//------------------------------// // The adventure begins. // Story: Righting wrongs. // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// _____*Ponyville, Equestria, 1:13 PM*______ Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia and the Element of Magic, librarian of Ponyville and book lover was in the process of having a mental breakdown. The unicorn had lavender fur with a dark purple mane with a magenta and a lighter purple streak in her mane, her tail matched her mane and she had a cutie mark of a six pointed purple star with little white stars around it, her eyes were purple and she was usually a logical mare. Usually is the term here because Twilight Sparkle was freaking out about her current task, normally she faced problems with intelligence, planning, logic and magical knowledge, but now all of these were being cast aside as she boarded the train with her friends, she sat alone in train, not wishing to be around anypony as she continued to panic mentally. Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been tasked with investigating the return of the Crystal Empire, and more specifically, the unicorn herself was to restore peace to the Empire, without the aid of her friends. Now old Twilight, as In how she was before she came to Ponyville would have been alright with this, as she was used to being alone then, but now that she had friends and understood their importance, couldn't for the life of her understand why she was told to basically do this alone. Add to the fact that there was a strange disturbance that occurred before the banishment of the Empire that wasn't due to King Sombra, and the mission seemed even more impossible than before, in fact Twilight had even considered going alone at first, but soon discarded the idea from her mind as she thought on what to do next. With her mind scrambled from the looming threat of failing her test, Twilight quickly ran down a list of facts that she had in her mind, to try and make sense of her mind. 'Fact, King Sombra was defeated and then banished himself and the Crystal Empire, meaning that he probably won't be alive or at full power, Fact, King Sombra lost all his forces before his defeat, many were not banished but surrendered to the Equestrian Army, meaning that he won't have troops......hopefully, Fact, Shining Armor and Cadence are there, so we won't be entirely alone, Fact, The Crystal Empire had frequent blizzards, meaning that we can't be out in the wild for long, extreme caution needed.' She took a few calming breaths using Cadence's technique and found herself much more focused than before. Twilight then ran through a list she made about the anomaly in her mind. 'Unknown, anomaly occurred before King Sombra's defeat, source or cause of the anomaly unknown, any creature involved in anomaly, unknown, use extreme caution.' Twilight looked out of the window from her seat, watching as the lands go by. 'Who knows how dangerous the anomaly will be.' She thought to herself. _______*The Crystal Castle, unknown time.*_______ "Hey! they have tortillas here!" The voice of Dark Spyro called out, from behind the open door of a magically powered refrigerator as a bolt of magic flew by. After the break that Dark Spyro and Sunset Shimmer took, they had continued to explore starting with the closet door, which led them to a hallway that led to an elegant dining room with two more doors, they followed one of the doors which led them to the gigantic kitchen, but when they arrived they encountered a trio of angry chefs that were all unicorns......and they were apparently all former soldiers with one of them being an army cook, at least if the food he made was anything to go by. Sunset was currently taking cover behind a nearby counter and she loosed a barrage of magic at the cooks before hiding again. "Are you seriously going through their fridge!? NOW of all times!?" She snapped as she noticed something. "PUT THAT GODDAMNED TORTILLA DOWN AND HELP ME YOU DOUCHE!" She shouted. Spyro grumbled and peeked out from behind his cover, with a bag of tortilla shells in his mouth he channeled his magic to his horns, he then loosed a lightning bolt at a cook who peeked out at the wrong time while a magic blast missed him, the bolt hit him in the arm and the dragon took cover again, he then noticed that something was off and he looked down, his eyes widened when he saw that the bag had been obliterated and only shards of what was going to be his snack were on the floor, he dropped what was left of the bag and held his hands in the air angrily. "UNICORN COOOOOOOKS!" He called out loud enough to be heard from the other side of the room. Sunset sighed to herself as she charged her horn and threw a fire spell at the chefs before taking cover. "And that's my partner." She said, dreading her decision to help the dragon suddenly. _____*The train.*_____ Twilight rested her head on the back of her seat and closed her eyes. 'I just hope I'm not overreacting.' The train moved at a steady pace for a few hours, the time passed too quickly for Twilight's liking as she wanted it to take more time so she could calm down properly, but when it finally came to a stop at the train stop she looked outside and saw that there was of course a blizzard outside, she sighed to herself before getting out of her seat and walking to the door to leave the train. And she wouldn't admit it, but part of her hoped that the door jammed so that the train would go back and keep her from facing this danger, but the other part of her knew that it wouldn't happen, so when the door opened, Twilight stepped out of the train with reluctance, she heard her friends step outside with her and she steeled herself as best she could when the train departed. 'No turning back now.' She told herself. "THIS, is the Crystal Empire?" Rarity asked, disappointment in her voice. Twilight nodded. "It is, but we are close to the Capital City, we should get moving." She said, she took a step off the platform and shivered when she felt cold snow cover her hooves, she took a breath and saw it float in front of her. "This blizzard is going to make it difficult to go anywhere, Rainbow Dash, you might want to avoid trying to fly." She advised. The rainbow maned Pegasus in question grumbled in annoyance and walked alongside her friends through the snow. "Do you know where you're going egghead?" She asked, slightly shivering. "The Capital is straight ahead from the train stop, so as long as we keep moving, we should reach the city." Twilight replied, not bothering to say anything about the nickname. The blizzard quickly picked up speed and Applejack walked quickly until she was next to Twilight where she then walked the same speed as her unicorn friend. "Twi, do ya know what we are dealing with?" She asked, loud enough for the others to hear. "I don't know what exactly we are dealing with yet!" She replied, in the same level of volume as her friend. "There shouldn't be anything to deal with if we are lucky!" She added. ______*The Crystal Castle.*______ Dark Spyro walked through the corridors with Sunset, they had won their battle with the chefs who were unconscious in the now damaged kitchen, after Dark Spyro got angry, he abandoned cover all together and charged directly at them drawing all their fire, allowing Sunset to finish them off, and they were now exploring the other path from the dining room, there were no doors, no split off halls, and no windows along the dark passage, just an eerie feeling of being watched as the two walked. "Creepy." Sunset remarked when they saw an ominous looking crystal carving on the wall, they couldn't make out the exact shape but it resembled an eye from what little they could see, as any light they produced was snuffed quickly. Dark Spyro nodded in agreement, they walked for a couple minutes and soon reached a door, they opened it and they both groaned in aggravation, they were just at the door to the right of the giant one at top of the stairs, they quickly headed down the stairs and walked to one of the two remaining doors. "It didn't even feel like we were going up." The dragon remarked. _____*The outskirts of the Crystal Capital.*______ Twilight screamed in fear as she ran with her brother Shining Armor and her friends, she found that his horn was blocked off with some kind of crystal they couldn't do anything about and they were quickly attacked by a massive of wall of shadows with a dark unicorn's face at the top of it. They ran as fast as they could from the wall of shadow and they soon spotted a massive pink shield that was domed over a massive city, Twilight found herself relieved as she sped up to get under the shield, she looked over her shoulder and saw that the wall was a lot closer than it used to be and she screamed again, her running got faster and faster as she tried to get away from the wall of shadows, it was only then that she heard Spike who was screaming in fear, and Twilight found herself wondering just how long she failed to notice he was there. The group of eight were lucky, as they ran past a pair of giant pink crystals they also ran into the shield, the wall of shadows rammed into the shield and roared in fury as it bashed away at the shield, intent on getting inside, Twilight's panicked breathing slowly steadied and she heard her brother talk. "It's okay, we're safe.......as safe as we can be anyway, we need to hurry, Cadence is waiting on us." He said, not bothering to wait as he headed for the capital. Twilight slowly followed her friends and her brother to the city all the while she heard Spike talking. "What was that? that was scary!" He remarked, and Twilight found that she wholeheartedly agreed, and that she never had to face that thing again. Twilight felt Spike hop down and walk next to her, he looked at her with concern and worry all over his expression. "Twilight? are you alright?" The baby dragon asked. "I'll be alright......I hope." She replied shakily. _____*The Crystal Castle.*______ Dark Spyro sighed to himself as he walked to one of the doors next to the stairs with Sunset, the two doors on the left side of the large room were connected to a large meeting room with nothing inside of it, he placed his claw on it and pushed, the door didn't open so he tried to pull, again nothing, he grumbled in annoyance. Sunset rolled her eyes and her horn lit up, she cast an unlocking spell on the door but to her surprise it didn't work, she tried a few more different versions of the spell but to no avail. "I guess we need a key for this door, and probably the other one too." She pointed out. Dark Spyro nodded in understanding, he decided against trying to break it down because if the door had spells on it to prevent getting around the lock, then there was probably a reason for it and it would stand to reason that there would be a few spells to prevent it from being broken. Sunset Shimmer and Dark Spyro walked to the giant stair and headed up, they walked right up to the massive doors and pushed it open, the door opened with surprising ease and Dark Spyro went in first, he looked around and saw that it was the throne room they had entered, there was an elegant red and purple carpet leading up to the throne itself. The throne was impressive, it was made of various crystals and gems, while it had two large black crystals imbedded into the back of it, there were rows of pillars on both sides of the room, helping to support the weight of the high ceiling and giving the room some extra flair, Dark Spyro walked towards the throne itself and felt that a dark presence was strong in that particular spot. "What are you doing? there's nothing here." Sunset stated. The unicorn was right, there were no doors, no other paths and no obvious secrets, Dark Spyro did not care though as he walked up the steps to the throne and stared at the black crystals. "There's a lot of dark magic here, it's strong." He said. "Yea I know, but it's not stronger than what I'm sensing from you." Sunset Shimmer said, making the dragon look at her, he nodded and walked down the steps from the throne. "If anything, it's incredible that you are still sane with all the dark magic you have." The unicorn said as they left the throne room a few moments later. Dark Spyro looked to his left and saw another door, it was just as delicately carved as the others and had seven crystals embedded into it. "I wonder what's behind that door." He said before walking over to it. "Well, if I'm not mistaken that leads to the royal gem cutters workshop, the books claim he was the best gem enchanter in the world, and that none could enter without his consent.......aside from the rulers of course." Sunset explained. Dark Spyro nodded as he approached the door, he placed a claw on the door and he felt a strange presence on the other side. "Do you sense that?" He asked. "It feels like someone is on the other side." He said. Sunset walked up and placed a hoof on the door, she soon shook her head. "I don't feel anything, it must be a dark magic thing." She replied before removing her hoof. Dark Spyro sighed. "Alright, let's go." He said, he walked with Sunset to the other side of the upstairs, having already explored the other door on this side, the dragon opened his wings up and flew towards the door, with a smirk, Sunset's horn lit up and she teleported to the door and waited for Dark Spyro who flew up quickly. They opened the door and saw that it went upstairs, they closed the door. "Search the rest of this floor first?" Sunset suggested, at Dark Spyro's nod, they walked to one of the other two doors on this side, the first one they walked up to had a carving of yet another species that Dark Spyro didn't recognize, but he decided not to ask as he opened the door......or so he thought, it didn't budge and when Sunset tried her unlocking spell, the door cracked in half and the two backed away, Sunset towards the stairs and Dark Spyro to the other door. The door rumbled loudly and then just like before, cracked in half again, only this time the door was promptly crushed as a large pile of rubble flowed out and covered the walkway, effectively blocking them from that pathway. "So.....That was something." Sunset stated. "Yea, it was." Dark Spyro said, Sunset promptly teleported across and the two walked to the next door, carved into this door was a creature that they were both very familiar with, a dragon was carved into this door and Dark Spyro took a deep breath, he placed a hand on the door and pushed, the door opened and he walked inside, Sunset followed him and lit her horn for light. The room they entered was quiet large, and it seemed that it connected to the other door as they saw that the ceiling had collapsed, with a large stone beam that was jammed against the door somehow, the rest of the room was sparse of decoration or luxury, it held many bunk beds and footlockers, some were intact while the rest were broken, it was clear as to what this was, but Sunset made mention of it anyway. "The servants quarters, I imagine that behind the rubble is another room just like this one." She said with surety. "It seems likely, alright, let's head up to the next level." Dark Spyro said, he headed to the door and he heard Sunset huff behind him, he looked back and saw her annoyed expression on her face. "Who made you the leader here?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Also, if you aren't going to acknowledge anything I'm telling you, don't go telling me what to do." She added, clearly annoyed at him for how he was behaving. Dark Spyro nodded and looked out of the room, checking for any guards that may have heard the collapse, thankfully there was none. "I'm sorry, look, I really do appreciate any information you give me, it does mean a lot and I'm sorry I never thanked you for it, and as for me acting like I'm the leader........your right, I'm not a leader, so what do you think we should do?" He asked, a little amusement in his voice at the end. Sunset blinked, clearly not expecting the response, she soon sighed. "Let's go to the next level." She said, annoyed that Dark Spyro was amused by the fact that the only real option was to go up a level, as they made their way to the door to go up, Sunset found herself watching the dragon with interest. 'He didn't have to say any of that, he could have just said that there was no other option and that was it......so why did he say any of that?' She pondered as the dragon opened the door and headed up the stairs. ______*The Crystal Capital.*_____ Twilight walked with her friends, Shining Armor and Spike up to the castle and they saw Cadence standing in front of the castle, the Alicorns horn was lit and she looked exhausted, Twilight decided against their usual greeting for once as they walked up, Cadence smiled when she spotted her and walked over. The two hugged for a short moment before Cadence stepped back to breathe. "It's good to see you all, I would greet you all properly but most of my energy is put into the shield." She explained, her ragged breathing made it difficult for her to speak properly. Shining Armor spoke up next. "That thing has been after us and the city ever since we got here, we haven't been able to do much else aside from send our guards with a message to Princess Celestia for help." He explained checking the shields for signs of the shadows. "When did that happen to your horn?" Rarity asked out of curiosity, while also worried about what it did. Shining sighed and looked up at his horn. "After we first arrived, whatever that thing is did this to my horn and now I can't use magic, I haven't even considered getting it off, the risk is way too great to even try." He stated firmly, looking at the six mares and dragon again. Twilight looked around and saw quite a few sullen looking ponies walking around or looking at them. "Those are the citizens right?" She asked, she had to admit it to herself, but they looked horrible, terrified beyond measure and seemingly unwilling to go near them. "Yea, poor things are too scared to go far from their house, and that's just counting the ones that WILL leave their homes." Shining Armor stated. "But with the ponies here too scared to do anything, we have no way of mounting any form of defense aside from Cadence's shield." He explained. Twilight tapped her chin. "Well, from what I read, hope and love were quite literally the strongest defense of the Crystal Empire, so if we can show the ponies here that there is hope and that they don't have to be afraid of King Sombra anymore, we might be able to defend ourselves." She explained. Shining nodded. "Well, do what you can, if you need any ideas, there should be a library in the castle." He said, making Twilight's ears perk up at the mention of a library. Twilight nodded quickly and looked at her friends. "Girls, can you see if you can convince the ponies here that everything will be alright? I'm going to see if I can find a way to defeat that wall of shadow." She asked, when her friends nodded and told her that they would try, she hurried inside, with Spike following close behind. Twilight quickly entered the castle and pushed her way past the entry door, she entered the room with a giant staircase and looked around in awe, she was frozen momentarily as she stared at the architecture. "Twilight, the library?" Spike said, reminding the unicorn of why they were here while he climbed onto her back. Twilight shook her head clear and chose a door at random, she walked to the door on the right closer to the stairs, she stepped through it and walked down the pathway, it took a little bit until they reached what appeared to be a dining room with a very large and long table in the center, with a black crystal chair at one end, there was a door behind the intimidating chair and one to the far off wall, hurrying, Twilight went for the far off hall, knowing from experience that old castles seldom made sense in their design. Twilight walked through the door and entered a short hallway, she quickly reached the end of the hall and entered what appeared to be a kitchen, she immediately noticed something wrong with the kitchen, as in the numerous dents and holes in the walls, there were also many scorch marks on the other end of the room and a few of the counters have deep claw marks in them. "What.....happened here? this can't have been a cooking incident." Spike said in horror as he climbed down. Twilight looked around and found a few loose red and yellow hairs on the ground, she bent down by the damaged refrigerator and noticed the many dents and blast marks on the door. "There was a battle here, a pyromancer for certain, maybe a couple of unicorns untrained in element magic, and if I'm not mistaken, a young dragon." She stated, going off the clues she saw. "Twilight......can we go? this is disturbing." Spike asked worryingly as he climbed back onto her back. The unicorn looked at the dragon and nodded. "Yea, we should find the library." She said as she walked to the hall to leave the kitchen. ______*The Crystal Capital, half an hour later.*______ "Twilight, this isn't going to fool them, they know what the real one looks like." Rarity stated, pointing out the obvious. The six mares and baby dragon stood around a covered up object, said object was a very crude fake of the Crystal Heart, the artifact which protected the Capital with a powerful shield powered by the positive emotions of all within the city. "It's necessary for the plan to work Rarity, if the ponies of the Crystal Empire are to be free, they need to believe that the heart has been found and returned, the Crystal Fair is just what they need to help spark that hope, if we are lucky, this will buy me enough time to find the real Crystal Heart and return it before they learn the truth." Twilight stated, she hated lying, but given the circumstances it was better to at least withhold the truth from these ponies until the time was right. "Your wasting your time." A young sounding voice said from nearby. Twilight and the five mares looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young looking Pegasus filly who had ruby eyes and shared the dull crystal coat of the rest of the ponies. "What do you mean we're wasting our time?" Rainbow questioned, flying over a little. "You can't keep these ponies from learning the truth forever, they will want to see the heart and won't stop trying to see it until finally-" She didn't finish her sentence, as it was obvious what she meant. Twilight walked over and knelt down. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is Spike." She introduced, herself and the dragon on her back. The filly's eyes widened and for a brief second her coat shined brightly, she then looked right at Twilght's eyes. "If your looking for the Crystal Heart and you happen to find Spyro.....please tell him hurry." She pleaded. Twilight blinked at the mention of the name, but nodded anyway. "What's your name?" She asked quietly. "Cosmo." The Pegasus stated with a small smile before walking away. Twilight looked at the other girls and walked over. "She's right, but we can't give up, I'll start searching right away, here." She levitated a book over to Rarity. "This has the details on the crystal Fair, do what you can but don't let them lose hope." She stated before charging inside. "Twilight! do you have any idea where your going?" Spike asked as he held on, unsure of what they were doing. The unicorn shook her head as she entered the main room. "Nope, but I have a good hunch that what I'm looking for is at the top somewhere!" She stated as she ran as quickly as she could up the stairs. "There has to be a better way to go about this Twilight!" Spike declared when they reached the top, just then a loud crash shook the castle and Spike held on tight. "Then again, speed is good!" He added quickly. ______*The Crystal Castle upper level.*______ Twilight Sparkle exited the stairs and found herself in a small curved room with four doors, three doors were in front of her, with one on a walkway that went from the far side of the room, all the way to the left and around a curved wall to the small stair next to the unicorn. Spike hopped down and looked at the three bottom doors, one had a red glow to it, one had a gray glow to it, and the third had green and purple smoke flowing from it. "What's this all about?" He wondered as he reached for the red glowing door, only to be pulled away by Twilight's magic. "Don't get close to the doors, I'll go through them, stay here and keep an eye out." Twilight ordered as she approached the door with the telltale smoke of dark magic, she reached out to touch and only for the door to throw itself open and screaming could be heard coming closer, she flinched away and soon enough something flew out and collided with Twilight, knocking her to the ground and making her groan in pain. She heard a male voice speak and a female voice groan that wasn't her or Spike, she heard a voice speak. "Ugh......me no gusta those doors." The voice said. 'What in the world is gusta?' Twilight wondered as she felt whatever was on top of her get lighter.....and then get off, she slowly forced herself to get up and shook her head clear of its light headedness. "Ok, that's those three doors, one to go." A female voice said, making Twilight finally look at what landed on her and her eyes widened upon seeing an orange unicorn mare with fiery red and yellow hair, teal eyes and a cutie mark of a red and yellow sun. But what really began to freak Twilight out was there there was a dragon in the room in front of the mare, he stood at the same height as Twilight and the mare, his twin silver horns on his head that curved back and up made him overall taller if only a little, now, ever since the incident with the red dragon at the top of the mountain near Ponyville, Twilight had a newer fear of dragons other than Spike, and what scared her the most about this particular dragon was that he was a black dragon, which were rumored to not exist. Twilight's panic quickly built up and her breathing was rapid for a second before she started to scream in terror, the black dragon swiftly flew up and clamped his hand over her mouth and stared at her with intense red eyes, he growled and spoke. "Shut up!" He snapped. "Now.....quietly, who are you and what are you doing here?" He questioned in a dangerous tone of voice as he removed his hand from her mouth. Twilight thought she saw her life flash before her eyes when the dragon spoke, she was trembling in fear and she was almost at a loss for words. "I-I-I'm........T-Twilight Sparkle.......I'm...h-here t-to find the Crystal Heart and d-defeat King Sombra." She said shakily completely forgetting she could use magic. The dragon stared at her questioningly for a moment before the mare spoke. "When was the Summer Sun Celebration held?" She asked. Twilight blinked at the random question but fear of the dragon's anger made her answer. "The.......thousandth." She answered. The dragon glanced back at the mare who sighed, seemingly in relief. "That's good........really good." She muttered, before the mare could say anything, the dragon looked right at Twilight, staring her in the eye. "Who sent you here?" He asked, in a more calm tone this time. Twilight gulped and felt something rising in her throat, she decided that it was best to simply answer the dragon and hope for the best. "Princess Celestia.....she sent me." She replied. At the mere mention of who sent her, the dragon released Twilight and backed up. "Sorry about that, but I couldn't take any chances." The dragon stated. "I'm Dark Spyro, this is Sunset Shimmer." He said, introducing the two of them and making Twilight look at the dragon with an idea in her mind. "I wonder." She whispered. "Do you happen to know a Pegasus filly named Cosmo?" She asked. Dark Spyro looked at Twilight with a surprised expression. "Why?" He asked, now wary again, the unicorn quickly answered him, partially out of fear and mostly out of wanting to do the right thing. "She came to us and the rest of our group and asked us to tell you to hurry if we found you." She explained quickly. The dragon paused for a moment and then sighed. "I told her not to leave the house until I got back." He muttered before looking at Spike who stared at him in awe. "And who's he?" He asked. Spike quickly snapped out of it and spoke. "I'm Spike!" He answered proudly, and just how he answered the question seemed to bring a smile to Dark Spyro's face. "Well, we seem to have somewhat similar goals in mind, what do you say we go through the last door together?" The mare, Sunset Shimmer suggested. "What about the other doors?" Twilight asked. Dark Spyro sighed and shook his head. "Trust me, you don't want to go through those, the only thing that's behind those doors are memories, bad ones that seem designed to torture you." He replied with a slight shudder. "The only door in this castle we haven't searched is this last one." Sunset said, pointing at the door a level up. "And to answer a question I'm going to guess you'll ask, no, we haven't seen any Crystal Heart." She stated. With that said, Twilight waited as Spike climbed onto her back and she headed up the stairs, she watched as Sunset teleported up to the next level and waited as Dark Spyro flew up and landed. When they were all up at the door, Dark Spyro opened the door and headed inside, followed by Sunset and then Twilight and Spike, the lavender unicorn was reluctant to trust these two, but she had little choice as they seemed eager to see what was behind the door, and judging by the hair she found in the kitchen, she had to assume that Sunset was a pyromancer, which would make it difficult if not impossible to defeat considering her skill set. What they found in the last room was surprising, and exactly what Twilight was looking for, the Crystal Heart floated in the room on a pedestal, the room itself was circular and bare save for the very important artifact, Twilight was so eager however, to see the heart returned to the people that she rushed ahead regardless of the warnings she was given by the others and grabbed it in her magic, almost instantly the room shook violently and the ceiling collapsed. While this was happening, Twilight quickly shielded Spike from the collapsing ceiling and waited for it to end, it did end a minute later, and when she opened her eyes, Twilight discovered that she was trapped behind a ring of black crystals and that her horn had been covered in the same strange crystal as her brother. "Is everypony alright?" She called out looking at the rubble for the two others. Soon enough a pile of rubble was blasted off with teal magic and both Sunset and Spyro crawled out. "THAT, is precisely why we do NOT touch the obvious traps class." The dragon said, though what sounded to be mockery came off as anger. Sunset walked up to the ring of crystals and tried to blast them away with her magic, but they wouldn't break or budge, she sighed. "The hole is big enough for Spike to get through, but you are stuck until we find a way to get you out short of breaking the floor under your feet." Sunset stated. Twilight felt her heart sink at the mention of this, but she didn't have the strength to speak as Spike tested Sunset's theory and crawled out and in a few times. "I......I'm so sorry." Twilight said, realizing that her eagerness was the cause of all of this. "I just, I didn't want to fail." She stated quietly as she looked at the Crystal Heart. Another loud crash shook the castle and they all looked in the direction it came from and Twilight's eyes widened at what she saw, she watched as the giant shield wavered and quickly fell, followed by the wall of shadow flowing into the city, rapidly approaching the Castle many black crystals shot up throughout the city and quiet a few seemed to hit the castle. "We need to get Twilight out quick! we have to get out of here!" Spike shouted in panic. "Sombra." Dark Spyro growled when he saw a black unicorn with a matching mane and tail appeared in front of the shadow wall, riding a rapidly approaching crystal towards the castle, his eyes held the same black and green smoke and his eyes themselves were red, his horn was red and made of some kind of crystal. "You three figure something out, I have a bone to pick with the king." Dark Spyro said as he flew off to meet the dark King in battle. Sunset groaned. "Damnit." She looked at Twilight who seemed to have come to the same conclusion. "We don't have time." She said, Twilight nodded and quickly heaved the Crystal Heart over her crystal cell. "Spike, take the heart." Twilight said. "What? NO! I won't leave you here!" Spike said defiantly, he still grabbed the heart as Twilight gave it to him. "You need to do this! Celestia's test!" He protested. Sunset looked at Twilight briefly with interest, before the mare spoke louder. "I don't care! get the heart to where the crystal ponies can see it! I NEED you to do this!" Twilight snapped. Spike stared for a second or two before reluctantly running for the door to take the heart to the pedestal. "Sunset, can you please watch over him? he needs to get the heart to the ponies or we're all doomed." Twilight asked. Sunset looked to Sombra and saw that the king and Dark Spyro had begun to fight. "Spyro will buy Spike all the time he needs, I'm going to get you out of there." She stated, before Twilight could object she continued. "Besides, as a former student of Celestia, I'm not exactly easy to convince." She stated, stunning Twilight before she channeled magic into her horn, she then released a precise fiery beam from her horn and aimed at the floor around one of the black crystals. ______*The Crystal Capital*_______ Dark Spyro landed on the roof of a tall building and spat a fireball at where Sombra's crystal wave would have been, the fireball missed when Sombra halted his advance and spotted the dragon, a twisted grin formed on the unicorns face. "After all these years, you finally show your face, well then." The crystal wave lowered itself to Dark Spyro's level and the unicorn grinned madly. "Can't have a dragon threatening my rule can I?" He said to himself as his horn lit up in black and green smoke, a fiery cone erupted from his horn and flew towards the dragon. Dark Spyro dodged the attack and took to the air, he breathed a fireball at the unicorn King and then breathed deep, Sombra easily blocked the fireball with a crystal shield and only smirked when he saw what Spyro was doing, he lowered the shield and fired a magical blast of black and green smoke at the dragon only for Dark Spyro to channel some magic to his breath which immediately took the smirk off of Sombra's face which was replaced by actual concern, he quickly formed a shield that he began to reinforce as quickly as he could. The fire breath that Dark Spyro unleashed was of purple color and was massive in scale, he let out a roar when he did so and it reverberated through the city, the flames crashed into Sombra's magical attack and pushed on with ease, the flames slammed the continually thickening shield and threatened to break the crystals no matter how many there were, Spyro soon lost his breath and ceased, he quickly flew in after the fire, using it as cover. Sombra felt the flames cease and he lowered the shield so he could attack, only for him to meet a dragons claw turned fist to the face, he gagged and recoiled from the force of the strike, but before he could retaliate, he was attacked again, this time it felt like a body slam, he found himself falling to the ground and swiftly formed a large black crystal platform that he landed on, somewhat softening his fall, he quickly charged a spell and unleashed it, and almost instantly, several dozens of black crystals shot out of the ground from everywhere, threatening to impale anything. Due to the innaccuracy of the spell, Sombra was forced to looked around for his opponent, he soon spotted the dragon flying towards him, he quickly thrust a large spike of black crystal out and it seemed to impale the dragon, he grinned. "No dragon can defeat me foolish youngling." He taunted, only for his eyes to widen as he watched Dark Spyro fly straight towards him again, not a single injury was seen. "Impossible!" King Sombra ignited his horn and unleashed a mighty torrent of dark magic at the dragon, but it seemed to have little effect, his eyes widened at this and before he could raise himself any higher or form a shield, the dragon collided with a mighty punch, he recoiled again and growled. Dark Spyro quickly landed and lunged forward, his fist connected to King Sombra's face and the unicorn fell to the ground this time, the king tried to impale him again but it formed in the wrong direction, Dark Spyro used the newest black crystal spike to his advantage, he ran up the spike and when he reached the very top he lept off it, his horns crackled in power as he channeled almost all of his magic into his fist, a furiously crackling amount of energy coalesced and when he struck Sombra with this strike, he couldn't help but shout. "THUNDERSTRIKE!" The name was fitting for what happened, for as soon as Dark Spyro's fist connected to Sombra, a massive pillar of lightning struck from the heavens, breaking straight through the dark crystals and striking the dark King with the force of multiple lightning bolts, as well as kicking up a massive cloud of crystal dust. Dark Spyro quickly flew away and landed on the roof of an intact building, he breathed heavily and collapsed from exhaustion. "That.......was awesome." He chuckled and looked at his claw. "I am Dark Spyro after all, don't underestimate me." He said, resting his claw on his chest. Just then, a massive wave of pink colored energy burst from the direction of the castle, and the black dragon smiled as he forced himself to stand up, he winced at the pain his now sore muscles felt, he watched as all the dark crystals seemed to disintegrate into thin air, he watched as the shadow wall vanished into nothingness and Sombra cried out in pain before his body became shadow, which soon dissipated just like the massive wall of shadow, he smiled and looked to the castle. Dark Spyro spread his wings and took off, he flew towards the castle, thankful that his wings weren't very sore, all around him, everything seemed to rebuild itself, homes repaired in seconds, rubble became buildings and then another pulse was sent out from the heart which was shining brilliantly, and with this one came a city of cheering citizens, he watched as all the citizens gained crystal skin that shined brightly and even seven mares and a baby dragon gained shining crystal skin, he paused and looked at his claw, seeing that he too had gained this crystal overhaul. Dark Spyro chuckled at the strangeness of this land, but decided that for now, he could somewhat relax, even though his body, eyes and magic were strained, he never felt more alive, he landed close to two mares that he easily identified as Sunset and Twilight, he didn't fail to notice the shock on the faces of the other five mares and the fear of one of them in particular, but he chose not to mention it as he watched Spike get hoisted into the air by the citizens and he heard the word savior a few times, he smiled. "Yea, that's totally going to go to his head." He commented. "How are you holding up Dark Spyro?" Sunset asked after walking over, the dragon simply shrugged. "As good as can be expected considering I haven't slept for about week or two, or if you think about it, a thousand years." He joked. "I'm starting to see why dragons sleep so much." He added. "Spyro!" A young voice very familiar to the dragon said, he looked over at the source and smiled as he watched Cosmo run over to him, she hugged him tightly and whispered. "I know where they are.......we can free them.....we can." The filly said happily. Dark Spyro pulled away from the hug and nodded at the filly. "Good, we can go as soon as your ready." He replied, he said nothing as Cosmo quickly hopped onto his back. "You know, sparkling like crystal and having a filly on your back, you are a lot less intimidating that way." Sunset teased. Dark Spyro rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that, anyway, we have to be going......got a family to save after all." He replied before turning around to walk off. "Wait a minute." Twilight's voice said, the dragon looked over his shoulder at her and saw that her horn no longer had the crystals in it. "I know I screwed up, but I want to help, let me come with you, I heard what you said and I think you might need some help." She said. Dark Spyro thought about denying her instantly, but when he saw the look of determination in her eyes, he couldn't help but be reminded of his friend. "Alright, but this time we do things my way, no rushing ahead." He stated, also factoring in his exhaustion and now depleted magic. Sunset walked over and gave Dark Spyro an annoyed stare. "Were you seriously going to leave me behind? shame on you." She said, indicating that she was going, whether the dragon liked it or not. Dark Spyro sighed and turned to face Sunset. "I wasn't planning on putting anyone else at risk, but since you insist you can come along." He stated, not sounding bothered at all, which he really wasn't even though the mare annoyed him more than Kaos......and that was saying something. Twilight looked at the dragon. "I just need to tell my friends I'll be back later and to keep an eye on Spike, I'm sure they'll understand." She said, walking over to the five mares. Dark Spyro looked at Sunset who had a smirk on her face. "What?" He asked, not liking where the smirk was coming from. "Nothing." Sunset said with mirth. "I just realized that your little adventure here is coming to an end, with King Sombra gone, I doubt anything in this land can actually fight you." She stated. While Dark Spyro knew that Sunset felt she was right, he wasn't concerned about anything from this land fighting him, he was far more concerned about what would happen if his former friends found him, assuming they were still alive. When Twilight walked back over she spoke. "Alright, let's go." She stated. "But do you mind if I ask a few questions as we go?" "No problem." Dark Spyro said as he turned around and began walking in the direction that Cosmo pointed in, he may feel completely exhausted, but he couldn't let his body rest until he saved Silver and Garnet, only then would he try to rest at all.