The Fall of Twilight

by Ephraim Blue

Chapter 34 - Barely Surviving

Chapter 34 - Barely Surviving

The Crystal Empire September 1st 1001

Shining Armor came through the magical barrier not a minute after Rainbow Dash and her friends. He had held the dark cloud back so that the rest of them could come through.

But at a terrible price...

"Shining Armor!" Rainbow called to him. "What happened?"

"I- I held h- him back," he managed between breaths. "Don't worry about me. Are you all safe?"

"I am," Rainbow called.

"Me too," said Spike, who was no longer on Rainbow's back.

"I'm okay," Rarity said.

"M- M- Me too..." Fluttershy said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Ah'm okay," Applejack said. "But what in tarnation was that?"

"That was the evil King Sombra," Shining said, making all of his guests gasp. "After Celestia and Luna banished him using the Elements of Harmony, he struggled to maintain form in the 1000 years he was gone. He failed, and that was what was left of him."

"All that?!?" Rainbow asked. "That cloud was enormous!"

"That was all the evil that was contained in him for 1000 years. He is regaining his form, but very slowly. I'd say that by no later than three hours from now, he will have regained his form."

"But he's just a cloud right? Can't we just blow him away using a pegasi's wings to create a breeze?"

"No. He may be a cloud, but he has full control over his form. Not even those winds outside could stop him."

"Pardon me for interrupting," Rarity began, "but what's with those black crystals in your horn?"

His eyes widened in shock and he reached up to his horn. Sure enough, there were many black crystals in bedded into his horn. He tried to cast magic, but he found it useless within a few attempts.

"I'm afraid that he's prevented me from using magic," he said. "But that doesn't matter anymore. What does matter is that you're all here and can defeat Sombra, right?"

Rainbow looked around at her companions. Applejack had lost determination in her eyes to complete the mission, along with the others. Fluttershy was recovering the trama, and Rarity, along with Spike, were downright scared of Sombra.

"We'll do our best!" Rarity said with an obviously fake smile.

"Well, I'm heading back to the castle. I need to comfort my wife. She's weak from keeping the barrier spell going."

And so he left, leaving four ponies and a dragon on the grass of the protected empire.

"What are we going to do?" Spike asked. "How are we going to stop King Sombra?"

"Ah don't rightfully know," Applejack said to him. "Even if we did have the Elements of Harmony, we couldn't use 'em without Twilight and Pinkie."

"We'll do what we can," Rainbow Dash said, making all her friends turn to her. "We'll find a way to defeat him. We've always found our way through tough situations like this, right?"

Her friends just kept those depressed faces on them. They were all unsure about how this would end.

Pinkie could make them smile, Rainbow thought. She could always find a way to brighten up our moods.

"Can't you all just show a little support for the situation?" she asked her friends.

...Probably shouldn't have said that...

Her friends' faces, excluding Fluttershy, immediately became slightly ticked off and they made their way to the Crystal Castle in the town.

She stopped flying and landed on the ground beneath her. She tilted her head towards the ground and sighed. "Was it something I said?"

One Hour Later At The Crystal Castle

Spike, Rainbow Dash and all their friends were gathered inside the castle, wondering what should be done about the situation.

"What can we do?" Spike asked.

They all sighed. "Twilight would know," Fluttershy said in her already quiet voice. "She always knows what to do."

That's true, Spike said to himself. Twilight would find some way to stop all of this.

An idea flared through his little head. (Laugh all you want) "What would Twilight do..." he quietly asked to himself.

"What was that Spike?" Rarity asked.

He turned to her. "I was just wondering what Twilight would do in a situation like this."

"Well," she started, "I would look for some research on the situation and find a solution based off that."

"Research..." Spike repeated. "Research... Study... History... History?" He turned to Rainbow. "What do we know about the Crystal Empire?"

"How should I know anything?" she asked back. "Celestia said that it disappeared over 1000 years ago! I doubt any records in our time today have records about that."

"But what about what disappeared with it?" he suggested. That made all their heads turn toward him. "What about records that The Crystal Empire held when it vanished?"

"That's that weirdest idea Ah ever heard," Applejack commented. "But it's the only thing we've got. Lets try it!"

Crystal Empire Library

The five of them arrived after finally finding it. That took about 30 minutes, I guess.

"Excuse me," Spike asked the librarian, "but where would the history books be kept?"

"History..." she said. "History... Ah, yes."

All of the ponies (And dragon) smiled at her comment. But when she didn't respond...

"Um, they would be where exactly?" Rarity asked?

She looked around wildly. "I- I can't seem to remember... I don't even know if I actually work here..."

"Argh!" Rainbow Dash said. "We'll never get anywhere like this!"

"Yes we will," Spike said, completely confident. "We just have to find it ourselves!"

One Hour And Twenty-Nine Minutes Later...

"Found it!" Rainbow Dash finally said. "It was on the top shelf of the comic section. Man, it's like this library hasn't been used in 1000 years!"

"That's 'cause it ain't been used in that long," Applejack said. "Now hurry up 'n bring the book down here Rainbow!"

"Alright now, hold your horses." (Stop laughing. This is serious business) "It says that annually, they held a crystal fair, and they got all the citizens positive to power some crystal heart thing."

"What in the hay does that mean?"

"I don't know!" Rainbow complained.

Suddenly, the ground shook. Immediately, they all ran outside and saw the flickering of Princess Cadence's barrier. In nearly an instant, it faded from existence.

"We're too late," Spike said. "He's already broken through."

There was still a dark cloud in the distance, but at the front, there was a dark unicorn at the front of it.

"King Sombra..." Applejack said.

"He won't get away with this as long as I'm here!" Rainbow said before flying strait off at him.

But before she could even get close, another dark cloud engulfed her, and she fell strait to the ground.

"You think that will stop me?!" she shouted. She attempted to turn around, but found it impossible as she fell even further. "What?" She looked at her wings. Embedded in them were the same black crystals that were in Shining Armor's horn.

"My wings!" she shouted. She looked back between them and the ground she fell toward. "We... Lost..."

Author's Note:

This chapter was too quick, I know. I'm sorry, but I'm starting to feel rushed with the story. The contest for this story ends in like, two weeks or something. I know that there isn't much to talk about since I'm cutting this story off for the sequel, but it was hard to come up with ideas for what to do for this chapter. Remember, it was Twilight who did most of the stuff in the actual episode.

In other thoughts, I'd like to thank Graymayne for giving me the one idea that allowed me to come up with the rest of the chapter. If it weren't for him, you might have had to wait longer for the chapter, or something else...

All that's left now, I believe, is the final chapter and the epilogue. See you then!

Comments

[jack spartson]

Oh crap. Will celestia ever figure out the truth?

[Ephraim Blue]

4485598 Maybe. Maybe not.

[Ephraim Blue]

4486087 As the Author, I'm not allowed to tell you if you're right or not. All I can say is: Maybe.