39
“So tells us again where we are going and what we're even supposed to be doing?” The Bearers of Harmony were on the train headed to the frozen north and were a bit tired after having little to do for the entire day. Rainbow Dash's question gave them all something else to focus on as they were slowly running out of topics. Twilight was watching the terrain go by through the window before she sighed and turned to the others.
“The princess called where we are going the Crystal Empire and I'm supposed to somehow protect it from a King Sombra as part of my test. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that though since she didn't tell me anything else and there were no books about the place at all. I only hope that Shining and Cadance have found something while they were up there.” Twilight lays her head down on her forelimbs as her friends look at each other. Aegis Flare looks over her shoulder from her bunk before she rolls her eyes.
“Well for a start you could just forget about it being a test of any sort. If this kingdom really is in trouble then that's the last thing you should be thinking about, especially if it's dangerous.” Twilight's jaw drops as she looks over to her friend as she can't believe what she was hearing.
“How could you say something like that? Princess Celestia is trusting me to pass this test so that she knows if I'm ready to continue me schooling.” The orange unicorn's eyes narrow as he looks over at Twilight before her eyes flicker over to Rainbow Dash who was looking between the two.
“Rainbow Dash if you wouldn't mind?” The two look at her in confusion until the pegasus notices swatting motions the unicorn was making with her hoof while pointing between her head and twilight. Shrugging the cyan mare reaches over with a wing and slaps Twilight upside the head with it. Twilight flinches in shock at the impact before she glares between the two mares.
“Hey! What was that for!?” Rainbow Dash shrugs as she looks back across the train aisle to their friend.
“I don't know, what was that for?” With a sigh Aegis Flare rolls over onto her stomach before looking at her friends again.
“Well I would have thought you would have liked having a turn after what happened during the Mare-Do-Well incident. Especially since Twilight is doing pretty much the exact same thing.” Twilight's jaw drops at the situation being compared to that before glaring at the orange mare while Rainbow Dash just looks thoughtful about it all.
“How can you say something like that!? The princess told me how important this was and I don't want to fail her!” To her annoyance Aegis Flare just rolls her eyes before rolling back over onto her side once again.
“Then you really need to reexamine your priorities as this 'test' the princess is giving you is one of the stupidest things she's ever done. No test is worth putting the lives of innocents on the line and she should know better after all the years she has lived.” Twilight's jaw just opened and closed a few times as she tried to come up with a counter to that accusation but nothing was coming to mind. With a huff she turned away and curled up on her own bunk as she sulked. The others could only watch as all this went on but after a while Applejack moved to sit next to Aegis Flare.
“Don't ya think that might have been a tad harsh there? Ya know how Twilight feels about the princess and how important it is to her that she impresses her.” Aegis Flare sighs after a moment before she turns her body towards her friend.
“I guess I was a bit hard on her, but she does need to get over her Princess-Celestia-Can-Do-No-Wrong habit of hers. After her mistakes in disbanding the black guard, sending us out to do things the guard should be doing, and now the changeling fiasco and this it should be obvious now that something is off.” Applejack though for a moment and she had to agree with some of what her friend said though the way she said some of it bothered her.
“There's more to it than that isn't there? Do ya want ta talk about it? Hay, I'm surprised that ya are still taking it this calmly after the attack on Canterlot putting Scootaloo in danger. I almost expected ya to lock yourself away again.” The unicorn mare winced before she shook her head and pulled her pillow closer.
“I considered it but there is just one problem. There is nothing at all about the changelings to be found anywhere. Flutterponies, bumbles, hay even bushwoolies, I can tell you a good bit about thanks to my parents even though they all died out during the windigo invasion of the old ponylands. But they knew nothing about changelings and even all my contacts in MEEL have nothing. In fact they are rushing to try and find anything as well. Whatever we learned that day is all there is to know.” The farm mare frowns as she listens but doesn't interrupt. The others were listening in as well, even Twilight who had an ear turned towards them.
“In fact we had more information during the changeling invasion than we do now. We had no clue how strong the queen would be, and I'm pretty sure that the princess was holding back otherwise she would have leveled Canterlot. I'm still trying to figure out how we were supposed to get into the sealed vault that the Elements of Harmony were stored. In fact why aren't we bringing those with us now if this King Sombra is so dangerous? I'd think they would be much more effective on a single target than and army.” She was starting to get a bit frantic in her ranting but she took a few deep breathes to calm down when Applejack set a hoof on her shoulder.
“I just hope that Princess Cadance and her husband found something up there that can help out. If this place was so important than there should have been something about it unless it was intentionally hidden. I hope I'm wrong about that since there is only one pony that could have done it and if anything goes wrong then there's really only one pony to blame, and it won't be Twilight.” The others look at each other as Aegis Flare pulls herself deeper into her bunk before they each start heading to their own as the light faded outside. They each had many things to think about that night, but none more than Twilight who was hit hardest by her friend's rant.
<><><><><><><><><><>
The group arrived at the train stop for the Crystal Empire a couple days later where they disembarked. They weren't there long when Shining Armor showed up and filled them in on the situation when a howling sounded out over the snowy terrain. “We have to get to the Crystal Empire! Now!”
Shortly after a dark cloud rose from the distance and advanced on them causing a bit of panic in some of them as the glowing eyes stared at them. The chase was soon on as they raced towards the safety of the Crystal Empire and the shield around it. As they moved Aegis Flare charged up her horn before bringing her head around to lob a fireball at the cloud. When her attack just passed through the location where the eyes were she frowned in thought on what she was seeing.
As they neared the barrier to the empire Shining Armor turned back to try and slow the evil monarch. Aegis Flare stopped just short of the wall of light to turn and see the stallion being assaulted by the shadowy form and she tossed up a barrier between the two to try and help him. She frowned as the shadows just passed through the wall effortlessly to strike the stallion and send him flying through the wall behind her. Narrowing her eyes, wanting to try one more thing before retreating, the orange mare launched a stream of her magic-consuming fire but her eyes widened when it caused an explosion as soon as it came into contact with the shadows. Before she had a chance to brace herself she was showered with sharp crystal shards before the shock wave sent her flying into the boundaries of the Crystal Empire.
Aegis Flare lay dazed on the other side until she felt someone trying to help her up. Shaking her head to clear it she looked up to find Twilight saying something to her and with another shake she winced as her ears popped, removing the ringing the was preventing her from hearing well. “Flare! Are you all right!? What happened out there!?”
Staggering to her hooves, wincing as she felt all the cuts over her body from the crystal shards, Aegis Flare reviewed what had happened in her mind causing her to frown. “I'm quite sure. Nothing else I was using seemed to touch that things body, so I figured that my fire spell that burns only magic would work but it reacted badly and caused an explosion of crystals. I've never had a chance to test it much on a variety of magic types before now.”
“What I want to know is why she was so reckless and stayed out there to attack Sombra in the first place!” Shining Armor came marching up to the two with a glare on his face at what he believed to be reckless behavior. Aegis Flare just calmly looked back at him as she responded.
“I was actually getting some useful information on this King Sombra since we were sent here knowing next to nothing, and seeing your little display it's obvious that you know nothing even after being here for a few days. Of course that's about what I would expect from a member of the Royal Guard.” The stallions eyes narrowed at her jab at his former profession.
“And what is that supposed to mean? What would some civilian know about fighting that the Royal Guard doesn't know? We happen to be the best in Equestria at what we do.” The orange unicorn just snorts and rolls her eyes at his boast.
“Yeah, at standing around doing nothing. When a threat to Equestria shows up they are nowhere to be found. Hay, I barely even had to try to win against a dozen of them in the sparring ring and the training course they use is a joke. When the changelings showed up they started panicking instead of doing anything useful until I brought up a shield until they were calmed down. If it wasn't for my aunt breaking out that fancy war armor then I doubt they would have made it to Princess Luna.” Shining Armor opened his mouth to fire back, but he paused as a look of confusion came over him.
“Wait, all that was you? I heard that somepony was showing up the group under retraining with the Lunar Guard, but I thought it was one of their members, not one of Twily's friends. Where did you learn how to do all of that and why aren't you in the Guard? You would definitely be officer material.” Aegis Flare refrained from taking offense at that as he meant it to be a compliment before explaining.
“I learned the basics of what I can do under my parents who were part of the Black Guard while the rest came from my years exploring the Everfree. Frankly either of those would make me over-qualified for work there even if my Spell-blindness didn't disqualify me from joining.” Twilight took that moment to interrupt the conversation between the two.
“As much fun as this is, shouldn't we be heading to where Cadance is? There is an empire to save you know.” The two look over to her before the stallion blushes and nods to his younger sister. The group hurry through the town to the structure in the center, though Aegis Flare stumbles a few time due to the injuries she had obtained. Fluttershy worried over her the whole time as her wound bled lightly before eventually clotting though the pegasus mare still wanted to look them over when they stopped.
The trip through town was eerie as there weren't any other ponies out and about in what was supposed to be a major city. There weren't even any guards around the palace at the center of the city which brought up many questions about the state of things before the city vanished. Inside the building was much the same as it was completely deserted until they reached the throne room where they found Cadance sitting alone and looking rather ragged.
After Twilight and Cadance's special greeting, they shared what information that they had, which wasn't much more than the Bearers of Harmony already knew. At one point Twilight started to get excited about turning everything into a research paper but she remembered what happened on the train and turned to her friends. “As much as I want to research into everything, does anypony else have any ideas?”
The others glance at each other before Rainbow Dash flies forward. “I say we just go and find this Sombrero pony and put my hoof through his face. Wham! Pow!”
“Whoa now Rainbow Dash, settle down. We can't just go up ta somepony like that what with all that dark magic of his. If the princesses couldn't beat him then what do ya think we can do ta him?” The others nodded along with her except for the other orange mare who was looking thoughtful.
“I don't know, Rainbow Dash's idea might have some merit. I mean it has been over a thousand years since Sombra has been around so who knows if his magic really is that powerful. We'd still need to research just what he is using just to be safe, though I have a few guesses.” The rest of the room, barring the cyan pegasus who looks smug, looks at her as if she was crazy when the only stallion shakes his head.
“Twilight why didn't you tell me that your friend was crazy? Dark magic is not something to mess around with and I wouldn't face down a user of it without a full platoon for backup. There is no way that just the seven of you should even think about fighting him.” Aegis Flare just smirks at him as she leans forward slightly.
“Well there's a secret about dark magic that I know that is obviously not part of the royal guard training.” Her friends lean forward as her voice slowly drops near the end while Shining Armor looks at her suspiciously. “There's no such thing as dark magic.” At her revelation they all looked at her in confusion as Twilight protested.
“What are you talking about? Of course dark magic is a thing, what do you think King Sombra was using when he was chasing us?” While she wasn't expecting an answer the orange unicorn fired off one right away.
“Shadow magic along with some kind of crystal based magic. I'm not sure on that last one as it wasn't like anything I've heard of before. All normal, though some a bit questionable, forms of magic.” Twilight's jaw dropped at her easy answer before she shook off her confusion.
“Right, but how can you say there is no such thing as dark magic? That kind of magic corrupts the user and eventually turns them evil. How else would you explain why Sombra is acting like an unthinking beast?” With another roll of her eyes Aegis Flare looks Twilight dead in the eyes.
“Dark magic is just a label given by superstitious ponies for magic that is harmful to others. My pyromancy falls under that and is why the princess has special guard branches to keep an eye on users of those types of magic. The kind of magic you are talking about fall more under corrupting magic, which is intending to cause mental damage like that, and improperly cast magic. Improperly cast spells can have unintended side effects, such as mental corruption, and even magical attunement can cause problems which is why some artifacts cause problems for the user as it clashes with their own magic. This is all basic knowledge from the Black Guard teachings. I'm starting to wonder where everything went from it when the princess shut the entire branch down.” She brought a hoof up to rub her chin as she thought on the issue when she was interrupted by the fourth unicorn that had been quiet until then.
“As interesting as this all is, darling, shouldn't we be heading out to learn what we need to do? All those wonderful crystal ponies are just waiting for us out there.” Looking over to Rarity the others nodded before splitting up to cover more ground.
Aegis Flare went back along the path they took to enter the city while knocking on the doors of a few of the buildings she passed. Most of them were empty, and appeared to be stores of some kind from what she could tell from looking in the windows, though the ones that did have ponies in them didn't really help much. “Are you sure that you don't remember anything? Something that can be used to fight against Sombra?”
At the name of the ruler the crystal ponies iris' shrank as she started backing away into the house. “No, nope, not a thing. Fighting against him is bad, bad things happen when you fight him that I don't want to think about! Gotta go, bye!”
The unicorn sighed as yet another door was slammed in her face. All she had learned was that the crystal ponies didn't remember much of anything about their past and that they were completely terrified of Sombra. The fear was actually bugging her more than the memory loss for some reason though she couldn't put her hoof on why exactly.
Deciding that there was nothing to find in this section of the city she started to head back towards the palace to meet up with the others. As she passed by another shop though she caught sight of something interesting that caused her to pause. Seeing as there was nopony running it at the time she dropped more than enough bits to pay for it on the counter before snatching up the item and heading out again.
The others were already back in the throne room by the time she returned though she would have been there sooner if not for her wounds slowing her down. By the time she joined the others she was hobbling along while trying to favor her left foreleg due to the pain. On seeing her in pain, Fluttershy rushed over to help her and change her bandages.
“Now that we're all here, did any of you find anything?” The others responding in negative manners though when Applejack mentions a library Twilight gets all excited. She pauses when she sees Aegis Flare wince in pain before examining her wounds. “Are you all right Flare? That doesn't look so good. I think it's even starting to turn black in the middle as well.”
The orange mare's eyebrow rose as she and Fluttershy examined the wound more closely. They both noticed the black color that Twilight saw, though while Fluttershy was just confused Aegis Flare's eyes widened in recognition. Everyone gasped when she brought the injury up to her mouth and ripped something out of it causing a spray of blood. “Flare! What are you doing!?”
Fluttershy's question was answered when the unicorn spat out a glob of blood and all eyes turned towards it when it made a tinking sound when it hit the ground. Laying in the center of the small pool of blood was a black crystal that seemed to absorb the light around it. Aegis Flare's eyes narrowed as she looked at it while Twilight's widened in recognition. “Everypony get back! That thing is dangerous!”
The others backed up in shock at her words as Twilight lit up her horn and tried to grab the crystal in her magic. They all watched as she stood there with her magic surrounding the crystal shard but when nothing happened they looked at her curiously. Twilight started looking strained as she intensified her magic before she snorted in frustration. “Why isn't my magic working on it? Princess Celestia destroyed something like this before and I'm sure I'm casting the same spell on it.”
Aegis Flare, after having her reopened wound bound up again, limped over to the crystal to look it over more closely. She noticed that after it landed it had started to slowly grow larger. Reaching out a hoof, despite Twilight's protestations, she poked at it and observed as its growth slowed. Twilight paused as she noticed this as well as as her fear fell away to be replaced by curiosity. “What is going on with this thing? It doesn't make any sense.”
Cadance, who had been out of it this whole time trying to focus on keeping the shield up that was protecting the city, slowly moved over to Shining armor to lean against him. As she neared the area with the shard it started moving along the floor away from her while shrinking slightly. Looking between the shard and the princess Aegis Flare made a connection on what may be going on. “I think that thing is solidified negative energy of some kind. I didn't notice that it was imbedded in my leg until after I was talking with the crystal ponies where it steadily started hurting more. The amount of fear that they seemed to be feeling must have been feeding it.”
Taking a moment to observe the shard again she pressed down on a small portion of it with the edge of her hoof and watched a piece of it break away easily. Sliding that bit away she then lit up her horn and bathed it in flames and watched as nothing happened before trying to nudge it with her shield. Pouring more magic into it she set it to block everything and only then did it move. Changing tactics once again she carefully drop a bit of her magic consuming flames on it and watched as it crackled and popped while it faded away. “Hmm, I can do a bit to them but it's rather mana intensive. It must take positive energy of equal intensity to efficiently get rid of this stuff.”
Twilight frowned before trying something else with her magic which worked this time to destroy the rest of the crystal. The effort left her panting a bit before she shook her head in annoyance. “Ugh, I think you're right. Maybe there is some more information on this stuff in the library. At least there's something else to look for while we're there. You should stay here and rest after that injury, maybe you can find something to help Cadance.”
She turned with the others to leave before the orange unicorn cleared her throat to get their attention. “Actually, I think I may have found something else when I was out that I almost forgot about. I'm not sure if it's important but it seemed odd when I looked at it.” Reaching into her bag she pulled out the item she had found and unrolled it to reveal a map of the city. Twilight looked it over before she smiled.
“This is perfect! Now we can... find...” The unicorn trailed off as she tilted her head as something caught her eye on the map. She spun it around a few more times before she up at her friends in amazement. “Why is the city designed to look like a magic circle!? Something like this can't be a coincidence but what would be for?”
“That's what I thought it was, but I wasn't sure when I saw it. There are just so many questions about this place that we should have been told about before we were sent here.” The comment earned her some glares from Twilight and Shining Armor, though the ignored it beyond that for the moment as the other six mares left in to find the library. Shining Armor helped Cadance out to the balcony to get some fresh air leaving Aegis Flare alone to dig through her bags.
“Toothbrush, towel, extra bandages... ahh, there they are. I really should look into how to make some of those healing salves Zecora makes. While the mana potions are useful those being the only thing I know how to make is kind of becoming an issue during emergency situations like this. If the recipe for those combat stims wasn't so heavily regulated I'd look that up too.” Pulling out her stash of the potions she hobbled her way after the royal couple. She found Shining Armor comforting Cadance out on the balcony and she sat a small distance away looking out over t he city.
“Here, I'm not sure how much these will help but it's probably better than nothing. I'd offer a combat stim as well but I only have a small supply left and I have no way to get more.” Shining Armor's eyebrow raises as he looks over the bandoleer of mana potions before offering one to Cadance.
“Do I want to know how you have Captain-grade mana potions as well as combat stims which a civilian isn't supposed to have any access to.” Aegis Flare just shrugs as she watches the princess drain vial after vial until they were all empty.
“Well the combat stims were ones my parents had in storage before they disappeared on what was supposed to be a simple diplomatic mission. I try not to use them because of the side-effects, though I can see why they are so regulated when they can keep you awake for a month straight without sleep though the coma afterwards sucks.” The stallion's eyes widen at her seeming personal knowledge of what they can do while she continues. “The mana potions the I make myself from what I gather in the Everfree. I have some that are apparently Alicorn-class but after the first time using one I have Sang Bleu checking the rest over thoroughly before I think of carrying any of those around.”
Shining Armor growls on hearing the name of her vendor contact in Canterlot. “Him? Why would you leave something like that with that snake? I've been trying to get something on him for the last few years to put him away yet he somehow keeps slipping away.”
The unicorn mare raises an eyebrow at him questioningly at that. “Um, you do know that he works directly for the princess and many of the harder to get things supplied to the guard come through him? My parents used his services quite often and told me that I could trust him the one time he visited our home.”
With a frown the stallion ponders all this before he shakes his head. “How can you know something like that? If you are right then the princess just let me waste time on something that didn't need to be done. Just who were your parents anyways?”
Aegis Flare sighed as she found herself yet again having to go through this. “My parents are Bella Donna and Vanator, Captains of the Black Guard. At least they were before they disappeared and the Black Guard was disbanded by the princess.”
The stallion was quiet for a while, occasionally nuzzling Princess Cadance before he groaned in annoyance. “I'm really starting to wonder how many other things Princess Celestia has been hiding from me. I was the bucking Captain of the Royal Guard and I can't do my job if important information is being withheld from me.”
Cadance pats her husband on the back as she sags against him while her magic flickers a bit before steadying once again. The three look over the city and soon see Twilight and the others racing back towards the palace. The three slowly make their way back to the throne room to meet them all and find out what they had discovered. When the two groups met Twilight started waving around a trio of books that her group had found in the library.
“We found something but it looks like there is a problem.” Opening up the various books she revealed that a page or parts of pages were missing from each of them. “This book describes the history of the Crystal Empire, this one is about the building of the city, and lastly we have one detailing the biology of the crystal ponies. Unfortunately somepony tore out key parts of each book, yet from what I can tell they each were talking about the same thing.”
They paged through the books and read about how the crystal pony's biology allowed them to project positive emotions into the magic circle that was built into the city. They held a major celebration on a yearly basis to help focus this energy through the magic circle that was built into the city with the palace at its center. What all this energy was supposed to go toward was unclear as the torn out sections were where the answer to that question was located. The energy provided by the crystal ponies was supposed to somehow protect the entire empire which sounded exactly like what they needed. “So what do we do now? If we can't find out what we are supposed to do then how are we going to fight back?”
Twilight just shook her head at Rainbow Dash's impatience as she pulled over the history book. “Well we need to find whatever these books are referencing, but at the same time we need to set up this Crystal Faire so that when we do find it it'll be charged by the crystal ponies. Sombra must have hidden it somewhere since it could be used against him and I'm pretty sure he was the one that tore these pages out. Since it's most likely that he hid everything using his magic I'll be searching for it, along with Flare since she might be able to spot something with her experience. The rest of you should try and set up the Faire and encourage the ponies of the empire to join in.”
The others nodded in agreement though there was one voice of dissent that caused Twilight to pause. “Well I'm going with you, Twilight. With how you get when something catches your attention at least one of us should keep your head straight.” Twilight glared at Spike for a moment before she sighed and levitated the dragon onto her back. With their jobs decided the seven mares and one dragon went their own ways to accomplish their chosen assignments.
Aegis Flare tested her legs as the others wandered off and nodded on finding them recovered enough for now. Turning her mind to where she should search first she decided on the palace area since the crystal ponies seemed to avoid it for some reason. Considering their fear of Sombra he most likely ruled from there and most likely would have kept something important like the unknown artifact nearby.
She paused for a moment as she remembered something that she had glimpsed in the history book and turned back to recheck it once again. Getting back to the room with the books she found Fluttershy looking over the one she needed. “Hey Fluttershy, what are you looking for?”
Fluttershy flinched at being caught by surprise but she settled down when she noticed that it was just her cousin. “Oh, I'm just reading up on the petting zoo that is part of the Faire once more. I want to make sure everything is just perfect for all those cute ewes.”
Aegis Flare pauses on hearing what she was planning and she cocked her head to the side in curiosity. “Wait, they have some Baavarians here in the Crystal Empire? Hmm, that might be really useful with how their brand of magic works.”
The pegasus mare's head turns away from the book to look at the unicorn with a look of surprise. “Wait, you mean they aren't just cute little animals? But why would they agree to be part of a petting zoo if they aren't?”
Waving her friends worries down Aegis Flare just moves next to her to reassure her. “I know you don't like dealing with strangers, but I think that you'll like them. The goats and sheep of the Baavarians live on the coast near the Shetland Isles and the Minotaur homelands. They are close allies with the minotaurs and the sheep project a calming aura that helps during negotiations. In fact many of them are shy like you and normally wouldn't be seen outside of their homelands without cause. Something like a petting zoo would be something they would do as it would mostly be the young that they would interact with which is more comfortable for them. There might be other reasons as well, but who knows what as it has been a thousand years since the Crystal Empire was around.”
Fluttershy frowns a bit though she doesn't look as worried as before when she heard that the sheep weren't just animals. This allowed the unicorn to look through the history book and she quickly found what she was looking for on the last available page. “Let's see... Crystal Faire... Centerpiece... Crystal heart... Hmm, I wonder if that could be what we need to find.”
Her cousin looked over her should in interest as she finished her reading and set the book down. “The last thing that the book mention is some kind of crystal heart yet there seems to be no other mention of it. It may not be the artifact we need, but it's at least a clue to something important even if it's symbolic.”
With a wave the two part ways with one heading out to the city and the other deeper into the palace. With a potential target in mind Aegis Flare started going from door to door and peering into each room before moving on to the next. “Bedroom... Bedroom... Storage Closet... They would be a good place to hide something since it would be unexpected, but they would be too troublesome to have to deal with if they are constantly in use. It should be somewhere convenient, easily defended, and where you wouldn't expect something important to be hidden.”
The next room she came to happened to be a small armory and it wasn't unoccupied like the last ones had been. “Hey Rainbow Dash, find something interesting?”
There was a clattering sound as the pegasus dropped the helmet she was holding to turn and see who snuck up on her before trying to act naturally. “Oh, uh, hey Flare. Just looking for some stuff to set up a jousting ring. I found some armor that will fit me and you, but with you getting hurt I guess I'm going to have to settle for Fluttershy helping me with this.”
Cocking her head to the side the unicorn looked at the cyan mare oddly. “Why Fluttershy? That would be a rather boring match to watch since she isn't suited to something so aggressive. Sure she's tough but facing off against another pony and she'll fall apart. Why didn't you ask Applejack? That way you could really put on a show.”
Rainbow Dash looked uncertain as she hoofed at the ground. “Well I could... But she's really busy doing all that cooking and then she is going to be working at the stalls handing things out.”
With a smirk the unicorn decided to take a shot at the pegasus' ego. “What, you didn't want an actual challenge out there and just wanted to show off? Well I guess if you wanted an easy victory then...”
She didn't get an actual chance to finish as Rainbow Dash flared her wings at her friend. “Hey! Are you saying I'm scared to face Applejack!? We'll see about that, where is she!?”
With a light chuckle the orange unicorn shook her head at her friend's reaction to the roundabout challenge before looking around the room. While she didn't find what she was looking for she did find a set of crystal armor around her size that was for a unicorn. Hoping that she wouldn't need it, but planning just for if she would, she carried it out to the balcony where Shining Armor and Cadance were. After updating them on her progress she made her way to another floor to continue her search.
She went through two more floors without any better results before she returned back to the throne room once again. As she walked in she found Spike standing at the top of a dark stairwell staring down into it. “Huh, that wasn't there before. I take it that Twilight found something?”
“Yeah, Twilight remembered something that the princess showed her and used her magic to reveal this opening.” Spike paused for a moment to look down into the pit once again. “I think I heard Twilight calling me, I'd better go see what she wants.”
Watching as the dragon started down the stairs the unicorn made her way out to the balcony as Twilight found what they had been searching for, or at least the path to it. Once there she looked out over the city and at the shield protecting the city as it flickered slightly. “How are you two holding up? Twilight just found Sombra's secret room so she should be back with the artifact anytime now.”
Cadance nods before renewing her focus on the shield as her husband nuzzles her in support. Turning back to the city she watched as the crystal ponies were gathered around the area that was set up for the Faire having a good time. She noticed that their coats had taken on a shine since she had last seen them and she didn't see a sign of the fear she had noticed before. She was about to turn away where she noticed something glowing out of the corner of her eyes. “How long has that been doing that?”
Shining Armor frowned in confusion before he looked over at the armor that she was pointing at. “I don't know, I hadn't payed any attention to it since you brought it out here. Why did you do that anyways?”
Frowning for a moment in thought, her expression slowly changed to one of gleeful understanding as the realized something. “I thought it would be a good thing to have just in case we couldn't find the item Sombra was hiding, but if it did what I think it did then I'm glad I did.” Lifting the helmet she turned it around to examine the designs carved into it. “I think it has been soaking up the excess positive energy that has been around you two and has energized it somehow. If the entire kingdom is protected by an artifact that uses that kind of energy then it makes sense that the armor would be much the same for when the soldiers have to leave it. I just hope that it's enough to let me actually do something to Sombra if he breaks in.”
While unsure about it her plans to fight, the stallion still helped her out as she started donning the armor. It felt odd for her to be wearing actual armor but when the last piece was secured she felt a wave of confidence flow through her. Looking down at her armored hoof she nodded before turning to the two royals. “I hope I won't be needed, but until Twilight returns I'm going to stall Sombra for as long as I can if he breaks in.”
Aegis Flare made her way out of the palace towards where they had entered the city. The citizens of the empire seemed to brighten up as she approached and waved to her as she passed by. She nodded to them as she passed though paused when she was stopped by Rarity. “Flare, where did you get such elegant looking armor? Rainbow Dash and Applejack's armor didn't have such a fabulous glow to it.”
With a sigh the orange mare looked out as the shield flickered again. “Their armor should be the same but mine was sitting next to Princess Cadance. I think it's supposed to glow like this and is charged by positive emotions like what is supposed to protect the city. Twilight has almost found the crystal heart or whatever the artifact is supposed to be but I'm going to be keeping an eye on the area Sombra is in case the shield falls.”
Rarity nods as she looks around to the nearby ponies that were talking excitedly. Listening closely the two could hear the words 'crystal heart' and 'Sombra' being bandied about with the appropriate emotions behind the words. As Aegis Flare continued on her way to the edge of the city Rarity went back to try and calm the crystal ponies which was both helped and hindered by what they had recently heard.
At the edge of the city Aegis Flare sat down to wait for things to resolve one way or another. She kind of wished she had time to prepare some surprises for the deposed king but with how they weren't notified that they would be coming to the Empire ahead of time she only brought the basics. Without anything to set up she had a while to think and rest from her previous scratches.
She lost track of how long she was caught up in her own thoughts, but she was pulled out of them when the shield started flickering badly. In the moments when the shield was down she could see Sombra's cloud hovering outside of the barrier watching for a way in. She soon spotted his head amidst all the smoke and as she focused all her senses on him she could hear him muttering something. “The crystal heart is mine, get away from it...”
Quirking an eyebrow at him she rose to her hooves and started stretching out a little. “Huh, I guess I was right about what we needed to find. He seems to be a bit panicked right now about something.” Watching him closer she could see that his attention was focused on something high up and looking back at the city she noticed something odd happening at the top of the palace. She could see black crystals growing out of the top of the palace but before she could ponder further on it her attention was pulled back by a scream of rage from Sombra.
Turning back she saw that the former king was reared back in pain with a piece of his horn missing. She quickly spotted the horn piece sitting on the ground just inside of the barrier and bubbling with dark energy. The two looked at the piece of horn on the ground for a moment and Sombra, after regenerating the missing bit, started to use his magic on it but was interrupted as a column of fire engulfed the spot when the horn landed. When the fires cleared all that remained was a scorched spot and his gaze shot up to glare at the unicorn standing inside of the shield. “Don't think it's going to be that easy now. Nothing is getting by me as long as I'm here.”
Aegis Flare looked at the dark unicorn defiantly with her horn lit with her fiery aura. Unlike normal though she also had a faint blue glow around the base of her horn where it came out from her helmet. Needless to say she had the dark king's attention now as she stood there defiant in his path. As his gaze focused on her she could feel a wave of fear pass over her but she fought it down and stood firm. It wasn't long before the shield gave out a few final flickers before finally fading out completely. 'All right then. Let's dance.”
As soon as the shield dropped Sombra's shadows started swarming in towards the city with his head not far behind it. Aegis Flare reared up before slamming her hooves down and unleashing the magic in her horn in a wave of flames directed at the monarch. Sombra kept charging right into the attack but, while it would normally have done nothing, due to the mare's armor her attack was infused with light energy which managed to cause him to rear back in pain as the shadows around him were burnt away. “Hiss!”
“Heh, not so tough now are you without your shadows? You'll need more than that to get through here.” She immediately regretted taunting him as his horn lit up causing crystals to start growing around him. Shadows started growing out from them before the surrounded her causing her to bring up a shield around her. She was barely fast enough as even more dark crystals erupted from the shadows in an attempt to impale her but with her barrier intercepting them she only winced from the impact.
The crystals then tried to engulf her, shield and all, but she rose upwards rapidly as she rode another shield upwards before she dove off of it towards clear ground. On landing she swept another shield around in a wide arc, shattering the crystals and sending them flying back at Sombra. The shards did nothing though as the shadows had surrounded him once more hiding his body from view.
Sombra warily watched the mare and tried to bypass her but her magic was always there to stop him in his tracks. With a growl he poured even more magic into his horn causing black crystals to erupt around the area randomly. This randomness made it harder on the mare as the attacks got closer and closer to hitting her, and some even would have if it wasn't for her armor protecting her. The glow that the armor was giving off was steadily fading with each spell she cast and each impact as the magic powering it was drained.
Her hoof guards were the first bits to run out of power and she soon had to abandon them as they were trapped in some of the crystals that grew up around her. With only her helmet and body armor remaining she was left panting as she was surrounded by crystals on her knees with them slowly advancing on her. The dark king was cackling at her as he slowly advanced to finish her off but was stopped when a voice called out to him. “Hey! Bucko! Catch this!”
Sombra's head turned around just in time to catch a pair of blue hooves to the face as a rainbow streak flew by him. Before he could recover a lasso caught him around the horn and swung him in a large arc before sending him high into the air before slamming him into the ground once again. “Flare! Are ya all right!? Why didn't ya tell us ya were coming out here to fight him?”
Applejack bucked a path through the surrounding crystals before pulling the unicorn out from them as Rainbow Dash landed next to the two. “Yeah! It's no fair for you to get all the fun by yourself!”
Catching her breath Aegis Flare looked over her two friends, and seeing that their armor had a slight glow as well, before returning her attention to King Sombra once more to see him trying to remove his horn from the ground. “With you two busy with the Crystal Faire I didn't have time to find you, though speaking of how did you get your armor to start glowing? And how did you know I was even fighting to come help?”
“Funny thing, we didn't notice it at first but after jousting for a while Rarity pointed it out to us. She also was the one who told us about how ya were heading out here.” Applejack was interrupted as Rainbow Dash shoved her to the side.
“That and you might as well have been firing off fireworks with how subtle you were out here. The others would have come as well but they are helping out in the city as those black crystals have been sprouting up all over the place. What happened to Twilight anyways, shouldn't you have been helping her search for that thing in the palace?” The unicorn glanced back at the palace to see that they black crystals had grown larger but there was also a blue glow shining from the center of it. She wasn't the only one to notice as Sombra had finished pulling himself free and was glaring at the palace.
The dark king tried to fly past them towards it but he was swatted out of the air by Aegis Flare's shield once again. “I think she's at the top of the palace there but she might be having trouble. The crystals weren't there when we arrived and that glow there is new. We need to stall Sombra until she can get the crystal heart to where it needs to go.”
Applejack cracked her neck as she stepped towards Sombra as he tried to rise once again. “Well if Twilight is up there then we just need ta give her a bit more time. He doesn't seem all the impressive ta me if ya held him off this long.”
“He has a lot of power, but you're right in that he's unimpressive. All he has going for him is that power and him being really tough. As long as we cover each other I know we can do this.” With a nod the break to flank the stallion from two sides and from above. As they faced him down a few crystal ponies started peeking out from nearby buildings and alleys to watch the fight.
As the glow from the top of the palace brightened Sombra flew at the trio within a cloud of shadows. Re-energized by having her friends with her, Aegis Flare sent out a torrent of flames to blast away the shadows protecting them. Without them he was unprotected from Applejack's hooves as she got under him to buck him skyward to Rainbow Dash who slammed into him plowing him into the ground once again.
She would have been impaled in response by an eruption of crystals if not for Aegis Flare erecting a shield around her. The impact still sent her flying away from the stallion but before he could follow up Sombra had to flee into the shadows again to avoid the earth pony's hooves attempting to cave in his skull. Before he could react with another attack the fires engulfed his form yet again peeling away the shadows and leaving him vulnerable once more.
----------
The crystal ponies that were watching the battle weren't fully sure how to feel about what they were seeing but they felt one thing that they had not had in a long time. Hope. Seeing the tyrant that had done so many horrible things to them getting knocked around like he was filled them with the feeling that they might once again be free. Unfortunately for them, the longer the fight went on the more power Sombra was putting into his attacks and they were starting to affect the surrounding area. “Twitchy tail!”
As black crystals started erupting from building and sending rubble falling through the air a pink blur could be seen streaking through the area. As it passed crystal ponies were whisked away from where they were about to be crushed and dropped off next to a yellow pegasus carrying bandages. “Thank you Pinkie, I'll take it from here.”
Pinkie nodded to Fluttershy who started treating whatever minor injuries the nearby ponies may have obtained from the falling debris. As Pinkie sped away to help others Rarity could be seen reassuring a group of foals. “Don't worry dears. My friends will keep the bad pony away from you all until the crystal heart is back. Wait, I think I see it now!”
All eyes turned towards the palace as the white unicorn pointed up to the top of it. The crystals that were growing from the top of the palace were starting to dissolve in the light of the crystal heart as it moved through it.
Twilight was struggling to keep energy flowing from the crystal heart so that she and Spike could escape from Sombra's trap, but it took nearly everything she had. She hoped that what she was doing wouldn't harm the heart, but seeing the shield go down forced her to rush in finding a way to escape instead of taking her time like she wanted to. Reaching the edge of the tower she looked out to see the battle at the edge of the city before glancing down at the balcony below where Cadance and her brother were. “Hang on Spike, this is going to be rough.”
Straining herself, Twilight focused more of her magic into her horn before the two vanished in a flash of light along with the crystal heart. Moments later she appeared next to the two royals, albeit smoking a bit, but before they could react the four vanished again before reappearing down below amidst a group of crystal ponies who gasped in surprise on seeing them. “Look! They found the crystal heart!”
Shaking of the daze from the teleport, Twilight looked around at the surrounding ponies before settling on Cadance. “Cadance! Quick! Take the heart to the center!” The princess shook her head before focusing on the artifact that was floating in Twilight's magic. Grabbing it in her own magic she suddenly felt as if something was calling to her and she mustered the last of her strength before galloping to the center of the area under the palace.
As she neared the center she could feel the heart starting to pulse within her grip. Word started spreading through the city and the crystal ponies had begun to gather around her as she neared the center. On her arrival the heart was drawn upwards to float between two crystals that started growing out of the floor and ceiling. With it in place the crystal ponies began to bow towards it and the world vanished in a wave of blue.
----------
Applejack and Aegis Flare panted as they tried to catch their breath as Rainbow Dash held the dark stallions attention. All three were each on their last legs as they had put everything into the fight yet the tyrant didn't seem to be weakening and in fact was getting stronger. The once pristine armor each wore was now covered in dents and scratches for all the close calls. “Ah don't know about ya two. But ah am getting mighty tired of this guy.”
Aegis Flare nodded in response as she caught Rainbow Dash as she was knocked away once again and set her down next to her allowing the three to face the stallion down together. As they prepared for another charge Sombra's eyes widened as he spotted something behind them. Glancing back the three saw a wall of energy right behind them which passed over them before they could react as it continued on to hit the tyrant. With a cry of anguish and rage they watched as the stallion's form was torn apart in an explosion of energy. The three glanced at each other before they collapsed to the ground as their fatigue caught up to them while none of them noticed the cheering ponies behind them.
<><><><><><><><><><>
Princess Celestia and Twilight gazed out the window at the lights that were coming down from the north after the events in the Crystal Empire. “It's beautiful.” The princesses waited for Twilight to respond but when she didn't she looked down to see her student down and away from her. “Is something wrong, Twilight?”
Twilight said nothing at first but she eventually responded quietly. “I've been thinking about everything that we went through and what I've learned the last few days. I know you wanted this to be a test for me but my friends convinced me to ignore it and I realize that they were right. The entire time lives were at stake and you sent me just some stupid test.”
The unicorn mare turned to look up at her mentor who flinched back as she saw the tears flowing down her face. “I wanted to believe that you know what you are doing but it's just so hard when you do something like this. I've never felt so conflicted before about whether I should trust you or not. Princess, please don't put me through something like this again.”
As she finished speaking she broke down completely in front of her mentor as she started bawling as the princess wrapped her wings around her. Watching her student go act like this made her realize how much pain she had put her through and that she may have made a terrible mistake.
Well that took a while. Sorry for the Baavarian pun, but I needed it for later. 
Found an awesome fighting style I want to use from there. 
I still feel as if I missed something but I can't think what though. Of course with how things are starting to diverge from the show heavily now who knows what'll happen. Hay, even I'm not fully sure where I'm going with everything. 
Hmm, looks like the fun Pinkie Pie episode is next, wonder what I should do for that one. 
I may need to brainstorm some ideas for it, though I may have one or two. Let me know if you think of anything I may need to fix, change, or add.
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
1,102 users online
2,063,198 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
What about the Alicorn Amulet?
7584324 That is a magical attunement problem or the Alicorn Amulet has corrupting magic in it which effects the user.
7584324 Corrupting magic.
What about artifacts that are considered to hold dark magic (Corrupting magic?)
Only 9 episodes till twilicorn.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
7593085 I do have a reason for this but it just hasn't shown up yet.
7593390 This... well I'm not sure if I said it wrong or not, but I was mentally going by how they rate things on many tests, like an ASVAB, where they score it by percentile. I might just need to resort the words there.
7593410 Uh...Top 95% of students is 95% of students at the top, not the students that scored 95% in a test.
Top 10 is 10 at the top, not those that scored 10. Something like that.
Lol, just realized that it’s the three main tribes of ponies fighting sombra.
So much for Spike's statue . . .
All very fine points
Ohhh even more good points
You got to wonder what reason Celly has to not share that particular piece of information with her highest-ranking guard
Yeah, sometimes it kinda feels like Celly doesn't want the guard to to do anything
10749414
Celestia seems to have major trust issues which probably stems back to her sister.