//------------------------------//
// The Great Escape 
// Story: Sombra Finds True Love 
// by Book Lover 1994 
//------------------------------//

	After the collapse of the wall in the umber castle that almost killed Princess Lucina, King Sombra disappeared into the shadows. Thunder Clap and the other crystal guards arrested the shadow doppelganger for the attempted foal napping of the princess. 
Lucina never really knew what happened after the accident, because after it happened Thunder teleported her out of the palace. For all she knew, her friend was going to be interrogated and left alone. 
Shortly after the doppelganger was put into one of the cells in the dungeon of the crystal palace, the double disappeared. 
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Five years have passed since the foal napping of the princess, and in this time King Sombra’s kingdom grew in population. The population mostly consisted of runaway ponies from all over Equestria. He was of course kind enough to give these ponies the choice to stay in his kingdom or not. For those ponies who were willing to stay, he turned them into umber ponies.  
Every once in a while Sombra would find himself going to the Crystal Empire (in disguise of course) to check on Princess Lucina, and every time he went he watched as the young filly grew into a beautiful young mare.  
Her mane and tale grew to the same length as her mother’s, but a little wavier. The sky blue and lavender color more pronouns then when she was a filly. Her violet eyes glowed with a vibrant inner light. And her rose coat shone with a radiance that would make other mares jealous. 
However Sombra was not the only stallion to notice Lucina’s loveliness, quite a few colts were interested as well, but she paid them no mind. Of course that is not the only reason why they didn’t try to approach, and court her, they were always stopped by Thunder Clap. He would ward them off mostly by standing sentry as her bodyguard. The colt knew exactly what he was doing, he wanted to keep the princess all to himself. 
–The greedy bastard.-                                    
Thunder Clap was promoted to captain of the guard. He graduated top of his class, and earned his spot as Princess Lucina’s personal body guard. It’s too bad she only saw him as a really good and loyal friend, but deep down he knew he was going to have her in the end, it was only a matter of time.      
Even though Princess Lucina was a grown up pony now, she was not allowed to leave the Crystal Palace unless for a royal family event or a political event or for her princess lessons with her aunt Twilight and her sister. 
Ever since the foal napping, Thunder tried to warn her off from leaving. He tried telling her that her foal napper was still out there waiting for the right moment to pounce and take her, but she paid him no mind, she knew that Shadow was her friend he wouldn’t cause her any harm. When that didn’t work Thunder would tell her stories about scary monster that would stop at nothing to gobble up any little pony that crosses its path, and to that she just laughed in his face. Fluttershy taught her how to deal with those kinds of creatures, and not all of them want to harm anypony, it’s just that their appearance were so scary that ponies try to keep their distance. 
One day Lucina became fed up with staying inside the palace walls. She waited for the right moment to escape. She knew that Thunder Clap always left her for about an hour and thirty minutes to speak with her father about guarding strategies after he finished warning her about “the dangers outside of the castle walls”.  She grabbed a bed sheet that she secretly turned into a cloak, went out onto the balcony and casted a levitation spell on herself. She had to make sure that she stayed focus or else she would plummet down to her doom.
Once she was gently settled on the crystal ground the hood to her cloak fell off to reveal her sky blue and lavender mane.
“Your highness is that you?” said a half crystal pony half dragon mare.
“Fire Ember!!!!!” she exclaimed, “Wa … wa… what are you do… doing he…here?”  
“I should be asking you the same question, your highness,” she smirked. 
Lucina stayed silent.
Ember held out her clawed hoof, “wait don’t tell me, my cousin was giving you trouble again.”     
“How did you know?” she questioned in mocked surprises.
“Mare friend let me tell you, there is nothing that doesn’t pass through my dragon hearing. I totally heard him trying to pass off Equestria as a dangerous place. I’m glad you snuck out though.” Ember spoke reassuringly. 
Lucina sat back and fiddle with her front hooves, “you’re not going to tell anypony that I’m out here are you?”
Her best friend waved off her concern, “of course not, what kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t keep your secret outing a secret.”
“A bad one that’s for sure.” Lucina giggled her agreement.
Ember placed her arm around Lucina’s shoulder, “come on Luci let have a day on the town.”
Lucina nodded, “yeah let’s.”
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The security briefing that Thunder Clap had with Shining Armor ran shorter than normal, and on his way back to Lucina’s room. However he spotted his cousin Fire Ember speaking with a cloaked figure outside of the castle doors. He watched them carefully making sure that the cloaked pony was no treat. Then he saw Empire placed her arm around the pony and shifting the hood that hiding the pony’s identity, but once he saw a wave of sky blue and lavender spill out he knew exactly who it was. Thunder ran out of the palace to recollect his charge, but the two mare were to fast for him.    
“Lucina when I get my hooves on you, you are going to be big trouble” he growled as he chased after his cousin and Princess Lucina.