Disharmonious Synchronization

by Dilos1

The Arrival

"Everypony please calm down! I am quite sure that the Crystal Heart will be delivered as soon as it is, uh. . ." Rarity faltered, unsure how to placate the crystal ponies any longer than they already had as the crowd continued to grow around her and the rest of her friends, minus Twilight. She was becoming extremely nervous as small beads of sweat accumulated on her brow before sliding down her pristine white coat. At any other point in time Rarity would have been aghast to have anything mar her beautiful visage, and would have immediately sought out the nearest salon or spa. Given the current situation however, such an action would have been in extremely poor taste, and she would have never heard the end of it from Applejack either.

Besides, she and her friends had other arguably more important things to worry about. Such as the fact that the crystal ponies unfortunately realized just how close they were to becoming slaves again. It certainly did not help that Cadance's shield spell had finally decided to "kick the bucket" as Pinkie Pie so eloquently put it. Rarity sincerely hoped that the poor dear was alright, as Cadance had already been awake for days on end just keeping the spell going. The fashionista knew that alicorns were made of sterner stuff than the average pony, but it was still practically a miracle that she had been standing at all when they had initially arrived. And Shining Armor had already done as much as he could to keep Sombra at bay, but as he had already said his own magic was ineffective against the dreaded king. The only pony who seemed to have anything that was able to prevent Sombra from just entering the Empire at his leisure was Cadance.

And now their only measure of protection had just fallen, and Rarity could imagine that she heard something else howling in the distance other than the frigid wind.

Again, Rarity attempted to calm the crystal ponies, now numbering in the dozens. Many were already on the verge of panic as it was as they continued to gather around the wide area underneath the towering palace, and the rest of the group was doing their best to placate them like Rarity was. Their efforts were not helped when a frigid blast of cold wind had reached them from beyond the border of the kingdom.

"Not to worry everypony!" Rarity said in a rather unconvincing tone as she backed up to a large object covered with a blue tarp a short distance away, sitting directly in the middle of the four massive support columns holding up the tower above their heads. "We will unveil the Crystal Heart soon enough. We just need a bit more time for, uh-"

"Fer Cadance!" Applejack said abruptly, noticing her friends floundering. "That's right. We all just need Cadance ta be here and, uh, preside over the ceremony. We can't finish up the fair without the Princess now, can we?"

Despite being interrupted, Rarity was grateful to Applejack for coming up with something to keep the crystal ponies satisfied. But in spite of the farm pony's insistence, none of the crystal ponies seemed willing to wait any longer. They were growing more nervous by the second as they suspected Sombra's return.

"But we need the Crystal Heart now!" said a stallion with a jade green coat. "Without the Heart, we can't protect ourselves."

"Maybe you guys should invest in a better security system then," Pinkie Pie suggested as bounced by with a plate of cookies balancing on her poofy mane. She promptly began dividing them out equally among the crystal ponies. Rarity doubted that confectionery treats would keep them satisfied for long, but she could not begrudge the pink mare for sticking to what she knew. The bigger issue was where she had even obtained the cookies in the first place, and of course how they were going to keep the crystal ponies from figuring out the Crystal Heart in their possession was actually a fake that Twilight had made. At the time none of them knew there was an actual Crystal Heart, but now the stand-in served to give the crystal ponies the hope that they were safe.

It may have been a false hope, at least until Twilight returned with the real Crystal Heart, but it was hope nonetheless, and it was one that Rarity and her friends would keep going as long as-

A deep guttural howl tore across the frigid air of the Crystal Empire, causing everypony to freeze in sheer terror. Rarity herself found that she could no longer move as a deep feeling of absolute dread filled her heart with terror. She felt it was honestly a wonder that the organ itself had not stopped beating. Beside her, each of her friends, even Rainbow Dash, huddled close to each other with wide eyes as they attempted to locate the source of the howl. Fluttershy was in the middle, the only part that could be seen of the butter yellow pegasus being the very top of her pink mane as she tried to conceal herself behind the other ponies. Even Pinkie seemed to deflate a little as she looked all around with wide eyes, softly singing to herself.

"Crack up at the creepy, guffaw at the ghastly. . ." she sang, and although there was the familiar presence of her normal jovial and care free attitude in it, Rarity detected hints of stuttering fear in her voice as well. There was something about that that made everypony else feel even more nervous. After all, if the most joyful among them was this put off by these events, then there was something truly bad about to happen.

"Uh, what was that?" Rainbow Dash questioned, being the first pony to break the silence. She was no longer in the air anymore, something that Rarity had never seen come from her before in dangerous situations. It was almost like something in the air had reached in to their very hearts and squeezed it dry of anything resembling bravery in everypony.

"Ah think Ah know, but Ah'm nervous Ah'm gonna jinx it," Applejack replied.

Before anypony could say anything else another howl rang out, chilling their bones to the core with its wailing.

"He's back!" one of the crystal ponies yelled in a frightened tone. "He's come back!"

"We need the Crystal Heart!" another pony exclaimed. Panic had overridden their minds as they heard the voice of the dark king echo through the frigid air, and as one the they started to rush towards the mares in a frenzied attempt to get to what they thought would be their salvation. Rarity knew that there was no way they could hold them back, not without causing even more panic. She quickly darted off to the side to avoid being trampled, and the others did the same. Rainbow Dash found her wings again and took to the air, practically dragging Fluttershy with her.

"Oh! Excuse me! Coming through! Watch the mane! Ugh, has nopony here ever heard of proper decorum?" Rarity exclaimed as ponies ran past her, bumping into her as they went. Before long however they all heard the heard the sound of a pony gasping, and Rarity felt her heart rate increase at the implications of it.

Her fears were confirmed when the voice of a mare shouted in despairing tone, "This isn't the Crystal Heart!"

Rarity could only watch while feeling no small amount of awkwardness as she saw the ponies grind to a halt with astonished expressions on their faces.

"What?!" they all seemed to exclaim at once as they watched the same mare that had alerted them to the deception raise the fake Crystal Heart above her head for all to see, and Rarity felt a grimace cross her muzzle as she looked to see the fruits of their action. The pony, a mare with a lavender coat not unlike Twilight's with a braided mane and tail, held the phony heart above her head for a moment longer before she she threw to the ground, where she stomped on it with a forehoof, breaking into a dozen shards of crystal. With an angry scowl on her muzzle she sighted Rainbow Dash hovering above and began to shout at her.

"You! What have you done with the Crystal Heart?!" she demanded.

"Us? What did we do?" Rainbow shot back. "We've been trying to keep you guys happy until-"

Rainbow was cut off when the mare shouted, "You said you had the Crystal Heart! You told us you had found it, but it's not here! Where is it?!"

At this, Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "Uh yeah, we can explain," she said.

"No need!" the mare said suddenly. "I know exactly what you lot are up to. I know who you are! You're spies for Sombra!"

Everypony that heard the accusation gasped in shock, and Rarity noticed that she suddenly had a bit more personal space as everypony within ten feet hurried away from her, not once taking their eyes off of her. Under normal circumstances Rarity would not have minded being the center of attention, but in this instance it was undesired.

"Now hold on just a minute!" Applejack exclaimed as she trotted into view to confront the mare. "I get that yer all upset, and we're mighty sorry for trickin' ya, but yer all bein' unreasonable and-"

"Unreasonable?!" shouted the mare again, getting right up in Applejack's orange muzzle. "Unreasonable?! You six come here and start asking around for information on how to protect the Empire, one of you goes missing, the shield that your precious princess puts up suddenly fails, and now we're all about to be enslaved again after you promised us salvation, and you think we're being unreasonable?!"

Before anypony could say anything else, yet another howl rang out, echoing through the crystalline buildings and filling their ears with a terrible roar that made some of the ponies fall to the ground as they clutched their heads between their hooves in pain. Just then a pony pointed at something overhead.

"Look!" he shouted fearfully, and everypony did what he said as they all turned to see an ominous black cloud of darkness appear over the roofs of the buildings, rapidly growing larger and larger until it seemed that it had consumed the sky itself. And in their murky depths they saw two piercing orbs of green with bloody red dots in the middle. Rarity began to feel herself tremble in fright as she looked at them, knowing that she had seen them before when they first arrived at the Crystal Empire. She knew that she was looking at the eyes of the dark king himself.

She was looking at the eyes of king Sombra.

---

"How big is this castle!" Spike shouted as he jogged as quickly as he could through the halls of the Crystal Palace, wishing that he had a map or a brochure or something that could help him find his way out. He had seen the predicament his pony friends were in when he glanced out of a window a little while earlier about half an hour after he had been sent to find Twilight, and he would be lying if he said he was not more than a little nervous. That was a little while ago, when the crystal ponies were still somewhat content and happy. Looking outside now, Spike found that he was on the verge of panic at the terrible sight outside.

Even from up here he could plainly see the crystal ponies as they suddenly turned on his friends. He could not hear everything that was said, but he caught the gist of what they were saying.

And then, things took a turn for the worse when he spotted a huge black shadow looming in the distance, and Spike instantly knew what was going to happen if they did Twilight did not come back with the Crystal Heart right now.

"Twilight!" Spike yelled as he ran past doorways and corridors, looking for any sign of the lavender unicorn. But it seemed that no matter where he looked or how loudly he yelled, he could not find Twilight anywhere. He looked everywhere that he could remember; the royal archives, the royal library, the private library, but came up empty. He even checked the throne room, but nothing there looked out of place. It was as though Twilight Sparkle had simply vanished, and Spike was beginning to fear the worst.

He wondered if maybe she had somehow gotten stuck in Sombra's traps, or if the dark king had seen fit to deal with her himself.

Spike shuddered at the thought, and desperately hoped his closest friend was alright.

"Twilight, where are you?! We need you out there! Twilight!" he called repeatedly, but still the young drake got no response. He was about to call out again when suddenly a deep rumble interrupted him. It was not the kind that meant an earthquake was approaching, or one that meant the tower was coming down. Spike honestly did not know what it was.

It was like a slow steady vibration was spreading throughout the palace, and Spike felt his feet becoming numb from it. Even stranger, it seemed to be growing in intensity as well, like the whole tower was starting to shake. And an odd hum accompanied it as well, and Spike was reminded of all of the times he had witnessed Twilight perform an experiment in magic.

Something was happening, or was about to happen, and Spike knew that he had to find Twilight as soon as possible. With renewed purpose, Spike took off as quickly as his short legs could carry him, calling Twilight's name as he went.

---

Everypony was galloping as quickly as they could away from the pitch black cloud that was king Sombra in all of his terrifying glory. Whenever a pony glanced at him they would feel as though their very hearts were being clutched by a vice. His ominous appearance filled them such utter terror and despair from the enchantment as his foul presence continued to seep into the Empire like an eldritch fog.

The five mares could do little more than watch the king approach, as jagged black crystals sprang up from the ground in front of him, tearing apart homes destroying everything they encountered. And amid all the chaos, they could hear the ancient king speaking in a foul language none of them understood.

The king laughed in a deep voice, the echo making it sound as though he were in a tunnel. The way he spoke made everypony that heard him sink deeper and deeper in despair. It was as though there was sort of foul enchantment in his voice hat caused everypony's heart to skip a beat in fear of him.

"Shut up you big jerk!" Rainbow shouted at the king at the top of her lungs, being one of the rare few examples that did not seem to be as affected by the dark language. Sharing in this apparent immunity to the curse were the rest of the Mane Six as they huddled close together. It seemed that role as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony meant they were unaffected by the enchantment. But that did not stop them from shaking in fear as the king continued to draw closer, and despite the bravado in her voice Rainbow was just as afraid as anypony else as Sombra spoke.

"What are we going to do girls?!" Rarity exclaimed, hoping that one of them had an answer to the quandary they found themselves in. For a moment none of them spoke as they frantically thought of what to do, until Applejack's ears suddenly perked up as she looked at the rest of the mares.

"Here's what we're gonna do," she stated, and everypony present turned to listen intently. "Rarity, Ah need ya ta go 'round and gather every one of the crystal ponies, and get 'em inside ta safety."Rarity hesitated, but only for the briefest of moments as she quickly nodded her head and took off at a swift gallop. Applejack then turned to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus was cowering in fear behind Rainbow as Applejack addressed her. "Fluttershy, go inside and find Spike. Once ya find him, help him look fer Twilight, then get to Cadance and Shining Armor. "Fluttershy nodded meekly before quickly hurrying away to find an entrance to the Crystal Palace. That left Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie by themselves. "Now," Applejack said with a sense of finality in her voice. "That just leaves us."

"Uh, I'm almost afraid to ask," Rainbow piped up, "but what are we to do? I can't imagine we would be much help in this situation other than doing what Rarity and Fluttershy are already doing."

Applejack fixed Rarity with a mischievous grin that Rainbow was not quite sure that she liked coming from the farm pony. Pinkie Pie was another matter entirely, as she grinned right along with Applejack, like she already knew what was going on underneath the farm pony's stetson hat. Rainbow chose to ignore it however in favor of trying to figure out what Applejack was planning.

"Applejack? Why are you smiling like that? You're kinda giving me the creeps," Rainbow said with a forced smile. Applejack's own smile however only seemed to grow more mischievous, and she began to chuckle lightly.

"Ah can't believe that Ah'm about ta say this," she said, "but Ah'm not sure what Ah'm plannin' really. All Ah know is that it's plum crazy and liable ta get us killed."

Rainbow was certain she did not like the sound of that. Pinkie's smile never faded, though there was a look in her eyes that said she was suddenly beginning to second guess going along with it. Rainbow was starting to become impatient with the way Applejack was speaking, and wanted to know just what the farm pony had was thinking of.

"Well, do mind filling us in? Come on, don't leave us in the dark," she demanded. Applejack's chuckling died down to where she was speaking normally again, or about as normal as a pony like her could speak.

"Ah mean ta distract that big ruttin' son of a gun, and give everypony else time ta hide and escape before he can get to 'em."

Rainbow could not have been more flabbergasted if Applejack had told her she had suddenly decided to start wearing makeup on a regular basis. She simply could not believe what she had just heard. Was Applejack really suggesting that they put their very lives at risk in trying to distract such a fearsome entity, all only to buy everypony else a few extra seconds of freedom before Sombra reached them? It was a crazy and stupid idea that was liable to get them all killed. . . and Rainbow, daredevil that she was, liked it.

Sure it was insane, but Rainbow liked insane. And besides, if it meant buying extra time, even if it did turn out to be only a few minutes, Rainbow felt it would be worth it if it meant her friends potential survival.

Fixing Applejack with a determined expression, Rainbow simply nodded and replied, "Alright AJ. You got me. I'm with you all the way." Turning to the only pony among who had yet to say anything, strange as that was, Rainbow asked Pinkie Pie, "What about you Pinkie? Are you with us?"

The pink mare put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Hmmm, I don't know," she said. "I mean the Cakes are probably gonna miss me at Sugar Cube Corner, and I'm pretty sure I left the water running at home." Pinkie considered the question for another moment, until she then said with much more enthusiasm than the situation probably called for, "Okay! Lets do it! So what's the plan AJ?"

Smirking again, Applejack simply said, "Annoy the crud outta that overgrown smokestack."

"Ooh, I can definitely do that!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. Despite the peril they were about to face, both Rainbow and Applejack could not help but give a light chuckle at the friends antics. Before anymore could be said, they were interrupted by the sound of a crystalline housing being torn to bits as Sombra's own dark gems took hold.

"Alright then," said Applejack, losing the confident grin and replacing it with a stern scowl directed at the king. "Lets get this over with." With that she began to trot directly towards Sombra, a determined expression on her face as she broke into a full gallop. There was no more fear in her heart of the dark king, only the determination to see her friends live another day. On either side of her Rainbow and Pinkie were keeping pace with similar looks on their muzzles, although Pinkie's was something of a mix between an angry growl and joyful grin. In any other situation, Applejack and Rainbow would have found it unnerving, but in this case it seemed to fit.

But just as they were about to go over a plan of attack a deep rumbling sound made them come to a stop. It was like the whole ground was shaking for no apparent reason. Even Sombra seemed caught off guard by the disturbance, as he peered suspiciously at his surroundings in an attempt to locate the source of it.

"What the hay?! What's going on?!" Rainbow shouted as the rumbling continued to increase, and they noticed it was accompanied by a low hum that built in intensity until it seemed like whole world had suddenly gone fuzzy.

"I-I-I do-o-o-on't kno-o-o-w bu-u-u-t i-i-i-t's fu-u-u-n!" Pinkie said with glee, her high pitched voice distorted by the vibrations.

Before anypony could offer any theories on what was causing the disturbance, a loud cracking sound drew their attention to large round plaza a short distance away, before the whole thing suddenly sank down. Then, to their confusion, it lit up in an almost blinding flash of light, causing everypony to cover their eyes until it faded. When they felt it was safe to look again without risking their sight, all three ponies were surprised to see that the entire plaza had just disappeared, leaving in its place deep cavernous pit.

They then saw something coming upwards out of the depths. Thinking it was one of Sombra's foul devices they stooped down into a combat stance as they prepared themselves to fight whatever the dark king had planned for them. But instead of a weapon or monster or some other foul instrument of their destruction, what they saw instead was a massive round platform that took up almost the entire perimeter of where the plaza had once been. It was crystalline in appearance, with at least several smaller round platforms placed around its perimeter. There was also a very familiar lavender pony standing on it as well.

"Twilight!" Pinkie shouted with barely constrained exuberance as she practically leaped the distance to meet their until now missing friend. Twilight Sparkle had absolutely no time to prepare herself for the impact, as she was still recovering from whatever ordeal she had just been through, and could nothing to stop the pink mare from plowing into her and giving her a neck crushing hug.

"Ack! Pinkie! Can't. . . breathe!" Twilight wheezed through the embrace. Despite this Pinkie continued to hug her until Rainbow and Applejack approached them. When she was free Twilight sucked in great breaths to make up for the lack of oxygen.

"There ya are Twi! Where have ya been? We've been worried sick about ya!" Applejack said while Rainbow nodded in agreement. Twilight took an extra moment to catch her breath before sh addressed them.

"Sorry girls," she apologized. "But I've been having a little trouble. I haven't found the Crystal Heart yet though. I just hope that nothing bad has happened while I. . . was. . ." Twilight faltered when she saw the huge smoky form of Sombra looming overhead like a storm front. He growled and snarled in an otherworldly voice that filled her every thought with visions of dread and terror.

"Yeah, you missed a bunch. Want me to fill you in?" Rainbow said.

Twilight shook her head and replied, "No, I think I can guess pretty accurately what happened here."

Looking down at the large platform they were standing on, Pinkie asked, "What did you find Twilight? Some sort of flat disco ball? Cause that's what it looks like to me anyway."

Twilight was snapped out of her wide eyed trance as she turned to address the pink mare, who was currently inspecting the surface of the large dais. Even though it appeared to have been polished to a perfectly smooth sheen, it had a faceted design not unlike a gem. "I don't know," she admitted. "I just found this thing while I was looking for the Crystal Heart. All I did was feed it a little bit of magic, it started shaking, and the next thing I know I'm getting strangled."

Twilight put a hoof to her chin, contemplating theories on what the structure might be for, when her thoughts were interrupted by Sombra's howls of rage and vengeance as he tore apart the Crystal Empire. Crystal ponies fled before him, and Twilight thought she could hear Rarity's voice as she directed them to safety.

"Can we talk about this later? 'Cause right now we gotta stall this guy for everypony to get somewhere safe." Rainbow Dash suggested.

"But where can they go?" Twilight asked. "There's nowhere in the Empire that they can stay away from him for long. And it's too risky to make a run for the train."

"Well What do ya suggest we do then Twi?!" Applejack demanded, growing uncharacteristically aggressive towards the the unicorn. "'Cause right now that's all we got until we think of somethin' else! If you have any better ideas, Ah would love ta hear 'em."

Applejack waited for a moment for Twilight to come up with an answer, but the unicorn could not come up with anything. Without the Crystal Heart, they were virtually defenseless against Sombra, and without the crystal ponies to power it, it was useless to them anyway even if they had it. Twilight realized, right then and there, that there was no more hope left for them. There was no way they could succeed now.

Twilight stuttered, unable to give any sort of rebuttal to Applejack, and she sat on her haunches as her gaze drifted off into the distance.

"I. . . I don't. . ." she said, before she clenched her eyes shut and let her head sag to the surface of the dais. Pinkie was about to offer a consoling hug to the unicorn, when Twilight's head suddenly shot up. She opened her eyes, and all three ponies were taken by surprise when they saw that had shifted from their normal violet coloration to that of a familiar acidic green.

"No," Twilight said as she narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth. Her friends, unsure what was going on, instinctively backed away from her.

"Uh, Twi? Are you alright?" Rainbow asked in a concerned voice. "'Cause you don't look alright to me."

Twilight seemed to ignore them however as she slowly stood up again, with all of her attention focused solely on Sombra.

"No," she said again, and this time there was a hint of a deep throaty growl in the word. "I cannot allow it. I will not allow it," Twilight whispered as her horn lit up, though it was not the comforting magenta that her friends were familiar with. Instead, it was a dark gray, almost black as sparks of bright green flared around it. She then began to stalk towards the dark king with her shoulders hunched in an almost predatory stance. Despite their concern, everypony felt the need to move out of her path as she walked past them.

"This is not how it is supposed to be," Twilight hissed through clenched teeth. "We were not supposed to fail. I was not supposed to fail!"

Twilight was shouting now, and her friends concern for her finally outgrew their intimidation as they began to rush towards her, intending to hold her down long enough for her to snap out of whatever trance she was in. The moment they lunged toward her however they were surprised to find that they were being repelled by some sort of shield she had conjured up around herself.

"What the hay?! Twilight what are doing?!" Rainbow demanded as she rubbed her now sore nose with a wing. Aplejack was similarly affected while Pinkie remained plastered against the surface of the shield like a sticker. Twilight continued to ignore their shouts however as she continued to stalk towards the king, a venomous scowl on her face and murder in her eyes. It was something that none of her friends had seen before, and it was making them afraid.

Then abruptly, Twilight came to a stop, and her friends though they had finally gotten through to her. That hope was immediately dashed when she reared up onto her back legs before bringing her front hooves down to the ground, cracking the pavement.

"SOMBRA!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice laced with unmistakable rage.

The shout carried out across the Empire, causing everypony to stop what they were doing and look to see what was going on. Even the subject of her wrath had paused in his destruction before his shadowy form turned to see who would be so impudent as to speak to him this way. When his smoldering eyes spotted the source of the shout, he narrowed them at the little purple unicorn.

Twilight returned the glare with one of her own, not once wavering under Sombra's gaze.

Her friends could only look on with a mixture of surprise and terror at what was happening to their friend, and what was probably going to happen if they did not snap her out of whatever was going on with her. Before they could say anything, Pinkie Pie's entire body suddenly began to shiver erratically, as though she and suddenly been hit with a severe case of the shivers.

Applejack and Rainbow noticed the action, and they glanced at each other with worried understanding.

"Whoa! Okay, that was something!" Pinkie exclaimed as she checked herself over.

"Uh, Pinkie? was that your. . . you know, your Pinkie Sense acting up just now?" Rainbow questioned, hoping sincerely she was wrong.

Before Pinkie could do so much as raise a hoof to reply, she was cut off when another deep rumble shook the earth beneath their hooves. Then all at once the every one of the platforms on the dais suddenly lit up in a blinding white light. The flash they emitted reached up towards the heavens above before stopping at a single point a hundred feet in the air. There the light seemed to gather and collect until, just as quickly as it had started, it stopped.

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak. "Uh, Wha-"

But that was as far she got before a deafening explosion ripped through the sky.

Comments

[Crescent Glaive]

You have mastered the use of cliffhangers, Dilos1

Curses.....

[DeathlyWarrior666]

Wild balance,Indeed,Indeed

[Pinklestia]

Well, this is going to be fun.

[Flutters Is Shy]

Su-ga-lite. Su-ga-LITE. SU-GA-LITE. SU-GA-LITE!