We headed towards the Crystal Palace. It seemed as if the palace and city were surrounded by a bubble of darkness much like the bubble protecting the empire from the cold. As we got closer, we could tell that the crafts that we saw earlier were far from the only ones as we watched a number of them flit in and out of the barrier of darkness, each containing four to five soldiers, and surrounded by different colored magical lights.
Applejack paused, and we stopped, looking back at her. She appeared to be thinking about something and looking up at the sky. “What’s up, AJ?” I asked.
“Just wondering,” she replied. “What Pinkie said makes a lotta sense. You think we could get ourselves one of those things?”
I looked up at the flying crafts. “Did you have a plan in mind?”
She nodded. “If we could get one of those things, we could fly up to the top of the palace and check to see if the elements were there. Might save us a ton of time, and we could avoid any big fights.”
I thought about it for a minute. “You’re probably right, if we can figure out how to make them work.”
“You said yourself you thought that light was magic, right?” Pinkie Pie said. “You’re the magic expert, Twilight. Should be a snap for you.”
“How are we going to get one of them down here without getting any of the others coming after us?” asked Fluttershy.
I looked around. There were a number of crystal growths in the area, including some really large ones. “The trick is to do something big enough to attract attention,” I murmured, thinking, “but not big enough to cause a lot of alarm.” Thinking for a bit, I motioned the others over behind one of the larger growths. “Ok, here’s the plan. I’m going to do something to get their attention. When they land, I want Pinkie Pie to take out the one that stays behind. Fluttershy and Applejack, you’re going to take out the others. I’ll keep any gunfire off of you. Got it?” They nodded. “All right, here goes…”
I reached out with my magic and grabbed one of the large crystal growths. Wrenching it out of the ground, I waited until one of the crafts exited the darkness and made a pass over our area. When it approached, I launched the crystal up at them, missing them by a few feet. The craft immediately spun around and headed back towards us. Landing within twenty feet of our hiding place, four soldiers exited the craft while one stayed behind just like the ones we saw before. As they fanned out, searching for the source of the attack, I motioned to Pinkie Pie, who vanished and reappeared behind the soldier on the craft. A crack sounded in the still air as she shot the soldier from behind and promptly dropped to the floor of the craft as the other soldiers spun around, guns trained on where she had been standing a moment ago.
While they were distracted, Fluttershy and Applejack spun out from behind the crystal pillar and opened fire on the soldiers. Two were cut down immediately, and one turned back to fire, bullets bouncing off my hastily-erected shield before Applejack took him out.
“Twilight!” I heard Fluttershy call, and quickly looked to where she was pointing. The fourth soldier had turned and ran, heading back towards the darkness. I grabbed a nearby growth of crystal with my magic and sent it hurtling directly at the soldier’s back, impaling him with my makeshift crystal spear.
“Good job, girls,” I called as we headed up to join Pinkie Pie, who had pushed the dead soldier’s body off the craft, and was now standing in the center, staring down at something. We ran up the ramp that had been lowered when the soldiers exited the craft, and stopped short, staring.
In the center of the craft, a man sat in a well-worn metallic seat, tightly chained to the floor of the craft. He wore a thin tunic and foot coverings, and appeared thin, wasted, and unkempt, his black and brown striped hair long and his beard scraggly. He appeared unaware of his surroundings, just staring at the floor, not even noticed as we approached closer. The worst part, however, was what had been done to him. We stared in horror at the crystal that had been driven into his forehead, protruding like a makeshift unicorn, a crystal that looked very similar to my own.
“The lights… they really are magic,” I gasped, horrified at the implications in front of me. I reached out and gently touched the crystal, and the man’s eyes lit up suddenly, his head coming up. He still appeared to be unaware of what was going on, but he spoke in a monotone voice. “Input directions. Lift off?”
Shocked, I stammered, “Umm… yes?”
“Acknowledged,” he replied, and the craft was surrounded by a blue light, lifting into the air. “Indicate flight pattern,” the man intoned, as we hovered in the air.
“What’ll we do, Twilight?” Applejack asked, worried. “Ah dunno if Ah feel comfortable doing this anymore.”
“I understand, Applejack,” I replied grimly, “But if we can avoid any further bloodshed and get the elements, we might be able to find out how to get these people released if we can find King Sombra. This’ll be the quickest way.”
Applejack stared down at the man in disgust, but finally nodded. “Ah don’t like it, Twilight, but Ah understand. Let’s get this done.”
“I don’t like it any more than you do, AJ,” I replied. I turned to the man, feeling slightly sick as I addressed him. “Take us into the city, please.”
“Acknowledged,” he replied, eyes glowing a bright blue. The craft sped off, slipping into the barrier of darkness before we had a chance to react. We appeared on the other side, and gasped at the sight before us.
Below us lay the Crystal Empire, the buildings placed much as we remembered them. However, the darkness had pervaded the streets and buildings, and everything looked to be in a haze. We saw more of the flying craft flitting about the city, some moving about in regular patterns as if on patrol, others flitting this way and that, but all appeared to be moving with a purpose. We couldn’t see any people in the streets below, just the occasional groups of soldiers marching along. It wasn’t until we came to the main thoroughfare where we had held the Crystal Fair what felt like eons ago before we saw any of the regular populace.
It appeared to be one large chain gang. Soldiers were marching alongside the populace, who had been chained to one another and forced to march up the street. Some of the chained prisoners were clothed, though the rags and strips of cloth were hardly enough to be considered clothing, but more often than not, many were naked and bruised. Each prisoner had their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them, and another hand on the person next to them, so from above they appeared to be interlocked together. When they reached the end of the road in front of the palace, one of the soldiers in front blew a whistle, and as one, all of the prisoners down the center of the group dropped their hands from the prisoner next to them. The group split in two, splitting around the palace and heading over to two separate large buildings where they were all herded inside, the soldiers unchaining them as they entered. When the last prisoner had entered, the soldiers slammed the outer doors, bolting them shut and taking up guard positions outside the buildings.
“He’s treating them like animals,” Fluttershy gasped, horrified. We stared down at where the last prisoner had entered, not believing our eyes. We looked at each other in horror before an outside voice grabbed our attention.
“You there!” called a soldier as one of the flying craft sidled up next to us. “What are you doing? Get back on…” The soldier trailed off as he got a good look at us, then he snapped up his gun, aiming it directly at us, his companions following suit. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled out a whistle that had been hanging around his neck and blew three short blasts. Dropping it, he called to us again. “Identify yourself!”
Attracted by the whistle, two more discs flew up, settling into a triangle formation around us, soldiers covering us with their weapons from all angles. We were close enough to see that these craft were powered by three women, all in the same position as the man in ours, all with crystal ‘horns’ jutting from their foreheads. As I stared around wildly, trying to think of a plan, I heard a familiar voice that caught my breath and caused me to freeze in place, slowly turning around to see the source.
“Twily?”
One of the soldiers from one of the new discs stepped forward, removing his helmet. His close-cropped crystal blue hair came free, and I stared into the familiar eyes of my brother. His eyes held no warmth for me, however, just a cold steel marred with confusion.
“Shining Armor?” I whispered, staring back. At the sound of my voice, his eyes grew flat and a sneer grew on his face.
“Shining Armor?” he snarled, and I noticed bubbles of shadow magic surround his eyes. “Shining Armor is dead. He died when my sister died. My name is Twilight Armor.”
“Commander Armor, are you familiar with these people?” one of the other soldiers asked.
“Not at all, Lieutenant,” he replied curtly, glaring at me in hatred. “They’re just some heartless lookalikes. Not even good ones. My sister had two eyes.” He waved dismissively. “Arrest them, and let the King deal with them.” He turned away, and the other soldiers trained their guns on us, as two of them tossed small hooks on the guardrails of our craft, latching us together.
“Shining Armor, no! It’s me, Twilight Sparkle!” I cried, trying to get through to him. “Don’t you remember me?”
He whirled back to me, fury in his eyes. “Twilight Sparkle is dead!” he snarled. “I saw what was left of her. She is dead and gone and there’s nothing that can bring her back.” For a moment, I saw the mask of fury slip, and the hurt in his eyes caught at my heart. I stepped forward to try and comfort him like I always had, but the mask was back up and he turned away once more as the soldiers approached our craft.
“Ah’m sorry, we’d love to come and play, but we have some business to take care of,” announced Applejack, stepping forward swiftly, tapping the man at the center of our disc. “Up!” she cried as soon as his eyes lit up, and our craft shot upwards, leaving one of the three behind and dragging the other two up with us, pulling them almost completely vertical before the strain on the ropes became too much, snapping them. I rushed to the side as we continued to rocket upwards, looked down at the wobbling crafts receding below. I saw that many of the soldiers had fallen off of the discs, being unprepared for the sudden change in direction, including my brother. As I watched him fall, he met my eyes calmly. Shadow magic began to surround him, and he reached out and grabbed the nearby shadows, pulling them over himself and disappearing from view. As the shadows dissipated, he was gone.
I had no time to contemplate what had just happened, as the final disc had stated pursuing us, heading directly upwards after us. Applejack tapped the man again, and said, “Evasive maneuvers!”
“Acknowledged,” the man replied tonelessly. “Please grab on to the evasion restraints and remain seated.”
I looked around, and saw that straps were hanging from the guardrails. “Grab the straps!” I yelled, sliding my staff in my belt and quickly wrapping the straps around my wrists, huddling against the guardrail as I watched the others try to do the same. The craft sped off into the air, followed by the pursuit craft, gunfire ricocheting off the metal of our craft as they shot at us. We wove through the air, charting a course around the Crystal Palace, bobbing and weaving and the other craft pursued. Suddenly, our disc shot directly up, moving completely vertical, and it took all my strength to hold on. I heard a scream above me, and looked up just in time to see Fluttershy losing her grip on her restraints, falling towards me.
“Fluttershy!” I screamed. “Grab on!” I held my hand out as she tumbled, and she flung her hands out to me in desperation. Our hands slapped together with a loud smack and I grabbed onto her with all of my strength as she jerked to a halt, screaming as her injured shoulder was wrenched. I grimaced, gasping at the strain on my body as the full force of her weight felt like it was pulling me in two. We heard a crash behind us, and I chanced a glance downwards through my concentration and pain. I saw that the disc that had been pursuing us had crashed into the Crystal Palace, and was now plummeting towards the ground. I felt a pang of sympathy towards the woman that had been strapped into the craft, but at that moment our craft righted itself, and Fluttershy and I slammed into the floor, groaning.
Applejack disengaged herself from the restraints, tapped the man, and said, “To the top of the Crystal Palace,” in a shaking voice. Looking over at the two of us, she asked, “Are y’all ok?”
“Ow,” was my only response as the craft glided gently over to the top of the Palace. I carefully undid the restraints, noting how deeply they had cut into my wrist when Fluttershy had grabbed me, a deep bruise already forming. Gingerly pushing myself up, I tugged at Fluttershy, who still hadn’t released my hand. “Fluttershy, it’s ok. You can let me go now.”
She whimpered, and I carefully pried her hands away from mine. Realizing that she was no longer falling, she opened her eyes and looked up at me. “Thanks, Twilight. You saved me,” she said gratefully.
I shook my head with a smile, massaging my wrists. “No problem. Are you ok?”
She nodded, wincing. “I think so. My shoulder really hurts, though.”
“I should think so. You wrenched it pretty well.” I looked around as we stopped, and noticed that we were at our destination. I saw a familiar chamber in front of us. “It’s the chamber where the Crystal Heart was kept!” I exclaimed. From the outside, it looked exactly the same as when I had been there before. A stairwell opened up in the floor, stairs leading down inside the Palace, and a large blue circle was visible on the floor. Suspended above the circle was the Crystal Heart itself, just as it had been back in our world. I couldn’t tell if the elements of Harmony were anywhere to be found from where we were floating, so I stepped off of the disc and into the chamber.
The others followed suite, coming in behind me. “Be careful,” I warned. “When I was last here, that blue circle acted as a warning device, trapping me when I stepped on it. Let’s avoid it if we can.”
The others nodded, and we circled the chamber. As I approached the circle, being very careful not to tread on it, I noticed two other objects hanging in the air with the Crystal Heart. Two stones, one with a crystal butterfly and the other with a crystal balloon. “The elements!” I cried, pointing to them.
“How do we get them?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Let me try,” I said, and raised my staff. Reaching out with my magic, I tried to grab one of the elements, but the magic just slipped off the stone. Irritation building, I tried again with the other element, and then with the Crystal Heart itself, but the result was the same. My magic just slipped away and I couldn’t get a grip. “It doesn’t work,” I growled, frustrated.
“Let me give it a go,” said Applejack. I noticed that she had pulled out a coil of rope and was knotting it into a lasso. We watched in anticipation as she twirled the lasso above her head and launched it at the element of Laughter. The rope slipped around the element, and she jerked it expertly, tightening it around the stone. I held my breath as it seemed that the rope would hold, and she yanked hard, pulling the element out of the air and into her hand. I let out a whoop of victory as she untied the element and tossed it to me with a smile on her face. She was just getting her rope ready to toss again when we heard a familiar voice echoing from the shadows, and we paused in fear.