It was the day following Glimmer's assault on Ponyville, where she and her Shadows had come out of the shadows to do war with Princess Celestia, her sister, and their children. Twilight and Cadence had basically been in harms way because of the vendetta that Glimmer had against the royal sisters, blaming them for all her problems. She had captured all four of the Prime Sigils and had torn open a gateway to her home world, allowing her foul masters to enter Equestria and begin whatever they had planned. They might have gotten away with it, had Crimson, the Knight-Commander of Equestria's old armies and the son of Princess Celestia, not put a stop to it.

Twilight had no idea how he managed to defeat three Shadows and seal the gateway that had been created, but Crimson was a wonder that she would never have the pleasure of figuring out.

The guards that had been injured in the fight with the Shadows had been given the next week off of work, so they could mend their wounds before they were needed again. Cadence's guards almost immediately returned to the Crystal Empire, though Cadence and Shining followed them the following morning, after saying goodbye to Twilight and the sisters. Nightfury, on the other hoof, remained mostly alone in her chambers in the castle, calling upon her assistant to conduct some studies of some kind. Twilight hated to see her mentor so sad, as she was dealing with what had happened to Crimson worse than the others, but she had to return to Ponyville and clean up the mess that had been left behind.

As the morning dawned upon Equestria and slowly advanced towards noon, Celestia remained in her personal chambers, staring at the tin that her son had carried with him at all times. It was void of the pieces of wood that he enjoyed smoking, though she had wished that there was one inside so she could just light it and let it burn, so she could keep him in mind at all times. It saddened her that she had lost her son for a second time, though this time she wasn't sure if he was lurking somewhere else or if he was truly gone for real. Now she had to mourn Crimson all over again, which only made her heart ache more than it should have.

The servants had come in to clean the room early after the sun was up, the cook had sent her something for breakfast, and even the guards, who were usually silent, had asked her if she was okay. She turned them all away, preferring to keep to herself until she could regain her composure for the rest of her faithful ponies. The only pony she couldn't turn away was her sister, who also mourned Crimson's disappearance, though she remained cheerful that her daughter might uncover something. Even as Celestia heard her sister's knock on her chamber doors she made no effort to open them herself, letting her sister open the doors and walk into the chamber, closing them so no pony else knew what they would be speaking of.

"I see you haven't moved one bit," Luna remarked, stopping before her sister's bed and noticing that she was still staring at the tin, "and I hear that you refused to eat breakfast for the first time in over a thousand years."

"I'm mourning, if you cannot tell," Celestia replied, turning to face her sister while tears still ran down her muzzle, "I just lost my son, for the second time in my long life I'll remind you. I thought I had lost him forever the first time, but now I'm not sure if I've lost him forever or if I've lost him for the time being. I'm allowed to ignore a meal or two while I mourn."

"Look, I just came to update you on what Nightfury's doing," Luna continued, sighing as she remained standing, "She and Thorn are going to be scouring the entirety of the Shadow's world, looking for ways to defeat Nightmare Moon and Darkstar in case they decide to invade us again. They're also looking for any signs of Crimson, just in case he survived the explosion that destroyed the gateway."

"Please, don't wound me with false promises," Celestia moaned, knowing the thought of them finding a wrecked form of her son filled her with dread, "If you're going to search for Crimson then only tell me when you have progress, such as a definite sighting and an actual conversation with him. Either way, you two have my blessing to continue with your duties."

"Fine, I'll leave you to mourn," Luna sighed, wondering why her sister was being so difficult these days, "I need to run Canterlot while you sulk in your chambers."

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"Are you sure about this Nightfury?" Thorn asked, following her teacher into her chambers before closing the door behind them, "Glimmer saw me when she entered that castle, so she'll likely have told her masters that I'm not on their side anymore. I'm not sure that I'll be able to do much with them looking for me."

"But you're our only hope of discovering what happened to my cousin," Nightfury replied, putting the finishing touches on her new summoning circle, one that she planned on transferring to the Everfree Forest the moment she return to Ponyville, "Look, Crimson planned for nearly every possible path that Glimmer could have taken once she got her claws on all four Prime Sigils, so he must have planned for every possible outcome after he defeated her. He likely planned this out, so he could travel to the Shadow's home world and put a permanent stop to their plans to conquer Equestria.

You need to scour your home world for Crimson and then get him somewhere safe so he can get a message back to Aunt Celestia that he's okay, this has to be first on our to do list. Once he's okay and able to work you'll need to find out what Darkstar is planning, so we can plan how to stop her before she invades our world once again. We need to cripple Darkstar's empire before another gateway is forged, because now that she knows what to do there's no telling how long it will take for her to make her own. You need to get going immediately."

Thorn glanced at the summoning circle that wrapped around the center of the bedroom, worried that Darkstar would sense her coming back to her home world. Everything hinged on Darkstar being too upset by the defeat to notice a Shadow returning to the Darkness, though she had no idea how long something like that would last. After a moment she sighed and approached the circle, stepping over the freshly drawn runes as she wondered where she could start her search for Crimson. There was one place in mind that she could start her search, but she seriously hoped that the mares that ran the town would be too busy dealing with Darkstar.

"I wish you luck Thorn," Nightfury said, the circle's magic weaving around the stone as Thorn began to detach from the filly, "be careful on the other side and find my cousin."

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Crimson moaned in pain as he felt the sun touch his eyes, making him remember when the Cutie Mark Crusaders had found him and brought him back into the world before the time he had been waiting for. He picked himself up and opened his eyes, finding a deep gray colored sky, different than the light blue sky he was used to, hanging above his head. He glanced down at the ground and found that the grass that he was sitting in was deep red colored, almost looking like it was made from blood or something. When he glanced back up at the sky, remembering what Darkstar had said about a different colored sun, that was when he noticed a large black as night sun hanging in the noon position.

He moaned again and got up onto his hooves, knowing that, by the information he could get by looking at his surroundings, he was in the world of the Shadow's, what they called the Darkness. Now that he knew where he was he had to find somewhere safe, someplace where he could formulate a plan of attack to stop Darkstar and whatever she was planning. He glanced around and found that there were dozens upon dozens of trees that reminded him of the Everfree Forest, which meant that the ruined castle had to be around him somewhere.

Before he could start moving he heard a roar pierce the air, a roar that made him think back to the few times he had a run in with an Ursa Major in his own forest.

"Blast it all, I don't have time for this," Crimson moaned, moving in the direction that he believed the castle was in, "I don't have time to any creatures of this forest, much less an Ursa Major."

As he began to move he realized that he was moving slower than he originally wanted, though he had expected to have sustained some damage from destroying the Sigil of Fire. He also noted that his neck was a lot lighter once more, which told him that his necklace had been destroyed, either from Glimmer ripping the Sigil out or from his own actions. He weaved his way through the trees, making sure to avoid hitting them with his strained wings and hurting them more than they were already were, while trying to avoid whatever was following him. As he moved he also noticed that something was moving with him, around his immediate area, though when he looked in the direction he noticed something bone white following him.

Though after a brief moment of observation he realized that there was a few Diamond Dogs following him, something he truly didn't want to contend with at the moment.

"Blast it all once more, I don't have time to deal with you lot," Crimson shouted, a small amount of flames wrapping around him while he ran, "begone before I'm forced to take drastic measures."

After a few seconds the Diamond Dogs, or whatever they were called in this strange world, decided that he wasn't worth the effort and disappeared into the surrounding trees. At least that's what it seemed like at first, until he heard another Ursa roar pierce the air around him and told him that it was gaining on him. He had managed to beat the ones in his own forest without any problems, but they were a pain to watch, form a plan around, and then trap so they didn't cause any problems. He didn't know how terrible the Ursa's of this world were, but in his current state he didn't have the power to deal with one of them at all.

He continued on his path, hating how sluggish he was moving, until he noticed that the amount of trees around him was beginning to thin out. That meant that he was either coming closer to where Ponyville rested or the ruined castle, which is what he really hoped he was drawing closer to. After another moment of fast trotting he spotted a wooden bridge that stretched across a large gap, though it told him that he had found the location he had been searching for. The moment he burst out of the trees he spotted the ruined castle across the gap, which looked almost like the one in his own world, and that made him wonder how identical it was to the one he knew.

Before he could even get further in that thought process a third roar tore through the air, causing him to turn around in time to see a massive black as night bear emerge from the trees.

"This cannot be happening to me right now," Crimson commented, turning around so he could face the Ursa Major while he slowly backed onto the wooden bridge.

The Ursa stared at him for a moment, as if wondering if he was prey or something else, before an angry look appeared on its muzzle and it roared at him once more. The Ursa took a step forward, almost as if it wanted to do battle with him, but a second later a bolt of red lightning hit it square in the chest and knocked it backwards. Crimson looked around, trying to find the source of the lightning, until he noticed a dark blue coated pegasus mare fly towards the bridge, though she seemed focused on the Ursa and not on him. Not that he could blame her, as a few seconds later the Ursa got back up and growled, now more annoyed with the mare than it was with him.

That was before a volley of light filled orbs flew past the two of them, connecting with the Ursa's chest and blasting it even further back into the trees. The Ursa roared at them before turning around and vanishing into the forest, leaving Crimson to wonder why it had given up on hurting them so easily.

"Yeah, that's right, you better run!" the pegasus mare shouted at the Ursa Major, which didn't even bother to turn around and engage them once more, "Nothing starts the day off on the right hoof by scaring off an Umbra Major."

"Are you insane Spectra?" a second voice said, causing Crimson to turn around and find a light purple alicorn, one that reminded him of Twilight Sparkle, approaching him and the pegasus, "You know we cannot let an Umbra Major get this close to the castle, which means that you and your squad aren't doing their duties right. You should have scoured the area around the castle and made sure that it was safe for us to get back to my castle before the Sister's returned to their throne."

"Oh come on Midnight, you know we can only do so much," the pegasus, Spectra Crimson noted, replied, landing beside Crimson and walking towards the alicorn, "with half of my squad spying on Shadowlot there's not a lot me and the others can do at the moment. You've got ten pegasi to keep an eye on the entire Evergleam Forest, which isn't the safest place thanks to that Umbra Major and the Opal Dogs I spotted earlier."

"They're getting bolder everyday it seems," the alicorn, Midnight, commented, before noticing that there was another pony standing near them, "Oh, I was not aware that somepony else had managed to find our secret hideout. My name is Midnight Shine, Princess of the town known as Ponyville and current ruler of the Evergleam Castle, where the Sister's once ruled all of the land. This is Spectra Dash, Commander of the Pegasus Corps that survey our enemies positions and report back to us with anything they might find. And who, if I might ask, do we have the honor of addressing?"

"Crimson Flare, the Prince of Fire," Crimson replied, seeing that the young alicorn was confused, just like her counterpart in the main Equestria, "In my world I'm the son of Princess Celestia, whose the counterpart of your own Princess Darkstar."

"Oh....OH!" Midnight exclaimed, understanding exactly what he meant, "Your HIS counterpart?! Quickly, we have to get you inside the castle and have Angelshy take a look at you, just in case you sustained any wounds on your journey here. I'll have to send a letter to Scarcity and have her gather both Jackie and Pinkamena, so that we're all here and out of the way in case the Sister's return to Ponyville early. We've got a war to plan now that your here."

"Excuse me?" Crimson asked, wondering why the Shadows would be turning against their own rulers, "What's all this about a war?"

"Its very simple," Midnight said, grinning as she turned back towards the ruined castle, "You have just found the home of the Rebellion, where the ponies that hate the rule of the Sister's gather to plan their downfall. And now that you, the Knight-Commander of the main Equestria's forces, have arrived we finally have a chance at outwitting and defeating the Sister's at long last."