Awakening

by punisher143

The Crystal Empire Part 2

Author's Note:

And now Part 2 of the Crystal Empire. Like always with this and the last part, any criticism is appreciated.

“IT’S AN ACTUAL ARTIFACT?!” Twilight paced around the throne room, flipping madly through the book she had been using as reference earlier for anything she may have missed. Spike, Shining Armor, Cadance, and the rest of her friends watched her carefully while she mumbled to herself. “How could we have possibly missed something that important?!”

“Last page maybe?” Rainbow asked sarcastically. This led to a frustrated yell from Twilight when she got to the end of the book and showed it to everyone else.

“It’s gone! And of course it naturally would have that important detail on it! Just perfect!” Twilight punctuated that by tossing the book away, which was caught by Rarity.

“Twilight, calm down,” Cadance said. Twilight looked at her old foal sitter and did calm down a little from seeing how exhausted she looked.

“Sorry, this is just very bad.” Twilight took a deep breath and asked, “So, what do we all do about this… very bad situation?”

“We can’t let the Crystal Ponies know the Heart is still missing,” Cadance said. “It would crush their spirits, and if that happens who knows if we’ll be able to bring them back up.”

“Then we’ll have to keep them away from it. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, you two are the strongest of all of us, so that’s your job.”

“Got it,” Rainbow and Applejack said, the former saluting.

“But that still leaves the Heart missing. It has to be in the Empire, but where?”

“Wait a second!” Spike said and forced a burst of dragon fire out of him, the familiar smell of sulfur filling Twilight with nostalgia, and grabbed a scroll that materialized out of the fire and held it out to Twilight. “Princess Celestia sent us that before we left Ponyville. I read it enough to know she sent it in case we needed it.”

Twilight grabbed the scroll from Spike and unrolled it to read it. “Let’s see, ‘To my dear student Twilight Sparkle, if you’re reading this then you must need any knowledge I might have about the Crystal Empire.’” Twilight sat down to focus on reading the letter fully while her friends talked among themselves.

“Aside from Rainbow and Applejack, I suppose the rest of us have to keep cheering up the Crystal Ponies,” Rarity offered. “They are going to need all of our help.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, “the happier they are, the less likely they’ll try and see the Heart right?”

“Here we are!” Twilight spoke up, “she said, ‘The Empire’s greatest treasures, and the path to them, never left King Sombra’s sight.’ She must mean the Heart, and that must mean it’s somewhere in this castle!”

“Yeah, but where?”

“Still working on that, but once I do I’m going to find it.” Twilight rolled the scroll up and gave it back to Spike before saying, “I’ll need all of you to look after the festival while I do this with Spike. Is that ok?”

“We were going to do that anyway, right girls?” Everyone nodded at Applejack’s sentiments and the farm pony asked, “Just don’t take too long ok?”

“I’ll be as fast as I can.” With one last nod Applejack and the others ran out of the room to their respective tasks. “Yeah, I’ll be fast…”

“Twilight…?” Shining Armor asked.

“I’ll be fine. I just… need to think.”

“Dear…” Cadance leaned more on Shining Armor, very close to passing out by now. “Why don’t we go to the balcony for now. I could use some fresh air right now.”

“Right, of course.” Shining Armor started to lead Cadance out, stopping only to give Twilight and Spike a small glance before heading all the way out.

“So, any ideas Spike?” Twilight asked pacing quietly around the room, her hoofsteps echoing around her.

“Why would she word it that way? ‘The path never left his sight,’ right?” Spike rubbed his forehead in thought. “You think she made a mistake?”

“Or maybe she meant it literally.” Twilight stopped in front of the throne and looked it over. “Everything I’ve heard about Sombra paints him as a massive egotist. It wouldn’t surprise me if he hid the passage somewhere close to where he spent most of his time.”

“Here?” Spike asked and looked around the room. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just a lot of crystal.”

“It wouldn’t be in plain sight. It’s probably hidden well enough that only he would know how to open it.” Her eyes drifted up the throne to an odd looking crystal at the very top of it. She hummed in curiosity and took a step closer just as a massive headache hit her again. Twilight dropped to her knees and gasped in pain, which drew Spike’s attention and caused him to run to her side.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?!” he shouted and shook her a little. He voice sounded distant and a little warped, though when Twilight opened her eyes she was more shocked at what she saw rather than what she heard.

The whole room was reflecting some odd light coming from somewhere, and something about the air made it hard for her to concentrate. She tried to force herself up when she felt something touch her neck.

“Need some help?” a voice asked next to her and felt the thing on her neck grab her tighter. The contact made her headache much worse and she groaned aloud from the pain. Her eyes burned and it was getting hard focus through it. She looked up and caught sight of the crystal she had been looking at when her head hurt again and she shot a spell at it, one she was very certain she had never learned. The crystal started darkening as the spell hit it until it turned completely black and Twilight was blinded by a bright flash.

“Twilight!” Spike’s voice was much clearer that time and when Twilight opened her eyes he was right there and the room was back to normal. “Twilight, are you alright?”

“Spike? What happened?”

“I knew those headaches weren’t normal! You started freaking out and your eyes started glowing green before you shot some weird spell at the crystal. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’ll be fine, but you are right,” Twilight said and started standing up with Spike’s help. “These headaches aren’t normal and I’m starting to hallucinate.” She shook her head a little and took a deep breath just as she noticed the floor under them starting to glow.

“Spike, move!” Twilight shouted picking the dragon up in her magic as she ran off the glowing part of the floor. When she got off the floor, it had given one final flash before disappearing to reveal a staircase going down. Twilight set Spike down and they both moved to the head of the stairs and looked down them.

“That’s new. How’d you do that?” Spike asked looking back at Twilight. The unicorn tapped a hoof on the ground before looking up at the near black crystal she had hit earlier.

“Dark Magic,” Twilight said looking back at the stairs. “If all the crystals can conduct magic, then different kinds of magic have different effects. Sombra must have set this up a long time ago.”

“If so, then I really don’t like him. These stairs go down a long way.”

“Yes, they do.”

“And the Crystal Heart is down there?”

“Most likely.” Twilight and Spike stared down the stairs spiraling down before sighing and starting to walk down them.

---

“Sorry, the Heart isn’t ready to be shown yet,” Applejack said turning away a couple. “You’ll have to come back later.” The couple looked disappointed, but conceded to go look at the rest of the festival. Applejack looked back at Rainbow Dash, who wasn’t being nearly as subtle.

“Come on, everypony loves pancakes! Don’t you want to get some pancakes?”

“Well, yeah, but can’t I get a peek at the Crystal Heart?” the stallion she was talking to asked.

“The Heart’s not going anywhere, but those pancakes are. The blueberry pancakes are going very fast last I checked.”

“…They have blueberry?” The stallion turned and ran back into the streets, to Rainbow’s mild astonishment. The pegasus shook it off and turned to Applejack.

“They’re persistent aren’t they?”

“Well, we do think we have their greatest treasure here. I don’t know how long we can keep this up though, eventually we’re going to get overwhelmed here.” They noticed a guard running up to them from the crowd, which could not have meant anything good.

“What is it now?” Rainbow asked the guard once he reached them.

“One second,” the guard replied and took a deep breath before continuing, “I know you two are in the middle of something really important, but Rainbow Dash is needed at the sports grounds. The jousting tournament is about to start.”

“What?! It’s starting now of all times?”

“Yes, and we’re also still short on participants for it.”

“WHAT?! I thought there were plenty of guards to volunteer for it, and I thought plenty did!”

“To be perfectly frank miss Dash, you’re kind of overzealous and managed to scare half the guards in the week you’ve been here. There are guards who will participate so it won’t just be you, but it’s something to keep in mind.” Rainbow Dash could only sigh and turned to Applejack for her take.

“I can hold the fort here if he stays,” she said gesturing at the guard.

“I can do that,” he replied.

“So don’t worry about here and go do what you gotta.” Applejack lightly punched Rainbow’s shoulder, which earned a smile from the pegasus.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Rainbow said and took flight. “I wonder if Fluttershy’s free.”

When Rainbow had flown away Applejack looked at the guard and asked, “Does she really scare the guards?”

“Well, ‘scare’ is the wrong word. It’s more like ‘unnerve.’” Applejack stared at the guard with a blank expression for a little longer than was necessary, leading him to ask, “What?”

“N-nothing, just thinking about some things,” Applejack said and turned back to the crowd of Crystal Ponies. ‘I’m just going to keep that thought to myself.’

---

“Are we there yet?”

“We’re almost there.”

“You’ve said three times now! Is it for real this time?”

“Yes, it is.”

Neither Twilight nor Spike were as happy to see an end to stairs than they were right now. Twilight reached the bottom first and lit up her horn to get some light just as Spike joined her. The pair looked around the room they had reached and saw only the stairs they came from and a door off to the right.

“I’m guessing the Heart’s through there,” Twilight said walking to the door. It looked like a simple wooden door, but Twilight wasn’t about to take any chances with it. She started looking closely at it and occasionally prodding it with her magic while Spike did his own thing while trying to stay out of her way. “Well, it’s not locked and it doesn’t seem enchanted, as far as I can tell.”

“It’s… made of wood?” Spike offered.

“Yes, that’s true.” Twilight stepped away from the door and shook her head. “I don’t like this Spike. This is too easy.”

“Because getting down here was so hard?”

“In as many words. I just don’t think anypony in their right minds would put a wooden door after that,” Twilight took a moment to point at the stairs, “and not trap it in some way.”

“Good point. What should we do?” Twilight walked over to the door, gesturing for Spike to follow her, and they both moved to the side of the door. Twilight grabbed it with her magic and looked down at Spike who nodded.

“One,” she started counting looking back at the door. “Two,” she braced herself for anything. “Three!” She pulled the door open and shut her eyes in case there was a flash of light.

Which there wasn’t.

“Nothing?” Twilight asked opening an eye and looking at the door. “Not even an explosion at the very least?”

“That’s anticlimactic,” Spike said and took a step forward, only to be stopped by Twilight’s leg.

“It might still be trapped Spike. Let me make sure.” She set her hoof down and walked slowly to the door and looked inside. “That’s weird…”

“Twilight?” Spike asked, though the unicorn didn’t pay attention to it and walked through the door.

On the other side Twilight found herself in the throne room of Canterlot. She looked around at the stain glass windows lining the room in confusion and wondered aloud, “How did I end up here Spike?” She looked behind her to find Spike wasn’t there, which sent a wave of panic through her as she looked around for the dragon calling his name.

“Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight froze at the sound of the voice, recognizing it immediately, and turned around to see Princess Celestia.

“Princess!” Twilight rushed up to her, letting some joy show at the sight of her teacher. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m kind of confused about why I’m in Canterlot now.”

“That’s simple Twilight,” Celestia answered walking past Twilight. The way she said that, cold and to the point, had Twilight concerned. After a few steps Celestia turned back to Twilight and gave her a look that made the unicorn flinch. “It’s so you can answer for your crimes.”

“Crimes? What are you talking about?! I haven’t done anything wrong!”

“It’s not what you’ve done, but what you didn’t do.” Sensing Twilight’s obvious confusion, Celestia motioned at a nearby window and said, “Just look outside and see for yourself.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, but nodded and ran to the closest window in the throne room and looked outside. She gasped when she saw the city of Canterlot, normally a paragon for advancement, devastated and in ruins. She stepped back and asked out loud, “H-how did…?”

“It was because of us…” Twilight recognized the voice, but couldn’t bear to turn around to confirm who it was. She had to grit her teeth as the voice continued, “We thought that trying to keep him away from everypony was for the best, but look what it did when we were gone.”

“This isn’t real,” Twilight said closing her eyes, “We were in Canterlot a month ago and it was fine. There has to be an explanation.”

“Would it change anything if there was?”

“Of course it would!” Twilight shouted and turned around, “How could you even say…” any more words died when she saw you she was talking to. The voice made her think she was talking to Rainbow Dash, and while the body was right there was something wrong with her eyes.

“You were expecting someone else?” she asked with this unnatural smile on her face. She walked closer to Twilight, who backed away from her. “What are you so afraid of Twilight?”

“You. I don’t know who or what you are, but you’re not Rainbow.”

“That’s just mean. A lot can change with time; you only have to look at yourself to see how true that is.”

“What are you-“

“Wasn’t it only a year ago that disappointing Celestia would have been your greatest fear, but now it barely fazes you.” ‘Rainbow’ moved closer to her and Twilight moved back and bumped into a wall. “But now, we both know what really terrifies you, don’t we? One other thing…”

“Stop…”

“I am not a figment of your imagination. This is real! And plenty stronger than you have fallen to me long before you.” The thing leaned closer to Twilight, barely an inch from her face now, and added, “You want some advice?” Twilight saw something move in her peripheral vision, though she couldn’t take her eyes off of what was in front of her. “Just give up!”

“Twilight!” Spike’s shout came just before Twilight found herself facing a wooden door closing, something she only saw for a second before she fell to her side breathing heavily. She looked around frantically, realizing she was back in the room in the Crystal Empire, until her eyes landed on Spike running over to her. “Twilight, are you ok?”

“Spike?” Twilight asked while Spike grabbed her face and looked her in the eye. “What happened? I went through the door and… I was in Canterlot and…”

“You didn’t go through it,” Spike said stepping away from Twilight and gesturing to the door. “You just looked into it, said ‘that’s weird’, and then just sat in front of it looking shocked. I couldn’t get anything from you until I closed the door. Are you alright?”

“I… I don’t know Spike, I’m still a little out of it. Just give me a second.”

“I don’t see what was so spooky about this door anyway,” Spike said walking to the door and opening it before Twilight could say anything. The moment he opened the door he stood there staring into it, occasionally mumbling something.

“Spike?” Twilight asked and, when she got no answer, stood up and walked over to him. When she got a good look at his face, especially his eyes, she put two and two together and groaned a little. “Of course the door was enchanted in a way I didn’t expect. Stupid Twilight, stupid.” Since she didn’t know if she’d get enchanted again, she avoided looking at it as she forced the door shut again.

Once it was closed Spike screamed and rubbed his eyes before asking, “Twilight?”

“I’m right here Spike.” The dragon looked at Twilight and moved over to her side as she looked over the door. “This enchantment only affects you when you open the door. From what I experienced it must make you face what you fear the most. I’m starting to really not like Sombra.”

“Yeah… any way to get rid of it?”

“That’s what I’m looking for right now.” Twilight looked down at Spike, who was looking away from her and wringing his claws, and asked, “Do you… want to talk about what you saw?”

“I… I’m not sure…” he replied, still not looking at her.

“That’s alright, I don’t want to force you to do anything.” Twilight looked back to the door and noticed a familiar crystal at the top of the frame. “I think I figured it out Spike. Hold on.” Twilight braced her hooves and gathered magic in her horn before shooting it at the crystal. After a moment the crystal reacted and filled the room with a bright light before dissipating. Twilight then grabbed the door in her magic and carefully opened it and looked inside. She let out a held breath when she saw crystal on the other side.

“Alright, the spell’s gone. We can move on.” Twilight made to move through the door when Spike grabbed her tail.

“I saw…” he started and after a moment of hesitation continued, “that everybody had left me; that I’d been forgotten and left alone. That’s what I saw.”

“Spike…” Twilight turned to face Spike and sat down so she was on his level, “I’m not sure what to say, but I know that you won’t be forgotten as easily as that. You’re special to all of us.” Despite Twilight’s expectations that didn’t help Spike’s mood at all, since all it did was get him to look at her.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.” Twilight then wrapped her arms around Spike and brought him in for a hug. The dragon was stiff in her grip for a moment before wrapping his arms around her neck, which caused Twilight to smile. “And Spike, if I ever did or said anything to make you think that, I didn’t mean it.”

“I know you didn’t,” he replied tightening his grip, “Even if you had been really busy a month ago.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, settling with holding Spike for another minute before letting him go. “I really am sorry Spike. If it’s possible, we should talk more when this is over.” Spike nodded in reply and walked through the door ahead of Twilight, the unicorn following him with a smile. The smile disappeared when they both saw what the room had in store for them.

“Twilight…”

“Yes, I see the stairs.”

“Are they bigger than the ones we came down on?”

“Yes, I think they are.”

“…The door lied to me.”

“No Spike, there’s a difference between hate and fear.” Twilight picked Spike up and put him on her back before walking to the stairs. “I don’t know which is more appropriate right now though.”

---

As interesting as it was at the beginning, watching the former king circle around the Empire had grown boring about a week ago. The only reason it had stuck around for so long was because of its Prey inside. The shield surrounding the millennia old city was getting weaker, but not enough to make a difference.

Now the King was bashing against the wall, which led to the question of whether or not the inhabitants could see the attacks. Questions for later, because whether the King attacked or not, the wall would soon fall.

‘They have this habit of turning dire situations around in their favor. I wonder how they will fare here.’ It smiled and scratched its arm. ‘Maybe I can push this along.’

---

“I can’t… hold it up for much longer…” Shining Armor looked down at his fiancé in his arms and tightened his grip on her. Cadance was practically minutes away from passing out, which was overly generous at best. For the hundredth time that day he looked up at his horn, still covered in the magic sucking crystals, and cursed at himself for being unable to do anything.

Cadance nearly fell over when one of her legs gave out under her, with Shining Armor being the only thing stopping that. He looked between his wife to be and the Empire they had been working to protect.

'Twily, hurry.’

---

“What is with this guy and stairs?!” Spike shouted again at nothing.

“I’m sure there’s a reason Spike, but I don’t want to know what it is because I’m sure I’d hate it.” Twilight looked over the edge of the stairs again and saw that they had barely made any progress to them. She stopped climbing them and let out a sigh before saying, “We’re not getting anywhere like this. The Empire will be destroyed by the time we climb these!”

“If only we could fly. Then we could just destroy these stupid stairs and be up at the top in a second.”

“Too bad that isn’t an option.” Twilight sighed and looked ahead of her at the stairs when she noticed the ceiling of the staircase and how smooth it looked. She smiled widely and said, “I just found the next best thing though! Hold on Spike.”

“Why?” Spike asked a second before Twilight engulfed the both of them in a magic field and started floating. The dragon grabbed Twilight’s mane tightly in his claws just as they flipped upside down and fell up onto the sloped surface and started sliding. “What are you doing?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’ll take too long climbing these stairs, so I’m sliding down them!” Twilight let out a holler of excitement as they started picking up speed. “I have got to do this kind of thing with my magic more often!”

“Please don’t!” Despite Spike’s protests, they were getting there faster. A little too fast as it were since the two of them reached the end of the stairs and shot into the air of the room at the top. Spike let go of Twilight in surprise, though he was caught in a magic field thanks to Twilight and found a gentle landing instead of the crash landing he was expecting. Spike wobbled a little from dizziness and wandered over to one of the open areas of the wall.

“Whoa, we’re really high up,” Spike said looking out over the whole Crystal Empire. “Do you think anypony knows this room is here?”

“I don’t think so,” Twilight replied and looked around the room. “If this room was so well hidden, then that must mean…” Twilight moved to the center of the room and looked up to the ceiling, which caused her to stop in her tracks. “There it is, on the ceiling!” True enough, hanging from the ceiling by a magic field was heart shaped crystal, easily big enough that Twilight would have a hard time carrying it in her hooves, and shined with a light Twilight could tell was magical from a glance.

“Wow, that looks important. Can you get it?”

“I’ll try.” Twilight moved closer to the center of the room, and was almost under the heart when she heard something break through the floor behind her. That small sound became louder as a large spike broke through the floor along with several more until Twilight was surrounded by them.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted and started running to Twilight.

“Spike, don’t move!” Twilight shouted back, Spike immediately followed her order and stopped about ten feet from the spikes. Twilight rushed over to the space between two of the spikes and tried to put her hoof through it, hitting a barrier about halfway through. She pulled her hoof away from the barrier and gathered her magic for a teleport. But when she teleported the only thing that happened was that she found herself in the center of the spikes.

“Darnit, it’s another trap!” Twilight tried teleporting again only to end up right where she was, something that repeated whenever she tried teleporting. “Just stay out of these spikes and you’ll be fine Spike. I can’t believe I walked right into another trap!”

Just then the building shook, knocking Twilight and Spike off their feet. “What was that?!” Spike shouted just as another shockwave hit followed by a sound similar to glass cracking. “That doesn’t sound good.”

---

Cadance cried in pain and held onto Shining Armor while her horn sparked. She flinched in pain and had to work her hardest to talk. “I can’t keep the shield up any longer Shiny. Sombra’s attacking from outside and…” She was interrupted by the building shaking as another jolt of pain shot through her. The sound of glass cracking filled her ears and both her and Shining Armor looked up at where the shield was breaking.

“He’s almost through…”

---

“What’s going on?”

“The sky is cracking!”

“Why is it doing that?”

Applejack looked over the crowd of crystal ponies that had gathered to see the ‘Crystal Heart’ they had, and when the shield was starting to break it only made a bad situation even worse. Applejack looked back at the guard who was helping her and asked, “Any ideas on what to do?”

“All I can think of is trying to keep them calm, but at this rate…” The ground shook again as something hit the shield. This quake was much worse than the last one and Applejack saw all too well how the pedestal they were standing next to started to tip over. Applejack tried moving to keep it from falling, but she was unfortunately too slow. Their crafted ‘heart’ fell off the pedestal and shattered once it hit the ground.

And with it, so did the hope of every Crystal Pony who saw it.

---

The shield broke with a loud shatter and Twilight could only watch in horror as it broke away to reveal the snowstorm outside, along with a massive cloud of living darkness that moved inside.

“That’s the thing that attacked us yesterday!” Spike shouted.

“Finally! I am free!” The rumbling voice seemed to come from everywhere, but it seemed to be coming from the dark cloud.

‘Sombra.’ Twilight looked up at the Crystal Heart and shot a spell at the shield around it. It took a minute for the shield to react and disappear, but when it did the Heart started to fall. Before it could go very far Twilight caught it with her magic and tossed it out of the barrier she was in.

“Spike, take the Heart and get out of here!” she shouted. “We can still stop him if we get it down to the Crystal Ponies!”

“But… what about you?” Spike asked looking between her and the Crystal Heart. Another tremor hit, accompanied by a roar from Sombra that caused splits to appear in the floor a little too close to the Heart.

“I’ll be fine! I’m not going anywhere after all, so don’t worry about me!” Spike looked between Twilight and the Heart one more time before nodding and rushing to the Heart. He picked it up, just as the cracks next to it widened. Unfortunately the cracks also left him no real way back down except for the one way he really didn’t want to go.

“Ugh, I hope this works,” he said aloud and ran to the window and, after a moment of looking down, started to climb down while keeping the Crystal Heart in his arms.

“Please be safe Spike,” Twilight whispered before starting to look around for a way out of the trap she was in. Until she noticed some black mist flowing past her hooves to a spot behind her. She turned around to where the mist was collecting and forming into something.

“Now what do we have here?”

---

“Everypony stay calm!” Rainbow Dash had been shouting for a while now, but none of what she was saying got through to the panicking crowds. Not that she blamed them from how quickly things had gone from fine to screwed up.

“I don’t think they’re listening Rainbow.” Rainbow turned back to Fluttershy, looking all the smaller in the mock armor she had been wearing for the jousting event that Rainbow had drafted her into.

“I know, but I still have to try! If only this whole thing could be solved by punching that thing in the face!” Rainbow Dash shouted and pointed at the cloud forming over the city.

“Not everything can be solved that way,” Fluttershy pointed out and looked around at the panicked crowds. “Maybe we should find the girls and think of a plan with them?”

“I don’t have a better idea, so why not? We better hurry before- GET DOWN!” Rainbow shouted and leaped at Fluttershy, knocking the both of them down to the ground. On the way down Fluttershy saw something fly above them, though she couldn’t make out the exact shape of it. When they got back up and they, along with some other crystal ponies, stared at what almost hit them.

It was only slightly bigger than an average pony and walked on four legs like one, but that was where the similarities ended. Its form was made up of some kind of black substance, which alone made Rainbow back up a step, and then it started coughing harshly before turning to look at Rainbow with blank white eyes. It bared its teeth and charged at her, faster than she was expecting, and with the charge the crowd around her screamed in panic and started to scatter.

Then Fluttershy screamed next to her, which brought Rainbow back to reality. The thing, whatever it was, was almost on them and Rainbow barely had enough time to extend one of the blades on her forelegs and swing it. The blade caught the side of its head, where it sank about an inch before being thrown in the direction of the swing and splattered against the ground when it landed. Rainbow watched it for a second before turning to Fluttershy.

“Are you ok?” she asked the timid pegasus, who nodded slightly and lifted a shaky foreleg in the direction of the creature that had just attacked. Rainbow turned back and saw it reforming from the puddle and, even worse, saw more of them forming behind it. “Oh crud. You uh… got any ideas ‘Shy?”

“Run for our lives back to the castle?” Fluttershy offered.

“I’m ok with that plan.” Then the two pegasi turned and ran as fast as they could as the creatures screeched behind them and gave chase.

---

Twilight looked over stallion that had formed in front of her; he had near black fur and mane and a curved horn that looked nothing like Twilight had seen before. That, the regal cape he wore on his back, the dark crown on his head, and his eyes literally leaking with dark magic left little doubt in Twilight’s mind.

“You must be Sombra,” she said.

“King Sombra to you,” he replied, annoyance in his voice.

“You’re no king of mine. Why are you here?”

“To get back what’s mine, of course.” Sombra started to walk around the room, Twilight following him slowly from the opposite side, and looked around the room. “I was certain that this was where I left the Crystal Heart, but it doesn’t seem to be here. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is, would you?”

“And if I said I smashed it?”

“I wouldn’t believe you. The Crystal Heart is an artifact of significant importance to the whole world, not just to me. You would be a fool to destroy it.” Sombra stopped walking and shut his eyes. Twilight stopped along with him and watched him carefully. For a brief moment, just by being around him, Twilight felt the air was getting a little heavier.

“The Heart aside, it seems the reclamation of my property is going well outside. One way or another, I will win.”

“Property? If you mean the Crystal Ponies…”

“Of course I do.” Twilight’s heart skipped and she started breathing heavy for a different reason. “The Ponies, the crystals, this entire kingdom; all of it is my property.” One of Sombra’s ears perked up and a toothy smile spread across his muzzle. “Well, it seems my counterpart outside found something interesting.”

“Counterpart?”

“Please, when you’re as skilled as I am at magic, something as simple as being in two places at once is simple. Anyway, since you’re trapped here I won’t worry about you while I tend to the dragon outside that has the Heart.”

Right then, deep inside Twilight, something snapped.

“Until next time, Unicorn.” Sombra was only able to manage one step before his vision was filled with a bright flash of light, followed after by a blow strong enough to knock him onto his back. He tried to stand back up when a hoof landed on his neck forcing him back down. He looked up at Twilight shaking with anger, stared into her orange eyes, and for the first time in a long time felt a small twinge of fear.

“If you touch him or any of my friends, I’ll break every bone in your body.”

---

The sprint through the Crystal Empire was starting to get to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, though the panicking crowds and those creatures hounding them weren’t helping. A couple of times they had to dodge around some weird chains that shot from the ground and wrapped themselves around the Crystal Ponies. After a few tense moments of this they turned a corner and found themselves right next to the central plaza where the Crystal Heart would have been and saw the rest of the girls gathered around.

“Hey!” Rainbow shouted and flew the rest of the way to them with Fluttershy. They looked down at the shattered remains of what used to be Rarity’s fake Heart and Rainbow asked, “Things have gone really bad, haven’t they?”

“Very bad, yes,” Applejack replied and nervously adjusted her hat. “You two didn’t happen to see Rarity or Pinkie Pie on the way here did ya?”

“No, it was… really hectic,” Fluttershy said looking behind her.

“I’m sure they’ll find their way here. They’re nothing if not determined.”

“Looking for us?” Rainbow looked behind her and saw Pinkie Pie walking up to them carrying a slightly beat up Rarity. Pinkie carefully knelt down to let Rarity off, who started looking over herself.

“What happened to you two?” Applejack asked.

“Sombra apparently has friends. A couple of these weird shadow things ambushed us on the way here. Rarity got hit a little, but she says she fine.”

“My worst wounds are on my pride,” Rarity said and looked back at the panicking ponies gathering around them. “We also saw some kind of magic chains tying down some of the ponies too. What should we do about them?”

“We’ll save them soon, but right now we’ve got to worry about the ones with us right now.” They heard someone scream, along with some other screech, and when they turned in the direction of the noise to find a shadow creature crawling down the wall of a nearby building with two more waiting on the roof.

“Oh, perfect.”

---

‘Ok, I might not have thought this through all the way.’ That was mostly all that was running through Spike’s mind as he slowly made his way down the outside of the Crystal Palace with the Crystal Heart clutched tightly in his arms. Slowly, little by little, he was making progress despite the tremors.

Spike thought about Twilight and hoped she was doing alright. He knew she could take care of herself, but he still had to worry about her. Of course, there was also the matter of him being hundreds of feet above ground that he needed to focus on right now.

“One step at a time Spike. Just don’t look down.” Following his own advice, Spike shimmied down the path he was on and heard another loud roar in the distance. The black cloud that had been swirling around the city started collecting at one point down in the city. While he looked at that, Spike noticed a decent sized landing below him and, after a moment of thinking and a quick swallow, jumped down to it.

It wasn’t that far of a fall, a few feet at most, so Spike managed to land solidly just before another tremor hit. He heard a crack from behind him and, against his better judgment, looked behind him to see the crack spreading behind him.

“Oh no…”

---

Twilight pretty much had to expect Sombra would escape from her surprise attack, which he did by turning to smoke and retreating a fair distance away from her. He reformed in a standing position glaring at her in much the same way she was at him.

“I need to stop this habit of underestimating opponents,” Sombra said rubbing the spot Twilight had hit him.

“That makes it easier for me,” Twilight said, her whole body shaking from barely contained rage. “So please, keep underestimating me.”

“You… are not the same as before,” Sombra said backing away a step, but still looking into the mare’s eyes. “This isn’t just anger. There’s something else…”

“WHO CARES?!” Twilight shouted and teleported in front of Sombra. The king got a shield up in time to stop the black colored spell from hitting him and fought to keep a wince from showing. He shot a counter spell at Twilight, knocking her back into the barrier around them. Twilight disappeared for a moment only to reappear in the center on her back. She was only there for a few seconds before she was on her hooves again and charging Sombra.

“Tenacious,” Sombra commented just before a flurry of spells hit his shield. The volley of attacks from both mages shot continuously between them and the only sign of strain being trails of dark magic leaking from both of their eyes. Soon the strain of firing spells and keeping up the shield was getting to Sombra, who then dropped it in favor of the ‘traditional’ dueling etiquette of dodging around the spells.

To his surprise, he found himself smiling.

“You’re good, little pony. Who taught you dark magic?”

“No one, I’m just a fast learner!” Twilight shouted and teleported in front of him in the middle of a punch. Sombra managed to block both that punch and the follow-up, leaving the two of them pushing against each other for dominance. “Besides, Princess Celestia knows better than to teach me something like that!”

“You’re an apprentice to the Sun? That explains much.” Sombra’s grin widened and he pushed harder against Twilight’s hooves, both of them ignoring the small jolts that came from their magic fighting against the other. “You’re not the first that I’ve faced in battle. What makes you think you’ll do better than him?”

“I don’t.” The building shook right then, knocking her balance off just enough for Sombra to get the upper hoof. The King pushed her back and shot a spell that connected with her chin and sent her flying through the air. She flipped backwards once and shot a spell at Sombra, which managed to connect with the side of his face and knocked him down just as Twilight landed on her side.

Both ponies laid there for a moment before they started to stand back up, Twilight shaking the stars from her eyes and Sombra wiping at where the spell hit him. “The castle is coming apart at the seams, little one, and you’re growing weak. How long do you hope to last like this?”

“Long enough,” Twilight replied and lowered herself into a fighting stance. Her chest was burning, her head was aching, but she just had to hold on for just a bit longer.

‘Hurry Spike.’

---

“What’s going on?” Shining Armor shouted as he looked up at the cracks forming in the palace.

“Sombra’s magic is running rampant through the empire,” Cadance replied as she watched the horror slowly consuming the empire from both Sombra and those shadow creatures. “The empire won’t last long like this. I…I think we failed Shiny.”

Was this it then? Everything that she, Shining Armor, Twilight, and all the others had fought so hard for, all gone in an instant? Cadance’s heart broke, not from fear of what would happen to her, but for those she couldn’t protect. If only she could do something. Then a scream echoed through the air, a scream she recognized, and she looked up along with Shining Armor to search for the source.

“Spike!” Shining Armor shouted and pointed up at a section of the castle about to fall. Cadance had to squint to really see, but she could barely make out a purple figure sliding down the crystal.

“That is Spike! He’s holding something too!” Whatever Spike was holding shimmered in what little light and Cadance felt her heart drop and her hope rise. “That’s the Crystal Heart!”

“He’s got the Heart?” Another tremor hit the palace, causing Spike to slide faster down the palace. “Oh no!”

“He’s going to fall! I’m still too weak to fly and you can’t use magic. What can we do?” They watched for a few moments before inspiration struck Shining Armor.

“I could throw you.”

“Huh?” Cadance asked.

“If you can use magic to make yourself lighter, I could throw you and you could glide up there and grab Spike.”

“Well… I guess that could work.” Cadance glanced up at Spike and nodded softly. “I don’t have another plan though, so let’s do it.” Cadance took a deep breath and gathered up enough magic to make herself light enough for Shining Armor. The glow of her magic enveloped her after a second and a few seconds after that she said, “I’m ready.”

Shining Armor nodded and picked Cadance up, inwardly surprised at how light she was, and looked back up at Spike. As he readied himself into a throwing position on his hind legs, he and Cadance both watched Spike slide further and eventually off of the crystal he was on.

“Now!” Cadance shouted and Shining Armor threw her as hard and as high as he could. He watched as she actually managed to gain some height and moved to intercept Spike as he fell.

“This might actually work!”

---

Despite the tremors and general chaos as the palace came down around him, Spike never let go of the Crystal Heart. Even when he was sliding off the roof and down toward his almost certain doom he never let go.

‘Twilight trusted me with this. The least I can do is see it gets to someone who can use it.’ Spike hugged the crystal tighter against him and braced himself. When he finally hit something he couldn’t keep the yelp of surprise from escaping, especially when he found he was still alive. “What...?”

“I can’t believe this is working!” Someone shouted next to him. It was here he realized that he was still in the air and being carried. He looked behind him to see Cadance concentrating really hard.

“Cadance?”

“Hi Spike! While I’d like to talk right now I’m terrified for our lives right now!” She shouted and started diving toward the ground. Spike tried as best he could to brace against the dive while Cadance maneuvered toward the base of the palace. Judging by the large crowd of Crystal Ponies around there along with some things closing in on them with Rainbow Dash fighting them, things weren’t good down there. Cadance flew over the crowd, drawing more than a few looks, and landed next to the pedestal.

“Princess Cadance?” Applejack asked on seeing the alicorn, followed by a louder, “Spike?!”

“I got the Heart!” Spike shouted holding the Crystal heart up for everyone to see. He saw a magic glow envelop the Heart and, seeing it belonged to Rarity, let it go watched it fly over to the pedestal.

“Listen everypony!” Cadance shouted. She gestured out in the distance with a hoof, “Sombra and those like him are not the rightful rulers of the Crystal Empire. That right has always been yours, the ponies who live here! You have the power and the right to choose how you live, you need only take it for yourselves!” She then pointed at the Crystal Heart and said, “I’ll do what Sombra never did; give you a choice! All you need to do now is make it!”

A few second after Cadance finished, they did.

---

Twilight landed another punch on Sombra’s face and was rewarded by another from him. She let the momentum carry her in a spin and fired a spell at Sombra when he came back into view. The King dodged it and fired a spell of his own into the floor, causing a row of black crystals to shoot toward Twilight. She jumped out of the way and locked eyes with Sombra for a moment before his eyes widened and he looked to his right.

“The Heart?!” he shouted. Twilight followed his gaze and saw a light building up from outside and could feel the magic stirring in the air. “How did it slip past me!”

‘Yes Spike, you did it!’ Twilight thought and grinned widely at Sombra and said, “You lose.”

“You…” Sombra turned and stared in rage at Twilight. “I haven’t lost ye-“

Twilight vanished in a flash of light and reappeared in front of Sombra mid uppercut. She connected with the king’s jaw and, while he was reeling, threw her whole weight into him and tackled him to the ground. She scrambled on top of him and slammed her hoof onto his head.

“No more speeches! No more spells! You just lie there and TAKE WHAT’S COMING!”

---

The magic of the Crystal Empire was unique indeed. With the Crystal Heart as the center and with every Crystal Pony focusing on it and their home, they severed any chains that bound their citizens. Every cut chain meant one more pony focusing on the heart, which meant the spell grew that much more powerful until even the ground was glowing with power.

Long story short, Sombra and the Shadows soon found themselves facing the strongest light they had ever seen, followed by being hit with the strongest magic wall they ever felt. The Shadows were vaporized in an instant while Sombra’s magic dwindled, his body cracked, and all he could do was scream an animal roar when both the body overlooking the Empire and the one that had been fighting Twilight was blasted into pieces and scattered to the horizon around the Crystal Empire.

So ended King Sombra’s rule.

---

When the light faded, Twilight found herself alone and in control of her emotions again. She was breathing heavily as the adrenaline wore off and looked outside. The storm clouds were gone and, from what she could see, whatever spell that had been cast had repaired any damage that had been dealt to the Empire in the battle.

She let out a deep sigh and collapsed on the floor. She looked down at herself and saw her body was brilliant and luminous like crystal. She lifted a hoof to her face and turned it a little.

“Well that’s new,” she commented and set the hoof down and looked at the crystal barrier around her. “The spell keeping me here is probably still active. I’ll just rest until someone comes for me.”

---

“IT WORKED!” Shining Armor shouted to himself as he ran through the Crystal Palace and out into the courtyard. The Crystal Ponies moved out of the way as he rushed toward where Cadance was. When Cadance saw him she barely had enough time to lift a hoof in a wave before she was scooped into his arms and spun around. “That was amazing Cadance!”

“T-thanks Shiny. You were amazing too,” Cadance replied and gave Shining Armor a quick kiss.

“That cutie mark,” somepony in the crowd said.

“Could it be that…?”

“The Crystal Princess has returned?” The couple paid no mind to the crowd for now, focusing on each other for now.

“Well, that worked out,” Spike said sitting on the ground. “I definitely could have used less falling today, but it worked out.”

“AAAAH!” the scream made everybody nearby flinch and turn to see Rarity looking at herself excitedly. “I’m gorgeous! Everything looks gorgeous! Oh, I can feel inspiration coming on!”

“…Well, she’s a goner,” Applejack commented and made a quick adjustment of her hat, “I don’t get what the big deal is.”

“We did it!” Spike looked up and saw Rainbow swooping in and land next to him. “I just made a quick sweep and it looks like we’re in the clear! No Sombra, no weirdo shadow things; nothing but clear skies and crystal everywhere!” Rainbow whooped and proceeded to flip and fly in joy around them.

“So, is the festival still going?” a Crystal mare asked. Cadance managed to pull herself away from Shining Armor and cleared her throat.

“Yes, it is, despite what happened,” she said. The crowd certainly liked that judging from the cheers and the few ponies that were brave enough to approach her. Shining Armor shared a look with Cadance and they both shared a silent moment before he left her to mingle with the crowd.

“Hey Spike, where’s Twilight?” he asked. Spike took a second before he shot up with a panicked look and pointed back at the palace.

“Twilight! She’s trapped in some booby trap in the tower up there! She needs help getting out of there!”

“Calm down Spike, just show me where she is and I can help her.”

“Where’s Twilight?” Rainbow asked stopping her flying when Twilight came up.

“I think Twilight’s at the top of the tallest tower.” Spike pointed at a tower and said, “That’s the one I think. I’ll have to get back there to-“ Rainbow Dash took one look at the tower and flew off toward it, “And she’s gone.”

“So, where’s the way up there?” Shining asked.

---

After leading Shining Armor on a hike down and up those stairs again (Spike decided that the second time up those stairs that, yes, he did hate those stairs) Spike was back in the room that Twilight was in, this time with Rainbow Dash keeping her company. It took about a half hour of back and forth between brother and sister before they managed to dispel the trap and lead Twilight outside.

“So everyone’s all crystal and shiny now?” Twilight asked when she saw the crowd outside.

“Yes, it’s probably some side effect of the spell,” Shining said and shrugged. “I’m not complaining.”

“I’m not either. So is there anything else I need to-“

“You just got out of a fight with an evil overlord or whatever and you want to go back to organizing?” Rainbow asked stopping in front of Twilight. “Why not take a break? This is like the fourth time we’ve done something like this, the least you can do is get some cotton candy!”

“I agree with Rainbow Dash,” Shining Armor said, “After this and the wedding last month without much downtime in between, you deserve some time off.”

“But-“

“No buts, go enjoy yourself.” Twilight looked from Shining Armor to the crowd around them enjoying themselves. Twilight sighed a little and turned to Rainbow.

“So where’s the cotton candy?”

---

With a letter to Princess Celestia explaining everything that had happened, the rest of the day passed without incident, something everyone was grateful for. Food was eaten, instruments were played, mysterious incidents involving a certain pink pony played out across the Empire; all in all, business as usual. Twilight even managed to catch the jousting tournament Rainbow was so proud of and was happy at how Fluttershy held up in it.

It couldn’t last forever though, as the sun soon set and the festivities died down Twilight retired to the Palace’s library with Spike to continue researching her next destination. She was nose deep in a history book of some kind when Cadance walked in on her.

“There you are Twilight,” she said walking over and sitting at the table. “And I see you’re doing what you love best.”

“Mhmm,” Twilight hummed and turned a page.

“Is Spike around?”

“He and Private Sentry are helping me find books. They should be back soon.” Twilight shut the book and took another from the pile next to her.

“You’ll be leaving soon, aren’t you?” Twilight stopped reading and looked up at Cadance.

“No, I plan on staying for a few days at least. Whatever’s keeping Carver away seems pretty strong, so we should be safe for now.”

“You’re more than welcome to stay as long as you need to.” Twilight nodded and opened the book again when Spike and Private Sentry returned with some books. “Hello Spike.”

“Hi. I found that Atlas you wanted Twilight,” Spike said giving Twilight the book. Private Sentry cleared his throat behind Spike, who added, “And he helped too, I guess.”

“Credit where it’s due, I did get the book down for you.” The guard said casually. “Unfortunately we couldn’t anything about those temples ma’am. It seems to be rare information.”

“I expected as much. I’ll take what I can get however,” Twilight said and started flipping through the atlas. “Hopefully this will tell me about where the other temples are.”

“Are they hidden or legendary?”

“Hidden, yes, but I’m not sure about leg-AAAH!”

“What?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head at Twilight.

“When did she get here?” Private Sentry asked.

“I don’t know, but she does that a lot,” Spike said with a shrug. “I hardly notice it anymore to be honest.”

“Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked once she got her breathing under control.

“I came to tell you dinner’s almost ready. You probably won’t know unless we told you. So what’s this about temples of the legendary hidden variety?”

“I… I’ll tell you at dinner. It’s about time I let you and the girls in on what we’ve been doing the last few months.”

“That’d be nice. Pinkamena hasn’t been telling me anything. She thinks I’m some delicate flower instead of the seven layer cake I really am.”

“I’m sure Pinkie- wait, what?”

“Anyway, see you at dinner!” Pinkie said and dove under the table.

“Hey wait!” Twilight called and looked under the table, Cadance following suit. “Who’s Pinkamena? Darn it, she’s gone! I’ve got to learn how she does that.”

Private Sentry looked at Spike with the most ‘what’ face that the dragon had ever seen, to which Spike replied, “Like I said, I hardly notice it anymore. Anyone else starving? After today I am.”

“…Yeah, I’m hungry too. I’ll study these books later. Are you hungry Cadance?”

“And sleepy,” the alicorn replied standing up. “I think I’m going to sleep well tonight. Hopefully all of us will.”

Twilight nodded and stood up as well. Spike walked over and let Twilight lift onto her back and, with Cadance by her side and Private Sentry behind them, she led the group out of the library and toward the dining room. On the way there Twilight kept coming back to one thought.

‘Where do I begin with this story?’

Comments

[SC_Orion]

Alright, so it's been... somewhere around a year by this point, if I remember correctly? Also, I just read this thing over the past... week, I think. So... if this has been 1 year so far, does this mean this story is around/not quite 1/5 done? Does that mean this thing will end up over 500,000 words long if you keep it up? Are you going to skip around a bit? Please tell me it won't take you 25 years to finish writing this story, I get so invested in stories and then they never update...

Also, for some reason, despite knowing this story has no tragedy tag the last time I checked, I had the sneaking suspicion that Twilight and or Rainbow were going to use the Sword of Sacrifice on themselves to stop Carver. I say this because of how they acted in the first chapter, it's just how I felt about it. Although after reading to this point, I don't know now. With the introduction of the rest of the Mane 4 having disappeared, I'm left... curious.

I wish you luck with your endeavors.

[Specially Trained Derp]

It's a shame this story has been abandoned. I was really getting into it.
At least it doesn't end on a cliffhanger!