Previously on My Little Pony: Ren’s Adventures In Equestria
“You wanted to see me? To give me a test?
“The Crystal Empire has returned.”
“You want us to help protect an entire empire?”
“It must be you and you alone.”
“What? But that’s insane! What you say makes no sense!”
“How could we know about the Crystal Empire in the first place?”
“But what if I fail?”
“Let’s just say the Empire…isn’t the only thing that’s returned.”
“Go, go!”
“I AM KING SOMBRA, YOU BRAT! I WILL NOT BE RIDICULE BY SOMEONE LIKE YOU!”
“Sparkleriffic!”
“Amazing!”
“Do you see it too big brother?”
“Well, with Cadance putting all her strength into keeping her spell going, and me trying to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we haven't been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies.”
“There are Crystal Ponies?”
“Oh really? Says the one who betrayed his own sister after falling straight for what that bug queen says?”
“Who do you think this journal belongs?”
“Don’t know…”
“Y-You…you’re….”
“’History of the Crystal Empire’. 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.”
“I know, but do you guys really think that he was born evil?”
“The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to life the spirits of the Crystal Ponies, so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart, so that the empire can be protected!”
“I think we may have a problem…”
“WHAT?!”
“I didn’t know it was an actual relic!”
“Don’t blame yourself, Twilight. It’s all my fault…”
“It’s alright, Twilight.”
“Twily…”
“R-Ren…”
“Yeah, I know…”
“This is bad!” Mason hissed.
“Dammit! Now what do we do?!” Jack exclaimed.
Honestly, I gotten no clue. I didn’t bother to listen what anyone says as we watched that dark cloud that King Sombra was in making his way towards us as black crystals began to manifest through the entrance of the empire.
“The Empire is under attack!” Shining exclaimed.
“W-what do we do?!” Jamie screeched.
“We need that princess to bring back that damn protection spell or whatever its’ called!” Jack demanded.
“No Jack, she had enough.” Mason stated sternly as he and Shining helped her up. “She used up all of her energy. I can’t imagine what could possibly happened if she keeps doing that.”
“So what can we do?!” Jack exclaimed.
“B-Big brother…” Carrie muttered, looking at her brother with a worried look.
“Don’t worry Carrie, we’ll think of something.” Mason assured.
“But…Shining can’t use his magic with those black crystals blocking his horn.” Kaede reminded us. “And Cadance is too tired out, and Twilight can’t do it because of her mission! I think we’re practically running out of good ideas!”
“When you put it like that, it really does feels like it’s the end, huh?” Kodi wondered.
“Dammit…goddamn frigging-” Jack clenched his fists as he stomped on the ground effortlessly. “Now great…what can we do?!”
“Calm down Jack. At times like this, we need to act calm and think rationally.” Mason said, his tone acting very calm.
“How the hell can we be so calm in a time like this?!” Jack yelled out.
“Well we’re all getting antsy, okay?” Kodi stated. “I mean…what can we do?”
I let out a sigh and looks at the group, seeing them arguing with one another while I looked at my Hacking Gun. This is bad…King Sombra is making his way towards the empire and we practically got nothing…so what can we do?
Suddenly, I heard another loud howling as I looked back and saw Sombra’s evil grin as he slowly made his way through the front entrance of the kingdom in a slow pace through those dark clouds.
King Sombra…I don’t wanna do this dude. While we came here to stop you from trying to take over the Crystal Empire and inflict the fear and terror you gave to these innocent Crystal Ponies, I won’t let you get away with this. That’s why…we’ll stop you, but I need to find a chance to get through you…
But right now, we need to order another shield to protect us from him. Cadance is too tired out to use anymore of her spells, Shining can’t used his horn, and Twilight can’t focus on finding a way to save this kingdom while at the same time to find the Crystal Heart, which turns out that it was real. Oh man…if only there was another unicorn that can use magic to create another shield for the empire…
Wait…magic….Unless….That’s it!
“Jamie!” I quickly turned to him, who flinched upon hearing his name being called out.
“H-huh? Y-Yes Ren?” Jamie asked in bewilderment.
“You have to create a new shield for Cadance’s place!” Everyone stared at me with baffled looks while Jamie widened his eyes in shock, along with Twilight.
“Ren, what are you talking about?!” Kaede exclaimed. “Jamie can’t use magic!”
“No…I-I can…” Jamie answered.
“Huh?!” Kaede stared at him with a surprised look on her face. “You can what?!”
“Since when the hell can you even do magic?!” Jack demanded.
“W-well…” Jamie glanced away nervously. “You see…I discovered about this for some time ago just right after that Changeling Invasion. Ever since those cutie-marks appeared on my cheeks, I’ve somehow been able to use magic just like Twilight, Rarity, the princesses, Shining, and pretty much, any unicorn around here in Equestria.”
“W-whoa! That’s so crazy!” Kaede widened her eyes in awe and shock.
“So in other words, you can use magic?” Mason questioned, which Jamie nodded and replied “W-well…I haven’t been using it that much, so I-I don’t think I can do it…”
“No offense, but there’s no way!” Shining shook his head with a solemn look on his face. “It’s a high-level spell and if what Jamie said is the truth, it’ll be impossible!”
Ouch man, I think you said as a little roast towards him.
“But he has to try!” I exclaimed. “I know he can.”
“B-but…!” I gave Jamie a soft smile and continued “Trust me Jamie, I know you can. You’re already strong, and if you keep on believing in yourself, then you have the ability to do anything. Just don’t doubt yourself like you done back then, believe in yourself. If I remember one song back then from a certain anime that I really love so much…’Be a hero’.”
“Be…a hero?” Jamie asks slowly.
“Yeah…no matter who you are, anyone has the potential to be one and I know you can…don’t do this for us, but do this for yourself.” I smiled while the others stared at me in surprise while Jamie placed a hand on his chest with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Be…a hero…” Jamie muttered before slowly forming a confident look on his face. “Alright…I’ll…I’ll try!”
“Nerd?” Jack called.
Jamie closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he raised his hands in the air in a slow manner. Once so, he began concentrating while we all watched him.
“Be a hero…be a hero…be a hero…” Oh wow, he really took my advice. Heh heh, I didn’t expect that. “I…need to be a hero…”
With that, we saw his hands slowly glowing in a dark blue aura and soon a small ball of light formed in his hands. We all became shocked to see this. Whoa! That’s crazy! That’s awesome but crazy at the same time!
Whoa! His cutie-mark cheeks are glowing too! That’s frigging awesome!
With that, all of his energy flared up around his body before a blast shot from his hands and with that, a bright light circulate around us before it revealed a new and proper shield build up around the entire empire, blocking Sombra’s way.
“Whoa! It actually worked!” Kaede exclaimed.
“It worked…It actually worked…!” Twilight grinned happily before running over and hugging Jamie, who blushed brightly while the rest of us smiled in satisfaction and sheer awed. Holy crap-baskets, that actually worked! I knew that he can do it!
“Wow…he actually did it.” Shining blinked in shock. “I can’t believe that actually worked.”
“Jamie…how did you do that?!” Kaede demanded.
“Oh…w-well…” Jamie blushed a bit, glancing away in embarrassment.
“Oh, he apparently does that ever since he gotten those cutie-marks on his face.” Kodi explained, cutting Jamie off.
“H-Hey wait!” Jamie called.
“Yeah, we even were so shocked upon seeing him did that! I thought for a second there that he did the Force like from Star Wars.” I added, ignoring the shocked Jamie.
“Do I get a saying out of this?!”
“Huh, incredible.” Mason complimented.
“Cool! That’s pretty amazing Jamie!” Carrie giggled.
“O-Oh….thank you…” Jamie muttered, blushing a bit.
“I gotta admit, even I was taken by surprise.” Shining added, still shocked by what he witnessed.
“Damn nerd, you never cease to amaze me.” Jack walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder with a toothy grin on his face, which seemed to hurt Jamie a bit before he smiled awkwardly at him and replied “Y-Yeah…thanks Jack.”
Jamie grinned softly before moaning a bit as he held his head in pain.
“O-Ohhh….my head….” Jamie muttered.
“Jamie, what’s wrong?” Kaede asked in concern.
“It’s the spell…” We all turned to Cadance, who slowly gotten up and was still exhausted from using the spell. “I don’t know how he did it…but even with these strange newfound powers he has….it must apply the same thing with unicorns and getting a magic strain from keeping focus of putting this shield in hold….”
“Then we gotten no time!” Shining exclaimed, making a serious look. “If he’s having the same problem as Cadance has, it won’t be long till he feels the side-effects…”
“D-Don’t worry…I-I’ll keep my power in contact with keeping the shield under my control…” Jamie coughed, concentrating on all his might on keeping the magic barrier under control.
“Jamie, don’t take it too far.” Mason said with a stern yet calm look. “You just need to stay calm.”
“I-I’ll try…” Jamie softly smiled before groaning in pain.
“Damn…he’s really taking it.” Jack widened his eyes in shock. “That’s pretty tough, even for someone like him.”
“So what can we do?” Kodi wondered.
“Well we now learn that the Crystal Heart is actually a real relic and Jamie is using his newfound magic powers to create the barrier in Cadance’s place…” I thought aloud. “So maybe we need to find the Crystal Heart.”
“Isn’t that frigging obvious?” Jack scoffed.
“He’s right! We need to do as everything as we can to protect the empire!” Shining nodded. “I have to find the Crystal Heart!”
But before he could take off, Twilight got in his way and said “No, you stay here with Cadance and Jamie. They need you, Shining Armor. I’ll retrieve the Heart.”
“W-what?” Jamie asked in worried. “B-but Twilight…”
“I’m sorry Jamie, but you can’t come. You already using this new magic of yours to keep the barrier intact. If you come, you might lose focus of it and have King Sombra break into the empire and scare the Crystal Ponies.” Twilight explained. “Don’t worry, I’ll be alright.”
“T-Twilight…!” Jamie’s face turned a bit pale with concern.
“Wait Twilight, let us come.” I offered with a serious look. “I mean, I understand where you’re going along with this, but you can’t do this alone. Let some of us accompany you for protection.”
“Yeah! Let’s do this!” Rainbow Dash grinned.
“Well…I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m meant to pass Celestia’s test! Retrieving the Crystal Heart must be it.” Twilight replied.
“Meaning?” Kodi raised a brow in confusion.
“Meaning that I want you guys to do something else you all can do.” Huh? Something else? But we can’t do that!
“Name it.” Jack smirked, crossing his arms.
“You and the rest of our friends have to keep the Faire going.” Twilight ordered, which made the rest of us to widened our eyes in shock.
“What? With that thing moving into the Empire?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to life the spirits of the Crystal Ponies, so they can activate the Crystal Heart.” We all raised a brow as I asked “Yeah, and?”
“S-She means that if the Crystal Ponies finds out that King Sombra is trying to take over the Empire again, their spirits are gonna be anything but lifted.” Jamie explained, putting a hand on his head as he began feeling an headache. “It won’t matter if you all find the Crystal Heart. They won’t be able to make it work. You have to keep them happy here at the Faire.”
“Yeah, what he said.” Twilight nodded before giving him a concern look. “I’m sorry you have to endure this Jamie. It should have been me.”
“D-Don’t blame yourself Twilight…I did this so that…no one can do this…” Jamie moaned, but managed to make a small smile on his face. “C-Can you guys…please hurry…I’m having a really hard headache…”
“Damn nerd…taking the bold move like that.” Jack looked at him with a grin. “Sounds to me that you’re slowly getting better with yourself.”
“O-Oh…thank you…” Jamie muttered with a small blush on his face.
“Well at least I get what you all saying then.” Rainbow Dash muttered. “We gotta keep the Faire going and the Crystal Ponies spirits high. Done and done!”
“Well…fine. Do whatever you want…” Jack sighed, scratching the back of his head. “I won’t stop ya…”
I frowned a bit, looking back at the barrier where we last saw King Sombra trying to make his way towards the empire. We gotta hurry…and Twilight needs all the help he needs.
“Don’t…give up…” Huh? Who said that? I looked around till I saw no one but us around. What is this? “You are the…one…who can…filled…this kingdom…with light…and hope…even the deepest of the darkness can be…filled with…love…”
That strange voice…who is telling me this? What is going on? Is this…one of those weird voices that no one knows till they reach the finale to discover their true identity, and they encouraged the players to keep on fighting. Hmm…strange. Well I’m sure it’s nothing like this. But even so, I’m gonna go and listen to the voice.
“Twilight, please let me come.” I offered, turning to her. “I wanna help ya out as the best as I can.”
“What? But Ren-”
“I know I might get in the way, but I want to try and help out as much as I can. Trust me, we’ll succeed.” I pointed out with a smile on my face. “Trust me Twilight, I’ll do as much as I can to help out.”
Twilight stared at me with widened eyes before sighing and smiling softly at me.
“There’s really no convincing to not come, huh?” I nodded with a smile on my face while Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well alright then, I’ll let you come.”
“Ren, are you sure that this is a good idea?” Kaede asked in worried.
“Kaede’s right. What if you get hurt? Can I…come too?” Fluttershy suggested.
“No Flutters, you have to stay here.” Fluttershy widened her eyes upon hearing what I said. “I’m sorry…I’m not saying that you’ll get in the way, I’m saying this because I don’t want to get you hurt from where we gonna go and get the Crystal Heart.”
“B-but…I don’t want to see you get hurt either.” Fluttershy pointed out. “Please Ren, think about this.”
“I am, and I know what I’m doing.” I nodded before hugging her. “Don’t worry, I’ll be alright. Just have faith in me, Flutters. I promise that I’ll be okay.”
“…O-Okay…” Fluttershy nodded before making a meek smile. “I’ll…believe in you, Ren.”
She flapped her wings and flew at my height before kissing me on the forehead, causing me to chuckle as I scratched my cheek with a soft smile.
“Ren…” I turned to Mason, who folded his arms with a stern look. I frowned a bit upon seeing that till I noticed he softened it. “Good luck.”
“Huh?” I asked, blinking in surprise before smiling softly at him. “Okay dude.”
“Big brother, why don’t you go too?” Carrie offered, much to Mason’s surprise.
“C-Carrie…why would you say that? I have to keep you all safe, even you.” Mason reminded.
“But I’ll be alright. Besides, Jack, Kaede, and the others will watch over me.” Carrie said, putting her hands on her hips as she pouted. “I’m not a little kid anymore!”
“Umm…but you are.” Jack stated, rubbing the back of his head.
“But…” Mason hesitated as he clenched onto his fists. “I…what would happen to you if I wasn’t there, then I…”
“Mason, it’s best if you go.” We all turned to Shining Armor, who gave him a soft grin. “I know that you’re worried, but I’ll keep an eye out for Cadance, Jamie, and Carrie in your place.”
“But Shining-”
“As captain, I order you to go!” Whoa! He looks really scary when being serious.
“Ah…” Mason widened his eyes before sighing and giving him a smile. “I see how it is…and I understand. Alright, I promise that I won’t let any of you down.”
“So does that mean…?” Carrie asked, blinking in surprise. Mason turned to her and nodded before he hugged her tightly.
“Promise me that nothing will happen to you. I know that I can’t always protect you, that’s why I’m giving you this one chance where you need to act brave and don’t be afraid.” Mason lectured. “Can you promise me?”
“Yes big brother.” Carrie nodded. “I promise that I will be on my best behavior.”
“Thank you, little sis.” Mason chuckled before ruffling up her hair, causing her to giggle while the rest of us chuckled or held amused smiles.
Those two have really strong bond with each other. A really strong genuine bond.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out for her.” Jack walked over with a confident look on his face. “Well I ain’t good with kids, but at least I’ll keep the brat in check and not get lost.”
Mason smiled at him before replying “I sure hope so, or else I’ll beat you down.”
“Heh, we’ll see about that.” Jack grinned before we saw his stomach growling a bit. We all gave him blank looks till he blushed and exclaimed “What?! I’m hungry, okay?!”
“You seriously have a stomach problem.” Rainbow Dash muttered with a deadpan look.
“Anyway, I guess I can take you two.” Twilight shrugged. “But can you both promise me that nothing will go wrong with you two.”
“We will.” Me and Mason nodded in unison.
“And we promise that we’ll keep the Faire going and make everypony’s spirits lifted.” Kaede grinned. “You can trust us.”
“Hell yeah.” Jack nodded. “And I think I know one thing that’ll get everypony’s heart pumping.”
“Really? What’s that?” Kodi asked.
“We’ll have a contest to see who’s the best. Everyone loves that kind of thing and that’ll get everyone pumped up.” Jack grinned cockily. “But I know you guys won’t match up with me…well…maybe Mason and Skittles…”
“’Maybe’? ‘Maybe’?!” Rainbow Dash flew straight to his face with a serious look and exclaimed “Oh! It is so on! Let’s see what you got in store with all my speed and all…that.”
“Are ya calling me fat?” Jack asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Maybe fatty.” Rainbow grinned cockily, making Jack grits his teeth in anger. Oh boy, I’m not liking where this is going.
“You guys, calm down.” I intervened before turning to Jack. “Well I guess that could work. We need to have the Crystal Ponies to stay happy, but I know you guys can do it.”
“Heh, thanks for liking at my idea.” Jack grinned before ruffling my hair. “Now go! Leave the rest of this to us! After all…” Jack gave Rainbow Dash a quick glare before saying “I’m going to have some fun breaking the wings off this blue cocky bird.”
“Oh, you did not go there!” Rainbow Dash growled angrily at him.
“Oh…I’m going to be having some major fun with ya…” Jack cracked his knuckles while some of us groaned.
“What does he mean?” Kodi wondered.
“They aren’t gonna fight, are they?” Carrie asked her brother, who pinched the bridge of his nose before replying “Oh trust me Carrie…I’m afraid that they will…but in their own way…”
“I just hope that they won’t go too far…” Fluttershy frowned a bit. Well…I hope so too, but I’m afraid that’s a 1% chance of them ever stopping from their grudge against each other.
“G-Guys…can you all like maybe go now…please?” Jamie began coughing violently and was groaning with a pale look.
“Oh right! We’ll get going!” I nodded.
“Ren, what about me?” Kodi asked. I turned to him with a slight frown, wondering if I should bring him with us or let him stay here. Well actually, maybe…
“I think maybe you should stay here and protect the others. I know this is hard, but can you at least do that for me?” I suggested, much to Kodi’s shock.
“But what if…you know, if something happens to you guys and I’m not there to call for help.” Kodi wondered with a worried look.
“Don’t worry bud, we’ll be alright. That I promise you.” I assured with a soft smile before scratching him from behind the ears. Kodi chuckled before smiling at me and replied “Okay…just promise me that nothing will happen to you.”
“I promise.” I vowed, raising my hand with a smile.
“Pinkie promise?” Kodi raised a brow, which made me sigh before doing the thing.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Everyone chuckled at the scene as Twilight cleared her throat and said “Now come on you two, let’s head out and find that Crystal Heart.”
“Alright, let’s go and Carrie…” Mason turned to his sister with a soft smile and said “Please…be safe with the others.”
“Okay big brother…” Carrie nodded.
“Don’t worry, we promise that we’ll keep her safe.” Kaede assured.
“Alright then, we’ll be heading our way then.” I smirked before turning to Fluttershy and kissing her by the forehead. “And don’t worry Flutters, I’ll be alright.”
“Okay, good luck Ren.” Fluttershy smiled. “I promise that I’ll try my best to get everyone happy and I hope you’ll do great.”
“Mm-hmm.” I smirked before turning to Mason and Twilight, who nodded as we began to head out while Jamie stood there and tried to concentrate, but due to using magic for something like this for the first time, it’s struggling for him to keep it intact to make Sombra not coming his way towards the Empire.
“Twily, Mason, Ren, be careful.” Shining called.
“We will.” We answered with confident looks before we all headed out to search for the Crystal Heart. I know we can search for it!…H-huh? What in the? What was that? I swore that I saw a shadow…what in the world is going on? I’m not seeing things, am I?
Meanwhile
Kodi’s POV
Man, I should have gone with Ren. I’m so worried about him….he’s my best friend and it’s my job to protect as his best friend. He would’ve done the same for me…but…what can I do? I’m stuck here with the others on keeping the Crystal Ponies happy as ever.
While I walked around with Carrie and Kaede as we inspect every one last of the Crystal Ponies while Rainbow Dash went off to tell the others who weren’t with us about what we discovered and what we have to do.
“I really wish big brother, Ren, and Twilight would bring us along with him.” Carrie wondered.
“I know, I wish I could have done something but I think we might be able to get everypony happy as long as we give them a good time.” Kaede assured with a soft grin. “I mean, it can’t be that hard, right?”
“Well yeah.” I nodded. “It wasn’t that hard the first time when we started out this Faire.”
“Oh yeah! Maybe if we showed them many games, we can get them more excited than ever!” Carrie grinned happily.
“That’s actually a good idea.” Kaede nodded before noticing a bunch of Crystal Ponies were trying to shoot their mark with a bowing arrow, but kept dropping the arrow.
“Aww…I can’t do it…” He groaned, which made us frown.
“Poor guy…” Kaede muttered before smiling softly before walking over and said “Excuse me, do you want me to help you?”
“Oh, can you do this?” He asked curiously, which Kaede nodded.
“Well…I did Archery once a while back, but haven’t done it in a while.” Kaede admitted with an awkward grin. “But I’m sure that it’s easy. You just need to stay calm and be focused on your target.”
“Focus…on your target?” A female Crystal Pony asked curiously.
“Yes, if you stay focus, then we know that you can do it.” Kaede smiled before she helped the pony that previously shot the arrow as she held their hooves as they slowly pulled a crystal-like arrow from the back of the string of the arrow. “Now…focus on the target, and time it well…and…shoot!”
They both shot an arrow and it made a bulls-eyes on the middle of the target, much to the Crystal Ponies’ joy.
“Wow! I really did it!” The male Crystal Pony exclaimed in joy, transforming into his crystallized form. “Thank you so much ma’am!”
“Anytime. Anything I can do to help.” Kaede giggled.
“Wow, that was so amazing! I never knew that you were so good at Archery!” The female Crystal Pony grinned happily.
“Yeah, neither did I.” Kaede nodded before frowning a bit. “Huh…neither did I…”
“Kaede, what’s wrong?” I asked, walking towards her and whimpering in concern.
“Well…it’s what they said…it made me realize something…” Kaede hummed. “I never knew that I could do archery, and…it was just like before back on Nightmare Night where I was shooting those weird shadow demons. Ren even gave it to me…like he knew that I could do that…”
Well actually, she does have a point. But that was the only weapon that Ren saw that you could use, and he was believing in you. So…what’s the problem with that? However, as I kept thinking, I heard Kaede groaning as she placed her hands on her head with a struggled look on her face.
“K-Kaede! What’s wrong?!” Carrie asked in concern.
“Ugh…I feel as though I’m having a headache…Ngh!” Kaede gritted her teeth as she began feeling that headache.
“Kaede!” I called, giving her a worried look.
“Ugh…my head…” Kaede slowly opened her eyes and rubbed her head. “What…did I just saw?”
“What do you mean?” Carrie asked. “Did you see something?”
“I-I think…it was some palace…and…it looked almost like…the Crystal Empire…” Kaede groaned, rubbing her aching head. “I don’t understand…why did I see that?”
“Really?” Carrie tilted her head till she began to groan and held her head. “Ow…my head…”
“You too Carrie?!” I asked in shock.
“H-hey Carrie! Calm down!” Kaede bend down and placed her hands on her shoulder with a concern look. “What’s wrong?”
“Ugh….” Carrie groaned before she let out a gasp. “I-I saw it too! I saw a palace that looked almost similar to the Crystal Empire!”
“So looks like we remembered the same thing…” Kaede placed a hand on her chin. “But…what does it mean? Why…did we remember this place? I mean…I’m no architect or archaeologist or whatever job relates about finding places around the world back in our world, but I know for sure that it didn’t existed in our world at all. I wonder what it means…”
“ALRIGHT! YOU ARE SO ON FATTY!”
“BRING IT SKITTLES!”
Huh? What the? What’s going on?!
“What was that?” Carrie wondered.
“I don’t know, let’s go and find out what’s happening!” Kaede suggested.
“Right!” I nodded as we immediately followed the trace of that loud sound. We all past through the crowds while I barked at some of them, catching some of the ponies’ attention as they moved out of the way for us as we managed to get in the front, bumping into Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie in the process.
“Hey you guys, what’s going on?” Kaede asked.
“Uhh…I’m not sure how to explain this, but…” Applejack pointed her hoof right in front of us as we looked and saw Jack and Rainbow were standing around in a field wearing armor. Well…only Rainbow Dash was wearing a weird crystal-like armor while Jack only wore the helmet and they held large poles.
“Ooh! Ooh! This is gonna be good!” Pinkie cheered, eating a bag of popcorn.
“Hey, can I have some?” I asked with a pleading look.
“Sure!” Pinkie nodded before giving me a hoof-full of popcorn, which I happily ate.
“But…shouldn’t we stop this?” Carrie asked.
“Well they did say that they were gonna entertain the rest of the Crystal Ponies by having a competition, so I should have saw this coming…” Kaede sweat-dropped.
“Oh…” Carrie nodded. “But I never seen something like this. I read about it, but I forgotten what it was.”
“Well don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll go easy on each other.” Fluttershy assured before muttering “I hope…”
“Get ready Skittles! I’m gonna crush you so hard that I’ll probably sit on you on my butt!” Jack pointed his butt in front of her and grins at her, who snorts at Jack.
“Please, I like to see you try!” Rainbow rolled her eyes before cracking her hooves. “Now then…let’s see what you got!”
“You goddamn right! YAAAAAH!”
“AAHHHHH!” Both Jack and Rainbow Dash charged at each other with determined looks till…
BAM!
We all gasped upon seeing Jack being sat on by Rainbow Dash after she managed to push him out of the way.
“Ha…you were saying?” Rainbow grinned teasingly, chuckling to herself while Jack growled angrily as her tail smacked him on the face, adding more to his fury.
“Well that’s a bit awkward…” Kaede sweat-dropped.
“Yeah, but it looks like the crowd likes it.” Applejack pointed out.
“Well I guess maybe their contest really is working!” Carrie smiled happily. “But why do they always fight like that?”
“Cause they’re stubborn, that’s what Carrie.” Applejack answered bluntly.
“Like you?” Carrie asked, which made Applejack chuckled sheepishly.
“Yeah…just like me.” I couldn’t help but snicker at that till I noticed something that caught my scent. Curiously, I began sniffing around the ground and searched for the source of that smell till I came over and saw Spike running towards the palace.
“Spike?” I chased after him through the palace till I managed to caught up to him as I called “Spike, what are you doing?”
“Rainbow Dash told me and Rarity that Twilight went out to go and find the Crystal Heart!” Spike explained. “That’s why I need to hurry before it’s too late!”
“But they said that they can handle this!” Kodi assured. “I trust them, so you should too!”
“B-but Twilight’s the best friend I ever had, other than Ren and Mason! I can’t let them do this on their own!” Spike retorted, which made me frown. I understand how he feels, but I trust Ren and the others. I know they can do this. There’s no reason for Spike to go and do this alone. But…
Suddenly, my thoughts were cut-off as we heard some growling, which made the both of us turned around and saw a familiar raccoon racing towards us with a frantic look on his face.
“Gizmo?” I raised a brow of confusion as he immediately came over, holding a book and a photo in his little arms.
“What’s he trying to say? I can’t understand him at all.” Spike shrugged with a bewildered look. I took the time to translate what he was trying to say, along with the little gestures he made.
“I think he’s telling us that something happened to Rantaro and Nicole, and he apparently gotten some items that they found a while back while they went away from us.” I translated before forming a confused look. “Wait…what happened?”
Gizmo twiddled his fingers and began making more cries to us, and by ‘us’, I mean ‘me’ since I can understand what he was saying.
“Oh…so they were taken out and were dragged away by someone.” I smirked before me and Spike bulged our eyes in shock.
“Wait what?!” We exclaimed in shock.
Gizmo showed us the book and the photo, which Spike picked up and looked through them, including the photo. One look at it and we saw two fillies, one was a mare that we haven’t recognized and the other…well…I saw his eyes and I recognized those eyes anywhere!
“Is that…King Sombra?!” I exclaimed in shock. “W-Why is he in this photo?!”
“I don’t know…but something is definitely strange!” Spike exclaimed as he looked through the book. “I mean, whoever wrote this was telling us some details about Sombra. In fact, I didn’t even know this guy even lived here.”
“Really?” I walked over and began reading the book before widening my eyes upon seeing the contents of this. “Whoa…whoever wrote this must’ve known Sombra. But…wait, he lived here?”
“Apparently so. Heh, I guess this guy is doing this for his own reasons. I guess probably because it states of how he was mistreated and all that for being a unicorn.” Spike skimmed through the book with a curious look. “But this book and that photo are really important clues that we need to show to the others!”
“Wait, what about Rantaro and Nicole?” I reminded him. “I mean, we can’t just leave them behind! We need to go and look for them!”
“But Twilight and the others…!” I gave Spike a very serious look and exclaimed “We can’t just leave them behind like that! Ren would never do that! He would always stay by their side and help his friends just like he did with some of us! Even Flutters! Are you saying that we should abandoned them for good!”
“N-No…that’s not what I meant. It’s just that…” Gizmo glared at Spike, who flinched as the two of us continued to glare at him. Spike let out a groan before saying “Fine…we’ll go save them. But once so, let’s go find Twilight, Ren, and Mason.”
“Thanks Spike!” I grinned happily. “And sure if Rantaro and Nicole are difficult to interact, but we know they aren’t so bad people. I can tell by smell.”
“By…smell?” Spike asked incredulous.
“Yeah.” I smiled while Spike scratched the back of his head with a sweat-drop.
“No offense dude, but I highly doubt that.” I gave Spike a pout, which made him chuckled sheepishly. Hey! I ain’t lying! I can so smell their feelings and I know for a fact that they aren’t bad people! Even Ren believes that!
Suddenly, our conversation came to a halt as we turned back and saw Gizmo calling out for us, and gave us a glare.
“Oh right! Sorry!” I apologized sheepishly before turning to Spike. “Now come on! Let’s head out and find those two!”
“O-Okay.” Spike nodded before hopping on my back. I turned to Gizmo and nodded, who smirked before getting on my back as well before he kicked me by the hip, causing me to yelp.
“O-Ow! Hey!” I glared at Gizmo, who smiled innocently. He so did that! How could he?!
“Who cares?! Just follow their scent!” Spike exclaimed before he looked down at Gizmo. “Gizmo, do you know where they went?”
Gizmo nodded before he pointed to the end of the hall, which I managed to do as we ran straight towards the end of the hall and what we saw was a painting of a pony princess.
“Well…is this the spot?” I asked as Gizmo nodded before jumping off my head and made the painting tilted, forcing the wall behind it to fall back and slide out of the way, revealed a secret passage.
“Whoa!” Spike and I exclaimed in awe. “So they went down here?”
Gizmo nodded before hopping on my back again before kicking me again, making me yelped again.
“Ow! Quit it!” I growled, which made Gizmo laughed. I swear, this raccoon really just love showing off.
“Hey you guys, let’s focus on finding Rantaro and Nicole! Right now, they could be in danger!” Spike reminded us.
“Oh right…let’s head out.” I nodded before looking towards the secret passageway. “Man…I just hope we can find them in time.”
“Me too…” Spike gulped before turning to Gizmo with a worried look. “Are you sure that they went through here?”
Gizmo crossed his arms and nodded firmly, which made the both of us gulped.
“W-well…we got no choice. We have to save them…” I slowly formed a determined and serious look as I gazed at the secret passageway. After all, Ren wouldn’t abandoned any of his friends. He would have done the same and encouraged us to keep going. That’s why…I’m gonna keep moving forward with hope in my heart. For Rantaro and Nicole…
“Let’s do this…” I began trekking down the secret passageway alongside with Spike and Gizmo on my back as we began to head out through this tunnel while the door behind us slowly closed. Well…there’s no turning back. Now it’s time to focus and save our friends! For our friends…and to my best friend, Ren.
Ren’s POV
“So if I were the Crystal Heart, where would I be?” I thought aloud as we explored some hallways around the Crystal Empire’s palace. “I mean…it’s going to be hard since he might have placed it somewhere that we wouldn’t expect. That’s a classic thing villain loves to do.”
“Well we need to focus on where it could be.” Mason replied, covering his mouth while he was in deep thought. He soon turned towards Twilight and asked “Twilight, what are your thoughts?”
“I think I might know where King Sombra hid the Crystal Heart.” We turned to Twilight with surprised and confused looks.
“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“I’m talking about the throne room.”
“The throne room?” Mason asked.
“The more I think about it, it makes sense to begin with.” The throne room, huh...Wait…
“Hold on, is it because that since everypony is afraid of Sombra, they wouldn’t dare enter the throne room? And because of that, it might be the only place he could have hidden the Crystal Heart?” I guessed.
“Correct, and I thought that it might be the first place we could check out.” Twilight nodded.
“That sounds right about that.” Mason hummed in agreement. “Hmm…I wouldn’t be surprised if he did hide it somewhere in the throne room.”
“Exactly!” Twilight smiled.
“Well I hope you’re right.”
“You and me both, you guys.” Twilight gulped before we began to head out towards the throne room. Hmm…it looked pretty fine like any normal throne. I mean, I’ve seen Celeste and Lulu’s throne room, so of course I had a feeling about it.
“Alright, how about we split up?” Mason offered.
“Good idea Mason. We can search out much more faster.” I nodded in agreement before forming a determined look. “Now let’s hurry before that shield breaks! I’m not sure how long Jamie can hold onto it but I’m sure he can hold it as long as he can.”
“Right!” Twilight and Mason nodded before we all ran different different directions around the throne room.Twilight looked behind the throne room while I searched through the curtains and Mason was looked around through the doors that was inside of the throne room.
However, despite looking through every nook and cranny, we were coming out short…
“Ugh!” Twilight growled exasperatedly. “Did any of you guys find anything?!”
“No! Not at all!” Mason shook his head, having an upset look on his face. “This is no good!”
“H-hey, don’t feel bad you guys. We can’t give up that easily.” I said with a soft smile. “Right now, we need to keep looking.”
“You’re right Ren. It’s gotta be here somewhere.” Twilight nodded, trying to think as hard as she could. “It’s just gotta be! It has to!”
“Yes…but where?” Mason wondered as I looked around till I noticed a crystal on top of the throne. I stared at it till a memory flashed through my mind back when we were talking about the Crystal Empire, and the crystal that Celeste used to show us a hologram of the empire….That’s it…I wonder….does it work on mine.
I took out my Hacking Gun and aimed it at the crystal before shooting a ‘Link’ bullet.
“Link!” I shouted, shooting it directly at the crystal as the other two looked back at me and saw the crystal interacting with the ‘Link’ bullet, causing the crystal to shined brightly at it, showing off many different colors.
“I knew it! It’s really one of the crystals that Celeste was talking about!” I exclaimed.
“Ah! Celestia’s orders!” Twilight smiled brightly. “Ren, you just made me realize something!”
“What do you mean?” Mason asked curiously.
“Well she said something about the power of the crystals here in the empire. If it Empire is filled with hope and love, those things and reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold…”
“Then it’ll bring despair and chaos!” Twilight finished, which I nodded. “Of course! It makes sense!”
“I see…but how can it to be?” Mason questioned.
“Because this isn’t King Sombra’s castle.” I answered, which Twilight nodded.
“Exactly. He may have lived when he was in power, but it didn’t look like this at all.” Twilight pointed out before turning to the crystal and closed her eyes, focusing real hard till we saw sweat forming around her face as a dark green beam was shot right out of her horn, with her eyes showing the same menacing look the Celeste showed us back at Canterlot when demonstrating Sombra’s powers. The dark green beam shot towards the large purple crystal, causing it to turn dark before its shadow surround half of the throne room. We moved out of its way as the shadow revealed a secret stairway just in the middle of the throne room.
“Cool! A secret stairway!” I exclaimed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Clever.” Mason muttered. “I’m surprised that you managed to see that, Ren.”
“Heh heh, well I’m not dumb.” I scratched the back of my head with a sheepish grin. “It just…sorta hit me. But anyway…where did you learn that Twilight?”
I turned to her with a surprised look but held a smile on my face.
Twilight smirked and winked at us before replying “That was a little trick Celestia taught me.”
“Whoa, that’s pretty impressive. I guess that’s why you’re her faithful student.” I chuckled.
“Indeed.” Mason nodded with a soft smile before we heard loud rumbling. “Huh?”
“What in the world was that?!” I exclaimed before rushing towards a nearby window before letting out a gasp, seeing the barrier nearly fading away as those dark clouds began forming around and some started swarming through the inside, turning some of the crystals into dark color.
“Dammit!” Mason cursed himself. “Jamie’s shield is nearly fading away! This is bad! We need to hurry as fast as we can!”
“Right! We have to hurry before it’s too late!” I nodded in agreement before running towards the stair till I was pulled by Twilight as she held by the hoodie with her magic. “What is it Twilight?”
“Ren, we need to be careful!” Twilight warned with a cautious look. “We’re not sure if Sombra made any traps down here.”
“Twilight may have a point there. We need to be cautious.” Mason nodded, forming a stern look.
“Right…sorry.” I apologized as Twilight let go of my hoodie as we all gazed down at the dark stairway, seeing it endlessly go down to the bottom. Frankly, there were so many stairs that I couldn’t even see where it ends. I couldn’t help but feel nervous about going down there, but right now, we can’t give up after coming this far onto searching for the Crystal Heart.
I took a deep breath and held back my fears as I said “Come on you guys…let’s go.”
Twilight and Mason nodded as we began heading down the stairway. Twilight used her horn to shine some light as we continued to descend straight down towards our way towards the Crystal Heart. Like seriously, did Sombra like walked all the way down here? If so, then I’ll admit…he’s crazy. Although, I really wish this guy had an elevator…
Later
“Phew…made it…” I sighed in relief as we finally arrived to the bottom of the stairs till I fell flat on the floor while Mason walked over to me and helped me up before asking “Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah…just so many stairs…I-I’ll be alright…” I panted, wiping away the sweat off of my forehead. “Like seriously, why did he make so many stairs?”
“Don’t know, but that’s not important.” Mason remarked. “Right now, what’s important is finishing up the mission on finding the Crystal Heart in time. Jamie’s power is nearly draining as we know right now.”
“Yeah…I know.” I nodded before turning to the far back of the room and the moment I did…
“Huh?” What the heck? A…door? And it looked pretty normal. That’s…totally not suspicious, huh?
“What the? A door? A door to what though?” Twilight wondered before walking over to it.
“Whatever it is, it’s obviously a trap. We need to be careful, Twilight.” Mason wore a cautious look on his face. “Something about that door seems to be way too obvious yet dangerous.”
“Yeah, it’s obviously a trap.” I nodded.
“I appreciate your concerns, you two. But I’ll be alright.” Twilight assured as she raised her hoof towards the doorknob, but the moment she did, something hit her on the forehead as she immediately fell on her butt.
“Twilight!” We both shouted and ran towards her with rising concerns on our faces. “Twilight, are you alright?!” I asked in worried.
“Ugh…huh? What the?” Twilight soon opened her eyes, showing off a green aura around them as we gasped and took a step backed.
“Oh no! Is Twilight possessed or something?!” I exclaimed in shock.
“I-I’m not sure…but I did warned her not to open that door!” Mason growled. “Now what?!”
“P-Princess Celestia? What are you doing here?” Wait what? Celeste? But she isn’t even around? What is she talking about? “W-What? Go where?…I don’t understand! The test? I…You didn’t say anything about no longer being your student if I failed!”
“Something’s wrong…” Mason muttered, looking back at the already closed door. “And it leads to a dead end…was this a trap?”
“Hold on, let me try to do something to help Twilight.” I offered, taking out my Hacking Gun and aiming it straight at her.
“W-Wait! Ren! What are you-”
“Link!” I shot a heart-shaped truth bullet with rainbow colors at Twilight, hitting her by the forehead and it made her stop from whoever she was talking about and stood back up till I turn off the effects of it.
“Ugh…” Twilight groaned, rubbing her aching head. “What in the?”
“What? But Ren…how did you know that would work?” Mason asked, looking at me in surprise.
“I…don’t know. I just…knew.” I shrugged, not knowing how I did it too. Huh…it’s strange, but I guess because it worked before with that purple crystal.
“Ugh…what? What just happened?” Twilight asked us with a raised brow.
“I don’t know. You just opened that door and moments later, you just were talking to yourself while your eyes were glowing green.” I explained, pointing over to the door as I walked over and opened it, but the moment I did…
I felt as if everything I was seeing turned blurry, like I was being swirled around in a vortex or something. It felt as if…I was dying…I…felt…so ill…
….W-Where am I….?
“There he is! Get him!” H-Huh? I turned to my back and saw crowds of people running towards me.
“H-Hey! What are-What’s going on?!” I exclaimed in shock before I began running off in fear. “Leave me alone!”
I kept panting as my feet kept pushing me through. No matter how tired I was, I couldn’t get caught! I…don’t want to die! I want to live! I’m…supposed to be the hope of this world! One of the last fragments of light to save us all….Wait, what am I saying? What is all this?
“GET BACK HERE!”
“ABOMINATION!”
“WHY DO YOU GET TO LIVE?!”
“WHAT ABOUT US?!”
I…didn’t asked for this…I never wanted to be a part of this…I….why me? Why no on else….
I’m…just a normal kid. I…just wanted a normal life. Why did I have to be a part of this?
“Ren….Ren….Ren….REN!”
H-Huh? What the? Where…am I?
SLAP!
“Ow!” I winced upon feeling my cheek turning red from whatever I just felt. I rubbed my cheek in pain before looking over and saw Mason was the one who slapped me.
“There we go…you had me worried there.” He sighed before forming a stern look. “What were you thinking?! Do you just seriously just opened that door and ended up the same way as Twilight?!”
“W-well…how was I supposed to know that it would have happened?” I scratched my injured cheek with a frown. “I-I didn’t mean to…just wanted to see what was the problem.”
“And I think you would have known from the start.” Mason retorted with a deadpanned look before letting out a small smile. “But either way…I’m glad you’re alright at least.”
“Same here.” Twilight nodded in agreement, walking over to me. “Are you okay Ren?”
“Y-Yeah…I think so…” I rubbed the back of my head with a sheepish grin before looking back at the door. “But seriously, what the heck is up with that door? I think I nearly gotten traumatized with a nightmare the moment I opened it.”
“Really? What did you see?” Twilight asked in concern. I scratched the back of my head, trying to remember the sequence of events I experienced just now.
“Well…I looked like I was running away…from a bunch of people.” I explained, placing a hand on my head. “But…that’s all I can remember.”
“Being chased by a bunch of people?” Mason wondered, scratching his chin in thought before looking at me in surprise. “Wait…did those people call you by any names?”
“Yeah…but why do you ask?” I asked curiously.
“Because that was a similar dream I had back when me and Carrie were getting used to Equestria.” Mason explained, much to me and Twilight’s shock.
“What?!” We asked in shock.
“Yeah…I dreamed about something like that, but I’ll explain that another time. Right now, we need to focus on our mission to save the Crystal Empire from Sombra.” Mason stated.
“R-Right…but there’s a dead end.” I pointed out, looking back at the door.
“Ren’s right…but there has to be a trick on this door.” Twilight says otherwise with a serious look. “Sombra wouldn’t make this stairway and a dead end down here.”
“Good point…” I nodded in agreement before noticing something that caught my eye. It was a small green crystal embedded onto the top of the door. Wait…that looks like…No way! I think I got it.
“Hey you guys, I think I got an idea and a way to solve this little puzzle.” I grinned.
“Great! What is it?” Twilight asked. To answer her question, I quickly took out my Hacking Gun and shot a ‘Link’ Truth Bullet at the green crystal, causing it to turn into a rainbow color before the dead end that circled around the door into a path.
“Whoa!” Twilight exclaimed in shock while Mason widened his eyes in surprise. Mason immediately walked over to me and turned to me before asking “H-How did you know that would work?”
“I…don’t know.” I chuckled sheepishly. “I swear…I just knew…”
Mason stared at me for a while before sighing and replied “Ren…you are strange sometimes…”
Meh, I take what I can.
“Umm…guys?” We turned around to find Twilight looking through the doorway and gave us a sheepish smile. “I think the trip to find the Crystal Heart is gonna take a while.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked in confusion.
“Twilight…what’s else is over by the path?” Mason questioned, hoping for a good answer. However, that gotten crushed with what she replied back.
“Stairs…lots and lots of stairs.” Twilight grinned sheepishly.
“Is it that bad?” I asked before Mason and I walked over and looked through the doorway, and…holy crap! That’s a lot of stairs! It’s like we’re climbing all the floors in Tartarus! Dang it, that was one of my problems I had when playing Persona 3! Well…hopefully we don’t encounter shadows while walking through here.
“….Never mind…” I sighed, sweat-dropping.
“Well…it’s best if we don’t complain and move on.” Mason suggested. “What do you say…leader?”
“Huh? Me?” I asked in surprise.
“Well yeah, you seemed qualified to be one, which I am kinda surprised saying so considering that you’re a year younger than I am.” Mason chuckled. “Besides, you’re the first human to ever wake up to this place and know how it goes, so you’re basically a leader to us all, even Twilight leads the other girls.”
“Hmm…a leader…” Wow, this is straight out from the Shin Megumi Tensei series. A leader….well I’m not that good at doing stuff like this. But…I wouldn’t mind.
“Huh…I guess I can try.” I shrugged before looking upwards to the staircase. “So looks like we gotten no choice, huh?”
“It would seem so…” Twilight sighed before looking over at the dome. “I just hope Jamie’s doing alright…”
“Same here…” I nodded in agreement before looking at the dome nearly falling down. Jamie…please be alright.
Meanwhile
Jamie was sweating nervously as he was getting a really massive headache upon using his newfound magic powers to keep the dome intact out of Cadance’s place.
“Stay calm Jamie. You need to stay calm.” Shining stated sternly while he laid Cadance on the couch.
“I-I’m trying…but this headache…” Jamie coughed. “I don’t feel so good…”
“I know how you feel, it happened with me and Cadance, but try to hold it in longer…” Shining remarked before looking over at the horizon, seeing the barrier nearly down as he sees the dark clouds leaking out of it and turning some of the crystals outside into dark crystals. Shining gritted his teeth while Jamie kept groaning in pain.
“I-I….can’t back down…not like this….ugh…” Jamie groaned, trying to overcome his headache. “Twilight…Ren…Mason…hurry….please….”
Later
“So up for another round fatty?”
Back at the Crystal Faire, Jack have been having a massive losing streak by the many jousting matches he had with Rainbow Dash. Apparently, she’s been way too strong, even against him against a simple match as this!
“S-Shut up…!” Jack hissed, getting all sweaty from the many matches he had with her. “Ugh…how the hell am I losing to ya, Skittles?!”
“Maybe I’m too good against someone like ya?” Rainbow Dash laughed while the crowd kept chanting Rainbow Dash’s name. Jack growled a bit while the others looked at them in concern.
“Why are those guys keep on fighting? Aren’t they gonna tire themselves out?” Carrie asked in worried.
“I don’t know why, but this is so exciting!” Pinkie giggled, wearing a jester outfit before blowing through a flugelhorn that was filled with popcorn at the end.
“Pinkie Pie, darling, would you stop doing that?” Rarity asked politely, getting rid some of the popcorn out of her mane.
“I want to stop this, but knowing those two…” Applejack shook her head with an annoyed look. “They’re the stubbornest bunch you would ever find here in Equestria.”
“Yeah, but it looks like the crowd’s enjoying it at least.” Kaede chuckled sheepishly as Jack and Rainbow Dash gotten ready for their next jousting match.
“Whoa dude, you sure you wanna keep on going? I mean, you may be strong fatty, but I’m starting to get worried about ya.” Rainbow looked at Jack with a slightly concern look.
Jack scoffed as he replied “Don’t act like I have diabetes. My whole family have a whole history of never catching diabetes…and I’m not gonna lose to ya!”
“Well if you say so!” Rainbow grinned boastfully before charging towards him, which made Jack charged towards her till…
BAM!
Everyone winced and flinch upon seeing what happened. Apparently, the two crashed into each other with Jack groaning before looking over and to his shock, he felt something touching his lips. Specifically, Rainbow Dash’s lips. Ever since the charged at each other, they landed on top of one another and had their lips touched each other.
“AHHHH!” The two screamed in shock, immediately getting off of each other with horrified looks.
“What the hell Skittles?!” Jack yelled out.
“You tell me why my lips touched yours! Ugh!” Rainbow stuck out her tongue and tried rubbing it to get rid of his germs. “I swear! I think I touched some of your sweat with my mouth! Blah!”
“Shut it!” Jack hissed angrily. “You kissed me!”
“Well I told you to not keep on fighting me in this jousting match!” Rainbow shouted.
“Well maybe you should have stopped as well!” Jack retorted.
“That doesn’t make any sense fatty!”
“You make no sense, Skittles!”
The two began bickering at each other while the others sighed and sweat-dropped.
“There they go again…” Kaede smiled awkwardly. “You know, seeing these two like this makes me think they’re a couple.”
“You aren’t far off there.” Applejack nodded before noticing one of the Crystal Ponies looking over at the Crystal Heart. “Whoa nelly! Be right back!”
Applejack ran over and went to stopped the Crystal Ponies from looking over at the fake Crystal Heart.
“Oh man, these guys are really persistent onto wanting to see it.” Kaede muttered, forming a worried look.
“Why is that?” Carrie asked curiously.
“Well they haven’t seen the Crystal Heart for years, Carrie darling, so I guess they really do wanna see it.” Rarity suggested. “So they’re really so persistent, almost like those two.”
They looked back and saw Jack and Rainbow Dash kept arguing over and over.
“Yeah.” Kaede sighed, placing a hand on her head. “Though, I wonder how the others are doing.”
“Me too…I hope big brother will do alright.” Carrie sighed. “But I’m more worried on Jamie.”
“Don’t worry you guys! Jamie can do it!” Pinkie grinned.
“But Pinkie, he might be suffering just like Princess Cadance.” Fluttershy reminded, forming a worried look. “What if something happened to him?”
“Jamie’s smart just like Twilight, so I’m sure that he’s doing alright!” Pinkie waved it off while Carrie looks around and noticed that they were missing someone.
“Huh? Hey, where’s Kodiak?” Carrie asks in worried.
“Kodiak?” Kaede and the others looks around and noticed that they haven’t seen him. “Weird, he was just here a while ago.”
“Well I’m sure that he’s probably around the festival and enjoying it. I mean, what’s the worse can it happen?” Rarity shrugged, but that seemed to make things even worse as they noticed the barrier glitching many times while they saw not that many Crystal Ponies attending the Crystal Faire.
“Uh oh…Spaghetti-O!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock, putting her hooves on her cheeks and squished them together.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Kaede asked in concern. “Jamie couldn’t be losing control of it, right?!”
“Oh no!” Carrie muttered in fear. “Big brother…big bro Ren….Twilight…please hurry.”
“Everypony just stop!” Applejack shouted, which made the others looked over and saw Applejack struggling to make the other Crystal Ponies go away.
“Jeez, how persistent are these ponies?!” Kaede exclaimed in shock before the gang headed over and stood by her side in order to calm down the scene. “Please! Calm down everyone!”
Meanwhile…
“Oh, so that’s it huh?” Rainbow Dash growled angrily. “You wanna go there, fatty?!”
“Of course I do Skittles! Let’s have another round, one last round where we’ll determined the winner!” Jack yelled out. “And it doesn’t if you won many times, this one will decided or not I win!”
“Yeah! The fate of an entire empire rests on us showing these ponies a good time!” Rainbow Dash grinned cockily. “But don’t back down that easy fatty! I’ve got a reputation to maintain!”
“Well I’m gonna have a new reputation on what everyone’s gonna say, right guys?!” Jack turned to the others, only to find them missing. “Huh? What the?”
“What’s going on over there?” Rainbow Dash wondered, pointing over to where the ‘Crystal Heart’ would be held.
“Don’t know, but it doesn’t look good.” Jack took off the armor and put the coat back on like a cape. Rainbow Dash discarded the armor off of her body as the two rushed over as Fluttershy kept begging them to leave.
“P-Please everypony, let’s all talk this through calmly. Can we just please calm down a bit?” Fluttershy asked.
“The hell’s going on?” Jack asked, standing near Carrie and Rarity.
“All of the Crystal Ponies wanna see the Crystal Heart.” Carrie answered.
“What?!” Jack exclaimed in shock before turning to the crowd. “Well too bad! Just hold your damn horses and just wait!”
“But we wanna see the Crystal Heart. It’s been so long since we’ve last seen it, and we wanna see if it survived after being kept by King Sombra for so long.” The librarian Crystal Pony stated.
“Yeah! It’s one of our last ruler’s greatest treasure. We want to see it for ourselves! Please!” Another Crystal Pony begged.
“Excuse me, pardon me…but how about we talk this through sometimes later? I made several straw hats that you all might love.” Rarity takes out a small straw hat and wanted to give it one of the Crystal Ponies, but none of them were interested other than the Crystal Heart.
“We can’t! So you all have to please relax!” Kaede pleaded.
“This is bad….” Applejack muttered. “Twilight, Ren, Mason, you all better hurry. These ponies are mighty curious than a kitty.”
“Meow?” Rosy popped her head out of Kaede’s backpack, overhearing the little expression Applejack made.
Everypony else began murmuring to each other, most of them wondering why are the gang were keeping them from seeing the Crystal Heart.
“Tch…these bastards are upsetting the crap out of me.” Jack growled.
“But I wanna tell them the truth, but we can’t because big brother, Ren, and Twilight told us that they’ll be back with the real Crystal Heart.” Carrie whispered to Pinkie, who nodded before happily replying “Don’t worry! I’m sure hope that time comes soon! Even I can’t keep this party forever!”
“W-well…we can still try.” Kaede remarked, overhearing what she said. “There’s got to be something we can do to make them go away.”
“How about this? I’ll just go over and make them go.” Jack suggested, glaring at the Crystal Ponies which made some of them back away from his glare.
“No! We don’t wanna make them scared, Jack! We need to have them stay happy!” Applejack sternly told him, which made him scoffed.
“You do your thing, and I’ll do mine.” Jack scoffed.
“Well I’m sure I can keep on entertaining them while I still of my Pinkie juice inside of me!” Pinkie grinned, twirling some plates while balancing them on one hoof on top of a ball. Everypony stared at her in surprise, wondering when did she get the time to changed her clothes but decided to let it go because…well, she’s Pinkie Pie.
Unfortunately, she accidentally trips and falls on the ball, dropping the plates till one of them hit the pedestral, causing it to tilt and fall over, making the ‘Crystal heart’ fall and break into many pieces.
“…Oops.” Pinkie muttered sheepishly while the rest of the Crystal Ponies stared in horror upon seeing it break so easily till they realized why.
“T-This isn’t the Crystal Heart.” One of the Crystal Ponies gasped.
“O-of course not!” Kaede chuckled nervously. “I-I mean….the real is just-”
“On its way!” Applejack answered, which made Kaede widened her eyes in horror before exclaiming “I-I was gonna say being polished to buy us some more time!”
“Oops.” Applejack gulped while some of the Crystal Ponies began murmuring to each other in shock.
“Why? Why would you lie to us?” The librarian asked.
“We didn’t even know that it was real! It’s not our fault you idiots couldn’t remember a damn thing all because you’re all scared of some damn pony who enslaved ya all!” Jack scoffed.
“Jack!” Kaede scolded.
“What? I’m just saying what comes to my mind.” Jack huffed.
“But you didn’t need to say it harshly. Big brother would have said something like that in a polite and calm way.” Carrie pointed out, which made Jack scoffed.
“Please, like they could have handle anything.” Jack scratched his butt a bit before glaring harshly at them, which the Crystal Ponies flinched in fear. “Now listen up! Just hold your tails already ‘cause that damn thing is coming! Now shut your mouths up and mind your own businesses, OKAY?!”
The rest of the Crystal Ponies gulped in fear while the gang face-palmed at him while Carrie frowned a bit.
“Jack…you do realize that we’re trying to keep them from being scared.” Kaede sighed.
“Well it could be worse.” Pinkie shrugged till they felt a harsh wind coming towards them as they all turned around and to their shock, many crystals were slowly turning into dark crystals till they saw the face they hoped to never see again.
“I-It’s….it’s him!” A random Crystal Pony shouted before running away in fear while the dark clouds formed into King Sombra’s face, which made the other Crystal Ponis run away in fear.
“Oh no! This is bad!” Kaede exclaimed in shock.
“W-What are we gonna do?” Carrie asked.
“The best way we can do is keep everypony safe from him!” Applejack suggested, which the others nodded in agreement. Suddenly, they noticed something out of the dark clouds as it began forming shadow-like animal monsters.
“EEK! What are those?!” Fluttershy squeaked in fear.
“Hey, aren’t those the same things that attacked Ponyville?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Wait what?!” Jack asked.
“They attacked us while we celebrated Nightmare Night last time before you or the others showed up.” Kaede explained. “But why are they spawning out of Sombra?! Is he doing this?!”
“I don’t know the reason why, but I rather try to stay alive Kaede!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Well good thing we got your back!” Rainbow grinned, pounding her fist into her hoof.
“Yeah…I needed to blow off some steam.” Jack grinned cockily, cracking his knuckles.
“Jack, Dash, are you two gonna be alright?” Carrie asked in concern. Rainbow Dash and Jack looked at her with smirks as the latter replied “Don’t start crying, we got this.”
“Yeah, I’ll help too.” Kaede offered, stepping up.
“What? But how? You don’t even have a weapon.” Rainbow Dash pointed out. Kaede soon realized that she was right. She didn’t even have a weapon to begin with, so where can she get one? Unless…
“Wait!” Kaede ran towards to the nearby bowing arrow booth and grabbed the weapon she needed. Kaede formed a determined and serious look before saying “Alright, I’m ready!”
“Huh? A bow and arrow?” Rarity asked in confusion.
“Wow Kay, I never knew that you can shoot arrows!” Pinkie said in awe.
“Well this will be my third time shooting one, so I guess I’ll still give it a try.” Kaede answered sheepishly before noticing a nearby shadow about to attack a small Crystal Pony filly and their mother, prompting her to pick out an arrow and shoot at the monster, causing it to disperse and disappeared once it gotten shot down.
“Whoa nelly! Now that’s some shot you got there, Kaede!” Applejack praised.
“Heh, nice shot.” Jack grinned before seeing more and more shadow monsters approaching them, much to his annoyance. “Oh great, more of these damn things.”
“No worries! I’ll try and protect Carrie along with the other Crystal Ponies!” Rarity offered.
“Me too! Besides, I-I’m not that good as a fighter…” Fluttershy admitted, blushing a bit in embarrassment.
“No worries Fluttershy, you’re still amazing! Even Rarity since you two are gonna protect me and I’ll protect you both as well!” Carrie smiled brightly. “Because that’s something my big brother would have done for anyone, even Elena.”
“Oh Carrie…” Rarity smiled happily while Fluttershy cooed at the response Carrie gave. “That’s so lovely.”
“Hey loon! Fluttershy! How about less talking and more getting the fudge out of here!” Jack demanded, which earned a huff from Rarity before she began carrying Carrie on her back while Fluttershy flew with them hoping to protect some of the Crystal Ponies.
“You sure we can hurt them? I mean, we only know that Ren can damage them with that Hacking Gun of his, so how could we solve this?” Applejack wondered.
“Well it also worked with Mason’s staff, and one of those arrows I shot, so it might work.” Kaede shrugged, preparing another bow as the shadows began approaching them. “But right now, we need to protect this place before they tried to harm the others!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Can we get into the fighting?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Yeah! I’m already getting bored with this damn conversation! Let’s just do this!” Jack exclaimed as one of the shadows tried to attack him, but he punched it away, causing it to disappear.
“Well alright! Let’s do this!” Rainbow pounded her fist before charging into one of the shadow bear monsters that almost looked like a Ursa Minor as she went straight through its body, causing it to disperse before the others began fighting off the rest of the shadow monsters.
“Ren…Twilight…Mason…please hurry! I’m not sure if we can hold them and King Sombra for this long!” Kaede thought before firing another arrow straight towards another shadow raccoon monster.
Later
Ren’s POV
“Huh?” Weird…I could have sworn that someone was thinking about me. Huh…weird.
“These stairs are impossible…” Mason sighed. “I wouldn’t be surprise if Sombra created this as another trap?”
“You mean, like…infinity stairs that goes on forever and ever?” I suggested, which he nodded.
“Exactly my point.” Mason nodded. “If that was the case, then it would be a problem for us.”
“Wait, hold on.” Twilight halted. “I got an idea!”
“Great, what is it?” I asked curiously.
“Hold on to me.” Me and Mason looked at each other with raised brows before shrugging as we held onto Twilight before her horn started glowing before she did something and in a few seconds, we all felt the air turning before we saw everything turned upside down. I mean, we didn’t feel the steps but the back of them. “There! A lot better!”
“W-Whoa…what did you do?” I asked.
“Well, I managed to use a zero gravity spell to make the stairs turned upside down for us to easily skate through!” Twilight explained happily. “Now hang on tight you guys!”
“O-Okay!” I nodded.
“Just be careful Twilight! I wouldn’t want your brother to worry what happens if you do something so drastic like this.” Mason warned with a cautious look.
“Relax Mason! I’ll be fine! Now let’s…go!” Twilight began skating through around the stairs while we followed her, skating down while I held onto her for dear life along with Mason who was skating down behind her just in case she might tripped and keeps an eye from behind.
“Whoa! W-We’re really going way too fast!” I exclaimed in shock and joy.
“Whoooooooooahahaha!” Twilight laughed with an excited smile on her face. “I actually studied gravity spells, thinking it might be on my test! Turns out I was prepared for this! Woooo-hoo!”
“Well I’m glad that you’re enjoying this!” Mason smirked before we felt a loud explosion. “What in the?!”
“What was that?!” I exclaimed before noticing the barrier slightly breaking.
“Oh no! Jamie is nearly losing control! Oh, I should have known that even with his newfound magic, he wouldn’t been able to control it! After all, he just started using magic the moment those cutie-marks appeared on his cheeks!” Twilight wore a worried look on her face before she scrunched her face into a look that showed her serious side.
Well technically…she always takes things serious.
“Well let’s get go!” Me and Mason nodded before we began reaching to the end and finally arrived to the top of the tower.
“Phew, we made it!” I chuckled with a smirk on my face before getting off of Twilight and looked around the place. Hmm…looks like any normal looking tower. Now where’s that…
“The Crystal Heart…” Huh? Oh right! The Crystal Heart! I looked at where Mason and Twilight were gazing at and saw the Crystal Heart, shining brightly as ever around a pedestal. Okay, so how in Equestria did I miss that?
“Strange…it’s just floating there peacefully.” Mason thought aloud. “Something’s not right…”
“I’ll say…” I nodded in agreement before noticing something that caught my eye. That shadow…I swear that I just saw that! Or is it just my imagination? No…it can’t be. So what was that?
Beware…of the shadow…that shadow…that hurts your friends…is a trick…
Huh? What the?! Ugh…my head…I swear, I’ve been getting some headaches the moment I arrived to this place.
“Twilight, wait!” Huh? I looked over at Mason, who was trying to call Twilight with a stern look before gazing over and saw her attempting to take the Crystal Heart.
“Mason, we have no time! Right now, we need to get the Crystal Heart to the others before its too late!” Twilight reminded, but the moment she made contact with the Crystal Heart…
We all heard a petrifying alarm. It was so loud that it made my ears nearly destroyed. However, we saw giant crystals surrounding where Twilight was as she immediately threw the Crystal Heart away from where she stood as it landed straight into my arms.
“W-What the?!” I exclaimed in shock as the alarm kept bleeping off.
“Twilight!” Mason called as we ran towards her and attempted to break those sharp crystals out of there.
“Hold on!” I quickly took out my Hacking Gun and aimed it directly at the sharp crystals and shot ‘Burn’ multiple times. But no matter what, there was no scratch. “Whoa…what is this thing made out?!”
“Hold on, let me try something!” We heard Twilight called before we saw her teleporting right in front of us. She held a smug grin till more crystals surrounded her.
“Well that was unfortunate…” I sweat-dropped.
“Ngh! It’s no use! Wait, where’s the Crystal Heart you guys?!” Twilight called for us.
“We have it! It’s in Ren’s hands!” Mason called before taking out his bamboo pole. “Now hold on! We’ll be able to break you out of there!”
“No! Don’t!” Twilight yelled. “It’s no use breaking me out! Ugh, you both can move, just not towards me! How could I have been so foolish? I was just so eager to get it! Then…ugh!”
“You have to get out of there, Twilight!” I yelled out. “You have to be the one who brings the Heart to Princess Cadance! If you don’t, you’ll fail Celeste’s test!”
“King Sombra is already attacking the Empire! He could reach the Crystal Ponies at any moment…reach Princess Cadance, my brother, my friends. There may not be enough time for me to find a way to escape!”
We heard the crystals slowly began to come towards her and crush her.
“No, we won’t leave you like this!” Mason stated sternly.
“No, it can’t be me! It has to be you two to bring the Crystal Heart to the Faire!”
“Us?” I asked incredulous. “But Twilight-”
“Go!”
“But-”
“Goooo!”
“Ugh…it’s no use.” I sighed before looking down at the Crystal Heart. “What can we do Mason?”
“Ngh…I…don’t know but I don’t want to leave her like this. I have to remain to her side and not let anything happen to her, and yet…this happens…” Mason clenched his fists angrily with a frustrated look on his face.
“Mason, it’s not your fault.” I shook my head and smiled at him. “Maybe you can still be loyal to her if you do what she said!”
“Huh?” Mason looked at me with a bewildered look as I continued “Being loyal doesn’t mean that you have to stay by the person’s side closely like that, but to fulfill the promises we made to them and that’s what we’re gonna do!”
“Ah…” Mason stared at me in surprise before smiling softly and nodded. “Alright! Let us go before it’s too late.”
I nodded as the two of us prepared to take our leave till…
“Ngh!”
“Ah!” W-What the?! What’s happening to us?! W-We can’t move…
“Ahh…it’s such a shame. You two were really so close on trying to save this empire from me.” H-Huh? Who said that?
Soon, Mason and I slowly turned our heads and saw our shadows slowly rising out of the ground as it revealed to be a pony with red eyes with deep scarlet pupils, his mane was black, his goat was dark gray, and he wore a coat that looked like a king would wear. Wait…that can’t be…!
“Greetings humans, the pleasure is all mine.” I slowly widened my eyes in shock along with Mason’s as we both slowly realized who that was.
“Y-You’re…!” He walked over to us and swiped the Crystal Heart from my hands by levitating it away from me.
“Ahh…so you have heard of me? Well, the pleasure’s all mine. You may call me…King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire.” King Sombra laughed as me and Mason tried to break out of our positions, but whatever he’s doing is making us hold us frozen.
“You two must feel uncomfortable since I’m controlling both of your shadows to hold you back.” King Sombra grinned at us darkly as I looked down and saw a pair of hands holding my feet. “Now with the Crystal Heart in my hooves…I shall not only retake the Crystal Empire, but all of Equestria as well!”
“Y-You monster…you…how did you?!” Mason demanded, only to receive a laughter from him.
“Why it wasn’t so hard, really. All I did was hide in your shadows in plain sight and swarm around the place to try and remember where I last put away my lovely Crystal Heart. But now…I guess it’s time to use it’s power for his purposes.”
“H-Hold on…!” I called, trying my best to break free of his control. “W-Wait a minute…if you’re here…then…who’s attacking the Empire then?!”
“Oh…you’re curious, aren’t you?” King Sombra smirked. “Well…if you must know, he’s someone that you’ve all would have known…or possibly remembered.”
“W-What?” What is he talking about? Who’s he talking about?
Meanwhile
Back at the Crystal Faire, the whole group of Crystal Ponies were being hidden away in many booths away from the shadow monsters that were coming out of the dark cloud.
Kaede was firing a bunch of arrows to one or more monsters that tried to hurt a nearby filly.
“Go on! Hide!” Kaede pleaded, which the filly did without hesitation.
Applejack used a lasso to wrapped around a bear-like shadow’s feet before tugging it, causing it fall down before she ran away and apple-bucked it into next week before it dispersed.
Rainbow Dash blasted her way through the dark clouds and destroyed some of the shadow monsters, along with Jack who was crushing them with his punches and body slam, along with some of his grappling moves.
“Damn! Just how many of these things are there?!” Jack exclaimed.
“As long as that dark foggy cloud keeps getting in the way, we won’t make any progress!” Applejack yelled out before apple-bucking another shadow-like monster.
“Oh yeah?! I’ll take care of this!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before flying straight in the air towards the dark cloud.
“Rainbow Dash! Wait!” Kaede called, but it was too late as Rainbow Dash started punching and kicking the clouds away till they shot straight towards her, pushing her away as she begins to crash land straight towards them.
“WAAAHHHHH!” She screamed in agony.
“Somebody catch her!” Kaede called.
“Hold on Skittles!” Jack races over and manages to catch her, despite being crashed into the ground with her. He lets out a grunt before slowly getting up and helping her up.
“U-Ugh…h-huh? Fatty?” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“H-hey…don’t worry…never leave someone behind as I always say…” Jack weakly smiled, putting her down and brushing himself off. “Heh, I may have been hurt but I don’t care…but next time, try not to do anything stupid.”
“Oh please, that would been the first thing you would have done.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, which made him blush.
“F-Fair point…”
“Man…is this guy persistent or what?” Kaede groaned before glaring at the giant dark cloud that was showing off evil eyes of the supposed King Sombra. “Ugh, what’s your deal Sombra!? Why won’t just stop?!”
“Stop?” A voice spoken up from the clouds, but this one was slightly different from the last time they heard it when they were escaping from its clutches. “Why stop the fun Kaede Ross? We are just beginning.”
“H-Huh?” Kaede asked in surprise. “W-who said that?!”
The two humans and two ponies looked over and saw the shadow demons forming around the cloud as a figure slowly makes his way, his mask shining bright red through the visor.
“What the hell is this?! Some cheap knock-off of the terminator or something?!” Jack scoffed, but he was relatively shocked from what he was seeing.
“I’ll say…just what is he?!” Applejack demanded.
“Well I don’t know who, but he’s not King Sombra! That’s for sure!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before flying straight towards Void till a shadow hits her as she flies and crash lands onto the ground.
“Skittles! You alright?!” Jack asked, running towards her as well as the others.
“Ohh…where am I? W-what? What am I doing back in Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash asked herself, slowly getting up with green eyes. “W-W-Why…is everyone…No! No! What happened?!”
“S-Skittles?!” Jack asked in shock, holding onto her as she began flinching around.
“W-What’s happening to her?!” Kaede asked.
“That varmint must’ve put a spell on her!” Applejack glared at the mysterious individual. “Who are ya anyway?! You aren’t King Sombra!”
“Mmhmhmhmhm! Indeed I’m not! You all may call me…Void.” Void introduced himself with a bow. “That is all you all shall get from me.”
“What?” Kaede asked before flinching, along with Jack as they began experiencing some massive headaches. “Ugh…my head…what’s happening?”
“Ngh! What the hell?!” Jack grunted, holding his one hand onto his head. “Ugh…seriously?! Right now?!”
“Mm….it would seem that you all are having a slight chance of remembering. Well, it would make sense since you all don’t know me…yet.” Void chuckled, folding his arms as his shadows began manifesting into something huge.
“W-What are you…talking about…?” Kaede asked.
“Well…it doesn’t matter young Kaede Ross. Now…it is time that I bring you all into true hope and end all of your pain, misery, and despair.” Void clenches his fist as his shadows formed together and created into a giant shadow monster that resembles an Ursa Major.
“W-what?!” Kaede gasped, her headache is slowly dying out. “Look at the size of that thing!”
“Ngh…dammit!” Jack hissed, looking at the size of that thing before looking down at Rainbow Dash, seeing her flinch around with her eyes beaming green from the spell Void cast on her.
“N-No! Why didn’t I do anything?! Why them?!” Rainbow Dash cried out. “I-I….AHHHH!”
“Calm the hell down, Skittles!” Jack yelled out, but she kept screaming and squirming around before glaring at Void. “You bastard! What the hell did you do to her?!”
“I given her ‘hope’. She now wishes her hope to become stronger.” Void explained.
“What hope?! You’ve given her some sort of bullcrap!” Jack exclaimed till the shadow Ursa Major let out a mighty roar straight at Jack’s face. “Ngh! Damn beast!”
“Jack! Get Rainbow Dash out of here! Kaede and I got this!” Applejack offered.
“What?!” Jack asked in shock.
“She’s right! It’s the least I can do to prove you guys that I can help!” Kaede held the bow and arrow in her hands. “Just hurry and take Rainbow Dash back with the others for safety and try to snap her out of that!”
“Tch…! I ain’t gonna leave your punk flanks behind!” Jack yelled out till he saw the Shadow Ursa Major tried to attack him till Kaede shot it with an arrow, causing it to yell in agony.
“Just go! We got this!” Kaede pleaded.
“….Heh, you got guts girl! I love it!” Jack smirked before he ran away, carrying the panicking Rainbow Dash in her arms while leaving Kaede and Applejack by themselves.
“You know, you could have gone too Kaede.” Applejack remarked, but Kaede shook her head and smiled at her friend.
“Well…I wanna help all of you! There’s no need to worry! Let’s go!” Kaede smirked, raising her bow in front of the shadow Ursa Major while Applejack sighed and shook her head before smiling at her.
“Well alright…let’s do it!” Applejack grinned as the two prepared to fight against the thing while Void floated around the dark clouds with an amused chuckle.
“Mwahahahahaha! Yes! Let me witness this and we can truly see ‘true hope’!” Void laughed manically as the Shadow Ursa Major lets out a mighty roar towards the two as they prepared to fight against this new mysterious foe.
“I don’t know who you are or how do you know my name…” Kaede raises her bow and prepares to fire her arrow, not noticing that the arrow was glowing a bit. “But I won’t let you let you harm any of my friends or these innocent ponies!”
She fired her arrow at it made its way towards the beast as it let out a roar and prepared to fight back.
Meanwhile…
Ren’s POV
“Ngh…I can’t believe it…so that’s someone else?!” I asked in shock.
“That indeed and you all fell for it!” King Sombra laughs as a dark portal appeared behind him. “Now if you excuse me…it is time if I head down and release the rest of my kind.”
“W-What?” I asked in confusion.
“No! Let go of the Crystal Heart this instant!” Mason demanded, trying to move his body but it was still frozen.
“Sorry…but I got some business attend. Father wouldn’t want me waiting.” King Sombra laughs, holding the Crystal Heart in his magic aura as I tried to get him out of my sudden frozen prison, trying to focus as hard as I can.
Come on! Come on! I can’t let Twilight or anyone down! I made a promise to them and we all intend to protect the Crystal Empire for all of my friends!
Suddenly, I felt something out of me as a great flash of light appeared out of nowhere, blinding all of us. Ugh…this feeling…I felt this before…haven’t I? I swear that I felt something like this before…
The light…within….you…still…lives…on…you have…the power…to save…me…
“What?” I mumbled before opening my eyes, finding Mason still blinded by the light along with King Sombra. I looked around and saw myself moving now before seeing King Sombra and the Crystal Heart still in his hands.
“AH!? What is this?! He told me that your powers were already gone! Could it be…that it’s slowly being healed right now?!” King Sombra hissed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking, but now isn’t time time!” I exclaimed, holding onto my Hacking Gun. “Sombra…give us back the Crystal Heart! We don’t have to do this! I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Funny…neither do I, but I guess we can’t have things. Now die!” King Sombra fired a dark green magic beam which I side-rolled out of the way and shot a ‘Break’ bullet at him, knocking him away as he dropped the Crystal Heart on the ground.
I immediately saw this as my chance and ran over to it before grabbing it back into my hands.
“Ah-ha! I got it!” I smiled brightly upon having the Crystal Heart till I was met with an angry Sombra as he immediately tackled me straight into the dark portal. “OOF!”
“R-Ren!” I heard Mason called over as me and Sombra went through what felt like…death. I don’t know what you call it, but it’s making me feel I’ve been dead before…ugh….man, I’ve been having a lot of headaches before.
Suddenly, I felt the ground hitting me as I let out an groan before slowly getting up, and saw Sombra on top of me, much to my surprise.
“Ugh…you!” King Sombra hissed, getting off of me and glared towards me with his horn glowing dark green in a benevolent way. “Where’s my Crystal Heart?!”
“C-Calm down! Look, we don’t have to keep on-” However, before I could say anything, I saw that the Crystal Heart was gone. What the?! But…it was straight into my hands! I swear. “…What the?! I-It’s gone!”
“WHAT?! By who?!” King Sombra demanded before he glared at me darkly. “You have five seconds mere human or else I’ll kill you!”
“W-Wait! Calm down!” I said, getting up and holding back my Megaphone Hacking Gun. “Please…we don’t have to fight.”
“Too bad…I’m still going to destroy you-Huh?” What? What’s he looking at? I turned around and saw a red-cloaked pony walking up the steps of this dark crystal-like place and I saw that pony carrying…
“The Crystal Heart!” I gasped, alerting the pony before it began running upwards the stairs. “Hey! Come back here!”
“Give me back my CRYSTAL HEART!” King Sombra screamed, his voice echoing throughout the halls as the both of us tried to catch them till we saw some shadow-like creatures popping out of the corners of the halls.
“Oh crap!” I cursed myself before Sombra turned to the demons and shouted “Silence! What is the meaning of this?!”
The shadows didn’t respond as it jumped towards him, much to his shock. I quickly took out my Hacking Gun before using ‘Break’ bullets at them, knocking them out before they dispersed into nothingness.
“What?! But…Father told me that the shadows would respond to me no matter what they’re doing! What is the meaning of this?!” King Sombra demanded.
“What?” I asked in confusion before seeing more shadows appearing behind us. “Oh crap! We need to get out of here!”
“What?! I will not run away that easily from these mere shadows!” King Sombra scoffed, but I shook my head and said “But we can’t! There’s too many of them!”
“Do you know who you’re talking to?!” King Sombra growled angrily at me. “I am King Sombra! The Pony Whose Heart Is As Dark As Night!”
“Well actually, I only just know you.” I pointed out, much to his irritation.
“Doesn’t matter! What matters is that I will not run away in a fight!” Crap! He’s too stubborn to listen to anything! Hmm…there’s gotta be a way to convince him…Wait! I got one!
“But if you waste your time around here, then what about the Crystal Heart?” I reminded. “That figure could be doing whatever he is with that Crystal Heart right now, but right now! We need to hurry before it’s too late! Come on Sombra, I mean, maybe you see me as a enemy, but I’m not gonna kill you!”
“Tch!” King Sombra scoffed, causing me to sweat-drop a little. Jeez, just what’s his problem? “…Fine, but you owe me!”
“T-Thanks!” I smiled a bit before shooting down a nearby shadow with ‘Knock-Back’ before we began running away straight through the corridor. We kept running till we saw the figure walking into the shadows.
“There he goes!” I called, pointing at the end of the hall.
“I know that human! Now shut up!” King Sombra scoffed before the two began running towards the hall till he was grabbed by a shadow from the leg. “Ugh! You ignorant little! Let go of me!”
“Sombra!” I called before taking out my Hacking Gun and taking it down, destroying the Shadow in the process, much to Sombra’s shock and bewilderment.
“H-Human…you saved me? But-”
“Umm…not to be rude to you, but maybe you can tell me till after we escaped from those crazy shadows!” I suggested, grabbing his hoof and immediately pulled him away from those crazy things as we rushed towards the shadow-like end of the hall before running through it and managing to make it to the other side, finding ourselves in some weird room with stairs leading somewhere.
“Huh? Where are we?” I wondered.
“Who cares?!” King Sombra scoffed before glaring at me. “And frankly, I don’t care for you to save me. I would have done it myself, human.”
“Well I was just helping you dude. There was no way I would leave you behind like that.” My response seemed to make him gone a bit shaken by what I said.
“W-What? And why’s that? Not after from what I’ve done?” King Sombra asked. “Have you never heard the tales of me conquering the empire? Anypony, even a mere human with half a brain, would know that I’m the most powerful villain in all of Equestria!”
“I know…but I feel as though there’s more to than just that. I mean, where did you come from and why did you conquer the Crystal Empire back then?” I questioned. “Look, I know this might not be none of my business to you, but I don’t want to fight you. I swear.”
“….You are definitely idiotic.” King Sombra replied bluntly. “I don’t want your pity and I have my rights. I don’t need anyone.”
“Well…alright. But I won’t attack you if you don’t attack me, how about that?” I suggested.
“Just stay out of my way, human. It’s time for me to retrieve my Crystal Heart to conquer all of Equestria!” King Sombra barked up another laughter before making his way towards the stairs.
“H-Hey wait!” I called, chasing after him before we finally made our way through the stairs and arrived to rather another strange room. This room had a large door with a chain lock with a peculiar lock on it, but we weren’t alone. We not saw just the red cloaked pony figure holding the Crystal Heart in their hooves, but we also saw a couple of my old friends.
“Rantaro? Nicole? Kodiak? Spike? Gizmo?!” I exclaimed in shock.
“Ren?!” Nicole looked at me, a bit bewildered to see me.
“Oh great, and just when we needed rescuing, you show up.” Rantaro grumbled. “Oh well…just hurry before that crazy mare tries to unlock that door.”
“What? Why?” I asked. “W-Who is she?”
“Ren!” Kodi raced over and began licking my face, causing me to laugh. “There you are! I thought I would never see you again!”
“Kodi! Stop! That tickles!” I laughed while the others walked over to me.
“Ren, what are you doing here?!” Spike asked before glancing at King Sombra as he walked past us and went to confront the red cloaked figure. “With King Sombra of all ponies?! Are you insane?!”
“Ren…something’s happening up there right?” Nicole asked, which I nodded.
“Yeah, and I tried to grab the Crystal Heart from King Sombra, and we ended up here where you guys are.” I explained. “So what is this place? Why does it look like Tartarus?”
“What? This place? It doesn’t even look like Tartarus.” Spike raised a brow of confusion.
“No, that kind of ‘Tartarus’ I mean. I mean the one from Persona 3. I mean, it nearly looks like the place.” I clarified. “All we need is that giant clock entrance that leads us to the dungeon and we’re sorta in.”
“…Huh?” Spike asked in confusion.
“Ignoring that, care to share what’s up?” Rantaro asked with a rather annoyed look. “You guys now just learned about the Crystal Heart?”
“Yeah, but-”
“You guys just realized that it was real and instead used a made-up one, right?” Nicole guessed, which took me out by surprise before nodding. “I see…but it looks like we have no time left. We have to stop her!”
“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“ENOUGH!” Whoa! That nearly caught me off guard! We immediately turned around and saw King Sombra confronting the red cloaked pony.
“I recognize you! You are that foolish fool that tried to intercept me before managing to hold back to allow that foolish human and insolent pony escape before I transformed into a small shadow to hide into their shadows before they could enter the Crystal Empire!” King Sombra glared angrily at them. “But now is not the time! Hand over the Crystal Heart or else!”
However, the figured remained silent, much to Sombra’s anger.
“Are you deaf?! GIVE ME THE CRYSTAL HEART!” King Sombra screamed.
“She won’t listen. She’s under their control.” Rantaro answered.
“She?” I asked in confusion.
“…..” The figure remained silent before slowly uncovering her hood, revealing herself which seemed to made King Sombra widened his eyes in horror as I saw his face slowly turning pale.
“W-What is this…? N-No…you…I thought…it’s not possible…” What? Why is he acting like that? I never thought I would hear him trembling like that before.
“So…you do recognized her, eh?” Rantaro sighed. “And I thought that the big bad king like you would instantly forget his own sanity the moment he turned to the darkness.”
“What? What are you guys talking about?” I asked in confusion. “And who that mare? She’s…kinda creepy with that blank look of hers.”
“Ren…I sensed that you must know that King Sombra wasn’t always evil, huh?” Nicole guessed, which caught me by surprise a bit before nodding. “Well…you were right on the key. But it seemed like they influenced his mind just like they planned when he first arrived to the Crystal Empire.”
“What? What are you guys talking about?” I asked in confusion.
“Jeez, and I thought you had some sort of hidden intelligence inside ya. Use your head.” Rantaro sighed. “King Sombra isn’t a pony…he’s an Umbrum.”
“An Umbrum?!” I exclaimed in shock. King Sombra’s…an Umbrum?! But I thought he was a unicorn because…well, he has the horn and all that! “Hold on, how do you guys know about that?!”
“You don’t have to lie. I knew that you were hiding something the moment we headed into the train towards here.” Nicole explained. “But we gotten a better view on them when she took us.”
“She? You mean that mare?” I asked. “Who is she again?”
“Don’t know, but she’s pretty scary and hasn’t said a word when me, Spike, and Gizmo found them!” Kodi explained.
“Well…if ya want to know, why not ask your shadow unicorn friend over there?” Rantaro shrugged. “You know…to save the suspense. I’m already wasting my time explaining it to a kid like you.”
Is…that a reason? Well…I guess I won’t mind.
“Hey Sombra…do you know this mare?” I asked in confusion, but I saw the horrified look on his face. Wow, never thought that he could even show that kind of face despite his crazy yet arrogant look.
“……No….Hope…?” Huh? Hope?
I slowly turned to the mare who was holding onto the Crystal Heart in her hooves as she gave us a blank look.
“…Hope….it can’t be…” King Sombra widened his eyes in shock as we all stared at the red cloaked pony. So…is her name ‘Hope’? What a weird name, but then again, everyone around here has weird yet funny names.
“Watch out…!” Nicole warned, narrowing her eyes sternly towards the pony.
“What? Why?” I asked in concern and bewilderment.
“That pony…she’s under their control.”
“They’re…control?” I asked in confusion.
“You don’t get it, do ya? Did you even listen to our conversation?” Rantaro asked with an annoyed look. “She’s being control by the leader of the Umbrum Army.”
I widened my eyes in shock before turning back at the said pony, who was giving us a blank look still, unfazed by anything.
“No way…” I sputtered out.
“Radiant…Hope…” King Sombra muttered.
I don’t get this…how does King Sombra know her? And…what does she mean under the control of the Umbrum? What’s been going on?!…Is anyone gonna answer my questions as I keep rambling on?!
To Be Continued