The heart began to brew with energy, growing brighter and brighter. Spinning in place as power began to be pumped into it. It could feel the heart of every living citizen in the city. It was its protector. It needed to protect them. And so, it expanded its borders.

It felt its aura of power expand, and with it, it could feel the hearts, the very souls themselves, of every pony or thing it passed through. As it passed, it grew frustrated, confused even.

It had come into contact with dark energy.

What kind of dark energy would be living here, in the city of love? The heart checked who it had found. There were multiple entities. One being what looked to be an Emperor, clouded with dark magic, and another being a simple blue pegasus with bright rainbow hair. While eradication would be a simple way to get rid of them, it could feel there souls, and in exchange, could feel exactly what they were feeling in that moment.

It could tell from the tyrant-like figure that there was no love, not even remorse for the situation at hand. Just pure evil intentions. And so, it did what any normal protector would do. It eradicated it from its home. With much skill, one gained over centuries of experience, it ripped the very magic from the soul's body. With no other feeling than darkness in his soul, he could not be saved. He would be disintegrated in due time.

Moving onto the pegasus, it was strange. A harbor of emotions were buried inside. Anger, regret, sadness, love. Why, this creature filled with dark magic was experiencing love? How curious. Looking around further it was seen that the pegasus had seemingly accepted their fate and was waiting to die, their eyes locked with only one. The one that they loved most.

The one they were looking at was a purple unicorn. And it could tell at that moment the amount that they cared for each other. Their bond was so powerful that it could be seen between them. A net of life force seemingly connecting the two, encircling their hearts and bodies.

Surely, this one would survive. It had love, a longing for another one, and that would be enough. And so, the heart continued on its path. It carefully and skillfully ripped the dark magic from the pegasus. And while the other may have perished. The love from this one should be enough.

It continued to expand its borders until it surrounded the entire city, protecting it in magic.

An explosion of light flooded the entire city.

"NOOOOO!" Sombra yelled as the explosion went off. He looked down at his body which was quickly disintegrating away. He didn't even have time to say his last words before he was completely disintegrated.

Everyone else in the room was thrown back, rolling across the floor, some running into walls. Some parts of the walls came loose and rocks fell down. When the dust had cleared, a magic coating covered the city, repairing damages done and freeing the minds of the trapped. It seemed that everything and everyone had been coated in a crystal-like coat, their fur being turned into shiny rock.

That didn't seem to matter to one pony.

When her eyes opened, only one thought was on her mind. "Rainbow?! Rainbow where are you?!" Twilight yelled out. She got up quickly, as so did her friends, only to see that Sombra had disintegrated and was nowhere to be seen. And neither was Rainbow Dash. "No..." Twilight fell to her knees. "She can't be..."

Her friends recovered, also devastated by the sight. Applejack put her hat into her hooves. "I'm sorry, sugarcube."

"I... No!" Twilight shouted. "This feels so wrong!"

"Ah know it does, believe me."

No, she doesn't get it... They couldn't understand. It was as if, for Twilight only, that she had some sort of unearthly pull. Some force was telling her that Rainbow Dash was indeed alive. And that she was close by. And so, she followed her heart.

The unearthly feeling she had experienced - she was following it. And she followed it out of the room, away from her friends, away from the castle, and outside. She eventually made her way to a tree, where her eyes laid on one figure that laid beneath it.

"Rainbow Dash..." Twilight whispered to herself, tears coming to her eyes. "Rainbow!" she yelled out, running to her quickly.

She quickly knelt besides her friend, checking her pulse to see if she was alright. "Oh, thank Celestia!" she said, hugging her friend. "Rainbow, wake up! Wake up, we did it! We beat Sombra!"

Her friend slowly stirred. "Hngh... t-Twi?" she asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me..."

"Twi..."

"Yeah?"

"Come here..." she said.

"What? What do you need? Are you hurt? Are you okay-?"

She was cut off by hooves grabbing her and pulling her close to a kiss. Rainbow Dash was kissing her. She was kissing Rainbow Dash. Her eyes went wide as she realized what happened, but quickly melted into the kiss, pushing in further and intensifying the kiss.

After a few seconds they broke away to catch their breath. "I miss you too, featherbrain," Twilight giggled.

"Dear Celestia, she's alive!" Applejack yelled in the distance. She ran close up to the two. "Ah saw you run off, thinking you were just taking it hard, but dang! Rainbow, yur alive! Sweet Celestia!" She pulled her friend into a hug.

"Oh my gosh, Dashie, you're okay! I was super scared that you might never come back and that would've made me really sad, but I'm glad you're okay now and you're not turned into dust like big old meanie Sombra, we should have a party!" Pinkie bounced in, talking at a pace that they could barely understand.

"I'm glad I'm okay too, Pinkie," Rainbow chuckled.

Her other friends also rushed by and said their hellos, glad that their friend didn't die.

"Hey, Twilight, how'd you know she survived?" Applejack asked.

Twilight thought for a moment. "I don't know... I just had a gut feeling. Like something was pulling me over here. How did you survive, Dash?"

"I..." Rainbow Dash said at first. "I don't know. I think it may have just taken away my dark magic instead of just killing me," she said uncertainly. She lifted up a hoof to test.

She aimed to pick up a rock, and to her utter surprise, she was able to lift it. Although this time, her eyes didn't go dark and her hoof didn't turn dark. Instead, it seemed that she had a magic aura of her own. Her hoof glowed blue as she lifted the rock, it also growing blue in her aura.

"Ooh, Dashie has her own magic!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Fascinating... I'll have to look at it later," Twilight said. "I'll do that when we get back. Right now, I'm just glad you're alive." She nuzzled Dash and kissed her lightly.

"Aww, you two look so cute together!" Rarity added before gasping. "I should make you two matching dresses! That will make you both look absolutely fabulous!" Both Twilight and Rainbow blushed heavily.

"When did you two lovebirds become a thing?" Applejack asked.

Blushing, Twilight said, "Well, we both realized how much we mean to each other during this trip and I couldn't be more happy." She looked over to Rainbow. "Now let's get you up, Dash. Can you walk?"

"Uh... yeah, I think so," Rainbow said, wincing as she got up. "I might have a broken rib or two," she added. "Can we head to the hospital?"

"Yeah, that sound great."

Fin.

Author's Note

That's it! Hope you enjoyed the story! I wanted to finish it up today before I have to leave to go on vacation where I will not be able to write.

Any feedback is welcome! As I said before, I hope you enjoyed this story.

PS: There will be a sequel to this story.