A Tyrant Uplifted

Twilight and Cadence only needed a moment to look at each other before they both took flight. Cadence went around Luna's right side while Twilight took her left. With magic drained, their wings were all they could use to save the Princess of the Night. The two younger princesses locked hooves around Luna's chest and flanks as they started descending in order to gently bring her descent to a halt.

Finally, they made it to the ground, and Shining Armour lifted the unconscious princess out of his family's grip to place her on the nearest bench. "What happened?" He asked shortly after.

Celestia landed, panting from her effort, "Cadence, Twilight, Thank you. There was another sudden drain of magic from us. Luna lost more power than I did, and passed out mid-flight."

Twilight nodded, "We felt the drain, too. Do we have any idea what's happening?"

"Yes. I'm not sure why, but the Crystal Heart is taking our power every now and then. That's why we came to the Crystal Empire instead of Canterlot," Celestia told her, "We're here to look at the Heart and find out what's going on."

"I hope you'll be okay after this," Aurora told him, "You need to avoid fighting those two."

Sombra groaned, "Actually, there were four of them this time, Aurora."

"Who showed up with them?"

"Topaz Ring and Emerald Choker."

Aurora groaned, "Of course those two would jump into this... Look, Sombra, I have a piece to dispose of. An enchanted gem. Unfortunately, it's unstable, which is why I have to take it to the larger facility so we can get rid of it safely."

Sombra nodded a bit. "Thank you, Aurora." His horn glowed a bright red and the door opened for her. As she left, Sombra gasped, "Oh, by the way, I have something for you."

"Well, then, I'll get it after the magic is removed from the gem," With that, Aurora was out the door, and gone.

Sombra walked over to the bed and opened a small box containing something he'd made. The necklace floated out. The amulet on the necklace was silver, with a single amethyst in the middle. The shape was that of a pony, as one would draw from the front, with an angular style, no legs on it, and it had wings in addition to a horn. The wings were lined with with a gold color at the top.

The Crystal Heart was spinning rapidly in front of them, a strange glow coming from the mix of magic taken from the ponies who were staring at it, trying to figure out why it was taking their magic from them.

"Uh, everypony?" Twilight spoke up, "There's something weird about the amount of magic in the Heart. There isn't enough to have wiped all five of us out twice and retained it. What happened to the rest of our power that was drained?"

"That is an excellent point, Twilight," Luna looked around, "It's not reverberating, either. Whatever the Heart is doing, it hasn't released any magic, meaning that some other object is also taking our power away from us."

"But why?" Twilight asked, "Why would this be happening all of a sudden?"

The ground shook, startling Sombra back to his hooves from his resting place on the bed. He quickly galloped outside, rushing in the direction of the sound he heard. He reached the clearing where he'd practiced, and saw something that tore him apart. There were splinters of a cart everywhere, and in the middle of it all was Aurora Borealis, her lifeless form unmoving in the sunset.

"Aurora!" Sombra shouted, galloping to her. He placed a hoof on her side and started shaking her, "Wake up! Please, Aurora, don't die on me!!" Tears flooded his eyes as he pushed his hoof into the side of her neck to check for a pulse. There was none.

"What happened here..?" Sunrise Flare walked into the clearing. His look of shock soon turned to anger, "Sombra, what did you do?"

That was it. Sombra's sadness immediately changed to anger as well, "What did I do?! You're trying to blame ME?!"

Red crystals rose from the ground around the crystal pony as dark tendrils formed at the edges of Sombra's eyes. "She was my friend!" He shouted, "My only friend it this whole place!" The necklace he'd made for Aurora slipped out of his bag, and he looked down at it. "That's it..." He said to himself, before turning back to Flare, "For this, and what the Crystal empire has done to me all this time... ALL OF YOU WILL SUFFER FOR IT!"

Sombra then shouted as his horn glowed brightly, as magic power started coming towards him. Every unicorn in the world all felt it at the same time. Their magic was drained, and flowed into the amulet.

The amethyst on the amulet turned a dark red, as well as the gold on the wings. The eye etched into it splintered, turning into an angle on the top. Sombra placed the amulet on his neck and the power coursed through him. He then turned towards the palace, leaving Flare trapped in his cage.