grogar answered, "I attempted to commune with the Mourning Moon itself, but nothing came of it," he went quiet for a moment, staring out at the city and seemingly lost in thought before shaking his head and rising to his hooves, "I believe this explanation will have to suffice for the moment. Now come, we've spent enough time in idle conversation, and now I wish to trot amongst my citizens before the Mourning Moon passes."

With that, he turned and began trotting back down the path towards the city. Twilight watched him go for a moment before standing up. She gave the moon one last look before quickly trotting after the ram.

Several of Twilight's questions were answered, but she now found that there were more in their place. Grogar had said something about a 'dark horror' and this 'great catastrophe', but what exactly did that mean? Where were the details, and did Grogar himself know them, or had the spirit not been that clear?

And what of the spirit?

Was this really another Equus, and if so, was that soul really the Princess of the Moon? All these questions and so many more swirled about her mind, but she found it strangely comforting.

Neither she, nor Grogar might've been able to completely solve the mystery of this world and of the Mourning Moon above, but at the very least, she wasn't thinking about the fact that she was an undead, soul sucking monster.

That was worth a million unanswered questions as far as Twilight was concerned.

This was a very difficult chapter to write for various reasons, but once the idea took hold of me, I couldn't not use it. Some of you might understand, some might not, but either way, I hope you enjoyed it all the same.

In any case, more explanations to come in the next chapter, and more on this particular plot thread in the future. I'm not done with it just yet, believe me.