"Who's to say I was the one who betrayed them? Who's to say they were the ones who betrayed me?"

(Crystal empire)

How long since he has last stepped into the crystal halls of his palace... the same one he had countless slaves built for him so very long ago. He remembers how things were before he took his rightful place on that crystal throne, the empire was nothing more than a backwater village dying and easy prey to rival pony tribes.

If it wasn't for him the crystal empire would never have existed!

All this was rightfully his!

He was the one who took up the magic to conquer the tribes and turn a frozen wasteland into his kingdom to rule!

Then those princesses came demanding he surrender the fruits of his labor!

Banishing him not once but two times after they send a damn child not seeing him as a true threat!

They mocked him and what's more the crystal heart!

His prize...

With that power, he could reclaim his empire!

And those two love-drunk ponies never saw him coming!

(The throne room)

Being thrown to the side with his helmet sliding across the crystal floor, Shining Armor lifted his bruised head up to see the king of shadows stand at the throne reaching for the crystal heart above it.

"HAHAHAHAHA! FINALLY AFTER SO LONG IT'S MINE!" Sombra laughed his prize within reach.

Shining turned to see his wife unconscious under the rumble of the throne room ceiling and his daughter was crying in one of Sombra's living shadow constructs. Bleeding from his head Shining armor picked up his sword before using it to help push himself up off the ground before turning to Sombra.

"SOMBRA!" Shining charged forward his legs screaming with every step forward, raising his sword up the king turned his head to the captain of the guard.

Fast as quicksilver Sombra knocked the sword out of Shining's hands before summoning another shadow to construct to grab Shining by the neck. Lifting him off the ground the captain looked down at the king who was smiling smugly, clearly assumed by the pony's pathetic attempts in stop him.

"It's adorable you think you can stop me dear child... and besides the same trick will not work on me twice," Sombra clenched Shining's cheeks as if he was a kid. "After I'm done reclaiming my empire. Your sister and her little friends are next,"

Shining glared back at Sombra who smiled back but the captain's gaze for a brief moment turned to where the crystal heart floated but blinked in surprise. The dark king noticed Shining's change in expression before turning back and to his horror the very magical relic he sought was gone!!!

"WHO DARES STEALS MY CRYSTAL HEART!"

Turning from the throne Sombra looked around the throne room looking but the throne room was completely empty besides the still knocked-out Princess Cadance. That was until Sombra noticed something, it was not easy to see almost impossible to even notice it but Sombra saw it.

A blur in the light.

Roaring in anger Sombra threw out razor-sharp dark crystal fragments at the blur that moved to dodge the attack confirming sombra's suspension.

A thief had his prize!

"I KNOW YOUR IN HERE THIEF! COME OUT AND I WILL MAKE YOUR DEATH A PAINLESS ONE!"

Little did the King know that the thief was right above his head in the crystal raft supports above, slowly the blur began to take a solid form. As the light stopped bending around the thief who held the crystal heart tugged under his right arm with his other resting on the rafting.

Clad in red armor the thief looked down at Sombra who was looking around for him, Shining looked up at the thief no longer in Sombra's grip but in the hold of a shadow construct. This caused the thief to give a two-finger salute to shining armor before the light began to rebend around the red-clad thief and soon completely vanished leaving Shining with a very pissed-off Sombra.

(Outside)

Kicking out one of the crystal windows the spartan dropped down onto the roof of the crystal palace with the crystal heart in hand. Looking at the blue gem-shaped heart the spartan gave a light chuckle to himself before an image of a red/yellow holo-projection appeared on his shoulder.

"I think that went pretty well," The spartan's AI joked while the spartan nodded.

"Yep think your right... that went without a hitch all we need now is our ride," The spartan said while the AI's ball-like body bounced down his shoulder to his arm.

"One Phantom on the way," The AI hummed while the spartan overlooked the crystal empire in complete and utter chaos as Sombra's shadow creatures were wreaking havoc on the crystal ponies below.

The spartan put the crystal heart under his arm as he watched the carnage below, seeing a lot of 'non-child friendly' things happing below.

'Damn... they don't show this on the show,' Watching the shadow creatures round up the ponies the spartan gave a slight sigh of relief. 'At least they aren't killing them... makes using this entire thing as cover a whole lot better,'

"Oh no," The AI flinched while the spartan gave a sigh.

"Plan B?"

Plan B," The yellow-purple hologram avatar of the AI disappeared while the red-clad spartan turned his head to the approaching cloud of black fog.

"I FOUND YOU, THIEF!" Sombra appeared a cloak of living shadows surrounding him still holding Shining armor and the crying Flurry heart. "HAND OVER MY CRYSTAL THIEF AND I'LL END YOUR LIFE QUICKLY!"

Giving a sigh the spartan reached behind his back to take the weapon off it before pointing it at Sombra, the dark king noticed the move and went to defend himself pulling up his two hostages as meat shields.

"We'll that's not really 'king-ly' of you Sombra," Still holding up his modified M319 grenade launcher at the lord of shadows and his pony shields not even flinching the moment he moved them up.

"Pawns are always meant to protect their king! Even giving their lives for their master when required," Sombra chuckled. "And you may be a simple thief but you are no killer aren't you?"

This caused the spartan to tilt his head to the right slightly at the dark king's words.

"What did you say?" This time Sombra found the spartan's words assuming before giving a dark chuckle before speaking.

"Celestia sent you to retrieve the crystal heart and escape undetected to use it against me correct? Well... I doubt she would be happy if she learned you didn't kill her nephew-in-law but her own niece!" Sombra kept laughing under his breath. "I thought Celestia stopped hiring sell-swords into causes she never truly cares about... guess I was wrong,"

"First of all that was pretty cold to say in front of the kid... don't know how old she is but saying her aunt never cares about her? Cold. Second of all... Celestia hiring sell-swords to deal with stuff like this? Some loving princess huh?" The spartan's words assumed Sombra even more causing the dark king to laugh.

"Ha-ha! Well, I must admit that is quite true! Celestia isn't what she puts out to be... egos ago she was a completely different pony but now she admits to hiding away her past," Sombra shook his head still smiling. "I like you, thief, perhaps I wouldn't kill you... I do require a new court jester,"

"I'll Pass,"

"I wasn't asking-"

Before Sombra could finish his sentence the spartan pulled the trigger of his launcher firing a 40mm size shell at the Sombra who pulled up the two ponies. Instead of harming them, the round bounced off Shining's chest not harming him only knocking the air out of his lungs from the impact while the small dropped to Sombra's feet.

King Sombra's brow raised up at the sight of the hissing metal shell.

"Well... I'll be damned you are some sellsword to risk the lives of a prince and his filly of a daughter to stop me! Perhaps you would make a fine assassin instead of a jester," Looking up in the sky the spartan saw a flying object in the distance.

"Hate to break it to you but that little thing isn't supposed to kill," Looking back down at the hissing metal thing at his feet, Sombra looked up while the spartan released the trigger. "It's supposed to hold you,"

Orange-red foam exploded out of the shell before quickly spreading over Sombra, Flurry Heart, Shining within seconds and hardening quickly while it was exposed to the air. Lifting the M319 launcher up the spartan blinked in surprise then turned to look at the three frozen equines trapped within the orange-red hardened foam.

"Hey Tao,"

"Hmh?" The AI appeared at the spartan's shoulder.

"They'll be alright? Well... you know I'm not questioning that the statis foam but-"

"Don't worry they'll be fine it will dissolve in about an hour till then they'll be sleeping like a couple of baby grunts," 'Tao' looked at the spartan with a smile on her round face and her small tail wagging behind her.

"Good to hear. Also another thing," Placing the launcher on his back the spartan pulled out his sidearm before shooting at Sombra's horn. "And that's for using the kid,"

Turning to the red-plated phantom that deployed it's side ramp, the spartan turned boarded the phantom which then took off into the air away from the burning crystal empire with most of it's building on fire. The shadow creatures of Sombra were all now but ash after the Spartan shot off his horn disconnecting his hold over the creatures.

Looking at the empire one last time the spartan couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu before turning away while the ramp closed and he entered the cockpit before placing the crystal heart in the co-pilot's seat. Sitting down in the pilot's chair the spartan watched while his AI remote piloted the air transport as it moved through the sky.

"Where to next?"

"Take us home,"

Author's Note

Well... I always want to do a banished story on this site and now I have!

Man, the plans I have for this story!

I may not be able to ever post a certain story of mine because of the current world events but maybe... this wouldn't attack.

Before people start complaining there are no such things as banished spartans because the banished don't take humans well... I hate to say it (Not really) but the banish take anyone from ANY race to join them. Humans are one of them.

They aren't the covenant!

Heck, in the official spartan 4 guidebook there is a part where it says that the banish have recruited humans AND spartans (Most likely spartan 3-4s)

So yeah, hope you enjoy this and see you all in the next one!

(Update: 10/21/2022: I wrote this originally to the time stamp and didn't post it since I forgot the original plot and it was left abandoned on my bookshelf luckily now thanks to my buddy death wolf I got a new plot line ready to go and new ideas ready to fire off!)