Sunburst and The Shadow Pony

by Miner


Hello there

Changeling guards walk down the hallway as Crystine hides in the shadows of Castle Friendship. Slowly she makes her way to the lab, where everything went wrong. Once inside, she sees a destroyed machine with papers scattered everywhere.

"What a fine mess I am in now," Crystine said to herself as she searches the area for something interesting. She knows that no pony in the castle was able to help out Sunburst with his condition. Everypony save for Starlight. She was also in this room when everything went downhill. "Just what was she doing to him in here?" Crystine steps on something. Looking down, she sees a chalkboard broken in half with drawings on it. "What is this?" Looking at the childlike pictures, Crystine then starts understanding what happened. "So there is a way to extract magic somepony without losing the magic power." She then starts rubbing the back of her head. "Well, now my plan of absorbing the Dark magic after the elements blast Sunburst sounds silly. This is way much easier." Crystine then starts looking through the papers scattered across the floor. "Now then, how would you have done it Starlight?"


In the Crystal Empire,

Sunburst finds himself home researching a new book in his study.

"Interesting." He said to himself as he writes down some notes. Then he hears somepony behind him.

"Who are you!" The mare said.

Turning around, Sunburst can see a mare with a light blue coat and a purple mane with a brown leaf for a cutie mark. He believes he has seen her before. "I believe I am supposed to say that," Sunburst said leaving his study. "Who are you? And what are you doing in my house miss?"

"I am Amber leaf. And I..." She then has a look around and notices something odd. "I thought that this was my house."

"How can you just walk into someponies else house without noticing that it wasn't yours?"

"I am not sure." She puts a hoof to her head. "I am not sure of anything. But I thought I was meeting somepony here."

"What do you mean? Who?"

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" A loud Voice sounded as the door to the house was shattered to pieces. Sunburst turned to the door to see the Evil King of the Crystal Empire.

"Sombra!"

"It is King Sombra, you dumb ponies! Get it right!" Sombra uses his magic to trap Sunburst in a ring of dark crystal. Then slowly walking to him. "I will admit that I have forgotten many things, but I never meet you before Sunburst. So tell me why are you in my head!"

"Your head?!" Sunburst starts wondering what is going on until he realized where he is. "This is the mindscape."

"Looks like you are smarter than you look pony." Sombra starts circling Sunburst. "So tell me, Sunburst if you are so smart. What is going to happen now?"

"One body can't support two individual minds. So there are three outcomes in this scenario. The first one is that both minds fight each other for dominance of the body until one wins. The next is that both minds combine to form one new mind. And the final one-"

"The final one is that there is no winner, and the body becomes insane." Sombra stops and looks at Sunburst. "Guess which one I am going to do?"

"This isn't going to easy as you think Sombra."

"And what makes you say that?"

"I may not be as powerful as my friends when it comes to magic, but I am smart." Sunburst horn starts glowing and sends a magic wave scattering the crystal surrounding him. "And I have studied into the mindscape and everything possible in it." Magic shines all around Sunburst body. "This is not a battle of magic or skill. But rather a battle of will and might." Sunburst blast Sombra to the wall. "And the one with the strongest will is the winner." Sombra pulls himself out of the wall and then starts laughing.

"This is going to be fun."


"Found it!" Crystine said, lifting a paper. "Now, all that is left is to find out where Sombra went." Crystine left the room and was about to leave the castle in search of Sombra but stop halfway there as she caught wind of a smell a little filly still inside the castle, "No Chrysalis. Now not the time to think about a little filly that you meet on a train. So what if she stopped the ponies from destroying Sombra and gave you a chance to escape. You don't owe her anything. It not like you asked her to do that. It was all on her." Chrysalis grounds her teeth together. "You have no reason to help her out!"


"I am hungry," Melody said to the guard in front of her door.

"How can you possibly be hungry!? You have already eaten three meals!" The guard said, pointing to the three trays of eaten food in front of Melody.

She looks at the trays and back at the guard. "I am a growing filly."

"How are you not even cubby with all the food you eat?"

"Hay! A ladies weight is not something that is spoked out loud." She said, crossing her hooves.

The guard looks down in embarrassment. "Sorry."

Just then, a stern voice sounded behind him. "Private!"

The guard jumped and turned around to face his superior. "Yes, Captain Pharynx!"

"Report."

"Everything is alright all things considering the prisoner. Though I can't understand where she is putting it all."

Pharynx looks at the empty plates understanding what he was talking about, "Go get something to private. I will watch the bottomless pit."

"Yes, sir." the guard was about to leave the room when he smelled something strange coming from the captain. It smelled like the captain, but something was off. "Ah, sir?" Before he knew it, Pharynx knocked him out. Melody looks confused as to what just happened.

"Why did you hit your guard?" She said, tilting her head to the side.

Pharynx rolled his eyes that this. A green fire covered his body, changing him to Crystine. "Miss me?"

"Crystine!" Melody shouts running to hug her friend.

Crystine hits Melody gently on the head. "Not so loud, you want to wake up the whole castle?"

"Sorry," Melody said, rubbing her head. "You are a changeling? But I thought that you hated changelings."

"Melody in case you miss it on the train, I lie, and I do an excellent job at it. It is part of the deal when you are banished from your race."

Melody eyes widen, "Your race banished you!"

"What did I say about your voice?" Crystine said in a stern voice.

"Sorry."

"Now come on it won't be long until they find out that you are gone." They made their way out of the castle and moved quickly through the quiet town of ponyville.

"Where did Sombra go?" Melody asked Crystine as they waited for some guards to pass by.

"If I were him. He would go to the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree. Even though it has been there for hundreds of years, many ponies forget that it is even there and would get lost easily without a guide." They soon found themselves in front of the Everfree. "Okay, Melody this is where we part ways."

"What do you mean?"

"The Everfree is not a safe place for a small filly like yourself. I am not going to take care of you if something happens to you. My only priority is to find Sombra. You will be dead weight to me. And where are you going!" Crystine said as she sees Melody running into the Everfree.

"To find Sombra." She called back to her.

"This Filly." Crystine charge after her, shouting, "Do you even know where you are going!"


Back at castle Friendship, the real Pharynx is helping the guard in charge of the prisoner getting back to his hooves.

"Tell me one more time, soldier," Pharynx said, "What happened?"

"I was watching the filly. Then you came into the room telling me to get something to eat. That when I notice that you smelled different before everything went black."

"This smell you caught. What did it smell like?"

"Like lavender sir."

Pharynx growled at this, "There is only one creature that smells like that. And she has been on the run for a long time."

"You don't think it was her, sir?" The guard asked worriedly.

"I don't want to, but she would be the only one who could have done this. Chrysalis has returned. And she wants something from Sombra. Alert the guards in Ponyville. Use protocol 3 for identifying allies. I must get back to the hive and warn their highnesses."