They reappeared underneath the palace, in the place where the Crystal Heart usually stood - in the place Flurry had spent a century taking an elongated nap while Equestria fell apart around her. The second she was out of Sombra’s presence, Flurry took a deep breath as she felt her own mind returning to her.
“Come on!” Izzy was already on her hooves, standing at the edge of one of the streets leading out of the Empire. “We have to get out of here!”
Already, Flurry could hear hooves thundering down the stairs in the pillars that supported the castle, and she scrambled to her hooves, the others doing the same. Zipp winced as she moved her wing, but when her sister offered her support, she gently pushed her away and limped along on her own.
The doors burst open, and at least a dozen enslaved ponies poured out from each of the four doors. Flurry took the lead of their fleeing party, the layouts of the streets flying past in her mind as quickly as they passed under her hooves. She remembered where all the places she used to hide out in were, and she doubted Sombra did.
“This way!” She dashed around a corner, took a sharp turn, and shoved open a door to a building - nothing special, just a regular civilian home. Her friends followed, their hooves skidding on the slick streets of the Empire. Once they were all inside, Flurry shut the door.
“Where are we?” came Pipp’s panicked voice. Flurry and Izzy lit their horns, providing some light, and Flurry shoved a crystal chair under the door handle.
“That should stall them,” she said with a satisfied smile.
“Uh, Flurry? Where exactly are we?” Hitch asked as the alicorn took off into the house, the others following close behind.
“This place used to belong to my teacher - she would invite me over for tea sometimes,” Flurry explained. “I thought we could hide out here for a while - develop a plan.”
Her friends stared at her. “What is wrong with you?” Sprout asked. “Five minutes ago, you would have been absolutely terrified out of your mind at the very thought of Sombra. What changed?” He gasped. “Is it mind control?”
Flurry laughed, which did not reinforce her friends’ ideas that she might be fine. “Don’t worry, I’m fine,” she said. “I just figured that, as long as I have you guys by my side, everything will be okay, you know?” She fumbled around for a light and found it, flooding the room with light. Every piece of furniture was made of blue, purple, or dark pink crystals. “Also, I may… have found a way to defeat him.”
“You what?” Zipp’s face filled with hope and somewhat savage pleasure. She flexed her hurt wing and flinched. “Please tell me it involves vaporizing him.”
“Probably,” Flurry agreed. “It’s about the Crystal Heart. Sombra tried to control me, but for some reason, it was… repelled. I was glowing, and the Crystal Heart was glowing, too, and Sombra’s magic didn’t work on me anymore.” She thought about it. “It’s funny. It was right when I realized how much you guys meant to me - and how much hope our friendship gave me. It made me stronger… Huh.” She frowned.
“Well,” Izzy spoke into the silence, “any way to defeat him is better than none, right?” The others nodded. “So what do you want us to do?”
Flurry felt their commitment, their willingness to fight, for her and for what she stood for, and she was flooded with hope, hope that made her stronger than Sombra was, hope that made her feel like she could do anything - even conquer fear.
“Well,” she began slowly, “I do have an idea…”
Sombra paced the throne room - his throne room, he had to keep reminding himself. For some reason, whenever he thought of this room, this castle, his mind always went to Cadance. This is not her time anymore, he thought. This is MY time. And I won’t let anypony stand in my way!
His mind now went to Flurry Heart. That stupid little foal was no smarter now than she was all those years ago. He laughed at the thought of her cowering away from him, waiting for something to save her-
His smile faded. Because something had saved her, something that scared Sombra to his core. What was that?
The doors opened, and four ponies walked in - the two pegasi and two earth ponies Sombra had found wandering around up north. They had been easy catches, though there had been a bit of struggle when he had shown them their greatest fears. He felt it now, a faint pushing back from their minds that let him know that they were still in there somewhere.
And he did not like it.
Still, his concern evaporated when he saw who they had brought with them - five ponies, two pegasi, two earth ponies, and a unicorn - the new Guardians of Harmony. He snorted at the ridiculous name. As if they could even do what Twilight Sparkle and her friends had done to him.
They were far too weak. And yet, whenever he thought about how they had beat his mind control and fought their worst fears, he felt a slight jolt of fear. Slight.
“Well, well, well.” Sombra stalked up to his throne and stood facing them all. “You’ve decided that you’ve lost, have you? Decided to turn yourselves in?”
“We haven’t lost,” snapped the white pegasus, and Sombra was satisfied to see the ugly black mark on her wing. “We’ll never lose if we don’t give up.” She lifted her head defiantly and met his eyes with her own blue ones - he had to admire her determination.
He barked a laugh. “You lost before you even began,” he snarled. “You let your search for your stupid friend blind you, giving me free reign of the entire land.”
The two stallions stepped forward simultaneously, and they were held back by the others.
Sombra delighted in their distress - it was very gratifying. “How sad to see what Equestria has fallen to,” he said in a falsely sympathetic voice. “Thank hoofness I came along - and decided to fix everything.”
There was something about their expressions now, as he lit up his horn, that made him pause. They looked as if they were expecting this - as if they had something else up their sleeve.
And where was…
With a start, he whirled around to see Flurry Heart, hovering behind him, reaching for the Crystal Heart, freezing when she realized he had spotted her.
Sombra roared and shot a blast of magic at her, but she grabbed the Crystal Heart and flew up - but the giant crystal was too heavy for her, and she couldn’t go far. Sombra sent another blast that caught her wing, and she screamed, dropping the Heart as she struggled to right herself.
Down below, her friends broke away, the pink pegasus spreading her wings and flying towards the Heart, grabbing it and slowing its fall enough for her other friends to grab it. The unicorn surrounded the Crystal Heart with her purple magic and ran out of the room, the two stallions and the white pegasus behind her.
“Flurry!” the remaining pegasus called, gesturing to the alicorn, pointing out of the window.
“I’m coming!” she called back, lighting up her horn and surrounding herself with a magical shield as Sombra continued to bombard her, furious that none of his spells were breaking through. “Go!”
“Don’t just stand there!” Sombra screeched at his guards, standing mindlessly by the door. “After them! Don’t let them get away with the Heart!”
Pipp yelped as Zoom took to the skies, followed by Thunder, and Toots and Sweets dashed down the stairs after Izzy, Sprout, Zipp, and Hitch. Pipp flew out the window, going as hard as she could, flapping her wings with all her might, as she raced her two guards to her friends.
“Get out of here!” she yelled as soon as they got into view.
Zipp and Izzy were positioning the Heart where it was supposed to be, with Hitch and Sprout guarding them, when they heard her. The doors opened, and Sombra zombie ponies poured out, surrounding them before they could blink. Pipp skidded to a halt, wishing she could do something, anything, and then she remembered-
Flurry’s shield finally broke, and she ducked behind the throne as Sombra advanced on her.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” he snarled, sending a blast of dark magic and shattering the throne to bits. “You want to play hide-and-seek? Then let’s play!”
Sombra leaped in front of Flurry and, before she could escape, wrapped her in tendrils of darkness, gluing her to the floor. She writhed and twisted, even lit up her horn to blast at the smokey ropes, but it did no good - she was trapped. Sombra laughed with pleasure as he stood over her.
“You’ve lost,” he snarled. “Everything you stand for - I’m going to destroy it bit by bit by bit, until nothing remains of your precious Empire or your pathetic family. All of Equestria will bow to me!”
His eyes glowed red as he said that last word, and Flurry flinched.
“You’re wrong,” she whispered. The words gave her strength, and she lifted her head, staring straight into his eyes. “You’re wrong. And you’re wrong because I haven’t lost. I have within me the most powerful magic of all - the magic of-”
“Oh, don’t get me started on all that ‘friendship is magic’ mumbo jumbo,” Sombra snapped. “It’s lies, all of it.”
Flurry’s smile widened, which surprised him. “No,” she said calmly, “not the magic of friendship, though I have that, too. It’s the magic of hope - hope, which is stronger than fear; hope, which is the light when everything is dark; hope, which is the reason the magic of friendship exists. Hope is the most powerful thing in the world, and I have all that light within me - and I will not let it go. So as long as I have that, you can’t defeat me - because that’s who I am.”
With every word, the triumphant feeling inside of Sombra grew fainter and fainter. “NO!” he roared. “Because I can still defeat you!”
“Flurry!”
With a clunk, the Crystal Heart landed on the floor and skidded across the throne room. Flurry spotted it and lit up her horn, shooting a blast of magic, not from her horn, but from her heart, full of all the hope she had ever felt, hope that she could defeat Sombra, that she and her friends could save the world, that she would see Sunny again, that everything would be okay, because she had her friends.
The Crystal Heart lit up, and rose off the floor. The shadowy bonds on Flurry vaporized, and she stood up, spreading her wings as the black mark on them disappeared. She grabbed the heart as Sombra screamed in fury and flew down to where it belonged, giving it another blast of hopeful magic to get it going.
The artifact spun around, suddenly sending a wave of magic across the Empire, destroying all the black crystals Sombra had created, wiping the mind control from all the ponies’ minds, and, best of all, dissolving Sombra into tiny bits that were scattered through the air as he shouted, “I WILL BE BACK, FLURRY HEART!!! THIS IS NOT THE END!!!”
To top it all off, everypony within the Empire’s limits was immediately covered in a crystal-like sheen, making them all sparkle and glow where the sunlight touched them.
Zoom Zephyrwing blinked, finally able to have control over her mind again. “What…”
“You did it!” Izzy jumped up and wrapped Flurry in a massive hug. “And we all look so sparkly!”
“Anypony mind telling me what happened?” one of the earth ponies muttered, rubbing their head. “Because I’m a little confused.”
Flurry smiled as she landed on the ground. “It’s a long story,” she said, but was cut short.
“One that shall have to wait,” said Chrysalis, landing behind them, a malicious smile on her face. Cozy Glow hovered next to her, and Tirek ducked out from behind one of the crystal houses. All the ponies took a step back out of fear.
“Such a shame,” the changeling continued conversationally, looking around at the newly restored Empire. “I was hoping Sombra would take care of you all - but he disappointed, as expected. Guess that means we’ll have to do it ourselves.”