Gammel Hjerte walked into his old chambers, looking at, yet not into, the Mirror of Time. In it, he saw himself:

His black, shining coat, reflecting the cold, dark void of space.

His free-flowing mane and tail, shaped more like fire, free from the Strings of Time, as he was dislodged from its hold.

His blue, icy eyes, rarely Blinking, yet always blinking.

And his lopsided horn, sprouting from the side of his head, and curving like the horn of a goat, glowing with a strange power as he held himself down in the moment.

He blinked, and then Blinked, now looking into the Mirror of Time.

In it, he saw himself:

His black, shining coat, blurry as Time shivered on the transient, void-like material, enabling him to come dislodged, yet keeping the rest of the world in that moment.

His fire-like tail and mane, both of them finally calming, staying in a frozen state, the Strings of Time no longer vibrating against them, unsuccessfully attempting to hold him down.

His black, black eyes, all color sapped from them as he staid Time, not allowing any light to escape from the black holes in his forehead.

And finally, his two, goat-like horns, stretching out from the sides of his head, ending in golden tips, Time accumulating on their tips, one of them finally visible as Time began to hold it in place, or, rather, as it began to hold its place in Time, and Time in its place.

He Blinked, and looked at the Mirror of Time, his flame-like mane and tail billowing madly as the Strings of Time whizzed past them, his coat shining as Time created a cone around him, light returning to his eyes, and his left horn returning to its state of transience, unable to withstand the tempting beckon of the strange mistress of Time.

The Elder of Time sighed, thinking back to when he had buried Sverd Danser in the crypts...

The Skygger closed in from all sides, their grotesque forms originating from the even more grotesque form, its mutilated body not anywhere near resembling the Elder it had once been...

Gammel cradled the silver unicorn in his hooves, his fellow Elder giving his last gasps, the Skygger raising their swords of Soul Metal, ready to attack...

The Elder focused all of his mental energy, and Blinked. The world stood still, his body shimmering as the Strings of Time passed him by...

With a grunt of effort, Gammel Hjerte tore his dying friend out of the Strings of Time, making a rift in the world that followed the dislodged pony.

He placed the Elder into the burial sconce, knowing full well that the body would never truly decompose, but be a husk of the once-grand Elder, life not flowing through its empty skin...

He closed the sconce, and fled from the Skygger, Blinking once more as he jumped over the wall of earth that Jord Rullator had created. The slabs of stone shot upwards, and the sound of shouts and torture told them that the Skygger had been crushed.

Gammel Hjerte looked back at the scant party of Elders. This was the last death he would force his fellow Elders to endure...

Gammel Hjerte looked back at the Mirror of Time, reciting the words he had heard from the Lys i Mørket, the day it had chosen him as an Elder...

"With the passage of Time comes Death, and with Death comes the passage of Time."

The white Pegasus stared at the wall, a defiant look in his eyes, his black and red mane much shorter than his likely colored tail. He sighed, remembering his close call with Death...

It was difficult, surviving down in those crypts, with only the seven of them, walls of granite closing them off from the Skygger that prowled in the eternal night of the ruins.

Crimson Daggry looked up into his fellow Elder's, and sister's, eyes, a fear overcoming him as the wide gash in his side sapped more of his energy, his blood seeping onto the ground.

"Døende...I love you..."

Døende Daggry held her brother closely, and Crimson Daggry cried into her shoulder, wishing that he could have spent more time with her, back with their mother, before the Lys i Mørket had chosen them both as Elders...

"I want you to know, that I'll always be with you, my sister..."

"Don't talk like that...you're not dying...you can't be..."

Crimson shuddered, life leaving him.

"I love you..."

"No..."

"Good-bye, my sister..."

He closed his eyes, and the darkness took him. That is, until he heard a familiar voice.

"Come on, yah pussy! I'm not lettin' you die! You saved my life, mate!"

Crimson Daggry gasped, the Fire of Healing being poured back into him. He looked at Døende, and hugged her, holding her tight as the two siblings cried in each others' arms.

"Thank you, Brenning Kuling..."

The red Earth pony stood, his mane flowing like fire.

"Any time, mate!"

Crimson Daggry looked down at the floor, depression filling him, remembering his sister's meeting with death...

It was total chaos. After eight years of being locked up in their stronghold, the Skygger had finally broken through the granite walls, and were forcing them to retreat. Crimson Daggry stood his ground, the six Elders behind him, especially his sister.

"Crimson, come on!"

"No! Go on without me! I'll hold them off!"

"No! I'm not leaving without you!"

"Yeah! Come on, mate! I didn' save yer life for nuttin'!"

Crimson focused, and drew his blade, the mechanism emulating the one that Sølv Brann had on his.

"Have at you!"

He sliced at the first Skygger, his black blade shining in the darkness, lopping off a grotesque limb, and then a head. He killed five Skygger, before he heard a shout, and felt a tug.

"I won't let you die, brother!"

A shield came up between him and his sister, stopping him from saving her life, as she let the Skygger tear at her body, blood spattering on the ground as their blades parted through her skin. She turned, pressing her body up against the corporeal shield.

"Go..."

And with that, all life left her, and Crimson Daggry felt himself being tugged yet again. He closed his eyes, and cried, not wanting to believe that his sister was dead...

What seemed to be an eternity later, he opened his eyes to see only four Elders.

He sighed, and recited the words that the Lys i Mørket had spoken to him and his sister, all those centuries ago...

"For every dawn has its Crimson awakening, and its Dying moments."

Brenning Kuling uneasily expanded and retracted his wings, feeling uncomfortable in his chambers after one hundred years...

He closed his eyes, remembering the first Skygger they had encountered...

They were walking, surely, towards the twentieth flight of stairs.

"This is a cake walk! What's Discord got on us, huh?"

Brening Kuling rolled his shoulders, smiling with a cocky air.

However, all that cockiness disappeared as the figure walked up the stairs, white bandages covering its black, mutilated body. Everypony stood still, paralyzed as they felt its mind slip into theirs, and a strange buzzing noise filled their ears. The monster came closer, and, as it neared, its image was burned into Brenning's mind.

It neared, and everypony watched in horror as its blades lengthened, the Soul Metal gleaming with hidden purpose.

The Skygger walked up to Skog Vakt first. The unicorn looked around, searching for some kind of plant that he could use to strangle the beast...

It was too late. The blades passed through skin, organs, and meat, bits of vital organs clinging to the red blades as they passed all the way through.

The sight of blood and death snapped Brenning back to reality. He tensed his wings, focusing all of his energy...

And set fire to the appendages, and commanded the breeze to carry the flames, as the fires became great tongues and snakes, engulfing the monster, charring both the body of Skog Vakt and the Skygger.

After a few moments, the fires calmed, both the Elder and the Skygger slaughtered.

"What...in the bloody hay...was that thing!?"

Gammel Hjerte turned to Brenning.

"I have no bucking clue."

They looked down at the dead Elder. They all circled around, and mourned him. Gammel Hjerte opened one of the nearby sconces, but Brenning attempted to start up the Flames of Healing.

"No. It's too late. You can't heal a wound made by Soul Metal...and you know that."

Brenning shivered, grateful that the wound dealt to Crimson Daggry had been inflicted by a stone hurtled at them by the Skygger's place of origins...

Brenning didn't remember the words that Lys i Mørket had spoken to him. But rather, he remembered the name...

Jett Stjerne flew through the membrane once more, the hole magically sealing back up as he turned.

As he passed through it, he remembered what it had felt like to pass through the skin-like membrane that had been left behind by the horrific being in the center of the crypts...

He shuddered as he remembered what it looked like...

He passed through the membrane, the Skygger shrieking as he did so, frustrated at their lack of prey...

He shuddered once more, trying hard to forget all of the things that had gone wrong in those damn crypts...

I thought we stood a chance...we obviously didn't...

He sighed, and recited the words Lys i Mørket had spoken to him...

"For the Stars need a Jet to guide them."

Jord Rullator sat on his stone and iron chair, staring down at the floor, reflecting upon what they had seen in the center of the ancient crypts...

They had faced many Skygger, and lost two Elders on their ways down to the center of the crypts.

"This is a fools' errand! We shouldn't be here!"

"Silence, Jett! Do you want to bring more Skygger here? Besides, we've spent ninety years just trying to get to these damnable crypts! The portal only opens once per century, and stays open for two decades. Would you truly go back now?"

The red Pegasus grunted, and they continued on, the center of the crypts visible before them.

"I'll open the crypts. Prepare yourselves, everypony. We don't know if Lys i Mørket is unguarded by Discord or not..."

Jord Rullator gritted his teeth, a horrible feeling accumulating in his gut. The earth...it was being tainted, just beyond those doors...

He looked up, fear in his eyes as the door opened.

"WAIT!"

It was too late.

The Darkness poured out of the ancient, cylindrical door, and countless Skygger leaked out, murdering three, four, five...ten, Elders, bringing their death count to twelve.

Jett Stjerne flew past the dark brown Earth pony, and then back past him, creating a shield around him as he dipped his sword-like tail into the Earth, feeling for faults...

He found them. Just before the Skygger had a chance to pierce its blade of Soul Gem deep into Crimson Daggry's heart, he slammed up a wall of granite, destroying two hundred Skygger, their bodies squirming as the darkness was squeezed out of them.

And then, they heard a scream.

"Help! Help! Oh, sweet Celestia, HE-"

The seven Elders cringed, looking between one another.

"Lys i Mørket...he's..."

Brenning Kuling nodded to Sverd Danser. Back when the silver unicorn didn't have a hole in his heart...

Jord Rullator passed out, the shock of the revelation and the physical exertion of raising the wall of granite taking their tolls.

The Light...

The Light had been lost in the Darkness.

He shuddered, remembering what the horrid thing had looked like...

Jord Rullator stood, taking a deep breath as he recited the words that the Lys i Mørket had spoken to him, on the day he had been chosen as an Elder...

"For the Earth is tread upon, and it must have one who treads back."

He looked to the ground, remembering who the scream had come from...

His sister, Vind Rullator.

My sister...I am sorry...

"And the Wing is passed through, and it must have one who keeps it steady."

Discord roared in anger.

Damn you, Deajer! Damn you to the Skygger!

He smiled as he remembered his creation.

At least I killed some Elders...oh, I love when a plan comes together...

He smiled, remembering his other creation.

Trixie the 'Great and Powerful' is almost to Ponyville...Bah! Once she kills that filly, I'll dispose of her...but, damn it, I still can't get into Peter's mind...or Loyalty's...Deajer saw to that...It's a wonder he's not dead.

Discord shook his head in disgust.

No matter...I'll just call an old friend...

He smiled.

Atonal...you and I have some catching up to do...

Why can't I hold all these genres!?
It's dark, it's a romance, it's human, it's tragic (at times), it's a lot of stuff!
And, yet...
I've chosen the maximum amount of genres...
But now, it's also a crossover with Amnesia (slightly)!
Gah!
Fimfic, y u no raise genre limit!?