//------------------------------// // Rey Sombra // Story: My Little Mages: The Siege of Krystalopolies // by Foxhelm //------------------------------// The train's whistle bellowed as it pulled into the Borealton station. But the whistle was barely heard over the blustering wind as snow fell to the ground. Rainbow Dash bolted out of the train first, her at the waist was a small quiver in it was her bow. Upon being hit by the sub-arctic wind she landed on the platform. “I thought we were in late spring,” the elementalist shivered, her teeth chattering, “thththisisis fefefeels lililike winwinwinter,” rubbing the exposed part of her arms in a near-futile attempt to keep warm as she was clearly underdressed for the weather. Most of her arms and a fair part of her legs were exposed. “The Crystal Mountains to the North and the Hyperborean Mountain to the east of here trap the weather fronts in this area and force whatever storms that develop from going elsewhere and thus the storms tend to linger,” Twilight informed, being the next to leave the train. Her dress was similar to her usual robes, but the sleeves were tighter around her arms and the legs were less baggy as they were tighter to the body to insulate her, all the while reading a book about Borealton and the surrounding area south of the Crystal Mountains held in her left hand and her staff in her right. “Did you know the garrison here is two hundred years older than the town?” Twilight commented as she marveled over what she read. Applejack was next to exit the train. Under the paladin’s armor was a padded leather coat, in addition to her red shirt, that covered more of her arms, her pants were thicker than normal to better insulate them against the cold. Her boots went up to her knees and were flatter so better tread through the snow. At the paladin’s left side was her sword in its scabbard, a red delicious apple-shaped gem in the blade’s hilt. Fluttershy was next, she wore a thick jacket colored a deep yellow, a light green hood, with daisy yellow colored mittens, and a pair of light blue snow boots. Her oaken staff had a forest green lantern fixture almost seemed out of place with its light pink light which matched the druid’s hair. The ever happy pick-clad jester, Pinkie Pie was next to disembark from the train skipping all the way. She had a cotton candy pink coat and pants, in contrast to her usually bare legs over her leotard. She also had earmuffs and a pair of pink gloves, both of which were quite fluffy and matching her persistent aesthetic. Her jester’s hat seemed to be following a winter theme as well, right down to the images of classic winter items embroidered all about it, in lieu of the typical three balloons. Rarity was next to exit the train, the ever elegant enchantress wore a long alabaster fur coat, with a pair of deep purple earmuffs, an ivory colored winter hat, and milk colored gloves. Underneath the hat was her iconic tiara embedded with her focusing sapphires, “Well it's a good thing most of us packed, I think I have a spare coat. But it would neither complement or appropriately contrast with you.” Spike was the last to exit, adorning a winter jacket that was so oversized for him it made him look like some kind of large toy one of the girls had purchased at a store somewhere, and he huffed out a small fire to warm the air, “I know that as a dragon, I have a fire inside of me, but we don't live this far north.” Also thankful his choice of attire was fireproofed. “Well, given that you don’t have wings, you might actually be a drake,” came a familiar gentle baritone. The seven turned to see Shining Armor dressed as in fur and feather-insulated coat usually reserved for the harsh dead of winter. He also wore a gray scarf and had a pair of snow goggles, a type of eyewear with two small slits that would allow him to see by limiting the light that would hit his eyes when the sun was high on the white snow in addition to making it possible to see if he were to ever be caught in a snowstorm. Twilight ran up to him and embraced him, “Shining! It's so good to see you. You should have told me when your honeymoon ended.” Twilight pouted at her brother for having left her out of his life again. Shining gave a chuckle, “Sorry, Twily, but we just got back to Chantalot when Princess Celestia had us directed here. We literally just got off the train.” Shining rubbed his sister’s head affectionately, even though Twilight puffed out her cheeks all the while. That action earned a few laughs from the other six. “Glad you made it.” He turned to the north while the train left the station heading back south at full speed. “We’ve got to move. Krystopolies is not the only thing that returned.” Shining then started away from the station. “Now!” He ordered looking back to see that the others were not following him. The seven then started to walk at a fast pace and they all started to follow Shining, well for five of them as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash elected to fly. Shining, however, quickly took the lead, all the while he continued to look around, listening as best he could for any sound other than the howling winds. Fluttershy flew up to him, “What else returned?” she asked as terror grip her voice. Before he answered, Shining made another scan for any threat to the group, he looked at Fluttershy and the horror of what he had come across was written on his face. “The evil king, Sombra. He’s been desperately trying to get in. Thus far we have been able to keep him out.” Shining answered as he continued to search for something, something like a shadow just on the edge of the world. Twilight was confused “But Princess Celestia sent me here to find a way to protect the city,” catching up with Shining and Fluttershy, “If King Sombra can't get in, then it must already be protected, right?” Soon they all heard a very distinctive howl, it was extremely guttural,...in fact, no one knew what to compare it too, it sounded so foreign, they all question that it was a howl. Shining froze upon hearing it, the others could tell that something wicked was heading their way. Fluttershy gasped, “Wa-was th-that him?” Shining didn’t answer. Instead, as he turned around and there was a large thick black cloud that started to encircle them. “It’s Sombra! Run! Get to Krystalopolies! Now! Go! Go! Go!” Shining shouted trying to get the group to go ahead of him as he kneeled on the ground, his spear at the ready and muttering something as if he was casting a spell he had great difficulty with. Rainbow Dash just laughed while she took her bow off her belt and readied it and aimed. “Oh please, one light arrow and this is thing will be gone.” Rainbow fired and the arrow dissolved in the black mist of Sombra and had no effect on the black cloud. A smoke-like tentacle came out of the cloud and managed to grab hold of the elementalist’s right arm, “What the…” she started to ask but was cut short. The sound of her right arm snapping like a twig, silenced her for a second. For a second. Rainbow Dash bellowed in pain, unable to focus on anything but the loss of feeling her right arm below her elbow and the separation of the bone in her upper arm, she collapsed to the ground. As she tried to rejoin her group, tears of agony dripping from her eye as she cradled her damaged arm. Pinkie pulled out of her hair what looked like one of her toy mallets, but when it made contact with the ground it sounded like it weighed a ton. “Nobody hurts MY DASHIE!!!” Pinkie roared while she charged the black cloud. By the time the pink-clad trickster reached Sombra, he had changed his form to resemble a human, but stood well over seven feet and had formed from a crystalline red sword that matched his height. With one swing of the blade, Sombra sundered the mallet by cutting its head off. Upon seeing what befell her weapon, Pinkie gave a weak ‘taha’ before she dropped the remnants of her weapon and ran back to the group leaving a trail of melted snow and burnt grass. She passed everyone screaming, “Run for your lives!” once she reached the dome of light crystalline blue magic she remembered Dash was still in danger. She ran back passing everyone again and grabbed Rainbow Dash after splinting the arm at the speed of light. As she lifted Rainbow, holding her over her head, and started to run back to the dome, she felt her left thigh shatter. She shrieked and wailed as she fell forward as she lost all support in her left leg. She and Rainbow Dash looked and saw that Pinkie was hit with the decapitated head of Pinkie’s mallet as they saw it fairly close to them. Rainbow, using her left hand, reached into Pinkie’s hair and to find some of the same things Pinkie used to splint her right arm. She had to secure the leg as soon as possible, she knew, as an athlete, that an injury like that could destroy her typically bouncing friend if not secured and healed, and that’s not addressing the possible severing of the femoral artery. All the while, Sombra continued to walk towards the two. But they were not left to their own resources. Applejack ran faster than anyone drawing her sword and intercepted Sombra, stopping him from finishing off the crippled Pinkie and maimed Rainbow. Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike rushed to get Rainbow and Pinkie to safety and to tend to their respective splint and break. While Applejack could close the distance, the shade morphed again, a gray steel full plate armor forming around him, topped by a crown of the same gray steel with a ruby focus gem, shaped like a horn, like Twilight's own focusing crystal. On his shoulders, a red regal cape appeared, billowing immediately in the harsh winter wind. Sombra open his eyes, the whites were lime-green, the irises were blood red in color, the pupils were cat-like slits, and a purple smoke floated from the corners. However, that was not the thing that gave Applejack pause. No, it was his lipless, toothy mouth. “Ah’m gonna smite yah back to whatever hell yah came from!” she put all of her weight and force into the swing, the sword glowing a divine white. It seemed that this would end the threat once and for all…. Seemed. Sombra caught the blade effortlessly with his left hand. He looked down at the paladin a triumphant grin on his face as horror and terror froze Applejack in her place. Sombra then slashed her chest in an upward right diagonal motion cutting through her armor, clothes, and flesh. He then lifted her as she still clung to her sword and threw her with her blade at her friends. Narrowly, Applejack missed Rainbow’s arm and Pinkie’s leg. The girls all froze in terror at the power of the dark king. Spike ran up to avenge his friends, roaring, growling, hissing all the while. When he reached the towering shade, Spike exhaled capacious amounts of fire to roast Sombra only to be punt back into Twilight, knocking the arcane mage off her feet and forcing the whole of the group to be knocked to the ground. With Spike bested, Sombra advanced towards the seven to finish them off then and there. Yet, before he brought his sword down a crystalline blue force field appeared around the seven and stopped the tyrant’s sword mid-swing, “Go! Go! Go!” Shining all but roared as he walked to be in front of the others Shining’s spear in his right hand and lowered with its pointed at Sombra. Shining’s eyes glowed not the purple that his magic usually triggered, but a crystalline blue similar to that of Cadance, something not lost on Twilight. Twilight also noticed something off, Shining was straining as if he was casting a spell he either didn't know, had the training in, and/or had a component he normally never used before. Connecting two and two, Twilight concluded that Shining's spell was a using a copy of Cadance's spirit healer magic, something he had limited experience with, which she concluded was why it took him so long and why he ordered them to run in the first place. Rainbow managed to get up in the air, still clutching her arm, desperate to shield it. Rarity and Twilight helped Pinkie and Fluttershy assisted Applejack and they and Spike booked it as fast as they could towards a magical dome that matched the crystal blue color of Cadance’s magic. All the while Shining slowly walked backward, trying to keep as much distance between Sombra and the others as possible. But Sombra kept proceeding forward, forcing the shield bubble back. Shining’s shield spell held but Shining was forced back barely able to walk backward without tripping over himself. He then dropped the shield as he witnessed the girls and Spike pass into the dome of love and light that has thus far kept Sombra out. This resulted in the shade of King Sombra saying, “Commendable effort, boy.” With a pant to contain his wrath, “I am just getting warmed up, Sombrero.” Shining charged his taller enemy and gave a war cry as his eyes glowed purple along with the point of his spear. Shining then skewed the shade. Sombra, however, was unfazed by the assault. Chuckling as he let his sword drop to the snow, he took hold of Shining’s head and roared. Shining bellowed in response as Sombra morphed back into a black cloud. Twilight and the rest passed through the magical dome shield. “Everyone o…” Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie, whom she was helping Rarity support and Rainbow Dash as they gritted their teeth, she then turned to Applejack as Fluttershy was casting a cure wounds spell on the paladin’s chest. “Hehe, nevermind.” Twilight then looked around, “Where’s Shining?!” Just the Shining was thrown in, followed by his spear, which landed point down and so close to him it almost looked like it had tried to strike his right shoulder. As he got to his feet, Twilight saw that his focus gem and forehead were noticeably coated in dark crystals. Shining looked up and tried to cast a spell but the spell failed. “Oh, no! Shining Armor, your forehead!” Twilight shouted as she rushed over to Shining, a small frown forming on her face. “We’ve got to get your friends to the infirmary.” Shining pushed his sister with a slight gruff to the side to pick up Applejack, as the paladin seemed to drift in and out of consciousness. Just then a dozen of the Borealton garrison arrived. “Get them to the infirmary, tell Sandalwood we have a broken femur, broken arm and massive gash. Triple speed!” The soldiers took Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie and bolted as fast as they could. Shining, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike quickly met the pace. While she was carried, “Sparkleriffic!” Pinkie exclaimed before she shut her eyes and clung to her broken leg. Tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. About ten minutes later, they all arrived in the center of the city, as they all discarded their winter coats, Rarity was the most ecstatic at the sight of all the crystalline buildings, in particular, the castle. Unlike most buildings, it was particularly above the ground at almost twenty… no thirty feet. Supported in four corners with a set of four arches that supported a dome, with a staircase into the castle within each arch. “It's gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous!” Rarity started to mumble incoherently in a dumbfounded state over what she bore witness to, “There are no words!” “Focus, Rarity. We're here to help Twilight, not admire the scenery.” Applejack coughed while being carried on a stretcher like Rainbow and Pinkie. Pinkie’s broken foreleg was lifted up a surprising distance, all the way to the back of her knee, and she was now walking with a peg leg where her foot would usually touch the ground, complete with an eyepatch over left eye and bandana on her head. “Eh, I don't see what the big deal is. Just looks like another old castle to me.” Rainbow could not help but state, knowing how her friend would react. “A– p– guh!” Rarity’s mind could not compute what she heard from Rainbow Dash. “Another old...! Have you lost your mind?” Turning and spinning in the open bottom of the castle, “Look at the magni–” Upon hearing her two more tomboyish friends share a laugh, Rarity stopped and turned to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash share a fist bump, as Applejack used her right hand and Rainbow Dash used her left hand, as the two and Pinkie were taken to the infirmary. Rarity elected to let them have this joke and after some thought, she had a subdued chuckle, “Yes, it was very funny.” Turning to Fluttershy, “I will go with Twilight and Spike, I think it’s best that you go with Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie.” Fluttershy didn’t stay to respond as she flew behind the soldiers that carried their injured friends to the infirmary. Twilight, Spike, and Rarity followed Shining into the castle into the throne room. Unlike in Chantalot, there was only one throne and it was in the center of the ‘back’ wall. It was also significantly smaller and lacked the stained glass windows. In the throne was Cadance and from her tiara, a light blue light was being sent towards the sky. She looked as though she had not sleeps in days with her eyelids fluttering between being narrowly open and shut, under eyes were black rings and wrinkles. Twilight ran up to her sister-in-law, almost ecstatic to see her, “Cadance!” Barely awake Cadance got off the throne with some difficulty, “Ooh.” The two walked to each and meet about halfway through the hall, the two hugged and stepped back and covered their eyes, “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!” the two revealed their eyes and then started to clap each other’s hands, “Clap your hands and do a little shake!” as they turned to face the left wall and shook their hips. The two turned back to face each other, as Cadance’s hugged her younger sister-in-law, “One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Mystica isn't hanging in the balance.” she gave a tired sigh as she wearily walked back to the throne. Twilight walked with Cadance, followed by Rarity, Shining, and Spike, “Are you okay?” a slight frown on Twilight’s face seeing her sister-in-law seemed to struggle. Shining dashed to his wife and supported her as she took her seat on the throne, “Cadance has been able to use her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting the city.” Shining gesturing to the dome of crystalline blue light that kept Sombra out. Turning back to the current state of Cadance, “But she hasn't slept, barely eats.” Shining paused as he looked to Twilight and took a breath, “I want to help her, but my protection spells don’t affect Sombra.” To emphasize his point he tried to cast a spell only to see it fail, “And now with these magic draining crystals on me I don’t think I can even make a show of giving her support.” Cadance took her husband’s hand and tried to reassure him of her capabilities, “It's alright Shining Armor, I'm fine.” “She's not fine!” Shining took a calming breath, “She can't go on like this forever, and if her magic were to fade…” Shining turned his gaze to beyond the dome towards the tyrant lurking in the storm outside. “Well, you saw what's out there waiting for that to happen.” “That's why we're here.” Twilight placed her right hand on her brother’s shoulder in an attempt to assure him that everything will work out. “We haven't been able to gather much information from the Crystalborn.” Shining gave a sigh of frustration, “Despite the garrison’s best efforts while I am have been on patrol.” “Crystalborn?!” Rarity could help but giggle in delight. “Hahaha, there are Crystalborn?! I only read about them in fairy tales. I cannot believe that they actually… exist...” Seeing everyone look at her with a slight scowl, “Um, ahem. Please continue.” She grinned as many guilty people do in an attempt to appear innocent. Shining shook his head and took a breath, “But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the city.” “A research paper!” Twilight’s eyes dilated at the prospect of researching something. “Huh?” everyone else tilted their heads slightly baffled at Twilight’s action. Turning from the other she looked the ceiling as if she was experiencing an epiphany. “That must be part of my test – to gather information from the Crystalborn and deliver it to you!” She turned back to her still confused friends and family, “This is gonna be great! I love research papers! Don't worry, big brother. I am really good at this sort of thing.” Twilight then bolted out of the throne room followed by Rarity and Spike. Shining and Cadance shared worried looks, wondering just what Princess Celestia had said to Twilight before she arrived in the northern territory. Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were placed gently on three beds. “Marshall Armor wants you to tend to them triple speed, medic.” Getting the attention of an Earthborn man while his armor was like the other soldiers in coloration, his was made of leather and hide. He had green hair done in dreadlocks, another contrast to the shortcut of the others. “Relax, dude.” The man said as he walked over to the injured women. “RELAX!” Fluttershy bolted passed the other soldiers and looked the medic in his face. Her nostrils flaring. “My friends could die and you’re telling me to relax!” The druid nose was within an inch of the medic. Giving a weak ‘hehe’, the main then walked around the druid to tend to the girls. He first took a cloth and dipped it into a jar of liquid. He then walked over to Applejack, “Mind taking a breath?” Applejack inhaled and soon passed out. He then placed his hands, while they started to glow emerald green, over Applejack’s chest and the gash in her chest started to close up. “Get her clothes off, we can better mend her wounds from there.” The medic turned to Pinkie Pie, “This is gonna knock you out, dude, but given your leg, you’re going to wish you were out cold before we start.” Pinkie took the cloth and inhaled it twice before she fell back on the bed and like Applejack she was out cold. The medic turned to one of the other soldiers, “I need one of you to hold her down as best you can and someone else to get something to secure the broken bone, I have to make sure her femur is properly aligned before I can secure the break with a cast.” “I don’t let anybody oogle my naked body, that’s more of a sixth date sort of thing,” Pinkie joked in her loopy state. “Please ma’am, we’re professionals,” said one of the assisting guard trying to restrain the jester so that the medic could set the bone. No one electing to question why and how the jester was still conscious. “Dude, as guards, totally,” said the medic, “but I’m the only certified medic in the place.” Almost as if on cue a generic female intercom voice was heard saying in an eerily calm tone, “Paging Doctor Sandalwood, paging Doctor Sandalwood, you have three patients that require your immediate attention.” The medic blinked a few times before saying, “Okay, that was trippy,” He then took Pinkie’s leg, “Would you mind assisting me? Miss…” “Fluttershy,” Fluttershy answered as she fluttered over to help with tending to Pinkie. “You must be Sandalwood?” “Yeah, we can chat later… where is…” Sandalwood started to ask only to spy Rainbow trying to walk away, however she soon felt a needle puncture her skin. As she blanked-out she was again placed back on the bed. “This is going to take more time than I thought.” Sandalwood commented as he took a breath as he grabbed Pinkie’s lower leg. “Well, since you girls might not be comfortable being without you clothes during an examination with me in this sort of environment maybe you should handle that part, it might feel more comfortable.” He slid Pinkie’s pants leg up, after making sure to remove her peripherals and began going along to see how bad the offset was. “Now, miss, this might hurt a bit. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we have an anesthetic strong enough to dull the pain for a fully conscious Earthborn, and using the bulk of what we do have is a massive waste of resources.” “It’s fine,” said Pinkie in her usual chipper voice, “you can just hit me really hard over the head.” “I am not going to potentially cause more harm just to make sure you’re out cold.” He waved over to two pairs of Earthborn guard, “keep her other leg and arms down as best you can, she might thrash around a bit during the procedure.” After Pinkie’s arms and unbroken leg were secured by the guards she said, “And I thought being tied down was kinky.” the loopy jester joked. The medic and everyone else in the medical tent chose to disregard her comment, it was clear she was just trying to lighten the mood. “Once again, I’m sorry about this. There will be some momentary discomfort, but after we align and splint it the pain should dull over the course of a few minutes.” With that he secured both sides of her broken leg and began the careful realignment process, anyone who looked at Pinkie would see her trying hold back screams of pain. Once the break was set, Sandalwood and the others started began casting the whole leg, all the while Sandalwood and Fluttershy cast a healing spell, each’s hand glowing emerald and light pink, respectively. Upon seeing her leg bound up, Pinkie fainted then and there. “Okay, now we tend…” “Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy informed as they walked over to the unconscious elementalist, and noticed just how severe the damage was, she wasn’t sure if she’d have been able to heal her friend effectively if it had just been her. After a couple of minutes, the bone was properly set and the healing process was started as Fluttershy and Sandalwood walked among Fluttershy’s three injured friends. The other guards left, leaving the two. “So you’re a druid? ” Fluttershy asked. “Shaman, actually. So dude, what gave it away?” “Your armor, it’s made of leather and hide I thought druids and shamans were not supposed to join the military?” “Well most don’t, but there is actually no rule against it. Now the High druid might not approve, but that old man...” Sandalwood paused as he realized he might be overstepping things as he saw a frown forming on Fluttershy’s face. “Well he’s rounded tighter than a drum.” the shaman concluded. Back at the palace, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike were at the doorway of one of the houses, having had questioned at least a dozen Crystalborn, inside the house was a woman about their age, she was dressed very not much different than many of the other female residences of Magiville, with a golden plant growth shown in. Her hair was a mulberry purple, her eyes blue. Yet the woman didn’t look Twilight, Rarity or Spike in their eyes as she mostly looked to the ground, a soft frown on her face as if she could not muster any want of care or joy. Twilight tried again to get information out of the woman, “Are you sure? Absolutely sure?” The woman shook her head, “I'm sorry. I wish I could help you. But I…” the woman tried to recall but after some strain, as she scrunched her eyes, “can't seem to remember anything before King Sombra came to power.” The woman that frozen as she just stared right in front of her, she shivered and shuddered for a second. After that she looked back to the ground, “And I don't want to remember anything about the time....he... ruled over us.” The woman started to retreat back into her home. Before she shut the door, “Have we really been gone over thousand years?” the three questioning her nodded in unison. “Huh, it feels like it was just yesterday.” Trying to make one last attempt to ascertain any sort of information, “If you think of anything, even the smallest thing…” the woman gave an ‘ahha’ before she shut the door in Twilight’s face. The dragon voiced the failure to find anything from the most recent person the three had questioned, “Well, that was a total bust.” as the three started towards the next house. “You're not going to get much from the residents.” Twilight froze upon hearing a tenure she never thought she would hear again, or at the ever least so soon. She turned and there in the golden colored armor of the Royal Guard, a sword at his waist, a heater shield secured to his back. He took off his helm and smiled at Twilight, “I never expected to see you here.” Twilight ran up and jumped into a hug, “Flash!” almost knocking the guard off his feet. She brushed her cheek against him a closed-eye smile with her lips forming a slight upside down capital ‘c’. “It’s so good to see you again.” Electing to complete the embrace, “Same here, Twilight.” After they ended their embrace. “But yeah, questioning everyone hasn’t gotten us very far.” Flash shook his head, “save that there is a libra..” “Library!” Twilight’s eyes diluted as a massive grin formed on her face with stars forming in her pupils. “Which way?” looking helter-skelter for the library unable to contain her excitement. Flash turned to Rarity and Spike, “You just had to say the ‘l’ word.” the dragon huffed. “Follow me.” About half an hour later, Twilight stood in front of the Krystalopolian Library. It was one of the largest buildings in the city and the second largest library Twilight ever seen. In the front of it were two statues of griffons. After stepping into it Twilight gasped in awe of all the books in the library, “I just... I don't even know what to... There are no words.” Twilight stopped trying to articulate what she thoughts as she looked at all the books around her. Rarity and Spike could only shake their heads. Flash on the other hand just stared at Twilight as he blinked twice. “Ahem.” Twilight stopped and turned to see a much older woman, most likely in her late fifties, her eyes were a mulberry purple under her glasses and her hair was grayish pink. She was dressed like many of the librarians and archivist Twilight had seen in Chantalot, with an unrolled scroll pin on her sleeve. “May I help you?” “They’re with me and my comrades, Ma’am.” Flash informed, “I know where the history section is.” Flash took Twilight and started to lead Rarity and Spike deeper into the library, “If we find something, we’ll let you know, thank you for everything.” “I am sorry I cannot be of more help.” the older woman gave a sigh, “Best of luck, young man.” She then started heading to another part of the library. “And to you as well, Darling.” Rarity called out following Flash with Spike and Twilight. “What's her name?” “Amethyst Maysberry, ” Flash Informed the group. “And the women you spoke to before was Sapphire Joy." Turning to see the three look at him confused, “One of the first things I read here was the most recent census, completed a week before the city vanished.” About fifteen minutes of walking past stacks of tome after stack next to empty bookshelves. The four found about a dozen of the garrison’s troop reading books. “Hey, is anyone else starting to think this is a lost cause?” one of the soldiers said as he finished another book and added to another stack. “We’ve been at this for the better part of three days.” Flash then walked to one of three bookcases with all of its books still on the shelves. “We’ve alternating researchers, took us a day to find the history section.” Flash grabbed the first book and after blowing some dust off of it opened it, “If there is an answer of how the city was protected in the past, it has to be in this small part of the library.” “With all due respect, Lieutenant, this is a lost cause.” another of the soldiers, a woman this time, called out as she finished the book she was reading. “The Marshal ordered to search the library for a solution and we still have almost a thousand books to look through. You got two more hours on your shift, so get another book and read.” Flash did not once look up from the book as he gave the order, with no harshness in his tone. “Sir, yes, sir.” the soldier said. “You were promoted?” Twilight asked as she, Rarity and Spike each took a book and started to read. “Technically I still haven’t received my commission, but your brother made that call after I took the helm of the evacuation of Borealton.” Not hiding his chuckle at why he was promoted. “Funny thing, I only followed the written procedure.” Flash turned the page, never once looking away from the book. Twilight looked down at the book she had, “STOP!” Everyone turned to her as she opened the book. While a grin grew on her face, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” She then showed the cover pointing to the title; History of Krystalopolies. “I just hope it has the answers we need.” Twilight shut the book and ran out of the library her familiar in tow. About twenty minutes later in the castle, on a balcony in the castle, overseeing the city, Twilight presented the book to Shining and Cadance as she turned to the chapter in question. “A 'Crystal Faire'.” While Shining accepted the book and read the text, “According to this book, it was established by the first monarch and became their most important tradition.” While Shining shared the book with Cadance, “The Faire was held every year to quote, "renew the spirit of love and unity in the city so they could protect it from harm" unquote.” After the two finished reading, they handed the book back to Twilight, “I could put it together, with the help of my friends, even in their current state. Everything we need to know is in the book!” “That sounds pretty promising, tell Flash to get as much of the garrison to help. Is there anything we can do?” Shining called out as Twilight and Spike started out of the room. “Just try to keep Cadance awake,” Twilight called back before shut the door, “We'll get started right away.” After she shut the door and looking ahead to meeting up with her friends in the infirmary, “C'mon, Spike, we've got a Crystal Faire to put together!” “Do we have to?” the dragon huffed. An hour and a half later, with the help of the Borealton garrison, in spite of Applejack and Pinkie Pie being confined to wheelchairs for the time being and Rainbow Dash with her arm in a slightly tight cast in a sling close to against her chest, a small array of booths and stands were set up, with a jousting track and a tourny square were mostly ready to go. “It looks amazing! I don't know how I could've done this without you! One last check to make sure everything is in place, and then the festivities can begin!” “Ah man, I so wanted to Skyborn joust!” the elementalist bemoaned as she looked at the hand of Skyborn soldiers replacing their standard issued armor and donned the crystal-looking jousting armor and checking their lances. “You can at least walk, I can’t even scratch my itching foot. Why did my whole leg have to be in this thing? Stupid cast.” the jester pouted as she wheeled her chair as she crossed her arms and scowled. “Not ta be one ta call the kettle black, but yah both at least have somethin’ to provide support and stability ta yahr wounds.” Fluttershy gave a cough getting the attention of the three, “Now girls, there is no need for that kind of talk,” the three then looked at the druid. “As Sandalwood and I said, you three need to focus on your recovery.” Fluttershy turned her full attention to Applejack first, “Applejack you need to be as calm as possible,” then turning to Rainbow, “Rainbow Dash, you are going to have to use your left arm for the time being” and walking up to and speaking to Pinkie in the jester’s right ear, “and Pinkie, think about all the signatures you can get and all the friends you can make. Also, there is a cast removal party or two to think about.” Pinkie gasped and pulled out a notepad and pencil and started jotting things at the speed of light her signature almost impossible smile growing on her face. As everyone gave a chuckle, Applejack noticed a stone pedestal and on it was stone carved into the shape of a heart, “What's this thing for?” Applejack then knocked on it the stone heart. Twilight looked from the book to Applejack and the heart in question, “The last page of the book mentioned a Crystal Heart as the faire's centerpiece, so I used my magic to cut one out of a crystal block.” Twilight smiled at her handiwork. As everyone also else looked over the heart and gave Twilight a reassuring smile, “Nice work, Twi.” The paladin said as she wheeled her chair away, “Think we're ready to get this faire up and runnin'.” A few minutes later, Twilight and her friends were underneath a balcony of the castle, with Shining and Cadance having been spruced up by Rarity, stepping out to be seen. After Rainbow counted down to zero with her left hand, Pinkie Pie took a deep breath and blew into the bizarre looking horn she was given, called a flugelhorn. The blow resonated throughout the whole of the city, traveling faster as the sounded was reflected off of each of the crystalline buildings. After two seconds as every one of the subjects of Krystalopolies turned to the castle, Twilight spoke out, announcing the start of the faire, “Hear ye, hear ye! Princess Cadance and Marshal Shining Armor do cordially invite you to attend the Crystal Faire!” The Crystalborn started to smile and they soon their crystalline skin started to shine and glitter. They all started to chatter and cheer as they started towards the faire. Many of the Crystalborn were meet by Applejack, “Come on in, yall,” she beckoned with the Apple Family almost trademark hospitality. “Got food and drinks thataway, games and crafts are thataway, Crystal Heart to the back, in the castle’s archways.” While pointing the directions of each thing she mentioned, “The joust will be startin’ in half an hour and in two hours the tourney will begin.” A woman around the age of Twilight and her main friends, she had opal eyes and her hair was two colors, a bluish gray and grayish blue. Starting out depressed, “Did she say... Crystal Heart?” as she finished her question her entire demeanor changed and she, like many of the other Crystalborn, more or less turned from a dull unpolished rock to glittering gem. While she and more Crystalborn chattered among themselves blissfully and gleefully before dashing into the faire grounds proper. Hovering next to the paladin, “We totally nailed it, right?” Rainbow said as he landed and shared another fist bump with her comrade. “They must be feeling a lot of that love and unity about now!” Rainbow Dash started heading to one of the stands for food, “Gonna have some grub, huh? What are you thinking? Krystalopolies berry pie? Maybe some crystal corn-on-the-cob!” Rainbow listed off until she saw a few Crystalborn chattering as if they were talking about something, she paused in confusion. “What is with these people?!” She asked turning to Applejack. The wheelchair-bound paladin only shrugged her shoulders. The last woman Twilight interviewed before bumping into Flash, Sapphire Joy, turned to another woman, she had a dark mulberry purple eyes and her hair had two variants of light orchid purple-pink “Seeing all of this, I feel like I'm starting to remember. Remember things from before the king. You, Fleur de Verre?” The two were still in their low-spirited state. “Me too.” the other woman said as if they started to recall something. The two women looked at each other and after gasping in unison, “The Crystal Heart!” the two shouted as their skin changed to be like even more of the Crystalborn. Fleur then to Sapphire asked the question, “Do you think they really have it?” “Of course we have it!” Raindash played off as if she knew what she was talking, earning an eye roll from her paladin companion, “Can't have a Crystal Faire without the Crystal Heart, right?” the elementalist asked high off of her confidence as the two Crystalborn ran happily into the faire proper. “Of course you can't.” Rainbow Dash and Applejack turned to see the older woman that was in the library, Amethyst Maysberry. In addition to her scholarly garb and glasses, she wore a green hat with a ribbon around it the same color as her hair with a small ruby and a small sapphire pinned in. “The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to lift the spirits of us Crystalborn, so the light within us can power the Crystal Heart, thus, in turn, the city can be protected!” Amethyst then gasped at what she just said as if something dawned on her. Her skin started to glitter and shine like the other Crystalborn, “I do work at the library!” She started to hum as she started towards the faire proper. “W-what's that about 'powering the heart'?” Rainbow asked as she and Applejack looked at each other nervously. Amethyst stopped and looked at the two foreigners she speaking to, "I just can't believe you found it. King Sombra said he'd hidden it away where we would never see it again! I only hope it will still be as powerful after all these years...!” Amethyst then paused as she spotted one of the food booths,“Mm, funnel cake!” ” She cheerfully proclaimed as she headed towards the booth in question. Rainbow Dash and Applejack started to shudder at what they were told. The two shared a worried frown and Applejack nodded. Rainbow Dash then bolted grabbing a large cloth and in less than a second arrived at the craving of the Crystal Heart and covered it, accidentally covering Twilight who had elected to re-read the book. “Why did you–” Twilight wanted to question her speedster friend. “We have a problem…” The horror was written on Rainbow’s face as her pupils constricted to the size of a pin. About ten minutes later, Rainbow Dash and Twilight met up with Shining and Cadance, to form a new plan based on what the elementalist just learned. As Twilight started to go through History of Krystalopolies at a rapid pace. “I didn't know it was an actual relic! The book didn't mention anything about the Crystalborn powering the Heart!” Twilight continued until she reached the very end of the book. After seeing that the last word on the page had a comma after it, she placed her right finger next to the page and ran it down and felt that there was another page there but was removed, with a string cutting it. With horror over the desecration over the tome, “There was a page missing... How did I not notice?!” “It's alright, Twilight.” Cadance reached out to her sister-in-law to comfort her before Cadance fell forward and passed out. Fortunately, she was caught by Shining Armor, but the spell Cadance was casting ended as the dome of love and light vanished. “Twily…” Shining as he watched the black cloud of Sombra appear just outside of the city, “The city is under attack.” Looking beyond Shining spied the fell king. Sombra was just outside, he was both the large black cloud that surrounded the city, coming from where there were gaps in his armor due to the nature of the armor and the shade in the armor. However, after a few seconds, Cadance was able to recover and renewed the shield. Sombra, however, was just waiting for the shield to start to come back down after Cadance regained consciousness. He reached out his left arm and it was cut at the elbow by the shield of love and light magic bearing down. The severed limb landed in between two crystals blood red in color. “Arrgh!” he roared as he pulled the rest of his arm back. Gritting through the pain, he watched the severed limb dissolve and fizzle away into the ground leaving a black patch. Sombra silently smirked as he returned to his cloud state, leaving his eyes still visible.