//------------------------------//
// Reality Once More 
// Story: A Crystal Heart 
// by Magic Cupcakes 
//------------------------------//

Back to Present
“CORRA!” I stuttered backward blinking violently, unknowing of how long I had been transed by my past. My eyes focused on the pony who had shouted my name. 

That dusty rose coat and grayish indigo mane, “Sapphire Rose?”

“Who else? now snap out of it and run!” I suddenly recognized the extreme panic written across her stony face before she took off through the large library doors toward the center of the city. I rushed out of the calm shelter of the library back into the panic of the world. As I looked around I saw running blurs of distress. It was chaos. No more ravishing crystal coats but instead cold stone ones like when ‘he’ had imprisoned us. Jumping to my feet, I bolted towards the palace where everypony else was gathering. A purple maned unicorn and an orange earth pony stood by the crystal heart, which was under a violet sheet, attempting to calm the crowd but failing miserably. A pink earth pony dressed as a jester than came out juggling flugelhorns on a beach ball. What was happening? The mare lost her balance and crashed to the floor, flugelhorns flew into the crowd hitting unsuspecting ponies, and the ball she used to balance shot right towards the blanketed crystal heart. The ball hit its target, the sheet fluttered off as the heart was shot out and skidded across the polished floor to the audience. 

“This isn’t the crystal heart” the stallion closed to the heart remarked. A wave of gasps, panic and terror ran through the crowd as everypony moved toward the phony heart to see. I peered at it through the heads of the suspicious ponies and he was right it was simply a heart carved from crystal not the real weapon which could save us by spreading love. Suddenly it hit me. From what though? This whole time I’ve been running and fretting yet I don’t know what’s even happening. I turned from the crowd and immediately saw the ominous black shadow that was closing in on the city. Where it passed it left no crystals but rigid stone. A dark haze and foul stench filled the shadowed parts of the city as a cackling howl came from the shadow and a mixture of dread and fear struck my heart. I knew that horrid howl. My suspicions were correct. I turned my face toward the source of the sound where his ghostly head emerged from the terrifying shadow. Sombra. The cackling continued as he closed in on us and tears began to flow down my face as I watched my lost friend try to take over and enslave my culture, the one he had grown to love and appreciate so much, for the second time.