//------------------------------//
// Empire Part 2 
// Story: A different fate, but the same element 
// by Storyreader21 
//------------------------------//

Twilight, Scootaloo, and Bark Wing made their way into the throne room, Twilight's wings glowing with a scanning spell she had learned a couple months ago, in preparation of a scavenger hunt.

"The throne." Twilight said looking at it. "There is magic in the crystal at the top, but I can't tell what it does."

"If sis*, is right then that would be how to find the heart." Scootaloo said. "That is where he would be sitting after all."

Bark Wing started sniffing the crystal using Timberwolves ability to smell magic(part of how they hunt ponies, with the Timberwolvesof Harmonia learning how to identify spells through smell). "It appears to be some sort of lock that needs dark magic to open."

Twilight grimaced at that. "Alright stay back."

With that her wings began glowing black, before blasting a beam of dark magic into the crystal. The crystal releasing a wave of shadow that revealed a set of stairs going underground, while Twilight, with Scootaloo and Bark Wing's help was removing the dark magic residue from her wings.

They then headed down the stairs where they found another door. With Bark Wing sneezing upon getting a scent.

"That's weird." Bark Wing said. 

"What?" Twilight replied as they stopped.

"There are several spells on that door." Bark Wing replied. "One a prank spell Pandora used on me last month that makes anything it is attached to run away when you get close. I really hate that spell. But the others...one is a dark magic unlock tied to a fear spell, the other is a light magic unlock tied to something I can't recognize I didn't even know you could combine light and dark magic like that. It smells really wierd."

"Of course." Twilight exclaimed, getting looks from the other two. "The prank spell will make you annoyed and frustrated, while the fact that you have to use dark magic in the throne room will cause you to use dark magic down here setting off the fear spell, when you really need to use light magic."

"Got it." Scootaloo said her own wings glowing as beams of light magic landed to the crystal in the door and unlocked it, while holding it in place revealing an area with a tower, and lots of steps. Luckily all three could fly, and made it to the top easy.

"The Crystal Heart!" Twilight said spotting it, and moving to it, before Scootaloo flew in front of her.

"Hold on." Scootaloo said, looking back at the heart. "It is just sitting there. If this is anything like a Daring Do adventure then there is a trap somewhere"

"There is alot of magic here, not all from the heart." Bark Wing said.

Twilight blanched at the thought, her wings glowing as she scanned only to sag. "Thanks sis. There is a trap, it looks like it will create a bunch of spiky crystals all over, while also sending an alert to Sombra. The good news is that alert is separate, and I can deal with that, he'll know anyway when the crystal heart is activated by the crystal fayre, but this will give us more time, and we can use it to teleport to him immediately in order to use the elements. The bad news is that I can't do anything about the trap. However I do spot a weakness to it."

"What?" Scootaloo asked.

"There is a very slight time delay, and this room is just a roof held up by pillars." Twilight grinned as she finished dealing with the alarm spell "If one of us grabs it while flying slightly slower then a Sonic Rainboom we can get it, and out the other side of the room before the trap activates, and without the boom alerting Sombra anyway."

"Got it." Scootaloo said, before flying a bit away to get some speed, as Twilight and Bark Wing flew out the room, as Scootaloo took off and grabbed the heart and got out just in front of the crystals.

The three then flew down to the now set up Crystal Fayre,  with the heart, and after telling the others everything that happened the Crystal Fayre began. Powering the heart, and releasing a barrier that removed Sombra's influence from the Empire, leaving only Sombra and his army to deal with in the area between Equestria, and the Crystal Empire.