A hammer striking an anvil was the best term to describe Mane's head.
As soon he opened his eyes, he faced three muskets and two spears pointed at his face, making him awake even more when he noticed It was Copper's soldiers.

"Don't you dare move!" Yelled a soldier.

"Calm down! What is going on?!" Mane panicked for a second.

"Hands up where we can see them!" One of them ordered.

"Alright... don't attack please..." He obeyed, raising his hands in the air slowly from under the blanket. "Can I know what is the meaning of this?"

"I'll go call Sigil." One of the soldiers left the room in haste, and in the same speed he left, he came back with the three leaders all with nervous looks towards Mane.

"Sigil!" Mane called angry. "What the fuck is this?!"

"We have our reasons after what I saw yesterday. You broke our golden rule so we must have our precautions, given you are in Sombra's bloodline." Sigil pointed at him.

"And you performed a dark ritual, another rule broken." Quill continued.

"And when we tried to stop you, your friend blocked our way." Copper finished.

"Hey! You and Sigil saw that day on the motel! It was dark magic, why didn't you do anything to me when we came back?" Mane asked.

"Because you passed out." Sigil sighed without patience. "And during this time, we considered if we should allow you to stay here! Yes, you are King Sombra's nephew, but that doesn't mean you are free of breaking the rules."

"I didn't break anything!" Mane argued with her. "I thought we were friends!"

"Work is work, playtime is playtime." Quill mocked.

"I WASN'T PLAYING AROUND!" Mane roared at him, making the soldiers approach their weapons from his head even more. "You... take those fucking things... out of my face..."

"You better calm down or we may take you by force." Said Copper.

"You are forgetting something though..." Mane muttered.

"What is It?" Sigil asked nervous with his words.

"I'm Mane Shaker, The Last Sombra!"

Without a second warning, Mane transformed into hard crystal, and grabbing both the spears he broke their ends making the pointy ends fall on the floor. The other three shot their muskets, but the bullets bumped on the hard crystal body in different directions.

"MANE! Think of what you're doing!" Sigil screamed.

"Out of my way!" Mane ordered, but none of them moved.

"Consider yourself banned..." Sigil answered.

Mane stood silent for a moment, looking at those three facing him no matter his superior powers. He returned his body back to normal and walked away with all the eyes in the room following his moves. In the main complex, some cultists greeted Mane for his recovery, but he didn't answer neither looked at them, only walking away to the exit of the cult.
He stopped by the stairs and looked behind, to see the majority of the cult standing there looking at him surprised for seeing him in that mood, with Sigil, Copper and Quill showing up by the corridor he came through.

"Where is Pinkamena?" Mane asked loudly.

"She went out last night and didn't return." Sigil answered. "But you're on your own now! Not our business anymore."

He stared at them for a second and turned his back to leave.
Leaving the cult's hideout and leaving the ruined building, he encountered the bright sun in the sky burning his eyes from the days underground he passed.
Jade District, the ruined zone of the Crystal Empire, with the wind blowing the dust in the empty streets forming small clouds of dirt. He started walking away from the building, away from the cult's territory. He wasn't welcome there anymore, so there was no point staying there, but most importantly was where Pinkamena could be.

He strolled around the streets looking for her, but who he saw instead was the old colt from that day they first entered that zone, smoking his pipe while sitting by a shadow in the same spot. Mane approached him and he raised his good eye on him.

"Hello." Mane greeted with a sad tone.

"Hey... I remember you I think." Laughed the elder while taking a puff. "How are you?"

"Not good..." Mane looked around. "Have you seen my friend around here?"

"The beautiful pink girl?"

"Yes."

"Hmm... Since she was so nice that day with the golden coin, I'll answer for free. No... I'm sorry."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It's rare to see somepony passing by around here. But when I see one, It stays in my mind." The old one sounded serious in his raspy voice.

"Any leads where I can look around or ask?"

"Remember the tavern Fox Hole?"

"Yes, after a certain episode..." Mane whispered, with the memory of the bar fight going through his head.

"Well, go seek answers there. Ask the tavern keeper, maybe."

"Thank you, old one." Mane searched his pockets and pulled out a small bag of coins and gave one silver coin to the old colt. "Buy something nice."

"Ahh... gentle like your friend. Have a nice day." The elder smiled at him while he walked away.

Take the left route until It ends.
Find the ruined house without a door.
Go to the street on the right.
Go through the second hallway.
Descend the stairs in the big building.

Mane knocked at the metal door and a voice asked who It was.

"Where the riches are guarded. It's where we head to." Mane answered.

The metal door opened, allowing the music be heard more clearly and the sounds of a typical tavern full of drunks. The colt guarding the door looked at Mane and recognized him.

"You're the one who started that giant fight here!"

"It wasn't me!" Mane argued.

"As if I care..." The colt was about to close door on Mane's face, but he turned his leg into crystal under his ragged jeans and blocked the door. "Looking for trouble again..?" The colt under the hood looked at him nervous.

"Maybe you should know how to greet your guests..." The grey unicorn reached to his pockets inside his leather vest and gave a rolled paper to the colt by the door.

He took It and lost his breath when he read the name and the reward on Mane's head. After a moment looking at the 'wanted' poster, he opened the door completely allowing the dangerous guest to enter, while getting the poster back from the colt's hands.
He entered the tavern and headed to the counter, where the fat keeper also recognized him and told him to get out immediately. Mane told him to get closer and showed him discretely the poster, making the keeper get his words back.

"I-I I'm really sorry... Ma-"

"Don't mention my name." He ordered. "Just serve me a whiskey, I have some questions..."

"O-of course!" The keeper turned his back with haste and served a whiskey on a wooden mug to him. "What do you wanna know?"

"Have you seen this girl?" Mane pulled out a second folded poster from his pockets and gave It to the keeper. He unfolded and saw Pinkamena's drawn picture with that ferocious look in her face, making the fat colt shiver.

"Erm.. no. Sorry."

"Are you sure..?" Mane looked at him with a menacing expression.

"I'm totally sure. Please don't do anything... that confusion from that day was already enough... I only run a business here. I'm a simple tavern keeper!" He whined hiding behind the piece of cloth on his hands.

"Argh... fine..." Mane took his drink and headed to an empty table on a corner under an inside balcony where the rented rooms above were.

Analyzing the place, It was where he saw Sigil for the first time, the cyan mare who helped them that day in the bar fight and when they got out of the place. It made him even sadder thinking in being banned from the cult where he met all those nice ponies, now because of a thing, they pointed the weapons at him and banned. But It was his fault for his bad temper at the time, going to the aggressive action instead of talking with them.

By this point, he started thinking if Pinkamena left him for sure.

Who else was to blame but himself when he remembered that talk he had with her? He ended up guarding secrets from her, and at the time he made the ritual, he didn't explain a lot to her. He lied to her and the cult, when he should have warned them before going for It.
A deja vu feeling struck inside his chest. He was alone again...
The taste of the whiskey didn't cheer him up a bit, and slowly going hopeless, he shed a tear from those green emerald eyes while observing the place in hopes of seeing her, but not a single mark of her pink color was nowhere to be spotted.

Alone... in that world again, without a close friend by his side to talk, laugh or cry with.

"Aww... he's crying." A voice next to him broke the silence inside his mind. He looked and there were five stallions surrounding his table, all wearing similar jackets, and all of earth race. It was the 'Tough Ones' gang. "You miss your girlfriend?"

"Look at him!" A second one laughed. "He's so lonely and sad."

"Who are you?" Mane inquired in a calm tone.

"Don't you remember me?" The third one sat on a chair in front of him and pointed a table with two thieves talking to each other. "It was in that place where I smashed a bottle in your head..."

"You fucker..." Mane squeezed the mug in his hand, as if he was gonna break It. "Where is she?!"

"Who? Your girl? We have nothing to do with her." One of them answered. "But from the rumors we have heard, after ALL you did to piss off 'The Crystalers', maybe Don Topaz himself already impaled her in a tall and thin crystal stick."

"Unless he impaled her with something else before that!" The one sitting in front of him added.Mane looked at him with a death wish stare, but he didn't felt any fear. "You are in minority here, you know..?"

He changed his expression to deep sadness and forced his eyes to start crying, making the five gangsters start laughing.

"HAHA! Is that despair?" One of them laughed.

"I'm alone now... And without her, my life as no meaning. Fuck this world!" Mane cried.

"Pfff! What a wimp!"

"Please... take me somewhere else and do whatever you want... my life as no more meaning..."

"Loom at that, fellas. The tough guy suddenly wants to suicide with our help!" Two of them grabbed Mane by the arms and forced him up from his chair. "We will help you..." They all grinned evilly on Mane. "And as far I remember, our friend didn't show up anymore since that day. And we were planning to do unspeakable things to you and your girl if one day we would get our hands on you both. But don't worry... we can have our fun with you alone!" The one sitting stood up and grabbed Mane's neck. "We are going to kill you slowly and with so much pain, that you're gonna die from It..."

The group of five took the crying stallion outside without calling the attention of the others. Mane left them take him somewhere else away, and of course to an abandoned building. They threw him on the floor, and when he tried to stand back up, one kicked him in the chest, and other in the stomach.

"Lift him!" Ordered the one who sat down before.

They followed the order of their current leader, and squeezing his arms, they lift Mane up and held him still while the guy pulled out a knife from his pockets.

"No matter what you say, we are gonna do It slowly, like I said before..." He unfolded the knife revealing the tiny blade.

"Just do It..." Mane whispered.

The thug held the knife firmly and took It to Mane's belly. But something was wrong when the blade made a noise of steel in something hard.
He looked down and saw his weapon not penetrating the unicorn's flesh. Instead, It was a solid translucide material stopping the point of the knife.
He looked at Mane intrigued and he returned an evil smile. Without a warning, Mane went full crystal all over his body and released the grip from the two holding him.

"What the fuck..." Muttered one of them baffled by what he was seeing.

The crystal stallion punched with all his might the guy on the left, breaking his jaw and knocking him out instantly. The he kicked the one in the right in the stomach, making him fly against the wall, leaving him spitting blood all over himself and slowly dying in an extreme internal wound.

Mane looked at the remaining three terrified by what they just saw.

"Hey... let's... take It easy..." The leader gave a step back, stumbling on his own steps and eventually falling on his rear.

The other two didn't move due to the fear of the enraged crystal stallion. Mane walked to them with fast paces and grabbed them both by the neck and lift them in the air. Both started to squirm while holding his arms in an attempt to release the grip, but It was no use against his flexible crystal muscles. Mane squeezed their necks even more and more, turning their faces purple from not breathing and they stopped moving after a while. The thug on the floor was whimpering in terror against the wall, and Mane glanced at him making him cry.

Squeezing even more the bodies, he managed to snap with a loud noise their heads out of their bodies, and they fell down in the old wood floor with blood coming out of their fleshy red necks, staining the floor with a massive pool of blood. He threw the heads at the guy, making him scream out of despair. Mane approached him and grabbed his jacket's collars in the air like he did to the previous dead thugs.

"Where... is... Don Topaz..?" His voice was cold and deep, showing his fury towards anypony who would oppose him.

"Wha-what..?" The thug cried.

With a roar, Mane threw him against the wall without releasing his grip, making part of the building shake with the shock. "WHERE IS HE?!"

"O-o-on his hideout! Don't kill me please!"

"Where is It?!" Mane snarled, showing his white crystal teeth who could rip the skin out of a body easily.

"I-I don't! know! I swear!"

The crystal stallion threw him against the floor, then dropped him on the floor. The thug tried to crawl away but It was no use, when Mane grabbed him by the neck with a hard crystal fist and squeezed It lightly. He returned his body to the normal state except the hand holding the bandit against the floor.

"You know..." Mane whispered in anger.

"I don't!" He cried back.

Mane's horn glowed dark green while the bandit flinched wondering what was about to happen to him. The magic slowly entered the bandit's mouth and scaled to his brain. He trembled for a moment against the effect but then he calmed down, and looked back tired at Mane.

"Where is Don Topaz?" Mane asked again.

"I don't know for sure, but his safe house is located in the Crystal Mountains. It's a bit faraway from here, but It's easy to reach by walking."

"All I need to know." Mane released the grip around his neck and returned his hand back to normal. The thug breathed heavily from the spell he just went through with an expression as if he spoke against his own will. Before leaving, Mane delivered a huge kick on the bandit's head, knocking him unconscious for sure.

"Thanks, Chrysalis..." Mane muttered to himself while cleaning his vest from the dust of the old building.

He stepped outside, and It was about midday according to the sun centered in the sky and his own shadow right under him.
Looking around, the streets were empty per usual in Jade District.
The stallion closed his eyes, letting the sun bath is body and warm him for a moment. Ironically even if Celestia was not his friend at all, he allowed her star to comfort him for a moment.

"Say your prays, Topaz..."