Flurry Heart is Evil!

Chapters

Cadance's Baby
Cadance & Shining vs. Evil
The Crystalville Horror
The Crystal City of the Damned
Children of the Crystal Corn
The Omens of Flurry
The Exorcism of Flurry Heart
The Evil Undead
Flurrygeist

Cadance's Baby

“Bow to your rightful King!” Sombra roared. More smoke and shadow than physical pony, the King of the Crystal Empire swirled around the Crystal Heart. Tendrils of black shadow slammed against the golden shield protecting the Heart from his dark touch.

“You’re not the King anymore!” Shining Armor shouted up to the dark blob. The Prince of the Crystal Empire was still in his pajama bottoms, plaid cotton pants decorated with little golden guard helmets. His pink shield battered away the shadowy tentacles, severing them.

“I will always be the King!” Sombra’s muzzle and smoking eyes emerged from the cloud for a moment. His burning red eyes poured purple and green smoke. He sneered down at the prince, reforming more tendrils of shadow.

“Not anymore!” Cadance cried. She kicked open the doors to the Crystal Palace, flapping her wings above a horde of crystal ponies. Coats shining with renewed hope and joy, they knelt and began to glow, adding their strength to the Heart. “We finally filled out the paperwork!” Cadance added.

“Impossible,” Sombra rumbled. The shadows shifted into a frown. “Old Ponish is long forgotten. You cannot have filled out the forms correctly.”

“We couldn’t!” Flurry Heart answered. The thirteen-year-old filly stood underneath the floating Crystal Heart, scowling up at the dark mass attempting to break her golden shield. Her braces reflected the light from her horn, along with the thick-framed black glasses perched on her muzzle. “But Luna could! You forgot about her!” Flurry lisped with a smirk.

Sombra paused for a moment. “I will refile the paperwork,” he decided.

“You’ll be refiling it in Tartarus,” Cadance scoffed. She fired a beam powered by the sheer love of her family into the roiling mass of shadow. Shining stomped his hooves and the crystal floor erupted with light. Flurry dropped the shield protecting the Heart, unleashing its loving fury right into Sombra.

The Crystal Heart exploded with light, banishing the shadows. Sombra howled in defeat as the smoky clouds burned away. Everypony’s coat glittered with energy as night became day for a brief second. “I will return,” Sombra vowed. His hateful eyes lingered for a moment, glaring down at the family that defeated him. Again.

“We know,” Shining groaned. His white coat shone, partly transparent. He raised a hoof to inspect his mane. His bedhead had been fixed by the Crystal Heart, now a smooth, blue wave that complemented a neat blue beard. “Pointless going back to bed now,” he sighed.

Sombra cackled wildly, somehow without lungs as the last of the smoke vanished. His horn fell from the sky, landing point-up before the Crystal Heart. The twisted black horn had a blood red tip that still emitted a small bit of smoke.

Cadance landed, her own mane immaculately curled and coiffed, matched by her tail. “Citizens of the Crystal Empire!” she announced to the gathered crowd. “I, Mi Amore Cadenza, the Princess of the Crystal Empire, announce that the former King Sombra has been defeated!” She struck a pose, flaring her wings. Her pink fur sparkled along with her purple eyes.

The crystal ponies’ enthusiasm was hampered by the fact it was three in the morning, and it was the fourth time that year that Sombra had been defeated. A few stomped their hooves and yawned. A few more exchanged bits, having lost wagers on how long it would take for Sombra to lose.

“You may go home now,” Cadance added. “Tomorrow will be the fourth ‘Defeat of Sombra Day’ for the year.”

That cheered the crystal ponies up. They enjoyed national, tax-free holidays as much as anypony. “Three cheers for the Princess!” a mare shouted.

“Hooray!”

The crystal ponies slowly dispersed, guided back to their homes by the Heart Guard. Flash and Fizzlepop saluted Shining briefly before leaving to spread the word. Cadance, Shining, and Flurry surrounded the horn, still emitting black smoke.

“We only budgeted three ‘Defeat of Sombra Days’ for this year,” Shining pointed out.

“We can’t expect them to work after staying up all night,” Cadance replied. “And he only came back three times last year.”

“I told you we shouldn’t have thrown the horn through that mirror,” Shining answered. “Principal Shimmer just tossed him back.”

“You said to get help!” Cadance accused. “I asked Starswirl what to do!”

“He’s senile!”

“I hate my mane,” Flurry groused. She desperately tried to undo the piled-up purple and blue coif with her forehooves. The Crystal Heart curled her mane into a beehive, and her tail was a thick swirl.

“Your mane looks lovely like that, sweetie,” Cadance assured her daughter.

“I don’t like it,” Flurry lisped. Her wings flared in agitation, accidentally knocking over Sombra’s horn. The horn erupted with a plume of dark smoke that dove towards Flurry. The cloud enveloped her before anypony could react.

Cadance and Shining lunged towards their daughter, hooves outstretched. “No!” they screamed in unison. Flurry Heart was too old to be kidnapped again; Twilight would make fun of them forever.

Flurry coughed and waved her hoof, dispelling the smoke. “Ew, gross! Horn smoke!” She stuck out her tongue and gagged. “It’s not stuck in my braces, is it?”

Shining embraced his daughter, looking her over. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Flurry coughed. She removed her glasses with her horn and wiped the frames on her frumpy blue hoodie.

Cadance glared down at the sideways horn. The pink alicorn stood with twitching purple eyes. “You monster! Even in undeath, you still go after our daughter!” She kicked the horn with her bare hoof, sending it skidding across the crystal floor.

“Ow!” Cadance nickered. She raised her foreleg and inspected the shallow cut on the bottom of her hoof. She kicked one of the jagged edges. She flushed with embarrassment; it was the only injury any of them had.

Shining crossed from his daughter to his wife. He gently grabbed her foreleg and looked at the cut. “We got worse papercuts going through Sombra’s filing system.”

“I know,” Cadance grumbled. “At least the crystal ponies didn’t see it. There was a bet we’d defeat him without injury.”

“Whatta we do now?” Flurry lisped again. She blushed and repeated herself, carefully enunciating. “What do we do now?”

“We might as well stay up,” Shining shrugged. “You can go back to bed, sweetie. You were up late.”

“I will,” Flurry yawned, exposing her braces. The pink alicorn filly needed a full set. “I was asking about Sombra.” She grabbed the horn in her golden aura and levitated it back over.

“Be careful, Flurry,” Shining warned.

Flurry held it away from her at a respectful distance. “I just kinda feel bad is all,” she said. “He never does anything else. Always the first thing he does when he comes back is all 'Blargh, Crystal Slaves' and stuff.” Her voice deepened for the impression, but it was still squeaky and high-pitched.

“Well, he’s evil,” Cadance said.

“Yeah, but he could like, paint or something,” Flurry replied. “He’s a blank flank.”

“He’s an undead abomination of eldritch magic,” Cadance said. “I don’t think he can get a cutie mark.”

Flurry hummed. She squinted through her thick frames; they made her blue eyes look owlish. “Yeah, I guess.”

“We’ll just put the horn back on the 'Sombra’s Horn' pedestal in the courtyard,” Shining decided. He took the horn from his daughter and wrapped it in a plastic baggie with a grimace.

The pedestal was guarded by a rotating shift of guards that watched it at all times, equipped with a flugelhorn for alerting the Crystal Empire. It was the worst posting in the entire Empire, counting the frozen outposts with no indoor plumbing. Shining used it as punishment; there was an appeal to Princess Twilight that it counted as 'cruel and unusual,' but she refused to intervene.

“I’ll take it,” Cadance offered. “Are you alright, Flurry?”

“Yeah,” Flurry answered. She stuck her tongue out. “It got in my mouth. I’m going to brush my teeth and go back to bed.”

“I’ll walk you up,” Shining offered.

“Dad, I’m thirteen.”

“You can walk this old stallion up,” Shining rephrased. His legs wobbled unsteadily and he staggered over to Flurry with a wide-eyed look of pleading. “Please, daughter,” he croaked out from the back of his throat. “If I fall, I can’t get up.”

Flurry giggle-snorted. “Your jokes are terrible.”

“And yet you still laugh.”

“Lean on me,” Flurry smiled. “Old stallion.”

Shining leaned heavily on his daughter’s right side. “These old bones won’t make it up all those stairs,” he wheezed. Flurry huffed at him and corrected her gait, easily holding him up with a curled wing and trotting away.

Cadance smiled, then glared at the horn again. She shook the plastic baggie aggressively, making the horn bounce about. “You’ve done enough to our family.”

She trotted to the courtyard with her head held high. “Sweeper, you did well to alert us.” There was no answer, only a light snoring. Cadance lowered her muzzle to the sleeping crystal pony beside the pedestal. His legs twitched and curled around his flugelhorn protectively.

“Sweeper!” Cadance shouted, then blushed. She didn’t mean to be that loud. Sweeper gasped awake and jammed the flugelhorn to his lips. Cadance stuffed her hoof into the end and Sweeper produced a strangled note instead of a trumpet blast.

“Oh, Princess,” Sweeper said in relief. “I’m sorry, just with the horn gone…”

“You did your duty and alerted us,” Cadance replied. "I won't tell anypony."

Sweeper looked to the hole in the wall from where the horn rocketed off the pedestal to return to Sombra. “Yeah,” he admitted with a bit of pride. “Does that mean I’m off horn watch?”

“I’ll talk to Shining in the morning,” Cadance promised.

“I didn’t mean to overflow all the toilets in the city.”

“In the morning,” Cadance repeated with a strained smile.

“Okay,” Sweeper nodded. “Thank you, Princess.”

Cadance levitated the plastic bag over to the pedestal and set it down. The bag crinkled slightly. Sweeper stared at the horn inside. “Uh, should I take it out of the bag?”

“No, maybe it will help,” Cadance sighed.

“Yeah, I guess it is helping,” Sweeper admitted. “It’s not smoking anymore.”

“What?” Cadance looked back at the horn, squinting through the plastic.

“It usually smokes a little,” Sweeper explained. “It’s not doing that anymore.”

It got in my mouth.

Cadance staggered back. Her mind spun.She vanished with a crack of light and reappeared in a hallway to their bedrooms.

Not my daughter.

Cadance rushed forward, past her and Shining’s master bedroom towards Flurry Heart’s room. She began to gallop with wings extended. Flurry’s crystal door had caution sign on it, declaring ‘Mare at Work.’ Cadance didn't stop; she smashed open the door. It swung hard on the hinges and impacted the wall with a heavy strike.

Not little Flurry.

Flurry’s bedroom was decorated with several posters; mares and stallions in armor fought against monsters in all of them. Cadance understood the appeal of impractical armor and large swords, but the posters focused more on the combat and spells than the appeal of a skimpy barbarian stallion.

Flurry had a large crystal worktable underneath the posters, along with several stacked books stored underneath. The table was covered in tiny dolls lined in rows; they looked nothing like the dolls Cadance grew up with. Instead of cosmetics lining her dresser, thin paintbrushes were stored in cups along with a dozen different hues of paint.

The cramped worktable rattled from the door’s impact and several gray figures fell over onto the floor, breaking apart. Flurry reared out of bed, snorting and flailing her wings. She also fell to the floor in a tangle of bedsheets. “Gah!” Flurry struggled with the sheets, blinking rapidly. Her head emerged from the impromptu cocoon. She squinted at the figure in the doorway. “Mom?”

Cadance stared at her daughter with quivering wings. “Flurry?” she asked desperately.

“Mom!” Flurry shouted, annoyed. “What the hay? I just laid back down!” She levitated over her glasses from her nightstand and slipped them on.

Cadance stepped into the room, but hesitated. “Are you okay? Where’s Shining?”

“Dad went to talk to Fizzlepop and Flash,” Flurry replied with a furrowed brow. “He said he would, remember?”

“Right,” Cadance said distractedly. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Flurry grumbled. She tugged herself free from her bedsheets, shaking them off. Flurry had already combed her mane back to its normal unkempt swirls. Flurry looked to her table and she gasped, staggering over with unsteady hooves. “No!”

“What!?” Cadance whinnied. “Tell me what’s wrong!”

“You broke them!” Flurry accused. She levitated up several of the figures that had fallen over. “It’ll take me all night to fix these now!”

Cadance blinked, looking at the disconnected tails, hooves, and legs floating in her daughter’s magic. “What?” Some of the parts looked like claws or weapons, but she wasn’t sure. "Your dolls?"

“These are collectibles,” Flurry lisped. She was too upset to notice. She set them down in a pile on the desk, then batted Cadance back with her wings. “Out! Get out!”

“Flurry, I came to check on you!” Cadance resisted her daughter’s pushing with her own alicorn strength. For a moment, mother and daughter descended into a slap fight with their wings.

“I’m fine! Go away!”

Cadance glared down at her daughter. “I am your mother! You do not tell me to go away!” She stomped her hoof for emphasis.

There was a crunch and Cadance winced in pain. She stomped down on her hoof with the cut. Cadance raised her hoof back up with a grimace to see if it was bleeding. It wasn’t, but one of Flurry’s figures was completely shattered on the floor. It looked like it was an alicorn in bulky armor.

“My miniature,” Flurry Heart mumbled, staring down at the pulverized pony with pinned back ears. “Primarch Horus still needed to be painted.” She gave her mother a murderous stare, wet with tears. “Out.” Her voice cracked into a deep growl.

“Flurry…”

“Out!” Flurry seized her mother in her golden magic and shoved her to the door. “I hate you! Get out!” Cadance tried to resist, but Flurry’s magic overpowered her and pushed her into the hallway with skidding hooves.

The door slammed shut right in front of her muzzle and locked. Cadance pounded on it with both forelegs. “No! Flurry!” she wept. “Resist! Don’t give in!” She slumped against the door. "Don't give up!"

“What?” Shining asked. He came running around the corner, still in his pajamas. Cadance flung herself at him, weeping. He embraced his wife, nuzzling her. “What happened?”

“She said she hates me!”

“Flurry? Why?”

“It’s Sombra! He got to her!”

Shining cocked an ear and listened for the flugelhorn. When it didn't come, he asked, “What happened?”

“I just broke one of her stupid dolls and she screamed at me.”

Shining sucked on his teeth. “Which one?”

Cadance shoved him away. “What kind of question is that?” she growled.

“Was it painted?”

“No.”

Shining’s ears pinned back. “Flurry kept her grades up and did all her chores to buy the new Warhammer miniatures," he explained. "She’s been saving up so she has a nice set for the tournament. She paints them herself.”

“So?” Cadance sniffed. “How expensive could they be?”

Shining told her.

“What!? We let her waste money on that!?”

“It’s not a waste,” Shining defended. “She has fun.” He gently guided Cadance back to their bedroom. “I’ll talk to her later. It’s been a long night. Maybe you should lie down.” Cadance didn’t resist, still sobbing.

“She hates me,” Cadance wept.

“Flurry doesn’t hate you,” Shining assured her. “She’s just upset.”

“It’s too late. I was too late…”

“Not looking forward to figuring out which one you broke,” Shining muttered under his breath. “Look, if it wasn’t painted yet, we can buy her another one. You can buy it and make it up to her.”

Cadance rolled over on the bed, away from Shining. “Too late…”

“Get some rest, honey. I love you.” Shining kissed the top of her head and crept out of the room. "She'll calm down."

Cadance’s purple eyes stared at the far wall, replaying the moment she entered Flurry’s bedroom.

Flurry squinted at her mother to hide her slit pupils. Her sharp teeth gleamed in the light. Wrapped in the bedsheets to hide her corruption.

I hate you!

Sombra hated.

Cadance’s eyes narrowed and she dried her tears on a foreleg. “I will save my daughter,” she vowed.

Cadance & Shining vs. Evil

Cadance awoke with a plan. Or more accurately, she spent all night thinking of a plan, and waited until morning to implement it.

If Sombra had possessed Flurry or otherwise corrupted her, it would be pointless to confront her daughter directly. Last night proved that a direct confrontation would just further push her towards darkness. Cadance had to be careful and act like nothing was wrong. She had to be sneaky.

Luckily, love can sneak up on you, Cadance suppressed a chuckle and got out of bed with a smile. That smile immediately turned to a frown as her hoof itched. Her morning routine had the extra step of putting a band-aid with a cute ladybug on the small cut. Otherwise, she left the bathroom just as glamourous as usual, with mane and tail immaculately curled.

Cadance’s master plan was to have the staff make Flurry’s favorite crystalberry pancakes to lower her guard, and to serve as an apology for last night. She would use the distraction to subtly inspect her daughter for signs of corruption. Dark magic was insidious, creeping into thoughts like whispers.

If Sombra had possessed Flurry, he would surely display no interest in revolting, sugary pancakes. For all Sombra’s many evils, he was actually a health nut. The former king was rugged underneath that cape. Half of the misery caused by his dark reign was trying to make the crystal ponies eat healthier...

...so they worked harder in the mines.

Her plan immediately fell apart the moment she reached the kitchen. The staff was gone, taking the ‘Defeat of Sombra Day’ off. Technically, Cadance made the declaration after midnight, so the next day should be a holiday, but the alicorn decided that the spirit of the law was more important than the technicalities. They had dealt with more than enough technicalities in Sombra’s dark filing system that took up most of the basement.

Cadance took another sip of Luna’s Dark Side of the Moon roast coffee at the dining table. It ate through the stomach lining of anything less than an alicorn. Cadance preferred tea, but she needed the boost after last night, alternating between munching on a dry bowl of CelestiO’s and toast beside a jar of crystalberry jam.

Cadance certainly couldn’t make the pancakes herself, so she was forced to scrounge together a breakfast and wait. Time was of the essence. It wasn’t the meal she intended, but the cereal was marketed as cake for breakfast. If Sombra’s dark spirit resided in her daughter, he would never eat anything at the table.

Shining Armor arrived first, looking absolutely haggard after an all-nighter. Despite the Crystal Heart’s best efforts, his short beard was ruffled again. “You look great as always, honey,” Shining greeted his wife and nuzzled her, avoiding her lips so he would not be exposed to any of the coffee.

“You too,” Cadance lied. Shining was still in his pajama bottoms and needed a shower. He slumped beside her at the table, pouring himself a bowl of cereal with milk to make the cake bits extra sweet.

“Staff’s gone today, huh?” Shining commented. “Hope they’re enjoying themselves. We all need a break after last night.”

“I wanted to make crystalberry pancakes,” Cadance replied. “For Flurry.”

Shining winced. “I talked to her last night.”

Cadance had to play it cool, but her hopes soared for a moment. “And?”

“She was really upset. The mini you smashed was really important.”

Cadance’s hopes deflated. “The what?”

“The miniature,” Shining clarified. “We’ll have to order the replacement.”

“I don’t care about the doll,” Cadance scoffed. “Did you notice anything…off about her?”

“That she was very upset,” Shining deadpanned with a frown. “It’s important to her, Cadance.” He jabbed a hoof towards the wall next to the fridges. It was ordained with progress reports and tests, all bearing smiling ponies with ‘A+’ next to them.

“She’s been doing so well with school and hobbies,” Shining said proudly. “Believe me, it’s hard to run an adventuring party and keep your grades up, let alone compete in tournaments with her miniatures. That takes a lot of planning, you know.”

Cadance wanted to roll her eyes, but did not. “I just got so worried after Sombra’s horn went after her.”

“Yeah,” Shining agreed. “But she’s a tough filly. She wasn’t scared at all last night.”

“What if…what if it left something?” Cadance ventured. She needed her husband on her side. “She got so angry last night, Shining. You didn’t see it.”

“I saw the figure,” Shining answered. “She tried to glue it back together, but your hoof pulverized it. Flurry’s heartbroken.”

“It’s a weird little doll.”

“Cadance,” Shining set his spoon down. “Apologize to her when she comes down for breakfast.”

“What?” Cadance reared her head back. “She screamed at me! It was an accident!”

“And I told her she had to apologize to you for that,” Shining nodded.

Cadance opened her mouth to argue, but a cold feeling settled into her gut. “You talked to her for a while, then?”

“Yes,” Shining picked the spoon back up in his magic. Cadance stared at his horn. “I made it clear that what she said wasn’t acceptable, no matter how angry she was.”

“You talked to her alone?” Cadance asked with growing dread.

“Yes?” Shining answered. “Wait, what did you mean earlier about the horn?”

He’s compromised. The thought slammed into her head, and she warred internally over what to say. “Sombra’s horn blasted her with dark magic!” Cadance blurted out. “What if she’s possessed?”

Shining glanced down to the coffee mug. The liquid was starting to eat through the crystal cup, like it usually did. “Honey, did you get any sleep?”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“Okay,” Shining switched to ‘be patient with the alicorn mode.’ “You believe Sombra is possessing our daughter, something that he’s never once demonstrated the ability to do in a decade of fighting him?”

“Dark magic is corruptive,” Cadance replied. “Maybe not Sombra himself, but maybe the magic is inside her, festering and rotting away all her goodness!”

“Woah,” Shining blinked. He raised a foreleg and mumbled around a mouthful of cereal. “She got angry at you for a moment; she’s a teenager.”

“You’re not taking this seriously,” Cadance accused him. She crunched down on a slice of toast. “Our daughter could be in danger.”

“Okay,” Shining relented with a sigh. “She should be down in a bit. Apologize first, then we’ll talk.”

Cadance squinted at her husband. “Okay.”

They ended up waiting for almost an hour. It was long past an appropriate brunch time before Flurry Heart shuffled down the stairs, wearing another frumpy blue hoodie with a severe case of bedhead and split ends. She blinked bloodshot blue eyes from behind her glasses and stopped in the doorway.

Cadance’s breath caught in her throat. A shadow stretched across the dining room.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Shining offered.

Flurry made a low noise in the back of her throat and shambled over to the table.

Unformed words, an aborted cry for help. Cadance stilled her trembling forelegs, eyes locked on Flurry’s awkward, shuffling steps. She’s still in there!

Flurry Heart sat down and levitated over the box of CelestiO’s, pouring herself a disgusting amount of cereal. She blinked her eyes slowly; they were crusty and bloodshot.

Dark magic.

Cadance was so terrified that she yelped when Shining kicked her shin under the table. He gave her a pointed look, then tilted his head at their daughter. Flurry didn’t notice the interaction. She shoved a large spoonful of soggy cereal into her mouth and chewed slowly.

“D-did you sleep well?” Cadance stuttered.

“No,” Flurry mumbled. She smacked her lips and ran her tongue over her braces. “Was up all night.”

“Flurry,” Shining prompted, “do you have something to say to your mother?”

Flurry’s ears pinned back and she looked away. She swallowed another spoonful of sugary cereal instead of replying.

Don’t give up! Cadance screamed in her head. Go to the light! She couldn’t hold back her own tears and sniffled.

“Sorry,” Flurry muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” Shining cocked an ear.

“I’m shorry,” Flurry lisped, still looking down at the table.

“For…” Shining continued.

Flurry finally made eye contact with her mother. Cadance was frozen, stunned by the red veins and icy stare. Her daughter’s eyes bore into her, promising a thousand torments behind thick frames.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Flurry apologized.

Cadance was silent, seized by the inequine stare. Shining kicked her shin again. “Apologize,” he whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Cadance said quietly. A tear trailed down her muzzle. “I’m so sorry. I love you, Flurry.”

Flurry’s eyes widened. She looked like an owl with her glasses. “D-don’t cry! I didn’t mean it last night!”

“Your mother was worried about you after Sombra’s horn did that…thing,” Shining clarified. “It was a long, stressful night for everypony.”

“It was gross,” Flurry snorted. “I had to wash my mouth out.”

“But you feel fine,” Shining asked. “You don’t feel…angry or envious?”

“No more than ushual,” Flurry lisped. “Usual.” She looked to the side. After a moment, she admitted, “I’m still upset about Primarch Horus.”

“Your do—” Cadance began. She whinnied as Shining kicked her knee hard under the table. The bowls and cutlery rattled. Flurry gave her mother a confused look, then shrugged and resumed eating her cereal.

“I am sorry about Primary Horse,” Cadance apologized. Shining pressed a hoof to his muzzle beside her.

“Primarch Horus,” Flurry corrected. “The Horse Heresy is what happened, not his name.”

“What?” Cadance asked.

Flurry’s brow furrowed. “In the grim darkness of the future, friendship has failed. There is only war,” she intoned in a high-pitched squeak.

Cadance shuddered as the dark-magic fueled prophecy swept across the room. The lights seemed to flicker and dim. Flurry leered across the table with a metallic smile.

And giggle-snorted. “Thatsh how it always starts!” she lisped. “Horus was the adopted son of Empress Celestia. The Nightmare forces corrupted him and turned him against her!”

The prophecy. Cadance turned to Shining desperately.

“Yeah,” Shining nodded, oblivious. “I was always more of an Ogres & Oubliettes stallion. Pharynx played the Changelings against you last time, right?”

“And I beat his flank,” Flurry said proudly, then her ears perked up and she gasped, spraying the table with crumbs. Cadance tensed.

“I forgot!” Flurry exclaimed. “Luna’s gonna be here tomorrow!” She fretted with her unpolished hooves. “Oh, I wanta finish the miniatures first! I won’t have time tomorrow…” she trailed off, standing back up from the table and slurping down the rest of the cereal from her bowl.

“Sweetie, don’t forget the toast,” Shining reminded his daughter. “We have some crystalberry jam.”

Cadance pushed the jar of jam forward with a foreleg. This was part of the test. She hadn’t touched it yet, preferring her toast dry. Flurry’s eyes widened and she popped the lid off with her magic.

“Thanksh!” Flurry chirped happily to her mother. For one moment, Cadance saw her daughter break through the corruption with a beaming smile. She smiled back, relieved.

And then Flurry raised the large kitchen knife in her magic and stabbed it down.

Cadance flung herself back and away from the blade. “No!” She landed hard on the crystal floor, skidding away with flailing wings pushing herself along the floor with a squeak. “Shining! Help!”

Shining and Flurry stared blankly at Cadance while she propelled herself across the floor. One of the benefits of having a crystal palace was that the floor was slippery smooth at virtually all times. Flurry raised the kitchen knife back up with a large glob of jam affixed to the blade. It dripped back into the jar. “Mom?”

“Don’t do it, Flurry!” Cadance screamed. “It’s me! Fight the corruption!”

Flurry squinted at the jar. “Is it out of date?”

“No, it’s fine,” Shining laughed awkwardly and scurried after his wife. Cadance had crawled into the kitchen and was peeking around a cabinet back into the dining hall. She pulled him down with a wing and held him close.

“Do you see?” she hissed into his ear. “Do you see!?”

Shining struggled under the alicorn-strength wing. “I see our daughter having toast,” he protested. “She’s not possessed!”

Cadance stared around the corner as Flurry slowly spread the jam onto a slice of toast with low, slow, sweeping arcs. The knife scraped against the bread, like an executioner sharpening an axe. Flurry retrieved more jam and repeated the motions with a mild frown, looking at the abandoned coffee mug.

“Why is she using that knife?” Cadance harshly whispered.

“You set the table,” Shining reminded her. “That’s the only knife you brought out.”

“That’s the only one I could find!” She swept her wing around the kitchen, gesturing to the myriad drawers and shelves and inadvertently freeing Shining. In the dining room, Flurry Heart took a large bite, crunching through the toast with her jaws of steel and smearing jam on her muzzle.

“Look at her!” Cadance narrowed her eyes at the sight. “She’s baring her teeth at us.”

“It’s her braces. She chews like that.”

“She does it menacingly.”

“Honey, she’s not corrupted by dark magic.”

“Her eyes!”

“Are bloodshot from staying up all night,” Shining finished with a frown. He pointed at his own eye with a hoof. “So are mine.”

Cadance trembled. Enthralled. Just like Chrysalis. “Y-you’re right,” she nodded shakily. “I-I’m just tired.” She stepped away, trading a look between her husband and her daughter. “I think I need to lie down.”

Flurry frowned at her mother and crunched down on the last of the toast. She licked at her braces when she was finished. “Are you okay?” Flurry wiped the crumbs off her hoodie with her oversized wings.

“Yes!” Cadance said quickly.

“You’re not going to be able to sleep after drinking that,” Shining warned, pointing to the table. Luna’s coffee had eaten through the mug and was beginning to chew through the crystal table. “Flurry, do you mind?”

Flurry scrunched her muzzle and scooped up the mug and liquid in her golden magic. It roiled and vibrated in her aura. “Ew. Mom, you could’ve finished the cup.” She teleported the mess away to Hazardous Waste Containment with a flash.

“You’re right,” Cadance nodded. “I should have.” She continued backing away towards a side door. “I’m sorry.”

Shining gave her a look filled with concern or suspicion. “Honey…”

“You were right,” Cadance said clearly. “It was an overreaction. I shouldn’t have panicked last night.”

Shining gave her a wary nod.

“I’m shorry for yelling at you,” Flurry apologized again. “I love you.”

Cadance stopped at the door. “I love you,” she said with all her heart, then slammed the door shut behind her. She pressed her head against it, resisting the urge to weep. She needed evidence. She needed help.

The Crystalville Horror

Thorax was having a great day. The love and happiness in the air made his wings chitter with delight as crystal ponies pranced through the streets. Everypony he passed gave him a beaming smile, even if some of the crystal ponies didn’t really remember him and were just being friendly.

Thorax tipped his antlers and smiled back. It was ‘Defeat of Sombra Day’ according to the banners, with a ‘4’ sloppily painted over a ‘3’ at the end. Thorax sighed; it was probably for the best that his train was delayed.

If he ended up fighting Sombra again, Pharynx would have chewed him out relentlessly when he got back to the hive. Thorax finally convinced him to let him travel without guards this time. The green changeling didn’t want to be biased, but he loved the Crystal City far more than Canterlot. The crystal ponies were the first to accept him, and everything was just so shiny.

Thorax paused to admire his reflection on the wall of a restaurant, then shook his head. “Breath and focus,” he reminded himself, continuing to trot along to the Crystal Palace. Last time he'd been here, he got distracted by a firefly lamp for nearly an hour.

“Hello, King Thorax!” a crystal mare shouted from her flower stall and waved a glittering foreleg with a blush.

Thorax waved back, feeling the mild infatuation, more of a crush, and offered her a dazzling smile. The feeling intensified and the mare’s coat rippled with color. Thorax made a note to buy some flowers from her after his meeting with Prince Shining Armor.

Purely by coincidence, Thorax stumbled into Sunburst, Starlight, and Trixie on the train, heading north to spend their anniversary in the city. The former Crystaller was delighted to see his old friend, and made not so subtle suggestions for plans later. Thorax reached the palace easily, trotting with a hum on his muzzle and a shining green carapace.

“Good morning, your majesty,” Flash saluted. The orange pegasus was guarding the front doors. Thorax sensed he felt a little tired, but was otherwise chipper.

“Good morning, lieutenant!” Thorax chirped back. “Everypony’s in a wonderful mood today, aren’t they?”

“Sombra was defeated again last night,” Flash explained. “It’s a holiday. A tax-free holiday,” he yawned and flushed with embarrassment. Thorax laughed it off.

“Does that apply to visiting royalty?” Thorax asked teasingly.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” Flash shrugged. “You’re here meet with Shining?”

“Yep,” Thorax nodded. “Crystal trade. We don’t want to step on anypony’s hooves, but the hive has found a lot in our excavations. We should fix our prices together.” Thorax tilted his head and blinked. “I think it’s called ‘racketeering’ or a ‘monopoly,’ but maybe that’s a board game?”

“Maybe don’t say that out loud,” Flash advised.

“Oh. Sorry.”

Flash waved a wing. “I’ll let him know you’re here. Do you want to wait inside? I can have Emerald escort you to a guest room.” Flash pointed a wing at the crystal mare on the other side of the door. Her coat flushed green with envy, looking the King of the Changelings up and down. Mostly down. She bit her lip.

Thorax considered it, then shook his head apologetically. “It’s such a beautiful day. I’ll wait outside, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure,” Flash nodded. He disappeared into the palace. Emerald sighed and scuffed a hoof on the ground. Thorax smiled apologetically to her and trotted to the courtyard. He sat down next to the large statue of Spike; for a moment, he just basked in the warmth of the sun and the emotions flowing around the city.

“Everything is just perfect,” Thorax sighed.

He was abruptly seized in a blue aura and flung upwards towards one of the balconies. The changeling hissed in surprise and yelped when he landed hard on his back, splayed out. Princess Cadance straddled him and shoved a hoof in his mouth.

“King Thorax,” she whispered with a strained smile.

Thorax mumbled a reply.

Her ears pinned back. “Right. Sorry. Just be quiet.” She removed her hoof, shaking spit off the bandage.

“Uh, h-hello Princess,” Thorax stuttered softly. He tilted his head as best he could with the antlers, looking down from the balcony. A few ponies looked up, confused, then shrugged and continued along with their day.

Cadance pulled him up and crouched low, shuffling along the railing and below the quarter-moon windows on the balcony doors. “I need your help.”

Thorax sensed her seriousness and desperation. He frowned and shrunk down into a field mouse with a quick flash. “What’s wrong?” he squeaked, rushing up to Cadance and standing near her hoof.

Cadance almost reared away on reflex before realizing the rat was Thorax. “I-I need your help,” she repeated with a stammer. “We defeated Sombra last night, but he did something to Flurry.”

Thorax gasped. It just sounded like a squeak. “Is she alright?”

“No,” Cadance hissed. “He’s corrupted her. She was speaking in tongues during breakfast, and I think Shining’s been enthralled again.”

“Oh, I should’ve brought Pharynx.” Thorax rubbed his mousey paws together nervously.

“I need proof,” Cadance continued. “You can sense the darkness in a pony’s heart. The festering void that no amount of love can fill. The dark, black heart of evil.”

“Wait,” Thorax paused. His whiskers twitched. “Is this a changeling thing? That’s horrifically racist.”

“It is horrifying,” Cadance nodded. “My daughter is becoming a monster, Thorax, and I need your help.”

Thorax decided to let it go. “Okay, I was going to speak with Shining anyway. I can check on him and let you know.”

“My daughter is inside,” Cadance lifted her head marginally to the window on the doors. “She sits there as the darkness consumes her. Come and see. Behold a pink pony.”

“You want me to spy on your daughter with you?” Thorax squeaked, confused.

“Observe her and tell me what you feel,” Cadance said gravely. Her eyes were locked on something in the room.

“Okay,” Thorax said warily.

Cadance froze in pure terror as Thorax crawled up her leg with his little rat paws. She felt them clutch her fur, and her scream choked out when he reached her neck and skittered through her mane. He stopped between her ears, squinting through the glass.

Cadance exhaled shakily, staring at nothing.

Flurry Heart sat at her worktable, back to the balcony. Her wings fluttered as she focused. She clenched a thin paintbrush between her teeth as she gave a small statue of some tentacled pony a critical look. It was half-painted in yellow and red armor.

Her hoodie lay on the bed, and her closet door was open, revealing a rack of similar hoodies and another rack of strange cloaks and felt armor. Her books had been disturbed, laying sprawled out on the floor. Thorax read the titles aloud.

“Monster Manual, Fifth Edition. Spells and Incantations for the Necromancer Class. Dark Deities. The Wicked History of Wildmount." Thorax rubbed a whisker in thought. "Oh, it’s O&O stuff. Sunburst told me she’s really good.”

Cadance shook, both from the rat atop her head and the names of the fell grimoires.

Flurry carefully set the paintbrush down and chugged a fizzlepop soda. She belched loudly and blushed, then picked the brush up and resumed lightly touching the figure. It was hard to tell with the glasses, but she had dark bags under her eyes. Flurry’s horn lit up and her record player began to play some loud, screeching music.

Thorax squinted at the lines of small dolls on her table. He pressed his paws up to the glass. “Oh.”

“What?” Cadance asked in a strangled whisper.

“She’s building a Chaos army,” Thorax sighed. “Aw, she’s gonna beat Pharynx again. I could tell him, I guess, but he wants to fight her fairly.”

An army of chaos. Was Discord involved? “How do you know?”

“I don’t really know Warhammer,” Thorax admitted. “That’s Pharynx’s thing, but I can recognize the miniatures. She’s got some Imperials and Changelings out, too.”

Thorax squeaked indignantly at one of the small dolls and folded his paws. “I keep telling Pharynx we should sue them for using our name on those horrible things, but he thinks they make us look cool. I just want them to be renamed to something fake, like ‘Tyranids’ or whatever.”

“She can defeat your brother?” Cadance asked, aghast. It did make sense on some level. Flurry was an alicorn and Pharynx was only a changeling prince.

“She did last time,” Thorax leaned his mousy paws down and angled Cadance’s muzzle to a shelf. A few kitschy golden trophies rested on it, depicting ugly armored ponies wielding swords closer to chainsaws. Or horrible monsters. Sometimes both. Cadance saw the title on the latest trophy at the end of the shelf.

Flurry Heart, WarMistress of the 41st Millennium, 287th Annual Expo.

A lone tear escaped her eye. When was the last time I poked through her room? So much was different, and her daughter seemed a stranger. She remembered being confused by books full of tables and statistics, finding dice and strange little sets. Maps and notebooks scrawled in ciphers of numbers and letters. Cadance was just looking for something normal while Flurry was off somewhere.

The alicorn found some magazines called Fanatically Fantastic Fiction that looked promising, depicting a hunky stallion in a torn sailor’s uniform fighting a giant crab. Her disappointment was immeasurable when she opened it and found it was all just text and boring stories. Flurry wasn’t even hiding them under her bed like she was supposed to.

She’s already collecting dark tomes and grimoires, building an enthralled army to seize power. “Tell me,” Cadance ordered through her tears. “Is she lost to darkness?”

Thorax hopped down from her head and patted her hoof with a paw. “No, no! It’s fine! Don’t worry! Your daughter is fine!”

“How can she be fine?” Cadance whispered harshly. “You’ve seen what she’s become!” She was too indignant to be upset that the rat was touching her. “What did you sense?”

“Nothing,” Thorax shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong. She’s very focused.”

Nothing. Cadance swayed. She was wrong. The absence of love is not hate. It is apathy. She staggered upright and leaned against the railing heavily.

“Uh, Princess Cadance?” Thorax asked.

Cadance looked through the window. Flurry sat on her stool, bobbing her head to some Tartarus-spawned beat while several paintbrushes swirled in her magic. They dipped down and added fine touches of paint, then floated back to their cups. Her record player blared some hideous cacophony of sound.

She is heartless.

“You said she is building an army of chaos and changelings?” Cadance asked wearily. “How can we hope to face that?”

“Well, they aren’t really changelings,” Thorax admitted. “The miniatures were based off the old stories about us, long before Former Queen Stoneface revealed everyling.”

“What are they, then?”

“You saw the miniatures,” Thorax squeaked. “I could show you.” The little field mouse erupted into green fire.

A tall, slavering beast of black chitin and claws reared above Cadance, clicking mandibles and glaring down at her with six red eyes. Four arms with wicked claws bore down on the alicorn, and a spiked tail pointed at her heart. Cadance looked blankly into its jaws.

“I think it’s pretty racist,” it said calmly in Thorax’s voice, “but Pharynx thinks it’s good for security. ‘We have a reputation to uphold,’ he says.” The eyes looked to the side. “I think he’s just biased because it’s his favorite faction.”

Cadance’s eyes rolled up into her head and she fell off the side of the balcony. One of the claws lashed out and grabbed her foreleg. She dangled high above the street in the claws of an eldritch horror.

Nopony noticed.

“Whoa!” the monster said in a high-pitched yelp. It disappeared into green fire, revealing the normal Thorax with the exception of one black-clawed arm. “I guess that was a little intense. I’m sorry.”

“Let me fall,” Cadance whispered. Her hoof itched. “I have failed my daughter utterly.”

Thorax bit his lip. “Hey, so I can sense when something is wrong,” he admitted. “Are you alright, Princess? Your heart is, uh, a little—”

Cadance flared her wings and flapped up to Thorax’s eye level. “You must return to the hive and marshal your forces.”

“What?” Thorax blinked. His claw vanished in a burst of green fire.

“I will not give up on my daughter,” Cadance declared imperiously, “but we must have a contingency. Her army will be defeated.”

“Oh,” Thorax nodded. “I can tell Pharynx you’re rooting for him, but I’m sure Flurry will be hurt."

Cadance closed her eyes. “I do not wish to cause my daughter any pain, but this may be the only way.”

“She has won the past three tournaments,” Thorax admitted. “Pharynx sulked for weeks afterwards. He even attended the Feelings Forum without growling about it.”

“Go, Thorax.” Cadance laid a hoof on his shoulder. “My duty is here.”

Thorax blinked at her. “Right. I’ll, uh, do that.” He hopped off the balcony and floated down.

Cadance turned back to the doors. She crouched down again and peered through the quarter-moon windows. Flurry Heart hadn’t noticed the commotion; she still arranged her tiny dolls along the worktable, setting them down on some strange map. She’s planning her conquests. Some gray figures were still set aside, waiting for their turn to be painted.

Flurry Heart bounced on her stool, distracted; Cadance noticed she had a slight pudge that her hoodies usually hid. The dark magic has ruined her. Flurry levitated over a new record, setting up a new screeching song. She sang along poorly with a lisp.

“We come from the land of the ice and snow…”

Cadance listened to the horrific lyrics and pressed a hoof to the glass. They promised overlordship, suffering, gore, and threshing oars, which was odd because the Crystal Empire didn’t have a navy. Not yet. She's planning her dark reign.

“I won’t give up on you,” Cadance promised.

The Crystal City of the Damned

Princess Cadance spent the rest of the day on the couch with her hoof wrapped in gauze, idly pursuing some useless tax reforms. She met with Shining Armor and feigned interest in the discussion about Yakyakistan’s border. She pretended nothing was wrong, aside from subtly watching Flurry Heart’s movements.

The immediate snag was that apparently Flurry Heart rarely left her room, preferring to spend ‘Defeat of Sombra Day’ sequestered away with her grimoires and foul magic. Her macaroni and cheese dinner was delivered by Shining Armor with a jest. It wasn’t unusual behavior for Flurry’s days off, so Cadance had no evidence to rally the Heart Guard.

Cadance grit her teeth at the thought of giving her corrupted daughter more time to prepare foul rituals, but confronting her alone was madness. Shining Armor was already suspect. Cadance laid awake that night, refusing to be the big spoon and making the excuse of her bandaged hoof. Shining looked troubled, but accepted the excuse and snored away.

All night, Cadance waited for the creak of the door and dark hoofsteps in the hallway. Or the blow of the flugelhorn signaling Sombra’s return with a corrupted Flurry by his side. Nothing happened, and she lost her beauty sleep.

Before anypony else was up the next morning, Cadance retreated to the kitchen and chugged more of Luna’s coffee. She used one of the guest bathrooms to freshen up and curl her mane and tail. By the time Shining joined her for breakfast, Cadance looked as prim and proper as ever with a beaming smile.

Shining squinted at his wife, rubbing his blue beard with a hoof. “You look a little pale, honey. Did you get enough sleep last night?”

“Plenty!” Cadance lied through her teeth with a chipper chirp.

“Thorax had some stuff to tell me yesterday,” Shining began vaguely. He sat on the opposite side of the table.

Traitor. Cadance didn’t break her smile, but tilted her head in confusion. Mentally, she ran through a list of spells to stun her husband.

“He was really worried about you,” Shining remarked. Since the chefs were back in the kitchen, the table was set with proper crystalberry pancakes this morning. Shining poured a sickening amount of maple syrup on them with a flourish of his horn.

Cadance bit off a chunk of granola in response. “And?” she promoted her husband.

“Nothing,” Shining shrugged a hoof. “Thorax just said you seemed really stressed out.” He gave his wife a tired smile. “I’m getting pretty tired of dealing with Sombra as well. If you need a few days off, I understand. You were up all night rallying the ponies, and yesterday was a long day.”

A plot to usurp the throne. Cadance shook her head, dismissing the idea. If Flurry suggested it, maybe, but Shining’s love for her could overcome anything. “It’s my job, Shining. I love it, and I love you.”

“I love you,” Shining repeated happily and took a large bite of pancake.

Cadance basked in the warmth of true love. Perhaps Shining wasn't compromised.

A short, dark-cloaked figure appeared in the doorway to the dining room. “It is time,” a squeaky voice hissed. Sharp teeth gleamed under the shadowed hood and leathery bat wings extended from the sides of the cloak. The hood was slightly tented by a horn.

Cadance braced both her forelegs on the table and stood up. She whipped her gaze from an unconcerned Shining Armor to the figure in the doorway. “No,” she gasped in a strangled voice.

“Is it already Saturday?” Shining asked the figure with a smile.

“Yesh,” the voice lisped, then stomped a hoof in agitation. The wings flopped awkwardly. “Yes,” it repeated at a normal volume.

“Flurry…” Cadance couldn’t stop the tears.

“Not Flurry,” the voice giggled. “I am Darkheart, Disciple of the Nightmare!”

“No!” Cadance screamed and lunged across the room with flapping wings. Her hooves kicked over several of the glasses and plates as she cleared the table. The figure reared up to meet the challenge, but Cadance bowled her over. She grabbed the cloak with both forelegs and shook the figure.

“Stop!” the voice warbled.

“Give me back my daughter!” Cadance wailed.

“You’re ruining the costume!” the voice replied. The shaking knocked the hood back, revealing Flurry Heart with a combed back mane and askew glasses. Cadance paused, momentarily stunned that her daughter actually put in effort in combing her mane.

Cadance resumed shaking her. “Release my daughter, Darkheart! Your reign of tyranny ends before it begins!”

“Woah, honey, too into it!” Shining exclaimed behind her.

“Darkheart doesn’t know those spellsh!” Flurry cried. The carboard bat wings clacked on the floor awkwardly, strapped to her own wings with string. Shining and Flurry managed to pull Cadance away.

Cadance switched targets to her husband. “Look at her! Our daughter has fallen to evil!” She throttled him with her forelegs. Shining’s muzzle began to turn purple.

“Woah!” Flurry sat up. She adjusted her glasses with her magic and pointed at her mother’s hoof. “Are you okay?”

Cadance stomped her bandaged hoof down and suppressed a wince. “Don’t try to change the subject! Release my daughter!” Shining coughed and staggered back.

Flurry blinked. “Mom, itsh my costume.”

“What costume?” Cadance asked with a sneer. “Nightmare Night is months away!” She smiled, victorious in her logic.

“For Ogres & Oubliettes,” Flurry replied bluntly. She fretted with the bat wings for a moment, checking for damage. Cadance inspected them, noticing they were hoof-painted cardboard and rather cheap. The cloak was also stitched rather poorly, and the dark ruby broach on it was clearly a painted chunk of quartz.

“Nice costume,” Shining coughed. “Going to the park?”

“Yeah,” Flurry nodded.

“Don’t act like this is normal!” Cadance turned back to her husband. “Look at her!”

“Hey!” Flurry pouted. “I worked really hard on this!”

“And it looks lovely,” Shining complimented his daughter. He gave Cadance a severe glare. “Flurry makes her own costumes and puts a lot of time and effort into them.”

Cadance paused, caught between two hostile looks. “Why?” she asked to buy time.

“Because it’s fun,” Flurry pouted with crossed forelegs. “It’s the finale. I ushually put it on at the park.”

“Oh, is the campaign over?” Shining asked in surprise.

“We’re fighting the Sun Witch today,” Flurry answered.

“It’s supposed to rain later.”

Flurry groaned. “I know, but we can only meet twice a month!”

“You going to be able to beat her in time?”

Flurry nodded rapidly. “We got a plan. I figured it out.”

“That’s my filly,” Shining ruffled her mane.

“Ick!” Flurry flailed her hooves. “Dad, stop! You’re ruining Darkheart’s look!”

Cadance tried to catch the eyes of the chef and wait staff that were resetting the table. Help me, she pleaded in her mind. One of the servants picked up a knocked over cup with her teeth, pausing to shoot Cadance a glare.

I’m surrounded. Her stomach sank.

“Cadance?” Shining asked.

Cadance snapped her head back to Shining and gave him a brittle smile. “I overreacted!” she chirped on reflex.

“Yes,” Shining nodded warily. “Remember, we talked about this.”

“We did,” Cadance nodded back. She rapidly flicked her eyes towards Flurry.

Shining took a deep breath and pushed it out. He turned to Flurry and frowned at her. “Flurry Heart,” he said in a commanding tone. “You will answer me honestly.”

Flurry stopped wrestling with her cloak. Her ears wilted. “Yes.”

Shining raised an eyebrow.

“Sir,” Flurry amended.

“Are you possessed by King Sombra?” Shining asked bluntly. Cadance froze and lit her horn with a defensive spell.

Flurry blinked. “W-what?”

“Answer the question, young filly.”

Flurry looked between her parents. “No?” she replied, confused.

“Have you been corrupted by dark forces?”

“No!” Flurry insisted. “Is thish about puberty or something?” she lisped. "I already know about that!"

Shining’s ears folded back. “N-no,” he stammered. “Your mother rushed to your room and accidentally broke your mini because of Sombra’s horn. She was worried that he got to you.”

“Oh,” Flurry realized. “It was icky, but I’m okay.”

“Of course she’d say that!” Cadance accused. “You think Luna just told Celestia, ‘I am feeling a little Nightmareish tonight?’ I’ve seen Flurry's room.”

“You’ve been in my room!?” Flurry gasped and flushed in embarrassment. “Mom!”

“I’ve seen your fell tomes and grimoires!” Cadance continued to her daughter.

“Sweet Celestia,” Shining muttered. “I had this exact same conversation with Celestia when I started dating you. Honey, O&O does not promote dark magic.”

“Look at her!” Cadance jabbed a hoof at Flurry. “Our daughter! She’s taken another name, just like Nightmare Moon!”

Shining closed his eyes and huffed. “Flurry, is Darkheart a real pony?”

“No,” Flurry replied dubiously. She pulled a sheet of paper from an inner pocket in her robe. “She’s a level nineteen necromancer. A bat pony sworn to Nightmare Moon.”

Cadance gasped and reared away from the floating paper. Darkheart was scrawled at the top, with a confusing table and ciphered letters and numbers below it. Shining accepted the paper with a hoof.

“Why do you always play Lawful Evil?” Shining sighed. “What’s wrong with a Paladin?”

“Boring,” Flurry scoffed.

“I played a Paladin.”

“And you’re boring.”

“Says the filly playing 5th Edition.”

“Get with the times. Luna did.”

Shining clutched a hoof to his heart and wheezed. “And that’s enough for this old stallion. Grab some crystalberry pancakes and have fun.” He floated the sheet back over to his daughter, who tucked it back into her robe.

Flurry flipped the hood back up and beamed. Her braces glinted in the light. “Thanksh!” She trotted over to the table and rolled a pancake up like a burrito, shoveling it into the depths of the hood and munching noisily.

“She admitted to being evil,” Cadance whispered and turned her twitching eyes to Shining. “You’re just too far gone to realize it.”

“Honey,” Shining said patiently, “that was a character sheet. I know you’ve seen one of those before. Hay, I’ve shown you my character sheets.”

Cadance hummed noncommittally; she was an expert at feigning interest. Shining had tried to explain tabletop roleplaying when they were first dating. The unicorn had showed off a vast amount of dice and several sheets of cursed statistics. Cadance feigned listening for an hour, then found other ways to use the table with her preferred method of roleplay.

I should’ve paid more attention, Cadance cursed her previous self. She’d be able to make an argument. Flurry’s appearance seemed to fill the servants with glee instead of dread. One chef smiled at her and packed a small box of pancakes. Flurry stuffed it under her cloak and thanked her politely.

“How can all of you be so blind?” Cadance choked out, leering at the servants. “She can’t have gotten to all of you.”

They all stared at her blankly, then resumed cleaning the table.

“Honey, Flurry is fine,” Shining said, exasperated. “She’s dresses up for all her campaigns. For the audience.”

“What campaigns?” Cadance asked desperately. “She’s already gone to war!?”

“Ogres & Oubliettes!” Shining shouted. Some of the kitchen staff stopped to stare. “It’s not real and it doesn’t promote dark magic!”

Shining pressed a hoof to his head. “This is just like Celestia; she said the exact same stuff when I asked you out. Twilight gave Celestia a very thorough presentation about O&O when she was ten.” Shining looked to the side. “I need to write her and see if she still has all the charts and tables. She proved conclusively that the spells don’t work and there is no correlation between dark magic use and O&O.”

Cadance staggered back, bumping her flank against the table. “But the horn,” she gasped. “The horn…”

“The horn is still on the pedestal, glowing menacingly,” Shining explained.

“The smoke!” Cadance tried desperately. “The smoke stopped!”

“Did you forget about the month where it whispered ‘Make Us Whole’ to the guards on horn watch?” Shining asked with a frown. “We’re keeping a severed limb on display. It does weird things.”

“Our daughter doesn’t dress like that,” Cadance insisted. “She has her awful hoodies.”

Shining looked his wife in the eye. “Cadance, our daughter has been dressing up as Darkheart for months.”

Cadance whinnied, denying the truth. She teleported away in a snap, falling against the wall of a hallway and hyperventilating. Was this just the last act? Has Sombra been corrupting her for months, for years, and I’ve only just noticed?

“Mom?” Flurry asked from behind.

Cadance screamed and collapsed against the wall, spinning around on the smooth floor. She raised both forelegs and shielded her muzzle from the hooded pony. “No, please! I love you!”

Flurry stepped back and raised both sets of wings. Her cardboard wings clacked and a string came loose. “Mom!”

Cadance slowly lowered her hooves. “Flurry? Have you come back to us?” Her own purple eyes were watery and red. With dawning horror, the alicorn realized she was alone in the hallway with her daughter. “W-what are you doing here?”

“Going to the park,” Flurry said from the depths of her hood. She pointed at the door at the end of the hallway. “This way is quicker than the front entrance.”

“O-of course,” Cadance nodded shakily. “D-don’t let me get in your way, Darkheart. Spare my life.”

Flurry rolled her eyes at her mother. “My costume’s not that good,” she grumbled. “Stop trying to make me feel better. I know it’s junky.”

“I assure you,” Cadance promised. “I am quite terrified.”

“Darkheart’s not totally evil,” Flurry snorted. "Like, she helps foals 'cause she grew up an orphan."

Cadance was silent. Did Nightmare Moon refer to herself in the third person?

Flurry/Darkheart scuffed a hoof on the floor and pulled her hood back. She blinked behind her glasses, staring down owlishly with bright blue eyes at her trembling mother. “Itsh the last session of this campaign,” Flurry explained. “Maybe an epilogue next month.”

A warning. How very lawful for evil. “That’s great,” Cadance lied.

“Do…” Flurry/Darkheart trailed off. “Do you wanna come to the park?”

“What?” Cadance paused her trembling.

“Would you like to come watch?” Flurry repeated. She pursed her lips in a hopeful smile.

“I…” Cadance hesitated. It’s a trap. The invitation is meant to make you look crazy. She’ll pretend like nothing is wrong. “I’m very busy today with taxes.”

“Oh.” Flurry’s ears pinned back. “Yeah, sure.”

“Good luck with your…campaign,” Cadance offered.

“Sure,” Flurry said absently. She stalked down the hallway and pulled her hood back up.

Cadance waited until her daughter turned the corner, then teleported back to her room. Her daughter’s invitation had sparked an idea. Cadance quickly retrieved her hot pink rain boots and stuffed her hooves into them, then flourished a dark pink raincoat wrapped it around herself. Her wings were hidden under the coat. I will go to the park and watch my daughter. She'll just never notice I was ever there.

Mi Amore Cadenza was actually quite experienced in stalking. Some couples were blind to their own issues and refused her help. It required a deft, subtle hoof. Cadance slipped on her dazzled sunglasses and flipped the hood up. She’ll never see me.

At the park, Cadance ran into two problems. Firstly, there was already a massive crowd that she had to shove her way through in disguise. Secondly, her disguise was awful.

“Hey, Princess Cadance!” an off-duty guard laughed. He was wearing a cheap plastic helmet. “Need an escort?”

“I am not Cadance,” she replied with a nasal voice. “I am…the Rainmaker.”

“Oh,” the guard nodded. “From the first campaign. That’s a deep cut. Her raincoat was blue, though.”

Cadance shoved her way past and further into the crowd. She stepped over and around some of the smaller colts and fillies. The crowd seemed to be a mix of tourists and crystal ponies of all ages. A few families had set up picnic tables further back.

Half the crowd was dressed up like it was Nightmare Night, except in nonsensical costumes. Several wore wizard hats and cloaks, even earth ponies. One filly was wearing a cheap suit of cardboard armor, painted with snowflakes and brandishing a foam sword. Some older mares were also fully dressed in faux-leather armor. One was dressed in fur.

Cadance spotted several dozen Heart Guards spread out through the crowd. Most were wearing costumes as well. For a moment, her heart was seized by hope. Is this a sting operation? Did Shining listen? She needed to get closer.

The little courtyard that the crowd was gathered around was bracketed by several thorny, thick shrubs for a degree of privacy. The ponies in the crowd were too distracted with their conversations about 'numbers' and 'classes' to notice Cadance shoving herself into a shrub. She felt the thorns tear into her raincoat and prick her fur. She disappeared completely, forced to crawl on her belly to stay out of sight.

Cadance squinted behind her glasses, safely out of sight. Flurry/Darkheart sat waiting, speaking with a worried look to Fizzlepop and Flash. Cadance pumped a hoof in victory, ignoring how the brambles tore through the sleeve of her raincoat. They got her! It was a trap, just for her! Shining, you handsome stallion.

She tried to wriggle free, only for the thorns to dig into her raincoat and catch on her wings. Cadance sighed and wriggled forward. She opened her mouth to shout to Flash and Fizzlepop, but her breath caught in her throat.

Flash wasn’t wearing his guard uniform. He was dressed in cheap aluminum armor, painted to look gold. The sword under his right wing was clearly wooden, but the pommel was carved like a claw. His helmet was the most intricate part of his outfit, fashioned to look like a roaring griffon.

Fizzlepop Berrytwist was worse. The former commander of the Storm King was dressed in actual leather armor and sporting an eyepatch across her scarred eye. She frowned thoughtfully and nodded along with Flurry/Darkheart.

They weren’t arresting her. They were working with her. Cadance was paralyzed in horror.

They were joined by two more ponies, a colt and filly from Flurry’s classes. Cadance vaguely recognized the colt; his name was Snowberry. He wore a Mexicolt poncho with a small guitar slung around his back. The filly was the only one dressed sensibly, with a pretty pink dress. Darkheart gave them both a crushing hug and chattered excitedly with all four of them. She shared her leftover pancakes while they waited.

Cadance cried quietly in the shrub.

Soon enough, there was a loud thunderclap and a swirl of shadow descended into the courtyard. Cadance stared in terror, waiting for the shrieks of the flugelhorns to echo through the city. Instead, the crowd cheered. The five ponies in the courtyard turned to face the black mist.

“Are you ready?” a bombastic voice echoed from the swirling darkness. A mare's voice.

“Yes!” the crowd whinnied.

No! Cadance screamed in her mind.

“Good!” Luna strode through the mist, dispelling it with her wings. Retirement had clearly been good for the dark blue alicorn. She strutted forward, clad in a sleek blue cloak with shooting stars. The stars whipped across the material, moving when she moved. She flashed the crowd a wide smile.

“Adventurers, welcome to Critical Hit!” Luna stomped her forelegs and a table flashed into existence in the courtyard. A shimmering projection appeared in the sky above the table, showing a topside view of the table to the gathered crowd. The crowd lost their minds, cheering and screaming.

Six chairs flashed into being, one of which was a large stone throne at the end of the table. Luna draped herself onto it, then set up a surprisingly flimsy cardboard half-shield on the table before her. “I am your Dungeon Master, Luna of the Night.” Her voice was amplified by some spell from the projection. “Have a seat, Adventurers.”

“I am Darkheart,” Flurry announced and sat down first. “The Necromancer for the Nightmare.” She left her hood down.

Cadance realized Luna didn’t even react. They’re in league. She kept very still in the shrub.

“I am Gordon the Griffon,” Flash said next. “The Paladin for Boreas.”

“I am Tempest,” Fizzlepop said with a snarl. “The Assassin.”

A few stallions swooned in the audience.

“I am Sombrero!” Snowberry said cheerfully. “The Bard!” The dull white crystal pony strummed his tiny guitar poorly.

Lastly, the crystal filly sat down. “I am Steel Hoof,” she squeaked. “The Barbarian.”

Luna pressed her front hooves together and stared at the five ponies before her. “We begin at the end,” she intoned. “It has been a long, difficult journey, fraught with perils and danger. Strange friendships have been forged, for convenience if nothing else.” She gave Flash and Flurry a look. They sat on opposite sides of the table and scowled at each other.

“You have reached your goal,” Luna continued. “You have climbed the Perilous Peaks to the Forgotten Temple. The Sun Witch stands before you, the source of misery for all the land. She hoards the light, casting the land in darkness and shadow. Should you fail today, life will end.” Luna gave Flurry a wink. “Not even the powers of the Nightmare can bring back the world.”

Flurry set a bag down on the table from inside her cloak. It jingled. The others did the same.

A shimmering figure appeared on the center of the table. A large white alicorn clad in orange armor reared up, frozen in a fanged snarl. The crowd gasped. Cadance squinted at the table, realizing it was a map of some old fortress. Five little figures stood at the entrance, facing the taller statue. A minotaur, a griffon, and three ponies faced the alicorn.

“Bow before me!” Luna said in a shrill voice. “You stand before a god!”

Cadance blinked, unused to Luna’s vocal range.

“Never!” Flash swore with gravitas. “I am sworn to Boreas!”

“A false god, griffon!” Luna chortled. “I command the light!”

“You command nothing,” Flurry sneered. “You are nothing to the Nightmare.”

“Steel Hoof will break you,” the filly ground out in a disturbingly deep voice.

“And I will redeem our family name!” Snowberry shouted. “Sombra was a fool to listen to you!”

“You are all foals!” Luna spat. “You have no chance!”

“Never killed a god before,” Fizzlepop chuckled with menace. “I activate my Ring of Invisibility,” she said in her normal tone. Which was still fairly menacing.

Luna leaned back on her throne. “Roll for initiative,” she declared. Floating dice made of star-metal snapped into existence above her swaying mane. The five ponies emptied their little bags and set their dice to the side, shuffling between several sheets of papers. The crowd waited with baited breath. Cadance stared forward, transfixed. She never paid much attention to how Shining played.

Two hours later, Cadance reached several conclusions.

Evil was incredibly boring. The gathered ponies took forever to do anything on their table, rolling various sided dice and announcing the number to the gathered crowd. They also shouted out several random phrases, apparently to mark movements and attacks.

The little filly once placed her hooves on the table, saying “I would like to rage” in the calmest possible tone of voice. The crowd went wild at that. Cadance didn’t risk casting spells from the shrub, but she needed to pee very badly by the three-hour mark.

The ponies at the table took a break around that time, and a delivery mare flew in with Pizza Palace for the group. They ate together happily, with no scowls or snarls or barked orders. Cadance did notice that Snowberry sat next to Flurry during the break, a little closer than just friends.

Flurry didn’t seem to pick up on the hint. Cadance sighed. Even corrupted, she’s oblivious. I thought evil was supposed to be sexy.

Fizzlepop was clearly using the game to live out some revenge fantasy as Tempest Shadow. She played aggressively and liked announcing backstabs. Cadance thought she changed her ways, but it was clearly an act.

Snowberry pretended to be the ‘good’ brother of Sombra, dedicated to restoring the family name. Cadance suppressed a snort. Sombra didn’t have any family; evil wasn’t capable of love. Snowberry was clearly desperate to find some good in his former ruler.

Flash played a griffon named Gordon; he seemed quite bombastic and happy. It troubled Cadance. The pegasus never indicated any problems with body dysmorphia, but she resolved to ask him about it once the current issues with Flurry were resolved.

The crystal filly stayed in character as Steel Hoof the minotaur. The others treated her like she always did this. Cadance decided to let that issue stay buried.

Lastly, there was Flurry. She licked her braces, baring her teeth and asking if she had any cheese stuck in the grooves. She giggle-snorted and flapped her cardboard wings at jokes. She cleaned her glasses and shuffled through several sheets of paper. She still lisped certain words and flushed with embarrassment. Everypony else was too polite to say anything.

Everypony acted like she was normal, like it was perfectly fine to dress in a dark cloak and call yourself another name. Mi Amore Cadenza almost snorted and tugged on her raincoat. It was hopelessly tangled in the thorns after several hours, and her legs were asleep. At the very least, her hoof wasn’t itchy anymore.

Cadance had learned enough about the dark ritual to know that higher numbers were apparently good, and lower numbers were bad. Unless Luna rolled, playing as the Sun Witch. Whenever the Sun Witch rolled a high number, the crowd hissed in fear.

“The Sun Witch casts Dimensional Tear,” Luna announced. “Beams of unfiltered fire pour through the chamber-”

“Counterspell,” Snowberry announced and strummed his guitar.

“You are out of range,” Luna commented with a frown.

“No,” Flurry corrected. “Thatsh why I grabbed him with my shadow tentacles.”

Luna squinted at the board and examined the floating poncho wearing figure, suspended by a spell below the floating alicorn statue. She worried with her lower lip. Cadance recognized the gesture. It meant Luna was suppressing a smirk.

“You are in range,” Luna admitted, “but the tentacles cause damage regardless. Roll a Wisdom saving throw to see if you can concentrate enough to cast the spell.”

Snowberry rolled a die with both forehooves. “Sixteen.”

“You succeed,” Luna proclaimed. “Sombrero ignores the slime and wisps of darkness to cast the spell, closing the rifts before they could emit their deadly rays.” The crowd stomped happily and muttered to themselves.

Luna glowered at Flurry. “The Sun Witch glares at you, Darkheart.”

“I stick my tongue out,” Flurry answered. She demonstrated the gesture.

“Such insolence!” Luna gasped in her shrill voice. “The Nightmare cannot save you!”

The dice rolling dragged on for another hour. If this was a dark ritual, it was clearly meant to drive the audience insane. Cadance felt her sanity slipping away by the minute. She began intentionally jabbing herself with thorns to stay awake.

Finally, Tempest the Assassin leapt from a high tower with Steel Hoof and preformed a combo attack, earning a critical hit on the Sun Witch. Cadance didn’t know what any of that meant, but the crowd cheered loudly.

“Your withering touch has weakened the Sun Witch’s resistance,” Luna said to Flurry. The alicorn had also put on a small pair of trendy reading glasses, adding up numbers on a piece of paper. “Combined with Gordon’s blessing, her armor finally shatters and the axe crunches into her chest. Tempest’s daggers find their mark and land in her wing joints.”

The crystal filly smiled ferally. Cadance shuddered.

“Steel Hoof and the Sun Witch tumble to the ground,” Luna moved the figures around the board. “The impact shatters the floor. Steel Hoof, roll 2d8 fall damage.”

The filly grumbled, but dutifully rolled her dice. “Twelve,” she shrugged. “Steel Hoof lives.”

“My Boots of Featherfall mitigate fall damage,” Fizzlepop added.

“Indeed,” Luna nodded. “You land perfectly fine. The Sun Witch struggles to stand up, cuts oozing liquid sunlight as her form begins to collapse. All of you saw the landing.”

“We rush there,” Flurry answered. The figures moved to surround the taller statue on the table.

“Insolent foals!” Luna screamed in a broken, shrill voice. “I cannot be bested by the likes of you!”

“Gordon raises his sword,” Flash said. “If she’s still prone, I have advantage. Twenty-eight to hit.”

Luna hummed and glanced at her paper. “How doth thou wish to end this?”

The crowd laughed in delight. Cadance was very confused.

Flurry slammed her hooves on the table. “I cast Soul Trap with my staff,” she interrupted.

The crowd went deathly quiet.

“That’s not what we agreed,” Flash said slowly. “The Sun Witch is to be banished back to her dimension.”

“No,” Flurry shook her head. “She can come back.”

“This is not a discussion,” Luna said bluntly. “Darkheart, the Sun Witch is an alicorn-tier soul. To steal her soul is a battle of will. Should you fail, she will possess you and you must be struck down.”

Cadance perked up and leaned forward, ignoring how the thorns tangled her mane.

“Not that I have a problem with that, Necromancer,” Flash admitted with bravado.

“Steel Hoof is confused,” the filly admitted in a deep voice. “Do we kill Sun Pony or not?”

“Tempest readies her daggers towards Darkheart,” Fizzlepop shrugged. “I’ll make it quick.”

“Darkheart, no!” Snowberry insisted.

“It is my duty as a Dishciple of the Nightmare,” Flurry lisped. “I cast Soul Trap.”

Luna nodded gravely. She looked through several sheets of paper before continuing. “The Sun Witch feels the tug on her soul as your magic wraps around her. Her eyes burn with hatred, boring into your very being. ‘You dare!?’ she screams in your mind. You feel her hooves clawing at your throat, even though she lays motionless on the broken stone.” Luna narrowed her eyes. “Thirty,” she announced.

The crowd started screaming.

“She’ll never make that!”

“That’s impossible!”

“She can do it!”

“She has to roll-”

“Be silent!” Luna slammed a hoof on her stone throne. Thunder boomed across the park. The projection shimmered to focus on Flurry sitting at the table.

“Roll with your hooves, not your horn,” Luna requested politely.

Flurry picked up a twenty-sided crystal die, then set it back down. She pawed through her little bag, pulling out another die and holding it delicately between her hooves. Flurry passed it to Luna first.

Luna lowered her glasses and her horn glowed as she squinted at the pink and purple die. She passed it back with a smile. “Good luck, Darkheart.”

Flurry nodded and carefully held the little die between her hooves. She stood up at the table; her wings clacked for balance when she reared up onto her hind legs, holding the little crystal above her head. Flurry Heart looked around at the gathered crowd for a moment, scanning over the ponies. She passed over the shrubs. Flurry’s ears wilted into her mane, but she quickly recovered and her eyes hardened.

Flurry took a deep breath and rolled it onto the table, looking over at Luna instead of the tumbling little crystal. The projection stayed on their expressions, hiding the roll from the audience. Flash, Fizzlepop, Snowberry, and the filly politely looked away.

Flurry looked down first.

She raised her forelegs back up in triumph and shrieked. “Yesh!” she lisped. “Aw, yesh!”

Luna looked down and frowned in disbelief. The projection shimmered and showed a twenty-sided die with the ‘20’ sticking up. The crowd inhaled and whinnied in unison, stomping their hooves into the ground. Cadance's ears pressed against her head from the deafening cheers.

Flurry began to dance around the table on her hind legs, flailing her forelegs randomly. Her cloak whipped about and one cardboard wing came loose. “Natural Twenty!” Flurry screamed and pumped her forelegs. Cadance watched, mortified; her dancing was actually worse than Twilight’s, with no rhyme or rhythm.

Flurry pointed at the board. “That. Soul. Is. Mine.” She used the royal voice, causing a slight screech of feedback from the sound amplifying spells. Flurry blushed in embarrassment.

Cadance watched as Flash and Fizzlepop clapped politely. Snowberry smiled beamingly at Flurry with the crystal filly. Luna rolled her eyes and chuckled.

They’re all working together. Cadance shuddered and replayed the conversation with Shining. “Our daughter has been dressing up as Darkheart for months.”

Everypony knew and kept it from me. Cadance scowled at Luna from the safety of the shrub. It was clear that she had tutored Flurry in the dark arts. There is always two, a master and an apprentice. Cadance had read that somewhere, and it made sense. Luna would be watched too closely to ever rise as Nightmare Moon again, even in retirement.

Cadance had accidentally stumbled into a vast conspiracy. Even the guards were in on it. Nopony in the Empire can be trusted with this. It was up to her to stop Darkheart. The cheering died down once Flurry returned to the table with a smug metal smile.

“Well,” Luna began, “with that—”

She was cut off by a rumble of thunder. Luna blinked and looked to the sky. “Fie,” she swore archaically. Cadance struggled to look up in the shrub, and her mane became hopelessly tangled in the thorns.

“It appears we must pick up next month with the consequences of Darkheart’s successful spell,” Luna said in her normal voice, amplified for the audience. The crowd groaned in disappointment, but stomped in applause after a moment. The ponies at the table quickly stood before the chairs flashed out of existence, scooping up their character sheets and dice.

Flurry stuffed her things into her cloak and pulled it tight. Snowberry did the same with his poncho. The crowd began to shuffle away, exiting the park amidst loud chatter. Cadance stayed still for fear of attracting attention. A gaggle of colts and fillies from Flurry’s school stormed the courtyard, most dressed in cheap costumes.

“That was awesome!” a filly cheered. She was dressed like a purple wizard.

“So cool,” a colt agreed. He was dressed like a pirate with a tricorn hat.

Fizzlepop flipped up her eyepatch and stood beside Flash. “You going to Princess Burger, Princess?” she asked Flurry.

“Yeah,” Flurry nodded.

“We need to get going,” Flash nodded. “Your dad covered for us.”

“And your armor is going to melt in the rain,” Fizzlepop teased the pegasus.

“Well,” Flash huffed, “excuse me for not wearing real leather, pyscho.”

“It’s accurate to her character.”

“And you just happened to have that?”

Fizzlepop glowered. “Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”

Flash considered it. “No, not really.”

“Smart choice.”

A drop of water landed on Cadance’s muzzle. She struggled and the shrub shook from the motion. She froze when Flurry glanced over at it.

Luna stomped a hoof and the table vanished with a snap, drawing Flurry’s attention away. She regarded the crowd of children with a panicked look. “Fly. Fly, you foals! Your costumes are not water resistant!” Flash and Fizzlepop saluted Luna before galloping away together.

Flurry summoned a large golden dome above her head. “Gather ‘round!” She flapped her wings, struggling to stay aloft with the cardboard bat wings. The colts and fillies, around twenty of them, smushed together underneath it with Snowberry and the filly.

“Thank you, Luna!” Flurry chirped. “You’re a great Dungeon Master.” The herd under her shouted thanks as well.

A master and an apprentice.

Luna blushed. “You are too kind. Your adventuring party is quite excellent, young Flurry. A bold plan.” She gave Flurry a wry look. “And yet, you had plans of your own, Darkheart.”

Flurry giggle-snorted again.

“Until next time,” Luna vowed, vanishing back into a swirl of shadow.

Just like Sombra. Cadance closed her eyes. It made too much sense. Another drop of water landed on her muzzle. Perhaps it was a tear.

“Follow me to Princesh Burger!” Flurry proclaimed with a lisp. She flapped away slowly and awkwardly, giving her classmates time to shuffle below her shield and stay out of the rain.

Thunder clapped above Cadance and the rain began to come down hard. She had to wait until the park was completely clear before extracting herself from the shrub. The pink alicorn emerged with a shredded raincoat and muddy boots. She sniffled, not from the cold, but from a broken heart.

But she knew where Flurry was headed. Cadance slowly trudged after her wayward daughter and her dark acolytes.

Children of the Crystal Corn

The first Princess Burger had started in the Crystal City over a thousand years ago. Most ponies were surprised to learn that. It also came as a surprise to the board of Princess Burger when the Crystal Empire returned. It was a double-princess-burger sized surprise that the founder was still alive and very upset at the use of clowns for marketing. The proceeds from the lawsuit funded half of the Crystal Empire’s GDP.

For the Crystal Empire, all of this meant that Princess Burger was an honored and sacred place in the city. A top-of-the-line fast food eatery for anypony to enjoy, with a fine dining area and a large playroom for little filles and colts. It was well-maintained with a dedicated staff and plush booths. It also had large air vents for proper ventilation. Cadance was grateful for that last one.

Without any ceremony, the pink alicorn fell through the ceiling and landed in the ball pit in the play area. Nopony noticed. Cadance entered through the roof in the torrential downpour outside, discarding her disguise and raincoat, shimmying through the ventilation system like the time she decided to spy on the hoofball team. The rain and thunder masked her heavy landing and the displacement of hundreds of cheap plastic balls. Her horn and bloodshot eyes slowly emerged from the plastic pit and turned towards the dining area.

Her daughter was holding court. After herding her acolytes to the restaurant, they had swiftly taken over a large portion of the tables. Twenty-two fillies and colts rambunctiously bounced in the booths, or dragged extra chairs over to sit at the end and gather together. Clad in capes and pirate hats and cloaks, they drank sugary soda and were concerningly careful not to spill anything on their costumes.

And Flurry Heart was the worst of them. Rather than storm the cashier, Flurry gathered them around to collect their orders. The colts and fillies waited patiently as the orders were written in a notebook by Snowberry. Flurry had devised an alphabetical system, based on first name. Everypony set their allowance down on the table as part of the agreement.

Flurry gathered the large wad of bits together in her magic, demanding that her acolytes pay tribute to her grotesquery. Snowberry finished the list of orders in a spiral notebook decorated with stickers of some heavy metal band, then passed the page to Flurry like a hunched-back assistant, sniveling for approval. Flurry thanked him with a metallic smile and trotted over to the counter; she missed how he blushed.

You fool, Cadance pitied him. Blinded by love.

“Hello!” Flurry chirped to the cashier.

“Princess,” the teenager nodded. The acne-riddled mare yawned and adjusted her paper crown with a hoof.

"I got everypony's order right here!" Flurry shouted happily. She floated the notebook over to the teenager.

Her eyes sagged and she accepted the notebook with a hoof, slowly plugging the massive order into the register. “43 Bits.”

Flurry floated over a stack of Bits and held the remainder in her magic. “Thanksh!” Flurry winked and added another two Bits to the side. The cashier wordlessly pocketed them with a hoof.

The mare did not even nod. “Princess is back!” she called emotionlessly over her shoulder. “Order up!”

A series of wails emerged from the back of the kitchen.

She drains the life out of them from her mere presence. Cadance slowly swam through the ball pit to the edge. Concerningly, her hooves did not touch the bottom, but her bandaged hoof did touch something sticky. She assumed it was spilled soda.

Flurry passed the remaining money back to the gathered children. She split it evenly and Cadance shuddered. Communism, the blackest of magics. Unlike a proper group outing, the fillies did not bicker over the check and attempt to dine-and-dash.

“That was awesome!” a ruby filly cheered to Flurry. She pumped her hoof. “I can’t believe you made that roll.”

“My lucky die never fails,” Flurry proclaimed with an upturned muzzle.

“Because you cheat!” another filly accused.

Flurry gasped and sprayed spittle over the table. “You take that back!” she whinnied with twitching ears.

“No.” The filly huffed and folded her legs. “I bet it’s weighted. Nopony’s that lucky.”

“Luna tested it,” the filly that played Steel Hoof replied. “If she catches you cheating, you get chased by giant dice in your dream.”

“And how do you know that?”

Steel Hoof the barbarian filly looked away and huffed.

“Everypony did really well,” Flurry changed the subject. "My lucky die is specshal," she lisped with a blush. "Special."

"Why?"

“It just is," Flurry responded stubbornly. "Whatsh going on with your games?”

The colts and fillies rapidly spoke to each other, overlapping youthful voices rang with stories of dark arts and horrific battles. Flurry absorbed the dark tales with a smile and occasional giggle. Cadance struggled to follow the stories. They must speak in code. She cast her eyes around the restaurant. Some of the other patrons seemed a little annoyed by the gaggle of children, but most smiled and waved at Flurry. She returned the wave every time.

Cadance wanted to believe with all her heart that Flurry was not too far gone, but everything she discovered suggested otherwise. She had gotten to Shining; she had won over the guards, even the citizens of the Empire treated her like she was normal. Perhaps this was going on from the start.

The trays were eventually carried out by dead-eyed staff, drained emotionally by Darkheart’s enthralling embrace. Flurry thanked them anyway, clearly relishing in their misery. "Thank for your coming to Princess Burger," the cashier intoned emotionlessly. "We hope you have a very Princess day, Princess."

"You too!" Flurry yelped. Her acolytes repeated their dark lord.

Flurry ordered a double-princess-burger with extra ketchup. The hayburger was stacked high and oozing with extra calories. Cadance sniffled at it, imaging it going to her precious daughter’s waistline. Flurry's cloak hid the worst of her pudge.

No wonder she’s so fat. The thought was very cruel and Cadance reared back, accidentally sliding deeper into the ball pit. Sure, she’s a little pudgy, but that’s the dark magic. Flurry mashed her muzzle into the burger and smeared ketchup across her muzzle. She smacked her lips. Cadance watched, horrified, as her daughter devoured the burger like…

Well, like Twilight.

Maybe that just runs in the family. Cadance always made sure to eat properly, even as a teen. She binged and shoved a hoof down her throat like all the other popular fillies.

But Flurry’s side dish was far more sinister. She had ordered corn-on-the-cob, but the alicorn slowly scraped the corn off the cob, muttering to herself and baring her braces with a frown.

“You know the Foal’s Meal has the corn—” Snowberry started.

“I’m not ordering the Foal’s Meal,” Flurry interrupted. “Sthupid braces. Stupid Mom. She’s acting all weird again.”

“Well,” Steel Hoof chuckled, “she’s an airhead.”

“Don’t call her that,” Flurry snapped. She set down the bare cob, clearly saving it for some evil ritual and levitated the corn kernels into her mouth, chewing carefully.

“She kinda is,” Snowberry snorted. "You remember her book, right?"

"That book about Prismia is awful," another filly groaned. "I had to write a book report on it. It's only, like, ten pages."

Cadance scowled and huffed, knocking a plastic ball aside. That book was hard work. She wrote it herself.

“Itsh because of Sombra,” Flurry lisped. “I am so sick of him coming back. The BBEG is for, like, three encounters or whatever.”

The colts and fillies nodded sagely.

"You have a plan?" Snowberry prompted.

"Next time he comes back," Flurry narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. "Itsh the last time. The Empire will never be the same."

The fillies and colts ate quietly, absorbing the proclamation.

"What 'bout the game?" a colt asked.

"Oh," Flurry giggle-snorted. "The Sun Witch is mine. Gordon might fight me over it."

"You can take him."

"I don't wanna fight Gordon," Flurry shrugged. "I like Flash."

"Well, it's in-character," Snowberry remarked. "Sombrero would fight Darkheart, but..."

"But Sombrero's got a crush on Darkheart!" Steel Hoof sang.

"I do not!" Snowberry whinnied with a luminescent blush. His coat glittered like a kaleidoscope.

"Duh," Steel Hoof rolled her eyes. "I said Sombrero, doofus."

Flurry crinkled her muzzle "Ew. I don't like romance in O&O."

"B-but Darkheart kissed his cheek," Snowberry answered hopelessly.

"Yeah," Flurry shrugged a hoof. "After he saved her."

"What'd your mom say about it?" another filly, one wearing a black witch's hat, asked.

Flurry's ears pinned back and she looked to the side. "She never shows up."

"You should be Princess," a filly groaned. The gaggle of children stomped their hooves in agreement.

"I am a Princess," Flurry answered with a frown. Her muzzle was stained in ketchup.

"Yeah, but you'd be like, the best Princess ever!" a colt claimed.

"Better than Twilight!"

Cadance narrowed her eyes. They were plotting against her.

“Excuse me,” a soft, quiet voice called out next to her. Cadance tried to jump, but only sank deeper into the ball pit. She stared up at a tiny crystal filly with a red ribbon in her mane.

“Ma’am,” the filly said politely, “the ball pit is only for eight and under.”

“Begone,” Cadance whispered. “Leave this place. Run far away, filly.”

“I wanna play in the ball pit.”

Cadance sank deeper into the pit, and her hoof squelched as she brushed against something that was very much not spilled soda. She turned her bloodshot eyes up to the foal. “You’ll float too.”

The filly’s muzzle trembled and she fled.

Cadance returned to her daughter. Flurry/Darkheart sat happily at the booth, waving her forelegs and totally ignoring the colt with an obvious crush on her. How long had she been like this?

Cadance did not know. She needed to return to the source, to investigate, and it was clear it was up to her. Everypony else was hopelessly compromised, even her husband. Especially her husband, considering that he almost married a bug monster.

“Ma’am!” a mare marched to the front counter with the red-ribbon, sobbing filly on her back. “My daughter says there’s a terrifying witch in the ball pit!”

The teenager sighed and lowered her head under the counter. Cadance was not prepared for the teen to poke her head back up with a red chainsaw gripped in her muzzle. The cashier pulled the cord with her teeth.

“Sombra!” the teen shouted over the motor. “If you’re in the ball pit again, I’m going to be very angry!”

Flurry’s group stared in awe as the teen took the chainsaw in her hooves and marched across the restaurant. “Groovy,” Snowberry said numbly.

Cadance struggled to free herself, but the plastic balls only pulled her deeper. As her horn disappeared under the tidal wave of plastic, a dark light emanated from below her legs. Cadance’s horn lit up and she gathered her magic.

The ball pit exploded and Flurry’s group cheered. The cashier revved the saw and growled, “Swallow this!” She hacked at the plastic balls, just to be safe, and the children cheered louder.

In the alleyway behind Princess Burger, Mi Amore Cadenza erupted from a dumpster covered in trash and old wrappings. Several stuck to her bandaged hoof. She had been aiming for the alley proper, but missed and blown apart every trash bag inside with her teleport. Because of ‘Defeat of Sombra Day,’ nopony had collected the trash yet.

Cadace crawled out of the dumpster and flopped to the ground. She huffed and dislodged an old ice cream wrapper from her muzzle. One way or another, Cadance vowed, this ends today.

She stood up with a squelch. Shower first, she amended.

The Omens of Flurry

Mi Amore Cadenza limped out of the shower as gracefully as she could with a boot on her hoof. Admittedly, it was still quite graceful. It turns out that dumpster-diving with an open cut tended to aggravate the injury. Her hoof itched quite badly.

Cadance ignored it and flipped the switch next to the bedside lamp. The far wall sparkled under the specially-installed spotlights. Usually, Cadance’s Shipping Wall had a grand and noble purpose, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

The box of foal pictures—Box #1 of #132—landed before the wall with a muted thump on the crystal floor. Cadance narrowed her eyes and levitated her ball of red yarn around her horn. She licked her lips before taking a pink marker between her teeth.

It was time to work.

Three hours later, Shining Armor opened the door to the bedroom. “Honey?” he asked worriedly. “I got a report from Flash about—” he was cut off by stepping into the snare just beyond the door frame. The red yarn yanked him up into the air and flung the unicorn bodily into a pile of discarded string. Shining pushed the string out of his eyes with a huff. It was caught in his neat blue beard. Again.

"Are you shipping again, honey?" Shining called out playfully. "I keep saying that Flash and Fizzlepop..." he trailed off.

Cadance towered over him. She glared down with bloodshot eyes. “I figured it out.”

“That’s wonderful,” Shining said on reflex. His ears pinned back.

Cadance tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Do you remember how we met?”

“You came to foalsit Twilight,” Shining responded slowly. “I was playing O&O with the guys.” He tapped a hoof to his chin. “You know, I always thought it was weird that Celestia asked you to foalsit Twilight—”

“This isn’t about that accursed game,” Cadance spat. She stomped her boot. “This goes far beyond that!”

Shining stared down at the mummified hoof. “Woah, honey!” He struggled to untangle himself. “We need to get you to a doctor!”

“I am not the problem!” Cadance snarled. “Look!” She grabbed his head with her magic and forced him to look to the wall.

Shining’s eyes widened at the wall. It was covered in pictures of Flurry Heart at every stage in her life, crisscrossed by red string with wild circles around specific pictures. Words were scrawled onto the crystal in glittery pink marker.

WHY ALICORN NEED GLASSES

WHY ALICORN NEED BRACES

WHY ALICORN???

“I figured it out,” Cadance declared with a smile that stretched her muzzle a bit too tight.

Shining very badly wished he could teleport like Twilight.

“So,” Cadance shifted her wild stare back to her husband. “You know I defeated an evil witch to become an alicorn?”

“Yes, honey.”

“I wrote a book about it.”

“It’s required reading for elementary school,” Shining sighed. “We still get accusations about misappropriated funding.”

“It is a beautiful story about a pretty filly defeating an ugly witch,” Cadance retorted with a twitching eye. “But I didn’t tell you all of it. I never wrote it down.”

Shining, wisely, shut his mouth.

“Prismia told me a prophecy,” Cadance intoned. “When we were alone in that cave, before I opened my heart to her and showed her all my wonderful kindness, she told me something that’s been on my mind. For years.”

Shining waited. Cadance did not say anything; she just breathed raggedly, staring at the wall without blinking. “Okay?” he prompted her.

Cadance jabbed her boot to the ceiling. Shining looked up and whimpered. The words were carved into the ceiling, written in reverse. He tilted his head back, but Cadance levitated a hoof mirror over to help.

Princess you shall be, until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.

“That’s not going to buff out,” he groaned.

Cadance dropped the mirror. “I knew I was destined to be Princess,” she hissed. “And I knew when I squeezed those wings out and that horn. It was fate.”

Shining frowned. Unwisely, he attempted logic. “Honey,” he began, “I thought you said Flurry was corrupted by Sombra.”

“She is!” Cadance whirled back to the wall and plucked one of the red strings. “He’s been corrupting her from the start!”

“From the moment she was born?” Shining asked. “Honey, she didn’t mean to destroy the Crystal Heart. She was a foal.”

“Of course she meant to destroy the Heart!” Cadance exclaimed. “She was claiming her destiny by besting me!” The alicorn leaned against the wall, squinting at a picture of baby Flurry blasting a hole through the ceiling, pursuing Sunburst with a giggle on her lips. The picture caught Sunburst in the middle of a terrified scream.

“Flurry’s not destined to destroy you,” Shining tried.

“Of course she is," Cadance scoffed, then her eyes turned misty. "And I was so happy,” she added longingly.

Shining’s expression went blank. He stopped struggling in the pile of string. “What?”

“What kind of mother doesn’t want to be overthrown by her daughter?” Cadance asked rhetorically. She smiled at the earlier pictures. “She was perfect.”

“What.”

“At first, I thought that nag Sunset Shimmer was the one,” Cadance admitted. “So, I framed her for sneaking into the restricted archives. Imagine my surprise when it turned out she actually was sneaking in anyway.”

“Wait, is that why she just tossed Sombra back through the mirror instead of dealing with him!?”

“Then there was Twilight,” Cadance continued, ignoring Shining’s yelp. Cadance looked at the one picture of Twilight on the wall. She was dancing a jig at a Hayburger after her coronation.

Cadance shrugged. “And, well, look at her. She might be younger, but beauty was never her strong suit.”

Shining opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His brain locked up between defending his sister’s beauty or agreeing with his wife. It settled in-between on saying nothing.

Cadance moved to the first set of pictures of Flurry’s earliest years. “And when she was born, beautiful and pink and perfect, I knew she was the one.” She lingered on one picture of mother and daughter together; Flurry was wearing a very pink poofy dress with her mane expertly curled. Flurry’s expression was one of intense loathing, but Cadance beamed next to the young alicorn, as if saying “I made this!”

Which she did, technically.

Cadance frowned and jabbed at the later pictures. “And then the corruption set in.”

Flurry having bedhead during class picture day.

Flurry’s first set of braces.

Flurry’s terrible fashion sense of almost exclusively hoodies.

Flurry’s crystal reactor at the science fair, instead of the traditional baking soda volcano.

A lone tear escaped Cadance’s eye. “My beautiful daughter withered away, falling to dark magic while none of us were looking.”

“She’s a teenager,” Shining said.

“She is evil,” Cadance replied.

“She’s our daughter.”

A gleam came to Cadance’s eye. “Is she?” she asked lowly. “Or is she your daughter?”

“That’s…that’s how foals work,” Shining mumbled.

“Your daughter with Chrysalis!” Cadance accused with a wild hoof. She poked Shining in the chest with her boot. “You always defended her!”

“Chrysalis!?” Shining whinnied. “I wanted her statue mulched!”

“No,” Cadance said, annoyed. “Flurry! You always defended her decisions!”

“Ogres & Oubliettes is not evil! Or Warhammer! The spells don’t even work!”

“Aha!” Cadance yelled, victorious. “I bet you met Chrysalis playing O&O! You’ve always been in league with her!”

“How would that even work?” Shining asked, unfortunately trying to reason with his wife. “You squeezed those wings out yourself. And Chrysalis was even less interested in O&O than you were!”

"And how do you know that?"

"Because she cast extra spells on me so I would stop talking to her about it!"

I should've asked her about that. Too bad she's a statue. “Flurry Heart was replaced,” Cadance declared. “At eight years old. Now, her innate Changeling evil has resurfaced.”

“Thorax said you were getting pretty racist,” Shining replied bluntly.

“My real daughter is out there, alone.” Cadance nibbled on a hoof. “She’s probably being raised like I was, adopted by some loving family and taught to do farm work without a Princess to save her and take her to real society.”

“She was replaced right when she started making her own decisions?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Shining summarized. “You think your actual daughter, who you think is destined to usurp you, was replaced with a double? Who is evil, but still planning on usurping you, and that’s…bad?”

“Yes,” Cadance nodded. “Flurry Heart is evil. It may be difficult to accept, but it is true.”

“What evil has she done!?” Shining asked, exasperated.

Cadance guffawed in manic laughter. “She plots her conquests with Chaos! She steals souls! She’s turned the empire against me! Her dark acolytes wage a holy war in her name!”

“You just said you wanted her to usurp you!”

“Not like this!”

“Like what!?” Shining shouted back.

Cadance turned back to the wall and her wings trembled. She looked over the pictures, all of them, from the little baby she dressed up to the owl-eyed filly with a bad mane.

I wanted her to go to parties.

I wanted her to wear all the nice dresses and catch up with all the hot gossip.

I wanted to talk to her about mare stuff.

…I wanted her to be like me.

Shining reached out a hoof and touched Cadance’s boot. He had to wriggle forward out of the pile of string for a moment. “Please,” he pleaded. “Flurry’s your daughter. We can figure this out.”

“She is my daughter,” Cadance wept.

Shining sighed in relief. “Yes.”

“Prismia was wrong.”

“Yes, obviously. You shouldn’t trust witches in caves.”

Cadance nodded and sniffled. “I brought her into this world. I have to take her out.”

Shining began to nod, then processed the statement. “Wait, no—"

Cadance flung him into the closet. She brought over the special ropes and the gag, then their tenth anniversary outfit. “I’m sorry,” she said with tears leaking from her eyes. “The spell will be broken once it’s done.”

Shining screamed and wiggled, but the latex was too tight. Cadance slammed the crystal door shut. She considered her options.

Darkheart was powerful. She could steal souls and commanded an army of almost high-school aged colts and fillies. That was nearly as good as an army of high-schoolers themselves. She could certainly take over the Crystal Empire.

She did shatter the Crystal Heart, Cadance thought. It was the first step to her dark reign. The Crystal Heart was the key. Cadance marched out with a mild limp and a great plan. She needed somepony not local to the Empire, and she knew a certain trio was in town. Cadance looked over at the myriad of pictures of Sunburst being chased by baby Flurry.

If anypony could see her evil, it’s him.

The Exorcism of Flurry Heart

“Right,” Sunburst nodded. “I’m in.”

Cadance smiled.

“This is ridiculous,” Starlight Glimmer huffed. She kept drawing the intricate circle in purified white chalk around the bottom of the floating Crystal Heart. “Just because she had a few bad days as a foal…”

“She chased me around daily,” Sunburst replied. “She always giggled.” His eyes went somewhere far away and he tugged on his braided goatee. There was a strip of white running down the middle. “I can still hear the laughter.”

“I know,” Starlight groaned. “I thought the cuddles helped.”

Sunburst’s ears wilted. “They do,” he acknowledged.

“From both of us,” Trixie added from her standing spot near the window.

Sunburst wiggled one of his hooves to Starlight, then changed the subject. “This’ll be a great prank on Flurry.”

“Right,” Cadance nodded. She paced at the double doors to the room. “Prank.”

“Then why am I drawing an actual containment circle?” Starlight asked. She shook the chalk in her magic aura. “This is the most powerful purifying spell in existence.”

“It has to look accurate,” Sunburst replied. “I taught Flurry the spells. She’ll stand in the circle, and I’ll go on my spiel, then Trixie will spray her with the hose.”

Trixie waved and continued to wrestle with the extended garden hose. The hose trailed through the slightly opened window, all the way back to the garden. Cadance had appropriated every hose from the crystal tool shed to reach.

“Your wife still thinks this is a bad idea,” Starlight grunted. She added the last dashes of chalk on the vaguely pentagram shaped snowflake.

“Your great and powerful wife concurs,” Trixie added.

“You’re not the great and powerful wife,” Sunburst added dryly.

“Trixie still thinks your anger is misplaced,” Sunburst’s second wife stated. She tilted her purple witch’s hat at Cadance.

Cadance smiled thinly. It was risky, trusting Sunburst and Trixie. They dressed up in capes and cloaks just like Darkheart. The lie of a ‘prank’ had been necessary to get their approval. “Oh?”

“Yes,” Trixie sniffed. “Why didn’t you hire a proper foalsitter? Or a team of foalsitters?”

Cadance opened her mouth, then failed to think of a proper reply beyond “Sunburst was hired on the cheap,” and closed her jaw with a clack.

“Trixie declares the matter settled,” Sunburst’s other wife nodded. “Trixie would spray you with the hose, but she is considerate and merciful.” Trixie angled the nozzle towards Cadance’s bandaged hoof.

“I’d like to see you try,” Cadance snarled and stepped forward in a challenge. Her boot squeaked on the smooth crystal floor. She lost her balance and had to flare out her wings.

“Trixie does not fight cripples.”

“Trix!” Starlight whinnied. “Apologize!”

“Trixie is honest.”

“You’re our guidance counselor,” Sunburst sighed.

“And Trixie guides foals to accept who they are,” Trixie said haughtily. “Including imperfections.”

“Is this why you never have repeat sessions?” Sunburst questioned.

“Trixie is that good.”

“Look,” Starlight set the chalk back into her saddlebags. “As thrilled as I am to be up at two in the morning, I expected a different kind of adventure for our anniversary.”

“Trixie concurs.”

“I need this,” Sunburst pleaded. “Just one prank, one prank to make up for the years of therapy. Luna laughed at me in my dreams. She adores Flurry.”

Starlight looked to the side. “You were never that good at keeping in touch. Did you ever tell Flurry how much it bothered you?”

“She knows what she did,” Sunburst hissed with a twitching eye.

“Statistically,” Trixie interrupted, “she does not. Many short-term memories of foalhood are forgotten.”

Her husband and wife looked over at the pale blue mare fumbling with the garden hose. It was tangled in the curtains. “What?” Trixie spat. “I can know things! I’m a guidance counselor!”

Cadance walked around the perimeter of the pentagram. Her hoof itched inside the boot. “What if…” Cadance began. “What if there’s actually evil inside Flurry?”

“Like magical corruption?” Starlight asked. “The circle will purify her. Anypony standing inside it.”

“And what if there’s nothing left?” Cadance asked softly. “A being of pure evil, like Sombra?”

“He’d never step in one of these,” Sunburst chuckled. “It would annihilate him if he did.”

Starlight gestured to the floating Crystal Heart. “Especially with the Heart’s power added to the rune.”

“Is it added to the rune?” Cadance asked.

“Why do you think I drew it like a snowflake?”

“It’s a pentagram,” Sunburst corrected.

“You called it a circle!” Trixie shouted out.

“That’s just the name of the spell!” Starlight snapped back angrily.

Cadance once predicted with her advanced Shipping Algorithm that the trio’s relationship would last three months and six days. The Princess of Love was convinced that Trixie had seen her calculations and became determined to keep the relationship going out of spite.

There was a double knock on the door. Cadance opened it and peeked out with a bloodshot eye, then stuck out her hoof. “Do you have it?” she whispered in a strangled voice.

Fizzlepop Berrytwist nodded under the hood. The purple maimed mare was wearing a full-body cloak. Not for evil, but for good. A box emerged from the depths. “As requested, Princess.”

Cadance accepted the small box and held it between her forelegs. The box art depicted a golden-armored alicorn waving a weird-looking chainsaw above his head. She flipped it over and looked at the price tag. Her pink fur blanched white. “Did you charge this amount on the crystal card?” It’ll be overdrawn.

“Oh no,” Fizzlepop chuckled. “I didn’t pay for it. It was in the store’s display case. The colt at the counter wasn’t willing to part with it.”

Cadance gulped. “What did you do?”

Fizzlepop licked her lips. “You said I could use ‘all available measures’ to retrieve another Primarch Horus.” She tilted her head and showed off the wicked eye scar. “I complete my missions, Princess Cadenza. No matter the cost.”

Cadance kept her muzzle still. “No witnesses, then?”

“Nah,” Fizzlepop shrugged. “I don’t want everypony to know I’ll autograph their Storm King merchandise.”

Cadance blinked. “What?”

“It’s all collectables now,” Fizzlepop explained. “My old signature as Tempest Shadow ups the value exponentially.” Her horn crackled under the hood. “Can’t just give it out.”

“Right,” Cadance said slowly. She eased the door shut. “Will you tell Flurry I’m here?”

“Of course, Princess.” Fizzlepop winked. “I’ll leave out who went down to the store.”

Cadance shut the door and held the box up triumphantly. Fool, she sneered. You’ve given me the instrument of your dark mistress’ destruction. She felt the urge to laugh, and giggled.

Starlight, Sunburst, and Trixie stopped arguing to watch Cadance rock back and forth with the box. Her giggles sounded more like hiccups crossed with snorts. Trixie held the hose protectively.

“Uh, Princess?” Starlight asked. Cadance snapped her head over to the mare. Starlight flinched at the bloodshot eyes.

“Yes?” Cadance hissed out.

Starlight waved a hoof at the Heart. “We’re…ready?” she said uncertainly.

Cadance walked around the perimeter of the pentagram-snowflake. Her boot squeaked on the floor. “We have to hide it,” the alicorn declared, then looked around the room. Her eyes settled on the long purple curtains hanging in front of the window.

Cadance’s horn glowed and she wrenched the entire curtain rod out of the wall with a dull crack. She flung the curtains down over the large rune, ignoring how the metal rod clattered down next to Trixie and missed her head by less than a hoof.

Cadance smoothed out the curtains with her magic. An ugly, purple rug right under the Crystal Heart. She nodded decisively. The perfect trap.

“Trixie was going to hide behind those curtains with the hose,” Trixie said, annoyed. She eyed the bat-sized metal bar that nearly crushed her head.

“Just use an illusion,” Cadance shrugged a wing.

Trixie pressed herself against the wall with a grumble. “Just use an illusion,” she muttered under her breath in a high falsetto.

Flurry Heart did not knock on the doors. She pushed them open and stuck her head through, blinking behind her glasses. “Mom?” she called out.

Cadance stood tall and tucked the box under a wing. “Flurry Heart.” If that is your real name. “Did my summons wake you up?”

“No,” Flurry yawned. She bared her unnatural metal mouth in an unspoken threat. “I was working on my miniatures.”

“I have something for you…daughter,” Cadance said sweetly. Her eyes tracked Flurry across the room. “A gift.” Cadance trotted around the curtain, stopping so that Flurry would have to cross under the Heart and directly across the hidden sigil.

“Okay?” Flurry answered. She looked at Sunburst and Starlight, then squinted her eyes at Trixie leaning against the window with the hose. Trixie whistled innocently. “Whatsh going on?”

“Nothing!” Cadance snapped. “Just three consenting adults having fun!”

“The hose is for cleanup,” Trixie lied on reflex.

“Ew.” Flurry stuck her tongue out. “TMI.”

The younger light pink alicorn entered the room and shut the door behind her. She was wearing a blue hoodie; it was rumpled and there were crumbs on the sleeves, probably from some late-night cheese snacks. The hoodie bunched up around Flurry’s barrel, not quite hiding the slight pudge. Her mane was a mess of tangled purple and blue curls.

Behold, evil.

“I saw you at the park,” Sunburst said pleasantly. “Quite the lucky roll at the end, Darkheart.” For one slow heartbeat Cadance feared betrayal, that she miscalculated, but Sunburst winked at her and smiled at Flurry. “Gordon’s gonna kick your flank next session.”

“Nuh-uh,” Flurry shook her head.

“You’re playing a squishy wizard against a paladin.”

“You’re a squishy wizard!”

“You are a squishy wizard,” Starlight added with a laugh.

Sunburst rolled his eyes and waved a hoof at Cadance. “Your mother wanted to give you a present for ‘Defeat of Sombra Day.’ Technically, it’s a bit late, but better late than never.”

“And why are you here?” Flurry asked. She hesitated mid-step. “Is this some weird talk about stuff? Like, an intervention or something?”

“She needed help picking out the right miniature,” Sunburst said.

That was actually true. Cadance had demanded ‘Primary Horse’ for several hours before getting the name from Sunburst and Starlight. She still got it wrong afterwards to Fizzlepop, but Sunburst managed to correct her.

Cadance unveiled the small box and flourished it with a wing. She took it between her forelegs. The boot made it awkward to hold. “Another Primary—”

Starlight coughed.

“Primarch Horus,” Cadance finished.

Flurry gasped and her wings fluttered. “He’s sho rare!” she lisped. “How’d you get him?”

“I went down to the store and demanded it,” Cadance declared imperiously. She tossed her head and bobbed her perfectly curled mane. “They dared not refuse.”

“You argued with Games Workstable?” Flurry asked in awe.

“Yes,” Cadance confirmed, having no idea what her supposed daughter meant. She double-checked the box and saw the logo, then nodded again. “I did.”

Flurry fluttered her wings happily and beamed at her mother. She practically galloped forward across the crystal floor. “I love you!” Flurry yelled.

Cadance smirked. Yes, be drawn by the doll. “And I love you,” she lied back.

Flurry skidded to a halt just before she reached the rug-curtain. Her wings assisted her on the smooth floor. Cadance snarled and quickly suppressed it with a wide smile. She held out the box and rattled it.

“It’s for you, Flurry!” she yelled with a touch of mania. “It’s all for you!”

Flurry scuffed a hoof on the curtain and looked away. Her ears wilted. Her glasses reflected the Crystal Heart floating above, humming quietly with power.

No. No, you foal. The trap is perfect. Cadance debated trying to drag her daughter to the center with her magic. “Don’t you want it?” she asked. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Flurry bit her lower lip. “You didn’t have to buy another becaush you broke it.”

Cadance was silent.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Flurry apologized. “I love you, mom.”

Sunburst’s ears wilted and he drew a hoof across his throat, signaling Trixie to lower the hose. Starlight stepped back.

Cadance didn’t react as Flurry stepped on the curtain.

The doors crashed open.

“Stop!” Shining shouted. Thorax stood beside him with glowing antlers.

Flurry Heart turned around and screamed. She flared her wings out and covered her eyes. “OH MY HEART DAD WHAT IS THAT.”

Shining looked down at the latex outfit and zippers. “I didn’t have time to get changed.” He blushed as pink as his wife, but recovered and stomped a hoof on the floor. “Flurry, get away from your mother!”

“So,” Thorax began to Sunburst. “Funny story, I was looking to borrow some stuff from Shining and Cadance for later because I didn’t bring anything—"

“OH HEART NO.”

“—and I found Shining trapped in the closet,” Thorax continued.

“You didn’t say it was roleplay night,” Starlight said to Sunburst.

“It was meant to be a surprise,” Sunburst sighed, “but then Cadance showed up with the idea to prank Flurry.”

“Did you seriously choose petty revenge on Flurry over roleplay night?” Starlight nickered.

“Flurry!” Shining called out. “Your mother is trying to destroy you!”

Flurry had plugged feathers into her ears and shut her eyes. “LALALALA NOT LISTENING TO THIS.” She stumbled back on the curtains.

Trixie sighed against the wall and gave the nozzle a test squeeze. “All of you deserve the hose.”

Cadance flung the box to the side and howled with victory as Flurry Heart stepped into the center of the hidden pentagram-snowflake-thing. Now I see you as you are. “The power of the Heart compels you!” she screamed and jabbed her itchy hoof at Flurry.

Nothing happened.

“The power of the Heart compels you!” Cadance shouted again, with extra hoof-pointing.

The room quieted down. Even Flurry took the feathers out of her ears and stared blankly at her mother. Shining and Thorax approached from the doorway. Starlight and Sunburst backed away from Cadance as her wings spasmed.

Cadance looked at the curtains on the floor with a wobbling muzzle. “T-the power of the H-heart compels you!” she stuttered. Her hoof shook at Flurry. “Your evil is broken!”

“What?” Flurry asked.

The curtains ruined the sigil. In desperation, Cadance grabbed the edge in her smoky aura and ripped the curtains out from under her daughter. Flurry Heart flailed and landed hard on the floor with a yelp. Her glasses tumbled off her muzzle and there was a sharp crack of glass. “Ow,” Flurry groaned.

“Woah!” Sunburst shouted from behind Cadance.

“Don’t fall for her tricks!” Cadance whinnied. “Get an axe!”

Shining marched forward, as dignified as he could dressed in black faux-leather. “That’s enough.”

“Strike her down before she grows more powerful!”

“I said that’s enough.” Shining trotted across the perfectly functional rune.

“Flurry Heart is evil!” Cadance screamed to the Crystal Heart. It hummed quietly back.

Shining reached Cadance, reared back, and slapped her hard across the muzzle. With a hoof, that was indeed quite a powerful strike. She fell back onto her flank and blinked at her husband.

“You’re going to the doctor to look at that hoof,” Shining stated flatly. His eyes shimmered with rage. “Maybe, just maybe, a fever’s made you delirious enough to say all this.”

Cadance held her normal hoof to her cheek. “You slapped me,” she said softly. “You hurt me.”

“And you just hurt our daughter,” Shining replied evenly. “For what?”

Cadance looked over his shoulder. Thorax stood in the circle, perfectly fine, and helped Flurry up with gentle hooves. She blinked rapidly, struggling not to cry. Her glasses unsteadily wobbled back onto her muzzle in her golden magic, but one frame was hopelessly cracked. Thorax gave Flurry a soft hug.

Cadance looked over her shoulder. Sunburst and Starlight met her eyes with a glare, then trotted over to Flurry as well. Sunburst hugged her first. Trixie dropped the hose, but remained where she was. She narrowed her eyes at Cadance’s horn.

“You’re blind to her,” Cadance sputtered. “You excuse her evil.”

“She’s not evil,” Shining sighed.

“What else could she be?”

Shining braced his forehooves on his wife’s shoulders. “Honey,” he said calmly, “Flurry is a massive nerd.”

…no.

“She likes painting miniatures.”

No.

“She does well in school and plays O&O with her friends.”

No.

“She wins every tournament she enters. She even beat Pharynx.”

“NO!” Cadance roared and flung Shining back.

Thorax quickly transformed into a plushy brown bear and caught him before he hit the floor. Cadance stood back up and sneered at the gathered crowd. She struck a pose, flaring out her wings and cocking a hind leg.

“MY DAUGHTER IS NOT A NERD.”

Flurry, Shining, Thorax, Sunburst, and Starlight backed away towards the doors.

“I AM THE PRINCESS OF LOVE. THE ENVY OF EVERY MARE.”

Trixie blinked at Cadance, then looked to the metal pole next to her.

“EVERY STALLION DREAMS OF BEING WITH ME.”

Trixie picked up the metal curtain rod in her forelegs.

“I EVEN MADE MOTHERHOOD LOOK GOOD.”

Trixie gave the rod a test swing, standing on her hind legs.

“I MAKE ANYTHING LOOK GOOD. CELESTIA WISHES SHE WAS ME.”

Cadance reared onto her hind legs and pointed her bandaged hoof down at Flurry Heart.

“MY DAUGHTER IS NOT A FRUMPY…”

Flurry’s muzzle twisted.

“FAT…”

Tears welled up behind the broken glasses.

“FREAK!”

Flurry Heart began to cry.

“You married a geek!” Shining shouted back.

Cadance barked a harsh, deep laugh.

“I NEVER EVEN LOOKED AT YOU UNTIL YOU JOINED THE GUARD.”

Cadance jabbed her hoof at him. The bandages unraveled partially.

“YOU WERE JUST AS MUCH A LOSER AS SHE IS.”

Shining Armor shook his head numbly and held his daughter to his barrel.

“OH YES. YOU WERE PATHETIC. YOU WEREN’T EVEN WORTH MY TIME.”

Cadance sneered at him. Her teeth glinted in the light of the Heart.

“I ONLY MARRIED YOU FOR ONE REASON. ONE LONG, THICK—"

Trixie swung the curtain rod into the back of Cadance’s head.

Mi Amore Cadenza fell forward. She landed inside the snowflake-pentagram, and the lines erupted with white light. The pink alicorn screamed, high and loud, as the bandages burned away to reveal a black, crystal-coated hoof. Smoke leaked from her eyes as she writhed inside the rune.

Trixie stepped back and stared at the bent metal bar in her hooves. “I am the great and powerful wife.” She glanced at the crowd of shocked muzzles. “What?” she scoffed. “Trixie knows dark magic corruption when she sees it.”

The Heart thrummed with pulsating blue light as it added its power to the rune underneath. Cadance howled again, then began to laugh in a deep baritone. Her head twisted around with a crack to leer at the gathered ponies.

“Shining Armor,” Sombra laughed. The laughter shifted between Cadance’s voice and his own. “Your mother eats ice cream in Tartarus.”

“My mother is alive,” Shining replied with a scowl.

“It is too hot in Tartarus and it melts!” Sombra cackled.

“Let Cadance go.”

“You forgot to say please.”

“He’s trapped in there,” Starlight blinked rapidly. “We need the Elements. Anything.”

“Oh yes,” Sombra laughed as Cadance’s horn crackled with smoke. “Banish her.”

“Y-you can’t do anything in there,” Sunburst stammered. “The Heart will destroy you.”

“Which is why I am in Mi Amore Cadenza,” Sombra answered. He propped himself up with the crystalized hoof and gave Shining a sultry look. “Shame the Crystal Heart relies on positive feelings, hmm?”

The Heart above them flickered and the light emanating from the lines of chalk began to fade. Sombra stood up and smiled with a mouth full of fangs. Magic still crackled across his stolen body, but Cadance’s fur rapidly darkened. The pink deepened into the color of ash. Red and green smoke began to pour from her eyes.

Flurry Heart took one step forward and sniffled. “Mom?”

“Mi Amore Cadenza is mine now you little freak,” Sombra laughed. “Forever.”

Unnoticed, a lone tear escaped from their shared right eye. It trailed through the fur under the smoke.

The Evil Undead

As ‘Sombrance’ cackled underneath the Crystal Heart, Sombra and Cadance faced each other down in an empty room. Cadance looked around at the blank white walls with open confusion.

“W-where are we?” Cadance sputtered. “Where have you taken me?”

“We’re inside your mind,” Sombra replied. “I understand why it’s a foreign place to you.”

“You…you made me think that it was Flurry,” Cadance growled. She extended her wings in a challenge and scuffed a hoof on the plain white floor.

“Why would I want to be in that little freak’s head?” Sombra snorted. He waved a foreleg around. “There’s so much empty space in here.”

“You vile fiend!”

“If I knew it would be this easy, I would’ve tried this years ago,” Sombra admitted with some visible surprise in his red eyes.

Cadance shook her head. “You made me say those things. You made me hurt my daughter.”

The dark stallion rolled his eyes. “We both know that is a lie.”

Cadance charged him with a war cry and slid across the floor on unsteady hooves. Sombra stepped to the side and dodged her easily. He flourished his thick red cape. The stallion’s iron crown sat regally upon his brow.

“We appear here as we believe ourselves to be,” Sombra explained. “I am a King, and you…” he waved to her with a hoof.

Cadance looked down. She was wearing striped pink socks. Long striped pink socks. Call me Candy, the thought slipped into her mind. She grit her teeth. “You’re doing this!”

“You are not even fit to be my dark bride, harlot,” Sombra scoffed. “That is what you are. Useless. Vapid. Airhead. Ditz.”

Cadance charged him again and her socks slid across the floor. Her horn sparked, trying to lash out with magic, but the spell failed. The pink alicorn crashed against the wall. She tumbled tail over horn and collapsed in a heap.

The white walls flashed and began to shimmer with moving pictures. Memories of her life played without sound. Cadance shook stars from her eyes and tried to stand up.

“Jezebel,” Sombra laughed. “You remind me of her.”

“Who?”

“A mare of the night,” Sombra clarified. “Her talent was stamped on her flank, and she proudly showed that flank off. Like you.”

“I am a Princess,” Cadance spat and struggled to stand up. The socks slipped on the smooth floor and she crashed back down. Her eyes turned to the walls.

Cadance, younger and with a mane high in a ponytail, trotted through a modest home to foalsit Twilight for the first time. She smiled indulgently at Night Light and Twilight Velvet as they left. Shining gathered his things at the table, stuffing several notebooks and errant sheets of paper into saddlebags. The notebooks were all decorated with heroic knights fighting dark wizards, with one sticker of a Royal Guard helmet proclaiming “Join for Real Adventure!”

Shining’s mane was unkempt and a bit greasy, and he was closer to a stick than a stallion. He froze as Cadance walked past, struck by her slender and smooth stride. His muzzle blushed scarlet and he was unable to say anything.

I didn’t meet him like this, Cadance thought.

And she didn’t. In the memory, she walked past him without even sparing him a glance. Shining looked at the guard helmet on the notebook he clutched in his forelegs.

No, Cadance thought. That’s not why he joined. He didn’t do it just so I’d notice him.

Another memory played on the opposite wall. Cadance reclined in a ventilation shaft, peering through the grate with a dreamy look on her muzzle. The wrestling team flexed their muscles in the locker room. The muscular stallions laughed and bumped each other’s flanks in ways that were totally platonic. Cadance leered at them and licked her lips.

“This is who you were long before I was ever here,” Sombra said dryly.

“No,” Cadance whispered. Another memory shimmered into existence.

Sombra stood, regal and proud, fetlock deep in a ball pit in the middle of the night.

“Whoops,” Sombra chuckled a touch uneasily. “That’s one of mine. Ignore that.” Luckily, Cadance was staring at another wall and memory.

Flurry Heart sat at the breakfast table before a plate of crystalberry pancakes. Judging from her wing size, Flurry was about ten. She cried quietly and pushed her plate away, baring her first set of braces. The awkward metal stretched her lips and her teeth hurt. Decorations hung around the table, little pink paper hearts on strings attached to the ceiling.

In the memory, Cadance skipped by into the kitchen with a song on her lips. Her gold and purple dress hugged her flank and made her eyes pop. Her mane and tail blew in a breeze, even indoors.

Hearts & Hooves, Cadance realized on the white floor.

The Cadance in the memory practically danced past Flurry at the breakfast table. Just before she entered the kitchen, she stopped and glanced over at her daughter. She rolled her eyes and resumed singing. The memory faded away on the wall. Flurry Heart, alone at the breakfast table, remained the longest.

“No!” Cadance screamed at the memory. “No! I didn’t do that!”

“What did you do?” Sombra asked. He tilted his head.

“I…” Cadance trailed off. Nothing came to her.

Sombra smiled cruelly.

Cadance stood up with a scream of rage and despair, only for hundreds of dice to crash down atop her. The sharp little edges battered her back to the floor; some were the size of bricks and boulders. The alicorn shoved back, but they continued to pour down. One little die landed on her muzzle, right between her eyes. The twenty-sided die balanced perfectly. It was pink and purple, like her fur and eyes.

My lucky die never fails!

Cadance stared cross-eyed at it.

Do…do you wanna come to the park?

She lowered her head back to the floor. The die remained balanced on her muzzle.

Flurry looked around, scanning over the crowd. Her ears wilted.

The dice continued to pour down. Cadance didn’t feel their weight anymore.

She never shows up.

Sombra smirked and turned away. “This has to be a resurrection record. Less than three days. Gozer’s going to be so jealous.” He hummed a jaunty tune and looked through her eyes, back into reality.

Beneath the Crystal Heart, 'Sombrance' smiled viciously from within the failing containment circle. Their fur was entirely ash-gray and smoke poured from their eyes. The Heart shuddered above them. “Go on,” Sombra said in a mix of his and Cadance’s voice. “Activate the Heart. See what happens.”

Shining and Flurry stood with the others, hesitating. The Heart began to crack.

In the white room, the dice buried Cadance, everything except for her muzzle and eyes.

I have failed my daughter utterly.

Well, Cadance thought, I was right about that.

“You have not failed her yet,” a stallion’s voice proclaimed haughtily. Heavy armored hoofsteps thudded from out of sight. A white alicorn walked around the pile of dice and stared down at Cadance. His golden armor was emblazoned with a fiery sun and his wings were razor sharp. He stared down at her with hard teal eyes.

Cadance frowned up at him. Her muzzle was stained with tears. “Primary Horse?”

Primary Horse sighed. “Sure.” He frowned at her. “What are you doing?”

“Everything he said was true,” Cadance wept.

“The daemon is a liar,” Primary Horse spat. “My greatest sin was not turning against the Empress, but listening to the words of Chaos in the first place.”

“I’m an awful mother,” Cadance admitted. “And wife.”

“Are you?” Primary Horse asked. “Look again.” He jabbed an armored hoof at the walls.

Sombra was distracted with a map of his dark filing system. He frowned and tapped a hoof to his crown. “First, refiling for ‘Dark Lord’ status, then…”

Cadance ran beside Shining Armor on the track. He was wearing a Cadet headband, but was still a thin, sweaty mess. Cadance had purple leg warmers. She jogged in place while waiting for Shining to catch up. Many of the other Cadets slowed to watch Cadance, but she didn’t spare them a glance. She waited until Shining puffed up to her before continuing.

Cadance suplexed a tan stallion onto a thick mat. He blushed as she straddled him, then squealed in pain as the alicorn bent a leg back. He cried out something, and she stood up with a lashing tail, levitating over a notebook from a pile of bruised jocks. She glared at them as she left the gym.

Flurry sat alone at the breakfast table. Cadance returned from the kitchen with a large tub of ice cream and two spoons. Her mane and tail crackled with energy, but she sat at the kitchen table with her daughter, ignoring the festivities of Hearts & Hooves. The ice cream numbed the pain from her braces and Flurry wobblily smiled up at her mother. Cadance smiled softly back.

“I don’t remember any of that,” Cadance whispered.

“And yet they happened,” Primary Horse answered. “Conquer your daemon.”

Cadance freed her left leg. She stared at the striped sock. “Are you saying to use the love for my family to overpower his hatred?”

Primary Horse hummed. “Eh, you could go that way,” he admitted, “but the chainswords and armor aren’t for show. We use extreme violence.”

Cadance pulled the sock off with her teeth, then crawled free from the pile of dice. She selected three hoof-sized dice and shoved them in the sock. She wrapped the end around her hoof. Armed with what was effectively several bricks inside a sock, Mi Amore Cadenza gave it a swing.

“I can do that,” Cadance stated. She turned to face the alicorn. “Thank—"

Nopony was there. She was alone with Sombra and the dice. Cadance slowly turned her head back to Sombra and hefted the sock.

Sombra heard her approach and his ears twitched. “Really, Candy?” he teased. He stepped to the side without looking over his shoulder. “All that empty space up here must make it difficult—”

The sock slammed into the back of his head and dislodged the crown. “Natural Twenty!”

In the real world, 'Sombrance' punched themselves in the face. The crystallized hoof blocked the next punch. “You insane mare!” they exclaimed with a cry of pain.

Back in the white room, Cadance whipped the sock back into his muzzle. Sombra flailed and stepped back across the floor. “You’re only hurting yourself!”

Cadance screamed ferally and swung again. Sombra managed to jerk his head back in time. He narrowed his eyes. “You stand no chance, Horse of Babylon.”

“You’re right,” Cadance panted. “I am a ditzy airhead, but it takes work to look this good.” The pink alicorn wrapped the end of the sock around her hoof. The lean, corded muscle rippled under her fur. “It’s not magic. I might not have brains, but I have brawn.”

“You are weak.” Sombra removed his cape and reared up. He pumped his front hooves, assuming a boxer’s stance.

“It takes a lot of squats and jogging, Sombra. I’m not made of shadow.”

Sombra narrowed his smoky eyes. Cadance stared him down.

“I’ve taken bigger,” Cadance smirked.

“Phrasing.”

“I meant it both ways.”

Shining, Flurry, Thorax, Sunburst, Starlight, and Trixie watched as Mi Amore Cadenza began to beat the stuffing out of herself inside the ward. “I’ll give you a cutie mark in pain!” Cadance’s voice rang out, followed by Sombra’s harsh shout of “Try me, harlot!”

They spoke out of the same muzzle, and one eye remained a red and purple slit. The other was Cadance’s normal purple, but narrowed in anger. The fur around her right foreleg turned pink as it swung into her stomach.

“She’s fighting from the inside!” Thorax chirped. “Resist!”

“Is it supposed to work this way?” Sunburst asked from the side of his muzzle to Starlight.

“I have no idea,” Starlight admitted.

“Let them fight!” Trixie proclaimed with a pumping foreleg. “Beat his flank!”

“Uh, kick his flank, honey!” Shining shouted. “Your flank.”

In an impressive display of gymnastics and flexibility, Cadance suplexed herself into the floor. Her neck crunched audibly, but she continued to roll around with alicorn-level endurance.

Thorax hissed in sympathy, but his antlers glowed. “She’s winning!”

Flurry squinted through the broken lens on her glasses. “Mom! You can do it!”

The next scream of rage was entirely Cadance’s as she backflipped onto the floor. She wrestled with the crystal hoof. It continued to block some of her swings.

Back in the white room, Cadance swung a sock full of mostly dust and powder between Sombra’s hind legs. He squealed. “Give me back my hoof!” the alicorn snarled.

“Never!” Sombra squeaked in a falsetto. “You’ll never be free of me!”

Cadance turned to the wall that showed the real world. Her family watched nervously and the Heart shuddered above them. Her horn began to glow.

A red chainsaw teleported in next to the Crystal Heart. It landed inside the containment circle. Now far more Cadance than Sombra, the embattled alicorn levitated it over to her muzzle. She pinned the spasming black-crystal hoof to the ground with her other foreleg.

“Give me back my hoof!” Cadance spat. Half of her mouth was a jumble of fangs.

“Never,” Sombra vowed from the other side of her muzzle.

Cadance tugged the chainsaw over with a wing. She pulled the cord with her teeth.

“Mom!” Flurry screamed. Thorax grabbed her and held her back.

Sunburst and Starlight held Shining back. “You can’t cross the streams!” Sunburst pointed to the lines of white fire emanating from the sigil and connecting to the Crystal Heart.

“Cady!” Shining screamed.

Cadance’s horn poured black smoke and she shook her head violently. Her forelegs trembled and the crystal hoof twitched. The alicorn levitated the revving chainsaw over her head.

In the white room, Sombra panted on the ground. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Cadance huffed on the floor next to him. They were both covered in similar bruises.

“The pain would be unimaginable,” Sombra continued. “You’d feel it too.”

“Have you seen…” Cadance gasped, “Flurry’s wings?”

“What?” Sombra exhaled.

“You don’t know the pain of motherhood,” Cadance laughed. “I do.” She continued to laugh, higher and louder at Sombra's expression of terror.

Below the Crystal Heart, Mi Amore Cadenza cackled as the chainsaw descended. It was entirely her own voice. “Who’s laughing now?”

The blade was aimed at the crystal hoof.

“Who’s laughing now!?”

Just before it made contact, Cadance vomited black smoke. The retching threw off her aim and the saw carved into the floor. The chain snapped, but the saw broke one of the chalk lines. The smoke swirled around her as the black crystal flaked off her hoof.

“Holy Heart!” Sombra exclaimed. His muzzle appeared in the cloud. He blinked down at Cadance. “And they called me the Mad King?”

Cadance wheezed and puffed one last bit of smoke out of her lungs. She fell to her side. The sigil collapsed and the fires faded from the chalk. Shining and Flurry rushed to the pink alicorn.

Sombra frowned down at Cadance. “Are you sure we’re not related?”

Shining glared up at him and fired a laser through the smoke. “Sombra!”

Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst and Thorax stood in front of the doors. “No escape!” Starlight vowed. “Your tyranny ends today.”

The smoke cloud solidified. Sombra’s muzzle stuck out from the roiling shadow. “I’ve heard that one before.”

Fluegelhorns began to sound from outside. The window shattered as Sombra’s horn crashed through it. The blood red tip plunged into shadows. Sombra’s muzzle split into a wide grin as the horn connected to his head.

The Crystal Heart chimed dully. A crack ran through it.

“No Heart,” the shadow laughed. “No hope.” Sombra fully reformed into a floating stallion, complete with cape and crown. He gave the crowd a teasing smile and drifted towards the open window.

“I have paperwork to refile,” Sombra chuckled.

A golden bubble flared into existence around the stallion. He stopped and turned down to the small light pink alicorn. Flurry Heart stood beneath the Crystal Heart. Her eyes shimmered behind the glasses.

“Really?” Sombra laughed. He pressed his hooves against the golden shield and smirked down at her. “Are you upset that I didn’t want to be in your head, you flabby little urchin?”

“We’ll take him down together,” Shining declared. Cadance wheezed again, exhausted and bruised.

“Right,” Sunburst nodded. He stood beside Flurry. “You remember your containment spells?”

Starlight and Trixie stood on the other side. “We’re with you.”

“We got this,” Thorax promised.

“No,” Flurry raised a chipped hoof to her muzzle and removed her glasses. She squinted up at Sombra; he pushed on the bubble. His hoof warped the shield with little resistance.

“He’s mine,” Flurry stated and closed her eyes. “Hang on to something, everypony.”

Her horn erupted with white fire. She opened her eyes. Shining light poured from them, completely obscuring her pupils. Flurry turned the baleful, fiery stare up to Sombra.

Sombra yelped as his hooves burned where they touched the bubble. The bubble roiled with white fire. “What are you doing?”

Flurry lifted off the ground. Her wings remained by her side. “Klaatu…” she intoned.

Sombra gasped. “No!”

“Barada…”

“You can’t!”

“Nikto!” Flurry slammed her forelegs together in a clap.

Reality tore open. A howling void of pure darkness formed on the far wall. Sombra screamed again as the bubble began to compress. His hooves collapsed into smoke and the stallion visibly struggled to reform them.

“You can’t do this to me!” Sombra yelled over the howling wind.

Everypony’s hooves skidded on the crystal floor as the gale winds pulled them towards the vortex. Hooves and smooth crystal mixed poorly. Thorax erupted into green fire, and the four-armed ‘Changeling’ dug sharp talons into the crystal to hold on. The claws grabbed Sunburst, Starlight, Trixie, and Shining.

“Hang on!” Thorax yelled. The red eyes widened as the spiked tail wrapped around Cadance’s barrel. “I got you!” Cadance looked up at the shrinking orb.

Sombra howled as his body collapsed into smoke. The smoke left the bubble, pulled back into the shrieking void on the wall. “Did you wait until I was solid to do this!?” The horn floated in the smoke, matched with struggling eyes.

Flurry Heart did not respond. She floated in the air, unbothered by the gale winds whipping around the room. Her eyes and horn continued to glow with pure white light.

A little cardboard box skidded against the ground, spinning toward the vortex. Cadance’s eyes widened. She pulled on the tail. “Let me go!”

“What?” Thorax yelled back.

“Let me go!”

“…no?” Thorax answered.

Shining held onto the claw for dear life. “Hold on, honey!”

“I have to save Primary Horse!” Cadance shouted. She bit down on the tail with her muzzle. Thorax screamed and uncoiled the appendage on reflex.

Cadance spun across the floor. She angled herself towards the box and flapped her wings to gain speed. The alicorn snatched the box in her jaws. Yes!

She continued spiraling towards the shrieking void. No!

The garden hose flailed in the wind, still connected to the crystal shed through the broken window. Cadance leapt up and wrapped her hooves around the nozzle. She spun about in the air, clinging to the hose. Her eyes crossed and she felt sick.

Not as bad as the tornado speed dating idea, she repeated as a mantra.

The bubble continued to shrink. It was now the size of a bowling ball. Sombra’s horn crunched against the edges. “Oh, oh Heart this hurts!” Smoke poured off the bubble and into the void.

“No! No! How did you even know how to do this!?” Sombra’s voice shrank.

Flurry raised her hooves above her head.

The bubble shrank down to the size of a marble. Or a twenty-sided die.

“No! No! Help me! Help me!”

Flurry Heart slammed her hooves together and the vortex vanished with a snap. She landed on the floor; the golden marble landed next to her. The bubble shield had solidified into a smoky little circular rock. Something on the inside moved around with one last puff of smoke.

Cadance fell to the floor. Her jaw rattled, but she kept ahold of the miniature box.

“Woah,” Thorax panted and released everypony.

Trixie looked up at the slavering monster and raised a brow. “Roleplay night?”

Thorax’s normal green and orange form reappeared in a burst of fire. “Only if everypony’s into it. This is more Pharynx’s thing.”

Trixie scoffed.

Starlight and Sunburst approached Flurry. “I don’t know that spell,” Sunburst admitted.

“I came up with it,” Flurry said absently. She stared down at the marble with solid white eyes. A tiny voice shouted up at her.

I am the King!

Shining embraced Flurry and pulled her into a hug. The Crystal Heart glowed and the crack began to fuse. Cadance spat the box out and stared at the alicorn stallion on the cover art. Thank you. She clutched the box to her chest.

“There’s one last thing.” Flurry gently pushed her father away with a large wing. She lowered her muzzle to the little marble. “I felt bad for you,” Flurry said. Her voice thrummed with power.

…Really?

“Not anymore.” Flurry Heart raised her hoof. The tiny voice began to plead.

Please! Help me! Help meeeeee….

Flurry slammed her hoof down. The marble shattered with an explosion of light. The last bit of smoke burned away. Flurry raised her hoof and inspected the bottom. She smiled and her braces glowed. The light faded from her eyes as the white fire on her horn guttered out.

Flurry squinted and looked around for her glasses. “Oh,” her ears wilted. “I knew I was forgetting something.” She looked to where the void was. “I’m not getting that pair back.”

“You have your spare?” Shining asked kindly.

“I don’t like thosh,” Flurry lisped. “Those. They’re pink.” She tugged on her frumpy blue hoodie.

“They were broken anyway.”

Cadance approached. She winced from the bruises across her body. “Flurry…” she began.

Shining broke the hug with his daughter, but hesitated before embracing his wife. Starlight’s horn glowed, along with Thorax’s antlers. The changeling nodded to the white unicorn.

“Shiny,” Cadance said softly. She didn’t meet his eyes.

Shining Armor stared flatly at her, then smiled and embraced his wife. The latex outfit squeaked. “I know,” he said. “Believe me, I know.”

“I’m going to get some doctors,” Starlight stated. “All the doctors.” She vanished with a teleport.

Cadance wept into her husband’s shoulder. She set the box down beside her hooves and collapsed against him. Shining sat on his haunches and held her, whispering into her ears.

Flurry squinted over at her parents, blinking her bright blue eyes. Cadance tried to make eye contact over Shining’s shoulder, but Flurry looked away. She did not move to hug her mother.

“Hey,” Trixie said quietly. She bumped up against Flurry. “You showed him, huh?”

Flurry nodded, but without any energy.

Sunburst trotted over to Flurry’s other side. “You need help finding your way to your room?”

“I’m not that blind,” Flurry mumbled.

Trixie jerked her head towards the door and gave Sunburst a pointed look.

“Let’s see if I can still find your room, then,” Sunburst said. “You still in the same place, with that Mare at Work sign?”

Flurry let the adults guide her out of the room.

Thorax followed to give Shining and Cadance privacy. At the doors, he changed into Shining Armor. “I’m going to, uh, let everypony know that Sombra’s been defeated. Again,” he said in Shining’s voice.

“Thanks,” the actual Shining Armor said. “You’ve been a good friend, Thorax. To our family.”

Thorax/Shining nodded.

“Does my beard look that bad?” Shining asked before his doppelganger left.

Thorax winced. “Yeah, a bit.”

Shining sighed. “I tried. It’s the fifth ‘Defeat of Sombra Day,’ by the way.”

Thorax nodded again and left.

Cadance clung to Shining Armor underneath the Crystal Heart. She looked down with blurry eyes at the box. The scowling alicorn on the box art offered no comfort. Mi Amore Cadenza sobbed against her husband, complete with a snotty muzzle and occasional neighs.

Flurrygeist

Cadance tilted her hoof and looked at the shallow cut. It didn’t hurt, or itch, or need a bandage. The doctors told her it would be gone in a day. Her bruising would fade within a week. A few welts were visible under her pink coat, and her mane was pulled into a loose ponytail.

The Princess of Love still looked good. She sat on her stomach beside her husband on their bed. There was a little bit of space between them, filled by the dented Primarch Horus box. One corner had indentions from her teeth.

Cadance’s Shipping Wall had been cleared, and the ceiling was covered in a thick coating of plaster. It didn’t match the crystal, but it was a temporary fix. Like everything, the pink alicorn thought.

There was a soft knock on the door.

“Flurry,” Shining called out. “You can come in.” He was naked, as was Cadance. It was an improvement over the faux-leather outfit. The white unicorn had also shaved off his blue beard.

Flurry Heart entered in a long-legged pink hoodie. Her mane was scrunched up messily in a ragged ponytail; the curls visibly struggled to escape. Pink-framed glasses balanced on her muzzle. They matched her fur, but not her eyes. Flurry stopped a few hooves before the bed. Her large wings twitched.

Shining shut the door with his horn. Flurry looked at him and avoided looking at her mother. “Hey,” she said softly, then visibly hesitated. “Sir.”

“None of that,” Shining said softly. He folded his hooves. “You know what happened at our wedding.”

“You almost married Queen Chrysalis.”

“Yes,” Shining nodded. “I almost married a horrible bug monster.”

“That’s a little racist, dad.”

“I’m not saying all changelings,” Shining nickered. “Just her. I hate her. She made me say a lot of awful things about Twilight, about her friends. I didn’t mean any of them.”

Flurry glanced at her mother briefly.

“She got inside my head,” Shining continued. “I felt awful afterwards. I felt like I could never look at my family again, not after all of that.” He leaned over and nuzzled Cadance. She looked down at the floor.

“She Charmed you,” Flurry said.

“There was nothing charming about her,” Shining said quickly. “Oh,” he realized, “like in O&O. Actually, yeah, a bit like that.”

“Maybe Dominate would be better.”

“Flurry,” Shining said with a slightly twitching eye. “On topic.”

“Shorry,” Flurry lisped.

Shining closed his eyes and exhaled. “It’s fine. My point is that I said a lot of things that I never meant under her influence. Do you understand?”

Flurry looked over to Cadance. The older pink alicorn still looked at the floor. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “He made mom say all that stuff.”

“Yes,” Shining nodded. “She didn’t mean any of it.”

Cadance looked up at her daughter. Flurry looked at her with misty eyes. "Really?"

All Mi Amore Cadenza needed to do was say yes.

“No.”

Shining whipped his head over to her. “Honey!”

“Not all of it. But some of it.”

“Cady!”

“Some of it was me,” Cadance admitted. “I’m sorry, Flurry.”

“Oh,” Flurry said. Her muzzle wobbled.

“She’s exhausted,” Shining said quickly. “We’ve been with the doctors for hours—”

“Shiny,” Cadance interrupted. “Please let me talk.”

Shining closed his mouth.

Cadance kneaded her hooves on the bedspread. “I married your father because he was a wonderful stallion,” she began, “but love is partly physical attraction. I liked the older nerdy brother of Twilight Sparkle, but I never thought of him…in a romantic way until he started to get into shape.”

Shining looked away towards the closet.

“He was different from all the nobles,” Cadance continued. “He kept trying to talk to me about O&O instead of trying to earn favors or marry Celestia’s niece. I never cared about it and always found other ways to roleplay.”

“Ew,” Flurry sniffled.

“When I was your age,” Cadance sighed, “I had colts wrapped around my hooves. I had magazines and parties and make-up and dresses. I loved Canterlot’s glitz and glamour. I’m worried you’re missing out on life.”

Cadance closed her eyes. “But that’s an excuse. I just don’t understand you.” Her wings sagged on the bedspread. “And I didn’t want to make an effort to try. I kept hoping that one day you’d ask me to curl your mane or paint your hooves or gossip about cute colts. I decided to wait until you did.”

Flurry was quiet. Her wings trembled against the hoodie.

“I’m so sorry, Flurry,” Cadance apologized. “I missed out on a lot of things.” She laughed sadly. “I do that a lot. I didn’t even realize Shining was getting bullied by the colts I was stalking—”

“Wait, what?” Shining interrupted.

“—until they showed off one of his notebooks.”

“I thought you said you found it,” Shining interrupted with a frown.

“I do get bullied,” Flurry admitted.

Shining’s eyes darkened. “Who?”

“My friends.”

“They aren’t your friends if they bully you.”

“It’s not about me,” Flurry shrugged a wing.

“What do you mean?”

Flurry looked at her mother.

“Me,” Cadance said softly. “I’m a ditzy, useless airhead, right?”

Flurry slowly nodded.

“No, she’s not!” Shining slammed a hoof onto the bedspread. It made a muted thump.

Cadance laughed. “It’s true.”

“No,” Shining replied, “it isn’t.”

“I am a stupid mare," Cadance shrugged. "The village I grew up in didn’t have a school. Celestia graded me on a pass/fail. I’ve only ever been a foalsitter and a princess, neither of which have many qualifications.” Cadance rolled her eyes. “That book I wrote was meant for high school.”

“Uh,” Flurry stumbled, “it’s for second grade.”

“Flurry, I can’t do your math homework. I’ve tried in secret.”

“That’s more common than you think,” Flurry pointed out.

“I haven’t been able to do it since you were six.”

Flurry blinked.

Cadance rubbed her hooves together. “And it’s selfish, but I am worried you’re missing out on things. You spend so much time in your room and playing around with games and figures. I miss when we did things as a family.” Cadance sighed. “I miss when I decided what you should do,” she rephrased. “I'm so sorry.”

Flurry Heart was very quiet. She sniffled and rubbed a hoof against her nose.

"I haven't been here for you," Cadance said softly, "and this was my fault. All of it."

“Mom,” Flurry Heart said, “Twilight’s in charge of Equestria.”

Shining and Cadance frowned. “Yes,” Shining acknowledged.

“You remember the Grand Galloping Gala we went to?” Flurry asked.

Cadance nodded on reflex, then hesitated.

Shining leaned over and whispered in her ear. “You got absolutely wasted with Celestia in the garden.”

Cadance blushed. “No, I don’t.”

“Itsh a massive book fair,” Flurry snorted.

“I don’t understand.”

Flurry rolled her eyes behind the glasses. “Auntie Twilight’s a massive nerd. Petitions need at least three peer-reviewed sources. Everypony in Canterlot’s trying to keep up with the Royal Book Club instead of fashion.”

“What are you saying?” Shining asked.

“You’re worried I’m not cool,” Flurry giggle-snorted, “because you were cool. But Twilight’s the Princess. Everypony looks at the Princess of Equestria for what's cool. Nerds are cool now. Ponies get bullied for not playing O&O. I liked all that stuff anyway, but I'm the coolest princess, like, ever.”

Cadance gave Shining a side-eye. He shrugged a hoof helplessly.

“Luna’s more popular now than she was as the Princess of the Night,” Flurry continued. “She moved out of Silver Shoals years ago. Celestia's still there, I think. I have plenty of friendsh. Friends. We hang out all the time after game sessions. It's like a party.”

“Even colts,” Cadance remarked. She looked up to the plaster on the ceiling.

“Yeah, and a lotta older fillies like to play colts in O&O,” Flurry shrugged. “Dunno why.”

Cadance pursed her lips. Snowberry’s a good colt. In another year, she’ll notice.

“Mom?” Flurry asked.

Cadance looked down at her daughter.

"I forgive you." Flurry Heart looked to the side and licked her braces. “I’m sorry I’m not the daughter you wanted, all pretty and pink and perfect.”

“No!” Cadance screamed and launched herself off the bed. She impacted her daughter and swept her up in a crushing hug. “Never say that! Never say that again!”

“Ugh,” Flurry grunted. For once, mother overpowered daughter.

“I don’t have to understand you to love you,” Cadance vowed. “And I am so proud of you, Flurry. I love you so much.”

Cadance nuzzled her daughter relentlessly, knocking her glasses aside. She caught them with a wing. “The daughter I wanted,” Cadance stuttered, “wouldn’t have kept her grades up. The only tournaments she would’ve won would be beauty pageants; she couldn’t outwit Pharynx. She could lead garden parties, not adventuring parties.”

Cadance brushed her daughter’s wet muzzle with a wing. “Don’t cry. You’re perfect. Just the way you are.”

Flurry smiled with her braces and squinted up at her mother. They hugged on the floor. Shining joined them after a moment. Flurry and Cadance wrapped their wings around him and pulled him to the hug.

After several minutes, the hug broke. “I promise I’ll go with you to the park,” Cadance said.

“You don’t have to,” Flurry insisted.

“I will,” Cadance promised. “I’ll have to take Shining along so he can explain what’s happening. And I’ll cheer for Darkheart even when I have no idea what's going on.”

Flurry blushed.

“But there is one thing,” Cadance said seriously. She eyed Flurry and poked the pink hoodie around Flurry's stomach. Her hoof sank into the slight pudge. “You’re going to go jogging with me.”

Flurry groaned. “I hate gym class.”

“It’s my fault,” Cadance said. “I tried to ply you with crystalberry pancakes too many times. And I’ve ignored all the snacks you take to your room.”

“Do I have to?”

“Is Darkheart pudgy?” Cadance asked. “She runs around all day, raising the dead or whatever.”

“Darkheart’s not real.”

“Your mother’s point,” Shining stressed, “is that your eating habits are unhealthy. So were mine, but I was rail-thin. I had to bulk up to join the guard.”

“I don’t have time,” Flurry crossed her hooves.

“If that’s the case,” Cadance said slyly, “you can go to the park and jog with me instead of going to the game.”

"There's time!" Flurry gasped. A bit of spittle sprayed on Cadance’s chest fluff, but she ignored it.

Cadance floated over the cardboard box. “What would Primarch Horus say?”

“He’s not real either.”

"Really?" Cadance winked at the stallion on the box. “He would tell you to conquer your daemons.”

Flurry uncrossed her forelegs and huffed. “Fine,” she groaned. She lifted up her hoodie and stared at her slightly pudgy belly. “Too much Pizza Palace,” she sighed.

Cadance’s eyes widened. She dropped the box, but Shining caught it with a hoof. “Flurry!”

“What?” Flurry asked with a slight snap. “I’m not that fat.”

Cadance pressed her hooves to her muzzle and squealed. “Cutie Mark!”

Flurry looked at her flank, where the Crystal Heart was proudly emblazoned. It emitted rays of white light. “Oh,” Flurry shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Sweetie, when did that happen?” Shining excitedly asked.

“Sombra,” Flurry said. “Trixie and Sunburst already congratulated me.”

“Forget about Sombra!” Shining smiled. “We’ve budgeted your cutie mark celebration for years!”

“Next time he comes back,” Cadance spat, “I have such words for him, but you’re going to rub that mark in his face!”

“Phrasing,” Flurry scrunched her muzzle.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Shining admitted, “but I can’t wait until he comes back.” He pounded a hoof on the floor. "We're going to kick his flank!"

“He’s not coming back,” Flurry interrupted.

Shining and Cadance blinked. "I'm sorry?" Shining asked.

“The horn’s gone,” Flurry explained. “He’s not coming back.”

Shining and Cadance looked at each other. Over the whole emotional moment and breakdown, they hadn’t even looked for it. “What spell was that?” Shining asked. “We’ve tried to destroy the horn.”

“I took a sledgehammer to it that one time,” Cadance reminded her daughter.

“I invented the spell,” Flurry said proudly. “I based it off Dimensional Tear.”

Shining paused. “From Ogres & Oubliettes?”

“Yeah,” Flurry nodded.

“Those spells aren’t real,” Shining laughed awkwardly.

“They can be with a little math,” Flurry replied bluntly.

Cadance worried her lower lip. “What did you do?”

Flurry’s ears pinned back. “I was gonna tell you guys,” she protested. “I figured it out, how to beat Sombra, but he came back so quick this time.”

Cadance wing-hugged her daughter. “I’m not angry,” she assured her. “I just want to know what you did.”

Flurry raised her muzzle and slipped her glasses back on. “I’ve been thinking,” she started to lecture, “that Sombra was a lich this whole time. It explains the horn, right? It’s his phylactery, and it’s indestructible. Thatsh how he keeps coming back.” Impressively, Flurry Heart did not lisp ‘phylactery’ at all.

“He’s an immortal dark wizard,” Shining said slowly.

“Yeah,” Flurry agreed, “like a lich. But he’s not a lich.” Flurry smiled and showed off her braces. “He’s an Umbrum.”

“We know that,” Shining said, visibly not following.

“Dad,” Flurry grunted. “Sombra’s an Elemental, not a Lich. They’re entirely different monsters in O&O.”

“This isn’t O&O,” Shining responded worriedly. His daughter ignored him.

“The horn is a conduit,” Flurry proclaimed. “It connected Sombra back to his elemental realm. That’s how he kept coming back and reforming from the Crystal Heart blasting him.” She stood up and began to pace. “Elementals are weak to the opposite element. Like fire and water.”

“Sombra’s a shadow.” Flurry turned to her parents. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, her eyes were glowing again. “Light,” she intoned. Her voice echoed. “That’s why the Heart always burned him away, but it needed a little boost.”

Shining and Cadance looked at each other on the floor.

Flurry blinked and her eyes returned to their normal, owlish look behind the glasses. “So, I had to tear open the Shadow Realm and banish his essence back to it. The horn had to crumble within contained light magic to destroy the conduit.”

“You banished him,” Shining connected. He smiled, relieved. “He’s gone?”

“Yesh,” Flurry nodded. “I’m shorry I didn’t tell you guys, but there wasn’t enough time.”

“Oh Flurry,” Cadance sighed. “I’m so proud of you. He can’t come back?”

“No,” Flurry giggle-snorted.

Shining and Cadance smiled at each other.

“He’s dead.”

Shining and Cadance frowned at each other.

“What?” Shining asked.

“He’s dead,” Flurry repeated.

“I thought you said you banished him?” Cadance asked.

“I could have,” Flurry shrugged a wing. “I could’ve tossed the marble into the vortex. Instead, I closed the portal and smashed it. With the light magic, nothing's left.”

“What?” Cadance asked. Her stomach twisted.

“I smashed him,” Flurry repeated. She frowned. “I mean, he was finally powerless. And he possessed you. Thatsh mean.”

“Flurry…” Cadance trailed off, remembering Sombra’s final desperate pleadings. “You killed a pony.”

“Sombra wasn’t a pony,” Flurry scoffed. “Elemental. Totally different class.”

“This isn’t O&O,” Shining said absently. “This is real life.”

“I know,” Flurry said, annoyed. “When I kill things, they stay dead.”

“Why didn’t you banish him?” Cadance asked with growing dread. “You could’ve just banished him, right?”

“Yeah,” Flurry acknowledged with two shrugging wings, “but I wasn’t gonna let him live. Not after…” she stopped to think. “Golly, how many times has he come back?”

“Flurry, you killed him while he was begging for his life.”

“Villains always beg,” Flurry chuckled. “And banishment never works, not long-term. It just gives them time to think and plot their escape. Itsh lazy so the DM can keep using the BBEG.”

Cadance paused. “What?”

“Dungeon Master and Big Bad Evil Guy,” Shining explained with a distant look in his eye.

“Or gal,” Flurry corrected. “Inclusive.”

“You said you felt bad for him,” Cadance prompted.

“Yeah, but he had plenty of chances not to be evil,” Flurry said. She turned and showed off her cutie mark. The Crystal Heart fired lasers. “I think it’s for smiting evil, what do you think?”

Cadance opened and closed her mouth like a fish on dry land.

“I mean, I love Auntie Twilight, but statues?” Flurry stuck her tongue out. “Thatsh just asking for them to break out in the future and cause trouble. Nopony wants to clean up after somepony else.”

“You…” Cadance grasped desperately. “You spared the Sun Witch!”

Flurry blinked. “Huh?”

“Darkheart!” Cadance corrected. “Gordon was going to stab her, but you spared her!”

Flurry’s ears perked up. “You were watching?”

“Yes, and I saw you spared her from Gordon’s blow!”

“Nah,” Flurry laughed. “Killing her was just going to banish her essence back to the sun. Darkheart stole her soul. That’s worse.”

“Worse than killing her?”

“Yeah,” Flurry giggle-snorted. “She’s trapped in Darkheart’s staff. Forever.”

Cadance looked off at the Shipping Wall. One red string was left behind. It swayed.

“But Darkheart’s evil,” Flurry continued blithely. “She does stuff like that. Killing is kinder.”

Cadance and Shining sat on the floor, staring at their daughter. Flurry looked proudly back at her cutie marks and lowered the hoodie. “Smiting evil,” she sang with a lisp.

Cadance offered her daughter the dented and slightly chewed box. Flurry accepted it in her golden magic. “Thank you, mom.” Her ears pinned back. “You didn’t have to buy another.”

“Yes, I did,” Cadance said. “Fizzlepop went down to the store, not me. Thank her more. I love you, Flurry Heart.”

Flurry beamed as bright as the light magic. Her glasses sparkled. “I love you too.”

Shining still stared ahead blankly. Cadance nudged him with a wing. “I love you,” he eventually managed.

“I love you,” Flurry said to her father. "I liked your beard better."

Shining rubbed his white muzzle and sighed. "I'll regrow it."

“We should talk about your cutie mark party,” Cadance said. “We’ll probably roll it into ‘Defeat of Sombra Day,’ and we’ll have to do something special since it’s the last one.”

“Okay!” Flurry chirped.

“Let’s not tell anypony what exactly happened yet,” Cadance said slowly. “We’ll leave it a surprise.”

Flurry nodded rapidly. “Everypony’s gonna be so jealous.” She began to trot out of the room.

“When did you…” Cadance hesitated. “When did you figure all this out about Sombra?”

“After we beat him last time,” Flurry answered from over her shoulder.

“So, a few days ago?”

“Yep.”

“I love you, Flurry.”

“I love you,” her daughter said happily. “Primarch Horus needs to join his army.” She shut the door behind her. Cadance heard the distance trots beat out a rhythm. “Smiting evil!” Flurry sang in the hallway. "Gonna smite evil so hard!"

Cadance helped Shining up onto the bed. They laid on their backs, staring at the plaster on the ceiling. It covered up the prophecy that Prismia told her.

“Shiny?” Cadance asked.

“Cady,” Shining said eventually.

“Did our daughter use the rules and spells of a tabletop game to assassinate the former ruler of our empire in less than a week?”

“Yes.”

“Our daughter as in the one who can beat Hive Marshal Pharynx at strategy games?"

“Yeah.”

“The same daughter who leads adventuring parties with our two best generals following her plans?”

“Yep.”

Shining and Cadance stared at the ceiling.

“You know,” the alicorn muttered, “I saw a lot of the Heart Guards in the crowd at the park.”

“Just about all of them play O&O or Warhammer.”

“If Flurry wanted to take over the Crystal Empire…”

“Less than a day,” Shining finished.

"Poor Snowberry's enraptured by Flurry," Cadance hummed. “Prismia never said it would be my standard of beauty. Tricky little witch.”

“I think you might have been onto something,” Shining whispered hoarsely.

“Flurry’s younger than Twilight. It could be about her as well.”

“I don’t want to think about this,” Shining whimpered.

“She was born an alicorn.”

“What do we do?”

“Nothing,” Cadance flicked her tail.

“Flurry killed Sombra,” Shining reminded his wife.

“He was evil.”

“What if she decides somepony else is evil?”

“So far, she’s a good judge of evil, but I suppose smiting is quite permanent,” Cadance allowed.

“We have to do something,” Shining nodded.

“Does stopping somepony smiting evil make you evil by default in O&O?” Cadance asked.

Shining frowned and thought about it.

“When Chrysalis breaks out, I’ll tell Flurry not to get involved,” Cadance said ruefully.

Shining’s ears folded back. “That’s unfair,” he whickered.

Cadance laughed, high and dainty. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be perfect.” She reached over with a hoof and held Shining's to her own.

“Our daughter is a wonderful young filly destined to overthrow us,” Cadance said with love. “She will reign as the Princess of Nerds. Her glory and splendor will outshine Twilight and her book fairs. She'll rule justly and fairly, and strike down evildoers. We'll get her into shape and she can take some guard lessons with Fizzlepop. Can't smite evil pudgy. Flurry will be thrilled.”

Shining stared at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes. “I wish you told me that prophecy before I married you.”

“Why do you think I didn’t tell you? Too late now.”

“Are we going to tell everypony that she killed Sombra?”

“Oh,” Cadance laughed, “absolutely not. We’ll tell Twilight that Sombra was banished. Twilight’s itching to try some villain reformation again. She’ll be heartbroken he's gone for good.”

“You know Flurry's going to go around telling all her friends she killed Sombra.”

“No adult will believe her,” Cadance chuckled. "Officially, he was banished. Means the same thing to a lot of ponies."

Shining sighed in relief. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Nopony will believe her, not until it’s too late, Cadance smirked to herself. She could hear music echo through the crystal walls from down the hallway. It was far, far too loud, but she hummed along happily and imagined her daughter singing while painting Primary—Primarch Horus.

“We come from the land of the ice and snow…”