Chapter 8

Searching For The Crystal Heart

Twilight, Neo and Spike were on their way to the Crystal Empire Castle to search for the crystal heart. Twilight knew that King Sombra had to have hidden the crystal heart in the castle because King Sombra knew that nopony would dare to look for it there.

Meanwhile at the crystal faire, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were doing the best they could to keep the crystal ponies from finding out that the crystal heart they had at the faire was fake. Rainbow Dash was being a little mean to crystal ponies to keep them away from the fake crystal heart, so Applejack told Rainbow Dash to show off her amazing skills to crystal ponies while Applejack keeps them away from the fake crystal heart.

The Mortal Kombat warriors were now putting on a fight for the crystal ponies. Right now the fight was Scorpion vs. Liu Kang, the ponies watched the fight while Applejack was trying to keep crystal ponies away from the fake crystal heart.

A crystal pony named Sapphire Joy passed by, she seemed really happy. Applejack asked her if she was having fun. Sapphire Joy said that she hadn't had this much fun in 1000 years and she even mentioned that she loved watching the humans dance for them.

Applejack was happy to hear that she was having fun but then Sapphire Joy asked Applejack if she could see the crystal heart before the ceremony. Applejack couldn't let her see it, so Applejack tried to persuade her to either buy a drink or watch the Mortal Kombat match. Then Sapphire Joy went to watch the match and Applejack continued to guard the fake crystal heart.

Meanwhile Twilight, Neo and Spike were inside the Crystal Empire Castle, they climbed up the stairs and went to the throne room.

When they looked in the throne room, right in the middle of the throne room stood Shirley Temple, she was once again wearing a white ballerina dress and a crown on her head. Neo stood where he was, he couldn't believe he was seeing her again. However Twilight and Spike couldn't see her, only Neo could.

Twilight wondered what Neo was looking at, Neo kept looking at Shirley Temple. She smiled at him, she began dancing and she sang the same song she sang before to Neo ("My Country Tis' of Thee,"). Then Shirley spun around like a ballerina and disappeared like she did before.

Neo kept staring in the throne room at the spot where he saw Shirley Temple.

"Neo, what are you looking at?" asked Twilight.

"Didn't you see her?" asked Neo.

Twilight got confused and said, "See who?"

"I saw someone I knew standing there in the throne room."

"Neo, there's nopony there," said Spike. "Are you alright?"

Neo didn't understand why he kept seeing Shirley Temple. Then he assumed that maybe this was a vision that only he could see. That would explain why they couldn't see her and only he could.

"Okay never mind, where do we go from here?" asked Neo.

"Well, from what I've learned about this place, this isn't King Sombra's castle. Even though he lived here when he was in power, the throne room didn't look like this."

"Wait, I think I know what you mean."

Neo pulled a small device out of his pocket, he pushed a button on it and the device opened up and it was now a metal detector like device.

"What's that?" asked Twilight.

"I think there might be a secret passageway in this room somewhere," said Neo. "And this detector is going to find it for me, watch this."

Neo put the round end of the detector on the ground and he began running it around the throne room. Twilight and Spike watched Neo drag the detector around the room. Then when Neo walked across the middle of the room, the detector beeped.

Neo ran it across the spot and the detector kept beeping. Twilight and Spike wondered what it was doing, then Neo drew an X on the spot that set off the detector. Then Neo pounded on the spot (like Jax). The ground shook for a second, the spot cracked opened and revealed a secret staircase that went down into the floor.

Twilight and Spike went over to Neo, mesmerized by what just happened.

"Well, I found it," said Neo.

Twilight's eyes sparkled, "Neo, that was amazing."

"We found the passageway to King Sombra's secret castle."

"I will go down there, but I want you and Spike to stay up here."

"Okay, if you insist," said Spike. "Can you see what's down there yet?"

"Not yet. I can't even tell how far down this goes!" shouted Twilight.

"Be careful Twilight," said Neo.

"I will sweetie, I'll be back in a second."

And Twilight began walking down the stairs into the lair of King Sombra's secret castle.

End of chapter 8.