All eyes were on Canterlot’s castle as a spiral vortex with a glowing light at its base, shot up from the tallest tower and into the storm clouds in the sky. Then without warning, the beacon of light grew brighter before going completely out leaving the vortex of storms above it to vanish and go quiet. Down in the city, the Rebellion, the Nightmare Legion and the Royal army had ceased all fighting and were gathering wounded as they tried all they could to save anypony they could no matter the side they were on. As soon as the vortex of storms vanished, the thunder that echoed throughout the city had also stopped as Madam Melody looked to the castle and spoke, “Ze tornado… it’s gone… did… did ze commander vin?”
Captain Belle who was standing next to her looked at the balcony as he replied, “I would hope so… but… the castle seems dreadfully silent… and the city isn’t much louder. Sadly, I fear the worst.”
All of a sudden General Dash trotted up as he spoke, “Major? What happened here? Is the commander alright?”
Madam Melody shook her head, “I’m afraid I don’t know, ze castle has grown silent. Vat about you? I zought you ver fighting outside ze city, has ze fighting zere also ceased?”
General Dash nodded, “yes… for the time being the battle is over. But… the only ponies left fighting are…”
Madam Melody looked back at the castle as she replied, “In ze castle…”
Captain Belle nodded his head, “Yes… Well, I propose we investigate further. We will not know the results of the fight by staying idle. We should also go together, perhaps seeing both armies working together will ease the victor’s mind… whoever it may be.”
Madam Melody corrected him, “Zere are zree armies, but I agree. Ve should all go see vat is happening in ze castle.”
Madam Melody looked at her soldiers as she called, “Barrel, Storm! You two come vis us! Ze rest of you see to ze vounded.”
As the officers gathered they began making their way to the castle as fast as they could to see the situation inside the final battlefield.
Up in the castle, Cirrus, Gem Stone and Thundaga laid motionless on the balcony, Thundaga’s coat slowly grew brighter, as the dark purple slowly faded into a light grey, making her resemble what Princess Umbra looked like the day before the Tantibus took control. After a brief moment of silence, Cirrus finally regained his senses as he struggled to pick himself up as he looked around the damaged tower and saw Gem Stone lying next to the balconies entrance. As soon as he saw her he remembered what had happened prior to them leaving Thundaga’s mind as he stumbled towards her, “Ge… Gem Stone… Are you alright?”
As he approached the seemingly unconscious mare, Cirrus placed his hoof against her shoulder as he shook her, “Gem… are you okay?”
All of a sudden, Gem Stone started chuckling as she remained on the ground. When he heard this, Cirrus got a bad feeling as she stopped and spoke with a dark tone, “you fool…”
Cirrus could only give her a confused look as Gem Stone pushed herself along the ground spinning her body as she opened her wing tripping Cirrus and at the same time used her hind hooves to kick the unstable pegasus as Cirrus was thrown through the balcony doors and into the room hitting the wall as Gem Stone spun herself onto her hooves and glared at Cirrus with now nocturnal eyes. As Cirrus pick himself up, he could only look at her in shock as Gem Stone looked at her hooves and smiled, “Well… this is unexpected… But not usable. She was the Gem of the Nightmare Legion, so perhaps… this is a fitting host.”
Realizing what happened, Cirrus spoke in disbelief, “no… you’re the Tantibus… in Gem’s body?”
The corrupted Gem smiled as she opened her wings strait out and trotted into the center of the room, “Yes… and though I may be injured, now that I hold the body of a pegasus… I can hold the Power of the Pegasi. After all… is it not true, that only a pegasus can use the Lightning Orb?... Well… let’s test that theory, SHALL WE!!!”
All of a sudden, Gem’s eyes filled with lightning as electric arcs began jumping from her wings and hooves as they made contact with the ground around her. Seeing that Gem Stone was about to use the Lightning Orb, Cirrus tried to stop her, “No don’t do it! If you use the Lightning Orb you could kill her! Only commanders can use it and survive!”
The now evil mare smiled in confidence, as she stopped in the middle of the room “Fool… this power can brings a kingdom to its knees… its very essence can vaporize entire armies and you want me to stop?... the Lightning Orb may have to power to kill its user… but I have a theory… Usually its users are pegasi. Gem Stone may be a pegasus… but I am something far more superior!”
With that said, a cloud appeared above her head as she continued, “Besides… it is not I who will perish from this power… IT IS YOU!!!”
With that said, a lightning bolt fired from the cloud as it flew towards Cirrus at incredible speeds. Seeing the incoming projectile, Cirrus quickly jumped out of the way as the bolt of electricity hit the wall behind him and blew through it leaving a hole that the outside light could be seen through. As he looked through the hole left behind, Cirrus quickly thought to himself as he knew there was only one thing he could do to fight back. Quickly glaring at Gem Stone, Cirrus started focusing as his own Lightning Orb cloud appeared above his head, “STOP!!! YOU’LL KILL HER!!!”
with that call, Cirrus fired a lightning bolt of his own but as it reached Gem Stone, the possessed mare only waved her hoof as she hit and deflected the bolt away with ease, “Come now commander… you may naturally hold this power… but it is I, who excel in its mastery!”
The evil mare fired a second bolt back at Cirrus as he quickly fired a bolt of his own as the two bolts collided and canceled each other out. Seeing that her newly found power could be neutralized enraged the now evil Gem Stone, however she perfectly hid her anger as she replied, “My power may have no effect on you…”
The evil mare turned to the unconscious Princess Umbra who was still laying on the castle balcony as she smiled, “but it can still work on others.”
Seeing what her intentions were frightened Cirrus as he quickly replied while firing three bolts of lightning from his lighting orb cloud, “NO!!! LEAVE HER ALONE!!!”
As the three bolts approached Gem Stone, she smiled as she swung her hoof three times and deflected all three into different directions. The first hit the ceiling, the second hit the floor scorching the marble, but the third flew right back at Cirrus. With no time to react, the deflected lightning bolt hit him in the chest as the force of the impact threw him back against the wall of the room as Cirrus fell to the ground. With Cirrus now too weak to move the possessed Gem Stone to smiled, “Fool… even now that I threaten everything you fight for, you still choose to attack me with pathetic non-lethal attacks… it’s sad… even now you still choose to hold onto your weak beliefs of peace and mercy. Its weak notions such as that, that led Princess Celestia and Luna to ruin. And that is why… you will die he-”
“GEM STONE!!!”
Surprised by the unexpected voice, Gem Stone looked to the entrance of the room as Zine was charging her while holding his staff like a baseball bat, “GRIT YOUR TEETH!!!”
With his distance now closed, Zine swung his staff as hard as he could as the glass vial hit and shattered against her face leaving the broken glass to cut into her skin, the evil potion inside to cover her face, and the force of the impact to knock her to the floor. As soon as the staff hit her, Gem Stone’s Lightning Orb cloud disappeared as the stunned mare hit the ground and laid still. Seeing this Zine smiled as he tossed his now broken staff away and smiled, “there… the deed is done. Strange… I thought it would have been much harder. I guess I expected too mu-”
Before he could finish his sentence, the cloud reappeared above the stunned mare’s body as a lightning bolt flew out hitting Zine as the impact tossed him through the air and caused him to hit some chairs against the wall as the wooden furniture shattered on impact. After hitting the ground, Zine mumbled too weakly for anypony to hear, “I’m… okay…”
With the cloud still over her head, Gem Stone picked herself up from the ground as she pulled one shard of glass from her face, then spit out another, before giving Zine an angry look, “I'd wondered when you would show up. It would appear my commander failed as I expected he would… If you killed him then I should thank you for saving me the trouble. Although it won’t help the situation you have found yourself in.”
Although she still couldn’t hear him, Zine looked over at Gem Stone as his red eyes slowly turned back to blue, “Funny… you should mention him…”
With no strength left, Zine laid his head down as he lost consciousness with a pleased smile on his face. Without hearing his comment, Gem Stone turned to Cirrus with her Lightning Orb cloud still above her head as she spoke, “I should be envious, the loyalty of our friend is something truly inspiring… but this battle has played its value and now… I mean to end it, starting with this kingdom’s former princess.”
Still too weak to move Cirrus laid on the ground as he mumbled through his pain, “n-no… s-stop.”
Ignoring his plea, Gem Stone turned to Princess Umbra and started for her, however as soon as she took her first step towards the unconscious alicorn, she felt something odd.
The black potion that was still on her face quickly started moving as if it were alive, as it sought out her wounds from the glass and quickly slithered inside her skin. Feeling the unusual feeling, Gem Stone put her hooves on her face as she mumbled, “What?... what is this?… what’s happening?”
As soon as every drop of the potion had slithered into her wounds, the wounds left quickly healed sealing the evil spell inside as Gem Stone gripped her head and started swinging it around in pain, “What is this?… why… why am I feeling th-this pain?!?”
With a tight grip on her head in an effort to ease her pain, Gem Stone glared at Zine’s motionless body as she spoke, “No... d-did he use some kind of spell?” She looked down at his broken staff, “That potion… I remember it was supposed to be a curse… but what was it? What was it meant to do?”
Trying to figure out why her head was hurting Gem Stone quickly looked around as she mumbled, “it… it’s trying to kill me… isn’t it?... No… I won’t go out like this… I won’t! If I’m going to go down…” Electric bolts shot out from all ends of her Lightning Orb cloud, “I’M TAKING YOU ALL WITH ME!!!”
The cluster of lightning bolts shooting out from Gem’s cloud were piercing through the tower walls and ceiling as the bolts went as far as to damage a few building in the center of Canterlot, turning Canterlot’s tallest tower back into a beacon of worry for the ponies in the city. As her cloud randomly assaulted everything in sight, Gem Stone felt somepony wrap their hooves around her as she looked down to see Cirrus was holding her as he spoke through his exhaustion, “I… I won’t let you hurt anypony else!”
Holding her as tight as he could, Cirrus made a Lightning Orb cloud appear not above his head, but completely around the bottom half of Gem Stone’s cloud as he used his cloud to absorb all the bolts exiting out the bottom of the cloud preventing any damage to come to anything below a ninety degree angle of the attacking cloud.
As the destructive cloud was now only attacking the walls the ceiling above, small amounts of rubble began falling into the room, as Gem Stone tried to push Cirrus away, “No… I am the ruler of this kingdom… I cannot be defeated like this… not now… not by you… release me now!... this isn’t how my story should end!”
With the evil potion taking effect, Gem Stone was too weak to push Cirrus away as he looked up at her and spoke, “It’s not the story that counts… it’s the lessons!”
With one last anger filled scream, Gem Stone looked up as she yelled with enough force for it to echo across the city, “NOOO!!!!!”
As her call echoed throughout the city, Gem’s Lightning Orb activated as her cloud tried to create a sphere shaped ball of electricity, however with Cirrus’s cloud absorbing the bottom half, the sphere was changed to a dome with a flat bottom as it started spreading outward engulfing everything above the two ponies heads as it started spreading beyond the boundaries of the room. As the dome of energy pushed out, it caused the top of the tower to explode outward as the debris from the tower fell into the city in a rain of destruction as if it were hail the size of carriages. As the rubble fell onto the city damaging building and streets, the citizens of Canterlot quickly took cover as the debris left small clouds of dust in the city as it mixed with the smoke from the still burning fires. Back on the tower the dome of electricity continued glowing until it slowly started receding back into the clouds that it originated from, leaving the tallest tower in the city without a roof.
Slowly, the city went silent as the gloomy storm clouds in the sky regained their control and dropped rain onto the city, to include the ponies in the now roofless tower. The slow rain fell onto Cirrus as he was still holding Gem Stone while she sat looking to the sky with a blank and lifeless stare. Slowly, the combined Lightning Orb clouds dissipated as Gem Stone leaned to the side causing them both to fall to the wet floor. As soon as he regained his senses, Cirrus picked himself up as he looked around at the severed tower room and slowly looked across the destruction of the battle that just took place. Finally, Cirrus looked back at Gem Stone as he saw her laying there with her blue lifeless eyes still opened. Out of fear he started shaking her, “Gem… Gem Stone?...” he rolled her so that she was laying on her back, “Gem Stone… Gem!... Gem Stone!”
She didn’t respond, all she did way lay there as her nocturnal eyes slowly turned back to normal, but remained open and lifeless, “Gem… GEM!!!” he continued shaking her, “No! Gem wake up… say something, anything! Just wake up!”
She didn’t react, however as he tried waking her, General Dash, Madam Melody, Captain Belle, Major Storm, and Apple Barrel made it to the top of the stairs of the tower as they looked around in confusion as they could see into the room that Cirrus was in before rushing in to help. As they approached, General Dash kneeled over Gem’s motionless body as she spoke, “Commander… are you okay?” He looked around till he saw Princess Umbra still laying on the castle balcony, “Who is she?”
Preoccupied, Cirrus replied, “Don’t worry about her, just see if she is alright!” he turned to the rest of the group, “And somepony check on Zine!”
Doing as they were told, the arriving group split up to help all three as Cirrus continued trying to wake Gem Stone, “Come on! You’re not going out like this! You’re too strong! You’re Captain Stone for crying out loud!!!”
General Dash called from Princess Umbra, “She’s unconscious but she’s alive!”
Cirrus continued, “Hear that? We saved the princess. We completed our task, the kingdom is now at peace. Wake up to see it… you hear me wake up!”
Apple Barrel called form Zine, “Sir, He ain’t breathin’! I don’t think he made it!”
Cirrus shook his head as tears started to build up in his eyes, “That’s not true, it’s another one of his tricks… Gem… don’t let him get away with it… wake up and teach him a lesson… please wake up!!!”
Madam Melody and Major Storm tried to help by checking her vital signs, but after they did, Major Storm could only look at Cirrus as she shook her head, “Commander… She’s gone. I’m sorry but there is nothing we can do.”
Cirrus shook his head in denial as he stood up, “no… there has to be something, I’ll go get a medic. Maybe he can revive her. If I get one now then maybe he c-“
Before he could finish his sentence, Madam Melody grabbed him by his shoulder as she spoke, “Commander enough!” Cirrus looked at her as she spoke in a sympathetic way, “In every battle, zere is loss… and zough it may be hard to hear… Captain Stone is von of zem. She’s gone commander, and zere is nothing ve can do to change zat.”
Cirrus with his tears mixing with the falling rain on his face, looked at Madam Melody’s sympathetic look, then back at Major Storm who was looking away to hid her tears as he sat down in disbelief, “but… she was the strongest out of all of us. How could she…”
As Major Storm closed Gem’s eyes, everypony looked down in disappointment, but not a word was said. Cirrus closed his eyes to try and accept the truth, however as he did, a strange yet familiar voice and phrase echoed in his mind as it spoke, “the Lightning Orb is a unique power, with it, not only can somepony extinguish life… but they can even save it. I can only imagine of what the Third Commander can do with it.”
With these words in his mind, Cirrus looked back at Gem Stone as he mumbled, “Save it…”
With an intrigued glance, Cirrus looked back at Gem’s body as everypony else looked at him in curiosity. Cirrus then approached her, sat up, and placed his hooved together as he started focusing his power. After gathering enough, he slightly moved his hooves apart as a continuous arc of electricity was left as it jumped from his left hoof to his right. As the electricity hissed between his hooves, everypony else in the area watched him as he looked at Gem Stone’s lifeless body and quickly moved his hooves over as he placed them firmly against her chest as the electricity caused her body to jump while discharging a lot of volts from her body as the electricity arced from every limb and made contact with the ground around her. As soon as the action was finished, Madam Melody tried to ask, “Commander! Vat are you doin-”
Before she could finish Cirrus rubbed his hooves together as they gathered more electricity before placing them back onto Gem’s chest, “Come on!... Don’t die just yet!... you’re stronger then this!...”
As his hooves touched Gem a second time, she reacted the same way as her body jumped leaving arcs of lightning jumping from her body and hitting the ground around her. As soon as the second reaction finished, Cirrus started rubbing his hooves for a third time, “You’re not going to die on me!... Not now, and not here!...”
As Cirrus started raising his hooves to place them a third time, he was stopped as somepony grabbed one of his hooves as he looked at his hoof in shock. As after seeing who stopped him, Cirrus looked at the lifeless mare’s face as he spoke, “Gem Stone?...”
Slowly, Gem Stone turned her head to him as she opened her eyes slightly and spoke with a weak voice, “That… that hurts you know…”
Overcome with joy, Cirrus threw his hooves around Gem Stone and hugged her as he replied, “Gem… thank the world I listened to Commander Bolt… even if he never made since at the start.”
Smiling at his comment, Gem blushed slightly as she replied, “Yea… he tends to do that… um commander?”
“Yes?...”
“I’m in a lot of pain right now… can you please let go?”
Realizing what he was doing, Cirrus let Gem Stone go as he replied, “Oh… right sorry… I lost myself for a second.”
As everypony’s attention was on Cirrus and the awoken Gem Stone, No pony checked on Zine as the now living zebra quickly sat back up as he screamed, “Pineapples!...”
Everypony looked at him in confusion as he felt the rain falling on him from above and looked at the sky before panning across the rest of the destroyed room, “Um… did I miss something?...”
Apple Barrel shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Cirrus and gave an unessisary call, “Hey commander… the crazy zebra’s alive now!”
Cirrus, Gem, and the rest of the group smiled at the comment as the group gathered around Gem Stone and Zine, and helped them onto their hooves.
As soon as they were up, the group paused as weak moans were heard from the mare laying on the castle’s balcony. Slowly everypony looked to the balcony as Princess Umbra was slowly moving as she sat up and started rubbing her head. As everypony looked to the princess, General Dash looked at Cirrus and asked, “Commander… what about her? Is she an ally or an enemy?”
Captain Belle added, “Her mane… is she… Thundaga?”
Madam Melody shook her head, “Possibly… but her coat is… different.”
Gem Stone shook her head, “no… she is Thundaga… or… she used to be.”
Major Storm looked at Cirrus, “what should we do with her commander? Should… we arrest her?”
Cirrus replied with a serious tone, “I'll deal with her… follow my lead.”
Cirrus and his group started trotting towards Princess Umbra as the confused princess looked around to find out where she was. As soon as she realized what was happening she quickly looked over at Cirrus and his group as they trotted towards her. Gem Stone, Zine, General Dash, Madam Melody, Apple Barrel, Major Storm, and Captain Belle all followed their commander as Cirrus approached Princess Umbra and stopped in front of her with a serious expression on his face. Seeing the group of ponies in front of her made Umbra nervous, as she slowly turned her head and looked over the city of Canterlot. From the balcony, it was easy to see that the city had just witnessed a war zone. Outside the walls laid a large battlefield where bodies and trampled grass was easily noticeable. Inside the city wasn’t any better, there a number of building were in ruins as a few building were still on fire, despite the rain that was falling on the city. While within the castle walls, the top of the tallest tower was missing as pieces of it were scattered throughout the city as far as the furthest perimeter wall. Not-to-mention the ash that was still being emitted from the three long black scares in the earth left by Thundaga’s Lightning Orb.
As she looked at the damaged city, Princess Umbra remembered everything that Thundaga had done as tears began rolling down her face, “this… all of this… is my…”
Too horrified to finish, Princess Umbra looked back down at Cirrus and his serious expression as she tried to think of what to do next. Part of her was afraid and wanted to flee for her life, while another part of her felt that she deserved whatever punishment he had ready for her. Nevertheless, Princess Umbra held her ground as Cirrus spoke, “Princess Umbra of Equestria?...”
She replied with a worried tone, “Y-yes?...”
Cirrus bowed in respect as everypony else in the group to include Zine, slowly followed as Cirrus replied, “The darkness is vanquished… Equestria is now under your control… Your majesty.”
Hearing his words, everypony in the group repeated, “Your majesty.”
Princess Umbra was beyond speechless, nothing in the world could have prepared her for this type of reaction from anypony, let alone the group responsible for facing and defeating Thundaga. As she looked at the group, Cirrus rose form his bow and smile pleasantly at her. With his smile in mind, Princess Umbra couldn’t understand, how could he, the pony hurt the most by her actions, possibly forgive him after everything she did to him? Killing his parents, killing his foster father, destroying his home, casting him aside, and hurting his friends while calling him traitor. If anything this pony should hate her far more than any living pony in the entire kingdom, and yet, there he sat, with a smile as if to greet a friend after a long journey. Seeing this, Princess Umbra wasn’t able to contain herself anymore, as she threw her hooves around Cirrus, held him as tightly as she could, and started to cry as loud as she could as everypony in the area looked at the saddened alicorn and smiled as the princess let out all the sorrow built up, from five centuries of sadness.