This far outside the magic of the Crystal Empire, the wind had claws and fangs of ice. Sunset might have thought nights like this had been the basis for the legends of the wendigoes, if she hadn’t seen some for herself years ago.
“Yes,” the shadow said. “This is the place.”
Sunset’s expression hadn’t changed the entire journey north and east, flying above the clouds, following the thing of smoke and shadow to their destination. Barely controlled fury, poorly disguising itself as irritation.
Now, she landed in the snow of the northern tundra, in a place unmarked and unrecognizable in the vast wasteland of snow that surrounded her.
“This had better be worth it,” she said.
“Oh, believe me, it will be,” the shadow assured her. “Once I have reconstituted myself – with your help, of course – our powers combined will be unstoppable. Our foes will fall before us like snow.”
“Mmm.” Her horn did not glow, but the snow before her evaporated in an eyeblink.
The shadow narrowed its eyes. “How…?”
“Invisible fire.”
“Ah.” It chuckled. “Truly, I chose my ally well.”
“Mmm,” she said again. “This it?”
At the epicenter of charred ground, surrounded by a crater of snow, was a pair of crimson, gem-like fragments. The small piece was perhaps three inches long, the larger one around six.
“Yesss!” the shadow breathed. “My horn! With this, all things become possible. Now, hurry,” he turned to her, “Cast the circle of blue flame. Reconstitute me! You have only to begin the process. I can handle the rest, even now!”
Sunset glanced at the smoke that urged her on, and then stepped into the circle she had created.
Sombra’s eyes widened, flashing with victory.
Sunset Shimmer strode to the center of the snow crater. She considered the fragments before her. Such things must be done carefully.
Then, she brought her hoof down on the ruby horn’s remains with a loud crunch.
“What are you doing?!?” the shadow demanded.
She brought her hoof up again, and then down on the remaining pieces, crushing them, grinding them beneath her hoof.
“I’m destroying your phylactery,” she said.
The shadow attacked now, buffeting her. She managed a wry chuckle as she continued to destroy the fragments.
“Yeah, you might be something to think about when you’re at full strength. I mean, even after death, you were a threat to an entire kingdom. The Mane Six barely took you down. With help.”
Crunch.
“But you know what your attacks feel like now? I’ll tell you.”
Crunch.
“They feel like a little colt is trying to whip me to death with silk scarves.”
Crunch.
With every step, the enchantments within his horn weakened further. And as they did, so too did Sombra’s ability to maintain his current form.
“But why?” he demanded, swirling around her helplessly. “Why betray me now, before there was anything to be gained? You have no reason—”
She looked up at him at last. “You really thought I believed you? That I was going to help you kill them?
“You know, it’s funny. I always used to wonder how you were defeated at all, when I read about you. A master magician, a genius ahead of his time, forging new paths in sorcery until then undreamed-of. You dared what nopony else would, and you came out the other side, stronger than ever before. A bastard in a noble house, you came from nothing and rose to become king before you were twenty-one. You’d neutralized all your enemies but the Two Sisters one way or another, before the war had even started.
“And then, after seven years of war, they took you out.
“I mean, sure, they probably had you beat as far as raw power went… but I read your books, growing up! Politics. Tactics. You were a strategist. And you had the entire Crystal Empire under your hoof by the time they caught up with you! So, I always wondered, how? How did it happen?
“But now, I know how.”
She looked out into the growing storm, towards the enchanted city beyond.
“You’re arrogant,” she said.
While Sombra whirled around her, joining more and more with the storm’s own wind, she lay down in the circle she’d formed.
“You found out about my anger, my hate. Heard about how I’d tried to take them down. And you figured that was all there was to me,” she said. “That my rage was all you needed to know. But you played the wrong game, and you played it with the wrong mare.
“Sure, Princess Cadence Mi whatever-her-name-is was an irritant, because she got something I was denied. She was a reminder of bad times, so yeah, I resented her once. But what she was given, I got for myself, by myself. So, why should I have a problem with her now?”
Her ears lay down flat as her ire grew.
“Then there’s Princess Luna,” she went on. “The one time we ever met, she reached out to me. She risked her life just for the chance to show me that I could be better than what I was doing. You really think I’m going to help somepony take her down?”
The wind began to blow more fiercely, its strength growing even as the darkness within it began to subside.
“You also mentioned Princess Twilight. I bet you thought that would be the second-best clincher, too. My replacement. My rival. The mare who stopped my plans cold. That’s what the ponies are saying now, aren’t they?”
She stepped forward, teeth clenched. “The Princess of Friendship didn’t just risk her life for me, she sacrificed herself for me, just so I wouldn’t die alone! She’s only alive now because I didn’t want her to die for me! You think I’m going to turn on her after that?!?”
“But... Celestia…” the dark wind moaned, “the Princess… betrayed you… is there… anypony… you hate… more than her…”
“No, probably not,” Sunset admitted. “That one’s a tangle. And I still haven’t decided exactly where I stand where she’s concerned. I mean, she belittled me, tried to use me, rejected me. She took me for granted, broke my heart. And then she cast me out.
“But I’ve been giving her a lot of thought lately. And you know what?”
She tilted her head, trying to make out any remaining details of Sombra as the darkness of the wind grew fainter.
“She also took me in, when literally nopony else would. She raised me, when literally everyone who knew me shunned or feared me, even as a child. For all the lies and manipulations and broken dreams, she did her best to lift me up when nopony else was doing anything but watching me fall!
“So, no, I still haven’t decided if I’m going to play nice, or if her head is going to end up mounted on a stake somewhere. But one thing I do know is this.”
She raised her voice above the howling storm and proclaimed to whatever remained of the King of Fear, “There is no way she will ever fall to some two-bit terror like you!”
The wind’s roar became greater, more furious, then quieted down as it dispersed, the black winds dissolving away. Sombra’s voice was a whisper as the night grew quiet again.
“Little fool… even this cannot... break my power… I shall return… and when I do…”
“Good. Bring it,” Sunset said. “I’ll be waiting.”
He said nothing more. Whether he couldn’t, or had just decided to save his strength, she had no way of knowing. At length, she rose, and leaped out of what had essentially become a wide dip in the snow. She created a dome of darkness around herself and the crater, to be certain there would be no long-distance witnesses.
Then, she turned and disintegrated the fragments of Sombra’s horn. Converting matter into light was a high-energy spell, and in a way she hated spending so much strength at once. But it was the only way to be sure. A moment later, her own form glowed, everything that clung but wasn’t part of her eliminated by her power. She thought briefly about creating snow to cover any remaining telltale signs, but decided against it. The way the storm was building, the ground would be traceless soon enough.
Dispelling her darkness, she looked out towards the Crystal Empire again, its great city protected by its dome of magic and love. The bluish light of the place gleamed like a distant jewel, even from so far away.
“Arrogant,” she said.
Then she gave a dry, humorless chuckle.
“Aren’t we all.”
She spread her dragon wings, and began the long flight back to Sunset Mountain.