With a light jerk the train came to a stop and the doors slid open and everyone grabbed their things while the breezies tucked themselves back into Trixie's mane before she secured her hat back onto her head.

"Ha! And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves." Rarity gloated as she happily trotted out the door and onto the snow covered platform.

"I didn't say a word." Spike said with some strain under the weight of the luggage he was carrying before slipping on the icy ground and falling onto his behind and dropping all of Rarity's bags on the ground. One of which busted open which allowed the scarves to start blowing away in the wind but everyone's attention was drawn to the one that said ouch three times. With some curiosity Cynder picked up the suitcase and opened it to find three little pony heads sticking out of a wrapped up bundle of cloth snuggled up to try and stay warm.

"Apple Bloom?"

"Sweetie Bell?"

"Scootaloo?" Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash asked at the same time when they saw the three crusaders.

"What in tarnation are you three doing here?" Applejack demanded. Despite the intense cold the three fillies took in a lung full of the freezing air and everyone who knew the three quickly covered their ears. But team Trixie was unable to react in time.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS EPIC HEROES YAY!!!" The Crusaders shouted out causing Trixie and the dragons to cringe in pain and Trixie was sure she felt the breezies dig themselves deeper into her mane until they reached her scalp.

"Twilight!" A voice called out to the group as a pony ran up to them.

"Shining Armor!" Twilight called out as she ran up to give her big brother a hug but he stopped her with a hoof.

"No time for that now. He would have heard that horrible and will be on his way now! Come on!" Shining said as he turned around and urged them all to follow.

"Who would have heard that? What's going on here?" Twilight asked as she and the others chased him, the crusaders still being carried by Cynder in Rarity's bag.

"No time and please keep quiet. You're making it easier for him to find us." Shining replied as he slowly increased his pace.

"Oh, please, we have more experience defending Equestria and fighting bad guys than you. So I think we know what we're doing. Now will you tell us what's going on so we can kick the bad guy's flank? We are the professionals here." Rainbow Dash said with pride causing Shining Armor's eye to twitch at Rainbow's words.

Before Twilight could reprimand Rainbow Dash sinister laughter crept in from the snow storm raging around them and a black cloud came in as if to consume them. From the dark mass came a face of a black and grey unicorn with a curved horn that turned from grey to red as it went up to its pointed tip and his eyes looked very similar to Rin's in color and even had those wisps coming out of the sides like she does when she gets worked up or is casting a spell.

"Run!" Shining shouted in panic as he redoubled his efforts to get to the city and the rest were close on his tail.

"Why aren't we just fighting it?" Rainbow asked as she flew over her retreating friends.

"You can't touch him! Princess Celestia said he was turned into shadows so he's intangible!" Twilight shouted back. As they were running a strange window appeared in thin air in front of Dr. Wolf which he smacked face first into with a thunk and fell flat on his back.

"I get his hate mail now!?" Dr. Wolf shouted out as he brings his hands up to his nose.

"Doctor!" Twilight and her friends all shouted at once as they stopped to help him. Seeing the rapidly approaching cloud of darkness and knowing that there is no way they would get away in time now Trixie remembered what Rin had told her about the shadows in the box and if he's made of shadows...

"Everyone cover your eyes!" Trixie shouted as she turned back and charged up her fireworks spell but skipped the part that colors it and overcharged the spell causing a blindingly bright light that hurt her eyes even through her eyelids. A pained scream filled the air and when she opened her eyes she saw that the cloud of shadows was still there but stopped moving towards them and seemed to be swaying in a blind daze. Not happy that her plan didn't work like she wanted but not willing to admit it Trixie quickly grabbed the dazed ponies that didn't close their eyes and ran for the giant light blue bubble with the others that weren't blinded by Trixie's light where right there with her.

They were almost there when they heard an enraged shout and when they looked back they saw the black cloud moving at them again at greater speeds.

"Almost there. Keep going I'll slow him down!" Shining armor said as he turned and attacked the moving cloud of darkness only for the magical blast to pass harmlessly through Sombra creating a small hole that quickly sealed shut before Sombra moved in. But before Sombra could get Shining Armor the unicorn was grabbed by Brimstone who quickly used his wings to carry the prince and himself through the barrier just as the others made it through.

"Is everyone ok?" Twilight asked the others getting some tired nods from some of the others. She rushed over to her brother as Brimstone set him down and gave him a quick nuzzle.

"Sparklerific!" Pinkie said in astonishment at the sight of the Crystal empire causing everyone else to look at the sight.

"Would ya look at that! It's like something from a story book." Apple Bloom said as she and her two friends jumped out of the piece of luggage that Cynder was using to carry them. Once it was free of the fillies Cynder just shrugged and tossed the suitcase over her shoulder and back out into the snowstorm outside.

"Sure does." Applejack agreed as the crusaders came up beside the main six.

"Why, I bet there are some amazing things in that there city that could keep a filly busy and out of more dangerous places for days." Apple Bloom continued.

"I bet there is. A shame that you're grounded and will stay out of them dangerous places by staying in one room." Applejack replied causing the crusaders to wince as they were picked up by their sisters and Rainbow Dash and carried through the city.

"This place is simply dazzling!" Rarity gushed over the city as they walked through it and looking at all of the scaired crystal ponies.

"Ya, everything is so shiny!" Sweetie Bell said excitedly as she reached out with a hoof to touch something on a stand only to knock over a crystal vase which rolled over and hit a crystal stick holding up a crystal roof over another stand that fell over and crushed the crystal berries splattering the mess all over the pony next to them.

"My berries!" The pony shouted in horror as Rarity turned her head and gave Sweetie an angry look.

"Oops." Sweetie said with a nervous smile.

"Are you ok miss Trixie?" Dr. Woolf asked drawing the attention of the others allowing them to see Trixie looking at the mess that the filly just made with a bewildered look.

"Trixie is fine. She doesn't know why but for some reason Trixie feels like that should have been cabbages and because it was berries instead some kind of fundamental law of the multiverse was just broken." Trixie said while giving the squashed berries a wide eyed look before shaking her head and continuing forward. "The great and powerful Trixie should be more focused on her work."

"O...K?" Dr. Wolf said with a confused look on his face as they followed her to the castle. After a short walk the party made it to the crystal castle where Trixie instantly took off her hat.

"You have your orders. Now do your magic." Trixie said to the team that had been riding on her head that flew up and gave her a salute.

"Yes! We will find king Sombra's socks!" The leader shouted out excitedly causing Twilight and her friends to gasp and blush and the three that had a filly quickly covered the fillies ears while giving the breezies disgusted glares one would give a shameless pervert. "What? The socks of an ancient dark tyrant can be sold for a pretty bit." The leader said before another whispered something into his ear. "Oh, right. First we find secret evil lair with long lost relics so Trixie can do her job...And then socks!" He shouted out causing her team to cheer and fly off chanting the word socks over and over again.

"What are socks?" Apple Bloom asked getting nervous looks from the adults in the room except for Applejack who glared at her.

"That there is a grownup thing you have no business talking about! Now I gotta wash your mouth out with soap when we get home." Applejack chastised getting a confused look from her little sister. "And not the kind made from apples!" Applejack finished causing Apple Bloom's look of confusion to change to one of horror.

"You mean?" Apple Bloom asked and Applejack nodded.

"That's right! The soap granny uses!" Applejack confirmed causing Apple Bloom to suddenly look very sick. "Oh don't you give me that look, soap is soap. It's self cleaning! Just try not to think about where it's been."

"Easy for you to say! It's not going in your mouth! Please don't do it Applejack! I promise I'll never say socks again!" Apple Bloom begged getting an angry glare from her sister. "...That time didn't count!"

"Oh yes it did! And for your information I got the same treatment when I said bad words too." Applejack said angrily before grabbing her little sister off her back and hoofed her over to the doctor. "Sorry partner but we're a might busy here what with saving the empire and all. Can you watch the girls while we work on this?" Applejack asked as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were also hoofed over to him.

"Of course I will. I'm happy to help." He said with a smile as he followed a guard that Shining Armor called over to lead him to a room.

"Just make sure to not put them down till you barricaded all ways out and don't take your eyes off them for even a moment!" Rarity called out.

"Don't you think that's a little extreme?" Dr. Wolf asked which got an immediate response from all of the ponies from Ponyville.

"NO!"

One short walk later and they were in a guest room where the good doctor managed to barricade the door using only his feet.

"Well that was a challenge." He said as he set the crusaders down on the floor. "Now what made them think that all of this was necessary?" He asked as he looked over at the barricaded door. "Perhaps you girls would like to talk about why your sisters would-" He started to say before turning back to see that the CMC were gone and the window near by was opened when it was closed and locked before. "Girls?"

Trixie was rendered speechless. She had quite a few images in her head about Twilight Sparkle. She had envisioned her laughing maniacally as she planned elaborate plots to destroy the reputations of other unicorns for her amusement while the little dragon was curled up in her lap as she stroked his head with one hoof. She envisioned her being a stuck up jerk that only wanted to stroke her superiority complex like all of Trixie's teachers growing up. She had even envisioned her over a bubbling caldron chanting curses on innocent ponies while she prepared to dunk some caged foals into the pot. All of those thoughts and more went down the drain when she witnessed what had to be the most ridiculous greeting she had ever seen. And as a pony that had traveled all across Equestria and beyond she had seen plenty...and now Twilight and princess Cadence are bent over shaking their plots at each other. The bewilderment was quickly overcome when princess Cadence cringed in pain as the magic of her horn flickered out for a moment causing the love shield outside to flicker out as well.

"One of this days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance." Cadence said with a tired smile.

"Are you ok?" Twilight asked Cadence.

"Cadence has been able to use her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting the Empire. But she hasn't slept, barely eats. I want to help her but my protection spells have been countered by king Sombra." Shining Armor answered.

"It's alright Shining Armor I'm fine." Cadence tried to reassure him.

"She's not fine. She can't go on like this forever and if her magic were to fade, you saw what's out there waiting for that to happen." Shining said.

"That's why we're here." Twilight said reassuringly.

"Why we're all here." Applejack confirmed as she and all of Twilight's friends stepped forward.

"Hey watch it!" Everypony stopped and looked down in surprise at the tiny winged pony on the floor. Surprise turned to confusion when he...or she, no one there could tell, placed their head against the ground and tapped it a few times before, to the disgust of most in the room gave the floor a long lick. Giving a nod of satisfaction the small rogue flew up to Trixie and whispered something in her ear causing her to grow a smirk.

"Good work. Still keep looking incase this isn't it." Trixie ordered causing the little rogue to fly off. "Get back everyone and let Trixie work." After saying that Trixie took out and uncorked a small dragon bone metal vile and allowing a small drop to hit the ground. Once the black, inky substance hit the ground it rapidly foamed up and let off a light, black fog which caused the others to move away which was a good thing because the floor vanished leaving a deep hole with a spiraling staircase.

"What the buck is that stuff!?" Rainbow Dash demanded as she points to the vile as Trixie is putting it back in her saddle.

"Cursed, conjured water. Useful for getting past magic locks that use dark magic as a key." Trixie gloated before trotting down the stairs but stopped when she heard more hooves behind her. Turning her head she saw Twilight standing on the stairs behind her. "What are you doing?" Trixie asked in a deadpan.

"Well, we are here to save the Crystal Empire. And if you're going to King Sombra's private areas I'm coming to see what dirty things he has covered up." Twilight said causing Rainbow and Pinkie to start laughing into their hooves much to Twilight's confusion.

"Oh no! Trixie is under orders from princess Rin and princess Celestia to not let you read anything we find until it has been deemed safe." Trixie countered which shocked Twilight into taking a step back.

"I-I, w-what!? I'm not aloud to read them!?" Twilight shouted as she began to hyperventilate.

"Oh no ya don't!" Applejack said as she grabbed Twilight and started shaking her with everything she had. "Snap out of it!"

"App-le Jack st-op!" Twilight pleaded as she was flung from side to side.

"Come back to us Twi! Move towards the sound of my voice!" Applejack continued.

"I'm ba-ck! I'm back Stop!" Twilight shouted as she used her magic to restrain the farm pony and pull her off.

"Twilight we still need ponies to question the crystal ponies." Shining said to her. With a hum of thought Twilight spoke.

"Ok, what I said about king Sombra's lair still stands and we can probably find out how to reverse what king Sombra did to the crystal ponies there. But if princess Celestia said I can't read anything I'll need help. I need somepony to read things for me. One who won't care about what's inside the notes and just look for clues in them. So I'll need one of you to come with me while the rest go and talk with the crystal ponies." Twilight said to her friends.

"ME!" Rainbow Dash called out excitedly before flying over to Twilight. "I just bet this place will have awesome traps, lurking monsters and a giant temple guardian to beat up! I'll read for that!"

"Ok we have a volunteer. Rainbow Dash will come with us and everypony else will go question the locals!" Twilight announced.

"Hold on! Trixie was put in charge of this operation not you! You have your own job! Don't get in the way of Trixie's!" Trixie shouted angrily.

"Of course you're in charge. You call the shots." Twilight said with a smile.

"What?" Rainbow and Trixie asked at the same time in bewilderment.

"She was put in charge of securing and dealing with anything dangerous that king Sombra has down there by the princesses. They wouldn't do that if she couldn't be trusted or do the job right." Twilight said with a sincere smile. "I'm just asking from one mage to another to allow us to accompany you so that we might save all of those ponies out there. I promise not to touch anything and what you say goes." Trixie's mouth opened and closed a few times as she stared wide eyed at Twilight. She hadn't expected that at all. She wanted to refuse Twilight but after hearing that she sighed.

"Fine. But no touching anything until Trixie gives it the all clear." Trixie demanded getting a friendly smile and a nod from Twilight which greatly confused Trixie. With a sigh Trixie decided to just focus on the job and started down the stairs which would no doubt be a chore on its own from the long climb down followed closely by Twilight, Rainbow and her two dragon guards. As they went down the others left the room and no one noticed three small forms climb in through the window and moved to follow the team that from what they heard promised more excitement. This is turning out to be a lousy day. Trixie bets none of the others are putting up with anything worse than this! Trixie thought to herself grumpily.

Meanwhile in the dungeon.

Namiro slowly staggered out of his room in the dungeon. When he was able to go through the higher level training without losing control, screaming like a foal or losing control of his bodily functions Rin had upped the training to channeling the darkness while sparing so that he could learn to keep control in tense situations. Unfortunately for him when she asked if he would like to chose his sparring partner he decided not to go with the hydra and chose Cluck Norris instead. Even with Rin’s healing magic and the love he got afterwards he was drained and went to his room for a nap. But now he was awake again and still felt like he was hit by a truck.

“Greetings intern Namiro! Art thou well? Thy movements resembles greatly the staggering of a shambling zombie.” The voice of Luna rang out as she walked up to him. Using her magic to pull a giant cooking pot that just barely fit in the hallway. The slight shaking of the pot as if something alive was inside and trying to get outside and the air around it had the rancid smell of rot, feces, fruits and spices. “Mayhaps a taste of our home cooking will liven thy step. We poured a great deal of love into our cooking!”

Namiro looked to the pot. “Well… it depends… will your cooking try to eat me?” He asked as he gave the pot an appraising once-over. “Changelings don’t have to eat physical food after all, only the energy from emotions sustains us.” Luna laughs at his words as she uses her magic to remove the lid. Without the lid blocking it off the true smell of Luna’s cooking hit him full force almost knocking him out again.

“Thy jests amuse us! Food that eats you?” She said as she takes a large wooden spoon and dips it in. When she pulls it back up it holds bubbling, pulsating, glob of slime that looks like a cross between jello, spinach, play dough and pus. There are a few connecting pieces of the substance attaching it the the rest of it in the pot that almost looks like it's trying to pull itself back together. Before Luna could pull it away however the parts of the spoon that had the stuff on it came off from the handle. But it didn’t break. The smooth liquidised tip of the large spoon showed that it was melted.

“It appears that the spoons do not hold the same enchantments as the pots. It matters not.” She said as she uses her magic to pull out a large chunk which caused whatever it was in the pot to go ballistic in there. “Now taste of the splendors of our labor!” She said cheerfully as the glob was magically floated in front of Namiro’s mouth.

“I’m sorry… I’m going to have to decline… if it can eat through even a wooden spoon, I suggest taking a cooking class.” Namiro replied with a sheepish smile. “Simply by observing what enchantments are needed on the pot and what happened to the spoon I can only say that whatever is in front of me will be considered an assassination attempt.” He quickly began walking the other way. “I’d be happy to try something that doesn’t require enhancements in order to cook…”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Luna said as she picked him up in her magic. “There is nothing wrong with our cooking. We have hundreds of years of experience!” Luna gloated as she forcefully crammed the glop into his mouth. “Taste the perfection!” Luna exclaimed happily as the substance burned his mouth but the love put into it helped heal his mouth at the same time.

Once it was down the changeling coughed and spluttered, letting out a shudder as he tried to brace himself. “...It could use less live rat… I don’t know if changelings painfully turn living creatures into gel or not if they’re consumed…” he shuddered.

“How dare you insult us by claiming we would use rats as an ingredient! That was a fruit salad mixed with some kind of jello we found in a strange container. We believe the label said it was called smooze?” She asked aloud to herself. Just then the large container fell over from the movement inside and Luna’s ‘cooking’ lashed out at Namiro.

Still reeling from the attempt on his life he couldn’t react fast enough to avoid whatever foul beast Luna had summoned, earning a deep gash burnt across the already thin chitin covering his chest by the corrosive slime. The angry dessert then lunged forward and managed to grab onto his muzzle and force a large amount of itself down his throat. Forcing him to taste the rancid flavor again before pulling back out as if trying to get something back. It then started flailing about angrily but its movements made it look sick.

“Oh great! The dish fell on the floor! How are we going to serve it now? We so wanted to show our aunt how our cooking skills improved in a thousand years!” Luna complained as she looked at the angry monster.

The changeling gave her a flat look as he resisted the urge to hurl. “I’m going to give it to you straight… they got worse…” He replied. “There isn’t enough love in the world that would make me willing to eat that acid monster that you created again.” His body shook as he used the wall to brace himself as he straightened up. “I’ve heard that in most universes the princesses would rather have people be honest with them… so I’ll do you a favor now… enroll… in… a… cooking… class…” He emphasized.” Luna was about to reply but stopped when she heard voices approaching.

“Finally! Thanks for the help getting us unstuck from that stuff Wraith. That was the second slimiest mess I got stuck in.” Rin’s voice rang out.

“What was the first? Wait, do I want to know?” Octavia asked.

“When I first learned how to grow and shrink I didn’t have the magical reserves I have today and ran out at a tiny size and had to wait till I recharged to grow back. Unfortunately Luna found me and when she was a baby she had the habit of sticking anything that would fit up her nose. I was stuck up there till the next day when her mother had her blow her nose.” Rin replied making Luna blush in embarrassment. Rin, Vinyl, Octavia and a black, shadow like wolf with glowing white eyes they hadn't seen before walked in. Upon seeing Luna Rin smiled but got a sick look on her face as she sniffed the air. She looked at the monster throwing a tantrum then to the giant cooking pot.

“Luna did you make that? I can already tell your cooking skills have greatly improved!” She said with a smile. Getting a proud smile from Luna.

Namiro heaved as he limped down the hall. “If deadly food is an improvement… I would have hated to be around a thousand years ago…” He groaned as he kept himself braced against the wall.

“Hey, at least it doesn’t give off lethal doses of radiation anymore.” Rin said with a smile as she once again cast the healing spell on the changeling. But before he could move the monstrosity rolled over him. Trying to pull him in and digest the changeling.

Namiro scowled as his normally-green eyes shifted red and he held his hand out to send a jet of flame at the slime monstrosity. “No! Down… Bad assassin slime.” He growled.

“Honestly you're as bad as our aunty. She plays with her food too. Don’t thou think that thou are too old for that? Luna asked.

“The difference between her food and mine… is that I can get mine while playing with it… Most mortals tend to enjoy it…” He said with a smirk before his eye color returned to normal. “You should try it some time, unless you happen to be against bedding something of a different species.”

The monstrosity suddenly moved away to cower in a corner as the room’s temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. Namiro was suddenly filled with an overwhelming feeling of dread as he was lifted up and dropped into a chair that was just conjured. Next thing he knew Rin was sitting in front of him giving him a look that despite his training, made his blood run cold.

“So...what exactly are your intentions with my little Lulu?” She asked like a murderous father meeting their daughter’s first boyfriend.

“I have no intentions… Since the easiest way for me to be fed has been explained to you already, I don’t see how that changes anything. Besides… she tried to kill me, I don’t hold any hostilities, but if she wants to tease me regarding what I eat, I’m going to tease her right back.” Namiro replied as he regained his composure and sat with one leg over the other.

“What dost thou speak of? We teased thee not!” Luna said in an offended tone.

“Not with my little moon pie or sunny bunny.” Rin said as she let him up. “If you need it so badly I’ll send you someplace where you can find plenty of willing donors.” Rin said in a cold tone that showed she was still upset with what he said as she created a portal and dropped him in. When he came out of the other side and it closed behind him he looked around and found himself in some kind of retirement home. The small army of wrinkly old grannies took one look at him and got excited.

“Look at this girls! A ch-ch- one of them things that can look like whatever you want! Comer youngen, I got some love fer ya!” One of them said as the elderly ponies moved in like a pack of hungry wolves.

”Welp…” Namiro thought as he gave a small chuckle. ”If the movie Yes Man has taught me anything… it’s that the women with years under their belt know exactly what they want…” he smiled a little at the approaching women. “What can I help you beautiful ladies with first?” He offered as he tapped the chitin plate on his chest. He got his answer when they pulled out whips and other dominatrix gear and torture toys as they gave him feral grins with their toothless mouths. “Oh this is going to be fun…” He smirked.

Back with Trixie.

Trixie was feeling much better. Sometimes you should just sit back and enjoy the little things life throws your way. With a smile she was enjoying the show before her. When they got to the bottom Trixie was annoyed at first when the door ran away when they tried to go through it. But watching Rainbow Dash, the pony that had started the heckling that ultimately led up to the attack that Trixie had been blamed for, flying around trying and failing to outwit the door was an amusing sight. It grew more so when she managed to catch the door handle by sheer use of her speed only for the door to take off around the room once again dragging the pegasus around with it. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Twilight ended it by restraining the door with her magic and fell into a dark magic trap which went too far for Trixie's tastes.

"Brimstone could you do something about that gem." Trixie said with exasperation. Wordlessly the male dragon walked up to the door and pulled the gem out and without a thought popped it into his mouth and chewed on it like it was a piece of candy. With the gem destroyed and the curse unable to take root into anything do to not being strong enough to get past Brimstone's magic resistance Twilight was freed from her nightmare.

"W-what happened?" Twilight asked as she tried to shake the dizziness out of her head.

"You fell into a magic trap but it's gone now." Trixie said as she opened and walked through the door. "Oh buck that!" Trixie shouted angrily causing the others to run in and look at what Trixie was looking at. A spiraling staircase that went up so high they couldn't see where it ended. "Anyone want to fly up and see if there is anything up there worth the climb?" Trixie asked aloud which Rainbow quickly complied in the hopes that there would be something awesome up there and without a word flew up as fast as she could. After a few minutes of waiting she came back down with a disappointed look on her face.

"There's nothing up there. It leads to the top of the castle. A small room with no walls and some crystal growth in the middle that almost looks like a cage but it looks like whatever was in it broke out." Rainbow said with a shrug.

"Good work. You saved Trixie from a lot of useless climbing." Trixie said approvingly before turning and moving around the large white room. "Look around for anymore paths to take."

One unimaginably boring hour later.

"This is stupid!" Rainbow shouted in frustration. "We've been at this forever and nothing! We're wasting our time! This area is probably one big trap anyways. All there was, was a broken cage that probably had a monster a long time ago to attack intruders that's just not there anymore!" Rainbow shouted and the entire group were starting to agree with her. "Lets just go see how the others did. Maybe they learned something that can lead us to the real place!" She shouted as she kicked the wall angrily. But when she hit it there was a clicking sound and a section of the wall sank in causing the room to rumble and shake as a hidden passage opened up revealing what appeared to be a lab with books covering one wall and clearly enchanted crystals on a shelf on the other side of the room. There were several crystal tables holding several tools and vials and a few more doors leading to other rooms. And at the very back of the room stood a giant statue of King Sombra made out of various gems. Such as emeralds for the eyes, onyx for his body and rubies for his cape."...How awesome am I?!" Rainbow shouted excitedly as she flew in.

"Hold on! Don't touch anything yet!" Trixie yelled as she and the others followed. When Rainbow Dash landed Trixie tried to contact Rin through the link of the dungeon but was surprised to find she couldn't. Must be the love barrier. Those things don't mix well. Trixie thought as she gave a sigh. "Let's start on the books to see if we can find a journal so Sparkle can do her job." She said as she moved towards the notes and books. Twilight gave Trixie a grateful smile. While they worked Rainbow Dash just sat there waiting as she stared up at the giant statue.

"Come on. Move already. I know you're going to come alive and attack." Rainbow said while looking up at the statue of the dark king.

"Somepony has been reading too many Daring Do books." Brimstone said as he helped look through the books. While everyone was distracted no one noticed three fillies sneak past them and into the room next to the giant statue.

"Finally! That was getting so boring!" Scootaloo exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"Oh! What a pretty doll house!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed as quietly as she could as she hopped up onto a table with a model of the empire made of crystals. Without looking she sat down on a crystal that was sticking out of the table outside of the model causing her to jump while giving out a squeak. The other two got up to see the crystal light up and energy surged through the miniature Crystal Empire. Their worry grew as it built up power but just as it looked like it was about to blow it just stopped and released an illusion of some kind of energy coming out of the top. "How pretty!" Sweetie said happily as she watched the show.

Meanwhile

King Sombra circled the dome that kept him from his castle and slaves. Waiting for an opportunity or idea to come up. As he was waiting he saw the top of his castle give off a wave of dark magic. He got the idea after learning about a fox creature and it's inventions in Equestria. It was rather brilliant he thought. Use a crystal to store energy for later and keep building it up so when you need it you can do some damage. Unfortunately for him he got cocky when the two princesses came after him alone. Even more unfortunate was the spell was meant to be soaked up by the clouds and create a devastating storm around his land and the love magic or as it was called in his day slaver magic barrier was meant to soak up the magic given to it from the inside. And if there is one thing any dark magic user knows it's never mix dark magic with love magic. As he watched the lava lamp like display of the magic mixing until it became a dark blue he came to an important decision.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed as he flew away as fast as he can. Not having any lungs apparently was great for screaming because he didn't stop for ten minutes as he moved to get away nor did he stop and he used his magic to grow several crystals that overlapped into the shape of a bunker and he slipped in through the peephole. After a moment of silence his eyes could be seen through that hole as he watch the speck of a city off in the distance.

Cadence and Shining armor looked up in horror at the unstable mixture of dark and love magic. That barrier was powered by an alicorn so it had a large amount of energy in it and from what they could tell all of that dark magic that came up out of the castle for seemingly no reason had almost as much power to it. All of that power mixing had just turned the shield covering the empire to protect it into the magical equivalent of several tons of nitroglycerin. Trying to shut it down or break it or any shock really could set it off.

The Crystal Heart, gone! The city covered in an explosive deathtrap! Will our heroes be able to save the empire much less themselves with the barrier cutting off Rin from her minions? Will the Cutie Mark Crusaders stop pushing buttons!?

"Hey look a big red one!" Scootaloo said excitedly as she touched her hoof to the crystal causing it to light up. Once it started glowing the door to their room slammed shut trapping them inside as a loud rumble resonated outside followed by the sound of something very big taking steps.

"I knew it!" Rainbow Dash's voice shouted from the other side of the now closed door.

Find out next time! Same fox time! Same fox channel!

Author's Notes:

After thinking about it the Goodly Heroes think they are the good guys and wouldn't try to start a war and get others involved and it would create too many plots in the long run so I altered past chapters that mentioned it.