Crystal Blood Part 4: Revelations

Crystal Empire, Day 1

Twilight Sparkle

The wall of spearheads was held just inches away from Twilight's forehead.

Twilight’s vision narrowed onto the shining metal blades that shook in front of her before fluttering backwards onto her flank. She took in the full scene as it was laid out.

Multiple crystal ponies stood behind the spearheads that were usually wielded by royal guards. Yet these ponies did not look like royal guards. Almost none of them wore official uniforms, most were clothless.

The few that were armored were covered in training gear or antique suits that Twilight swore she had seen decorating the halls of the palace on previous visits.

Twilight tilted her head and observed the ponies cutie marks. She didn’t see swords, shields, and armor plating on their flanks but baking equipment, paint brushes, and other non combat worthy items.

A mare at the front of the disjointed formation, who’s hooves were trembling as she struggled to keep her spear straight, screamed at Twilight and her entourage over the shrieks and snarled of the rapid ponies who pounded at the entrance door. “Stand back! Get away from me!”

“Woah, we are not like those ponies outside, we mean you no harm,” Twilight replied in her most diplomatic tone of voice.

“Yeah, she’s the princess of friendship for crying out loud! I’m ordering all of you to stand down or face the consequences!” Flash Sentry ordered as he slammed his gauntlet to the ground.

“Like we’ll believe that! That’s the exact same song that all of those infected ponies out there told us at one point or another. Now stay the hell away from us and reveal to us who’s infected.”

“Infected? Like with the flu? None of us are sick with anything. We are just here to help,” Spike mumbled as he flew above the crowd.

Half of the crystal ponies gasped and bowed down before the dragon. The other half still held their weapons tall.

The mare called out to her companions. “Don’t lay your guard down just yet. Just because he is Spike the Brave and Glorious doesn’t mean we can’t still be infected. Those ponies outside used to be our friends too, and now they are gone.”

“What are you even talking about being infected?” Twilight asked in concern.

“Did you not see what’s going on out there?” a trembling stallion muttered. “All of those ponies were just like you and I less than a day ago, that was until they were bitten. Speaking of which, where are any of you bitten?”

“No,” Twilight quickly replied.

“Yakshit!” the mare shouted. “There's no way you could have made it this far without being bit. We’re not letting you pass until you tell us which among you have been bit.” The wall of spears tightened around the survivors.

A spearhead was thrusted just centimeters away from Twilight's neck.

The fearful, crystal ponies growled in anger as a booming voice cried out from down the hall.

“STOP! ALL OF YOU!”

Flash’s eyes widened as he instinctively straightened his posture. “I know that voice,” he announced.

The crystal ponies parted like water and oil as a backpack wearing, white stallion trotted through with two royal guards at his side.

“Shining!” Twilight shrieked like a filly as she galloped and vaulted into her brother’s open hooves.

“Twily!” Shining Armor replied as he kissed his sister on the forehead before immediately pushing her away. His expression hardened. “How did you get in here?”

“I arrived at the train station and discovered that your shield was up. There was no pony at the train station, so I decided it was best to open a hole in the dome and investigate the situation to make sure you were alright-”

“But you closed the hole, right?” Shining interjected with sleep deprived eyes.

“Uhm, of course,” Twilight replied as Shining Armor went back to speaking.

“Good, our entire operation here is built of containment. In fact, no pony was supposed to be allowed either in or out of the city.”

“Then why did you not even bother with sending me a letter?” Twilight exclaimed as Shining Armor led Twilight, Flash, and Spike away from the door that stood between themselves and infected ponies. Her entourage of guards stayed back to help secure the castle entrance.

The two royal guards winced and drooped their ears. They looked at each other with a look of understanding fear.

Twilight's body shook like an elderly mare with each step she took through the crystal hallway.

“That’s the thing, Twi, I did try to send you a letter,” Shining uncomfortably explained. “I attempted to teleport a scroll to you soon after the outbreak but my magic failed. I sent two of my royal guards to the outskirts of the city in order to try to deliver a message to you and Cantelrot to tell you to prepare for the worst.”

Twilight paused in fear. “What do you mean, prepare for the worst?”

Shining Armor froze in the chilly castle halls. His two guards looked even more concerned. Shining looked back at the Twilights guards who stood, visibly shaken. “Come with me. I cannot discuss the situation here,” he replied anxiously as he made his way up the stairs and further into the castle.

Spike gave Twilight a nervous look, but neither said a word.

Shining Armor brought Twilight, Spike, and Flash into a secretaries office and shut the door behind them. His two guards stood outside defensively.

Shining Armor legs began to tremble like he had just ran a marathon as he fell backwards into a comfortable chair. He softly swung the backpack around onto his chest and held it like it was a newborn puppy.

Flash pulled up a chair for Twilight and Spike, both of whom collapsed in exhaustion.

“So, what was so important that you needed to separate us from the others?” Twilight uncomfortably asked as she jittered her hooves.

“Equestria is doomed.” Shining Armor jumped straight to the point. His eyes were dead, like those of the ponies outside.

“What?” Spike screamed as he fell out of his seat.

Flash tensed up as his eyes bulged.

Twilight covered her mouth with her hoof. She dropped her hoof as she argued, “No, that can’t be true. We’ve fought evil before, you know this.”

Twilight’s chest tightened. Shining Armor had been there when she and her friends had saved Equestria on multiple occasions. How was this time any different?

Shining looked away in shame. “This is nothing like one of those villains who can be either banished or reformed, Twilight. This…this disease is not something we can defeat with the magic of friendship, I should know, I’ve seen what it can do to ponies first hoof.”

“Disease?” Twilight repeated with a confused wince.

“Yes, a little over a day ago, me and Cadance investigated a strange group of crystals that were found beneath the palace. Some ponies got cut by the crystal and began to show symptoms that were associated with some strange illness. Within an hour every infected pony was dead, only they didn’t stay that way. The infected came back from the grave,” Shining Armor explained with his eyes darting around the room. He held onto the backpack even tighter.

“Impossible, not even the best sorcerers in all of Equestria have been able to bring ponies back from the dead,” Twilight interjected like she was correcting one of her students.

Shining Armor’s eyelids narrowed. “Then explain to me how I saw it happen in front of my own eyes!” Shining began to tear up. His voice trembled as he spoke. “I saw dead ponies turn into rabid animals and rip into their neighbors, friends, and even family like they were a bucking seven layer cake! Don’t tell me what’s not possible!” Shining hopped out his chair and looked Twilight dead in her eyes. His own eyes were as angry and as dead as the ponies outside the castle.

Twilight recoiled backwards in fear.

Shining shocked his head and snapped himself out of his rage. “Sorry, but I haven’t slept in over a day.”

Twilight heart sank. She had seen Shining when he was sleep deprived before and on multiple occasions; this was different. “No, big brother, you said that you saw families tear themselves apart out there. What about our family? Where’s Cadance and Flurry?” Twilight jumped out of her seat as her eyes twitched.

Shining Armor eyes watered.

Twilight looked at her brother, who could not hold even a second of eye contact with his sister before he was forced to clench his eyes shut and turn away. Twilight dropped to her knees. “No, you don’t mean. . .”

The room went silent.

Spike covered his mouth with his scally hands.

Flash Sentry got closer to Twilight, he refrained from hugging his girlfriend like he normally did when she was sad but it still comforted Twilight to have his strong body next to her.

Shining sniffled and let out a few quick sobs before he finally responded. “Yes…Cadance is gone.”

Twilight fell from her seat.

Flash imminently bent down and tried to help her get back up, yet Twilight's body was like a sludge that just slipped from his hooves and poured back onto the ground.

Spike curled his body up into a ball and sank into his chair, staining the seat with his tears.

“Please, tell me it's not true. This has to be a dream. Cadance couldn’t have been killed, not like that,” Twilight sobbed as she thought back to the torn open corpses that she had witnessed laying like roadkill in the streets. She thought of the young mare and the rabid fillies she had witnessed outside as she looked up to her brother in an even more intense fear. “What about Flurry Heart...is she safe?”

Shining Armor unstrapped the backpack and rummaged through it. “When I lost Cadance, I almost lost Flurry Heart too. Since then, I made sure that Flurry never left my sight.”

Twilight’s head perked up as she watched Furry’s blue and purple swirly hair popped out of the bag.

“It looks like she just woke up,” Shining announced as Flurry yawned and emerged from the pack.

Flurry’s eyes widened like a child on Heartswarming as she dropped her precious snail toy, Whammy, to the ground and flew over to Twilight with the speed of a Wonderbolt.

Twilight’s frown flipped into a smile as she sighed in relief. “Oh…oh thank goddess, I thought I lost you.”

“M…mama?” Flurry muttered like a blade that sliced through Twilight’s heart.

Twilight tears began to flow once more. “No, Flurry, mama’s not here. I wish she was but she isn’t.”

Flurry’s face wrinkled and soured as she cried like the tiny filly she was.

Shining Armor bent down and comforted his daughter. “Flurry saw Cadance go mad when the virus took over her body. She tried to eat us both.”

Twilight ears fell to her cheeks “But she’s the princess of love. How could this happen?” Twilight thought back to when she was but a foal and Cadance was her sitter.

Cadance was the type of pony who wouldn’t hurt a fly if she didn’t have to. Everywhere she went she would spread love and joy, not a virus. The idea that she would ever eat another pony or go completely bloodthirsty was inconceivable to Twilight.

No matter how hard Twilight imagened, she could only visualize Cadance in her perfect, beautiful alicorn body.

“I told you, Twilight, this virus changes ponies. I don’t want to accept it either, but those ponies aren't ponies anymore. I know you saw that one pegasus outside as it tried to rip your face off. I know because I was the one who put it down, we can’t reason with them, they’re like rabid dogs.”

Twilight’s fluffy cheeks were wet like a tear soaked pillow case. She held Flurry Heart tightly and refused to let go. “Can I at least see her body? I need to say goodbye.”

Shining bit his lip. He rotated his neck and refused to look at his sister. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that.”

“Please!” Twilight begged. “I just want to see her face one last time.”

“You won’t recognise her,” Shining replied. “I can’t.”

Twilight’s tone shifted. “She’s your wife! How can you say that?”

“You haven’t seen what I’ve seen, Twilight. This isn’t some argument! You are not stepping near Cadance,” Shining advanced on Twilight with his chest just puffed out as he leaned over her.

Twilight felt small.

“Step away from the princes,” Flash Sentry ordered as he stuck his leg between Shining and Twilight like it was a guard rail. He stood as if he was a bouncer at a Las Pegasus nightclub.

“What did you say to me, private?” Shining spat into Flash’s face.

Flash’s eyes flickered in and out of Shining’s piercing gaze. A drop of sweat ran down his face.

“I…I said step away from the princess and it's not “private” anymore. I’m in charge of keeping the princess safe and you're intruding on her space,” Flash explained with a small gulp.

Shining laughed and shook his head before he suddenly exploded and slammed his hooves directly into Flash’s chest.

Flash let out a gasping grunt as he was thrown against a wall.

“As far as I’ve seen you’ve done a pretty poor job, pretty boy,” Shining roared.

Twilight hoofed Flurry to Spike and tried to pull Shining away, but her brother was too strong. “Shining! No! He protected me out there!”

“Really? Because it looked like he stood by and let you enter the city that was filled with infected ponies.” Shining argued.

Flash stood with both his hooves at his side. “I’m sorry, the Crystal Empire needed us. We came here to help.”

Shining dropped Flash, who kneeled in fear. “You're not one of my guards anymore, you’re Twilight’s. You should have been protecting her, instead you almost let her throat get ripped out by some infected pegasus.”

Twilight recalled the previous encounter she had had with the infected outside. “You saw that?”
“Of course,” Shining began. “I was the one who saved your life, not your guards, me. I’m not letting anyone else in my family die.”

Flash shivered as he laid against the crystal wall.

Twilight rushed to his aid. “But it all worked out, Shining, I‘m alive and well. I’m sure that Celestia and Luna will come to the Crystal Empire and finish this disease off.”

Shining flung the backpack over his chest as he collected a tearful Flurry Heart and placed the child in his front pocket. “That’s if they're still alive.”

Twilight raised her eyebrow. “What are you saying?! I thought that the disease is quarantined to the Empire. You're not making any sense.”

Shining tilted his head towards Twilight with twitching eyes. “Cadance and my guards weren’t the only ponies to become infected when we first discovered the crystals. We had a few researchers come to the palace to investigate. Two of them, one from Canterlot and one from Manehatten, decided to take samples of the crystal to their respective labs to conduct tests on them. The disease is probably eating its way through both cities as we speak.”

Twilight’s heart dropped. Her tail curled up into knots as her diplomatic posture crumbled like an ancient statue. All she could do was shake her head side to side.

Flash let his head swing back and slammed against the hard wall behind him before bouncing back between his legs where he gasped, “By Celestia’s sun.”

Spike just looked up at Twilight for any sign of what to do, but he received nothing but fear and shock.

“Shining, you're not thinking straight. You’ve lost your mind!” Twilight finally grasped with trembling legs.

“I feel like I’m the only one who’s thinking at all!” Shining snapped, his nostrils flared. “I’m the only one around here keeping ponies alive! When the disease first started everypony panicked. They hid, they ran around aimlessly, they didn’t accept what was happening to their loved ones! Everypony except me! I mean some of the civilians still can’t accept reality!”

Twilight pointed her snout against Shining’s like it was a dagger. “Are you saying I can’t accept reality? What are you calling me? Stupid? Just because I haven’t given up hope on the Empire and Equestria.”

Shining turned his back to Twilight and sighed. “You’re not stupid, Twi…but you have no idea what you're talking about. I-I’ve seen more things in the past twenty four hours than you and your friends have seen in all your adventures combined. This isn’t something you can reason with.”

“Then what do you want me to think? Both of our kingdoms are in grave danger! We have to do something!” Twilight ordered.

Shining slouched over and turned back to Twilight. He was clearly offended by Twilight's words. “I didn’t say we should do nothing. I’m just suggesting that what you and your friends normally do won’t work this time, besides, I already came up with a contingency plan in case you fail to get my message.”

Twilight ears perked up. “You do?”

“Of course, I told you I’m the only pony around here who is thinking. It’s the only thing I’ve been doing since this all started,” Shining gasped exhaustion. “We need to tell Canterlot what is happening in the Empire, but the only way we can do that now is to get to them.”

“But-but the only way we get to Canterlot is if we first get through that crowd of ponies outside.” Spike shivered so intensely that his scales jingled.

“Unfortunately, yes. But I’ve noticed that the infected are a lot less active during the night, not to mention darkness is the perfect cover for everyone in this castle to make a dash for the train station. Another thing I noticed is that after I fired a burst of energy into the sky to put up my shield, the castle grounds soon swarmed. It was like ponies showing up to see the light of The Royal Crystaling. If I can use my magic or some fireworks or something equivalent to cause a distraction towards the north of the city it should clear on the southside of the region. Then, if the two of us use our shields, we should be able to break through whatever resistance is left and make a beeline to the train station,” Shining broke down the mission like one of her royal guards explaining castle security.

“That's it? We just run for our lives?” Twilight exclaimed.

“You got a better idea?” Shining shot back.

Twilight opened her mouth but no words came out. She shut her trap and bent her lips into a pouty face.

“He’s right, you know, we don’t have any other options,” Flash explained as he rejoined the now civil conversation.

Shining huffed. “Well shit, maybe you do have a lick of strategic sense in you after all, private,” Shining explained as he went to the door and cracked it open to the que of his guard who popped into attention. “C’mon, I’ll show you to the refugee quarters, you guys can stay there until the sun sets, if it even does, that is.”

Twilight nervously inched closer to Flash. “I’m sorry,” she choked.

Flash comforted his bruised back and pride. “It’s fine, he seems tense right now, I wouldn’t want to poke the bear when he’s like this.”

“Fair,” Twilight whispered as the group left the quiet office space and went back out into the chaotic hallway.

Ponies rushed back and forth down the hallway.

Guard ponies, who Twilight could tell were reservists, broke open crates and display cases of antique sets of chains and plate armor to strap to their bodies. That was, if they were lucky enough to get their hooves on a set of armor.

Twilight locked with the fearful eyes of one colt as he used his teeth to rip apart the rests on a fancy chair before strapping the thick pair of cloth and cotton to his knees.

Twilight’s entourage had already been put to work helping fortify the castle. She watched as her stallions arranged old bookcases and desks into a wall that blocked a single set of stairs that rose high into the castle floor above them. “Wait, the infected are below us. Why are they blocking the stairs to the top of the castle?”

Twilight turned her attention over to Shining to raise her objects, only for her big brother to note even notice her while giving an encouraging nod to the ponies as they worked.

“Keep it up stallions, no pony should be getting up through those defenses,” Shining added.

Twilight pocketed the thought and followed Shining to the royal ballroom.

The ball room was apparently a cultural staple of the Crystal Empire, though Twilight barely had time to see it when she visited.

Shining Armour flung opened the double doors.

The interior was in the shape of a grain silo, with a long cylindrical body and a dome rounding off the top.

In the center of the room stood the Crystal Heart which levitated around a group of peonies who stared into the jewel with eyes full of hope.

The wide open, marble dance floor was covered in splotches of long dried blood and rows upon rows of identical hospital beds. Crystal ponies huddled among their families or simply sat alone with trauma written across their faces.

Crystal pillars that surrounded the room's perimeter stood tall like ancient trees and were now the perfect perching site for hammocks that the few pegasi survivors could rest in.

The proud citizenry of the Crystal Empire, once numbering at around 20,000 ponies, had been reduced to the contents of this ballroom.

Twilight did a lightning fast headcount. She counted about 200 ponies sprawled out across
the area. This was in addition to about 100 or so guards she had seen around the castle.

A filly excitedly squealed from his bed. “Everyone, look! It’s Spike the Brave and Glorious.”

The citizens immediately stopped what they were doing and swarmed Spike with the same intensity of the infected. Some of the ponies cried, others cheered, a sliver dropped to their bellies and embraced Spike by the ankles as they praised him.

The filly who had noticed them looked up at Spike with eyes that looked like they had been coated in glitter. “Are you here to save us?” he asked.

Spike nervously looked up at Shining who gave the dragon a confirming nod.

“Of course, Spike the Brave and Glorious is here to save the Empire. I have devised a plan with the prince and princess in order to get all of you to safety in Equestria. We have a train on the outskirts of the city that can hold all of you,” Spike announced as he flew over the crowd.

The ponies erupted into cheers as Shining turned out the door.

“Brother, where are you going?” Twilight asked.

“We have about twelve or so hours until the sun sets. The guards have a lot to get done before we can make our escape, I’ll need to help them.”

“Then let me come with you,” Twilight replied.

“No,” Shining immediately replied as he slammed his hoof down. “You've already put yourself in enough danger, I’m not leaving you to get killed. I want you to stay with the refugees until I finish up.”

Twilight sighed weakly. She felt like she had been flying into a brick wall over and over again each time she talked to Shining. “Fine,” she muttered.

“Good,” Shining replied with a relieved huff. The white stallion turned to Flash. “Now, private, I’m giving you a second chance to prove yourself. I want you to stay with the princess and make sure she doesn’t leave the safety of this room. Do you understand?”

“Of course,” Flash whimpered with a beaten frown.

Shining nodded as he slammed the door to the ballroom behind himself.

Flash and Twilight hoofed it to a corner and collapsed against the wall.

“Sweet Celestia. How did we get here?” Flash gasped.

“How are we going to get out of here? This is a mess,” Twilight replied as she laid on her belly with her legs tucked beside her and held herself like a newborn filly. She dropped her head towards her chest and against the ground while refusing to look back up.

“Hey, your brother has a plan. I trust that stallion with my life, even if he might not be in the best state right now.” Flash comforted Twilight by stroking her hair gently.

“He’s not like himself at all!” Twilight shouted out in gasping despair. “It's like he’s a different person than he was a few months ago. He’s stern, sure, but whenever I’m around him I feel like the two of us are kids again. He’s an even bigger goofball around Flurry Heart, I mean he’s such a dad, and around Cadance he’s-” Twilight froze like she had just seen a ghost.

Cadance's perfectly princess-like posture and mannerisms filled Twilight memories.

Everything about her screamed grace, strength, and kindness. She was healthy, a fighter, powerful, she wasn’t one Twilight expected to pass so soon.

Twilight sat in a daydream filled daze. She felt a rug had been pulled out from underneath her. Something didn’t sit right with her. She felt like she had read a book with only the first and last pages available, with the middle being violently ripped out without any real closure.

“Twi? Are you okay?” Flash asked and pulled Twilight out of her trance.

“Oh, sorry Flash, I was just thinking of Cadance. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her.” Twilight eyes watered, her head began to throb under the stress.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, I don’t know what to say,” Flash mumbled in embarrassment. “This is
all so different.”

“I’ve never felt fear like this before, I’m scared of losing you all to those things,” Twilight recoiled off the ground.

“I know. I don't want to lose you either, but what I’m really worried about is my little brother.”

“First Base? Why? Is there something wrong?” Twilight stammered.

“Not now, but if what Shining Armor said about the infection spreading to Equestria is true then they could be in danger,” Flash replied.

“They’ll be safe, I promise,” Twilight added as she laid her forehead against Flash’s chest.

Flash blushed and tensed up. “Twi-Twilight, we’re in public.”

“I don’t care about that any more. I could lose you at any time, besides the crystal ponies are too preoccupied with Spike.” Twilight poked her hoof over to the crowd of ponies who turned their backs to the princess as they cheered for Spike.

Even the guards who are meant to be protecting the room got up from their posts and went to see the little dragon.

“Shining Armor wouldn’t like that.” Flash eyed the guards. “Somepony could just walk in or out without them noticing.”

Twilight got onto her hooves and sprung up with her snout aimed directly at the door. “Yeah, you're right, we could just walk out without them noticing,” Twilight explained.

Flash cocked his head back in confusion. “Uhm, yeah we could, but your brother made it clear that we need to stay in this room. I don’t want to make him more angry than he already is.”

Twilight bit her lip and continued to focus on the door. “But Cadance is out there, somewhere, I need to see her.”

Flash bolted up. “You can’t be serious. Shining told you what happened to her.”

Anger boiled up through Twilight’s chest. “No, that’s not good enough. If either of you think I’m just going to move on after this then you both are crazy! I’m leaving.” Twilight unevenly stomped towards the doors with raw red eyes and a scrunched forehead.

Flash took flight and blocked Twilight. “I thought that back on the train we agreed that we didn’t want to upset your brother.”

Twilight trotted to a halt. “C’mon, Flash, we both know this is different. Now let me go. Whatever happened to my wish being your command?” Twilight attempted to trot forward.

Flash stretched out his wings as Twilight slammed into the pegasus like a bird into a cage wall. “We both know this is different,” Flash parroted cockily.

Twilight stumbled back and wore a pouty face. “It’s true, things are different.” Tears clouded Twilight’s eyes like storm clouds interrupting a sunny summer day. “When I decided to go on this trip I assumed that I would get to finally see my sister, alive. Now that I’m here, do you just expect me to let Cadance go without even saying goodbye? What if it was your mother or brother who you found out was killed?”

Flash’s face had grown distressed at Twilight’s tears and now he froze at the mention of his own family. He sighed. “Alright, I’ll let you go see Cadance. But I’m going with you, you're not getting hurt or getting in trouble on my watch.”

Twilight expression brightened, just slightly. “Thank you,” she whispered, her face still full of tears.

The two stood side by side as they silently creaked the ballroom doors open and snuck out into the hallway. The few guards that patrolled the castle were more focused on the threats outside than whatever the citizens in the ballroom were up to and did not even look in the pair's direction as they slid across the crystal ground.

“Where are you even taking me?” Flash whispered as he and twilight crouched behind a stack of crates.

Twilight’s head rotated like a periscope as she scanned the room. “Over there!” she exclaimed as she laid her eyes upon the recently barricaded staircase that led to the upper levels of the castle. “Doesn’t that staircase go to the throne room?”

“Yeah, so why is it blocked off?” Flash replied with his eyebrow raised suspiciously.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. If it isn’t for keeping the infection out, then it must be for keeping other ponies in. Let’s go!” Twilight dashed towards the staircase and Flash fearfully followed behind her while consciously checking over his shoulder to see if the two had been spotted.

Twilight’s horn ignited like a struck match and moved some of the bookshelves and desks to the side, creating an entry point just large enough for the two ponies to get through if they walked in a single file line.

Twilight kept her magic active as Flash and herself walked through barricade and into the dark staircase.

Flash stood closer to Twilight and her pinkish-purple aura that filled the space around them with light. He tilted neck backwards towards his flank and pulled a small dagger out of a slot in his armor with his teeth.

“C’mon, the throne room is just up these stairs,” Twilight whispered.

The pair ascended the many floors of the castle. Each step illuminated the eerily empty castle.

Twilight anxiously marched up the stairs. She half expected an infected pony to poke its bleeding face through the darkness and maul her. She trembled like a filly on Nightmare Night, so much so that her body shook more than Flash’s armor.

“Hey, don’t worry, I’m here for you,” Flash comforted with his masculine voice.

Twilight’s fears did not subside, they only evolved.

She looked up the crystal architecture that was now masked in darkness. The crystal pillars and walls were so old yet so beautiful. She felt like she was raiding a mausoleum.

Twilight pondered back to the mangled corpse she had encountered earlier in the streets. Would Cadance be in a similar state? She gulped as the two approached the double throne room doors.

A wet splotch echoed in the darkness beneath Twilight hooves, causing her to jump and yelp in fear. She tumbled in Flash’s wings, who immensely set the princess onto the ground. “Relax, it’s just a puddle.”

Twilight concentrated her light against the floor. A bloody pool was slowly inching beneath the throne room doors and into the hallway. “Is this…Cadance?” Twilight thought to herself as she hyperventilated.

Flash embraced Twilight, his presence almost seemed to squeeze the pain out of her body, almost. “Hey, I think we found what we were looking for. Now, do you want me to go in with you?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I need to say goodbye alone.”

“Alright.” Flash got Twilight back onto her hooves and stood guard next to the door. “If you need anything from me, yell.”

A beaten Twilight nodded before locking up like a statue before the door. She took a deep and closed her eyes and she pushed the door open and entered.

Twilight stopped just a few feet into the throne room and let the door slam shut behind her. She opened her eyes to a nightmare.

The area was light then the hallway, but not by much. All the windows had been blocked out by curtains.

A wall of white bed sheets and support beams had been constructed around the grand Crystal Throne and obscured its view. They looked like they had been wrung through a meat grinder as each sheet had been stabbed into and drenched in blood.

Twilight could not bear to look at the sheets and instead recoiled her head towards the ground.

The floor was covered in a river blood that flowed out from where the throne should have sat.

Twilight took another deep breath and stumbled around the blood and towards the dividers. Her footsteps echoed beneath her as she pushed aside the bedsheets like a hospital curtain and almost passed out.

A steak had been driven into the crystal throne. Attached to the steak was the ends of dozens of chains that rattled through the puddles of blood.

A slender, pink mare was wrapped in the chains. She stumbled around aimlessly as Twilight held her breath in perfect silence.

“Cadance?” Twilight whispered.

The mare turned to face Twilight. Her body was covered in cuts that bleed out onto the ground. Strips of dried blood stained her pink fur.

The mare's neck had been penetrated in a way that Twilight could see through it if not for a
peculiar arrangement of quill like crystals that grew from the wound.

A muzzle had been placed over the poor creature's snout.

The mare had the eyes and hair of the same color and size of Cadance, but there was something dull about them, like a dead flower.

Twilight looked over to the pony’s flank and at their cutie marks. It was a crystal heart surrounded with a golden frame. It was the same as Cadance's mark.

“No. This isn’t you, Cadance,” Twilight whispered with wide eyes that could not break away from the bloody mare. Tears filled her eyes as the mangled Cadance pounced through the air with bloodshot eyes.

Cadance attempted to take flight, but she could only hobble across the ground as her wings had been tied down with the chains.

Twilight screamed and fell back into the blood with a splash. She activated her shield, but Cadance could not even get close to Twilight without being pulled back towards the throne by the massive chains.

Twilight watched through her shield wall like a researcher looking through the protective glass of a dangerous animal enclosure.

Cadance lowered her head and began to swing her horn around like a club.

Twilight realized that a magic damping ring and metal casing had been fixed to the horn.

A frustrated Cadance then tried to snap her teeth at Twilight, but her muzzle prevented her from moving her jaw at all.

The throne room doors were thrown open as Flash stormed the premises. “Twilight! Are you alright?” he gasped with a fearful expression.

Flash saw the scene unfold before him as his expression changed into a stone cold war face. He readied his dagger and charged in Candace's direction.

“No!” Twilight cried as she stood between Flash and Cadance while the two restrainedly lunged at each other.

“What are you doing, Twilight? She’s infected! I wish Shining would have specified that before we tried to see Cadance,” Flash mumbled with his dagger in mouth.

“But we both know that this isn’t Cadance. She would never do this, you know that!”

“Twilight, Shining said that the infection changes ponies. That’s not Cadance any more, it's an infected!

“NO! Stay back!” Twilight raised her magical shield around Flash, locking him inside a ball of magic energy.

Flash timidly tensed up and crouched inside the forcefield. “Geez, Twi, what are you doing?”

Twilight tears obscured her vision, and her judgment. “I’m showing you that you're wrong!” Twilight stood before the stumbling Cadance as she tried to break free of her unmoving chains and pounce onto Twilight.

Nothing but small hisses and gasps escaped past Candace’s gag to threaten Twilight.

Twilight was perfectly still and simply let Cadance try and fail to reach her.

Flash pounded against the shield and screamed for Twilight to stop, but Twilight tearfully blocked his cries out.

Twilight gathered up all of her remaining strength to look at Cadance directly into her eyes. They looked dead, but Twilight figured that they were still Cadance's eyes, it was still Cadance's body, it was still Cadance's cutie mark. Cadance had to be alive somewhere under the infection, she just had to.
“Sister?” Twilight started as she got closer. “I know you are under alot of stress and pain, but don’t you recognize me?” Twilight outstretched her hoof.

Cadance lunged forward like a striking snake.

Twilight flinched like a filly and fell back onto her flank. “Stop-please! It's me, Twilight!”

Cadance just continued to pull against the chair like the guard dog at the end of its leash. She was pulling her restaurants even harder now, so much so that her front legs were hovering off the ground and all the fur and skin around her neck had been rubbed off.

Twilight took another deep breath as she thought to herself. She remembered back to the first time she thought she had lost Cadance, that being during her wedding in Canterlot. Twilight had almost killed Cadance after believing her to be an imposter, but something stopped her, something only Canadce and twilight herself knew what to do.

Timidly, Twilight crouched down and began to trot in place as she softly muttered the opening lines of her and Cadance's little dance.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake,” Twilight feel to her stomach and covered her eyes, hoping that when she opened them Cadance would be back to normal.

Twilight opened her eyes.

Cadance was unchanged.

Twilight felt like a blade had been driven into her heart, but she continued anyway.

“Clap your hooves…” Twilight extended her hooves towards Cadance for her sister to clap, but Cadance only saw the gesture as a close enough place to try and bite at.

Twilight felt woozy and low energy, like she was bleeding out in the throne room. She enthusiastically turned her flank towards Cadance. “...and do a little shake.” Twilight paused, hoping that Cadance would suddenly spring into action and finish the dance with her, but nothing happened.

“Twilight! What are you doing?” Flash exclaimed in a voice that was muffled by the magic barrier.

“Me and Cadance do this all the time, she should recognise it.” Twilight crouched back down and did the dance again.

“Sunshing, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake.”

Cadance growled even louder in frustration. She roared like a hungry animal.

“Cadance, I know that you're in there, you just have to listen!” Twilight exclaimed as she
repeated the dance one last time. “Sunshine…sunshine…ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake?”

Cadance remained unchanged once more.

Twilight dropped to her knees and covered her face as she wept. “No…please, Cadance, come back to me, please.”

Twilight felt like a desperate mourner at a funnel who wept for a corpse that would not respond. Then, it hit her, Cadance wouldn’t respond to her pleas, her cries, or even their special dance.

Cadance was gone.

Twilight gave up.

Her magic shield crumbled and Flash rolled out towards his love.

Twilight immediately sat back up as Flash began to muzzle for her to move. “I-I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I shouldn't have dragged you into this, and I shouldn’t have pushed you away either.”

Flash helped her close. “Hey, you need to see Cadance, I get that. Now we really know what we're dealing with, we just have to fully trust each other.”

Twilight held onto Flash tighter as her tears flowed down his chest. “Thank you, I don’t want to lose anyone else to…those ponies.”

The room was quiet for a moment, even the corpse of Cadance began to get choked up on her chain and quiet down.

The silence was soon shattered.

“What is this?!” a voice screamed from across the throne room.

Twilight and Flash immediately looked across the room and watched as Shining Armor, flanked by multiple guards who stormed the perimeter.

Two guards flipped their spears around so their butts were sticking out which they used to
prod Cadance back.

Two more guards, both unicorns, magically lifted Flash off the ground and locked his body in place.

Shining trotted up to Flash and kicked him in the gut.

Flash gasped as all the air in his lungs was forced out through his throat.

The unicorn released their grasp on the pagus and sent him falling to the ground like a dead bird that had just hit a window.

“Wait!” Twilight screamed as she covered Flash's body with her own. Her eyebrows narrowed as she looked back up at her disapproving brother. “What are you doing?”

Shining magic threw Twilight off of Flash and towards himself. “What am I doing? What are you two doing? I told both of you to stay in the ballroom! I could have your little captain here executed for insubordination!”

“Don’t you dare!” Twilight screamed. “It wasn’t his idea to come up here. He was just doing what I commanded him. I hope that you know his allegiance is to me and Equestria, not the Crystal Empire!”

Shining snorted like a raging bull. “Well I’ll have you know my allegiance to the Empire and my family. That captain of yours should have protected you from this!” Shining raised his arm and pointed it towards the walls that barricaded Cadance.

Flash weakly rose his hoof off the ground like a student raising his hand in class. “Sir…I’m, sorry,” he gasped like an old stallion with a sore throat.

“Can it, Sentry! You’re lucky the princess is sticking up for you, otherwise you’d already be in one of Sombra’s old dungeons!” Shining levitated Flash off the ground by his chest piece and threw him out of the throne room.

The crystal guards followed.

“Damn it, Shining, that's enough!” Twilight roared.

“Stay out of this, Twilight! You're making this worse than it needs to be, your acting like you’re my annoying little sister,” Shining shot back.

“Well you're not acting like my brother at all!” Twilight puffed out her wings and made exaggerated head movement with each sentence she spoke. “You’re almost acting like one of the infected. It’s like you're trapped in all of this anger right now like the past never happened.”

Shining Armour angrily extended his back legs into a crystal pillar, causing a massive crack to form around the epicenter of his impact.

All the surrounding ponies went quiet. It was like a judge had just angrily slammed their gavel.

“Sweet Celestia…I thought you were just ignorant, but you really just so…stupid,” Shining snarled.

Twilight wings dropped to her side. At this point in the day her heart didn’t break again, it grinded itself into a fine powder and blew away.

“I. Bucking. WISH! That I could live in the movement right now and act like my old self, unfortunately- especially for you I bucking guess-I can’t! I’m the farthest right now from living in the present and being consumed by my emotions. Whenever I close my eyes I only see the past or the future. It’s either I relive the Crystal Empire crumbling or my wife dying, and then I imagine Flurry Heart, you, our parents, Spike, and all of Equestria being torn to bucking bits by a horde of pure evil!” Shining tried to contain his tears, but his eyes began to bulge out his head like a damn about to burst. He swung his head down low and hid his face in front of the crowd of stunned onlookers.

As an uneasy silence hung in the air, it lasted for what felt like hours before a faint rasping noise broke through the void.

Every head in the hallway immediately focused its attention towards the disturbing song. They watched as the zombified Cadance shambled its way around the throne like a fish in a bowl while occasionally trying to snap at the remaining guards.

Shining Armor staired like he was stuck in a trance that was focused on Cadance's eyes.
He shook his head and quickly sprung into action. He got up and slammed the throne room doors closed with his own hooves, blocking the deathly moans. He seemed to mouth a Goodbye, but it was impossible to know for sure.

Twilight watched as Shining Armor froze with his upper chest and forehead pressed against the door.

Shining rested for only a few seconds, yet the pause was still noticeable. He immediately stood back up in an authoritative stance in which he presented as if the tears he had just cried never actually fell.

“Let this be a lesson for all of us. The infected are no longer ponies, they are monsters. Remember that when we make our escape in the next twelve hours,” Shining announced as his guards saluted. He turned his attention back to Equestrians.

“I need a group of guards to escort the princess back to the ballroom and I now want Flash
Sentry to serve by my side at all times. I don’t want him out of my sight where he can cause trouble.”

A pair of guards attempt to lock arms with Twilight, only for the princess to smack them away. “I can escort myself, thank you very much!” She watched as Flash was hoisted up onto his feet, dribbles of blood ran down his chin and nostrils.

Flash gave Twilight a comforting nod. He would be fine, but Twilight still beat herself up inside over the whole ordeal.

Twilight paned her vision back over to her brother.

Shining was eyeing her angrily. “I’m doing this for you,” he spoke like a hardened rock.

Twilight just stared for a while. Her brother looked so different to her than before. “What ever happened to friendship?” she interjected.

Shining’s eye narrowed. He didn’t speak. His face looked like it was wrapped up in thought.

Twilight turned and walked down the stairs. Her head bobbed up and down as she sobbed.She had lost her sister, and then she even lost her brother.

And now, she feared, she might even lose her entire kingdom.

Author's Note

Will Twilight and her brother make it out of the Empire alive to tell Canterlot of the coming virus, or is it already to late for all of Equestria? Find out next week and thanks for reading!

Comments with feedback are always appreciated!