//------------------------------//
// Return of the King 
// Story: A Different Bridal Path 
// by Stainless Steel Fox 
//------------------------------//

Twilight descended from on high, swooping downwards with 'the Crystal Heart' held in her telekinetic grip. Thorax played his part by channeling energy from the real Crystal Heart to make his altered form shine like a star. The crystal dragonfly wings that supported her made movement nothing more than an effort of will, and far less of an effort than self-levitation. She aimed for the steps in front of the plaza, on the avenue that had the most stalls. 

She could see the crystal ponies more clearly now, more and more of them were being restored as they moved around and remembered their roots. They sparked into life like stars in Luna's sky, shining as they threw off Sombra's legacy of fear induced amnesia. Though it wasn't all one way, as the weather shield flickered and flared again, a few of the crystal ponies furthest away from the central plaza looked outwards towards the failing dome and their inner glow died as they cringed from the black clouds massing beyond. She clearly had no time to loose.

When she landed on the steps, it was as if a wave flowed out from her, every-pony who was not already restored raising their heads to look in wonder at the giant gem held in her magic, and shake off the fear Sombra had sown. Twilight added a minor voice amplification spell to her throat, and spoke to them.

"Ponies of the Crystal Empire! My friend and I promised that if you provided a Crystal Fayre, we would provide the Crystal Heart as a centrepiece. We faced Sombra's deceptions and traps and overcame them. We found the resting place of the Crystal Heart, where Sombra had sealed it away, and now I bring you the proof of our discovery!"

She held up Thorax's disguised form, and with perfect timing he flared the aura surrounding him. Twilight could feel the power of the real Crystal Heart, flowing out through him and over the ponies surrounding them. 'Now the tricky bit.' she projected to him.

'Don't worry, I've got this!' he thought back. 'I may not be as good at crystal magic as you are, but I can sustain a levitation effect, especially with the Heart backing me.'

'That's not the bit I'm worried about!' she replied, releasing her telekinetic hold. Thorax floated over to the centre of the plaza, and as he reached the middle of the snowflake inlaid in it's central point, a spike of clear white crystal sprung up from below and a second speared down from above, framing his form. Twilight spoke to the assembled ponies again, choosing her words carefully to stick to the spirit of the truth, if not the letter.

"The Crystal Heart is yours once more! Now use the joy and love within you to empower it and protect your kingdom!"

With joyful smiles, the Crystal ponies bowed their heads, taking on a translucent quality that also seemed to give every mare a fancy mane style. Around each one the crystal pavement glowed, expanding circles of light that came together and flooded the surface of the central plaza, and flowing out to light up the boulevards right to the edge of the Empire. Twilight found her own body taking on a similar crystalline appearance, and her hair taking on a fancy new style. 

But the biggest change was with Thorax, as his Crystal Heart form started to spin more and more rapidly. She could feel both the strain and exhilaration as he absorbed the emotional energy the ponies were feeding into him and passed it on to the real Heart. She did nothing but observe, she had no desire to jog his metaphorical elbow when it was clear it was taking everything he had just to maintain a stable flow, but she allowed her own approval and encouragement to flow over their mental link, supporting him as best she could.

Finally from the peak of the central tower, a spherical shell of brilliant white light expanded out, engulfing the ponies beneath and enlarging to merge with the existing barrier that marked the Empire's boundaries. There was a distant roar, but it was a roar of rage and frustration, not a roar of triumph. One or two of the ponies looked worried at the sound, but most of them were too deep in the euphoria of having the Crystal Heart returned to pay much attention.

Thorax's spin reduced to a slower speed, and she finally felt it safe to communicate. 'Thorax! Are you okay?'

'Uuugh! Dizzy!' was the reply. 'Feeling kind of bloated too.'

'Don't worry, the real Crystal Heart should be free now, so I'll fetch it and perform a switch as soon as possible.' As Twilight thought this, she noticed the aged librarian approaching her.

The old mare bowed her head deeply. "Crystal Mage, on behalf of every-pony here, I thank you for your courageous deeds. May we know your name, milady?"

Twilight was slightly embarrassed, and pawed the ground with a hoof, but said more quietly, "I am Twilight Sparkle, and there's no need for formality, I just did what needed doing."

If the Crystal ponies heard the last part, they didn't seem to take notice. Several of them called out, "All hail Lady Twilight Sparkle, the brave and glorious!" and there was a general cheer and a fanfare of flugelhorns.

"What about your companion?" the librarian asked. "I remember you had an earth-pony with you... I remember everything now!"

Twilight decided that if there was credit due, she was going to spread it around. Once again she chose her words carefully. "My friend Thorax was with me every step of the way. I couldn't have done it without him. He was caught by one of Sombra's traps; he's safe, but he couldn't be here beside me."

There was a cry of, "All hail Sir Thorax the brave and glorious!" and another flugelhorn fanfare. Thorax was apparently aware of it, as she felt his emotions over the link. She was surprised the Crystal Heart didn't glow pink, or whatever colour changelings blushed. Of course, in his case the positive emotions directed at him were like the finest wine.

Over the sound of celebrations, Twilight heard another distant roar of anger. She turned to the librarian. "What is your name?"

"Amethyst Maresbury, milady."

"No need for miladies, if you remember everything, Miss Maresbury you know that my job isn't complete yet. King Sombra was turned to a dark shadow and bound in the arctic ice by the Diarchs of Equestria, but he wasn't completely destroyed. Like this empire, he as been sealed away for a thousand years, and now it has returned, he is free, greatly weakened, but he still exists."

The nearest crystal ponies heard this, and cringed in fear, their ears going flat. Amethyst was among them, "Sombra's alive?"

The words spread, and more of the ponies started looking fearful. Twilight stepped forward and raised her voice amplification back to maximum. "Fear not, whatever happens, you are safe! He is trapped outside the border of the Empire, and he can no longer approach the Heart without being destroyed. But to ensure he does no further harm, I must go out there to face him."

There were several cries of "No!", "Don't go!" and similar exclamations. One of the mares who'd been eating porridge when Twilight had first met her approached, holding a paper cone of deep fried fritters in one hoof. "Please, don't risk yourself! Not even Princess Amore could face him and win. Stay here, stay safe, and have a fritter."

Twilight took one of the fritters, and took a bite. It was hot, still fresh from the fryer with a crispy doughnut style batter around a sweet crystal berry paste core. She swallowed and spoke. "I can't do that. Well, the fritter, yes, but Sombra must be stopped once and for all."

She shucked off her saddlebags, folding her crystal wings back to ensure the straps didn't tangle as they slid off her withers. "Miss Maresbury, would you look after my bags until I get back?"

She finished the fritter and turned to the crowd. "If Sombra can't get in here, he may slink away to try and find some other way of regaining his strength. He could end up among the caribou, or  the yaks or even one of the pony settlements in the Yaket range. Who knows how much damage he could do before he gets defeated? No, he needs to be stopped here, while he's still weakened from his long imprisonment. And there's another reason. Neither the Princess or the Crystal mages had access to the power of the Crystal Heart when they faced him. But if I have the power of the Heart to call upon, I'll have the advantage over him."

She thought to Thorax, 'I can't see a way to swap you for the real Heart right now. Do you think you can handle another power surge?'

'I'll manage. Maybe I can't fight by your side, but I can make sure you have the power to call on.' She could feel his support and determination to succeed over their link, and a taste of the magical energy from the Heart.

She called out to the crowd, remembering what she could the many inspiring speeches she'd read. "Will you grant me this boon? I need you all to once again fill the Crystal Heart with your positive feelings to generate the magic for me to call on. Remember your long and storied history. Remember the power you wield, greater than any one pony, even an alicorn! Believe that Sombra can be defeated and together we can make it so!"

She sprang into the air and flourished her dragonfly wings theatrically, and the flow of magical energy from the Heart via Thorax outlined her with an aura that matched his. The Crystal ponies cheered, some calling out her name, while others were already dipping their heads to once again charge the Heart. Wasting no time, she soared off towards the barrier, in the direction which had been most filled with dark, swirling clouds before it had been restored, and from which a quickly cast detection spell showed umbral magic was most concentrated. It was almost a third of the way around the city from their original entry point.

'Now to see if those tactics we came up with will actually work.' she thought. It was odd, despite the fact that this was a most dangerous foe, she didn't really feel scared, and not just because of Thorax's quiet support coming over the link. She didn't even feel the rage she had when she'd attacked Chrysalis, though she had ample evidence that his crimes were as vile as any villain in history. She simply felt a quiet determination that he must be ended, whatever the cost to herself.

This was it, the day she'd keep the vow she'd made to when she'd found to her surprise that she'd survived the explosion at the wedding. She would find redemption for her past failures and mistakes by saving this land and these ponies. Though it was ironic. As she'd said in the throes of Sombra's nightmare trap, she'd never meant to kill Chrysalis and part of what she wished to redeem was the guilt of her death, though that had lessened slightly when she'd discovered exactly what Chrysalis had planned to do if she had succeeded. 

Yet here she was, planning to kill another being as part of her atonement, if you could call something that was half shadow and half magic alive in the first place. As she approached the barrier, she felt the magic of the Crystal Heart start to flow down the link from Thorax in earnest, and threw up a skin tight sheath of crystal magic infused force over her body, a barrier jacket, armouring herself for the battle to come. She prepared her spells and plunged through the barrier and out into the storm that raged beyond.

&&&

The seven ponies and one dragon looked out of the train windows at the unprepossessing view of the coaling depot. It was little more than a platform, a shed with a gantry that supported an heavily insulated water hose, and a sturdy shack that was lit warmly from within. The whole thing was half obscured by driven snow, sweeping across the platform and making things beyond the station merge into a featureless white sheet.

Shining Armour pointed to the hut. "Right then. The scout team from Rainbow Falls should already be here. Let's get across to the station house and rendezvous with them. And every-pony, put on a pair of snow goggles. The weather's going wreck visibility enough without snow blindness."

His horn glowed and sets of goggles with narrow slits for eyepieces were retrieved from one of the cases on the train. Rarity's horn also glowed and elegant scarves rose up from a neat stack to distribute themselves to the others. Each one was coloured to complement the pony in question, and had their cutie-mark knitted into the wool. 

"That's a nice thought Rarity, but I reckon we're going to need more than just scarves to get through that lot." Applejack stated.

Rarity smiled. "That's why I wove a weather protection spell into them. They'll protect you from the worst of the wind and cold, for a few hours at least."

"Neat! I didn't know you could do that!" exclaimed Pinkie, scooping her scarf out of the air and spinning on the spot. When she stopped, the scarf was neatly wrapped around her neck and the snow goggles were on her forehead. "Ohhh! Fancy!"

"I took a leaf out of Twilight's book, and had Spike help me look up a few useful spells we might need. After helping her for so long, he knew exactly where to look." Unspoken was the additional reason that she'd been keeping him occupied ever since the wedding to help him work through his grief. She looked over at the small dragon, who was trying to lift a large stack of luggage. "Spike dear, no need to carry all that, I can manage some of it."

Her horn glowed, and a couple of the cases on top floated off the stack and onto her back.It was typical of their new dynamic. Rarity had effectively taken over Spike's care, and now treated him more like a companion than an assistant. 

"It's okay, I can manage it!" Spike called out, hefting the remaining cases.

"But you shouldn't have to, not by yourself." 

Shining Armour had already moved to the door and swung it open. It caught the wind and slammed back against the carriage, letting in 
a blast of icy air. Rainbow dashed out, and had to spread her wings like spoilers to keep steady. Her scarf fluttered in the wind as she made her way across the platform. Her words barely reached the others as they were snatched away by the wind. "Whoa! When they make a snowstorm up here, they don't mess about!"

The others followed across the platform more carefully, except for Pinkie Pie, who pronked as usual. Shining Armour shielded Cadence with his body, while Applejack assisted Fluttershy, and Rarity, horn glowing, helped stabilise the luggage Spike carried.

Inside the hut was a spartan but neat office, a roaring fire blazing in the iron bellied stove in one corner. Resting on the various chairs and benches set around it were a group of four pegasi in Royal Guard winter uniforms, the three privates playing a card game. The senior guard, a sergeant, sprung to his hooves when Shining Armour entered and saluted, followed quickly by the other pegasi. "Captain Armour! Skystorm squad, Rainbow Falls Guard Command, reporting for duty, sir!"

Shining returned the salutes. "At ease Sergeant... Windwarper? Your patrol was the one that sighted the anomaly?"

The sergeant was a burly pegasus stallion with a bushy mustache that the built in disguise enchantment on his armour had turned the same blue colour as it did his mane and tail. He spoke with an accent heavily leaning towards that of the Shetlands region of the Griffish isles.

"Yessir! We were performing a routine patrol of the rail line, when the sky to the north blazed with a golden glow. As per standing orders, we turned to investigate. Approximately three miles north of this position, we sighted what looked to be structures, under a dome of fading light. As we approached to confirm our observations we were driven back by a snowstorm that blew up out of nowhere. It was uncanny sir, I've seen everything the feral weather this far north can throw at a pony, but nothing like this, sir!"

Shining Armour nodded. "And the current storm?"

"Much the same, sir. It didn't start seriously blowing until we got close to the coaling station. But for the last half mile we had to land and follow the tracks. No pegasus could fly through this muck."

"I could!" Rainbow Dash called out brashly, then paused when every-pony looked at her. "Well I could, but the sarge is right about the other thing. Visibility in this storm is hoof in front of your face. With no reference points you could end up flying in circles and never know it. But ground pounding won't be much better, once you're away from the railway tracks, there's no way to tell which way we're going."

"Could you clear it?" Shining asked.

Dash shook her head. "I may be awesome, but even I'm not that awesome! This would be an all-wings job for Ponyville or even Cloudsdale. Besides, this storm has my pinion feathers itching, it's all kinds of freaky. Sarge is right about that too."

"Sergeant Windwarper or sergeant if you please, Miss Dash." The sergeant requested.

"Okay... Sorry if I ruffled your feathers... Hey, you know me?" Dash preened.

The sergeant stood to attention. "Yes ma'am. All guard personnel have been notified of the identities of the Elements of Harmony, to facilitate rapid response in an emergency situation. Of course most of us have seen Princess Cadence and Master Spike around the palace while on rotation there."

"Good, then we don't need to waste time with introductions." Shining Armour's horn lit, and he drew a relief map of the area around the coaling depot. He also withdrew a couple of other items, a pen and ink pot, a compass, and a flat square of blue crystal about the size of his hoof. He placed the map on the office desk and used the compass to align the map to north and said, " Sergeant, if you can indicate the location of the city as best you can?"

While the sergeant marked the map with the quill, Shining placed the blue crystal on the desk and fed magic into it with his horn. The surface lit up with circles of runes, a line of dashes formed part of a circle inside it, and a glowing arrow appeared in the centre, pointing more or less north. Shining checked the direction of the arrow against the map and gave an approving snort. "Right, that seems to match."

"Beggin' your pardon, Captain, but what's that doohickey?" Applejack looked over the map curiously.

"A directional thaumometer. I borrowed one from Celestia's school. It detects the direction and strength of the most powerful magic source. I suspected that the appearance of the city would have generated a large magical energy spike and it seems to have persisted. It will allow us to home in on the location even in this storm. However, we have another means of confirmation. Rarity?"

"I assume you want me to use my gem finding spell?" The white unicorn asked, lighting her horn. "Let's see... Oh my!"

She trotted over to the map and glanced at it. "I feel a concentration of gemstone, and a vast concentration at that, in the direction you have on the map."

"Excellent!" Shining picked up the thaumometer in a hoof and withdrew a lanyard from his saddlebags with his magic then attached it. As he placed the device around his neck over the scarf Rarity had made, he gave further orders. "We'll all need to stay close together, as Rainbow said, our visibility is pretty much zero. We'll form a line of pairs, I'll take point, the sergeant and Cadence after me, Rarity, I'll want you at the rear, as you are the only other pony who can detect the place and guide the others. Everyone choose a buddy. Do not let them out of your sight!"

The party shook down into pairs, Rarity decided to carry Spike on the saddle between her hoof-stitched designer saddlebags, so she ended up walking alongside one of the privates. Applejack and Rainbow Dash teamed up, as did Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The other pair of privates took position mid way along the line, ready to move to protect the Element Bearers.

Cadence spoke for the first time, drawing a small, ornate chest from her saddlebags. "Every-pony, please put on your Elements." 

She opened the chest to reveal the necklaces which the five remaining Bearers took, putting them on under their scarves. She picked out the diadem of magic and held it by her own head. "I know I'm not Twilight, but I hope you'll accept me as a substitute. If the Elements are needed, some-pony must guide the power."

"You're right, you ain't Twilight." Applejack said. "But I reckon we've gotten to know you well enough these last few weeks to count you as a friend."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, besides Twilight was all kinds of excited when she knew it was you marrying her brother. I guess she'd want you to have it if anyone has to."    

"Ohhh! Maybe it will work to super-amplify your Princess powers!" Pinkie exclaimed. 

Rarity and Fluttershy said nothing but both gave nods of agreement. Seeing that, Cadence lowered the diadem onto her head.

"Right every-pony! Goggles on. Let's move!" Matching actions to words, Shining Armour took the lead out of the shack, then lifted the thaumometer up on a hoof and noted the direction before moving forward into the storm, the rest of the group hard on his heels. 

&&&

Twilight emerged into the biting cold and swirling snow, and despite her jacket of force, she still felt a chill, both physical and spiritual. There, to her left where there was a peculiar lull in the storm, a far more sinister miasma billowed and gyred, a black cloud the size of a house who's motions ignored the wind. Tendrils of inky black cloud extruded from the mass to brush against the barrier, only to be repulsed. She no longer needed an active spell to detect the roiling umbral magic within the darkness, it pressed on her senses like a foul blot on the world.

She wondered how long it would take Sombra to notice her, and quickly had her answer. The cloud swirled and flowed round, glowing green eyes appearing from within and focusing on her. Would Sombra attack right away, or would he try and intimidate her to generate some fear? With the Crystal ponies free of his spell and the Heart shutting off all access to them, he  had no other source to replenish his powers.

"Ssso, a Crysstal Mage comes to face me? No, a foolisssh unicorn apprentice playing pretend." The voice was deep and sibilant, coming from all sides as the cloud billowed and loomed over her.

Twilight felt the beginnings of an unnatural terror forming deep inside her, but she was ready for it, and quickly used the positive energy flowing through her to quell it. Time to make her first strike, Pinkie Pie style. "Y'know, you really should have that sssspeech impediment looked at."

Normally she wouldn't make fun of another pony like that, but when it was a shadow of an evil dictator who enslaved ponies, she felt she could make an exception. It certainly managed to aggravate Sombra.

"Harrr! Do you even know who I am?"

"Um... Black Snootie? Evil Dark Cloudy McCloudface? Oh, oh, I know! A cumulo-nimbus cloud in a bad mood!"

The idea was to taunt him into acting rashly rather than using his superior tactical skill and intelligence to it's fullest. It seemed to be working as the eyes flared and the darkness expanded even further. Hopefully he couldn't feed on his own rage, that shouldn't even be possible.

"I AM SOMBRA! KING OF MONSTERSSS! RULER OF THE CRYSSSTAL EMPIRE! I WILL DESSSTROY YOU AND USE YOUR LIFE-FORCE TO BREAK THE BARRIER AND RECLAIM MY THRONE!"

Under other circumstances, Twilight would have been terrified. As it was, she was too busy unleasing the full power over her own considerable snark combined with that of Queen Chrysalis. "Was. Past tense. You'll get used to it. The Princesses destroyed most of your strength, and since you can no longer feed on the Crystal ponies, you've got to be feeling pretty feeble, for all your roaring and bluster."

"I WILL SHOW YOU MY TRUE SSSTRENGTH!" Sombra roared and the cloud swept forward. 

"That's what I just said." She threw a narrow beam of crystal magic infused coherent light at Sombra, only for him to split apart and let it pass through his shadowy substance harmlessly. An evil, roaring laugh bellowed from within the cloud as he descended upon her, sure her futile efforts made her no more of a threat than of the many other crystal mages he'd defeated.

Which was exactly as planned. Twilight drew on the fountain of crystal magic pouring into her via Thorax and infused her force jacket with it. As he engulfed her, she released the bindings that gave it shape and blasted it outwards in a sphere, driving back the inky mist, and blasting it into nothingness where it could not move away fast enough. The roar of laughter became a howl of pain as Sombra felt his body being consumed. 

He regrouped, condensing enough to materialise his head and horn, and sprayed Twilight with a wave of razor sharp, umbrally tainted, shards of deep purple crystal. She established another shield, condensing it to take the blow, even as she aileron rolled out of the way of the heart of the burst. Twilight drew on memories of watching Rainbow perform to guide her own evasions, the magic of her dragonfly wings turning thought into action without the inconvenience of muscle memory or physical exertion.

She threw another attack spell as she pulled out of her manoeuvre, a ball of crystal magic infused energy that homed in on the self proclaimed King of Monsters' head. He once again split to evade it, only to have the seeker sphere shatter into dozens of smaller balls of energy. They flew in all directions, plunging into his shadow mist form and exploding, shredding and destroying more of his substance. Even as he gave voice to his fury he was reforming and fighting back. This time his glowing crimson horn shot back a beam, more a torrent of dark magic, which he swung and guided like the beam of a searchlight.

Twilight ducked as it blasted over her head and dived down as it swung down after her. This was exactly what she and Garnet Nib had hoped to do, get him to expend his energy recklessly while he had no way to recharge and she had the Crystal Heart replenishing her. But she had to be careful, even in a rage he was a cunning and ruthless opponent. His energy beam split, forming a barrier of lines that drove her further down as they descended. He was driving her towards the floor, but why...

She remembered what had happened to Chrysalis in the nightmare and almost happened to Thorax; she threw herself into a wild side spin a fraction of a second before a jagged spike of black crystal punched up from the ground right where her belly would have been if she'd continued straight down. As it was, it speared one of her crystal dragonfly wings and shattered it, and also flung her sideways to plough into the snowy ground. Her shield took the brunt of both impacts, but she was still shaken, and she felt the flow of energy from Thorax diminish.

He sent her not so much a message as a gestalt image thet explained why. It seemed the link worked both ways. By virtue of their connection to the Crystal Heart, though the Crystal ponies could not see her fight with Sombra, they could feel it, and the turning of the battle against her had caused some of them to lose some of their belief in her victory. The drop in power only lasted for a moment before it returned full flow, but it 'tasted' different. From their rapport, she realised that Thorax was now feeding his own stored power into the connection to make up the loss.

She couldn't afford to turtle, or let his gift go to waste, she had to regain the upper hoof and fast. Fortunately, two could play games with crystals. Even as she planned, she rolled sideways, evading the black crystal spikes as they trailed after her and sprung up as she drew on the connection to cast a spell into the ground below. She rose up on a column of clear white crystal, blocking Sombras black ones, while projections rose up around her like support columns which merged into a roof. It deflected the spread out beams of his fading blast attack, giving her room to act. As a keen astronomer, she understood optics, and it was optics that would make this particular attack work.

While the first pillar rose, a second spire shot up into the heart of Sombras darkness. Before he could corrupt it, she threw a powerful directed light spell down into the heart of the crystal pillar she stood on, using it as a carrier for all the crystal magic she could absorb. Internal facets guided and concentrated it into a tight beam that was reflected and shot out at the bottom and across into the other spire. The spire glowed as the light was caught and directed back upwards into Sombras core, and emerged from dozens of facets at the peak as sweeping beams of crystal magic infused light which evaporated more of Sombras shadow form. 

Even as Sombra reared back his head in agony, she felt the flow of energy from the Crystal Heart swell back to full power and beyond its previous limit. She recast the dragonfly wings spell even as she called out. "You see Sombra? This Crystal Mage is quite capable of defeating you once and for all!"

She reinforced her force jacket  with more crystal magic and spread her wings, glowing like a beacon inside the crystal tower she'd formed. The snowstorm around them was dying as the positive energy released by her spells drove away the Windigo influences that amplified it. Sombra was barely half his previous bulk, and even seemed to flinch away from her light. She dismissed the pillars in front of her and shot forward to strike once more, ready for any attack he could muster.

But he didn't attack, his form shrank in on itself and fled, flying away at a speed she was hard pressed to match. Clearly he had no stomach (or whatever equivalent his shadow form used) for a losing battle and had decided to engage in a tactical withdrawal, or in other words running away. It made sense, he must have realised that she was channeling the power of the Crystal Heart and wanted to either escape to go lick his wounds and recover, or draw her far enough away that he connection would be weakened and he could face her on more even terms. Neither result was acceptable.

She swept after him, her wings buzzing, forcing her way through the dying storm with a cone shaped corona of crystal energy piercing the air. She shot off a sweeping blast of magic, slicing across his fleeing form and shredding more of him, but he quickly evaded before she could do significant damage. An attempt to grab him with telekinesis was equally futile, his form turning insubstantial and simply flowing through her horn's grasp. He quickly outpaced her, sliding through the swirling, eddying wind currents that she had to punch through.

Her eyes were protected from the windblown snow by the shielding effect, but she had to blink as she thought she saw some spots of colour in the distance. She threw out one of Garnet Nib's best scrying spells and gasped at what she found. Her brother, leading Cadence, Spike, her friends and a group of royal guards. Beyond them, not a hundred body-lengths further was a house, no, it was a coaling stop on a railway line, an Equestrian locomotive and royal train carriage parked right by it as the train-ponies went about loading with coal and water.

After a few seconds of stunned surprise, she realised what must have happened. Of course Princess Celestia would be watching out for the Crystal Empire, and Sombra, returning. It was equally clear that she'd send out an expedition to deal with the threat once it returned. Twilight would probably have been part of that group. It was a remarkable co-incidence that what must be the northern line to Rainbow Falls and the Griffon lands passed so close to the site of the Empire, or maybe not; it could have been Princess Celestia planning ahead to make sure there was a way to reach it quickly when the inevitable happened.

This was bad, very bad. She'd more or less driven Sombra onto them, and in a few seconds he would descend on them while they were unaware, both a potential source of fear and anger he could use to restore himself, and a source of hostages to keep her at bay. Who knew what he'd do to them? Worst of all, there was no way Twilight could stop him before he reached them!