//------------------------------//
// The Beginning of the End, Part 1 
// Story: Guarded Emotions: The Final Season 
// by Alabenson 
//------------------------------//

King Sombra’s smile broadened as he watched his magic take hold, wiping away any trace of resistance from Rockhoof’s face. “Not even one of Star Swirl’s famous stooges is a match for my power,” King Sombra crowed happily as he watched the former Pillar of Equestria fall into line with his other recently acquired slaves. “This was so easy it’s almost disappointing. I was looking forward to crushing what paltry resistance Princess Twilight’s pathetic little village could muster, but they’ve put up even less of a fight than my crystal slaves.”

As if on cue, a cluster of four silvery metal objects came streaking out of the sky towards King Sombra, forcing him to hop to one side. “I’m going to rutting peel you like an orange, you sick sadistic bastard!” Wheeling through the sky above the town was a single pegasi mare dressed in full guard armor. A quick glance to his side revealed to King Sombra that the metal objects he had dodged were razor-sharp blades, each roughly the shape and size of a pegasus feather.

“A single guard? Well, I suppose it will be enough for a brief bit of entertainment,” King Sombra sneered with an evil grin. Carefully, Sombra watched the pegasi fly through the air as he waited for the perfect chance to strike. Once he saw it, Sombra moved with lighting speed, unleashing a hideous torrent of his dark magic to drown the guardsmare’s mind in fear. To Sombra’s surprise, however, the mare somehow managed to quickly shake herself free of the effect before diving at Sombra again, forcing him to throw himself out of the way in thoroughly undignified manner. “So, you have enough will to resist my magic. Impressive. Futile, but impressive.” As Sombra spoke, a dark helm manifested in front of him and launched itself through the air at the guardsmare.

King Sombra watched with glee as the helmet chased down his opponent, effortlessly keeping up with her despite her best efforts to avoid it. To the guardsmare’s credit, her constant wild flips, turns and dives kept the helmet at bay for a solid minute before it inevitably caught up and affixed itself to her head. King Sombra’s twisted glee at the sight of the guardsmare’s will being crushed under the might of the helmet’s enchantments proved to be short-lived, however, as a pair of pale green bolts of magic blasted out from behind an upturned fruit cart nearby. The first bolt struck King Sombra squarely in the horn, causing him to let out a scream of pain, while the second caught the guardsmare in the side of her head. Reeling in a mix of fury and agony, King Sombra didn’t even notice the guardsmare spiral out of the sky and crash into the water outside Twilight’s School of Friendship.

“How do y’ like them apples, y’ walkin’ cow patty?” a voice called out. An enraged King Sombra looked up to see a second guard, this one a one-eyed unicorn stallion, emerge from behind the cart. 

“You miserable cretin, you’ll pay for that!” King Sombra roared, his eyes burning with sickly green energy.

“Oh yeah? Well come and get me, ugly! Yer momma was a two-bit whore and yer daddy was a timberwolf!” The guard punctuated this last statement by turning around and slapping his rump.

Such bravado would prove to be short-lived, however, as a massive spike of black crystal erupted from the ground behind the guard, throwing him to the ground. Before he could pull himself to his hooves, the guard found himself enveloped in King Sombra’s magic and dragged forward until he was directly in front of the murderously angered monarch. “You worthless, filthy insect! Did you really think that you had even the slightest hope of defeating me?”

To King Sombra’s shock, not to mention immense irritation, the guard simply laughed in his face. “Ah wasn’t tryin’ to beat y’, y’ stupid lump of fertilizer. Ah was just distractin’ y’ to buy time fer Cap’n Moonwhisper.”

“Captain Moonwhisper? Who’s that?” Moments later King Sombra received his answer in the form of an animalistic scream that tore through the air as a dark blue blur streaked through the air and slammed itself into Sombra with enough force to send Sombra and the guard he was holding both tumbling along the ground. “You struck me,” Sombra said in partial disbelief as he pulled himself to his hooves and send another helm to crush the will of the insolent guard. “You’re the first opponent outside of the princesses who –”

“I am going to hang you from a noose made from your own rutting intestines!”

King Sombra, having not even encountered rage such as this in the Crystal Empire, immediately looked up in alarm. Standing before him was a unicorn completely encased in luminous dark blue armor, the sight of which seemed vaguely familiar. Most of Sombra’s attention, however, was focused on the stallion’s eyes, which shone crimson red behind his helmet with a level of rage and hatred that defied comprehension. “You…you’re different from the other guards who’ve tried to face me,” King Sombra said as he regained his composure, even allowing himself a confident grin. “But you still cannot possibly hope to stand against my power. Why don’t you save yourself a great deal of pain and submit to me now?”

The words had scarcely had time to leave King Sombra’s mouth when the ground around the stallion practically exploded as he launched himself at Sombra like a missile. Sombra scarcely had time to raise himself on a pillar of crystal before his assailant reached him. “You’re fast, I’ll grant you that,” Sombra said with a laugh as he leaned over the edge of the pillar to gloat over his opponent. “But you’re still nothing compared to –” As King Sombra looked over the edge he was greeted by the sight of a pair of hooves shooting towards him. Reflexively, King Sombra conjured a magical shield to protect himself, but the impact of the strike was easily powerful enough to blast apart the entire top portion of the pillar. Sombra was subsequently sent plummeting back to the ground amid a shower of crystal shards, his assailant soon following.

“How dare you,” Sombra gasped out as he shakily backed away from Moonwhisper. “Do you have even the slightest idea of who I am?”

“A dead stallion,” Moonwhisper replied flatly. It was at this moment that King Sombra realized that many of the crystal shards created by the earlier attack were still hanging suspended in the air. In an instant, all of the shards suddenly snapped to point themselves directly at him, the faint shimmer of unicorn magic sparkling over their surfaces. A split-second later the shards shot towards Sombra all at once as though they were being fired from a hundred bows, and in moments the area Sombra had previously occupied was filled with a pony-sized pile of razor-sharp crystals.

The crystal shards had scarcely had time to settle into place before thin tendrils of darkness oozed out from the mass and coalesced several feet away into a fuming King Sombra. “I was going to simply crush you mind and add you to the ranks of my servants, but now I’m going to see to it that you suffer.” As King Sombra spoke, thin black flames formed along the ground under the stallion’s hooves, forming an intricate circle of runes before violently erupting with crackling energy. “The seal of pain! I normally prefer to break my slaves’ minds directly, simple magical torture like this always feels so impersonal. Even so, I have to admit the seal has never failed to bring a slave to their knees.” 

In defiance of Sombra’s gloating, however, Moonwhisper scarcely even seemed to react to the crackling magical energy raking across his form. Instead, Moonwhisper’s own horn flared up with power as a near-identical set of runes, these glowing dark blue, formed under King Sombra. “What? That’s impossible, you can’t –” Sombra’s protests were cut short as these new runes flared to life as well, causing him to let out an agonized scream of pain.

Before Moonwhisper could capitalize on this victory, however, a pumpkin-sized boulder flew through the air and struck Moonwhisper on his side, breaking his concentration and causing his spell to dissipate. Released form the spell, Sombra collapsed to the ground and watched as Moonwhisper turned to face the newly enslaved Rockhoof, who was already readying another boulder. “How? How did you know that spell? Nopony outside of my –” Sombra’s eyes widened as he watched his adversary rush straight for Rockhoof. “Nopony outside of my family has ever been taught that spell. Of course, it all makes sense now. Only my bloodline could have produced a unicorn of such raw power.” Sombra’s self-aggrandizing flattery was interrupted by the sight of Rockhoof flying by, followed by the sound of the pillar crashing through the wall of a nearby house. “Perhaps we could discuss this like reasonable ponies. A descendant of mine with your ability should be standing by my side as my heir. Think about it, with you leading my armies all of Equestria would fall to its knees.” 

“I am going to tear out your ribcage and shove it back your urethra one piece at a time!” Moonwhisper snarled. 

“I have to commend your dedication, if nothing else, but scion of mine or not do you actually believe for a second that you could really follow through with that ridiculous threat?” Sombra sneered, albeit while slowly backing away.

“We’re about to find out.” Before Moonwhisper could launch himself at Sombra once again, however, several blasts of green magical energy struck him in the flanks. A quick glance to the side revealed the source of the blasts to be Lieutenant Sharp Shooter, now sporting one of Sombra’s mind controlling helmets. Letting out a snort of irritation, Moonwhisper leapt into the air, deftly dodging a second barrage of blasts in the process. While still mid-air, Moonwhisper created a long chain seemingly comprised of the same material as his armor and sent it flying at Sharp Shooter with a flick of his horn. The chain wrapped itself around Sharp Shooter’s neck before lifting him up off the ground and swinging him into a nearby flower stand. Satisfied that this latest distraction had been dealt with, Moonwhisper turned back to Sombra. “Tell me, did you actually think you could stop me with a few mind-controlled –” Before Moonwhisper could finish throwing Sombra’s words back into his face he was cut off as one of Sombra’s helmets affixed itself to his head.

“Stop you? No, not really. But that foul-mouthed worm did prove to be an excellent distraction,” King Sombra crowed. “I actually would have preferred you to have accepted your place under my rule willingly, but I suppose I can treat molding your mind into my loyal heir as more of a long-term project.” Even as Sombra spoke, however, something about Moonwhisper’s posture caused Sombra to take a step back. “You’ve actually managed to find some way of fighting it, haven’t you? Even for one of my descendant’s that shouldn’t be possible, those helms magnify the power of my spell tenfold. What in Equestria is giving you the will to resist that?” Cautiously, Sombra cast a spell to magically peer into Moonwhisper’s mind to ascertain the source of his willpower.

“KILL SOMBRA! KILL SOMBRA! KILL SOMBRA!” All semblance of rational though within Moonwhisper’s had been completely driven out by the constantly repeating mantra. Sombra could feel the enchantments of his helmet rapidly failing against the onslaught of this savage rage, like the bulwarks of a foal’s sandcastle against a rising tide. 

“Blocking out my magic with pure, murderous hatred. Under different circumstances I’d be honestly impressed.” As King Sombra spoke he cautiously began backing away while cracks started to form across the surface of the helmet. “I would love to take the time to unravel how you got to this point, but I have all of Equestria to conquer. For now I’ll just have to keep you contained until I have more time to deal with you proper.”

“I was at this point that the helmet shattered like glass, revealing that Moonwhisper’s face was twisted with insane fury. Letting out an animalistic scream, Moonwhisper lunged forward at Sombra, only to by halted by the grip of dozens of clawed hands formed from the surrounding shadows.

“I’ll give you credit, you’ve certainly put up more of a fight than any of Equestria’s other so-called defenders. But then again you have the advantage of having my blood coursing through your veins,” Sombra gloated. Moonwhisper, meanwhile, continued to try to reach the subject of his rage, straining against shadows with every ounce of strength he had. Eventually, as more and more shadowy appendages formed and clutched at him, Moonwhisper found himself completely immobilized just in front of King Sombra. Pushed far past the point of rationale thought, Moonwhisper continued to snarl and foam at the mouth as he snapped his teeth inches away from his foe’s face. Sombra, however, merely smiled as he lit up his horn with magical energy. In a flash of light, a dark crystal materialized around Moonwhisper, completely encasing him. “There now, that should hold you until I have time to rewrite your mind properly. In the meantime, I have some unfished business to attend to.”