//------------------------------//
// Chapter 206: Royal Canterlot Rumble 
// Story: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Stallion Edition 
// by SuperPinkBrony12 
//------------------------------//

Sombra sat upon the throne that had previously belonged to Celestia as he overlooked the city of Canterlot, now firmly under his control. "To think it was so easy to capture. But then, these ponies always were soft. Mercy is for the weak." He thought to himself as he recalled his earlier arrival in the throne room and how little effort had been expended on his part to secure his victory.

The black hearted king stormed into the throne room, the doors swinging open so fast that a gust of air blew threw! And immediately, Sombra was greeted by the two royal sisters, their icy stares would've been enough to frighten anyone who had any reason to be afraid.

Sombra didn't, however. He just stared down his opponents with a defiant grin. "Hello princesses, old King Sombra's back in town."

Celestia spoke up first, continuing to glare at Sombra. "You dare to show your face in our presence after all you've done, are you mad?!"

"Mad? Me? I don't think so," Sombra defiantly declared. "I just figured: 'Since you took my kingdom away from me it's only fair that I get to take your kingdom away from you.'"

Luna snarled as she spoke up in protest. "And you think we'll just give up the throne because you say so? It seems you don't remember what happened the last time we fought. Perhaps another thousand years of imprisonment will refresh your memory."

Sombra just cackled and flashed a rather fiendish smile. "Gee, that's too bad. I was hoping we could settle this peacefully, but it seems you leave me no choice but to take extreme measures. If you think I've come here alone then it's you who are mistaken!" He proceeded to give a whistle and was soon flanked on all sides by royal guards with eyes glowing a sickly shade of green.

Celestia and Luna collectively gasped and raised their horns! "You fiend! This time you've gone too far!" Celestia roared as her eyes narrowed.

Sombra only shook his head. "Oh but you're not going to strike me, princess. Because in case you haven't noticed your loyal subjects aren't the same anymore, they work for me now. And if I give the command they'll throw themselves into harm's way for me," Then in a sadistic tone of voice he added. "You wouldn't wanna risk anything happening to your little ponies, would you?"

Luna stomped a hoof down! "You wouldn't dare! Such an act would leave us no choice but to end you!"

Sombra only stepped forward. "Would that be worth all the lives you'd be sacrificing? I think not," He proceeded to add. "Make no mistake, I'm taking over. So the question on your parts is: How violent do you want it to be?"

Reluctantly, Celestia threw up a wing and turned to her sister. "There's no point calling his bluff, we can't risk it," Then she turned to Sombra. "But don't get comfortable. One way or another, you will be overthrown again!"

"Promises, promises," Sombra cackled. "Now get out of my sight, unless you want to see your royal guards suffer!" And that was that, the princesses did nothing more. The royal sisters were reluctantly forced to flee from their own castle.

The flashback ended as Sombra sat down and rested his haunches on Celestia's throne. It felt slightly weird but that was nothing a remodeling couldn't fix. "I outsmarted you, Grogar!" He thought to himself. "In the end, the only one who's never gonna let you down is yourself. Others are just pawns to be used and disposed of when their purpose is complete. Oh well, I suppose I'll drill that lesson into you when my new subjects hunt you down, you old goat." As far as the king was concerned he had won. It seemed like nothing could stop him.





The six stallions arrived in Canterlot in a flash, and as soon as they got their bearings they made a mad dash for the castle! They knew it would probably be protected and Sombra would likely be alerted to their presence, but they were hopeful that they'd find a way to defeat him and return everything to how it was more or less.

But as they neared the drawbridge over the moat their hopes for a quick way inside were dashed. All their friends and loved ones from Ponyville were part of the brainwashed army that now stood at attention to block all potential intruders. And a few more faces had joined the crowd, including Sassy Saddles who managed Canterlot Carousel.

"Shining, are you still sure this is the only way? That there isn't some other option that doesn't involve going through the ones we care about?" Thunderlane nervously inquired.

Shining let out an unhappy sigh. "I don't like it anymore than you do, Thunderlane. But they're bound to be all over the place and there aren't many areas where we could get into the castle. We'll just have to be careful not to rough them up too much. Remember, they're not doing this willingly, Sombra's controlling them. We defeat him, we break his hold on the others."

Big Macintosh stepped forward. "Maybe if we're lucky we'll knock some sense back into some of these guys. Can't hurt to try." And with that he broke into a headlong charge, hoping to knock away the brainwashed crowd and clear a path for his friends to follow.

Unfortunately, his sister Applejack was part of said crowd. And either acting on orders or because Sombra himself knew of her strength, she rushed forward and raised her back hooves to block her brother's path.

Big Macintosh struggled to push his sister back, she seemed to be a match for him (though part of it was because he himself was holding back. He couldn't bring himself to hurt a family member no matter what the circumstances might be). His hooves began to dig into the ground. But try as he might he couldn't make any headway, he was stopped right in his tracks.

Fancy Pants, meanwhile, was having his own problems. Some of the unicorns had spotted him and with Sassy Saddles leading the charge they were trying to catch him with a net. Fancy reluctantly sensed that there was only one way he was going to save himself. "Sassy, I am so sorry for this. If you remember any of this afterwards, I swear I'll make it up to you!" He declared, before he used his magic to pull her two-tone black dress with a yellow saddle up so that it would cover her face completely. The distraction worked better than anticipated, which only made Fancy Pants more ashamed of what he'd done.

Soarin snorted a bit. "You're going about this the wrong way, guys! They may have the ground but they don't control the skies! Let's go, Thunderlane! We'll clear a path!" And with a flap of his wings he took off!

But not long after he'd taken to the skies Soarin found, much to his horror, that his fellow Wonderbolts had also fallen under Sombra's control. Thunderlane seemed especially shocked by this! "How could Sombra get a hold of them?!"

"They must've been on training maneuvers nearby, or they tried to take him without realizing he had an army," Soarin commented to Thunderlane, before he turned his attention to Spitfire who seemed to be looking at him. "Captain, it's me, Soarin! Don't you recognize me? We go way back."

Spitfire seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if trying to fight Sombra's mind control. However, Spitfire was far from the only Wonderbolt. A rainbow blur blew past Soarin a moment later, flanked by two other familiar Wonderbolts: Fleetfoot and Surprise.

Thunderlane and Soarin reluctantly landed after narrowly dodging their fellow Wonderbolts. "This isn't working," Soarin commented to Shining. "There's too many of them."

With a groan, Shining spoke up. "A-alright, Plan B then! We'll just teleport into the castle and work our way to the throne room."

"What?! More teleportation?! Shining, you've gotta save your strength for Sombra!" Fancy Pants pleaded. "Your our best option!"

"It won't make a difference if we can't even get to him! Now hold tight, this might get a little dicey!" Shining cautioned as he began to light up his horn again!





In a flash of magic the six stallions found themselves inside the castle. But their hopes of making it to the throne room undetected were abruptly dashed when several brainwashed royal guards suddenly appeared.

Before the guards could do anything, however, they were stopped in their tracks as a huge scoop of ice cream landed directly on top of them. And then who should appear before the stallions but Discord himself? "My my, this is another fine mess you guys have gotten yourselves into," He commented. "Seems you're in quite a pickle. Or perhaps you'd prefer a jam?" He produced a pickle and proceeded to dunk in some jam. "What you might call a sticky situation?"

"Discord?!" Shining gasped in amazement! "For once we're actually glad to see you!"

The spirit couldn't help but rub the remark in. "Oh really? Well I suppose a true chaotic mastermind is never really appreciated until there's trouble. Still, better late than never."

The prince grit his teeth as he tried not to get too upset. "Look, Discord, you can rub your little victory in our faces all you want later. But for now we really need your help."

"What are you even doin' here anyways?" Braeburn inquired of the spirit. "You sure have a funny way of sayin' howdy."

Discord simply replied. "Well, I was just minding my own business when I felt something most unusual. A huge, magical shift in the order of things. I figured Shining must've already taken up the princesses offer and went ahead and got crowned without telling me," He proceeded to snap his talons as a series of decorative banners unfolded in the hallway. "Imagine my  surprise when I find that not only has Shining not become supreme ruler, but some greedy king by the name of Sombra's taken over. What's up with that? Doesn't anyone ever tell me anything anymore?"

Shining lowered his head. "Sombra was the former ruler of the Crystal Empire and he ruled with an iron hoof. He was defeated and imprisoned for a thousand years, and then later shattered into a million pieces when he tried to take back the empire. But it seems he somehow survived, even the Elements of Harmony couldn't destroy him. And because of that he was able to discover the source of the Elements of Harmony and destroy it."

At that Discord let out a gasp! "Oh, so that explains it! No wonder the shift felt so abrupt and so jarring! I only wish I'd have known sooner."

The prince shook his head. "There was nothing even you could've done. Besides, it doesn't matter," Then he looked up at Discord. "But you're here now. And with you, we might actually have a chance. You can stop Sombra, right?"

"Well, I suppose I could squeeze in this quick favor," Discord commented as he looked around. "After all, there can't be a coronation when you take over as long as Sombra's occupying the throne. And what could be more chaotic than a well timed coup?"