Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GEZsBHNL23QmRl2SpComkNo0b5AxKoriO5vrExeTBYs/edit?usp=sharing

Approximately two months passed since the donkeys began to study the crystal heart and the elements of harmony. But so far, these magical artifacts remained a puzzling mystery to even the most educated in the fields of magic and science. The biggest difficulty was that nopony had any idea about their origins. Knowing that would make it so much easier to understand the relics. All that was known about the crystal heart was that the mineral it was made of originated from the Frozen North. Celestia and Luna claimed to have ‘harvested’ the elements of harmony from the so called ‘Tree of Harmony’, which apparently used to grow in Equestria, right underneath the old castle of the royal sisters. But like with the heart, there was no way of proving that and it gave no insight to why they were so powerful. Considering that Everfree City and the castle had been completely destroyed during the early years of the demon war and Malice’s rise, it was very likely the tree had been destroyed as well.

Like the research, the rebellion did not advance at all. Occasionally, Babs Seed succeeded in bringing a wave of refugees to the empire and a demon tried to sneak in, which immediately would be consumed by the reapers. But other than that, the only changes seen were in the infrastructure.

The Crystal Empire used to have a very low population. Despite being large enough to house several hundred thousand ponies, only a couple of hundred crystal houses were ever built. Now with the population continuously rising, more and more homes needed to be created. This was by no means a difficult task, considering that there were tons of crystals all around the empire and the crystal ponies could even create more with the empire’s magic. Also, there were plenty of very large gaps in between the buildings. While it was kind of a sad thing for the foals to see their favorite playing meadows disappear, they would soon get over it, seeing as each new wave of refugees brought more playmates and they would quickly find new meadows to play on. Same story applied to the little crystal filly named Sunshine and her friends.

Sunshine had been playing on her new favorite meadow for a couple of weeks now. It was pretty far off from the center, so it would not be targeted by those stupid construction ponies any time soon. A nice large space that didn’t even have any crystal shards laying around. While this wouldn’t have been a problem for Sunshine, most of her friends were not crystal ponies and therefore would get hurt when falling on such a shard. So having a large and clear field definitely was an advantage for them, too.

Today, they were playing marco pony again. Sunshine had to wear a blindfold and try to catch her friends while saying ‘marco’, to which her friends would respond with ‘pony’. She wasn’t exactly the best at this game. The current round had been going for about ten minutes now and she still didn’t catch a single one of her friends.

“Marco!” she called.

“Pony!” her friends answered.

Sunshine tried to walk to one of the sources of the sound as quickly as she could, but she was a bit paranoid about stumbling. Just yesterday, she tripped over a rock and gotten herself a painful crack in her left front leg. Even though the crack had been completely sealed through magic, she did not want to get another crack any time soon. What if she fell flat on her face and chipped her nose off? That would be quite painful and she would look pretty stupid.

“Marco!” Sunshine called again.

“Pony!” her friends responded.

Sunshine approached one of her friends as fast as she could. She was so sure she would catch one this time. But all she could hear was the giggling of a colt, followed by a breeze as he narrowly rushed past her. This frustrated Sunshine. What a stupid game! When anypony else was it, they would get her so fast. But whenever she was it, she would so often have to give up because she just couldn’t catch everypony! Her friends were so stupid at times! Perhaps she should have tried to invite the little rainbow-maned filly Amber again. Maybe then things would have been different. But then again, the only one Amber ever hung around with was her adoptive reaper mother Truesight. Amber never agreed to any invitation so far and hardly ever spoke a word. In fact, she seemed to even be scared of other foals. Sunshine just couldn’t understand why.

“Marco!” she called again.

“Pon- Gaaahhh!” her friends screamed.

This startled Sunshine and she instantly removed her blindfold. Her friends were staring at a hole in the ground, out of which a pretty young diamond dog was looking. Although covered in dirt, two trails coming down from his eyes remained clean, as he was crying heavily.

“Help! Ponies help! Help Casper, quick!” the diamond dog puppy started screaming.

---

Since Twilight decided to continue her magic studies on her own, she dedicated one day per week solely on reading in the empire’s library. Among the many books she picked this time were some about advanced magic tricks, the history of Equestria and the same one about the Crystal Empire’s history she had been reading through before, years ago. It was the only copy of its kind and since she could not fully remember its content, she hoped to find a clue to the origin of the crystal heart in it. But her research remained inconclusive. Twilight was pretty sure that the missing last page in the very back would have revealed so much about the crystal heart. Sadly, it never turned up. Maybe King Sombra had it torn out? As a precaution, should he ever fall? One could only assume.

Finally being able to read again made Twilight remember just how much she used to love studying. Once she was in the zone, her brain could just soak up the entire content of several books within just a few hours like a sponge. In the past, she used to forget and ignore everything around her once she reached that state of mind. But the last few years of constantly having to pay attention and being ready to jump into self-defence taught her to remain alert. So, as a crystal guard came running over to her, she instantly shut the book she was reading and jumped up.

“Miss Twilight! The circle needs you at the meeting hall immediately! It is urgent!” he alerted her.

“Thank you,” was all she said before casting a teleportation spell.

---

As the purple mare materialized again, she was standing just in front of the doors to the meeting hall. Several guards and reapers were already standing ready and instantly drew their weapons. As always when not all members of the circle had arrived yet, the door remained open but was blocked by several reapers at once in case of any assault attempts. Peeking past the reapers, Twilight could see that all the others were already there.

“Twilight, what kind of sport did I teach you when you were still a filly?” Shining Armor asked from inside.

“Kite flying. What was my favorite childhood toy?” Twilight asked back.

“Your Smarty Pants doll,” her brother replied.

Instantly, the reapers moved aside and allowed her in. Once she reached the table, the door closed.

“Alright, what is so-” Twilight started anew.

Before even finishing the sentence, she already got her answer as she spotted a young diamond dog pup on the other side of the table, being held and comforted by Fluttershy.

“The underground city he is from is currently being attacked by the BloodClaw Cult,” Cadence stated.

“Blueblood…” Twilight analyzed quickly.

“Yes,” Crystal Blossom continued. “Apparently, he wants to drive all diamond dogs off from Equestria and does not hesitate to do this through mass murder. This pup was sent to us by his parents to beg for help. The attack has only just begun. We need to make a decision. Very fast.”

“There is nothing to decide here. Of course we are going, instantly,” Twilight responded. The others seemed to think just the same way.

“Casper. How can we get to your city?” Derpy wanted to know.

“There is big cave not far from here. Go down, down, down and city there,” the young diamond dog responded.

Immediately, everyone present got up. Fluttershy stroked the puppy once more across the head, then let go of him.

“Stay here in the castle where you are safe. We will do everything we can to rescue your home and your parents,” she assured.

“Okay… Casper will wait…” the puppy responded while sniffling.

The door opened again and the whole group started running outside.

“Attention! All available soldiers and a quarter of the reapers have to meet up at the northern border within the next ten minutes! Also, send word to the Wonderbolts that we need their assistance!” Twilight ordered.

“Yes, mam!” the guards and reapers replied, then dispatched instantly.

“Rarity and Applejack. I need you two to stay here. Neither one of you is fit enough for a battle against the cult,” Celestia insisted.

“Agreed. I hope you understand,” Twilight confirmed.

“Was kinda expectin’ it. Don’t cha worry. C’mon, Rarity. Let’s get ya right back to bed,” Applejack stated and turned around.

“Good luck, girls,” Rarity spoke, then followed up.

The rest of the group started running straight out of the palace.

---

It didn’t take the group more than two minutes to reach the northern border of the Crystal Empire. To their surprise, Lady Truesight and Amber were waiting there already.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see you here! Are you going to join us?” Twilight wanted to know, but Truesight only shook her head.

“Not unless my mistress orders me to join this pointless waste of soldiers. Even then, I would like to remind you that I am sworn to safeguard this filly,” Truesight spoke, then began to focus Celestia while pointing at Amber beneath the cloak.

“No, it is fine. Stay here and protect Amber,” Celestia ordered.

“Yes, my mistress,” the reaper clairvoyant spoke and bowed down shortly. “In any case, I am solely here to warn you.”

“Well, our situation may be… difficult… but we still gladly accept your help, Truesight!” Twilight explained.

“Twilight Sparkle. Why do you want to help the diamond dogs?” Truesight wanted to know.

“Isn’t it obvious? We are a rebellion fighting against Blueblood! Thwarting his plans is always a good move on our end. We would be saving countless innocent beings! But most of all, this is the opportunity we had been waiting for! By doing this, we finally gain some recognition and will be seen as something worthy of supporting!” the purple mare answered.

“Exactly. What you are about to do will turn into a massacre. With this act, you begin to walk down the path which eventually leads to the demon attack in a few years. A smaller bloodbath concludes in a much, much larger one. I am aware you think of yourself as doing the right thing, but I must ask you to stop. Turn around and let the diamond dogs die,” Truesight spoke, almost sounding threatening.

“You are overstepping your boundaries, Truesight,” Celestia spoke sharply. “You are a reaper, a servant of death. Not a commander of destiny. Even your future predicting abilities are limited. You can’t possibly know of how this all will end and if I, your mistress, have total confidence in my student’s decisions, then I ask you to respect them as well. This was not solely her decision either. We all agreed to this mission.”

Instantly, Truesight bowed down.

“Yes. You are right, my mistress. I apologize. It is true that I can not see how this rebellion will end,” she spoke.

After a moment of silence, the delegated soldiers and reapers arrived, lead by Spitfire and ten of her Wonderbolts.

“We are ready for action!” she spoke to Twilight.

“Good. Our goal is a diamond dog city under attack by Blueblood. The entrance cave should be nearby,” the purple mare explained.

“Wait a minute… That’s underground, isn’t it? What do you need the best flies in all of Equestria for in an underground mission?” Spitfire wanted to know.

“More than anything else, this is a rescue mission. I need you to escort the diamond dogs to the empire as fast and precise as thinkably possible!” Twilight explained.

“Alright, got it,” the captain of the Wonderbolts spoke and then turned to her team. “You heard her, Wonderbolts! Today, you can prove that we still are the best of the best! Give it all you got!”

After the other Wonderbolts saluted shortly, Twilight gave the command to go. Crystal Blossom opened a tunnel in her blizzard and allowed the whole troop through. Just as she was about to follow them, Truesight grabbed her shoulder, causing the light blue mare to turn around.

“Twilight Sparkle may have ordered you to join her, but the decision is yours. If you wish to believe it or not. Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” the reaper clairvoyant questioned.

Crystal heard her say these words before. But just like back then, she had the same opinion as now. Instead of words, Crystal just gave Truesight a nod. After that, a couple of seconds passed, neither one of them moving or saying a word. Finally, Truesight placed her hoof back on the ground.

“I wish you the best of luck, elder,” she spoke.

No words were necessary anymore. Crystal Blossom turned back around and ran, the blizzard closing behind her immediately.

---

Merely moments after they started running, the Wonderbolts spotted the cave from above and lead the whole group inside. Just as they entered, they could already hear screams echoing against the walls.

“This reminds me of our first true battle against a demon,” Fluttershy commented after a while.

“You mean against the spawn in the Everfree Underground Passage?” Twilight wondered, which Fluttershy confirmed with a nod.

“Focus! We are almost there!” Luna demanded.

Seconds after saying that, they spotted a group of diamond dogs running towards them, being closely chased by ten cultists. Before they could even react, one of them jumped into the air and managed to ram a knife into the neck of a female.

Spitfire rushed ahead, knocking one of the other cultists over before he could pounce his victim. Caught by surprise, the reapers had enough time to take care of the group. Although it wasn’t as easy as it used to be. Those cultists were all wearing steel plate armor, making it harder to land a lethal blow. Only the one who already caught a victim could put up a fight, but was ultimately frozen solid by Crystal Blossom and then immediately reaped, too. All this happened within less than twenty seconds, so fast that the diamond dogs only realized what was going on after their attackers were gone. But before they could even thank their equine saviors, the rescue troop had moved on and only one of the Wonderbolts stood behind to tell them to keep running, then immediately caught up with the others.

From then on, the further down they went, the louder the noises of battle became. More and more diamond dogs rushed past them, chased by more and more cultists they had to take down before being able to proceed.

After taking another turn, they found themselves in a large underground ravine with countless houses dug into the walls. Multiple thousand diamond dogs were running around, screaming in panic, looking for family members or trying to find a way to escape. A large number of them were injured, partially so bad that they collapsed dead moments later. Bodies were scattered all around, their blood dripping down from higher areas and running along the walls. Pups had lost track of their parents and were standing idly in place, crying and screaming for help.

It was pure chaos and terror. The ones responsible for this bloodshed could be seen all around. Several thousand cultists were rushing from one end of the city to the other, trying their best to prevent any diamond dog from escaping and attacking any they came across on their way. Although the diamond dogs were fighting back, it was clear that they did not have the needed skills to take on those by now well-trained assassins. After analyzing the situation, Twilight quickly gave out the orders.

“Okay! Soldiers, clear the paths outside first! Then join the reapers in taking care of the cultists across the city! Spitfire, you and your team need to guide the diamond dogs outside! Everyone else comes with me to the center! We need to take control of the battlefield!” she announced.

Instantly, the troop began to spread out. It did not take the cultists very long to realize that they got company and started attacking the rebels. It was a clash of battle techniques between the cultists and soldiers. Only the reapers could nearly effortlessly fight their way through the cultists, killing dozens of them within the first minutes. All magic wielding rebels used their respective professions to help and fight. Celestia used her light magic to fight and blind the cultists. Luna used dark magic to force their enemies to submit. Cadence created illusions, while Twilight tried to take out as many cultists as possible as quickly as possible with chain-bolts of arcane magic. Shining Armor, Crystal Blossom, Fluttershy and Derpy acted as the guards of the circle members, making sure no cultist could get too close to them. Their tactic was very efficient and the cultists had large problems organizing and fighting back the rescue troop.

Slowly, from the center outwards, the group gained control by forcing the cultists to the sides. But the more they pushed, the larger the gaps between the members became. Then suddenly, after killing another cultist, Twilight realized that the only one left nearby was Cadence.

“Where are the others?” Twilight shouted.

“I don’t know. I think I saw Derpy rush by over there!” Cadence replied.

Without much hesitation, Twilight turned around and started following her sister in law. Fighting back the occasional cultist, the purple mare realized that they were getting too far away from the center. Suddenly, she stopped.

“Did you see one?” Cadence wondered.

“Ladybugs,” Twilight stated out of the blue.

“What?” Cadence replied.

Instantly, Twilight expression became very serious and she launched an arcane beam at her former foalsitter. After flying into a wall, Cadence showed a grimace of pain and shock as she stared at the purple mare.

“Nice try, Despair,” Twilight stated, anger burning in her eyes.

Instantly, Cadence stopped acting as if she was insured. Her eyes turned red and a sinister smile grew on her face.

“So you are using codes now. Not bad, Twilight,” Despair spoke with her normal, echoing voice now.

A split second after she finished speaking, the demoness turned back into her normal form. Not willing to give Despair even a moment to react, Twilight shot another beam at her. This time, though, she could dodge it. The Guillotine of Hope certainly has become more skilled since the last time they fought.

A magical fight to death broke loose between the two. But while Twilight tried to take down her arch nemesis with fierce blasts of arcane magic, Despair mostly just dodged her attacks and grinned.

“You need to improve your aim,” the demoness started mocking.

This made Twilight furious. She put a lot of force into a massive arcane beam and managed to aim it directly at the demons. She, though, remained in place. Grinning widely with her sharp teeth, Despair’s eyes suddenly turned thoroughly red and her horn began to glow in the same color. Just before the beam hit her, she created a force field and somehow managed to successfully block off even this powerful magic attack.

Twilight’s eyes and mouth went wide open. How could she just block off an arcane beam like that? How could she have gotten so powerful? Then finally, she realized something she hadn’t been paying attention to so far. Despair was wearing a necklace. A very familiar one, which caused the purple mare to gasp a bit in dread. It was the Alicorn Amulet.

“When it comes to me, you really need a long time to start paying attention properly,” Despair kept mocking as she realized that Twilight noticed the amulet.

Catching herself again, the purple mare’s expression changed back to an angered one and she returned to battle stance.

“I am not even going to ask how you could find that,” the purple mare stated.

“You know, it is quite useful to be a demon. We don’t have souls, so this amulet has absolutely no negative effects on me. All I get is power great enough to even withstand your magic,” the demoness stated.

“We will see about that!” Twilight shouted and cast a teleportation spell.

After materializing behind the demoness, she launched another arcane beam. But Despair saw it coming and teleported as well. With a flash, she appeared behind Twilight, turned her right front leg into a large blade and tried to slice it through Twilight’s throat. She, though, could raise a force field and block off the blade.

“1007 years ago, Queen Nightmare Moon declared war against pony-kind,” Despair spoke into Twilight’s ear, then let go of her.

“So what?” the purple mare questioned.

Completely ignoring Twilight’s words, the demoness began to grin and made another statement.

“You know, even the Alicorn Amulet has its limits. If you knew how to use your abilities properly, I would still stand no chance against you. So much power, but you don't know how to use it. Shameful, considering you once were the keeper of magic.”

“I defeated you once. I can defeat you again!” Twilight shouted.

“Do you remember what I told you a year ago? I already explained to you that it is too late. Nothing can be changed anymore. The moment you attacked Black Widow, we crossed the point of no return. Why do you even keep trying? Nothing you do matters,” the demoness stated.

The purple mare created a sword of pure arcane magic, letting it float next to her. After dodging the first couple of swings, Despair grabbed the blade with the mouth in her left front leg and held it immobilized.

“No matter how much you fight, it will not change the outcome. What did you even think you would accomplish by coming here? All your efforts are wasted. Everything you do is useless. I have Sombra's horn. The only part of him that was not destroyed,” Despair stated, then began to grin devilish. “I am convinced he would appreciate having his empire back.”

Twilight tried her best to not care about the demoness’ words at the moment. She only wanted to catch her off-guard right now. Instead, she kept struggling against the demoness’ grip. But suddenly, Twilight stopped.

Just now, a thought crossed her mind which she should have come up with much sooner. If Despair was here, then there surely would be other demons, too! Without saying a word, she let the blade vanish, turned around and started running.

Casting multiple teleportation spells, the purple mare tried to get back to the center as quickly as possible. For some reason, Despair wasn’t following her. Then suddenly, Fluttershy shot out from around the corner.

“Demons are coming to reenforce the cultists!” she announced.

“How many?” Twilight wanted to know.

“Hundreds! Definitely too many for us to handle! We are rapidly losing control of the battle field!” the yellow mare replied.

“Then there is nothing we can do. We need to get out of here! Gather as many diamond dogs as you can and bring them to the tunnel we came from!” the purple mare ordered.

“Will do!” Fluttershy confirmed and flew away.

Twilight as well focused on calling diamond dogs over to her, telling them to follow her if they want to get out. Soon, red darkness started seeping in through the tunnels. This sight confirmed that a large mass of demons was just around the corner and if she wouldn’t pick up the pace now, this quickly would turn into something similar to the battle of Tartarus, when she had to be rescued from there.

As Twilight looked ahead, she saw that hundreds of diamond dogs were escaping through the tunnels. Sadly, some were running straight to those out of which the red clouds were coming and even the Wonderbolts couldn’t get them to stop in their panic. So many would still die and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

Just as she thought that, a flood of demons bursted through the first tunnel and within seconds, countless diamond dogs were torn to pieces. Twilight looked around and saw that the rest of the circle members were approaching her from the sides and behind, closely followed by large mobs of panicking diamond dogs. While still on the run, they checked each others identity through code words. Ultimately, they all found themselves reunited, surrounded by soldiers, reapers and dogs.

But the screams and sounds of tearing flesh were approaching quickly. Behind was a large wave of demons, crawling all around the walls, the ceiling and floating in the tunnel. There was still some distance left, but they could run significantly faster than the mob.

“We need to slow them down!” Twilight shouted and launched another arcane spell down the tunnel.

A large number of demons got launched back, but the rest quickly filled the created gap. She would need to constantly be doing this to really make a difference. But after casting so many arcane spells, she was running out of stamina and focus. The soldiers, reapers and magic-wielders tried all they could to fight back the demons and maybe cause the tunnel to collapse, but it was no use. There were just so many and they were too few.

Crystal Blossom ran as fast as she could, using her magic to levitate diamond dogs too close to the demons in front of the crowd until she was the only one left at the very back. She kept on casting ice spells to make it harder for the demons to approach, but it was like trying to fight back a flooding.

“This isn’t good! They are catching up on us! We won’t make it out in time!” Derpy announced.

Despite being exhausted, Twilight’s brain was hard at work, trying to come up with anything. She looked around. There was nothing useful nearby. There was no alternate path they could take. Once more, she looked back to observe the situation. What she saw then made the rest of the escape seem like it was going in slow motion to her.

Twilight caught the precise moment where Crystal Blossom had decided to stop running. She just stood there, staring at the purple mare without any expression.

“Crystal! No!” the purple mare shouted.

All her friends now looked back as well, the shock in their faces growing slowly as they all seemingly were running in slow motion now. Crystal Blossom bowed down shortly as a sign to say farewell. They couldn’t stop. They couldn’t turn back to get her. All they could do was keep running and watch as the elder reaper mare turned around to face her doom.

Crystal waited until they were far enough away. Then she began to cast the strongest ice spell she knew. Her white mane and tail fluttered around in a magical breeze, as if they were made of snow. Frost started to form on the wall of the tunnel and the temperature dropped very rapidly. The light blue mare closed her eyes, snowflakes swirling around her body and gathering up above her head. Then suddenly, an icy portal opened, letting a Windigo through moments later.

These sinister winter spirits were known to be capable of turning entire continents into freezing cold deserts, even when in tiny numbers. It instantly began to turn the whole tunnel into one solid piece of ice. The demons became slowed down more and more, until they stopped moving entirely. Only one could keep on fighting against the powerful spell. Only Despair could force her way ever closer to Crystal Blossom, who was frozen immobile herself at this point. Finally, the Windigo disappeared again.

Although they both were stuck in the ice, Despair would be able to get out much sooner than Crystal. Just inches separated the two of them, both facing each other. Then Despair began to grin sinisterly.

“You will do,” she stated in satisfaction.

---

The troop and the rescued diamond dogs kept running. Only that they weren’t trying to escape from the demons anymore, but from the huge glacier which was filling the tunnel more and more. They could barely make it outside before the entrance was entirely sealed.

“Crystal…” Fluttershy commented.

Many had lost their lives in this mission. Soldiers, some reapers and of course a lot of diamond dogs. But none would have expected one of the circle members to die tonight. With tears in their eyes, they all stared at the entrance. Twilight approached it and placed her hooves against the block, peeking inside. But there was no trace of the reaper mare.

“Not another… I… I lost another friend…” the purple mare mumbled while the tears began to roll down her face.

As the others caught their breaths from this sprint and slowly started to cheer up over the realization that they just survived, the circle members gathered up and began to mourn, here at the wall of ice.