Celestia's mouth hung open. Even the chilly, nighttime winter air didn't register in her senses.
An enormous, ghostly-white magic bubble loomed before the ponies, stretching as far as their eyes could see at that time of night. Nothing was visible within.
“It's huge!” cried Pinkie.
“You're sure it's covering all of Ponyville, Rainbow?” asked Twilight.
“Positive,” Rainbow replied as she hovered above the group. “I checked it several times just to be sure.”
Fluttershy let out a deep sigh. “Just like poor Canterlot, and who knows where else.”
“And we've already tried teleporting through it.” Twilight tapped her hoof on the bubble, causing a few little black lines to ripple out over it's translucent white surface from the point of impact. “This thing is as solid as night is dark. Nopony could get through this.”
“So what are we going to do now?”
A sly grin formed on Pinkie's face. “You forget. Now we got these!” Her Element of Laughter appeared in a flash of light—the turquoise feather having been newly dubbed by her as the 'Blade of Laughter'—and hovered beside her.
“I still think you could have come up with a way cooler name for them than you did,” Rainbow remarked with a slight roll to her eyes.
“Oh, I will! It's just not super duper important at the moment.”
Applejack snickered. “Not everyday when the silliest pony of us all is the most focused ain't it?”
“Clearly you aren't that focused either, AJ,” Rainbow said as her Element appeared beside her in the same little flash of light. “Look let's just do this thing already. Ponyville may or may not be trapped inside an otherworldly bubble that's sturdier than dragon scales.”
“Everypony hit it with your Elements as hard as you can,” stated Celestia. “Hit it together as one.”
The others nodded and the five remaining Element blades materialized beside their respective owners, hovering next to them. All at once, the seven differently-colored feathers aimed their tips at the barrier and struck it.
Immediately, there was a blinding flash, and a shockwave of magical energy pulsed out from the barrier that sent everypony flying backwards. Each pony let out a loud yelp as they were launched, and their Elements all vanished. From where they landed scattered across the field, the ponies scrambled to their hooves, shook themselves off, then regrouped in front of the barrier where they had been standing before, all with a mixture of shock and dismay upon their countenances.
The barrier remained, still towering over them like their attack had had no effect whatsoever.
“Nopony saw us get tossed back like that did they?” Applejack rubbed her foreleg sheepishly and glanced around for a moment. “Good.”
“Doesn't look like that did anything,” said Twilight with a slight frown.
Rainbow huffed. “I say we try again. This thing can't be indestructible.”
Twilight looked over at Celestia. “Princess?”
Celestia examined the barrier for a moment before turning to face the others. “Try again,” she said firmly. “Only this time we'll stand back. Luckily we know the Elements in their new forms can go a little ways from you and stay summoned. You called it the 'usable range' didn't you, Pinkie Pie?”
“Got to classify it someway right?” Pinkie smiled and nodded, resulting in her getting another tiny eye roll from Rainbow.
“Need to come up with a much cooler way of describing it...” the pegasus muttered under her breath.
The ponies all moved back from the barrier to the distance they had discovered the Elements could go from them before vanishing during their brief training—approximately four meters. Facing their target, they again sent the Elements in. The feathers struck the barrier simultaneously like before, but the end result was the same as the first attempt: everypony was knocked back by a shockwave of magical energy and the Elements disappeared. As soon as they were all back on their hooves, they regrouped once again in the spot they were just at.
“Maybe if we keep at it we'll have this thing finally gone by next week...” Pinkie let out a nervous chuckle, but immediately stopped and shrunk back as the others all gave her bemused stares.
“Well...” uttered Applejack, “anypony got any bright ideas? If this thing can be brought down just by hittin' it enough we ain't got time for that.”
Celestia pondered. “Wait here.” She walked up to the barrier.
Shivering, the others watched and waited in silence. Shining Armor's horn glowed, and a bubble formed around the group that pushed away the snow in the area.
Celestia spent several more minutes examining the barrier again. It's translucent surface was soothing in the way it flowed like water, but also slightly hypnotic. The princess became slightly lost in the sight, but shook her head then stepped back. She turned and walked back to the others.
Shining Armor's horn stopped glowing and his bubble vanished. “Anything?”
“Instead of brute strength,” said Celestia, “let's try using the magic of the Elements to dispel the barrier like one would unlock a door.”
“'Unlock it?'” asked Pinkie, slightly tilting her head and glancing at the barrier. “I don't see an Element-shaped keyhole, or any keyhole on that thing.”
“I think that was a figure of speech, darling,” said Rarity.
“Aim your Elements at the barrier,” said Celestia, “but keep them by your side and concentrate on unleashing their magic like you did against Discord.”
Resummoning their Elements, Twilight and the others formed a straight line standing side by side facing the barrier. The Elements all aimed their rounded edges forward. A few seconds later, a little orb of light matching the color of the Element it came from appeared at the very tip of each blade.
Celestia's eyes widened slightly—as did everypony else's—but she kept quiet and simply watched.
The little orbs grew a little bigger. Then, a beam of light matching the color of it's orb and Element shot forth. The beams struck the barrier all at the same time, and the bubble's water-like surface started flowing like a body of water in a raging storm.
Come on, thought Celestia. If this doesn't work I don't know what will.
“Come on, baby!” cried Pinkie. “Do the thing where you disappear!”
The beams of light shooting from the Elements grew brighter, and Twilight and the others all let out pained groans.
“I can feel the Elements' energies getting stronger,” stated Twilight, clenching her eyes shut. “But the barrier is so big it's starting to hurt!”
Trembling, Cadance groaned again and shut her eyes the same as Twilight had. “We can't give up! We have to get through this thing no matter what!”
Celestia glanced over at Shining Armor. “Let's lend them our strength. A magic field of this size needs every ounce of strength we can muster. It'll be like when you and Cadance lended your strength to Twilight to help protect her from the chaotic energy of the Crystal Heart when she was trying to stabilize it.”
“But we're just two ponies,” said Shining Armor as he scanned the line. “We'd have to split it between them all and it may not be enough to do anything. Can we really do it?”
“A wise pony once said that a single grain of rice can tip the scale. We just have to give it our all and hope for the best. You take Twilight, Cadance and Fluttershy and I'll take the rest.”
Shining Armor nodded and turned his attention back to the line where his sister, his beloved, and all their friends stood doing their part.
Celestia smiled warmly at him then her horn started to glow. In tandem with Shining Armor, she became awash in a gentle white light, and a moment later, little streams of the same white light formed between her and Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity as the energy transfer spell took effect. The same little beams formed between Shining Armor and Twilight, Cadance and Fluttershy.
Several minutes passed by. All the while, the pained groans of Twilight and the other Element Bearers slowly grew worse as they maintained the Elements' magic upon the barrier, with Celestia and Shining Armor's energy transfer seeming to do little to ease their pain.
“I can't hold it much longer!” cried Fluttershy. Tears fell from her closed eyes and she trembled terribly. “It hurts so much!”
“Don't give up, Fluttershy!” Rainbow exclaimed, trembling just as much as Fluttershy and the others were. “It's probably just because we're not used to this!”
After what seemed like an eternity, a blinding flash engulfed the area, causing everypony to shield their eyes even though their eyes were closed. A fierce gust of wind suddenly blew, but it died down as quickly as it came. All was quiet and still once more.
Celestia took a few moments to catch her breath. Once her racing heart had calmed itself, she lowered her foreleg and peeked her eyes open and gasped. The others all did the same, letting out gasps of varying volume.
The barrier was gone, and the town of Ponyville stood before them. The sleepy suburb bathed peacefully in the light of the moon that hung high in the clear night sky, and with enough snow everywhere to make an army of snowponies and have several inches left over.
“All right!” shrieked Pinkie as she bounced up and down. “We did it!”
Rarity and Applejack quickly grabbed hold of Pinkie and held her down.
“Quiet!” muttered Rarity, giving Pinkie a serious look. “We don't want those things to find us here.”
“Uh, ponies...” Rainbow deadpanned. “The Dreadkin's big bad barrier is gone. Pretty sure they already know we're here by now.”
Rarity grumbled for a moment. “Yeah... well... for all they know we're on the complete opposite side of town that we actually are, or we're between Ponyville and Canterlot and they're looking for us there. What I'm saying is we should try and maintain the element of surprise in some capacity here.”
Twilight scanned the edge of town. “Everything still looks to be in one piece. It's so peaceful. Somepony almost wouldn't even know about everything that's been going on.”
“Either everypony's asleep,” said Pinkie, “or they're hiding, or—”
“I'd rather not think about that,” Rainbow interjected. “Let's just focus on finding Sombra and his pet. And when we do find them...”
“It will be Equestria's last stand,” uttered Applejack. “If we can't stop Sombra even with the Elements' new powers, then we are truly lost.”
“That's not very encouraging,” said Fluttershy, frowning deeply. “Can't you at least try to—”
Applejack shook her head. “I'm sorry but there ain't no point sugarcoatin' it. If we don't succeed here then it's all over.”
Everypony frowned, their ears drooped, and they stared down at the ground.
“I'm certain Sombra's going to use every trick in the book,” said Celestia, maintaining a determined look on her face and a firm stance. “And we don't even know the full extent of his true power, especially after his combination rebirth and ascension. It's going to take everything we've got to take him down. But take heart. We don't know the full extent of the Elements' power in their new forms either. That might be just the edge we need.”
“Okay, everypony,” said Twilight. “One hoof in front of the other, and let's do this.”
The ponies all took deep breaths then walked into Ponyville with Celestia in the lead; Applejack and Rainbow bringing up the rear. Everypony glanced around furiously as they walked, not letting a single alley or street lamp escape their examination. There was not a single pony in sight outside, and peeks through windows revealed no dwellers inside as well. Celestia and the others saw no sign of any shadow pony or windigo either. All of the Hearth's Warming Eve decorations were still in their places. Along the way, the only sound that could be heard was the crunching of snow underneath their hooves.
“Okay...” said Pinkie after several minutes. “I am beyond creeped out now. I thought we would have seen at least some ponies hiding in their homes, but nope.”
“No shadow ponies or windigo either,” said Cadance. “It's like Ponyville is abandoned, just like that old village in the frontier.”
“Just keep moving forward,” stated Celestia firmly. Her voice was a whisper, but still loud enough the others could hear. “And talk only in whispers.”
The ponies quietly continued their cautious trek through Ponyville. The unease tugging at them grew with each step and with each shadow they thought they saw move as they passed by.
They entered the town square, and the snow-packed ground directly beneath the ponies suddenly darkened.
Celestia's heart sped up again and she struggled with all her might, but her legs seemed completely anchored to the spot; she couldn't lift her legs not even an inch.
“I can't move my legs!” cried Twilight.
“Just peachy!” shouted Applejack. “Another trap!”
None of the ponies could move their legs no matter how hard their attempts, and the air was alive with the sound of their strained grunting and grunting. Thick dark mist suddenly shot up from the ground that covered their hooves. Another cloud of mist swirled around them, while the cloud at their hooves slowly rose higher and higher, enveloping more of them with each moment.
Sweat pouring down her brow, Celestia tried to release her magic to fight back against the entrapping dark clouds, but her magic fizzled out instantly. She tried a second time but to no avail, like the mist had completely disabled her ability to do magic. The princess felt something tugging on her hooves like it was trying to pull her downward. After several minutes of being stuck in the mist, whatever force was pulling her down yanked hard, but instead of falling to the ground, she seemed to pass through it. The last thing Celestia heard before all went dark and losing all sense of consciousness was the sounds of Twilight and the others still struggling to escape.
Celestia didn't know how long she was out for, but when she opened her eyes, the only thing she saw apart from the unconscious forms of Twilight and the others was darkness—vast darkness all around, above and below. Despite this, the princess felt solid ground beneath her hooves, and whatever force had gripped her and prevented her from moving her legs before was gone.
Before Celestia could gather her thoughts, dozens of little streams of silver light shone from above.
The princess looked up. She did not immediately recognize what she was looking at, but after a few moments of staring, an idea popped into her head.
It almost looks like... It almost looks like I'm seeing Ponyville... from below?
It was difficult to make out, but the longer Celestia stared upward, the more it appeared that she wasn't imagining things. She could make out things like Golden Oaks Library, Sugarcube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres and the town hall. The little streams of silver light seemed to be coming from the image as if it was mimicking the light given off by the moon. A full moon sat at the center of the image. Celestia could not tell exactly how far away the imagery was, but for some reason, she had a sinking feeling it would back away from somepony that tried to get closer to it as if she was stuck in a living nightmare.
Twilight and the others all came to within ten seconds. Each one let out startled gasps.
“Am I dreaming?” asked Rarity as she ran her hooves over her mane and down her chest. She suddenly let out a pained cry as Pinkie pulled hard on her tail.
“Nope!” said Pinkie. “You're fully awake.”
Rarity glared back at the pink earth pony. “What was that for?! That hurt!”
“You know how everypony always says to pinch them to see if they're dreaming? I figured that could work too.”
“So anypony know where we are now?” asked Applejack.
“Call me crazy...” said Twilight, staring up. “But I think we might be in some kind of void pocket directly below Ponyville.”
There was a brief moment of silence as the others stared at Twilight. Only Celestia didn't have a look of confusion upon her face.
“Did y'all say... 'below'... Ponyville?”
“Take a look.”
Everypony glanced up and their mouths dropped.
Celestia however, spotted little white specks moving some distance beyond where the others stood. “No time for that. We aren't alone in here.”
A massive cloud of bright, ghostly white mist suddenly appeared.
Twilight and all of them quickly turned and took positions on either side of the princess, staring at the cloud with the flame of battle in their eyes.
The strands of mist flowed and twisted in, out and all around in the spot they'd appeared. Faster and faster they moved until they collapsed into a single cloud that grew even larger.
“Sombra?” asked Fluttershy as her Element blade appeared beside her. “Or that terrible phoenix thing that captured us?”
“Either way,” stated Celestia, “the battle that will decide the fate of our beloved Equestria and possibly other lands as well begins now. Summon your Elements!”
The other six Element blades appeared simultaneously by their respective owners' sides.
Celestia glared at the huge ghostly cloud and spread her legs apart into a battle stance. “Attack!” She charged forward, lighting her horn.
“For Equestria!” cried out Twilight and the others in unison, rushing forward in a straight line beside the princess and each other with their feather blades aimed squarely at the cloud.
The cloud immediately faded away, revealing the enormous dark phoenix. Its pitch dark body blended in with the surrounding darkness, and was visible only when some of the silver light from above shone upon it. The beast hovered in place, staring down at the charging ponies with its solid white eyes. Dense, ghostly-white flame still covered its back.
“We've got you this time!” Rainbow shrieked at the top of her lungs.
A gleam briefly flashed in the creature's eyes. It flapped its massive wings a single time, and dozens of pony-sized balls of white flame shot forth, speeding toward Celestia and the others leaving dark smoke in their wake.
“Block!” cried Shining Armor. “Just like in practice!”
Everypony stopped. Their Element blades flew out in front of their owners, and a separate translucent barrier formed around each pony. Celestia and Shining Armor did the same, creating a magic bubble for themselves with their magic. Numerous comets of white fire struck each of the barriers in succession plus the area around them with loud bangs, leaving big clouds of smoke in the area. The rest of them blazed directly above and to the side of the ponies like a rampaging stampede of buffalo, disappearing into the far off darkness.
As this was going on, the phoenix let out a piercing screech and flew up high. Fanning its wings to their full spread, it hovered in place and a dark orb appeared above its head. The orb began to grow, engulfing the creature entirely within seconds.
Down below, the ponies could only wait for the smoke from the flaming meteors' impacts to clear.
Celestia stood still inside her bubble, completely unable to see Twilight and the others through the smoke. The force of the meteors' impacts against her barrier had left her panting and sweating heavily, but she kept the shield going. This thing is just as strong as the giant rock fiend Entropus, she thought. At least I'm not completely alone this time. But, without an Element of my own, there's only so much that Shining Armor and I can do. The task of defeating this creature, and the one who made it, will fall largely on the shoulders of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And we still won't have any idea what Sombra can do with his new powers until that showdown starts.
After a few moments the smoke finally cleared. Each pony still stood inside their respective barriers with their Elements hovering beside them.
“Everypony okay?” cried Twilight, glancing around at her friends.
“All good here!” said Pinkie as her shield dropped. “Wowza! These new Elements are really something if they can protect us from something like a hundred giant balls of fire!”
Rarity coughed and gave Pinkie a stern look. “Focus, darling!”
“Yes, yes, I know. Also does anypony else think it's a little silly to keep calling it, 'the beast,' or, 'the creature,' or what have you? I'm going to start calling it D.T—Dread Talon.”
“Yeah,” muttered Applejack with a slight roll of her eyes. “You do that.”
Rainbow rapidly looked around. “Where'd it go?”
All light in the area suddenly faded away like the midday sun being covered up by passing clouds, shrouding everypony in a veil of darkness.
The ponies turned their gazes skyward and their jaws dropped.
Where normally would have been seen the underside of Ponyville was instead a giant, dark orb. It was just like the one that had appeared above the Everfree Forest, in the Crystal Empire and then Canterlot. What little light could be seen coming from behind it illuminated the edge of the orb, giving it the appearance of a solar eclipse with a ghostly white corona.
Dozens of trails of white mist burst down from the orb. The trails swirled about in the air as they descended, like an entire troupe of performer pegasi were doing an elaborate, aerial ribbon dance.
“Okay...?” droned Applejack as she watched with her Element blade pointed up.
“More of those meteors from before?” asked Fluttershy.
Keeping her gaze upward, Twilight shook her head. “Highly doubtful. Those are acting like they're alive.”
“Windigos?” inquired Rarity.
Rainbow hovered a couple yards above the others and her Element blade floated along with her. “We're about to find out. Here they come!”
“Not fixin' to go rushin' off alone again are you?” Applejack gave Rainbow a bemused stare which the pegasus didn't look back to see.
“Perish the thought,” Rainbow retorted. “But 'y'all' should spread out a bit so that we have room to fight without risking friendly fire.”
Shining Armor nodded. “She's right. If we're too close together we might hurt each other by accident, especially with how your particular weapons can go out fairly far from you. Spread out but stay in sight of everyone.”
“Shining Armor,” said Celestia, catching the stallion's attention. “Since you and I do not have Elements of Harmony of our own, and the others have to concentrate to keep theirs out, we should focus on long-range offense to limit the number of dreadkin that can even get within striking distance of us.”
“Good plan. We can also be emergency bubble defense if we start getting overwhelmed.”
Celestia nodded with a smile then gazed back up.
The dark orb hadn't gotten any bigger than it already was, but the trails of white smoke—which now numbered several dozen and more of them appearing each second—continued to snake their way through the air down toward the ponies at a rapid pace. Suddenly, the end point of each and every one of them transformed into regular-size phoenixes, no bigger than Celestia's own pet phoenix Philomena, but had the same look as Dread Talon: pitch-black bodies, eerie solid white eyes, and white flames on their backs.
“Just what we needed...” groaned Applejack, now standing several yards apart from the others and legs spread in a battle pose.
“En garde!” cried Pinkie.
The dark realm became alive with the sounds of battle. The dreadkins' screeches created an endless cacophony that echoed throughout the space. They dove at the ponies with their talons open and poised to attack.
As soon as the creatures came within range, Celestia and Shining Armor began shooting magic beams from their horns. With their high speed, small size and dance-like movements, most of the creatures easily dodged the blasts. Twilight and the others slashed at the dreadkin that got past Celestia and Shining Armor with their Element blades, making various battle cries as the fight became a grand melee. The ponies frequently changed from attacking to defending, covering themselves in an Element-made magic barrier when the number of dreadkin around them became overwhelming, and had to wait for another Element bearer to thin the flock with their attacks.
The creatures that were struck—either by Celestia and Shining Armor's magic blasts or the Elements of Harmony—let out a pained shriek and turned back into a shapeless cloud of white smoke. But, instead of disappearing like the defeated shadow ponies during the recent attack on Ponyville, the smoke flew up into the orb, and a new little phoenix emerged a few seconds later like it wasn't truly defeated, only delayed.
“These varmints just keep comin'!” cried Applejack.
“What can we do?!” called Rarity as her Element sliced through another of the dreadkin. “We can't keep going like this forever!”
Twilight leaped to the side, dodging one of the creatures' dives. She sent her Element after it, but quickly switched targets as she spotted another one charging at Fluttershy from behind. She wiped the sweat from her brow. “The downside to these new forms for the Elements: it's taking every ounce of my energy to keep it active. I can't do any other spell.”
Twilight's words caused Celestia to pause for a moment. Maybe... she thought. Maybe we're not using—
The princess's contemplation was quickly interrupted as several of the dreadkin blitzed toward her with talons bared. She conjured a barrier around herself. The phoenixes crashed into the bubble, clawing and biting at it furiously. “Shining Armor! Give us your most powerful forcefield! The rest of you! Deal with whatever dreadkin get trapped inside with us!”
Shining Armor blasted the phoenixes that were nearby him with his magic then conjured a large barrier that covered the whole area the ponies were occupying.
Twilight and the others slashed at the dreadkin that remained inside the forcefield, destroying them. As though Shining Armor's bubble wasn't even there, the resulting clouds of white smoke passed straight through on their way back to the orb.
“Now,” commanded Celestia, looking at Shining Armor, “combine your magic with mine and our empowered forcefield should allow us a quick breather while we discuss a new plan of action.”
Shining Armor nodded and approached the princess. Celestia leaned forward, and the two of them pressed their horns together in an x-pattern. Celestia focused all of her energy, adding her magic to Shining Armor's existing forcefield.
Fluttershy and Rarity dropped to their stomachs with their legs sprawled out on the invisible but solid ground of the abyssal realm they were in. Both of their Element blades vanished in a small flash of light.
“I'm so tired,” said Rarity between heavy, winded breaths. “I can't go on.”
Fluttershy waited several moments before speaking. “How can we win when every one of those things we defeat just comes right back? And where did the really big one go?”
Keeping her horn locked with Shining Armor's to maintain the empowered barrier, Celestia scanned the area in front of her that she could see only with her eyes. Countless small dark phoenixes surrounded the ponies on all sides, each of them biting and clawing at the forcefield like a rabid dog.
“Everypony listen up!” said Celestia, drawing the attention of everypony to herself. “If our barrier drops those things will be all over us. There's just too many. We'll be overwhelmed, this battle will be over, and the fate of Equestria will be sealed. We need to take them all out at once, and that will give us time to strike them at their source.”
Rainbow groaned and facehoofed. “Of course! If knocking them down one by one isn't working then we need to hit the thing they're coming from! How did I not think of that with all the Daring Do I've read?”
“That big orb?” asked Fluttershy, standing back up along with Rarity and re-summoning her Element blade. “But how are we going to do all that, Princess?”
“There's only one thing that might work,” stated Celestia. “Shining Armor and I can make our barrier explode which should destroy every one of the dreadkin in the area. Then, while all of them are reforming inside of the orb, you all will use the same coordinated attack on the orb that you used to dispel the forcefield that was covering Ponyville.”
Everypony just quietly stared at her.
“If it doesn't work the first time we'll just keep doing it until it finally does.”
Cadance wiped her brow. “I'm so tired already that I don't know if I... if any of us... have the strength left to do this more than a few times. But it may be our only chance. I say we go for it.”
Everypony sounded off in agreement.
“Aim,” said Celestia, “and fire as soon as I say.”
The seven Element bearers all pointed their feather blades at the giant dark orb that loomed overhead.
Celestia stared straight into Shining Armor's eyes. “Forgive my use of slang but... make it go boom.”
Shining Armor smiled back at her.
The two of them focused their energy and released it simultaneously. The result was a loud and blinding explosion that destroyed every single one of the dark phoenixes and also kicked up a fierce gust.
“Now!” cried Celestia. Her horn briefly went numb from a combination of fatigue and exertion in detonating the barrier.
“Fire!” Rainbow shrieked.
Like before, little balls of light appeared at the tips of the seven Elements and a veritable rainbow of magic beams shot forth. They struck the orb in unison, creating a pulsating field of energy at each point of impact.
Celestia didn't even wipe the sweat that continued to pour down her brow. She simply squinted her eyes and gazed upon the clashing of powers with intense breaths.
The small dark phoenixes had not returned, as if something was preventing them from doing so.
Twilight and the others grunted and groaned. The battle thus far had already drained them of much of their energy, but they did not relent, and the beams continued to fire from the Elements.
After several minutes of this, a ferocious explosion—quite a bit larger than the one Celestia and Shining Armor had made by detonating their barrier—wracked the air and lit up the entire other-worldy space.
Celestia didn't have time to cover her ears, eyes, or put up another forcefield. The shockwave from the blast immediately sent her and all the others flying back. She landed in a heap and her body went numb for a moment. When the feeling came back, there wasn't any part of her that didn't throb in pain, including her horn. Her ears rang so much that she might as well have been listening to an extremely obnoxious, malfunctioning vinyl record player for several hours straight. She slowly staggered to her hooves, noticing that Twilight and the others were doing the same each at their own wounded and fatigued pace. However, her attention to them lasted only very briefly.
On the opposite end of the dark dimension, the giant dark phoenix dubbed Dread Talon was sprawled out on its stomach. It was much smaller than before—roughly only half its previous gargantuan size—but was still bigger as a whole than the ponies if they were to stand all clumped together in one spot. It's back was no longer covered in ghostly white flame. Instead, dark mist was wafting up from its back like the smoke coming from a dying fire. The mist vanished completely several meters into the air. The creature wasn't moving, the enormous dark orb was gone, and the area was mildly lit with silver light from above as before.
Looks like it was that orb all along, thought Celestia. And it looks like we caused some real damage to it. But we're not done yet.
Once Twilight and the others were all back on their hooves, they groaned some more before re-summoning their Element feather blades.
Dread Talon stirred a second later and used its wings to lift itself off the floor, but it did not start flying again. Instead, it spread its wings out and planted them down like it was going to start using them to crawl along the ground, stumbling as it did before steadying itself again. All the while, it kept its gaze upon the ponies, making weak but still aggressive caws at them.
“Looks like we nailed it pretty good,” stated Applejack. “It's definitely not the size of a city skyscraper anymore and it seems like it can't even fly now.”
“Good,” Rainbow said. “Makes this much easier.”
“Still I'm about to pass out myself. Let's finish this all quick like.”
“Don't let your guard down,” uttered Cadance. “It's down but it's not out. Still... if we can just get close enough to attack it all at once...”
“One more all-out attack from a safe distance should do it,” said Celestia firmly.
The others all glanced at Celestia.
Before the princess or anypony could speak again, Shining Armor suddenly rushed to the head of the group. He conjured up another magical bubble just in time for a tidal wave of white flame to hit it and get dispersed around it.
The ponies jumped in shock and gazed forward.
Dread Talon hadn't moved from its spot, but it's beak was wide open and the fire was pouring from it in an endless stream.
Shining Armor grunted in exertion. His horn gave off numerous little sparks, and the magical aura around it was slowly dimming.
Celestia, with her horn aglow, dashed up alongside Shining Armor and connected her horn to his again. She looked back at the others. “Twilight... Cadance... All of you!” she cried. “Do it now!”
“But won't it break the shield?” asked Fluttershy.
“The blast should disperse the fire, making it go around us harmlessly. Or possibly the creature will stop attacking in order to try and dodge it, or it will stop attacking just because it's tired or something. Just do it!”
Twilight nodded. “All right, girls. Aim and fire on my signal.”
“That thing is a lot smaller now,” said Rarity. “I can't see it through the fire.”
“Don't worry, Rarity,” said Pinkie. “It's like throwing darts in the dark... Actually never-mind. That didn't help.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “It's straight ahead. Attack now!”
Yet again, the Elements fired the seven differently-colored beams. Just as Fluttershy had feared, they shattered Celestia and Shining Armor's forcefield, causing both of them to get pushed back and their horns crackle with energy. However, the beams did also disperse Dread Talon's flame breath so that it passed by the ponies off to the side harmlessly. With nothing else standing between them, the beams rocketed straight at the creature like Rainbow Dash to Apple Family Cider.
Dread Talon quickly stopped its flame breath and leaped to the side, avoiding the beams but only by the narrowest margin. Upon landing, it stumbled about.
“Again!” shouted Celestia as she rubbed her aching horn.
The Element bearers did the same attack again.
Still struggling from its rough landing, Dread Talon wasn't able to evade this time—the beams struck the dreadkin dead on. The creature froze in place, screeching loudly in a way that could only be interpreted as pain as the Elements continued their assault.
Suddenly, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack's Elements all disappeared in a flash of light. The five of them fell either to their stomach or onto their side, but all had their eyes closed and were breathing heavily. Despite this, Twilight and Cadance kept up the attack with a fire in their eyes.
Even though only two of the energy beams remained, Dread Talon stayed rooted in place. It's continual screech grew louder by the second, and the ponies had to cover their ears to shut out at least some of the terrible cry.
Then, after another minute, Twilight and Cadance's Elements disappeared as well, leaving no Elements of Harmony active. The two ponies themselves collapsed just like their friends.
At the same time, Dread Talon's screeching stopped, then slowly faded away like a distant echo. Its wings slid out from under where they were set, and the creature fell back to its stomach. Lying there motionless with its eyes fully open and beak partially open, it transformed into a shapeless cloud of dark mist which slowly faded away until there was nothing of it left.
All was silent again.
The soothing sound of absolutely nothing—apart from the sound of her own racing heart, deep breaths, and the labored breathing of the others—filled Celestia's ears. She smiled, took one very long, heavy breath and wiped her brow again.
Shining Armor fell back onto his haunches, hung his head, and let out a sigh.
One by one, the Element bearers stood back up and glanced between each other with bright smiles.
Pinkie started bouncing up and down like she wasn't fatigued from the battle at all. “Woooooooo!” she cheered, beaming brighter than many ponies would say was possible even for her. “We did it! We won! We really won!”
“Yeah, we did,” said Applejack. She chuckled slightly, then her tone became serious again. “But remember that was still just the small fry. We still got—”
Without warning, everything went totally dark. Before the ponies could even react in any way, they felt themselves get pulled away somewhere.
The ponies reappeared as quickly as they had gone, staying in the same formation.
With sheer annoyance so apparent you could see it from Tartarus written all over her face, Applejack just stared forward with her eyes half-lidded. She raised her right foreleg in a v-shape like she was offering somepony an apple or some bits, and just held it aloft. She opened her mouth to speak, but it took a few moments for the word to come out. “Nevermind...” she said flatly.
Celestia gazed around and her jaw nearly dropped. She had thought they'd be returned to Ponyville, or even the Crystal Empire within Sombra's pocket dimension following the battle with Dread Talon. She hadn't expected this.
Twilight and the others all scanned the area, and were clearly as surprised as the princess.
The ponies were standing in the middle of a road in a big city that looked very similar to Canterlot. There wasn't a single cloud covering up the big blue sky, and the sun—sitting at its zenith—showered everything in its warmth and brilliance. However... there were a few noticeable differences: the place was devoid of all signs of life by ponies, birds and otherwise; the city was not situated on the side of a mountain. Instead, the city, as well as what appeared to be the royal palace with its central, domed structure and glimmering spires rising up higher than any other building, sat at the back of the city at the base of a solitary mountain.
Celestia stared more at the mountain than she did the city. The mountain resembled the one that sat at the center of Equestria.
“This must be another part of Sombra's own little world,” said Rarity. “And while this place looks a lot like Canterlot, last time I checked, the real Canterlot was trapped in a ghostly-white bubble. And I don't remember the mountain being split down the middle.”
“That mountain looks just like the one we saw in the Dread Frontier,” stated Twilight, gazing up at it.
“Yup,” said Pinkie. “Sure does.”
Celestia turned her head and stared in confusion at the others for a minute, then glanced back at the mountain. It appeared whole just like Canterlot Mountain. Why do I see one thing, but the others say they see another?
Rainbow flew up into the air a couple yards and looked all around in every direction then stopped, facing away from the palace and the mountain. She put her foreleg over her brow, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight, squinted, and lurched her head forward. “What's that?”
The ponies all looked up at Rainbow.
“What do y'all see, Dash,” asked Applejack.
Fluttershy flew up alongside Rainbow and did the same actions. “There's something coming this way.”
“I bet I know what... or who... that something is...” said Cadance with a venom in her tone.
“Hold on.” Fluttershy swallowed hard. “Now it's several things. They're moving pretty fast and they're weaving back and forth in the air between the buildings.”
Celestia's demeanor became hard as steel. “Everypony....”
The others pulled their attention off of Rainbow and planted it squarely on the princess.
“I can feel it in my heart... Prepare yourselves. This is it.”
The others nodded affirmatively then summoned their Element blades.
Mere seconds after this, a total of nine dark figures flew into the area. Each one was the exact shape and size of Sombra himself. But, like Dread Talon and the shadow ponies, their bodies were pitch-black and they had solid, ghostly white eyes. Hovering in the air above the ponies without even flapping their wings—hovering several yards further than where Rainbow and Fluttershy were at—they formed a wide circle around the ponies and just silently stared down at them.
“Why are there exactly nine of them?” asked Rarity.
“One for each of us?” replied Applejack.
Celestia swallowed hard and looked around at each of them. Her heart began to race and sweat began to roll down her brow again.
But then the princess closed her eyes. The pounding of her heart became like a drum that guided armies to battle. Her breath was as a gentle breeze across open plains that sang in her ears. The sweat upon her brow became like the droplets left over after submerging oneself in a hot tub or spring. Deep in the recesses of her being, she had never felt a resolve... a fire... stronger than the one she did now. Finally, imagining not only Luna, but everypony in Equestria at her side, Celestia opened her eyes, gazed up, and peered into the eyes of the Sombra-like figures that were in her immediate view.
“This time you're going away for good.”