Upon their journey, our heroes come upon a vast city in ruins. There was no sign depicting the name of said city, but it was eerily quiet.

"Princess Celestia, where are we? I thought you said we would have to cross a river next, not a town."

Celestia continued on a few more steps before responding to Shining Armor's question, "I was wrong, I had no idea this city was here."

They continued into the city without a thought as to what may be inside.

Rainbow Dash felt something twitching on her back. She turned her head to see her wings had returned. The others' appendages had returned as well. Before they could celebrate, a mare was coming around the corner of a destroyed building, galloping at full speed towards them screaming. Twilight recognized who it was immediately. Trixie stopped in front of Twilight breathing heavily, "Twilight Sparkle, funny running into you here. I need your help, my friend is unconscious and is in need of aid."

Without another word, they followed Trixie to this friend of hers. They all stopped in their tracks when they saw who her friend was. So stunned they could not force out a word. Discord recovered first. "Before anypony rushes at him and tries to kill him, perhaps we should-"

"No Discord, I refuse to help that monster in any way! He deserves to die for what he has done!" Celestia was powering a spell meant to kill.

A panicked voice came from Chrysalis, "Blitz come back here this instant."

So blinded by her rage, Princess Celestia had not noticed Chrysalis' baby had climbed into Sombra's arms and was fast asleep. Sombra felt the presence and lifted himself from the ground still holding the foal. The remainder of the mane six shielded their eyes, expecting Sombra to injure the poor thing. Shining Blitz stirred and looked up at Sombra and smiled, he smiled back. "Hello little one, did I wake you?"

Shining Blitz responded by reaching for Sombra's eyes trying to touch the weird purple swirls. He chuckled at the foal's antics. "Let us both prey you never have the same eyes as mine."

Rain began to fall from the sky. Sombra used his cape to cover the foal. He limped over to give the foal to Chrysalis. She said, "Thank you" he nodded. Chrysalis looked at Celestia, silently pleading to atleast hear him out. Twilight said, "King Sombra, how did you survive the Crystal Heart!" She seemingly ignored all the kindness he had just shown. Trixie stood in front of him, trying to protect him from their harsh glares. "Trixie does not see how it is any of your business."

Sombra placed a hoof on her, "I will tell them-" he faced them "after we find shelter from this rain. There is a building that has not fully crumbled to the ground yet. Follow me."

Applejack said, "And why in tarnation should we trust you."

Sombra sighed, "You are the Element of Honesty are you not? Look me in the eye and tell me if I am lying."

"Don't do it AJ, it could be a trick."

Ignoring Rainbow Dash, Applejack looked Sombra in the eye.

"He speaks the truth."

Sombra and Trixie marched off to the only intact building around, the others followed. Inside was a library with many books all destroyed by water damage, to the chagrin of Twilight. They found a fireplace and Twilight used her magic to light a fire. She breathed another sigh of relief, knowing she could use her magic again. They turned their attention to the old crystal king, who was busily drying his cape off after letting Shining Blitz use it. Once dried Cheysalis let him place the warm blanket back onto little Blitzy and placed the sleeping foal in front of the fire, not too close though. Fluttershy was touched such an evil pony could be so kind, so gentle.

"I suppose you all still want to know how I survived and why Trixie is with me?" They gave a silent nod. He settled in next to the sleeping foal, using his body for warmth and support. He sighed, "Then I will start from the beginning of my supposed death by the Crystal Heart."

The Crystal ponies placed their snouts close to the ground as everything around them began glowing in a brilliant light. The light engulfed the crystal ruler as he roared his final 'No!' and shattered. His horn remained intact and was knocked far away from the arctic north. It started its decent above Appleloosa and fell into the Everfree Forest.

It took some time before Sombra began to regenerate his body. While still in his shadow form, he was able to hear, no, feel the hate that was in the forest. Yet it was coming from a mare. She was going on about how some foolish unicorn had ruined her life, and how she hated her. Also how she envied what she had become. Sombra realized this as an opportunity to manipulate this mare to help him take back his kingdom. He would become the rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire... And then what. Sombra realized without the love of his life, nothing mattered anymore. She was on the side of good and she hated him. He realized again perhaps changing his ways would let her see the good in him and she would love him. He shook his head of these thoughts. Whoever this mare is had used his Alicorn Amulet some time ago, not knowing when removed, it leaves behind a residue that festers and grows. It was a poison that killed slowly and changed the pony exposed into a hateful unloving husk of their former self killing them slowly. He sighed, knowing only his magic could disperse the poison and get rid of it. With this thought in mind, he drifted over to the mare, who had a prominent headache. When she saw the spectral being, she jumped to her hooves, as she was trying to soothe said headache. "Who are you?" She said through narrowed eyes.

Sombra said, "You have used my Alicorn Amulet and now it is killing you from the inside. I know you feel that pain in your skull, that immense pain that won't go away? I can stop the pain, I can help you child"

Trixie was feeling under the weather but had shrugged it off as a cold from the rain until now.

"Trixie's headache has become more serious, and painful. What do you want from helping because Trixie will tell you right now, I have nothing."

Her voice softened at the end, and she looked crestfallen. Sombra was about to tell her he wanted nothing when he felt a very overwhelming sense of dread. He had only felt this once before. The first time he ever approached the Gates of Tartarus. The time has come. "Trixie I only ask that you follow me, I will need your help very soon."

She nodded, anything to get this pounding headache to go away. Sombra gently touched the tip of his horn to hers. Dark magic began to eminate from his horn and engulf her. After a few seconds, the magic cleared and Trixie felt completely at ease. She thanked him and promised to keep her word. She followed him to wherever he would take her.

By now Trixie was absolutely pissed. He took her through a desert full of of creatures trying to eat them and now they were in a ruined city extremely dehydrated. Chaos was watching as the azure mare and the black colt walked into the city without a second thought. Trixie was growing frustrated with the lack of response form the black maned stallion. "We have been walking forever, where are we going? Are you even listening to me!?"

The colt stopped abruptly, "We are being followed." The mare looked around for this supposed follower.

"I don't see anyone. Where are they?"

The colt sighed, "You may as well come out, I know when my amulet is near." He looked directly towards where Chaos was hiding. "How very astute of you 'King' Sombra." Chaos used his four arms to make quotation marks in the air when he said King.

Sombra growled at him, "I would assume you are not here to make jokes."

Chaos crossed his four arms, "I suppose you are correct. I came here to stop you from ever reaching the Gates of Tartarus!"

Trixie's face paled considerably, "t-the Gates of T-tartarus! That is where you are taking me!"

Sombra ignored her, "And what is it exactly you plan to do to stop me?"

Chaos grinned a malicious grin, "I already halted the Element bearers from moving forward, but with all this power I have, nopony presents a challenge. I challenge you to a fight of course, Sombra and Trixie, in which we will not use our powers. This will of course be a battle to the death. If you refuse, I kill you both with a snap of my fingers. Do we have a deal?"

Chaos extended his panther paw. Sombra, without even asking Trixie, shook the draconequus' paw, "deal"

Chaos smirked, "Excellent! But there are rules.

Rule one, no cheating: meaning no magic

There are no other rules."

Sombra rotated his shoulders trying to loosen up. "That is fine, Trixie be careful, those arms will be hard to dodge, but do not forget his legs. He can see almost anywhere so surprising him more then likely won't work. His tail looks powerful enough to kill so watch out."

Trixie nodded, Chaos was growing impatient, "Enough talk"

Chaos lunged at Sombra, who barely had enought time to dodge the panther paw before being struck in the ribs by the coyote paw. Sombra swung a hoof at his face but Chaos easily dodged. Chaos got in three more hits to Sombra before Trixie tried to intervene. She jumped and tried to kick him from a blind spot. Chaos saw it coming and caught her with his gorilla leg. He tossed her back and continued fighting Sombra.

Trixie had a bruise on her arm from the landing and didn't know if getting back up was worth it. She knew if she gave up she would more then likely die. She didn't even know if after Sombra was done with her if he would kill her. All she knew was that she was not about to die by some four eyed, eight armed, overgrown freak. She scooped some sand into her hoof and snuck up behind Chaos. Sombra was taking a rather serious beating by Chaos. He had bruises covering his body and was coughing blood. He looked about ready to kill over.

"CHAOS!"

The draconequus snapped his head around to look at Trixie, as he did this, Trixie tossed the dirt into his four eyes. Chaos yelled and frantically rubbed at his eyes trying to clear them of the burning and the tears. Sombra took this as his only opportunity and jumped on his back. Sombra used his rather sharp teeth to tear into Chaos' neck.

Trixie cheated and used her magic to keep Chaos' arms and legs away from Sombra. It took a lot of magic to keep Chaos' limbs from getting in the way. Sombra finished him off by forcing his teeth much deeper into his' neck and ripped out a chunk of it.

Chaos collapsed to the ground, dead.

Sombra collapsed against a wall for support with a sigh of relief. He looked at Trixie and muttered, "There are others nearby, find them and bring them here."

Trixie was exhausted after that fight, but complied anyways. She thought she heard him saying thank you. She turned to look at him, he was out cold. Worrying for his life, she ran off in search of somepony to help.

With the conclusion of the story, they were all shocked Sombra, the evil crystal empire ruler who enslaved his ponies, without realizing it, helped them. Princess Celestia knew he would be a great asset, but she would still keep an eye on him. Though he never mentioned who his love was, Cadence witnessed Celestia slightly tense up and Sombra risk a look at Luna. She knew there was something going on and also knew now was the best time to voice this thought. "King Sombra" he looked over at her, "Who was this love of your life?"

She already knew the answer, she could feel the love radiating from him for Luna. She could detect some feelings from Luna as well.

"I cannot say, though I believe you, Celestia, and even Chrysalis, may already know who."

Celestia sighed, "I know what your talking about Sombra. I hid the truth from her, from everypony."

"It is time you told the truth, how are they to trust you if you hide secrets like this Tia?" Discord curled his body around Celestia for comfort.

She released another sigh and told them everything about what really happened to Sombra and Luna, even her affair with Chrysalis and what she did to her. By the time she finished everypony except Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra had a look of shock on their faces. Luna was beyond infuriated. "Yo-You took away my memory? Sister how could you?"

Celestia looked down, "It would have been easier for you to return if you could not remember the real reason you hated me."

Luna ran out into the rain, Sombra followed. Celestia was about to go with until Discord placed a claw on her shoulder and shook his head. "They needed some time alone."

The rain was coming down harder then before. Luna could still feel the tears. "Luna" she heard the voice of the stallion she thought she was supposed to hate. His voice had always had a comforting effect, even without her memory. She turned to look at him, he was very close. "I am sorry you had to find out this way."

She could see the uncertain look in his eyes, he was at a loss for words and didn't know what to say.

"I don't remember much about our time together Sombra, but I know you understand me. I want to try and make this work. Is that ok?"

She was as uncertain as he was, he nodded. They leaned and and slowly closed their eyes. When their lips met, Luna felt something, amazing fill her body.

"So if they kiss, her memories come back to her? Lame!"

Princess Celestia had just told them how to give Luna her memory back and both Discord and Rainbow Dash gagged at hearing that.

Luna opened her eyes as they backed away from the kiss. She breathed out, "My king"

He smiled lovingly, "You remember" they hugged and returned to the building where the others were.

Celestia saw them coming and rose, "Sister I am sorry"

"It is fine big sister, I have regained my memory." Luna said with a smile.

Rainbow Dash felt the sentimentality getting to her. She coughed loudly, "We'll we really need to get going if we want to make it on time."

Applejack groaned, "I don't know about you, but some of us are still exhausted from that long trip."

"Applejack is right, we've been on this journey for days now, and we only stopped once. We should take another break, recup, and get back to it in the morning." Twilight was standing on a rock, lecturing.

Luna nodded, "She is right."

Everypony found a room to sleep in. Some ponies had to sleep with another, Luna and Sombra slept together.

They awoke around the same time as the others. They wordlessly exited the building and proceeded to the river which was coincidentally at the edge of town. The ferryman was on a large raft unmoving. He was a pony but had a large, black cloak on holding an ore. Stragely, he was on his hind legs, he had hands. Celestia cleared her throat, "I request that you take us across the river."

He didn't even look at her. "Fine, I demand you take us across the river!"

She went ignored again.

"Perhaps a form of payment may sway him?" Discord said, shrugging his shoulders.

Sombra was chuckling at Celestia's flushed expression. She glared at him.

"Fine"

She handed him ten bits, "This should be more then enough."

He stared at the bits and ate them, he spit it into the river. Celestia stared, jaw dropped, "How dare you!" She said stomping her hoof.

Sombra chuckled again. Celestia sat down and crossed her hooves. "Oh and you think you can do better, hm?"

Sombra waltzed over to the ferrymen and pulled out some ancient looking form of currency. He handed the three ancient coins to the ferryman and he took them gratefully.

"All aboard"

Sombra looked at Celestia with a smirk that said, 'I'm right and you know it'

Celestia hmphed and climbed in. She wasn't paying attention and almost fell off. Discord caught her, "does your savior get a kiss?" He puckered his lips. She placed a hoof to his lips, "I don't think so, Dizzy. Not in front of my little ponies."

The others giggled and hopped into the raft. The ferryman's words sent chills down there bodies. "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."

Applejack put her hat onto her face, "Well, guess I'll get some shut eye."

The boat ride was quiet, conversation would stop the awkwardness. "Hey Sombra, why were you so good with the foal?"

"I spoke with Luna once during her pregnancy. I was overjoyed at the thought of a foal." Silence once more.

Luna looked over the edge seeing silhouettes in the 'water'. "What is that?" Without looking Sombra responded, "They are the souls of the dead. They are collected here to be judged."

Chrysalis was holding Shining Blitz, "Does anypony have a bottle?" Discord snapped his fingers and a bottle filled with chocolate milk came up.

"What is this?"

"Chocolate milk of course"

Chrysalis took a sip to be sure it was safe.

It was amazing. She took a few more sips from the bottle before she realized how silly she looks. She gave the bottle to Blitzy, blushing in embarrassment. The others laughed and she even joined in, nothing could go wrong. Shining Armor was glaring daggers at the Queen of the Changelings.

"So what stallion did you have to rape to help you conceive that child you monster?"

Twilight looked enraged, "Brother! That's so mean, she may not be our friend, but that doesn't give us the right to throw around petty insults."

"Oh and your defending her now? Your on her side!?"

"I'm not on anypony's side!"

"Enough, both of you!"

Celestia silenced them with her royal Canterlot voice. She smiled kindly at Chrysalis, "Chrysalis, would you mind sharing with us who the father of your foal is?"

Chrysalis tried her best to hide behind her mane, only mumbling "Shishin shmr"

Cadence placed a reassuring hoof onto her shoulder. "It's ok Chrissy" she smiled. Chrysalis sighed and lifted her head high. "Shining Armor, this is your foal!"

Time seemingly went in slow motion as too many things happened at once. Shining Armor jumped at Chrysalis, pushing his wife out of the way as Rainbow Dash saved her from falling off. Applejack jumped and almost fell off the boat. The ferryman caught her and gently placed back on board. Shining Armor lifted Chrysalis by her throat combining magic and his hooves to choke her over the edge of the raft yelling, "You bitch!" Shining Blitz almost fell into the river of souls, until the ferryman caught the foal as well, he placed him down safely.

The ferryman snatched Chrysalis from Shining Armor. He lifted Shining with one hand over the edge of the boat. "If you ever threaten a life on my watch again, I will not hesitate to throw you overboard and let the souls rip you to shreds! Do you understand!?"

The ferryman's burning eyes seemingly drilled into his very soul. Shining nodded vigorously.

The ferryman sat him down and proceeded steering the raft. The ponies looked at Shining Armor in shock he could do something so cruel. Sombra hadn't even looked to see the commotion. He finally realized something had happened when he felt Luna had tensed up at some point. He looked at the others:

Chrysalis was holding onto Blitzy for dear life, both of them were crying.

Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy's faces were pale and looked mortified at something.

Cadence looked shocked, appalled, and hurt all at once.

Celestia and Discord seemed just as shocked as the rest of them.

Sombra ruined the tense moment. "Did I miss something?"

His statement brought everypony out of their thoughts. Nopony talked to Shining Armor for an hour.

Shining Armor tried to break the awkward silence. "This boat ride sure is taking awhile huh? Maybe we should get a better captain right?" He tried to smile and joke. He received harsh glares by everypony. The ferryman even glared at him.

"Sooo, what is your name captain?"

The ferryman looked at him a few seconds longer. He continued steering but answered anyways.

"My name is Charon, ferryman of the dead, and those with the correct form of payment."

Sombra and Charon smirked at Celestia. She groaned, "Fine I got something wrong! Can we go back to glaring at Shining Armor!?"

They turned their attention to the mentioned pony. He sighed, "Ok guys, I'm sorry about what I did." He stretched his arms, expecting a group hug. He peeked open one eye to see them still glaring at him. Fluttershy jumped up at him.

"You big meanie! You almost kill a foal, you hurt my friend, and you expect for us to forgive you with one apology!?"

He glanced around avoiding eye contact, "Um, yes?"

Fluttershy punched him hard enough to knock him over. Blood was trickling from his lip and he spat out a tooth.

He was halfway up before he felt another punch to the other side of his face. This time Cadence had punched him.

"You almost let me die you jerk!"

He was almost up until Sombra punched him in the face, it broke his nose. Rainbow Dash looked at Sombra with a raised eyebrow. Sombra shrugged "Everypony else was doing it"

Shining Armor finally got up. Chrysalis said "Fighting amongst ourselves will get us nowhere. We must forgive and forget if we are to move on."

They sighed but were in silent agreement, if Chrysalis could forgive, they might as well try.

"We have arrived at the Plains of Olympia, but beware. The things you perceive here may not be what you think they are... And do not forget your sleeping friend."

They had completely forgotten about Trixie, who was sleeping at the edge of the boat. She was roused from her dreams by Twilight tapping her shoulder. She mumbled out, "The Great and Powerful Trixie needs some peanut butter crackers. Hm, oh Twilight Sparkle when did you get-"

She bolted upright and looked around. "Oh yeah that's right"

They thanked Charon for the ride and got off the raft.

A steep hill was ahead, when they climbed to the top, they saw a valley of beautiful flowers. The Plains of Olympia. It looked amazing. Sombra cared nothing for it, but was swallowed up in a hug by Luna,who was fawning over the beauty of it all. He sighed, "We'd better be on our way then."

As they began walking through the flowers, Twilight's nose twitched. Rainbow Dash sneezed and rubbed her nose. Sombra sighed, "Keep your wits about you, your magic will not work here. Keep moving forward and stop for nothing, not a cry for help, not a plea for life, nothing. Stay focused and survive. See you on the other side."

Twilight was about to retort but there was nopony around her. Her friends were gone! She was about to freak out but did the calming maneuver Cadence had shown her. Looking around, she was standing infront of a city that was very foggy. She looked around for any indication of where she was. She found a sign, she squinted to see what it said.

She heard a loud siren going off and became scared. She ran into the city without a second thought. The city seemed familiar, like one she had read about in a book before.

Silent Hill