"Well...to be fair...we were warned against using those relics." Ivy said as they were there looking at the Pony of Shadows.
"Such incredible darkness, and yet I feel something off about it." Magress said.
The Pony of Shadows cackled at everyone in front of him. "Your pitiful attempt to imprison me has failed, Starswirl!"
"Only because Ms. Fangirl over here completely sweated over the more important details." Seiya replied bluntly referencing Princess Twilight.
"This is no time for shifting the blame!" Ethox said, summoning his Keyblade. "Come on, we can take him!"
"No!" Starswirl said, trying to summon his magic, but couldn't. "You must return us to Limbo, it's the only way to stop him!"
"Uh, I think that trip was one way, sir." Double D said.
"Maybe we can reverse the effects. Sunburst, anything on that in the journal?" Hope asked.
"Working on it. No table of contents!" Sunburst replied, frantically flipping through the pages of Starswirl's Journal.
"Allow me to assist." The Pony of Shadows mused, before sending tendrils of darkness to all six monuments of stone before sending his dark power into the monuments, destroying them along with the journal. "There! Without the power of this monument, your banishing spell is useless!"
"Okay, if anyone has any ideas, now would be a good time!" Kazuma said.
"That one studied my writings!" Starswirl mentioned Twilight and focused his attention on her. "Surely you have some other plan!"
"No. I just wanted to save you! I didnt think-!" Princess Twilight started.
"Don't fret." The Pony of Shadows interrupted. "When I extinguish the light and hope of this world… you won't remember any of this." he then blasted dark magic from his horn aimed at Starswirl.
"Qadira!" Hope called as Qadira leaped in front of Starswirl and blocked the blast.
"My defense holds!" Qadira said.
Hope then leaped in front of the Pony of Shadows. "Solar Flare!" he called blasting his own version of the move and blinding the Pony of Shadows.
"ARGH!" he yelled.
"Goku, get us outta here!" Hope said.
"Alright! Hold on everyone!" Goku said, using Instant Transmission on the group, allowing them to escape. The Pony of Shadows recovered and saw them gone.
"No matter. They may have escaped, but once they return, they will all know the might of shadows." the Pony of Shadows declared as he turned to shadow and flew through a newly revealed door.
The group warped inside of the Castle of Friendship, appearing in the throne room.
"Okay...good." Aria said. "Now this." she said, slapping Princess Twilight. "We told you guys not to try and bring him back."
"Hmm...have we met before?" Starswirl asked.
"It's your imagination." Aria said.
"Hmm." Magress said.
"I have to say Hope, not the best idea to run away and leave the giant shadow pony wreaking havoc all over Equestria." Zephyr said.
"He's not leaving that dungeon." Hope said.
"How can you be so sure?" Mistmane asked.
"My friends told us that Mystery Dungeons always change their layouts everytime you leave and come back." Hope said.
"That won't count for him. He could easily leave." Aelita said.
"Yet he still remains in the dungeon, but for what?" Magress asked.
"I don't know, but we need to figure out some way that we can send that thing back to where it came from." Tanya spoke up.
"The child is right. But we cannot do that since my journal has been destroyed." Starswirl said as he looked to the Map. "However… there is something about this map's magic that seems familiar."
The legendary wizard then infused the map with his own magic, causing an image of a crystal tree with six glowing jewels inside its trunk and branches to appear to everyone's surprise.
"He can do that?!" G. Aqua gaped.
"That's some pictomancy." Al added in surprise.
"We could simply destroy this Pony of Shadows. It wouldn't take much." Ainz said.
"Wait." Thorani said. "This may sound odd, it was faint, but within that darkness, I could feel someone crying for help within it."
"That's impossible. The Pony of Shadows is pure evil." Starswirl declared.
"How do you know he really is evil?" Hope asked.
"Because he was once someone who originally gathered us all together." Flash Magnus spoke up.
"What was his name?" Thorani asked.
"He was known as Stygian. And the tale of our rift is a sad one." Rockhoof said. "Stygian was a pony like the rest of us, though more scholar than hero. He recognized our merging worlds would need champions to defend it."
"He may have gathered us together, but he himself was just an ordinary unicorn who soon grew jealous of our abilities." Flash Magnus explained.
"He stole objects from each of us." Mistmane continued. "Artifacts to use in a spell."
"And we cast him out for it." Mage Meadowbrook said.
"We always thought he'd return and seek forgiveness. But when we saw him again, his heart was bent on revenge." Somnambula explained. "He dashed even my hopes of saving him."
"But why did he steal the artifacts for this spell anway?" Hope asked.
"Envy." Starswirl spoke up. "He wanted more power than he had, and that desire led him down a path from which there is no return."
"Yeah… I definitely know what that's like." Riku said.
"So you realized you all couldn't save him so you decided to trap him in Limbo by sacrificing yourselves." Naofumi said.
"And it worked… until we screwed things up by undoing the whole thing." Ethox said.
"Well, we're going to undo the undo and fix this." Mark said.
Twilight had the plan of using the Elements of Harmony in conjunction with the Pillars to send the Pony of Shadows back to Limbo, at the cost of the elements themselves. So, while the 12 ponies prepared to head back into the dungeon, the Humane 7, Starlight and the heroes were together.
"If there's really a pony inside that mass of darkness, is it the best decision to just banish him again?" Hope said.
"Well, the Pillars seem to believe whoever this Stygian is to be beyond saving." Ichiro said.
"They think that's the only way. But I believe there's another." Thorani said.
"Besides, it could take them a while to even find him. The layout has likely already changed." Riolu said.
"Hmm… well then, there's only one thing we can do." Ethox said. "Beat them there and save Stygian first!"
"Uh… are you sure that's a good idea?" Scarlet said. "I mean, I'm all for saving Stygian, but… how are we going to even find him if the layout is different?"
"Hmm...whenever we entered dungeons, there were some parts that stayed the same. Like with the waterfall cave. We visited twice and the jewel that activates the trap was still in the same place." Pikachu said. "It was even the same when Wigglytuff visited years before us."
"So certain key areas don't change." Weiss said.
"What about that central area that led us into all the rooms that commemorated the pillars?" Sakura suggested.
"Well when we entered, it was through a path on the other side of the hill it was set up near." Meowth said.
"So there's more than one way in. Meaning we could find a shorter path and beat down that shadow pony before he decides to cause chaos." Theo said.
"Sounds like a plan." Hisui said.
"Then lets get back there and see if we can fix all this." Hope said.