"I can understand why there are some ponies that would hate the Sisters that rule your world," Crimson commented, following Midnight into the ruined castle, "but why would you, her personal student, want to see her fall? Why would the Elements of Harmony of this world turn against their leaders and try to destroy them?"

"We, the Shadows that call the Darkness home, have been at war with the countless worlds around us for the last two to three thousand years," Midnight replied, sadly sighing as she cast a glance at the surrounding area, "so we were fighting all the other races of our world a lot sooner than you guys were. You guys fought the dragons over two thousand years ago, thanks to Glimmer that is, but we had already been fighting them for a few hundred years before she made a move. Just like in your world the three tribes hated each other, but where you guys got over it we remained in such a state that we could not move on at all. Our battles happened a lot sooner than yours had, but there was always two figures that appeared to quell the fighting for the rest of our kind..."

"The Sisters..." Crimson responded, knowing that he was indeed cutting her off and finding that she really didn't mind the outburst of his all that much.

"Yes, they destroyed King Nova when he tried to liberate the Crystal Empire from their control," Midnight spoke up, though she almost choked a bit as she did so, "Order, the Spirit of Harmony, was turned into an opal statue when he tried to liberate Shadowlot from the Sister's, though they shattered his statue so he could never regain himself. Queen Meta and her changelings tried to take the city when Princess Rhythm and Captain Gloomy Armor were getting married, but she and her army were decimated by the combined power of the Sisters and Princess Rhythm. From what I've heard Queen Meta was executed almost immediately after the attack, which only lead to the destruction of the majority of her Hive. Lord Tirek, well, after you defeated him he came here, only to be nearly torn to pieces and was cast back into his cell, where he's been healing ever since.

Our only allies are the rest of the Elements of Harmony, Sunlight Shimmer, who returned to us after we asked for her assistance, and the remaining fifty changelings of Queen Meta's Hive. There's also fifty Shadows that have allied themselves with us, though they prefer to remain hidden so the Sisters don't seen them until its too late."

"What about my Shadow?" Crimson asked, curious as to where his own Shadow was and where he sided on the matter, "Or the Shadow of my cousin for that matter."

"There's no easy way for me to say this..." Midnight replied, though Crimson knew that he was going to receive some terrible news from those words alone.

"They're dead," Spectra spoke up, for the first time since her conversation with Midnight, "Ebon Flare and Dayfury tried to stage a coup against the Sisters, but somehow Darkstar found out and she nearly obliterated them from our world when they fought. Still, they fought against her terrible power in the hopes that they could beat her, but Darkstar was too strong for them and, instead of showing mercy to her own child, she slew Ebon Flare in plain view of everypony. Dayfury was executed the following hour, much to Nightmare Moon's horror and that, in turn, lead to a rebellion that caused her to be banished the your world for a thousand years, where Darkstar received a much weaker Princess Luna and merely locked her up."

Crimson remembered the story of Nightmare Moon and how his aunt had become such a creature, but now it seemed like his aunt and her Shadow had merely switched places. It seemed almost ironic, that both of them rebelled against their sister and were beaten down, only to be sent to the other side and then trapped in the moon of that world. It would have made things much simpler if his Shadow was still alive, so there would have been somepony else that was as good at strategy as he was. He could imagine the damage that he and Ebon would have caused if the two of them had been given the chance to work together, but they had been robbed of that chance.

"What was Ebon doing before he and Dayfury tried their coup?" Crimson asked, hoping that somepony knew what he had been working on so he could continue.

"He was trying to divine where his mother's power was coming from," Midnight replied, shaking her head as they turned a corner, "Darkstar should be as powerful as your mother, Princess Celestia, but there's a mysterious aura around her that makes everypony fear her and even makes her own sister back off. She's got some other power, one that she hasn't shown anypony, that's making her extremely more powerful than your mother, something I hope we never get the chance to discover. Ebon was determined to figure out whatever his mother's hidden power truly was, but, from what he told me, he could never figure out where the power came from or what it was."

"I guess that I'll have to take up where he left off and see if I can't find out something that he had missed," Crimson commented, wondering what power Darkstar could be hiding so well that nopony knew of its existence. Save for her son that is, as Ebon seemed to think that there was something different about her and had been determined to figure it out.

"His lab is right here," Midnight said, beckoning to a door that they were passing, "once we've shown you our base of operations and, make sure that your fit for duty, your more than welcome to follow in Ebon's hoofsteps. I'm not sure what we missed when he was here, but I know there has to be something that we haven't considered that could be giving Darkstar her powers."

"What about your world's Elements of Harmony?" Crimson asked, curious as to what happened to them if Darkstar had destroyed their enemies by herself.

"They're attached to certain locations in Shadowlot," Midnight replied, sighing as she remembered where they were, "it doesn't seem like it, but if you were to look in the direction of the city you'd see a shimmer of a barrier hanging over everything. Darkstar is using the Elements to power a protective barrier, keeping her capital safe whenever she personally goes out to conquer other worlds. It would not surprise me if she's ranting at this very moment, telling the others that she'll have your head for stalling her plans."

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"Sister, please reconsider," Nightmare begged, standing before her sister's throne with Glimmer standing beside her, "I know that your angry that Crimson stalled our operations to take his world, but that's no reason to force open a gateway from our world to theirs. You have no idea what could happen if we opened one of those gates in our own world."

"I shall do what I want, whenever I want," Darkstar growled, staring down at her sister for a moment, "If I were to give you the command to make sure my forces are at the ready, then you would go to the front lines and make sure that they are ready for battle. If I give you the command to make sure that the Elements are still arrayed in the barrier position, then you would go out into the city and make sure that all SIX Elements are exactly where they should be. IF I give you the command to build me a gateway to Crimson's Equestria, than you would know to leave my presence, track down my most talented of mages, and force them to build the gateway, regardless of whatever 'consequences' there might be.

Do I make myself clear dear sister?"

Glimmer shivered slightly as the temperature in the royal chamber decreased by at least twenty degrees, all from the sudden tone that her master had taken on. It was a sign of her using her innate powers, those that most Shadows had no idea even existed and would give them even more dread for when their leader turned her gaze on them. Glimmer had some suspicions as to how her master could have acquired such powers, but without any evidence there was no way of telling which one of her theories was the correct one. As she stood her ground she could tell that Nightmare was also shivering, caught off guard by the fact that her own sister would do such a thing to them both.

"Y...yes, I understand," Nightmare Moon stated, fear dripping from her words, "I shall consult the mages and see if they can't replicate the gateway that Glimmer created back in the other world."

"Do that," Darkstar commanded, Nightmare gulping before trotting out of the chamber, "Glimmer, normally I would have commended you on your service in Crimson's world, but in light of recent events I have considered doing nothing to you at all. Instead, I would like to give you another mission; I need you to head to Princess Midnight's domain and see if there are any lingering sources of magic that don't belong to this world. If Crimson followed us to our own world than I need to know where he is, only so I can obliterate all traces of him from existence."

"Yes, my master," Glimmer said, her body shifting into shadows as she fled from the chamber, heading towards the destination that she had been assigned to search.