As promised, here is your Thanksgiving update. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 4: Downfall

Ichika and Houki stopped their jousting at the sound of yelling and turned around to see everypony running in terror. They took a look around and saw that the barrier was gone and King Sombra was entering the empire.

"Ichika, do you think that we have to use our IS's now?" Ichika looked at Houki and shook his head.

"We can't. Remember when you could have hit that poaching ship? The same thing applies here."

"No it doesn't! Ichika, that ship could have done nothing, so it was harmless. King Sombra could enslave all of these ponies! The only thing that you need to think is the same is King Sombra and that IS unit." Ichika looked at her, and nodded his head.

"Then we'll do it. But first, we need to find a safe place to hit him, which is what I was talking about. I didn't mean the king, I meant the crystal ponies." Ichika paced back and forth, thinking about what to do.

"Draw him out into the north. That way, no harm can be done to the ponies, or the empire." Lelouch walked over to them and they smiled. "I would like to command you on the battlefield, but I don't know any of the things that your IS's can do. Just use a flanking formation most of the time; I'm sure it will work." He walked away, but then turned his head, "I'll go get Rin and Cecilia, don't worry about it." He flew into the sky, and saw that they were all gathered near the fake Crystal Heart, which was now revealed. Crap, now Twilight really needs to get here. Lelouch flew over and got Cecilia and Rin.

"I need you two to go over to Ichika and Houki. They are at the jousting area. They'll explain everything when you get there, okay?" They nodded and headed over to the assigned area.

"Where is the real Crystal Heart?" One of the ponies asked.

"It's coming, as soon as Twilight can get it." Applejack told them.

"I think you should have said that it was getting polished." Rarity muttered to her.


"Rin, Cecilia, it's great to see you here." Ichika said as they walked over to him and Houki.

"So, what did you need us for? A performance of some sort?" Cecilia asked.

"Something like that. We need to get into our IS units and hold off King Sombra to give Twilight some time." Houki explained. Ichika, Houki, and Rin took a glimpse at their right hooves to see there IS in its sealed form, while Cecilia combed a hoof over the hair near her ear to feel her earrings. They all shut their eyes and concentrated, and in 10 seconds, they were all in there is armor.

"Okay you guys, we need to drag him over away from the kingdom first if we want to make any progress." Ichika commanded and they nodded. Although there is units were able to fly when they were humans, Cecilia and Rin were unable to fly, unlike Ichika and Houki. "It must be because you're not Pegasi. You both can go on foot, right?" They both shook their heads, but Cecilia soon figured out that she could levitate a couple of feet off of the ground. It wasn't really considered flying, but it would still get her to the battlefield faster.

"Rin, hop on my back. I'll get you there with us." Houki offered. C'mon Rin, there's no time for complaining. As much as you want Ichika to carry you, it would just be wasting time. Luckily, Rin nodded and got on Houki's back. "Do you mind…sealing your IS for the flight? It's kinda heavy." Rin smiled and did as she was requested.

"Perfect, now let's move!" They all dashed forward in the direction of King Sombra and got ready to fight. When they were in attacking distance, Houki let Rin down and they all stared at their opponent.

"I feel horrible about this. We have IS's and it's a 4 on 1 battle." Cecilia stated as they all moved over behind him. They noticed him turn around and begin following them over to the outskirts of the empire. Perfect, we have him just where we need him. Ichika thought as they kept moving away from the kingdom. After 5 minutes of travel, they thought that they were in a good area to begin fighting. Houki, Ichika, and Rin drew out their blades and held them in their mouths, ready to fight.

Cecilia watched as they got ready, trying to figure out how her weapons would work here. Everything else I have can operate, but my main weapon, the Blue Pierce, how do I use it? She felt a surge of power emit from her horn, and both her horn and the front of her right hoof glowed. When the glowing subsided, it revealed the Blue Pierce, a smaller version, but it still had the power of the normal one. She kept her distance, just like the weapon's intended purpose was, and shot at their shadowy enemy. It's a spot on hit. Although I wish I didn't do that because it's more like killing then holding back. She then looked in astonishment as her shot went right through King Sombra. What the!? Before she could even think any more about what just occurred, he darted over to her and got a hold of her with the shadows under his control. She was lifted off the ground and was being choked by the shadows. She commanded the 4 drones she had to attack, but their shots all went through and he applied a greater grip around her neck. They all watched as Cecilia's IS started to vanish, and when it was completely gone, she was thrown aside, as is she was nothing.

"Cecilia!" They all yelled out. He turned and gave the rest of them a devious smile.

"You bastard!" Out of pure rage, Rin shot her 2 Ryuhou and watched as, just like Cecilia's shots, went through King Sombra.

"I don't think long ranged attacks work on him." Houki inferred. This led Ichika to the idea to charge right towards him with his blade, the Yukihira Nigata. He performed an upward slash and saw that King Sombra split in half, and then formed into a whole again. Enraged, Ichika performed more slashes, ranging from a side-to-side slash, and from a powerful downwards slash. He looked at his shield energy and saw how depleted it was. Dammit! How do I forget that the IS runs on shield energy? He flew back to regroup with Rin and Houki.

"Ichika, are you okay? Your shield energy is halfway gone." Rin told him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It seems that King Sombra can't be hit by any attacks." Ichika looked over at the knocked out Cecilia. "Rin, you have to take Cecilia back to the empire. I know that your IS has no special way of transportation in this form, but Houki and I are the only ones who can hold him off, understand?" She nodded, and picked up Cecilia. "Oh, and make sure to tell them that everything will be okay and that they have nothing to worry about." With that final message, Rin made her journey back to the empire with Cecilia on her back.

"So, do we just hold him of by distracting him?" Houki asked as they faced their enemy again.

"It's the best choice we got."


Lelouch worked assiduously on running most of the stands. He ran, and even sometimes flew, back and forth from food stands to game stands, and the ponies looked at him awkwardly, as if he was the only one running the entire fair. He rested on one of the stands and Rarity walked over to him.

"Lelouch, you seem tired. Maybe you should take a little break."

"Tried? I'm not tired at all. I'm just doing my best to keep everypony's spirits up before anything happens. I'm positive that Ichika, Rin, Cecilia, and Houki are perfectly executing the distraction." He heard Rarity let out a little gasp and turned around to look in her direction. He saw Rin walking over with Cecilia on her back, without her IS. They both ran over to gain information on what happened.

"Cecilia got really hurt in the battle. None of our hits seem to do anything to him." Rin told them.

"Rarity, I need you to take Cecilia into the castle and find a place for her to rest." Lelouch commanded. Rarity nodded, and picked up Cecilia. "Also, if Twilight taught you any sort of healing magic, now would be the best time to make use of it." She turned to face the castle again, and ran over to it. "So, I'm guessing that Ichika and Houki are distracting him now." Rin nodded.

"Yeah, but none of our attacks work on him, so why doesn't he just go take over the kingdom already?"

"I'm not sure. Wait, maybe that means he does have some sort of weakness that we can exploit somehow. But then again, he doesn't know anything about your IS units, so what should he be worried about?" Lelouch looked around to see the ponies that were still able to have fun here. "Rin, why don't you help us run the fair for now? I'm sure Ichika and Houki can hold King Sombra off without you." Rin smacked him on the head with a hoof. "What was that for?"

"You're calling me weak. I'm sure I can take down any enemy by myself!"

"I wasn't calling you weak at all, honest." Rin was about to hit him again, but lowered her hoof. "Good. Because you and Pinkie Pie are good friends at the moment, you should go help her. She's running the flugelhorn stand, which is that way." He pointed to his left, and she walked over there to look for Pinkie Pie. Maybe I should go check on Twilight. It sure is taking a long time to find the Crystal Heart, but that is to be expected if you wouldn't want it to be found. He decided to go check on how she was doing, and he saw Spike run past him. "Spike, wait up!" Lelouch ran over to him. "You're holding the Crystal Heart right now, right? So where's Twilight?"

"About her." Spike said in a saddened tone. "She rushed to go retrieve the Crystal Heart, but it was guarded by King Sombra's magic and now she is surrounded by a whole wall of crystals. I wanted to help her but she told me to bring the Crystal Heart back here." Lelouch ran right past him and into the castle. "Lelouch, wait!" He was already out of hearing distance, so Spike just looked around, wondering what he had to do now.

Where could Twilight be now? He looked past every room, looking for clues as to where Twilight was located at the moment. He went past the throne room, and then retraced his steps back to it when he saw a hole in the middle of it. Curious, he walked over to it and figured out that it was a stairway. Great, now I have to walk all the way down here. As much as he didn't want to, Lelouch walked down for about 10 minutes until he reached the bottom. Luckily, the door there was already open, showing that he was on the right track. Once he walked through, he looked in front of him to see more stairs.

"Are you kidding me?!" He exclaimed. Wait, this staircase leads upwards, so all I need to do is fly to make it easier. He unfolded his wings and flew upwards until the stairway ended. It revealed another room, and in the middle was a circle of black crystals. "Twilight, are you in here?" He shouted.

"Lelouch, is that you?" From an opening in the crystal circle, Twilight looked through it and saw Lelouch. Remembering what Spike told him, he ran over to the crystal and tried talking to her.

"I came here to get you out, but I don't think it's possible at the moment." He told her, noticing that the crystal took over most of the surrounding area.

"Now that you're here Lelouch, I want to apologize for what I did when you were trying to help find the Crystal Heart. I learned that this whole empire mattered more than me passing Princess Celestia's test."

"That explains why Spike has the Crystal Heart." He heard crying from Twilight and looked at her. "Is something wrong?"

"I've done so many things wrong to you, and you are still my friend. How? How can you do that?" Twilight had a begging tone in her voice, as if the information that Lelouch could tell her could save the world from any evil.

"It's called forgiveness and understanding. When you have those two things, it's almost as if everything wrong that's happened in your life just vanishes." He got up and headed for the stairs. "So Twilight, do we bring King Sombra back here so he can get a glimpse at the Crystal Heart?"

"Yes. That way he can be stopped and our job here should be done." Lelouch opened his wings and flew out of the window and back to the Crystal Fair. He saw Rin with Pinkie Pie and ran over to her.

"Rin, I need you to get Houki and Ichika back here now. We have the Crystal Heart and now to seal King Sombra, he needs to see it." Rin nodded and went into her IS armor.

"I'll be back here as soon as I can." She ran out of the empire and into the cold weather that was awaiting her. Perfect, now we can finally bring peace to the kingdom and put King Sombra to rest.


"Houki, are you okay?" Ichika asked as she took a fall from a hit by King Sombra.

"Yeah I'm fine, but my shield energy is low." Ichika looked at his shield energy and saw that it was at 50. Damn, my shield energy is low too. I hope that they've found the Crystal Heart because all Houki and I can do now with our remaining shield energy is escape If we want to come back alive. They both did their best to dodge hits that were coming at them.

"Houki, we need to play on the defensive side now. We're both low on shield energy so all we can do it dodge and stall him for more time."

"Got it." They both stopped flying and walked on the ground now for as long as they would have to withstand King Sombra. After 10 minutes of countless dodging, they saw a shadowy figure approaching them. "Don't tell me that this is some kind of backup for King Sombra." As the figure approached them, they saw that it was a pony with pink armor, and they smiled, knowing that it was Rin.

"Rin, how's Cecilia?" Ichika asked.

"She's alright. Listen, we need to go to the castle now. We've held him back long enough." They both nodded and took to the skies again. Ichika picked up Rin to ensure that they all made it back safely, just in case King Sombra had some dirty tactic while they were getting back to the empire. As they were flying, they looked back and saw that King Sombra was following them.

"Perfect. Now let's get going. The sooner we get there, the sooner this guy will vanish." They both used the rest of their shield energy to go as fast as they possibly could.

When they got back to the empire, their shield energy was at 0 and there IS's vanished. They ran over to the spot of the fake Crystal Heart and looked behind them to see King Sombra.

"King Sombra's here, run!" One pony exclaimed which gave all the other ponies the thought to run away.

"Everypony calm down!" They all looked back to see Cadence, who was now in perfect condition, thanks to the power of the Crystal Heart. "If we put all our hope and love into the Crystal Heart, we can put King Sombra to rest, so don't fret, just think positive." She placed the heart onto the pillar and they all surrounded it and closed their eyes, letting the Crystal Heart harness their power. They watched as the crystal ponies regained their crystal forms and closed their eyes. They all did the same as well, closing their eyes and still giving the whole kingdom their support. Tracks of light blue light outlines through the whole kingdom and then quickly went back towards the holding place of the Crystal Heart. A huge burst of energy discharged from the Crystal Heart, turning everypony who wasn't in their crystal form into crystal, and demolishing the dark crystals, and King Sombra himself. A beautiful aura emitted from the Crystal Heart and scattered all around Equestria. They all opened their eyes to see the spectacle that happened to the empire, and to themselves.

"We're crystal ponies now!" Rarity shouted in joy, observing her new manestyle and crystal coat.

"So this is what it's like to be a crystal pony? It seems that the girls have it better." Ichika commented, noticing that even though they had a change in their coats as well, the girls had the extra change in their manes. Twilight watched them all from above the castle and smiled. Good job all of you, especially you Spike. We could never have done this without teamwork. She made her way back outside to meet with the rest of her friends.

"Twily! It's good that you're safe. When Spike told me about where you were, I was starting to get worried, but you know Cadence and I never doubted you all for a second." He told her. They walked into the castle to get a view from the balcony of the improved kingdom. "Well, the Crystal Fair is still going on, so you all should go out there and keep running it, but try to have fun as well." Cadence and Shining Armor both smiled at them, and they headed back to the Crystal Fair.


After 20 minutes of running the festival, the Ponyville group decided that it was time for them to go back home. Once they passed the border between the Crystal Empire, and the cold Arctic, they all noticed that they all reverted back into their normal forms.

"Our beautiful manes and coats!" Rarity and Cecilia both exclaimed in sorrow. They all laughed and headed for the train to get back to Canterlot. Shining Armor noticed that Twilight looked sad, so she walked over to talk to her.

"Why so down? You saved the empire from total destruction, so can't you be a bit happy?"

"I am happy, but I don't think that I'll pass Princess Celestia's test now. I was supposed to save the empire, but Spike seemed to do all the work. He was the one who brought the Crystal Heart to you all while I just sat down, trapped. Both Cadence and Shining Armor's expressions turned into looks of sorrow. They got to the train station and began boarding the train.

"Well, I guess we'll see you all sometime soon. It was great to meet you Ichika, Rin, Cecilia, and Houki, and we both hope that you can get back to your world safely." Cadence told them. Twilight was the last to board the train and Shining Armor placed a hoof on her back.

"Hey, if Princess Celestia fails you, just tell me. I'm sure Cadence and I can work something out because you shouldn't fail." Twilight looked at his brother and gave him a hug.

"Thanks BBBFF. You should came back and visit sometime soon."

"I don't think we can at the moment, but if the chance ever rises, you can count on it." Twilight boarded the train, and it began its motion towards Canterlot. She grouped with her friends after she let out a final wave to her brother and Cadence.

"Twilight, do you really think that you'll fail just because you didn't bring the Crystal Heart?" Fluttershy asked her.

"I don't know. I hope I don't, but I really have the feeling that I will." Pinkie Pie ran over to her and lifted her face up to form a smile. Pinkie Pie seemed to always make anypony smile, no matter what the situation. Ichika, Houki, Rin, and Cecilia made their own conversation about wondering if they would make It back to Japan or not.

"I love it here. Maybe we should stay here for a little break." Cecilia recommended.

"I know that it sounds great and all, but I really think we need to get back right away. I'm sure they are wondering where we all are. Who knows how much they could be worrying about us?" Houki countered. Lelouch decided to walk over and wonder what they were talking about. Once he was thoroughly explained about the topic, he joined in.

"If only you all had the same situation as me. I think I really have no choice but to stay here anyways. I know Twilight has a spell that can bring you back home, but it's your call. You can either stay here or go back. The problem is that each decision has some negatives attached to them, so either way you win and lose." He explained.

"What do you think we should do?" Ichika asked him.

"I think that you should go back home, and I don't meant that in a mean way. Unlike me, you actually have it so that if you go back, it won't feel as though your presence there is weird. And like you said, they are probably worrying about you." They both talked in a small circle, wondering what they should do now. Once they broke away from each other, they looked at Lelouch.

"We all agreed to stay here for 1 week. You don't think that's too long of a stay, right?"

"Not at all. I mean, you all did save the Crystal Empire, so it does seem like a way to reward yourselves." The train came to a halt 15 minutes later, and Twilight let out a sigh. "Don't worry about it Twilight, just try explaining it and I'm sure Princess Celestia will understand." Lelouch told her as they walked out of the train. They all walked with her until the got to the front of the castle, which is where they waited for her until she got her results.


Twilight walked into the castle as quiet as she could, sadness still lingering around her thoughts. She saw Princess Celestia with her back turned and Twilight let out a small cough to make her presence noticeable. She turned around and gazed at Twilight with a smile.

"Twilight, what's wrong? You seem depressed."

"Princess Celestia, if you want to fail me, just fail me now and get it over with. I failed your test, and I know it." Tears glistened in her eyes, and Princess Celestia looked at her.

"Twilight, I don't know what you're going on about. You saved the Crystal Empire."

"I didn't. It was all Spike and the others. I just sat there, trapped inside of a room."

"Twilight, you learned a lesson in self-sacrifice during that journey. You knew that even if the test did call for you to save the empire by yourself, you would do the right thing and make somepony else do the job. I'd say that you deserve a passing grade." Twilight looked up at her and wiped her eyes.

"So…did I pass?" She sniffed. Princess Celestia nodded and Twilight jumped in the air. "Oh thank you Princess Celestia!" She gave her a hug to show her gratitude.

"You're welcome. Now you probably need to run outside and tell your friends the good news." Twilight wiped her eyes again and made a run for the castle entrance. She walked out of the door and all her friends stared at her.

"So, how was it?" Houki asked.

"I…Passed!" She exclaimed, and they all cheered. "It seems that all I had to do was really save the empire, no matter who did it. It was a lesson of self-sacrifice, that's what the Princess told me." Twilight took the lead of the group. "Now let's get going. We've been through a lot today, and even though it's still a bit sunny, I think we all need to go to bed." They all let out yawns and then laughed and boarded the train to get back home.

So, now that all the main stuff is over, I can now get more creative with this. I was thinking about making each Chapter a episode in MLP, so the next Chapter revolves around Too Many Pinkie Pies. Do you think I should do this? I was planning to do it, but not for all the time because then I would have to wait a week to type every chapter. ~Geasswolf Out