Trash of the Royal Castle

"I didn't think it was an actual relic!" Twilight Sparkle flipped through the pages of the book the yaks gave her as she and Rainbow Dash stood on the balcony of the Crystal Castle, Shining Armor holding Princess Cadance upright so she wouldn't fall asleep as the two royals listened to the Unicorn, "The book didn't mention anything about the Crystal Ponies powering the heart!" She said with worry as she flipped through all the pages of the book before reaching its end.

"There was a page missing!" Twilight exclaimed at the sight of the torn paper at the end of the book, "How did I not notice?"

She read through the book when the Yak gave it to her, having then decided to ready and open the Crystal Fair so the Ponies' hope would return. And it was somewhat working too! The grey and colorless ponies were behaving more energetically, their manes and coats returned to their bright and shiny colors, and their memories of the time before Sombra took over returned to them as well! Her plan worked wonders!

That was when Rainbow Dash came to her with the terrible news. The Crystal Heart wasn't some regular statue, but an actual magical relic.

If the Ponies discover that they don't have the Crystal Heart, all the hope and happiness that returned to them will disappear! Replaced with the gloom and apathy that they had before their colors returned!

"It's alright Twilight..." Cadance said tiredly, her body wobbling as she struggled to keep her eyes open, "You tried what you thought was right..." The pink Alicorn leaned onto her husband, her legs starting to give up as her eyes closed, the blue glow around her horn shutting off for a brief moment as the princess rested her eyes, her chest heaving with heavy breath as she struggled to stay awake, pushing her body to the limits of what it could take before passing out.

With Cadance passed out, her magic could no longer power the barrier around the Empire, causing it to fizzle away, replacing the bright blue glow of magic with the cold and dark tundra outside.

And with the tundra, came the mass of living shadow, the mountain of black smoke rolling through the green grass that sat at the edge of the Empire, the barrier no longer keeping it away.

And from the Smoke, quickly closing in on the Empire, a face emerged, Red irises on green orbs, purple wisps of magic floating from the corner of the eyes. A sharp red horn, resembling a blood-soaked knife more than the horn of a Unicorn, and a fanged mouth hissing in hunger.

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Starlight and Blueblood turned to look at the Barrier as it fizzled away, the rolling mass of smoke quickly rushing over them as it made its way toward the city beyond, suffocating them with its dark presence.

Starlight held her breath, her chest aching as the living smoke pushed against her, it was as if she was drowning in a river, the water pummeling her body with more and more force, trying to get her to release her breath.

Blueblood covered his head with a hoof, his horn glowing as golden light escaped from it, Comet wrapping her body around the Prince as the light that gave her her individuality shone once more. And as the magical smoke washed over him, Blueblood came to a sudden realization.

This Smoke, this magic of an ancient sorcerer, a tyrant who ruled over the Crystal Empire with an iron grip...

It was weak.

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Cadance was pulled out of her swift moment of slumber by the cries of her husband and sister-in-law, her body flooded with energy as she woke up, her horn glowing blue as the barrier returned.

Sombra's head roared as it emerged from the mass of roiling smoke, trying to make it into the Crystal Empire before the barrier could close him away again.

As he tried to pass into the Empire, the barrier finally closed around him, his face slamming into the shimmering blue bubble as his horn was cut off, stuck on the other side of the barrier.

He glared furiously at the barrier, his magic bubbling with purple energy as his horn returned from the smoke, the remnants of his previous horn sinking into the grass on the other side of the barrier, leaving behind a small black crystal.

His mouth twisted into a smirk as his magic connected with the black crystal, the shadow of the crystal growing longer on the ground, snaking towards more nearby crystals, turning them black as he tried to build himself a foothold inside the barrier.

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"This food is very tasty!" A Yak said loudly, stuffing his face with crystal berry pie.

"Shouldn't we still be searching for the Crystal Heart?" An Earth Pony wearing a white vest with the lettering BBF asked the Yak before taking a bite of a crystal corn on the cob, "I don't think it's a good idea to ignore it for this long,"

"The Elements of Harmony already found it! Why else would they be hosting the Crystal Fair?" The Yak laughed loudly, slapping his leg onto the pony's back in merriment, "Come now, Tap Dancer! Let us enjoy the fruits of our labor!"

"But we didn't build this fair," The Pony pointed out as he followed the Yak.

"Perhaps, but it is with our help that the Elements of Harmony managed to find the Crystal Heart and ready the fair, so if you really think about things, we made it!" The Yak laughed uproariously as the duo went to enjoy the rest of the fair.

"If you say so..."

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"I need to retrieve the heart." Twilight Sparkle told her brother as she dashed into the castle, leaving the royal duo on the balcony.

"Let's do this!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew after her, the duo making their way through the castle and down the stairs leading to the outside.

"I've been trying to figure out how I'm meant to pass Celestia's test," Twilight told Rainbow Dash as they went, "Retrieving the Crystal Heart must be it!" Twilight turned to look at Rainbow Dash from the corner of her eyes, "But there is something else you can do."

"Name it!" The Pegasus told her as the duo went down another flight of stairs.

"You and the rest of our friends need to keep the fair going, get the Yaks and Blueblood's group involved if you need to," Twilight told her, her hooves sliding to a stop on the crystal floor before she made a turn and continued running.

"What?! With that thing moving into the Empire?!" Rainbow Dash tried to remind Twilight that Sombra existed, "And this Blueblood fellow, How can we trust him?! He tried to kill us!"

"The crystal fair is designed to lift the spirit of the Crystal Ponies, so they can activate the Crystal Heart." Twilight pointed out to her friend, "If the Crystal Ponies find out King Sombra is trying to take over the empire again... Their spirits are going to be anything but lifted."

The Duo opened the doors at the bottom of the stairs and found themselves outside beneath the towering Crystal Castle, "It doesn't matter if we find the Crystal Heart, they won't be able to make it work!" She stopped running and turned to look at Rainbow Dash, "You have to keep them happy here at the fair."

"Keep the fair going and the Crystal Ponies' spirits high!" Rainbow Dash saluted with a smile before she flew off.

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"What was that?!" Starlight Glimmer's breath ached in her lungs as she tried to understand what just happened, "Blueblood! Did you feel that too?!" She turned to look at her boss, who stood on the other end of the magical web the two were creating on the ground, his hoof raised in front of his eyes as he stared at it silently.

"Blueblood, can you hear me?" She asked, walking closer to see what was going on with him.

"..." She saw him open his mouth, but whatever he said was too quiet for her to hear.

Comet crawled off of his back as Starlight entered his reach, "Blueblood, What's going on?"

"Starlight..." Blueblood started slowly, as if weighing his words carefully, "Do you think that was Sombra?" He turned away from staring at his hoof and faced her, the look in his eyes almost begging her to tell him that it was a joke, as if he struggled to believe what happened.

"Yes, I mean, I think so... The barrier just fizzled out, and then the smoke came, and now the barrier is back and- Oh crap! Is Cadance okay?" Starlight turned to look at the Castle far behind her, only to pause as Blueblood's voice entered her ears.

"Heh..." It was a quiet thing, weak, if it wasn't for the Crystal Empire's lack of wildlife, Starlight doubted she would have heard it.

"Blueblood... Are you..." She turned away from the Empire, looking at Blueblood beside her.

"Hehehehahahahah..." She struggled to call what she heard laughter, it was closer to the sound of a rubber horn deflating as if accepting defeat.

"SIX DAYS!" Blueblood suddenly barked out loudly, his face twisting into a smile as his body shook with laughter, threatening to burst, "I HAVE WORKED AND STRESSED ON THIS FOR SIX DAYS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Blueblood..." Starlight took a step back from her Boss, "What's so funny?" She took another step back.

"Funny?" His laughter quieted down, repeating the question, Blueblood closed his eyes and gave Starlight the most relaxed smile she's seen on him in over a month, "Starlight this is hilarious."

"...What is?" Starlight took another step back.

"All of this!" Blueblood opened his eyes, and for a brief second Starlight felt as if she was thrust into the frozen Arctic, sheets of ice crashing against each other with thunderous booms, hail of snow and ice buffeting the world around her like the falling tears of an arctic giant, her body couldn't move as the frost climbed up her limbs, her legs stuck as her fur hardened and froze over, threatening to snap like a twig, all as she stared into the Ice cold glaciers that were those eyes.

Those vibrant frozen eyes.

"I've been stressing over trying to keep Cadance awake with Plan A so we Rutherford and his Yaks would have time to find the Crystal Heart, but it was all for naught!" He laughed, "Plan B would have had us try and trap Sombra in this Web, stripping him of his intangibility, trapping him so we could all collectively focus on finding the Heart and defeat him! But now?" Blueblood chuckled to himself, "NOW? I don't think we even need the Crystal Heart! I'll just kill Sombra myself! HAHA! IT WAS SO SIMPLE!"

"What- You can't kill him!" Starlight exclaimed, her body feeling weak as Blueblood's eyes no longer stared at her with that freezing intensity.

"Why not?" Blueblood asked loudly, "We're not in Equestria! The Crystal Empire doesn't legally exist! And I doubt Rutherford will arrest me for killing him. We'll say it was self-defense!" Blueblood laughed to himself at the idea, "Starlight, If the BBF and the Yaks weren't here, I could kill each and every single person here, Sombra, The Crystal Ponies, Everybody! It wouldn't change a thing! They don't exist! They haven't existed in over 1,000 years! You can't kill something that doesn't exist Starlight! Haha!"

Starlight stared at her boss in shock, as if he'd finally lost it. Months of stress finally hit him like a sledgehammer to the gut.

"I'm not going to go killing the Crystal Ponies, don't give me that look." Blueblood shook his head at her, "What I'm saying is that we've overestimated Sombra. We knew normal magic wouldn't work on his intangibility, and his magic seemed to disable ours. We thought he would be such a dangerous foe that we'd need everybody's strength working together just for Plan B to hold him. But now... Feeling his smoke rush over me... I understood that I was giving him too much credit."

"Please get to the point, I don't like how you're leading up to it." Starlight urged him, taking another step back.

"My point is that Chrysalis could crush him," Blueblood said simply, staring at Starlight with a relaxed smile on his face, as if he hadn't talked about killing everypony in the Empire mere moments prior.

"...Chrysalis is a strong individual, I don't think comparing any pony's strength to hers will bring favorable results." Starlight pointed out.

"No... The point is that Chrysalis can beat me, but she can't crush me. Sombra, on the other hand? She could destroy him. Meaning, Sombra would be an easier opponent for Chrysalis than me, meaning, I am stronger than Sombra!" Blueblood explained to her.

"Of course Chrysalis would have a harder time against you, half of your repertoire of spells was designed with Chrysalis in mind! Your reasoning barely makes any sense!" Starlight yelled at her boss.

"Make sense? Starlight, Magic doesn't make sense! It never made sense! Do you think turning your body into smoke makes sense?! What about transforming into a giant armored beetle?! Oh- What about firing lasers from an organ on top of your head by thinking about it really fucking hard! Where's the sense in that?!" Blueblood yelled back at her.

"Wha- We're avoiding the point! So Sombra isn't as strong as you thought! What now?!"

"Now?" Blueblood repeated the question, "Now Comet and I are going to wait for the barrier to fall, we're going to trap Sombra in this web and take his intangibility away, and then I'm going to beat him to death with my own hooves." He explained to her as if she was a child.

"What about the Crystal Heart?!"

"What about it?" Blueblood sat down on the grass below, "Starlight, if you don't want to watch an execution you can go, help Cadance stay awake, find the Crystal Heart yourself, do anything else really. I'm going to stay here and wait for the bell to toll."

"Fine! Have fun being insane!" Starlight yelled before she turned away and started running towards the Crystal Castle in the distance.

"I will!"

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"Twilight, Wait!" Standing in the middle of the Crystal Fair, Twilight Sparkle intended to make her way towards the last place she would think of to search for the Crystal Heart, only to hear a familiar voice call out to her, "I'm coming with you."

"You can't," Twilight Sparkle told Spike the Dragon, "I have to retrieve the Crystal Heart by myself, this is Celestia's test," She turned away from the young Dragon and started making her way back to the castle.

"I know," Spike said as he followed after her, "I promise I won't lift a claw to help you."

Twilight stared at her little brother before she rolled her eyes, her horn glowing with pink-colored magic as she lifted Spike and placed him on her back, "Not a claw, Spike." She said before she started galloping down the street.

"Where are we going?" Spike asked as he held on to her back.

"I think I know where King Sombra kept the Crystal Heart." She told him.

"The Castle?" Spike questioned as he looked at where they were running.

"The King would be counting on the fact that no pony would dare go looking for it here. They'd be too afraid to even try."

"I hope you're right," Spike told her as they entered the door leading to the castle.

"You and me both..." Twilight nodded as she closed the doors behind her.

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Outside the barrier of love that surrounded the Crystal Empire, King Sombra stared through the bubble of magic, focusing on the slowly growing collection of dark crystals that emerged from where his horn landed.

"Soon..." He whispered to himself, his eyes glowing with dark magic as more crystals emerged from the shadows of the rest, "I'll return to you soon..."

"My Crystal Slaves..."