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// Chapter 6: A Wizard Fights a Tyrant 
// Story: Solid Script Equestria 
// by Garnet Naturea 
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As I read through the book, I realized the pages that were missing were from after Sombra was crowned king and after that point in time. Though most were missing there were one or two pages still in them talking about some unicorn mare named Crystal Dust. She has a blue mane and peach coat. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was that mare from my vision. I read through the journal a second time and made sure I didn’t miss anything before looking to Echo. So she was basically Sombra’s Spike.

I look out the window in the wall and see what looks like some kind of festival. I raise a brow in confusion. Shouldn’t the others be looking for info on how to protect the empire? I think back and realizes they may have found something involving this fair. I put the jounal in my purse and go to leave before looking at the crystallized Exeed again. I think for a minute before deciding to take her with me. If we can get her out of that crystal she might be able to help. I take one of the drapes off of the window and use it as a sling to carry the crystal. Making sure she is secure, I walk out and to the throne room. 

Walking around I enter the throne room and find...no one there. Looking around I see Cadence, Shining and a worried Twilight flipping through a book as I get close I can make out some of their conversation.

“..know it was an actual relic! There was a page missing! How did I not notice?!” Twilight says panicked. I rush over and support Cadence as she was swaying.

“Be careful Cadence. You need to rest.” I tell her. The group goes to talk, before they all notice the crystal secured to me. 

“Uh, Lex? What is with the crystal?” Shining asks. In response, I hold the crystal in my hands and cast a small Solid Script Light spell on it. The crystal glows, and the ponies can see the outline of Echo in the crystal. They all gasp and Twilight even drops her book.

“This is Echo. She was Sonbāsutā personal assistant/little sister before being sealed in this crystal for protection.” I tell them, the group looking a mix of confused and worried.

“Sonbāsutā? Doesn’t that mean ‘the somber star’?” Twilight asks, to which I nod and take out the journal.

“And it was also the original name of Sombra before he became corrupted. He never ‘took over’ the crystal empire! He was originally crowned king after his adopted mother, the previous queen, passed and only became the tyrant Sombra after something caused his magic to become corrupted.” I tell them, handing Candence the jounal. She begin to read and looks just as shocked as I was. “We need to find out what happened to Sonbāsutā that made him go nuts, then maybe we can get him back to normal.”

“But that won’t be easy. Sombra’s curse has caused all the crystal ponies to forget the past, meaning no one even remembers what it was like when Sonbāsutā was in charge and not Sombra.” Shining tells me. 

“Not to mention the crystal fair we have set up will be useless if we can’t find something called the crystal heart to cover the empire with light and love!” Twilight adds.

Just then Cadence falls to her knees and her magic goes out. Not long after the shield lowers and I can see the black mist of Sombra surrounding us. I look to the main entrace and see his eyes. Even through we are miles apart, I can see the pain buried deep within them. 

“Not good.” I say quickly. Shining helps Cadence up and she gets a determined look on her face and lights her horn, raising the shield again. Sombra tried to get in, only for him to be stopped by the shield. I didn’t notice as the tip of his horn falls in. Cadence smiles before swaying and having to be supported by her husband.

“I need to find the crystal heart.” Shining says determined.

“No, you need to stay with Cadence, I’ll retrieve the heart.” Twilight says.

“Yeah, lets do this!” I just now noticed that Rainbow had been staying quiet and just standing on the railings this whole time. They run off into the castle while I look back to Sombra and then to Echo. I turn to the royal duo.

“I am going to put a defensive enchantment around the castle. If Sombra gets in, he won’t be getting past it. I’ll also try to find a way to get Echo out of this crystal. She may know what happened and how to save Sonbāsuta.” I tell them, getting a nod from both royals. 

I rush to the bottom floor of the castle and begin to write an enchantment to cover the area. As I am writing it, I am also trying to find a way to get Echo out of her crystal and how to save Sonbāsutā from his corruption. I think back to what Echo said earlier. ‘Love, Betrayed, Magic, Flareing. So it is likely he was betrayed by someone he loved and that caused his magic to flare out of control. He must have gains some semblance of control to place Echo in that protective crystal.’

As I finish the enchantment, I see several crystal ponies going up to Rarity and AppleJack. One of them looks familiar. And I realizes who it is.

“Emerald Blizzard!” I call out, the green and white crystal pony turning to me. I rush over to him, having completed the spell.

“Oh, hello young mare. Who are you?” He asks politely. The journal wasn’t kidding, he really is nice. 

“My name is Lex, and I need your help.” I tell him, taking his hand and leading him to a secluded spot. Once away from the other I look him in the eye and take out the journal. “Do you recognize this?” I ask him, handing the book. He raises a brow and begins to read through. As he does, I notice his coat seems to get an almost, crystal like shine to it. I can see his eyes reading faster and faster, until he is all but flying through the book before slamming it shut and gasping for breath. 

“Sonbāsutā...my nephew...I..remember.” He whispers just loud enough to hear. I notice his coat has almost become transparent and he looks like he is made of crystal. 

“Emerald, what happened to him? What happened to Sonbāsutā?” I ask him urgently, seeing some of the crystal ponies panicking.

“I-I remember...him talking about some mare name Crystal Dust. About her beauty and the way she made him feel. Then, I remember Echo coming to me and asking for help calming Sonbāsutā down from something. After that, all I remember was his rage and grief and...those eyes.” He says shakily. I think for a minute before taking out Echo’s crystal.

“Sonbāsutā put Echo in this crystal to protect her. Do you know of a way to get her out?” He takes her carfully in hand and sighs before shaking his head. I suddenly hear an alarm go off and see dark crystals beginning to cover the empire.

“Oh no..” Emerald gasps. We run out of out spot, seeing almost all of the citizens in the area of my spell. It also appears to be holding the crystals back. I look and see Cadence and Shining Armor coming out the door and get a determined expression. I walk up to them.

“Cadence.” She looks to me tired. “Lower the shield.” It tell her getting several ponies looking at me like I grew a second head. 

“Are you nuts!?! King Sombra is right outside!” Rainbow yells, causing the ponies to panic more.

“Like I said before, I can hold him off until Twilight find the real crystal heart. Plus I put a very powerful enchantment around the castle, so all of you will be safe if you stay here!” I tell the gathered ponies. They look and see my enchantment holding off the crystal, and some of them seem to gain hope in their eyes. I look to Emerald.

“Emerald, I want you to try and find a way to get Echo out of that crystal. Maybe seeing his little sister will make Sonbāsuta snap out of it.” I tell him, getting a determined salute. I look to Cadence and nod. She sigh and nods back, dismissing her magic. The shield lowers with the sound of lightning as the shadow of Sombra comes into the empire. The ponies all huddle together, while I grab my sword and walk out of the enchantment.

“My crystal slaves.” Sombra says triumphantly. He goes towards the castle before seeing me in the street. He tilts his head and goes to face me. “So, someone is actually here to fight?” He laughs. “How adorable.”

“You don’t need to do this! I know who you are, who you were!” I tell him. He looks to me with a dark smirk.

“Oh, really? Then who was I?” He asks. I just sigh and let go of my sword.

“You were the crowned Crystal King, Sonbāsutā.” He pauses and looks to me with widening eyes. “You were a street urchin who was adopted by Queen Peach Topaz on your tenth birthday.” I take a few steps to him. “You were the big brother to Echo the Exeed and surrogate nephew to Emerald Blizzard. You were loved and praised by your subjects. Before you were betrayed.” I tell him. He growls and the darkness around the empire goes to him, making him larger. 

“HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT!?!” He roars, causing me to actually cover my ears for a second. 

“Because, I found your jounal and Echo! I read what it said, I learned who you are! You don’t need this corrupted magic anymore! You don’t need to hurt innocent ponies!” I shout to him. He just growl before shrinking and turning to, what I believe is, his original form. 

He was as big as Big Mac. His coat is a ashlike grey instead of silver, his black mane almost burning like fire. He was in silver and crystal armour with two sabres on his sides with his regalia on. His eyes still have to corrupted mist coming from them, and he looked pissed. He draws one of his sabres and points it at me.

“You speak as though this magic is something new, but you are wrong. I have always used darkness and crystals for my magic, and I will not let some child tell me to use something else. The Darkness Is Eternal.” He says to me. I just sigh, then unsheath my sword and light my dark eye. He actually does a double take at seeing my eye.

“Agreed. The darkness is eternal. You cannot have light without dark. The difference here is that you are being controlled by your own darkness and pain, while I contol my darkness. It gives me strength, and makes you weak. I will free you from the darkness and bring you back, not just to light, but to the proper darkness as well.” I tell him, getting into a fencing stance. He growls at me and charges.

I manage to parry his slash and just miss slashing him myself. We go back and forth for a while in this swords dance before he breaks out his second sword and increase the aggression in his attacks. I am put on the defensive, but five years of fencing classes are really paying off right now. I manage to block or deflects all of his strikes before seeing an opening and tackling him. That hurt my shoulder a bit but it did throw him off balance. Impressive, considering he is almost a full foot bigger than me. I spin on the ball of my foot and slash him, only for him to turn to mist and fall back. I am panting a bit, but am unharmed for the most part, while he is barely sweating but looks enraged. 

“Impressive, you can actually hold me off. However, it will take more than your sword skills to beat me!” He says before turning to mist and growing. 

He goes to blast me with magic before I use Dark Ecriture Wings and fly above the magical blast. He actually gawks at me as I fly above him before trying to blast me out of the air. I dodge all over the place before he tries shooting sharpened crystals at me. I barely manage to dodge them before I stop and face him again. 

“You think going into a new form will let you win!? Two can play that game!” I call to him before rising into the air and focusing my dark magic. “Evil battles Evil! Dark Ecriture! Darkness!” The spell appear on my chest before I am covered by darkness and change with the sound of cracking bones and electricity. 

My hair grows longer and spikier, I grow ash grey fur on my skin and my canine grow into large fangs. My arms become more muscular and I grow dangerously sharp claws on my hands. My dress gets changed into orange leather armor and my shoes disappear. My legs become more muscular as well and my feet turn to talons and I grow a spiky tail below my armor. Once the changing is completed, the darkness around me bursts away, revealing my new form. I hear more than a few gasps from the ponies and Sombra looks to me in shock and more than a little awe. 

He then narrows his eyes and roars at me. I respond with a distorted screech and we both charge at each other before clashing in magic enhanced hand to hand. 

With the ponies, they just look in shock at my fight with the dark tyrant, more than a few of them being afraid of me now that I am in this new form. The remainder of main six and the royals all have their jaws on the ground at my fight.

“Holy Buck that is awesome! She can turn into some kind of demon?!” Rainbow says with an awed smile. While she, AppleJack and Pinkie watch my fight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Emerald and the royals are trying to find a way to release Echo from the crystal. 

“This crystal seems to be made of a type of dark magic that isn’t truly evil in nature. We need to either get Sonbāsutā to release the spell himself, or overload the crystal with light magic.” Emerald says looking over the crystal, worried for his surrogate niece. Suddenly Cadence’s eyes widen and she face palms.

“Overload it with light! Of course!” She lights up her horn once again, with great effort and places it against the crystal. The light courses into the crystal and begins to glow, Echo’s silhouette being visible to all. Cadence focuses more magic into the spell, but she is dangerously low on magic. Suddenly the burden of the spell is lowered as Rartiy lays her own horn on the crystal, followed by Fluttershy placing a hand on it. The three mare focus on their own happiness and light. Suddenly cracks spread across the crystal before it burst away, the girls all flinch back from the light being given off and once they look back what they see is...adorable.

Laying on the ground, is a small purple furred cat with white fur in her ears and bottom of her paws, wearing a blue and pink dress. She is breathing normally before groaning and sitting up, rubbing her head. 

“What...happened..? Urrg, my head.” She says. She opens her eyes to look around, her scarlet iris surprising the ponies. She looks to the ponies before noticing Emerald. “Uncle Emerald!” She gets up, only to fall to her knees again.

“Don’t get up to fast sweetheart. You have been in crystal for a long time.” Fluttershy says softly, lifting the feline. Echo looks to her for a second before her eyes widen.

“Sonbāsutā! Where is he!? Is he ok!?” She asks frantically. The others don’t get a chance to respond before she sees me and Sombra fighting outside. She looks to Sombra with sadness and jumps out of Fluttershys arms, and walks to the edge of the enchantment. 

“Sonbā, you’re still corrupted.” She says with tears in her eyes, before remembering what I told her. She looks to me as I block a punch from Sombra and places her paws together. ‘Please, keep your promise.’ 

I launch another kick to where his gut is and send him back a few feet. He roars again and launches several razor sharp crystals at me.

“Darkness Breath!” I create a large tornado that takes all the crystals, spins them around and sends it back to him. His eyes widen and he makes himself into mist. As the final crystal goes by, I appear in front of him with an orb of energy in my hands. “Darkness Flash Bomb!” Slamming the orb into his chest, I send him flying back into the ground with a large crash. 

He gets up with a growl and looks to me as I fly above him. He focuses and suddenly multiplies into twelve and surround me. I look around as they all run around me and launch spells at me. I get hit over and over again before I get pissed. I go to the ground in the center of them all and focus my magic.

“Darkness Stream!” I blast a large wave of magic in a circle around me, striking all the Sombra’s, eleven of them turning to mist and the last on jumping away to avoid the blast. I launch myself to him with a headbutt and place a hand on his chest. “Evil Spark!” A bolt of electricity shocks him and send him into the barrier of the castle. He roars in pain from the impact. He struggles and gets to one knee with anger. He looks to me as I land and we lock eyes. I can see it, he is angry and hurt. His betrayal is obvious in his hurt eyes. 

We both pause as we sense a source of light magic. Looking to the top of the tower of the castle, I can barely make out the small purple and green form of Spike, holding some blue heart in his claws. That must be the crystal heart! I don’t have time to react when Sombra launches another blast at me, sending me into a building. 

Spike tries to get down the tower as Twilight is trapped in the room by some dark crystal. He uses his fire to block and push back any crytals that try to get him. Looking to the ground he sees as I get sent into the building, then to Sombra as he goes up to try and get him. He slips and begins to slide down the side of the tower before being sent into the air. The ponies see him and shout in alarm as he has the heart. 

“Spike!” The girls shout in worry. Echo looks up and sees the dragon with the heart and know what to do. The girls notice a flash of light, only to turn and see as Echo launches herself to Spike, her bright white wings propelling her through the air. Spike begins to fall through the air and sees as the tyrant king is about to catch him. Spike clenches his eyes shut preparing for pain, when he feels a pair of paws wrap around his chest and then air going past him. 

Opening his eyes, Spike sees that he is higher in the air and that Sombra is below him. He turns his head and sees Echo holding him, flying away from Sombra. “Who?” He asks as Echo flies around the tower.

“My name is Echo. I’m a friend.” She says looking to Sombra as he looks to her as well. They lock eyes and the mist in Sombra’s eyes actually stops for bit.

“Echo?” He whispers. 

“Hey Sombra!” He turns to find me a foot away from him. “How about we end this!” After I say that I disappear and reappear behind him, grabbing his arm and throwing him to the ground. He gets up with some effort and looks around for me. He then looks up as I have my hands above my head with a large spell matrix with purple lightning coming out above it before the matrix shrinks into a swirling ball of dark energy. 

“Soul Extinction.” I launch a huge beam of dark energy straight down and onto Sombra. He roars in pain and all the ponies and Echo have to look away and hold on as the shockwave of energy pushes them back. Once the energy is done, they see Sombra in the crater, his armor shattered, his hair a mess, and his magic fizzling out from his eyes. I land on the ground and look to him and he fliches back and goes wide eyed in fear. 

“SOMBRA!” I rush to him in adrenaline induced anger and pin him with a hand on his neck, the other pulled back. I go to punch him in the muzzle, but I remember every one of my friends. Twilight, Rainbow, AJ, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Spike...Nat and Sora, Adam. I stop my fist mere inches from his face and freeze, panting. I remember the time Adam went to find that bastard that took me, and how he said not to hurt anyone if you can help it. 

We stay there for a minute before I pull back and just sit, straddling his stomach.

“I don’t understand. Why did you stop?” He asks and I see the mist from his eyes is almost nonexistent. I just smile and see as Echo places Spike on the ground with the heart in claw. 

“Because this fight is over.” I tell him softly. He turns his head and sees Spike as he is about to put the heart into the pedestal. He just sighs, the mist completely disappearing. 

“I guess this is it huh?” He says calmly. Spike puts the heart in its spot and the crystal ponies focus their happiness and love into the heart, causing it to spin and for a bright light to charge. I look down to him and place a hand on his cheek.

“You know, even with what happened to you,” the light bursts forward and begins to get close. “Your mom would be proud of the ruler you were.” As I finish the light covers us and I feel warm. I feel Sombra smiling and feel his hand wrap around mine.