“I don’t know! She was acting like that since that black masked weirdo touched her and done something to make her see something!”

“Hey…you don’t have to feel sad…I mean…she told me that she forgave you, and she felt guilty for letting her superstition get the better of her.”

“I’m sorry…my power…is weakening..I’m afraid…I won’t…talk to you…any longer…”

“True…but you looked like you were feeling upset and sad at the same time, and besides…I know that it wasn’t your fault. People and ponies like you needs some kindness to sympathize with them.”

“Crystal Heart…I need it…I need it to complete my mission to destroy all life in Equestria…IT’S MY DESTINY!”

My Little Pony: Ren’s Adventures In Equestria

“Oh my god!” I screamed, quickly dodging Sombra’s dark magic beam as I was running away from him.

“GIVE ME BACK MY CRYSTAL HEART YOU FOOLISH BEING!” Sombra demanded with the craziest look you would ever seen.

“Okay, can’t we just talk about this?!” I begged before quickly aiming my Hacking Gun at him. “I don’t want to hurt you dude, but you’re kinda making me do this the hard way instead of the easy way.”

“You dare speak to me?” Oh boy…I don’t like the tone of that voice. “YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT?!”

Yep…he’s really upset. I’m so in trouble, am I? Oh well…I knew this wasn’t going to be easy anyway in the first place.

“Um…Break!” I squeaked, firing a ‘Break’ bullet straight at him, but Sombra used his dark magic beam to destroy it for good.

“So…you want to play it that game? I see…well prepare to die.” Sombra grinned cruelly before his horn started glowing as something came out of his shadow and took the form of a black sword with a red handle and a glowing green eye on the hilt.

“I’m already on it, boy!” I quickly ran out of the way before Sombra could slice his dark sword straight down where I last stood.

“Dude, just chill out! We’re all trying to help you!” I called, hoping to get that through his skull, but he gave me a death glare and scowled at me.

“Help? I don’t need help from a hairless freakshow like you!” Again with that…does people like calling us that? I mean, it’s starting to upset me a little on being called like that. Oh crap, it’s the sword again.

I quickly raised my Hacking Gun and used it block the hit as he started pushing me back, causing me to grit my teeth and struggle.

“Sombra…Stop it!” Hope begged, looking at Sombra from afar with a scared and concern look. “This isn’t you!”

“Of course it is, Hope…this is the real me that I was destined to be.” Sombra grinned darkly, staring straight at me with his eyes glowing green…in a creepy way. “I was destined to be the ruler of Equestria, destroying all my enemies and those who opposes me…I shall destroy them all…”

“Sombra, please!” Hope kept pleading, nearly at the verge of tears. “I know that you wouldn’t want to hurt you! The Umbrum and Rabia are using you and making you do all these things! You need to remember!”

“She’s right…! If she’s really your best friend, what about the good memories you two had?!” I asked as well, glaring at Sombra as I tried pushing myself back to him against his sword. “Was that all…just pointless?!”

“I don’t need a foolishly foolish fool and Hope to tell me what to do!” Wait, did he just make a Phoenix Wright reference? Well I’m sure he doesn’t know, but not to me, I do. “Now…die you foolish mortal!”

“Ah!” I flinched before falling on my butt, dropping my Hacking Gun as it slid away far away from me.

“This time…I will rule Equestria just as I was destined to!” Oh crap-baskets! This really isn’t good…! I can’t die…! I can’t let my friends down! “You fools will not get in my way and Hope can stand by my side as my queen…just like we want…”

Sombra begins laughing hard as his sword prepares to finish me off till something but him on the flank, causing him to scream loudly before turning to see Kodiak biting onto his flank.

“You stupid mutt! Let go of me!” Sombra demanded as he attempts to shake him off till he managed to lift his sword and…No!

“Leave him alone! Paralyze!” I raised the Hacking Gun in front of him before firing a ‘Paralyze’ bullet at him, straight at the horn, which caused Sombra to roar in pain and be electrocuted. Kodiak saw this and quickly let go of Sombra’s flank while he was being electrocuted.

“Sombra!” Hope called, rushing over and trying to help him. “Sombra! Are you okay?!”

“You…insignificant….foolish…mortal!” Sombra screamed, creating a powerful shockwave that blasted Hope and Kodiak away, even I flinched from it before seeing the evil craze look from his face. “You think you’re all so slick?! Well guess what?! I’ll kill every one of you to show to never mess with me!”

Sombra charges as I quickly dodge rolled his attacks from both his magic spells and the sword that he was lifting by levitation.

“Huh?” I blinked in confusion before realizing that my ‘Paralyze’ bullet affected him greatly when it landed on his horn. “Oh right…! Thansk boy!”

“Look out!” Hope shouted, causing me to quickly turn around and see him firing a dark magic beam at me.

“Whoa!” I quickly got out of the way before seeing him disappearing from the shadows. “Huh? Where did he go?”

Wait, this is just like that one boss fight where the character always disappears and attempts to-

“Gotcha now!” Oh crap-baskets! I quickly looked back and saw him appearing out of my shadow with a cruel and dark smirk on his face. He fired a magic beam from my back, causing me to scream in pain before falling on the ground.

I gritted my teeth and attempted to get back up, but couldn’t. Oh man…did he somehow paralyze me with his own dark magic?

“You foolish mortal…you cause quite the trouble for me.” Sombra scoffed, walking over to me with the sword floating around him in circles. “Say…how about we play a little game?”

“I’m not liking where this is going…” I grunted before gulping in worry.

“You give me the Crystal Heart, and I’ll let you all go.” Sombra proposed.

“Sombra, no! You do realize that we need it in order to help save our home!” Hope exclaimed.

“Home? What home?” Sombra scoffed. “I never had a home anywhere…I am an Umbrum…and my destiny was chosen by Rabius. Their destinies were carved by Father when we were created many centuries ago.”

I’m not sure who their ‘Father’ is, but I’m pretty sure whoever it is is definitely not a good person if he created dark beings like them and Sombra, and I mean no offense to him.

“IT IS!” Sombra cried out, cutting Hope out as she stares at Sombra with a shocked and hurtful look. “Nobody was willing to accept me anywhere! Despite being a pony, nobody accepted me…but even so, it wouldn’t matter since I would one day unleash the Umbrum Army upon the world just like what I was told.”

“If so…why didn’t you…?” Sombra stopped himself before turning to me as I stared right into his green eyes with a serious and calm look. “You had…plenty of chances when you…ruled over…the Crystal Empire…you could have…used the Crystal Heart…to unlock the door in the underground room…”

“Why? Why couldn’t…you do it? You sounded…like you knew where it…was…but even so…you didn’t unlock the door by using the power of the Crystal Heart…Was it maybe…you refused to do it…?”

Sombra continued to stare at me with a raised brow as I continued on my explanation.

“If so, then I know…why…it’s because…you didn’t want to hurt anypony anymore…Not…even…Hope…because you wouldn’t…forget the times…you had…for her…” I smiled softly while Hope looked at me in surprise. “Maybe…you wanted…the princesses…to stop you…to make you…realize your mistakes…”

“No…I’m serious.” I grunted, forming a soft smile on my face. “Hope saw you…as a different being…she saw…the pony she knew…since you were foals…”

“It’s not too late…to accept who you really are…the kind Sombra she knew…”

“I SAID STOP IT! I AM SICK OF TIRED TO HEAR YOU TALK!” Sombra raised the sword straight at my back and slashed it towards my spine. I closed my eyes in fear, hoping for the impact to come.

….Huh? Wait, why aren’t I feeling the pain? And…huh? My back…it’s feeling a lot better. Was I healed?

“That’s enough Sombra!” I immediately opened my eyes before feeling Kodiak licking my face.

“Hope?!” I immediately got up and saw her standing right in front of us. Apparently, she created a barrier around us from Sombra’s dark magic.

“I’m sorry Sombra, but I won’t allow you to hurt anypony anymore! Not even him!” Hope shook her head before turning to me with a soft smile. “He…makes a few good points. Why couldn’t you open the door at all if you knew where it was?”

“Ngh…” Sombra hissed. “Hope, get out of my way to finish off the brat-”

“No! I won’t! I will never do that!” Hope exclaimed, glaring angrily at Sombra. “You need to wake up Sombra! The Umbrum are using you! They used me to for when I opened the door to let them out! You need to realize that we’re puppets to them!”

“So? We are destined to finish our roles and embraced death.” Sombra scoffed.

“Sombra…” Hope frowned sadly. “I know that this isn’t what you want.”

“Then tell me what do I truly want?!” Sombra demanded, gritting his teeth in anger.

“A friend.” I answered, confusing him. “Sombra…I understand what you feel. I’ve never made a lot of friends in my place and they took advantage of me, but I never took my anger out at them. In fact, I started making a few friends in my middle school and high school days and it was fantastic. What I’m trying to say that you can’t always have destiny always control your life. You are your own pony and you need to learn to stand up for yourself. You keep believing that you don’t take orders from anypony, but you kinda are if you’re doing what your ‘Father’ and the Umbrum Army are doing.”

“Ah…!” Sombra widened his eyes before growling at me. “You don’t know anything at all about me and I don’t want anypony!”

“I know…and I won’t fight you…” I shook my head, putting away my Hacking Gun and stared at him straight from the shield Hope created for us from his sword based attacks that were attempting to slash apart the barrier. “Sombra…Hope has always been on your side. Despite being evil now, she’s still taking your side. She cares for you Sombra…and I know she does…she’s a really good friend to you if she’s able to stand up for you just like that.”

“Shut up! Enough of your talk! Just die already!” Sombra cried out, his horn glowing more larger than before.

“Even so…it’s okay. I’ll be your friend…everyone needs compassion and kindness in them.” I stated with a soft smile before taking out my Hacking Gun and aiming at his sword before shooting it down with a ‘Knock-Back’ bullet, pushing it away and down on the ground before it faded away into existence.

Since Sombra is getting way too angry and too focus on hearing me talk, he’s putting all of his magic into this one final blast from his horn. I better make this one count.

“Sombra, please listen to me!” I cried out, placing a hand on my chest. “I know that this isn’t what you want! Stop being this way and be the Sombra everypony knew back then!”

“I. SAID. SHUT. UPPPPPPP!” With that, he fired a powerful magic orb attack straight towards me. I narrowed my eyes before quickly aiming my Hacking Gun at it and…

“BREAK!” I fired a powerful Break bullet as it collided against Sombra’s giant green orb as we tried pushing them back. I quickly switched it around before aiming it at Sombra’s horn. “Sorry about this, but Paralyze!”

I shot a ‘Paralyze’ bullet at his horn, causing him to groan in pain while being electrocuted while losing control of his magic, making the giant green orb to start shrinking. Now’s my chance!

“Sorry about this as well! Knock-Back!” I shot a Knock-Back at our attacks, pushing them straight back at Sombra till it hit him directly in the horn.

You see….apparently. When those two attacks collided straight at Sombra, his horn came out and he fell straight on his back.

“Sombra!” Hope cried out before putting the shield down and quickly running towards him and picking him up by the head. “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!”

“…Phew…he’s still conscious, but his horn…” Hope glanced over at the broken horn with a frown. “I’m…not too sure what to do about that…”

“No, it’s not your fault. You had no choice…” Hope sighed sadly before she saw Sombra’s eyes slowly opening. “Ah! Sombra!”

“Ngh…what the?” Sombra slowly began waking up. “What in Equestria is going on here?”

“You…!” Sombra growled angrily before quickly getting up and glared at me. “Just for that you petty mortal, I shall-Huh?”

“Um…about that…” Kodi walked over and picked up his broken horn, showing it to him. The moment he saw, he grew shocked and rubbing his forehead, feeling the stump of where his horn was.

“I know what I did was wrong, but I didn’t know that might happen!” I exclaimed, panicking a bit. “But even so, I guess maybe you won’t try and hurt us when we try to talk to you.”

“Because they’re trying to help you too! They’re trying to wake up on realizing what the Umbrum are doing to us!” Hope exclaimed, shocking Sombra.

“Impossible…! Why would Rabia…?!” Sombra’s really lost about this whole thing. We managed to at least make him listen to us, so this is our chance. Even though, I’m completely lost in all of this as well…

“I’m not sure what you guys are talking about, but even so, you should listen to her Sombra.” I suggested, earning a scowl from him.

Ohhh…yep, that’s gonna leave a mark. Sombra blinked in shock before feeling the sharp pain in his left cheek before turning to Hope, who was glaring angrily at him.

“Just stop! Stop being like this! Just being such an arrogant good-for-nothing pony to me!” Hope cried out, glaring at him sternly. “Look at yourself! Don’t realize that we’re being used as their little toys this whole time?!”

“But Hope, don’t be like it! You could rule by my side! It is our destiny!” Sombra argued, only to see the glare from her.

“Oh really? To be your queen? I don’t want to even rule Equestria in the first place. All I want to be with you and what? That’ll be good? Then you’ll win by destroying anypony who opposes you?” Hope narrowed her eyes.

“Then what? I’m supposed to be your empress in this?! I’ll stand by your side and watch you take over Equestria and destroy all life?! Is that what you really want?!” Hope exclaimed.

“She’s right, you know.” Kodi nodded. “Sombra, I’m not sure that’s even nice to do.”

“What would you know mutt?!” Sombra glared towards Kodi, who growled back towards the black pony.

“Hope…” Sombra turned to her with a worried look and tried to reach out for her, but she swatted his hoof away and glared at him before exclaiming “Get back! I’ll be fine! If I’m going to be an empress of monsters, I ought to at least be able to stand on my own!”

“Hope…I’m sorry.” Sombra apologized with a remorse look on his face.

“Are you, Sombra?” Hope asked with narrowed eyes. “They told me this was who you would become, but I didn’t believe it. I knew there was something better in you.”

“No!” Hope shook her head vigorously before walking over close to his face. “I was a fool. You told me yourself that you were a monster. I should have listened, but I had….Hope. Foolish foolish hope.”

A foolish hope? No, I don’t think it was foolish. I think your heart was in the right place, Hope.

“You don’t understand!” Sombra took a deep breath and closed his eyes before slowly opening them with a purple mist emanating out of his creepy green eyes. “When we looked in the Crystal Heart that day, I saw this! I saw what I am now! I saw my destiny!”

“And you interfered with my destiny! No matter what you say to me boy, it won’t change!” Sombra exclaimed, causing me to frown sadly. “Rabia confirmed it. She told me I was a weapon. They made me the way I am so I could release the other monsters! I was born to be a monster!”

“Sombra, that isn’t true.” I shook my head. “I know that you couldn’t have always been a monster to everyone back then before you became evil. I mean…I may not know a lot about your past, but Hope seems to really trust you a whole lot. If so, then you two must be close friends, right?”

“But…even so…” Sombra looked away, gritting his teeth till Hope came over and gave him a stern look.

“When we looked into the heart, you hid what you said. I told you what saw.” Hm? Really? What exactly did they see? “What did you see, Sombra?”

“Aren’t you?” Sombra questioned, but she shook her head and answered “No. After what happened with you, I left my training. I went out to try and find you. To try and help you!”

“So, you never became a princess because of me?” Sombra asked, surprised to hear this.

Sombra looks at her with a disbelieved look before saying “Hope, I’m so sorry. I wanted to hurt you for turning on me. I never dreamed I’d rob you of your destiny.”

“What?” Sombra blinks in confusion before seeing the hurtful look on her face.

“You didn’t rob me of anything! I chose! I had a choice between my destiny and you! I chose you!” Hope exclaimed, showing her disgust about it.

“No more talk about destiny, Sombra! I’ve never believed in it!” Hope looked away, trying her best to hide away her tears. “You’re the only thing I’ve ever believed in. Now let’s go forge our destiny together.”

Sombra stares at her in shock, unable to figure out what to say about any of this.

“She’s right you know.” I spoken up, causing Sombra to turn to me. “You need to stop believing into the path that was chosen by you. So what if you were created just like the rest of them? You are your own pony, and you have your own reason to go on. I mean, Hope already showed that to you, didn’t she?”

“H-Huh? How…How can a mere mortal like you understand that?” Sombra questioned.

‘Well…maybe I don’t, but that’s okay.“ I softly smiled, showing my sympathies to him. ”It’s okay Sombra…we’re here for you and we’ll be by your side.“

“…Why?” Sombra stared at me with a confused look. “Why…are you siding with somepony like me? Do not know who you are?”

“We know.” Kodi nodded with a smile. “If Ren believes in you, then so can I.”

“Yeah, you may be bad Sombra but I know that you weren’t always that evil. You were just misunderstood as a kid back then.” I smiled. “I know there’s still good inside of you, and Hope sees that too.”

Sombra blinks in shock before turning to Hope, who wiped away her tears before she stared at Sombra in the eyes. Sombra looks back at me and Kodi, the latter giving him a soft smile while I gave him a nod. Sombra looks between us before taking a deep breath.

“I…don’t know…what to do…what is my…choice…?” Sombra wondered.

“Don’t worry…” I walked over to Sombra and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look at me in surprise. “We’ll help you pick the right path.”

“…I see. Very well, human child.” Sombra sighed before slowly getting up. “I’ll…leave this in your own hooves…or whatever you may call those things with fingers.”

“Okay, so it looks like Sombra woken up, now what?” Kodi wondered, looking around at the Crystal Empire’s orphanage that we were in. “How do we get out of here?”

“Huh, I never really thought of that…” I hummed in concern, looking around the place. “I mean…how exactly can we get out of the Umbrum?”

“Yeah…did I not mention that?” I awkwardly smiled, rubbing my cheek. “Sorry…”

“Tch, how typical.” Sombra sighed. “We’re trapped here without knowing a way out of here.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s a way out of here.” Hope assured, looking through her pouch as she tried to look for something that might help us get out of here. As she looks through her bag, she pulls out a familiar object to us.

“Hey, it’s the Crystal Heart!” Kodi barked happily. “Oh right, I gave it to you after Ren gave it to me since it was hard holding it in my teeth.”

“Yeah…” Hope nodded before noticing a faint glow from it. “Huh? It’s…glowing.”

“But I don’t get it…all of its powers should be drained once I destroyed the lock, so how?” Hope frowned. “This doesn’t make any sense…”

Hmm…that’s a good question. But maybe…it’s hearing our calls? Deep inside is our hopes getting stronger by each time I save my friends?

“Say…you guys said that it showed you guys something. What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

“The Crystal Heart has the power to help view a pony’s future.” Hope answered kindly. “Me and Sombra once view our future. I saw myself as a princess, but Sombra…I’m not sure what he saw, but I guess…”

“A monster.” Sombra responded, surprising me, Kodi, and even Hope. “I saw myself of who I am today…a monster…”

“Huh?” Sombra stared at me in confusion. “Human boy…why? Why are you so friendly with me?”

“Like I told Hope, everyone needs kindness every now and then, and you deserve one too.” I smiled softly. “I understand that if you were treated as an outcast, but Hope remained on your side even after you became a monster. I think that’s real friendship right there.”

Sombra stares at me in shock along with Hope. Well it’s the truth…even if he is a villain, I want to understand them on what they’re like before whether or not I want to at least help them.

However, before any of us could speak, a voice soon spoken to us all and it wasn’t neither of us.

“Ha ha ha! Really? Must you listen to what that boy say, Sombra?” Huh? I blinked in shock upon hearing that, wondering where the heck is that at.

Before long, we saw something appearing out of our shadows, revealing to be one of the Umbrums, but this one felt different compared to the others.

“Rabia?” Kodi asked, bending down a bit as he growled straight at the figure.

“Who’s that? Is he the leader of the Umbrum Army?” I asked, taking out my Hacking Gun.

“Yeah, and my supposed ‘caretaker’ from when I lived in the Umbrum’s realm for many years.” Hope glares angrily at Rabia, holding back the Crystal Heart in her hooves. “But how is she here?!”

“Yes…? I thought it was obvious.” Hope turned to me with a raised brow of confusion.

“Well…it’s just that…no offense to her, but she barely looks anything like a female to me. Well, I don’t much about the Umbrums, so I guess I have no room to talk.” I rubbed my cheek in embarrassment before turning to Rabia. “Um, sorry about that.”

“Also, can we ask how is she here?” Kodi asked, getting in front of me to get ready to protect me.

“Oh? Curious? I am actually a cognition of this world you all are trapped in.” Rabia answered. “I am merely speaking from the mind of this cognition world.”

“’Cognition’?” I asked. “Wait…do you mean an illusion that is created based on people’s emotions and personality?”

“Well I’m surprised that you managed to figure that out, young boy.” Rabia chuckled. “Did you figure it out from the places you’ve explored? It’s all an illusion created by us Umbrums’ minds.”

Well duh, I mean, I learned about cognition from playing Persona 5. Or ‘Cognitive pscience’ as they would put.

“But for now, I didn’t come here to just chat. I came here for my precious Sombra.”

“Rabia…what is the meaning of this?” Rabia grins darkly at Sombra before answering his question.

“It is nothing my dear Sombra. I was just telling you that you shouldn’t listen to what they say.” I don’t like where this is going. “Sombra…you were destined for greatness…You do not need to listen to what they say. Just listen to me and our Father to become great and powerful that you can ever hope for.”

“No, that’s not what he wants!” I exclaimed. “Sombra is his own pony-self, and he gets to decide what the future wants.”

“A foolish creature like you won’t understand anything. Sombra was destined to be this.” Rabia shook its head. “The Crystal Heart even showed his future of what he was going to be the day he and Radiant Hope viewed their futures from the Crystal Heart.”

“Then so what?” I questioned with a serious look. I felt Sombra, Kodi, and Hope looking at me, but that didn’t stop me from continuing on from what I’m saying. “Even if it did, we all have the power to change the future, right? Destiny is just something to decide what you have to do and follow a single path, but there’s more to it. You are your own person, you don’t follow the goals people set for you, you can follow your own path that you believe in. There are endless possibilities from where you can start, and Sombra can choose his path if he believes in what he believes! So do my friends!”

“Really? You truly believe that? Well your friends are right now about to lose against Father and the rest of us Umbrums.” Wait what?! That can’t be!

“Yeah right! Like I’ll believe that!” I shook my head. “And even if you do show us something, you’ll be showing us an illusion, right? Look, maybe if you guys stop this-”

“Stop? Why should we stop?” Rabia chuckled. “We are only just starting. Together, we will expand all over Equestria, destroying everything and making it a beautiful wasteland for us all.”

“Hmph! What about your pathetic species? You’ll die just like the rest of us.” Rabia scoffed, shocking him.

“Indeed! Everything that you deemed for!” Rabia grinned before sighing “But unfortunately…if that was possible.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not enough. We may be free from our realm and out invading the entire empire, but we might fear that someone will lock us once more from that door. So that’s why…”

The moment Rabia set his sights at the weakened Crystal Heart that was in Hope’s hooves, she made a smile that I saw. It was filled malice and no remorse for anything. Even the next thing she was about to say wasn’t good at all…for us.

“Sombra, destroy the Crystal Heart.” Rabia begged. “Do it for us, do it for Father, do it for me…”

“No way! We can’t let them have the Crystal Heart and destroy it!” Kodi yelled out.

“Yeah, and if you wanted to destroyed, why didn’t you do so in the first place?” I questioned.

“We can’t touch it since even without its powers, it kept hurting us every time it touched us.” What? Is that true? If so…then how did it appeared before me? Hold on…that voice…whoever that voice was…it somehow managed to protect it along with me…but how? “But since Sombra was turned into a pony, even after being trapped inside the glaciers for so long, he can be able to touch it…and that’s when we can start a new age for us Umbrums with you on the throne, ruling over these foolish specimen…You can conquer worlds, you will have everything Sombra…if you just do what I say…”

“No way! Sombra wouldn’t do that! Not after using us!” Hope exclaimed angrily, holding onto the Crystal Heart tightly.

“….Very well.” Huh?! We all turned to Sombra, who stares coldly at Rabia as he walks over and takes the Crystal Heart from Hope. “If that is what you want…”

“But wait…if you do that…!” Kodi gaped as I stared at Sombra, and saw straight through his eyes. I continued to stare at him before putting away my Hacking Gun, much to Kodi’s surprise. “Ren?!”

“It’s okay, I trust him Kodi. Let him make his decision.” I reassured with a soft smile. Hope seemed to have the same idea as I did as she backed off from Sombra and the Crystal Heart from his hooves as he stared at it.

“Well Sombra, you may smashed it into many pieces. With or without your magic, you still have the strength to destroy it! That’s why you need to do it! Do it!”

Sombra didn’t seem to hear what Rabia said as he just continued to gaze at his reflection at the Crystal Heart.

Sombra may see himself as a monster as he proclaims…but Hope sees him as a friend…and so do I…I can help him…

“You should listen to what she has to say Sombra.” Rabia grinned. “That Crystal Heart is a dangerous weapon for us. It’s the same thing that hurt us Umbrums and sealing us away to the outside world. As long as it remains whole, we’ll be locked away. If you smash it…we’ll be free forever! Smash it Sombra!”

“Because…” I formed a smile on my face. “He’s starting to choose his own destiny…”

“What are you doing, Sombra?” Rabia questioned, getting irritated by his impatience.

“Just remembering the first time I looked into this thing. It was the first time I saw myself as a monster.” Sombra explained solemnly.

“Maybe it doesn’t work if it’s not powered up. All the more reason to destroy it.” Rabia waved it off.

However, Sombra shook his head and turned to Hope as he replied “No, it’s working fine. Hope?”

Before long, Sombra formed a small smile and said the two words that we all never expected him to say.

“Thank you.” Sombra then tossed the Crystal Heart into my hands, much to my surprise. I looked at him in surprise before he smiled softly at me and said “You too human boy…Or Ren as that mutt called you. Thank you…for showing me the way too.”

“NO! Sombra, what are you doing?!” Rabia demanded with a shocked look on his face.

“Making my own destiny.” Yep, I guess after that little fight, losing his horn and listening to us what we have to say, it made him finally realize what he’s done and is making it up…by making his own path to his own decisions instead of what this ‘Father’ made for him.

“Y-You fool! How could you?! Just for that…!” Rabia glares at us all before shouting “You all deserve to die!”

“W-What’s happening?!” Hope gasped, holding onto Sombra who comforted her.

“Now you all will perish inside of us Umbrums! Disappearing and fading away out of existence within us!”

Oh no, this is Corpse Party all over again. Only except the cursing and weird fanservice, and obviously without the gore. And what do I mean? Well in the game for those who played (I am sorry for you all who have to go through that horror), learns that those who died have their existence erased. If this is following what I think it’s following, then we’re doomed.

And how do I know that? Let’s just I was naive to play it…and was too intrigued with the story that I had to look up much more on the characters and stories after playing Corpse Party PC…I was an idiot to play that…and I would rather watch it on Youtube rather than playing it myself…I still have nightmares on that little red ghost girl…

But anyway, we’re getting off-track here. Oh yeah! We all saw that the entire orphanage was disappearing and being replaced with nothing but darkness crawling through the area we were in while Rabia disappeared in sight, but not before leaving behind his or her evil laughter behind.

“I don’t know, but maybe there’s an exit.” I suggested before turning to Hope and Sombra.

“…I’m sorry.” Hope shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know how to get out of here…”

“Same here…sorry Ren.” Sombra apologized. “Well…even if we die…I guess it was nice enough to actually redeem myself on what I did.”

“Hm…thanks again Ren for waking me out of my senses. But…I am curious.” Hm? Oh, I think I know what it is. Sombra looked at me with a curious look and asked “Why? Why did you believe that I wasn’t always this evil?”

“Well…after hearing about your past with Princess Celestia, I just…felt curious, I guess.” I scratched the back of my head as I continued on with my explanation. “I mean, I had this feeling in me…Like something was off with you and your past…I thought I could at least get to figure out something more about you…besides, I guess bad guys do deserve some sympathy…Well I guess those with terrible pasts.”

Like Goro Akechi, Adachi, Loki, and any villains with terrible backstories that’ll make us cry. Well…maybe not Adachi or Akechi, but you get it.

“I see…well…I’m not sure whether that you’re brave or stupid.” Sombra sighed.

“Either way…I want to thank you for helping Sombra realize the situation and for believing in me on that Sombra isn’t evil as everypony says…” Hope smiled softly before walking over and handing me a small gray crystal. “I’m not sure if this is enough, but this has the power to light and shine off anything.”

“Well it was kept in an old room that I found in one of the secret tunnels of the Crystal Empire.” Hope explained. “Your other two human friends, Rantaro and Nicole, found it and I didn’t want them to take anything that could harm my mission to save Sombra, so I took it from them after knocking them out.”

“Oh, I think I’m starting to see how they ended up in that room.” I nodded, piecing the puzzles together. “So…you’re giving this to me?”

“Well…it’s the least I can do…and…it’s pretty much a bad time to give it to you since we are going to die…” Hope sighed sadly, seeing the darkness slowly surrounded us, giving us no room to spare.

“But even so, it was nice.” Sombra smiled softly, placing a hoof of Hope’s shoulders. “It’s the least we can do now…and…I’m happy to have you back…”

“Sombra…” Hope looks at Sombra with a soft smile before we saw the darkness slowly beginning to swallow us.

“Hey Ren, if we die…I want to tell you…” Kodi smiled softly and jumped into my arms and licked my face. “It was nice meeting you best buddy.”

You know, even if we do die and get erased from existence by the Umbrums…I’m glad to at least help out. But…I know there’s a way out of this…

I raised my right hand, which held the Crystal Heart in the air as I smiled softly.

At least I was able to at least make Sombra finally redeem himself, made amends with Hope, and realized who he really is. Like I said, everyone needs a bit of kindness and compassion to those, no matter if they’re jerks. Though…maybe I’m a hypocrite on that little saying, but still…I’ll be able to help them. That’s what a good friend would do for anyone…

As I slowly closed my eyes, I began hearing a soft voice speaking through me. A familiar voice that I recognized…the voice…who woken me from my slumber of this place…

With the birth of the Guardian of Kindness, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power.

And just like that, a bright light shined around us all before we all felt our consciousness’s slipped away.

Back at the battle on the Crystal Empire, the gang were all getting cornered by the Umbrums and Void, who was cackling happily at this.

“There’s just too many of these varmints!” Applejack hissed, applebucking a nearby cart and hitting a few Umbrums.

“Well we still won’t give up that easily from these things and that creepy masked guy!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Applejack nodded while Fluttershy helped some of the Crystal Ponies of their injuries.

“Mwahahaha! You all are so pitiful…you truly think that you can defeat me? Then you all must be useless, and you call yourselves the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.” Void scoffed, crossing his arms. “You’re all practically worthless of those titles.”

“Yeah, ya dirty varmint! We helped out our friends unlike you and those nasty shadow monsters!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Really? You’re still fighting…? I thought for sure that you would give up Applejack.” Void chuckled darkly, confusing Applejack. “You really don’t remember? The one who gave you your little motive to abandon your friends over something as stupid as not telling them how you felt from your problems back at the little town of Dodge Junction.”

At that moment, Applejack widened her eyes almost at the size of plates as she stared at him.

“Y-You guys…it’s him…that fella who made me run away from you all…” Applejack gulped while shocking some of her friends.

“Hey you.” Rantaro called, looking towards Fluttershy. “Little miss Shy, what’s she talking about?”

“Oh, well…Applejack once tried to bring money for the mayor to help repair her building, but she didn’t manage to do it and felt afraid, so she stayed in Dodge Junction to earn some money and we tried to bring her back, but she tried ignoring us and ran away from us, but we managed to help pull it through…” Fluttershy explained before looking down meekly upon seeing the blank look on Rantaro’s face . “I-Is that good enough?”

“Thanks.” Rantaro answered before turning to Applejack. “So…you tried running away from your problems?”

“Well yeah… I wanted to go back, but then that varmint…!” Applejack glared towards Void, who had his arms crossed in boredom. “He managed to make me become fearful that you all would abandoned me.”

“What?!” Jack exclaimed before snarling at Void as he begins forming his own make-shift throne out of the dark clouds that surrounded the Crystal Empire. “So you’ve been messing with some of my pals, eh?”

“I was doing it for my own amusement. My original goal was to kill you, but I realize if I did, then it still won’t make the Elements of Harmony go back to me.” Void sighed. “So my goal is to make you all fall into despair.”

“Wait, hold on, what did you say about the Elements of Harmony?” Kaede asked in confusion.

“I owe you all no explanation since you all are about to lose against me.” Void stated, seeing more and more Umbrums raining down around the empire as the gang were doing their best to defend themselves against it.

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Jack cursed himself. “These damn things won’t give!”

“Well…everyone, we all had a good run.” Rantaro sighed, earning an incredulous look from Rainbow Dash as she exclaimed “Don’t say it like that!”

“He’s…not wrong there.” Fluttershy couldn’t help but agree with them there till flinching upon seeing the stern look from Rainbow Dash. “S-Sorry…!”

Soon, the Crystal Ponies who decided to help out with the humans and the Mane Six were huddled against each other with their weapons in their hooves as the Umbrum Army were ready to take them down.

“Now then…I say it’s high time that we finish this. Rabia, give the command.” Void snapped his fingers.

“Right Father, now-Ah!” Rabia froze upon seeing something on the center of the dark clouds. The other Umbrums stopped at what they were doing before seeing the bright light that was poking out from the dark clouds.

“What is going on? I said attack!” Void demanded before seeing the bright light as well. “What the?!”

Jamie, Shining, Cadance, and Twilight were backed up in the balcony of the castle, fending themselves from the remaining Umbrums inside of their castle till they noticed the bright light.

Back with Mason and his friends, they were hiding in the basement and kept themselves close in hopes that the Umbrum that broke into their little safehouse finds them they see some light enveloping through the floorboards.

“Big brother…?” Carrie blinked in surprise upon seeing it. “What is that?”

Over at the center of the dark clouds, a bright light enveloped around it, repelling most of the Umbrum Army as a shining object slowly came out of the sky. Upon seeing this, all of the Crystal Ponies all began murmuring to each other.

Void and Rabia both became shocked upon seeing the Crystal Heart looking more brighter than ever, creating this much powerful light to repel against their forces.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Void demanded, his tone showing off how upset he was.

“T-This can’t be…! I thought…!” Rabia gasped as four figures appeared out of the clouds along with the Crystal Heart as they were right around by the pedestal of where the Crystal Heart was. “No! It’s them!”

“WHAT?!” Void screamed, the volume of his tone was so loud that it nearly shattered some windows.

“Guys, is that…?” Spike gasped, widening his eyes upon seeing them slowly coming down in front of them.

Right in front of them was Sombra, which made everyone shocked to see him emerged in the light, and next was Hope, but since the Mane Six and Jack didn’t met her along with the amnesiac state that the Crystal Ponies are having due to their fears of King Sombra, they don’t recognized her. However, Rantaro blinks in surprise upon seeing Hope with Sombra, and not just them alone, but…

“Ren?!” Fluttershy gasped as the crowd watched the other two emerged from the light from the Crystal Heart.

Kodi shook his head and looked around, finding himself back at the Crystal Empire and his friends. Ren slowly woken up before finding himself back with the others with the Crystal Heart floating right next to him.

“Ren!” Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Spike, and Jack cried out while Rantaro tilted his hat a bit and smiled before he commented “Ah, nice of ya to join the party. I thought you were a goner.”

“Ren, you’re here!” Fluttershy smiled happily before gasping. “R-Ren…!”

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Ren asked in concern before seeing the others’ shocked expressions. He blinked in confusion before he saw Rarity taking out a mirror and showing it in front of him. He took one good look at himself and widened his eyes upon seeing…

You guessed it. Ren had two cutie marks attached to each of his cheeks. It was the same shaped, same design, and pretty much similar thing to Jamie, only except that instead of the Twilight’s star-shape cutie-mark plastered on the heart-shaped moon shield, it was replaced with three small butterflies on them, and they looked exactly like Fluttershy’s cutie-marks.

“Ren, would you like to explain what in Equestria is that?” Sombra demanded. “I thought humans couldn’t gain Cutie-Marks at all.”

“W-Wait wait wait wait! Hold up hold up hold up!” Rainbow glowered towards Sombra and exclaimed “What’s HE doing here?! He’s the enemy!”

“Wait you guys! He’s on our side!” Ren stopped them while shocking the whole crowd. “Sombra was being used by the Umbrum Army too!”

“He’s right!” Kodi barked in agreement. “Ren and Hope managed to convinced him that he isn’t who they say anymore!”

“Yes, and…I’m sorry Rantaro for bringing you and Nicole into this mess.” Hope apologized to the broker, who just shrugged nonchalantly.

“Meh, I’m used to stuff like this. So it’s no big deal, only except you owe me.” Rantaro replied with a cocky grin.

“So…the main party has arrived? It’s been a while…” Ren, Hope, Sombra, and Kodi looked up to see Void staring down at them. “You pitiful creatures just don’t know when to give up, do ya?”

“Who…is…that?” Ren asked. “And why does he look like he’s cosplaying Infinite from Sonic Forces?”

“Hello again, Rabia…and Father.” Sombra greeted, glaring at them. “It’s been a while…”

“You! How dare you help these fools! Do you not realize what you have just committed?!” Rabia exclaimed in anger.

“I have…I have committed treason, but…I did it for a noble cause.” Sombra glares hard at them before looking at Void. “And Father…I should have realized sooner that you would use me as your little puppet. Well…no longer will I run away.”

“Yeah, me too!” Hope agreed, standing beside Sombra. “I don’t know what you are or where you came from, but…I will never ever forgive any of you for hurting and using Sombra like that!”

“Hmph…to think such a traitorous Umbrum like you would do this…fallen in love with such a pathetic pony like her…how pitiful.” Void scoffed.

“It’s not pitiful!” Ren exclaimed, glaring at Void before flinching in pain. “Ngh! My head! What the?”

“Hmm…it would seem you’re slightly remembering me.” Void rubbed his chin in thought before chuckling darkly to himself. “But no matter…I shall still have the chance to destroy you all by making you all fall into the despair I created.”

“Des…pair…?” Ren asked, shaking his head before glaring at Void. “Yeah right…I’m sorry but you have no right to talk to my friends like that. We’ll never give up!”

“Really? And how are you gonna do that?” Void scoffed. “Even if you managed to power the Crystal Heart back, you still have no chance of winning.”

Ren gave him a smirk and retorted “Oh, guess again…Uhh…what was your name?”

“You may call me ‘Void’. That is the last thing you’ll remember before I crushed this world into oblivion.” Void clenched his left hand, making a cracking sound.

“Right…Um, Void.” Ren nodded before holding onto the Crystal Heart in hand. “Maybe I can’t bring it to the pedestal, but he can!”

Before long, Ren threw the Crystal Heart straight towards Spike, who surprisingly catches it before widening his eyes in shock upon receiving it.

“Wait WHAT?!” Spike asked in shock, starting to get nervous. “But Ren…!”

“You’re frigging kidding right? What if he doesn’t make it?” Jack questioned.

“Ren…are you sure?” Fluttershy asked in worried. “N-Not that I’m doubting you at all…”

“I know that he can do it, and we’ll provide cover.” Ren assured with a soft smile. “I promise that you’ll be okay! Now go!”

Without hesitation, Spike nodded before quickly rushing past the others with me following after him while the others managed to defend ourselves. Kodi looked back at Ren and Spike heading over to the Crystal Castle before he decided to follow after them.

The others managed to use their remaining strength to fight back the Umbrums, Void, and Rabia.

Due to the Crystal Heart returning to its full power, most of the Umbrums were left helpless.

“They’re getting away!” Rabia exclaimed as she tried to race after them till Sombra and Hope got in their way. “You ignorant fools! Get out of my way!”

“Not this time…” Sombra threatened, narrowing his eyes at Rabia while Hope’s horn started glowing.

“You’ve used us as your little puppets for far too long, but now…it’s time for you to learn how to never used us…” Hope glared angrily.

“Think again ugly!” Out of the blue, Rainbow Dash punched Rabia right in the chin with an uppercut before collapsing on the floor.

Rainbow Dash gave Rabia an angry glare before exclaiming “I’m not sure what’s going on, but it looks like they’re on our side!”

Sombra stares at Rainbow Dash in shock before seeing the smirk planted on the blue pegasus’s face.

“Hell yeah!” Jack stepped in, patting his gut and cracking his knuckles as he sent a harsh glare towards Rabia. “Now you better shut the hell up or you’ll be asking for more!”

Not too soon was a blast of confetti was shot on Rabia’s face, covering her entire body with party stuff. Everypony turned around and saw Pinkie using her party cannon as she bluntly commented “You talk too much!”

“Yeah, because of comic relief. He talks too much and it’s annoying.” Pinkie retorted with a grin.

“Boys, look out!” Rarity cried out, seeing some of the remaining Umbrums who weren’t taken out by the large light were charging themselves towards Ren, Kodi, and Spike.

“Not so fast!” Jack grabbed one of the Umbrum’s legs and swung them back to some of its kind, knocking them down for the count before he jumped crushed them underneath his left arm.

“Come on everypony! It’s not over yet!” Kaede cried out before seeing some of the Crystal Ponies staring at Sombra in shock. “Come on everyone! He’s on our side! Forget about everything he’s done to you in the past!”

The Crystal Ponies reluctantly agreed before Sombra began using his back hooves to fight off some of the Umbrums while Hope used her magic to heal some of the Crystal Ponies from injuries and exhaustion.

Ren and Spike kept running with Ren giving cover for Spike while shooting down any Umbrums that tried to come after them.

“Seriously though, why me?!” Spike demanded while Ren shot down several Umbrums using a ‘Burn’ bullets.

“Because I trust you Spike, and I know that you can do it! Besides, I kinda ran out of ideas!” Ren yelled out before firing more Truth bullets straight towards at one of the Umbrums that came after for Spike.

“Kodi, what are you doing?!” Ren called. “You’re supposed to be with the others.”

“I couldn’t leave behind my friends behind! So I’m coming!” Kodi grinned, earning a grin from Ren.

“Oh Kodi…” Ren sighed happily before they finally managed to reach to the pedestal. “There it is!”

“Great! Now’s our chance!” Spike grinned happily as he tried to place the Crystal Heart on the pedestal till they began hearing an omnious laughter. The three looked around till Kodi began barking a lot, pointing over to Ren’s shadow, which made Ren looked back and saw his shadow growing a lot bigger before it began popping right out of the ground, revealing Void.

“Ahahahahahahaha! I never expected that you would hand that Crystal Heart to some inferior being! Placing trust in a small dragon child, you truly are specimens that deserves to die.” Void chuckled.

“Void…” Ren said, his tone showing grimace and fear. “Dude, what’s your problem? Why are you doing this?”

“Hmm…well I thought you would know, but since your memories are missing, I guess I shall explain…” Void snapped his fingers as a bunch of shadow monsters appeared before them, and they were a lot different from the Umbrums as they looked like ponies from the shadows. “But I wouldn’t want you all to place that Crystal Heart on that pedestal there.”

“Well we have to!” Spike exclaimed, glaring at Void before backing off from the shadow ponies.

“Do you like them? They’re my creation, well my least favorite creations that I created by using my powers of the darkness. I lost this ability for quite a while, but when I first awoken from my slumber to heal myself, I happened to found a certain piece that restored some of my power.” Void explained while Ren readied his Hacking Gun straight at the strange pony-shadow like monsters while Kodi and Spike stood behind him. “My powers are…complex, in a way. But no matter, whenever I find a certain piece that I looked for and filled with it so much negative emotion, it helps give me my powers once more by what you’re seeing right now.”

“So wait…you mean created these things and…” Ren slowly began putting the the puzzles together and suddenly realized what he was talking. “And the Umbrums! You made them too?!”

“Indeed, took you while to figure out that mystery.” Void chuckled, folding his arms before floating in mid-air. “But the Umbrums and my shadows are quite different creatures. The Umbrums are made from my emotions of how I view the species that once ruled over this land.”

“Huh? What…are you talking about?” Ren questioned. “The Umbrums are made from your emotions of how you view the species that once ruled over this land? Do you mean the ponies?”

“Indeed, along with your kind.” Void grimaced, clenching his fists. Ren stared at his left eye visor and saw malice, disgust, and hatred.

“So wait…do you mean you hate humans along with ponies?” Ren asked in fear.

“That is correct. You call friendship ‘magic’ and whatever you do you call it ‘hope’, well I think it’s nothing but causes so much suffering and pain to you all. If friendship really is ‘magic’ , then why must everyone have problems in life like your friends.” Void sighed, shaking his head. “They shouldn’t concern with the things they do, but complicate it and affect their friendship. It happened like back at the Canterlot wedding.”

“Know about it? Oh quite the contraire, I just happened to be the one who gave Chrysalis and her Changelings the motive to be there.” Void explained.

“So wait…that ‘friend’ she kept talking about was you?!” Ren exclaimed in shock.

“Indeed…she was just a simple toy that I used for my little ‘experiment’.” Void replied, unfazed by their reactions. “I simply needed more negativity from everypony, even you guys. It was quite strong for when I powered one of the meteorite shards.”

“Sorry, but I’m afraid that I won’t be answering that question to you.” Void shakes his head. “You’ll find out someday, but no matter, once I have returned to my full strength and have the Elements of Harmony by my hands, I’ll be able to use them to bring about the Great Fall! In other words…the end of the world…!”

Ren slowly turned pale along with Kodi and Spike as the shadows slowly cornered them into a bunch.

“You’re going to…end the world!?” Spike exclaimed. “But why?! What did we do?!”

“No worries, you all can embrace death anytime. Besides, you all will be considered a little ‘stepping stone’ for when I create true hope to pathetic world.” Void answered calmly.

“You won’t get away with this, and…I’m not sure why, but it’s not so nice.” Ren pointed out.

“Hmph, it doesn’t matter. Though it worries me that you’ve started gaining your powers again.” Void sighed.

“You’ll find it once you recovered them or when you have the chance to fight me. But for right now, it’s time for you all to die…” Void snapped his fingers as the shadow ponies started surrounding them, preparing to kill them till a magic beam came by and shot one of them down.

Ren, Kodi, and Spike looked around and saw Twilight, Jamie, Shining, and Cadance coming by and the one who fired the shot was Twilight as smoke came out of her horn.

“Quick! Get it to the pedestal while we hold these guys off!” Shining exclaimed.

“But what about your horn, Shining? And what about how tired you were, Cadance?” Ren asked in concern.

“W-We’ll be fine. Right now, you need to go and hurry!” Cadance yelled before managing to take down a shadow pony by using her wing. Shining beaten two shadows using his two back hooves.

“We’ll try our best! Go Ren! Kodiak! Spike! Get to the pedestal!” Jamie exclaimed before he began manifesting some sort of dark blue energy ball in his hands before firing it directly to another shadow pony, destroying it.

Ren, Kodi, and Spike looked at Jamie in surprise, who just shrugged and said “I-I know… I didn’t know I could do that either, but now’s really not important!”

“Do not fear Father!” The gang all looked back and saw Rabia standing in front of the pedestal with some of her Umbrum guards. “We shall protect the pedestal from these stupid humans and ponies!”

“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that!” Ren took out his Hacking Gun and attempted to finish them off, but nothing came out. Ren grew confused before looking at the small monitor and saw that it was out of battery power. “Oh no…”

“Ha! You missed your mark!” Rabia laughed. “Now with that stupid gun’s power empty, there’s nothing you can do!”

“Think again!” Before long, a powerful beam came out of nowhere before it shot down several Umbrum guards, shocking everyone, even Rabia as they looked back and saw Hope and Sombra stepping in to fight.

“You! How dare you two traitors come and harm us?!” Rabia demanded. “Just for that I could tear you two-”

“ENOUGH!” Sombra screamed, cutting off Rabia. Sombra snarled angrily at Rabia as he exclaimed “For my whole entire life, I always assumed that becoming who I was back then was my destiny…but now I learned my true destiny…”

“Oh really? And what’s that?” Rabia demanded. “You already know what you are and you can’t change it!”

“Actually, I can.” Sombra nodded solemnly before smirking at him. “And I’m willing to make a great sacrifice to protect everypony, even Hope.”

“What?” Rabia questioned in confusion till Sombra pointed back and saw Spike running towards the pedestal with Ren and Kodiak by his side. “NO!”

“What?! How did…?!” Void exclaimed before being confronted by Shining, Jamie, Twilight, and Cadance as they managed to take down all of the shadows. “You all?!”

“Surprised?” Twilight smirked. “I may not know who or what you are, but I do know that you’re a threat to us!”

“I’m trying but-” Not too soon was Rabia get tackled by Sombra as the two began fighting and delivering blows to each other till Hope managed to use her magic to heal Sombra from Rabia’s attacks.

“Almost there…” Spike was almost there till more Umbrums got in their way. “Oh come on! Don’t these guys ever get tired?!”

“Apparently not, but they’re just stubborn.” Ren sighed. “And my Hacking Gun is out of power, so there’s no use.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll bite these guys!” Kodi growled angrily at them as the Umbrums charged towards them.

“Spike, you’re our only shot!” Spike looked at Ren in confusion till he was picked up by him and was thrown straight towards over the Umbrums and was launched into the pedestal.

“AHHHHH!” Spike screamed before managing to reach over to the pedestal and placed the Crystal heart on it. Before long, it started swirling around as light began forming around it.

“We got it!” Ren shouted, alerting to the other ponies. The Crystal Ponies looked over and grew amazed to see the Crystal Heart right in front of their eyes.

“Everypony!” Ren shouted as loud as he can, calling out to every Crystal Pony were either hiding or fighting off the Umbrums. “The Crystal Heart has returned! Use the light and love within you to ensure that the Umbrums and Void does not!”

The Crystal Ponies looked at each other and nodded before they began transforming back to their crystallized selves, adding more power into the Crystal Heart.

Back at the safehouse, Mason, Carrie, Nicole, Rarity, and the rest of the Crystal Ponies they were keeping safe came out of the basement once the coast was clear before seeing a bright light over by the Crystal Castle.

The Crystal Ponies smiled happily upon seeing it before they quickly changed into their crystallized forms.

“Oh my…!” Rarity grew awed upon seeing them transformed like that as they started glowing across the place.

Soon, the whole empire began glowing as a snowflake pattern appeared in the center of the Crystal Castle, turning it bright blue. Two vertical crystal spires come together to keep the Crystal Heart in place.

Soon, all of the Crystal Ponies across the area bow down as the blue light spreads all over the streets of the empire. The light suddenly retracts and concentrates inside the Crystal Heart, causing the heart to spin rapidly, generating a sphere of light that explodes and engulfs the empire.

“No…No….NOOOOOOO!” Void screamed before he quickly disappears into the shadows while Rabia and the other Umbrums, both conscious and unconsciousness were absorbed by the light while Hope hugged Sombra tightly, who hugged her back as the light embraced everyone.

As the bright light calmed down, the others opened their eyes and saw themselves being covered in crystal.

“Whoa…!” Ren blinked in shock upon seeing himself being all covered in crystal and his hair was combed neatly. “Check us out…”

“Are we…made out of crystals?” Jamie wondered, looking at his hands and seeing them sparkled.

“Damn…” Jack muttered, looking behind his back and saw himself being all shiny and crystallize.

Back with our other friends, Rarity, Mason, Carrie, and Nicole run towards to where the light originated, hoping to find their friends while also gawking at their temporary appearances.

“Oooh!” Rarity giggles excitedly, feeling more amazed than bewildered upon her appearance.

“Miss Rarity, I don’t want to be rude but right now, we need to catch up with our friends.” Mason pointed out.

“But how can you not resist and be amazed by all…this?!” Rarity exclaimed, giggling happily.

“Big brother, isn’t this cool?” Carrie asked, looking at her arms while Nicole hummed in thought as she looked at herself curiously.

“Am I the only one who should be focusing on the current task?” Mason sighed.

Soon, they managed to catch up with their friends, including with Fluttershy, Kaede, Applejack, and Pinkie as they all met up with Ren and co. by the center of the Crystal Castle.

“Yeah, I’ll say.” Jack nodded before walking over to Ren and Spike, giving the two noogies. “Ha ha, well you two earned my respect.”

“H-Hey!” Ren laughed along with Spike. Soon after that, Ren smiled at Spike and said “But I don’t deserve all of the credit. Spike saved the day by placing the Crystal Heart in its pedestal and all of us played a vital role.”

“I suppose so…” Mason sighed before turning to Shining Armor. “Shining, I am sorry for not being there for Twilight.”

“It’s okay Mason, we’ll talk about this later.” Shining assured, showing no anger at Mason. Mason reluctantly nodded while the others began chatting with one another at the success of finally restoring the Crystal Heart.

“Y-You…fools…” Everyone stopped before turning to see Rabia on the ground, his body slowly fading away into dust. “This…isn’t over…Father…will…have his…revenge…I just…know it…we all…may be gone…but you won’t…stop….from him…bringing forth…the Great Fall…”

“What the hell is that?” Jack whispered to Jamie, who just happened to be nearby, but he just shrugged while Rabia began laughing weakly before fading away from existence. Soon, the rest of the Umbrums began fading away as all of their essence were being sucked around the Crystal Heart before it managed to repel them and send them through the undergrounds of the Crystal Empire and back into the huge door as it opened up and sucked all of them back into it before it shut closed, the locked slowly forming back onto the door with the seal closing up for good.

“Seems so…” Mason nodded before noticing two more ponies standing by the end of the Crystal Castle. “Huh? Is that…?!”

“Don’t worry, he’s on our side.” Ren assured with a soft smile. “Sombra isn’t evil anymore and Hope managed to bring him back.”

“Oh…” Mason looked over as everyone watched Hope and Sombra talking with one another.

“So…we did it. We saved the empire and beaten the Umbrums, huh?” Hope smiled softly.

“Yes…but they’re forever locked away back in their dimension for good.” Sombra nodded. “Trust me, they were sent back through the door you opened…”

“And…what about you?” Hope asked in a concern tone before seeing Sombra was slowly starting to fade away. “Oh, Sombra!”

“Thank you for believing in me, Hope.” Sombra soon turned to Ren. “You too…Ren. I never believed in myself. But I trusted the two of you…and if you…”

“I guess this was meant to happen, anyway. I was created by Father…I thought I knew who I was, but it turns out…we can change our destinies…just like you said.” Sombra softly smiled as Hope came over and hugged him, letting tears out.

“Sombra…” Hope smiled sadly. “You see, I was right. You’re not a monster at all. You saved everyone…”

“Sombra?” Hope called in confusion, looking at him as he continued on with his sentence.

“Hope, you have to promise me you won’t run away again. You can do so much good in this world.” Sombra pleaded, which Hope nodded before she replied “I will.”

Soon, he began slowly transforming into dust as he and Hope stared at each other with bright smiles.

“So this is what happens with the Crystal Faire. I finally got to see it. It only took a thousand years.” Sombra smiled.

“It’s more beautiful than I ever imagined…” Sombra chuckled before slowly disappearing.

“Sombra?” Hope called, frowning sadly before hearing no response coming out from him. “Sombra…”

The Mane Six and the humans all frowned sadly upon seeing her mourn for her friend’s goodbye. Ren slowly took something out from his pockets, revealing to be the Prism Crystal along with…Sombra’s broken horn from when they were trapped from inside of the Umbrums.

“…Sombra…you’re really cool.” Ren softly smiled before a tear drop from his eye and it hit the horn, but the moment it did, it started glowing brightly. Ren looks down on it before feeling his cheeks glowing and before long, the horn started floating around in the air as the others watched with puzzled looks.

“What?” Hope wondered as she slowly walked over to the floating horn as it slowly began glowing. Soon, Ren’s cheeks began glowing before the horn started shining more till the Crystal Heart shined some of its energy towards Sombra’s horn and before long, it created something out of it. A giant puff of smoke soon came around the area, and something appeared before them.

“No…way…” Pinkie jaw-dropped on the floor while the others gaped upon seeing who it was.

Right in front of them was a grey unicorn with a neatly combed black mane and tail with a silver gray crown on his head with a green jewel embedded on it and a royal cape around him with a white furry outlines on the edges with black polka-dots on it. His hooves had silver-shoes like on them and his eyes were normally green like a normal pony.

“Sombra!” Hope quickly rushes over and hugs the gray pony who reveals himself as Sombra in a tight manner.

“No, I didn’t.” Hope shook her head before turning to Ren with a bright smile. “He somehow did.”

“Ah…” Sombra turns to Ren before walking over with a smile and asked “Ren, did you…?”

“W-Well…yeah. I honestly don’t know how, but I guess I did it, huh? But hey, at least you’re back here with Hope, right?” Ren smiled softly, which earned a chuckle from Sombra.

“Whoa…” The gang all stared at the new Sombra right in front of them. Rantaro stares at him with a soft grin along with Nicole while Pinkie brought up a piece of cake in front of them.

“Beats me.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Though, it suits Ren considering that he’s a lot girly with those kind of Cutie-Marks on.”

“Hey, look!” Kodi pointed up at Ren’s cheeks. “Those marks…they don’t look like they have Twilight’s cutie-mark beneath them, it looks like Fluttershy’s!”

“My…cutie mark?” Fluttershy asked in surprise before blushing. “Oh my…”

“If you two nerds are done thinking, how about some lunch?” Jack grumbled. “I’m starving…”

“Of course you are.” Rainbow snorted, earning a snarl from the biker while the others began laughing.

Somewhere outside of the kingdom, Void appears out of the shadows and breathes heavily, nearly falling to the ground.

“Impossible…that boy’s power…it returned…and soon the others will gain them back…but why did those marks appear? They never came to when they first gained them…could it be that the powers slumbering in each of them were evolving during their slumber?” Void wondered before noticing a lone red crystal just near him.

“…So…either way, those foolish Umbrums done nothing right for me. They failed me yet again…oh well, like it matters. I was this close onto destroying the Crystal Heart once and for all…it was her creation, after all.” Void scoffed. “Oh well…”

Suddenly, he raises his foot in the air and slams it hard onto the red crystal, destroying it completely.

“It doesn’t matter anymore…what matters now that I barely had any power left for the next shard…” He takes out a small crystal shard, which looks barely dark compared to the ones he collected. “Hm…though, I suppose it collected some power from the fear of those weak Crystal Ponies due to Sombra, but…I suppose I must find some other place to get more negativity…”

With that, Void slowly began floating in the air as he gazes out of the Crystal Empire, sneering down at it.

“This isn’t the last you all see me…” Void soon disappears from the shadows, leaving behind an ominous laughter.

With the crisis over, the gang all rounded up by the train station. With the snow storm gone, the train was capable to travel.

“Big brother, all that sparkling is gone.” Carrie frowned sadly, seeing her entire body back to normal.

“I guess those Crystal forms were just temporary.” Twilight said, which made Rarity bummed out.

“Well, I do wish it was permanent. Did you see how my mane just absolutely sparkled?” Rarity sighed happily.

“But…” Applejack gave her fashionista friend a smirk. “Good things are better when they’re a rarity.”

“Aww.” Rarity laughs alongside with Applejack while the others began boarding the train.

“Wow, you two are so nice together.” Fluttershy smiled softly. “I never would have imagined that you were so nice Mr. Sombra.”

“Oh, well…” Sombra blushed a bit. “I was like this before I became…you know.”

“Hey, no worries. That was in the past, and now you guys are together.” Ren smiled.

“I agree.” They turned around to see Shining and Cadance walking by. Shining gave Sombra a raised brow and commented “For an evil king, you sure are now becoming nice.”

“Well…if it wasn’t for your friend, Ren, then I wouldn’t be here.” Sombra smiled softly. “But…I don’t know how to thank you all or how to apologize for my misdeeds.”

“There is no need.” Ren shook his head with a soft smile. “Sombra, you’ve just saved Equestria and you’re forgiven. You have another chance to decide what sort of pony you could be.”

“He has a point.” Cadance nodded in agreement. “You even fought against Rabia while allowing Ren, Spike, and Kodiak to reach to the pedestal to place the Crystal Heart there.”

“Yeah, it’s quite an accomplishment.” Hope smiled happily. “Though, maybe I should have called for you guys’ help to bring back Sombra, but I was afraid.”

“Yeah! And you can trust Ren since he has a good heart and a cool guy.” Kodi barked happily.

“Come on boy, I’m not that cool. I was just doing what was right.” Ren retorted, blushing a bit from that compliment.

“So what are you guys gonna do now you’re together again?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Maybe make up with the Crystal Ponies?” Kodi suggested, but Sombra shook his head with a solemn look.

“I’m afraid not.” Ren, Kodi, and Fluttershy grew confused by that. “There are some unfinished business I must do in my act of redemption. I cannot live here in the Crystal Empire until it’s complete.”

“Well, I thought I would start by forgiving someone myself. Princess Amore deserves a second chance.” Sombra explains, surprising Hope as she turned to him and asked “Amore? But you…killed her.”

“I made her into a statue and scattered her pieces across Equestria. If you helped me rebuild the statue…”

“We can save her?! We could bring her back?!” Hope asked, feeling overjoyed by it.

“That’s great to hear!” Ren smiled happily before asking “But…you sure that you don’t want to come to Canterlot and meet up with Celeste and Lulu?”

“No…but maybe give her a message that tells her that I’m sorry for leaving her and I hope that one day that we’ll meet again.” Hope smiled.

“I’ll be sure to give her that message and let her know what happened.” Ren nodded in agreement.

“I hope so, and Ren…take care of yourself.” Sombra smiled, wrapping his hoof around Hope. “And…live a good life.”

“I should say the same to you.” Ren wrapped his arm around Fluttershy, who smiled softly and was blushing.

With that, Sombra and Hope gave their goodbyes to their friends and headed out on their own, ready to take their own paths out in the world to find the missing pieces of Princess Amore.

While they waved goodbye, Shining turned to Mason who was chatting with his sister and nodded throughout much of her conversation. Shining smiled upon the human bodyguard before walking over and calling out to him.

“Hey Mason!” Shining called, having Mason turn around to him and went to an ‘attention’ pose and bowed.

“Shining Armor, sir.” Mason called with a salute, earning a smile on Shining’s face.

“No need for the sir part Mason, I thought we could talk privately.” Shining offered, which Mason nodded in understanding before he turned to his sister and kissed her on the forehead before heading far away from the other side of the train station.

“Now, I just thought we could talk before you guys head out to Canterlot to speak with the princesses.” Shining spoken with a stern look. “Now, regarding what happened with Twily and Ren…”

“Please forgive me…It was irresponsible to let those two to just wander off on their own…” Mason frowned, looking down. “But…when I saw my sister and the others in the safehouse and most of the Crystal Ponies, including Jack, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. I decided to stay there while Twilight said that she went and help you alone. I stood there back there because I…I felt worried on whether what to do to stay by with Twilight and my sister and the rest of the innocent civilians and Rarity…”

“So…Twilight allowed me to stay here and said that she would be fine. She was really worried about you and so she went out. Besides, Ren wasn’t with us as he jumped in after Sombra appeared out of nowhere and tried to swipe the Crystal Heart away from us from out of the blue…I felt like I couldn’t do anything to prevent that, but I made it up after someone told me that being loyal to someone only isn’t loyalty there. Being loyal on the tasks or your sense of justice is loyal enough.”

“Yes…I understand if you are upset and refuse to hear me out, and even take away your proposal that you gave to me.” Mason sighed.

“Who said anything that I would take away my proposal or anything about me getting upset?” Mason looks at Shining with a surprised look as he continues “I’ll overlook about you keeping an eye out for my sister and let it slide. Besides, you protected as much of the citizens from those Umbrums, and I’m proud of that. Maybe you have the potential to be a Royal Guard. Speaking of…have you made your decision?”

Mason looks down, wondering what to say. Has he really made a decision? Should he back off and stay back home or go out and train himself to become a member of the Royal Guard?

“…It’s okay.” Shining assured. “If your sister is like mine, then she’ll encourage you to go…even the rest of your friends.”

“….” Mason kept silent, thinking about his decision before forming a serious look. “….I’ve decided…”

Shining looked at him with a soft smile and asked “Alright, so what’s your decision?”

Mason raised his hand in front of him, which brought a smile from Shining’s face before he shook his hoof with Mason’s hand.

“…I think I’ll leave in about in a month to start off my training.” Mason suggested. “I…just need time with my friends and sister.”

“I see…Okay.” Shining smiled before wrapping his arm around Mason’s shoulder. “Well I know it won’t be easy, but you’ll get used to it! Trust me!”

“Huh? Oh yeah…it’s been healed since we put back the Crystal Heart. Phew, I thought for sure that I wouldn’t be able to use magic anymore.” Shining chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

“Heh, I’ll say.” Mason smiled, earning a chuckle from Shining as the two kept laughing till a voice spoken up.

“So…you’re really going big brother?” Mason and Shining looked over in front to see Carrie staring at them. “You’re really going to become a Royal Guard, right?”

“Carrie…” Mason frowned sadly. “I’m…sorry if this is all so sudden, but…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Carrie ran over to him and hugged him tightly, catching him off-guard before he lifted her up to his shoulders and hugged her back . Carrie happily smiled at her brother before whispering “Promise me to always think of me, big brother…”

“I will…Carrie. And I trust our friends to keep you out of trouble.” Mason whispered back, earning a laugh from his sister.

“Heh heh, I know…but I know that you can do it. You are part of royalty, after all. Sometimes, you need to do things without me by your side.” Mason grimly stated before ruffling his sister’s hair, who smiled softly at him. “But it’s just six months, so I won’t be gone for that long.”

“But it’s so long for me…” Carrie pouted, earning a smile on her brother’s face.

“True…but I promise to send you letters. How does that sound?” Mason offered.

“Okay, and while you’re gone, I’ll be able to hold down the fort!” Carrie smiled brightly, putting her hand over by her small muscle with a smile. “I promise big brother that I won’t let you down!”

“Ha ha ha! I have a feeling that you won’t and I know that they’ll keep a good and sharp eye on you.” Mason nodded. “Isn’t that right…Jack?”

“Huh?” Carrie and Shining blinked in confusion before looking over at Mason’s directions and saw Jack staring over at them, but he was caught by surprise upon realizing that Mason caught him.

“H-Huh?!” Jack looks back and saw the smirk on Mason’s face. He rubbed the back of his head and replied “Right…S-So what? I-I was listening in, okay? I just…didn’t know when to…”

Carrie stares at him in surprise while Shining raised a brow at Jack’s assumption, but the biker looked away with a blush.

“Well? I ain’t none of my damn business to intervene, but just felt curious on ya kid.” Jack snorted.

“You may keep acting like an adult, but don’t forget that I’m way older than you.” Jack pointed out. “So in the meantime, I’ll keep an eye out for your sister. Just ‘cause that you’ll be gone…and…”

“…W-Whatever! I’ll protect the little girl and make sure nothing happens to her, got it?!” Jack exclaimed. “Is that so hard brat?! You want my fist up in your face?!”

“…That’s what I want to hear.” Mason smiled softly. “Thank you Jack.”

“Whatever…” Jack snorted, looking away while hiding his blush. Carrie stares at Jack curiously before smiling over him. “I’m out…I’ll be waiting in the train with the others.”

“Right.” Mason nodded before turning to Shining. “So Shining…thank you again for the proposal.”

“It’s no big deal. I thought it would be nice for you to spend some small time with your friends.” Shining smiled. “You deserved it Private Mason.”

“True, but you are gonna be in it and start out at the rank of being private, ‘Private’.” Shining smirked before nudging Mason.

“…Hmm…I see now. Thanks…’Captain’ Armor.” Mason smiled, earning another round of laughter from Shining.

“Guys!” The three looked over to see Spike calling after them. “We’re getting ready to board the train!”

“Goodbye Shining!” Carrie smiled happily at him before the two began heading towards the train to meet up with the rest of their friends. Shining watches them leave till Twilight and Jamie walks over to him as the purple Unicorn nudges her brother on the side.

“Yep. Something tells me that Equestria will be more greater with him being the first human Royal Guard.” Shining smirked before turning to his sister. “Though, you and your friends gotta stop saving my rump like this. It’s starting to get embarrassing.”

“Wasn’t me who saved you in the end. It was Spike, Ren, and Kodi.” Twilight pointed out.

“It’s just a test. Maybe she’ll let you retake it.” Shining reassured, which only made Twilight let out a heavy sigh.

“I don’t think she’s gonna give me a new test…” Twilight frowned sadly.

“I’m sure she’ll understand Twilight.” Jamie softly smiled. “I-I mean…she’s a pretty understanding princess, remember?”

With that, the gang all headed back over to the Friendship Express as the train slowly began taking its leave with the gang all waving goodbye to Shining and Cadance.

As they rode over the train, the humans and Mane Six were busy talking with each other, mainly about Ren receiving his Cutie-marks.

“I must say though, that is quite surprising to have Ren.” Rarity commented.

“Possibly.” Jamie nodded in agreement. “Though…I still can’t believe that you managed to gain them. How did you do it, Ren?”

“Well…I don’t know. All I did was believe in myself when I tried to help out Sombra realize who he was.” Ren shrugged.

“No, it would seem so.” Nicole assured, letting out a yawn. “These powers seems to be connected with us due to our personalities.”

“What are you saying?” Kaede asked curiously, placing her bow and arrows down on her seat.

“She’s saying that we all might have it.” Rantaro answered, tilting his hat before smirking at Nicole. “Am I right, miss psychologist?”

“Yes. Though, it is just a theory.” Nicole took off her glasses and wiped off all the dirt on the lenses. “Though, it’s plausible that we all might gain some of their power.”

“So anyway, Kaede darling.” Rarity turned to her friend with a raised brow. “Why did you bring along those arrows and that bow?”

“Huh? Oh this? Well I thought I could bring it with me. I don’t know why but it really fits me.” Kaede smiled. “If I practice just more, then I know for sure that I’ll do well with these.”

“That’s great to hear Kay.” Ren smiled softly. “I’m sure that you’ll do well with them.”

“So, what did you guys even think about Sombra and that Hope chick?” Jack questioned, picking his nose a bit.

“I think they have a chance to redeem themselves.” Twilight smiled softly. “I’m not sure how Ren did it, but he done a good job on helping them to make them good again.”

“I’ll say! I mean, he does have the heart to help anyone.” Kodi licked his owner’s face, causing him to laugh before he scratched him by the ears.

“Thanks boy, but even so, I was just showing him from the kindness of my heart.” Ren smiled softly.

“To be honest, I would be a lot scared confronting him like that.” Fluttershy gulped. “Though…I guess I could try to have him be nice.”

“I thought we all could discuss some things…” Nicole said before asking everyone something. “Do you all have these strange deja vu moments like you’ve seen or heard Void before? Or even the Crystal Empire?”

At that moment, the humans looked at each other in surprise while the Mane Six grew confused by that.

“Are you guys telling us about a special prequel series or something?” Pinkie questioned, earning bewildered looks from most of her friends.

“No, but I can easily tell that you guys are having some curious thoughts on the sudden flashbacks on that place that you never knew that happened.” Nicole stated.

“Well…it is true.” Jamie nodded. “I mean, I remember Princess Luna telling us that we seemed to know the Crystal Empire despite that it never existed for a thousand years due to Sombra’s curse.”

“That is true, but that wouldn’t make sense, right?” Twilight raised a brow, feeling confused on it.

“Not just that.” Rantaro spoken up, leaning against his chair. “But that giant door that the Umbrum came out…well…me and miss psychologist here seemed to know about it…”

“I remember seeing that door, but I didn’t get any weird feeling.” Ren pointed out. “Though then again, we were under the moment when Hope opened the door and released the Umbrum Army.”

“Hey.” Mason called, forming a stern look. “What exactly happened to you and Nicole?”

“Well…” Nicole sighed before she began to explain what happened to them. She and Rantaro gave out every detail of their captured by Hope after discovering several clues and her diary about what happened back then before Sombra became evil. They even explored the Realm of the Umbrums, and even discovered who the Umbrum really were and how they knew what Rantaro and Nicole were.

“Wish we knew.” Rantaro shrugs before forming a nonchalant look. “But even so, we got nothing to know much about it.”

“I see…” Mason sighed. “But to think you two went through all that…”

“Well what do you expect?” Rantaro rolled his eyes. “You think we were gonna be in a land filled with lollipops and other sweets?”

“Ooh! Really?! Something like that exists?!” Pinkie asks excitedly, appearing in front of Rantaro. Rantaro stares at her blankly before he pushes her away as he replied “Nooo…”

“But I guess…we all somehow knew about this Void guy and the Crystal Empire.” Kaede sighed.

“Good question.” Mason nodded in agreement. “For all we know, he could be a big threat to Equestria, possibly more powerful than Chrysalis and Sombra or even the Umbrums or even Discord…”

“Whoever he was, we definitely know for sure that he is the enemy. He seems to know our full names, and for some reason, he looks like he’s seeking something.” Nicole closed her eyes and went into deep thought.

“Fatty’s right! We’ve faced a lot of enemies, how can we not fight against him?” Rainbow smirked.

“Says the one who went charging and kept whining over and over about what kind of delusion you saw.” Applejack pointed out blankly, earning a growl from Rainbow Dash.

“Hey! How was I supposed to know that he was gonna pull off that weird thing to make me see whatever I saw!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed angrily.

“Ren’s right. M-Maybe we shouldn’t argue with each other, please?” Fluttershy agreed, forcing the two ponies to huff and looked away.

“Well whoever he is, I hope Princess Celestia knows who he is.” Jamie sighs before widening his eyes. “Ahhhhh! I forgot about it!”

“The Prism Crystal! We never did found out much about it!” Jamie exclaimed in shock.

“What is he talking about big brother?” Carrie whispered to her brother, who just shrugs till Ren blinks in surprise upon hearing that name.

“Oh right…actually…” Ren takes something out of his pockets and reveals the gray crystal in front of them.

“Well…Hope gave it to me when I saved her, Kodi, and Sombra from when I was trapped within the Umbrum’s mind.” Ren answered.

“Hold on, what are you guys talking about?” Twilight asked. “And what’s this Prism Crystal you guys keep talking about?”

“Well actually…” Ren frowned, realizing that he and Jamie were going to have to tell them. He turns to Jamie, who sighs and nods. Ren nodded before turning to his friends. “You see guys…we-”

“Actually knew about the Umbrums and that Prism Crystal by the princesses, correct?” Ren and Jamie recoiled in shock upon hearing Nicole guessing as she gives the two boys a stern look. “Am I correct?”

“What the hell you two?!” Jack shouted before grabbing the two by the shirt collar. “You two better tell us or else!”

“J-Jack, calm down!” Ren raised his hands in surrender. “Look, Celeste and Lulu told us not to tell you guys because she didn’t want Twilight to interfere in her test.”

“Y-Yeah…sorry.” Jamie frowned sadly. “I wanted to tell you…but…we didn’t want to break our promise with the princesses.”

“…It’s okay. I get it.” Twilight sighed. “Besides, it doesn’t matter whether I knew or not. I still feel like I failed the test.”

“Come on Twilight, you don’t know that.” Spike reassured. “So what if me and Ren placed the Crystal Heart into the pedestal. I think you tried to protect the others.”

“I guess…” Twilight looks over at the window, looking outside with a sad look. “But even so…I guess I gave it my all…”

“Twilight, don’t be like that.” Fluttershy softly smiled. “I’m sure Princess Celestia will appreciate how much you’ve done at least.”

“Hmm…” Nicole stares at Twilight for a moment before speaking up. “Miss Sparkle, please stop moping around. Your doubts on stuff will cloud your judgement and will not help you as much. Stop worrying a lot and relax.”

“…Alright.” Twilight made a small smile towards Nicole before nodding. “Thanks Nicole.”

“Mm.” Nicole nodded before turning to Jack. “And please put them down Jack. It is not right for you to hurt them.”

“…Hmph!” Jack puts Ren and Jamie down before crossing his arms and looking away. “Whatever…”

“Jeez, stop acting like a tough guy, fatso.” Rantaro rolls his eyes, earning a scowl from the biker.

“But anyway…there is one last thing that I wish to discuss with you all.” Everyone turned to Nicole, who looks at them with a serious look on her face.

“It’s concerns about our lost memories.” Nicole explained. “I’ve been wondering for sometime…but about those pods, I’ve been hacking into the system to check it out from my iPad.”

“Hold on, then there was another reason why you use your iPad? Just to hack into the system?” Kaede asked in shock. “I never knew that you were even into computers at all…”

“I have hobbies.” Nicole stated bluntly. “But that’s not important…what I’m trying to say that I once made my way into the system…and I’ve discovered a coding that allowed us to be put in sleep in those sleeping pods.”

“Really?” Jamie asked excitedly. “I always had a guess on what they were about, but I never really thought of it like that.”

“Yep, and I think this next part you all might not wanna like.” Rantaro sighed tiredly.

“The coding that was used to put us to sleep in those pods…was my coding.”

The whole room grew silent upon Nicole’s answer, some turned shock, some turn bewildered, and some turned pale.

“Yes, I know if you all don’t trust me.” Nicole sighed, adjusting her glasses.

“H-Hold on a sec!” Jack exclaimed. “You’re frigging telling us that the reason that we all went to sleep in those damn pods was because of you?!”

“H-Hold on you guys!” Ren exclaimed. “Look, I know this might look bad, but I’m sure there’s a good reason for that. Besides, how can we be sure? I mean, she woken up from her own pod, right?”

“It is true.” Mason nodded. “I even checked on it and there was eight pods there.”

“So then, how does that explain about how she placed the coding into the sleeping pod system?” Twilight wondered.

“I wish I knew…” Nicole sighed. “Unfortunately, I am in the same situation as you guys and I can’t remember anything like you all…but that seems to be the only issue on my mind.”

“Yeah, you guys somehow lost your memories of how you even got inside those pods.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “No big deal.”

“Not how we got there. I meant, ‘when’?” Everyone looked at Nicole in surprise and bewilderment.

“I mean, when did we get send into those pods in the first place?” Nicole clarified.

“Huh? Really? Well…I never really thought of that.” Kaede rubs her chin in thought.

“Actually, now that we’re talking about memories, I feel as though something is very off with them.” Ren crossed his arms with a frown on his face. “I mean, when we all came here to the Crystal Empire, it should have been our first time seeing this place, right? But we somehow recognized it.”

“And not just that, but we all had similar experiences in our memories.” Mason added. “Getting chased by angry mobs, people murmuring rumors about us, and touching these strange objects, and…seeing our portraits in our own funeral…We all somehow experienced similar things.”

“Yeah, I always thought that was strange…” Jamie nodded slightly, looking down and went into deep thought.

“Ugh, hearing all of this is making my brain hurt.” Rainbow Dash moaned, holding her head.

“Well if you want, you can say that our memories seemed to be flawed in a way.” Rantaro pointed out.

Rantaro stares at her before looking back with his hat tilting as he gave them their answer.

“I don’t remember how I got into that pod or why considering that I’m quite good at hiding my identity. Though, I don’t even have any memories from before I gotten into that weird space-ship or into that pod.”

“Wait…now that he’s bringing that up, I also don’t remember that!” Kaede exclaimed.

“…H-Hey guys.” Jamie spoken up, his tone showing hesitation and fear. “I wanted to ask you for some time now but…Do you all remember what we did, at least try your hardest?”

“Huh? Well…” Ren rubbed the back of his head while the others tried to remember. “Hmm…actually, I remember attending school. I think that was on…November 24th.”

“Huh? Wait…what are you talking about?” Kaede asked Ren with a surprised look. “I remember doing my maid work from October 11th.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Jack asked, raising a brow. “Why are you guys giving out different dates?”

“No way…” Twilight slowly widened her eyes, along with the others. “Is it possible…that you guys lost your memories to the stopping point of different days?”

“Just as I feared…and even we can guess that even the years were different too.” Nicole nodded in agreement. “For example, Rantaro was doing some business of his own on the year, 2017 before he woken up from the pod.”

“Ah, so you did read my mind about that huh?” Rantaro smirked, which Nicole igored.

“2017?!” Ren exclaimed. “But wait…that’s not how I remember! It was 2018!”

Soon, the gang all looked at each other in shock and bewilderment, realizing this.

“No way…” Ren turned pale upon realizing this. “We’ve all forgotten…about the times we spent with our friends and family…we’ve all forgotten about what day and year we each remembered…”

“But why would you fellas remembered different days and years?” Applejack wondered.

“Perhaps it’s relating to something.” Nicole guessed. “I’m not sure yet, but judging by we remembered differently, I would say it was something like…something is making us not want to remember what goes forth over the real date of our kidnapping.”

“I wish I knew…” Ren sighed. “But how about we stop talking about that for now? I don’t want to feel more shock than I already am.”

“Mm…good idea leader.” Nicole nodded, earning an incredulous look from Ren.

“W-wait? You’re calling me leader too?” Ren asked in surprise before blushing a bit. “C-Come on, you guys…I can’t be a leader to you all…”

“Well actually, I guess you do have the qualities of being a leader.” Jamie meekly smiled. “Other than me being the first to get these cutie-marks, you were the first to ever waken up here in Equestria.”

“And plus, you got a cool weapon!” Kodi pointed out, wagging his tail excitedly.

“Also, you do seem to find ways on how to help out with situations and easily make some of us your friends.” Mason smiled.

“Well you are the first human to ever waken up here, Ren.” Twilight smiled. “I know you’ll do great as being leader to these guys.”

“Hey, the same could be said to you, Twi. You lead the other ponies together as friends.” Ren pointed out, earning a smile from the purple Unicorn.

Jamie smiled at Twilight before seeing Canterlot off the distance, but there was something else out there.

“Guys, look!” Everyone looked outside and saw a bunch of shining lights circling across the kingdom.

“Aurora Borealis…” Jamie corrected. “And those lights…they’re coming from the Crystal Empire…”

“Ha ha, yeah, I’ll say.” Ren smiled while the others brighten up upon seeing the shining lights right in front of them emanating from the Crystal Empire.

The group headed their way straight towards the city before finally arriving to the Canterlot Train Station before making their way towards Canterlot Castle. The rest of the gang waited outside while Ren, Jamie, and Twilight headed inside to speak with Princess Celestia.

Ren, Jamie, and Twilight entered the throne room to see Princess Celestia gazing out of the window, watching the northern lights in awe.

“I wish it had been me who ultimately made it so. But it wasn’t.” Twilight groaned.

“Twilight, stop doubting yourself like Nikki said.” Ren said, giving her a soft smile.

“Ren’s right. I’m sure that you never failed at all.” Jamie reassured. “I-I mean, we all helped out each other while I tried to protect you from the Umbrum Army.”

“They are right Twilight.” Princess Celestia nodded before walking over to them. “Twilight, as I understand it, Spike and Ren brought the Crystal Heart back to its rightful place and your friends managed to make all of the Crystal Ponies stand up against the evil forces of the Umbrum Army. Not only that, but Ren…you miraculously redeemed and revived Sombra into a real unicorn and forever be with my former student, Radiant Hope.”

“Well of course. My niece, Cadance, and Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor, told me through their recent letter.” Princess Celestia nodded before turning over to a mural that had both Spike and Ren placing the Crystal Heart on the pedestal, shining all of its love and light across the empire.

“But it’s been like a half hour since we left the Empire!” Jamie exclaimed, gawking at the new mural in the window.

“Wow…you guys really work fast.” Ren commented, blinking in surprise before turning to the princess. “Oh, and I thought I should tell you that Hope said hi and…she really misses you and Luna.”

“I had a feeling…” Princess Celestia softly smiles, remembering much about Radiant Hope. “I always wonder whatever happened to her, but to think that she was still young and alive this whole time…”

“Yeah…even I’m confused on how that is possible…” Jamie sweat-dropped, realizing this.

“But even so, I still fail the test…” Twilight sighed sadly, but Princess Celestia gave her student a soft smile.

“Twilight, who said that you failed the test? You didn’t do all of this yourself, but your friends helped you along the way to protect the empire. You even entrusted the Crystal Heart to Ren and Mason at first because you weren’t sure how quickly you could find a way to escape the tower.” Ren, Twilight, and Jamie looked up to her in surprise, hearing that sentence from her. “You weren’t willing to risk the future of the citizens of the Crystal Empire in an effort to guarantee your own. Far better that I have a student who understands the meaning of self-sacrifice than one who only looks out for her own best interests.”

“Does this mean…?” Twilight slowly widened her eyes and upon seeing the nod from Princess Celestia, she beamed in excitement and let out a loud ‘YES!’ while Ren and Jamie looked at each other in shock before smiling at one another.

“I PASSED!” Twilight shouted before covering her mouth and blushed upon realizing that her friends and her mentor were staring at her. “S-Sorry…”

“Ha ha ha! It’s alright Twilight.” Princess Celestia assured. “You deserved it after what you’ve all been…but other than that, Jamie, Ren, I read the report Shining and Cadance gave to me and I heard about this figure that was with the Umbrum. He called himself ‘Void’, right?”

“Yeah, and he somehow knows us.” Ren nodded. “Though…whatever he is, maybe he might have the answers that we have.”

“And whoever he is, he is a clear threat…” Jamie gulped, clenching onto his notebook. “B-But I’m sure that we can defeat him…hopefully.”

“Well I know that you all will succeed.” Princess Celestia nodded in understanding. “But for now, you all deserved some rest. By the way, have you retrieve it?”

“Oh this?” Ren presented the Prism Crystal in front of her. “Yeah, I was kinda lucky that we found this.”

“Good…but I’m sure that you will put it in good use.” Princess Celestia smiled before her horn started glowing, revealing the dark smudged letter to them. “And you should take this with you. Once you shine it’s light against the dark smudges, it’ll reveal the truth.”

“So that’s the power of this thing? We shine the light through it and it reveals just that?” Jamie questioned, which Princess Celestia nodded.

“That’s pretty amazing.” Twilight complimented before frowning. “But…Princess Celestia, why couldn’t you tell me about the Umbrum Army? I could have at least stopped them.”

“I didn’t want to put you in danger or do anything reckless that could have affected your test. I’m sorry…” Princess Celestia used her wings to hug Twilight with a soft smile. “But you’ve already proven that you are responsible to be prepared for possible tasks like that in the near future.”

“R-Really?” Twilight asked, which Princess Celestia nodded. “Thank you Princess Celestia.”

“So anyway, thanks.” Ren thanked, receiving the smudged letter from Princess Celestia. “And I promise that whoever that Void guy is, we’ll stop him no matter what.”

“I know you will.” Princess Celestia smiled. “Also…give Mason my best regards once he goes into training with the Royal Guard Academy.”

“Indeed…Also Ren, I love your new Cutie-marks.” Ren blushed a bit before scratching the back of his head as he replied “R-Right…Um…thank you.”

“No problem.” Princess Celestia smiled. “Though I am quite confused on why do you have them too?”

“That’s what we’re wondering…but right now, I think we should save all these mysteries for another time…” Ren sighed.

“Yeah, until then, goodbye for now.” Jamie meekly smiled before he and his two friends headed out with Princess Celestia smiling over them before gazing at her new mural.

“…To think that Sombra would actually be revived and be transformed into a Unicorn? Could it been that new power Ren acquired like Shining and Cadance told me about, or…?” Princess Celestia wondered, questioning about the cutie-marks. “And Void…just what is he?”

“I PASSED!” Wow, she’s really excited! Ha ha, I guess I can understand that. The others soon grew amazed upon hearing this as Spike quickly rushed over and hugged Twilight before yelling “Yes! I know you could do it!”

“Hell yeah! Way to go!” Jack raised his fist in the air with a toothy grin on his face. Rantaro smiled softly at her before Gizmo popped out of his hat and handed him a bottle of grape juice.

“Heh…I thought for sure you would fail, but good job.” Rantaro smirked before opening the bottle and drinking it.

“You did it! Great job!” Kodi quickly rushed over and licked Twilight in the face, causing her to look away in disgust.

You know, Twilight really done it. She entrusted me and Mason before with the Crystal Heart, and she was willing to help out. She made a self-sacrificed by trusting us with it, and I’m glad she does trust us. It shows that we really trust with each other.

And at that moment, a song began playing in the background with Rarity starting out the verse of the song.

(Rarity):

You were prepared to do your best

Had what it takes to pass the test

All those doubts you can dismiss

Turns out you were

(All sans Twilight Sparkle):

Prepared for this!

(Applejack):

You clearly have just what it takes

(Pinkie Pie):

To pass a test with such high stakes

(Fluttershy):

We knew for sure you would prevail

(Rainbow Dash):

Since when does Twilight Sparkle ever fail?

(All sans Twilight Sparkle):

All those doubts that you can dismiss

Trust yourself and you cannot miss

(Ren, Mason, and Carrie):

Turns out you were

(Twilight Sparkle):

Turns out I was

(Kaede, Kodi, and Jamie):

Turns out you were

(Twilight Sparkle):

Turns out I was

(Rarity):

Turns out you were

(All sans Twilight Sparkle):

Prepared for this!

And with that, we boarded back to the Friendship Express and made our way back home while Twilight gave Spike a raised brow, which made him sheepishly laughed at her before saying “Yeah, I knew everything was going to be fine.”

We soon arrived back to Ponyville as we said our goodbyes to each other and headed back to the home-ship.

“You know, that was quite an adventure we had.” I commented, placing my hands behind my back.

“I’ll say for sure.” Jamie nodded in agreement. “But I’m very glad that we’ve saved Equestria again.”

“Oh Nicole, I didn’t realize but you don’t have your iPad.” Kaede pointed out.

“Mm…my guess is that she must’ve gotten rid of it.” Nicole sighed. “But it is alright. I still my back-up memory drive in my pockets, so I’ll get another iPad from the appstore in the mall section.”

“Yo, so are we still trusting her even after learning a lot more about our missing memories and crap?” Jack asked, leaning over to Rantaro. Rantaro gave him a blank look and replied “Well to be fair, we won’t know much till we find out what else is hiding behind our lost memories.”

“But still though, I can’t believe Mason is going to the Royal Guard Academy!” Kodi pointed out. “That’s pretty awesome!”

“I guess so…I’ll be leaving in a month, so I have plenty of time to be with you guys.” Mason smiled before ruffling his sister’s hair. “Even spending time with you sis.”

“Hee hee! Thanks big brother!” Carrie smiled happily. “And I promise to write you letters every week!”

“Well in the meantime, can we get something to eat?” Kodi begged, licking his lips. “I’m hoping to eat some delicious chocolate muffins!”

“Same here.” Jack rubbed his gut as we headed over to the front entrance of the home-ship. “I’m hoping to get some good beef steaks to make myself feel relax.”

“You do that and make you more gluttonous, fatso.” Rantaro grinned, earning a scowl as he tried to go after him but me, Kaede, and Jamie stopped him.

“Hold on Jack! It’s not worth it!” I exclaimed. “Please, don’t fight!”

“Yeah! T-This isn’t gonna solve anything!” Kaede begged, calming Jack down.

“Fine…” Jack huffed before opening the door as he grumbled about ‘turning him into a stuffed toy’ or something like that. Always with the violence, jeez…

“What? Don’t act like you’re my dad. Besides, I’m older than you in four years, so you don’t tell me what to do.” Rantaro scoffed before heading inside.

The rest of us looked at each other and shook our heads before heading inside. Seriously though, those two just like riling up against each other. I am trying my best to prevent these two from killing one another.

“ENEMIES SPOTTED!” Huh? We all looked around from the inside of the living room before seeing a toy helicopter right in front of us. But this one was the weirdest one we’ve ever seen…it had robotic eyes and what looks like machine guns on its side.

“AT RANGE…FIRE!” Before long, it’s little machine guns started firing down at us, causing us all to quickly jump out of the way before we got out of the way.

“What the heck?!” Mason exclaimed before examining the shots. “Wait a minute…these are fake.”

“Yeah…” I walked over and picked one of them from the ground. “Wait…are these nerf guns?”

“OH NO! THESE MAGGOTS AREN’T EVEN SCARED!” The toy helicopter exclaimed.

“What the hell is that thing?! Seriously?! It tried to kill us!” Jack exclaimed.

“Um, excuse me, but who are you?” Carrie asked, earning a chuckle from the toy helicopter as it rubs its…mustache? Wait, does it have a mustache?

“CURIOUS AREN’T YOU, LITTLE SERGEANT? WELL…YOU MAGGOTS AREN’T GETTING OUT OF MY SIGHTS!” The toy helicopter exclaimed sternly.

“Sergeant? Maggots?” Jamie questioned. “Those sound like terms used for a military boot camp…”

“They’re hiding from the back of the couch.” Nicole said bluntly, causing the toy helicopter to gulp.

“Oh really?” Jack hummed before turning to me and Mason, which we nodded before walking over to the back of the couch.

“Now!” I yelled out before we jumped down from the side of the couch and wrangled ourselves somewhere down there.

“OW! Hey!” After ten seconds of trying to fight off whoever is down there, Mason, Jack, and I gotten back up with Jack holding some boy in his hands.

This one seemed to wear a MultiCam-MICH-Helmet-Cover-Tactical-Military-Camo-Army- with large goggles embedded on top of it. He wear an green cameo pajamas set. His shirt was long-sleeved with different patterns on it and was buttoned-up, and his skin seemed pale. He also had shoulder pads on his elbows and his knees. He seemed to be wearing slippers and his hair was sunflower blonde with freckles on his face, but it was chin length.

“Oh yeah, says who little boy?” Jack scoffed, glaring at him, only for him to glare harshly at him.

“….WHAT?!” We all exclaimed with Jack dropping the boy-I-I mean, the girl onto the floor while she rubbed her butt in pain while we gaze at her in shock.

Just…what the hell is happening? That’s…suppose to be a girl? Well…he does have a slightly girly voice, but…what is happening?!

My Little Pony: Ren's Adventures In Equestria

by MaxTV1234

Chapter 63 - The Crystal Empire Part 5