Unexpected Friendship and Love

A/N: Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I failed at everything, but then it all turns out to be a big joke in the end. You always need to figure out what is real and what are the fakes.

Now what I think about fanfiction authors. There are three types of accounts. One is the authors themselves which makes stories only. The second is linkers which just favorite stories and authors for others to use along with themselves. And the third is linkthors which does both. I made that last one up.

Now you didn't come here to hear me rant, you came to read stories.

Sorry for staying away for too long. Once I was able to write one of these it was too late as season 3 came up so I decided to combine it and this will be both episodes that are coming up. So I recommend watching them first. There will be a slight change though.

So without further ado here is Unexpected Friendship and Love.

"Luna where is the Foal Free Press?"

"It should be under the other papers."

Flick Flick Flick

"Found it!"

Celestia opened it up to the read the latest harmless gossip from those young foals down in Ponyville. The ones before depicted her getting caught eating cake. How they got that picture and evading the guards even has her confused. She was only a millisecond away from sending them to the moon. Only her sister calmed her down when she saw how pent up she was about it. She read through the regular advisement without a care as the things they put on the newspaper is useless and she would know. 'Stupid window cleaner.' That thing left streaks on her windows and even came close to damaging them. 'Not to self: Always go to store and see the product first.'

She flipped over a few pages until it showed something about a fundraiser for a new bell. "Now that's just odd. I could have sworn it was working the last time I visited." She said to herself.

The door to Celestia's room opened to find that Chrysalis is standing there with a groggy look in her eyes. "I really need some food in my belly." She declared as she entered.

Celestia and Luna looks at her confused for a few moments. "Why don't you ask Primus to feed you?" Luna asked.

Chrysalis turns her head slowly, as she had just woken up, to Luna. "He's in the kitchen cooking us a meal."

Celestia and Luna nodded their heads and goes back to reading before their eyes widen in shock…

"HE'S DOING WHAT!" They both said completely out of shock.

Chrysalis looks in confusion as a large amount of galloping is heard and the only thing left on the bed and chair are two dust clouds, both in the image of Celestia and Luna, dissipating from the papers they were holding cutting through them.

She then just sighs and walks toward the kitchen. "Looks like I'm saving his flank again."

Primus stirred evenly as he cooks the soup that he was making to go on some rice he let the pressure cooker make. He was humming happily to Music by Manic Drive as he places more ingredients into the pot. He quickly stirs to mix the new ingredients then slows down to even the cooking. He reaches over to pick up the last piece of the meal until…

CRASH

"PRIMUSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!"

Primus looks over to the door and sees two very angry mares and sweat drops with a nervous laugh. "Uh…hi…girls?"

Both of their horns glow brightly and lift him up in the air as if he was nothing. He lets go of the stirrer, which falls into the pot with a plop, and starts sweating bullets.

"This isn't what it looks like!" He tries to reason.

The magic suddenly drops him to the ground very hard. His eyes roll around from the magically infused fall. Chrysalis enters and sees both Celestia and Luna surrounding Primus in a magical aura. They proceed to drag him away on the ground making noises akin to what you might hear when you drag the garbage bag out to the dumpster.

Primus shakes his head a few times and gets out of his cat groove daze, to find him being drag out of the kitchen. And this is the part where foal-like acting begins.

"NO, NO, NOOOOOOOO! PLEASSSSSSSSE, I'VE GOT TO FINISH IT!"

"YOU HAVE DONE ENOUGH!" Both of the princesses yelled out in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Grating sounds comes from his hooves as he tries to get a grip on the lamented floors.

Chrysalis looks on with confusion as both of the princesses drag him out of the door and, presumably, in the direction of Celestia's room.

Let's check on him later. Chrysalis looks back at the still cooking pot he left behind. She magically picks up the stirrer he left in the pot and takes a sip of the delectable soup. She smacks her lips together and hums in thought.

"It's missing something." She looks around the counter to find the missing ingredient.

Until struggling sounds comes from outside the door. Chrysalis turns her head and sees Primus trying to wrap his legs around the door frame until he only gets his head into view.

He grunts heavily. "A pinch of salt." He says in a groaning voice.

Then he is pulled away by the very angry princesses with a yelp, leaving behind a bended door frame.

Chrysalis takes a small pinch of salt from some nearby coffee trays with her magic and places it in the pot. She stirs the spoon steadily and after a few moments takes it out to take another sip. Her eyes widen at the unexpected explosion of flavor. She wanted to share it with everypony so she takes the pot and a lot of bowls with her magic.

"LET GO! LET GO!"

"NO!" Well their mind is made up.

"PLEASE I HAVE TO FINISH THE SOUUUUUUUP!" Now ain't this a crying shame.

Celestia turns her whole body to him menacingly and quickly with her magic aura coming off of her like steams of water. "DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME YOU COOKED?"

"Uh…" Primus looks away in embarrassment of what happened. "No?" That sounded more like a question than an answer and that's what gets you into trouble men. So don't follow Primus's example.

Celestia growls like dog ready to attack and…is it him or does she look more beautiful that way? Of course Shining Armor happens to be walking by. "Oh, hi Shining!" Yeah that might help.

"Huh…" Shining turns his head to see Celestia standing over Primus with a rabid look. "Hey Primus." He waves back. Shining Armor is male unicorn who is captain of the Royal Guard. He has a turquoisish coat with a moderate sapphire blue with moderate cerulean and dark phthalo blue mane and tail. Eyes that are moderate cerulean and hooves that are a moderate sapphire blue. His cutie mark depicts a pink six pointed star over a purple shield with three small light blue stars above it. He also the husband of Princess Cadance and brother of Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia turns her head to Shining then goes back to her sister, who then talks with her in hushed voices. Shining looks back to Primus who was on his back looking at the Princesses fearfully. "You're doing it again?" Shining asks in a knowing voice.

Primus nods fearfully, thinking of what his lover and possible future sister-in-law going to do to him. Shining just shakes his heads in disappointment but with a playful manner.

"You're crazy, you know that, right?" Shining asks.

Primus just looks at him with a blank expression, but on the inside his inside soul is curled up in a fetal position sucking on his wing like a little foal, rocking back and forth. "Yeah I know. By the way, sorry for missing your wedding."

Shining waves a hoof at him dismissively. "It's all right. I know that you have a job to do out there and coming here would have endangered everypony. I also heard that you're with our party crasher along with Celestia."

Primus just nods. "Yeah so don't go sending the guards after her, she has been through enough."

Shining just gives a hidden smile to him. "You got it Primus."

Primus smiles to the size of Pinkie Pie. "Great." The sound of tape ripping comes from the princesses. The boys turn their heads to them to see Luna with a roll of a duct tape strip ready to be cut and place in her hooves. Primus turns back to Shining with a straight face. "Now if you excuse me I got to return to begging and yelling for my life."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"OH YES!"

The princesses' drag him along the carpet covered lamented tile floors to Celestia's room which happened to be nearby. Primus tries to cling to the carpet for his life but all he did was ruin a perfectly good carpet. "NOOOOOOOO! I WANT TO LIVE!" The doors shut effectually blocking all sound.

Shining just stares at the doors for a few moments before…"I WANT TO LIVVVVVVVVVVVE!" The door busting open with his arms flailing widely in the air just and falling to the ground before being pulled back inside again.

Shining raises an eyebrow while his wife appears beside him. "Was he always this weird?" His wife asks. She is an alicorn with a pinkish coat and a dark violet with moderate rose and pale gold streaks mane and tail. Her eyes are a grayish purple and cutie mark is a teal crystal heart with a golden lace.

Shining looks at Cadance briefly before returning his gaze to the door. "You should have seen him when I first met him."

Cadance looks at him with a questioning gaze. "What do you mean?" She asks in a voice that sounded intrigued.

Shining shudders from the memory. "When I first met him he was guarding the princesses in their throne room. Of course, he wasn't seen anywhere. He was actually hiding somewhere that I still can't find. When Princess Celestia gave me the job of being in the Royal Guards he was behind me with his sword ready to stab me." He looks at her with a wide look in his eyes. "I'll tell you, I almost pissed myself when I turned around only to meet the blade on my throat. He just warned me not to get too close to the princesses and when I mean close I mean very close."

Cadance brings a hoof to mouth to stifle the chuckles coming from her muzzle. Her husband almost wet himself coming face to face with a sword that he trained for…that's… hilarious! She couldn't hold it anymore as she falls onto her back, rolling in laughter. "BRWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Shining rolls his eyes at his wife's antics. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up."

BUZZZZZZZZZ

Cadance stops her laughing and gets off the floor immediately. Her husband stands at attention and looks around for the source of the noise. What they didn't expect was Chrysalis buzzing at them with a large pot and several empty bowls.
Chrysalis looks at them for a few moments before filling up two bowls and gives it to them with two spoons. Shining and Cadance take the bowls with their magic and looks at her weirdly. Chrysalis just smiles with a toothy grin. "My way of saying sorry. Primus did make this, but I'm sure he didn't want this to go to waste." She buzzes off to the guards guarding the door and gives them the bowls of soup then heads inside, closing the door behind her. The guards look at their bowls and take a few sips. Even though the soup is a flavor explosion they didn't show it. Shining and Cadance looks at their bowls for a few before trying it themselves. The moment the soup hits their tongue they gasp with pleasure at tasting something that belong in a fine restaurant. They soon walked away to their room in the castle.

The two guards guarding the door still staying to the stoic, facing the wall, unmoving position. "Hey Ted."

"Yeah Steve."

"Interesting stuff happens in this particular hallway, doesn't it?"

"Yep."

"Also…" He pauses and takes a slip from the bowl in front of him. "Good soup."

Steve takes a sip from his and nods his head. "Yep."

Chrysalis places the pot and extra bowls on the serving table in Celestia's room. Then looks over in the middle of the room to see Primus ducted taped to a chair. All of his legs are bound behind him and on the legs of the chair, along with his midsection taped to the back of the chair. Primus looks over to Chrysalis and smiles subtly. Before his could open his mouth however, he sees the large pot of soup that Chrysalis bought. He looks back to Chrysalis with a questioning look.

"Where's the pot of rice?"

Chrysalis just rubs her head with a confusing expression. "Rice? I just saw soup in the kitchen."

Primus tilts his head slightly. "There was a pot of rice ready for the soup to be pored over next to it."

Chrysalis looks blankly at Primus before face hoofing. "I can't believe that I thought that it was just soup." She said quietly. She then lowers her leg again this time with, again, a questioning gaze. "By the way, what did you do that made Celestia and Luna fearful of you cooking in the kitchen?"

Primus looks up in remembrance. "Well…"

2700 years ago

"What are you cooking mister Primus?" A young kind hearted Celestia asks. The kitchen was empty, save for them.

Primus smiles sweetly at the young alicorn foal. "Making some soup to place over some vegetables."
Celestia sticks out her tongue at the sound of that. "Vegetables…Blagh!"

Primus looks at her with a stern gaze. "You are a young alicorn foal who is going through a biological change and you need to have your vitamins and other nutrients by eating this, so don't complain. Besides I was expecting Luna to protest against this."

"Actually I like veggies." Luna walked in the kitchen with a smile. "They have one of my favorite snacks." She jumps onto the table island near them and looks at them with a large smile. "Carrots!"

Primus nods his head in approval. "Good filly, Luna. Plus, they have recently proven that carrots give you better vision. Now I don't want to hear neighs because I'm almost done. All I have to do is add one last ingredient." He reaches over to a harden clay jar and pours in a few ounces of whatever the liquid was into the pot.

Celestia looks at the jar with interest. "What is that?" She points to the jar.

Primus just looks up in thought while still stirring. "I picked it up from a spice traveler. He called it…" He taps his chin in thought with his free hoof. "…I think 'hydrochloric acid'."

Celestia makes a 'oh' gesture at understanding and looks into the pot. She sees the soup bubbling like crazy. "Mister Primus…" Primus looks at her. "…is it supposed to be bubbling like this?"

Primus looks over and in to see what she is seeing. "Not…really." He was unsure himself.

Luna tries to peek over, but she could go so far as standing on her tip hoofs. Primus watches as the now unstable bubbling concoction is staring to bubble quickly and with more frequency with it rising close to the lip of the pot. Now only one thought went through his mind. 'Uh…oh.'

BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The smoke clears and the figures of Primus, Celestia, and Luna are reveled, in all their soothed glory. Soot covered all of their bodies and their manes pushed backwards from the point of the explosion to make a comical picture. Both Primus and Celestia still stood over the pot as they both blinked to say 'WHAT THE TARTARUS HAPPENED!'

Luna blinks a few times before shaking off the soot and looking around. She then gets wide eyes when her eyes hit the ceiling…or what was left of it. The whole roof has been blown off by the edges and nothing remained…expect for the crumbled edges and a piece of the wall falling to the ground. She only has one word for this. "Wow…"

Primus and Celestia shake themselves out of the soot too and look around at the damages. "Mother and father will not be pleased." Celestia said with an astonished tone.

"I agree with you there Celly." Primus you sealed your own fate so the blame falls on you.

Present

"In fact, their parents were not happy, but told me that the only punishment I'll be getting is working to fix the damages. Thankfully we were able to repair it to its former glory."

Chrysalis jaw had fallen to the ground when she heard that Primus…the princesses' royal protector blew up the kitchen while trying to make soup and took out the roof too. (If you are an evildoer, then give him a round of applause. He blew up a part of the castle.)

Celestia walks over to Chrysalis and raises her jaw back into her mouth where it belongs. "Mother and father were not pleased with it at all and both of us were grounded for a week after the incident, even though it was Primus's fault." She sighs heavily. "At least he got into trouble too, but we could not see him for a whole month."

Luna places the duct tape that she had in her mouth on the study table near her. "They just grounded us for protection, but we understood."

Primus looks between all three mares. "So…can you let me go now?" Celestia and Luna looks at him sharply while Chrysalis brings a hoof to her head and shakes it all. Primus tires to shrink under the stare down of the two princesses, but he can't reach his blood ward at the moment.

Before anypony can do anything this is the last thing you expect to happen.

"LOOK OUT!"

CRASH

The two princesses, one Pegasus and missing horn to make an alicorn and an insect looks over to see none other than Derpy Hooves. She is a Pegasus mare with a light sapphire bluish gray coat and a pale, light grayish apple green mane. Her eyes have the same color as her mane. Her cutie mark depicted a bunch of bubbles that to this day; ponies have no idea what it means. Her eyes, also not pony knows how it happened, has been crossed eyed and makes her flying a bother. She had crashed so many times and into ponies and buildings that Celestia had to make a group of rebuilders and doctors just for her damages.

Derpy turns to look at the four tall ponies in the room with an unknowing smile. "Oops…my bad. I just don't know what went wrong." She said while shaking her head and raising her forelegs.

Everypony just sighs and looks at the ground except Chrysalis. "Hello Derpy." Everypony says to her in an unenthusiastic tone, again without Chrysalis who was looking at her eyes with a freaked out look because they are just weird. (No offense to anyone or anypony out there.)

Derpy lazily flies up and reaches into her bag with her head, putting her whole head into it. She comes out with three letters. "One for Primus," she places it on Primus's lap as he wasn't able to move still. "And two for Princess Celestia." Celestia takes the letter with her magic and gives Derpy a few bits for the delivery. Derpy takes the bits and places them in her pouch and salutes and flies away…

CRASH

…to hit the wall next to the hole she just made. She pulls her head from the wall and looks at the occupants in the room. "My bad." She pulls the rest of her body from the wall and this time flies through the hole in the wall without incident…

CRASH

…to hit the tree outside. "My bad!"

Everypony in the room just stares at the hole in the wall as a few birds decides to fly by it, chirping without a care in the world. Then Primus, Celestia, and Luna shakes their heads at the fact that Derpy makes a big gaping hole in the wall every time she delivers the mail to anywhere she goes and just places more work for the builders. Celestia looks at the mail she got a little while ago while Primus does the same. Although in his situation, it isn't working out too well. She sees one from no name; it is in fact blank, and another from a watchtower. She opens the watchtower one and reads that the Crystal Kingdom has reappeared.

(At this point there will be spoilers, so anyone who hasn't seen the episodes better watch them now.)

Cadance will be please with this, but she better send Twilight and her friends to help make sure that it doesn't disappear again. Before she can do anything a slicing sound is heard and then a ripping sound. She looks back and sees Chrysalis freeing Primus. Chrysalis looks at Celestia with an accusing look. "There was no point keeping him like that, especially when he has mail."

Primus gets out of the chair and stretches to get rid of the stiffness. He cracks his neck both ways to get rid of that crick in his spine. "That's better." He picks up the letter that fell to the floor when he got up. "Now let's see." He opens the envelope and pulls out a letter.

Dear Sir or Madam,

You are cordially invited to the concert of VOS and perform for the annual city anniversary. The concert will be held one month from when this letter is made. We hope to see you there.

Your future sponsors,

Phillydelphia

"Sweet, now I hope that Vinyl and others got this too." He puts the letter back into the envelope and places it on the chair. "What did you get?" He asks Celestia.

She looks at the last letter. "One from a watchtower that says that the Crystal Kingdom is back and I was hoping that you would go with Twilight and her friends to make sure it doesn't get wiped off the map again."

Primus bows acceptingly. "As you wish, Princess. What about the other one?" He points a hoof at the other envelope.

Celestia looks at it uneasily. "Not sure. No name or address." She picks up the envelope with her magic and opens it. What she wasn't expecting was a puff of white dust blowing in her face, making her cough and choke. She lets go of the magic she had on the envelope as she steps backward from the sudden surprise. She continues to cough as the dust settles inside her. Primus and the others went into action. Luna ran to the desk and places the envelope in a protective bubble to make sure it doesn't harm anypony else again and wrote a letter to Twilight to bring herself and her friends. Primus cuts himself with the knife that he always has under his wing and swipes his hoof then places the knife back under his wing, then uses his bloodied hoof to swipe a certain blood ward on the side of muzzle. The blood ward comes alive with a flash of red light. A blanket of red covers his muzzle to make a tight seal. The blanket acts like an air filter and allows Primus to go into dangerous air polluted areas. He then uses his invisible horn to use telekinesis on Luna to get her away from the desk as she finished writing the letter. He goes to Celestia and catches her as she falls to the ground from the unknown pathogen that entered her system. Luna sends the letter explaining Celestia's plight and the Crystal Kingdom as she let out a big breath of air, at least she smart enough to hold her breath.

Chrysalis goes to Primus's side to help with Celestia. As she was part bug and meant to survive hostile conditions then it would stand to reason that she can survive whatever was in the envelope. Meanwhile Luna yells at the guards outside the door to get medical attention and a hazmat team. Whether the guards heard her or not is answered by the running hoof steps outside.

Celestia continues to cough as the pathogen did its job. "What…COUGH…was that?" She holds a hoof to her muzzle as the coughing got worse. She turns to the ground and tires to support herself as the she got weaker. Her forelegs wobbled as she struggled to just simply lift herself up. Primus lifts her carefully and sets her back onto the ground on her side, her coughing getting stronger.

Primus starts rubbing his fore hoof on her side to ease the pain. "Don't move. Whatever got inside you is obviously strong so don't act stubborn and lay down until the doctors come." Luna looks on in worry for her sister until Primus looks at her with a commanding expression. "Stand right there and put yourself in a bubble until the doctors come over and would somepony cover that hole in the wall!"

It didn't take long for the doctors to come over. Once they heard a biohazard was in Celestia's private room they gathered all the biohazard suits and the best clean shield unicorns they have. Once they got to her door they placed a magic bubble around the door area and told everypony to wait outside the shield. They entered to find Luna in a protective shield and the envelope too. Two biohazard ponies led Luna outside and clean her up to make sure that nothing was on her then placed her on clean oxygen. They took the envelope and placed it in a glass case with the shield still on, till they closed it. They took the case out of the room and back to the university to have it studied. Soon a stretcher came in magically hold up by two unicorns. They placed the stretcher beside Celestia and rolled her on top of it. They strap her in and magically take her away to the hospital.

A little while later it was determine that Luna, Primus, and Chrysalis wasn't infected and were allowed to roam free. Celestia was placed in a clean room in the Canterlot hospital and placed on a respirator to ease her breathing, although she does cough once in a while. Luna and Primus stood outside the room looking through a viewing window; the only thing separating her from the outside world was a decontamination chamber. Chrysalis was taken to the university to see if her body can produce a cure for whatever the dust was. Inside the room Celestia looks at the glass window to see her sister and lover standing there, worried beyond scales. Then sees Twilight and her friends come from the hallway and stop before Primus. Primus and Luna turns to Twilight and the others.

"Is she okay?" Twilight asks worriedly.

Fluttershy holds her hoofs to the glass, feeling useless as she could not get in there to help make Celestia feel better. Rainbow comes up beside Fluttershy and places a hoof on her shoulder to help her through this development.

Primus shakes his head and looks at the ground in despair. "She's fine, but there is something that she wants you to do."

Twilight tears up at the thought of her mentor dying. "What is it?"

When Primus opens his mouth to speak a doctor comes in from the main doorway. "The pathogen settled so it's safe to go in, but I recommend wearing one of those mask in the decontamination room." The doctor goes through the doors again to deal with the new important patient in a nearby lab.

Primus looks to Twilight. "Let's go see your teacher." He goes to the chamber with Twilight and the others following.
Primus looks back to the rest. "You girls are staying here, only Twilight and I will go." Twilight's friends and Luna stopped moving and looks though the window again.

Primus looks at Twilight for a few before going to the chamber. Twilight follows and steps inside. The doors close behind them as the decontamination began. Primus takes a mask from the box on the shelf and places it on his muzzle while Twilight does the same.

Once past the decontamination room Twilight galloped to Celestia's bed and put her front hooves on it. "Are you alright Princess Celestia?" She asks worriedly.

Celestia turns her head to her. "Twilight, I have an important assignment for you. This will be a very important test that will decide the rest of your life. You must go to Crystal Kingdom and prevent a disaster that might happen again."

"A disaster?" Twilight teleports a book in front of her, possibly from her library. "There isn't anything in here about a Crystal Kingdom."

"That's because there isn't." Primus comes up besides her, dropping a long crystal shard in the middle of the room as he walks. "It went off the map a thousand years ago. Basically what happened is that a king named Sombra had its heart tainted by darkness and greed." He nods to Celestia. Celestia lights up her horn and shoots a magical beam to the crystal on the ground. The crystal absorbs the magic and then floats in the air, creating a circle on the ground showing a bird's eye view of the Crystal Kingdom. A kingdom made from crystal itself. A large tall crystal tower rests in the center of it all with a pattern picture made from the paths that go around all over the kingdom. "He ruled as a good king for quite some time. Then he brought darkness over the land." The picture on the ground changes from a happy and light filled town to a one that had the houses as sharp crystals instead of the smooth kind with darker colors. The tower changes from a while tall and straight tower to a wider and blackish one with a dark cloud that flies around it like it has a mind of its own. "It wasn't until Celestia and Luna were able to stop him that his rule came to an end, but it came at a price. Sombra placed a curse on the kingdom before he was banished and made the kingdom disappear forever." Celestia cuts the magic and the picture faded, but the crystal still hovered in the air. "It wasn't until now that we realized that it was a thousand year curse that he placed so now your mission is to make sure that it won't disappear again."

Twilight looks down to process all this new information. "Just so you know, you will be joining Shining Armor and Princess Cadance at the kingdom and me and Chrysalis will be joining you on this journey."

Twilight's eyes lights up from the sound of her brother's name. "My brother is there and Cadence?" Primus only gives a slight nod in return. Twilight grows that determine look in her eyes. "I'll do it. If the fate the kingdom rests on us then I will do this."

"One last thing," Twilight looks up at Primus. "There is a special property to these crystals and it can affect all of Equestria." He looks to Celestia and gives her another nod. She magic lights up her horn with her usual magic and hits the crystal. The crystal lights up in many different colors and shines all over the room. Twilight soon feels warmth and love as the lights shines on her. "But fill it with hatred and fear…" Celestia uses her horn again expect that this time the magic surrounding her horn is black and made black shadowy fissures around it. She fires it to the crystal making the same it the same color as her horn. The crystal grows dark and fires a beam to the ground which causes shadowy fissures to grow from the ground and making black crystals grow out. Twilight becomes filled with hopelessness and despair from the environment that is changing around her. Celestia then fills her horn with her usual magic and sends a shockwave that blasts away the black crystals and returns the long shard to normal. The long crystal shard gently floats to the ground, its storytelling done.

Twilight looks around to see the room as it was before. "So will you do it?"

Twilight just looks at Primus with a face that would make Rainbow Dash proud. "Bring it."

Primus lets a smile come to his face as the young protégé showed her courage. "Great, now wait outside and we will all head to the train station to go to the kingdom soon." Twilight only acknowledge by going to the decontamination room and sealing the door behind her. Primus turns back to Celestia who was looking up at him with a worried expression.

Primus sees her expression and nuzzles her head. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Celestia stops the nuzzling and looks at him with the same princess look she gives to everypony. "You better find the cure and bring everypony back."

Primus gives her a deep throated chuckle. "You know me. No need to worry." Primus gives a small wink at the end.

Celestia just narrows her eyes in response. "That's when I worry the most." She lays her head back on the pillow and sends out a heavy sigh. "Let's hope she's ready for this and other trials ahead."

Primus leaves out the same way he got in and meets everypony waiting out in the hall. Turns out that the window to Celestia's room became blacked out when they went in. Chrysalis comes down the hall and walks right up to Primus, giving him a shake of her head. Primus sighs deeply at the fact that now he has more trouble to deal with and he has to bring some ponies. Primus looks up at the group. Twilight is giving the news to her friends while Luna just looks at the blackout window that is now becoming less opaque with a forlorn expression. "Alright gather what you need and head to train station. We have our own charted train to take us as close as it can to Crystal Kingdom then we hoof it from there." Everypony except Luna left to do their packing.

Primus walks over to Luna when Luna suddenly grabs him in a hug while crying. "Please find the cure and bring everypony back." She whispers quietly.

Primus returns the hug. "You know me. I finish the job in the best way I could."

Luna breaks from the hug and looks at him with tears streaming down her face, but this time with a smile. "That's when I worry the most."

Primus just chuckles deeply as he wipes the tears from her face. They are sisters.

The outskirts of the Crystal Kingdom

The smoking train traverse through the snow covered tracks, trying to make it to its destination station. Heavy winds coupled with a snowstorm and large amounts of snow on the ground make this a dangerous land to tread, next to deserts of course. When it reaches the station the passenger door opens to the bearers of the elements of harmony and Primus and Chrysalis. They all walk out into the freezing cold and heavy winds as their manes and tails whipped around them. Rarity comes out wearing a pink and light yellow scarf saying 'Ha! And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves.' Spike following behind her with her loads of suitcases that are probably breaking his back even if he is a dragon. He drops a suitcase filled with her scarves as they flew away and Spike tries to chase after them, but gives up when he knows it is a lost cost.

Primus looks around in his cloak flapping in the wind, hood up, and sees nothing but the station and the arctic wasteland. Chrysalis comes up beside him as she looks around worriedly for fear that they won't find the kingdom in this storm. Primus soon sees a figure coming from the east side.

The figure comes into view wearing a black wrapping and black goggles made for traversing through the heavy snowstorms. "Twily! You made it!" The figure pulls his wrappings down his neck and pulls his goggles up on his head. Twilight runs to her older brother and gives each other a sibling hug. Shining then breaks the hug and turns around with a worried expression. "We better get moving. There are things out here that we really don't want to run into after dark."

Twilight's friends look at each with the same frighten emotion. "What kind of things?" Fluttershy asks.

"Let's just say the empire…isn't the only thing that returned."

The long walk through snow was terrible as the stinging cold and winds in their eyes made things worse. Especially for
Spike since he is the one carrying Rarity's luggage. Primus looks at the others and sees them talking but couldn't make out what they are saying with the wind in his ears since they are highly sensitive. A large blue dome appears in the horizon ahead. A loud roar fills the barren wasteland that Primus and the others can definitely hear.

Fluttershy freaks out while looking around. "That's one of the things isn't it?"

Shining realizes the severity of the situation they're in. "We have to get to the Crystal Empire, now!"

Before they can move a large black cloud comes from over the hills behind them taking a shape of two large red eyes with a green backdrop that has a purple aura flowing from them. Spike becomes frozen in fear (No pun intended.) as the shadow's shadow looms over him. Shining grabs him with his magic and yanks him from the luggage, leaving them behind. Spike jumps onto Twilight's back when he knows that he would probably be left behind. Everypony soon runs away from the creature or cloud of shadow to the Crystal Kingdom covered by a blue dome.

As they traveled to the dome nopony noticed Shining staying behind to buy the others some time, nopony except Primus of course. "Horse apples, Shining. Why do you always have to play the hero?" Primus hits the brakes as everypony else runs ahead of them without them noticing. Shining fires off a magical beam that goes right through the cloud as it moves to its left, as it suddenly realizes the tactic and barrels down on Shining. The cloud covers Shining as he tries to fire off another spell, but before he could lose himself in it he is suddenly tackled from his side and has the feeling of somepony placing him on their back. His savior then gallops to the direction of the kingdom and then jumps threw the shield making Shining drag along the soft, green grass, untouched from the outside frozen wasteland. The foolhardy move came at a price through. Half of his horn is covered in black crystals. When Twilight sees his condition Shining tries to do another spell but the crystals block his flow of magic up to where it stops and crackles there.

They soon walk to the area where their friends are waiting while Chrysalis goes to Primus to check on his condition. He groans as he lifts himself up off the ground with Chrysalis giving him support. "I swear he is becoming more hotheaded than ever."

"Sparkleriffic!" That word can only come from a certain reality busting pony known as Pinkie Pie. I believe she is describing the kingdom showing off all of its crystalness. They walk through town while Rarity swoons over all the crystal land, materials from the homes, and the castle tower itself. While Applejack tries to calm her down and Rainbow just plays it off as another boring castle and with Rarity accidentally describing herself with her own words, Primus looks around to see where a virus can possibly exist. He looks at the homes and notices that they're crystal ponies living inside so that mean the virus has to be somewhere where barley any ponies visit. His eyes dart around but could not find anything that would fit that constraint.

Everypony soon heads inside to the throne room where Cadance sits, her horn glowing and show no signs of stopping, and looking like she hasn't slept in days. Twilight goes up to her and does her Sunshine dance that only they know and laughs it on, but not without Cadance cringing in pain as the skies outside changes from bright to dark. She is able to stabilize a little while after but Primus knows that she probably won't be able to hold it for long.

Cadance opens her weary eyes to look at Twilight. "One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance."

Twilight points a hoof at her in worry. "Are you okay?"

Cadance just slumps her head down from exhaustion. Shining trots beside her to talk for her. "Cadance has been able to use her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting it. But she hasn't slept, barley eats. I want to help her, but my protection spells has been counted by King Sombra."

"It's alright Shining Armor, I'm fine." Cadance protested.

"She's not fine. She can't go on like this forever, and if her magic were to fade then, well you saw what's out there waiting for that to happen."

Twilight holds up a hoof to stop them so she can end this. "That's why we're here."

"Why we're all here." Applejack spoke, not wanting to be the peanut gallery any longer along with the others expressing their agreement.

"Well, with Cadance putting all her strength into keeping her spell going, and me trying to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we haven't been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies." Shining informed.

"Crystal Ponies?" Primus sighs as Rarity has been giving another icing on the cake. "Hahahah, there are Crystal Ponies?!" She goes back to reality as she felt the stares giving by the others. "Umm, hmm. Please continue."

Shining continues. "But we have to believe one of them knows how to protect the empire, without having to use Cadance's magic.

"A research paper!" Twilight jumps up.

"Huh?" Shining looks at his little sister confused with everypony else as she suddenly got excited over a project which most of us dread.

"That must be part of my test; to gather information from the crystal ponies and deliver it to you! This is gonna be great! I love research papers!" This is probably one of Twilight's geek outs Primus conclude.

"Yeah, who doesn't?" Rainbow sarcastically said.

"Ohohoh! Lemme guess!" Pinkie jumps, literally, at the non-existent game. "Is it Spike?" She says as she holds up Spike. She then drops him. "Nono, Fluttershy! Rarity?" Pinkie asks as she grabs the respective ponies around the shoulder.

Twilight looks back to her brother trying to forget that moment. "Don't worry, big brother. I'm really good at this sort of thing."

While everypony went off to find information on how to save the Crystal Kingdom, Primus went off to find out where he could find the cure or the virus itself. He watches as the six younglings goes around finding information. Twilight acting like a real guard, Rainbow acting all tough and telling others to buck up, Rarity is just swooning about what she will look like if she were a crystal pony and Fluttershy…well…

"Oh, um. Excuse me!" A slum down in the ground ponies walk past her as if she doesn't exist. "Oh! Hello! I was just wondering." She turns her head to see a mare and stallion sitting near a table. She goes right up to them with a murderous intent in her eyes and raises her front legs as if she is about to attack…but brings it right back down and resumes her shy personality. "Oh, oh that's okay. You all look really busy." One nervous laugh later and she is gone.

As for Pinkie Pie. "A spy? How did they know?" She is dressed up in black clothing that covered up everything expect her tail, eyes, and the ends of her legs. She also had goggles on top of her head. "Ah! Must have noticed my night vision goggles." She pulls down the goggles over her eyes, lighting up green as she turns them on. "Ooh! Night vision-y!"

SLAM

…and she slams into a pole.

Everypony met up later under the castle to exchange notes…or lack thereof.

Rainbow sighs from the all the question. "I got nothing so far."

"Oh, me neither." Rarity says.

Fluttershy comes up besides Twilight and Spike as they turn to look at her. When her body is suddenly unzipped like a suit and Pinkie pops out, surprising Twilight and Primus. "My cover has been blown. I repeat, my cover has been blown!" Pinkie said hushed and then zoomed off.

"Ooookay." Twilight says as the real Fluttershy walks up to them, accidently stepping on the unzipped suit of and freaking out a little from fright.

"Sorry, Twilight." Applejack informs. "These crystal ponies seem to have some kinda collective amnesia or somethin'."

Twilight brings her head down in failure, then brings her head back up and looks at Primus. "You find anything Primus?"

Primus turns his hood to look at her. "Just something about a library. We might find our answers there."

Twilight's face lights up like she won the lottery at the sound of the word 'library' and launches herself at Primus, clinging to his chest and looking at him in the eyes. "A library? Why didn't you say so?!"

Primus just smirks at her 'freak out'. Chrysalis lifts Twilight off of Primus, reminding her that he's spoken for wordlessly. Twilight blushes from the contact and hurries off to the library to escape embarrassment, with everypony else following.

The library looks like it should belong here as all of the building materials are made of crystal and crystal griffins stood beside the steps. Inside the library there stood three floors of shelves and all of them filled to the ends with books upon books. Primus goes off to see if they have anything on the virus with Chrysalis following. The others remained behind to find the history book of the Crystal Empire. He reaches a corner area where they have medical books from a thousand years ago. He picks up the large book titled 'Diseases and what you need to do.' He opens the book and starts flipping through the pages, skimming over the pages and trying to find out what disease is closest to whatever Celestia has. He reaches the end as he didn't find anything and throws the book behind him. Chrysalis catches it and places it back where it belongs. She repeats the process as Primus skims through book and book and throwing it behind him as he goes.

"This is like…oh what was the old saying…finding a hay in a needle stack?" Chrysalis pipes up.

Primus closes the book he has and throws that away too. "Needle in a haystack. That's the phrase." He looks around to see the endless walls to walls of books and feels hopelessness set in. "We're never going to find the cure or the virus for that matter."

CRASH

A rock files threw the nearby window and hits Primus on the side, making him stumble a bit. Chrysalis quickly looks outside the shattered window to find the perpetrator, but sees nopony. Primus rubs his side as he eyes the rock with a note attached to it with a string. He picks up the rock carefully as if it might come alive again. He unties the note from the rock and throws the rock back outside. Primus unfurls the note and reads carefully.

I assume that Celestia is under quarantine and you presumably looking the kingdom for the cure. Well look no further as I have the cure. All you need to do is make sure that the bad king is gone and never able to come back to this place again.

Your mysterious friend,

Umbra

P.S. I hope your friends learn another lesson in life.

P.P.S. I hope she loved the letter and prize inside.

Primus sighs as he puts the note inside his saddlebag that was under his cloak the whole time. Chrysalis, who was reading beside him the whole time, just hugs him to calm him down. "At least we can get the cure. All we have to do is help Twilight and others send away Sombra then we can head home."

They went to back to the main hall and see Twilight and her friends running outside, presumably to the castle. They follow behind as the destination is reveled to be the throne room of the castle. Cadance and Shining sat on the top near the throne as if they never left. Cadance looks worse since the last time they saw her. Twilight reads from the book the solution to their problems.

"A 'Crystal Faire'. According to this book, it was established by their first queen, and became their most important tradition. The Faire was held every year to 'restore the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm. My friends and I could put it together. Everything we need to know is in the book!"

Shining face lights up from the new development. "That sounds pretty promising." He looks to his wife excitedly, but then remembers her condition as she looks like she is dozing off.

Twilight notices as well and quickly says "We'll get started right away." She closes the book with magic and runs off down the stairs. "C'mon, Spike, we've got a Crystal Faire to put together!"

Spike struggles with the heavy book as he starts to walk down the stairs. Primus walks up to him and takes the book and places it on his back. Spike rears up and places both of his claws on his back to crack his spine from the heavy lifting. "Thanks." Spike runs off with Primus following shortly, not before handing Shining the letter that was thrown at him in the library. Shining takes the note with caution and starts to read. Primus runs off after the others, not even bothering to see their reactions.

He reaches the meeting room of the castle where everypony is waiting for him. He walks over to the table and places the book on it. Twilight opens the book to the fair's section where it shows all the activities of the fair. Primus and Chrysalis help the mane six with preparing the fair. Tents were set up with games and concession. Flag lines were placed all over the area on the top of the poles. And all in the middle of it a heart craved from a crystal with the help of Twilight's magic.

Primus stood near Twilight looking through the book with her as the others helped with fair. He looks out into the crowd and sees that the ponies changing back into their normal self with a magical covering of crystal then lighting up a moment to change into their normal fur color without the entire downer personality. Everything was going swell...until Rainbow covers up the Crystal Heart with a flag and part of Twilight.

"Why did you…" Twilight said upset with Rainbow.

Rainbow puts a hoof on the flag to keep it there and make sure it stays. "I think we may have a problem…" She said shakily

Primus, Twilight, and Rainbow goes to the balcony where Shining and Cadance stand, looking over the kingdom. Twilight franticly flips through the book with her magic to find any real evidence about the crystal heart. Turns out that there is a real one hidden somewhere by King Sombra where nopony can find it.

"I didn't know it was an actual relic! The book didn't mention anything about the crystal ponies powering the Crystal Heart!" She stops at the back of the book where a page is ripped out. "There was a page missing…how did I not notice?!"
Cadance was wearily moving back and forth sleepily as heard the news. "It's okay, Twilight." Suddenly she falls to the ground only to be stop by Shining grabbing her. Her horn stops glowing as she pants heavily from the effort.

Shining looks at Cadance for a few before Twilight then sees past her. "Twily…"

Everypony looks to the horizon as the shield fades and the snowy background appears. Black clouds suddenly appear from the snowcapped hills and start to cover the grassy land and encircle the kingdom. A figure appears from the clouds showing a red sharp horn, the same eyes when it attacked them the first time, and sharp fangs, thus making the head of King Sombra.

"The empire is under attack." Shining brings his wife back up and gives her support as Cadance feels renewed from it. She lights up her horn again this time making a solid blue colored shield rise up around the between the area of the clouds and the green land. Sombra makes a move toward the shield, but could not make it in time and rears back from the pain. Although nopony can see, the tip of Sombra's horn is cut off and lands inside the shield. The shield finally covers the entire kingdom as Cadance comes back down from her efforts at making it. Her head is caught by Shining as she slumps down a little.

Shining looks out to the rest of ponies on the balcony. "I have to find the Crystal Heart-"

"No, you stay here with Cadance." Twilight interrupts. "She needs you, Shining Armor." She runs off proclaiming I'll retrieve the heart.'

Primus runs off after her while Rainbow said, "Let's do this.", and catching up to us. As they all ran to get downstairs Twilight had an epiphany. "I've been trying to figure out how I'm meant to pass Celestia's test. Retrieving the Crystal Heart must be it." She then looks to Rainbow. "But there is something else you can do."

Rainbow just moves into a cool style of flying. "Name it."

"You and the rest of our friends have to keep the Faire going." She runs ahead as Rainbow slumps in the air with her front legs down.

"What? With that thing moving into the empire?!"

"The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to lift the spirits of the crystal ponies, so they can activate the Crystal Heart."

"Yeah, and?"

"If the crystal ponies find out King Sombra is trying to take over the empire again, their spirits are gonna be anything but lifted." They reached outside and see Applejack protecting the Crystal Heart from being shown. "It won't matter if I find the Crystal Heart. We won't be able to make it work. You have to keep them happy here at the faire."

Rainbow gives a hearty salute to her. "Keep the Faire going and the crystal ponies' spirits high." She flies off proclaiming 'Done and done' to give the plan to the others.

Shining looks down with worry from the balcony to Primus and Twilight. "Twily, be careful."

Twilight looks up at her sibling with the same worry as him. "I will." Twilight runs off down the lines of stands to find the Heart.

"And Primus." Primus looks up at Shining. "Keep her safe, she's a bit stubborn." Primus just smiles and gives a wave before racing off after Twilight.

Even then nopony notices that the broken horn sinking into the ground and making a dark crystal rise up in its place.

Twilight slowly comes to a walking speed as Primus caught up with her. "You do realize that we need the find the heart where only Sombra knows, right?"

Twilight looks at him. "Who wants a flugelhorn?" She heard Rainbow yell out to the crowd.

"I wanna flugelhorn!" Pinkie said while wearing a jester's costume.

Rainbow just looks behind her with her eyes in the direction of Pinkie for moment before returning them in front of her. "Who else wants a flugelhorn?" She yells out again while holding one of the horns up.

"I wanna flugelhorn!!" Pinkie yells out while stomping the ground like a foal that doesn't get their candy.

Twilight puts her hoof to her chin in thought then looks past Primus to see the castle. Her face lights up in realization.

"Twilight, wait!" Spike suddenly appears from a nearby street corner, panting like he ran a marathon. "I'm coming with you!"

"You can't. I have to retrieve the Crystal Heart by myself." Twilight starts walking off toward the castle wit Primus following behind.

Spike face crunches up frustration for Twilight being so stubborn. "I know." He starts to follow both of them now. "I promise I won't life a claw to help you." He supports this statement by crossing both of his arms and placing the claws away from view.

He is then lifted by magic from Twilight who sighs at her supposed little brother. She places him on her back saying "Not a claw, Spike." She then runs off, almost making Spike fall off of her.

"So... where are we going, exactly?"

"I think I might know where King Sombra hid the Crystal Heart." Twilight informed as the castle got closer than ever.

Spike looks ahead of them and sees the castle. "The castle?"

"The king would've been counting on the fact that nopony would dare come looking for it here. They would have been too afraid to even try."

The group reaches the main doors as the foreboding feeling came among them. "I hope you're right."

Twilight couldn't help but share the same feelings as him. "You and me both."

They all went around the main hall looking under, over, and in everywhere Sombra could have hid a crystal heart. When they went into the meeting room Twilight reminded Spike 'Not a claw' much to his embarrassment. When it couldn't have been found there they trotted off past the throne room. Spike and Primus went on, but Twilight stayed behind when she saw the same crystal from when Primus and Celestia gave her the history lesson in the hospital. She soon remembers the words of Primus about the special properties of the crystals. "Of course!"

Spike took his time to smack into her and ask her if she found it. Twilight points out that the castle that is standing right now isn't King Sombra's castle. Primus sighs and brings his head down in stupidity for not realizing it sooner. Only certain areas can be relieved in certain situations. That's when Twilight filled the crystal that stands behind the throne with hatred and fear, making a long shadow cover the floors, but also revealing a long cylindrical staircase extending down a deep dark hole.

Twilight stops at the top of the stairs and taps her forehooves together in excitement.

"Whoa." Spike got down and peers over at her while remaining near the edge. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"That was a little trick Celestia and Primus taught me." She said as she looks sideways at Primus.

Spike peers down the hole which is making itself longer when he looks at it. Twilight notices his fear. "You stay here. C'mon Primus. We have a Crystal Heart to find." She lights up her horn with a light spell and starts walking down with Primus following.

"If you insist." Came Spike's fearful reply.

After a few flights of stairs the end never even came close to their sight. "Can you see what's down there yet?"
Twilight peers downward only to see darkness. "Not yet. I can't even tell how far down this goes!" She yelled back up to Spike. She turns her head to the wall and plucks a crystal shard with her magic and throws it down the hole. She lays down on one of the steps and turns her ear to the hole. When no sound came up she clears her ear with her hoof thinking that it must be clogged. When she finishes she turns her ear to the hole again and this time a distant clattering sound came up which took an exceedingly long time. Twilight eyes widen in shock for if she fell, she would fall to her death, that not even magic can help. Primus brings his hood down and places a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, trying to bring comfort for her. "Spike?" She calls up again.

"Yeah?"

"Can you see outside?"

Spike runs to the throne room's windows and looks outside. The shield is flickering between their blue skies and the snowy landscape with a hint of black clouds surrounding them. Sombra groans something about crystals as he uses his broken horn piece to make the nearby colorful crystal dark and somber. Spike turns his head slightly to the hole. "It's not good! Cadance's magic must be fading faster than before!"

Both Primus and Twilight receive the news and starts to run down the stairs. Twilight then steps on a bad broken down part of the stairs and starts to tumble down them. Before she could hit the bottom she reflexively grabs herself with her magic, upside down. Primus makes it down to see a funny suggestive position. Maybe he can make Celestia do that when she's better.

"Twilight? Are you okay?" Spike became worried when he saw her light start to move erratically.

"Yes…" She teleports herself right side up and looks behind her. She becomes excited that she has found the door to the heart. She uses her magic to magically grasp the handle, but it suddenly moves up and goes to her right. She tries again only for it to move again. "What in the…" She grasps the handle and dives for the door only for it to go up and spin around the room before stopping where it originally was. Twilight's emotions become anger and frustration that she's this close yet so far. She fires off a dark beam of hatred at the crystal at the top of the door, making it open the door in a bright light. "Spike, I think it's here!" She runs through the door with Primus following close behind her.

The light faded as another throne room is shown before them, Princess Celestia's throne room to be exact.

"What are you two doing here?"

They both looked behind them to see Celestia in the hallway outside, her back turn to them, writing through a whole stack of papers.

"I don't know! I opened the door and…"

"…And now you must go." Went the princess's hasty reply.

"Go where?"

"Doesn't matter to me." She turns her head to look at Twilight with an expression that Primus knows she never uses. "You failed the test, Twilight."

'Something is definitely wrong, especially since she is supposed to be in bed on a respirator.' Primus thought heavily.

Meanwhile Twilight panics from this disturbing news. "I don't understand! The test…"

The supposed Celestia cuts her off from there. "Not only will you not move on to the next level of your studies, you won't continue your studies at all."

'Yep, something is definitely wrong.' Primus starts walking over to the fake Celestia.

"I... you didn't say anything about no longer being your student if I failed!" Twilight starts to tear up at the sound of being dismissed like this.

"Didn't I?" She looks at Primus who stands right in front of her. Celestia gives him the same look as she did to Twilight.

"But... what do I do now?!" Twilight crying hits Primus's ears as he stares down at the fake Celestia. He knows that the real Celestia will never act like this to anypony, not even if they deserved it.

"You are not Celestia."

The supposed Celestia just smirks at him. "I am and I have never loved you. You just wanted me for my status." She crosses her front legs and sits down making her point.

Primus sighs at the thought of this illusion going this far to make your worst fear. "One, I never do that to anypony. And two, Celestia is supposed to be in bed on a breathing machine because of a virus."

The fake Celestia's eyes widen and all of a sudden she appears in bed with the blankets up to her neck and tips of her hooves on a breathing machine. The princess coughs slightly to get the point across.

Primus shakes his head and closes his eyes at the efforts. "Just stop." He opens his eyes to not see the hallway but the door opened to the dark walls. He turns his head and sees Twilight looking at the door blankly with green eyes like she is under Chrysalis's spell. He waves his leg in front of her eyes but it produced no response.

"Twilight! Twilight? Twilight! Twilight!" Spike came running the stairs yelling at the top of his lungs. He goes up to her and shakes her out of her hypnosis. "I know you told me to stay up there but you were down here for such a long time and you weren't answering and I got worried so I came down here and you were just staring at that wall and... I was calling your name, but I couldn't seem to get your attention, and…" Twilight goes behind the door and examines the door way as nothing. The only difference when she first saw it is the black crystal on top of the archway. "What were you looking at? I mean…it's just a wall…" The black crystal lights up with the black magic involved. Spike's eyes turns to the same color as Twilight when she was hypnotized. "…Ponyville?! But how did I get…no! I don't wanna go! Please, Twilight, don't leave me!"

Primus gives Twilight the swipe across the neck telling her to end this nuisance. Twilight shuts the door with her leg closing the door with a slam, ending the spell. "King Sombra's dark magic. A doorway that leads to your worst fear."

Spike was still crying from his worst fear: Twilight and all of his friends and love ones leaving. "We were home... you told me you didn't need me anymore. You were sending me away..."

Twilight hugs him tightly, wrapping her legs around almost making him disappear from view. "A fear that will never come to pass. I'm never gonna send you away." Twilight nuzzles his head making smile and stopping the tears. They separated, but didn't break the hug as they looked each other in the eyes. An unspoken bond of friendship and love between them that can never be separated. Primus smiles and retreats back until he could go no farther when he hits the wall. Twilight's and Spike's heads came closer together until their lips touch sealing their love for each other. The two continue to kiss and embrace each other as Primus looks at a pocket watch he pulled out from his bags. They were going to have to leave some time.

The two now pronounced lovers were kissing for two minutes and Primus decides to cut their time together like this now. "Okay that's enough. We still have a job to do."

The two, now embarrassed, lovers separated and Twilight turns to the door. "And I'm not gonna fail my test!" She fires a wavy beam of her usual color of magic to the crystal this times making a outline over the arch making the door open to the regular white crystal they all know to be the good kind. The door opens on its own as Twilight goes through it.

Spike still fearful of her safety. "What's in there?"

Twilight looks up and sighs heavily then looks back at Spike and Primus. "Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs." She starts up the stairs, but Spike and Primus stay behind. "Maybe you should come with me this time." Spike happily follows with Primus right behind him, shaking his in amusement.

"Oh this is tiring!" Maybe Primus should have rethought this plan of climbing the stairs. Even he got tired. Twilight and Spike were not fairing any better. Twilight faces slight exhaustion, while Spike faced a heavier style.

He grabs onto a step to catch his breath. "What if this is just more of his magic? He makes a door that links to your worst nightmare... why not a staircase that goes on forever?" Spike hypothesized as he panted and Twilight continued to go up.

Twilight looks up at the never ending staircase while thinking of a way. Primus walks right up to her and bends his head down to gather his breathing and return it back to normal levels. Twilight's horn lights up with magic as she pulls Spike onto her back and channels more magic into her horn. "Hold on to me." Primus touches a hoof to her shoulder and Twilight looks at him briefly before concentrating again. Her light brilliant raspberry magical aura covers them all as they rose into the air. The magical aura crackled and sparked as the world felt as though it flipped around them. The magical aura faded and the group found themselves sliding down the stairs. Primus's gears turns in his head as a wicked idea pops up. He slows down by placing more pressure on his hooves and looks to the crystal wall passing by them. Primus just grins in the passing reflection.

"Whoooooahaha! I actually studied gravity spells, thinking it might be on our test! Turns out I was prepared for this! Wooohooo!" Twilight cheered out as Spike hung onto her back as best he could. When a scraping sound hit their ears. Twilight adjusted her hoofs as she looks behind to see Primus riding a crystal board. He was standing on two legs and using his two front legs as balance as he rode right besides them. Primus looks toward them and waves at them. Twilight and Primus turn their head back to their destination as an archway suddenly appeared. Twilight cheered as she cancels the gravity spell she placed on them. Twilight and Spike landed heavily while Primus does a few fast flips and sends the crystal board out one of the open areas of the tower.

He lands on all four hooves and 'whoooo' in excitement. "That ride was gnarly! Who's up for round two?" He looks at Twilight and Spike who is giving him a glare in response. He rubs the back of his head sheepishly in embarrassment. They all turn their heads to the middle of the room and see a bright crystal heart shining very still.

Primus looks around and suddenly realizes where they are. "A tower? He placed the heart in a tower? That is too cliché of evil doers."

The others don't seem to hear him as Spike ushers Twilight on as this is her time. She steps slowly and carefully as if the heart may break at any second. When her hoof touches the design on the floor under the heart it turns from all shades of blue to black and white. When Twilight realizes what it is she dives for it but didn't make it out with the Crystal Heart.

As she looks around for the heart her panic grows. "The Heart…where's the Crystal…"

"Here!" Spike tries to run to Twilight, but black crystals keep popping up out of the ground. "It rolled over to us when you dropped it!"

"Primus!" Primus looks over to Twilight as she franticly moves around inside the crystal prison. "Get me out of here!" Instead of a compassionate expression, he had on a cold steel gaze that bothered Twilight to no end. "Primus?" Primus backs up to the edge, his cloak moving with heavy winds running through the tower. "Primus what are you…" Primus suddenly jumps off the ground and does a backward swan dive heading downward leaving behind a shocked pony and dragon. "Primus!"

Spike looks over the edge and sees Primus unfolding his wings and circling the tower to slow his descent. "He left us. He actually left us." Spike said in disbelief.

Twilight quickly tired a teleport but the dark crystals sent her back in as a rebound. She looks around for any escape but her despair grew more and more so. She looks through one of the cracks in the crystal and sees Spike still looking over the edge. "Spike!" Spike gets out of his revere and turns to hear her cries. "King Sombra is already attacking the Empire. He could reach the crystal ponies at any moment... reach Princess Cadance, my brother, my friends... there may not be enough time for me to find a way to escape. You have to be the one to bring the Crystal Heart to the Faire."

Spike stubbles back in another set of disbelief. "Me? But Twilight…"

Twilight shakes her head at her number one assistant. Her voice grew into a compassion and understanding tone. "Spike, I'm trapped in here and you're the only one that isn't. It has to be you who deliver the Crystal Heart."

Spike stares at Twilight for a few before picking up the Heart. He runs to the edge and looks back at her. "I love you, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight smiles at him feeling more at ease. "I love you too, Spike the Dragon." All before the dark crystals shot out of the ground and covering the entire tower.

Spike jumps off the edge landing on the slope and then starts running down the dark crystals that are starting to protrude off the castle walls. He holds up the Heart as he starts running down the tower, spiting fire to keep the dark crystal back, but to no avail. He jumps over to another pylon of dark crystals and starts running from there. He looks down and sees everypony he knows watching the onslaught. "Hey! Up here!"

"Spike?" Unsurprisingly he shares no more feelings for Rarity. He is now with Twilight and always will be, if he can get the Heart to them.

Sombra hears Spike yelling and rises up out of the clouds. "That is mine!" He dives into the ground, passing over the dull crystal ponies, making a long shadow head towards the castle while making crystals along the way.

Spike runs down the pylon as Sombra comes closer and closer, now rising up out of the ground and, possibly riding, a black crystal towards him. Spike just then tumbles and lose his footing, sending him and the Heart over the edge.

Rarity gasps dramatically. "Spikey-Wikey!"

Shining comes up with an idea and places Cadance on his back. Cadance opens her eyes and spots the Heart falling through the air. She unfolds her wings as she gets the same idea as her husband.

King Sombra gets closer and closer to the Heart, but the light from the Heart shines away the smoke reveling him in a king's cape and knight's armor. He just growls and prepares to catch both of the falling objects, all while licking his fangs.

Shining takes this chance and throws Cadance towards them making her catch both Spike and the Heart. She flies toward the center of the castle and lands amongst the crowd, one of them saying "Behold! The Crystal Princess!"

She smashes the craved heart that Twilight made raised the real Crystal Heart above the crowd. "The Crystal Heart has returned. Use the light and love within you to ensure that King Sombra does not." She sends the Heart underneath the castle as two sharp crystals catch it with their magic and holds it in place.

Everypony starts to feel renewed at the hope they have of ending this nightmare. Their coats and color come back as normal and starts to bow on the crystal road, making the road light up in a magical aura and powering the Heart. The Heart absorbs the power and starts to spin rapidly then sends out a magical shockwave that destroys the black crystals and changing everypony in range into Crystal Ponies. The shockwave then hits Sombra, disintegrating him into a million pieces. The castle then lights up with the magical aura inside the Heart and sends it up into the skies as collects then explodes, sending out a shockwave and an aurora all over Equestria.

Cadance flies to the balcony and lands, with Spike getting off of her. Shining hugs his wife at the achievement she has just made. Spike looks up at the top of the tower and sees Twilight looking down at him. They both smile at each other, knowing the love that they both have. "Good job, Spike." Twilight just lies down to give her body some much needed rest.

Primus watches on from the skies while laying down on a cloud, unchanged from the shockwave of magic and proud for what Twilight did. Her whole task was to depend on somepony else when she needed it most and not being selfish for their own motivation. He then looks out toward the way they came from when the train dropped them off and sees a black speck waiting on the still snow covered hills. He flies down immediately and hovers right in front of the speck which is now a red pony standing there and watching the empire celebrate the banish of evil. Primus lands right beside him a few yards away, turning to the celebration as well.

"I assume you came to me for the cure." The red pony with brown mane and tail, with skull and crossbones as a cutie mark said.

"Just end the pleasantries and give it. I have just abandoned some of my friends and I'm not in the mood." Primus sternly said.

The red pony chuckles deeply, but not like Primus's laugh. "Just as I thought you would be." The red pony turns his head to him. "Caring about your love ones and your friends. You kinda missed that mark at least what...five thousand years ago?" Primus flinched under the memory. "Yes, I know all about that particular love interest."

Primus grew a scowl on his muzzle. "That is none of your concern. Give me the cure and let us both be on our way."

The red pony bends his head down and sighs. "Fine." He reaches into his bags that he had over his back. He comes out with a vial full of a purple liquid. "Here!"

Primus catches the vial without looking with his right hoof and places it immediately in his bag. "Aren't you going to leave?"

The red pony shakes his head in amusement. "Always the same Primus. Always the same." He turns around and starts to walk away from the empire, but not before stopping a little. He turns his head sideways to Primus showing his bright purple eyes. "Just to let you know, I did send that letter and everypony in town should know my name is Umbra." He stares straight ahead and starts walking again. "I will have a surprise waiting for you when we meet again."

Primus looks behind him and sees the Umbra walking out to the snow capped hills, no longer in a snowstorm. After Umbra walks away a few yards another pony figure rises up out of the snow. The pony shakes the snow off of its coat and follows Umbra. One thing Primus noticed was that the pony that rose up out of the snow had wing like appendages on its front legs, shining brightly in the light. Primus just looks back to the Crystal Empire and waits for the others as the train station is right behind him and they have to come this way.

It wasn't long before Chrysalis, Shining, Cadance, Twilight and her friends finally came around.

"I do so wish it was permanent. Did you see how my mane just absolutely sparkled?" Same old Rarity.

"But... good things are better when they're a rarity." That's the same joking farmer.

"Everything's gonna be okay. You've gotta stop saving my rump like this; it's starting to get embarrassing." Shining joked.

"It wasn't me who saved you in the end." Twilight puts her head down and keeps walking. "It was Spike."
Shining offered a pat on the back as a condolence. "It's just a test. Maybe she'll let you retake it."

Twilight voice grew more and more slum. "I don't think she's gonna give me a new test." Twilight walked on and on without any cheerfulness in her voice. The words of the fake Celestia still rang in her head. If she failed then would it really happen? Not even Spike's comforting touch can help her at this point.

Spike and Twilight's friends waited outside the castle walls. Celestia fully recovered when Primus gave her the vial full of the cure. Now Twilight, Celestia and Primus stood inside the hall, debriefing Celestia on the latest news.

"It's beautiful." Celestia now cured of the virus and able to breathe normally, said wistfully.

Twilight could not feel the same through. "I wish it had been me who ultimately made it so. But it wasn't."

Celestia looks over at Primus, who is leaning against one of the pillars on the wall, on his back legs and front legs crossed, to gain understanding from the news that she got. Behind her a glass window depicting Spike holding the Crystal Heart over and stopping King Sombra. Primus nods to her and Celestia turns back to Twilight. "Twilight, as I understand it, Spike brought Princess Cadence the Crystal Heart because you weren't sure how quickly you could find a way to escape the tower. You weren't willing to risk the future of the citizens of the Crystal Empire in an effort to guarantee your own. Far better that I have a student who understands the meaning of self-sacrifice than one whom only looks out for her own best interests."

Twilight expression lights up bigger than ever. "Does this mean…?"

Primus and Celestia only smiles lightly.

Spike and the others were really starting to get worried since the meeting is taking too long and Spike isn't feeling much at ease about it. "She's totally gonna lose it!" He starts to breathe deeply. "Keep it together; buddy... gotta stay strong... for Twilight...!" Unfortunately he was standing besides the doors and it decided to open in his face, smashing him between the wall and the door.

Twilight jumps out all excited, not knowing that Spike is behind the boor. "I passed!"

"Owww."

Twilight looks to her side and sees one of Spike arms coming out of the side of the door. "Spike!" Twilight pulls the door and out comes Spike, but because of being pressed to the wall he falls to the ground unceremoniously. Twilight gathers him in her arms and holds him close. "Spike?"

Spike suddenly grabs Twilight and hugs her tightly. Twilight is surprised by the hug, but then falls into the warm embrace. The two separate, but still held onto each other as they look at the other, falling victim to the next move they were about to make. The others look on as the two loves shared their love for each, by kissing very deeply. The others grew wide eye at the scene playing out in front of them. Rarity dramatically fainted, Applejack pulled her hat over her eyes in embarrassment, Rainbow smirks at the lovers, and Fluttershy did a fainting goat and Pinkie…well…

"This calls for a party!"

The two embraced loves broke apart when realized that they were in front of friends. Twilight sat on her rump and nervously taps her front hooves together. "Umm guys…well…you see…"
Rainbow smacks her on her back as a pat on the back, but so hard that Twilight almost fell over. "Nice job Twilight. Didn't know you had it in you."

Twilight regained her composer and smiles while chuckling nervously. "Thanks Rainbow." She looks back at Spike. "You okay, Spike?"

Spike got up on his feet and shakes his head to clear the cloudiness. "A-okay." He gave a thumb…or claw for that matter…up.

Twilight laughs in her throat at her loves antics. She then uses her magic and lift Spike to place him on her back. When he grabs on her and latches on around her neck she looks back at him. "Don't get any ideas, Romeo. Leave that for home." That last part came out all sultry.

Spike eyes widen at the tone and just nods nervously. He has a pretty good idea of what might happen when they get home. Twilight soon walks off with the others following to the train to take them home.

Up on the balcony, Primus leans on the archway connecting the balcony to the castle, looking on at the spectacle in the courtyard. Having Spike love Twilight will make things all the more easier for him and the princesses to deal with. The princesses stand at the edge watching the train leave. Primus looks at them as Luna teleports a black book with two stars and a swirly pattern to them, signifying the future endeavors that is about to come. As Chrysalis comes out to the balcony and sits right beside Primus as all the occupants look toward the horizon thinking about what's next.

Twenty pages and almost 14,600 words. Three days of working the most part and only a few days after I sent the latest author's note to you guys. My brain is fried from all of this. I probably won't be able to make all the future episodes so every time I start a new one I will give a short summery of what happened up to that episodes. I am going to be combining episodes and my own stories, but sometimes the episodes might not get much screen time.

And check out The Media Cows walkthrough for Halo 4. At the end of it, it gets hectic. I was practically cheering at episodes 19 and 20 when…you know what I'll let you start over with it and see what I mean. I'm sure you would be cheering too.

By the way there, Nightmare Moon covering all of Equstria and need to save it. There's a app for that. That's right, a app that's similar to the farming games on facebook is on the app store for Apple and Verizon. Check it out and sign up for the soical stuff, because I really need a friend. Besides, it's fun.

Any case, that's all I have to say for that matter so...

Wolfdragon, out.