//------------------------------//
// Our Final Stand 
// Story: Legends of Equestria: the Battle of the 10 Armies 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The Pony of Shadows emerged, wreathed in fire and green flames, his armour and body black and well tuned. "SO, YOU TOOK MY INVITATION I SEE!" he boomed. "WELL, LET US FINISH THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Starswirl blinked and stepped bravely forward. "This is where the story ends," he said confidently. "You may have caused chaos and untold destruction, but we will stop you and avenge the lives you have taken from the world."

"Bold words for one such as yourself," the Pony of Shadows snorted. "Let us see if your body can match your tongue in terms of its fighting ability. All alone."

"He's not alone!" called Somnambula, and stepped forward. "He has us."

"Something you would never understand," Rockhoof added.

"Allies," continued Flash Magnus.

"Acquiantences," Meadowbrook went on.

"Or should we say, friends," Mistmane finished. "The bonds of loyalty forge a force that you could never understand or appreciate, for your soul knows nothing but the desire for absolute power."

"Oh, isn't this charming!?" the Pony of Shadows said sarcastically. "The gang truly is back together. No matter. I WILL HAVE MORE FUN OBLITERATING ALL OF YOU!"

With that, he started his attack sequence. A jet of green flame roared across the ground and caused it to start to crack.

"Run!" Meadowbrook called, and the team scattered. Flash and Somnambula took to the air, a piercing hail of laser fire flying their way.

"Move fast! He can't hit us all at once!" Somnambula shouted.

Meanwhile, Rockhoof had formed up nearby, and had a bright idea to help them. He took his shovel, and instead of run at the Pony of Shadows and try to attack it, he dug a trench. He dug and he dug and he dug till his neck and hooves ached, but still he kept going until he had reached a nearby lake. He then jumped out of the way as green fire roared down the channel and into the water, the combined impacts of superheated flame and water counteracting each other and putting the fires out.

Flash flew in overhead. "Great thinking, buddy!" he called.

"Very much appreciated!" Rockhoof called, before starting to make his way back towards the Pony of Shadows.

Meanwhile, Mistmane found the situation rather hard to control. Her dragon was rather weaker than normal, but continued to scorch the beast before her.

"I see age has finally caught up with you," the Pony of Shadows snarked. "Oh well. It has been thousands of years."

Mistmane opened fire from her horn, but the spells were having a limited effect on the monster's armour. Luckily, Meadowbrook was in the area, and had a plan.

The Pony of Shadows fired, the beam racing forth, but then hit Meadowbrook's mask and bounced off it in Mistmane. The energy blast reversed the earlier effects of the Lifetaker weapon, restoring Mistmane to her former vitality. "Teamwork pulled this off!" the Cajun pony called.

The Pony of Shadows continued firing on different objects around him, but so many targets to focus on made things challenging, for him at least. "Keep still!"

Somnambula roared underneath him, a homing shot following her into him and blowing another section of his armour off. Flash had his shield prepared, and a hail of shots bounced off it and into a nearby building.

Then suddenly, the world started to shift. Gravity began to flip, space began to warp, and time became bendable. The Pillars of Old Equestria suddenly found themselves floating in the air as the world began to shift in ways they could never have foreseen. In fact, it made navigating intensely difficult.

"Hold firm, my fellows!" Starswirl called. "We must adapt to the new gravitational field!"

"Not easy when up is suddenly down!" Flash replied as he smacked into a building. "Oof!"

Seconds later, there was more fire. Rockhoof and Meadowbrook leaped across floating rubble to get across to their foe, clearing extremely high jumps with bounding leaps and graceful tumbles. Behind and before them they suddenly saw what was causing the gravity mess. There was an orb on the Pony of Shadow's back.

The duo made the jump and landed, before smashing the orb free and watching it tumble back to earth. Everything dropped like a stone in that instant. All of it tumbled to the ground with a bang, before the Pony of Shadows got up one last time.

"This is not the end," he snarled. "I will emerge victorious, powerful over all of you, and death-"

"Finish him," said Starswirl. In that very moment, a beam rocketed forth from each Pillar towards their foe, and the devastation was truly terrifying. Explosions rocked the area, and there was a loud roar as the Pony of Shadows tried to resist the chains of his new captivity. But it was all for naught, and with one last roar the smoke cleared. Where there foe had once been was simply a statue now, with their names and evidence of their victory all around. If, indeed, it could be called a victory in any conventional sense of the word.





Stygian found Starswirl overlooking the ruins of Montgomery, a look of deep thought in his eyes. Stygian, on the other hand, was still suffering the shock of what he had witnessed.

"I didn't think it would end this way," he said, partly to get Starswirl's attention. He hadn't expected the Pony of Shadows to fight to the death, or take so many with him- one of their own included.

Starswirl quietly hummed. "End?" he asked rhetorically. "No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."

"What? Starswirl? See what?" Stygiam enquired.

Starswirl indicated with his hoof as the sun began to rise in the sky. "White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

"Well, that isn't so bad," Stygian replied.

"No. No, it isn't."