My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record

by The King of Hearts


The Return of the Fallen King

////
The Return of the Fallen King
////

Time was up, and everypony knew it.

They had searched high and low, but none had come up with a thing.

Twilight was sure that they would have come across the heart after finding that hidden staircase… But it was nothing. She wasn’t even sure why that place existed. But that didn’t matter now. Everything was looking terrible at this point.

They were all gathered in the balcony, next to the fading Cadance.

“What are we supposed to do?” Twilight asked Luna, hoping the princess had come up with something to save the day.

“We’ll simply have to fight him,” Luna sighed, genuinely sad that it had come to this, “But it’s not going to be easy.”

“Why not?” Alex asked, fairly confident in his own ability’s, “Last time we met, I had no problem fighting him.”

“He isn’t going to be the same pony you encountered so long ago,” Luna explained, “He had been toiling in darkness, and shadow for almost a thousand years… His power will be immeasurable.”

Nopony had a response for her. They all watched helplessly as the shield surrounding the kingdom flickered, ready to completely vanish at any moment.

“Honey…” Shining Armor said quietly, stroking Cadance’s cheek and frowning, “You need to keep awake…”

Cadance was past being able to respond. Her head simply hung, focusing solely on staying awake, and keeping the spell up.

“So… is there anythin’ we outta be doin’ to get ready?” Applejack asked quietly, breaking the tension somewhat.

“We have no army to mobilize, it is only us…” Luna said, looking across her troops, from Pinkie to Alpha, and everypony in between. But, she knew that spreading everypony out would only put them in danger. There was strength in numbers.

“We will go there.” Luna pointed toward the mass of black smoke, waiting at the edge of the barrier, “He will not take more than one step into the kingdom.”

“Are you sure?” Dash asked, putting all her tactical thinking into action from her many days as a Captain, “He could rush past us, and lock us out with a spell of his own… or enter from another point. We need to hold this position.”

Luna nodded, she was right about that.

“I say, we get everypony from town, and we hide them in the castle, and we wait at the entrance.” Dash explained, “As wrong as it might be to say, their homes are expendable.”

“She’s right,” Alpha nodded, being trained in the very same tactics, as her, “The castle is a stronghold, and easily defendable. We can rebuild the kingdom after Sombra’s been dealt with.”

“Get the word out,” Twilight said to all of her friends, “Everypony needs to be here, right now.”

“Got it,” Spike nodded, running along with Rarity, and the rest of their friends out the door, ready to spread the news to everypony they could.

////

Apple Bloom frowned as she kicked the fractured heart around on the floor. The three of them weren’t too worried about breaking it at first, but after some examination of the walls, they saw the heart drawn all over the wall, along with a bunch of happy ponies. It didn’t take much thought to figure it all out.

“That heart is making me feel all warm and fuzzy!” Sweetie giggled, sweeping the additional shards up off the ground with a spell, “I wanna take some home with me!”

“Won’t we get in trouble?” Scootaloo asked, studying the wall a bit further, “This isn’t ours!”

“Ah’ don’t think anypony’ll miss it!” Apple Bloom said, pushing it over to Sweetie, so she could levitate it as well, “But let’s try to get it back in one piece!”

So, looking away from the wall, Scootaloo and Apple bloom started to pick up the few pieces scattered on the floor. Luckily, the heart was incredibly dense, so it only broke into about a hundred pieces. Unfortunately, that was still a lot of pieces for fillies that couldn’t even solve a fifty piece puzzle.

The time slowly passed, as they tried several different combinations, making sure to fill in the smallest places with the smallest pieces, but any time they seemed to make it look semi-right, there were still some pieces left on the floor.

“Ugh!” Scootaloo groaned, sitting down on the floor, smacking her hoof on the floor in frustration, “I can’t figure this out!”

“Are y’all sure we need tuh fix this?” Apple Bloom asked, as her friends both gave her a large ‘no duh,’ look, “Okay, okay… Why don’ we take this up tuh our sisters?”

“I’ll bet Rarity could fix this in no time!” Sweetie said, knowing just how good her sister could be with this sort of project.

“Luna might be able to help us too,” Scootaloo agreed, pushing the remainder of the shards into a pile, “Let’s head back outside!”

Nodding, Sweetie levitated the shards up, and headed out the door, with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo in tow.

They just hoped that the barrier hadn’t fallen since that last time they saw it. Who knows what the scary smoke would do to them.

////

“Is that everypony?” Dash asked, as Alex and Alpha herded the last few stragglers in through the front gate of the castle.

“Yeah,” Alex nodded, his horn illuminating for a moment, “I didn’t pick anypony else up on my spells. So, unless they’re way underground, I can’t see them.”

“Good,” Dash nodded smiling at Alex, “Let’s get in position.”

Everypony made their way to the balcony, as Shining Armor walked next to Cadance and leaned down to her ear.

“Sweet heart…” He whispered, nuzzling her cheek affectionately, “Go to sleep. Everything is okay now, you did a great job.”

“Okay…” She said under her breath, as her eyes closed, and the dim light from her horn faded, and the entire spell surrounding the kingdom, vanished.

“Get ready.”

////

The black mass of smoke rushed into the area fast, and from all angles. From a distance, it looked like a morning fog rolling in... It had a destination, and it was closing the distance to the castle fast.

Every square inch it passed over, was blackened and cracked, sucking all the life from everything it touched.

“I am the king.” A deep voice came from the entire smoke cloud, “This is my domain, and will not have you vermin infesting my kingdom!”

A deep rumbling shook the ground, as several places in the ground started to cave in, making long, snake-like collapses through what appeared to be a cave network. This was followed by a deep laughter. His shadow had confirmed that the Crystal Heart was still in its chamber, where he had hidden in after his brutal beating by that white alicorn a thousand years ago. He knew chaotic magic, which meant they might easily discover the hiding place in the tower. So he moved it away.

Now it was done. Nopony would find the heart now, and he would be free to defeat those meddlesome ponies, and have his slaves retrieve it for him.

Changing into his original pony-form, he smiled darkly at the castle just a short distance away from him. He was home. And he was ready to reclaim what was rightfully his.

While his smoke sucked the life out of everything in the surrounding town, he would suck the life out of the ponies trying to stop him, and build a throne on their bones. Starting with that damn Princess. The one that did this to him.

////

“I can’t believe that big stupid cave collapsed on us!” Sweetie coughed, her mane and coat covered in dust from the cobblestone passageway they had narrowly escaped, “But I still have the heart!”

“Thank goodness,” Scootaloo said, shaking her mane out, and brushing off her wings, “Are you okay Apple Bloom?”

“Ah’ think so!” She said, walking in a circle, looking at herself, “Ah’m all here!”

“Whew,” Sweetie said, sitting down idly spinning the Crystal Heart in her spell.

“Uh… You guys,” Scootaloo said, looking out on the horizon, seeing that the barrier had completely vanished.

“What’s that?” Apple Bloom asked, watching the black smoke rapidly approaching them.

“That monster from outside!” Scootaloo shouted.

“We need to get out of here!” Sweetie shouted, getting up, and running as fast as she could toward the town.

“H-hey!” The other two yelled, seeing their friend abandoning them, “Get back here!”

The three moved as fast as they could. They didn’t know it, but they held the key to saving the day. But, at this particular moment, they wished they had invested a little more time in being Cutie-Mark long distance runners.