The Last of the Dark Ponies

by Askre


Chapter 7. Oh, that show off.

Chapter 7

“Really, Twilight and Celestia, I thought said wasn’t going anywhere near King No-Personality,” Discord grumbled as he entered the map room along with the princesses and the remaining four of Twilight’s friends.

The room hadn’t been cleaned up yet, the banner still hung above the map table, and the decorations were still all over the place and the remaining food still waited to be eaten by party guests who were now either captive or elsewhere.

“Now, now Discord, nopony said you had to go anywhere,” Fluttershy reminded her friend, flying up so she was at his eye level. “You just need to help us pinpoint where he could possibly be and you don’t even have to leave the castle to do it.”

Twilight let her friend continue to convince the spirit while she cleared everything off the table with her magic. She then activated it so it would show Equestria and the edges of the lands bordering it.

“Hey, you alright there, Twi?” Applejack asked, placing a hoof on the princess. She had noticed her friend looked rather grim.

“No, I’m not alright, Applejack. First the changelings, now King Sombra, right in my own home,” Twilight whispered, eyes fixed on the map. “He took ponies I had promised to keep safe. I failed them.”

“Do not dwell on what he did, Twilight.” Celestia stepped up beside her former student. “Let’s concentrate on what we can do about it.”

“The princess is right, Twilight, what’s done is done. Let’s find that rotten vermin and bust those ponies out of there,” the farm pony agreed, patting Twilight on the back.

“So how are we going to do it?” Rarity asked as she approached the table.

“We are going to locate concentrated sources of dark magic with Discord’s help. That’s where King Sombra most likely is,” Celestia explained as she glanced over to Discord and Fluttershy. They were coming over, the timid pegasus having finally convinced the spirit.

“Fine, fine, I’ll do it,” he groaned and cracked his knuckles, staring at the map rather disinterested. Discord snapped his fingers and everyone’s attention was on the map. For a moment nothing happened, causing the spirit to arch his brow. Then suddenly right above the small image of Twilight’s castle on the map, there appeared a black, crystal-like flame.

“What?” Twilight’s jaw dropped in shock. Then more of the black flames began sprouting all over the map. “I don’t understand…”

“Oh, that show off,” Discord grunted as he glared at the flames. “He’s set up dark magic signals all over the place and even put one right here in the castle.”

“Dark magic signals?” Everyone, except Celestia, who was still looking at the map, looked at Discord confused.

“Here let me get the one he put in the castle,” Discord stretched his lion arm impossibly long and it disappeared into the ceiling. When he pulled it back he was holding a black crystal that seemed to have a burning flame inside of it. Discord rather quickly put it on a chair. “I better not interact too much with it. I do not fancy another trip to Abyssinia.”

“So this crystal emits dark magic that makes it look like there is dark magic around?” Twilight picked up the crystal in her magic to examine it closer.

“There does seem to be a very strong concentration of dark magic here further up north…” Celestia looked up, her eyes grew wide when seeing the crystal in Twilight’s magic. “TWILIGHT! PUT THAT DOWN!”

Twilight didn’t hear the Sun Princess in time. Suddenly the flame intensified as the crystal interacted with her magic. There was sudden burst of energy that threw everyone, even Discord all around the room. Unlike the others, the spirit had been knocked out and lay still.

As the ponies slowly recovered and looked up, the crystal was floating by itself, the flame inside of it had turned green and blue as it broke out and engulfed it. The crystal was now the center and inside of it red, intent eyes began to form, a cruel laughter echoing through the room.

“Well, well, I shouldn’t be so surprised,” the dark voice of King Sombra addressed the still disoriented ponies. “Seems the little princess didn’t heed my warning after all. Trying to mount a rescue mission and found one of my little surprises in the process.”

“Sombra!” Twilight growled as she slowly tried to rise up, but she was feeling strangely weak. Was there some sort of a spell in that blast?

“I told you to just leave me alone. What I am doing has nothing to do with Equestria. I can’t have you come here to disrupt what I’m trying to do,” Sombra snorted. The flames began to grow larger from the crystal. “Looks like I am just going to have to put you on a timeout.”

“Sombra!” This time it was Celestia who had snapped at the king. She had managed to rise up a little, frowning hard at the crystal. She was greeted with silence at first as it slowly turned around so the red eyes could see where she was in the room.

“Celestia… you just had to be there as well…” Sombra sighed, sounding disappointed. “I was hoping to spare you this. But what I am doing is too important. Thank Twilight for me for living in such a nice crystal castle, not protected by that insufferable heart.”

Oh no, Celestia gasped, realizing what the king was about to do, but she was still too weak from the strange blast to do anything.

The eyes disappeared from the crystal and the flames went out. It fell, clanging to the ground, but almost instantly began sinking into the floor. Black, vein-like lines immediately began spreading at great speed from that point, reaching the walls and started climbing up them like groping vines.

“Quick! We must get out before…” Celestia tried to stand up, but stumbled and fell down again. The other ponies weren’t faring much better and Discord was out for the count.

The entire interior of the room began turning black, dark crystals began forming over the windows and the entrance, blocking everything.

“What’s going on?” Twilight gasped as the whole room looked more like a cave made out of dark crystals. She tried to send a blast of magic at them but the energy just dissipated on the walls.

“He’s corrupting the crystal structure of the castle,” Celestia’s words hit her like a sledgehammer. “We’re trapped.”


Princess Luna took to the air after leaving the house and informing the ponies inside that the rescue operation was commencing. The alicorn was going fly over the town while watching for any potential sign of trouble.

She didn’t expect it to take too long. The map had already proven invaluable in pointing out problems to Twilight and her friends. Using Discord to locate Sombra would probably only take a moment or so. The princess half-expected everypony to come pouring out of the castle very soon.

As her flight took her over the hospital, the alicorn spotted Starlight Glimmer stumbling out of it with Nurse Redheart right behind her, calling after her in protest. Luna arched her brow and started to descent towards the two ponies.

“I’m aware I’m still hurt, but I got to go the castle,” Starlight snapped as she continued to unsteadily make her way down the road.

“You are barely in any condition to stand, let alone go anywhere!” Redheart pointed out as she chased after the stubborn unicorn.

“What is going on here?” Luna landed right in Starlight’s path, keeping her wings spread as she blocked the path.

“Princess Luna, there is not time to explain. I have to talk with Twilight,” Starlight said, silently cursing that she couldn’t concentrate enough to use her teleport spell.

“You should be in your hospital bed, Starlight Glimmer. You received a savage blow from King Sombra,” the princess pointed out, glancing at the bandage wrapped around the unicorn’s head.

“That’s what I was trying to tell her,” Nurse Redheart grumbled. She had finally caught up with the patient now that she had been halted.

Starlight groaned in frustration, then took a moment to calm herself down. Clearly she was going to need to explain why she was in such a hurry.

“Princess Luna, think about it. Why did King Sombra not incapacitate us more? Yes, he broke Flash Sentry’s wings, he knocked me out, but why didn’t he just kill us? He had us all at his mercy, he could even prevent Discord from being able to do anything in time,” the unicorn told the Lunar Princess.

Luna scowled as she thought this over. Yes, this was strangely uncharacteristic of the Shadow King. The Sombra she remembered never left anything to chance - he even had contingencies for Discord.

“He isn’t stupid. Not with how super-prepared he was for all of us. Surely he must know that Twilight will go and rescue his prisoners even if he told her to just leave him alone after ransacking her own home for them and attacking her friends,” Starlight continued, constantly glancing towards Twilight’s castle as she did.

“No, Sombra is not stupid…” Luna gasped and looked back at the castle. “He knows they will try.”

Starlight was about to sigh in relief when suddenly a dark blue magic aura grabbed her up and she was whisked away as Princess Luna took to the air, dragging the unicorn with her. On the ground, Nurse Redheart groaned, turned around and walked back to the hospital, hoping the princess would at least bring her patient back once she was done.

“We must get to the castle quickly! I will teleport us to the map room,” Luna explained to Starlight, who was still recovering from the sudden takeoff.

The teleportation didn’t happen. The Princess screeched to a halt in midair as her eyes opened wide in shock. Starlight didn’t need to wonder long what had caused the sudden stop, her jaw dropped as she now had a clear view of the castle.

The entire structure was turning black. Dark crystals were beginning to fill up or cover any openings, shadow-like tendrils were starting to spread out from it on the ground like dark roots.

“What’s happening to Twilight’s Castle!” Starlight gasped. She had never seen anything like this before.

“King Sombra has cursed the castle!” Luna quickly shook off her surprise and activated her teleport. But instead of going into the castle, both the Princess and the unicorn appeared outside of it, slamming into the wall and fell groaning to the ground.

“Ow… I’ve had enough knocks today,” Starlight moaned and rubbed her twice now tender head.

“Oh, no, no, no.” Luna was quicker to recover, jumping back to her legs and started blasting at the dark walls with her magic, but the energy just dissipated on the black crystals now producing out of them.

“What’s going on? Magic doesn’t work on these?” Starlight asked as she slowly stumbled to her legs. She didn’t notice a shadowy tendril approaching her on the ground.

“LOOK OUT!” The princess however did spot it and quickly grabbed the unicorn away with her magic and threw here further away from the ground around the castle before quickly taking to the air as tendrils had begun to approach her as well.

“Seriously. My head can’t take any more of this!” the unicorn groaned where she now lay on her back. She slowly looked up and witnessed the Lunar Princess continuing to barrage the castle with her magic to no avail.

Starlight slowly got back to her legs. She really wanted to help, but then noticed the root-like tendrils spreading away from the castle. One had reached one of the nearby buildings. Suddenly in matter of seconds it was engulfed in the same dark crystals. Another tendril reached a pony and it was suddenly encased in a crystal.

“The curse is spreading!” Luna gasped in alarm, having seen the same thing happening. Then she looked at Starlight who was staring at the events in horror.

“Run Starlight. Get out of Ponyville! I must try and contain the curse!” the Lunar Princess shouted and started to build up magic in her horn.

Starlight looked up at the princess as Luna engulfed the castle and herself in a shimmering blue shield. The barrier then began spreading to the houses that had already been turned into crystal.

“RUN!” Luna’s eyes were glowing white and she activated her royal voice to sound even louder.

That broke the unicorn out of her stupor. Quickly she began running away both from the spreading shadow tendrils that kept changing houses and ponies into crystal and Luna’s barrier that tried overtaking their spread.

This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. Starlight thought, she was feeling light-headed after all the knocks and wasn’t sure if she could actually run far enough to escape. Other ponies were also starting to run in panic after noticing what was happening.

Starlight cringed in pain as there was stinging in her head, reminding her that she was still injured. She stumbled and fell down. The mare looked back and her eyes opened wide, a shadow tendril was just about to reach her. She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable crystal imprisonment.

Something grabbed her and she was suddenly airborne. Starlight slowly opened her eyes and blinked when seeing maroon legs wrapped around her. Looking back she saw it was Foxy Stripes who was carrying her. Beside them in the air was Dew Doe. The two Pegasi were beelining out of Ponyville.

“T-thanks,” Starlight could only whisper in relief.

“Think nothing of it. We stepped outside to see what the commotion was all about, saw houses and ponies turning into spooky crystals, then Derpy’s house turned into a crystal trapping Derpy and her family inside and we figured this was as good time to observe Ponyville from a very safe distance,” Foxy told her with a nervous grin, glancing back for a moment and cringing. “Very, very safe distance. How does Saddle Arabia sound to you?”

“I don’t suppose you can tell us what is going on?” Dew Doe asked, looking Starlight who was right now really hoping Foxy Stripes was strong enough to carry her to safety.

“King Sombra anticipated a rescue. He cursed the castle and I assume trapped Twilight and our friends inside of it. Now the curse is spreading. Luna is trying to contain it. If the barrier overtakes the spread, we should be safe,” the unicorn told them.

Dew Doe took a short moment to stop and look back properly. They had just reached the outskirts of Ponyville and the magical force field did seem to be catching up with the groping shadow tendrils. The pegsus gulped and rushed after her sister and Starlight, hoping the unicorn was correct.

Finally the barrier enveloped the last house just before it turned into a crystal and the shadow tendrils were halted and pushed into the barrier, trying to break through it but failing. The pegasi sisters landed and Foxy let go of Starlight. The three ponies approached the barrier.

“Okay, so it wasn’t enough for him to steal my daughter, her uncle and the others, but he decided to change Ponyville into a second Tartarus?” Foxy snorted, stomping a hoof on the ground.

Starlight didn’t respond, she was looking at Princess Luna who was gliding towards the edge of the forcefield. The alicorn’s eyes were still glowing and her horn still radiated magic.

“Princess Luna?” Starlight whispered. She did not like the looks of this.

“Starlight Glimmer. I must maintain the barrier to prevent the curse from spreading. It’s taking everything I got without my sister’s help,” Luna addressed the unicorn. She didn’t land, but hovered above ground which was now turning into crystal as well.

“What should I do?” the unicorn asked, cringing at the sight of the town.

“You must find King Sombra. He alone can stop this curse. Find him, rescue those who he captured. Twilight and the others, even Discord and my sister are trapped inside the castle and can’t get out,” the princess explained to her.

“But…but…” Starlight tried to protest. “We don’t even know where he is and I’m barely in any condition…”

“Before the castle was fully converted, my sister managed to send me a message. They did see a build up of dark magic somewhere in the north. Princess Cadance is in Canterlot, perhaps she can help.” Luna interrupted her and gave her a solemn smile. “Go, hurry. I cannot hold this curse back for too long.”

Starlight sighed, glanced at the pegasi sisters before turning around and started to run off. Foxy looked at Dew, then Luna before glancing back at the departing unicorn. The maroon pegasus frowned before taking off after her.

“Hey! Wait up! We got wings! We can fly you there!” she called after Starlight.

“Wait! Foxy! What are you doing?” Dew blinked as she realized what her sister was doing and rushed after her.

“Volunteering us for a rescue mission!” Foxy declared as she and her sister disappeared

Luna watched them all go before she flew back towards the castle, sighing deeply and in her mind wishing Starlight the best of luck.

End chapter 7