Soul's Poison: Into the Dark World

“So, about all this,” Twilight was looking at how Rarity was tailoring in her own boutique. She herself was solving another riddle from the box. Both tailoring and riddle weren’t the case she was here. The case was running back and forth before her and Rarity. Mostly Rarity. “Are you interested in dragons or what?”

“Well, I fillydelphian,” Rarity replied Twilight’s question. Twilight eyes immediately got bigger even though ponies’ eyes big by themselves.

“Oh, that explains so much,” Twilight mumbled.

“But, darling! I must admit that even though I’ve learned a lot about dragons and I even had a halfblood as a friend, dragons were not my kind of love interest,” Rarity revealed some truth about herself. “I can certainly see why mares of Fillydelphia try to find a dragon as a mate, as a lot of dragons are successful in life, even more are in bed and probably all of them tend to stay with one mate for all their life, but something was off for me.”

“Off?” Twilight asked.

“I found them pretty rough…” She said, as if tasting the word. She frowned as the word was just wrong, “No, not rough… They are outwardly brute, that have no dignity and respect for any mare. In my opinion, mares may feel like they are behind the stonewall when they are with dragons, but that stonewall is crumbling and its parts either falling on mare one by one or crushing her with all stones at once.”

“But Spike?” Twilight pointed at her little helper that was helping Rarity. It’s not like she need any help at that moment but all Spike’s attention was on Rarity.

“You already said that he is not like other dragons,” Rarity pointed out.

“Well, I was saying that but I believe somewhere deep in his heart there is still some draconic aspects, that I can’t simply cut out,” Twilight answered. Although, she missed the fact that she already faced a couple of times when Spike was acting rude if not plainly cruel.

“Whatever,” Rarity said. “We will see it after a couple of years. If he will find someone else and will look after her instead, then it’s fine. If he would be still trying to get my attention… You should be so proud of him, in this case. I would be happy to share the rest of my life with him. I fear one thing though.”

“Yeah? And what that could be?” Twilight inquired, feeling that something was wrong.

“If you haven’t noticed, I have said that I’m fine if he found another admirable mare,” Rarity reminded Twilight of what she said earlier. “The problem here is that I can’t answer Spike’s feelings. I don’t feel anything about him and I fear that I’m not going to change my opinion even after a couple of years.”

“Oh, don’t fear about this,” Twilight assured her that it was okay, but deep in her heart she wasn’t sure herself. “When a couple of years will pass, you will see if you can return that compassion to Spike.”

“Oh, I hope so, darling,” Rarity said. After that, she lost all her attention since she got her sewing machine running.

Twilight meanwhile drew her attention to puzzle from the box. Ever since Cadence and Shining have made a bond between each other, she was solving puzzles from the box. She was on the streak of quick puzzles. One day she even managed to solve two of them.

This time she was solving riddles. The sheet that the box gave her was somewhat alive. At least, the first text on it told her the rules and after examining them, she was asked to agree with them. When she tried to ask some questions, all words she wrote disappeared. When she finally agreed, not only her words disappeared but everything on it. The sheet became blank, but not for long. The first riddle appeared on it and she immediately answered it. The sheet didn’t accepted it, but after a little thought she changed her answer a bit and there was another question.

Some riddles were quick to answer. Some… It can’t be bought but can be stolen with a glance. It’s worthless to one, but priceless for two. Who am I? Twilight mumbled who knew how many times this day. She was solving that one ever since she came to Rarity’s place. She then looked at Rarity who got her finger poked by a needle and Spike who was now bandaging said finger. Seeing this, Twilight got a glimpse of an idea. She looked at the riddle and realized the answer. Love! That’s love, right.

Sheet agreed with her. Sheet also told her that the last question was solved and it needs to be retrieved to the box. She was about to stuff it to the box and get back to the Golden Oak Library but in a golden flash a letter popped into existence before her.

Celestia? What does she need? Twilight thought before taking the letter and breaking the seal. She read it and turned to both Spike and Rarity who now was overreacting about her finger. “Guys, get up! The train is going after two hours.”

“What train?” Rarity asked, forgetting about the finger that instant.

“A simple train to Canterlot,” Twilight replied. “A new task. I’ll tell the girls about it. Here is your ticket.”

“Oh, I believe Spike needs to go too,” Rarity accepted the ticket.

“Um, I think not…” Spike mumbled.

“The library must be working this day since it’s not a weekend,” Rarity looked at him, but she saw he still didn’t want to leave her. “Twilight already worked this whole week. Tomorrow you can stay with me all day I hope. Just stay warm. You are coldblooded and winds are blowing so hard. I don’t want you to get cold.”

Spike was about to retort something, but when Rarity got a red fabric tied around Spike’s neck, he accepted it.

The new destination had different reactions from her friends. Applejack found it rather indifferent. Pretty much, like Rarity. When Twilight asked, Applejack told her that her family had another Apple as a guest and all her thoughts are driven to that moment. She was more bothered of how their distant relative was thinking of them and another task meant little to her.

Rainbow was interrupted from her slumber so she was grumpy all the way to Canterlot. Pinkie meanwhile was… Pinkie. Even if she didn’t like being interrupted from whatever she was doing, she didn’t show it. Fluttershy meanwhile didn’t like the sudden work either. She noted that her animals started to see Dr. Fauna more frequently and she is afraid that they might refuse to come with her when she would come to retrieve them one day.

When they arrived to Canterlot, a couple of guards met them. Twilight told her friends that they were going to meet some guards and the guards will lead them to other train that will take them all to their destination.

The other train was not far from the train, they’ve came by. Twilight immediately noticed that something was off. Train looked too bleak. All trains in Equestria were dyed into bright colors but this one was dark green.

Interior was different in there. There were even rooms, completely functional rooms, where one can rest for a day or two. One wagon was even made into a restaurant.

When Twilight asked about it, guards said that it was a special train for their own use. Its special coloring makes it different from other trains so workers on railroad stations didn’t stop them every now and then.

This train specialty was in its speed and its ability to move non-stop for a long time. At least, one can do it from one end of Equestria to other without staying at every city on their way. Civilian trains always stops on each railway station until they reach the final station on their way.

“Now, you can rest. We will reach the Frozen North only by the end of the day,” one of the guards said. Twilight immediately raised a brow, pointing that she and her friends had more questions. “We will stay there for the night. That’s what I can say.”

“Oh, if so…” Twilight stretching out the last vowel. She meanwhile thought of what to ask, but then she looked at Rarity. “What’s about…”

“Your warm clothes and special pendants,” guard immediately broke in, passing said items to Twilight. Other guards in the train did the same. “Don’t put on the pendants. Their magic charges meant to last for twenty four hours of active use. Please, while in action, check the charge via asking the unicorns at our camp. If there is need for recharge ask those unicorns.”

With this, they went silent and they said practically nothing if one would not count girls speeches between each other.

As the guard said, the road took all the time until the deep evening. The moon had been risen like an hour ago, when they finally reached their destination. A little camp has been settled around some buildings, which included the railway station, a house for the station keeper and house for the guards. This place wasn’t meant for extra guards and mages contingency, so there were those tents.

“What is our task?” She asked the guard. Surprisingly to her, someone else answered.

“Look over there,” a very familiar voice said. It was the voice of Shining Armor, her brother. When Twilight looked in the direction, from which voice came she saw her brother standing against a column, which was holding the roof over the railway station platform.

“Where…” She was about to ask but she saw his brother glance. When she looked at the distance before her, she saw nothing but then she noticed a grey fog that was forming a wall. She looked at it better and noticed lines of different colors that were travelling throughout the wall. They were very subtle and Twilight wondered how she noticed them. She wondered not because of lines’ subtlety, but because of the lines very dim colors and there was a mile or two between her and the wall. “What… Is that?”

“Stasis field,” Shining replied. “Tomorrow, we will obliterate it and we will see what’s hiding behind it. You and your girls should better rest.”

“What can be there?” Twilight asked. Her friend meanwhile got from the train and she only made a gesture to move into the camp. She then turned to her brother,
“Don’t you say that there is unlimited amount of riches and gold.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say so, then,” he smirked. “Celestia said though, that there should be a whole city underneath the veil. Crystal Empire.”

“Empire? You said city,” Twilight was bewildered.

“Yes, technically it was a city,” Shining Armor replied. “But Celestia said that once it was another country and this whole snowed valley belonged to it. She then mentioned that it was snowed even then so how you will call your single city if the living place of your country stays within that city’s borders.”

“That’s… Logical,” Twilight pointed out. “What happened to the city?”

“Change of the government happened,” Shining replied. “Previous ruler died or was killed, I don’t know. Celestia said nothing about it. She said that the new ruler that came afterwards was cruel and he practically enslaved the nation of local ponies. His twisted experiments on mind magic lead to traumatized civilians who were afraid of everything and brainwashed soldiers, who were mindless minions that don’t value their lives.”

“What a story,” Twilight said. “Cadence is here?”

“In that house,” Shining pointed at house of station owner. “She tries herself at cooking. Station owner and his wife are two nice old ponies. She is safe with them.”

“I’ll check on her,” Twilight moved to the house and really found there her ex-babysitter trying to cook something by the stove. There also was a couple of elder ponies. Twilight presumed that those were the station owners. “Hey, Cadence… Were you trying to make pancakes?”

“Hello, Twilight,” Cadence smiled at her. “Yes, of course. When I saw a kitchen, I wished to cook something. I immediately remembered you and your love to your mother’s pancakes.”

“They were amazing,” she remembered herself about mother’s pancakes. “These… Uh, let me see. This one is overcooked, this is undercooked, this… Huh, not bad. There were better pancakes in my life, though.”

“If you wish for better pancakes, then help me,” Cadence retorted.

“Oh, watch and learn,” Twilight took pan, tasted the dough and together with Cadence that made some pancakes, hay fries and other food. Actual owners of the house didn’t mind as Canterlot was providing them with everything.

Later that day, Twilight got into the camp after her friends. Cadence suggested staying with them, but Twilight replied that for the house four was already a crowd.

In the camp, she quickly found her friends and told them plans. She then was fast asleep.

“So, any ideas?” Twilight asked as she looked at the stasis field before her. Rainbow Dash being the hothead of the team rushed to the wall right away as she heard about it. When she arrived to the camp, only thing she said was that the invisible wall is a great thing to crush into it headfirst and then dull sword’s blade. She didn’t use such wording though.

“We’ve been freezing our croups here for a reason,” one of the mages from the camp said. He and his colleagues were preparing a ritual of some sort. “We’ve made a spell to destroy that stasis field once and for all.”

“You’ve made? With what?” Twilight asked.

“A shield-breaking spell,” he replied.

“A shield-breaking? Wow, it’s a bit illegal, if I’m not mistaken,” Twilight mentioned.

“You can learn some spells when you are in the military,” a unicorn told her. “However, I’ll admit that there aren’t many spells. To be honest I would kill just for a little peek in those books from the closed library section.”

Twilight said nothing. She looked at their preparation. She noticed that the ritual was the one she could actually has some profit. Via that ritual, casters merged their magic resources in order to empower the spell, but only if spell allows it, as a simple spell has limits and it wouldn’t get more powerful even if unicorn put all the mana in the spell. A spell for such ritual must have special addition in the matrix that allows the spell to scale with magic that caster put into the spell, or in this case, casters.

The spell that is going to be used in ritual was inscribed into scroll that lay in the middle of the ritual circle. She could have a look into it but it would take some time to find the spell itself. She don’t require the scaling part or anything else. The shield-breaking spell though… Twilight fixed her look on the scroll, but then she noticed how mages were tending to the scroll.

She might have a little peek in the scroll but she doubt that those magicians would allow her to look at it more than mere seconds let alone having a full research of the scroll.

“Tell Shining that we are ready,” one of the mages said and the other unicorn run to the camp. Unicorn that has been talking to her went to the ritual circle. Other unicorns that were standing aside did the same. Soon, there was quite a crowd around the ritual circle.

In total, there was seven mages, who had formed two circles. Three mages inside the ritual circle, four outside. Aside from them, there was Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Guard contingency consisted from four guards from the elite corps, eight night guards and two stallions that were local guards. Two mares who were with stallions, stayed with station keeper. There were also reporter Hard Quill with his assistant Survival Risk. Rarity was quick to guess that they were from the Royal News as they were the only ones so close to Celestia that someone from them could be in places such as these frozen wastes in right time.

“Start the ritual,” Shining commanded. Three mages in the middle got each other’s hands and started to create the spell. Four other mages standing outside the circle started to fill the magic construction that started to glow in the very middle. It went without a hitch… Well, almost.

When the glow in the middle became so bright it was impossible to look at it, from it a ray shot. Nothing was happening to the wall for a minute or so. Mages started to lose consciousness one by one and the last ones standing were those three in the middle. They held each other’s hand, keeping each other but they were not far away from joining their colleagues outside the circle. To their delight, Twilight noticed something.

“Stop the ritual,” she shouted. Unicorns were quick at stopping the ritual and the ray dissolved.

“Why, Twilight? The stasis field is still there,” Shining asked. Stasis field was still there but it was a bit brighter.

“The stasis field is no more,” she replied. “This is… Something else. Try to get in.”

Shining bowed his brow at this but went to the wall nevertheless. He pushed his hand in. At first, it was like stone, but immediately it became like jelly. He put some efforts and his hand was on the other side.

“Wow,” he exclaimed at this. Right away, he felt something more interesting. “Hey, it’s warmer there.”

He went with his body and it was a lot easier than pushing the hand in. When he disappeared behind the wall, it rippled. A light grey wall became fog-like and then fully transparent. The only thing that divided this and that side was white snow and green grass.

This took everyone aback. Like logs, they stood in front of the wall until one of the elite guards came alive and rushed to the other side. In a moment, everyone went and there and now stood in warm green valleys.

“Wow, this looks so gorgeous. Never thought, I would consider grass as something beautiful,” Rarity said, bowing to touch the green floor beneath her. She then raised her eyes. “Are those sheep?”

“They are definitely sheep,” Survival Risk replied. “And if I’m not mistaken, they just woke up.”

“Everything underneath the stasis field was in a state close to sleep. It’s no wonder,” Twilight mentioned. “We’d better get into that Crystal Empire and see what we can do.”

“Maybe, we should get to that mountain?” Someone from the guards pointed at the big crystal cone in the distance.

“That’s not a mountain,” Survival Risk clarified. “That’s rather small for mountain.”

“Yeah, look. There is something beneath it. Those looks like houses,” Twilight noted.

“We should have a closer look at them,” Shining also noticed little structures under the mountain.

“Wait, didn’t we forget something?” Hard Quill asked. His eyes immediately got bigger, as he remembered. “Have we just left mages outside?”

“You, you and you. Go get them into the camp and then get back here,” Shining commanded. Two local guards and a night guard went on the other side of the wall. Other ponies went to the structures ahead.

After some minutes of walking, they reached a crystalline floor or something. Even more sparkling stone suddenly cut sparkling grass. Those crystals were a foundation to the houses made from crystals. Technically, there were big crystals that were carved into houses. Among them, an enormous palace was standing out. Its size easily contested with the size of Canterlot castle though comparing it with a mountain would be incorrect. It has mountain’s form but it lacked those truly gigantic proportions which nature formed after so many years.

The city was looking dead. Well, almost. Citizens were slowly shuffling out of their homes. Their manes were very stylish and they were fitting with their clothing, even though they consisted of different togas. This was a surprise to each pony, since it may be dead cold here in the north. The answer to this was due to temperature inside the transparent sphere. It was warm there.

Even with such welcoming atmosphere that place had, absolutely everyone was depressed. Pinkie pointed that out right away.

“Let’s get to this castle. I believe we will find our answers there,” Twilight suggested and all of them went there.

Guards that were standing next to castle let them get in, or to be more precisely, under. Four pillars kept the giant crystal pyramid. Between them, there was platform and company were standing there. When Twilight looked at pillars, she saw doors.

“Can we get upstairs somehow?” Cadence asked.

“Yeah, there is doors on each pillar,” Twilight replied.

“Pillar? It’s too little for it,” Cadence said, making Twilight yelp in exclamation. “Wait, each? There is only one… Oh, you also meant that one above?”

“I meant those pillars that castle stand on,” Twilight said and everyone looked on these pillars. Twilight herself meanwhile looked at the pillar in the middle of the platform. “Huh, interesting…”

“What’s there?” Shining asked, already noticing those doors. “All of you. Go get inside. Twilight, what’s up with this?”

“I don’t know. Something is missing here. I can feel some magic emanating from both of those structures. I believe an artifact of some kind was in the middle,” Twilight pointed out.

“Hmm, I see. Well, you and your girls can go check this out in library. We will liven things up here,” Shining suggested. Twilight agreed with him and she with girls went to the library. Before that, they asked local guard about library’s location and somehow managed to get answer. Guards like other ponies there were having memory problems, which definitely was due to some kind of magic.

In library, they spent couple of hours looking for the information they needed. The local librarian, an aged mare was trying to help them but memory loss, which probably was even worse because of her age, made her efforts less helpful. At least she remembered where history section was.

Books there were looking new. The information in them weren’t new at all, though. They spent some of their time just to find most recent information and they did found some.

Book they found told them the story about royal family that were ruling in Crystal Empire for centuries. The last rulers of Crystal Empire, Amore sisters came to rule after an accident where their parents died.

Author then noted that technically the older sister came to rule. The younger one was nowhere to found at first, then when strong opposition arose, the older one told that her sister is somewhere, where none of their enemies will found her. She then disappeared like her sister, leaving the throne empty for her opponent.

The opponent, some unicorn named Sombra, came to rule after her. His rule quickly became tyrannical. Many tried to oppose and prove his rule illegal but as author said, “Their further fate is better left untold”.

Sombra wasn’t also a tyrant, but a dark magician as well. Twilight pointed that dark arts are strongly divided and there are many variations. After reading the description given by the author, Twilight said that he was using advanced mental magic. Dark crystals that Sombra was forming didn’t say much information to Twilight as any magic energy can form crystals. Crystal farms are built on this feature.

The book ended abruptly. When they tried to ask librarian about author of this book, she hardly recognized the name. The name of Sombra, though… Her face immediately turned to shocked one, which quickly developed into face of utter horror.

Twilight and her friends were forced into treatment of sudden memories and flashbacks. It took them some of their time but after coming to senses, librarian asked what time of a year was it today. When they said that it was the end of the autumn, she told them that they hadn’t arranged their annual Crystal Faire. Twilight asked about it and librarian told them that long time ago ancient ancestors of Amore’s royal family settled a celebration that should renew the spirit of love and unity between the citizens. It must be held each year and there must be an important event that is happening or already happened.

“This sounds like quite a party!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“I agree that this is interesting,” Twilight said. “But, missis…”

“Uh?” Librarian hesitated, not quite understanding what Twilight wanted. She quickly took the hint though. “Oh, it’s Ms. Amethyst Maresbury. Oh, I know what you are thinking. Even after seventy years of life I haven’t found that special somepony of mine.”

“Well, Ms. Maresbury, is there some kind of magical relic that is of an absolute importance to Crystal Empire?” Twilight asked.

“Relic?” Amethyst Maresbury looked into space, while looking for the answer. “You mean, Crystal Heart? It should in the middle of Crystal Palace Plaza. Is it there?”

“Of course, it’s there,” Twilight rushed with answer before her friends would say something. “We are just asking. Now we should go.”

After they exited the library, everyone looked at Twilight, “What was that thing?”

“Girls, I have a plan,” Twilight proclaimed, ignoring their question. “You should go to Shining and got everypony organizing the Crystal Faire. We must liven up everyone in this city, but not via mentioning the name of Sombra. I believe the Crystal Faire will cause good emotions and memories to come. I’m not sure how they’ll react to the news that they were out of the world for millennia. Try to come with something.”

“And where are ye headin’?” Applejack asked when Twilight went with them. She even was trying to get ahead of them but the whole group was catching up.

“I will for Crystal Heart,” Twilight replied.

Twilight was somewhere in the castle. Her scanner, which she relied on, was actually pointless there. Everything was filled with the same type of magic. She wasn’t sure if Crystal Heart was a powerful magic source and she should move in the direction where there is an enormous amounts of magic energy. Maybe it has the same magic in it as the castle’s walls and while at work it is amplified by some structures. The only thing she knew, the relic must be protected by either dark or mental magic.

She’d got to the room of the royal family. The touch of tyrant Sombra could be felt in the whole design of the room but Cadence that was in the room already got her way with things here and there. Some parts of the room were already feeling out of place probably due to absence of some things. The bed should have dark bedclothes, but they lay in the pile nearby. The same could be said about different weapons, which must reside all over. There were many stands for weapon standing on floor and hanging on the walls. Now there was just a pile of pointy stuff in the corner.

“Hey, Cadence,” Twilight called her ex-babysitter, who now was sitting behind the desk while pondering over something.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?” Cadence asked, turning to her sister-in-law. “Oh, my manners. Hello Twilight.”

“Manners, hah,” Twilight smirked. “Can you help me with something?”

“Why, of course,” Cadence agreed. “What do you need help with?”

“You did a little clean-up here, as I can see,” Twilight looked around her. “Have you found any books by the way?”

“Books? No, there is not a single bookshelf in this place,” Cadence looked around. “If being honest, this place was a bedroom of some kind of sadist, not a ruler. So many weapons and torturing tools were here.”

“There must be some book or diary that belonged to previous owner,” Twilight said. “It is vital to find one.”

“Well, if there is any book around here, then it’s hidden in some kind of a stash,” Cadence replied, looking around now with concerned look. “Do you really thing he is that kind of person?”

“Well, he is. Those who were before him by the way were also those types of person,” Twilight replied while looking at the ceiling. Cadence noticed that.

“There is something up there?” Cadence asked, looking up as Twilight did.

“My magic says that there is something in there,” Twilight replied. “Something that radiates different magic. Haven’t you noticed the magic of this place?”

“I’m not sure but I believe it was easier to breath here than anywhere in Equestria,” Cadence told Twilight of her observations. “This room though… When I came here, I almost choked myself.”

“Then look after yourself,” Twilight warned Cadence. “That place should have even worse atmosphere. Look after something that can be used as a lever.”

“Lever? Those crystals on the walls could be it?” Cadence asked, pointing somewhere. When Twilight looked there, she saw two crystal hooks or something pointing out of the wall. “Those were used as another weapon stand. On those horns there was yet another sword.”

“Hmm, let’s see,” Twilight mumbled, as she came closer. She observed both of them and then noticed that the tip of one hook can be rotated. “And… It clicked. Is it…”

She was interrupted. A little rumble and sound of gears fused into a loud unison. It quickly died out and both ponies noticed the entrance. There they found a tunnel with the spiral staircase in the end. Next to the entrance, there was another hook. Twilight and Cadence immediately did the same with that hook as they did with previous. Door, which was raised to the ceiling, lowered and soon the entrance was closed.

“We should left it open,” Twilight said and rotated the tip of hook once again. “If anything happens.”

They went to the staircase. Nor the tunnel, nor the stairs were trapped and soon they were in the empty room.

“Um… And where it is?” Cadence asked.

“It is there,” Twilight pointed to some wall. She then quickly got to the wall and made her hand slip into it as if there wasn’t wall at all. She quickly grabbed something and drew it.

“There was… A wall,” Cadence mentioned.

“That what magic here makes you think,” Twilight replied. “Let’s better find out what is written here.”

“Well, fine,” Cadence said and they delved into reading the diary of the tyrant ruler of Crystal Empire.

Soon, they departed. Twilight quickly looked at the ending of the diary and gave it to Cadence. Twilight meanwhile was looking for Crystal Heart.

She was expecting anything and after she read, she understood that Sombra wasn’t stupid. It didn’t say where Sombra had hidden the relic. Not a single hint or word about Crystal Heart… Only a single sentence, “I hid the treasure down there”.

What treasure? Is it Crystal Heart? Or maybe the oldest one of the Amore sisters? Maybe it’s just a one big pile of gold? Twilight wasn’t sure. Twilight wasn’t even sure where this down was.

Twilight was moving from one pillar to other. Three pillars, three staircases and every single one of them were leading upstairs. Fourth one was… Like others, but something was wrong. Magic was telling that somewhere underneath there was something. She couldn’t say what was wrong. She was looking at the stairs until she understood that there was something. Floor next to the stairs had edges.

She looked closely at the emptiness surrounding a piece of floor and found out that it was like another stair but too broad. She checked if it could be moved and understood that it could be moved. A bit of her magic and soon there was a way leading downstairs. She quickly went there.

Stairs here didn’t have any banisters, so Twilight was really cautious here. Her way down took about five or ten minutes but eventually, she was there. Before her was single door. Twilight felt bad when she touched the door handle, but opened the door nevertheless. There she saw a little wooden closet that had a single lectern. Book that rested on the lectern for some reason felt familiar to Twilight. She was about to open it but soon the room was engulfed by the green smokes.

“You have arrived” An eerie voice whispered in her ear. “You will be the Sssssolution.”

“Sssssolution? Venom, is that you?” Twilight looked around but didn’t see the source of that voice. After that, she felt someone gripping her hand.

“A sssssolution to my new ssssspell,” voice rang again and Twilight was pulled back. She didn’t hit the door though. When Twilight raised from the floor, she noticed that there was some kind of the ritual circle. She couldn’t understand which one though.

“Who are you?” Twilight looked up at the one of the snake people. He wore adorned gown and had golden scepter in his hand.

“Not important,” he replied. Quickly, he raised his scepter and a green lightning struck the circle before her. The magic tensed up around Twilight and very soon, everything went blurry. When she came to her senses, Twilight saw the snake looking at someone above her.

“Magnificccccent,” he slithered, then fell to his knees. “Lord, grant me your power.”

“Power?” a very familiar voice asked. “I will grant you power.”

A click near her ear. The snake vaporized before her eyes, leaving a cloud of white dust.

“Discord?” Twilight said with shaky voice. “What?... But how?”

“Now, you, my darling…” he said. “Do you need my gift?”

“What gift?” Twilight asked. Her tone got even higher octave, “I already got something from you.”

She tried to remember what Discord gave to her but failed.

“No, that’s not it. I’m talking about something greater. Power that you can take the whole world with, knowledge that will not be learned in this world in the upcoming millennia…” He stopped, even though Twilight saw clearly that he had something else to say. “And, of course, authority. A way bigger than Celestia has.”

“What is the price?” Twilight asked, even though it wasn’t what she wanted.

“The most expensive, most darling and most needed thing you have,” he replied. Twilight only blinked, not understanding what he meant. “You!”

Twilight felt bad. Really bad. The floor disappeared. She fell, and fell, and fell. She could not comprehend how long she was falling.

Everything around her was silent at first. Then it’s started to laugh, to creak and to whistle. She didn’t know if everything around her whirled and twisted or it was her who was whirling and twisting. She was lost in that madness, in that mangled imagination.

“Twilight,” something changed. Something was there. Something had… Spoken?

“Twilight,” There definitely was a voice. A familiar voice, “Twilight. Here you are, Twilight… Twilight? Answer me, darling!”

“What… What happened?” Twilight grunted.

“I’m not sure but we found you here staring at this…” Rarity began but stumbled when she tried to describe the door before Twilight. The door was a fake since behind it there was a wall. “Door.”

“I believe it was a trap,” Twilight said, gathering the scattered memories. “How much time has passed?”

“Well, ever since you asked us to organize the celebration, two hours has passed,” Rarity replied.

“Two hours?” Twilight exclaimed. Then two hours of sitting came to her. “Oh, fine. Let’s get up.”

Rarity helped Twilight to raise and then she helped her to get upstairs. On the way there, she told her what things they made for the celebration. Many events, many tournaments were going to be on the celebration. Many foods and drinks are going to be there. Everything like in a book Pinkie borrowed from library.

“I hope I will find that Crystal Heart when we will start the celebration,” Twilight sighed.

“Oh, well, darling… There might be tiny wee problem,” Rarity replied.

“What… What do you mean?” Twilight brow twitched.

“There is some dark smoke out there and a dark figure. It is clear that he can’t pass,” Rarity said. “We don’t know what he will do but everyone thinks that he has bad intentions.”

They finally reached the top. Friends found them there and Twilight met her needs.

“So, he is just standing there?” Twilight said as she munched the crystal corn. Right after she asked, there was a sound of glass breaking.

“What is that?” one of the guards who were with them asked. Everyone who were with Twilight immediately headed outside.

Outside, they met cold wind and snowflakes. A minute ago, there was a warm weather even though clouds had covered the skies.

“What happened?” Hard Quill asked as he warmed himself up.

“That bubble was keeping us from bad weather outside. Now it’s gone,” Survival Risk replied.

“You’d better get yourself in the house. We will try to fix that,” Twilight said and headed to castle. Friends came with them.

“Twilight!” Cadence exclaimed. “It’s horrible. The protection field is down. It’s getting worse, and… And there is someone. In the dark mist.”

“We must find Crystal Heart. It will help,” Twilight replied. “I tried but…”

“Crystal Heart?” Cadence asked. “I believe I know where it is.”

“What!?” Twilight yelled. “W-where?”

“Well, there is pretty much a lot of magic in here,” Cadence began. “But it suddenly depleted, after the field was gone. Now, not a single piece of furniture or wall has magic in it, but there is still something up there.”

She was pointing at the highest point of the crystal palace. Twilight couldn’t see anything there, but when she checked and felt a weak source of magic, she considered that Cadence was true.

“Well, fly and get it,” Twilight said.

“I will, but what you will do?” Cadence asked. After that, a grim laugh could be heard from the dark mist that was on the plaza in front of the castle.

“We will be buying you some time,” Twilight replied. “Now, fly!”

Cadence immediately took off into the air. Twilight meanwhile looked into the dark mist. She was about to say something but Rainbow was first.

“You know, I will do it a way faster than she will,” she said.

“And what she will be doing here. If you forgot, she is not a fighter,” Twilight blurted out, even though she admitted that she made a mistake.

“Sister, I believe we should go there. If we met him here, it will be a lot harder for Cadence to retrieve the heart,” Shining Armor said.

“You are right,” Twilight said and stood in front of them. “Remember, we are doing this not only for those poor ponies, but also the country we love and live in. The tyrant we are going to face is not going to stop with Crystal Empire. Even with technologies we have, his magic will simply allow him to enslave the strongest and turn the tide of battle.”

With those words, they headed to the mist. When they made half of the way, something or rather someone emerged from the mist. Many figures were slowly shuffling towards them.

“That’s…” one of the night guards looked more closely but his glance immediately turned to a shocked one. “That’s the citizens. They look even worse now.”

“I said he will enslave the strongest…” Twilight looked at zombie-like crystal ponies. “Well, in this case a crowd but nevertheless. Be careful, we don’t want to kill anyone of them. Our target is the tyrant.”

Soon, they were fighting the crowd. It was really hard due to impossibility of killing. Non-lethal blows were bringing a lot of pain but the only thing crystal ponies were doing afterwards was gritting their teeth. They were clearly showing that they were feeling pain but still tried to get guards down.

“Target!” One of the night guard shouted as a tall pony figure was unhurriedly heading to the castle. He was a black unicorn with red curved horn. Under his red royal cape, adorned with white fur, an armor of black steel was showing. The guard rushed at that unicorn but it was a mistake. The brute from the elite guards that was next to him now was dealing with twice as many enemies, while the night guard was entrapped in the crystalline cage.

“He’s mine,” Twilight shouted and shot a dark purple ray. When it hit the muscular body, an orb of pure blackness emerged from it. When orb landed next to the tyrant a copy of him appeared in that place. It got dissolved as a dark crystal grow in that place and pierced the body of a mimic like a spear.

Twilight then shot a simple beam but the figure simply ignored it. The stronger one made him to look at her briefly. When she was charging the escalating one, something appeared at her ankle. Actually, something hit her both ankles and she fell forward. Her unfinished beam shot into the ground.

“Don’t you dare…” Rainbow wasn’t able to finish her sentence when tyrant throw a spherical crystal at her. If it was pointy, Rainbow would’ve been dead. His combat tactics do not involve killing. “Eat the lead!”

She got her revolver out of the sheath. Sombra was thinking differently, and a crystal impaled the revolver, cutting the barrel off.

Sombra was heading to the castle. After Rainbow, Shining tried to stop the tyrant. He put the barrier in front of him, but Sombra showed why he wasn’t killing anyone. Shining immediately fell for the mental attack. The barrier disappeared while Shining started to see things.

Sombra was about to admire his work when he sensed something.

“Crystal Heart…” He wheezed. He was about to step up but he quickly turned around. Crystal dagger in his hand blocked the blade.

“No, you won’t,” Twilight said. Rainbow’s blade in Twilight’s hand quickly changed its place and soon it was swinging at the tyrant. Each swing was blocked, though. Twilight was doing the same when Sombra was swinging at her back.

“I’m not sure what magic you use to ignore my magic,” he said. In the quick motion, the crystal dagger flew into her and got into the stomach. “I can’t waste my time.”

He turned around. In that place where he was, a crystal spike grew. In the direction of Twilight grew another one, this time bigger. With each spike a crystal stockade grew. Twilight noticed that but pain in the stomach paralyzed her. Soon she felt that someone pushed her away.

When she was on the ground, she saw female bat pony hanging on one of the spike. Originally black, now the tip of spike was slowly becoming red.

Twilight wasn’t looking at the dead guard for too long. She quickly turned her head to the crowd and saw them heading to the castle. She was about to look how her friends or guards were doing but then she saw Applejack in the same state as other crystal ponies. She turned her towards Sombra.

“Stop right there,” Twilight mumbled. Putting all her efforts she shot the cloning ray into him. It barely made it, but the clone’s position was just right.

Sombra was rushing to the castle. Even in such rush, he had some arrogant posture in him. The clone, which appeared in front of him, stopped him with a punch into the face.

Another crystal spike. Meanwhile in the castle Cadence was flying down with Crystal Heart, which was just a stone, chiseled into a heart shape. Cadence felt though that deep within there was some magic.

When she reached her destination, she noticed the dark mist what had a form of a pony. She didn’t want to learn who was that so she quickly put the Crystal Heart in place.

A bright light started to emerge from the relic. It was soft and reassuring for Cadence but for Sombra it was like a fire. He tried to touch it, to corrupt it and to remove it. His hand even almost touched the Heart but in the powerful surge, a wave of light washed the city. His hand was gone and the body became the lump of pain. With the second one, his body evaporated, leaving only a curved horn. After the third wave, the horn was also gone.

Twilight slowly stood up. Everything around her shone, reflecting the light of the sun. Magic of the Crystal Heart cleared the skies, destroyed every dark crystal and healed everyone. Except one.

“Rue?” One of the night guards mumbled. He quickly stood over her body trying to do something. “Rue, please, wake up… Wake up! You can’t… What will I tell to Dream? To a little Sap? To your father?”

“She’s a hero,” Shining Armor stood by him and put his hand on bar pony’s shoulder. “But there is nothing we can do about it. No magic can make her alive again. Now, Twilight… A pony sacrificed herself and let you live. I hope you’d made this bastard pay for that.”

“My spell barely hit him,” Twilight said, rubbing the place where crystal was. “but it was enough… By the way, about Rue…”

“We need her alive,” Shining interrupted her. “Not a ghost or a zombie… By the way, I’m not sure if you even know this. I’ve been in guards for some years and never saw a book about necromancy. Believe me, I’ve seen quite a lot of books, so I don’t think you’ve got one by yourself.”

“You don’t trust me?” Twilight looked at his eyes for some time.

“I wanted to ask that ever since we arrived,” Rainbow interrupted them. “How we are going to get back?”

“Train is going to arrive in couple of days,” Shining replied, turning his gaze away from Twilight. After replying to Rainbow, he turned to the crowd. “I believe, until then we are going to celebrate.”

“We can’t,” one crystal pony from the crowd said. Other repeated.

“Why is that so?” Shining asked.

“That’s the tradition,” one of the elderly ponies who was put in front of the crowd said. “When someone dies in the borders of the Crystal Empire, no celebration can be started until the relatives of the dead one stop with the mourning.”

“Oh, then we will do something,” Shining Armor looked at the crowd. “You can go and do your chores or take a rest.”

Soon, the crowd dissolved.