Twilight’s friends, spike, and Daisy started to wonder what was taking so long. Surly they must have found the Crystal Heart by now, unless something happened. Rainbow Dash was pacing back and forth, having already regretted the decision to not go after them when they first started to leave. The others just sat at the entrance with worried looks on their faces, waiting for them to return. Then they saw figures coming into view further down. When they came into full view the others saw it was Twilight, Shining, and Cadance with the Crystal Heart. They started to cheer and celebrate (especially Pinkie Pie who somehow pulled her confetti canon out nowhere and fired it off). All except for one who noticed they were down a pony. They stopped cheering when they saw the looks on the others faces. When they finally reached the entrance Daisy was the first to speak.
“Where’s Silver?”
“I’m so sorry, Daisy. He fought bravely but he didn’t make it. He sacrificed himself to save Twilight and for that I will be eternally grateful,” said Shining. Daisy put her hooves to her eyes and started crying. Cadance brought her into a hug and tried to comfort her. The others looked on saddened by her loss. Applejack took off her hat and put it to her chest out of respect.
“There-there, you know Silver loved you right,” said Cadance.
“Yeah,” she said still crying.
“And I know he’d want you to be strong for him too. If we’re going to save the Crystal Empire then we have to get going.”
“Ok,” she said trying to pull herself together.
“Don’t worry I’ll make sure that he remembered not as a traitor but as a hero. Now let’s get going,” said Shining. Twilight and Cadance charged up another teleportation spell and they were gone.
They reappeared inside an alleyway near the palace. They peaked their heads out and saw that the crystal guard was out in full force marching through the streets with a squad standing in front of the palace. In all there were about two hundred guards total. Twilight and the others were heavily outnumbered. The citizens or slaves were confined to their homes until further notice. Sombra meanwhile had been busy restoring the Crystal Empire to the way it had been when he last ruled, with black crystal everywhere and the city decorated in his colors. He was watching everything from his throne room balcony, just waiting for their return.
Then an alarm sounded. “UP THERE!” yelled one of the guards. Everypony looked up and sombra couldn’t believe his eyes. The clouds parted and there was Celestia and Luna leading a mass of royal guards in attack formation. There was about three hundred pegasi and one hundred unicorns in chariots. They landed, each made their charge toward the other and the two forces clashed. Damn how did the princesses find out about my return so quickly? The pony that freed the others must have tipped them off. But how did they get to them so fast? Must have been a pegasus, no matter I still have one ace in the hole. Sombra retreated inside to make preparations for his confrontation with the princesses. Meanwhile the battle raged on, the royal guards had to be careful to try and keep casualties to a minimum for they knew that the enemy’s actions were being influenced by Sombra, which gave the opposition a slight advantage but they were still outnumbered 2 to 1.
Twilight and the others (minus Daisy who kept the Crystal Heart for safe keeping) joined the fray. The battle lasted for what felt like hours and the crystal guard was finally being pushed back, it wouldn’t be long before the battle would be over. After several more minutes of fighting they finally broke and surrendered. The princesses, Twilight’s friends, Shining, Spike, and Daisy along with few a royal guards made their way to the palace. The doors opened and out came Sombra along with a couple of guards carrying Fluttershy by her forelegs with her hind legs dragging on the ground. The look on her face said everything, something bad had happened. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO FLUTTERSHY!” yelled Dash. Sombra just gave a soft chuckle.
“You know your friend really is the element of kindness. She was kind enough to let me give her a good rutting,” he said letting out another chuckle. Everypony was taken aback by this. Rainbow Dash had to be held back from attacking him on the spot. “Now then hand over the Crystal Heart and surrender or she dies.” Then one of the guards put the tip of his spear to Fluttershy’s neck. A tense standoff ensued with the princesses unsure of how to proceed. Hopping an opportunity would present its self. Sombra was becoming increasingly irritated by lack of corporation. “Last chance, surrender or she dies!” Then a voice rang out off to his left.
“LEAVE HER ALONE!”
Sombra started to turn his head to see who said that when he was impaled by a spear. The spear entered his midsection and protruded a few inches out the other side. Sombra let out a bloodcurdling roar of pain and fell to one knee. Everypony turned their heads to see who threw it and there stood Silver Shield (minus the armor). “Silver you’re…alive?” Daisy ran to him with tears of joy in her eyes and they embraced each other. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“Shhh its ok I’m here now and that’s all that matters,” he said in a whisper.
Celestia saw that the crystal guards were momentarily distracted by this and shot off a couple bolts of magic at them. They went flying back and a now free Fluttershy quickly made her way back to her friends. Twilight grabbed the Crystal Heart and rushed to put it back where it belonged. Sombra knew that in his weakened condition he wouldn’t survive a blast from the Heart. He reverted back into shadow, the spear fell to the ground and he fled. The Crystal Heart was put back in its place and a blast of love energy shot into the sky and the Empire started turning back to normal. The Crystal ponies coats started to shimmer again and they left their homes to see what happen. When they saw the Crystal Heart restored they cheered and celebrated (especially Pinkie Pie who once again had her confetti canon on standby). When everything was said and done Cadance and Shining Armor took their place back on the throne the others made their way home.
A few weeks had passed and Fluttershy wasn’t feeling well. She had dizzy spells, cramps, and was vomiting. She decided to go see a doctor to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. Doctor Horse decided to run some tests and left. Twilight knew Fluttershy was going to the hospital and went to check on her. She made her way into the room. “Hi, Fluttershy you feeling alright?”
“Oh better now I suppose but I really won’t know if it’s anything to worry about until the doctor gets back.” Sometime later Doctor Horse came back into the room.
“Well we ran some tests and we did find something.”
“Oh my, it’s not anything serious I hope.”
“Well I suppose that all depends on how you want to look at it.”
“Well what is it?”
“Fluttershy you’re pregnant.”