The gnarled wooden door stood before Twilight Sparkle, tantalizing, for she knew that she had to get through it in order to reach the Crystal Heart. She started to tug the handle with her magic, but the door zoomed around the circular wall, out of her reach. She leaped, trying to grab it with her hoof but the agile thing simply jumped out of the way once more.
“What in the...?”
Focusing, she teleported towards it, but when she appeared with her hoof outstretched for the handle, it had already zipped away.
“Ugh! I have to get through you! So, STOP MOVING!” The purple unicorn focused her anger and shot a beam of magic at the door. It stopped moving and swung open before her, a shining glow emitting from the portal.
“Yes!” She wiggled her flank and grinned at the success, “I think it’s in here!”
She entered the glow at a run; it blinded her to what was beyond a few feet in front of her. She slowed to a stop and as the light faded, she found herself standing alone, in a... Prison cell?
There were rough cobbles on all sides, and no bars like a standard cell. Only a few small holes in various places to let in air flow.
“Oh no! How could I have been so foolish! I was so eager to get to the relic that I didn’t think the door itself would be a trap... Nonono, come on...” She focused her magic, casting it around the slimy walls, looking for an escape. Finding nothing, and not willing to attempt a destructive spell in such a small room, Twilight decided to attempt to teleport away. So she focused again and with a pop, was, against her will, standing before King Sombra himself. Black crystals sprouted out of the ground around her hooves, binding her where she stood.
They were in the throne room of the Crystal Castle and Twilight could see for herself what had come to pass. Darkness and cold had finally swept across all of the Crystal Empire. She could see ponies being shackled into chain gangs down below, in the court square.
“I’ve... failed?”
The dark king before her let a great howl of amusement slip from between his jaws.
“What happened to my friends? Where’s Cadance and Shining Armor?”
The evil stallion laughed again before saying, in his deep and resonant voice, “You mean these ones?” His horn glowed for a moment, and from their burrows below ground sprung seven statues that Twilight Sparkle recognized instantly.
Their eyes were wide in terror, the lines of their faces etched with the horror of the fate that had befallen them. Before her, encased in translucent black, were the ones who had accompanied her.
She saw little Spike, his claws raised with his last plea for mercy. There was Rainbow Dash, wings and forehooves outstretched as if she had gone down in battle; a smirk had lingered on her face as though she had expected triumph in her last moments. Pinkie Pie stood resolute in her casing, looking like she had been her cooky self up to the last moment. Fluttershy was only a small ball of black crystal, differentiated only because of her fetal position and the profusion of her wings. Applejack also looked like she had been taken trying to fight, for she was in her famous apple-bucking position. And Rarity! Despite all her fondness for gems, these ones had destroyed her.
Twilight had to drag her eyes to the last statue- she knew she must acknowledge it, despite the physical feeling of aversion as her gaze drew closer. It was Cadance and Shining armor, locked together in their last embrace, forever. And she could still see the disappointment in her brother’s eyes, as he realized his fate; as he realized that his sister failed, could not be counted on.
Her vision blurred with tears as her eyes welled up. She could feel her knees shaking, her mind cracking. It was the end of the world, and where was the light, the warmth; where was good?
He said to her, tauntingly, “I know what you are thinking: how can evil take over the land? Where is the righteousness we are all raised to believe in, that force which should combat all wrongdoing and harm? Let me tell you, Twilight Sparkle. I am that force.”
She didn’t care anymore, not really, but she asked him anyways, through choking sobs, “What... What do you mean?”
“Let me tell you the real story of how this struggle came to be. Once upon a time, there were two neighboring nations of ponies- the Crystal Empire and the Celestial Empire. There were good relations between the two, for they traded and let citizens pass freely between each other’s borders. I was King of the Crystal Empire, Celestia the Queen of hers. One day, it came to pass that she offered her niece to me in marriage, she was to be my Crystal Princess.” He spat on the ground as he looked at Cadance and pointed a hoof, “That one.”
“That’s not true!” Twilight was outraged, “Cadance would never have married an awful pony like you!”
He grinned at her, and continued his tale. “Well, that night after our vows had been taken, when I was expecting our most intimate moments, Cadance locked me in my own dungeon. She used her powers to induce irrationality into all of my loyal ponies and turn them to her service. You call that love now, for some reason. She crafted a lie about my ‘dark powers’ and entrapped me in a glacier, to spend eternity there. It was a land grab by the Celestial Empire, violent and unprovoked. That’s all. And now I am teaching my subjects what happens to those who are disloyal to me, those who would act in the way of this, Cadance,” the venom was obvious in his voice, “Celestia shall have her turn next. So I am restoring good to this world, by destroying the treacherous. Have you anything to say now, little pony?”
Twilight could feel her heart cracking, opening a vacuum within her that could never be filled. She could feel all of her desires, all of the goals she had set for her life seeping from that ruined center of herself, that most precious of organs whose job it is to pump blood throughout her body... As all of her notions of the world were shattered into a million shards, as she started to collapse in upon herself, she heard a voice she had resigned herself to never hearing again.
“Twilight! Twilight?”
The terrible view she was experiencing began to fade to black, and she heard the voice again.
“Twilight! TWILIGHT!”
It was Spike!
It was Spike? She shook her head and blinked her eyes, letting them readjust to light, to scenery, to the world around her. And she saw in front of her, a wide open door with a wall behind it.
Behind her was Spike, and as he came down the spiral staircase, his mouth was running a mile a minute.
The relief was overwhelming.