Shard: The Dark King Returns

by Hopeful_Ink_Hoof


Waking in Rubble

Five mares let out groans as they began to regain consciousness. Each rubbed at their throbbing heads as they started to open their eyes.

"Is everypony okay?" Applejack asked.

"No permanent damage," Rainbow Dash answered, "but I feel like I've had twelve rounds of hard cider."

"My shell hurts," Pinkie Pie called out, "but nothing's cracked."

"I believe I shall need some aspirin and a good soaking in a hot bath," Rarity stated. "There seems to be no real harm though."

"I'm okay," Fluttershy said, "but where's Twilight?"

The five mares looked around.

The clock tower had been destroyed. Not the entire tower, but everything from where they stood up was devastated. The roof, the walls, the clock, all were gone. Massive chunks of stone and twisted pieces of metal lay strewn all around them.

The five of them started searching through the rubble, calling out Twilight Sparkle's name.

"Hey!" Pinkie Pie called out. "Over here."

The other four came to join her. From beneath a pile of rubble, they could see a faint red glow. The ponies worked quickly to push the chunks of rock and metal way, finding their friend underneath.

Twilight Sparkle laid in the middle of a glowing red dome. The unicorn was curled up in the center, eyes closed. Her friends could see that she was breathing gently.

Fluttershy reached out, pressing her hoof to the glowing red dome. As soon as she touched it, the shield vanished. Moving closer to the unconscious unicorn, the batpony pressed her hoof against her friend's side. Twilight let out a small sigh as she was touched, shifting.

"She seems to be okay," Fluttershy said. "Twilight?"

Twilight yawned and blinked, looking at the five ponies standing around her. She rubbed at her eyes and stretched before moving to stand up.

"Are you okay?" Applejack asked.

"Actually?" Twilight shifted, looking herself over. "I feel more than okay. I feel great. Like I just took a good nap after getting perfect marks on all my finals for the year."

"Well, not that you need it then," Rarity said, "but I have something that will make you feel even better. It seems your horn is back to normal."

With a gasp of excitement, Twilight looked up at her horn. It looked like it always had to her. Reaching up, she ran her hoof along the length. The grin on her face grew wider as is felt the way she remembered, with no strange black lumps on it. Then came the major test. Face scrunching, Twilight watched her horn as she tried to concentrate. Sure enough, her horn began to glow with the aura of magic... although it looked to be a deeper shade of red than it used to.

"Yes!" Twilight shouted, hopping up and down. "Yes-yes-yes! I got my magic back." Her voice took a sing-song tone. "I got my magic back." She hugged Fluttershy.

"That's nice," Fluttershy said, hugging back, "but... what's that around your neck?"

The question stopped Twilight and made her pull away. She shifted, trying to look down at her neck. Around it was a golden necklace with a wide band. In the center, resting against the base of her throat, was a circular piece with a raised edge. In the middle of the circle was a compass rose, much like the one on Twilight Sparkle's flank. The four cardinal directions were pointed at by a four-tipped star made from a red jewel.

"I think it's one of The Elements of Harmony," Twilight responded as she continued to stare at it. "Last thing I remember is holding onto one of them and yelling... something at King Sombra. Whatever it was must have caused The Element to react or something."

"It would indeed seem so," a voice called out, getting the attention of the six ponies. They looked up, and gasped.

Above them floated Princess Temporal. Her wings spread out wide as she came down toward the tower. The partial sunlight gleamed off her deep blue coat. The gold and silver mane and tail shimmer and shifted around her. She smiled as she landed, looking at the six mares.

"Hello, my little ponies."

"Princess," Fluttershy squealed, "you're okay."

"For the most part," the princess responded, looking up at her black crystal covered horn.

"Does that mean the sun and moon are going to be stuck like that?" Twilight asked, looking up?

"For a few days." Princess Temporal looked up as well. "It will be a while before I get the crystals off. In the meantime, I'll have to assemble a group of unicorns to do it, which will be a few days."

"So..." Rainbow Dash shifted. "Is it over? Did we win?"

"I don't think so," Twilight answered. "I mean we only got one of The Elements working. More than likely, it was enough to scare him away for the time being."

"So we have to try and find the other four stones in all this junk?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking at the mess.

"Unfortunately it will not be so easy," Princess Temporal stated. "When Twilight activated her Element, the other four scattered. I managed to see one of them streaking through the sky, but could not say where it went."

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Applejack asked.

"We look for them," Fluttershy said, causing the others to turn toward her in surprise. "We need them to stop King Sombra."

"Perhaps," Princess Temporal said, "it would be better if we continued this conversation elsewhere. If one of you would be so nice as to send an alert, I'm fairly certain that we can get a ride back to Ponyville."

"Are you alright, darling?" Rarity asked a suddenly very pale and wide-eyed Twilight.