Heart of Darkness

by Revenant Wings

Prologue

There was a moment, as Spike fell from the blackened crystal ledge and the Crystal Heart dropped out of his claws and King Sombra began rocketing towards him on a rapidly extending crystal of his own, that everything seemed lost. The Crystal Empire would be lost, and the smoky, shadowy tryant would once again take his throne and turn its residents into his slaves.

It was only by chance that Shining Armor came up with the idea and picked up Cadance on his back. It was enough; the tired mare looked up and saw the crystal floating to earth, wings extending with renewed determination as the Crystal Heart began to glow with a bright blue light. A giant purple explosion rocked the top of the Crystal Tower, pieces of black crystal raining down on the darkening landscape, as Shining Armor balanced himself on his back two legs, held Cadance in his front hooves, and launched the alicorn into the sky towards the Crystal Heart. The pink and blue blur shot forwards, catching Spike and grabbed the Crystal Heart with her magic just out of the grip of the shadowed unicorn. As Cadance regained strength, she glided down towards the Crystal Fair, soaring over the crystal ponies as they looked up in awe at the suddenly renewed and re-spirited alicorn.

But Sombra saw his chance and took it; he recovered from the shock of the Crystal Heart being taken out of his clutches and jumped down towards the crowds. Within seconds, pandemonium returned as King Sombra fired dark crystals left and right; the crystal ponies began screaming out in terror, running into and over each other, pushing others out of the way as they tried to get away from the black unicorn. The crowds separated and forced Cadance to retreat with the Crystal Heart. She had only enough time to make it to the ledge before collapsing again, the Crystal Heart falling over and losing the glow it had gained.

“Oh, what will we do now!?” Rarity whined. “Cadance, your beautiful empire has gone to ruin!”

“I’ll tell you what we do!” Rainbow Dash said. “We go in there and fight him!”

“How are we supposed to fight if he’s just gonna turn into some shadowy thing?” Applejack replied. “I don’t even think Pinkie could get the jump on him like that.”

“If only Twilight was here…” Fluttershy mumbled from a hiding place behind Rarity. “She would know what to do.”

But Twilight didn’t come. Shining Armor cradled Cadance and Spike went to clutch Rarity’s leg as they watched in horror as the Crystal Empire started to break apart. Ponies went wild through the streets, trying to take cover from the onslaught of black crystals.

As a group of ponies trying to take cover in a house saw a black crystal spike coming towards them, it was suddenly blown apart by a shining purple sphere. The crystal ruptured and fell to the ground in a pile of harmless black dust. From the base of the tower came more shots, breaking down and destroying the black crystals scattered across the landscape. A purple unicorn was suddenly darting down the streets, firing off magic at any new crystals and heading towards the shadowy mass of King Sombra.

“Twilight!” the Element Bearers called out.

“That’s my little sister!” Shining Armor called out. He turned to the other five Elements and Spike. “You go down and help Twilight. I’ll restore order and revive Cadance.”

The five ponies nodded and soon ran downwards to meet Twilight in the streets. The unicorn was firing blasts at King Sombra, but the old tyrant simply changed into shadow and let the blasts harmlessly pass through him. He laughed a deep, guttural laugh as Twilight fired blast after blast and he flew in circles around her, taunting her and trying to disorient her.

Twilight stopped following Sombra around. “Everypony! Get to the base of the Crystal Tower!”

Hearing the cries of the purple unicorn, the ponies took action immediately and all ran for the base of the Crystal Palace, where Shining Armor had recently emerged with Cadance. King Sombra, noticing Twilight’s distraction, raised a crystal under her. Twilight was smart enough to sidestep to prevent from being hurt, but the crystal still managed to lift and throw her down the street and right at the base of the other Element Bearers.

“Come on, girls!” Twilight said, regaining her feet. “It’s time we show Sombra a bit of his own medicine.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” Rainbow Dash asked. “The elements are still back in Canterlot!”

“What caused the Elements to appear the first time?” Twilight asked them. “Our friendship did it! I’m sure we can summon enough energy to use them from the friendship between us and our shared goal of protecting the Crystal Empire. Who’s with me?”

The other five Elements nodded, and stood in a line with Twilight Sparkle as they stared down King Sombra. The black unicorn once again took solid form and began charging at them, his horn black and purple with dark magic.

But the distance between them gave Twilight and her companions the time they needed; it wasn’t long before a rainbow wave began shooting towards King Sombra, who had just enough time to turn around and try to run before the wave swept over him. The magic in his horn was doused, and they could almost see shadowy flecks begin to break off his body and mane. The purple smoke that came from his eyes disappeared.

But without the Elements themselves, the attack was too weak. It went away before much else could happen, leaving a disoriented Sombra in the middle of the street, beginning to attempt to charge another attack.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Fluttershy said, cowering under her hooves. “We don’t have the energy!”

“I don’t think we have to,” Applejack said, motioning towards the base of the tower.

The Crystal Ponies were shouting. “Behold, the Crystal Princess has returned!” Cadance was standing upright, looking radiant as she held the Crystal Heart in her magic, now filled with a fiery blue glow. She took a hoof and smashed the fake Crystal Heart meant to pacify the citizens and spoke out in a loud voice.

“The Crystal Heart has returned. Use the light and love within you to ensure that King Sombra does not.”

The base of the tower began to glow as Cadance placed the Crystal Heart back in its rightful place. Shouts of joy went up from the crowds of crystal ponies as they regained their original crystalline forms and a bright blue wave began going through the Crystal Empire.

“What? …no. No! Stop!”

King Sombra’s guttural exclamations rang out across the Empire as the wave destroyed the remaining blackened crystal spikes and restored the ground. A wave blasted through the empire, blowing away the signs of destruction and ruin across the empire and clearing away the black smoke that surrounded the kingdom.

Twilight and the others watched as the wave crashed into King Sombra, causing massive cracks filled with a bright blue light ruptured all over his body. King Sombra let out a terrible growl of pain as he erupted into a blinding sphere of blue magic.

Twilight ran through the crowds of crystalline ponies as she went up to Princess Cadance and immediately wrapped her old foalsitter in a hug, which was almost immediately returned. “You did it, Twilight,” Cadance said happily into her ear.

“No, Cadance,” Twilight said, releasing Cadance and bowing down to her as the other Elements caught up. “You did.”

But when the last of the Element Bearers bowed down to the ground, Twilight saw Cadance’s mouth drop without a sound. Shining Armor soon followed suit. They were not staring at Twilight, nor the Crystal Ponies. They were looking beyond them, down the streets and into the green fields beyond, where a pile of black was sitting.

Twilight got up and turned around. Noticing the black pile, she immediately became curious. “Stay here, Cadance,” Twilight said quietly so that nopony else could hear her. “I’ll go and see what it is. You focus on getting your kingdom in order.”

Cadance smiled at Twilight and nodded. The Crystal Ponies broke out in song, rejoicing and gathering around Cadance and Spike as she galloped off down the avenue towards the black pile sitting at the end of the roadway.

But what Twilight saw made her stop.

No… it couldn’t have happened. She must be dreaming, still trapped in the spell of King Sombra’s door.

On the grass lay a young unicorn stallion probably no older than Shining Armor was. His coat was a dark grey and his mane and tail were an oily black. The horn was a straight black similar in shape to and slightly larger in size than Twilight’s, and on his flank rested the cutie mark of three black crystals.

Comments

[Europa]

picked up Cadence

Cadance. It's Cadance. Cadence is the word, Cadance is the copyrighted name.

 on his black two legs

Back.

 

launched the alicorn into the sky towards the Crystal Heart.

You know, I never understood why Rainbow never took the initiative to rocket after it.

Within seconds, pandemonium returned as King Sombra fired the dark crystals left and right

This is kinda showy, not telly. You're telling us that there was pandemonium. How? What's going on? Describe it. Also, just 'dark crystals'. It's not 'the dark crystals' unless there's something distinctive about them (They were already there, etc).

I hope you explain how Twilight got out.

But there was too much space.

What does that have to do with anything?

Good start. Could use a little polish, but good start.

[Revenant Wings]

5360758
Thank you very much. I think I fixed everything and tried to explain a little better.