An eerie quiet descended upon the Empire as Fluttershy landed. Releasing Twilight, she turned and began to walk away. That didn't fly.

"Wait!"

A dam broke loose, and the city was again alive, ponies asking questions, some running towards the train station, knowing what was about to happen did not involve them.

"Damn it all, I told you all to stop!"

It was like the ponies couldn't decide what force was the one they should listen to: confusion, fear, or Harvest? At this current moment, they all again decided Harvest, and once more froze in place.

Well, almost all. Fluttershy was still walking, Twilight was on her hooves and speeding after her.

Before the alicorn could reach her friend, Harvest floated up from the balcony, then slammed down in front of the pegasus. He towered over her, his dark yellow eyes blazing. "I know that magic anywhere! Where is Sombra?!"

Fluttershy, who had her head hung the entire time, finally looked up and snarled, "Fuck off!"

Slacked jaws and bulging eyes greeted her words as the citizens of the Empire stared at her like she'd lost her mind. Which they weren't entirely sure she hadn't, everypony knew who she was, and they knew that she had obviously faked her own death for unexplained reasons.

That, and she'd just bad-mouthed this clearly very powerful pegasus who could probably kill her in seconds.

However, Harvest didn't take the mouthing off as bad as everypony thought he would. Instead, he laughed and looked around. "I must say, Sombra, you have chosen a feisty one!" He suddenly looked back over at Fluttershy. Grabbing her gently under the chin, he lifted her face till their noses were only millimeters apart. "And you know just how much I like fiery things."

Opal, who had been watching the scene in growing horror, could take it no longer. His ex-brother's words infuriating him to the brink of madness, Sombra dropped his illusioned body and shot between his wife and Harvest, snapping, "Stay away from her, you fucking monster!"

To the side, Twilight could not believe what was happening. Harvest hitting on Fluttershy, and then Sombra risking everything to rush to her defense, it made her brain nearly shut down. Then she remembered what she was here for. She had to keep the two apart. They could decimate the Empire if they fought, and who knows what new tricks Harvest now had up his sleeve? There was no way he'd come out of hiding without being certain he could win.

As she knocked herself out of her shock, the princess realized Sombra already had his horn lit, while Harvest's feet were glowing orange.

She could not let things go any farther. She may have lost the use of her wings for now, but the alicorn never had really cared much for them. Her special ability was magic, and it would be more than enough to stop the two feuding siblings.

Quickly, she ran between the two, her horn glowing purple as she put up a barrier of magic on either side of her, separating them from both each other and her. "Enough! This rivalry has gone on for a millennium! It's getting ridiculous and dangerous. As Princess of Friendship, you are both ordered to stand down, or severe action will be taken!"

Sombra, for all his years of having listened to Cadence, as well as learning about Twilight's power, knew better than to argue, and allowed his horn to stop glowing. Harvest, meanwhile, started to laugh. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Only Luna, Celestia, and whoever it is I knocked out up there are loyalty! You're just some stupid, useless alicorn they don't know what to do with!"

Oh boy. He should not gave said that. Twilight stiffened like a block of ice, her head turning slowly toward him as a dark smile lit her face. "You know," she said casually, dropping the barrier between her and Harvest, "there was a time I would have let those words get to me. But now, I've grown past all that silly nonsense."

Without warning, Harvest was flung across the Square and through a solid crystal wall, straight into somepony's house. Silver dust floated through the air, and chunks of debris flew into the crowd, hitting several ponies in the process, while others tried to scramble out of the way.

Red Harvest emerged from the wreckage, his face twisted in fury. "How dare you. How fucking dare you!" he screamed.

Another explosion occurred as Harvest glowed dark orange. His eyes took on a midnight blue glow, and he reared up, slamming his hooves down onto the crystalline earth. The ground rumbled as copper-colored crystals erupted from the ground, spreading across the entire Empire as Harvest released his rage.

The Crystal ponies, almost all of whom had been knocked back by the blast from earlier, got up to run, realizing they should have let fear control their actions in the first place.

Before any could leave, however, four giant, spiked orange crystals rose from the ground, surrounding the city as they began to rise, the plan to have them meet high above the Crystal Palace, trapping everypony within the city.

Twilight turned to look at Fluttershy and Sombra, panic etched across her face. "We have to get out of here and gather the others! We need them to defeat Harvest!"

Fluttershy knew her probably ex-friend, who would more than likely want nothing to do with her after they were done with this ordeal because of what she did, was right. But how were they to get out? The walls were rising way too quickly for them to fly out before they closed, and Twilight had obviously put a lot of effort into the blast that had sent Harvest flying. That left only...

The pegasus looked at her husband, eyes pleading. "Opal, we really need to do what Twilight suggests! It would be foolish to stay and fight right now! Please, teleport us out!"

Sombra was shaken from his thoughts, most of them filled with hate for Red Harvest, before turning to Fluttershy. "Oh, of course, Lily." He glanced over at Twilight, who was examining him skeptically. "And Princess," he muttered.

For her part, the alicorn was at least holding back her protests. It was true she had put a lot of her magical energy into her Fly-Fry Bolt, she wasn't used to using spells meant for battle. She mainly left that up to her Element.

Still, she could not hold back her mistrust of the ex-tyrant. True, she knew his sad past now, but that still didn't explain his change, nor how Fluttershy was alive after he had supposedly killed her, and the relationship between them was like a blow to the face. Had her best friend left her for a pony who was renowned for his evil?

Before she could ask any of these questions, Sombra's horn lit red. His eyes narrowed as Fluttershy found herself and Twilight encased in red, and they could feel Sombra working his magic to teleport them outside the city. It was at that moment Twilight felt she forgot something.

Unfortunately, just as they were about to flash out, a hoof slammed into Sombra, and the black male alicorn was sent skidding past the Crystal Heart.

Standing where he had been a few seconds ago was a pissed Harvest, his entire body still glowing orange, but his eyes had become normal. "You are not going anywhere, brother!" he screamed, his eyes narrowing with hate.

Twilight could tell this was gonna go downhill fast. If Sombra fought Harvest, he wouldn't have enough magic to get them out if things went bad. Sombra had to get out right now, or else he would undoubtedly be defeated in his weakened state, having probably not used his magic in the seven years since his disappearance. Harvest had more than likely been preparing for this day since his banishment.

"No!"

The five ponies were startled by the sound of a new voice, and they looked up just in time to see Cadence tackle Harvest, her horn flaring. "Go, now, Sombra, Fluttershy, Twilight! Get help!"

Twilight shook her head, mortified at the idea of leaving her sister-in-law and brother here with that monster. "Cadence, I can't just-" Before she could protest further, she found herself suddenly standing in a field.

The princess looked about wildly until she realized she was not alone. Anger and despair filled her heart as she realized what had happened. Just as she was about to yell at them, there was a loud, BOOM!, and they turned their attention to the Empire, just in time to see the orange crystals meet and close the Crystal Empire inside.

"That was close."

It took Twilight two seconds to pin Sombra to the ground. "What do you mean that was close?! My brother and sister are still in there, not to mention all those helpless crystal ponies! How could you take us out of there?! We need to go back!"

Sombra shoved the alicorn off, glaring as he stood back up. "Even if I wanted to, we can't. The crystals enclosing the Empire are like the ones I used to trap you when we first met. If we go back in, there is no coming back out. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to save this country, instead of letting it get destroyed."

Twilight blinked at him, trying to comprehend what he was saying. "Wait...you're actually good? I just assumed..." Sombra rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What? That I hypnotized Lily and made her come with me, slowly plotting my revenge. You can't even remember anyt-"

He was cut off by a hoof in his mouth. He looked over to see Fluttershy shaking her head vehemently. Sighing, he pulled his wife's hoof away with a look that promised he wouldn't tell.

Twilight, meanwhile, was looking back and forth between them, more confused than angry now. "Why do you keep calling Fluttershy Lily? And why'd you call him Opal? Hell, why and how did you two even disguise yourself and get married?"

Neither of them said anything. They might have, had one of Harvest's crystals not shot from the ground besides them, nearly skewering them all.

It was then they realized the ground was littered with the crystals, she and the glowing orange veins from which the crystals were coming were spreading out in all directions, heading out across Equestria.

Sombra looked a little lost. "I don't understand how he got his power back. I completely drained him."

Twilight's eyes blazed with sudden determination. "There's only one place to go for answers." She pointed at toward the horizon "The Everfree Forest."

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Luna was quietly laying on her bed, watching the busy streets of Canterlot below. Above them all, a beautiful afternoon sun shone brightly. But while this sun was comfort for most, it made Luna grumble. It was obvious she did not care for heat.

Suddenly, it felt like somepony had socked the princess, making her shoot wide awake, having began to doze. She gasped as images seemed to flash before her very eyes. She would have assumed it was her life she was seeing and something was about to happen that would kill her, but the memories awakening in her brain were of only one specific year of her life, a year she didn't know she was missing.

Leaping from her bed, Luna galloped out of her bedroom, surprising the guards outside her door as she raced down the hall.

Please don't let anypony remember, or have found it, she begged inwardly, head still spinning with pictures. Rushing into the throne room, she shocked her sister and the visiting noble by running onto the balcony and leaping off it.

"Luna?!" she heard her sister exclaim behind her, but ignored her as she fell, pulling up at the last second and hitting a wall. Well, at least she was supposed to hit one, but instead, she passed right through with a sucking sound. Celestia and the noble rushed onto the balcony just as she vanished, staring in confusion at the spot they should see Luna's injured body.