//------------------------------//
// Home is Where the Heart Is 
// Story: Broken: Love 
// by Knackerman 
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	It had taken much longer than it normally would have, but they had finally arrived in Ponyville. 

He'd never actually been to this town before, but as it sat in the shadow of distant Canterlot, so it wasn't hard to find. Ponyville stretched out before him, a literal ghost town. All the shops were closed, the houses seemed abandoned. If it weren't for a notice pinned to the door of the City Hall he would have had no idea what was going on. It seemed everypony had gone to some important announcement in Canterlot, by order of the Princesses. Sunburst gazed into the distance at the crystalline tree palace of Twilight Sparkle. It was unlikely that the Princess of Friendship would have refused to answer such a the summons from Canterlot. 

Well if everypony was in Canterlot, Sunburst mused, he'd just have to go to Canterlot. He had thought it was best to seek Twilight Sparkle's help directly, but if she was not here, there wasn't much of reason for him to be here himself. Even so, his instincts still told him that it would be wise to avoid large population centers until they had a chance to figure out what had gone wrong in the Crystal Empire. He was extremely thankful for those instincts, as his gaze fell on the distant spires of Canterlot, hidden beneath the same gloom that had choked the skies above the Empire. A magical bubble of dark energy had swelled to engulf the entire city. Though he had no way of knowing for sure what was going on, it seemed he had dodged a bullet by traveling to Ponyville.

But it was unlikely his luck was going to hold out for long. If the Empress had already made her move against Canterlot, it wouldn't be long before every major city in Equestria would follow.

Flurry Heart burbled happily, riding on Sunburst back. After her timely, if accidental, teleportation spell had taken them beyond the edges of the Crystal Empire, it had dawned on Sunburst that this was the exact spell he should cast to get away from their pursuers. He wasn't the best at translocation spells of any sort, so there were a few random mistakes. Embarrasingly enough, he'd briefly ended up transporting them back to his own house. Though even that had worked out as he had taken the opportunity to grab some warmer cloths for their travels and some baby supplies for Flurry Heart. Sunburst was more than a little worn out from all the magic he'd expended on the trip, though the baby Princess still seemed as energetic as ever. She was gnawing on the wings of an alicorn doll her father had given her. It seemed she was already teething.

"Well little one, what should we do now?" wondered Sunburst aloud, though mostly to himself. "Twilight and her friends are likely already up to their necks in trouble of their own, and likely aren't here." Which also meant she probably wasn't here either. Sunburst knew he could rely on Twilight and the other Princesses when there was a problem of this magnitude, but in truth he'd really wanted to see his friend Starlight Glimmer. That, perhaps more than any instincts, was the real reason he'd chosen to travel to Ponyville rather than Canterlot. He thought if anypony would be willing to take him in at a time like this, it'd be Starlight. He shook his head, trying to clear the thought away. Now really wasn't the time for such things. He gave a heavy sigh. "I suppose we've come all this way, we should at least check at Twilight's Castle. Who knows? Maybe she has a book about how to free a lovesick populace from mind control."

For her part, Flurry Heart only giggled, and bopped Sunburst on the back of the head with her doll. He took this as a sign of encouragement, and made his way towards Twilight's Castle.



 

"What are we gonna do, what are we gonna do!?" panicked Spike, just as he'd been panicking ever since they'd made their escape from Canterlot. "Did you see those crystal things? They were full of ponies! Who does that!? Who weaponizes ponies!?"

"Well, Celestia technically," responded Starlight distractedly as she continued to rifle through the books in the Twilight's library. It was a bad attempt at a joke and the look Spike gave her let her know it wasn't appreciated. "Sorry, Spike. I know this isn't the time for humor, but with all that has happened, it's hard not to be a little cynical."

"I guess," said Spike, though it didn't really sound like he meant it. "I still just can't believe that they got Discord and Twilight! I mean, she's Twilight!"

"I know," agreed Starlight as she put one book back on the shelf and took down another. "Still, she did figure out that Shining Armor... I mean the 'Crystal Emissary' was really after her all along. The rest of us were just getting caught in the cross fire. If Twilight had tried to escape they would've hounded her until she was captured or she had 'seen the light' of their so called 'Empress'," that last word dripped with venom. Starlight hated when ponies started acting superior to others. The fact that this Empress didn't even deign to do her own dirty work said a lot about the high regard she surely held herself in.  "Twilight used herself as a distraction to buy time for us to escape. We need to stick to the plan and find a book that might give us some answers on what is going on and how to fix it."

"Well we've got tons of books here that were salvaged from the Shady Oaks Library, as well as books donated from the Canterlot Archives." Spike traced his claws along the shelves. "There are even books here that were transferred from the library in the Castle of the Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest. Twilight couldn't stand the thought of them being exposed to the elements out there, so we helped her move them here. That was the most harrowing library trip I've had in a good long while, and I've had some doozies."

Starlight let out a groan of frustration as she pulled books faster and faster from the shelves with her magic, but none of them seemed to suit her needs. "Ugh! I wish there had been a way for me to have been the distraction so Twilight could be here going through all of these dusty tomes! I was always better at magic practice than magic research. That was always more... More Sunburst's thing." Her ears drooped and the glow of her horn faded as she said that.

"Hey, cheer up! I'm sure we'll find something soon." Spike snapped his claws as an idea occurred to him. "Hey, I've got it! Why don't you use that time traveling spell you used before? We could go back and warn everypony not to go to Canterlot for that announcement!"

"It took me months to prepare that spell the first time, and most of that was based off of work crafted by Starswirl the Bearded I'd stolen." Starlight rubbed her forehead with one hoof just thinking about it. "To make a spell like that again from scratch could take years. Besides, I already know it wouldn't work."

"Why not?" asked Spike.

"Because, if it had, we wouldn't have gone to Canterlot in the first place." Spike just stared at her, uncomprehending. She tried to explain, "I figured out a long time ago that whatever happens stays happened. The only reason I was able to mess with the timeline before was because I always had, and it was always going to resolve with me not actually changing anything in the past. My grand scheme for revenge was doomed to fail from the start, because it had already failed in the past, otherwise I would have never had to come up with the time travel plan in the first place."

"Okay, yup, I think I just went cross eyed," replied Spike woozily. He shook his head, "Alright, forget time travel. You're still an extremely powerful unicorn. Twilight said so herself, and she's the Princess of Magic!"

"I thought she was the Princess of Friendship?" asked Starlight.

"Friendship is Magic," explained Spike.

That got a burst of laughter from Starlight, "That is so corny!"

"I thought so too, but it turns out it's true!" replied Spike earnestly. "I can't count the number of times I've been in trouble and then, just like magic, my friends would be there to help me when I needed it the most!"

Starlight laughed again, "By that logic, all we need to do is sit here and the answer to all our problems will walk right through that door," she said, pointing to the open library door.

Just as she did, Sunburst stepped into the door frame, Princess Flurry Heart napping on his back. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize anyone was home. I sort of let myself in."

"Sunburst! What are you doing here!?" Starlight gasped. Before she could stop herself, she blurted "I'm so happy to see you!"

"It's kind of a long story," answered Sunburst, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment at Starlight's outburst. "Would it be alright if I told you while I did a little research? I was hoping to find a book that might shed some light on some trouble that's come up in the Crystal Empire."

With a smirk on his face, Spike nudged Starlight with one elbow, "See, what did I tell ya?"





They worked together much better than they did apart, Spike noticed. While Sunburst was a whiz at figuring out how Twilight had ordered the castle library, with Spike's help of course, it was Starlight who really helped in whittling down what books might be helpful to their research and which ones could be discarded. After awhile, Spike took the sleeping Princess and settled her down in the cot that he kept in the library for when he felt like taking a nap during Twilight's long hours of study.

"So you were in the middle of teaching Flurry Heart shield spells when it happened? Isn't that a little advanced for her age?" asked Starlight as they continued to work their way steadily through the library's many books.

"Well, yes, if she were a normal Unicorn," answered Sunburst. "But as an Alicorn, she is far more perceptive and receptive to the workings of magic than most children her age. I have to be very careful with what spells I use in front of her, as she has a tendency to pick up on how to use said spells herself intuitively."

"That's amazing!" remarked Starlight, clearly impressed. "But why shield spells then? Couldn't those potentially cause a problem if she used them at the wrong time?"

"Not with the suppression spells her parents and I wove around her. She's really only capable of doing anything extreme when she's in danger, as a fail safe. The spell work isn't perfect, there are still some occasional hiccups." admitted Sunburst adjusting his glasses with one hoof. "But both her parents have shown that they are quiet adept at shield spells. Her father in particular has a talent for them."

"I've noticed." replied Starlight bitterly. Sunburst had listened with his mouth opened wide as Starlight and Spike had explained the ambush they had walked into in Canterlot, so he didn't need to ask her to clarify that response.

He did, however clear his throat nervously before he continued, "Yes. Well... I thought it would be a good starting point for Flurry Heart's studies. I was in the middle of casting what I must admit was a somewhat sub-par example of the spell, which barely enclosed myself and the Princess, when a shadow fell over the entire Crystal Empire. A wave of, what I can only assume was dark magic, seemed to emanate from the Crystal Palace sweeping over the rest of the Empire. I didn't realize the full extent of what had happened until I stepped outside to see what was going on. That's when I noticed my neighbors outside, some on their knees and others weeping, all praising the 'Empress of Love' from out of nowhere."

"So what happened after that?" queried Starlight.

"Well, it didn't take long for everypony to notice that I was the only one that didn't seem to be in the grip of whatever euphoria they were experiencing. The rapture on their faces quickly melted into rage and, well, I must admit I was rather terrified." Sunburst clearly wasn't proud to admit this, but he looked over to where baby Princess was sleeping peacefully. "I couldn't leave Flurry Heart in the middle of a group of ponies who were behaving so irrationally, so I scooped her up and I ran as far and as fast as I could. The rest you already know."

"So we know the problem started in the Crystal Empire. Is it possible that Sombra has come back somehow?" asked Spike, joining the conversation. "I mean the dark crystals, the dark magic," he added, counting on his claws. "The situation has got his M.O. written all over it!"

"That seems unlikely," replied Sunburst shaking his head. "From what I've read about King Sombra, though he did us magic to rule the Crystal Ponies, he did so through fear and despair." He pulled down a very particular book from the shelf on the subject, one he'd intentionally neglected thus far. An illustration of a dark unicorn, King Sombra, that leered red-eyed over chained up ponies was embossed on the page Sunburst opened to. "While he wanted to rule, he never seemed interested in securing his peoples love. Everything he wanted he took by force."

"This Empress seems fairly forceful to me. She certainly doesn't seem to be willing to take no for an answer." remarked Starlight as she turned her attention to the book Sunburst was holding. "Can I see that for a moment?" She read a few passages. "It says here that the Crystal Empire was originally ruled in peace by Princess Amora."

"Yes, she was one of the rulers that predated the founding of Equestria," clarified Sunburst. "I remember reading once that she asked for Princess Celestia's help in recovering the Crystal Heart when it was stolen by a dragon shortly after the Royal Sisters began their rule. It wasn't long after that when Sombra would over throw her and take over."

"Yes, that's in here too," continued Starlight. "It's unclear on his origins, but it says that a dark power seized Sombra's heart and drove him to overthrow Amora, sealing her in stone and shattering her form."

"Yeesh, that's pretty gruesome," added Spike making a sour face. "I wouldn't put it past him though."

"What if that's the answer then?" mused Starlight.

"What do you mean?" asked Sunburst, adjusting his glasses.

"If we rule out King Sombra as the cause of these problems, and it turns out that Princess Cadence really is behind it all... What if history is repeating itself?" Starlight set the book down, her face growing serious. "Only this time, it was the Princess's heart that was 'seized' by darkness?"





Light flared in the darkness of the cavernous throne room, as the shadowy figure upon the Crystal Empire's throne glared into the images swimming in the viewing portal. "Well? What do you have to report?"

Shining Armor's image swam into focus. He looked tired but, aside from that, uninjured. "Princess Twilight has been added to the Crystal Collective. She will no longer be a threat to your reign."

"Excellent! Oh very excellent! You have done well my Crystal Emissary," was the shadowy figures reply, a grin like a thousand needles spread between her lips. "And the others?"

The Emissary winced. Apparently he hoped to get away with not mentioning it. "The bearers of the Elements of Harmony have all been accounted for. They have seen your light, and their love and loyalty are yours." He hesitated before continuing, "However... Spike the dragon and a lone Unicorn, Starlight Glimmer, managed to slip away while we were dealing with my sister."

Literal flames shot from the Empress's eyes as she heard this, green and black and crackling. Then, as swiftly as they had flared, they subsided into a dull red glow. "That is... Unfortunate. But it is of no matter. With the Princesses out of our way, we can move on with the next phase of our plans," The Empress almost seemed to purr,  "Emissary, bring my subjects home."

"Right away your radiance!" saluted Shining Armor, a look of relief briefly crossing his face. It seemed he had dodged a bullet. "I anticipated your command, and we are loading the citizenry onto trains bound for the Empire even n-"

The spell that held the image cut out mid-sentence. Apparently the Empress didn't care. 

Rising from her throne, she threw back the cloak of darkness that had clung to her this entire time. Purple flames rose in braziers and sconces on the walls, and played along lay lines of power that led to the throne. The dark energy licked across Cadence's form. Or was it Cadence? Her coat was a much darker shade of pink than before. Her wings seemed larger, sharper, as if each feather was a razor edged quill. The same could be said of her horn, her teeth... Even her eyes had a sharpness to them, more feline than equine. Dark purple flames seemed to waft from her eyes constantly, as well as from the crown that sat upon her head. Perhaps the most telling change was her mane, that swirl about her head in chaotic ribbons like an aurora at the height of a magnetic storm. Or, then again, maybe it was her cutie mark, that appeared to have a crack gouged down the middle of it?

Either way, the Empress might have Cadence's form, but she did not have her former presence. The air itself seemed to tremble as she stepped down from her throne and over to a balcony overlooking a pit that had been dug into the heart of the Crystal Empire. Far below, tiny shapes swarmed like ants in a mound that had been overturned by a thoughtless child. Her citizen's had been ever so eager to volunteer to mine crystals for their Empress. A predatory grin flickered across her face. 

It wouldn't be long now.