Equis, Crystal Empire
Somedays, Twilight Sparkle wondered how she managed to shoulder all of her responsibilities. Being Princess Celestia's student had come with quite a load, but becoming the Bearer of the Element of Magic, being one of Equestria's primary defenses, was another story. Then there were her new alicorn wings and title, setting her and her friends as the guardians of friendship. It all added up to a mountain of work, a mounting Twilight could've never imagined herself climbing.
Then Vision shielded her from another blast, and Twilight was brought back to her original thought: All of those responsibilities paled in comparison to this madness.
The battle against Sombra and his troops raged on, magic blasts swarming around the snowy battlefield. Explosives from the Avengers' arsenals burst in every direction, gunfire sputtered, Pinkie's party cannon squeaked, punches were thrown, crystal armor cracked, and the Hulk roared with fury. While the team wasn't losing like they had the previous battle, it was still turning into a ruthless match, with injuries piling up on both sides. Twilight herself had a bleeding lip, and a slash in the middle of her chest. She refused to let it stop her, though.
Diving down in midair, Twilight dived at Phobos, as the faun of fear kept launching blasts at Scott's gigantic form. Her horn blared with magic, and she swiped downward, sending a crescent-shaped blade of magic directly at Phobos. Unfortunately for her, the faun managed to sense her attack quick enough to leap to the side and take aim with his staff. Not all of the luck was on Phobos' side today, however, as Natasha stood right behind him, close enough to jab him at the base of his neck with her electrified baton.
Phobos screamed as several hundred volts of electricity raced across his body, whirling around on one hoof to face Natasha. The Black Widow merely smiled, knowing that Rainbow had gotten into position. The cyan pegasus dived down in a swerving loop, smacking Phobos in the back of the head, and leaving him open for Tony to blast him with both repulsors at once. The faun was launched off the ground, and smacked right into the back of the Hulk, who was currently fighting Sombra. The green behemoth didn't even notice the distraction.
Deimos would've gladly taken the opportunity to mock his brother, if he weren't fairing so poorly himself. The faun of panic was battling Wanda, Rarity, and Pinkie, and the former two's barriers kept blocking out his magic beams. Rarity's shields weren't as strong, she was no mage, but they blocked out his attack long enough for Pinkie to bounce off of his head, an action that was definitely going to result in a concussion if it kept up.
Gritting his teeth in rage, the faun formed a large ball of his sickly green magic in the curve of his staff, raising it skyward. He was intending to slam the weapon down, creating a shock wave carrying his signature, hysteria inducing spell. He probably couldn't cause them to turn on each other again, not by himself, but it would throw them off their balance.
It was a good plan in theory, but life has a way of throwing monkey wrenches into plans such as that. In this case, the monkey wrench took the form of Vision and Rhodey, blasting Deimos from above with a bolt of gold energy from the Mind Stone, and a sonic blaster at the same time. The unstable ball of collected magic exploded as the blasts struck Deimos, burning him even further. To make matters worse for him, Wanda managed to throw up a barrier, protecting herself and the others from the magical shock wave. As Deimos slumped down, Wanda seized him in her telekinetic grip and hurled him into a shadow pegasus, knocking it out of the sky.
"Thanks, Viz," she said, briefly turning her head to the flying Avengers as she fired another blast of red energy. "Rhodey." She fired her energy into the ground, launching herself across the battlefield, Pinkie in close pursuit.
"Much obliged, darlings," said Rarity, never one to neglect politeness.
Rhodey smirked beneath his metallic mask, as his onboard targeting system locked on to multiple incoming shadow griffons. "You seem to be doing well with the ladies, 'Viz,'" he teased, firing a barrage of missiles.
"Shut up, Colonel," Vision snapped back, but there was humor in his voice. He phased his arms through another shadow hippogriff, before solidifying them once more, and tearing the undead beast apart.
Contained within the shield of the Crystal Empire, the situation was fairly similar, with team Avengers holding their ground, but not gaining much. More diamond dogs had dug their way into the city, and some of the tunnels managed to remain open for a brief period before Starlight or Sunburst could collapse them, allowing shadowy creatures to enter the city.
Bucky ducked as a shadow minotaur swung a chunk of marble at his head, before retaliating with an overhead smash from his bionic arm, obliterating the creature's head. The headless minotaur stumbled a few steps, before Spider-Man's web snagged it by the chest, swinging it into a group of diamond dogs like a wrecking ball. One dog managed to evade destruction, but Thorax's burning green magic put him down for good. A few of the diamond dogs sneaked deeper underground, attempting to emerge right next to the Crystal Heart, but Clint's arrows dispatched them as soon as they showed their heads.
"We making any progress here?!" yelled Spider-Man into his mic. "Because I'd like to be!" The tingle on the back of his neck came again, warning him before a shadow unicorn could shoot him in the back. He back flipped over the beam, allowing Spike to melt the unicorn's crystal armor with a burst of flame. Starlight came in for the finish, blasting it apart with magic.
"Much as I value patience," said T'Challa, as he decapitated a shadow earth pony with a claw swipe, "I agree with Spider-Man. We need to find someway to regain our lost ground."
"Easier said than done, Your Majesty!" Tony quipped, blasting apart a group of charging yaks on the ground. He turned his unibeam at Steve, who, remembering the tactic they'd used against the Chitauri, redirected the beam into the sky with his shield, burning the wings off a couple of shadow pegasi and sending them plummeting. "We need some sort of opening to disable Sombra!"
The dark unicorn himself was currently engaged with Celestia, Luna, Thor, and Hulk. With her improved mental status, Celestia was holding much better than she had in the previous battle. She'd only taken one or two hits, and she'd managed to burn Sombra several times with her own, solar magic. Unfortunately, Sombra's power upgrade meant he could take more punishment than the quartet could dish out. Even when Hulk managed to latch on to his horn, giving the other three the chance to blast him all at the same time, Sombra shrugged off most of the pain. The good news was, no matter how many times he threw the Hulk off him, the not-so-jolly green giant just got back up and charged him again.
The bad news was that Scott had been forced to abandon the fight with Sombra. Grogar, noticing how the massive human was stomping out his ground based minions like cockroaches, ordered them to use a new tactic. Namely, climb up Scott's gigantic body and dig into him with their sharpened limbs. Most of the cuts he'd received were superficial, but Scott couldn't focus on the battle through the pain and his attempts to scrape the beasts off his body. It was difficult for the others to be of any use to him. Sam managed to nail a few of the climbers with diving kicks, and Vision ripped some of them away, while below, Applejack lassoed a charging yak, using it as a flail to bash away some of the advancing monsters, but she couldn't keep them all away.
"Ow, son of a—!" Scott screeched, as a shadow unicorn rammed its horn into his lower abdomen. It was like poking yourself with a push-pin, only you somehow managed to slide the pin through until the plastic met your flesh. Scott pinched the unicorn between two fingers and tossed it off, only to see another group charging at him from below. Groaning, Scott reluctantly pressed the trigger on his right glove.
The giant-sized Ant-Man suddenly began to shrivel, reducing back to his normal size. The shadow creatures still clinging to him were left latched onto thin air, before gravity took over and they plummeted to the ground. Scott fell to his hands and knees, clutching the cuts on his body as the shadows that survived the fall approached him.
"Hold on there, partner!" yelled Applejack, as she rushed back towards him. Steve tossed his shield to the farm pony, who snared it with her lasso. Applejack began swinging the rope back and forth, using the shield to bash the remaining shadows to pieces, Scott wisely ducking to avoid getting hit. Satisfied, Applejack pulled the rope in, passing Steve his shield back.
"You okay, Scott?" asked the captain, rushing over to the collapsed Ant-Man.
"Yeah, yeah," was the reply. "But I'm not growing huge again anytime soon. Used up too many of my suit's particles."
"You can only stay giant for that long?" came Tony's voice over the com. "Ugh, you need an upgrade. Remind me to call Pym as soon as we get back."
"Thanks for the offer, but I don't think he'll take it," replied Scott. "He doesn't really like you that much."
"Uh, guys?" said Applejack. "I hate to cut you off, but we got a problem."
Steve and Scott turned their gazes to where her hoof was pointing. Sombra's gigantic, distorted form was storming across the battlefield, heading directly for the Crystal Empire. He'd manipulated his body, growing another pair of massive arms. In his left pair, he held a struggling Thor and Celestia, while in his right, Luna was trapped. Behind them, Hulk was trapped inside a giant mass of black crystal. The gigantic humanoid was squirming with all his might, and cracks were beginning to form in the outer surface, but he would clearly need time to get out of there.
"I have had it with this paltry resistance!" Sombra roared, as he tossed his three captives aside. "My crystal slaves! You belong to me!"
His horn flared to life once more, black bolts of electricity sparking around the pointed tip. In Sombra's upper pair of arms, a length of pure shadow began to grow, eventually shaping itself into the familiar form of Sombra's scythe. The dark unicorn raised the massive weapon, and brought it down on the Empire's barrier.
The effect wasn't instantaneous. For a moment, it seemed the angry attack was in vain, and Sombra's scythe would just bounce off the shield. However, as the king persisted, the blade eventually sank deeper and deeper into the barrier, pushing the magic wall inward, like a sheet of clear plastic. The blade pierced the magic, and slowly began tearing a hole through to the city below. The few remaining crystal ponies screamed in panic.
"Oh, no ya don't!" yelled Tony, as he, Vision, and Rhodey all flew up towards Sombra's face. Floating in midair, Tony opened a compartment in his wrist gauntlet, revealing a metal spike modeled after a unicorn's horn. Aiming the device directly at Sombra's horn, Tony fired a beam of pure magenta energy, magic combined with his repulsor blasts. This was soon accompanied by Vision's signature golden beam, and Rhodey added his chain gun. Inside the Empire, Starlight, Sunburst, and Thorax looked up, adding their own magic to the blast after only a moment's hesitation.
Though Sombra managed to raise his arm to protect his horn, the attack had the desired effect. With Sombra no longer applying constant force to it, the scythe stopped its descent through the barrier. Seizing the chance, the barrier seemed to actually push the blade out of itself, sealing up the crack as it went.
Unfortunately, there was no time to celebrate any kind of small victory, as Grogar, levitating himself once more, flew up to the remaining space on the barrier.
"Do not worry, my master!" cackled the ram. "I will ensure this barrier falls!"
"Come back here, you little—!" Rainbow snapped, diving at Grogar and trying to grab him with her front legs, but missing by a hair. Grogar dived into the closing crack, entering the city.
"No..." gasped Fluttershy, as she observed Grogar's actions, "he'll hurt those ponies!"
With that, she took off with a flap of her wings, ignoring the shadow griffons that dived down to slice her. Twilight and Vision managed to blast them away before they could hurt her. Fluttershy rushed directly into the Crystal Empire, passing through the barrier.
"Fluttershy, wait!" shouted Rarity, to no avail.
Grogar chuckled as he descended into the Crystal Empire, black lightning sparking around the curves of his horns. His red eyes glowed, and he fired directly at the small crowd of remaining crystal ponies, but they were saved by Shining Armor's timely shield conjuring.
"Hey, goat face!" snapped Spider-Man, launching a few web balls at Grogar's head. "Anybody ever tell you how rude it is to shoot lightning at other people? You don't see me doing it!"
Grogar flared his magical aura, deflecting the adhesive projectiles, along with a handful of arrows from Clint. Starlight attempted to hit Grogar with a binding spell to freeze him in place, but the ram telekinetically lifted the small unicorn, hurling her into Spider-Man, knocking both of them off their balance. Grogar moved to attack again, to finish them, but a butter-yellow figure flew in front of him before he could.
"How dare you!" shouted Fluttershy, planting all four hooves down, and Staring into Grogar's eyes as hard as she could. "How dare you try to hurt these ponies! You have no right to use dark magic to—"
The yellow pegasus didn't get the chance to finish her sentence, as Grogar's horns hit her with two simultaneous bolts of lightning. The ram cackled with insane glee as Fluttershy cried out in pain, falling to the ground.
"Cute trick, pony," Grogar laughed, "but you'll need more than angry looks to deal with me." He zapped her again, causing Fluttershy to scream once more.
Unknown to the ram, Fluttershy's pained cries managed to carry all the way out, past the barrier, into the snowy battlefield beyond. Twilight and the others all gasped in horror, but they weren't the only ones affected.
Further back, Hulk remained encased in his crystal prison, though he continued to struggle, and the cracks kept growing.
Until he heard Fluttershy.
Something stirred beneath the sea of rage that constituted the Hulk's brain. Something formed of Bruce Banner's mind, and he remembered sitting in a crystal chair, looking at the yellow pegasus, hearing words of kindness. Hulk's facial muscles tensed, and the entire crystal seal around him began to bend.
Then it shattered.
"Leave her alone!" Spider-Man roared at Grogar, who was continuing to zap Fluttershy. Unfortunately, he wasn't in a position to do much about it, as shadow hippogriffs and diamond dogs were trying to claw him, Spike, and Starlight, forcing them to defend themselves.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about her," Grogar sneered. "Believe me, once she's dead and I reanimate her, she'll be much happier—"
Grogar's taunt would be left unfinished, as earth-shaking footsteps outside the barrier caught everyone's attention. A thundering roar resounded, and Grogar barely had time to whirl around before the charging Hulk backhanded him with impossible strength, sending the ram flying backwards into a building.
"NO HURT PONY!" roared the beast. Behind him, Spider-Man's eyepieces widened in shock.
And then Grogar's black sparks began rising in the air, dust from the building he'd hit flowing around him. The ram rose into the air, electricity crackling around him. Grogar's eyes glowed with fury, as he flew right back at the Hulk.
"You mindless beast!" he snarled, blasting the Hulk with black lightning. The towering beast roared as the smell of burning flesh began to permeate the atmosphere. "How dare you interfere with my business! For this I will—"
He didn't get to finish that sentence, as the Hulk's titanic fist shot straight towards his head. Grogar barely managed to raise his shield in time, blocking the punch and standing his ground. But he failed to make any more movements before the Hulk clapped both sides of the spherical barrier, hitting it so hard it cracked. Not content to stop there, Hulk roared with fury, pounding the shield harder and harder, more and more cracks extending down the surface. Grogar channeled as much magic as he possibly could into the shield, but he was fighting a losing battle. His eyes stared down the Hulk, filled with pure fear.
With an ear-splitting crack, Grogar's shield shattered, and the Hulk seized him around his midsection. With one final snarl of rage, he heaved the ram over his head, smashing the much smaller creature into the streets of the Crystal Empire, cracking the cement and creating a small crater in the ground. Grogar lay unconscious, one of his horns snapped off, blood dripping from his nose.
Above the defeated necromancer, the Hulk flexed both arms, and let out another roar of pure strength.
"HULK IS STRONGEST THERE IS!" he bellowed to the sky.
Nobody moved for a few seconds. Spider-Man and Starlight both stared in shock at the behemoth, along with Shining and Cadence, who could still see from their spot near the Crystal Heart. Thorax, Sunburst, Bucky, and T'Challa all ran up, eyes filled with amazement at the remains of the altercation that sat before them. Clint, from his perch, smiled to himself. The Hulk himself just stood, breathing heavily.
Then Fluttershy took a few tentative steps forward. "D-Dr. B-Banner?" she mumbled, looking up at the green giant.
The Hulk rounded on the small pony, and for a moment, the team panicked. Then, he took a deep breath, relaxing his muscles a bit, though he was still broader than anyone. He let his hands fall down at his sides, as his green eyes made contact with Fluttershy's aqua ones.
"Thank you," the pegasus said simply.
Grogar's rather epic failure didn't escape his master's notice. Sombra was even more furious than before, and he showed it with renewed vigor in his assaults. He created more limbs, attacking the combined team of two worlds like an enraged octopus, clawing massive ditches into the snow.
The good news was, without their master, Grogar's shadow minions seemed to have lost some of their spirit. They still attacked, but they were rather clumsy and lacking strategy. They weren't even trying to break into the Empire anymore, just attacking whoever they could, before being obliterated. This allowed the Avengers to eliminate them en masse.
Of course, the same principles didn't apply to Phobos and Deimos. The two fauns continued to wage war against the team, though it did them little good, as Phobos found out, from having Redwing smack him directly between the eyes.
"Filthy...hairless...apes...!" he snarled, as he fired a few blasts at Sam. "I'll shatter their fetlocks!"
"You're not really familiar with our anatomy, are you?" interrupted Rhodey, ramming his taser rod into the faun's rear. Phobos leaped into the air, clutching his buttocks and screeching like an angry bird. Rhodey prepared to knock him down with a repulsor blast, but Deimos added some cover fire, forcing him to dodge.
Sombra himself wasn't having much more fun than his minions. With fewer and fewer shadow creatures to battle, Tony and Twilight had moved their focus to him, pelting him with missiles laced with small bits of magical charge. Sombra wasn't really hurt by the assault, but his frustration grew greater with each blow.
"Why—urk—do you keep resisting me?!" Sombra spat, trying and failing to keep his smug attitude intact under his rage, "Soon, Equestria will be all mine! And then your planet Earth will—"
"Will worship you? Will bow to your every whim?" Luna interrupted, slicing through part of Sombra's shadowy essence with her sword. "Don't bother with it, Sombra. We've heard all these villainous rants before."
"So have we," said Tony. "Seriously, your evil plot wasn't even that original. Using our minds against us? Trying to make us turn on each other? Ultron and Zemo both did it. And they did it better. Add some class next time."
"Why you little—!" Sombra growled, reaching up with a claw to try and crush Tony, only to have a large, green object (aka the Hulk) crash into his face.
"Heads up, stinky!" yelled Spider-Man rushing back onto the battlefield, the remaining fighters that had been in the Crystal Empire on his tail. He fired two blasts of webbing, blinding both of Sombra's eyes, giving Spike the opportunity to hit Sombra in the side with a few small fireballs. "Sorry, my jokes are usually much better than that."
"Come on, Sombra!" Steve yelled, pitching his shield at the dark unicorn, where it bounced off his muzzle. "It's over! You lost!"
For some strange reason, Sombra didn't like the sound of that. He responded with a bolt of pure magic directly at Steve, who barely managed to leap back in time. From the impact point, a long, pointed spire of black crystal emerged, primed to skewer the good captain, but Clint's explosive arrowhead blew it apart before it could.
"So, uh, what exactly is our plan?" asked the archer, as Sombra rose once more. "We did have one of those, right?"
"I thought so," Natasha replied, using her pistols to shatter a dark earth pony. "Tony, any progress with the whole vibranium thing?"
"He's too guarded," said the billionaire with frustration. "If we tried it now, he'd just knock it away. And we've only got one shot at this, so we can't afford to screw up." He descended out of the sky, landing alongside the others.
Luna came down alongside him, observing her sister and Thor as they continued to assault Sombra. What would distract him, keep him busy long enough to lodge the vibranium in his horn? Luna thought about Sombra's long list of powers, everything at his disposal. Suddenly, inspiration struck her like a lightning bolt.
"I might have something," she spoke up, "but I do not know how long it will keep him."
"If it can stop him, I say give it a shot, lady," replied the miniature Scott, as he punched Deimos in the face again. "We can't hold him back forever."
"Agreed," said Bucky. He'd come out of the Crystal Empire armed with a spear, shimmering the same way as the crystal ponies. He reached up with his bionic arm, snapping the tip off the shaft of the spear. He held out his hand, and Tony passed him the shard of vibranium, which he then jammed into the shaft. "Crude, but it should suffice."
"Then go for it!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Even I'm getting worn out at this point!"
Luna beckoned Bucky with a wing. "Need a lift, Sergeant Barnes?"
"Thought you'd never ask," Bucky replied, climbing into Luna's back. Lucky for them both, the alicorn was close enough in size to horses from Earth. Luna took off into the air with a single flap of her large wings, as the others watched them go.
"Huh," said Tony.
Any more thoughts would remain unsaid, as Sombra screamed in fury as Vision burned him with yet another golden blast.
"PHOBOS! DEIMOS!" he shrieked, seizing the two fauns with a pair of his massive hands. "ATTEND ME!"
Luna gritted her teeth. She knew exactly what Sombra was doing, in fact she'd counted on it. She had the perfect counter in mind to his next move. She relayed this information to the others, as she and Bucky approached the massive abomination.
"You sure about that?" Bucky asked, holding the vibranium spear with one hand. "It's kinda risky."
"It has to be done," Luna replied. "It is the only way I can think of to immobilize him long enough. Twilight Sparkle, are you ready with the chest?"
"It's recharged," confirmed the Princess of Friendship, checking the box. "Just give us the word. Girls, get ready!"
"On my way, sugar cube!"
"Comin', Twilight!"
"Yay, we're gonna save Equestria again!"
"I-I'm ready!"
"I will not fail, darling!"
Sombara began charging up his horn, drawing power from Phobos and Deimos, who squirmed in his grip. Sickly yellow and green light began to merge with the inky purple of his magical aura. At the same time, Luna closed her eyes, powering up her own horn, as pure, white light traveled up the grooves.
Sombra found himself returned to his normal form, floating in an expanse of purple. He levitated himself down, dropping down onto the nonexistent floor. Raising his head, he saw the many multicolored orbs, representing the Avengers' awake minds, laid out before him. A wicked grin formed on his face, as Phobos and Deimos' magic encircled him.
"So, trying the same trick twice," came a voice from near him. "You would make a terrible stage magician, Sombra."
Sombra whirled on his hooves. Standing before him was Luna, projecting herself down into the vast mindscape. Luna glared at him, her horn pointed threateningly.
"Surprised to see me?" she asked. "You shouldn't be. After all, the mindscape is just another section of the dreamscape. My domain."
Sombra's alarm faded, and he gave a quiet chuckle. "Not much of a guardian then, are you?" he asked. "After all, I was able to breach Celestia's dreams so easily. Give her nightmares for weeks. You weren't even aware."
"True," Luna admitted, looking a bit shameful. "And now that you've interacted with them before, you can access the minds of the Avengers from here. While they're awake. But I'm not going to let you."
This time, Sombra threw back his head and howled with laughter. "As if you could ever hope to stop me!" he cackled with insane and sadistic pleasure. "I have the power of gods! And as you saw before, the Avengers only need the slightest push to tear each other to pieces! Really, nothing you could possibly do would make any difference to my plans!"
"Wow," Luna deadpanned. "Amazing. Not a single thing you just said is correct." She began charging her own horn, blue light glowing around the appendage. "First, if you had the powers of gods, you wouldn't have been smacked around by Thor, Tia, myself, etc. Second, the Avengers have moved past anything you might've brought out within them. Finally, you have no idea what I can do."
Sombra opened his mouth to shoot out another insult, but before he could, the entire mindscape began to tremble. Sombra looked around, finding nothing that could create such mental earthquakes throughout the expanse. He never would've admitted it, but he felt the creeping snake of fear begin to slither up his spine.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, attempting to keep his voice stable, but not exactly succeeding.
"Just bringing in some company," Luna replied, smiling cheekily. "You've trespassed in my domain. You've assaulted good ponies, and good humans. You've assaulted the dreams of my sister. I will not allow this to continue."
"What are you taking about?!"
"Just wait..."
Sombra screeched in shock, as a massive crack appeared in the air next to Luna's horn. The crack was composed of pure white light, growing wider and wider with each passing second. Wisps of purple smoke, dotted with white, starry spot like Luna's mane. As more and more of the smoke emerged, it expanded further and further, growing into a massive alicorn silhouette, towering over Sombra.
"WHAT THE—?!" screamed the unicorn.
"King Sombra," Luna announced, "meet the Tantabus."
The Tantabus lunged at Sombra with an unnatural roar.
Sombra screamed in agony, his body contorting, as the familiar blue glow of Luna's magic overpowered his own magical aura. He dropped Phobos and Deimos from his claws, before he covered his head with all four. The fauns didn't even have time to react before Mjölnir and Steve's shield knocked them unconscious.
"I still don't understand what you just did, lady," said Tony, "but it worked!"
"Good job, Luna!" chimed in Celestia.
Luna grinned in response. "Bucky, if you'd do the honors."
"With pleasure," replied the soldier. Clutching the vibranium spear with his bionic arm, he reared back, aiming the spear directly at Sombra's horn, and pitched it as hard as physically possible. The spear stabbed into Sombra's horn, and all of a sudden, the flow of magic up the appendage ceased where the spear was jammed. Stray sparks of magic zapped out from the base of his horn, but the vibranium contained the majority of his magic.
"Now, Twilight!" shouted Tony.
Twilight acted without hesitation, turning the keys with a burst of her magic. The others followed as well, and the box burst open, releasing the storm of rainbow light. With a blinding burst of pure magic, the six ponies transformed into their rainbow-powered forms, levitating into the air in their formation once again.
A bolt of magenta light zapped out from Twilight, hitting the Monolith in the center of Sombra's body. This was followed by more bolts, red from Rainbow, pink from Fluttershy, blue from Pinkie, purple from Rarity, and orange from Applejack. More and more multicolored bolts followed, and they penetrated the Monolith, spreading a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. Sombra's black form was disrupted by the blinding light piercing through him, burning away parts of his body, as he screamed in agony.
"Finish it now, girls!" Twilight yelled over the explosive magic.
A blinding beam of rainbow light burst from the combined ponies, punching into the center of the Monolith. The entire surface of the object was covered in cracks, and dark magic was beginning to leak out of the surface, only to be smothered by the rainbow light, leaving only pure puffs of white light. The Elements of Harmony were fulfilling their purpose, cleansing the dark magic in order to preserve harmony.
With an ear-piercing crack, the Monolith burst into dozens of tiny rock fragments. A blinding white light completely consumed Sombra's body, eroding the black body mass and erasing the mad king from sight. The rainbow light lingered on the six ponies for a moment, before returning to its place in the crystal chest, as Twilight and the others slowly descended from the air. Back on the ground, Twilight and the others panted, worn out from the effort of utilizing the magic.
Tony landed next to them, his mask plate rising to reveal his face. "Well," he announced, "that went pretty well."