"Is something wrong?" I ask Celestia. I had just walked into the throne room for my turn to take petitioners which starts one hour after Celestia's turn so this is the first time she was even in the room when I came to work. It looks like I walked in on an important meeting with her, Cadence and Shining Armor.

"A great city we once thought lost has returned up in the frozen north." Celestia said. About time. I was wondering when it would return. "It is called the Crystal Empire and it is crucial that we get there first. The empire can spread harmony or darkness throughout all of Equestria depending on its inhabitants. That's why I'm sending Cadence to secure it." Celestia said with determination.

Shining loudly cleared his throat causing Celestia to look down at him questioningly. Shining Armor used a hoof to gesture to himself while giving Celestia a 'forgetting somepony?' look. "Is there something you would like to add?" Celestia asked him causing one of his eyes to twitch.

"Yes princess. I'm going too." Shining reminded her.

"Well that goes without saying. You two are married and it would be cruel to split you two up. We will need Cadence to stay there to rule over it and keep the inhabitants happy." Celestia said with a smile causing Shining's shoulders to slump. Rolling my eyes I make a mental connection with Celestia.

Celestia remember some of those stories I used to tell you and Luna about superheroes and supervillains? Remember how a lot of those villains went bad?

Yes I remember. But what does that have to do with...oh.

"Also with the Goodly Heroes and the displaced it is of the utmost importance that we have a strong military leader to protect it." Celestia said with a smile causing Shining to stick out his chest and salute.

"I won't let you down Princess!" He said proudly.

"I would like to go to. I understand there was a powerful darkness user in that city and I want to raid his library."

"Absolutely not! We want the Crystal Empire to be powered by love and harmony to create such magic and you know your magic doesn't mix with those things." She said as she grew larger before my eyes. "Why are you shrinking yourself?" She asked in confusion. She got her answer once I was the size of a foal and hit her with the puppy pout. The force of the blow was enough to almost cause Celestia to fall off the throne. Though Celestia was slowly weakening Cadence had no resistance at all and I was quickly pulled away from my bodyguards and into the embrace of the princess of love.

"Er, don't you have some minions that aren't of the darkness and would be fine? You can send some with my student. I already sent her a letter and she will be going to help get the place working and to take a little test. I would like her to have some protection anyways all things considered." Celestia said in defeat. "We estimate that the tracks will be ready to take them by train tomorrow. The train will leave Canterlot at around six in the afternoon."

"What if I'm needed? Can I go then?" I ask and it looks like she was about to object when her face melted and distorted in my vision as I forced my eyes to water.

"No, not even you can make me bend on this. Aunty I forbid you from entering the borders of the Empire." She said in a tone that left no room for discussion. What I got from that however was you can go to the area outside its borders as long as you don't go in which was fine with me as I had no intention of getting in range of that heart or being in it when it was placed. I was just going to create a portal and gun it when that barrier came down.

"Fine" I say as I slump in Cadence's forelegs as she cuddled and cooed at me to try to cheer me up. With a sigh I regrow myself to normal size and climb out of Cadence's embrace and went back to my guards. "I'm skipping out on taking audience today. I have some things I need to do before that train leaves in the morning."

"That's alright. Court has been canceled for today." Celestia said with her normal regal tone now that she was free from the puppy pout.

The next day.

"Why does Trixie need to go?" Trixie asked with a frown.

"Because I trust you to do the job." I answer with a smile. "Besides you can't keep avoiding them forever." I say causing Trixie's eyes to widen at my knowing what she was doing.

"Trixie doesn't know what you're talking about." She lied.

"Whatever you say Trix. Just find me Sombra's stash." I say as I bring up a tail and tickle her chin which she responded to by pushing it away with a hoof and backing away.

"Fine" She said in defeat.

"Oh and take this, just in case." I say as I give her a dragon bone box I used to contain dangerous artifacts back in the day.

"What is it?" Trixie asked as she took the box.

"Dragon bone box for if you come across any dangerous artifacts. Also there are some shadows in there for if you need some quick, expendable backup." I answer.

"Shadows? You mean like what was used to turn that construct into scrap metal in that cursed story book? If you can create such things why didn't you make some for the army?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It takes a lot of magic to create them, the spell is master level which means it's extremely complex and they're too easily destroyed by bright lights or positive energy magic of any kind. If the paper dolls that were used to cast them are damaged or if the light that was used to create them ever goes out they disappear and like the skeletons they wander aimlessly when they have nothing to fight and they're much harder to contain. In other words they're high maintenance minions, undead are better except in portability and with portals that is normally not an issue. They aren't even invulnerable to basic attacks they're just hard to hit because they move so fast. If you're going to use them just make sure there are no bright lights around including sunlight." I say getting a nod from her as she carefully stores the box in her bag. I waved goodbye as Trixie and two of my dragons left for the the train to the Crystal Empire before leaving to give Namiro some more training.

"Twilight!" Applejack called out to her friend once she reached the train station before giving her a hug. "Did you pass?" Before Twilight could get past her surprise of her best friends and even her therapist being there Spike was sent flying a short distance from being hit by Pinkie's patented Party cannon.

"Are we going to celebrate your awesomeness with princess Celestia?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly before her party cannon went off while facing up and pinkie jumped up with the confetti shot out of the weapon of mass celebration.

"Not quite." Twilight responded causing Pinkie to stop mid air along with the confetti before both came down at the same time, the confetti being sucked back into the cannon it came from. "We're going to the Crystal Empire!" Twilight said with determination causing her friends to look to each other in confusion except for Dr. Wolf who waited calmly, not acting surprised at all.

Twilight gave a quick explanation as they moved toward the train that had been reserved for this and found their seats and waited to go. "No worries Twilight. Like you're going to fail a test." Rainbow Dash said with a wave of her hoof.

"Indeed darling, I'm sure you'll do fine. Oh I just can't wait to see an empire made entirely out of crystals. It must look positively marvelous." Rarity said as she looked through her luggage and decided to look for the best scarf for the cold climate. To think they laughed when she packed these scarfs. Well who's laughing now!

"Ya! And when you're done with your test we can throw a big party to celebrate you passing and have it double as a welcome back party for all those crystal ponies!" Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly as she bounced around. "I bet the eleven of us can show those ponies how we party future stile!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Pinkie's words before replying. "Pinkie There are eight of us."

"Oh don't worry Twilight. I forgot some lessons I learned in school too. You just need a refresher course!" Pinkie said with a huge smile causing Twilight's eye to twitch at Pinkie implying that she was bad at basic addition. Her annoyance grew to confusion when Pinkie pulled out a large card with pictures with plus signs between each group. "Seven ponies plus three dragons plus one wolf equals eleven!"

Squinting her eyes Twilight leaned forward and focused on the extra unicorn pinkie added to the equation. "Wait...is that?" Her thoughts were interrupted when the very unicorn and dragons from the picture walked through the door just before it closed and made their way to their seats. "Trixie?" Twilight asked in bewilderment. "What are you doing here? This train was reserved to take those authorized by princess Celestia."

"Ya! What do you think you're doing here fraud!?" Rainbow Dash demanded angrily as she shoved her face in Trixie's forcing the magician's head back.

"Trixie IS authorized to be here mindless thug!" Trixie said as she pushed back.

"Hey quit rocking the boat!" a tiny voice called out making Rainbow pull back and give Trixie's hat a wide eyed look.

"Did your hat just talk?" Rainbow Dash asked with confusion. Trixie just rolled her eye and lifted her hat from her head revealing the tiny ponies that were riding on her head. With a bewildered look Rainbow opened her mouth to speak but before she could she was rammed from the side sending her flying into the next car by Fluttershy who had forgotten her fears.

"Breezies!" She whispered excitedly as she got close at Trixie's little assistants. "Oh look at how cute and little they are. It's so nice of you to protect the frail little ones." Fluttershy said to Trixie.

"Frail? Protect? We are masters of stealth and great treasure hunters!" The lead rogue said with indignation.

"Sure you are." Rainbow snorted as she walked back up to them. Normally she would be raising a stink about getting knocked down but it was Fluttershy. The Breezies on Trixie's head are probably made of tougher stuff.

"Do not mock us! We are not like those pushovers that need constant babysitting. We can slip through a crack unnoticed and fly on the air like a poisonous gas. Silent but deadly." At those words Rainbow and Pinkie fell to the floor laughing. "What is so funny? We really are dangerous! Especially in enclosed spaces like this where you can't roll down the windows." The lead Breezie said causing Rainbow and Pinkie to laugh harder. "I can knock you out all by myself! I can hit you with something real nasty right in the nose so powerful you'll be out cold in no time...What is so funny!? Stop laughing!"

"I'm sure they aren't laughing at you. They're laughing with you." Fluttershy said reassuringly as she got up on the seat next to Trixie and scooted right up next to the magician which made Trixie uncomfortable.

"So you'll be working with us?" Twilight asked Trixie with a warm smile.

"No. Trixie and her friends are tasked with another job." Trixie said getting confused looks from the two dragons.

"Friends? I don't think you've ever spoken with either of us." The dragoness said before shaking her head but then took notes of Spike. "Hi there little guy. What's your name sweaty?" She asked in baby talk.

"I'm Spike...and please stop talking to me like that." Spike replied with a flat look causing the dragoness to look surprised at the sound of his voice.

"I'm Cynder and this is my brother Brimstone. If I may ask, how old are you?"

"I'm fifteen, why?" He asked with a raised brow causing Cynder to practically choke on the air.

"But you look like you're no older than four! You're only one year younger than me? Haven't you been eating your meats?" She asked causing most of the ponies to go pail with the only exceptions being Fluttershy, Rainbow and Trixie.

"But...Spike doesn't eat meat! He needs gems! Not much is recorded on Dragons but the leading experts agree that gems are what dragons need to survive." Twilight said queasily yet in a lecturing tone.

"You honestly believe some cowardly ponies that were too afraid of us to ask us anything over a dragon on what a dragon needs?" Cynder asked in annoyance. Suddenly Twilight's face returned to it's natural color and she got sparkles in her eyes as she realized that she had a dragon sitting in front of her filled with draconic knowledge. Twilight quickly pulled out a quill and notepad before moving to sit next to Sender.

"Tell me everything!" Twilight said excitedly.

"First of all Gems are important for the bones and scales to grow stronger. If he eats the right kinds of gems and ores he could become a black dragon like we're becoming thanks to princess Rin. Also hay and flowers are bad for us so he should never eat those. Fruits like apples and bananas that you ponies like are ok but he needs meat. Honestly has nopony wondered what those sharp teeth were for? If he doesn't get a steady diet it's only a matter of time before he dies of malnourishment." Cynder said causing everypony to go silent. A look of horror on all of Twilight's friends but Spike's was the most disturbed. "Let me see that." Cynder said as she took the notepad and quill from Twilight. "I'll write down his needs." As Cynder worked and Trixie was freed from being unintentionally snuggled by Fluttershy who was now with spike and Rarity fussing over him along with the marshmallow unicorn. A fact that was making Spike feel much better very quickly. They moved through the mountains and through the snow to their destinations. With the tension in the cart Trixie wondered if Rin was laughing at this. She doubted that even the ancient fox in all her years has been in this awkward of a situation.

"Pull harder!" Octavia shouted as she tried to pull her face away from Rin's fluffy butt while Rin tried to pull her head away from Vinyl's while all three were sandwiched between the backs of Table Top the corpse collector and Claw the boneclaw and all of them were glued together by multicolored slime which they were covered in.

"We'd better hurry. I had bean burritos with my blood for lunch today." Vinyl said passively.

"You better hold it in." I tell her in a warning tone and I lift up one of the new toys I got from the world of that Terraria displaced. I have no idea what it does but it's something he made for me out of some of the drops my minions brought back from their level grinding so it's worth checking. I waive it in the air like a magic wand and a giant hornet appears out of thin air.

"NOT THE BEES!" Table top shouted in panic as he started splashing in the slime in an attempt to swim away.

"Stop! I think it's my minion! And your think hide protects you from bee stings!" I shout to get him to calm down and stop making more slime rain down on us. I try again to create another one and it works but the first one disappears. "Oh well I guess one will have to do for this job. Hey little guy you think you can use that giant stinger to cut this slime sticking us together?" I ask and it nods and flies closer but before it can get too close Table Top lets out a high pitched scream and manages to jump out of the slime and runs for the door but due to being so large he had to duck to fit through the door.

"Wait Table Top stop! If you run through the door We'll-" That's as far as I got before we collided with the top part of the door frame and everything went black.

Back on the train both teams were unaware of the dangers ahead and the ones that were hiding on the train with them. For hiding in the luggage cart was a dangerous group that came to canterlot to gain something precious but upon learning of the Crystal Empire from eavesdropping on the Elements has stowed away. Who knows what untold destruction they well cause.

"This is great! A magic city that disappeared that was ruled by an evil king! Think he'll still be there? We can get our cutie marks in fighting evil!" Scootaloo said excitedly.

"I don't know, it sounds dangerous." Apple Bloom said with a tone of concern

"Don't worry our sisters and the other Elements will be there and they're national heroes." Sweetie Belle said reassuringly. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Author's Notes:

I wanted it to go much further but I cut it here and the rest of it will be in the next chapter. And while Trixie and her party were on there way to the Empire and after the lessons for Namiro Rin was called by a displaced by EquestrianNecromancer in the story Equestria's New Adventurer