"Come on, where is it?!" Twilight said loudly, almost shouting as she finished going through yet another room in the Crystal Castle. It just seemed that no matter where she looked or where she thought the dark king might hide the Crystal Heart, she still could not find the artifact. Every where she searched turned up empty, and Twilight found herself double checking ares she had already looked through. This of course turned no more results than all of the previous times she had searched, which had only succeeded in making her more nervous.

She did not dare looking out the window to see how much time she had left, knowing that doing so would make her sink deeper into the sense of hopelessness that continued to grow inside of her mind. She found herself wishing that she had Rainbow Dash and Spike to stay with her, if only to be there to snap her out of what was starting to become a panic attack.

Twilight however was well aware of Celestia's instructions on the matter of protecting the Crystal Empire, and knew that acquiring help would result in failing whatever test that that the Princess had planned for her, which was something that Twilight dreaded almost as much as Sombra's return.

Still, her friends presence would have at least helped to ease her mind. But they were not here right now, per her request, so Twilight would just have to think of something on her own. Forcing herself to calm down, Twilight went through the motions of the calming brething that Cadance had taught her. She inhaled deeply, taking in the latent calm that pervaded the whole of Equestria, and breathed out, letting her exhalation take away some of the stress and worry in her. It did not calm her completely, but it allowed Twilight to think a bit more clearly on what she should do now.

"Okay Twilight," she said quietly to herself. "You can do this. You just need to to focus. Now, where have you not looked yet?" She asked, not even bothering to question why she was talking to herself as she started walking with a hoof to her to her chin. "Let's see. I looked in the library. . . I checked the treasury. . . I already went through the royal bedchamber. . . I made a mental note to forget what I found in the royal bedchamber. . . . Where haven't I looked yet?"

Twilight continued to ponder the question, when suddenly the answer hit her like she had walked into a door. This turned out to be exactly what had happened, and Twilight was sent stumbling backwards onto her haunches. "Ow," she grumbled as she rubbed her sore muzzle with a hoof. She looked up, and saw that she had walked right into the tall doors leading to the throne room, and suddenly Twilight's mind clicked in realization.

"Of course!" she exclaimed as she stood up, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of the throne room earlier. Her spiral horn lit up in a light magenta aura as she grasped the handles in her magic. With a rumbling sound the doors swung inward, and Twilight quickly trotted inside as she looked around. The massive room was at least a hundred long, with tall arching windows on both sides that allowed shafts of light to come in and cast the smooth floor and faceted decorations in a display of brilliance that rivaled Canterlot.

Twilight would unfortunately have to make time to appreciate it at a later date, as she was currently occupied with the task of saving an entire empire from an eldritch horror. Funny how life seemed to work for her like that. Once this was over, Twilight vowed to get at least some rest and relaxation. All this saving the world business on a biannual basis was really taking a toll on her nerves.

Searching along the walls first, Twilight looked high and low for anything that would indicate where Sombra would have hidden the Crystal Heart. But she found nothing hidden among the crystalline walls, not even a hidden passageway.

What kind of evil king doesn't have a hidden passageway in their castle? she wondered as she expanded her search to include the area around the tall crystal throne. She searched around its base to see if it was sitting on top of some sort of hidden cellar. She even tried to lift it with her magic, which proved to be a bust as it would not budge in the slightest. Twilight was about ready to give up on the throne room entirely until her gaze wandered to the gem situated on the top of the throne that Twilight began to feel something tickle her memory.

She peered at the oblong gem suspiciously, until she realized that she had seen one just like it before. It was when Princess Celestia was telling her about the Crystal Empire that Twilight had seen it. She had of course wondered how the Solar Princess had something like that in her possession, but decided not to ask. Celestia was bound to have more than a few relics of the ancient past in her treasury, so Twilight had put it out of her mind. What was important was what the Princess had shown her what could be done with the gem.

Standing in front of the empty throne, Twilight concentrated her magic on the task she had in mind. She focused her fear and anxiety to become factors in the spell, and Twilight didn't have to look to see that it was altering the aura of her horn, turning from a gentle magenta to a deep and unnerving gray. Stray wisps of magic sprouted from the spell, a bright acidic green in color, and Twilight began to feel like she was about to faint from her exertions.

The entire process was extremely unpleasant for Twilight, and all she wanted to do was stop and collapse onto the floor. It was almost like the magic itself was actively fighting her, trying to wrest itself free from her control. In addition, it seemed to be poisoning her thoughts during the process, turning them from fear of what would happen should Sombra be allowed to return to hate and anger at the dark king for putting them all in danger.

Twilight wanted to cease, to put an end to the spell and try something else, but  something kept her from it. She could not explain why, but the discomfort she was feeling was gradually away to something more resembling righteous fury and rage. Her eyes began to narrow viciously and a groan that faded into a deep growl escaped her lips. And her thoughts became darker and darker as the seconds passed.

Sombra, you foul thing, she fumed silently. If you dare to show your muzzle here, we won't need the Crystal Heart when I've-

Twilight immediately cut that thought off before it finished, recognizing the direction her mind was going in. She fought harder than ever to free herself from the influence of the dark magics taint. She clutched her head between her hooves as she slumped to the ground. Screaming loudly, she forced herself to expel the presence, and a stream of ominous black magic shot out of her horn. The shot went wild however, and impacted on the wall behind the throne.

Twilight fell to the floor, panting heavily as she tried to regain her breath. After a few minutes she stood back up on unsteady hooves, still shaking from what she had just experienced. Her eyes were wide with fear and terror at the thoughts that were in her mind. It was not that she feared them for being hateful and angry at the king. She feared because they were not her own. Whatever was going on with her head was not natural in any way shape or form, and Twilight knew that she never wanted anything else to do with it.

When she was able to think clearly, Twilight took a few deep breaths using the technique Cadance taught her. She decided to turn around and move on to other areas of the castle. Just as she was trotting away however, Twilight's ears twitched in response to a dull thudding noise behind her, startling her a little and making her jump. She whirled around with her horn lit in preparation to deal with whatever threat was coming her way, believing she had unintentionally set off one Sombra's traps.

But instead of a trap Twilight was perplexed to see that the wall behind the throne had lit up in a bright reddish glow. Twilight had to shield her eyes with a hoof to keep from being blinded. When the light faded Twilight looked, and was astonished to see that the crystalline wall had vanished, leaving in place of it a long and dark recess that seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Walking around the throne, Twilight squinted to try and glean anything from the shadows, but found that could not see anything other than darkness.

"Hah!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I knew you had a secret passageway somewhere! Take that Sombra!"

But as she looked into the gloomy corridor, Twilight felt her smile fade as she considered what to do now. She could go back and get her friends for assistance, but they were busy with the fair, and there was no telling if the corridor would still be open when she got back, and Twilight did not want to have to repeat the process of opening it either. Not to mention there were Celestia's instructions to take into account. But as Twilight thought about it, she wondered if the Princess really did know best in this situation. Twilight may have absolute faith and trust in Celestia, but even she knew that the alicorn could not be right all of the time.

"What to do. . . ?" Twilight mused as her brow furrowed in thought.

Finally, she made a decision, and Twilight began a swift trot into the dark corridor in search of the Crystal Heart.

"So," Amethyst said as she looked expectantly at Garnet. The smaller gem was currently sitting in a relaxed position on one of the inactive warp pads. "How do you wanna do this? Just fuse and start smashing? Cause I'm down for that."

Garnet however shook her head in response. "Not yet," she stated. "We need to come up with some sort of plan first. We don't want to risk losing control of Sugilite like before."

Amethyst waved her arm at Garnet's words of caution. "Eh, what's the big deal anyway? Did Pearl make you scared or something, cause we got this. It's not like we haven't let the big girl have a little fun before, so what's the problem?"

"The problem," Garnet began to say in a warning tone not typically heard from her, "is that the last time we let Sugilite "have fun", she had injured Pearl and almost injured Steven and his friends. If we are going to rely on Sugilite for this, then we need to be cautious about, and make sure that she does not stray too far from our control."

Amethyst seemed to deflate slightly as her earlier bravado and care free attitude from before was replaced with a sullen expression. She remembered just as well as Garnet what Sugilite had almost done the last time they fused. What they had almost let her do. Sugilite always was a bit of a wildcard, and her loyalties tended to stray somewhere between that of her fellow gems and her own agenda of destroying everything in sight, and would often view those around her as being weak and unequal to her. It was a problem with the fusion that both Garnet and Amethyst were aware of, which was the main reason why they seldom fused at all except in situations where it was necessary.

While they could have put the Galaxy Warp out of commission without Sugilite, it would have taken far too much time, time that they needed to look for Peridot. And of course there would be nothing to stop the Home World gem from just putting it all back together as long as it was all still salvageable. If they were going to go through with this, then they needed to remain in control.

"Alright, fine. Whatever you say G," Amethyst relented, hopping off the warp pad. Garnet nodded, and positioned herself to stand a short distance away from Amethyst. For a brief moment, neither gem moved or performed any sort of action. Then, they started dancing to a tune that only they could hear.

What started off as slow and measured movements became more wild and erratic as their dance evolved, and their gems began to glow softly in response to the stimulation. The gem on Amethyst's chest gave off a faint lavender glow while Garnet's gems emitted a rusty red light. As they danced and moved around each other their bodies also began to glow softly while they moved closer and closer to their partner. When the song in their heads reached its climax both gems were already in close proximity to each other, and when they touched their forms became shapeless as they merged into one whole. In less than a few seconds the mass of white light grew and grew until it towered above everything around it, and when the fusion process was complete, only one being stood in the Galaxy Warp.

"Aw yeah!" Sugilite boomed, her voice echoing like thunder across the landscape like thunder. "It's good to be back!"

Sugilite laughed as she placed a shaded visor similar to Garnet's over her lower eyes, leaving the fifth eye on her forehead uncovered. She then flexed her four beefy arms as she tilted her head, eliciting a loud crack from her joints.

Brushing away a little bit of her wild black hair out of her face, Sugilite surveyed her surroundings with an expression of contempt. "Alright, so you guys want this place beat to a pulp? " she asked no one in particular. Bringing her upper pair of arms in front of her with her palms facing upward, and the gems on Sugilites hands flashed briefly before two massive gauntlets shot up before their fingers clasped together in midair. Before the fell to the ground Sugilite pulled out a long gem studded whip that she swung up towards the conjoined gauntlets, wrapping its end around a silvery ring reminiscent of a star. Holding onto the handle, Sugilite allowed the weapon to fall to the ground with a crash, shattering one of the warp pads on impact.

"Well then you got it!" she exclaimed as she swung the flail over her head before bringing it down on another pad, causing it to break into a hundred pieces.

"Ahhh!" she breathed out, relishing in the the destruction she was causing. But as she continued to make an absolute mess of the Galaxy Warp Sugilite was aware that she was being carefully monitored by the gems that facilitated her existence. She could care less what they thought of her though, as long as she got to wreck something with extreme prejudice.

Just then, Sugilite became aware of something else, and she paused in her wrecking to listen to the sound the reached her ears. It was a buzzing noise similar to a that of a fly, and the massive fusion found herself thinking that she had heard it somewhere before. Thinking that she was just hearing things, Sugilite rubbed her ear with a pinkie finger, but the buzzing continued. In fact it seemed to be louder, and the gem started to become rather upset that it persisted.

"Alright!" she shouted, her already intimidating visage morphing into one of anger as she scowled. "Who's makin' that noise?! When I find out I'm gonna pound you into paste!" She slammed her free fists together to show that she meant business, and she looked all around to find the source of the noise. Just then, she caught sight of something in the distance heading towards them. It started off as just a dot on the horizon, and Sugilite squinted in an effort to make its identity. And when she what it her mouth curled into a sly grin, exposing the pointed fangs in her mouth.

"Awww, isn't that just cute?" she said with a sneer. "The little clod's comin' back to party."

Gripping the flails length in her large hands, Sugilite's sneer faded into an ugly, snarling expression.

"Well then, I hope the little twerp is ready to dance."

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