Chapter 157: Everybody wants Crystals!!!
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Gah! Just let me be! I have three exams tomorrow and the day after and I feel like banging my head on a wall. Add to it that I have to take w leave from work and one of the teachers told us about two of those exams literally yesterday, AND I have to somehow vacate my dorm while studying and passing those exams because I have to go back home the same day the last exams is held to be back for fork the next day.... Life of a student anyone?...
But anyway. Hope you like this slightly late chapter and like always EEEENJOY!!!
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Twilight slid down the slide which to anypony else was nothing more than a nearly endless stairway leading upwards. Her idea of temporarily reversing their own gravitational pull was one she wholeheartedly associated with Phoebe's earlier comment. She doubted that she'd have thought of it earlier if she wasn't there to say what she did.
And as they quickly approached the last few dozen meeters of the impromptu slide. Twilight quickly cancelled her spell and caught them all in her telekinesis before safely levitating them outside of the white, endless chamber.
Her eyes quickly adjusted to the new scenery as she gazed upon the Crystal Heart floating right in the middle of what appeared to be the top of the highest tower of the Crystal Castle. Had she known it was here all along she would have not wasted so much time going through the secret passages and had to suffer Sombra's revolting "Stairs Fetish"...
She was just about to run towards the heart in excitement, happy to finally be done with this hoof damned test, when Starfall's long time of teaching and advices stopped her in her tracks.
That was just the perfect place for an ambush or trap after all.
And boy was she right, when she actually used some of her more specialised detection magic to look for any traces of foalplay.
The Crystal Heart was the real deal, just it's mere presence itself caused funny things to happen against her senses. She could feel it emanate and actually cause her magic to tingle as if her magic and the magic of the Heart resonated with eachother.
Oh She wanted to study this thing! Like...She wouldn't be surprised if the heart wasn't far away in terms of strength from one of the Elements of Harmony! Just think about the things she and Starfall could learn from how it worked!
Of course the heart needed a regular charging by the positive emotions of an entire Empire, but it was still impressive and it was actually in its weakest state right now. Who knows how strong it could become if it was actually powered up!
But it's power was also the reason why she hadn't at first noticed the particularly high concentration of tainted magic concealed on the floor beneath the heart.
It was another pretty obvious trap, and it seemed like she wasn't going to be able to just take the Heart without in some way disabling said trap in the first place.
That were her original thoughts, and she was just about to start tinkering with the dark magic, hoping to somehow weaken or even disable it completely, when a white and green, fiery blur swept right past the Purple Unicorn , before a pair of clawed arms extended and snatched the Heart up, only to explode in white flames a second later.
That was also when in an instant, a large explosion of black crystal spikes formed into a large ominous cage around where the Crystal Heart used to be held just a moment ago.
Twilight looked in shock and worry at the scene happening in front of her eyes. She hadn't even seen Spike mounting Phoebe. This... When did they...
Another burst of white flames revealed the dragon and phoenix sibling duo, with Spike holding the target of their excursion in both his hands tightly, as if scared to drop it onto the ground.
Twilight looked at the duo with a mix of emotions, inwardly wanting to admonish them for their reckless action, but seeing as the time was not exactly in their favour she decided to leave the topic for a later date and ran to the two enveloping them in a quick hug.
"Great work Spike, Phoebe. Now let's get moving! We cannot waste any more-"
*SHATTER*
"THE CRYSTAL HEART IS MINE!!!" Twilight got interrupted as the sudden sound of the barrier getting broken, followed by an ominous voice resounded in their minds as if from all sides at once.
King Sombra was here. And he was angry...
__________
Discord huffed in exertion as he walked down the corridor of the Lab, while holding and pulling on to the extremely heavy object that he probably wouldn't be allowed to touch if any pony knew about what he was doing...
*squeak*
The Draconequus sighed, while stopping to catch his breath as he looked at the Fluff Ball taking a ride on his current object of interest.
"You could have at least helped a little, you know..." Discord said and the bunny just turned its head in curiosity before doing a few happy jumps.
The Petrified Lord of Chaos groaned and decided to ignore his fluffy companion's antics, before steeling himself and once again flexing his nonexistent muscles as the large object gave off the sound of loud scratching as it was pulled down the corridor...
__________
Starfall smirked to himself. All was going according to plan. He only needed a bit more and his opponents fate would be set in stone...or crystal...
A blast of greenish purple energy passed right over his head as he leaned down, dodging it at the last second.
It was quite the spectacle.
Two unicorns. One enveloped in darkness, and one enveloped in light, fighting for domination in the middle of the snowy desert.
Sombra was now clearly visible, his cloak of darkness receded as the evil King decided to take the matters into his own hooves.
"You are just delaying the inevitable! The Crystal Empire belongs to ME! And no third rate Prince shall stand in the way of my conquest!" Darkly proclaimed Sombra as he advanced towards Starfall his eyes and body shrouded in his iconic dark magic, as his horn glowed in ominous light of an incoming spell.
Starfall inwardly felt excited. This...This was an actual villain monologue! He never thought that he would actually find himself in such a situation...Well it technically wasn't his first time but...damn... Sombra at least had a style, unlike those previous villains that he fought against, and he wasn't counting Nightmare Moon as that was a group effort. He wanted nothing more than to have an epic showdown with the Villain, but he knew that it wasn't what fate had in store for them
"You seem to be under the delusion that I am your biggest problem here Sombra my boy." Starfall smirked and said in a Dumbledore voice, as a flash of light suddenly became visible, coming from the highest tower of the Crystal Castle.
Sombra seemed to instantly realize what happened, the trap under the Crystal Heart most likely alerting him to somepony taking the Heart away.
"NO!" Sombra shouted in fury as a blast of darkness swept in all directions, pushing Starfall a few steps back.
Our hero could clearly tell that Sombra stopped holding back and put all of his strength in attacking the barrier, completely disregarding his presence. It was obvious that at that precise moment his only focus was...
*SHATTER*
"THE CRYSTAL HEART IS MINE!!!"
__________
Cadence and Shining Armour sat in the palace with Cadence feeling the strain of the barrier almost overwhelming her fragile self.
Suddenly a voice sounded in their mind. A voice that they recognised very well..
'He's about to strike with his full power. Please release the barrier Auntie!'
Starfall's voice was clearly heard by the two and they didn't need to be told twice.
Cadence send as much magic as she could into the barrier before, cutting her connection to it and promptly passing out in Shining armour hoofs.
They knew it wasn't going to be enough to stop Sombra, but it was at least good enough to slow him down, and keep Cadence from getting hurt more by the potential backlash of the barrier being breached while she was still connected.
And then it came...
*SHATTER*
"THE CRYSTAL HEART IS MINE!!!"
___________
*THUMP*
Discord sighed in relief and stretched his rocky limbs, feeling the satisfaction of finally being done. He must have spend a better part of an hour dragging the thing from that lab chamber but if everything was set as it was supposed to be then he only needed to...
Oh right...
How does he even activate it?
He scratched his head as he looked at the large magic formation etched into the floor.
He didn't really knew how the thing worked to begin with.
Just as he was about to curse in annoyance at his lack of forethought, Fluffderick jumped onto one of the circles at the edge of the formation, causing the circle and subsequently, the entire formation to lit up like Christmas lights...
"Ha! I knew I could count on you, you fluffy ball you!" Discord picked up the bunny and hugged him in excitement.
Now he would be able to see if he was actually right! It was going to be so much fun!
...
*Crack*
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone