(Crystal empire)

"Shining? Shining wake up!"

Slowly Shining began to open his eyes groaning at how stiff his body felt, looking up to see the familiar eyes of his own sister the captain smiled.

"Hey, Twi... come to save my butt again?" Shining joked causing the princess of friendship to give a slight chuckle.

"Well, that was originally the plan,"

"Originally?" Shining looked up seeing they were on the roof of the crystal palace with some of the solar guard putting a newly petrified King Sombra who was missing his horn.

All it took was for a few brief moments before Shining snapped up.

"Flurry!" Hissing in pain by his own action Twilight held him back down.

"Easy she's fine Pinkie has her,"

"That doesn't make me feel that much better," Shining stated kinda worried that Pinkie might scare his child with her antics.

"Pinkie has gotten better with fillies. She usually foalsits for the Cakes,"

"I... is Cadance okay?"

Twilight gave a nod.

"The royal healers are helping her now," Twilight explained before shining relaxed. "Shining?"

The captain of the guard gave a grunt trying to relax so as not to strain himself.

"What happened?"

Shining looked at his sister before trying to recall the events of Sombra's attack.

"Sombra attacked that part you knew. He breached the gates of the palace and brought part of the ceiling down on Cadance, I tried to attack him but Sombra knocked me around before taking Flurry hostage, and then-" Shining looked down for a moment. "And then..."

"Shining?"

Twilight watched as her brother's face held a more confused look before he turned to her.

"Twilight? Where is the crystal heart?"

"I was hoping you knew what happened to it,"

(Meanwhile...)
(???)

Typing at the console the spartan looked up at the shield containment field holding within it the pure energy of a small star that was powering the entire base. Looking back to the results on the screen he couldn't help but smile slightly for the results were better than he and his companion could have expected.

For a while, they have tried their best to work with what they had...

The broken remains of banished modified CAS-assault carriers gave them plenty to use in building their new home...

Repurposing almost every part of that ship...

From using the excavation beam to cut through the solid rock of the mountain to use the Nanolaminate hull for building the foundation of this place. Yet something remained as they were like the many different armaments were to be used if they ever need to defend their home while the Pinch fusion reactor still gave life to the machinery within this place.

Even after they repaired the reactor it still wasn't enough for what they needed, only so much survived the crash and they didn't have enough to proceed with finishing this place. They had all the physical resources that they need, the one problem they faced was that the power core wasn't giving off the energy they needed.

So after so debating with one another and finally coming to an agreement, the two decided to 'borrow' the magical item known as the crystal heart from the local kingdom to bring the reactor to it's full potential. Slowly the power levels began to rise as the power source began to accept the crystal heart into it while said magical item began to pulse like the organ it was shaped after.

"Well I'll be damned," His smile grew while looking at the charts while a holographic image of the small AI appeared in between his hands on the consule.

"See told you it would work,"

"I didn't say it wouldn't," The spartan stated while the AI bounced over to the display charts before turning back to him.

"But you did say it was risky,"

"I did. Look it at this we put a 'magical heart crystal' into a reactor core expecting it to improve the energy output of a salvaged Pinch fusion reactor," Rolling his hand up to point at the pulling magical item before them. "This was a pretty big gamble, Tao,"

"Yet my calculations were correct... the core's energy accepted the crystal and now we'll have more than enough energy for all systems to work. No more blackouts, no more power gags, and now we can have everything working at full power,"

"True..." Lowering his hand back to the console the spartan then shrugged. "I do feel kinda bad about taking this thing though,"

The AI stuck out her tongue before giving a 'pfft' sound and looking up at him.

"Those ponies have a baby that is so powerful it can shatter the crystal heart and then some! Besides were just borrowing it," Tao stated while the spartan gave a sigh.

"Indefinitely," Upon his words the small tailed ball avatar of the AI gave off a cartoon-ish sweat drop emoji next to her forehead before nodding.

"Yeah,"

"Though glad to finally keep the heater on this valley seems to colder and colder everyday,"

"Why are you complaing about the cold? Your Mjolnir is making your body tempture remains at a normal level,"

"It is... but my food freezes the moment after I cook it and some of the stuff we have doesn't work well in the cold," The spartan explained to which the AI nodded slightly.

"Fair enough,"

"So... how long will it be before the crystal heart brings us to full power?"

"Not long maybe in a hour or two,"

"Do we need anything else for this?"

"Nope it's all good," Nodding the spartan moved his hands away from the consule as the AI's avatar disappeared before her voice spoke in his helmet. "Perimeter check?"

"You know me..."

(Stalliongard)

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