https://youtu.be/wrp0ZSzFJzk

Two weeks had passed since Cadence and Shinings wedding and for once, things have been pretty normal. With my boys able to speak, Luna decided to start teaching them how to speak while Jackie and I kept working. In a few weeks, the Apple family will be having their annual reunion, though Jackie told me her cousin would be dropping by before then.

Anyway, the sun was just rising over the hill, and I decided I would make my wives some breakfast. I turned the alarm off just before it went off and teleported myself to the boy's room. " Boy's, wake up, time to help out your old man." They slowly woke up from their slumber, allowing me to get them from their cribs and to the kitchen. I put the boys in their high chairs and dragged them over to where I was making breakfast. " Alright, time to watch your dad make your moms happy."

" Mama."

" Happy."

" Exactly. Now we have to be quiet to surprise them, so shhh." They both covered their mouths with their hands saying they got the message. With their promise to keep quiet, I went and got the ingredients to make blueberry pancakes with both vegan and regular sausage links. As the skillet got hot and the links were cooking, dad came down the stairs to see what's going on.

" Morning boys, making some links and cakes. Good, I'm starving." Dad went for one of the regular links but I slapped his hand away with a hot spatula. " Ouch, what gives boy?"

" This finely crafted feast is for my wives. If you want something to eat, there's a pork chop in the fridge." He went to go for the leftover chop while I continued to make hotcakes. Before long, I had three stacks with five cakes each with three links to a plate plus a pancake for each of the boys. With the boys given their breakfast and dad watching them, I took the three stacks of pancakes and headed up to mine and my wives' room. When I entered the room, my wives were just now waking up. " Good morning my loves."

" Good morning my king."

" Morning Sugar. Mmm, that smells good."

" Yeah, I thought I'd make us a nice breakfast since we got nothing going on." I put the plates in the middle of the bed and we chowed down. As we ate, we would come up with things that we would when the reunion comes up. " Hey Jackie, quick question. Does the rest of the Apple family know that your parents are back?"

Her cheeks were full of food while she pondered whether or not any of the other family members knew. Finally, she swallowed and answered. " Well, Ah think the ones that showed up to our wedding know about them. But as far as the whole family, I can't be sure." At hearing that, a devious grin spread across my face which Jackie took notice of. " What's with the grin, Honey?"

" I was just thinking that we should keep their coming back a secret and have them dress up as ghosts or something, really scare the crap out of them." Once I revealed my plan, Jackie clonked me on the head. Probably thought it was a bad idea. " Alright. How about we have them greet everyone as they come in, sound good?"

" Sounds better than them acting like spirits scaring the youngins." She leaned in and gave me a syrupy kiss. " But I think them greeting folks as they come would be a good idea. We should ask if they're okay with it first."

" I think they'll be okay with it. The real shock will be seeing you my darling Moonpie."

" Indeed it will be. But I believe it will be a good time all around." We all laughed at the future event as we finished our breakfast.

Once we were done, I took the dishes and made my way downstairs. I was about halfway down when a large rumble shook me off balance and I went crashing to the floor, breaking the plates in the process. " Well, that's just perfect." I got up and put the smashed plates in the garbage and went looking for the source of this disturbance to my day. " I'm going to see what that was all about."

Knowing that most of the crazy shit happens around me and our friends, I slashed open a portal to the front of the library. When I went to knock on the door, it slammed into my face pushing me back some. Out from the door came Twilight, with a saddlebag stuffed with parchment. " Sorry Joe, but I have to get to Canterlot as soon as possible. Bye!" She headed for the train station while giving me that brief explanation.

I rubbed my nose while entering the Library to find Spike taking off some kind of armor made out of pillows. " Let me guess. The shaking of the earth was caused by Twilight?"

" Yeah, she made the tree hop from its roots when I told her that the test from Celestia was no big deal." That was a big mistake.

" And what do you think the possibility that another adventure is on its way?"

" Most likely."

I just stared into the void with a stoic expression. " Bring it on."

The next day.

I was on a train heading towards the frozen north of Equestria with Jackie, the girls, and Spike. Luna stayed behind to take care of the kids while we went on this mission. Speaking of, Twilight was given the task of helping Shining and Cadence with a long lost empire that disappeared a little over a thousand years ago. It disappeared after king Sombra was defeated by the alicorn sisters and he put a curse on the whole empire. Apparently, since it came back, Celestia believes that the king had also returned.

" So let's go over this again. Shining and Cadence are waiting for us, we might have to fight off another bad guy, and Twilight has to find a way to protect the empire. Am I missing anything?"

" Not really, though I wish we knew what to do about protecting a whole empire." Twilight pondered as the train came to a stop. " Looks like we're here."

We all went out the door and got blasted by freezing winds. Thank the gods for my shaggy fur coat. The station was abandoned and covered in snow and ice. We waited for some minutes before we heard a voice through the howling winds. " Twilight!"

" Shining Armor, is that you?" Out from the frozen mists emerged Shining Armor wearing clothing that Han Solo wore in Star Wars.

" Twilley, it's good to see you." They exchanged a brief hug before Shining realized I was going full Lycan. " Joe, I like your enthusiasm, but do you have to be wolfed out now?"

" In case it wasn't already obvious, the weather out here is almost as bad as Helheim, and that place is the coldest place in the nine realms. Also, I think this form is perfect for what may come." Suddenly, a moan was heard from the winds, and it sounded hungry.

" Maybe we should discuss this in the empire." We left the station and trekked through the tundra While Shining started explaining the situation. " When Cadence and I first got here, things were alright for the most part, though none of the citizens could remember anything that happened. After that, something has been trying to get into the empire. We think it might be Sombra, so we have a shield over the empire to keep him out, though I don't know how long that will last."

Suddenly, the moaning got louder and the snow around us became covered in a black mist. " Everyone, I believe it's time to. Flee!" We all ran for where the empire was just as the mist grew in size, and glowing green eyes with a purple wisp appeared at the top. We all ran in the direction of the empire to escape Sombra's shadowy form. After twenty yards of running with the mist still following close behind, Shining decided to turn around to attack. " Shining! What the hell are you doing!?"

" I'm gonna try and slow him down." He gathered magic into his horn and let out a powerful beam towards the eyes. It simply phased through while Sombra advanced towards him. " Oh, Crap." He closed his eyes and got ready for the eventual attack. When it didn't happen after a while, he opened his eyes to find me fending off the mist with a light coming from Frostbite. " What the?"

" No time for stupid questions, just run!" He turned tail and went to catch up with the others. I turned to the mist where the eyes stared right back at me. " Come on you son of a bitch. Let's see what you're made of." I canceled the light from frostbite and went after that tyrant turned living fart mist.

Jackie's Pov.

I just crossed over the barrier with the girls and spike after running from that black mist. On the other side, Ah was greeted with green grass and blue skies, a large difference to the snow-covered ground and gray skies we just came from. I looked around to check on the others. " Is everyone alright?"

Everyone gave a nod that they were doing alright, though Rarity seemed to be freaking out. " Everything is not alright, we left all of my luggage in that awful place with that monster! Maybe I should go back for it?" She made her way back out there, but she was stopped when Shining came panting through the barrier.

Twilight ran up and tackled him with a hug. " You're okay!" She then quickly slapped him. " What were you thinking, fighting that thing on your own?"

" It seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, I wasn't alone, Joe helped me get clear of that thing." What he said made me realize that Joe hadn't come through the shield either.

I ran up to him and made him look in my eye. " Where is he? Tell me you did not just leave him to face that thing on his own!" I was a bit angry with him for leaving my husband to fight that thing alone, and he needed to hear it. I was about to tell him off some more, but then we all heard a scream coming from the other side.

" Yeeeaaaahhhhh!" Joe came crashing through the shield at incredible speeds, landing a fair distance away from us, and he was covered in black crystals.

" Joe!" I ran over to see if he was still conscious. Hopefully, he ain't hurt too bad.

Joe's Pov.

In all honesty, I thought fighting a creature that was made mostly of smoke would be easy. I was wrong. Not only was it a pain to fight something that could easily dodge my attacks, but every time I got a hit on him with my claws or teeth, black crystals would start spreading over my body, and it hurt like a mother fucker. The only thing that could really affect it was Frostbite, but even then it was doing minimal damage. When I finally get a hit on him where the eyes are, he sends a massive pillar of dark mist to my chest, propelling me towards the shield at an incredible speed.

" Yeeeaaaahhhhh!" I flew past the others and landed hard, creating a small trench as I went along.

" Joe!" I looked over to see that Jackie was racing towards me, no doubt to see if I was alright. " Are you alright Sugar?"

" I will be once I get these damn rocks off me." I slowly got up and started pulling the crystals off my body. With them off, I dug a pit and lit it aflame, dumping the crystals in, just in case they were a danger to others. With the crystal destroyed, I got up and joined the others with Jackie. " Okay, we need to rethink how to deal with that bastard."

" I thought you took care of him with your ax?"

" I thought it would take care of him, but whatever attack I deal with Frostbite seems to only cause him minor pain. And any attempt to attack him with my claws just gets me covered in crystals." I reached around and pulled a crystal I had missed from my ass to illustrate my point and threw it in the still going fire. " So let's get back to how to put him down and move on to the empire." I changed back into my more civilized form and headed for the huge tower in the middle of everything.

As we entered the streets of the city, we all got our first look at the towns-folk. At a distance, they look like regular earth ponies, but at second glance you can see the slight crystal gleam to their coats. The citizens seemed kind of out of it like they didn't know what to do or where they needed to be, though when they saw me, they ran away screaming. " Sorry Joe, I'll tell them about you after a bit."

" Let's finish the mission, then we can worry about my image." We continued on to the tower-like palace and made it to the entrance, where a couple of crystal guard ponies were looking at their spears like they had never picked one up before. " Shining, please tell me those two are new and you had no one else to get."

" No, they're veterans from when the empire was still around, at least according to their records that I was able to dig up." This did little to lift my spirits on helping this place.

We went through the halls of the palace and made it to the throne room. It was large, spacious, and very crystalline. At the back of the room on top of a throne that looked like it was cut from a giant geode, sat my niece Cadence with her horn glowing, and she looked exhausted. Twilight went over to comfort her. " Cadence!"

" Twilight!" She perked up and ran over to meet up with her sister-in-law.

" Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake.
Clap your hooves and do a little shake."

They ended their little dance and embraced each other in a hug. After that, she started to wince in pain. " Cadence!" Shining ran up to meet her before she could pass out. " Are you okay?"

" I'm alright, it's just keeping this shield up for two days straight is making me a little tired." To emphasize her statement, her horn started flickering on and off. The resulting of which caused the shield outside to flicker and show the frozen wasteland.

" Damn, two days with no sleep and keeping a shield that covers the entire empire up. Shit, I better make some coffee."

" Thank you for that Joe, but I think a nap would suit me better." Another surge went through her horn, revealing the landscape again. " But, not right now."

" Cadence has been able to use her magic to spread love and light, that seems to be able to protect the empire so far. But I don't know how long she can keep this up?"

" If medical journals and trash tv have taught me anything, is that if you go without sleep for three days, you become clinically insane. So the sooner we figure out how to spread love and light without Cadence, the better."

Twilight went into deep thought and came up with a solution. " Maybe we can find a way to spread love, from the books in the empires library." Somehow, I knew she would bring up a library. " Applejack, Spike, and Joe will help me look in the library while the rest ask around and see if anybody remembers anything."

Pinkie then popped up behind Rarity, wearing a black suit and night vision goggles. " Don't worry about a thing, super-spy Pinkie Pie is on the case." She then zipped off to find whatever information she could dig up. We all left the castle and started our journey.

Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy went their separate ways to talk with the crystal ponies while Twi, Jackie, and I headed in the direction where we assumed the library was at. As we walked down the street, Twilight had a few questions for me. " Joe, when you fought Sombra. How was he able to take damage from your ax but not your claws or teeth?"

" I may have some idea about that." I unsheathed my blade and showed it to them. " When the spirit of harmony gave me this, it said that it was crafted by the dwarves of Svartalfeim, Broke, and Sindri. So when the made this, they must have put something in the metal or inscribed a rune that can harm whatever Sombra is. Maybe the library will tell me how Sombra's been able to accomplish his mist form and how he's able to make crystals appear on my skin when I make contact."

" I have no doubt. Oh, this must be the place." We arrived at a large three-storied building with two griffon statues that were out in front. I opened the door for them and we entered the hallowed halls of ancient knowledge. " Oh my gosh, this place is amazing!" Aaaaaand Twilight has her small freakout.

The inside of the building was large and filled to the brim with books and scrolls on three floors. An old mare came out to see what we wanted though she stayed some distance from me. " May I help you four?"

" Yes, we are looking for a book that might tell us about what protected the empire." The mare just stared at us while trying to remember something. " Maybe you could tell us what section?" She kept trying to remember but kept coming up with nothing.

" You know, I'm not sure if I even work here." That's helpful.

" You know what, we'll look for it ourselves, thanks for the help anyway." We left the confused mare and browsed through the shelves. Jackie went with Twilight while Spike went with me. While my wife and Twilight went looking for a way to protect the empire, Spike and I went looking for how Sombra got his power.

After some time searching for any scrap of information, I heard a squeal from the other side of the library. " I found it! I found it!" Spike and I ran over to the other side to find Twilight levitating a large book entitled ' History of the Crystal Empire'. Seems that might help in the long run. " Let's go get the rest of the girls."

We were back in the castle in one of the many lounge rooms. Before we got into the book Twilight found, we went around seeing if anyone found anything. " So, did anyone get any useful information from the ponies in the city?" Twilight asked our friends.

Dash was the first to go. "Every time I asked someone how the empire was protected, they would all say that either they don't remember or something along those lines." Sounds like they just came out of a drug related case of Fuckanol.

Fluttershy was up next. " Well, to be honest...I wasn't able to ask them anything. Sorry." Crap on a cracker.

Pinkie was out of her spy costume and gave us her intel. " While I was undercover, I heard a couple say that the empire looked the same, but that it was missing something." Now, this sounds promising. " I would have gotten more, but my cover was blown." Nevermind.

And last but not least, Rarity. Hopefully, she got something. " Oh, I got nothing." Fuck!

" Well don't worry y'all, Twilight, and I was able to find this here history book. Maybe it'll have something for us?" Always looking on the bright side, one of the many reasons I fell for her. " Let's take a look at this then."

We opened the book and skimmed through the pages. At first, we got nothing, though I did ask them to go back about how they used to have massive orgies during the summers. This earned me a slap from everyone, except for Jackie who went and bucked me in the nuts, worth it. After fifteen minutes of reading, we found what we were looking for.

" Here it is, the crystal fair. Founded by its first queen and held every year to renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm. This is perfect, we'll hold a fair and renew the love and light so Cadence can take a break." She closed the book and headed for the throne room to tell her brother and Cadence.

" Alright time to tell the citizens about the orgy." The girls then started attacking me, saying that was not on the menu. " Okay, I get it, no orgy. No orgy!"

I was going through the castle by myself while the girls were setting up the fair. I figured the fair would help the shield problem, but there was still the problem of Sombra being out and about. I mean, it'll be great that he won't be able to get in the empire, but what's to stop him from going somewhere else and terrorize them. If I find out how he got his powers, then maybe I'll be able to finish him off.

" Now let's see if I were a power-hungry tyrant with magic at his disposal, where would I hide my secrets?" As I pondered where he might hide his secrets, I wound up back in the throne room with Cadence. Finding no progress with my endeavor, I went to see how she was holding up. " You doing alright Cadence?"

" Not really, I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open half the time." I hated to see her like that, so I decided to bring out the big guns. I slashed a small window leading to my liquor cabinet and pulled out a glass and my strongest moonshine, Ole smokey blue flame. " What do you have there Joe?"

" Just something to keep them peepers open and relax your mind." I poured her a drink while taking a swig from the bottle. " Just try not to drink it all at once alright." She nodded yes and took a small sip, quickly perking up afterward. Knowing she was good to go, I went roaming the halls again. After walking down the halls and finding nothing that could help me, I went to see how Jackie and the girls were doing with the fair.

I went outside and saw that the center of town was littered with tents run by the girls. All the crystal ponies looked to be having a good time, their coats even looked shinier. I spotted Spike and went up to him. " It seems the fair's going well huh?"

" Yeah, we'll have that shield up in running in no time." I shared a fist-bump with him and wandered around some more.

I went over to the center of the castle and found some sort of crystal heart on a pedestal, and Twilight was the one putting it in place. " What's with the heart Twilight?"

" Hey Joe, the heart is supposed to symbolize the unity of the empire, at least it says so in the book." She levitated the book over to me and showed me the page. " By the way, Applejack was looking for you, said she needed you to help with some of the entertainment."

" Bye." I tossed her back the book and went looking for my wife. Within five minutes, I found her running a crystal corn stall. When I went up there, the ponies at the stall parted in fear while I went up to my beloved. " Look for me, Darling?" I went and kissed her on the lips, making the crystal ponies gasp in shock.

When we parted our lips, Jackie went ahead and told me what she wanted. "Ah was. Ah was hoping you could do some illusions for these folks." Might as well, I got nothing so far on Sombra and how he got his powers.

" No problem babe." I gave her another quick kiss and went to the middle of the fair. " Mares and Stallions, may I please have your attention." The ponies in the crowd were a little startled by me, but they came over to see what I had to say. " In honor of this special occasion, I would like to show you something that would lift your spirits, and spread the love." The gathered audience all had look's on their faces saying ' How can one person do all that?', time to show them how. With my hands glowing, I conjured up a screen large enough for the empire to see.

https://youtu.be/1lCeAOOWaEU?list=PLXi7FpXgoZu_qYi_kEysNWCib-jqcNTW6

This got all the ponies to laugh, probably 'cause Mr. Burns was supposed to resemble Sombra. Since this seemed to make them happy, why not give them another one. Seeing as this place reminded me of that Disney movie Atlantis, I thought this would be a good one. With a flick of my wrist, it started.

https://youtu.be/rNcmFMLjlTA

After that illusion, every crystal pony was cheering and their coats became shinier, definitely a good sign. While I was taking a bow, a familiar face came up to me, the librarian we meet earlier. " Well, hello again. Still figuring out if you work at the library?"

" It took a while, but thanks to that little show of yours, it reminded me of what the crystal heart could do and my memories just kept coming back."

" Well, I'm glad to hear about your...wait a minute. Did you say that reminded you what the crystal heart could do?"

" Of course. The crystal heart feeds off our love, which we get from the fair, and in return, the heart provides protection from both the winter cold and enemies of the empire." Her words rang in my ears and made me realize what needed to be done. " I just can't believe that you found it. Sombra said he hid it so we would never find it again."

" Of course we did. Would you please excuse me." I went back over to Twilight to relay the information I was just given, but not before I grabbed a tarp from one of the stalls.

When I got over to the crystal heart that Twilight had cut, I draped it over with the tarp. This got Twilight's attention. " Joe, what are you doing!?"

" We got a problem, apparently the crystal heart you read about, it isn't just some symbolic art piece. It's an actual artifact that protects the empire from threats!" Twilights eyes grew wide with the realization that we're missing an important piece of the empire. It was also at that moment that the rest of our friends came to see what the commotion was. " Girls we got a problem."

" Let me guess, we ran out of funnel cake mix."

" No Pinkie, it's worse than that." I went and patted Twilight's art project, directing their attention to it. " According to the Librarian, we met earlier, the crystal heart is an artifact that protects the empire."

They all looked surprised by this fact, though none so much as Dash. " So you're saying this piece of crap is meant to be an actual artifact?"

" Exactly."

Twilight came out of her stupor. " Did she say where it might be?"

" She said that before the empire fell, Sombra hid the heart so it could never be found again. Which isn't to say it won't be found, just means it'll be difficult to find."

" So what do we do now?"

" Well Shy, this is Twilights show, so I'll let her come up with the plan." To be honest, I had a perfectly good plan already, but I figure Twilight should take this one.

We all looked to Twilight as she went into deep thought. After a moment, she came up with something. " I've got it. Joe, Spike, you two come with me, you girls stay here and keep the fair going and make sure no one discovers the hearts absence." She turned tail and headed inside the castle with Spike following.

" Sounds like a plan. See you, girls, with the heart in hand." I gave a quick smack to Jackie's ass and went to go catch up with Twilight.

" Joe! You do that again and I'll brand a dick on your ass!" I love it when she goes hardcore.

I was back in the throne room with Twilight and Spike wondering what we were going to do. The throne was empty because Cadence who, despite my warning not to, went through half the bottle of moonshine and went through the halls, singing that damn ladybug song with mangled up lyrics, but at least she's awake and keeping her shield up. " So what are we doing back in the throne? Shouldn't we be looking for where Sombra hid the heart?"

" That's exactly why we're here." She went and gestured all around the throne room. " Before the empire disappeared, this whole place belonged to Sombra."

The realization then dawned on me. " So if he hid the heart anywhere, it would be here. Though the question still remains, where would he have hidden it and what method did he use to hide it?" I went about the room, looking for a secret panel or switch that might lead to another room. After accidentally breaking a candle-wick and putting it in a wastebasket, I turned around in time to see Twilight fire a beam of dark magic at a crystal on top of the throne. " I guess that works too."

I went over to Twilight and Spike as the crystal at the top started spreading its dark magic onto the floor. Once the magic stopped spreading, a giant hole with a staircase was revealed in the middle of the floor. " How did you know that would Work Twi?"

" The crystal at the top reminded me of the one Princess Celestia showed me before we left. She told me how if dark magic were to take over, it would spread through. Since Sombra was into dark magic, it would make sense that he would hide his secrets with it." We all approached the hole and stared into the black abyss. " So...who wants to go first?"

" Like you really have to ask." I summoned a ball of light into my hand and dropped it into the dark chasm. " Come on, follow me." I started down the stairs with Twilight and Spike right behind me.

As we descended down the stairs, I had a question for Twilight. " So how exactly did you learn to use dark magic Twi?" I know just because one can perform dark magic, doesn't mean the one using it is evil. But it doesn't hurt to ask about it.

" That was a little trick that Celestia taught me, and that wasn't really dark magic, I was just projecting my feelings of anger and fear onto the crystal. And before you pass judgment on Celestia or me, we don't do any extens-."

" Calm down Twi, I ain't judging, I was just curious is all." We continued down the rest of the way in silence. After twenty minutes of walking, we made it to the bottom of the stairs. After a quick glance around, we found a wooden door with iron bands and handle. " Hmm, only one door, no pressure plates that if you step on them poison arrows shoot out of carved faces in the wall. What kind of idiot just sweeps a magical door under a magic carpet and doesn't even leave booby traps?"

" But isn't that good for us?"

" Spike, one day you'll wake up and see that life needs danger to make it exciting. But now that I'm thinking about it, he might have left some tricks for us." I went over to the door and grabbed the door handle, that was a big mistake. With my hand still around the iron ring, the door went and moved around the room at high speeds. " Okay, he still has some fail-safes around!" I kept a death grip on the door as it started to shake me around like a ragdoll. " Twilight! You mind helping me out here!!!"

" Hold on!" No Shit! Her horn became engrossed with shadow and the door stopped and went back to where we found it. I let go of the door and fell to the floor. Spike and Twilight both came over to me. " Are you alright Joe?"

" Easy squeezy lemon peasy." They both gave me a weird look and I quickly shook my head. " I mean, yeah, yeah I'm fine." I got up and dusted myself off. " Ok, so don't grab the handle. Twilight, you wanna give it a shot?"

" Step aside boys." Spike and I stepped over to the right as Twilight went and fired more shadow magic at the crystal on top of the door. Once she was done, the door opened to reveal a crystal wall. I was about to ask what we should do next, but Twilight went and spoke up first. " Come on follow me." She slowly went up to the door and sat down in front of the door, staring straight ahead.

After a moment of nothing happening, I went over to Twilight to see what was going on. " Twi, there's nothing here, let's just head on out." When she didn't say anything, I went to face her. " Twi, you hear me?" When I saw her face, her eyes were engulfed in shadow and she had a look of absolute horror. " Twilight!"

Spike came over to see for himself. " Twilight, what happened to you?" Spike started shaking her, but nothing was working. " Joe, do you think you can help me out here?"

" Hehe, with pleasure." I went in front of her and prepared my right hand. " Time to wake up Twilight. ( Slap) Wake up! ( Slap) Huh, going with the hard way? Good. ( Slap) That's for all the excessive reminders on returning my books! ( Slap) That's for eating the last pudding on the train over here! ( Slap) That's for all the hot reader girls out there hey call me. ( Slap) That's because I didn't feel I did enough jokes the first time I went on a slapping rant! ( Slap) That's hoping that Highmoon studios won't sue! ( Slap) That's for getting me a book for Hearths warming, who wants a book for a gift!? ( Slap) And finally! ( Slap) That's to get you out of the spell Sombra's behind!"......( Slap)

After that last slap, She woke up from her trance. " Dammit, Joe! Do you have to do that every time?"

" Sorry, but you were really out of it. What was it that you saw anyway?"

Her anger melted into one of absolute fear. " It was horrible. I found myself in Canterlot castle and Princess Celestia was there. She told me I had failed at saving the empire and that I was no longer her student." At this point, she started to openly weep. " It was the worst thing that could have happened!"

I held her close as she wept into my shoulder. " Shhh, it's alright. None of it was real, it was just another trap that Sombra left for anyone seeking the heart." My words seemed to give her some comfort. " Listen to me carefully. From my own experience with Celestia, she holds your words and deeds almost as high as my own, and she would never even think to call you a failure."

Twilight removed her head from my shoulder and her tears ceased. " Thank you for that Joe."

" Anytime." I patted her head and looked towards the crystal. " I wonder?" I got up and unsheathed Frostbite from my back. I approached the door and activated the runes on the ax. With Frostbite giving off the light used to ward off Sombra, I smashed it against the troublesome trap. At first, I thought I had broken our way through, that is until the wall behind the door crumbled away to reveal a bright room. " Well, how about that."

" Good going, Joe! Now let's see what he had hidden in here." Spike went ahead of us to get to the treasure first. In my opinion, he should wait for us, but I guess too much O&O will do that to a kid.

I went in after him with Twilight following. When I entered the room, the floor was littered treasure. " Holy fuck this guy was loaded!" The room we entered in had a large pillar in the middle with a winding staircase cut in it. The floor, I couldn't even see the bottom of the floor with all the gold, jewels, and gilded weapons, not to mention some statues of the prick. Looking through some of the coins laid out on the floor, I saw that they weren't bits, But coins depicting the Aesir.

" What the fuck?"

" What is it?" Twilight came over to inspect the coin I was holding. " What kind of coins are these?"

" This one here is a coin depicting either Huginn or Muninn, the ravens that give Odin knowledge from the nine realms. What I want to know is, how did they wind up in this place?"

" We can worry about that later, right now we need to look for the heart." She left me to look amongst the piles of treasure, Though I doubt we would find it amongst this stuff. After we rummaged through hundreds of small fortunes and Twilight having pricked herself a few times on a few of the weapons, she cried out in exasperation. " Where the hell is it!?"

" Sombra would know to keep the best artifact away from the rest of the horde. Besides, we still need to check up those stairs." We all started towards the stairs and started heading up.

" Ugh, we climbed for what feels like forever. Are we even halfway there?" Spike started to really feel tired after what feels like an eternity.

I looked down to see we've only gone five stories. " Not even close." We all groaned at our position and plopped on the stairs. " If the walls weren't so close to the stairs, I could fly us up to the top."

Twilight had this to add. " And if we had a better line of sight, we could teleport without the risk of winding up with a body part stuck in the wall or something."

" Anybody got a better way of getting to the top faster?" I looked around the place as I mulled over Spike's words.

After staring at the underside of the stairs, I got an idea. " Hey, have either of you two skied before?"

" This is awesome!!" Spike had fun while holding on to me. We used the gravity spell Twilight cast on us and used it to ski to the top of the stairs.

" Somewhere in Asgard, Skadi is laughing her ass off at this little stunt of ours!"

" Who?" Twilight inquired as she hung from my right arm.

" The Goddess of winter, mountains, bowhunting, and oddly enough, skiing! Hahahaha!!!" We continued skiing down the underside of the staircase while we gave the bird to gravity. Within moments, we made it to the top. " Alright, Twilight, time to make us a slave to gravity again."

" Why do you gotta say it like that?" She lit her horn, and the effects of gravity took hold of us again.

I landed on the floor while stumbling a bit with the two bodies I carried with me. I let go of Twilight while Spike leaped off my back. Once he was off my back, we took a look around the room and saw out the window that the shield was rapidly fading. It seemed we were at the top of the castle, in an open-air room. " Oh for, we could have just flown up here and gotten that damn thing." I pointed over to the heart that was floating in the middle of the room.

" The crystal heart!" Twilight exclaimed when she laid her eyes on the relic. She walked over to the heart and was about to grab it, but when her hoof touched the crystal emblem below the heart, it flashed, and had an alarm going off. " What the?"

" Twilight! Get off that thing!" Twilight made for the heart before whatever happens, happens. She was able to knock the heart away from the emblem, but unfortunately, a dark crystal cage imprisoned her. " Twilight!" I took hold of Frostbite and started hacking away at the crystal. Every time I hacked off a chunk of it, it just grew back, not to mention the chunks that fell started spreading across the floor.

" Joe, it's not working! Twilight, can you teleport out?"

" I'll try!" One second I see her teleported out of the cage, next I see her being dragged back into the cage. " That's a no go on getting out."

" Don't worry, I'll get you out somehow."

" The heart, where's the crystal heart?"

Spike picked it up from the floor and started waving it around. " I've got it right here. What do we do with it?"

After a few moments of silence, Twilight gave us our instructions. " Spike, have Joe take you and the heart where it needs to be and save the empire."

" But what about your test? If you don't bring it back, you'll fail Celestia's test."

" It doesn't matter if I fail if we don't come out alive. Just go, save the empire."

" You heard the lady, grab that rock and hop on." Spike took hold of the heart and held onto my back. I went over to the many windows to jump, only to pause as I saw that the shield was gone and Sombra's influence was starting to take over. " Oh fuck."

Twilight called back from her cage. " What is it?"

" Nothing to be concerned about." As I was about to make a leap for the bottom, I saw a giant crystal spire heading up to us. And at the tip of the ever-growing crystal, was Sombra himself.

Sombra looked up at us and saw that we had the crystal, and for the first time since we got here, he spoke to us. " That's mine!"

A smile spread across my face. " Round two!" With that said, I lept off the tower and headed straight for him. As we got closer to him, the heart gave off a light that rid him of his mist form, turning him solid.

" Ugh, Joe. You know you're heading right for him right?"

That's the point." I then became the wolf and let loose a mighty roar. Once we met in the middle of our fall, I grabbed the bastard by the throat and put him under my feet as we landed hard on the ground in the middle of the fair. Needless to say, the populace was surprised by my appearance.

Once we recovered from the landing, I held up Spike in the air while he still held the heart. " Citizens of the Crystal Empire, the crystal heart has returned from hiding." The whole fair was gawking at the real heart. " Use the light within yourselves to light the heart once again and rid the land of Sombra for good." I let Spike off me and he headed for the center of the castle and placed the heart in the middle.

Once it got there, it started floated between two crystal pillars that had formed over and under it. Once the crystal ponies saw the real heart in its rightful place, all their coats shined bright and their energy started powering the heart. Once it gained enough power, it gave off a bright light that spread across the empire, giving all the ponies including all the non-crystal ponies, a crystal clear coat while also giving my fur a gleam to it. It also got rid of all the dark crystals that were infecting the empire then proceeded to fire a beam into the air.

Once the beam was over, Spike came back over to me. " Wow, I can't believe we did it."

" I don't know, seems a little too easy for me." Just as I said that I heard a groan come from behind me. I turned around to see Sombra picking himself up from the crater I put him in. " So, it seems you still have some fight left in you, good."

The citizens gave us a wide berth while Spike joined them as Sombra dusted himself off and got ready to face me. " You may have brought the heart back, but I will take this empire back." He then summoned a scythe made of black crystal. " So, little warrior. Ready to die?"

I unfurled my wings and readied Frostbite for battle. While cracking my neck, I answered: " I was born ready motherfucker." and we charged at each other.

I went for an over-head chop but he blocked it with his scythe. Sombra pushed against me and sliced at my knees. I let out a cry of pain as it was able to slice through my muscles. As my wounds started healing, I under-hand tossed the ax where it hit Sombra in his chest while it kept spinning like a table-saw. When I recalled the ax back, his armor was shredded but he himself didn't have a scratch on him. When he recovered from the hit, he spun around with his blade like a whirl-wind, slashing at me with every rotation.

After his last rotation, he sunk the entirety of the blade in my chest. " Aaaaarrrrggghh!" The pain was intense, even worse than having my back scorched. The bastard then ripped the blade out and watched me collapse to the ground.

Seeing how I was down for a bit, Sombra dropped his weapon and made his way to the heart. " Now do you see my slaves? Nothing can stand in my way! By the end of the day, you will all be kneeling before me! Then tomorrow, the wor-Aaaaagh!" I had just about enough of his monologue, so I took the scythe that he dropped and stuck it in his ass while dragging him over to me.

" Oh, you didn't think I forgot about you did you?" I dropped the scythe and stomped his neck to the ground. With him pinned down, I raised my ax high and readied to bring it down. " Ready to Die, motherfucker." I then brought Frostbite down on his neck, beheading the tyrant bastard. I reverted to my human form and held Sombras head up high. " Citizens of the Crystal Empire. Der Tyrann ist tot!" The whole populace gave out a greet cheer as their oppressor went and bit the big one.

While they cheered, Spike came over to me again. " You did it, Joe. you saved the empire!"

" No Spike, we did it." Suddenly, the whole fair gathered around us and lifted us in the air cheering our names and calling us heroes. Though I hope they end it soon, I still need to get Twilight down from the top of the tower.

Back in the treasure room.

I was back in the treasure room with the others to show them what we had found. " Look at this piece, this was crafted in Midgard somewhere around three-thousand years ago." They all came to look at it and were amazed by it. " Now how does a tyrant king, collect not only gold and weapons from Midgard but what also looks like the other realms themselves? I just don't get it."

Cadence came up and put a wing over my back as I knelt over a large sword. " Maybe he found a way to your world somehow and stole the treasure using his magic?"

Pinkie just retorted with a crazy theory. " Maybe he traveled through a bunch of time warps, thanks to the help of a severed head, and took all this treasure from those worlds while gaining his misty powers from one of them!" We all stared at her as no one in their right mind would even think such a scenario. " But I'm just spit-balling here."

Twilight was the first to respond. " Pinkie, that is the most insane theory I've heard from you all week. Besides, how could a severed head talk?"

" Suddenly, we hear a voice coming from the other side of the room. " By having a Vanir Goddess reanimate it through her magic, lass." We all had a slight jump from hearing someone other than ourselves speak.

" Who...who was that?" Fluttershy was once again scared out of her mind.

" Over by the rowboat you gits." Our eyes all wandered over to the lone rowboat on top of a large pile of gold and started heading that way. When we all got there, we all stared at a lone head looking at us with a single jeweled eye.

" Now I've seen many things in my life, but there is no way that their head was just talking to us."

The head just responded to my wife's observation. " Until you see the things I've seen, then you'd best start believing that a head can talk to ya." Everyone but me gasped at the sight of the talking head. " Now I believe proper introductions are in order. My name is Mimir, the smartest and wisest god alive. Now, who might you be?"

I was in shock to be in the presence of the wisest of the Aesir. I quickly shook it off to introduce everyone. " My name is Joe, Prince of Equestria, and King of Herot." I then gestured around to all the others. " This is Spike, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, and finally, my wife Applejack. I'd introduce you to my wife Luna, but she ain't here right now."

" Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all, and as for whoever had the theory that was dubbed crazy, she hit the nail right on the head."

Pinkie got all excited. " Alright, I was right!"

" But, how did Sombra get ahold of you? I thought you were supposed to be at Odin's side in Valhalla?"

" I, it's true, I was by Odin's side, but while a band of giants tried to storm the gates of Valhalla and Odin went to fight them with the others, I was snatched by that bastard."

" But how did he get there? How did he travel to other worlds and get all this stuff? How where-" I put my hand against Twilight's mouth as she kept spitting out questions.

" All good questions lass, but I'm afraid it will have to wait. You see, you're the only other creatures besides Sombra to have found me, and I would very much like to get out of this damned place."

I grabbed Mimir and placed him around my belt. " Fair enough, come on y'all, let's head back home. Sorry, Mimir."

" It's fine brother, just get me out of here." We all headed back up to the throne room and back outside to head for the train home.

While I walked through the empire, I would have my name cheered and I would wave at them, though some gave me weird looks when they saw Mimir around my waist. Just another day in Equestria.

Author's Notes:

First, Here's Orion.

Second, Mimir will be based off of his Norse origin, not God of War.

Three, sorry for the delay.

Four, clip.

https://youtu.be/Mx4aT-45vxs?list=LLCzG2W-JN2NHN-SokErZefw