//------------------------------// // Chapter 30: The Power of Love (Okay, Friendship) // Story: The Pony Who Embraced The Darkness // by Zurvan //------------------------------// Chapter 30: The Power of Love (Okay, Friendship) Ash and Winter stand ahead of the rest of the army as they watch the fireballs rain down upon Umbra’s fortress. “That’s enough!” Ash yells out and the unicorns stop their magic. They all wait while the smoke from the attack dies down. When it clears they see Umbra’s fortress unaffected. Umbra laughs. “You think you can hurt me?” Ask looks at Discord. “I thought you could disrupt his magic.” “I ripped his fortress in half.” Discord says as he looks at Ash confused. “I should’ve just disrupted his magic like I did before.” “Discord, you arrogant fool.” Umbra yells. “I let you rip my fortress apart, I even let you rescue the hostages.” “Why?” Discord yells back, “To weaken you.” Umbra explains. “With your magic weakened this army doesn’t stand a chance.” He turns to his forces. “Crush them!” Umbra’s forces rush forward. “Archers fire!” Shining Armor yells. “Spearpony’s hold the line! Unicorn’s fire spell bolts!” The ponies all rush to comply. “This isn’t going to work, is it?” Winter asks. “I...I don’t know.” Ash admits. “Shining Armor’s tactics will buy us some time but we need a good plan.” “That’s your job isn’t it?” Winter asks. “Yeah, yeah! Give me a minute!” Ash yells. “It’s a little hard to think right now!” “Sorry.” Winter says. “Little nervous here. Like you my wife is here.” Ash nods. “There are too many of them, and we have what we came for, perhaps a tactical withdrawal is needed.” “Yes, retreat.” Discord says. “I think I have enough to hold him off.” “I don’t think you do Discord!” Umbra yells as shadows come out from the fortress and grab Discord. “He has Discord!” Sweetie yells. “Grab him!” Ash yells and he, Winter, Sweetie, and Nymeria all use their telekinesis to grab Discord and hold him from being completely taken away. “We got him.” A unicorn mare in Discordian armor says as she charges her magic and grabs Discord. Another unicorn mare steps beside her and does the same. “Thank you.” Ash says as he lets go of his magic. “I’m Rune Skirt, this is my sister Rune Mail. We’re used to working together we’ll keep hold of Discord.” The first unicorn states. “You’re the famous Ash Fall aren’t you? Strategist that won the Battle of Ponyville right?” Rune Mail asks. “That’s right.” Ash says. “Can we win this?” Ash takes a deep breath. “I don’t know. I need to devote my attention to the battlefield for a minute. Maybe I can come up with a strategy.” Winter drops his hold on Discord. “I have your back.” Ash nods and looks at the battlefield and sees Rainbow Dash flying at the head of the pegasi in Discordian armor. As she flies her armor shifts to form weapons her shielding seemingly randomly. Iron Wing flies on her right flank and comes forward anytime that side is unguarded. Her armor also shifts like Rainbow Dash’s. “Winter, you’re in the Discordian armor. Can you make it shift into weapons like Rainbow Dash?” Ash asks “Of course, we all can.” Winter answers. “How much control of it do you have?” “It’s thought controlled, better you multitask, better you can control it.” Ash nods. “That’s why Rainbow is so good at it, while flying her mind works on a level I can’t keep up with.” “Probably.” Winter says. “What are you thinking?” “What happens if you shift something like a whole lot of spikes?” Winter shifts the armor so it’s full of spikes. “It’s difficult to move.” “Yes, but there’s no way that the enemy could hit you either!” Ash says as he turns to the forces. “Earth ponies is Discord’s armor step to up to the line and shift your armor full of spikes!” The group of armored earth ponies step up, at the front of the group Cold Steel, Applejack and Copper Penny quickly follow his commands. The line of Umbra’s forces rushing at them doesn’t even notice at first and the front runners end up impaled on the spikes. “Shift the spikes to get rid of the bodies!” Cold Steel yells at his comrades and they comply leaving the bodies lying in front of them. “Ash!” Sweetie yells. Ash looks over and sees that Umbra's shadows are pulling Discord away from the four unicorns. He looks at Winter and grins. “Roll yourself into a ball.” “What are you planning?” Winter asks as he complies. “I’m going to throw you at the shadows, shift your armor to spikes and use your fire to shred them.” Ash commands. Winter nods. “Let’s do it!” Ash picks up Winter with his magic and throws him directly at the shadows. As soon as he feels the acceleration Winter shifts his armor full of spikes and lights it up with cold fire. He hits the shadows holding Discord and severs them. “I’ve got him!” Rune Skirt shouts as she pulls Discord in and lays the unconscious draconequus down. “Winter!” Nymeria says as focuses her magic to catch her husband. “I’ll help!” Sweetie says as she uses her magic to help Nymeria and the two of them catch Winter and bring him back to them. The second Winter’s hooves touch the ground his armor shifts back to normal and the fire goes out. “Let’s not do that again.” He says out of breath. Ash looks back at the battlefield and notices that all of their forces were being pushed back. Lots of bodies both ally and enemy litter the field. He sighs sounding very defeated. “Ash?” Sweetie asks as she steps up next to him. “I have nothing.” Ash says. “Umbra’s shadows are now making our arrows useless.” He watches as the shadows create a one way shield that stops their arrows, but the arrows that belong to Umbra’s forces still come through. The majority of those arrows are deflected by unicorns holding magical shields. “Us unicorns are going to start running low on mana really soon. Once that happens their arrows will decimate the crystal ponies. Those in Discordian armor should survive that but by then we’ll be completely outnumbered.” “Then we should retreat like you suggested earlier.” Winter suggests. Ash shakes his head. “It’s too late for that. They’ll chase us down for sure.” “Can you teleport us somewhere?” Nymeria asks. “I don’t have that kind of mana right now.” Ash says. “What about sharing mana like we did to get here?” Sweetie asks. “We were all at full mana, and had Shinning Armor giving us his mana.” “What if Trixie gave you her mana?” “All of us will.” Rarity states and Cocoa nods beside her. “We’re use to combining our mana together, so we’re very familiar with sharing mana.” Rune Mail says. “With all of our mana we could probably teleport out.” Rune Skirt says. Ash looks at the collected unicorns then smiles as he looks to Winter. “I have a better idea.” “Why are you looking at me like that?” Winter asks nervously. “I want to give you all the mana to focus into one cold fire spell.” Winter’s eyes widen. “If that fails….” Ash nods. “I’m a soldier, I can’t in good conscious leave these to ponies to die. With your cold fire the shadows will be gone. It’s our best chance.” Winter nods. “I’ll focus the attack on Umbra, maybe I can freeze him.” “If you did that his army might surrender.” The group of unicorns begin focusing their mana together. Umbra looks over at the group thinking they’re going to teleport away. “I think not!” Umbra yells as a group of shadows heads right towards them. The shadows turn into razor sharp blades and come to bear down on the group when suddenly bright flash causes them to dissipate. “I’m not done yet.” Discord says weakly as he pushes himself up. “Discord!” Umbra hisses. “I thought my shadows drained you!” Discord smiles.”I’m chaos remember? You can never know what chaos has in store for you next.” “Go on! Protect those ponies!” Umbra yells. “I’ll kill the rest!” “I think not Umbra!” Winter yells as he takes the focused mana and puts it into a spell. The powerful blast of cold fire leaves his horn and slams through the shadows, “What?” Umbra exclaims as the powerful spell hits him and the magic encases him in ice. Winter lets the spell go and falls to the ground. “Did it work?” Ash nods as the shadows have completely disappeared. “Shining now!” Shining Armor nods. “Archers magic arrows!” The pegasi pull out enchanted arrows and release them. The arrows plunge into the weak spots of enemy armor knocking them down. “It’s working!” Nymeria yells. A cracking sound is hear and they all look at the form of Umbra, the ice has turned black and suddenly it shatters. Umbra laughs. “That was impressive. I can see why Nymeria fell for you. Now it’s time to kill you and reclaim my property.” He says as he eyes Rarity, Cocoa and Trixie. “And acquire some more.” He looks at the rest of the mares. Then looks at Ash. “As for you, you’ve been a thorn in my side for too long, I think I’ll enjoy killing you.” Ash hangs his head as he grabs Sweetie. “I failed, I’m sorry.” Umbra appears beside them. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy breaking this little filly in.” He places a forehoof on Sweetie’s face. Ash’s eyes flash as a sword slices through Umbra’s foreleg cleanly severing it. “Over my dead body!” His horn glows with his golden aura and the sword is leveled in front of him. Umbra rears back as shadows form a new limb for him. “I saw you give your mana to Winter! How are you doing this?” Ash taps his armor with his forehoof. “Mana gems in my armor. I can only access them once I’ve used my own mana.” “Well played.” Umbra says as he makes a sword out of shadow and knocks the sword aside. “But I’m sure you’re not a swordpony.” The sword strikes back at Umbra and the two magically guided swords begin to parry each other. “I was raised as a guard, I’ve been using a sword since before I could use my magic.” Ash replies. “I have to admit I’m impressed.” Umbra says as he uses the shadow magic to create another sword. “Ever practice wielding two blades?” Ash’s eyes go wide as he sees the second blade. “No!” He says as but sighs defeated as the blade is swung at him and closes his eyes to not see the final blow. A few seconds pass by and he realizes that he’s still alive, he opens his eyes and sees the shadow sword held in a magenta aura. “What?” Umbra asks astonished as he looks up and sees Eris along with Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Twilight’s horn glows as she holds the sword at bay. “Forget about somepony?” Twilight asks. “How…. how is this possible?” Umbra asks. Discord laughs. “I brought my double from another dimension, as insurance.” Meanwhile Iron Wing nudges Rainbow Dash. “Look!” Rainbow looks back and sees Twilight and the others. “Go! We got this!” Rainbow nods and flies down. “Applejack!” Applejack stands at the center of a triangle of earth ponies, Cold Steel on one Side, Copper Penny on the other. “Rainbow?” “Twilight and the others are here. We all need to get together.” “We’ll manage without you.” Cold Steel says as he steps forward. “Rainbow, can ya give me a lift?” Rainbow grabs Applejack, lifts her up and carries her to Twilight and the other. “We’re here.” She says as she puts Applejack down. “Let’s do this!” Applejack says. “Rainbow Power..” Twilight starts. “Activate!” All Six of them cheer at the same time. The magic swirls around them quickly changing them into their rainbow forms. “NO!” Umbra yells. “I won’t let you win!” He strikes out with his shadow magic but a burst of rainbow magic annihilates the shadows. Another blast trikes Umbra directly stripping him of his powers. The next blasts of rainbow magic hit his forces causing the forces to lay down their weapons. Umbra shivers from the blast. “It can’t end like this.” “It’s over Umbra.” Twilight says as she lands next to him. She now holds Ash’s sword in her magic. She levels the sword at Umbra. “It’s time to send you to Tartarus.” “NO!” Umbra yells. “I will not go to that prison!” He goes to move but finds himself restrained by all the surrounding unicorns, there magic restored from the rainbow magic. “You don’t have much of choice in the matter,” Twilight says as she opens the portal to Tartarus then takes the magical restraints in her own magic and begins to drag him off using her three hooves and her wings. Umbra struggles against the bonds until he sees Twilight pulling using her three legs, leaving her off balance slightly. He waits until he can tell she’s going to be off balance and leaps at her striking at her with his hooves. “I will not go to that prison, you will have to kill me first!” Umbra suddenly goes flying. Applejack stands near Twilight having had bucked Umbra off him. “How about that?” Umbra coughs, feeling the broken ribs. “Very good, let your anger out!” He gets up and goes to strike out at Applejack when he suddenly stops in place. Cold fire burning around him freezing him in place. “You’re not going to get your way this time.” Winter says as he controls the cold fire. “Princess, take him.” Twilight grabs the frozen Umbra in her magic and carries him through the portal securing him in the prison. Twilight comes back out a few minutes later. “It’s done, it’s time to go home.”