"Ruby!" Soren shouted as he held a hoof out. He looked at the angered Shayden. "They weren't doing anything yet!" Shayden had enough time to transform all of the supports to the staircase into smoke, collapsing the structure and bring the crystal ponies down with it.
"Good! I prevented them from delivering the first strike. Enough talking, time for action!" Soren grabbed him on the shoulder with one hoof and pointed his other hoof at his chest.
"You don't ever hurt Ruby again, do you understand me?" he warned in a dark voice, which Shayden noticed.
"She is with them now. If she tries anything against us, it will be her funeral."
"I don't care. I'll make sure you're buried first before she dies." The rubble was blasted aside, revealing a mildly irritated Diamond.
"Now that was uncalled for, but I guess this is a good way to start the fight as any. Say your prayers, Soren Melody."
"I pray to the princesses of my world! Where are yours?!" he yelled as he sent fireballs at Diamond. The crystal pony created hovering whirlpools of water to eliminate the attack. He then sent a tidal wave towards Soren and Shayden. The two teleported away and reappeared at separate parts of the room. Soren was facing Diamond while Shayden faced Jade and Lapiz. Topaz and Ruby were just now freeing themselves. We are so outmatched, Soren thought. Sunny...I need you.
Diamond sent magic bolts at Soren's face, but Soren ducked fast enough to let one shoot through his mane. He retaliated by levitating the floor underneath Diamond and throwing him in the air. The leader of the group recovered with his wings and grinned.
"Right...alicorn." Shaking his head as if disappointed with himself, Soren cracked off chunks of the ceiling to drop them on Diamond, who easily dodged or destroyed them. He then teleported in front of Soren, turned around, and kicked him. Before Soren could hit the ground, Diamond teleported in front of his path and hit him again. Teleport, hit, teleport, hit. All without letting Soren touch the ground.
"ENOUGH!!!" shouted Soren as his eyes flashed white for an instant and casted a concussive blast, sending Diamond reeling for a bit. Soren was already bruised. He glanced at Shayden, and, after seeing that his friend was fighting three opponents at once, growled in irritation.
Just then, a random fireball landed in the middle of Jade, Lapiz, and Topaz. Diamond, Soren, and Shayden looked at the incident in surprise. An angry mare landed behind the three ponies fighting Shayden. Sunny! Soren glanced at Ruby, who was standing at the entrance of the left hallway upstairs, smiling down at him. She must have freed her!
"You idiots wanted me to give up my magic just so you could have it?!" Sunny yelled. "Well then, let me show you how to use it!" Her body transformed into fire. Once she was 'Blazing Sun,' she snorted black smoke out of her nostrils and sprinted towards the three crystal ponies. Shayden also took this opportunity to blast Jade with his few known fire spells. He then used the smoke from said spells to bombard the group with piercing streams.
Soren and Diamond faced one another again; Diamond was quicker on the response as he punched Soren square in the nose. Soren wiped his nose on his leg. No blood yet, he smirked. He created a box around Diamond that was made of the stone floor. Soren then quickly built up a large fireball and shot it at Diamond, who had just demolished the box. The fireball impacted, sending him sliding on his hooves halfway down the room. Soon, laughter could be heard.
"I see you and I are a somewhat even match. Let me show you just how strong our unity has made us. Friends! Join me!" Every gem-named pony teleported away from their fight to join Diamond's side; Diamond had to teleport Ruby to them.
The leader closed his eyes, and the others mimicked him absentmindedly. All five horns lit up with colors that matched their respective coats. Lights flowed from their horns and created clouds of the same colors. They mixed together to create a bright white sphere. The five ponies levitated while the sphere grew to the size of three ponies. Once the white sphere reached critical mass, all of it shot into Diamond. All five ponies fell to the floor; the only one to pick himself up was Diamond, who was surging with power. The bodies of his friends were seemingly being absorbed by him.
Soren's own friends ran up to him as he scanned his opponent. Diamond's entire body was coated in diamonds, his eyes were pure white, his grin was pure confidence with a tinge of insanity, and his coat had faintly-colored souls floating around inside. His height was now almost twice as tall as Soren's. He has never seen such power fused into one pony. How could he even hold it?!
"I'll give you your answers, Soren. At least you will be at peace when I kill you and take your powers. In every adventure you were on, you blinded yourself. Appaloosa... blinded by anger from your Rainbow Dash being hurt. Battle of the Nyrs...blinded by giving second chances. The Master, Chrysalis, the Elementals, Coyote Colt...in every battle you were blinded by your loss of mercy.
"Can't you see? You were never able to discover who you were because you were so focused on trying to do good, trying not to cause harm, and trying to run away from your problems. That's who you are, Soren Melody. You're a desperate pony who simply thought his title of Elemental Guardian gave him the responsibility to do good. There is no such thing as the Elemental Guardian. The Elementals know it, your princesses know, and in a way, you do as well. It never meant anything. Your princesses simply used you as an experiment, or as a weapon; I still haven't figured that out.
"I played with your world as I did with mine. I sent Twilight and her friends to wreak havoc and take control of my world. I sent chaos to rain hell upon your pathetic, happy world. Every time you stopped it, but every time you took a step closer to me. A step closer to the truth."
Sunny and Shayden watched as Soren gritted his teeth and caused the ground around his hooves to slowly crack.
"I. Am. Your. God. I control what happens in both worlds. I can cause anything to happen. I brought Cain into Equestria by summoning him with dark magic. I resurrected Nightingale to capture our powerful, traitorous Ruby. Nightingale's nova surge killed herself and knocked Ruby unconscious. I found the site before anyone else and gathered the remains of the mother to resurrect her later. Then I talked Ruby into joining us so we could find you. You and the Doctor always seem to show up to stop evil, especially when your friends are involved. The universe tends to let you find allies when you least expect it. Surprisingly, I can't prevent that, even with my god-like powers.
"Oh, another thing that may surprise you: when Rainbow Dash explained that she didn't try to kill Nyra, she was telling the truth. Her aim was off on purpose...but I made it hit that pathetic bat pony. I also helped the Fire Elemental into your mind at Appaloosa so she and the others would learn your fighting styles. Unfortunately, that was too early before your actual fight with them, therefore you learned new tricks.
"I think my favorite part was aiding in Nightmare Moon's return. With a mixture of Luna's nightmares, her old Nightmare Moon armor, some dark magic, and general hatred and jealously from other ponies, I was able to aid the spirit of the mare of the moon to come back. Unfortunately, her spirit was still very weak; that was how you defeated her.
"So you see, Soren, I own you. I see everything you do and can send more your way without even breaking a sweat. Everything in your life was seen by me, and no TARDIS or title of Guardian will change that. What will you do now?"
"Break your fucking neck." Soren's horn cackled with electricity and his eyes burned white fire. He tore hoof-sized bits of stone from the floor and circled them around his body. He also created a sphere of rushing air mixed with lightning and fire, and created make-shift ice armor for himself. "Your power means nothing!!!" Soren flew like a bullet at Diamond's chest, sweeping up the huge alicorn and throwing him through the wall at the back of the room.
Diamond quickly returned to the hole in the wall and breathed fire into the entire area. Maintaining his angry and intense expression, Soren landed next to Shayden and Sunny, who both looked at him with worry. He created a stone shield with a gust overshield to protect them. Once the temperature dropped, Soren tossed the stone into the air, broke it into pieces, and sent needles of it towards Diamond.
The leader of the crystal ponies blocked them with his left foreleg alone then threw a medium-sized ball of electricity at Soren. The white alicorn defended himself by shooting a pillar of water straight through the ball, which didn't falter in its path but did conduct the water heading straight for Diamond. Both spells hit their assigned target. Soren was harmed by the electricity, but Diamond was harmed even more by the water mixed with electricity. Both fell down; Soren landed in the middle of the room, and Diamond next to the hole in the wall.
Eventually, Soren picked himself up. He heard muffled shouts coming from his friends. Looking forward, he saw Diamond flying and yelling at him. The giant alicorn tackled Soren back to the ground and attempted to slam a fiery hoof into his chest. Soren managed to use both hooves to stop it, but Diamond's hoof was much stronger and began slowly getting closer and closer.
"Soren!" Sunny shouted as she ran over to him. However, she was suddenly levitated. Looking behind her, Sunny saw that Shayden, with his now ghostly eyes and a partially open mouth, was levitating her. She turned back to Diamond. "Leave him alone! Please!" Sunny felt tears beginning to form.
"It's ok, Sunny," Soren strained with a smile, eyes still glowing. "It'll hurt to watch...but it has to happen. He doesn't know...that I'm trying...to—" The words were stolen from his mouth as Diamond's fiery hoof plunged deep into his chest.
"NOOO!!!" Sunny's scream echoed throughout the room. Crying, she stared at Soren, whose head was bent back with his mouth wide open. The white left his eyes, and he looked like he was screaming without a voice. Shayden fell to the ground, now unconscious, and Sunny sat down and continued to stare at Soren in disbelief. No...no...he can't be dead. He can't be dead! "SOREN!!!" she sobbed as she held herself.
"So much for being a hero," Diamond laughed. He looked at the weeping Sunny and began walking over to her. He was stopped by the sound of laughter coming from behind him. Turning around, Diamond saw Soren laughing and struggling to pick himself up. He was clutching the hole in his chest as ashes fell from it, but he didn't seem to care.
"Tell me, Diamond," Soren started with a grin as he refused to look up. "Just how powerful are alicorns? Are they...over powered? Or do they merely get their magical strength from the lives that in danger?" Soren looked up at Diamond to reveal his now intense, insane, yellow eyes. "I'd like to think that any unicorn can do the same! I've seen it!" Sparks of green magic crackled around Soren's body.
"S...Soren...?" Sunny sniffed, her voice now filled with worry.