The train rattled along the old, rarely used tracks. The Crystal Empire lay along the old and winding route that was built to take passengers to Griffonstone. A normal locomotive would take the better part of a day to reach the location where the Crystal Empire had reappeared, but Harmony was a very new and very powerful locomotive that thundered its way north.
Twilight, wearing the Element of Magic, was clumped with her friends, but the other passengers of the train made her feel so tiny. She looked across at the ponies present. Princess Celestia was never imposing, even with Princess Luna at her side, but sitting close to Luna was Chrysalis. The former Queen of the Changelings wore armor—Royal Guard armor—on loan from Twilight's own brother.
Princess Cadance sat with Shining Armor and Vinyl Scratch, a situation that confused Twilight a little, still. The trio that had insisted that they were all going to be getting married the moment Sombra was dealt with, sat off to one side.
Queen Thorax, Sunset Shimmer, and Sky Soar rounded out the contingent from Canterlot. The three changelings were sitting across from Princess Celestia, and Twilight couldn't catch the conversation carried out between them.
"Uh, Your Highnesses and Majesties,"—Checked Ticket still hadn't worked out the correct way to address so much royalty, but he hoped that throwing all the biggest titles together wouldn't offend—"we are slowin' down for the platform."
The train car lost all noise except the clacking of the wheels on the tracks under them. Turning to her friends, Twilight felt more and more sure of herself as each looked back. "We've done this before, girls, we will give him a chance to come peacefully, and then let him have it if he refuses."
Pinkie Pie tilted her head a little to one side. "But Princess Luna said we should blast him right away, rainbow to the face and all that."
"Is that how we do things?" Twilight looked around her friends, and saw each face shake. "Right. We gave Nightmare Moon a chance, we even gave Discord a chance. We will give Sombra a chance."
"I'm with you, Twilight." Rainbow Dash was the first to give verbal support. "I trust you to make the right choice, but you've taught me not to rely on that." She held out a hoof to Twilight, and Twilight was quick to put her own on it.
"Ah don't like any of this, but from what Princess Luna said he seems to be what's caused all kinds of problems for Equestria. Still, Ah think Ah wanna at least hear what he has to say for himself." Applejack lifted her own hoof into the circle, and felt a tingle from the Element of Honesty—a good tingle.
"I spoke to Queen Chrysalis myself—somepony had to adjust that armor to fit—and she said Sombra was going to enslave the Crystal Empire. But you are right, we have to keep our morals, despite what others may want." Rarity put her hoof into the circle, and felt a swell of power.
Fluttershy looked to Pinkie Pie, but seeing the other mare not moving, she gave a sigh. "I-I don't like having to do this at all. I think everypony has a right to do and be who they want to." She lifted her hoof into the circle.
"Sillies." Pinkie shoved her hoof in without hesitation. "He is acting like a big poopy head. If he wants to be nice, we let him."
Power thrummed between the six friends as the train pulled to a stop. Twilight smiled at the strong support, and nodded. "Right, let's go and stop him once and for all!"
"Twilight Sparkle." Striding down the train car, Princess Celestia wore the grimmest smile she had in her life. "We will buy you the time you need to use the Elements." She looked back at Chrysalis, her eyes catching the other mare's. "And for other things."
"We all have our tasks. Today we stop this madness." Luna followed her sister's example, and both the diarchs left the train together.
Shining Armor, Vinyl Scratch, and Cadance left next, followed by Chrysalis herself. The former queen of the changelings clanked with every stride she took. "This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have done."
Twilight heard the words of the former monarch. "But it's a good thing." She smiled and followed after Chrysalis. "Sombra is evil, and he must be stopped."
"I know that. I was referring to my trying to sneak while wearing armor." A glance at Twilight reminded Chrysalis that the mare was still young. "Remember, I have to sneak into the castle while you are fighting Sombra."
"We won't be fighting him, Chrysalis." Twilight looked back at her friends. "We are going to offer him a chance to surrender, and if he refuse—"
Chrysalis' eyes widened, and she stared at Twilight. "You are going to offer him peace, after all this?" Shock, not anger boiled in Chrysalis. She couldn't help but smile. "You would make a good princess, Twilight Sparkle. Better than I was." Turning, leaving Twilight staring in surprise, Chrysalis left the train.
The driving snow blocked most sight, but in the distance the sparkling of the Crystal Empire could barely be made out. Chrysalis was charged with energy, glutted with it. The power burning inside her was a symbol to her, a shield she could hold up against Sombra's hateful influence. That Princess Luna had given her love meant everything to Chrysalis.
Pulling a new disguise on was, to Chrysalis, like breathing. She looked back at herself as the fire faded, admiring the small crystal pony body she wore. "Make sure you have his full attention. If he sees me making for the Crystal Heart, I will be done for."
Luna cut in before Celestia could say a word. "Trust us, Sister." Her eyes locked with Chrysalis, she saw that the changeling recognized that the words were all for her.
"Are you ready to do this, Twily?" Vinyl Scratch, being of the same dimensions as Twilight and her friends, dropped back to the group of six.
Twilight nodded. "Just like we planned. You all keep him busy with magic, while we activate the Elements." The party started moving, with Celestia and Luna striding forward, melting the snow away before them. To one side, Chrysalis slipped into the snowstorm, and in moments was invisible.
As they walked, the storm got worse, until even the Crystal Empire's brightness was swamped by featureless white. Celestia and Luna, at the same time, stepped past the storm and expressed surprise.
The Crystal Empire itself, a city-state, was not in the cold grip of the snowstorm. When Twilight and her friends joined Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Vinyl Scratch, they saw "Chrysalis" was with them.
Sky Soar winked at the others, and struck the best pose he could beside the alicorns present. "Grr, angry queen changeling curses!"
Everypony looked at Sky and laughed. "He's really good at this!" Pinkie Pie pointed, her own laughter bubbling forth.
A shadow seemed to pass over the courtyard where the little group was waiting; waiting for this moment.
"Sombra!" Princess Celestia didn't use her own version of the Royal Canterlot Voice anymore, but this seemed like a good time for it. "Let us get this done with. Show yourself!" She called on her magic, and that which governed the sun itself. Light poured down, shoving back what gloom the storm held, and also revealing Sombra to be the source of the shadow.
"Your Majesties." Sombra landed neatly on the ground, opposite the ponies already there. "Your Highnesses. Welcome to the Crystal Empire." He nodded his head just a fraction, never breaking his line of sight with the others.
Twilight Sparkle knew this was her moment. Princess Luna had been so against her idea, that she hadn't brought it up again, but she had to try. "King Sombra, surrender. You don't need to do this!" She stepped to Princess Celestia's side and looked right at the big stallion opposing them. Sombra was built on a similar scale to McIntosh Apple: a huge frame supported a wild mane of black, while his chiseled features would, under normal circumstances, have drawn mares to court him. "Please?"
Sombra stared at the young mare asking him to surrender, and laughed. "Oh, of course I will declare peace, just as soon as you put on these for me." Floating in boiling, black magic, twelve masks appeared. The things looked like a horrible parody of the masks Zecora made, but the glowing green eyes seemed to pulse, throbbing with arcane energy. "For each pony that puts my masks on, I promise to protect them and will ensure their freedom."
Before she realized it, Twilight's hoof lifted and she took a step forward. One of the masks had purple accents around it, it even had her own cutie mark emblazoned between the eyes, and the worst part was she felt herself wanting to put it on. She started to take another step, when a pure white wing stopped her.
"Twilight Sparkle! Do not believe these lies. Sombra's masks are not for free ponies to wear." Using her own Royal voice, Luna stomped a hoof. She felt the tug of the moon-marked mask on herself, and strained against its need to be worn.
"Just put them on." Sombra flung the masks forward, scattering them, and letting them slide towards the group of ponies. Just like he had hoped, he saw one blue streak of a mare charging for one with a rainbow thunderbolt on it.
Rainbow Dash's mind was snared. She couldn't resist the urge to get the mask and put it on. Flying to her own, special mask in a blink, she picked it up and started to lift it. As the mask came closer to her face, Rainbow smiled into the green glow within. Her eyes widened to best absorb the green into herself, and that is when the mask was suddenly gone. A bright flash of cobalt fire destroyed the object of her desire.
Luna stomped her hoof and blasted the last of the masks. "I warned you of his treachery, Twilight Sparkle. It is time to cleanse Sombra with the Elements." She saw the weariness on Twilight's face, the defeat. "This is not your failing, but his."
Black energy lanced forward, spraying like an explosion. Sombra snarled at the loss of all of his capture masks. "If I cannot have you, you will die for me." The streamers of energy were only the start of his spell, and when he saw Shining Armor dive to intercept one traveling to Twilight Sparkle, he grinned in delight. "First."
The streamer seemed to strike Shining in the chest, and to his shock it burrowed into his flesh without pain. He tried to grab it with his magic, but nothing he could cast would grip it.
"Shining Armor!" Princess Celestia had barely a moment to grab the dark magic and tear it. A huge glut of dark power poured down the streamer, like the current surge of a lightning strike, and exploded from the ripped end. "Don't let them touch you!"
Luna's instinct was to put a protective barrier up to stop Sombra's magic, but that would mean the Elements of Harmony would rip it apart on their way shooting out, something Luna wasn't prepared to risk herself on. So she dueled with the onrush of tendrils, slicing and shredding each slimy, sticky streamer of magic.
A rush of energy coiled around Luna, and drove itself into her. It wasn't a black streamer, but a green coil. She risked a glance to Sky Soar, and nodded to the changeling that was lending her his strength.
Twilight and her friends gathered around Rainbow Dash, trying to break her from the daze the mask had instilled. Green light flickered in Rainbow's eyes for a few moments, before finally winking out. She shook her head and looked up. "Why aren't we blasting him yet?"
"You, silly. He did a whammy on your brain or something." Pinkie Pie helped her friend to stand. "Which is really naughty. I don't like him."
"Agreed." Five voices all spoke at once, and as one the six Element bearers turned to look at Sombra. At that moment, one of the streamers managed to get past Celestia's half of the defense, and poked deep into Cadance's shoulder.
"Now!" Twilight closed her eyes and focused on her Element. "Magic!"
"Kindness." Fluttershy, uncharacteristically, cut in. She was furious at what Sombra was doing.
"Loy-Loyalty!" Still fighting off some of the effects of the dazing magic, Rainbow Dash nonetheless embraced her element.
Cadance sliced the streamer in her off just before the blast of magic came, only to have two more catch her off guard. Panic filled her, and she reached to cut one, but could see the dark glut of power pouring down both.
The Elements of Harmony activated, bathing each of the ponies defending against Sombra's assault in the bright light of their own Element. The streamers all snapped, the magic they carried fizzled out and, as Twilight Sparkle started to float into the air, it rushed towards the source.
Sombra knew the moment would come when he would face the Elements of Harmony. He had hoped at least one of the Element bearers would put a mask on fully, and be out of action. As the rainbow beam of power rushed towards him, he leaned forward and started channeling a torrent of power.
Black, burning lines swirled around Sombra, and his corrupting power rushed forward, eager to meet pure Harmony. A thunder-crack that shook the ground spread out from where the two energies met. A bubbling explosion of rainbow and black magic boiled between Twilight and Sombra, each eager to reach the source of its opposite.
Twilight felt the strain on her power unlike ever before. Each time she and her friends had used the Elements, they had overwhelmed whatever they were fighting. For the first time ever a continued flow of energy was needed. "You can do it, girls!"
Celestia, stepping from the white ball of magic power that the Elements projected, tried to blast at Sombra's flanks, but her own magic was reflected by the darkness around Sombra. "Everypony! Try to break his focus. Anything you can do to distract him!"
Staring ahead, Sombra focused all the hate within him upon Twilight Sparkle. Like a tsunami, more and more dread magic poured through him, and he felt his magic moving forward a few pony lengths. "Just surrender. My power is stronger even than the Elements of Harmony." Sombra laughed. "You! Cannot! Defeat! ME!"
Sky Soar moved to Twilight's side, and despite the burning-hot beam of magic the mare was funneling, he tried to offer his own magic to her, as he had Luna. The moment his coil of magic touched Twilight, he felt the same strain she did. Struggling against the bone-weary weakness, he kept feeding energy to her.
Twilight watched as the dark beam of magic got larger, and each time it grew it came closer and closer. She didn't want to know that it was about to hit her, and closed her eyes. Straining, leaning against Sky, she head a voice call out Sombra's name.
"Sombra!" Chrysalis held the Crystal Heart in her magic. "Sombra! It doesn't have to be like this." She stepped closer to the dark energy. "What you are doing is wrong."
Turning his head, Sombra's energy backed off a little, no longer gaining ground, but not giving any. He looked right at Chrysalis, fully revealed in her changeling form. "Chrysalis. Or should that be Amore?" He smiled wider as Chrysalis winced when he said her original name. "I thought you were my greatest creation, but it seems you are a failure."
"No, Sombra." Chrysalis stepped closer, using her own shield against the hate to repel the dark magic. One step, then another, putting her within the area that Sombra's magic was lashing. "You don't have to fight them, Sombra."
"You? Even now?" Sombra's anger flared, and the dark magic beam moved to within a pony-length of Twilight Sparkle. "I was destined for this! You cannot deny it!"
Chrysalis stepped closer still, and smiled with her razor-sharp teeth on display. "You were destined for this." She breathed out a sigh. "But some destinies are better to put aside. You changed mine. I was first meant to be a wonderful princess, to learn to rule my empire. You remade me into a monster that destroys destiny."
Sombra lost some focus to his conversation with Chrysalis, giving a little ground to Harmony. "And you failed at even that! When I returned, you should have had Celestia and Luna ripped from their cutie marks and completely under your control!"
"So let me destroy yours." Chrysalis walked closer still, until she was right beside Sombra. "The Elements of Harmony will clean you of,"—she lifted a hoof and gestured at the angry, black magic—"this. You don't need to fight it yourself, like I did, just stop fighting."
"I'm not a foal anymore!" Sombra felt his grip on the hatred slipping. "I'm not a fool anymore!"
"We're all fools, Sombra. I was a fool not to activate the Crystal Heart back then, and I am a fool not to now. It would end you." Chrysalis reached a hoof out, almost but not quite touching the dark magic between them. "Look at me? I signed up to join their Royal Guard! Sombra, be a little foolish too, please?"
An image slipped out of the dark, twisted past. Sombra remembered wearing a saucepan on his head and saluting Princess Amore. The ridiculousness of the memory startled him into remembering what it was like growing up and thinking his destiny was to protect. "I can't. It's been too long…"
"No it hasn't." Chrysalis reached up, shoving her foreleg into the burning dark magic to boop the King on the nose. "Attention! What do the Crystal Guard have to report?"
Sombra shed tears. The memory was painful, now, and seared in his mind. "Captain General Sombra reporting for—for duty." The moment the last word was out, Sombra let go.
Chrysalis buzzed her wings and pulled back, but not fast enough. The burning hot rainbow of magic flooded both of them.
"She did it!" Celestia stared as the rainbow of Harmony engulfed Sombra and Chrysalis together. It was there for barely a second before it was gone again. With bright flashes still before her eyes, Princess Celestia spread her wings and rushed forward.
Chrysalis looked down at herself. She thought the rainbow would destroy her form, remake her into a pony again. But what caught her eyes was the dark colt on the ground. "Sombra?"
The dark, furious energy that had been Sombra's birthright, was gone. He started to reach for it, on instinct, but it simply wasn't part of him. Pushing his forehooves under his body, he straightened up and looked at the dark form of Chrysalis standing over him. "P-P-Princess?"
"Attention!" Chrysalis barked the command, and smiled as Sombra sharpened his stance. "Report."
"Your Imperial Majesty! I…" Sombra was lost for words. He looked up at Chrysalis again, and saw her crying. "Princess, what's wrong?" There was a huge hole inside him that should have held all the anger and hatred of a thousand years, but it was gone. Two hole-filled forelegs reached out for him and pulled him closer, as Chrysalis dropped and rolled on her back.
"You did it, Sombra!" Chrysalis held Sombra, now no more than a colt in size, up in the air. "You really did it. Is it all gone?"
"It's-It's all gone. I can't feel it. I don't understand?" Sombra looked down at Chrysalis, unable to comprehend why the changeling was so happy.
"It infected you first." Chrysalis brought Sombra down, and nuzzled at his tiny snout. "The Elements of Harmony cleaned Princess Luna of its taint, all you had to do was want it to clean you, too!"
"Why do we have to do it? Chrysalis is technically still the princess." Shining Armor was packing his bags, despite his protests. His complaints were going mostly ignored by Cadance and Vinyl, since they had their own things to pack. Without thinking, Shining lifted his head and looked at his wives.
"He's doing it again." Vinyl nudged Cadance in the shoulder with a foreleg. As one, they both turned to look at Shining. The look of adoration was almost frightening on the stallion's face.
"Shiny." Cadance turned fully, giving Vinyl a nuzzle as she did. "You know what happens when you look at me like that."
The moment Cadance was Close enough, Shining Armor leaned out to meet her, and they kissed. It was a perfect moment, a wonderful one, and it suddenly got better. Shining looked to see Vinyl kissing too, her mouth pressed in from the side.
The three had a few moments of bliss before the door to their rooms flew open. "Changelings are coming!" Apple Bloom rushed forward, leading the charge at Apple Blossom's side.
"Roar!" Buzzaloo pounced onto Vinyl's back. "I've caught the vampony!"
"Get the other one!" Adore piled onto Vinyl, leaving her fellow crusaders to jump onto Shining Armor.
"You saved me!" Laughing for all she was worth, Princess Cadance struck her best helpless maiden pose. "However will I thank you, mighty Crusaders?"
"Write to us every day!" Sweetie Belle, perched on Shining's withers, chirped her wings in excitement.
"I'll do it!" Folding his legs under him, Shining was pinned by the laughing little changelings. "Just release me, please!"
"Not until our Queen says so!" Buzzaloo was perched on Vinyl's back.
"I do say so." Thorax stepped into the room. "And what did I say about knocking first? They might have been busy doing things." She smiled apologetically at Cadance.
Apple Bloom lifted her head up from where she hugged Vinyl's neck. "They weren't!"
"What sort of things?" Adore asked, looking up at Thorax, the very picture of adorableness.
Cadance gave Thorax a pointed look. "Well, they are vamponies, so they might have been performing a dangerous ritual! Who knows?" She activated her horn and lifted all six squirming changelittles off Shining and Vinyl. The moment she revealed her wife and husband, she felt a giddy feeling, mostly at the constant amazement that they had finally gotten married. "Maybe they were… Snuggling!"
Six little voices squealed in mock horror, and began buzzing their wings to get free of Cadance's grip. Cadance set all six of her charges on the floor again. "I'm going to miss you."
"Oh, we'll come visit." Scootaloo was dusting herself off, and checked her wings. "But it is a looong way to go. So maybe not too often."
"I'll miss you all too." Shining let go of his disguise. Bright colors abounded, as she trotted forward to hug her fellow Crusaders. "Maybe I could get more to join the Crusaders?" Her answer was squeals of excitement.