Great, I'm the New Bad Guy...

(Overlord's POV)

Once Shining had stopped worrying about things like my minions or how this might affect his wife, (Which I explained was unlikely as, though the minions were made of corrupt lifeforce and thus adding them to something had the same corruptive effect as taking evil energy into oneself, the way I had done it took the corruption out of them, making it no different than adding your own magic to a spell) he led me around the wall, stopping occasionally to throw more minions into the barrer.

Shining seemed to be very uncomfortable with my minions willingness to die for me, I understood that he viewed all life as precious but... I suppose I just view the minions as more... animate golems than anything really alive. I wonder if that makes me a bad person? Does that even matter? Probably not to the minions, they only care that I wear the big horned helm.

The girls were succeeding at getting the ponies off the streets, though not to a 'safe' place. Just like in the show they had decided to throw the crystal heart celebration and, of course, herd everyone in the city to the square.

"Maybe I should've been more specific with Pinkie..." I grumbled as Shining and I made our way through the crowd.

"Yeah, this might end up being a problem if Sombra breaks in..." Shining quietly responded "How much time did you give us with your, ah, spell?"

"A few hours at most. Minions are mostly corruption, draining them of it to reinforce the barrier left them almost worthless. Not quite, but almost."

"Well it's a few more hours then we would have had, let's not let them go to waste." He said as he started to move to the nearest staircase into the castle.

I'm almost glad the tower has as many stairs as it does, if I had needed to climb this when I first came here I wouldn't have made it. Almost glad.

(Twilight's POV)

It wasn't working. Why wasn't it working? It should be working!

Cadence, some of the girls and I were all standing on a podium overlooking our "crystal heart fair", and while many of the ponies looked slightly calmer the tension in the air could be cut with a knife. I didn't understand, the book said that the empire was protected by the feelings of the crystal ponies, right? So why wasn't it working!?

Okay, calm down and think rationally Sparkle!

-What if Sombra took away their ability to feel the right emotion?

-Possible but unlikely, Sombra was a known sadist and wouldn't remove anything that would reasonably hamper his slaves ability to suffer.

-What if they were missing some important piece of the puzzle?

-Likely, there might have been some magical component that we overlooked thinking it fake or hearsay.

-What if that was a fantasy book, not meant to be taken literally and this was all a big waste of time?

-I take offence to that thought, me.

-What if there was no magical protection and it was all just a superstition held by ponies thinking they were safe this far north?

-Unlikely, there are many creatures that can survive these temperatures and still be a threat, yet there are no records of any attacks before Sombra.

-What if the Overlord is somehow stopping the protection from activating on accident?

-Possible, his dark magic could be clashing with the intended effect and canceling it out without his knowledge.

-What if the Overlord is somehow stopping the protection from activating on purpose?

-Also possible, he might want to allow Sombra access to wound or kill us, taking out one of the three biggest threats to him, the other two being the princesses.

Now, assuming that the Overlord isn't somehow stopping us that means that we have probably missed something. If the Overlord is stopping us we will just have to deal with that when the time comes.

I came to that conclusion when Rainbow came flying up to me, saying "Twilight, we may have a problem!"

"What? What problem? Sombra?!" I said, slightly panicked.

"No, it's about the fair! Apparently there is some kind of 'Crystal Heart' that is supposed to be the centerpiece of the fair, without it the fair doesn't do anything!"

It took a second for me to process what she had said, and the moment I did I teleported all of us up to the royal library, right where we had left the book detailing the crystal fair. I was hoping that Rainbow was wrong or had somehow misheard something, not that I distrusted her (Though she could sometimes blow things out of proportion), but I needed to double check that this was indeed the situation.

"Curse my habit of speed reading! I always miss something important and end up having to read it over again! This is Daring Doo and the curse of the sapphire all over again!" I thought as I found that, yes the book did mention a 'Crystal Heart' as a centerpiece. "Stupid! Anypony with a cursory knowledge of the history of this region and magic rituals would know you would need some kind of catalyst to hold up a weather protective shield!" I was brought back to reality by the sound of footsteps before both the Overlord and Shining walked into the library.

"Damn, that's five bits from me, and I had faith in you too Twilie!" Shining said, raising his voice and walking over to us as the Overlord leaned on a bookshelf, crossing his arms.

"Don't worry about it, I knew I was gonna win anyway. It's not fair if I basically rigged the game, so it doesn't count."

"And just how did you know where my sister would be?" Shining asked while raising an eyebrow.

"When she was at my tower she spent most of her time in the public library, and now there is actually a reason to be here reading up on the old defence system."

"Which," I haltingly cut in, "I have just found out, may, kinda, be a bit more important than I thought... Since, you know, without the shield there not only is no protection from things like Sombra, but also the weather, random magic spikes in the air, and disease... And we may be lacking the most important part of the system."

Suddenly, from outside there was a breaking sound. We all rushed to a window to look, finding large patches of the shield cracking and falling apart.

Shining turned to the Overlord and accusingly yelled "I thought you said that you were strengthening the barrier!"

The Overlord turned and started walking away while saying "I did, but I can't keep up a shield without it's caster. You should go to your wife. Twilight, I need you to go get whatever it is you need, I will hold off Sombra for as long as I can."

"Oh, why do I feel like this will end badly?"