“Congratulations on getting your cutie mark, Sunny!” Twilight said.
“Thank you, Twi,” I blushed at the attention, “But I don’t even know what it means…”
Twilight and I already got our friends up to speed about our task, now all I was doing was telling them how I got my cutie mark. Before we got there, I had Fluttershy help me replace the bandages that were on the left over wounds from the Final Test.
“End of the Line!” the conductor called out just as we finished replacing the bandages. As we filed off the train, he bowed to me with a ‘your highness’ before closing the door.
“Ha! And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves,” Rarity said smugly. Unlike the others, I was wearing the scarf that Rarity made me so long ago, as I finally had a reason to wear it.
“Twilight!” a voice said.
“Shining Armor?”
“Twily! You made it!” then he noticed me, “Oh, and hello, Your Majesty,” he said with a bow. “We'd better get moving. There are things out here we really don't want to run into after dark.”
Glupping, Fluttershy asked, “What kind of things?”
“Let's just say the Empire... isn't the only thing that's returned.”
Later…
“Something keeps trying to get in! We think it's the unicorn king who originally cursed the place,” Shining told us.
“But Princess Celestia said I was being sent here to find a way to protect the Empire! If King Sombra can't get in, then it must already be protected,” Twilight rationalized. Before either she or Shining could continue, a howl was heard in the distance.
“Th-That's one of the things, isn't it?” Fluttershy asked with a gasp.
“Guh. We have to get to the Crystal Empire! Now!” With that, we all started to run towards the empire. Though I summoned what I started to call my Spirit Blade and turned around, with Shining doing the same.
“Looks like we have the same idea,” I commented while getting ready to attack, Shining charging up his horn. Shining shot a beam of magic at Sombra while I charged to attack. Dodging both of our attack, Sombra charged at us while we got ready to counter attack. Getting thrown back, we landed on the other side of the shield.
“Shining, Sunny! Your horns!” Twilight exclaimed. I immediately tried to access my magic only for the crystals on my horn to block it. I looked over and saw that Shining was having an equal amount of trouble.
“Well, this can’t end well in any way,” I said with a sigh. A few minutes later, we reached the castle.
“Cadance!” Twilight called out.
“Ooh.”
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” they say in unison, with a laugh afterwards.
“One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance.” Cadance said with a sigh.
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.
“Cadance has been able to use her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting it. But she hasn't slept, barely eats. I want to help her, but my protection spell has been countered by King Sombra,” Shining told his sister.
“I want to help as well, but Sombra also blocked me from my magic,” I put in, startling Cadance a bit.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were coming as well, Sunny,” Cadance commented, “Anyways, It's alright Shining Armor, I'm fine,” she said before walking away.
“She's not fine. She can't go on like this forever, and if her magic were to fade... Well, you saw what's out there waiting for that to happen,” Shining told us.
“That's why we're here,” Twilight said.
“Why we're all here,” Applejack put in, with the rest of us joining in.
“Well, with Cadance putting all her strength into keeping her spell going, and me trying to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we haven't been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies.”
“Crystal Ponies?! Hahaha, there are Crystal Ponies?! Um, ahem. Please continue,” Rarity said with a blush.
“But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the Empire without having to use Cadance's magic.”
“A research paper!” Twilight pipped in, getting a ‘huh’ from Shining, “That must be part of my test – to gather information from the Crystal Ponies and deliver it to you! This is gonna be great! I love research papers!”
Later….
“I didn't know it was an actual relic! The book didn't mention anything about the Crystal Ponies powering the Heart!” Twilight panicked before her eyes went wide, “There was a page missing...How did I not notice?!”
“It's alright, Twilight,” Cadance tried to comfort Twilight.
“Twily…”
And with that, we started to leave in groups to try and keep the Crystal Ponies Spirits up while Twilight tried to find the Crystal Heart. It was only a half-hour before the barrier fell. Picking up a spear, I started to charge Sombra so try and slow him down, even though I was lacking access to my magic. I fought him for what seemed like hours before I heard somepony yell.
“I got the Crystal Heart!” I heard Spike yell. When I noticed Sombra trying to reach him, I got in his way.
“I don’t think so.” Suddenly, I felt a huge pain going through my body before I was lifted up into the air, dropping the spear in the process. I was being held close to Sombra while I was trying to escape.
“Sunny!” I heard a voice yell. Just as I felt like I was going to die, a bright flash of silver covered me before I blacked out.
Five Minutes Earlier…
I was watching the fight, making sure Sunny didn’t fall. However, I noticed Sombra lift her into the air while she cried out in pain. Seeing this caused me to charge up a time spell to send her back in time so she could be safe. When the spell hit her, it left a very confused Sombra. I quickly jumped in front of him before calling my Spirit Companions. I also pulled out my Spiritsteel sword
“Sombra!” I yelled out. Even with my cloak on, he seemed to recognize my voice.
“You….” he said.
“Yes, me.” With a swift motion, I sliced him with my sword while my Spirit Wolves attacked him. The fight went on for a few minutes before I felt a huge amount of power coming towards us. He seemed to panic while I just smirked, knowing the heart won’t affect me. In a flash of light, Sombra was defeated. I sent my Wolves back to the spirit realm while putting up my sword. I was quickly tackled by a cyan blur.
“Who are you? And what have you done with Sunny?” said the pony who I recognized as Rainbow said. Not even answering, I kicked her off of me before holding her in place with my magic.
“How about we wait until your friends get here,” I said simply, though I had a hard time not saying our friends. A few minutes later, I was joined by the rest of our friends. “Twilight, mind if you hold Rainbow so she doesn’t try and tackle me again?” I asked. Her jaw dropped.
“H-how do you know my name…?” she managed. With a laugh, I pulled down my hood which resulted in multiple gasps.
“Hi girls, it’s nice to be able to talk to you for the first time in a few millenia…” I started before I was tackled by six ponies. “Geez, I was only gone for five minutes….” I joked, knowing that I was gone for much longer than that. A few minutes later, everypony finally got off of me.
“W-what happened, Sunny?” Twilight asked.
“I think it’s best that I tell when everypony is present, as there is somepony who I’ve haven’t seen since my aunt was banished,” I said with a smile, “Come on, let’s go back to Canterlot and let my mom know that I’m ok.”
Oh, are you going to make chapters on Sunny's stint in time? )
6840710
Yes, that is the plan.
Wow, you've been busy. Sorry it took so long to get to this review. Life's been pretty hectic. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the story.
When Life Gives You Sprains...
I see we have some more breaking of the fourth wall here. While it still seems out of place, it fits here better than it did last time.
This may be nit-picky, but Blueblood has a white coat, not a light gray one.
I think Sunny was a bit harsh to Blueblood, myself. Don't get me wrong, the guy's a jerk, but he has a point here. He's Celestia's nephew, so it makes sense that he'd be flummoxed as to why Sunny hasn't heard of him. Sunny goes from not knowing who he is to assaulting his character in a matter of sentences, and call me crazy, but I really don't think Blueblood had it coming. I especially don't think Celestia would've allowed Sunny to assault her nephew with a vase.
Cutie Mark
My biggest complaint with this chapter is that it's too short. A lot happened here, and it should all be given the attention it deserves. Sunny's final test and the gaining of her cutie mark are both tense and emotional moments, and they should be given more than a few sentences' mention.
Crystal Empire
Two comments, here. First, I enjoyed that you corrupted Sunny's horn with Sombra's magic, as well. One of the best things to do to your characters is to give them limitations and hardships so that they can fight through them and grow as characters. However, that didn't last too long, as she got rid of the dark crystals without any hardship or struggle. Really, you could've taken out the whole thing with the crystals, and nothing would change. It was a tad disappointing, to be honest.
The ending was very confusing. We had a shift in POV, that much is clear. I think it was the conversation at the end, which made it seem that the stranger was Sunny, that confused me so much. I'm willing to wait till next chapter to see who we're dealing with here, though.
Conclusion
You're getting better at writing, that much is sure. I thought my review would be a lot longer than this, so this was a pleasant surprise. Again, I suggest getting an editor to iron out the spelling/grammar errors. I'm very much looking forward to next chapter!