"Remin' me never tah get on your bad side, RD," Applejack chuckled. "Welp, up n' at em'. We need tah keep movin', they've probably sent an entire squad after us."

And an entire squad they did send. About five seconds after that sentence was said, guards burst out from the spiral staircase entrance, quickly surrounding them.

"Halt! Don't move," one of them spoke, before they eyed the body laying on the floor, the remains of the water pony, laying in a crumbled mess. "Oh, shit! Jimmy!" He turned to look at the group of intruders before him once more. "I'll make you fucking pay for what you did to Jimmy!"

"Dear Celestia, I just got out of my cell," Rainbow groaned before making eye contact with the one who was speaking. "Sorry, we don't have time for this," she said, lifting up a hoof. In a blink of an eye, a beam of dark magic spurred out of her hoof directly at him, knocking the guard back several feet before hitting the wall. In quick succession, she also grabbed the other ponies with her magic and tossed them away before grabbing her friends and sprinting away. "Come on!"

"Wait!" Twilight shouted as she was pulled along. "Where are we going?!"

"There's an exit back here! This whole dungeon are is just a cave, so it has an entrance, too."

Shouts were heard behind them as the guards quickly rushed back from where they were thrown. In response, Rainbow used her magic to toss down loose rocks from the ceiling onto the floor, covering up their path.

Wasting no time at all, they quickly made it to the back exit, which grew closer as their surroundings went from a polished dungeon area to more of a raw, untamed cave biome. Eventually, they stepped hoof off of the hard, rocky surface and onto the soft grass of the forest. Looking around there seemed to be nothing, just thick forest in every direction except from their left, which was where the castle stood tall, glowing with light from within.

Upon their exit, they all took a stop to catch their breath and take in the fresh air. Well- except for Pinkie. She was still bouncing around, as energetic as ever.

"Well... what do we do now?" Applejack asked. "Sombra has our elements and ah know fur sure he ain't just gonna give em' back."

"You bring up a good point, Applejack. The only thing I can think of is having Rainbow Dash fight him, though that would be a lot to ask. He probably has more experience than the poor dear, too," Rarity said, to which Rainbow Dash shuddered in the thought of her fighting her dad again.

"Yeah... I would rather not... Last time it didn't go so well," Rainbow spoke, cringing as she looked down at her scar. Everyone else cringed in thought as well.

"Okay... let's avoid that then," Twilight said, pondering what to do next. "Hmmph... how about we go to the library? Every castle has an archive somewhere, there might be something of use."

"Wait, you mean going back in the castle, again?" Rainbow stressed. "Our luck is going to run out sooner or later! We barely got out this time!"

"Yeah, well now we have you. I know it's a lot to ask, but with your magic, this trip would be so much easier," Twilight added.

Rainbow thought about it for a bit before deciding. "Fine," she grumbled.

"Alright! Then it's settled. Unless anyone else has anything to say about it?" No one spoke up. "Alright, then let's get going. Dash, you know where the library is, right? You used to live here."

Rainbow growled. "I wouldn't exactly call it living, but yeah, I know where the library is."

"Oh, sorry," Twilight said, ears folding down.

"It's fine."

~~~

The walk over was quite long. They went through some tight spots and somehow made it to the room without being spotted. When they walked in, the room was quite large. Gold lined the frames of each door, painting, and wall. And imbedded into each wall was a shelf filled to the brim with book after book. It was almost enough to make Twilight explode with excitement.

"So. Many. Books!" Twilight squealed in delight. She started taking some off the shelves and reading the covers. "So much history to be uncovered! So much information! I could spend all night here just reading for hours! I-"

She was cut off by Applejack clearing her throat. "Remember why we're here, Sugarcube."

"Oh, sorry!" She put the books back on the shelf. "Now where would the right book be? This room is huge."

"Probably on the really obvious pedestal with a locked box covered in enchantments only Dashie can break!" Pinkie exclaimed, pointing to the end of the room where there was in fact a really obvious pedestal with a locked box covered in enchantments only Dash could break.

"Uh..." Rainbow muttered before gliding over to the box. "I guess I can try?"

She examined the box carefully. It was a standard wooden box, able to contain maybe a thick book or two, nothing more. She hovered her hoof over to the box. Much like an static shock, dark magic connected with her body as soon as she hovered her hoof over.

It wasn't painful or anything, but it did feel weird. It was like she could move the magic around with her bare hoof. And as expected, when she moved her hoof left something inside the lock moved left. She tried rapidly moving her hoof around, trying to get the lock to just open, but to no avail.

Eventually, she just got angry and summoned magic to her hoof as she slammed the lock, instantly shattering it to pieces. "Well, that was easy."

Opening the box, there was a small book labeled, "The Fall of the Crystal Empire".

"Huh."

She began to read it aloud.

Back when the Kingdom was bright, when the Crystal Empire was not in control by forces of evil, there was a princess. Her name was Princess Amethyst, leader over the Crystal Empire. She was a great princess, inflicting great laws that led her kingdom in the right direction, making it more profitable than ever before, growing at a seemingly exponential rate.

It was all stopped by one stallion, the day he decided to take over the kingdom.

He was one of the princess's servants, and every day he would deliver food to the princess or help out with other daily tasks. While an innocent stallion at first glance, he had a dark secret. He had been gifted the power of dark magic from birth and had been learning to control it, studying it, even, from the royal archives.

And so, when he thought the time was right, he struck.

Every day, the princess would have the same meal. Two biscuits with a cup of tea, two sugars. Only this time, this meal would be her last. Her biscuits that day were made extra dry, making her thirsty. So when she inevitably reached for her tea to take a sip to cleanse her throat, little did she know it was spiked with poison, able to take out an army with a single drop.

Her relief from the dryness of the biscuit was only brief, and soon after she began to choke, blood spewing out of her mouth as she fell to the floor, dying in agony. The medics were unable to save her.

And after the kingdom lost their princess, the stallion rose to power. Using his dark magic, he easily overpowered the guards and citizens of the kingdom and put them under his control. He took the one thing that could've defeated him, the Crystal Heart, and hid it away in a chamber far from public access, where only he knew where it was.

The Crystal Heart, the only thing that could've saved the city, powered by Love itself, if placed in the center of the city, would've vaporized the dark magic from the stallions body, disintegrating him in the process. Now, the only weapon was gone. There was no hope. No magic other than his. If anyone dared to speak against him, they would be thrown into the dungeons, never to be seen again.

And so, the Kingdom rotted for centuries, still to remain in his control to this day.

As Rainbow finished reading, she stood there in thought. Something was yelling at her. In the back of her mind. An itch that couldn't be scratched. There was something that she knew. Something that her mind wasn't telling her.

"I've never heard of the Crystal Heart before..." she heard Twilight speak.

"Shut up for a sec," Rainbow said, putting a hoof against her head. C'mon, Dash. Search in the brain of yours. You know what the Crystal Heart is. You've seen it before! You know you have! She searched in her head for anything that could correlate to the situation at hoof before, eventually, she gasped. "I think I know where the Crystal Heart is!"

"Wait, really?" Twilight asked confused.

"Yeah, didn't that book ah yurs just say that it's 'hidden where only he knows where it is'?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah, I know that, but I've seen it before, I've even touched it!" Rainbow said before cringing. "I remember that it hurt when I touched it..."

There was some silence before she continued. "Well, I know where it is. It's behind Dad's throne. There's some stuff you gotta press. Like a stone or something that opens up a wall. C'mon!" she exclaimed before flying off in a direction. Her friends quickly followed.

They quickly arrived at the throne room, where, to their surprise, there were no guards and Rainbow's father was nowhere in sight. So without further ado, they approached the throne chair and checked behind it. While it looked like a normal wall, Rainbow felt around a bit and eventually managed to push down on a segment, resulting in the surrounding part of the wall opening up to reveal yet another spiral staircase, this time going up.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Rainbow spoke quietly as they ascended the staircase, eventually leading to a large room.

The room was about as wide as the dungeons, only this time circular in shape and stretching high up to twenty feet in the air, making a dome shape. On the sides of the dome were long windows that stretched down from the top to the bottom. A gleaming midnight shine passed through the colored glass, turning it from a basic white shine to a more blue-ish purple light that dimly covered the room. In the center stood a tall pedestal where a shining crystal shaped like a heart, presumably the Crystal Heart, burned a bright sky blue.

"So, we just grab this and place it in the center of the city, right?" Rainbow asked.

"It would seem so," Twilight responded.

Rainbow reached to grab it. As her hoof made contact, a searing pain shot through her leg, making her wince in agony. She immediately dropped it.

"Careful!" Twilight shouted, running to Rainbows side and holding her close, checking to see if she had any wounds. "Rainbow, I... I don't know if we should go through with this."

Still clenching her teeth due to pain, she asked, "What? Why?"

"The Crystal Heart is obviously hurting you! I don't know what would happen if we did place the heart in the center of the city! The book said that Sombra would get disintegrated! I don't want that to happen to you!" Twilight said, looking into Rainbow's eyes in tears.

"Twi, I..." She didn't know what to say.

Deep laughter echoed through the room and a familiar voice spoke. "The famed Crystal Heart. The weapon you seek to win against me. It is true that it would vaporize your friend along with me," Sombra said, appearing out of thin air. "Did you think I would not notice my private book collection being tampered with? You fools!" he shouted.

After calming himself down, he continued, "Go ahead. Take the Crystal Heart, dear Twilight, was it? Take it. Use it against me I dare you!"

Twilight hesitantly grabbed the heart with her magic and stood there, unable to move.

"Well? Do something!"

"I..." Twilight continued to stand still. She looked to her side and saw Rainbow. Her sweet magenta eyes giving her a reassuring look. Her brave and confident smile. "I can't do it!" she shouted, throwing the heart away. "I'm sorry, Rainbow! I can't do it knowing it'd hurt you!"

Rainbow tried to comfort her. "Hey, it's okay. I'll be fine."

Sombra laughed once more. "See? None of you have the strength to use the heart against me. You are all too afraid!" His evil laugh echoed through the room again.

Dash growled. "Fine. We'll do this the old fashioned way," she said, getting into a battle stance. "They might not be able to do anything, but I can still kill you myself."

His laughter died down. "I was hoping you'd say that," he said, eyes glowing.

Author's Note

How could they?! #Justice_For_Jimmy!

In all seriousness, sorry it took a while for this chapter. I had to catch up with stuff irl so I couldn't write. Also, I've been noticing my motivation for this story has been growing thin... I'll make sure I finish it though, but if you notice a decline in quality, that's probably why.

I might come back in the future to polish up past chapters and make it look nicer, but for now, this is how it's going to be.