//------------------------------// // Heaven's Wrath // Story: Way Past Equestria // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Sonic, is that...?" "Yeah. That's the suit that made a fool of me while he burned our home," Sonic growled. Then his smile returned. "I guess destroying it once wasn't good enough for Eggman. Time to do it again." "Try it, rodent," Robotnik snarled. He hurled the ball towards Sonic, who danced out of the way. The moment he did so, a hail of lasers rained down on him, only to be intercepted by a combination of Sally and Bunnie's shields. Eggman's robot charged the group and shattered through the combined barriers, slamming it's shield down on Sally and Bunnie. Bunnie caught the shield with her arms, gritting her teeth as she was slowly forced down by the weight. While she was pinned, Eggman swung the ball and chain at the pair, only to growl in frustration when two blurs of blue moved the pair out of the way. Eggman's scanners tracked the hedgehog and fired off another salvo of lasers, timing the shot perfectly to finally be rid of the hedgehog...only for the "hedgehog" to rocket straight up. Eggman looked up with confusion only to realize that he had been tracking the wrong speedster. "What?! But I was tracking Sonic! How?! When?!" "What's the matter, old timer? You too slow?" Rainbow asked. Eggman saw red and slammed his hands on every button on his console, unleashing every weapon in his arsenal at the mare. Rainbow cocked an eyebrow before she put all her years of aerial acrobatics to the test. She dodged every laser, weaved around every missile and avoided the ball and chain with ease. "Now! While he's distracted!" Sally ordered. She charged the robot and slashed at one of its legs, only to scream as electricity coursed through her body. Pinkie threw down taffy at its feet to slow the machine, but fire erupted from its soles to burn away her trap. Bunnie unleashed laser fire of her own, only for an unseen barrier to spring up around the machine to deflect her shots back at her. And Sonic found that, somehow, Eggman was still tracking him and able to keep him at bay. "Did you truly think I didn't learn my lesson last time, rodent?!" Robotnik roared. "I built this machine to best you, only for it to be destroyed when your pathetic friends ran to your defense. But now I've upgraded it to take all you little annoyances into consideration. Nothing any of your friends do can hurt this masterpiece!" "Y'know, I would believe you Eggman, if I hadn't heard this same speech about a dozen times before," Sonic replied. He danced around the ball and chain while keeping an eye out for the lasers. He knew that he couldn't beat this machine, or at least would have a very hard time of it. And if what Eggman said was true, then none of the Freedom Fighters would be able to scratch it either. So, loathed as he was to admit it, his fate rested in the hooves of somepony else. "Mock me all you want. You know this is over!" Robotnik snarled. "My barrier protects me from anything you have that you can throw at me. None of your friends can get through it. And even your precious speed won't save you forever." "Hmm...wow, that sounds pretty bad. I guess we are done for, then. But a quick question," Sonic began. Eggman raised an eyebrow in response. "How well does your barrier fare against your own tech?" Eggman got the hint and spun around just in time to see Knuckles rocketing towards him, having wrangled the missile that had launched him away. "How?" That was all Eggman had time to say before Knuckles leapt off the missile and let it explode right on top of Eggman. The explosion of fire and death consumed the entire robot and forced most of the heroes to take refuge behind Sally and Bunnie's barriers. Except for Sonic, who once again lamented that he hadn't brought marshmallows. "Not good enough." Eggman's robot walked out of the fire, it's barrier cracked but clearly still active. "It will take far more than just one of my own weapons to break through this barrier. You've failed again, rodent. Nothing you've got can stop me." "Okay. How well does it fair against magic?" Sonic asked. "Magic?" Robotnik replied. Sonic pointed up and Eggman looked up just in time to see Rainbow Dash fly past, with all of the missile's that Eggman had fired at her earlier still right on her tail. To make things better, all of the missiles were wrapped in rainbow magic. "Right. Magic. Well phooey." The second salvo did the trick. With one last curse towards Sonic the missile barrage consumed Eggman, shattering the robots barrier and blasting his mech to hell. Not wanting to give Eggman the chance to recover, Sonic raced towards Eggman the moment the explosions died down and spin dashed through each limb, tearing the machine apart until all that was left of the machine was an egg shaped cockpit. "Anyone home?" Sonic asked as he knocked twice. The cockpit opened and Eggman slowly stepped out, glaring at the heroes as they surrounded him. "So what's next for this bad boy, Eggman? You going to make it you proof next? I would love to see how you would pull that off." "This battle is over, Eggman. Now give us the emerald and surrender," Sally demanded. Eggman glared down at her for a moment...before he reached inside of his coat, pulled out the emerald and tossed it to the princess. Everyone, even Sonic, looked at the doctor like he was crazy. "Um...what?" "It is as you said. This trivial battle is over. My purpose here is done. As for the emerald, it is useless to me, so you fools might as well have it. Complete the set and all that," Robotnik replied, taking off and cleaning his glasses as he casually said this. "Um, I'm confused. We won, right? Why doesn't it feel like we've won?" Knuckles asked. "Yeah, what gives? You never surrender this easily after a loss," Sonic stated. "Loss? You believe that I've lost? Oh you fool, you still don't get it. You and all your pathetic friends did exactly as I've wanted," Robotnik revealed, looking up at the heavens. "Sombra and I knew that you couldn't resist rescuing your friends and securing the last of your precious items. We also knew that you would divide your teams into two with the members consisting of who you would think be the best options to deal with us. And since you I have been known to...lose...to speedsters and heavy hitters, I knew that you would send your fastest and strongest here to deal with me, while your more magical and tactical fighters went after Sombra." "Wait, so you...wanted us to fight you?...no, you wanted all of us here!" Sally exclaimed. "Sally, do you know where we currently are?" Robotnik asked. "We are currently as far from Sombra as we can possibly be. On the other side of the world. As far from him, and your friends, as we could be. Now tell me, why would I drag you all out here and away from him? Any takers?" "So we can't get to our friends..." Rainbow pieced together. Then absolute horror crossed her face. "We need to move! NOW!" She and Sonic tore off towards where they hoped their friends were, vanishing from the sight of the others in a blink of an eye. "It won't matter. I've calculated their speed. They won't get there in time," Robotnik said. "In time for what?" Sally demanded. Eggman just smiled at her before vanishing in a vortex of darkness. "In time for what?!" Then, from the heavens, a giant beam of death so large that they could see it from where they were standing rained down upon a place far away. But, as the horror of what had just happened sunk in, they all knew where it had landed...and who was there. ||==O O==|| "Give up, Sombra!" Twilight bellowed. "Give up, Sombra. Hear that, that's you," Sombra mocked. "Uh-oh." Sombra weaved into the shadows to avoid being erased by a combination of solar and lunar magic, before springing out of the darkness and firing blast of magic at the princesses. The princesses combined their might to easily deflect his attacks, before they went back on the offensive. Sombra had to pull out every trick in his bag to avoid being slaughtered. Slipping into the shadows to avoid blasts. Teleporting whenever one of the princesses managed to grab him with their magic. Counter spells and rune barriers to stop every attempt to trap, erase or just straight up burn him. If he wasn't such a magical genius, he would have been killed easily. "But luckily for me, I'm just that damn good," Sombra cackled. "Are you seriously narrating to yourself?" Twilight asked. "It's called presentation. Something you clearly know nothing about." "Give us the Element Sombra, and perhaps we will go easy on you," Luna offered. "Go easy...feh. And what do you consider easy? Trapping me in a star for a thousand years? Do you know what that would do to my complexation? Maybe trap me in stone with only insanity to keep me company for a thousand years? No thanks, I've got enough voices chatting away in my head. Or maybe you'll just blast me apart like you've done the past three two times. Mix it up a bit." "You have brought all this on yourself," Celestia said. "You've have been brought back from the abyss not once, but twice, and each time you waste the second life you have been given. Have you ever tried to just think about all the good you could accomplish if you just stopped thinking about yourself for more than a few moments?" "Are you seriously trying to appeal to the good within me? Who do you think I am, that bleeding heart in the mirror world who managed to woo you?" Sombra asked. "That pathetic excuse of a Sombra who valued peace, love and actually fell for you. He might be the most pathetic being I've ever heard of and that's impressive considering I know you. Trust me Celestia, that side of me is as dead as your romance with him." For a brief moment, all Celestia did was stare at Sombra with wide eyes. Then Celestia's entire body turned crimson before her entire body erupted in a fire hot enough to rival the sun, getting Sombra to raise both eyebrows this time. "Oh, I've made a mistake." "YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO EVEN SPEAK OF YOUR BETTER!" she screamed. Then she unleashed all of her fury, magic and might upon Sombra, who conjured the strongest spell he had to protect himself. It barely managed to do that. Celestia's magic detonated with enough force to be seen from space, consuming Sombra in it's fiery wrath. Then, when she figured he had enough, Celestia flicked her horn and the fire vanished, leaving only a much more cooked Sombra who could barely stand on his hooves. "Well? Anything else stupid you'd like to say? Or have you finally learned your lesson?" "Ow." "That's better." "I'm...not done yet," Sombra coughed. "I've still got the Element and you can't...and there it goes." Sombra watched, unable to do anything, as the Element floated away from him and into the grasp of Silver, who, along with Tails, Applejack and Antoine, all walked up to join the princesses. "Give up Sombra. You've lost," Celestia spat. "Looks...like it," Sombra agreed. "But...I'll still laugh last. Because heaven...will avenge me..." "Heaven? Oh, trust me Sombra. The place that I'm about to send you to will make my fire...be soothing in comparison," Celestia snarled as she aimed her horn at him. But while everyone else watched with smiles at what was about to happen, Twilight wore a look of concern. Why was Sombra mentioning heaven so much, when he cared nothing for the afterlife? She turned her gaze to the sky...and that's when she saw it. "GET DOWN!" she roared. Using every last ounce of magic in her body, Twilight conjured a barrier of magic around all of her friends. Everyone else snapped their eyes to the sky in time to see a colossal space station fire a beam of energy right at them. In the brief moment they had, every one did something different. Celestia, Luna and Silver added their powers to Twilight's barrier, using all of their might to strengthen it. Tails grabbed the Element from Silver and placed himself between it and the beam. Antoine watched with awe...and never saw Sombra summon a portal of darkness under him. "And this is making a fool of me," Sombra said...right before he was tackled to the ground by Applejack. She had been the only one to not take her eyes off of Sombra and so she had seen what he had been doing. She had raced out from under the barrier and tackled into him, stopping his spell and saving Antoine. "You won't tear apart any more families today," she snarled. "I guess I won't...since you'll die in his place," Sombra laughed. Then he vanished into the darkness with a chuckle. "Thanks for volunteering to die." Applejack realized what he meant and time slowed as she turned to look at her friends. Twilight and her slowly locked eyes, with Twilight realizing that she couldn't do anything. Realizing what had just happened. By choosing to save Antoine...AJ had doomed herself. Applejack then smiled at her friend one last time. And then the entire Everfree Forest was wiped off the map in a colossal explosion of death.