It’s time for a (Mock) Death Battle! · 10:55pm Mar 30th, 2021
Inspired by the video on my last blog post.
Our contenders, the Master of All Evil from Eternia and a Dark King from a forgotten Empire. It’s time to look at their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win, a Death Battle!
A little practice for when I actually try to write a fight scene for SMoTE. Magic fights are pretty hard for me to write since it’s a lot of, “Launch spell, defend, launch spell, deflect, launch spell, shield, launch spell.” If you have any advice for writing a magical fight scene, let me know and I’ll try to apply it to an actual canonical fight later on in the story (and by that, I mean much later. Don’t expect a grand duel in the next chapter or anything.) For now, enjoy some thoughtless violence after thus little review of our contenders.
The Crystal Empire, a rather small kingdom located in the Frozen North, was once a prosperous land of love under the leadership of Princess Amore. The unicorn princess ruled over the kingdom for years, possibly even decades, and was revered by many of her subjects, with the exception of a small colt named Sombra.
Long ago, a young grey unicorn colt was found on the edges of the Crystal Empire by the princess’ guards and become an orphan at Chestnut Fall’s Orphanage. Even though he couldn’t speak their language and was years behind the other students in his class, Sombra quickly caught up with his peers and began speaking and using magic in only a year.
In that time Sombra would form a deep relationship with Radiant Hope, a unicorn mare who would become one of his greatest friends and allies.
Unfortunately, the happy days of their youth wouldn’t last long as a certain holiday drew closer. The Crystal Empire is protected by a magical artifact known as the Crystal Heart, which held off the eternal winter just outside the Empire’s borders. Every year the Crystal Fair would come, sending a wave of pure light magic that would tear apart Sombra’s body over the course of several years.
During one of these celebrations, Radiant Hope used her magic to heal Sombra, earning her cutie mark and later getting accepted to the magical school for gifted unicorns in Equestria. After running into the heavy snow outside the Empire, Sombra met his “mother”, who revealed that Sombra was an Umbrum, or more commonly referred to as a shadow pony.
His kind were locked beneath the Crystal Empire by Princess Amore herself, becoming nothing more than a fairy tale to tell young colts and fillies to scare them at night. Princess Amore knew about Sombra’s true nature and hoped that Sombra would fight against his nature, with the Heart purifying whatever residual darkness was inside each year.
Sombra took the news… Well? If by well you think he turned her into stone, shattered her, and then hid her remains across the world, then yeah, he took it pretty well. Radiant Hope would then seek the aid of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. One would think that two alicorns would be more than a match for one pony, though Sombra was anything but an average pony.
Still, like all villains, Sombra eventually had to admit defeat, but not before casting a final spell that would rip himself and the Empire out of the timeline and returning over a thousand years later. When he returned, Sombra had become a true master of darkness, earning the title of the King of Monsters.
Aside from the unbelievable amount of magic needed to fight two alicorns, Sombra possesses a variety of abilities that make him a force to be feared. With his dark magic, Sombra was able to enslave every pony in the Empire, and in one timeline, he was able to amass his forces to declare an all-out war with Equestria, which forced them to build more advanced weapons and prosthetics that were still no match for the dark lord.
Sombra also has the ability to turn into an intangible mass of smoke, easily becoming half the height of the Crystal Castle with only a thought. Among these abilities is the power to stop other creatures from using magic by infecting them with magic inhibiting crystals that grow rapidly. His species are also able to use the same magic unicorns can, turning inanimate objects into snakes, creating terrifying illusions, and locking ponies into a trance where they live through their worst nightmares.
He also has the ability to summon dark crystals from the ground, use basic teleportation, and create enslaving helmets that reinforce his ability to control others.
He was also able to shatter the elements of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony, which were essentially more powerful versions of the Crystal Heart.
After defeating Discord, who may have thrown the match but might have also been affected by Sombra’s anti-magic spells, Sombra was “killed” for about the third time. Or fourth depending on your continuity.
In the comics, Sombra was able to regain an incorporeal form from the remains of his horn and claimed that it would take a decade for him to regain a physical form and leave his private study. Considering the fact that he was essentially turned into dust, a decade to regenerate doesn’t sound like a bad healing factor since he was deader than dead.
Of course, with great power, comes a really, REALLLLY stupid weakness. Friendship.
Sombra’s spells, tricks, and abilities are weak against ponies having faith, trust, and pixie dust, minus the pixie dust. When Twilight, who had ascended to the status of an alicorn at the time, had anti magical crystals growing from her horn, they were removed by her friends and brother(s) telling her that they all believed in her, and he was later killed for the last time by Discord essentially telling Twilight and her friends the same thing.
Still, despite hoof holding being a great weapon against him, it’s not always completely effective. In a timeline where the Elements of Harmony were never recovered, Sombra was able to spread his dark magic across Equestria and turn his enemies into slaves that would fight for him. Sombra has also proven himself as more than a match for the princess sisters on several occasions, taking on the full force of Celestia’s magic in a one on one dual, fighting the two to a standstill, and earning himself a seat at the table of the Legion of Doom when he was resurrected.
With all of these feats and the inferences that can be made along with them, it’s no wonder why the dark stallion holds the title of King.
“It’s Good to be the king.”
The demon from another dimension, the Master of Destruction, the Exiled Prince of Eternia, Skeletor, the Overlord of Evil. All of these and more have once been said about the skull headed enemy of the universe’s strongest man, but where did this creature come from?
Well, believe it or not, Skeletor was once a herald of justice and honor. The first-born son of King Miro, Prince Keldor, was the rightful heir to the Eternian throne on Eternia, a planet that resided in the very center of their universe. Keldor was assumably adopted by the king since it’s unlikely that Keldor’s mother, who at the time was an undead vengeful spirit guarding an ancient sword of power in a dark forest for around a thousand years (Long Story), was able to get the King into bed with her.
As part of the royal Family, Keldor strove to earn the love and respect of his family and people. The first prince was a blue skinned creature known as a Gar, an alien species who migrated to Eternia after the future Queen of Eternia blew up the Gar home-world a few thousand years before she and her crew hopped through time like a skipping stone, (Longer story).
Soon, war broke out and King Miro brought his eldest sons, Keldor and Randor, to battle in the hopes of pushing away their enemy. Only the princes would return home from the war with their father assumably dead and the throne going to Keldor. The older prince was still grieving over their father’s loss, leaving Randor to be the one to announce to the Eternian people of the fate that befell their king.
The crowd cried in outrage, demanding that either the current Queen or Randor take the throne. Meanwhile, Keldor was being comforted over the loss of his father by Randor’s mother. Since she was practically the woman who raised him, Keldor saw her as his mother as well and leaned on her heavily for support. When he attempted to go speak with his brother after being reconciled by their mother, Keldor turned back after hearing the Queen scream, seeing only a corpse lying on the floor.
As he knelt down at her body, holding his mother in his arms, Randor arrived only moments after his mother’s death. From Randor’s perspective, he didn’t want to believe that Keldor killed their mother, but he knew that if he allowed Keldor to stay or be put on trial, then the people would demand his death, even if the trial deemed him innocent. So, in a move straight out of Celestia’s book, Randor banished his brother from Eternia to appease the people and protect his older sibling from mob justice.
Keldor however, saw this as his brother betraying him, refusing to help him and instead taking the throne for himself by vilifying the royal Gar as a monster. Enraged by this betrayal, Keldor left the kingdom to find other creatures who weren’t loved by their own races, like Beastman, Whip-Lash, and Merman. One of these people, whom would become his second hand, was Evelynn Powers, the daughter of one of the astronaughts who landed before the others decades ago. As Keldor amassed his own team of like-minded individuals, Marlenna, one of the astronaughts responsible for blowing up a planet, landed near the Eternian kingdom and met King Randor.
The two fell in love and announced their marriage some time later, and of course Keldor, being a member of a race descended from aliens, saw these new aliens being treated better than most Gars and became rightfully upset about the hypocrisy of treating them better because they looked Eternian. Feeling more motivated than before, Keldor gathered his forces to attack Eternia and claim the throne, along with the powers of Castle Grayskull. See, Castle Grayskull has the secrets to the universe inside of it, along with limitless power. So, say you’re an exiled prince who was blamed for a crime they didn’t commit, and there was a magical orb that could tell you who killed your mother. See where this is going? Of course, the answers to the universe itself weren’t the only thing he was after, for inside Castle Grayskull was also untold power that could turn Keldor into an unstoppable force, giving him the strength to not only be king of Eternia, but to also impose his will on other worlds.
Under the tutelage of an evil technomancer named Hordak, Keldor amassed a wealth of magical power and later retrieved the Havoc Staff, an artifact that touched the source of all magic in the universe and thus increased his power exponentially. With only a handful of loyal henchmen, Keldor and his forces seized the castle and battled Randor’s own elite soldiers. When Keldor tried to throw acid in his brother’s face, the shield that Randor was holding sent the vile of acid back at Keldor, slowly killing the exiled prince who ran back to Hordak for aid.
After having his soul infused with a demon general named Demo-Man, Keldor’s life ended, and Skeletor rose.
With his magical powers, Skeletor is able to launch destructive beams, control plant life, rip portals to other dimensions, and even master the elements of nature. Skeletor is mostly versatile in chantless magic, which allows him to use spells he thinks of without needing to conjure a rhyming scheme to bend the forces of reality to his whim. Even Orko, a being descended from a race of purely magical creatures, and Evil-Lynn, a sorceress who was taught by the guardian of the Havoc Staff, don’t have the ability to use chantless magic all the time.
Along with the power of the Havoc Staff, Skeletor also possesses the Twin Swords, a pair of blades that are designed to form one strong sword. Although not enchanted, even one blade is able to withstand a strike from the Power Sword, an ancient weapon that possesses secret fantastical powers. Of course, the blades aren’t indestructible and are susceptible to high levels of heat which would cause the metal to melt.
Aside from his magical abilities and weapons, Skeletor is also physically stronger than most opponents, and is able to withstand a punch from not just He-Man, but also the Man of Steel himself, Superman. Granted, in one iteration Superman’s fist flew through Skeletor’s chest like it was nothing, but Skeletor was still able to survive in spite of this fatal injury. Skeletor was also one of the first creatures who was able to turn Superman to the side of evil by turning the kryptonian into his personal puppet.
Though Skeletor is powerful, his own arrogance and overconfidence have been his downfall on numerous occasions. While Skeletor isn’t above picking on smaller and weaker creatures, he also has a bad habit of trying to fight beings that are infinitely more powerful than himself, like when he tried to fight Darkside or when he summoned the most powerful villain in the multiverse and thought he could control it. Still, in spite of the odds, Skeletor escaped with his life and became stronger, using each defeat as a lesson on where he would need to improve.
And, despite what the skull headed villain may claim, he’s actually a very nice guy to his friends. I mean, you’d have to be pretty nice to forgive the woman who betrayed you several times in the past, stole your mountain castle, and locked you in a dungeon for close to a year.
“I am not nice!”
Despite failing time and time again, being betrayed by his allies, and being banished to another dimension, the Master of Evil always comes back with a bigger and badder plan. Skeletor is one villain you don’t want to pick a bone with.
Ash falls from the sky as the city of Cloudsdale is engulfed inn black flames. From his throne of slaves, a dark stallion watches the rebellious griffons and ponies fight with his superior soldiers, dancing in the sky as the king’s forces turned enemies into allies.
Sombra, in a rare moment of his life, felt truly at peace watching his army take command of the small rebellious fleet of winged creatures. In only a matter of five years, Sombra had turned Equestria into his corrupted Empire, turning even the mighty Princess Celestia into nothing more than a stool for his hind legs to rest on.
As he enjoyed the melody of screams that filled the sky, an orange portal opened nearby, dropping a strange creature and several large metal creatures.
“Gh-Nyeh! Ugh. Blasted Hordak. That old fool knows nothing about using portals,” Skeletor griped as he shoved one of the soldiers off of him. “You useless tin cans, go find the Elements of Harmony. Horde-Prime won’t be happy until those trinkets are his.”
Upon hearing those words, Sombra quickly rose from his throne to approach Skeletor and his minions, allowing his slaves to rest as they collapsed on each other after hours of standing on one another.
“You there, foul demon from Tartarus, you seek the Elements of Harmony?”
“What is to you, fool?”
“Because I will not allow you to reclaim them. If you are an ally of Harmony, then you are my enemy! I will crush anypony who fights for the side of, ‘good’.”
“You dare call me good? You’ll regret those words, you pathetic pony!” Skeletor shot back.
The bells of one of Cloudsdale’s towers fell to the ground nearby, as if announcing the beginning of their duel to the slaves and metal giants.
Sombra appeared behind the creature and shot the dark lord in the back, sending the undead tyrant spiraling before he flew through an orange portal. A similar portal opened near King Sombra, throwing Skeletor into the stallion as he hit Sombra with the Havoc Staff repeatedly.
The dark stallion teleported away and launched a barrage of spells at Skeletor, tearing apart the land as the sorcerer created a shield over himself. Slaves and Horde soldiers alive were struck by the flurry of Sombra’s spells, prompting several Horde soldiers to grab the slaves and flee the battle field.
When Sombra’s attack finally ceased, the dust that rolled off of Skeletor’s shield created enough cover for him to drip the shield and laugh his own assault against the stallion. A solid beam of magic tore through the air-born dust, striking Sombra and forcing him to turn into an incorporeal cloud of smoke.
“Surrender, you beast!” Sombra ordered as the terrain around Skeletor was broken by an eruption of dark crystals.
Skeletor teleported away from the surprise attack, appearing next to one of Sombra’s slaves. Before the pony could attack Skeletor, a cloud of purple mist wafted from his hand, causing the pony to fall asleep as Skeletor observed the overturned terrain.
The tyrant of the Empire had vanished without a trace, catching Skeletor completely off guard as pillars of dark crystals formed a prism around him. Skeletor teleported out of the crystal prison for only a second before some unseen force dragged him back into the collection of dark crystals.
Without the aid of teleportation, Skeletor resorted to blasting the walls of his prison. Unseen by Skeletor, the umbrum he was battling became corporeal outside of the towering crystals and enjoyed the lightship that his captor was creating.
“Ha! Foul demon, you can’t escape now! Not even Princess Celestia herself could shatter my crystal prison!”
“You call this magic? Bah, Orko could give me more of a challenge!” Skeletor retorted.
“Such confidence from a trapped rat!” Sombra shot back. The rumbling of his crystal prison slowly died to a crawl after that, causing Sombra’s smile to grow wider. “Are you tired already, monster?”
“Hardly,” Skeletor replied from behind Sombra, launching another beam of magic at the surprised stallion that slammed him into the makeshift prison.
“You aren’t the only one well-versed in traps, fool! I only needed to borrow a method He-Man used in the past,” the bone headed villain taunted as he emerged from a hole several feet away from where the vicious pony once stood.
“I’ll be sure to use your skull as a vase when I’m finished with this fight,” Sombra threatened as he launched another blast of magic at Skeletor.
The spell hit its target before Skeletor could erect a shield, causing dark crystals to form on his Havoc Staff and his shoulders. Shrugging off the mild irritation, Skeletor thrusted his staff to fire his counterattack, only for the dark crystals to cut off the spells he prepared.
“What will you do without your magic now, sorcerer?”
“Do you think this is enough to stop me? Unlike you, I’m not a one trick pony!” Skeletor countered, pulling a pair of swords from his back as he charged at the stallion.
Sombra quickly raised a barrier to defend himself, watching the warrior slice helplessly at the barrier. With a smile, Sombra expanded the range of his barrier to ram into Skeletor, sending the villain tumbling to the ground.
Before Skeletor could recover from Sombra’s trick, the stallion latched onto Skeletor’s mind and sent him to a realm of nightmares.
“Show me your fear!” Sombra commanded, dragging himself into Skeletor’s mind to watch the villain suffer untold horrors.
Sombra’s smile faded away as he looked upon a dark void, searching for even a hint of fear when he suddenly felt cold steel piercing his heart.
“Fool, I am Skeletor, Overlord of Evil. Not even Scare Glow could awaken my fears, for I have none!” Skeletor announced, dragging them both back to the realm of the living only seconds after Sombra launched his spell.
The dark crystals that impaired Skeletor flaked away as he dragged himself back up.
“I will make you bow down to me, demon. Bow, TO THE KING OF MONSTERS!” Sombra demanded, sending a wave of dark magic that stripped the land of its life.
Skeletor braced himself as his shield took on the brunt force of Sombra’s desperate attack. Energy crashed against the barrier from every angle, becoming a stone in a raging river of lavender and red magic that scorched the earth around him.
As the hellfire burned the land, Skeletor teleported away from the fight once more to recover his strength. Sombra, far too immersed in the wanton destruction that he was unleashing, only noticed the evil overlord when a wave of electricity raced through his veins.
Teleporting away from his attacker, with lighting still licking his coat, Sombra glared at the skull headed monster before turning into a cloud of smoke, allowing Skeletor’s attacks to pass through his incorporeal form.
Magical beams clashed as ram horns crossed the horn of a unicorn, battling for dominance with a volley of spells that sent waves through the air. The once chaotic fight around the two died as slaves, henchmen, and freedom fighters alike watched the two struggle for control of the battle.
The two columns of magic pushed against each other with no clear victor, building a ball of energy between the two opposing forces that threatened to explode. With each passing second, sparks of energy would dislodge themselves from the growing mass, destroying the already smoldering rubble that surrounded the warring tyrants.
Neither side had a clear advantage at the moment, until a crystal underneath Skeletor’s foot knocked him off of his balance. The moment of surprise was more than enough time for Sombra to take the upper hand, overpowering the distracted villain as a torrent of dark magic washed through Skeletor.
A blinding light of lavender and red soon revealed the fallen villain, his hood in tatters and his jaw dislodged from his head. The weakened warlock gazed upon the dark stallion as Sombra crushed the jaw bone beneath his hoof as he approached the fallen villain who weakly tried to raise his sword against the King. Sombra merely tossed the blades away as his magic ripped them from Skeletor’s limp grasp.
“Stop!… I know when I’m beaten.”
“So, you wish for mercy then, creature?”
“Of course… NOT!” Skeletor shouted as the swords sailed through the air and cleaved through Sombra’s torso
“Im… Impossible…” Sombra muttered, attempting to wretch the blade free from his body.
“Do you honestly believe you could defeat me, little pony?” Skeletor asked, dropping his facade as he easily stood up and grabbed the handle of his blade. “I have battled warlocks, witches, sorcerers, and demons. I have gazed into reality and seen the multiverse, and I have fought monsters that you could never imagine… And you, you’re just a pony.”
Before Skeletor could rip the blade from Sombra’s body, the ubrum dissolved into a cloud of shadows in a desperate attempt to flee. Unfortunately for the dark king, a magical dome wrapped around the living cloud before it could escape.
“You’re prey, in this dimension and in every other, while I am the alpha, the omega, the King of Evil, and soon to be Master of the Universe, you royal boob!” Skeletor announced. With a flourish of magic, the dome containing the false king was filled with a bombardment of spells.
When the assault ended and the dome was dissolved, a familiar crown clattered to Skeletor’s foot as he basked in his victory.
“Do you still think I’m ‘good’ now?” Skeletor asked mockingly as the recently freed slaves looked down at the skull headed victor.
“Now to find those accursed gem sto-AHHH!” Skeletor was overwhelmed by an avalanche of colorful ponies in that moment, drowning in a sea of fluff as hooves and wings fought to latch onto the accidentally heroic villain.
Tell me your thoughts on this mock battle in the comments below. What I could improve, where the action or dialogue felt flawed, anything to ensure that the canonical fight between these two is better than this little experiment.
Thanks for reading, I’ve hoped you’ve enjoyed.
Gonna read this but i will leave a proper comment when I do
A good fight and you did well on there bios and now I wanna see more of the human stuff it sounds cool as to the fight very creative and honestly overall it comes off skeleton is toying with sombra to gauge his power and found him wanting you could incorporate that towards the end overall a good fight but you could give more spell variations from skelator
I don't have any specific commentary, per se, but this definitely made for a neat read.
real Skeletor or not still ends up running crystal empire