Sweetie Belle returns to Ponyville after some time passed in the Dragonlands. She went here in search of some challenge because the Everfree Forest became too easy. The hydra was ok to fight, but the poor beast is now scared of her, and she doesn't dare to attack the Ursa Major because she still has her cub. So she thought that the dragons could become her next training partners.
The dragons obviously laughed at her when she told them that she wanted to fight them, but one of them, a teen, still accepted to prove his superiority. The next minute, he was sent flying into a volcano. Seeing that the filly had some bite to follow her barks, they decided to fight her one after another, each one losing, until the Dragon Lord himself, Torch, saw in Sweetie Belle a worthy opponent. The fight that followed made the Dragonlands shake for a few long minutes, the huge dragon proving that he wasn't the lord just because of his size, but in the end, Sweetie Belle won. Torch wasn't Sweetie's first giant opponent, and he will certainly not be the last.
She gained the respect of (almost) all the dragons, and Torch himself now calls her his sister. When Sweetie asked him if it was ok for her to come back sometime to train against him, he gladly accepted, seeing in this an occasion to become himself stronger.
The dragons may be prideful, but they can accept losing when they encounter someone as strong as them, even if this someone is a 'puny pony'.
And now, here she is, back in Ponyville and retelling to her friends what happened. When she hears about this, Rarity can only shake her head with a sigh, not surprised that Sweetie not only defeated the dragons, but also somehow befriended them.
Is there anything in this world that Sweetie Belle can't defeat?
The Gates of Tartarus. Huge doors locked by a powerful seal that only powerful magic users can hope to break unless they have a special key.
After gorging herself in love from half of the animals of a forest, Chrysalis is one such creature. Followed by some of her guards and holding a pouch, the changeling queen, now totally healed (but with her mane still cut short, even if it has regrown a little since), uses the power accumulated thanks to all that love to break the seal and open the gates, allowing them to enter.
Barely they enter that they encounter Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of Tartarus. However, before the dog can do anything, one of the guards gulps, advances, and transforms himself into a cat, immediately gaining the attention of the three heads. The changeling turned cat quickly turns tail and runs away, chased by the dog, leaving the way open for his queen.
Chrysalis laughs. "That's the best prison in the world? Maybe to stop beings from getting out, but to stop them from entering, it's the worst!" She turns to her guards. "Separate and search for him. As soon as one of you finds him, he must warn me."
"Yes, my queen!" shout the guards with a salute before they separate while the queen remains in place. A few minutes later, one of the guards comes back and says "My queen. I found him."
"Good. Lead me to him."
The guard does as ordered and flies in one direction, followed by his queen. Soon enough, they reach a cage with an old, lanky centaur trapped in it, actually sleeping.
Chrysalis approaches the cage and hits the bars while shouting "Wake up, Lord Tirek!" awakening the centaur.
Grunting, the centaur named Tirek opens his eyes and raises an eyebrow upon spotting the changeling queen. "Changelings?"
Chrysalis turns to her guard. "Go warn the others so they stop searching for nothing." Once the guard flies away, she turns back to the centaur and says, "Lord Tirek, I came to get you out."
Tirek looks at her in suspicion. "And why would you want to get me out?"
She frowns. "You're questioning someone who's willing to help you escape this place?"
"I can already tell that you have something in your mind."
She huffs. "Just let's get you out of there before the dog comes back. I will explain everything to you then." At this, she opens her pouch and grabs its content: a red, black, and gray triangle-shaped amulet with the head and wings of an alicorn and a ruby in its center. "Take the magic of this amulet and let's get out."
"I can't," says Tirek.
"Why?"
"I can only take magic from living beings, not from artefacts."
The queen gives him a deadpan look. "You mean to tell me that I lost days searching where that stupid zebra hid this amulet for nothing?"
"Yes."
The queen throws the amulet and starts ranting while her guards return to her one by one, remaining at a safe distance. After a couple of minutes, she calms down enough to say "Ok. We will find another way for you to get power. Just let's get you out of here." She turns to a guard. "Give me back the amulet. I will need it."
Using the Alicorn Amulet, Chrysalis is able to open Tirek's cage and to teleport all of them out of Tartarus and into a tunnel. However, feeling its corruptive power, the queen quickly takes it off but decides to keep it just in case.
"So, why did you free me?" asks Tirek.
"We have the same goal, and so, the same threat. A few weeks ago, a filly that was transported to another dimension somehow gained great powers and skills and came back. She was..." She clenches her teeth. "She easily defeated me despite all my powers. And when I forced her to come to my kingdom where her magic wouldn't work thanks to my special throne, she managed to use another kind of energy to destroy it and defeat me again. She forced me to flee my own home with my people. To give you an idea of how strong she's, when I invaded Canterlot, I managed to best Celestia in a magical duel. And she apparently defeated Luna very easily."
Tirek frowns. "That strong, uh? I will need to drain a lot of magic."
"Don't think about draining me and my changelings! I will give you victims to drain. With our shapeshifting, it will be a piece of cake. Those ponies just don't know how to watch their back even knowing that we're out there."
"I see. But how will you keep the filly out of your hooves?"
"I have an idea. I know someone that should give a great diversion." Putting back the Alicorn Amulet, she draws a circle on the ground followed by some symbols in it. Using all the power given to her by the amulet, Chrysalis activates a very powerful spell. The next instant, a cloud of darkness gathers above the circle, and out of it comes a gray armored stallion with a black mane, a black tail, and a red curved horn that looks sharp.
The stallion cackles. "I am back!"
Chrysalis takes off the amulet again. "King Sombra."
"Who?" asks Tirek.
"A powerful dark magic user," explains the queen.
The stallion looks at her. "So, you are the one who brought me back. I don't think I ever saw a creature like you."
"I am Chrysalis, queen of the changelings. I heard a lot about you, and so, I know that you are perfect."
Sombra stares at her. "Perfect for what?"
"I suppose that you want to retake your empire. However, there is an obstacle that is standing in your way, which is also standing in our way, and I'm not talking about Twilight and her friends, the mares who caused your fall." She smirked. "And your dark magic will get us rid of this obstacle."
"Which is?"
"A filly."
Sombra stares at Chrysalis in disbelief, then bursts into laughter. "You are kidding me!"
"Not at all," says Chrysalis very seriously. She turns to one of her guards and nods, prompting the guard to transform himself into Sweetie Belle. "The best way to believe me is to verify by yourself. Go to Ponyville and search for this filly named Sweetie Belle. You will quickly understand that she's not a joke." She smirks again. "But I'm sure a powerful and smart king like you will be able to kill her."
Sombra laughs again. "Very well. I will play along just because it will be fun. But once the filly is dead, I'm taking over the Crystal Empire, and Equestria will be next." At this, Sombra turns into shadows and flies out of the tunnel.
Tirek looks at him leaving, then turns to Chrysalis. "If that filly is as powerful as you say, he will fail."
"I know. I did say that he will just be a diversion to let me capture ponies without being bothered by Sweetie Belle. Now let's go, or we will miss the opportunity."
Sweetie Belle is in school when she feels a great and dark power approaching Ponyville. She then raises her foreleg and says "Miss Cheerilee! A villain is approaching Ponyville! Can I go out to stop them?"
The teacher looks at her in disbelief before sighing. "And the worst is that she is probably right... Very well, you can go out to save Ponyville."
"Thank you!" shouts the filly before she runs toward a window, opens it, and flies away.
"I never thought I would see the day where a filly would ask me the permission to go beat a villain..." says Cheerilee with a sigh.
In the sky outside of Ponyville, Sweetie Belle is flying toward the source of this dark power, and quickly spots a cloud of darkness approaching rapidly. They both stop in front of each other, and the cloud turns into a gray stallion that Sweetie Belle heard about: Sombra, the ancient tyrant of the Crystal Empire.
"I thought my sister and her friends had killed you," she says.
"I was brought back."
"Darn it, Chrysalis..."
"So you can self-levitate? Maybe that bug was right, after all."
Sweetie Belle crosses her hooves. "So you're here to fight me?"
"I was told that you would be a threat to me."
"Well, she was right," says Sweetie Belle. "I don't have my weapon, but my own power should be more than enough to deal with you."
"Somepony's cocky."
"It's not being cocky when I know that I can win. I know that you use dark magic, I know that you are powerful, but that power is nothing compared to some of the beings that I fought."
Sombra snarls. "You are underestimating me then! I fought both Celestia and Luna in the past, and while they defeated me, I still gave them a hard fight!"
Sweetie Belle shrugs. "Ok."
"What?! That's all the effect it gives you?!"
"Yep," says the filly with a nod before she gives an evil smile. "And you will quickly understand why." Then, she charges at the stallion, taking him off guard.
She is able to grab him and to throw him toward the ground, before she flies after him and punches him just when he lands, breaking his armor and creating a crater around him. She then flies back up and gather energy all around her, creating from the air a dozen powerful energy beams. Sombra sees them coming and turns into a cloud of darkness to escape, only for Sweetie Belle to fly in front of him and to punch him, sending him back on the ground.
Sombra quickly recovers and stares at the filly in disbelief. "How can you punch me in my darkness form?!"
Sweetie Belle materializes a dozen weapons from fire, ice, electricity, and earth, and even shadows, and points all of them toward the panicking stallion before she gives him her sweetest smile. "I can, because I can."
The explosions and screams of Sombra can be heard all the way from Ponyville, and while many ponies look in the direction of the battle wondering what's going on, a few ponies enter Twilight's castle, then comes out a couple of minutes later with a big bag.
Not long later, in a glade where Chrysalis and Tirek are waiting, four groups of changelings come with four bags that they open, revealing the four princesses of Equestria trapped inside green cocoons and unconscious.
"Perfect!" shouts the queen.
Tirek looks at the four princesses in disbelief. "You captured them that easily?!"
"I told you, ponies are idiots. They know about me and my changelings, and yet, they do nothing to protect themselves from us. They are so used to be in peace that they aren't wary at all. And their Royal Guards are just idiots parading in armor for show. They are as useful as toy soldiers. Now, go on."
At this, not trusting Tirek at all, Chrysalis flies away with her changelings, leaving the centaur to drain the four princesses. She quickly returns to the tunnel that serves as her hideout, where one of the changelings asks "What now?"
"Now, we wait for Tirek to deal with that filly," answers the queen.
"But... Once Tirek deals with the filly, how will we deal with him?"
............................
"I will find a way."
At this moment, they hear hoofsteps approaching, and a few seconds later, they see Sombra enter the tunnel, his armor, cape, and crown missing, and his body covered in cuts, burns, frostbites, and other injuries. Some of his teeth are missing, his mane is disheveled, slightly burned, and his left eye is closed.
After a few more steps, he collapses, taking long breaths. "This isn't a filly... it's a demon..."
"Don't worry. Tirek will soon fight her with the power of four alicorns in him. Sweetie Belle won't stand a chance."
Sweetie Belle sweeps her forehead, getting rid of some sweat. "It was a nice workout. Now, back to school."
But then, the ground suddenly shakes, then shakes again, and again, as if something big is approaching. Feeling a HUGE power approaching, she flies toward the Everfree Forest and spots the upper body of a certain centaur poking out of the trees.
"First, Sombra, and now Tirek? Chrysalis really wants me dead."
Soon enough, the now huge and buffed red centaur comes out of the forest, holding the four alicorns under his arms. When Sweetie Belle lands in front of him, he drops them, making the filly frown.
"You absorbed the princesses' magic?"
Tirek gives a big laugh. "Yes! While you were busy fighting Sombra, the changelings captured your four princesses and gave them to me!"
"DISCORD!" yells Sweetie Belle.
The draconequus appears beside her. "You ca- Oh..." He quickly spots the huge centaur as well as the four unconscious alicorns at his hooves.
Sweetie belle points at them. "Could you...?"
"No need to say more." With a snap of his fingers, Discord teleports the four alicorns beside him.
Sweetie Belle nods in thanks. "Now can you teleport us somewhere where we will not accidentally destroy a town?"
Discord nods and teleports both Sweetie Belle and Tirek to the Badlands.
"Like this, you won't do the same trick you used against Twilight," says Sweetie Belle. At this moment, her armor appears on her, and her weapon drops beside her. "Oh. Thank you Discord."
Tirek laughs. "Clever girl. But this will not help you. I have the power of four alicorns, even you can't even do anything against that."
"You wanna bet?" says the filly before she forms her ten double beam swords as she starts to float. "I don't have your raw power, but power isn't everything I have."
Giving her a big smirk, Tirek charges energy between his horns and fires a huge orange magical beam. But Sweetie Belle smirks back, and suddenly, a portal appears in front of her, and the beam disappears in it, to Tirek's surprise. Another portal then opens behind him, and his beam comes out of it and hits him in a big explosion.
When the cloud of dust created by the explosion disappears, Sweetie Belle sees that Tirek is still standing, but slightly burned and giving her a look that says "You're going to die painfully."
He grabs her in his magic and throws her at his hooves before he tries to crush her under one. She flies out of the way and up the leg while slashing at it with her ten swords. Tirek tries to punch her and to slap her like a fly, but the filly has no problems avoiding his hands and even slashing at them too while also firing some beams at his face.
Tirek decides to create a shield around him and expands it, slamming the filly with it and sending her flying, but she quickly recovers and avoids another beam from the centaur before she flies behind a nearby mountain. Tirek destroys the mountain with another beam, but out of the explosion comes ten Sweetie Belle's that charge at him with their horn turned into some kind of energy spear.
From his horns, Tirek fires ten smaller beams at the ten Sweeties, only for them to break into shards of glasses upon contact, and the shards fly toward Tirek and cut him even more. As for the real Sweetie Belle, she has remained behind where she has prepared an Ultimate Doom Laser that she fires. Tirek fires his own beam at it, and his beam gets the upper hand, only for Tirek to be punched on the face by a giant fist shield, breaking his focus. This leads to him taking the Ultimate Doom Laser on the face before he's punched again on the gut by another giant fist shield, followed by dozens of fist shields punching him all over the front of his body. Another Ultimate Doom Laser finishes the combo.
Having enough, Tirek fires another beam, only for Sweetie to use her portals again to make it hit him, followed by a dozen of smaller energy beams forming from the air. Roaring in rage, Tirek slams his fist on the ground, causing hundreds of giant spikes of rock to come out everywhere around him. Sweetie Belle slaloms between them, then avoids more beams fired by Tirek while she gathers energy all around her body, forming a big ball of energy. She then reaches Tirek and rams him in the gut, and the energy gathered around Sweetie Belle explodes. As Tirek recovers from it, Sweetie Belle gathers her ten cannons into two groups of five, forming two big beam swords with them, and cuts Tirek's horns.
As he yells in pain, Sweetie Belle grabs the ring in his nose and tears it off, making him yell even more. She then fires an energy ball right in his mouth, and caught off guard, he swallows it, and the ball explodes in his stomach. As Tirek starts to kneel because of all this, Sweetie Belle then comes to his face again and punches him again, and again, and again, each punch hitting like a brick. When Tirek is barely able to stand, Sweetie Belle flies back a little and punches him with a very huge shield fist, sending Tirek flying on his side, destroying some spikes of rock as he lands, groaning in pain, half unconscious.
"H-how...?" asks the centaur.
"Like I said, power isn't everything," says Sweetie Belle as she lands in front of his face and approaches until her eyes are in front of his. "Now releases the magic of Twilight and the other princesses."
"Or what?"
PAF!
"AAOUUUUUUHHHH!!!"
"Releases. Their. Magic," orders the filly before a hundred hammers of ice materializes above her. "Or I will make you live through a different kind of Tartarus."
Tirek teleports away.
"Seriously?"
Tirek appears in front of the tunnel, on his knees, breathing heavily as blood plugs his nose and comes out of his mouth. Hearing him, Chrysalis, followed by Sombra and some of her changelings, comes out of the tunnel, and they all stare at the badly injured Tirek in shock.
"Don... Don't tell me you lost!" shouts the queen.
"That filly... is a monster... I couldn't... even hit her..."
"But you had the power of four alicorns!"
"She was too fast... She avoided... everything... I threw at her... She used portals... to turn my own beams... against me... And even clones..."
"I can't believe it!" yells Chrysalis in rage. "What happened in this other dimension for her to become that strong?!"
"Uh... My queen..." says then one of the changelings hesitantly. "Something is approaching us... And rapidly..." he continues, pointing at the sky.
Everyone turns their head in the direction where the changeling points and sees, indeed, something yellow approaching. Rapidly, to their horror, they see that it is Sweetie Belle riding some kind of star.
"Kill me just now..." says Tirek hopelessly.
The star rams him in the gut, and he is thrown on his back while the filly lands in front of Chrysalis and Sombra with a big smile. "Found you."
"How?!" shouts the changeling queen.
Sweetie Belle points at Tirek. "Have you seen his size? it's hard to miss him, even more with his red fur. Now, excuse me, but I have some unfinished business with Red Bull over there." She then jumps toward Tirek as he starts to get up, materializes a giant hammer, and bonks him on the head. "You can't escape me! No matter where you go, I will find you with my Warp Star! So for your own good, RELEASE THIS MAGIC!!!"
BONK! BONK! BONK!
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!! Okay! Okay! I'll give back the magic! Just stop hitting me!" shouts Tirek.
"Good boy. Now hurry up," says the filly threateningly.
The next instant, the centaur releases all the magic in him, and it separates into four parts before flying toward their original owner while he returns to his original, old and lanky self.
"Good," says Sweetie Belle before she turns to Chrysalis and Sombra. "Now, you three will follow me without saying anything. Tartarus awaits you."
"Never!" yells Chrysalis before she uses the Alicorn Amulet given to her by one of the changelings to teleport everyone away, to Sweetie Belle frustration.
"Ugh! Some just don't know when to give up!"