Cadance took a firm step forward, focusing on the crystal lines that ran from her. "No further!" Brilliance burst free of her in all directions. Unlike the last time, she wasn't going for a simple demonstration. She put her all into it, the light brighter, sharper and stronger.
Guards touched by it became brilliant crystal. False guards shrieked in pain, becoming shadow once more. That their formation was riddled with them became all too obvious. The fighting resumed with a feverish pitch, but at least they could tell friend from foe.
Rainbow threw herself against the nearest shadow, darting around it in streaks of rainbows as she laughed and hooted, seemingly having quite the grand time in the great brawl. "You came to the wrong kingdom!"
"Invested," wearily announced Umbra, licking her lips and heaving to regain her balance. "Rarity, here."
Rarity took the gem in her own magic. "Darling, zaps are not really my 'thing'."
"It is now!" Umbra pointed at the gem. "Just put your magic in there and point it at what you want zapped. You are the zapper, born to zap!"
"I should hope not..." Still, she directed the gem at the closest nightmarish thing with too many eyes and far too many teeth. "Take that!" She focused her magic on the gem, trusting it to do... whatever it did.
It did not disappoint her, converting the given magic into the very specific spell imbued in it. Rarity could fire zaps as well as Twilight had been. "I say, this is... more fun than I thought it'd be." She began zapping shadowy figures with reckless abandon. "And you, and you. And especially you. That will never be in fashion, dear."
"Look out!" Umbra threw herself over Rarity just as a wave crashed against them, several shadow beings taking offense at being attacked. They were lost in darkness, but darkness was not as lonely a place for one of them. Umbra held Rarity tight even as she spun her about in her grip.
Rarity didn't need to be told, which was good since neither of them could hear anything. She might have said something, but it was lost. The gem heard it though, or felt her magic. Bright scorching energy began to slice through the bag of shadow around them, freeing them with a brilliant laser cut. "Ask a mare before you go doing that, really darling."
Umbra slid off Rarity, still panting for breath. "You alright?"
"Not only alright, but--" She zapped a shadowling scurrying past. "--having quite the time of it." She grinned with predator's teeth. "Let's turn this little fight around, shall we dears?"
Applejack took a firm step forward, glaring at what had been pretending to be her mom. Bits of shadow hung from the false mare's face, hooves looking like they were slipping from their legs through bursting seams. "Yer payin' fer that."
"I already did," taunted the haunting vision of the departed. "Thanks to you."
Applejack screamed in furious frustration, slamming a forehoof with all her weight behind it against the chest of the thing, sending it toppling backwards. "Don't put words in her mouth!"
She was back in the fight. Which Fluttershy had never joined, shying away from the conflict as best she could.
"A bystander?" asked an almost normal looking pony, save for it being devoid of colors as it approached her with a smarmy grin. "Aren't you in the wrong place?"
"Yes," squeaked out Fluttershy, face concealed by a curled leg. "Please leave me alone."
"Tempting..." The pony inclined his head. "I mean, you're tempting, not the leaving you alone part. No, no temptation there. But I'm not entirely unreasonable... What are you scared of most? I'll avoid that."
His confidence turned to startled pain as he was crashed into by brilliant magic. It wasn't Rarity. Twilight stood back on her hooves, wielder of the original zaps. "Leave Fluttershy alone!" She ran a hoof quickly through her frazzled mane. "Come on, girls. We got this! We have to have this. Celestia would--"
Three Celestias approached, disappointment etched on their faces.
Twilight zapped one without delay. "There's only one Celestia!" She shouted in defiance. There was but one sun in her world. Even the idea of multiple was alien to her mindset.
"Save terror for later," came a new voice, their leader ascending the stairs with a purposeful slowness. "Maim. Kill. Destroy their fight. We can torture what's left later."
Umbra scowled freshly at the new pony. She knew that one. "You!"
"Hm? Oh." Dry Fear rolled his eyes as if spotting a bratty younger sister. "I gave you a chance, several even. Sit down and die like a good little shadow witch."
"Hnng." Shining staggered back, several bleeding wounds where shadowy teeth and claws had found him. "Don't give up!"
Dry glanced over. "On the contrary, giving up is an excellent idea. Are you their le--"
Umbra jumped forward between them. "You'll have to get through me first!"
"With pleasure." He smiled, but it didn't become fangs. The rest of him did, his entire form becoming countless gnashing teeth. "Let's dance."
Cadance clenched her teeth, trying to project more crystal energy, but the heart wasn't in the right place, nor were the people of the empire especially cheerful. Bright light was in short supply with howling darkness just outside the door and upon them, attacking. She could not radiate the hope of the crystal heart.
"And that!" Rarity directed her beams at shadow ponies that were coming towards her. "And that!" Each blast seemed to blast a hole through them, but they kept coming anyway. "Stop right there!" No matter how quickly she fired, they were coming closer, grinning. So many grins. So many teeth. Dirty teeth. "Stop!"
Applejack twisted as she jumped, landing an uppercut into the malformed jaw of one her own attackers. "Get back!" She didn't have time to enjoy the little victory, planting her fore legs as she lashed out her hooves, catching another just about to leap on her with a satisfying thump. "Ain't gettin' me so easy!"
Pinkie drew in her canon. "Desperate times." With a great bang of confetti, several dark figures were blown away from her, but there were so many more rushing in to take their place. Her cannon was many things; rapid firing not being one of them. Combat was like a party, sorta... Not a fun kind of party. She ducked back and away, to spring out across the room, splattering the 'face' of an attacker with a cream pie she hadn't been holding before.
Umbra's eyes flared with shadowy power as she clashed with Dry, the two sparring in their own way. She kept trying to punch and kick, and he to get his teeth into her delicate flesh. Neither was having an easy time of it. His teeth scraped, but the instant they began to cut, she became nothing but shadow it passed through, allowing her to materialize behind him and slam her hooves down on him, but he was just as capable of flowing away in shadow.
Small injuries, but never a telling blow for either of them. "I will give you the slightest credit. You are shadow. A pity you waste it." He was upon her, teeth and hooves vying for dominance.
Her fighting was slowed. She could feel the pain and fatigue of Shining Armor, doing his best to fight on despite the crumbling nature of things. Cadance was alright, no pain from there, just exertion. What was she doing? Umbra couldn't tell, her attention on Dry.
"Stop!" Twilight tried a new spell, power rushing away from her, trying to halt everything. She was not yet nearly trained enough at that point. There was a pause, but it was only for a brief moment before her grip slipped. Ponies stumbled, shadow or not, from the jerk, but the tide of the battle was not swayed.
"Umbra."
Umbra perked an ear. That was a familiar voice. A good one! "Umbra," repeated what sounded like Cadance. "We're in a bad spot. I think it's your turn."
"I'm already fighting." She ducked under a wave of teeth, scurrying to the other side of Dry. "Doing my best!"
"I know you are, I know you are! I reflect hope, which we are not feeling right now. Umbra, time to show what I taught you." The voice faded. Umbra could feel Cadance listing to the side against something. Whatever she had done took a lot out of her.
What was the dark shadow of hope, that could lead them to victory?
"In the darkest hour," she shouted. "In the dimmest time, the most desperate beating of your hearts. You are not alone. When hope betrays you... It is time to call upon something deeper. Something primal!" With the last word, the power burst from her horn and eyes, new vigor rushing into her, and from her. "I present to you, grim determination!" Darkness pulsed from her, purple with green marbling washing from the room in a powerful crash.
Unlike Cadance, who had to work against the darkness overwhelming them from all ends, Umbra was powered by it. Her form was wreathed in crackling shadow as she grew, becoming in reality what could before only be seen in shadow sight. "We will fight," she roared at Dry, looming over him. "And we will not surrender."
Ponies it touched were not made into brilliant crystal. Their eyes hardened and their hooves erupted in jagged crystals, sharing the colors of shadow magic. Tears did not stop, if they were falling, making for a contrast as faces filled with that dread determination still shed them as they faced their enemies with renewed spirit. Lips peeled back, baring flat horse teeth in a communal equine display.
"You call on shadow?" boomed Dry in defiance, swelling to match her quickly. "You dip your hooves in. We are shadow. Pale mockery. We will rip you all asunder. You will beg for the end." The two clashed, leaders of the battle. Shadowy magic met gnashing teeth and beating wings. He had those, strange bulbous wings that could crush bones with their heavy movements. Were Umbra not fully empowered, at least. As she was, they were solid but bearable thumps that she returned in kind, driving her horn into dark flesh as they screamed at one another.
The hallway was a riot of renewed battle. Guards found their crystal-clad hooves could reliably land blows on the shadowlings, even when they tried to flow past them. The determination did nothing to abate the pain of their injuries, many they were, but they pressed on despite them. They did not feel elated, they felt coolly stubborn. They would not give in. They would not yield.
That did not mean the forces of shadow were surrendering. Attempts at intimidation were set aside. Fear was proving an ineffective weapon, so violence was called for. To cut, to pierce, to break and batter. These were tools just as fresh in their employ as to taunt and belittle. Not that this stopped them from doing exactly that when a defender succumbed, legs simply unable to hold them up.
"The first," called one.
"But not the last," finished another.
Pinkie threw her mane. It was not fluffy. It did not bounce. There was no smile on her face. A straight carpet that ran down on all sides. "You have picked on the wrong pony," promised Pinkamena Diane Pie. Her eyes flashed, bits of crystal erupting from the corners with her snarl. "You ruined it." She jumped upon the nearest shadow ponies with a fury quite unlike the typical Pinkie. The shadow gift had matched with the dark speck already within her, the fear of losing her friendship, of being outcast and alone. She could survive, but if she was the only one, would that even be better?
She crushed two of their heads together with a wordless howl of rage, furious sorrow welling up in her as never it had before.