By now, the Pony of Shadows was fused entirely with Sombra's flesh, multiplying his potency in the dark arts many times over. These he tested the limits of in private, continuing experiments he'd long ago abandoned. His first order was to punish those who conspired against him, to break and shatter their wills, as a reminder of the price disobedience carried.

To further influence his rule, he purchased exotic beasts from the marketplace. Two Orthros, in this case. These were fused with a portion of his power, turning the ordinarily docile creatures into snapping, snarling hellhounds. The duo of two-headed beasts drooled, with studded collars, held by chains he grasped in a tight fist.

“N-No,” whimpered Wet Nurse, who scrambled back on her bottom, pushed into a corner of his bedroom. The savage closed in, razor teeth bared, and warm urine pooled under her buttocks, sure it would tear her to pieces.

The other hell beast advanced on Foal-Bearer, its fur standing on end when she glared at it, defiant.

“Leave them alone,” called Radiant Hope. “I pushed all of them into this.”

“Precisely why they must take punishment. Those who stray from loyalty are just as guilty as the perpetrator,” he mused, his erection already thick. “Besides, my new pets have their own needs to be sated."

Cerise sat beside her mother, who was stricken. “S-surely, this will all work out, somehow...” She whispered hopefully.

But Inky Rose ignored the young mare to favor the stubs that once bore her wings. “No. We're in hell,” she lamented, unable to look upon what her lover had become. “He's stripped me of my right as a pegasus and flung everything we worked for into a bottomless pit of despair. I want to die!”

Fabric shredded under teeth when the Orthros denuded the scantily-clad twins. The muscular, dog-like monsters pushed the sisters onto all fours with massive paws, the dual penises each was blessed with swelling, red, wet, and vein-lined before they mounted the yelping females, knots swelling to lock themselves in spread assholes and pussies.

“D-don't worry about us--Gaah~! We're the most expendable,” Foal-Bearer pleaded to Radiant Hope, despite how horrible it proved to bear witness to such depravity.

The Orthros wrapped their jaws around the twins' necks, making them submit, hot slobber rolling down the curves of their backs. Their soft buttocks bounced and reddened under the slap of healthy hips, furry balls swinging and smacking into their cooches with each brutal thrust into gaped depths. Juices leaked down their thighs, the dogs panting with tongues lolling out.

“It would seem they're pleased,” he observed with a stroke of his chin. Looking between his lovers, he yanked up Radiant Hope, dragged her before a full-length mirror Inky once used, and ripped off her slip, burying himself in her. She yelped, forced to watch him casually take her, her ears flattening, forced to hear the creature's pant and the twins mewl while they were bred hard.

Their hanging breasts swung, nearly buckling under the overpowering force from the relentless savaged beasts, bouncy rumps covered in bruises and small red scratches.

Sombra watched the crystal ponies flush, their flesh forced to respond. “Had you two behaved, I would have granted you the honor to bear my heirs. But now, with the work of my magic, you will instead have your lowly bellies filled with the pups of these ravenous, filthy beasts!” He laughed, watched their faces twisted in horror, as with a final slam, the Orthros came with duel howls.

Thick, gooey spurts fired into their wombs. The twins sobbed and squirted all over their groins, now thoroughly bred and sinking to the floor in a sweaty, sticky mess. He groped one of Radiant's tits, the other bouncing with each push into her, and she squeezed out fresh tears, clenching her teeth, wondering how it had all gone so wrong.

He dropped her like a sack of potatoes with a thud, his seed leaking out her, his face drawn. His eyes trailed over the twins, relentlessly bred to the point where they were rendered dazed and senseless, and he wondered if they'd recover.

“Come,” he commanded with a clap of his hands, and the Orthros padded over. Taking their chains, he exited the room.

Shaken, Radiant Hope rose to her side. “Ugh.... That could have gone worse. How's everyone fairing?”

But Cerise sniveled up upon gazing at the mangled mess that was the twins. Whatever hope she clung onto had diminished. “Th-they're unconscious. It's all my fault! All of this,” she confessed with a choked sob.

Radiant shook her head. "Please, Cerise. This isn't your fault. It was obvious Sombra could never become anything but a monster."

Taking a moment to try and compose herself with a sniff, Cerise let all she'd kept buried spill out. “That's not true! In the Necronomicon, I remember the Pony of Shadows captured me. He did something to me.” She rubbed her skull, trying to drudge up vague memories of the innocent the monster had suppressed when it invaded her. “I must have passed it on to daddy when we-we made love. I'm not sure if it was the tome, that creature, or something else, but we couldn't resist its pull...”

“That doesn't make you any less than a victim,” noted Radiant.

“That doesn't excuse it, either! I passed it to him and doomed us all! Maybe the whole nation and Equestria!” She trembled and touched her mother's arm. “If-if I'd been stronger, you'd still have your wing and your husband! Y-you probably hate me now-”

Inky shook her head. “I could never blame you for that. You mean the world to me. I'm not sure I would have had the courage to turn on Sombra if your life wasn't at stake. Cerise Silhouette, Pacific Glow, or whoever you are, I can't lose you again. I love you.”

“M-mommy...” She buried her face in Inky's bosom and wept.

“Flurry Heart made a prosthetic for herself and Cadance, did she not?” Radiant recalled what she'd overheard the alicorn discuss in the short time she'd met her. “Perhaps if we escape, she can craft you a replacement-”

“I don't want a fake,” answered Inky with more bitterness than she intended. She clasped her hands to her upper arms, twitched her one right-wing, felt the phantom of the one she'd lost, and whimpered, unable to blot out the moment when he'd severed flesh and bone in a bloody mess. “Even if this isn't Sombra's fault, I would rather he dies with honor than as the tyrant he became again.”

“He researched that cursed book, despite how Celestia and Luna warned him!” Radiant continued to scoff.

“You weren't there,” shot back Inky. “He strove so hard to make amends, battled the Eldritch, made a number of sacrifices. He's certainly no saint, but I never expected him to be. I saw the stallion he could be. The stallion you believed he could be.”

Radiant lowered her head. “I was young and foolish. An obsessed, naïve fool like Beatrix is now. How many must repeat my mistake?”

“He was a hero to the alliance,” broke in Cerise, who used a napkin to wipe her nose. “Can't anyone be redeemed, if they try?”

“At what cost?” Radiant nodded at the broken twins, sprawled on the floor soaked in sweat and semen. None of them answered, and so she said, “It's my fault. It was a half-assed plan. I was ready to die if necessary to stop that devil, and so were the twins, but I'm not so sure about you two. Had we succeeded, surely his followers would execute us.”

She sighed and lifted the sisters one at a time, then tucked them into bed. “Thank you,” she whispered and kissed them both on the temple. Crystal ponies were almost extinct since the Eldritch invasion, and she considered them her kin.

In her bosom, the Crystal Heart continued to grow, trying to draw on what little hope remained between them to empower itself and help protect them. But it remained too weak, and in desperation, it instead had cast its light into the Necronomicon itself, guiding those lost inside it on the faint chance they would eventually come to their rescue...

Surrounded by his team, Spike boldly led the march into the Necronomicon's labyrinths. Aided by Twilight Sparkle, Flurry Heart, and Somnambula, he reasoned they were more than enough to deal with any threat.

However, his main concern was to find the other group that had entered, and follow up Twilight's hunch that Sunset Shimmer's soul was trapped inside. Despite her lack of proof, she trusted her intuition and denied that the dark tome compelled her to pursue the idea.

“Supposed that Sunset is here,” he said. “How will we even find her?”

“Perhaps the spirits shall guide us if it is meant to be,” said Somnambula, her midsection wrapped in bandages where she'd been struck by an arrow. She tried to confine herself to her pegasus form, threatening to reopen her wounds whenever she shifted, and she winced once another heated stab radiated below her ribs. “A-ah...”

Spike asked, “Sure you're up to this? There's no shame if you need to go back and rest.”

The priestess steeled her expression. “Nonsense. This is my duty. The sooner we complete our task, the less opportunities our enemies will have to spread their malevolence. With every second wasted, another victim might be claimed.”

“You're no good to anyone if you fall apart. I've had to learn that the hard way,” said Spike, peering around them. They were currently in what at first resembled the Badlands, minus the lack of lava and sulfurous skies. Dry dust rolled over the bleak, endless rocky landscape, which he reasoned from what he'd been told was pulled from his subconscious.

The terrain gave way to a graveyard of massive bones, made from the scattered remnants of deceased drakes and wyverns. He realized it was his entire race, wiped out almost to the last by the Eldritch in their final battle. Pride had caused the Dragon Lord, Torch, to take his army and try to stop the invaders on their own. The abominations had reacted with a massive psychic attack that drove the dragon horde mad, turning each on anything near, until after the chaos they and countless Eldritch lay dead.

That battle alone had almost turned the tide and left the Eldritch crippled and scattered. Had the dragons united with the rest of the bickering races, surely, Equestria wouldn't have suffered innumerable losses it still struggled to recover from.

“I want to take a look around,” said Flurry Heart, who sailed upward.

“Careful not to wander too far off,” called Twilight, recalling her days as a foalsitter. Her attention was drawn back to the Dragon Lord, and her eyes went wide. “Spike,” she gasped. “Look at yourself!”

“Huh?” He looked down and saw ancient Dragon Lord armor rested on his muscular bulk. It resembled obsidian mixed with cooled and hardened magma, frightening as it was magnificent, capturing a dim blood red sun that hung in the gloomy sky. Posing in it, he popped his bones with an audible crack, relished an invigorating swell it filled him with. "Looks pretty swell, doesn't it?"

“Don't let it go to your head,” warned Twilight with a laugh. "Even if you look like cute."

“Thanks! Though this would be a lot better if this place wasn't so creepy.” Spike pushed aside a giant rib with his boot. “Wonder how many of my ancestors are here? Good thing Ember and Smolder had to stay behind, they might freak seeing this! Nah, they're way too tough for that.” He chuckled. “Man, without them, I wouldn't have made it this far.”

“We have little time to reminisce,” reminded the Sphinx, and clacks sounded under her paws when she stalked over bones.

“I know, I know.” He strode ahead, picked up a skull so massive it towered over him, and wondered what the dragon it once belonged to looked like. He remembered his own transformations into such a massive beast, a creature of pure instinct.

And to survive, he'd have no choice but to submit to aggression and base lust. To embrace a beast he kept locked deep down.

The mere thought of surrendering to those feelings made him feel like a mere animal. And with that he felt ashamed of himself.

Backed by the mother-and-daughter team, Sombra weaved a combination spell with the pair who'd trained under him in defense of Lady Ewe, who attended to Bellatrix Primadonna. The crypt shook under the elements they loosed, bits of debris scattering, dust rising in dense clouds. The skeletons that arose from their caskets shattered into bony, scattered fragments.

Torches flickered on their sconces, momentarily swallowed them in shade, the undead flash frozen and incinerated with ease despite their numbers with little effort.

The goat woman examined one skull whose sockets dimly glowed an unearthly glowing light. “Zeloph was busy here before he left. Must have sent these druids to delay our return."

“I mean, they're certainly not much of a challenge,” noted Beatrix who's hands radiated power. “But it won't be long until they've closed in! Tee-hee!" Her horn shined.

“Better not to underestimate them,” warned Sombra. “For what purpose has Zeloph chosen to slow us down?”

“I'm not so sure,” answered the shaman who added in a murmur, “Perhaps he intends to make certain you never leave.” She applied medicines to Bellatrix's chest, sealed by a hardened ooze from one of Beatrix's potions. The wounded seraph slumbered, face peaceful, lit up by a thin, melancholy smile, tears still wet on her radiant cheeks.

Minutes past before the battle ended, the air thick with vapors that swirled ominously. Trixie huffed and asked, “Did we do it?! Yeah!” She swept back her cape, horn and hands still lit. “Good work, my little hellspawn! United, we're unbeatable!”

“Great and Powerful indeed,” chirped Beatrix Belladonna with a titter. “You saw that, right, teacher? How we charbroiled the last batch?”

He chuckled. “Very good, you two. You make me proud.” His apprentice whinnied at his praise, earning a frown on the horned shepherd. “However, we dare not tarry here. Somehow, we must penetrate the magic barrier here and seek an exit!”

"And what do you plan to do once you've escaped?" Lady Ewe asked with a raised brow. "Assuming your spirit isn't forced back into the ether." Her honey eyes studied him.

He boldly declared his plans. “Seek my body, of course. Annihilate the Pony of Shadows and retake my nation.” His skin crawled at the thought of what that imposter did to his wife and daughter, left at his mercy.

Whatever reputation he'd built with hard work had likely been forever tarnished. Would Inky and Cerise ever be able to forgive him? He dreaded to consider otherwise.

With a huff, Lady Ewe rose and strolled over to one of the rusted gates. “See these runes?” She traced her dreamcatcher staff over the etched stone. “Think of them like a complicated mathematical equation that must be solved for us to progress. More traps by Zeloph to slow us down. I can decipher them, but it would take hours, at the least. One mistake would be disastrous.”

“Something will happen like the force that struck sister, huh?” Beatrix followed the shaman's nod. “Hmm, they're not so different from the formulas Flurry and I use to craft alchemy. Except, um, way more confusing than what I'm used to! Flurry's a genius at this, so she might be able to solve it, but I have to admit I don't have a chance!”

“Just leave this to me,” said Oona with a light giggle. Cautiously she traced the barrier with her fingertips, the energy appearing in a prism of color that sparkled and shifted. Piece-by-piece, she translated the messages hidden within and chanted them aloud.

Sombra considered helping, but realized he was more likely to distract her. Besides, while he had no doubt as to his own considerable knowledge, he conceded she had familiarity with this mysterious Zeloph.

He'd heard her and Beatrix mention this Vice Lord when they conversed, and knew he needed to uncover more so that he might put an end to this nightmare.

Instead, he settled down by the angel. “Bellatrix Primadonna.” He stroked her blonde curls. “I've done you a number of terrible wrongs. Ones I can never truly make amends for. And yet you forgave me anyhow.” Were it not for her now tattered lingerie, stained scarlet by her gash, she would be absolute perfection, at least on the surface. Yet she stewed with inner turmoil.

Whoever the Necronomicon's author was, they were likely dead, and from some distant dimension, he realized there was a time he would have been no different. The dark tome offered power and pleasures beyond compare. He could have had a whole planet's worth of horny, servile succubi to please him in every way imaginable. He scoffed in disgust at his weakness.

A mere piece of lost fiction? She meant far more to him than most 'real' creatures he'd met. Her bosom softly rose-and fell.

Watching as Beatrix and Trixie conversed, he was reminded of what it was like to truly be alone. He'd ended up banished to this dimension, reborn and amnesiac, only to be rescued from near death by Fancy Pants despite the protests of Fleur de Lis.

He smirked, certain she was right to want him dead. He was a monster who now simply used his darkness for positive ends.

And yet there were still those who believed in him. Who would never abandon him, despite his numerous faults.

And he couldn't be more grateful.

Hours passed before Spike's party encountered what they sought. Twilight Sparkle sucked in a breath, unable to contain her enthusiasm when the sphere of light started to dance before them. “There it is!” She pointed. Convinced it had to be the Crystal Heart, she spread her plume and sailed after it, over the dragon's graveyard that stretched across the wastelands.

Her companions struggled to keep pace. “Careful Twilight,” called Somnambula who spread her full span. “What if this is a ploy?”

Yet Twilight refused to be deterred, certain if it was a trap, her magic would be more than sufficient to deal with it. She would take whatever risks were necessary to have the old Equestria back. The sphere stopped, hovered, and sank below the bones.

“Come back,” she cried and started to furiously dig with hands and her aura, entire skeletons tossed aside. The area quaked with a rattle, and she toppled backwards, horn still lit and ready to unleash offensive and defensive spells as needed. She rose skyward, sailed in place with narrowed eyes, and wondered if the dark tome would now seek to test her, too.

More skeletons were tossed into the air, and from the fissure left behind emerged a tentacled black mass, not unlike the Demiurge. The abomination thrashed, its extensions dripping with slime, covered in sore-like suckers that pulsed.

At its center was a wide maw, pitch black in the middle, its sides lined with rows-upon-rows of discolored, jagged teeth.

“Sunset!” She spotted the nude figure of her dear friend, lifted by the tendrils, which oozed over her glistening flesh.

“Th-they're so cold and clammy,” muttered Sunset Shimmer, who helplessly writhed in its grasp. They coiled around her thighs, drew her arms apart, and she shuddered when one traced the curvature of her back. “Twilight, stay back! I'm too weak to work so much as a simple spell. Whatever this is, its drained my powers with its touch!”

Twilight cried, “The Demiurge?! No, it's much weaker,” she surmised, trying to scan it with a spell to gauge its magic signature. Nevertheless, the abomination's might was beyond substantial. She started to fire a series of shimmery beams from her horn.

Soon, the Sphinx, Spike, and her niece joined in to combine their efforts into a destructive elemental whirlwind. This caused the monster to shriek and hiss, lashing back with swats of its pudgy tentacles.

Sunset wiggled and moaned, more of its goo running down her curves, leaving viscous trails that dotted her in goosebumps and rolled off one of her erect nipples.

“Gross,” she muttered with a flushed face, ashamed they saw her in such a compromising position.

Flurry called, "It's working! Too well! Watch out, it's about to drop Sunset!”

Sunset yelped when the tendrils lost control and she plummeted towards the mouth of the abyss. Blinking in, Twilight seized her faster than Spike or Somnambula could sweep in, and teleported her a safe distance away. “Whoa. That was close. Thanks. Sorry, I'm all sticky now.” She winced and shivered, thankful to be away from the monster.

“I couldn't abandon you,” said Twilight with watery eyes as they watched the team drive the beast back into its hole. “It's my fault you came to Equestria when the Eldritch arrived to begin with. My fault you're here now, and I almost lost you, all because I'm selfish.”

“Hey, I knew the risks.” She smiled at her. “Without you, I could've ended up like Adagio, or worse.” She'd heard about how the Eldritch split her skull with a psychic blow, the pressure too much to bear.

“Speaking of which, how are the other Dazzlings? And Wallflower Blush? I hated to pull you away from them.”

“They'll be fine,” said Sunset with a chuckle. “It took some time, but Aria and Sonata fit into society okay now. They're still living with Wallflower and I. Of course, they still miss Adagio terribly. I wasn't there, but I feel bad I couldn't save her.” She exhaled.

Twilight nodded. “Another victim of the Eldritch.”

“Their ghosts almost scrambled my brain for good,” noted Sunset. “In fact, I should be brain dead after such an intense psychic attack. My theory? That sphere of light somehow protected me. It was so warm. I think it pulled my soul in here to save me.”

“I think it's the Crystal Heart,” explained Twilight. “But it's still weak. Without hope, it will wither and die!”

“We'd better help supply some then,” said Sunset. “If I didn't get caught up like this, you wouldn't have to come back here.”

Twilight shook her head. “You led me to the Crystal Heart, so consider it even. We'd better track it down before we leave.” She watched her companions sail their way now that the danger had passed. “Any idea where the light went?”

The Sphinx pointed a paw towards the horizon. “Our destiny lies elsewhere. Let us continue.”

Twilight asked, “Will your powers come back?”

“I think so,” said Sunset. “I can feel them start to return already.” She sparked her horn. “Will take some time, though.”

The Sphinx nodded. “From what Beatrix claimed, all manner of abominations lurk in the Necronomicon. It draws them here, traps them, drives many of them even madder. From what she said, they can do any number of things. Some convert you into monsters, eat you alive, or sate their lusts on their victims...”

“That one got a little too intimate for my tastes,” noted Sunset, her curves still slick with stickiness.

Twilight nodded and recalled her own limited research into this area. “These creatures are effected by their surroundings, and those they encounter. They often act how people expect them to, and well, if we assume they all wantto make us incubators...”

Sunset smirked and nudged her ribs. “You saying it's my fault? I'm kidding, Twilight, relax. But you can't blame me for, well, expecting what looks like a monster to act that way.” She relaxed in Spike's arms when she was passed to him, still too weak to move well on her own. “Shame about my clothes, still. Feel a little vulnerable here.”

Flurry sifted through her satchel. “Think I can whip you up something with one of my potions! Glad you're okay!”

“You too,” said Sunset with a wink. “Your prosthetic horn and wings are amazing.”

“Aw, it was nothing.” Flurry blushed and continued to dig. “Aha, here!” Within moments she uncorked a bottle, and from it spilled a liquid which hardened into a fabric. “It's fragile and temporary, but I hope this will do!”

“It will. Thanks.” Sunset accepted what she wove, a thin top and wrapped skirt that barely made her feel more clothed. She couldn't complain, not after the hell they'd surely went through to seek her out.

With everything in order, the Sphinx waved them on once more, guided by her intuition. Thin trails of ooze were all that remained of the creature in the pit. Gliding down the wastes, the group continued to seek the remnant of the Crystal Heart.

Fully entrenched in the Pony of Shadows, what his people believed to be Sombra returned to a hidden laboratory he'd set up in the pyramid, made to resemble a similar, dungeon-like abode below the Crystal Palace so long ago. His masked elite guards slid the secret compartment closed behind him, and silently trailed behind, ready to obey his every command.

His boots clinked with an echo on weathered gray stone. He waved his gauntlet-decked fist, lit the torches on the walls, and rattles sounded from the cells where he kept those who dared disobey him until more helmets were prepared. Notes were scattered across the tables alongside the equipment. Shelves were lined with bottles that contained the pickled remains of beasts and various alchemy creations. A cracked skull with a half-melted candle rested before his chair, and he lit it too with a sigh.

The fake book created by Stygian was laid out before him. “Hmm...mostly filled with spells I've already mastered. He's an amateur compared to me. However...” He thumbed across the tattered pages. “Maybe I can still use this.”

He reasoned whoever authored the Necronomicon had begun in a similar fashion. Calling on Sombra's memories, he took a quill, dipped it in ink, and furiously wrote all he could recall into the blank spaces of each section. He also recounted the creatures he'd seen illustrated in it, and copied those too, in an attempt to create an inferior but potent recreation of the tome.

Hours passed while he worked like a stallion possessed. His eyes glowed and he also poured his power into it, watched the letters light up, until the glow reflected off his grim face. “It needs more,” he decided.

With a nod, his guards opened a cell and yanked out a stallion. He whimpered for mercy, and was stripped naked, bone visible from the stretched flesh after how little he'd fed them. The soldiers held him in place, and Sombra unsheathed his blade, a casual swipe of his blade opening his throat. Gurgles sounded, and warm blood rolled from his lips to splat on the page.

“A sacrifice. The first of many. Have him flayed. His dried and stretched skin will make a nice cover. As for the rest of him, I'm certain the Orthros are famished.” His men bowed and lifted up the headless, still warm carcass, and dumped it on a slab.

He stalked in a circle around the room. “I know the price of the black arts. Stygian, you fool. You left more secrets behind than you intended.” The scholar had written his own limited research into the fake, theories about the Necronomicon...one which included how its power might be linked to all such grimoires into the forbidden. Given time, he reasoned, he could link this fake with the real deal, use it to create a method to travel into the multiple dimensions that lurked inside its infinite depths, and claim its secrets.

No normal sorcerer could have worked such a miracle. But no one matched his insight into the dark arts, either.