Chapter 1: Princess Cadance kicks some flank
In the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance, a pink Alicorn, found herself captured yet again. That pony is nearly as bad as Princess Peach, another princess who is prone to being captured and likes wearing pink.
Oh, and Shining Armor and the adorable foal Flurry Heart have also found themselves captured.
In the throne room of the Crystal Castle, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart were trapped in a cage made of dark-purple crystal. The crystals were individually shaped like large spikes that crossed over each other, in effect forming a pyramid-like cage.
How did this happen? King Sombra had returned and took over the Crystal Empire.
The King himself sat on the throne, not far from the cage containing the trapped family. He was fed fruit on a silver platter (literally) by a couple of ponies under mind-control, with their green eyes showing it.
Cadance and Shining Armor tried to break the cage with beams of their magic. Unfortunately, the beams had no effect on the prison, due to the anti-magic properties of the crystals.
After Cadance’s and Shining’s last failed attempt, Sombra dropped a single green grape in his mouth. He savored the sweet juiciness of the fruit with each chew, and finally, with a smile, swallowed the mush that was once a round grape once he chewed it enough. With a smirk, Sombra turned his head to the scowling trapped couple. “Aw, it’s cute that you think that would do anything.”
“Let us go, Sombra!” Cadance yelled.
“Or you’ll be sorry!” Shining Armor added.
“Me? Sorry? Don’t make me laugh! Oh, too late! Ha ha ha!”
“How did you even return anyway?” Shining asked. “I thought the power of the Crystal Heart defeated you for good!”
“What can I say? You can’t keep a bad guy down. Ha!” Sombra was fed another grape and it was as scrumptious as the last one.
Cadance said, “Laugh if you want, but my sister-in-law and her friends will defeat you with the power of the Elements!”
Sombra laughed his hardest and longest yet.
Cadance asked, “What’s so funny?!”
Sombra took a bite out of an apple. “Well, I will admit that the power of friendship is formidable, but, I have a plan on how to defeat the Elements. I once heard that the greatest power comes from a parent seeing their foal in danger, especially from the mother. But apparently, whoever said that did it after they drank too much cider!”
“What do you mean by that?” Cadance asked.
“Well, look at you two. Not only have I taken over the Crystal Empire and will soon rule Equestria, but your little foal is trapped. Yet all you can do now is sit there sucking your hooves, hoping somepony else does your job! One of you is even an Alicorn!”
Cadance gasped and a frown formed on her face. “No, it’s not like that, Sombra! I’d do anything for the Crystal Empire, Equestria, and my daughter! I just--”
“Need others to do your work because you’re too weak?” Sombra interrupted with a condescending grin.
Both Cadance and Shining growled and Shining shouted, “Hey! Don’t you dare call my wife weak! That’s going too far!”
“Well, why won’t you do something about it?”
“Don’t tempt me!” Shining threatened with his horn glowing rose.
“Oh, but I will!" Sombra sneered. "Why won’t you two do your job and save the Crystal Empire and your foal? Maybe I should take her, so she’ll have a parent that can actually protect her? I could use somepony to be my heir, and who better than the first pony to be born an Alicorn in Equestria?”
Cadance’s eyes widened. Her mouth dropped, but she said nothing.
Shining ordered, “You leave Flurry Heart out of this, you monster!”
Sombra took a bite from an apple, then stood from the throne and strutted to the cage holding the powerless family. With Shining Armor gasping, Sombra used his magic to move apart a few of the pillars, opening the cage just enough for him to levitate Flurry Heart out of the prison and to him, and sealed it again. Flurry whimpered as Sombra smiled at her. He was going to be her new dad and mold her into a heartless tyrant, like him.
“This is your last chance, Sombra! LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE!!” Shining yelled.
“Ha! I know an empty threat when I hear one! But I am surprised why ‘mommy dearest’ isn’t saying anything or even moving. Perhaps she’s accepted her uselessness and gave up?”
Shining turned to Cadance and asked, “Honey? What’s wrong?”
“Honey” didn’t respond. She hadn’t budged since Sombra threatened to take Flurry Heart from her. In fact, he just did. How could she let this happen? After she and Flurry were saved from the Changelings, Cadance promised herself that Flurry Heart would never be taken again. Not while the Princess of Love was breathing.
And now Flurry was taken, and Cadance is still breathing.
Flashbacks of all the time Cadance had spent with Flurry poured into every brain cell in her head. From learning she was “expecting” to Flurry’s painful as Tartarus birth (Have you SEEN the size of that foal’s wings?!) to playing “peek-a-boo” just three hours ago.
And if that didn’t crush Cadance’s heart enough, she couldn’t deny that King Sombra had a point. As Princess Flurry Heart’s parents, either Princess Cadance or Prince Shining Armor (or both) should save her, not beg Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and her friends to do it. Cadance’s pride as a pony, princess, and most of all a mother, had never been more wounded.
This. Could. Not. Stand.
Cadance’s Cutie Mark, normally of a blue heart, ignited into a red heart. She gritted her teeth, nearly cracking them, and her horn glowed light blue. Maternal instinct kicked into overdrive, and then kicked into the overdrive’s overdrive, raising the magic inside her far beyond what the Alicorn normally possessed. She was no longer going to wait for Twilight Sparkle to save them.
No. She had some flank to kick, NOW. Start running, King Sombra.
Yet, still with a smirk, Sombra was unimpressed and definitely wasn’t going to run. “Aww, how cute. Go on, give it your best shot!”
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza -- Cadance’s full name -- did not have to be told twice. Or even once. With a mighty roar that only an enraged mother could unleash, she unleashed a beam of magic that broke through the anti-magic effects of the crystal cage and shattered it.
“What?!” Sombra shouted with a shocked frown. He didn’t expect Cadance to break free. But he calmed himself and a smirk reappeared on his face, because it was merely a minor inconvenience. He could use some more exercise anyway.
“Try it,” Cadance taunted.
Sombra’s horn glowed and a green beam was fired at Cadance.
Without even blinking, Cadance leaned her head to the side and the blast missed its intended target by mere inches. With a bang, the beam blew open a hole in the wall behind Cadance. She is a princess, so she could easily get it repaired, or repair it herself with her magic. Shining Armor had to hide that his wife was inadvertently turning him on, so his blush was only slightly noticeable.
“Now it is my turn.” Cadance’s horn glowed. A light-blue barrier appeared over Flurry Heart, then the mother pulled her foal from Sombra to Shining Armor with her magical telekinesis.
With Flurry Heart safe, Cadance didn’t need to hold back her new power anymore. Another light-blue beam, the largest yet, at least the width of her body, was fired with Sombra’s name on it.
Seriously. The letters of Sombra’s name were in the blast.
Sombra created a barrier, but Cadance’s beam broke through his barrier and smashed into him. He was sent screaming into a wall and bounced off of it.
The impact broke Sombra’s mind-control spell, so all ponies affected by it, including the two still in the throne room that served Sombra fruit, were freed. Once the two fruit-serving ponies came to their senses, on instinct, they sped out of the room.
Lying on his stomach, Sombra shook his head and stared at Cadance. Her facial expression remained as fierce as ever.
“W-What’s going on?!”
“Easy, Sombra. You told me to do my job, so I am. And I have more work to do.”
Cadance would have cracked her knuckles, but she was so mad, she skipped that part and lit up her horn. Her purple eyes were solely on Sombra. There was no escape from the mother’s wrath. Seeing Cadance’s horn glowing ever brighter, Sombra could think of only one thing to say, which was a stroke of irony.
“Uh, mommy?”
Shining Armor jumped in front of Cadance and said, “Wait, Cadance. Don’t do it.”
“Why not?! You heard what he said about us. Worse, he tried to take Flurry away!”
Shining responded, “I know. But you’re about to finish him off before I can have my turn.”
Cadance’s scowl relaxed into a bashful smile, her horn ceased glowing, and her Cutie Mark returned to being a blue heart. She forgot that Shining Armor would want to kick Sombra’s flank too. “Oh, how silly of me, dear, and I’m sorry. Go ahead and have some fun with our ‘guest’.”
“You’re too kind, honey.” Shining Armor “handed” Flurry to Cadance with his magic, turned around to Sombra, and gritted his teeth. He didn’t have the power of the now-juggernaut Princess Cadance, but he was far from being a “weak” Unicorn.
“Uh, daddy?” Sombra muttered, hoping that somehow his dad would appear and save him. He didn’t.
Shining fired a rose-colored beam that slammed into Sombra, sending him into the wall and bouncing off of it again.
When Sombra recovered his bearings again, he didn’t speak a word. Despite the pain he felt, he sprang to his hooves and fled out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him.
Neither Cadance nor Shining Armor said anything as he fled. But once Sombra was out of the castle, they looked to each other.
Shining said, “Well, he’s getting away. What do you--”
“Dibs!” Cadance's Cutie Mark fired up into a red heart again. She “handed” Flurry Heart back to Shining Armor and sprinted out of the room. Her job wasn’t done.