Sunset Shimmer awoke with her face pressed against something hard and warm. She opened her eyes, beholding a smooth, golden surface. Groggily, she got to her feet- and that was when she noticed something odd. She was standing on all fours, and in place of hands, she now had hooves! A quick check of herself confirmed her suspicions. She was a pony again.
“What happened?” Sunset muttered, looking around. It was a golden featureless void, stretching as far as she could see.
There came the clip-clop of hoofsteps, and Sunset turned around. Behind her stood a pony with a glittering light green coat and wings, and a turquoise mane and tail.
Sunset immediately recognized her from her dreams. “Emerald Edge.”
“Sunset Shimmer,” Emerald said, trotting up to her and giving her a hug. “It’s so good to finally meet you.”
“Where are we?” Sunset asked. The hoof around her felt real, unlike in her dreams where she was immaterial.
“We,” Emerald stretched a hoof wide at the void. “Are inside Excalibur, or the Sword of Equestria, as you may better know it. And my home for the past thousand years.”
“You’ve lived here?” Sunset looked around, unable to see anything besides a vast flat plane. “Since that day you locked yourself in that vault? You can do that?”
“Since the day I died, my spirit has been housed in the Sword. I have seen the rise and fall of the Assassin Brotherhood many, many times. I’ve helped every Mentor along the path, and I have been waiting for what feels like an eternity to finally meet you.”
“That’s the question, Emerald. How did you know you were going to meet me? I saw the dream with the vault and all, but… how did you know?”
Emerald shrugged. “I just knew. One day a pony from Equestria would come along and finish what I started. It’s been a long wait, Sunset. Longer than you will ever know.”
“But what about Velvet? She had the shard since the attack in Trottingham. I remember Mentor Steel Shine saying only someone from Equestria can use its power, but Velvet managed it.”
“Ah yes. The poor girl. Her body was never meant to undergo the immense strain that comes with the artifacts,” Emerald shrugged. “I helped her shoulder the burden as best I could, but even so, I’m afraid her life may be at risk from using the shard.”
“Is she going to be alright?”
“I have no way of knowing, Sunset. She shouldn’t have used the shard to that extent, and she would’ve perished long ago if not for her intentions. You see, Sunset, friendship powers these artifacts, so it really was Velvet Breeze’s want to protect you and your friends that kept her alive for so long.”
“Velvet suffered so much for us?” Sunset murmured.
“She did,” the Assassin nodded. “And now, you’ll finish it, for her, for everypony and everyone.”
“So how did I get here?” Sunset scratched at her head with a hoof. “Did I… Did I die?”
The crystal pony shook her head. “You are still alive, Sunset. Though, challenging Sombra with only a shard of the sword has put you very close to death. It is due to this near death experience that we are able to meet.”
“I’m-I’m nearly dead…?” Sunset turned a little green. “How do we stop him? Can we still stop him? My friends, they’re still out there! Please, Emerald. Tell me there’s still a way!”
“There’s always a way,” Emerald trotted ahead, and as she did, numerous white whirlpools appeared in the air around her, opening up to show a vision.
“Ever since I passed the sword down to my daughter, Emerald Dusk, every Mentor has awaited the arrival of someone like you. Someone who will finally be able to finish the real purpose of the Assassins.
“You see, the Assassins were founded not to protect the balance of the world, but to safeguard the artifacts from those who would misuse them, along with waiting for the heir to show herself.”
The portals shimmered, each of them showing various women all dressed in the same armor that Mentor Steel Shine had been wearing, though as the visions went on, the armor seemed to change a little each time.
“So this was the original purpose of Assassins?” Sunset turned back to the crystal pegasus beside her. “Then how did assassination come into all this? And what about the Templars? Why did all this happen?”
Emerald Edge looked at a previous vision where a Mentor jumped off a wooden pole, spearing a woman below with a hidden blade.
“Times change, Sunset Shimmer. About the renaissance era, the Apple was taken by the Templars, who had been trying to get the artifacts from us since their founding. They were inspired by… by an old friend of mine who had lost his way. He sought to control the world with the artifacts’ power.
“After the loss of the Apple, the Assassins looked to get it back, but the only thing they could do was work at it patiently, slowly disabling the Templars one by one. That’s when they really took on the name of Assassins. I… I did my fair share of assassinating, but I had wanted to be the first and last of it.”
“It must’ve been painful, watching years of your work unravel. I don’t know how that must feel,” Sunset patted the First Assassin’s back.
“I never wanted any of this to happen…” Emerald muttered sadly. “All the battles, all the bloodshed, all the lives lost, and in the end it didn’t mean a thing. Just look at Masyaf.”
“The explosion two years ago,” Sunset remembered what the Assassins had told her and it was also Emerald Edge’s final resting place. “What happened, Emerald? What caused the explosion?” Sunset figured it might’ve been a Templar weapon, but there was also the possibility that the Assassins triggered it to keep the artifacts hidden.
“The artifacts,” Emerald gestured with a wing at the air, and another vision showed itself. In it, a male Assassin brandishing a gilt staff charged a bearded man wielding a gold and silver shield. The two men clashed several times before both artifacts began to crack and the vision was full of blinding white. Then Emerald closed the portal, ending the memory. “They were never meant to be used against one another. When two bearers of equal power clash, the result can be ruinous.”
“So the artifacts caused the explosion…” Sunset reeled back, the devastation still in her mind. “This is why you locked those two artifacts away. No one was ever to find them again, not even your own people.”
“Indeed, although in the end it hardly seems to have mattered,” Emerald said bitterly. “Just look at what’s happened.”
Sunset nodded. In the last few weeks, it seemed like death had become a normal occurrence in her life. “What do we do now, Emerald? How long do I have before I…” her voice trailed off as she thought about it.
“Before you die? Not long, I’m afraid. But even if you break free from the crystal prison, you must realize that challenging Sombra with only your piece of the artifact is suicide. You must face him on equal terms.”
“But how do I do that, Emerald?” Sunset begged the pegasus. “Please tell me what I have to do.”
Emerald smiled kindly at Sunset. “Trust me,” she said simply. Emerald’s form shimmered and in the pegasus’s place, now stood the human Emerald Edge, garbed in her armored robes. She held out a hand, and Sunset felt herself change back into a human as well. “Take my hand, and let us fight Sombra together.”
Sunset reached out to her. “Together?”
Emerald clasped Sunset’s hand firmly, her grip strong and warm.
“Together.”
King Sombra watched with much excitement as one of his golems threw a few spikes at the humans fighting him, wounding the one with the cowboy hat in the arm, her gun clattering uselessly on the grass.
“Foolish humans,” Sombra said, sending a blast of energy at Morning Blade, who leapt aside just in time to dodge it. “Kneel before your king and perhaps I will let you live as my pets. A king needs pets, after all.”
The Assassin with the black and white hair placed a hand to a wound on her thigh and shot down another crystal golem. “I’d rather die than submit to a liar like you.”
Then Sombra recalled his golems, breaking them down into crystal fragments, creating a barrier of spinning shards around the group, slowly pushing inward, constricting their movement and penning them in. They fired at the shards, but it did little to nothing as they continued to close in on them.
Sombra stretched his arms out and laughed maniacally. “No one can stop me now! It is time. You humans have been fun, but I’m afraid it ends here with your death. You will see your Sunset Shimmer friend soon enough. As for this young Assassin girl…”
Sombra looked down at the girl, Velvet Breeze, who was beside him.
“You’re sick…” Velvet spat blood on his steel boot.
“Hmm… funny,” Sombra looked at his greave. “But I like your spirit, girl. When I take Equestria, I shall keep you as my personal slave. You only need amuse me when I request it.”
“I’ll never do as you say…” Velvet struggled against her restraints again.
“Trust me. When I’m done with you, you’ll be doing everything I say, girl.”
Sombra looked back to the trapped Assassins and Rainbooms, watching as the razor sharp crystals got closer and closer to them. He wanted to see what a shredded human looked like and soon, he would get to.
He was about to laugh again when something on the side caught his attention. The spire he had formed over the Shimmer girl was glowing with golden light from the inside, its intensity slowly getting stronger and stronger.
“What? Impossible…” He watched the dark crystal spire. She shouldn’t be able to do anything more. She shouldn’t still be alive.
As the glow neared the intensity of the sun, the spire exploded out, scattering shards into the air and knocking Sombra back against one of the walls the Templars had built around the Wondercolts statue.
“Arise, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Emerald…”
Sunset Shimmer floated down to the grassy floor, her glowing eyes looking at Sombra as he dissolved into shadow, reforming himself into a standing position.
“You…” he looked at her eyes and snarled. “How are you still alive?”
Sunset settled on the ground, her form shimmering with a set of ghostly Assassin armor, the same set that Emerald had been wearing in her visions. The translucent armor gave way to a pair of glowing golden wings at the back, which gave a few experimental flaps, ready to take flight. And gleaming golden in her hands, was the fully repaired Sword of Equestria.
“How is that possible?” Sombra looked to the other artifact. “I destroyed it. There are no more artifacts but mine. You should be dead.”
“The sword is my artifact, and responds to my decree,” Emerald’s voice came from Sunset’s throat. “And it is now in the hands of a pure hearted Equestrian. The time of your judgment is at hand, Sombra!”
“You wish to challenge my power?” Sombra floated up as his shadows glided around him, swirling in a small cyclone as his orb began to absorb light. “What the king wants, the king shall have!”
Then multitudes of shadow and light tendrils speared for Sunset, their tips snaking for her heart in a flash.
But when they reached the girl, all of Sombra’s attacks were blocked by Sunset’s new armor, the tendrils of light and shadow dying in their tracks the moment they touched her. Then with a beat of her wings, Sunset took to the skies, holding her golden sword aloft. Beams of light shone down, vaporizing the black crystal shards that Sombra had been using to surround her friends and all the remaining golems.
Sombra was dumbfounded for a moment. “Impossible. Impossible!”
Then he disappeared in a ball of shadows and zoomed up to face Sunset, hurling straight for her, crashing into the girl with a force strong enough to collapse a building. As it was, the force of the blow knocked Sunset back several meters, her new wings flapping furiously to maintain lift. With a kick, she disconnected from Sombra and shot a radiant beam of light at him with her sword.
The blast struck Sombra full on, dispersing his shadows and scorching his armor. Sombra growled, holding out his empty hand, a blade of black crystal forming in his grasp. He flew at Sunset, swinging his sword at her. Sunset, with inhuman speed, whipped around with her blade and sliced right through Sombra’s weapon, opening a gash on the dark king’s cheek. Shadows began to leak out into the night from the cut.
“You dare!” Sombra held up his artifact and shot out thin spears of light at close range, forcing Sunset back.
The girl felt her arm shoot out, deflecting each one with strikes of her sword, before plunging it towards the dark king’s heart.
Sombra spread his shadows out, reforming behind Sunset, grabbing her in a chokehold, his teeth bared in a snarl.
“You have no right to stand in my way! The Crystal Empire is mine! I shall return to Equestria and rule over all! It is my destiny!”
Then there was a glow from below as the Wondercolts statue’s mirror began to shine brightly, rippling slightly as the magic of the artifact began to open the portal forcefully.
“It’s open! The way home.” Sombra spun around and tossed Sunset as high as he could before wisping down to the statue in a cloud of shadow. “Equestria is mine!”
Recovering from the throw, Sunset streaked down toward Sombra, but he was too far ahead.
“I’ll never reach him in time!” Sunset said through gritted teeth.
“Get the book,” She heard Emerald’s voice say in her head.
“What?”
“Your friends in Equestria. You have to signal them that Sombra is on the way.”
Sunset didn’t want to sidetrack from Sombra, but Emerald was right. She could still slow him down if Twilight and the others were ready.
Turning back, Sunset flew down to the Assassins’ van, opening the back door and grabbing for her backpack. In no time, the book and a pen were in her hands as she busily scribbled down a quick message for the Princess of Friendship.
“Well done,” Emerald told her. “Now let us catch up to that usurper and finish what I set out to do.”
“Unicorns at the ready!” Shining Armor ordered as he got back into position.
Twilight Sparkle floated down beside her brother and wrapped her horn in a magical glow, just like all the others.
She had just received the message from Sunset Shimmer. Sombra was on his way and it wouldn’t be very long before he would arrive out through this portal.
It was time to work their magic.
“Project the barrier!” her brother shouted, firing up his magic.
The unicorn guards did the same, all their magic pooling in together like a net, dropping over the mirror. Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance did the same, adding more protection over the portal as it began to glow with golden energy.
“H-He’s coming!” Spike bit on his claws, hiding behind Twilight’s back hoof.
“Not today,” Twilight nodded and fired her magic at the net.
The rest of the royal guard stood around, their weapons at the ready in case their magical defense were to fail. Twilight watched them, knowing each pony was willing to give his or her life to save Equestria from Sombra and that filled her with confidence and determination to see that Sombra never makes it to Equestria.
“Spike, go to Eclair,” Twilight told him without taking her eyes off the portal. “If we fail and Sombra gets through, I want to know that the Crystal Heart is ready.”
“At once, Twilight,” Spike ran off, but stopped as he reached the line of unicorns, turning back. “Be careful, Twilight.”
“Of course,” she flashed him a smile. “I’m not letting Sombra take this world from us.”
Just then, the mirror seemed to shimmer, its glowing light wavering in the center as an armored hoof seemed to push its way through the glass, followed by a familiar face with flowing black hair.
“Sombra,” Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes and put more magic into her spell. “You shall never return.”
The dark king pushed his head against the magic net, but couldn’t penetrate it. “Celestia. You think this magical contraption is going to hold me? I have more power than you will ever imagine!”
“You may have found new power over in that world, but we’ll do everything we can to stop you from returning. Count on that, Sombra,” the white alicorn said. “Ponies! Push him back!”
All the magic users around the mirror fed more power into the net, making it smaller, pushing Sombra’s head back towards the mirror.
“No! You shall not deny me my right!” he struggled against their magic, slamming it with walls of golden light. “Very well. Then you shall all face my wrath.”
Sombra pushed another hoof as far as he could out the mirror, and it shimmered through the glass just enough for Twilight to make out a portion of a golden orb, resting atop his hoof.
“The Apple of Equestria…” she mumbled, seeing one of Star Swirl’s artifacts for the first time.
Then a wave of golden energy arced out around the portal, stumbling a few guards and staggering the rest and the princesses. They continued to power the magical barrier, but Sombra had managed to push out further. Several of the unicorns around Twilight fainted on the spot, their magic spent. Sombra’s onslaught was indeed mighty, even rivalling that of Tirek when he had been full of alicorn magic. Princesses Luna and Celestia strained and pushed back, further reinforcing the barrier with their own magic. However, with every passing second, it became abundantly clear that even then, it might not be enough.
“When I get out of this portal, you’re first, Celestia. You shall witness my new strength! Long live the king! Death to the princesses!”
Sunset Shimmer glided along the rainbow tunnel between their worlds, spotting Sombra on the other end, already trying to force his way back into Equestria.
“We need to go faster!” Sunset told her friend within. “We can’t let him get through!”
“Hold on!” Emerald Edge took over, flapping the wings hard, sending Sunset propelling for the dark king at a high speed.
Sunset felt the power welling up inside her as Emerald raised her arm, firing a bolt of light from the sword, directing it at Sombra. She watched as it hit him square in the back, scorching a hole through his red cape.
Sombra turned around and growled, dissolving into shadow and retreating from the portal’s exit, splitting into two different directions as he swirled towards Sunset Shimmer. Emerald took over again and flew for the one on the left, at the same time, firing two bolts of energy at the shadow on the right. The balls of shadow evaded her blasts and swarmed around behind her, pushing her towards the first one, which enveloped her. Then Sunset blasted a hole through it with her sword, escaping the dark confinement as Sombra reformed himself, snarling at Sunset.
“You cannot stop me, little girl. You may have power, but you will see that I am still stronger than you.
Sombra sprouted shadowy tentacles from his back and formed a long dark crystal sword in his other hand before charging at Sunset again. Pony ears formed atop his head and his hair grew longer behind him, flowing like a shadowy veil.
Then they clashed again, sword against sword, sending light and darkness sparking off their weapons as each tried to break the guard of the other.
Sombra pushed harder, his crystal sword already cracking under the strain, barely a match against the Sword of Equestria. It soon exploded into fragments as he dissolved into a wisp of shadows, swirling around Sunset and entangling her in their grasps, one around each limb and more around her body, squeezing her.
Emerald Edge took over and released a shockwave of light from her armor, sending the shadows falling back as Sombra reformed himself, a fierce scowl on his face.
Sunset and Emerald didn’t give him time to do anything else, launching a beam of light, further scorching his armor and sending the dark king flailing back in the tunnel.
Yelling, Sombra lifted the Apple and fired his own light back at Sunset, forcing her to pivot around the first shot and block the second with her sword, stopping her offensive.
“You cannot deny me my right!” Sombra conjured a sword of light in his other hand and slashed at Sunset. “It is my destiny to rule. The Crystal Heart said so! It cost me everything I held dear, but it has never been more correct. I will return and Equestria will be mine!”
Emerald Edge took over and skillfully parried each of Sombra’s attacks with her sword, sending waves of golden light crashing around the portal’s tunnel.
“Equestria will not be yours, usurper!” Emerald spoke through Sunset. “I will make sure of it to my dying breath.”
“Then die faster,” Sombra said and lashed out a tendril, smacking Sunset across the face, sending her spinning back before shooting a beam of light at her with his Apple.
Regaining her momentum, Sunset zipped forward, making a sharp turn at the last second, going around the beam and cutting at Sombra with the Sword of Equestria, shearing off a portion of his red cape before he could phase away from her, materializing a good three meters away, his eyebrows tilted down in a fierce frown.
Sunset felt the burn on her cheek where Sombra had hit her, but it was already starting to fade. Whatever magic the sword had, it was very strong. Perhaps Star Swirl had the right idea of disposing the artifacts in a world without magic. It was only too bad that things had turned out this way.
Sombra stood opposite the girl, straightening his posture as he held the Apple out before his chest. “You have been too much of a thorn in my side, girl. You and that sword. I underestimated you, thinking I could best you at half my power. This has gone on long enough. It’s time to end it.” He ended his sentence with an intensifying glow around his artifact, slowly expanding across the space and around him.
“Very well, Sombra,” Emerald answered and grasped her artifact in both hands.
The Sword of Equestria began to emit a piercing glow, expanding to match the dark king’s artifact. Sunset watched in awe as the rainbow colors in the tunnel began to fade, gold replacing each color as their weapons increased in power.
Sunset watched as the sword seemed to grow in length and size, now reaching almost triple her height. Sombra’s Apple grew on both sides, forming light into a double-sided blade, about the same size as Sunset’s weapon.
Sunset swallowed hard, but Emerald could sense her thoughts. “Do not worry, Sunset Shimmer. Sombra isn’t the one that’s going to walk away from this fight. I have spent my life waiting for this moment. I’m not going to let him win.”
Sunset nodded, feeling the power of her sword grow, well up inside her and then come spilling back out. She was both a pool and a conduit. She felt… safe, as if she had spent her whole life getting ready for this fight.
She could do this. She could win.
Then they were both off, blasting straight for each other as they readied their golden weapons to attack.
They met in the middle, both light blades clashing against each other, sending waves of energy exploding around them, threatening to rip the portal’s tunnel apart as it grew almost too bright to see.
Sunset could feel the sword heat up in her hands. At first, it was warm, but as she continued to push against Sombra’s attack, it began to reach burning temperatures.
“Emerald, what’s going on!?” Sunset shouted over the harmonic pulses being emitted by the artifacts, but even before Emerald answered, Sunset realized she already knew.
“The artifacts were never meant to be used against one another. When two bearers of equal power clash, the result can be ruinous.”
Sombra also seemed to realize something was happening, but he kept on the offensive, pushing against Sunset’s sword with his own.
“This was to be my hour of victory!” Sombra bellowed. “Why do you persist? You would throw your life away like this?”
“For the safety of our worlds and our friends, yes,” Sunset nodded, squinting as the brightness intensified. “I’d gladly give it my all to make sure you never touch them, even if it means giving my life to stop you.”
Sunset struggled to keep the sword in her hands, fighting off the want to toss the burning weapon as far as she could. Getting her fingers scorched was the least of her worries right now.
And then lines began to fracture across her sword and Sombra’s Apple, glowing with blinding light from within.
Sunset only had enough time to close her eyes as both artifacts exploded out, encasing both her and Sombra in a ball of white light. She heard the dark king scream out before her ears were deafened and her body was beset by an immense pulse of hot energy, burning right through her armor and clothes, flinging her away into the depths of the now white tunnel.