//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Flash Sentry Chronicles: Evil's Uprising 
// by Banshee531 
//------------------------------//

Just outside the borders of Equestria, between it and the desert leading to Klugetown, was a long winding wasteland. It was surrounded by mountains on every side, with dark wooded trees covering its sides and wet moss growing out of the ground. In the center of it all was a lake of swampy water, full of rocks of different sizes and in the very center, an extra large rock.

This rock was shaped like a giant ram's skull, which was actually the entrance to a lair hidden deep below the wasteland. And within it, some of the most dangerous threats to all of Equestria currently resided: Flash Shroudheart, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow and the most dangerous of all, Grogar.

Alas, one of these five didn't seem to understand the true danger currently in front of her. "I am so sorry," Cozy told the creature that had freed her. "But the name Grofar? It just doesn't ring any bells."

"Grogar!" The ram roared into her face, making Cozy fall back. He then slowly made his way around the table and glared at her. "I have been away too long if my name no longer strikes fear into the heart of one so tiny." Cozy shrugged as Grogar pulled back and returned to the table. "Perhaps a demonstration of power is in order?" He touched the bell collar around his neck as it glowed, Grogar pulling the light off and morphing it into a sphere.

He blew it and it floated toward Tirek, who quickly grabbed it before eating it whole. Doing so caused him to glow before growing larger, the light vanishing to reveal a much more muscular Tirek. He wasn't insanely powerful, but he looked about as muscular as a standard minotaur, though his horns weren't as long. He looked his new body over and even kissed his muscles, Shroudheart rolling his eyes. "Great. Just what we need. Don't go giving him too much power. It has a tendency to go to his brain and keeps him from actually thinking."

Tirek glared at him before turning to Cozy. "Grogar is ancient and extremely powerful. The land that would become Equestria was a mere collection of farms and pastures until he declared himself emperor of all he saw. I remember hearing tales of his tyranny when I was young."

"You should have heard the names they gave him back then," Shroudheart added, "A favorite of the ponies was the Father of Monsters."

Grogar nodded as he looked down at the orb on the table. "I gave life to the foulest of creatures..." The orb start filling with a black swirl, which took the shape of many monsters, "And allowed them to run wild." The monsters attacked the ponies, "Taking what they wanted and destroying the rest." The orb completely went black, "My reign was a glorious, fear-soaked epoch of darkness in Equestria."

"Ha!" He looked up at Chrysalis as she smirked, "Until Gusty the Great rose up and banished you."

"That fool believed taking my bell would defeat me!" Grogar growled, "But she only weakened me temporarily." Cozy scratched her head and pointed at the centaur in the room.

"Um, Tirek is really old." Tirek frowned as she smiled at him. "No offense, you look great." She turned back to Grogar, "But if he knew about you when he was young, we have super different ideas about what 'temporarily' means."

"SILENCE!" He roared, making Cozy fly into Tirek's chest and hide behind his beard. Grogar started climbing up the ramp to the overlook balcony. "I've spent millennia gathering power, biding my time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to seize control of Equestria! And watching all of you. I've seen each of your humiliating defeats at the hooves of seven puny ponies." The four frowned and looked away. "And do you know why they've always bested you?"

"Because they cheat!" Chrysalis growled.

"Because they are annoyingly lucky," Tirek crossed his arms.

Cozy shrugged. "I'm just a kid, so..." Grogar would have spoke up, but Shroudheart beat him too it.

"You lost because you didn't finish Twilight and her friends off when you had the chance," he pointed at Tirek. "I lost because I got overconfident. And you two..." She pointed at Chrysalis and Cozy. "You weren't even beaten by them. You both lost to the backup brigades."

They all glared at him as Grogar spoke up again. "It is because they work together. Where one is weak, another is strong, and thus unified, they are a formidable force! But we shall use their own strategy to defeat them."

"What are you suggesting?" Chrysalis asked as Grogar jumped down onto the table.

"I suggest nothing. I demand that you join me, and together, Equestria will be ours!"

The other three raised eyebrows at this, only to hear Shroudheart laugh, "Won't work." They turned to him as he shined a big grin, "You forget. I've seen everything. I was locked out of time and saw all the different ways your precious plan goes horribly wrong."

"Is that so?" Grogar hissed, "And what ways would that be?"

"Sorry," Shroudheart booped him on the nose, "But I'm not one for spoilers." He spun around at this, "Besides, I can defeat those accursed do-gooders all on my own."

Grogar scoffed at this, "Such confidence." He jumped off the table. "Go! Try and defeat them on your own. I'll even send you wherever you need to go. If you prevail, I won't get in your way. But when you fail, you will submit to me!"

Shroudheart chuckled as he started walking off. "I don't need you to send me anywhere. I can do that on my own. But I like a challenge."

"What are you gonna do?" Cozy asked.

"The same thing Sombra did when he was here in my place. But where he failed, I won't. I just need to set a few things in motion." He turned back to them, "Keep an eye on the Crystal Empire. Things are gonna get interesting there." With that, he exploded into shadows and flew away, leaving the rest of this 'team' to stare at the now gone figure.

"He'll be back," Grogar growled, "I advise the rest of you to prepare to work together!" He left the room as Cozy flew up to the others.

"Well, working together sounds an awful lot like making friends, so..." She smiled at them, "You two are in luck, because I know all about that!" She sat on Tirek's shoulder, but Tirek rolled his eyes and flicked her off. She cried as she was sent flying across the room, crashing into the wall.

Chrysalis then hummed at this, "I wonder what he meant by setting a few things in motion."

"Who cares," Tirek huffed, "I just can't wait to see Twilight and her friends blast him back out of time." He chuckled, "It's fun when it's not me." Chrysalis couldn't help but agree, laughing as well.





Several miles away, in a small village in the middle of nowhere, a certain pony was walking down the street, carrying a pair of water buckets that were hanging from a pole on his back. He was completely hidden by a long dark cloak, which had his hood up and face pointed to the ground so he wouldn't be seen.

He carefully marched down the dirt road, arriving at a small hut on the edge of the village. The hut was barely the size most ponies had for a bedroom, but there was a large garden beside it that was full of vegetables. He slowly tipped the water onto the soil, giving each vegetable its much needed refreshment. And when he was done, he placed the bucket down and moved into the hut.

As he stepped through it, he pulled his hood down, showing the face of Flash Sentry, though it was slightly off. His coat and mane weren't as vibrant, and he didn't have a very confident expression, but aside from that, he looked just like the Knight of Friendship.

Inside the hut was a small table, bed and hook on the wall for him to hang his cloak on. He threw the cloak onto the hook and sat down on the bed, glancing around before slumping over on his bed. He had been staying there for a while, not really talking to any others, but knew he shouldn't. As long as he kept his head down, he would never be discovered.

That is, till he saw something appear under his front door. Black smoke. It began to darken the room, the smog soon pouring into the place as he yelped, "What?" He shrunk back into his bed as the smoke formed a shape in front of him. "W-w-what's happening!?" The smoke then faded, revealing a cloaked Shroudheart. "Who...who are you?"

Shroudheart pulled his hood down and he gasped, "I'm not who you think I am." The clone raised an eyebrow, only for his lookalike to slowly move closer with the smoke swirling around his body, a malicious grin now gracing his face, "I'm much worse."

The other Flash shrunk back at this, shivering on the spot before stuttering out, "W-w-what...what do you want...with m-m-me?"

Shroudheart continued to stare at him for a moment or two, but then smirked and pulled back as the smoke faded away. "Why, to help you of course." This made the clone go wide-eyed, "You want to live, don't you?" The clone blinked at him before slowly nodding, "Well, that's not gonna happen. I've been shown a glimpse of the future. Many different futures. And in each of them, you do not survive the next year."

The clone gasped at this, "W-w-why?"

"Many reasons. You either get found out, the real Flash Sentry finds you and you die trying to kill him, or...well, most of the time, the fact you're not real is what does you in."

"I am real!" the clone barked back, showing a bit of spine before Shroudheart glared at him, making the clone cower again.

"No, you're just a lump of wood given consciousness and made to look like Flash Sentry. You're not real, and within a year, the magic that gives you life will simply fade away. You'll turn back into what you truly are, and honestly, I'm not sure if you even have a soul to pass on to the afterlife."

The clone looked ready to start crying as he curled up on the bed. "it's not fair. I didn't ask to be created, but I don't wanna die. Especially if there's nothing but nonexistence waiting for me!"

"Yes," Shroudheart nodded, "I know how you feel. It's not fair, is it? But that's why I'm here. To help you." The clone glanced back at him, tears now forming, "I require your assistance with something. Help me, and I'll return the favor and make sure you live as long as possible."

"R-r-really?!" He asked, Shroudheart nodding. "Wha...what do I have to do?"

"Well, first things first. Do you hate Sentry?"

"Yes," the clone nodded. "Why does he get to live his life anyway he wants, never having to worry about being discovered or fearing for what's waiting him on the other side?! I'd do anything to take his life from him."

"Good," Shroudheart chuckled, "Keep hold of that hatred. It'll be a key ingredient of your survival."

"That's all I need to do?"

"No," Shroudheart shook his head, "I'm going to take you someplace. Don't worry, there's nothing there that'll hurt you. All I need you to do is find something for me. It was buried there a while ago, and in order to take Sentry down, we need it."

"What is it?"

"You'll know it when you see it." Before the clone could say anything else, the cloak of shadows exploded out of Shroudheart and wrapped around the pair. They disappeared into the black smoke, which broke through the door and into the sky.





Starlight was heading back from lunch with Maud when she noticed the front door to the School of Friendship was open. "Huh?"

She raised an eyebrow as she headed over to the school, seeing that the door hadn't been forced open. Somepony had unlocked it, with a key. She knew that the school had been magically locked when summer had started, which meant to only ones that could have unlocked this were herself or an alicorn princess.

"Twilight?" She stepped inside, soon going to Twilight's office, knocking as she did so. "Twi! You in here?" She opened the door, "With the school closed for the summer, I didn't think anypony would be here-"

She didn't finish as she was suddenly slammed in the face by a scroll. And as it fell from her face, she saw Twilight behind her desk surrounded by half-mile long scrolls that her head was flicking back and forth from. "So much to do, not enough time! No! I already did that! Wait, no, I didn't! Uggggh, not enough time!"

Spike flew up to Starlight, "Help! She's spiraling! We're at the 'my plan needs a plan' stage of a total Twilight meltdown!" Starlight looked back at her mentor, seeing Soul flying around her trying to catch any scroll she threw away.

"Oh..." Starlight nodded, "Got it." She walked over to Twilight as Soul placed all the thrown away scrolls down beside her. This was a mistake, since Twilight quickly grabbed them, read through them and realized she had already done that so threw them away again. "Twilight?"

"Did I write down 'eliminate redundant lists' on my School of Friendship to-do list or my personal to-do list?"

"Personal," Soul replied as she picked up another scroll. The pile was even larger than she was, making Starlight frown as she rushed around and stomped her hooves on the paper Twilight was reading.

"TWILIGHT!" The princess yelped, but then smiled when she saw who it was.

"Starlight!" She grabbed her by the checks. "Oh good, you're here! I need to talk to you."

"Okay..." She replied as Twilight started rifling through papers again.

"Hang on, I had 'talk to Starlight' written down on one of these. Just let me find it so I can cross it off!" She pulled the papers close, Starlight gulping as the alicorn was almost covered now.

"Wow, you are Twilight-ing hard."

"You say Twilight-ing, too?" Soul asked as the filly finished rolling up the scrolls.

"I think I heard something about it being put in the dictionary."

Soul then put the last one on the top of a scroll pyramid, only for Twilight to unknowingly throw several scrolls on top of it. "Well excuuuuse me!" Soul lifted the papers and saw her pyramid was destroyed, making her growl and just drop the rest while Twilight glared at Starlight. "This is the first time I've ever been asked to run a whole kingdom!"

"Uh," Starlight backpedaled at this, "You're right, you're right." She held her hooves up defensively as she chuckled. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Twilight picked up a relatively small piece of paper. "Ah, here it is!" She smirked to her, "I wrote it down." She looked at the paper and red non-stop without even taking a breath. "Starlight, you have blossomed into one of the strongest, smartest, most caring ponies I know, and I can't think of anypony better to leave in charge of my castle and the School of Friendship! So, what do you think?" She turned to Starlight, giving her a tweaked-out expression as Starlight looked horrified.

"What?!" She yelped as she began to stagger backwards, "You want me to take care of the castle and run the school?!"

"Yes?" Twilight asked in a plain tone.

"Somepony needs to open this place up next year," Soul pointed out, "Plus, I don't think the map's gonna stop calling ponies to help despite Twilight being in Canterlot. It's gonna need somepony to help those being called."

Twilight nodded at this, Starlight's eyes shrinking at this, "Uh..." She then let out a scream as she continued, "I can't! I'm not ready! Remember what happened the last time you left me in charge?!" She fell to the edge of Twilight's chair, holding it as she kept looking petrified. "And now you want me to do it permanently?! What if I don't do the right things?" She started hyperventilating, "What if-?!"

"Starlight..." Twilight magicked her back to her hooves, "Get a hold of yourself! You've risen to every challenge you've ever faced. You can do anything you put your mind to." She placed a hoof on Starlight's chest, "You've got this."

Starlight stared at her, now seeing the princess's fear on her face gone. Blinking, Starlight's face switched to a smirk, "Hah! And so do you. See what I did there? You just said everything you need to hear.

Twilight gave her a sarcastic laugh as a reply, "Nice try. But running a school and running a country are two very different things." She returned to her desk. "Now, if you don't mind, I have seven thousand, four hundred, and thirty-two things to take care of before I become the new ruler of Equestria!" She started hyperventilating again, Spike giving her the paper bag with a frown.

"It was a valiant effort," he told Starlight, the mare face-hoofing as Soul sighed.

"I wonder if Flash is having as much trouble?"





"Twilight's gonna be the new ruler of Equestria?!" Iron yelped as he, Grand, Lightning, Flash and Heart gathered around a table.

"Yup," Flash nodded. "Which means she's gonna have to move back to Canterlot. And that means I'm going with her." The Defenders all went wide-eyed at this, "What?! I was put in charge of her safety. That's gonna be even more important now that she's gonna be running all of Equestria."

Lightning flopped his head on the table, "Great. First we lost Springer, now we're losing you. Defending the Peace isn't gonna be easy with just the three of us."

"You'll be fine," Flash responded, "Springer and I were able to keep this place in one piece before you all got here, and that's back when we had the first 'Renegade Farm Equipment Incident'."

"Don't remind me." Iron grumbled, remembering his first two weeks of Ponyville and how he came up with the 'Crusader Protocol'. Thankfully, the trio had calmed down ever since they got their cutie marks.

"Eh, you all shouldn't have any more trouble. And if things get really bad, I'm just a Rune Gate away."

"I guess," Iron nodded, "But without you, we won't have anypony to give us aerial surveillance."

"True," Flash shrugged, "Maybe you can get somepony else to join you. Skybreaker's getting pretty old, so maybe he'll wanna slow down and take it easy here in Ponyville."

"I wouldn't let him hear you say that," Grand laughed, "And I doubt he'll ever wanna start taking it easy. He'll work himself into the grave before he decides to retire from active duty." He turned to Heart, who was currently sucking at a juice box. "So, looking forward to moving to Canterlot?" Heart went wide-eyed at this as Grand glanced back at Flash. "I'm guessing he and Soul will be going with you when you leave."

"Yup," Flash nodded, "Scootaloo too." He sighed, "I'm not looking forward to that conversation."

"Why does Scootaloo need to go with you?" Lightning asked, "She's not a student of yours. All her friends are here, so why not just let her stay?"

"I can't do that. I'm her guardian. If she stays, Starlight or somepony else will need to watch out for her. I can't just leave her behind. I know it'll be an adjustment, but she'll learn to love Canterlot just as much as she loves Ponyville."

"I doubt that," Heart grumbled, "Does this mean we won't be going to the School of Friendship anymore?"

This made Flash come to a stop, only to cross his hooves, "Huh. I...don't know. I might have to talk to her about that. We might have to hold your training off until after you graduate. Or have you stay there for the week and come to Canterlot for training on the weekends. We'll have to see."

Heart huffed as he slurped up more of his juice. He honestly wasn't too thrilled on the idea of going back to school for another year. That was where Cozy had betrayed him, and no matter how hard he tried, it still hurt whenever he saw something that reminded him of her. And everything in that school came with a memory attached to her.

"So..." Iron tried to change the subject, "How's Twilight taking all this? I'm guessing the news sent her into a level four Twilight Attack."

"Level five," Flash groaned, "And it could get worse if she continues to stress herself out about all this." They nodded at this. "Honestly, I'm on her side with this. Celestia and Luna shouldn't have just dropped the bombshell on her like that. I mean, they probably weren't thrown into being ruling princesses right away. Heck, they were literally trained from fillyhood by Starswirl to do the job. Expecting Twilight to take on all that responsibility without some serious heads up seems a bit...short sighted."

"I guess the pair were really excited to retire," Grand added.

"I get Celestia wanting to retire," Iron continued, "She's been doing this for over a millenia. But Luna's only been back a few years." Again, the others couldn't disagree, but they knew they couldn't tell the princesses not to retire. "Eh, let's just hope it doesn't get too out of hoof."





It was another peaceful day in the Crystal Empire.

Sombra was now walking down a street, pulling a cart full of food behind him. He had been ordered to collect the castle's food delivery, the unicorn not arguing and doing as he was told. Despite living a life of servitude, Sombra was actually quite happy with his life at the moment. The Crystal Ponies were still keeping their distance from him, only interacting if it was absolutely necessary. But as he did this, some had stopped looking at him with disdain or contempt. Slowly, he could feel he was earning the forgiveness of the citizens. It was a slow process, but he knew it would be when he agreed to it.

And as he did this, he glanced up to see a bunch of dark clouds, all swirling around the outskirts of the empire. The Crystal Ponies all saw this and back to freeze up as Sombra sensed something radiating off the storm. "No," his eyes went wide, "it can't be!" The others heard this and turned to him, only for him to yell, "Everypony, get inside! Whatever that is, I can feel incredible dark power coming off it!"

The ponies all just stared at him, only for the clouds to unleash a stream of darkness that shot down and struck the ground. This caused many dark crystals to explode out of ground and spread throughout the city, Sombra's eyes going wide at the sight. It was almost as if the past was repeating itself as he recognized the crystals as the same ones he had once been able to summon. "Wha...how is this possible?!"

And as he asked this, an extra large crystal exploded out of the ground, and on the top, a figure appeared. A cloaked pegasus wearing a black mask with red eyes. The figure looked down and chuckled at the sight of him, "Sombra. Long time no see."

Sombra glared back at him, "Who are you?!" The figure didn't reply, instead leaping off the crystal as darkness exploded off of him and wrapped around him to form a drilling cloud of shadows. He flew toward Sombra and the unicorn barely managed to leap away, the attack missing him as he fired a magical blast at it.

But the magic flew through the shadow as it unmorphed to reveal the being. "Pitiful!" The shadows around his wings punched the ground, causing more crystals to form. This time, they formed a cage around Sombra. He tried to jump over them, but they grew too quickly, soon trapping him. "You were a lot stronger in the other timelines. Guess going good isn't always beneficial."

"Who are you?" Sombra growled as he tried to punch to crystals, but to no avail.

"Your new master." Before Sombra could ask what he was talking about, the figure unleashed a dark energy from his eyes that struck him.

Sombra cried out at this, feeling his mind being penetrated and his consciousness being squeezed tightly within the darkness. "Give in."

"No!" Sombra roared, putting his hooves to his head, "No...the umbrum...Shadow. I won't let anypony else force me to do anything ever again!" He let out another roar and to the figure's shock, his mind broke through the magic.

"Whoa," he staggered back, "Strong mind." He chuckled, "But weak everything else." He spun around at this, "Oh well. Even if I can't control you, you're not much of a threat. I'll just come back to deal with you later."

He began to walk away at this, Sombra yelling at him as dark crystals began to form from the pony's every step. And as the crystals covered everything, it blocked ponies from their homes, resulting in them coming face to face with the pony calling himself Shroudheart. A young filly fell to the ground and as her parents rushed in to save her, Shroudheart unleashed the magic he used on Sombra. And this time, all three were placed under his mental control.

"Freeze!" He spun around to see several Crystal Guards charging at him, Ruby Scarlet leading them. "Get away from them!" She launched a crystal arrow at his mask, but the pony exploded into shadows and swirled towards her. "What?" The shadows slammed into her, sending her flying back as Shroudheart reformed.

The guards around him threw their spears, but he quickly launched out a shockwave that knocked them all away. And before the guards could recover, Shroudheart raised his hoof as shadows swirled around it. They quickly formed a helmet they all recognized, the guards attempting to escape, only for the control devices to thrust down on them. Within seconds, the helmets took control, the eye sections turning green.

Ruby was the only one who hadn't been helmeted, but she gasped when she saw her fellow guards fall under their power. "No." She turned to Shroudheart, "That power...are you an umbrum?"

Shroudheart cackled at that, "Oh, I'm better than an umbrum. Or I guess, worse from your point of view." He laughed as his new army of minions stepped up to him. "Pretty cool, huh? Learned how to make them when I watched Sombra do it over and over again. Wish I knew how to make them in my timeline. Would have made conquering it a heck of a lot easier."

"Monster!" Ruby screeched as she formed a sword and charged at him. "RAAAAH!"

"Get her!" The guards charged back at her, Ruby gasping as she saw her fellow ponies all try to tackle her. She quickly backpedaled before leaping over them, only to land right in front of Shroudheart as shadows poured out of him and circled around her.

Seeing this, she tried to teleport away, only for her magic to sputter out. The circle of shadows had prevented it, only for the controlled guards to tackle her again. He chuckled as he forged a control helmet, "Welcome to the winning team." Ruby's horn began to spark at this, only for the helmet to encase her head before she could attack. A scream came next, Shroudheart laughing as the pony soon went silent.





Cadance was in her throne room, hastily writing a letter begging for help. And as she did this, Shining and some of the guards rushed into the room. "The guard says he's breached the castle and he's got an army of ponies under his control! Whoever this is, he's dangerous." Cadance frowned as she finished writing the letter.

"Hurry, Twilight! We need you!" She quickly rolled the scroll up and magicked it away, then turned to her husband, only to notice something. "Do you have Flurry Heart?"

"Don't worry," Shining replied, "Amore told me she would go make sure she was safe. I think Ruby sent Jaden there as well." Cadance sighed in relief, only to hop off her throne, the two soon rushing to Flurry's room.





When the alarm had been sounded, Ruby had been with Jaden. Not wanting her apprentice in the fight, but knowing he could help as a last line of defense, she ordered him to the castle and to protect Flurry and the royals at all costs. As such, he was in the foal's room with a crossbow. Amore was there with her, doing her best to keep Flurry calm.

"It's okay," she hushed the child, "I know things are scary right now, but everything's going to be okay." Jaden nodded as he checked his crossbow.

"Don't worry Flurry," he added, "I'll keep you safe. Even if it kills me."

"Aaah, how touching." Jaden and Amore spun around, gasping as a shadow suddenly formed on the wall, seeing a giant grin appear on it as it turned into a smoke cloud. Jaden instantly fired at it, the bolts just went through and bounced off the wall. The shadow then whipped out a tendril and struck him, sending Jaden flying into the back wall.

"Jaden!" Amore cried, firing her own magic at the cloud, but the smoke split apart to avoid the attack and both flew around the room, slamming into Amore from both sides. It was like getting struck by two brick walls at the same time, causing Amore to gasp as a shadowy claw reached out and grabbed her by the neck.

She gasped as she felt her magic sputter out before she could cast anything. Shroudheart formed in front of her at this, his bright red eyes shining through the mask, "Now, should I turn you back to stone?" She went wide-eyed at this, only to see Shroudheart shake his head, "No, too played out. I think I'll keep you this time and let you see what becomes of your kingdom." He threw her across the room, the pony slamming into the wall before slumping over.

And as this happened, he removed his mask as he turned to Flurry. The foal saw this and seemed to recognize him, only for Shroudheart to grab her in a shadowy claw right when the door opened.

"Mama!" She cried as Shroudheart turned to her parents.

They both gasped at who they saw, only for Shroudheart to laugh, "Cadenza...so wonderful to see you again." Cadance leaned back at this, "You seem confused. You see, you and I had a lot of fun together back in my home universe. And I must say, motherhood has only made you more appealing." He licked his lips while squeezing Flurry a little too tightly.

The foal's cry made her mother want to blast him, but Shining thrusted his hoof in front of her. "You won't get away with this!" She told him as mind-controlled soldiers then appeared around them, quickly grabbing the couple, "Hey!"

"Oh, but I already have. There are wheels within wheels, turning at this very moment. Everything has already been set in motion."

Before long, Amore, Cadance and Shining were chained up, Flurry following suit once her parents were properly contained. Shroudheart then returned to the throne room, his magic infecting the castle. The Rune Gate was disabled, and the Crystal Heart was captured, as dark crystal spikes impaled it.

He began to laugh more and more as he sat down on the Crystal Throne. "With the Crystal Heart now in my possession, there is nothing to stop me from ruling the Crystal Empire!" He looked down at the four royals as the masked Ruby and Jaden pulled them toward the throne. "Now, kneel before your new king!" The adults glared at him, but the chains were pulled, and they were forced down to the floor. The sight made him sigh as he leaned back. "The stage has been set. Now, I just need to wait for the main actors to arrive."