//------------------------------// // The Crystal Empire // Story: Spawn of Disharmony // by KenSES64 //------------------------------// Spawn of Disharmony By: KenSES64 Chapter 25: The Crystal Empire The girls, Spike and I were on a train heading to a place known as The Crystal Empire, that was in the arctic north of Equestria. The train stopped and we all got off. Spike carried a ton of stuff for Rarity like a pack mule. I really feel bad for the little guy sometimes. “Twilight!” called a familiar voice. “Shining Armor?” Twi responded. The white unicorn of that name came up to us and exclaimed, “Twily, you made it!” The two siblings/BFFs then hugged. “We better get moving. There are things out here that you really don’t want to run into after dark.” “What kind of things?” Fluttershy asked worried. “Let’s just say the Empire isn’t the only thing that’s returned.” We followed the Captain thought the snow. “Something’s trying to get in. We think it’s the unicorn king who originally cursed the place.” “Of course.” I say aloud. “Why can’t forces of evil ever stay imprisoned? I mean, Nightmare Moon, Discord, Inferno, and now this Sombra guy. Wait if those first two didn’t happen Twilight wouldn’t have met you gals, Princess Luna wouldn’t be back, and as for Discord I wouldn’t exist. Come to think of it because of Inferno I now know most of the spells I use to defend myself. Huh.” Ignoring me, Twilight said, “But, Princess Celestia said that I was being sent here to protect the Empire. If King Sombra can’t get in then it must already be protected.” We all then heard a strange noise. “We have to get out of here now!” Shining commanded as a large black cloud appeared behind us and we ran like a bunch of bats out of Tartarus until we ran through a bubble shield. It was nice and warm on the this side. Shining was the last to come through. He had small black crystals all along his horn. He tried to do magic, but failed. I sighed and said, “I know that feeling bro.” I toke a closer look. “I could try to remove them with an alteration of the gem attack, but I might end up snapping your horn. So I wouldn’t risk it.” “Yeah, too risky.” He responded. ______________________________________________________________________________ We walked to the castle in the center while Rarity marveled at the sights. We went into the throne room were Cadence was. She and Twilight did this hoof shake thing. “Sunshine, Sunshine. Ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake.” I kinda wanted to make a joke at the two mares shaking there flanks at each other, but 70% of the beings in this room are female and I didn’t feel like being slapped in the face. Plus those two mares are Shining’s wife and sister, and I really don’t feel like being punched in the face. Not that I think he would, maybe he would find it funny, but I didn’t want to risk it. “One for this days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn’t hanging in the balance.” Cadence said. “Are you okay?” Twilight asked. “Cadence has been using her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting it, but she hasn’t slept. Barely eats. I want to help her, but my protection spell’s been countered by King Sombra.” Shining explained. “It’s okay Shining Armor, I’m fine.” His wife insisted. “She’s not fine. She can’t go on like this forever and if her magic were to fade. You saw what’s out there waiting for that to happen.” “That’s why we’re here.” Twi said. “Why we’re all here.” Applejack added. “Well with Cadence putting all her strength in keeping her spell going and me keeping an eye on trouble in the arctic, we haven’t been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies.” Shining said. “Crystal Ponies! There are Crystal Ponies?!” Rarity exclaimed sounding almost too excited. “But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the Empire without any use of Cadence’s magic.” “A research paper!” Twilight said. “Huh?” “This must be part of my test. To gather information from the Crystal Ponies and deliver it to you.” She pointed at her brother. “This is going to be great. I love research papers.” “Yeah who doesn’t?” Rainbow said sarcastically. “Ooh, ooh, let me guess! Is it Spike?! No, no, Fluttershy?! Rarity?!” Pinkie asked. “Don’t worry big brother. I am really good at this sort of thing.” Twilight told Shining. ______________________________________________________________________________ We got no information from the Crystal Ponies, except for Applejack who was told to check the library. Twilight saw all the books in it and almost had a nerdgasm. After much searching Twilight found a book that can help. The solution was to put on a Crystal Fair. So after setting it up while in song,which I actually joined in for once, we were ready. “It looks amazing, I don’t know how I could of done this without you. One last check to make sure everything is in place then the festivities can begin.” “What’s this thing for?” Applejack asked nudging a heart shaped rock. “The last page of the book mentioned a crystal heart at the fair centerpiece. So I used my magic to cut one out of a crystal block.” “Nice work Twi. Think we’re ready to get this fair up and running.” ______________________________________________________________________________ So the fair began and the Crystal ponies started to look less depressed. I walk up to Rainbow while she was adorably munching on some corn. I was about to say sometime, but she then rushed up to two mares, overhearing their conversation. “Of course we have it.” Rainbow said, “Can’t have a crystal fair without a crystal heart, right?” “Of course you can’t.” Said an older mare that we saw at the library earlier, “The whole reason of the crystal fair is to lift the sprites of the Crystal Ponies, so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart, so the Empire can be protected.” She then ragained some color, "I do work at the library!" “What’s this about powering the heart?” “I just can’t believe you found it. King Sombra said he hid it away, where we will never see it again. I only hope it will still be as powerful after all these years.” Me, Rainbow and Applejack (who was now next to us) exchanged looks or worry. Rainbow flew towards the castle, taking a flag. I teleported there. Rainbow covered the fake heart and said to Twilight, “I think we may have a problem.” We went to Shining and Cadence to tell them this. Turns out there was a page missing from the book. Then Cadence fainted and the shield went down. The Empire was soon surrounded by smoke that started to take the shape of a grey unicorn head with a red horn and glowing green eyes. “The empire is under attack!” Shining exclaimed. He help Cadence get back up and she was able to put the shield up, but for how long was the question. “I have to find the Crystal Heart.” “No.” Twilight told him. “You stay with Cadence. She needs you Shining Armor. I’ll retrieve the heart.” “Let’s do this!” Rainbow added. “Allons-y!” I shouted. I hope The Doctor doesn’t get mad that I stole that from him. Well, he isn’t here so he won’t care. We all rushed out of there. A plan was made. Twilight would look for the heart while the rest of us keep the Crystal Ponies busy. This involved me hosting a corn eating contest, selling this weird goo stuff that they call Gak and jousting against Rainbow. Yeah, Fluttershy went up first and got blown away so I offered to take over for the poor mare. Rainbow smirked and said, “You know Seth, I’m not going to go easy on you just because you’re my fiancé.” “Oh okay then.” I respond while putting on some armor. “How about we make this interesting. Loser pays of our anniversary dinner in January?” “You’re on.” She said starting to walk to her starting point. She turned and said, “You know Seth that armor looks really good on you.” “Oh, so you like a stallion in uniform?” “Maybe I do.” She said with a chuckle. We got ready for our match and ran right at each other lances out. I was knocked down so she won. What? Just because she said she wouldn’t go easy on me doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go easy on her. She is my Dashie after all. I can't hurt her pride. Not hurting her pride is what gave me a shot with her in the first place. She basked in the cheers from the crowd. ______________________________________________________________________________ After that things went downhill. The Crystal Ponies found out about the fake heart, Cadence ran out of energy and Sombra started attacking. “Hey up here!” Spike called holding what I assumed was the real heart, but he started to fall. Sombra fully formed and started going after the heart on a giant growing black crystal. Then Shining literally threw Cadence so she could catch Spike and the heart. Me not wanting to just sit there I tried to slow down Sombra by holding hid Crystal back with a reverse version of the gem attack. Which yeah he started to go slower. He then turned his head at me and his horn glowed with an aura that was a mix of green, purple and black. ______________________________________________________________________________ The next thing I knew I was home. “The hell.” I said to myself. I walked into the bedroom where I found Rainbow. “Uhh... Rainbow do you know why we’re back here?” “Don’t you mean, why are you back here?” She responded. “What?” “I’ve grown bored of you so I’m dumping your sorry flank.” “W-What?!” “You were just good for a few sextimes, but like I said, I’m tried of you. Now if you excuse me I have a date with Soarin.” “Please don’t do this to me! I love you!” “Did you really think that I loved you?” ______________________________________________________________________________ “Seth? Seth?! SETH?!” Rainbow shouted shaking me. “W-What happened? And why is everypony shiny?” “After Sombra did that thing you’re eyes turned all green and you started talking to yourself. What happened there?” “I saw this vision or something. You... you were leaving me. You said that you were bored of me and you didn’t want to be with me anymore.” Rainbow wrapped her arms around me to tell me that, that’s not going to happen. “You still haven’t told me why we’re all sparkling.” Basically the Crystal Heart did that along with vaporizing King Sombra. ______________________________________________________________________________ We when back to Canterlot and waited nervously for Twilight as she spoke to Princess Celestia. She jumped out and Exclaimed, “I passed!” We all sang as we went back to Ponyville. On the train ride I thought I heard somepony whisper my name, but it didn’t sound like anypony I knew and there was nopony else, but me and the gang in the train cart. I guess it was just my imagination.