*Calming Blaze POV*
"I'm telling you, it was just a shit dream, nothing else"
"Blaze, language" Twilight scolded me.
"Equish" I simply answered as I stepped outside.
An old train station and snow.
Lots of snow.
*Sigh*
"Let's get moving ponies, we should get to the city before the storm worsens" I tell them as I look back.
Why is Spike carrying crap thrice his size?
Also, aren't they cold?
Rarity is the only one with a scarf.
I'm slightly worried about their self preservation skills as I rub the orange scarf around my neck.
Good thing mother is overprotective.
"Twilight!" A male voice called out.
Shining Armor came out of the storm with a dark mask and scarf.
"Shining Armor?" Twilight asked.
"Twily! You made it!" He said as the two ran to hug each other.
"We better get moving, there are things out here that we really don't want to run into after dark" he said as he turned around.
"What kind of things?" Fluttershy asked, surprisingly.
"Let's just say, the Empire isn't the only thing that's returned" he dramatically said.
"Great, let's get moving then, I'm freezing over here" I complain as I put my suitcase on my back to get moving.
Walking through the freezing cold, I can hear the siblings talk about Sombra.
As informative as their talk is, I'm more focused on the ambient magic, trying to see if I can detect anything abnormal.
Then suddenly, a loud howling came from the area.
"We have to get to the Crystal Empire, Now!" Shining Armor announced as dark magic came flooding in behind us.
We start running as soon as the black fog starts rising behind us.
It's close, I can see it.
"Just a bit more! We're close!" I yell as we ran.
Getting closer to the barrier, I do a head count.
Wait, we're one short.
Looking back, I notice Shining Armor standing in front of Sombra.
What the fuck is this guy doing?
As I run to get him, he misses a shot.
Unfortunately, the snow and the lack of magic is making me much slower.
He gets attacked as black crystals grow on the tip of his horn.
Before he can get attacked once again, I pull him back by his scruff, letting Sombra plunge into his previous spot, leaving a small crater.
Seeing him weakened, I drag him as I dodge pillars of sharp crystals that rose from the ground.
Right as I reach the barrier, I throw him inside and look back out of instinct.
What the?
I saw Sombra in his misty form, and another Sombra behind him, looking at me with neutral eyes.
I continued staring at the second Sombra until the first one dived at me, prompting me to jump in.
Landing inside soft grass, I look at the fallen Shining Armor and the girls and Spike approaching.
I grab Shining and give him a good slap as he wakes up.
"What the tartarus were you thinking? You're in a position of high importance, master yourself" I tell him as I held him before moving on.
"Shining Armor, your horn" Twilight said with concern.
He tried to use his horn but the crystals negated it.
He shook his head and turned to me.
"Thank you for saving me there" he said with a nod.
"It was no problem" I returned the nod.
We got up to move towards the city.
"Sparkleriffic!" Pinkie yelled another made up word as we stood at a gate.
As we walked forward, I thought back to the time I killed Sombra.
I should've known.
His body was too corrupted with dark magic to stay corporeal after dying, so I had thought that he was dead.
Annoying.
"It's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous!" Rarity yelled with excitement as we walked under the castle made of crystal that had a large empty spot under it for some reason.
True to its name, the entire city was made of crystals and shined at every opportunity.
I tune out the antics of the girls as I feel the cube start emitting magic again.
Putting my suitcase down, I open it and bring out the cube as it started glowing with a bright light.
It shook erratically as I held it in my hooves, then it died down after a while.
Did it realize that it wasn't the same one it had protected?
"Are you coming Blaze?" Rainbow yelled from a door.
"You guys go ahead, I'll stay here a bit" I shout back as I focus on the outside of the barrier.
In my current state, I'll have a hard time against Sombra since my veins still haven't fully healed.
I'm definitely pushing myself lately.
I need to get stronger, fast.
If I keep straining my body like this, soon enough it'll break down at even the slightest touch.
As I think, I bring out the items for the spell.
The barrier flickered.
I grimace a bit as I bring out a stone bowl and a wooden spoon.
Putting the items in, I mash and mix it until it becomes a slime like substance, which I rubbed on the castle walls in a formation.
Putting the last bit of it, a green colored barrier rises from the ground before turning invisible.
The girls came back suddenly.
"Where are you girls going?" I ask calmly as I bring out a muffin to eat.
"We're going to ask the civilians if they know anything about protecting the Empire" Twilight explained as the rest came down.
"Good luck then, something tells me that I should stay here" I say as I bite the muffin.
"Uh huh" she sarcastically said with a raised eyebrow, then left with the others.
I watched as they slowly left my vision.
One by one, they disappeared into the city.
"So, what can I do for you?" I say as I finish my muffin.
"I want you to listen to me" his gruff voice said from behind me.
"That doesn't exactly work, why would I listen to my enemy?" I turn around to look at Sombra who's behind the green barrier.
"I don't need you to follow my orders, I need you to listen to what I'm going to tell you" he said with a grimace as his entire body slightly flickered.
I look at him for a moment, inspecting his movements.
He's using a spell to talk to me right now.
"You, the other you, is planning to invade, I don't know when, or how, but if he succeeds, the entire multiverse would lose against him" he said with a serious voice.
"The ENTIRE multiverse you say?" I ask him, slightly intrigued.
"Yes, if he wins this war, his resources and control over artifacts would make him twice as strong as any universe out there"
"Alright, why are you telling me this?"
"Because that psycho, is planning to put every single being under his control, then destroy every but one universe, and I don't know about you but, even if I'm not ruling over it, I'd at least like to have a universe to live in"
"Okay, that's understandable, how do I know I can trust you?"
"You can't"
I just look at him incredulously.
"Look, I don't have much time before I wake up from a coma, thanks for that by the way, but I want you to at least start gathering your forces, lest you let your universe fall under his hooves" he finished as his body flickered away.
"Well, shit"
I thought that this was some revenge plot, not an interdimensional warlock plot.
Well, I'll have to worry about that later.
"Would this work?" I mutter to myself as I bring out the crystal cube.
As I was about to use it, I realized.
"Where does this even go?" I facehoof with my wing at my mistake.
Facewing?
Doesn't matter, I need to find either Cadence or Shining Armor.
Fucking finally, I found the throne room.
I swear this place looked smaller on the outside.
"Blaze?" both Shining and Cadence speak as they see me.
"Yeah, it's me, I got something to ask you" I say as I walk towards them.
"The bathroom is 9 doors on the right" Shining Armor said with conviction like he knew exactly what I was going to ask.
Cadence was pretty much knocked out.
"That's good to know, but I was going to ask about the Crystal Heart" I state as he looked at with confusion.
"Crystal Heart?"
"Yes, a heart made out of crystal that emits and absorbs magic"
He just looks at me with a blank stare.
"OH Come on!" I yell which woke up Cadence. "A CRYSTAL heart, doesn't have anything to do with a CRYSTAL Empire?"
"Sorry, I've never heard of this before"
"What are we talking about?" Cadence confusedly asks as she whips her head around.
"Do you know anything about a crystal heart?"
She shakes her head at my question.
"It's fine then, I guess I thought wrong" I leave with a sigh.
If nopony knows what to do with it, I guess I'll just keep it with me.
Wonder what the girls found out.
"Are you serious?" I mutter as I look at the 'Crystal Heart' as they called it.
Well, it's a heart made out of crystal alright.
Just, no magic.
Basically, their plan was reenact a 'crystal faire', which was a yearly festival or something that protected the empire by the love of the kingdom.
The only problem, is the fact that they mistook the crystal heart as a decorative piece rather than an actual relic.
*Sigh*
"Fuck" I say to myself as I look at the cube in my hooves.
I tried to put it on the pillar when Twilight brought it, but after flickering slightly, it stopped and fell off.
"Ok, this doesn't change too much. If the girls fail to stop Sombra, I'll just do it myself AND deal with the other threat, if it exists that is"
Alright, I already have a crude plan thought out, so no need to freak out about it.
"This is annoying" I complain as I eat another cookie.
"Sorry Sugarcube, we didn't notice, also will you please stop cursing?" Applejack said as she stood next to the fake crystal heart that had a flag draped over it to hide it.
"No can do, I'm going to find out Twilight is up to" I say as I run inside the castle without listening to AJ's response.
As I move around the castle, I finally reach the throne room, seeing a wildly different scene than before.
Sensing around the area, I can feel a sinister aura.
"Dark magic, but who casted it?"
The large crystal that was in the middle of the throne was darkened and casted a shadow.
The shadow revealed stairs going through the floor.
As I approached the stairs slowly, crystals shot out of the shadows, almost impaling me.
Standing in the middle of crystal spikes, I walked forward as my horn glowed with the signature aura of dark magic.
I calmly let it go as I jump inside, ignoring the stairs.
"Tch, just had to make me use it"
*Thud*
Landing with a loud bang ringing throughout the area, I look forward to see a door with a crystal on top.
Shooting another beam of dark magic at it, I narrow my eyes at the light coming from it.
With cautious steps, I enter through the door, leading me into field.
"What?" I ask loudly.
What the?
Why is my voice so deep?
I look at my hoof that I put on my mouth out of reflex.
Red.
Much, much deeper than my natural color.
As I look down, a part of my mane falls down in front of me.
Wasn't it short this morning?
Why is it red?
Why?
My breathing becomes labored as I looked around the field.
The nice, grassy field became corrupted.
All life wilted away.
Magma rose from the ground at random intervals, burning away any chance of it being a habitable place.
The heat that came from the sun felt too hot.
The field felt like it was too bright all of a sudden.
Gravity felt weirder.
It was both weaker and stronger.
Pushing and pulling at the same time.
Soon enough, I can't hear sounds anymore as I look straight down.
The ashen dirt is all that remains.
I look up again to spot anypony.
None, not even a single being.
"No no no no no no, not this again, not like this" I mutter to myself as I try to calm my breathing.
The ground is getting wet.
The sky is clear.
"It doesn't make sense" a voice whispers.
"Look for what doesn't make sense" the same male voice whispers once again.
"Sombra?"
Looking around, I start to calm my breathing.
With a calm mind, my vision becomes clear as I look around the field.
I turn around and spot the same scene.
"Yeah, this isn't real, facts don't match"
The place felt slightly weirder, but I felt stronger.
"The magic doesn't feel right, that's all I need to know"
I focus my magic, gritting through the pain.
Good memories.
Happy times.
Yeah, it's those ones.
If dark magic doesn't work, then I try the opposite.
I open my eyes as my spell ended, to see the door opened.
Stepping out, I rub my eyes to get rid of the wetness.
*Sigh*
"Annoying" I mutter and look to my left and see stairs.
Looking up, I spot almost an endless amount of stairs.
"Fine" I mutter with an irritated voice as I stretched my muscles.
Ending with a crack of my neck, I prepare to jump.
Letting out a long breath, I jump.
*Bang*
With a wave of wind, I go higher than 8 fleets of stairs.
Grabbing the edge of the 9th, I climb and look up.
"Alright, let's get to it"
With a thud, I jump up at the top of the stairs and landing at the top of the castle.
"Ok, I didn't expect it to lead me here" I say as I look to the cage made of dark crystals.
"Blaze? What're you doing here? How did you even get here?" Twilight asked from inside the cage.
"No time" I say as I look for a way out.
The entire room was blocked off from the world by walls of crystal spikes.
I punch the most nearby wall and bust it open.
Looking outside, I notice that Spike has the heart.
And Sombra quickly closing in.
Spike is gonna fall.
I quickly leap and go after Spike, racing with Sombra as he starts rising from the ground.
I release my magic to propel me forwards as I flew through the air.
Falling from a ridiculous height, I use the weight increasing spell I've used so many times on myself.
My eyes water a bit from the winds.
The air currents let out a sharp noise at my speed.
Just as Sombra was about to reach Spike, a pink blur takes him away.
"Huh?" he lets out a confused noise as I collide with him.
Smashing through the crystals he was standing on, I plunge his body to the ground with me on him, producing a crater.
"NO!" he shouted from underneath me.
"Stay down asshole" I state as I hold his head down with a hoof.
The residents of the town started glowing, gaining a crystal coat as the roads all shine with magic.
Then, all the magic gets collected at the center of the town.
The Crystal Heart.
The real one.
As it dramatically stops for just a second, then, a wave of magic that burst through everything.
Healing those injured.
Freeing those trapped.
And knocking me back.
Annoyingly.
"UUUUAAAAAAAAAH!" I hear Sombra's guttural scream as his body gets disintegrated.
Reaching my hooves up, I let them stay in the way of Sombra's horn as it was about to be blown away.
"Not this time" I say to his horn as I put it on the ground.
Raising a hoof, I stomp down, crushing the horn as the concentrated dark magic inside of it sizzled away.
Looking at the hoof, then the rest of my body, I can see that I crystalized.
Eh.
Doesn't feel too different.
Just, slightly harder than normal.
Though I AM fully healed somehow.
I guess love magic is different.
As I look up to the castle, I can see the gathered magic shoot up.
And with an earthshaking boom, it spreads through the skies, chasing away the storm clouds.
Only waves of aurora were left as I looked to the sky.
"Well damn, I should come to the next one, with, with" my excitement goes down slightly as I think about her condition.
She'll be fine after 2 weeks.
But it's painful.
Slapping myself, I let out a short breath as I teleport to the Crystal Heart, and my suitcase that's right beside it.
"Time to leave" I say to myself as I start moving after putting my suitcase on my back.
On my way there, my cargo felt slightly weird as I decided to open it.
Taking out the crystal cube, I saw that it was shining brilliantly.
That's good, I suppose.
I pack it back in and move towards the train station.
As I move, the crystals ponies all seem to be having a grand time with their celebrations as music was heard throughout the city.
The train station, was empty, as expected.
But the train itself was here.
Going inside, I take a random seat as I lean on the backrest.
"Annoying" I mutter as my body starts to weaken.
My eyes get drowsy as my vision slowly darkens.
Cold.
A faint trace of magic appears around me.
Ah, comfy.
That was my last thought as I drifted away to sleep.