Of Crystals and Roses

by MoonSaysHello

Rating: teen
Tags: Thriller, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Comedy, King Sombra, Adventure, Gore, Alternate Universe
Length: 3192

This is a story about one ancient kingdom, one grumpy evil unicorn king, that's not really evil or a unicorn, a certain pink alicorn princess that can't read a map and a magical relic that's actually a pony.

When she left the Crystal Empire she had one simple task: "Get the Crystal Heart back!" So why is she freezing in the middle of nowhere trying to figure out how to read a thousand-year-old map which is being held together by a duct-tape and why in the world is she travelling with her worst nightmare?

Who knew she will miss these boring days she spent sitting on her throne in the castle listening to numerous complaints of her loyal subjects?

This story does not follow comic universe , which means Sombra's backstory is not the same as in the comics.
It also contains an alicorn OC, but the story won't focus on her too much, a few other OCs that serve as background characters and a spoiler for season 6.

Published 2016-02-18 01:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-03 17:41:46 UTC

Chapter 1: The dull life of Princess Cadance

Author's Note

Thank you for reading this story, You should know that my English is not the best and that I am still learning, so please, if you find any mistakes, parts where I used the wrong tense and such, tell me in the comments or send me a message and I'll try to fix them.

Warning: This story does not follow comic universe , which means Sombra's backstory is not the same as in the comics.
This story also contains an alicorn OC (but the story won't focus on her too much), a few other OCs that serve as background characters and a spoiler for season 6.

Chapter 1: The dull life of Princess Cadance

"And so I told my dear neighbour: 'Tell your ewes to go play somewhere else, they are eating all of my crystal berries!' But noooo she won't listen. Please princess do tell her to keep those ewes away from my farm!" the light pink crystal pony with messy peach-coloured mane dropped on her knees and begged in front of the crystal throne on which Princess Cadance was sitting.

"Ah, yes no need to beg I completely understand," Princess Cadance replied and jumped off her throne. "I'll talk to your neighbour and see what can be done," she offered a hoof to her loyal subject and helped her up.

"Thank you princess! I just knew I could rely on you," the said subject smiled happily and trotted over to the door.

"I'm sure there is solution that will make both of you happy," Cadance said as the pony opened the door to leave. "There always is..." she added with a disappointed sigh as soon as the pony was gone and returned to her throne with bored look on her face. "How many more are there?" the princess asked one of the guards that were standing on each side of the massive door that led into the throne room.

"Emm... about twenty your highness," the blue one replied.

'Great, I'll be here for the rest of my life,' Cadance thought as she took a deep breath and forced her face into her usual cheerful smile. "Call the next one in," she ordered.

"Are you alright my love?" Shining Armor asked as his wife literally dragged herself into the room.

"Ah yes, I'm fine, just a bit tired from all complains I had to listen today," Cadance replied. "And how is my snuggly wuggly wittle Flurry Heart, huh?" she took baby Flurry Heart from her bed and hugged her tightly. "Did you miss mommy?" the reply she got was few giggles and a big hug from the cute fluffy creature. "Ohhh, of course you did!"

"If you want I could handle all the complaining tomorrow, you just stay with Flurry Heart and relax for a while," Shining Armor suggested as he took the camera with his magic and took a few pictures.

Cadance lowered Flurry Heart to the ground next to her favourite toys and ruffled her blue and purple mane, "Is it really alright? You already have your hooves full with preparations for this year's crystal faire?" she asked.

"Don't worry about that, you've been busy this whole week, I have hardly seen you get off that throne or away from paperwork," Shining said and hugged her, "besides, you deserve some quality time with Flurry Heart."

"Well if you say so, I guess I could use a bit rest."

"Mhm," Shining nodded moving a hand mirror in front of Cadance.

Cadance examined herself in the mirror and almost screamed. Not because of the huge bags under her eyes but because of her mane. What was once clean and shiny mane that everybody was jealous of now turned into a mix of purple, yellow and pink mess and kinda resembled a snake's nest. "Oh my, I really do need rest!" she hurriedly pushed the mirror aside and grabbed a comb. "You know what else I could do tomorrow?" she asked her husband who shook his head in confusion. "Visit a spa," the princess giggled.

When Princess Cadance woke up the next day she found out that she was alone in the bed, 'Shining is probably checking preparations for the faire already,'she thought, jumped off the bed and went to check on little Flurry Heart that was still asleep.

She then walked over to her dressing table, brushed her mane and feathers, put on her jewellery and make-up and looked herself in the mirror. 'Perfect,' she concluded proudly and struck a few poses before trotting out of the room and down the crystal corridor to the dining room where a nice hot meal was already waiting for her. She sat down and looked at her plate. Pancakes with chocolate and berries. One of her favourites! She lifted a fork and a knife and cut a piece before showing it into her mouth. "Mmmmm...!" she hummed happily.

Cadance looked down at the pancakes and then around herself to check if anyone was around. Hoping nobody sees what she is about to do she threw the fork and knife away and simply dug into the pancakes. 'I miss just being able to enjoy the food,' ever since she became a princess she had to start eating like a lady. In other words cut every single meal into tiny pieces and eat like a bird! Imagine being at a party where you are surrounded with various cakes and sweets and you must be a lady and eat only a tiny bit of it. What a nightmare!

Well at least Princess Celestia understands how she feels, she herself taught her how to fill her stomach without anyone seeing a thing. After all Celestia was a pro at these things, Cadance even saw a whole two tier cake disappear next to Celestia when noone was paying attention. 'Wait... Maybe that's why she likes it when her parties turn into a catastrophe?' with nobody paying attention she can easily stuff herself with all kinds of sweets.

Cadance finished the rest of her meal and licked her mouth clean before going to check on Flurry Heart again. Seeing that she was still asleep she informed Flurry Hearts' babysitter that she was going out for a bit and left for the spa.

The Crystal Empire was truly a beautifully land, many would say the most beautiful part of Equestria and Cadance agreed. She never saw such sparkly and magical place before coming here. But it was not only the beauty of the empire that made it known all around the world, it was its inhabitants. All ponies living in the empire were so kind, so loving and so peaceful, every-pony always felt so welcome here.

The only problem with living in such place was that it quickly became dull. There was nothing really interesting happening here. In Ponyville her best friend, and sister-in-law, was constantly fighting gigantic monsters, banishing the evil, restoring harmony, solving friendship problems. But here? There are no monsters to fight, the last villain that messed with the empire is most likely dead, harmony does not need to be restored, and all friendship problems she gets to solve are when two neighbours have an argument where ewes eat berries, and she solves such problems without even trying. It's not that she doesn't like living here, it is just that... at times she wishes that something interesting would happen.

'Maybe I should tell Twilight to send Discord for a visit,' the princess giggled to herself. Twilight would probably think she's out of her mind.

"Princess Cadance!" she suddenly heard a voice call out to her and turned around to see a white unicorn with short pink and red mane waving to her. It was Strawberry Shake, the pony who works at the local cafe called "Strawberry Tale Cafe". Strawberry Shake isn't a crystal pony, she came one day to Crystal Empire and started a cafe, nopony really knows where she came from or where she lived before coming to the empire. Whenever she was asked about it she simply giggled and said: "It's a secret." Cadance asked her once why she keeps it a secret and the pony answered: "It makes things more fun around here." It seems she wasn't the only one looking for a bit of adventure and mystery.

"Oh, hello there Strawberry," the princess greeted the smaller pony, "how are you?" she asked.

"I'm great, the job is really paying off this month," the unicorn laughed, "seems like the word about my super secret milkshake recipe travels fast," she added in a low voice. "Well, anyway, its real surprise to see you outside princess, took a break from all the princess work I presume?"

"Ah, yes. I really needed some time off so Shining suggested to take over for today."

"Why do all good guys have to be taken?" Strawberry pouted.

"I'm sure there are plenty of them still roaming around," Cadance patted her on the shoulder.

"Where?" Strawberry pretended she was holding the binoculars and looked around, "are they hiding under a rock or something?" she giggled. "Well I won't waste anymore of your time, I have to get back to work too. Have a great day princess!" she waved again as she returned to the cafe. Princess Cadance chuckled and continued her trip to the spa.

At that time nobody noticed that Crystal Empire's shield was growing weaker and weaker and that a certain shadow was waiting outside for the right moment to attack.

Chapter 2: The stolen heart

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3: Battle at the Crystal Castle

Princess Cadance quickly used her magic to destroy the crystals that bound her to the crystal floor of the castle and dodged a beam of dark magic King Sombra shoot at her. She ran to the other side of the room and tried to get rid of the rest of the crystals that were on her wings, but King Sombra wasn't in the mood to wait for her. He tried hitting her with his dark magic again. "I'm not in the mood to play tag with you," he mocked her as she jumped around trying to avoid his attacks.

"Well neither am I!" Cadance replied and cast a shield spell hoping that it will give her enough time to free her wings. King Sombra easily shattered it with one attack but it was enough, she unfurled her big pink and purple wings and flew up in the air dodging his next attack. 'I need to go somewhere I can fight him without worrying about accidentally hitting Shinning,' she thought as she did a back flip in order to avoid incoming attack and flew over King Sombra out of the throne room.

"Trying to run away are we?" King Sombra laughed and went after her. "Don't let the other one escape!" he yelled to his (Cadances') guards.

'Good he is following me,' Cadance looked over her shoulder noticing a beam of dark magic on time to evade it. 'What do I do? Without the Crystal Heart I don't stand a chance against him!' she made a few turns and hurried through the stadium pathway praying it didn't get blocked or destroyed by the black crystals. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, luckily for her the path wasn't damaged. 'It should be easier to fight him in the open,' she flew out and waited for her enemy to arrive.

Not too soon after she stooped the dark unicorn stepped into the stadium. She didn't want to give him a chance to attack first so she fired a few magic beams at him but he was too quick and dodged them all. "So you're planing on fighting me, huh? I thought you got scared and decided to run away," he grinned.

Cadance frowned at the insult. "Like I would leave my family and subjects just to save myself! I am no coward and I am definitely not a monster who only sees her subjects as slaves and nothing more!" she yelled preparing another spell.

King Sombra turned his head a bit to the side and raised a brow. "Was that supposed to make me feel guilty?" he asked and used his magic to create and throw sharp black crystals at Cadance. "You reap what you sow, princess, they got what they deserved!" he growled.

Cadance successfully avoided the first three but fourth one cut her wing making her lose focus on her spell and fall down. "Agh!" she tried to ignore the pain and flapped her wings managing to keep herself from hitting the ground. Cadance lowered herself gently on the ground and examined her wound. It was not serious but she won't be able to fly as fast as before and dodge his attacks, which means it's time for ground combat. "They didn't deserve any of this! Stop making excuses for your actions!"

"You must really be enjoying this little game you're playing, pretending to be a princess of the empire you know nothing about!"

"It's true that I wasn't born here and that what I know about the empire's history comes from the books I found here," Cadance admitted, "but I know the ponies who live here, I saw their kindness, their happiness, their pain, their struggles, I saw what injustice was done to them! And I won't let you put them through such agony ever again!" she folded her wings and took a battle stance.

"Do you really think you can win this battle?" Sombra asked her as he hurled more crystals at her successfully hitting her and sending her flying over the field.

"Doesn't matter..." Cadance tried to get up, "...what I think..." she stood up on her shaky legs and started casting her next spell. "I'm the princess of The Crystal Empire and it is my duty to protect it!" she screamed and cast her spell which caused light pink and purple crystals to form around King Sombra like a prison.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sombra easily corrupted the crystals and shattered his prison. "Ha! Like such weak magic could possibly stop me," he levitated numerous sharp pieces that scattered around him and fired them at the princess who cast a shield spell to protect herself. The shield shattered but Cadance already finished preparing her next spell. She screamed as she swung her horn downward sending explosion of purple fire at King Sombra. "WHAT!!" he tried to dodge it but he was too slow and was blown back into the crystalline wall. "Damn you!" he growled and got up.

"Not so smug anymore are we?" Cadance mocked him. She had to admit sending that spawn of darkness flying into the wall felt gooood and she was certainly looking forward to doing it again.

"Maybe I underestimated you..." Sombra grinned.

"Spike! Spike! Have you seen The Magical Cures and Poisons Volume 7 somewhere? I can't find it and I looked everywhere!" Twilight galloped down the stairs of her castle's library. She was so happy when she discovered just how big her new library was, after all it did solve her 'too many books, too little space' problem. But finding that one book you need in such huge place was no easy task, too bad the library didn't come with the search option. "Spike?" she called again. 'Where is he?' she wondered.

She was about to call him again when her number one assistant rushed into the room looking like he just ran a marathon. "Twi-hueh-Twili-huff-Twili-phew..." he panted before collapsing on the floor.

"Spike! What happened?!" Twilight asked confused and helped him stand up again. Spike decided it is better idea to just hand her the scroll Princess Celestia sent few minutes ago and let her read it herself, speaking was no option right now. Twilight unfolded the scroll and read it.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I don't have much time for explanations so I'll give you the details later. Now you must hurry to The Crystal Empire. King Sombra was not defeated like we thought and I'm afraid Cadance is in grave danger. I'm heading there myself. Hurry, there is no time to loose!

Signed,
Princess Celestia"

She stared at the scroll in shock hoping that this was just a nightmare and she'll wake up soon, but she knew that was not the case and no matter how much she wanted it to be the opposite this was really happening.

"I must get my friends!" she said and levitated Spike on her back before running out of the library, "I hope Cadance is alright!"

Back at the Crystal Empire the battle continued for hours and neither side was willing to give up. The stadium was destroyed, the whole place was full of craters and few places have been burned by magic. The north wall of the stadium was no more, the pathway was just a pile of rubble and the black crystals were now 'decorating' the field on which Princess Cadance and King Sombra were standing.

Cadance could barely strand, her body was covered in scratches and bruises, her left front leg hurt so much it was pure torture standing on it. Her feathers were messy and a few were broken, her mane was a tangled mess and the tip of her tail was burned. King Sombra was in no better shape than she was and his eyes were back to normal but he still looked like he could go at it for hours, probably because he was used to fighting like this, she, on the other hoof, wasn't sure she will be able to stand for another five minutes.

"Why are you doing this?!" she asked trying to catch her breath.

"Like you'd understand," King Sombra replied and wiped the blood from his mouth. His eyes turned green again as he began casting another dark spell. "You can't win this fight! Why don't you just give up already?" he asked.

"Never!" Cadance growled and cast another shield spell.

"You leave me no choice!" Sombra yelled and fired a thunder spell at her, the shield she cast was too weak to protect her from the spell and she was sent flying across the stadium. King Sombra coughed a bit and slowly walked over to her unmoving body. She was still alive but unconscious and he assumed that she will stay like that for a few hours minimum, then again she was too stubborn for that and he didn't want to fight her again if she woke up earlier than expected so he used his dark crystals to form a prison-like structure that should be able to keep her imprisoned even if she wakes up and has enough energy to try to escape.

He examined his injuries and used what was left of his magic to heal a few more serious wounds before turning away and walking in the direction of the castle...

Author's Note

Twilight to the rescue! Sombra, you better get as far away as possible from the empire before she gets you. :twilightangry2: