The Crystal Heart
For a moment, it was as if she were being pulled from the brink of drowning. Twilight gasped and sputtered on nothing as she reeled back from the sensation. She began to choke on her tears as it finally registered to her what happened.
She just- She did not- She called Spike an ‘it’! She grabbed him by the throat. She hurt him.
“Mama?” Spike’s quiet voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
He hadn’t called her Mama in a long long time. She swallowed and cursed her voice for wavering.
“Yes?” She felt Spike sag in relief.
“You were staring at the door for a long time. Sorry, I punched you,”
Now that Spike said that, Twilight became aware of the throbbing in her shoulders and the bruise forming on the back of her head. Gently, Twilight plucked Spike off her shoulders and set him on the ground, envisioning how easy it could be to simply crush him in her claws.
“I just- Give me a moment,” Twilight announced shakily.
Spike’s ears folded back as Twilight took deep breaths in and out. Bile crawled up her throat as her claws felt the phantom fur between them. When she finally turned back to Spike, he was staring, entrapped by the doorway.
Spike stared unblinkingly, tears slowly dripping down his face and splashing down onto the floor. There was a barely noticeable tremor to him when Twilight gently scooped him up. She blocked the doorway with her body and he gasped much like she had when the spell was interrupted.
Her back foot clawed for the door and successfully slammed it shut. It closed with an echoing boom of finality as if its job was complete. In a way, Twilight supposed it was.
“A doorway that leads to your own worst fear. Sombra is creative, I give him that,” Twilight snarled angrily, yet with grudging respect, “Whatever you saw, it won’t happen, alright? It can’t and never will,”
Spike nodded soundlessly, tears slowing. Her heart warmed when Spike attempted a small smile. Without conscious thought, her magic reacted and with no warning, charged the crystal above the doorway with her love for Spike.
His spy hadn’t come back with the prodigy yet. He howled his rage for all to hear, which at the moment was simply the cowering form of his unicorn spy.
“I ask for one simple thing, slave, and you deny me?” he rumbled in barely suppressed fury.
“There is no unicorn prodigy in the Empire, Master,” his slave murmured reverently to the ground, “But there is another who has limitless magic at her disposal,”
Sombra sat back thoughtfully. Then perhaps there was another like him. Perhaps it was an earth pony or a pegasus, after all both did possess innate magic. Well, the first order of business would be to fashion his new apprentice a horn. A tool of magic more powerful than a unicorn horn. His thoughts soured, how irresponsible of him to presume it was a unicorn and waste his spy’s time. The spy already knew who it was but couldn’t go against the order to bring him a unicorn.
“Very well, bring me the one. You will not disappoint me this time,”
“Of course not, Master,” The groveling form soon retreated and Sombra was left alone to his thoughts once more.
His thoughts brought him back to the dragon. The fact that it spoke was a shock in itself. Dragons weren’t known to possess the intelligence of speech. All they did was hoard their glittering trinkets and set fire to villages.
He frowned in displeasure, when he came to power, he would need to act and remove that dragon from his lands as soon as possible. The last thing he wanted was a dragon swooping down from who knew where and snatching up his slaves for its breakfast. What a troublesome animal, if it hadn’t attacked him before, he would’ve been tempted to tame it and have it guard the castle or keep his slaves in line. Actually, he still was tempted and began pondering.
How would one go about taming a dragon? Spells came to mind, but all of them were temporary, if he was away for long enough, they would wear off. Food perhaps? Or a promise of untold riches that he never had any intention of delivering? Oh, who was he kidding? It was an animal, food would do just fine.
Twilight tensed when the door swung open once more. Blinding light shone through the opening, flooding the previously pitch dark room. A wing came up to shield herself as she hesitantly stepped through.
The land stretched further than the eye could see in every direction. It was completely featureless and was just as bright as everything else around them. The only distinguishing feature around them was the tower that they just stepped out of. Vexed, Twilight peered back into the dark hole and looked up, yep the throne room ceiling was right there.
Looking up the tower gave her vertigo. She could barely see the top. Spike’s sharp intake of breath had her glancing back.
“That’s a lot of stairs,” he breathed, “Do you think the Heart is at the top?”
“Only one way to find out,” Twilight sighed, spreading her wings.
By the time they were halfway up, Twilight’s wings began to ache. How Rainbow Dash simply hovered in place sometimes eluded Twilight. Flying straight up was hard! Not only would her arms and legs hurt from the journey down, now her wings would ache from flying up.
When Twilight was just about to reach the top, her wing cramped and they tilted dangerously in the air. With her only good wing, Twilight beat it as hard as she could while lunging for the stairs. She would be damned if she had to fly up again or manually climb the stairs.
Spike yelled in shock when they began to fall. His yell turned into a shriek when they were abruptly stopped by Twilight’s grip on the stairs. Her arms shook with the strain, but she managed to haul both of them onto the stairs. Both her hind legs and tail drooped over the side but she could care less.
Twilight raised her head, cursed at the sight of several more flights, and dropped her head back down. Only the magic shimmering in the air prevented her from laying there longer. She groaned as she clambered awkwardly to her paws in the small space. Spike raced ahead but kept within sight. He’d learned from the last time he sprinted ahead.
“I’m getting too old for this,” Twilight sighed to herself when the stairs ended.
Cold air blasted the tower they found themselves in and Twilight shivered. The windows revealed the shield outside the city to flicker and dim. Twilight furrowed her eye ridges, Cadence and Shining shouldn’t be so exhausted that the shield was failing, should they?
Twilight cast the spell to help, only to falter when she realized Sombra was actively attempting to bring it down. Well, no wonder. Twilight leaned out the window and hissed as she forcibly powered the shield. For a moment, it stabilized. Then with a resounding boom, something crashed into the magical force field so suddenly, Twilight was physically blown back. The shield fell with no fanfare and the cold blew in.
She landed in a sprawl next to the magic circle that protected the Heart. The wind began to howl as Sombra marched in. The mist in which he dwelled, crept in turning any crystal he came across into the black shining rocks.
“My Crystal Slaves,” Sombra’s voice echoed and reverberated sinisterly.
The sky became awash in red and the crystal ponies began to scream and run. The Heart. Twilight turned quickly to study the circle. The script was messy and unrefined, almost like the creature that wrote it didn’t know what they were doing. She brought her snout closer and ran a claw tip over a part of it.
Instantly, magic blasted her position. With her senses overloaded, Twilight’s only thought was to get the Heart before Him. She reared up, blind, and grabbed for it. The unnaturally smooth crystal slithered out of her claws and she slammed snout first into a barrier. Tears sprang up, unbidden, blinding her further.
Sombra cackled madly. His trap caught some prey. Could it be his apprentice? After all, not every pony could best his trials and reach the top.
Twilight’s eyes cleared. She was in a stone cage. Barbed spikes angled downward from the top to discourage her from climbing out and the space was too small to properly spread her wings. She could hear Spike outside, frantically running back and forth.
“Spike?” the hoofbeats stopped, “Spike, can you see the Crystal?”
“Y-yeah,” his shaky voice responded, “It looks fine,”
Twilight sighed in relief, “Could you bring it around here so I can see?”
Spike nudged it around the side and Twilight could see that there wasn’t a scratch on there. Sombra laughed again. Quickly, she fused the crystal to the back of Spike’s vest.
“Bring it to Cadence,” she urged, but Spike hesitated.
“But what about your test,” Twilight paused.
Truthfully all thoughts about her test had fled her mind the moment she found the entrance to find the Heart in the first place.
“Screw the test,” Twilight snapped harshly, “These are ponies’ lives. Go to Cadence, I’ll try and find a way out. No time to lose,”
She heard Spike gulp loudly and slowly make his way to the window. The crystal building around them began to warp. The stone cage around her seemed to bleed and stain the room around her, turning more and more of it into black stone. She almost missed the fact that rock spires began to burst out of the window sill, nearly impaling Spike.
Her heart lodged in her throat as Spike lept from the window, landing on the growing rocks. Far below, Applejack and Rarity huddled near Shining Armor and Cadence. Gingerly, Spike picked his way down the mangled pillar of stone, nearly slipping a couple of times. Spike tried his hardest to stay quiet, knowing Sombra could snatch him up any second.
Twilight craned her neck as far as it would go. The stone pressed uncomfortably against her collarbones but she didn’t move from her position, watching Spike make his way down. Then, Spike skidded down the pillar, screaming. Twilight rammed herself against the rock, scrabbling uselessly against it.
Spike managed to hook a hoof around a crack and halt his momentum. But attention had been garnered. He saw Sombra’s shade. Their eyes connected and Spike began to climb down in earnest, knowing the jig was up.
“No!” Sombra roared, “Slave! Bring me that colt!”
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Sombra is so gonna f****** die!
I still don't get on WHY other people think he will receive any "sympathy" or "mercy"???!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KsT6RgXF_I And this is a preview of the next chapter
been wondering who it was he got hold of. i thought it was arity initially.
11063072
I reckon it's Trixie.
Sombra's really not endearing himself to his prospective student
11063076
i would begin wondering why trixie is there then. xD
11063100
he's targeting spike, only thing his prospective student wants is to tear him limb from limb for touching her boy
Sombra is about to be on the receiving end of some ultra violence delivered via angry mama dragon!
Will twilight save spike? Will sombra realise twilight's potential? Will cadence ever do the hokie cokie!?
Find out, next time!
Sombra, buddy, please don't be this stupid, that dragon knows chaos magic and you're now targeting her kid
11063776
Well looks like ol Sombra has made his last mistake