Alternate universe where the Crystal Heart didn't kill Sombra and is instead used for his own dark purposes
Sombra had been defeated and imprisoned for one thousand long years, though all was not lost as he had changed the Crystal Heart to work in his favour instead, he then goes on to try and restore his empire to its former glory.
I have decided to recall the advance camp as they have recently reported more activity from Canterlot and believe the Princesses are mobilizing. I hope this is simply a false alarm and they haven't been able to penetrate my masking field, but just incase, I am now advancing the heart engraving at a faster rate so if they do make the Crystal Empire their destination I'll be prepared for the worst. -Diary of King Sombra around 1000 years ago.
Sombra closed the old leather bound book and placed it back in it's drawer where it belonged, he made sure the drawer was locked securely with both his magic and runes, so his slaves who then cleaned the area wouldn't go 'exploring' too much.
After a few moments of going over his plan again, Sombra rose from his chair, no... throne was more fitting. He still had his crystal throne in the throne room but that throne was incredibly uncomfortable. The study throne was made out of leather that came from one of his less obedient slaves, when he sat on this throne it felt like he was sinking into a rather comfortable cloud.
In the corner of his study which also counted as a small library, was what his slaves, those of which had actually seen it referred to it as the 'nightmare door', while this was partly true as it gave intruders visions of their worst fears it was actually a sort of transportation system that led to many rooms, each having their own unique spell to open the door. At this moment in time Sombra was going to the crystal charging room which is where the Crystal Heart was stored, charged and engraved these days.
Upon approaching the door Sombra conjured up the spell that was required and directed it at the focusing crystal, which glowed brightly before the door swung open with a creak. Sombra left behind the warm atmosphere of his study and stepped in the cold and unforgiving one of the charging room. In the centre of the room the crystal heart sat inside a specially designed apparatus which had five pony sized pods surrounding it, since there wasn't a lot of love in his empire now so he had to forcefully drain what residual love the Crystal ponies still possessed. In the pods were five ponies who now looked like dried husks more than anything living, Sombra observed this was similar to the effect a changeling had if it fed too much but this was far more crippling.
To the side of this was a desk moulded out of the dark crystal Sombra was famous for loving, which held a small pot of ground soul essence, a crystal engraving Auger that looked similar to a basic drill but had a small chamber and was made of pure crystal and there was a large saddlebag leaning against a table leg. Sombra picked both of the engraving items up, loaded the essence into the Augers small chamber then turned to the Crystal Heart and continued with the complicated set of runes he had been working on.
These runes were designed originally to reverse the power of the heart turning it to dark magic but in the end the heart was too pure for such a procedure, instead of letting months of research go to waste he repurposed it as a fail safe device. The King of Shadows knew enough about Celestia to know that she wouldn't downright murder him but would instead imprison him somehow, Sombra knew there was a chance he could lose to Celestia and Luna's exceptional power so he would place the heart at the empires focal point which was at the top of his castle, if he was captured the heart would instantly activate and send the entire empire and all its residents into a phased stasis bubble, essentially it would be a empire frozen in time where no one could leave or enter and would remain this way until Sombra's return.
Unfortunately this took a lot longer than expected coming in at about 13 hours continuous work but it was finally ready. Sombra put on the saddlebag and levitated the engraved heart into it, the engravings vanishing into the heart as he did so. He then walked over to the pods with the ponies in them and proceeded to scrape off the life sigils keeping them alive, then he turned to the door behind him and left the bleak room for what may be the last time for many years.
Sombra stepped out of the door to see many shiny, crystalline stairs that went up for around 1200 steps. The purpose behind this was that if an intruder got past his other defences they would hopefully collapse from fatigue before reaching the top, the secret to getting up was rather simple, all it required was a reverse gravity spell that only the Princesses and himself were capable of at the time. The spell was performed and off Sombra went, the difficult part was reversing the spell at the correct time to avoid flying into the Stratosphere.
At the top Sombra pulled the manoeuvre off almost flawlessly, he only landed on his forehooves this time instead of his face. Sombra rose from the ground, careful to keep weight off his forehooves for a few minutes, then hobbled over to the focal point in the centre of the peak, the light up here was almost dazzling as Sombra's dark magic infused eyes adjusted to Celestias oh so glorious sunlight. "Soon Celestia, Soon" Sombra muttered thinking of how he would destroy her when the time came. Or perhaps he could cause her some pain first? He knew she greatly cared for her sister...
Coming back from his thoughts Sombra paused, taking a minute to look out over his empire through the large holes that were needed to project the hearts power properly. Just a measly two years ago he had been like them, a peasant whose only purpose was to serve those higher than themselves. Now he was the king, he was the one being served and he was much more worthy of it than those before him, the fact his subjects obeyed him without question was a testament to that claim; even if it was purely out of fear, they obeyed all the same.
After daydreaming Sombra snapped back to reality then used a levitation spell to carefully pull out the heart; to his knowledge it couldn't be broken but rather safe than sorry. The heart was levitated above the core of the castle that ran down far into the ground through the legs of the castle. Sombra knew placing the heart now would draw power from the masking field and possibly collapse it, so instead of seeing the crystal empire in peace the real empire would be revealed; if anyone had walked into the field they would pass out only to awake hours later thinking they had accomplished whatever they were on their way to do.
Due to the power the heart would be using, the runes would all burn on use which means it would only have a one time use unless it was engraved and charged again. Sombra activated the binding seal on the ground that would connect the heart to his castle and empire; a dark crystal shot upwards and secured the heart in it's vice-like grip; ensuring nothing could remove it... hopefully. Sombra waited by the crystal to ensure it wouldn't explode or cause a magic surge; after about seven minutes he decided it was safe to leave and wouldn't explode in the meantime.
Everything had seemed to be going great until Sombra conjured the spell to remotely check his defences, upon checking the masking field he saw that the entire thing had collapsed when the heart had been integrated, if the princesses weren't curious before they sure would be now. Sombra turned and was about to begin the long walk down the stairs just as he received a telepathic message from one of the sentry towers outside the empire, well the princesses were swift he had to commend them there.
My Lord, it has been reported that two ponies matching the description of the princesses have been spotted heading towards you, followed by a small army of only pegasi. With your permission we would like to order a full retreat and attempt to prepare for the oncoming attack.
The message had been sent by Avalite Seeker who was his present captain of the guard and is one of the only crystal ponies to offer his services without 'persuasion'. Captain Seeker was stationed in the main barracks but he had access to a comm totem so that he had almost instant communication with all the empires camps. To make his job more efficient Sombra gave Avalite rune tattoos that allowed him to send a message directly when it was required. With Avalite informing him this news could be no more than five minutes old at the most. Sombra hastily used his telepathy spell to order Avalite to immediately recall all personnel that were out of the empire and prepare for the attack, they could handle the army, Celestia was his to take care of.
*****
The time had come, most of the camps had been successfully recalled and his army stood ready. Sombra had hidden explosive crystals in the ground that would fly up and take out pegasi, from the reports only the two sisters and some battalions of pegasi were on their way, most likely because of Celestia panicking that her precious little ponies were in danger.
The entire crystal army minus a few camps that were late back stood ready in front of the castle. Sombra stood on the balcony marvelling at how powerful he looked but back to the matter at hoof, his army looked like they could do with a motivational speech and their king would deliver. Before joining them he took note of Avalite standing in front of them all, he really did suit the part with his cyan coat and peridot mane that could be seen sticking out of his helmet, just like the rest the crystal armour that left almost no areas of the body exposed.
To save time Sombra teleported down to the side of where his army was standing so he was just out of view; this was done purely for time convenience as teleportation is taxing at more than a few metres at best and Sombra had a high balcony. As he walked out in front of them and he was recognized as their ruler, Avalite gave the order to salute, which they did of course. With those niceties out of the way Sombra stood in front of them all and attempted to look intimidating and motivational.
"Ponies of the crystal army," Sombra began with a voice almost as loud as the Royal Canterlot Voice. "As you know the raisers of the sun and moon are heading here to strike me down, but, will we let them?" "No!" His magnificent army shouted back. "Will we let them break past our defences and destroy all that we have accomplished?" "No!" "Will we show them the best fight they have ever seen?" "Yes!" they shouted back loudly, this speech thing seemed to be working, the excitement in their voices was apparent. "Well then, prepare yourselves, they will be here in less than five minutes. For those of you who haven't been told, the mines I have planted will be able to take out a limited number of them and with any luck force the rest to the ground; with most of you being earth ponies you will have the advantage, use it well"
After this Sombra waited for a moment for these words to fully sink in before leaving them to their excited muttering and final preparations. Within two minutes Sombra had sprinted back up to the balcony, an ecstatic and out of breath Sombra rose to his full height and looked over his army, at least he had before ducking down to get his breath back, he wanted to look his best for when his royal guests arrived. Speaking of the princesses where were they?
"Sir," yelled up a soldier. "Enemies approaching from the south"
"Ah speak of the devil" Sombra remarked before once again rising to his full height
On the horizon small specks started to appear and were getting bigger by the second, leading this small army of specks were two more noticeable blue and white specks. After perhaps a minute, Sombra's guess was that they were around 600 metres out and could easily be identified by now. The soldiers appeared to be wearing some kind of crystal armour... how quaint of them. By now Celestia and Luna's army had almost reached the minefield, Sombra waited for something to happen, and waited, and waited.
Finally a pointed formation of crystal shot out of the ground at alarming speed and hit Luna directly in the chest, detonating on impact. She plummeted to the ground with Celestia in tow, good, that would delay them for a while. Their soldiers carried on unfazed by the display that had just occurred. More and more mines started flying up and by the time the army got past them they had already lost a quarter of their battleforce.
The pegasi took to the ground in fear of there being more air mines that could appear out of thin air. Without command, which was slightly annoying, Sombras own army rushed them brandishing weapons from maces to battleaxes. The two armies met head on with equal determination to pummel each other into pieces, steel clashed against crystal as combat commenced. Off in the distance Luna was getting shakily to her hooves, seemingly recovered and turning towards him; as Celestia and Luna's wings spread for take-off Sombra diverted his attention back to the battle. Rather embarrassingly he had now lost more ponies than Celestia, although none of them had been killed, it was pathetic how soft Celestia was, not even willing to take a few lives to save thousands.
Suddenly a sunbeam slammed into Sombra's castle above him, causing crystal to rain down on him, actually leaving a dent in his armour on the left foreleg where he raised it to protect his eyes, the royal sisters were at the edge of the battlefield and were closing in fast. They really expect to defeat me this easily, how humorous. Even though he was certain his victory was assured Sombra retreated to his castles main atrium where he would wait for their arrival. Soon he heard a landing impact behind him and he saw Celestia and Luna's regal forms, towering over his own, "Why Celestia how nice of you to joi-" Sombra cut off as he saw the multicoloured gems they were both levitating. "No how can you have those? You can't just-" He was once again cut off as the two sisters touched horns and the gems began to glow.
Sombras flight or fight response kicked in as he instinctively raised a dark crystal barrier to protect himself, the barrier lasted all of two seconds before it evaporated like water under the elements onslaught. When the beam hit him it was like being hit by the sun itself, pure agony ravaged the dark lords body as it was broken. Sombra tried to bargain for his life but all he could manage was a tortured scream before the pain reached its limit. Then all the pain melted into darkness and freezing cold. Sombra did not know where he was or exactly how he got there, but for now he was content knowing the empire would vanish without his presence.
Back in the empire there was just a scorch mark where Sombra had been standing before he was cast below the ice.
"It is done sister." Luna spoke, breaking the silence. "The dark lord has gone." The happiness could easily be heard in her voice until she saw the grim look on Celestias face, "What is wrong sister? Surely thee must be pleased?" "I am Luna, I just feel like this was too easy," Celestia explained. "Think about it for a moment, King Sombra, the lord of shadows and even he didn't have any extra precautions in place?" "I see your point sister, but we should be rejoicing about what good has happened, not upset about what did not happen." "I suppose your right, lets go, I'm sure the crystal ponies will want to celebrate after this." "Wait a moment sister, what of the crystal heart?" "Hmm, Sombra must have hidden it somewhere, worry not we will find it but first we must check on the local population," and with that they turned to leave. "Sister," Luna started in a panicked tone, "did the floor always look like that?" They both glanced down at the fading floor, looks of concern flashing across their faces. "We must evacuate the empires citizens, hurry," Celestia demanded
As the stepped outside they saw that the crystal ponies were vanishing along with their empire, looks of horror and dread on their faces, it would seem Sombra had not informed them of this plan. Celestia finally realised what was happening and simply gave the order to leave. "But sister-" Luna began to protest. "No buts, we were too late to stop this, we failed them all." and with a heavy heart Celestia gave the order to retreat.
*****
Unknown to Luna and Celestia, when Sombra was imprisoned the heart had sprung into life, it took longer than had been intended but it worked all the same. It would not be known what had truly caused the disappearance of the entire empire for almost a millennium. Over this time, out of shame Celestia hid all records of the empire and fell into a great depression at failing to save an entire empire, the loss of her sister was what finally pushed her over the edge and her subjects saw very little of the solar princess over the next 100 years.
If anything good came out of that imprisonment it was that I had time to think. I'd been doing it wrong all along, instead of charging the heart with love I should have completely drained it, then corrupted it. So far this is only a theory, as I couldn't test it while under millions of tons of ice, so far the empire still isn't back to how I like, but hopefully I can test this new theory soon.
How could this have happened? Sombra was stuck below the Arctic ice, angry and freezing, and the princesses, they cheated! He didn't have any super powerful magic artefacts... not yet at least. When he got out of this icy prison he would have to steal them, the look on Celestias face would be precious as be blasted her to pieces, and using her own weapons no less. Luna won't really prove to be a problem, if her going down after being hit by one mine was any indication. Celestia or himself would have simply shrugged it off and carried on. If the fair ruler of Equestria had actually battled fairly he may have had a chance at winning, at the very least she would have been extremely sad at the loss of an empire.
10 years later...
Ten long years he had been trapped down here, slowly losing his mind. Sombra did not know how long this would last, but he knew for sure he would survive it and bring Celestia to her knees, or just kill her. After thinking, Sombra could have prepared better for the assault by perhaps using a shield or two around the empires border; even so he wasn't sure if he'd be able to create a shield to hold back two princesses and an army.
Year 102 of imprisonment...
By Starswirls beard how long had she banished him for? After 102 years Sombra was getting ever more erratic, often falling into fantasies of killing thousands of armies with a single thought. When he had first been sent here he hadn't liked how dark it seemed, but now... it was like he and the darkness were becoming hard to tell apart. Sombra simply put this down to him going insane, but what if that wasn't the reason for this happening.
Year ??? of imprisonment...
Sombra was in the ice, as he had been for many years. He wasn't even sure how long he'd been here now, he had lost count long ago, he also no longer cared. Sombra had started running out of energy a while ago, energy that stopped his conciousness from fading. His solution for this was to go into magically induced comas to save energy, this was a good idea to begin with but when he used them he suffered constant nightmares, all of them involving Celestia killing him, sometimes with those gems, sometimes without, either way they were unnerving all the same. All he wanted was for this to end...
Year 999 of imprisonment, 2 minutes until release...
Sombra awoke from the nightmares he had to endure to stay alive, but why? He hadn't woken himself up so what had happened? Suddenly a large fissure opened up in the ice above him, sunlight flooding in. Sombra roared in agony at being exposed to light after so long, before he had time to adjust some unseen force began forcefully dragging him up towards the surface. In a blind frenzy to escape the pain Sombra actually attempted to fight it and go back down, to no avail. When on the surface he realised what he thought had been sunlight was just light from the moon, he shuddered as he imagined how painful the sun would have been.
After waiting a couple of minutes for his eyes to properly adjust, Sombra finally had the opportunity to look around, first of all realizing that he was just a shadow, that was new and could take some getting used to, with any luck it's only temporary. As for the surroundings... Sombra let out a load groan as he realized the snow was back, while his empire had no snow, he couldn't stand the snow around the empire, it reflected Celestias sun back at him too much. He would deal with that later but for now he needed to reclaim his empire, all that could be seen of any significance was a large purple bubble in the distance, it looked about the size of his empire. Wait, what if Celestia beat him there? Looks like this would be more difficult than had been expected, the heart brought the empire back before him for some reason.
Sombra found he could move significantly faster in his shadow form and his magic was starting to return; as he got closer to the empire he started feeling something putrid, love. This seems to be a lot worse than expected. Upon reaching the bubble, which was helpfully translucent, he could confirm it was his empire but at the same time it wasn't... not any more. The entire empire had reverted to pale blue crystal, only significant amounts of love would have been able to remove his hold on the area so what was generating it now? Might as well find out, Sombra thought right before running straight into the shield, it would also seem his brain wasn't working properly yet. Quickly he conjured a simple scanning spell to check the shield for weaknesses, surprisingly it had more weaknesses that a house made of hay, to him anyway. Sombra focused on one of the weaknesses and forced it to grow larger, an area of the shield visibly darkening. He only managed to make a small weakness but he compressed his shadow form, a curious sensation, and passed through.
The empire was silent, it would seem his soon to be slaves were asleep. Everything looked just as it had before he took over, well everything except the white unicorn and pink alicorn standing on his balcony staring at him, whoops. Wait, an alicorn? Both the unicorn and the alicorn teleported what looked to be 400 metres to the empires border, Sombra was surprised they had done so as even he wasn't capable of such a feat. He could now see that the unicorn had striking blue hair of three shades and a shield cutie mark, he must have been the one who created the shield, well he wasn't very good at his special talent. The alicorn on the other hoof was bright pink with a mane of cream, purple and pink. And her cutie mark was a... Crystal heart? This meant she represented love in some respect, then this was very, very bad. Although a quick glance at his former castle showed the crystal heart wasn't connected underneath, so they hadn't found it yet.
"Who are you?" the white one started, "Did it really only take 1000 years for you to all forget me?" Sombra replied as he expanded himself to look more intimidating, his burning green eyes lock onto the white unicorn. "I'm afraid I don't know who you are, I am Shining Armor and this mare here is my wife Cadance," He said gesturing to the alicorn, "We mean you no harm and simply wish to speak to you." "On what grounds do you wish to speak with me, peasant?" Sombra replied harshly. "Please can you just tell us who you are," the pink one finally spoke, "We simply want to know why you came here." "Well then, if you truly wish to know why I came here, I came here to ground you two into dust and take back my empire" Sombra stated while forcing his eyes to burn even brighter, the purple smoke trails now going back three metres. "Wait you're..." the one named Shining began. "Yes?" "K-King Sombra?" he stuttered back, Sombra loved the fear that was emanating from him. "Oh so you do know who I am, I had almost lost hope." "You're the one that caused years of suffering for the crystal ponies?" the pink one stated confidently, was she stupid? "Yes I am, and I also had a lot of fun doing it wouldn't you know."
After this last remark a spell began to appear on her horn, did she think she could hurt him. Apparently she could as a beam of blue light shot out from her horn and was absorbed by his shadow form, what she fired was painful and felt like... concentrated love? How was this possible? Still questions could be asked later as Sombra made a beeline for the weakness he had opened, that was also getting smaller. He only just managed to get through as the annoying pink one shot him again. Sombra didn't even pause until he was clear by at least 1000 metres, looking behind him, the shield had changed from purple to blue, that would match the magical aura of Cadance then. One scanning spell later and it was revealed that it was a shield compromised completely of love, although something like that would require a constant spell and constant spells lead to fatigue. Sombras eyes grew greener as he started getting a rush at how much the tides had turned so quickly. Now time to play the waiting game until the annoying one collapsed, he was only sad he would not see it for himself.
*****
In Canterlot an excited but nervous Twilight Sparkle was standing in the station with the other elements of harmony, her best friends. Celestia had just showed her a projection of the Crystal Empire and how she would be the one to find a way to protect it. Her friends were giving her happy and quizzical looks, Pinkie Pie immediately presumed she'd passed whatever test Celestia had given her and immediately set off a party cannon.
"Are we gonna celebrate your awesomeness with Princess Celestia?" Pinkie yelled as she jumped in unison with her cannons confetti. "Not quite." Twilight replied as pinkie fell back to the ground, as the confetti went back in the cannon... Twilight didn't even bother thinking of a explanation better that 'it's Pinkie Pie' and shrugged it off, "We're going to the Crystal Empire!" "Huh?" her friends all let out in unison. "Crystal what?" Rainbow Dash said. "Crystal Empire, Dash," Twilight said again incase her friend hadn't heard her properly. "I heard you Twi, but what do you mean by Crystal Empire?" Rainbow seemed rather confused, the others all just nodded in unison. "Ok I'll explain on the train there, we need to get going" "Must we really leave now darling?" Rarity protested, "I had hopes to look through the Canterlot shopping district." "Sorry Rarity, we can go after we get back, but this is of the utmost importance"
"All aboard for the Arctic North," A conductor yelled out, signalling the train was about to leave.
"We're headed to the north?" Applejack asked, she probably preferred being in Ponyville where it wasn't below freezing half the time "Oh oh oh, will we see yetis?" Pinkie said with her usual randomness. "I highly doubt it Pinkie," Twilight answered "How about a Lausk? or a dragon, how about some hippocampi?" Pinkie said as she raised a hoof to her chin in a thoughtful pose. After this Twilight facehoofed, she then turned her attention back to the others. "Ok we should probably go and get seats, the train leaves soon and there won't be another to the north for an entire day."
They all got on just as the conductor did his last call, they found a small but comfortable train car with padded seats. Pinkie lay down and fell asleep before the train even left, being random must be tiresome, Rainbow began reading a Daring Do book, Rarity was looking in a hoof-held mirror, Applejack started chatting with Fluttershy who hadn't said a word and looked very, very nervous. Twilight then sat down and pulled out a book on Advanced magical theory, by Starswirl the Bearded of course. Twilight remembered she needed to explain fully but that could wait, she wanted to try and calm down a little bit now, Twilight was engulfed by the extremely detailed book and soon forgot all her worries about failing her test, for now she was with her friends and she was happy. At the same time she couldn't help but feel like she'd forgotten something... Spike was still outside the train! How could she have forgotten him, after teleporting out to grab spike, Twilight reappeared in the train with a sheepish look on her face, her friends giving her almost embarrassed looks.
*****
Sombra had forgotten how boring waiting was, he'd been waiting almost 10 hours and the alicorn was still at it. Curious, for some reason Shining Armor was leaving the shield wearing only a scarf and flimsy mask, his curiosity spiked, Sombra followed unseen. After a gruelling trek through a snowstorm Shining was near a train station that had a train there now, what good timing. At the station there were six ponies, two unicorns, one purple and one white, two pegasi one yellow and the other blue, with a rainbow coloured mane no less, he wouldn't be surprised if she was actually called rainbow, knowing some ponies names that are around. Finally there were two earth ponies, one orange, wearing a stetson and the other was pink and bouncing around the entire station and her friends, why were the annoying ones always pink?
He saw Shining approach the new group, the purple one then embraced him and they spoke for a moment, they then started heading towards his empire, what exactly was special about this small group of fillies anyway? When they were about halfway to the empire Sombra was bored of waiting, he let out a loud ominous wail, expanded his form and began to chase them. A small dragon he hadn't seen before that was carrying a large suitcase was paralysed by fear, perhaps an easy meal, but the white one saved him, what a shame. Now shining stopped and turned to face him as the others continued to the blue bubble on the horizon, if he wanted to battle so be it. Sombra rose far above the unicorn, who tried to hit him with a beam of purple magic which Sombra dodged easily, Sombra then proceeded to swoop down. Got him! There's no way he could survive- where did he go? Sombra was incredibly frustrated that he had been tricked by a stalling tactic, how low of him. No matter, he would punish the trickster later. All he accomplished was scaring the life out of a group of seemingly unimportant ponies, he supposed that was acceptable for now, at least they wouldn't be as keen to leave the empire so he had them pinned for now.
*****
Twilight and her friends had made it to the empire, scared and out of breath. She saw all her friends were accounted for, but her brother wasn't in sight, a wave of panic rushed over Twilight as she started thinking of what Sombra would do to him. Mere seconds later Shining stumbled through the shield, he looked fine except from the crystals that seemed to be embedded in his horn. "Oh, no! Shining Armor, your horn!" Twilight spoke as she rushed over to him, purple sparks danced between the crystals and only half of his horn had a visible aura. "I'll be fine, we need to get you to Cadance." He replied in a crackly voice.
Twilight was finally able to get a good look at the empire, instantly noticing how in here it looked more like spring than the snowstorm that was occurring outside. The entire empire was beautiful, seeming to reflect sunbeams in all possible colours, giving the illusion of there being rainbows in quite a few places. "Sparkleriffic!" Pinkie exclaimed, the look of amazement on her face matching the expressions of the others. After getting back to reality they all continued towards the empire.
Sombra was enraged after Shining Armors trick allowed the other ponies to get away, he managed to keep his cool at first but eventually lost it. The shield had only weakened slightly since it was first raised, still that didn't stop the large shadow outside of it throwing everything it had at it, dark burst after dark burst Sombra fired at the shield, but it still wouldn't give. The last he saw of those ponies was after Shining teleported away, when he got to the shield they had been heading towards the castle, most likely to speak to the alicorn. For now he would give the empire some space, he really would prefer to avoid Cadances attacks.
*****
"Well he just seemed like a big meanie," Pinkie said in a much more deadpan tone than usual, losing her excitement from earlier, it would seem that seeing Sombra had a bad effect on her, "he probably never let anypony living here have parties!" "I'm sure he wouldn't have, Pinkie" Twilight replied in a tone similar to Pinkies, "but we're here to make sure he doesn't take over again, and that's exactly what we'll do" "Yeah, we'll show him!" Rainbow announced triumphantly as the others nodded in agreement.
On their way to the castle, they noticed there were bored looking ponies walking around, their coats also looked drained in a way, making them appear darker, Twilight hypothesised this was simply because they had different genes, or something like that anyway. The castle looked as good up close as it had at a distance, it seemed to reflect Celestias sun perfectly, sending rainbows in all directions. The castle itself was made of pale blue crystal and stood tall, standing on four legs, each with a doorway inside them. Looking up, Twilight observed that there was a small hole in the castle, but what was its purpose... She turned back towards her friends, seeing Rainbow and Applejack snickering and Rarity blushing slightly, Twilight simply smiled and proceeded to lead them into the castle.
The interior of the castle was both phenomenally beautiful and painfully blinding. With the whole structure made out of crystal, light was reflected in great amounts in all directions. After stumbling around a lot the small group finally reached the throne room, Shining opened the door with his magic to reveal an extremely extravagant room, with windows and banners along the walls, most of the banners were ripped but some still had the image of King Sombra on them, they hadn't been taken down yet. On the throne sat a pink alicorn, drooped over. Twilights face lit up as she saw her sister in law but instantly faded to a look of worry upon noticing how weak Cadance looked, she had bags under her eyes and her eyes were currently closed.
Twilight and her friends waited at the door as Shining went to wake Cadance, she was casting a spell in her sleep which was something only alicorns and rather skilled unicorns could do, even so the caster gained very little benefit from sleeping and could only do it for about two hours at a time. Shining trotted up to her and whispered in her ear, Cadance opened her eyes and a look of joy appeared on her face as she saw Twilight, she tried to get up but just collapsed back into the throne. "Sorry if I don't do our usual dance, Twilight. I'm not at my best right now." Cadance sighed, "It's taking almost all of my energy to keep this shield up." "If you're so tired why doesn't Shining use his own shield spell?" Twilight asked "I've tried kiddo, Sombra managed to get through it as if it was made of butter," Shining spoke with a dreary look, he was obviously sad he could not assist Cadance. "But if your shield was countered why is Cadances still working?" "My shield is different to Shinings, instead of projecting reinforced energy, I'm projecting love around the empire, Sombra has been unable to pass it, only problem is..." Cadance suddenly slumped down in her throne before jerking back up, "...as you can see it takes a lot out of me to keep it up, I won't be able to hold it up much longer now." "Twilight," Shining began. "The reason you were sent here was to find some way to protect the empire?" Twilight nodded. "Ok good, I'm going to stay here and make sure Cadance is alright, you and your friends have to go and question the Crystal Ponies" "Will do Shining." Twilight spoke as she turned to her friends, "Ok we all need to split up and see if the Crystal Ponies know anything, alright?" Pinkie begins waving her hoof in the air, "Yes Pinkie?" "Will there be a bakery here?" "I don't know, why do you ask?" "Just wondering, thanks." "Right... anyway lets get going." Everyone else then nods in agreement. When everyone had left apart from Twilight, Shining called out to her, "Twi, I think there's an old library not far from here, you should check it out." Upon hearing this Twilights eyes light up. "Really? I have got to look there first, thanks." She then leaves, closing the throne room door behind her. After she left Cadance noticed the black crystals embedded in Shinings horn. "Hey, what are those?" Cadance asked gesturing to his horn with her hoof "Oh it's just something Sombra did to me out there, it'll be fine..." Shining just sighed and went back to looking at the door until suddenly he felt the crystals being blasted away from his horn. "There," Cadance started, "much better." "You didn't have to do that, you shouldn't waste your energy." "I don't mind... I just hope they're back soon." "Me too," was all Shining replied as he went back to staring at the door.
*****
Outside the shield Sombra had a huge grin on his face, still in his shadow form.
Well at least it's obvious they aren't strategic masterminds, they've left me out here too long.
In the time he had been outside the shield he had regained enough power to use his communication spells again, after doing a short sweep of the Empire he saw that Avalite was there and his runes were still intact.
I'll destroy them from the inside!
Sombra began to laugh as he readied his spell...
*****
Avalite Seeker wasn't too sure where he was right now, the area was familiar but he couldn't put a name to it as he glanced around. After a second he saw a table under an umbrella and just decided to take a seat and wait.
After a few minutes he began to feel faint and nauseous, for no obvious reason. "Avalite... upon hearing this he just glanced behind him to see a deserted street, "Avalite Seeker... Avalite began feeling nervous now as there was no one else with him. "Hello?" Avalite called out, trying to sound intimidating. "Ah, so you can still hear me," the voice replied. "Erm... yeah but I can't see you, where are you?" "I'm outside the city, and I need your help Avalite" the voice continued, sounding confident in itself. "Why should I help you? How do I know you're even real?" At this point he waited for a reply, but received none. After a few seconds Avalite collapsed to the ground, it felt as if a lightning bolt had shot through his skull. Suddenly images started flashing through his head, he saw himself in some kind of crystal armour but through someone elses eyes, amidst the images he saw someone looking into a mirror, the reflection was tall, wearing steel-looking armour and had glowing green eyes.
Eventually Avalite was able to get to his feet again, still shaking slightly and overall feeling somehow different "I remember now, you're King Sombra and I'm your..." Avalite paused as he thought, "Second in command?" "So you remember now, and are you ready to follow my orders once again?" Upon hearing this Avalite took a moment to think. "Of course m'lord," he then bowed to no one in particular, "what would you have of me?" "I'm presuming you remember the purple flowers that grow in the Empire?" "The ones that we used to silence captives?" "Exactly... I need you to make a brew of them and give it to a pink Alicorn, currently residing inside my citadel" "An... Alicorn?" Avalite asked with a sound of disbelief in his voice. "Yes, it seems there are more now, I don't know how many as I've only seen this one, hopefully there are no more." Avalite began to grin, "Ok Sir, I'll make the brew and I'll make it look like an act of kindness." "Ah, I see you're beginning to act like yourself again. Go now and do not fail" "It will be done." He then saluted, again to no one in particular before leaving to find what he needed.
*****
"What do you mean you don't know where they are?" Twilight said with her voice raised slightly. "I've told you all I can remember," the librarian replied, "I'm certain history is over there," she raised her hoof towards the left of the library, "Somewhere." "Urgh nevermind, I'll find them myself. Come on Spike lets get looking." Twilight looked around at Spike who had just sighed slightly before walking towards where the librarian pointed, Twilight quickly followed. "Well Spike," Twilight began to the small dragon, "You've found books for me plenty of times at home, lets see if you're as good here, huh?" "Yeah, we'll see," he replied, "Don't you think you might have been a little harsh back there?" Twilight looked at Spike, slightly annoyed. "I might have gotten a little angry I suppose..." "A little?" he replied as he raised an eyebrow. "Oh sshhh, It's just that these ponies haven't been even a little helpful since we arrived is all." "I suppose but shouting at them won't help," Spike said as they arrived at the first bookcase, "anyway lets start looking," he finished as he began looking. Twilight sighed before joining him.
About 30 minutes later they were both still looking when suddenly a crystal pony with a cyan coat and a bright green mane ran into the library, grabbed a book, and left before Twilight or Spike could get a word out. "Ok that was different," Twilight stated, "I wish we were having as much luck as him," Twilight chuckled slightly as she went back to looking. "Hey Twilight, I think I found something," Spike called from just down the row, "it's just called 'History of the Crystal Empire', straight to the point I guess." "Well done Spike," Twilight said as she seized the book in her telekinetic grip, "now we just need to see how they protected themselves."
Twilight and spike had been sitting in the library for a few minutes, Spike was sitting down twiddling his thumbs and waiting while Twilight was lost in the book. "Oh no," Twilight spoke suddenly. "What is it?" "We need to get to Shining and Cadance now. "But Twi-" "No, I mean now," she cut in as she hurried outside, dragon following behind. "Twilight will you please tell me what's going on?" "Ok," Twilight slowed down a little to explain, "it says in the book that traditionally the crystal ponies had some kind of faire to charge an ancient relic, 'The Crystal Heart' it says here." "Ok, so we need to set up a faire and find a relic?" "Yes but it won't be as easy as that, Cadance was already weak when we left and I doubt Sombra would leave the Heart out in the open for anyone to find." "So this could be more of a problem then?" Spike asked, sounding a little worried now. "Yes, we need to get this to Shining and Cadance to explain." "We should try and go faster then," Spike said as he jumped onto Twilights back. "Urgh, you aren't light you know," Twilight said as she was almost winded. "Sorry but you're faster than me." Twilight just nodded and sped up to a gallop.
*****
Avalite had done as he had been asked, he'd gone to the library to get the book, which had been exactly where he remembered luckily, and he's used the instructions in it to brew a sedative potion, stronger than the book said to make it though, it was strong enough to knock out a stallion. As he approached the throne room door in the castle he stopped to think about how to go about doing this, he eventually decided he would tell them it was a Crystal Empire delicacy and acted as a stimulant.
Avalite took a deep breath and pushed open the throne room door. "Um... excuse me?" Avalite started inquisitively. "And you are?" a tall, white stallion asked him. "My name is Avalite Seeker, I heard that the princess was tired?" "How did you know that?" Shining asked, sounding annoyed "Most of us know now, hard not to," he explained as he pointed outside to the flickering sky, "I brought something that can help." "What? How?" Shining asked, sounding invested now. "Well, here we have a special drink which also acts as a stimulant, I thought it could help," Avalite continued, a few beads of sweat forming above his brow. "I don't know, may not be a good idea." "Shining..." Cadance had woken up sometime during the conversation, "we need to show we can trust them, I'll drink it," upon hearing this Shining raised an eyebrow but took the drink from Avalite anyway. "Are you sure?" Shining asked Cadance as he handed it to her. "Yes I'm sure," she said as she started drinking it. "I'm sorry but there's something I have to attend to," Avalite bowed as he began walking out the door, "good luck." "Thanks," Shining replied.
*****
Twilight and Spike had finally made it to the castle and had slowed to a quick trot as they approached the throne room. "Hey," Twilight said as she nudged Spike, "there's the crystal pony who ran into the library." "Maybe we should ask him why he's here?" Spike then suggested. "I suppose we could, we're short on time, but it may be for the best, I'll talk to him, you wait near the throne room door." Twilight then politely walked up to him and went to introduce herself. "Hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle and I was wondering if I could ask you a few things?" After hearing this Avalite looked like he been interrupted as he turned to her. "Yes?" He asked her. "Well I was just wondering why you were standing outside the throne room?" "You'll find out in a moment," Twilight was confused at this, "look," Avalite just pointed outside at the sky. "Yeah, what about the sky," after a few seconds the sky flickered again before fading to orange completely, "Oh no," she looked back at Avalite, "What did you do!" "I just let my lord into his land," he grinned, "he'll be here soon, just wait." A look of dread washed over her face as she turned to the throne room door where Spike was standing, she then galloped over to the door and pushed it open, narrowly missing Spike in the process.
Twilight burst into the throne room and saw Shining next to Cadance, who seemed to have passed out. "What happened?" Twilight asked with urgency. "Some crystal pony came in here, offered Cadance a drink and after she drank it she fell asleep!" "Yeah I just saw him outside, he said he had let 'his lord' in, do you think he did it to let Sombra in?" "Well it seems likely doesn't it? Why else would he do it!" "Why else indeed, my unicorn friend," A voice stated. Shining and Twilight both looked behind them to see the entire door had been engulfed by shadow. "Hey, where's Spike?" "The dragon? He's quite alright, I just knocked him out." "You did what!" "He is fine I assure you." "Why are you here, monster?" Shining asked sternly. "Is it not obvious? I'm here to take back what is rightfully mine." "It's not yours, the empire doesn't belong to you." "No, but that's about to change." "I'm sorry but you're only a shadow, what do you hope to do?" Sombra simply began to laugh at this. "How naive of you, to think I'd come so unprepared," after saying this Sombras shadow form began to writhe as it formed back into a pony, one with purple smoke pouring out his eyes and red cloak at his back, "Better?" "Either way I won't let you harm anyone here." "Don't worry, I won't harm them, simply enslave them again." After hearing this something in Shining snapped as he quickly launched a beam of pure energy at Sombra, who stepped aside to avoid the attack. "How pathetic, I really expected more of a challenge," Sombra said as he began to grin. The now angered Shining Armor continued firing off stronger and stronger magic bolts. "Shining!" Twilight interceded, "he's just trying to make you angry." "Well it's working!" he yelled back as he fired off another beam. "This is pitiful, let me put you out of your misery," Sombra then caught one of Shinings bolts in his magical grip and redirected it back at him, throwing him back a few feet. "Shining!" Twilight yelled as she ran over to him, "are you ok?" "Please... stop him," Shinings eyes then rolled into the back of his head as he passed out. After this Twilight turned and faced Sombra, anger visible on her face, "I'll make you pay for that!" she yelled. "I'm afraid I won't give you the chance to my dear." Twilight prepared to respond to him but found herself unable to as a cold feeling gripped her. "What... is this?" Twilight stammered. "It's just something to help you sleep." The last thing Twilight heard was Sombra laughing as the world around her faded to black.
