Memories of the Stone

by WanderingPony

Chapter 9: Closing Ceremonies

Although the legends usually fail to mention it, there is a reason it took two alicorns to stop one single unicorn, depraved, power-hungry, and malicious as he was, and exactly why King Sombra is also legendary for the harshest punishment delivered to a pony short of Luna being sent to the moon for a thousand years (Discord running a close third). It is also the reason that Sombra's mind was cursed into something barely capable of "CRRRYSTALS", much less complex thoughts.

That was because most armies sent to attack Sombra ended up the newest recruits in the King Sombra Royal Goon Squads.

Sweeping his burning eyes across the line of Cadence's bodyguard, Sombra had himself nine new minions in about ten seconds. The other fifteen ranged from simply being stunned to "curled up in a ball, blubbering for Mommy", their minds scrambled or shocked into immobility by the sheer willpower behind the royal horn. Half a dozen earth ponies and three unicorns spun about and hurled their yard-long spears at the surprised alicorn they had only been defending a moment before.

None of them got closer than twenty feet as Shining Armor slapped the missiles away without visible effort. Snagging Cadence's mane in his teeth, he snatched his wife from the podium without a second thought...and ran, priceless jewels raining onto the ground as she found herself being pulled from the platform and into the exit tunnel by a combination of levitation and horsepower.

"What....are...you...DOING!", shrieked the pink princess, her mane rapidly de-styling into a chaotic ravel of mane, ribbons, and fashion nightmare.

"We're going to the top, my dear! There's one thing we KNOW gets rid of King Sombra, and we have to do it before he turns the entire stadium into little green-eyed zomponies!", replied her galloping guardian.

"We have to get to the Heart!"

Scrabbling to get her own hooves four-on-the-floor, the couple galloped up one ramp after another towards the top of the stadium.

---

Shining Armor wasn't talking out of his plot- as the couple fled, King Sombra had gleefully usurped the podium and began unleashing wild bolts of green magic from his eyes and horn, clearly enjoying himself as he swatted flying guardponies swooping in from all angles and having tossed spears fold like tinfoil on impact with his mystically enhanced body. Thankfully, most of the Royal Guard was of sterner stuff than the average pony, or else Sombra would have had dozens of new recruits in moments- but even briefly meeting his eyes was like coming nose-to-nose with a cockatrice. Most of them had joined the bodyguards on the stadium grounds, occasionally faceplanted pegasi twitching in the grips of some horrible burning nightmare piled in with a unicorn dazedly turning in circles, randomly blowing holes in the walls with concussive hornblasts as she struck at phantoms only she could see, an earth pony attempting to plow concrete with his teeth as he dragged his chipping choppers to scrape against the rigid surface. Two Sombral blasts from the far side of the stadium randomly spiderwebbed the already cracked window as the princesses looked on in horror and dismay from above, crystal ponies mixing with the rest of the crowd as they tried to charge through anything to be out of the line of sight.

It hadn't even taken two minutes.

"Twilight...", said Princess Celestia...
"...get the girls down there...", added Princess Luna...
"It's going to get messy in here in a moment.".

Gathering the Bearers close at hand, Twilight Sparkle quickly levitated five of the Elements to their proper places and placed the Diadem of Magic on her own head. With a twinkle of light, the six ponies vanished to appear on the bottom of the stadium, opposite the stand atop which Sombra was gleefully wreaking havoc.

Nothing else save a few brainwashed slave-ponies remained standing in the thousand-yard space between them, broken and battered armored forms occasionally moaning in pain or confusion as they lay scattered across the field.

Celestia and Luna inhaled at the same time.

The window promptly imploded from the suction, scattering shards of glass to stud the wall and door behind them. Standing at the other side, Orange Wedge shied and reared as a long splinter drove itself through a foot of wood. It came to rest an inch away from giving him a new split to that fruit on his cutie mark.

Unscathed by the razor-sharp rain, the sisters used their outdoor voices together.

"SOMBRA, THOU SHALT CEASE AND DESIST THINE EVIL. SURRENDER TO THINE ROYAL DIARCHS, THOU USURPING WRETCH OF A PONY!"

Below the shockwave that resulted, the six Bearers toppled, pressed to their knees by the pressure that pulsed from overhead. Stunned and unconscious victims of Sombra were tossed helpless to crash into the walls, and the roar was enough to cause Sombra's slaves to clutch their ears and collapse, bleeding from the head and nose. Windows splintered. Discarded banners and flags found themselves driven into seats like arrows or fluttering across the sky as they were blown across the city by the force of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Pegasi fled for altitude to avoid the sea of angry sonic assault. Ponies a quarter mile away went deaf momentarily from the sheer volume. A twelve foot crack opened at Sombra's feet. Behind six feet of stadium wall, Shining Armor and Cadence stumbled on their upward jaunts. Destruction slapped it's paw like an Ursa Major down, and it's center was King Sombra.

No, more than a mere Ursa Major. The Voice had been doubled.

Standing in the now ruined splinters of what had been his bully pulpit, Sombra flicked an ear as if shooing a fly. A splinter of wood left the offended spot and rolled away on the residual breezes of the Voice.

"Nay.", he said, and let his horn do rest of the talking. The stadium below Celestia and Luna became dust for twenty feet, sending the ceiling tumbling down on the alicorn's heads. Diving clear of the collapse, they swooped up into the air, mixing a rain of red-hot rays of light with glittering arcane darts, Celestia and Luna alternating their salvos with a skill only sisterhood and centuries of practice could attain. Standing his ground, Sombra parried the barrages with a mixture of shields and counterpunches, breaking the alicorn's flight pattern into swoops and dives as they scattered away from the return fire.

Looking out on their new view from the edge of the ruined chunk of concrete, Big Starlight and Orange Wedge watched the Bearers trotting towards the carnage, their rulers incinerating the stadium floor into glassy layers of melted char as a crazed black unicorn flung emerald beams of body-shattering force back at them. They looked at each other.

Teeth fitted spears into jousting brackets. Wings opened, and the two guardponies dove off the edge, flying low and straight across the battlefield for the mad king with points extended.

"We do NOT get paid enough bits to do this!"