//------------------------------// // Shatter like Glass, pt 1 (Edit count: 1) // Story: RWBY: Darkness and Harmony // by The P Co //------------------------------// I got some positive reception, and that's all that really matters. I still love all of you. Almost 500 faves, I'll do a special episode when I actually reach 500, like a celebration. By the way, just..... hoooollllyyy sheeeeeeeit at this weeks episode, it was FUCKING EXCELLENT, but I feel like Blake's statement was taken out of context, further info in the Author Notes. THE SHOW GOES ON! It had been exactly one full day before six of them were dragged off to Canterlot again. Twilight had chosen carefully, while she didn't want to bring more than Celestia sent for, she felt that with six ponies and six humans, nobody would be left alone in case danger arose, and so whatever task the solar diarch wanted complete, it would be easy enough. Walking through the streets of Canterlot proper, the group of twelve received a mixed response. The more humble residents at least gave a passing 'hello', but the main portion of the populace only either turned up their noses or gave a 'hmph' of distrust. "Ugh, it really irritates me that these ponies can't even show a little bit of hospitality." Applejack really didn't like walking through any part of Canterlot, it always aggravated her. "They've always got their noses turned up so high; I'm surprised they don't drown when it rains." Ozpin and Scootaloo added at the same time, sharing a laugh. The six chosen warriors for the task at hoof were Ruby and Blake representing team RWBY, Jaune and Nora representing JNPR, and as evidence shows, Ozpin and Scootaloo representing DOGS. It wouldn't be wise to take all of them, in case there was a difficult journey with a significantly high chance for someone to expire. Putting all of their eggs into one basket was not something they could afford to attempt. Twilight was the only one to enter the castle building itself, though, and the rest of them stayed outside. "So, do we just wait, or what?" Jaune asked, unsure of what to do. "I guess so...." Ruby trailed off, almost drifting off to sleep with the sudden wave of boredom that overtook her. The others either sat or paced, finding their own way to brace themselves for whatever news they might receive. Celestia read and reread the letter she had received from Cadence and Shining Armor, a report about the state of the Crystal Kingdom. It was in social shambles, almost literally, as apparently the crystal ponies shambled about, practically lifeless and depressed, they occasionally looked up at the Castle Crystal, would gain a small glitter of hope in their eyes, then immediately flinch, cringe, and go back to their state of nigh catatonic-ness again. Her millenniums old ears caught the sound of hooves, not clanking, heavy, or hard like the guards, but softer and lighter, she looked up and saw Twilight calmly approaching the throne. Something clicked, Twilight wasn't trotting, she was making walking motions, but inponily fast, it was like how some horror movie monsters would move in abnormal ways, combined with being in the 'uncanny valley', What was frightening was that, in tandem with the movie monster stride, the smaller mare's mane appeared to fade from dark blue with pink and purple stripes, to black with blood red and ichor yellow stripes. Behind her stood a pair of familiar faces, one was furious and red, the other was smug and tan. She had seen them before, she knew exactly who they were, they were two of the seven brothers who led the Sin, they were the unspoken leaders, as their power and skill outmatched all of the others' combined. The demonic Twilight summoned her saruma, the crystal head turned into a wicked blade. "Do you fear the dark, Celly? Do you?" the smug stallion asked as he stabbed his red equal in the throat with a glass rapier, stealing the purple obsidian gauntlets he wore and walking towards the solar diarch, prudence and disgust painted across his face. Celestia was speechless, she was actually feeling fear, fear of loss, fear of this creature, fear of the oncoming darkness, "Yes." she admitted, her gaze falling from the tall, evil alicorn to the now dark purple unicorn. "Well then you're lucky." she said maliciously as she launched the wicked spear-like weapon into Celestia's abdomen, missing all of her organs and a good deal of arteries, but this was apparently her goal, as the white alicorn was overcome with debilitating pain as the half-blood-half-ichor mixture that flowed through her veins flowed out of her body, staining the white marble floor with its pale red color. "*evil laugh*, oh Celly you fool." His face went deadly serious, if looks could kill, the pastel maned mare would be mutilated, eviscerated, garroted, decapitated, dissolved in acid, six hundred feet under, covered in molten steel, and the molten steel would have set whatever little amount of body that remained on fire. "Those who fear the dark, have never seen what the light can do." his magic blew the roof off of the throne room, revealing the blood red sky of corruption. Celestia looked up in fear, finding that her precious sun had been stolen from her control, turning from yellow to a blinding white. It was getting bigger too, soon enough the very light of the sun burned away the corruption of the sky, covering almost half of the now-gray expanse. She raised her sword, the Solar Zweihoofer, in a futile effort to protect herself, but her effort was just that... futile.... ...Futile, everything was hot, practically on fire. And then the light won, and took them all away. All she could hear, was a quiet, concerned voice. "Princess, princess come on, CELESTIA!" it cried out, though it seemed very muffled, as if it was being shouted through a wall of water. Her whitened vision faded to black, and then she opened her eyes. Twilight had come into the throne room to find her mentor asleep, after a brief giggle of mirth, she quietly approached, taking a lot longer to get over tot he throne itself. She felt a bit mischievous at the moment, gently levitating the snoozing alicorn off of the throne and sitting down in the luxurious cushion. It was the most comfortable thing the stripe maned mare had ever felt, like silk-hooved angels were massaging lavender haunches. Smiling and doing a few impersonations of both Celestia and Luna, the mage looked back to the still-asleep royal. Upon closer examination, the lavender unicorn saw that Celestia seemed troubled in her sleep, she removed herself from the throne, and quickly trotted over. Brandishing her saruma, she cast a quick scanning spell, lighting up the crystal head and laying it against the larger pony's abdomen. She was trying to find any sort of anomalies or discrepancies that would belie the problem. She could hear whispering, something eldritch and powerful, ever the curious scholar, she listened closer. "Are you afraid of the dark? Fool, those who fear the dark, have never seen what the light can do." it was silent for a few moments. "Blinding Smite, Instant Death." two chants of spells, Twilight quickly cast up a defensive barrier to protect her mentor, and she was almost too late. Celestia gave a grunt and a groan of pain, weakened a bit, but not dead, which was infinitely good. "Princess, princess come on, CELESTIA!" she cried out, a few tears forced out of her eyes by her panic, blurring her vision and she almost violently shook the larger mare. "Ugh...." the alabaster alicorn groaned, slowly but surely waking up. The first thing she saw was the face, the normal face, of her beloved student, regaining control of her legs, she slowly pushed herself into a stand, rubbing her head. That dream, while it was only that, a dream, it was unnaturally vivid and intense. "Twilight, it's a pleasure to see you again, you look well, how have you been?" trying to lighten the obviously tense mood, the solar diarch rubbed her eyes to clear her vision and looked at her student, who was now sitting on the throne cushion. "I've been feeling alright. You may not have noticed, but I've been getting some exercise, mainly cardio and speed running, but a few strength training sessions here and there to keep myself balanced. How have you been recently, princess?" the lavender unicorn recalled her decisions. She had received a letter from Captain Evening Warden, who she had then found out was Scootaloo's brother, it had said only a few things. "Greetings, Miss Twilight, this is Captain Warden, the brother to Scootaloo, one of the warriors in the HUNTER program, I have been informed of the depth of your magical studies, and took the liberty of doing some math for you: A unicorn has the magic of 1, a cutie mark gives a talent multiplier of 10, since your cutie mark is magic itself, you (by default) have a magical power of 10, the Elements of Harmony, their energies amplify the powers that they are based on, again, you are magic, so your base power is 1000, with all of this power at your disposal, you must realize something important. Long ago, when the Black Mage and the Black Knight attacked the Castle Canterlot, the last one to fall before their banishment was Starswirl the Bearded, here is an account of the exchange between the Black Knight and Starswirl: 'My my, I expected more resistance from the Archmage of the Royal Magic Academy.' 'Well, I am sorry that I have spent all of my life unlocking the secrets-, taking control of the essences-, and learning the magics- of the universe, rather than, say, jogging.' After that, a blade went through his bearded face, so here's my point. Go out and do some fucking jogging, get in shape, I'm sure that you can cast the increased health improvement and muscle memory spells that I've made, I've taken the liberty of including them in this letter. Now GAME ON!" the letter was one of the talking letters that were surprisingly common in Equestria. Since that day, about three weeks ago, she had been working out, and the effects were evident as Celestia was obviously ogling the lavender mare. Her form was a lot sleeker and much stronger, a bit of pudginess in the right places, sure, but she already had a few layers of lean muscle, strangely enough, her diaphragm looked visibly healthier, as if such a thing were able to be seen without an autopsy, nonetheless, this was the point in time at which the millennia old alicorn finally recognized that her student was a full grown adult, even if she maintained several youthful attributes. Both of them realized their mutual 'distraction', though they would both probably call it 'examination of eachother's physiques' and turned away. "So, I have a mission for you, only a day ago, the almost-forgotten Crystal Kingdom arose from the shadows. My first thought was for a fifth beacon of hope and life, I sent Cadance and Shining Armor over to scout out the situations, and the reports are grim, the citizens are nigh lifeless, the only way to keep the place from falling to the Sin is to maintain a barrier, which Shining had to make, and Cadence has, as the rightful ruler of the Crystal Kingdom, has maintained that barrier all day and night, she won't be able to last a very extended period of time." the alabaster alicorn sighed, looking out one of the few normal windows in the throne room, looking at the train tracks heading north. "Twilight, take these next words with an open mind, as they may very well shatter whatever foal-like perception of the world you may maintain. Even though Luna and I are alicorns, the conglomeration of all three races of pony, and while we are powerful, we are not immortal." Celestia removed the illusion spell she was using to conceal her scars, one on her flanks, one down her eyes, and the last on her wing, "Far from it, while we are as hardy as an earth pony, swift as a pegasus, and wizened as a unicorn, with a thousand times the power of a normal pony from any of the three, we are still mortal. We're not even ageless, I may be six millennia old, but I am the equivalent of a mare in her mid-thirties. Luna is three and a half millennia old, in case you were wondering, she is about the equivalent of a mare in her early twenties. Twilight, look at my scars," the pastel maned princess turned to show all of her claw-shaped scars. Twilight was stoically standing there, taking in the marring of her mentors otherwise flawless coat, "I.... I...." she didn't know how to respond. "Listen, Twilight, there is something else important in the story of the alicorns, while my sister and I could stay awake for a week straight, Cadance isn't like us, she is not a natural alicorn. She was once a pegasus, and she achieved great feats in her youth, and had earned a single wish. One wish, very liberal rules, so almost whatever she wished for, it would come true, and she wished to be a princess of love, and so it was and now she is. Something important to know is that, while she has great power, she can only stay awake for two days on average, three if she really tried. I need you, your friends, and the humans you have chosen, to save the day again, we've managed to burn a line through the corrupted land, and set up a train track going towards the kingdom. I am counting on you, please help them." it wasn't an easy task to give the lavender unicorn such a difficult one, but Celestia knew that Twilight had the ingenuity and capability to do it. Celestia had accepted that she would have to live with a lot of mistakes, with her scars, and with the knowledge that she would never be able to wield the Elements of Harmony again, she had once held three of them, Loyalty, Generosity, and Honesty, while Luna held Magic, Kindness, and Laughter. The white alicorn was haunted by what she had done, an absolute shattering of her control over the Elements of Harmony, it was her own fault that her sister grew angry and belligerent, it was Celestia's own betrayal of her of her other two elements, her refusal to allow change and her lies that she tried to use to justify the refusal. It wasn't an overnight thing, Luna had been denied dozens of times before she finally decided to use force. The white alicorn remembered it like it was yesterday, and she had spent over a thousand years to forget it. "Sister, it is nine in the evening, and the moon has just been fully risen." the young blue alicorn notified her sister as she trotted past. "I noticed, I'm off to bed, have a good night Lulu." the older-but-still-quite-young alicorn dismissed. "Tia, I know I've asked you this almost three score of times, but does the day have to extend so far past the evening? The night is only from nine in the eve to six in the morn, do the commoners truly need so much time with the sun?" Luna tried to reword her question to at least get a more acceptable answer, even if that answer was a 'no'. "Luna, do not ask me about the length of the day, Equestria as a nation is still young, barely two centuries into its life, the night is dark and provokes creatures of the Everfree and other such places of horror to attack the peasants." Celestia tried to give a more logical answer. Luna was appalled at the assumptions thrown directly at the core of her domain, "The night is NOT a TIME OF EVIL, SISTER, I refuse to let it be such, the commoners have many long hours of work and play, why can they not have a bit more time to rest and love?" the younger sibling knew the implications of the usage of the word 'love', she had very quickly become well acquainted with the activities of the night when she took up the duty of Dreamscape Guardian, making sure that the ponies' sleep was pleasant and free of nightmares, which were regarded as horrible, horrible things of great and terrifying power. "Listen very carefully to my words, sister, the night will not be extended under any circumstances, am I understood? You will not ask me again this silly, foalish request, I will now go to my chambers to sleep, do not interrupt my slumber." Celestia said harshly. Luna almost shed a tear, and when her sister merely turned and trotted away without another word, the little blue alicorn practically bawled her large pony eyes out. Why was Tia so selfish with her daytime? Why couldn't the night have some recognition beyond 'The sun is gone, so it's time to sleep'? As sadness was slowly replaced by anger, Luna formulated a plan to make sure that the ponies would undoubtedly know about how glorious the night was. So she spread the word to the servants, "My sister does not wish for her slumber to be disturbed, do not wake her up tomorrow." the maids and guards did as she obeyed, she was a princess, too, after all. The next day, when Celestia finally woke up, she looked to her grandfather clock, finding it to be almost noon. She looked out of the window, the moon hung high in the sky, ever-so-slowly descending, as though it was an hour or two beyond the middle of the night. It was a shocking revelation, shocking, and infuriating, the white alicorn stormed out of her room to the throne room, it wasn't that far of a walk. Upon arriving at the unrecognizably changed room, Celestia was shocked to see Luna sitting on the throne, her coat as black as an elder dragon's scales, a set of expertly crafted armor adorned her frame, obviously hoof-made with moon rocks and sea salt. "Under no circumstances, you said, the night won't last longer, you said." the ebony creature mocked. "Luna, what has happened to you?" Celestia already knew, but she wanted to be wrong. "YOU happened to me, YOU tried to subjugate me and my beautiful night with your wretched, burning sun. No more, I am no longer Princess Luna Nightstone of Equestria," Celestia's worry greatly intensified at Luna's usage of her full name and title, "I AM, Nightmare Moon, the mighty being of power and authority, I am sorry that I'm not sorry, but your reign will end, Celestia Morningflame." Nightmare Moon stood before her so-called-sister with a mighty stature of, as she had proclaimed, power and authority. "Don't do this, Luna, think-" Celestia was cut off by a slap to the face, she stopped talking and gave a soft whimper as she held her stinging muzzle. "I am NOT LUNA, I am NIGHTMARE MOON, GET IT RIGHT YOU IMPUDENT FOAL! You only wish to negotiate now because I have the upper-hoof, I'll humor you and be a better sister than you were, spill forth your woes to me, Celestia." an over-the-top gesture of putting a hoof to her ear to better help her hear was the icing on the proverbial cake. "Please, do not do this, sister, this isn't you, this is exactly like what happened with Discord, but it is all up to you to prevent Equestria from being taken over by a evil lord, or lady in this case." her attempts were pitiful at best, absolute bullshit at worst. "You are wrong, I will admit that I have desired this position for some time." Nightmare Moon paused, spreading her raven-like wings of dark glory, activating the switch for the Royal Canterlot Voice accompanied by glowing turquoise eyes. "In place of a Evil Lord, you shall have a QUEEN, not EVIL, but BEAUTIFUL AND AS TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN, THE CONTROLLER OF THE SEA, STRONGER THAN THE FOUNDATIONS OF EQUUS ITSELF. ALL. SHALL. LOVE. ME. And they shall be enraptured by my beauty and power, for I am the mightier and the more benevolent ruler, and you are just a fool who can't even reason with her sister, much less the commoners or anypony else important." the mighty proclamation was punctuated by the verbal smackdown, and Celestia's face was covered in horror by what she had just heard. "I.... I........" the solar diarch couldn't muster any words, only thinking to flare up her horn and hope to her mother that a magic blast would fix this, or wake her up. "You have denied my attempts at diplomacy, so I have been forced to resort to intimidation, " the black alicorn started, sending a freezing wave of water at Celestia, causing the fiery aura to dissipate before it even properly formed. All doubt was removed from Celestia's mind as the bloodcurdling cold struck her full force, causing her to briefly shriek in terror and pain before whimpering in suffering. "*ahem*♪Cruel moon bring the end~..... the sun shall never rise~... again~♪" the teal eyed monstrosity sang. Celestia did the only thing she could think of right now. She decided to simply use the Elements of Harmony. A single attempt to save Equestria, made out of ignorance, desperation, and all of the things that had previously doomed it, had cost her a thousand years alone. Even now, she felt alone, she would understand if Luna never fully forgave her for banishing and locking her away on the moon, rather than being more sincere-with/caring-about her, because in the end, it was really and truly Celestia's fault, she only hoped that Luna could at least partially forgive her. She may have felt that putting this great weight on her student's capable back was not one of her many mistakes, but she still felt awful, she composed herself and resumed, "*sigh* Enough of my woes, go, Twilight, please, just go." Celestia could feel her tears welling up, she had drifted from the task at hoof, and now she had depressed herself. Spreading her wings and taking in a deep breath, Twilight watched the solar diarch teleport away. "She doesn't seem alright, ohhhh, I want to stay and make sure she's okay, but I have a mission to do." the stripe maned mare was torn between her duty and her mentor. In the end, she decided that the Crystal Kingdom was significantly more helpless, and thus required her more immediate attention. Exiting the throne room and navigating her way to the door she came in from, the lavender pony found all of her friends and allies waiting for her in various emotional states. Blake was standing on top of the doorframe, Jaune and Ruby had dozed off, Nora was counting the blades of grass, Ozpin was dealing with a servant who had brought him more coffee, and Scootaloo was flying in circles above the group. Rainbow Dash was pacing, Applejack was also snoozing, Pinkie Pie was helping Nora count the grass, Rarity was admiring the structure of the castle, and Fluttershy was talking to a few of the garden animals. The mage decided to wait, not ruining this peaceful moment, Blake looked graceful as the wind billowed her long, black hair, Ruby and Jaune had actually embraced in their sleep, looking peaceful and quite cute with their little smiles. Pinkie and Nora were quiet for once, mumbling the numbers they had reached, Rarity's eyes were wide with awe, Rainbow Dash's lithe musculature made her paces quick and somewhat nimble, Applejack had somehow found a single stalk of hay, and was sleeping with the end of it in her mouth, Ozpin seemed calm and in a good mood, Scootaloo was smiling, Fluttershy never stopped being adorable. All of it was like a little machine of goodness. All good things must come to an end, unfortunately, "*ahem* Everyone, we have a mission." she announced, startling several of the others and drawing all attention to her, "I'll explain more when we reach the train station." she added. She focused her mind, remembering Evening's words, she had great power, but if she did not acknowledge it, she wouldn't be able to use it. Everyone was entrapped in her telekinetic grasp, floating slightly. The next step, the mage summoned all of her skills to scan the area within a one mile radius of their current location, finding the train station easily, she teleported everyone there. After a quick explanation to the conductor, they all boarded and took their seats All eyes were on Twilight, and she cleared her throat in preparation for the miniature speech she had to give. The train stopped chugging its engine as the station came into view, the leftover momentum allowed it to slow to a halt in the middle of the platform. Twilight had explained the situation, it was a normal enough hero mission, protect, cheer up, and save the ponies of the Crystal Kingdom. Except this wasn't the Crystal Kingdom, they got dropped in the middle of a frozen wasteland. "Does the 'Crystal' part mean ice? If it does, then I think we're close." Nora chimed, gazing out into the seemingly endless fields of snow. "I guess this is were I'm lucky I grew up in the north." Ruby mumbled, pulling up her hood. "I'm not seeing a kingdom to save." Jaune announced, pulling his own hood up. "At least I brought a scarf." Rarity had even brought extras, passing out scarves to whoever looked the coldest. "HEY!" they heard someone shout. It was Shining Armor, treading the snow, when he got close enough, he jumped onto the platform, landing in front of the group. "It's great to see that all of you got here early. You all look well enough, so come on, we have to get to the kingdom before the-" he was cut off by the sudden whipping of the wind and an onslaught of snow, "...blizzard starts... shit." he trailed off. He turned and motioned for everyone to follow him. Placing his protective mask over his eyes, he led the way. It took a good several minutes of bone-chilling travel-by-foot to be able to see the forcefield in the distance, however, from the snow came.... things.... Dangerous things. "Alright, listen up everypony, they're within seeing distance of the forcefield, we have to stop them from protecting the Crystal Empire, or Kingdom, or Whatever-the-fuck-it-is. I have my own idea, but anything else can also help." the leader demon-pony had a map showing the heroic group's travels. "We turn off the snow, and burn them to death, simple as that." the raging red stallion suggested, using his brown furred hind legs to break one of the lampposts off of the brothers' platform over the abyss. "It's still all made of ice, Sad, even we have to obey the laws of physics." the self-righteous stallion countered, flicking his usually perfectly styled mane back into its perfect style, "Any more suggestions?" he was sure that the rest of them would be stupid too. "We rape them to death, all of them, even the old guy, the swordsman, the knight, and the filly." the wide-eyed hermaphrodite licked her lips in anticipation for his brother's response. "No, just... no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO NO NO!" Lucy composed himself, "Shut up, shut the fuck up, a million times shut your mouth, you have lost your speaking privileges for a month, now go fuck yourself, literally, if need be, GET OUT!" he shouted. He may have been the leader of the Sin, he may have been a demon-pony, he may have even betrayed Queen Faust herself, but even he had standards of evil. "Does anyone have any ideas that won't get them slapped across the face and grounded for a month?" the suited stallion punctuated his statement by slapping the peach-pink lust demon across the face, followed by chugging a bottle of wine and breaking it against the same face. The multi-color-maned thing shuddered in masochistic ecstasy, she had turned around before bottle smashing, and thus received a load of broken glass to every single one of his genitals. Blood and sexual fluids leaked profusely from her backside and he teleported to her bedchambers, wishing to remove the foreign objects and sooth his wounds with some cake, like the sick food fetish she had. All fetishes, really, the only thing that didn't turn him on, was when someone used the word 'rubbish' when referring to 'trash'. "Ugh, so, Bub, got an idea?" the drunkard asked, downing another bottle of wine. "Um, well, I was looking for something in the Badlands behind Canterlot Mountain Range, some cactus juice, and I found this guy taping TNT to the main mountain. when I grabbed him up, he wouldn't stop screaming, so I gave him a throat infection, he'll heal up in a few days, though." the fat pony levitated up the accused stallion. A medium sized earth pony, tan coat like Lucy but with blood red eyes like Sad, his muzzle was covered by a dark red leather mask covered with chainmail, a red-trim hoodie covered his head, forelegs, and some of his body, but a dark brown mane poked out of the hood. Blue jeans covered his hind legs and black, steel, spiked shoes covered each of his hooves. He hissed and growled at the demons, a bow strapped across his body, a pair of bandoliers held poisons, throwing knives, lighters, a flint and steel, a thin folded-up map, and at his side was a sword made of a carved bloody-meat colored stone with a purple glassy edge, on his back was a folded up toy, a quadrotor helicopter toy with a few 'attachments', and a small sack seemed to lead to a pocket dimension that was full of explosives. He lashed out at the four Sin commanders. "Mother of Celestia, my soul scanner shows that, despite being pure, he has as much Sin essence as us, mostly due to his mortal capabilities of dedication, we're dealing with one rude dude. Sloth and pride caused by the gluttony and greed of reaping the remains of those caught up in his lust of enacting his wrath on others induced by envy. "RAAAAAGCH!" the raging stallion choked out, trying to reach the sugar-breathed fat demon. "You'll be useful, go and kill those heroes, will you?" Bub was about to teleport the earth pony away, when Lucy stopped him. "Wait, I have my own idea, there's this guy, he's like darkness itself ponified, he claimed the Crystal Kingdom a thousand years ago, so listen, I freed him from his ice prison a minute ago, and he should be attacking these 'heroes' any second now." the bleach-blonde pony looked at the map, only to find that the heroes had vanished inside of the forcefield. "DAMMIT! Send this new guy out NOW! Kill them, kill them all." Lucy and Sad shouted at the same time. A flash of yellowy-white magic and the silenced stallion was gone. Shining could see that something was attacking, quickly running through his mental library, he remembered it to be King Sombra, the old ruler of the Crystal Empire, his power over corruption had little competition, and right now he was a cloud of black smoke ready to attack the group. He hurried everyone inside, his militant duties commanded, "Should the time come, you must sacrifice yourself, so others may live.", the statement recited itself in his head. His white coated form stood strong, covered in thick layers of muscles, he prepared a shield to cover everyone. Sombra bore down on his magical forcefield, cracking its hastily made surface easily. Shining stayed strong, keeping the beast back long enough to ensure everyone's safety. The shield broke, and he was struck.... ... Everyone else was inside, staring at the Crystal Kingdom in awe. "Whoa, it's like a fairytale or something." Ruby and Scootaloo said simultaneously, looking at all of the shiny stuff. "That castle is shiny as hell." Ozpin mumbled, drinking from his thermos of coffee. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Jaune, Ozpin, and Blake were the only ones not entranced by the beauty of it all. "GAH!" Shining was forced through the sky-like forcefield by the blast he received. "Shining Armor!" Twilight was ripped from the lovely view by her concerns for her brother's physical wellbeing. Groaning as he stood, the white stallion grasped at his head in pain, black crystals had sprouted from his horn. "Your horn!" Twilight's mind was racing, she didn't know what would come of this. The blue stripe-maned pony tried to flare up his horn, but the violet energy was blocked by the crystals. "Ugh, I can't do any magic." he concluded after trying and failing to cast a spell, he looked weakened. "Come on, we need to get you to the castle." Jaune surprised everyone with his taking-charge. Lifting the large equine over his shoulders, the blonde young man started for the castle with the knight on his back. Everyone followed, though it was made evident that Jaune had the lowest level of both cardiovascular health and marathon conditioning out of all of the humans, as he was reduced to a huffing and puffing mess by the time he reached the castle's underside. Slumping to the ground with a thud, Shining Armor returned the favor by carrying Jaune up to the throne room on his back. Breathing heavily, almost wheezing, the swordsman managed a "Thank you." to Shining. The heavily muscled young man was almost twice Shining's weight, and thus was a lot harder to carry. Twilight was sure that the two males would recover without a problem, she looked to the throne. "Cadence!" she greeted cheerily. The pink pony brightened up, "Twily!" she replied. They two got closer, then "NORA!" the redhead shouted her own name, appearing between the two. "PINKIE!" the pink earth pony popped out of Nora's hair. The two got levitated away as Twilight and Cadance enacted their greeting ritual. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves, and do a little shake." they laughed. "Oh, Twilight, we need to meet up when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance." while the princess of love tried to stay lighthearted, she was tired, and couldn't maintain a smile. "Cadence has been up all night and day maintaining her shield, I was helping her keep it up, but now that my magic is being blocked, I can't." Shining had recovered and now joined the conversation. "Shining, direct me to an infirmary, I think I have an idea for how to fix your condition." Ozpin let the stallion lead the way. The two left, with Twilight and Cadance conversing. "Okay, how was the empire protected in the past?" the unicorn asked. "The Crystal Fair," the alicorn began, stopping to yawn, "It's a tradition to make the crystal ponies feel the happiness and love in their he-" she was cut off by Rarity. "THERE ARE CRYSTAL PONIES?" she was amazed, she needed to know more! "Yes, you can't really have a kingdom without citizens, and the Crystal Kingdom has the crystal ponies. As I was saying, I don't remember what all went on at the festival, but maybe you can find some information from the-" she was cut off by Twilight. "The LIBRARY! Great idea Cadence!" the scholar turned to leave when Cadance interrupted. "I was going to say, from the crystal ponies themselves, they were here when King Sombra took over, so they ought to have some useful information." the multicolor maned mare was met with confused looks. She explained the story of King Sombra, about how he was basically the Discord of the Crystal Empire, in the sense that he took over and was overthrown, and now he was even returning like Discord did, hopefully the two villains had so much in common that Sombra would be defeated again, too. "Divide up the responsibilities how you may, but please act quickly, it gets harder and harder to keep up the shield as time passes." the princess insisted, "Go!" With that, everybody left. When they reached ground level, standing around in the central area beneath the castle, the stripe-maned unicorn began thinking. "Okay, I'll check the library, Rainbow Dash, you're really fast, so you should help me. Nora and Pinkie, keep Cadence awake. Ozpin and my brother are out of the picture. The rest of you should gather information from the crystal ponies. Alright everyone, let's g-WHOA!" Twilight stopped when an arrow bounced off of the ground in front of her. The frightening part was that it came from directly above, she looked up and found a strange pony attached to the bottom side of the castle by a bungee cord wrapped around his middle. The earth pony disengaged his bungee cord belt from the one attached to the hole in the castle. This had the unfortunate side effect of making him fall on the ground "WHAAA-*thud* *hacking coughs* Sorry about that, I needed your attention." he croaked, his red eyes leaking tears from both his infection and a good bit of pain. He had fallen about twenty feet, and landed on his head and flanks at the same time. "Who are you and why did you attack us?!" Ruby said, aiming Crescent Rose at the pony. "Whoa, calm down, I just needed your attention, listen, I have a throat infection, can anyone fix that up so I can talk normally?" his voice was creepy and croaky, like he had smoked and inhaled various drugs until his vocal chords grew spikes or something. Twilight cast out an aura of magic, a healing spell, clearing the disease from the hooded pony's esophagus. "Thanks, okay, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Skull Cruncher. I got kidnapped by the leaders of the Sin, and they've sent some evil darkness dude to come and wreck this place's shit, I heard his name was King Sombra." the stallion's voice was now smooth and pleasant sounding. "I'm sure you can understand my hesitance in trusting someone named Skull Cruncher." Rainbow Dash had her hooves out ready to lay a smack-down on this guy. "Don't try anything, please, I don't want to fight the people I'm trying to help, now listen, I have skills, skills that make me the antithesis of a construction worker. These skills aren't particularly useful in this scenario, but in a fight, I'm the baddest motherfucker who ever wielded a bow, here's my calling card." the tan pony hoofed over a small badge-like object. A heavily cracked skull with a banana in its mouth, the whole thing was made of gold. "Ponies want to Banana Skull because I'm just too cool, too hip, too fly, too awesome to be stopped, anyways, time to bounce, betty." he pulled out some sort of mine and explosive-jumped away, his strange sword making a fire trail behind him. "That was... weird." Ruby concluded, putting away Crescent Rose. "He'll be back, but hopefully he'll be on our side." Blake was a great judge of character. "Come on, let's go, that Skull guy isn't important enough to delay ourselves over." Rainbow Dash insisted, even she knew that they needed to move. There was a wordless consensus as everyone left to do their jobs. It would be hard, maybe, but it was worth it... maybe. "Spare time is a luxury, spend it wisely, it is said." Twilight recited, she had once read of book of wise quotes. "Yeah yeah yeah, Quoth the raven, Nevermore, c'mon Twi, we need to find that..... what exactly are we looking for?" in the process of zooming around, trying to find the book they needed, Rainbow Dash had somehow forgotten what she was looking for. "Look for anything that reads History, Crystal Kingdom Celebrations or Traditions, or better yet, The Crystal Fair." Twilight reminded. And looked they did, searching and gazing, scanning and peering, Twilight mulled it over in her head that her spectral maned friend must have probably read poetry, a simple detail, but Twilight felt proud that her seemingly muscle-headed friend seemed to enjoy more intellectual things. "Ugh, wait, I remember something, Joax and I are skilled sages, and in a think-tank we did a while back, we made a searching spell." the lavender mare recalled, beginning to recite the incantation, "Naysayers say 'not enough', not enough items, I say, gaze to the lines, gaze to the field, and see... Crystal Fair." it was an easy enough incantation, and suddenly, a few books began to glow in a bright yellow light. "Here we go." the mage breathed a sigh of relief, she had probably saved almost an hour's worth of searching. Now it was time for her favorite activity; reading. Blake was quick in all that she did, this, coupled with the shining glorious practicality of the evolutionary devices known as hands, had earned her the role of being the one writing down the infinitesimal information the others received. Ruby had gotten good at public relations, she was professionally diplomatic at best and pleasantly friendly at worst. She still failed. Rarity attempted to rouse the crystal ponies' spirits with gossip, but she failed as well. Applejack was direct, asking questions about King Sombra and what he did. Scootaloo relayed information from the others to Blake, which meant that her job was boringly easy, seeing as how there was barely a notepad-sized page's worth of information that wasn't already known. Jaune tried to be smooth and subtle, but only ended up being awkward and confusing to the depressed ponies, they just didn't understand. Fluttershy just hung back and stayed out of the way, she opted to talking to one of her 'little friends'. It was cute, watching the butter yellow pegasus speaking to the little figurines that she carried around in a bag, she had several of them. She had read, and experienced, that humans were nice creatures, so she had her figurines modeled after them. "So, mister Solid Snake, how are you feeling today?" she asked the six inch tall Spec Ops man, taking in the details she had added when crafting it. She had considered turning him on, but decided that it wasn't a good idea to do that right now. "Okay, Fluttershy right? Have you managed to gather any information?" Blake asked while walking over. "No, I think I'm just going to stay out of the way, I mean,um, if that's okay with you..." the pink maned mare trailed off, looking down at the table. "It's okay, just, try not to get too caught up in... playing with your dolls." the black haired girl stifled a laugh, this mare was supposedly twenty three years old, and she still seemed to act like a little girl. "Um, they're not dolls, they're my friends..." Fluttershy tried to argue, but she couldn't muster up the decibels. Blake's keen ears didn't pick up what the timid pony had said, and she went back to the castle's underside, waiting for the next relay. Rainbow Dash was the one who arrived, "Blake, me and Twilight found something!" the speedster informed, "C'mon, we have to get to the library, quick!" she was anxious to get this celebration started, she knew that it would be awesome! Blake smiled, this was a nice change of pace. *ahem* It was time for a song. "What?" Ruby asked, looking around in confusion. "Shhhhh, please don't interrupt, this singing thing is kind of a big deal, darling." Rarity shushed. "*ahem*♪ Princess Cadance needs our help Her magic will not last forever I think we can do it But we need to work together♪" Twilight began She continued, "♪We have to get this right Yes we have to make them see We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history♪" "♪It says that they like jousting♪" Rainbow Dash sang. "♪They flew a flag of many hues♪" Rarity continued. "♪Made sweets with crystal berries♪" Applejack added. "♪They had a petting zoo with tiny ewes♪" Fluttershy's quiet singing voice piped up. Now it was the chorus, "♪We have to get this right Yes we have to make them see We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history♪" "♪There was a crystal flugelhorn That everypony liked to play♪" Pinkie chimed "♪And the Crystal Kingdom anthem Can you learn it in a day?♪" Twilight rounded off. Chorus again, "♪Oh we have to get this right Yes we have to make them see We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history♪" they encouraged the hunters to join in. "♪I'm not good with diplo-ma-cy, but I'm certainly not a liar, the hope for a free tomorrow, will spread like a wildfire♪" Ruby began. "♪Friendships start weak, but they grow strong, trust alliances, 'cause they are life long, divided we fall, united we stand, and together victory will be grand♪" Blake tried her best. "♪The world is unforgiving, but don't let that get you down, we're here to make it better, so let's get a smile instead of a frown♪" Jaune tried his best as well. "♪I'm not afraid, not afraid, to take a stand, take a stand, everybody! Everybody! Come take my hand, take my hand~♪" Nora probably stole that line from someone. "♪The only thing stopping us is us, the only thing to fear is fear itself, stay strong, and robust, and send your weaknesses, straight to hell♪" Scootaloo had sung that, she looked to Ozpin. "Do I have to sing?" the old man asked, he didn't want to sing. "Well, if you don't want to..." Pinkie replied, looking downtrodden by his refusal. "Alright, I'm not singing." little did he know, that in some far off, parallel universe, he did sing, and everyone was shocked by just what is was that he sang. "Everything is perfect." almost everyone said at the same time. Indeed it was, from the jousting rounds raving on, to the flags waving proudly, to the crystal-cooked foods which were surprisingly edible to the normal ponies, to the petting zoo with the cute little animals, to the music, which seemed to be turned up past eleven, all the way to twelve. Twilight had even crafted the all-important crystal heart, carving it out of very large Volcano Amethyst, she picked it because hearts were supposed to be mostly red, but were also a bit blue. "Alright, check, check, and check, well Twilight, you've done a good job." Blake commended. "WOOHOO, THIS IS FUN!" Nora shouted, attempting to joust while on one of the crystal pony's backs, like a knight. "Hey Twily, this fair is looking pretty nice." Shining Armor had recovered, he still had black welts on his horn, but his magic wasn't completely blocked anymore. It was a simple procedure, Ozpin merely broke the crystals off of his horn. Simple, yet effective, the most useful kind of plan there was. "Yeah, Shiny, it is, thank you, we all tried very hard to make it work." the lavender mare replied, looking at all of the ponies that literally brightened up at the festivities. "Well, that hard work paid off," the white stallion assured, looking at the decorations, his eyes settled on his sister's carving, "Hey Twilight, what's that?" he asked, unsure of the dark statue. "Oh, that's the crystal heart thing that's supposed to be the center of the festivities, I made it out of Volcano Amethyst." the mage explained. "Um, Twilight, I think we have a problem." the knight looked at the carving for a few more seconds, then threw a tarp over it. "What's wrong?" the younger sibling asked, she was ready to deal with whatever would try to set back their plans. "This isn't the Crystal Heart." the older sibling started. "... what?" was all that the stripe-maned mare could manage. "This is a crystal heart, we need the Crystal Heart, it's not just a rock, it's a Crystal Kingdom relic, it has great power, fueled by the crystal ponies, without the real Crystal Heart, all of this will be in vain." Shining continued, "You have to find it, I need to go, Cadance's energy is almost dried up, and I need to help her preserve it, my magic may work now, but it's still weakened." with that, the stallion left up the stairs, staying long enough only to give a "Good luck!" to his sister. Twilight tried to not panic, but she had to act fast, some of the crystal ponies had started to gather around the heart and its pedestal. She brought Applejack over, explained the situation, and took off. Things were going to get interesting.