“Alright!” Flurry said commandingly. “Let’s move out and save my home!”

“Right!” everyone replied in unison.

She moved to the edge of the tower, extending one of her wings out for a bit. “This high up the high gravity effect doesn’t work. Or it could be that all of Sombra’s traps in this area have stopped working because of using up all the energy from the barrier. Either way this makes things a lot easier."

She grabbed all her friends in her wings and used her levitation, jumping off the tower and zooming downward until they were in front of the castle. “This is the end, Sombra!” Flurry said angrily as she set them all down. “We’re coming for you!”

“Got that right!” said Pound, hitting his hooves together. “He’s going down!”

They ran inside the main entrance, running straight for the throne room.

As they got close they could hear a commotion coming from it. They kept hearing the sounds of explosions and things falling.

Flurry pulled to a stop, the other children following suit. The throne room was open like before, and peeking in they saw him shooting parts of the room at random.

“Please calm yourself!” Starlight begged.

“ARE YOU GIVING ME ORDERS?” Sombra asked angrily. “You want to be my next target?"

“My apologies.”

“We searched all around, and there was no sign of the coward that attacked me. Someone is going to pay for this waste of time by the end of the day!”

He looked at the still unconscious bodies of Cadance and Shining, and his anger turned to a smirk. “I think I’ve found a target. Before that little distraction I was about to torture these two to make it easier for you to brainwash them, wasn’t I?”

Flurry tensed, rage flowing through her. She teleported into the room with the others. “Don’t you dare touch my parents!” she said furiously.

Starlight blinked. “Flurry, what are you doing here?" she asked in a panicked voice. "Why didn't you run away?”

Sombra got an ugly look on his face. “My, my. I thought I asked you to get rid of the children. It seems I was right to have reservations about you.”

He stood up from his throne, dark magic pouring off him. “This displeases me. I guess it’s true that when you want something done right you should do it yourself.”

“Ha!” Flurry said victoriously. “You’re too late.” She levitated the Crystal Heart in front of him.

Sombra blinked in surprise. “The Crystal Heart?” he said in confusion. “How did a group of brats get past my traps?”

“Through teamwork, of course. Now it’s time for you to go back to where you came from.”

Sombra began to laugh uproariously, unsettling them.

When he stopped laughing he suddenly fired at Starlight. Thinking he was going after Flurry the mare threw a shield around her, not realizing she was his actual target. The spell hit her, knocking her to the ground unconscious.

Flurry gasped, then her eyes narrowed as she growled.

“Don’t worry,” said Sombra. “I only knocked her out. I’ll make her pay later for lying to me.”

“There IS no later, you creep!

“Begone!”

She pushed the Heart in his direction, but nothing happened.

Sweet Pea gulped. “What’s wrong? Why isn’t it working?”

Sombra was smirking wide at them. "Because you fell into the biggest trap of all."

"W-wha-" said Tree Leaf.

Sombra shook his head. "You see, kids, I expected someone to get through all the protections I put around the Heart. They were only decoys to the true trap."

"T-t-the... the true trap?" said Spring.

"The true art of deception is no different than a magic show. You make someone believe one thing when it's actually something else. That's what it was all about.

"Did you see the illusion when you passed through the door? Earlier it was programmed to show you your deepest fears. This time around it was designed to show my defeat."

Sweet Pea blinked. "W-why? Why would...."

Sombra chuckled. "Because I'd never see it. What I would see when I went to check on the Heart is an immobile fool caught in a happy illusion ready for punishment. That cheerful world would suddenly grow very dim as I 'turned the dial' back to it's original state.

"And you may ask what the point was of changing the illusion if I was only going to terrorize them once I found them, but the answer is very simple: because my illusion was bypassed before by the unicorn brat. Ah, that's right. She's an alicorn now, right? Supposedly.

"Well, whether that was another lie by Starlight or not matters little. The point is that she was woken up and proceeded along her path, eventually leading to my previous defeat.

"Whoever it was, whether it was Twilight or Shining or Cadance or Starlight or someone else entirely, I wanted them to believe in their victory, fooled by what they had seen in the illusion."

Dark magic formed in his horn, pouring off of him. "It's all about getting into someone's head. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing someone so certain of victory realize how wrong they are. THAT'S what that illusion was all about."

"W-what?" said Flurry. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't get it? You got to see an illusion of you obtaining and defeating me with the Crystal Heart before being freed of that illusion.

"And now you've come running in here intending to repeat what you saw in your mind, what you saw still so strong within you that you completely overlooked the obvious.

"Tell me, kiddies. When exactly did I invade?"

The question hung in the air for a few moments, the dawning realization sinking in.

"AH!" Flurry cried out, her insides going cold.

Pumpkin's mouth felt dry. "Sombra... Sombra invaded right as we were about to complete the recharging ceremony for the Crystal Heart!"

"That's right!" said Flash. "The Heart is completely out of power."

Once again Sombra started to laugh before clapping his hooves sarcastically. “Bravo, bravo. You children are something else. Juuuuust smart enough to get past the protective spells I put around the Heart, but not smart enough to realize you can’t DO anything with it. What you went through all that trouble for was to bring a useless rock here.

"I mean, you'd think the gigantic cracks going through the Heart would have been a good indicator that something was wrong, but nope! Nothing was wrong in your eyes."

He clapped again. "Congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back for being the most oblivious children in the Crystal Empire. "

Flurry’s put a hoof to her forehead. She should have realized it. How could she have been so stupid? The illusion they had gone through earlier completely fooled her into thinking it would be successful. Even if they had gone through some struggles it had still seemed fairly easy. And because of that they had all ran headlong right into his real trap.

Sombra took a step forward, making all of them take a step back. “Ah, kids. So confident that they don’t even take a moment to think that they could ever fail.”

As he took another step forward Pound grabbed his sister, shooting a lightning bolt directly at him in desperation, hoping a sneak attack would take him down like it had Starlight.

Sombra didn’t move an inch. His body had turned insubstantial and smoke-like, and the lightning went right through him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was going to talk a little more and enjoy your fear, but if you want to get right to the part where I destroy you then I don’t mind.”

“H-how are we supposed to fight smoke?” asked Spring.

“You’re not,” said Sombra, getting closer and closer to them as they continued to retreat.

He suddenly came to a halt, smirking. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll reward you for at least getting the Heart at all. I’ll give you… hmmm… let’s say ten minutes. Ten minutes to go out there and see if you can find some ponies to do your little charging ritual.”

They all looked suspiciously at him. “You know that you’ll be defeated if we succeed,” said Sweet Pea.

“Sure, but I’m not concerned. I’d be surprised if you could even find more than one. I take that back. I'd be surprised if you found a single one to join you. The fear I've instilled in my subjects has prevailed for a long time."

Chocolate was shivering. "W-why... why are you doing this?"

"So I can watch you fail, or course," Sombra said with a chuckle. "I enjoy watching hope die and seeing ponies reduced to a lump of terror. You'll try so hard, only to accomplish nothing for it, just as you did when you brought the Heart here."

Flash let out a little growl. "W-we're... we're not your puppets to manipulate."

"Of course you don’t have to do it. We could battle it out right here and now if you want.”

Flurry groaned. She didn’t trust him, but it wasn’t like they really had any other option but to try. They couldn’t beat him without special magic.

With a flash of her horn she teleported all of them to one of the streets of the Crystal Empire. “Split up and take as many houses as you can.”

With that they all took off.

Author's Notes:

Uh oh! Sombra done played them all for fools. Makes sense for the kids but do you think any of the adults would ACTUALLY forget that detail?

So give me your theories for how the next chapter is going to go because what's coming is going to be HUGE! The stakes and danger are going to skyrocket.