We arrived at the train station sometime around two o’clock according to my in alchemist’s pocket watch. I don’t know what type of Displaced was attached to this thing but something was telling me not so summon this person unless it was absolutely necessary. For the time being, I placed it inside my Grimoire to keep its odd vibes out of my mind.

Twilight had the group gather by the doors. We waited for the doors to open so we could meet up with Shining Armor so he could take us on the safest path to the Crystal Empire. The doors opened to the howling of wind and snow. Rarity was probably the smartest one of the group for packing so many different sets of winter clothing. Strangely though, I didn’t find it all that cold. Yes, it was cold but no more than fifty degrees Fahrenheit to me but that was before I put my Grimoire away. I then felt the anger and bitterness infused in the howling snow. We then heard a voice calling Twilight’s name and we looked to see a heavily dress stallion in a white snowsuit where a pair of dark goggles and dark gray scarf. I recognized the voice as Shining Armor. He and Twilight quickly ran into each others’ arms in a warmhearted embrace.

“It’s good to see you Twilly but we need to get to the Crystal Empire as soon as possible,” Shining said with a worried tone as he motioned to us then he saw me. “What’s he doing here?”

Twilight looked back at me a little nervous and then turned back to Shining while she pushed her pointer fingertips together. “Well… he’s here to help. Asta’s a really good guy Shining. He works three jobs around Ponyville and just finished his house. He’s also dating and he even saved the CMC and whole town from a massive pack of Timberwolves not too long ago. He’s here to help I swear on the Princesses’ sun and moon. They even apologized to him and approved of his own choice to come here.”

Shining scowled at me before relenting to his sister’s puppy dog pout. “Fine, but I’ll be constantly on guard with you,” He squinted coldly at me. “For now, let get going. We need to get to the empire before dark.”

“Why?” Spike asked as he’d finally got off the train after dawning a heavy purple trench coat Blue gave him before we left Canterlot Castle.

“Let’s just say there are a lot of things out here that no pony wants to run into, Day or night,” He emphasized with a bit of a shiver that didn’t come from the cold air.

We made our way to the Empire. I didn’t like the fill of the wind on my skin. It felt … evil.

“We think that King Sombra is trying to get into the Empire. Something has made several attempts but failed due to the barrier we setup.” Shining explained as we tracked along.

“I was sent here to save the Empire but I don’t know if I can stop an all-powerful thousand-year-old dark unicorn king,” Twilight looked down in disheartened.

“Relax Twilight,” I came up next to her. “Your job is to save the Empire while mine is to face off with the evil bastard and keep him getting to you.” I rubbed her head a bit. “Leave the fighting to me and you do what the Elements of Harmony are supposed to do.”

“And that would be what, exactly?” Shining squinted at me over his shoulder before returning his gaze to in front of him.

“Make friends by being who they are,” I smiled goofily. I then felt a sudden surge of malicious ki coming from behind us headed straight for the group. “Shining Armor we need to move, now!”

He looked over his shoulder at me in suspicion as I then turned and ran in between Fluttershy and Rarity. I looked to the horizon and could feel the evil ki drawing ever closer to us. Spike was lagging behind. His draconic nature must make it very hard on him in this weather. I looked past him and saw a black fog that was moving quite fast and straight for my little buddy.

“Spike,” I yelled and he looked at me in surprise. “Move that dragon tail man! We got company!”

He turned and saw the fog and then I saw a set of green eyes with red slitted pupils that wafted purple mist from the side. I took in a breath while controlling the blood flow in my legs, I shot off so Spike’s side and grabbed the little dude around the waist and shot back to the group.

“Everypony, run for it,” Shining shouted and everyone took off.

I could feel a very strong evil ki not far from us. My guess was it was the barrier Cadance and Shining had put up around the Emire to keep Sombra out. We were all running for our lives but I saw Shining suddenly stop, so I joined him.

“What do you think you're doing?” Shining growled at me as she shot a beam of pink magic from his hand at the evil fog. “Get to the Empire.” The cloud lounged at us but we jumped to either side narrowly avoid its touch.

‘If memory serves me correctly, then I can’t let Shining or myself for that get touched without being encased in some sort of magic blocking dark crystal. I need the blockhead to keep his magic in order to help safeguard the Empire and everypony there.’

We landed back to back while being completely surrounded by Sombra’s fog.

“Hehe,” Shining snicker out of breath. “Have to admit. You’re not half bad at moving are, for a monkey.”

I grinned back. “Not bad yourself. I wouldn’t mind sparring with you a bit once this whole lesson of Twilight’s is over and your Kingdom is out of danger.” I then wheeled around and grabbed on to the collar and left the guy off the ground.

“Hey, what’re you planning?” He looked around us worried that I was going to throw him into the fog.

“The only way out is…” I reeled back and threw him with as much force as I could muster making sure to hang on and jump. “Up and over!” We landed just inside the barrier of the Empire.

Fluttershy ushed to me and immediately started to look me over for any injuries. Twilight and Spike rushed to Shining Armor’s side. I think we both made it out relatively unscathed, except for our sore butts and Shining tail.

“I’m fine Shy,” I looked at softly as I got to my feet. Shining came over to me and looked me straight in the face and then his eyes started to wander as he scratched the back of his head.

“Thanks, ah… for saving me back there,” He extended his hand.

I took his hand and shook it hard. “Can’t have the Prince get injured under my watch. But, we have a job to do and very little time to do it.”

“How do you know how much time we have?” Shining squinted at me suspiciously again as he let go of my hand.

Shy looked at me with a worried gaze as I turned and scowled at the horizon to see Sombra’s fog in the distance.

“I can sense the source of the ki that’s maintaining the barrier is reaching its limits. Soon there will be no barrier to keep that thing,” I pointed to the fog as it hovered not far from the outskirts of the barrier. “Out.”

“Cadance,” Shining said in a soft worry as he looked the tower in the center of the Empire. “Let’s go Twilight. I’ll take you to Cadance.”

We followed Shing with a bit of haste but nothing too serious as most of the girls were worn out from the run to get here. I made my way to Rarity’s side and began to warn her to try and control herself around as I could see she was starting to get excited from just seeing the houses of the Empire in the distance.

Rarity gawked at the sparkling everything as we moved through the city. Then, we arrived at the castle and that’s when she really started to stutter. Rainbow remarked how it just looked another old castle to her. While I agree there was no point in flipping out, I can also see the beauty of the crystals here. I wouldn’t mind having a vacation home here or just the occasional visit.

“I noticed that most of the ki from around here is rather… lacking in the liveliness department,” I remarked to Shining. “Not a lot of life, light, or love from the Capitol of Love, your highness.”

We followed Shining through the massive door into a large open throne room where there sat a woman around Shining Armors height with violet, rose, and light gold striped hair, light purple eyes, and fair pinkish skin. She was wearing a pink formally dress the golden accents with on her head was a golden tiara with a large pink focus crystal glowing a bright arctic blue.

“Cadance!” Twilight gleefully ran to the alicorn who did the same. They then did the little dance routine from the show and gave each other a hug.

“No denying it with that performance.’ I rolled my eyes. I then felt a shift in Cadance’s Ki and I glanced at the window and saw the barrier flicker. “Hate to be that guy but I know for a fact that you’re not doing too well your highness.”

“Ah, sorry, who are you exactly?” Cadance tilted her head in confusion.

“Asta Ferris. The Anit-Magic Knight,” I bowed to her. I then returned upright, “I was briefly under your husband's watch while I was in the hospital. I know am living and working in Ponyville while helping the Elements of Harmony in the studies of their own abilities that the have recently gained.”

“Wait, I remember my Anuties briefly talking about you before I came here and being they seem to be very worried that you were some sort of threat,” She squinted at me. “Anti-magic Knight is what you said.”

“Hold on Cadance,” Twilight jumped in between us. “Asta is definitely not a threat to Equestria in any way. He single-handedly saved everypony in Ponyville from a massive pack of Timberwolves. Not to mention he helps everypony here in some way. He works for Rarity and Applejack. He trains with Spike and Rainbow. Helps Fluttershy with pretty much anything and they’re dating. He also helps me in my studies and even helps Pinkie with party ideas.”

“I let the actions of ponies tell me what they are like,” Cadance moved Twilight out of the way to look at me in the eyes before giving me a slight bow. “I thank you for the services you have done for the ponies and for saving my stubborn husband and sister-in-law.”

“No big deal,” I looked at her closely. She looked exhausted. “You need rest and food.”

She looked down at the upon return to her upright position. Shining came to her side and place a concerned hand on his wife’s shoulder.

“You’re right Asta,” He looked to the group. “Cadance has been using her own magic to spread love and light to the Empire. She hasn’t left this room since we arrived here. She never sleeps and barely eats.” He helped her steady herself. “I help out with my own magic but it won’t be enough to keep out the likes of Sombra for much longer.”

“We need information on the Empire,” I interjected. “Between what you two have been doing to keep Sombra back, I doubt either of you have had much time to ask any of the locals about how Princess Amore kept the Empire safe from the storms.” I looked at the royals and they nodded in conformation. I turned around and head to the door.

“Asta, where are you going?” Shy asked me confused.

“To gather intel from the locals, you know, the Crystal Ponies that’ve lived here for thousands of years,” I pointed to the town. “Some of them have to have some info we can use to one-up the evil bastard and that’ll let The Princess off the hook from being a magic battery for the city’s protection. You guys coming along or what? I can’t possibly ask the whole Empire by myself.” They nodded in agreement and all joined me in asking around.

‘I know this is absolutely pointless but it’s what I remember they did in the show. I did like the extra-long episodes.’

Everyone split up and took on a section of the city and asked any pony they came across. I decided to spend my time at the edge of the barrier to see where Sombra’s current location was. Due to Cadance mainly powering the barrier with her magic meaning her ki was spread over everything so I had to be right next to it in order to sense anything without leaving it. I then felt Sombra come out of nowhere, he was suddenly right in front of me on the other side of the barrier.

“Aaaaa… You’re definitely an odd one, aren’t you,” Sombra hissed with intrigue. “You’re no pony that’s for sure. You have no magic either but yet, I still sense a hidden power somewhere deep within you. How interesting. What are you?”

I snickered at the dark unicorn. I looked at the green and red eyes with an evil smirk. “Me, I’m no one special, I’m just a wanderer here helping out a friend.”

“One thousand years I’ve been gone but my mind remembers the Empire as if it were yesterday. You are nowhere near that age. No more than your mid-twenties by the feel of your aura but this barrier that keeps me at bay,” He eyed the barrier up and down. “It’s similar to hers but not hers. A distant relative, maybe, it matters not though for as soon as the magic runs out I will take me thrown once more. I wonder if the pretender will make as lovely a statue as their ancestor,” Sombra chuckled maniacally.

I held my fist up beside my face with an angry scowl. Through my gritted teeth a threw back at the dark pony. “You’re going to have to kill me before I let anywhere near the Princess let alone this kingdom.”
I turned, showing him my back and walked back into the city. I met back up with the girls in front of the Castle and like I knew was going happen everypony came back with zip.

“I can’t believe I’m the one saying this but... why don’t we check the library for some sort of book or something about the history of the Crystal Empire?” We all looked at Rainbow Dash wide-eyed. “What? I may not care for them to much but I do still use them from time to time. I mean, one of my best friends does live in one.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight grabbed her friend in a crushing hug. “You’re a genius!”

Rainbow pulled free of the embrace and blushingly rubbed the back of her head. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Enough stroking that ego of hers, We got other stuff that needs doin,” Aj rolled her eyes as we headed to the royal library.

We ran into a crystal pony librarian after we got into the lobby. Meanwhile, she too suffers from the same amnesia that the whole Empire is suffering from but she seems to have gotten another form of it too. The librarian couldn’t even remember where the history books were located. After we broke Twilight from her bewilderment and running here and there to every book she’d never read, we all started to search for the book we needed.

A few hours went by and everyone was doing their best to try and find any form of literature they could on the history of the Crystal Empire. For me though, it was more of a waiting game than anything else as I knew Twilight would come across it eventually. Due to her experience in libraries, speed reading, and magic conveyor belt system that she wiped up like in the show. I just kept myself busy by looking into the books on the royal family tree of the Crystal Empire, more specifically, this Princess Amore I’d heard about from first Celestia and Luna and then again from Fog Sombra. He seemed to have been a little disturbed by Cadance’s relation to her ancestor.

I then recalled Sombra’s words about turning Cadance into a statue as he’d done with Princess Amore. I then began to wonder how Sombra had just taken over the Empire at the time but none of it added up. In the show, it was the light and love the Crystal Ponies generated and then gave to the Crystal Heart which in turn amplified that magic in order to protect the Empire from the storms and other threats. Thinking back to his Sombra’s remark again, that’s when I realized that Sombra had to have taken Amore prisoner by turning her into a statue of some sort. It was only after this when the Crystal Ponies thought that their Princess and Protector were gone that he stole the Crystal Heart. When the Ponies no longer had light and love in their hearts but only fear and despair.

I searched but found nothing on Amore then my train of thought was interrupted by Twilight. “Found it! Now, let’s hope it has the information we need.”
Twilight went to the throne room and began to explain to Shining and Cadance how Amore established the Crystal Fair and would use the Light of her subjects to rejuvenate the spell she created to establish the barrier around her kingdom to protect it from harm. It made no mention of the Crystal Heart yet but I knew there was an entry on it in the book somewhere but what I needed was information on Amore. I had formed a theory based off of what Sombra said earlier. If she had indeed been turned into a crystal statue then it was possible she was still alive and she needed to be saved. I could only do that by: One. Finding her first. Two. Rejuvenating the Empire with the Crystal Heart. And most importantly, Three. Defeating Sombra.

‘Wait a minute.’

I recalled that the book never mentioned the Crystal Heart as nothing more than the Fair centerpiece. I looked to see that Twilight how had finished explaining the Fair to her family and was now with the girls and Spike explaining what they were going to do. They then started the whole song and dance routine.

‘I may live here in this world but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna sing its very tune though.’

I turned and headed to the door when Shy and Twilight caught up to me.

“Asta, here are you headed?” Shy looked at me sheepishly.

“We could really use your help with the setup of the Fair. You have a lot of skills that would help us out.” Twilight added.

“Not needed here right now Twilight. I’m here to help but not in this. I’m going to head back to the library to do some more research. Something just seems... missing,” I turned and headed off to the library.

“What could possibly be missing?” Twilight raised an eyebrow as she pulled the book out and thumbed through it. Then she looked to Shy in confusion. “We’ve set up everything that was in the book. I even managed to carve a Crystal Heart centerpiece out of a block of crystal.” She looked to me and then to Shy in concern. “I knew you care deeply about him Fluttershy but sometimes your Coltfriend seems to be very off about center things.”

“You know how he can get Twilight,” Shy looked at me deeply concerned. “Asta is just trying to go about helping out in… his own way and that way is just more physical and protective than anything. Still though, I wonder why he did want to help in the Fair? He usually doesn’t turn this type of stuff down unless he has a really good reason.”

‘Sorry Girls but I don’t have time to help you in the Fair. I need to find Amore’s statue and you need to find the answers and Crystal Heart. I also need to be ready for Sombra.’

Twilight was on the balcony with Shining Armor and Cadance overlooking the Fair when she made the announcement to the Crystal Ponies to come partake in the festivities. I notice a of them turn from a rather dull greyish tone to the better pastel colors more like the girls. I then headed them begin to take about the Crystal Heart and asking how the girls had managed to find it after Sombra hid it away. That’s when I came across the old library mare as she had now regained her color and memories completely. I made my way to her side.

“Excuse me but where could I find a book about Princess Amore?” I asked as I tapped her shoulder.

“That would be in the biography section dear,” She pointed to the back of the bookshelves. “Look for a symbol resembling a snow-flake similar to the one on our flag, “She then point to a nearby flag. Luckily she was looking at me when Rainbow came up and swiped the flag and headed off to Twilight side.

‘Looks like things are progressing as they should, but that means I need to find that biography on Amore.’

“Thanks for the help Miss now please don’t let me stop you from enjoying the rest of the Fair,” I waved good-bye to the librarian and then shot to the biograph section. I began looking through the books as fast as I could. I then felt Cadance’s ki start to waver followed by the barrier falling. I could now sense Sombra’s evil presence precisely and felt him moving into the city. I didn’t have time to fiddle-fart around. I looked through the books faster and found a purple book with a blue snowflake similar to the flag but it also had a yellow diamond in the center with wisps around the snowflakes. “This must be it.”

I picked up the book and thumbed through it as fast as I could. I found out it was actually Princess Amore herself that had created the Crystal Heart and other various spells and enchantments. She hid the most dangerous ones away under the city.

“Yea, yea. Another day maybe. But where would Sombra hide her away in her statue form.” I thought hard. “He might have used the Crystal Caves close to the door that leads to the Heart under the thrown room.” I saw the barrier go back up I still felt Sombra’s presence while inside the barrier. “Wait, didn't a piece of his horn break off in the show? His focus crystal must’ve done the same thing here.”

“Nraaa.” I let out a sigh as I closed the book and placed it back in my satchel next to my Grimoire as I thought it might come in handy later. I walked out of the library and looked to the barrier with a smirk. “My turn to help out. Hope your ready Sombra because you’re about to face off with a Black Bull.”

‘Looks like Amore will have to wait.’

I started to walk towards the edge of town. Once I got outside the barrier anything was going to happen. Suddenly Rainbow landed in front of me.

“Asta, we need you dude,” She said frantically. “Turns out the Crystal Heart thing isn’t just some centerpiece like Twilight thought but is some-”

“It’s a relic created by Princess Amore to help protect the Empire,” I interjected as I continued to walk along my path.

“Yea, wait?” Rainbow looked at me dumbstruck. “How’d you know that?”

I pulled out Amore biography. “I read about it in this while looking for info on the Empire and Sombra. I think Sombra took out the Princess causing the Crystal Ponies to fall into fear and despair. He then was able to takeover becoming a self-proclaimed King and then he hid away the Crystal Heart to keep the Ponies in their dark mindset and to make sure it couldn’t be used against him.”

“Wow dude,” She looked at me in shock as I put the book away. “But back to us needing you. I need and opponent for jousting and you’re the only one awesome or tough enough to match me. Our job is to keep everypony happy and junk until Twi can find the Heart thingy.”

“Sorry Rainbow Dash,” I kept walking to the edge of the Empire. “Armor is protecting Cadance. Twilight is looking for the Crystal Heart with Spike at her side no doubt. You girls are keeping this Crystal Fair going.”

“Yea and we need you here too,” Rainbow exclaimed as she shot in front of me.

I snickered at her. “No, you don’t. You need me out there,” I pointed to the barrier. “I’m the only one who can fight that bastard Sombra on equal footing. Twilight and Spike need all the time as the can get. Cadance’s power is just about gone now and you guys will be in the way if a fight with Sombra breaks out here. I’m better off bringing the fight to him and once I activate my Grimoire I won’t be able to enter the Barrier once any of my weapons are out.”

“Alright, but you better not end up in the hospital again or even come close to dying or I’ll have to sock back to life for Shy and everypony else,” Rainbow looked at me with deep concern. “Good Luck.”

I gave a big smile and held up a V for victory.

Next Chapter: Clash-King vs. Knight-Find the Heart Twilight Estimated time remaining: 43 Hours, 35 Minutes