All Hail, Midnight Sparkle!

by MisterEdd

Battle for the Crystal Heart Part I

The gold and blue sphere burst into existence, carving a deep, bowl-shaped crevasse into the snow-covered hill while a flurry of white powder exploded outward like a storm-wave. The sphere faded, exposing the quintet to the shrieking, biting winds of the Frozen North. Below them, the Crystal Empire lay before the group as pristine and shimmering, a sunlight-glittered utopia within the icy barren wasteland. Princess Celestia shivered, unaccustomed to the cold, and cast a quick heat spell on herself, Luna, Rarity and Fluttershy, a chorus of gratified sighs directed towards her. She would've done the same for Sombra except his thicker coat and tough exterior-both literal and figurative-rendered him more resistant to the rigid temperature.

"Let us get going," Princess Luna announced and Celestia couldn't agree more.

"Yes, let's."

The group commenced their trek towards the Crystal Empire, the gales swatting at the ponies as if they were gnats. Thankfully, the winds died down enough so that conversation was no longer a challenge but nopony had anything to say. Luna, Rarity, and Fluttershy were no doubt focused on the forthcoming battle and Celestia didn't blame them. Sombra, meanwhile, had long since crawled into himself, austerely marching forward ten paces ahead from the others with the blankest of expressions on his face. Though he retained a consistent mask of cool indifference, his hollow, frankly haunted eyes told a different story, one that everypony present was unwillingly aware of.

Celestia cantered up closely alongside Sombra, hoping to break his stony countenance.

"Sombra? Are you...alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Came his terse reply and not waiting for a response, Sombra trotted away, his walls strongly built up once more. Celestia halted in place and despite both the heat spell and Luna's consolatory wing around her, the Solar Princess felt frozen to her core. In spite of everything they'd been through and the animosity that still burned between them, Celestia hated seeing Sombra suffer and only wished that he'd confide in her as he used to. She'd come to terms with the fact that their time as lovers was over but she'd hoped to be his friend, as far-fetched as it now seemed.

Simultaneously, there was a solitary question blazing within Sombra's mind:

Am I going insane....again?

Following their return back to the waking world, Sombra could not help but wonder if he was still dreaming or if he'd even been awake at all. Now there were two lives diverging within his cranium, the life of the lone-surviving umbrum and former ruler of the Crystal Empire, and that of the beloved chieftain, husband and father. He was almost certain that the latter was the result of Midnight Sparkle's machinations, though the former was far more drama-laden and distressful. Perhaps the chieftain reality was so enticing that he only wanted to believe in it, as opposed to the reality that he was stuck with? No, it was a ninety-nine percent probability that he was awake now.

He stared down at his hooves and twisted one in the snow, feeling the cold, wetness of the powder against his flesh. A chilling breeze swept across his face, combed through his mane like an icy claw. A whirlwind of flurries danced nearby and Sombra was reminded of playing in the snow with Garnet as well as with Agnar and Gydda. He closed his eyes, shifting through both memories, calling to mind the details behind each one, such as the smells and textures, hoping to decipher which was real or false. Garnet's scent, her laughter, it was all too vivid to have been fabricated.

There were things that neither Luna, or by extension Midnight-formerly-known-as-Nightmare, could not and should not have known about. Growing up in the Crystal Empire was one of those things.

A shout from behind drew Sombra's attention to the flash of golden energy. Celestia's return teleportation spell was a relatively simple one, designed to follow the energy trace of a previously-used charm and to essentially piggyback off of it, bringing the subject to the caster's location. From out of the glow, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Spike appeared in view and it didn't take them long to charge over to the rest of the group. All of them shared in hugs and how-are-you's, typical clingy, emotional behavior coming from today's breed of ponies. Sombra, of course, kept his distance, merely giving each of them a nod of acknowledgment. He wasn't ready for socialization just yet.

It was intriguing to hear the newcomers trade their collected experience whilst retrieving the Elements of Harmony, each one taking turns describing their ordeal. Apparently, the Tree of Harmony manifested itself a more animate form and revealed Spike as the previously-unknown seventh missing element, that of empathy. This came as a genuine surprise to everypony else, Celestia and Luna especially given their status as former Element bearers. The two sisters did confirm that they'd felt something was missing when using the Elements but until this moment hadn't the slightest idea as to what that could be. Now they had a chance to save Twilight and end Midnight once and for all.

I just hope we're not too late.

~*~

The Crystal Palace was in complete pandemonium. Servants fled through the doors and piled out into the streets as the sounds of conflict rumbled behind them. All they knew for certain was that an intruder had attacked the royal couple and was currently locked in combat with Princess Cadence, as evidenced by the booming and flashes of magic. They'd collectively agreed to vacate the premises immediately, not one of them, not even the most curious of spectators wished to stay behind to bear witness to the devastation currently in progress. Only a fool would remain in the vicinity of a battle between two alicorns.

Other crystal ponies discontinued their normal routines to beleaguer the servants with questions, such as to the state of their sovereigns or the identity of the miscreant. An explosion rang out, blowing away a section of one of the castle's pillars, showing the streets in ivory debris. Their inquiries put on halt, they adhered to their survival instincts and readily fled to safety away from the destruction. This, however, didn't prevent them from watching as two blurs of cyan and deep magenta whizzed out of the destroyed spire. One resembled Princess Twilight, only more malevolent, and the other a very agitated and dark-looking Princess Cadence.

"It's over, Midnight! Surrender now and I might guarantee you a fair trial!"

The purple alicorn cackled. "Oh, how very generous of you, Amore! Here's what I think of your 'fair trial'!"

Teleporting away, Midnight reappeared higher up above her previous position and bombarded Cadence with a series of spinning crescents, all of which she managed to deflect with a protective bubble. She grunted and rapidly expanded the bubble outward, creating an omni-directional explosion. Smirking, Midnight responded by teleporting through the explosion and then, whipping her head back, collected some of the kinetic energy and hurled it back at her foe. Soaring past the energy wave, Cadence released a spiral of blasts that disconnected to form five separate beams. An unperturbed Midnight merely hovered before a portal appeared in front of her and swallowed up the beams while a second portal spat them back out at Cadence.

Instinctively, Cadence raised a last-minute shield and the volley of beams merely glanced off of the shield. Having anticipated this, Midnight telekinetically summoned a large claw and slammed it against the shield, its talons gripping around the energy construct and tugging it away. A secondary claw swatted Cadence out of the air like an insect, the impact sending Cadence spiraling towards the ground and skidding to a stop. The world was spinning, a faint ringing in her ears. Weakly, she attempted to rise, only for her limbs to give out, all of the power draining her as she reverted back to her normal appearance.

She'd tapped into the darker aspects of her magic and while this had allowed her to withstand Midnight's initial onslaught, it was nothing more than a momentary surge of power. As both a young alicorn and the Princess of Love, Cadence was unaccustomed to combat, with offensive spell-work being more Twilight's forte and it showed. True, her alicorn status granted her more raw magical potential but did that really when compared to a being that had the shared knowledge and experience of two alicorns? All she was doing was delaying the inevitable and now, she was burnt out and defenseless. Cadence lifted her head up and through the fog of pain, she spotted the Crystal Heart shimmering only a few feet away from her.

A yelp burst out of Cadence's mouth at the sharp agony of a hoof smashing into the center of her back.

"Oh, you did so well, Caddie," Midnight cooed. "But you never stood a chance."

Cadence could feel her skin crawl as Midnight lowered her head down and whispered into her ear:

"You know, just between us mares, I always wondered about that time Queen Chrysalis pretended to be you. Do you think Shining Armor was always mind controlled? Or did he fall for the disguise? Did he ever touch her?"

Cadence snarled and tried to rise, to make her tormentor pay for such spiteful, false words, only for Midnight's hoof to apply more pressure.

"I mean, an older mare must have some tricks that an eager young stud would love to learn."

It was a fear Cadence had developed ever since the wedding but one she dared not voice to anypony, not even Shining and one that kept her up many a night.

"Sh-shut up!" Cadence couldn't stop the onrush of tears. "He didn't...he wouldn't..."

Midnight let out a derisive sneer. "Oh? Did he tell you that? And you were foolish enough to believe him. Do you imagine he ever thinks about Chrysalis when he's with you, pretending it's her that he's kissing? Just secretly praying for her return?"

"Stop it!"

Lifting up her hoof, Midnight strode past Cadence, her every step bringing her closer to the Crystal Heart.

"W-why?"

Midnight, who was just within reach of the heart, turned towards Cadence.

"You don't have to do this. Love is meant to be given freely and shared. Otherwise, it isn't love. What you want...it won't be real love."

The look that Midnight gave her transitioned from cold to remorseful. She then turned back towards the heart and said pitifully, "It'd be real to me."

"Don't...please..."

Midnight reached for the heart with a trembling foreleg.

"It'd be the only love I'd ever know."

The warmth that the heart gave off was incredible, the love inside it reinvigorating.

"Midnight Sparkle!"

It was the Royal Canterlot Voice.

The crowd dispersed to make way for Princesses Celestia and Luna and the five other Element bearers.

"Step away from the Crystal Heart now!"

"No..."

Glaring at the interlopers with intense animosity, Midnight declared,

"Then come and claim it!"

Princess Luna fired a magic blast at Midnight, which she deftly defended against, swiping it away with her horn. Just when she was internally gloating at the Lunar Princess' sloppy and rather poorly telegraphed attack, she realized too late that it was merely a diversion when a golden aura surrounded the Crystal Heart and it vanished. Princess Celestia triumphantly cradled the heart under a wing, a coy grin appearing on her ivory face, accompanied by a double eyebrow bounce.

"No!"

Midnight stamped her front legs down, cracking the crystalline surface beneath her hooves. Energy seeped through the rapidly spreading fissures, walls of light bursting through the ground with a series of booms, the air humming with power. Shapes appeared within the walls and once the energy subsided, they were revealed to be eight-foot-tall snow golems, their blue ice and snow-speckled bodies flowing with dark magic. Each one chittered and yowled through mouthfuls of crystalline teeth, their broad forms lined with blade-like protrusions of ice. Midnight raised a hoof and pointed at the gang.

"That heart is mine! Destroy them all!"

Without missing a beat, the golems collectively roared and leapt forward, a few of them even tucking themselves into balls and rolling towards the group like giant armadillos. Splitting up, everypony fled from the giant spheres, all driven by a desire to neither be crushed flat or diced up by the snow constructs. A golem leapt up and threw its arms out to bear-hug Rainbow Dash only to swipe at air. Having eluded her attacker's grasp, she made a sharp turn and looped back around for a high-speed kick letting out a battle-cry as her leg made contact. Unfortunately, rather than slice through the golem, instead Rainbow's leg merely became lodged into the golem's snowy hide and this gave it the opening it needed.

Releasing the pegasus, the golem smacked her with a back-hand, sending her hurtling away and colliding right into Applejack. The two rolled and collapsed into a pained heap, both of them too much in pain to even attempt to stand up. Shaking her head, Rainbow blinked and found herself almost muzzle-to-muzzle with the farm-mare, her emerald eyes enlarged with shock.

"Uh, heh-heh, s-sorry AJ."

"It's, erm, fine, Dashie. No sweat."

Neither one of them moved until Applejack cleared her throat, her cheeks inflamed.

"Dash, do ya think tha' ya could...?"

"Oh yeah, right! I'll just..."

"Jus' get offa me, yeah..."

"Yeah..."

The two dusted themselves off avoiding eye contact, both of them blushing profusely.

"Right, so-ahem!-their hides are too thick for punching or kicking. Any suggestions?"

A loud roar alerted them to the advancing golem heading their way.

Applejack rubbed her forehead. "Wha' we need is uh way t' break through tha' hide o' theirs." She looked around for a possible inspiration then smiled. "Wha' do ya think o' tha'?"

Rainbow followed Applejack's gaze and returned her grin. "I think that'll do nicely..."

~*~

The golem stomped around to where it'd last seen the rainbow-pony and glared around at the scene, confused as to where its prey went. Weren't the two ponies right there?

"Hey you!"

It turned around and found the rainbow-pony lazily flapping around in front of a cafe. She then smirked and suddenly ducked, and it was then that the golem came face-to-face with a large hose held up by the orange-pony. Twisting a lever, the orange-pony grunted as a stream of boiling dark brown liquid burst out of the hose and struck the golem. It howled at in pain, the liquid burning through its hide and pooling around its feet. Slowly, the golem found the world shrinking.

"Looks like things are gettin' warmed up!" Orange-pony quipped.

The golem's howled one last time before it vanished beneath the scalding liquid.

~*~

Once the golem had turned into a puddle, Applejack turned off of the hose and tossed it aside.

"Whew, glad tha's done!"

Rainbow hovered near a sign that read: "HOT CHOCOLATE SPECIAL-BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF!"

"Yeah, I don't think he's getting back up any time soon!"

The two then looked at one another awkwardly.

"So..."

"'So...?'"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Really? 'Looks like things are getting warmed up?'"

"Oh Ah'm sorry, wha' would ya said instead?"

"'Now's not the time to have a meltdown!' or, 'Hot chocolate is served!'"

"Eh..."

"What?!" Rainbow joined Applejack on the ground. "Oh come on! My one-liners are always awesome!"

"Eenope!"

"Whatever, you're just one-liner-challenged."

"Am not!"

"Yes you are!"

"Am...not!"

"YES!"

"NO!"

They stopped when they found that Pinkie Pie had somehow wound up on top of a rolling golem, jogging on her hindlegs while keeping her forelegs crossed as she whizzed by.

"Hey, you guys going to kiss now?!"

They both blushed and stared into each other's eyes...before commencing with their argument.

"Yer one-liners ain't all tha'!"

"Yes they are!"

"Ain't!"

Comments

[PearlyDoesStuff]

Pinkie professionally making arguments awkward strikes again.