Twilight whistled to herself as she had gone through the transformed Crystal Kingdom castle. Dark magic was used to transform the inside of the castle to how King Sombra had lived in it; thankfully she had learned plenty of it in a library in Tartarus.

She and her armada had taken a month off for vacation and she thought it was a good idea to take the suggestion of where to go from a completely at random soldier in the armada. Apparently the soldier in question was always curious about what was in Tartarus. Twilight had made Tempest promise her to stop her from ether considering Tartarus for a vacation spot again.

Still the magic learned from the Tartarus library came in handy, there was an evil unicorn king of a village and a Minotaur baron of one of the Storm King’s now former territories that she had used the magic to defeat.

She had bewitched the stairs to let her to the point and she had a feeling that she was getting close to the Crystal Heart. Truth be told she wished it would take even longer to find it. True she wanted to save the Crystal Ponies and stop King Sombra.

But the longer it took, the longer she had to face her old friends from Equestria and she kept putting off in her head how she would deal with facing them again.

She sighed as she opened a door that she felt was enchanted. She looked around and saw herself in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. She walked to see Princess Celestia, her fields, Shining Armor and Cadence all glaring at her direction.

“You had behaved like a foal and almost ruined the wedding and you felt the need to run away. I am most disappointed in you Twilight. To think you were my most faithful student.” The vision of Princess Celestia told her sternly as Twilight just yawned.

“You ruined this for your family and I can’t be friends who somepony who would do this to their family.” The vision of Applejack shouted.

“Out of control egghead!” the vision of Rainbow Dash taunted.

“Selfish filly...” the vision of Rarity shouted.

“Unfun wedding ruiner!” ranted the vision of Pinkie Pie

“Unkind jerk!” the vision of Fluttershy shouted using the Stare at Twilight’s direction.

The visions of Shining Armor and Cadence were about to speak next only to pause then when they were destroyed by a simple spell from Twilight’s horn. The visions of Princess Celestia and Twilight’s friends paused eyes widened and then saw Twilight chuckling darkly at them.

“Is that all you got King Sombra? A vision of my greatest fear? That is supposed to stop me or break me? News flash, I have been facing many variations of this scenario in my dreams since I left Equestria! I know I have to face the real deal but you’re just pale imitations of the real ponies I have to face. So now I will deal with you lot....” Twilight muttered out loud her horn fitting up to deliver a powerful spell.

The visions of Princess Celestia and Twilight’s friends stepped back in fear not sure what to do as they had never expected this. “Don’t worry everypony, we are just illusions so this will not hurt.......... right........” the vision of Pinkie Pie chuckled out loud not really believing her words.

It was the last thing any of them said before the blast collided with them.

Shaking off that Twilight continued on her trek until she felt her communication spell trying to contact her. She then stopped and then answered it to find Grubber. “Grubber, I thought you were overseeing things in Kugetown?” Twilight questioned curiously as Grubber looked nervous.

“Well we got things mostly under control and I left the acting Mayor this cat Capper in charge...... so I kind of decided to come here to see if I could help.... but when I got to the entrance.......... I have some bad news.......” Grubber muttered and Twilight had a feeling she will not like this. Nonetheless she motioned Grubber to continue.

“Well when I got there I saw Tempest kicking this Orb at King Sombra, it was so cool and awesome!!!! It was........ But then the Guards revealed it was the last orb......... all the ones we brought for this trip have been used up..... Tempest is on her way to warn the Equestrians....” Grubber explained to Twilight’s alarm.

“Don’t worry, I am close to getting the Crystal Heart, with it King Sombra will be permanently taken care off. I just hope the Crystal Ponies are able to power it up again!!!!” Twilight muttered. She was about to take off when Grubber spoke up again.

“One more thing, we came across this unicorn. She says she is here for vengeance and her name is Starset Shimmer or Starlightning Glimmer Dust.....” Grubber commented and Twilight shook her head.

“Keep her at bay; I have more important matters to take care of than some unicorn...” Twilight muttered ending the spell. She then charged forward, so close now.....

Not long before Twilight had entered through the door, the Equestrians were getting desperate for ways to keep the Fair going but now (after a big freak out when Shining and Dash came over and the lot learned of the appearence of Twilight in the plush toys) Twilight’s friends and Spike were managing the stalls while Princess Cadance and Shining Armor were focusing on taking to Princess Skystar after Spike showed them the inaccurate looking merchandise. “Princess Skystar, take it from a pony who has gone from Pegasus to Alicorn herself. It takes a special process to ascend and you must be mistaken about Twilight being an alicorn.” Princess Cadance told her shaking her head. She knew that her aunt Princess Celestia had hinted about Twilight having a destiny ahead of her but she would be nowhere near the level ready when she had left.

“Well then the entire Harmony Kingdom and Hippogriffia must be mistaken ourselves. We had builders build the statue of her for the palace we built for her!” Princess Skystar responded having her arms crossed in a manner showing she would not budge on the issue.

“Plus, I know that it takes a process to ascend a unicorn into an alicorn, I was there when it happened. I helped Queen Twilight ascend....” Skystar explained only for Shining and Cadance to have their eyes widened. Skystar was covering her ears with her claws when she was bombarded with requests to explain what she had just said.

Rainbow Dash had taken a break and was reading the newest Daring Do book. She smiled at the memory of the adventure they had taken where they found out AK Yearling was the actual real Daring Do. She had brought her own copy of the latest book as well as the extra copies for Twilight so she could catched up to what she missed.

This newest adventure had Daring Do going to get a relic from this kingdom only to find it annexed by this Alicorn queen. Daring had found herself at odds with this nameless queen and her second in command this unicorn..... with a broken horn.......

Wait....

Upon realisation she glanced at the cover again and realised that the drawing of the Alicorn on the front cover looked a little like Twilight...

This had to be a coincidence right...

Then the Equestrians grew alarmed when they felt a large shadow covering the land and Crystal Ponies screaming in terror with Tempest running towards them and trying to fight the shadow with her horn. They knew this could only be one thing....

King Sombra was here...