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// The Gala (Edited) 
// Story: A Snow Swept Heart 
// by CoverArt 
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	The Crystal Empire shined beautifully in the night as it was lit up in all manner of fireworks and as parties roared on. No party was as loud or as big as the one at the Palace, however. Dozens of carriages were letting out their VIPs, nobles and high ranking ponies from all over Equestria and even a few from the Griffon Empire. The reason for the celebrations was that the royal foal Princess Flurry Heart had finally gotten her cutie mark. It was a glorious occasion, to be sure. Her cutie mark was of a purple crystal heart with windswept snow blowing across it. Unsurprisingly, it was similar to her mother's--Princess Cadence--meaning she was next in line for the throne of the Crystal Empire.
In the grand hall of the palace, many stallions danced with their mares, while others stood to the side, either chatting or just enjoying the festivities. As per usual, all the guests wore their best attire. For this gathering, however, it was important to wear their best gowns and suits, not that they would be caught dead without them, for at this party, the royal family would reveal Flurry Heart’s cutie mark. For this reason everyone else must hide theirs as a sign of respect.
While there were many important figures in the hall, none were as important as the royal family and their guests at the far end of the hall. They were comprised of Equestria’s rulers Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as the Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle, the Crystal Empire’s rulers Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, and of course, the guest of honor: Princess Flurry Heart. The other Elements of Harmony were there, as well, but over the course of the night, they made their way into the crowd to mingle with different ponies or, in Fluttershy's case, find the Palace Gardens to talk to all of the nice animals. While Princess Cadence and her husband discussed various things with the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, Flurry Heart trotted up to Princess Twilight, who smiled down at the newly cutie-marked filly.
“Auntie Twi Twi,” she asked, using the cute nickname she came up with when she was still a toddler, “how long do I have to wear this dress? It's itchy!”
The purple alicorn giggled. “A couple more hours, sweetie. And you know it isn’t that itchy; Rarity made that special for you.”
“Yeah, I know, but it's still annoying. Why do I have to wear it, anyway?”
“Well, dear, it’s a tradition here in the Empire. When a foal gets their cutie mark, the family are the only ones who get to see it until they have the party for it. Make sense?”
“Mmmm, kind of, yeah.”
“Now, why don’t you go dance with your father. I think he’s wanted to for a couple minutes, now.”
Flurry Heart nodded and turned around. As predicted, her father was there, waiting for her. She trotted up to him, and together, they walked down the stairs to the main dance floor of the grand hall. However, as soon as they started to dance, they heard shrieks coming from the center of the hall. They looked over to see a circle of purple and green flames shoot up from the floor. A figure slowly rose from within the circle, a familiar unicorn stallion. He wore the barding and possessed the evil green eyes--seemingly on fire with purple flames coming out of them--he wore last he was seen. The only major difference from his previous appearence was his black mane. It was almost alive, flowing in a constant wind that was not there, much like Princess Celestia's and Luna's did. Gasps rose from all of the ponies in the room. King Sombra had returned.
“Oh, what a lovely gathering we have here. Sorry for gatecrashing, but it seems that I hadn’t gotten my invitation,” he said in his deep, yet smooth, voice. Shining Armor stepped in front of Flurry Heart and pushed her to be even more behind him.
“Sombra! What are you doing here?”
“Am I not allowed to bring the guest of honor a present to celebrate her cutie mark?”
“You stay away from her, you demon!” Shining took another step forward.
“Shining Armor! Halt!” Princess Luna called from behind him. The worried tone she used made him stop, though he still didn’t take his eyes off of Sombra.
“He’s been touched by the Nightmare; he is more powerful than ever, now,” the princess said. Shining Armor’s eyes widened, and he took a step back.
“How?”
Sombra gave a small laugh. “You’d be surprised at the lengths you have to go to in order to come back to life.”
“You embraced the Nightmare? For what purpose would you need something that evil?” Luna asked, glaring at him.
“It’s quite simple, really, Luna: to give young Flurry Heart her present,” Sombra replied with an evil sneer.
“And what is this present you speak of, Sombra?” Cadence flew over to her husband, landing next to him.
“Oh, it’s on its way. In fact, I think it’s arriving as we speak.” Sombra turned his head towards the main doors to the hall. They all listened and heard the sounds of a battle being one-sidedly fought, and it was not the Crystal Guards that were winning. Shining quickly turned to one of the guards protecting the hall.
“Get the princesses and my daughter out of here! Now!”
Sombra laughed loudly as he teleported away. No one knew where he went, but no one really cared, certainly not Shining Armor. He galloped towards the sound of the battle with what guards were in the hall and weren’t helping escort the princesses out.
“Shining, wait!” Cadence called after him, but he was too far to have heard. She looked down at Flurry Heart. “Honey, I need to go and help Daddy. I want you to go with your aunts, okay?”
“You’ll be okay, right, Mommy?” Flurry Heart asked, looking terrified.
“Of course, sweetie. I promise everything will be okay. I just need you to go with Aunt Twilight to Ponyville for a while.”
“O-okay, Mommy.”
Cadence leaned down and kissed Flurry on the forehead before turning and flying off towards the battle to help her husband. Flurry felt magic wrap around her as she was lifted onto Twilight’s back.
“Come on, Flurry, we’re going for a nice train ride.” Twilight said as she and the other Princesses and Elements galloped out a back entrance from the hall. They couldn’t fly to the train station--they would be too noticeable--so they had to risk running to it.
They exited the castle to a city of fire. It looked like whoever Sombra had brought to help him were reeking havoc on the city. Before any of them could wonder who was doing this, however, two ghostly figures appeared in front of them, wielding swords in their mouths. They charged the group, only to be blasted by Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.
“Come, before more of them are sent to get us!” Celestia said as she started to gallop through the streets to the train station, everypony else on her tail. Twilight and Flurry were at the back of the pack, and Flurry hugged Twilight's neck tightly, scared out of her mind. Flurry made the mistake of looking back towards the castle. To her horror, the castle itself was on fire. She could hear screams and the sound of battle in the distance, but what was worse was that several of the ghost ponies were behind them, galloping and catching up fast.
“Twilight! They're coming!” she screamed. Twilight looked back and gasped. She fired a bolt of magic at one, and it exploded into a cloud of whatever the ghost ponies were made of. Twilight turned her head forward again. In front of her, the ghost pony whom she had just blasted reappeared and swung the sword in its mouth. Twilight yelped as she ducked down, sliding under the sweep of the blade. She thought this would be enough, but when she heard the cry of the filly on her back, she knew she had miscalculated. Her head shot back to see what happened and was utterly shocked to see Flurry Heart minus two very important limbs: her wings. She started to tear up as she saw the severed wings fall to the ground far behind them. All that remained of them were two bloody stumps and a crying filly.  Through her tears, Twilight lit her horn and surrounded the filly in healing magic. It wasn’t much, but it would do until her natural healing magic healed the wounds.  
Princess Luna, having heard the commotion, flew back and started blasting any of the ghosts she saw, while the group eventually made it to the train station. Unfortunately, the train had already left, though it was in flying distance. Thinking quickly, the princesses, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash picked up those who couldn’t fly and started to get them to the train. As Twilight jumped into the air, she was knocked to one side by a ghost pony's spell. She barely managed to stay in the air, and she could tell Flurry was having a hard time keeping a hold on her back given her pain, so Twilight did her best to dodge the incoming spells. Twilight had no clue how these ponies were able to fire spells, but they were, and they were good at it.
She was approaching the train when she was hit by an especially powerful blast, knocking her to the side hard. She heard a scream as Flurry Heart fell from her back. She quickly stopped flying forward, hovering there, looking to see where Flurry Heart fell, but she couldn’t see her. She became frantic and was about to fly back to where she thought she dropped her, when she was surrounded by a golden glow.
“No, no, no!” Twilight franticly tried to fight the spell, but before she knew it, she was teleported to the inside of a train car in front of her friends and the princesses.
“Flurry Heart is still out there! She’s hurt! We have to go back!” she cried. She tried to gallop away, but she was stopped again by a golden glow around her.
“Twilight, I’m sorry. There isn’t time; it's too late,” Celestia told her, wrapping a hoof around her.
“How can you say that! She’s just a child! She could die!” Twilight screamed as she tossed Celestia’s hoof away.
“And if we go back, we all could die, Twilight. Whatever those constructs are, they’re more powerful than my sister and I can handle. We can’t risk everypony here, the only defense we have for Equestria, by going back. As much as I wish we could, we can’t save her,” Celestia explained, a tear falling from her eye.
“But--” Twilight started, before Celestia put a hoof to her mouth.
“If she survives, we will find her eventually. If she doesn’t, well... we’ll find her eventually, okay, Twilight?”
“O-Okay, Princess.” Twilight hugged Celestia, who happily hugged back as the train made its way on the long journey to Canterlot.