Deep in the heart of the Frozen North, far from any civilization, and connected via a singular rail line sits a gigantic light-blue dome of love magic that houses an empire, but not just any empire, a crystal empire. Smack dab in the middle of the dome is a castle made of light-blue crystal that sits on four legs, which hold the body of the castle, like the throne room, guest rooms, royal rooms, library, etc, etc. Two large towers stand tall on the outer edges, connecting to two thinner ones that connect to the main spire of the castle. Behind the castle sits a short, cylindrical building with a snowflake on its roof, and a bridge connects the side of it to the back of the castle. Around them are various buildings made of red, blue, or purple crystals, trees, and foliage dotting the space between them. The roads intersecting the city create a massive snowflake if seen from above, the center placed underneath the castle. This is the home of the Princess of Love, Cadance, her family, and her subjects, the Crystal Ponies. Now, they aren’t your usual pony, because these ponies have the power of the artifact that protects them from the northern winds, the Crystal Heart. Its magic is infused within their wellsprings, giving their coats a crystalline appearance and making them as hard as diamonds.
There is one strange thing about the empire, though. You won’t see any unicorns trotting around or pegasi flying about the city. Thousands of years ago, when King Sombra had taken over, he had viewed them as a threat to his rule, so he ordered his mind-controlled troops to exterminate all of them. Even after the return of the Empire and Sombra’s eventual defeat, none of the newborn foals had wings or a horn, and it’s feared that Crystal Unicorns and Pegasi are truly extinct, a relic from the past. But there’s still hope, and since genetics can be wildly unpredictable (see Flurry Heart), the possibility that they could come back was still out there. They just had to get lucky.
The city had been enjoying a time of peace for a while, but it always comes to a screeching halt sooner or later. In one of the outer intersections, a golden light flashes into existence, depositing Team Magic on the crystalline road. A few crystal ponies trotting nearby were startled by the sudden appearance of the team, but they continue with their day as if nothing had happened. Twilight looks around, easily spotting the castle in the distance before turning to the guards.
“Okay, why don’t you go and patrol the city for any signs of the storm?” She asks. “I’ll go to Princess Cadance and ask for her help dealing with this while you do that.”
The guards nod, splitting into teams of five and going in different directions. Nodding to herself, Twilight opens her wings, relishing in the feeling of the air reaching her feathers as Pegasus magic flows from her wellspring and through them and her body, making her much lighter. With a powerful flap, she launches into the air and glides for a moment before flapping her wings once more to propel herself forward.
A few minutes of flying later, Twilight reaches the castle and lands on the underside of the castle, which houses the Crystal Heart. Still shining as bright as ever, the Heart gives off a light blue glow, bathing Twilight in rays of love and harmony. She noted that Cadance had been doing a great job tending to the empire, smiling as she gazes out to the shield that surrounds the empire. Her smile falters for a moment as she hopes that it will be able to hold back the looming threat. Shaking her head, she heads to one of the legs and ascends the stairs.
Twilight navigates the expanse of the castle, finding her way to the throne room after one or two wrong turns. Once she finds the double doors that lead to the throne room, goes to open them with her magic, but stops halfway through casting. She instead opts to open just one with her hoof, channeling a small amount of earth pony magic through it. The door slides open with ease, not making a sound on its well-oiled hinges. Despite there being no noise, it still catches the attention of the ones by the crystalline throne at the other end of the room. Princess Cadance’s face lights up when she spots Twilight, abruptly ending the conversation she was having with one of the staff before leaping off her throne and making a beeline for her fellow princess and best friend.
“Twilight!” She exclaims, bringing her in for a tight hug. When they separate, no words were needed for them to reenact their special dance from their filly-sitting days.
Sunshine, sunshine,
Ladybugs awake!
Clap your hooves
And do a little shake!
Giggling, they embrace again, happy to see one another. “Twilight, it’s so good to see you!” Cadance says, pulling away from the hug. “What brings you out here?”
She doesn’t get the chance to answer as she’s pulled into a side hug from her brother, Shining Armor. “Twily! I’ve missed you, kid! How’s my LSBFF and the family doing?”
“We’ve been doing great, BBBFF!” Twilight giggles, returning the hug. She then notices two other ponies trotting up behind them, and she releases her brother to greet them.
“Sunburst!” Twilight smiles. “It’s good to see you! How have things been as the crystaller? And how’s my favorite niece doing?”
She catches the barreling ball of light pink and magenta in her hooves, easily stopping her niece from knocking her over with a little bit of earth pony magic. “Auntie!” Flurry Heart squeals, nuzzling her aunt’s chest and giving her a bone-crushing hug that would cripple any non-alicorn.
“Well, aside from the occasional magic burst from Flurry here,” Sunburst gestures to the alicorn filly in Twilight’s grasp. “Things have been pretty quiet lately.”
“Hehe, I can imagine,” Twilight giggles, booping her niece’s nose, enticing a giggle from her as she boops Twilight back. Memories of past sitting expeditions bubbled up, reminding Twilight how much of a hassle Flurry could be at times. “I’m impressed you’ve lasted this long with her.”
“I surprise myself and her parents every day,” Sunburst proudly says, putting a hoof on his chest. He then notices something, looking behind the purple alicorn for something. “By the way, where are your friends and husband? Aren’t they usually with you?”
“Ah, I almost forgot,” Twilight grimaces, activating her magic to levitate Flurry onto her back. Once she’s sure her passenger is secured, she turns to Cadance. “As much as I wish it was, this isn’t a friendly visit.”
“Then what are you here for then?” Cadance asks, her happy demeanor quickly replaced with growing concern.
“Equestria is under attack,” Twilight reveals. Looking out a nearby window, she tries to see if something had changed in the few minutes that she was here - no such luck. “There’s a new threat that’s threatening to destroy it.”
“New threat?” Cadance repeats, her eyes widening in shock. “Then how come we haven’t been informed by Auntie Celestia of this?”
“This literally came up four hours ago,” Twilight sighs. “And she probably thought it would be better that I tell you in pony than through a letter since I was sent here with a contingent of guards.”
“Guards?!” Shining exclaims. “Twily, you’re gonna have to back up and explain a few things. Why are you here with guards?”
“Well, it started back in Ponyville, when purple clouds rolled in from the north…”
“… and that’s pretty much everything.” finishes Twilight. She’s met with two types of silence, shocked silence from Cadance, Shining, and Sunburst, and awed silence from Flurry.
The first to break out of their stupor is Cadance. “So… there are multiple storms across Equestria that are threatening to corrupt it with acid rain and summon Storm Creatures…”
Shining joins in next. “They’re being controlled by a giant monster, and the only way to stop them is with Pegasi, Thestrals, and cloud-busting spells…”
Sunburst finishes their train of thought. “And you were told this by this ‘human’ from another world that just so happens to know where it came from and how to stop it.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Twilight shrugs, and she realizes something. “Yeah, it does sound crazy when you think about it.”
“I never would’ve believed it if it hadn’t come from you,” Shining says, shaking his head. “Storm Creatures? Acid rain? Humans? This all sounds like something straight out of a comic book.”
“I’m guessing you’re gonna need some help to stop this, right?” Sunburst asks.
“Definitely,” Twilight nods, looking back out the window. “From what Real said about these things and his ‘personal’ experience with them, I’ll need all the help I can get.” She looks back at her brother and sister-in-law. “You guys up for the challenge?”
“More than ready,” Says Cadance, a fire blazing to life in her eyes as she grins. “I have been itching for a change of pace from all this diplomacy for a while now, and this is exactly what I need!”
“You know I won’t leave Equestria hanging,” Shining says, thumping a hoof against her chest. “Just tell us what to do.”
Twilight smiles and nods. “First we got to find where the storm is. I’ve already sent the guards that came with me to scout the empire for any traces of it. Once we do, I’ll need all the firepower I can get in case things get out of hoof.”
“You’re in luck, Twily,” Shining chuckles. “A batch of unicorns and Pegasi were sent over recently from Canterlot to add variety to the guards we have. I can have the pegasi help with the patrols, and the unicorns can lend you the firepower you’ll need, though I’m not sure if they have cloud-busting spells under their belts.”
“That doesn’t matter so long as we have the help we can get,” Twilight says. A tap on her shoulder catches her attention, and she cranes her neck around to see Flurry grinning excitedly on her back.
“Can I help?” She asks, stars in her eyes as she bounces on Twilight’s back. “I wanna help you!”
“I’m sorry, Flurry,” Cadance says, nuzzling her daughter’s cheek before levitating her off Twilight’s back. “This’ll be too dangerous for you, so I want you to stay with Sunburst until this is over.”
“Awww,” Flurry whines, crossing her hooves and puffing her cheeks. “You never let me do anything.”
“Maybe when you get a little older and more responsible, you can have your own adventures,” Shining says, hugging the young alicorn. “Just not yet though. Now you go with Sunburst, alright?”
“Okay, Daddy,” Flurry sighs, trotting to Sunburst’s side, crestfallen.
Twilight giggles, holding a hoof to her muzzle to hold her mirth back before returning her attention to Cadance and Shining. “I don’t know when the Storm will come, but we’ll need to be ready for it when it -”
A loud rumble shakes the castle’s foundations, nearly knocking everypony off balance. It lasts a few seconds before stopping, ending as fast as it had started.
“Woah!” Shining exclaims, quickly regaining his balance. “What was that?!”
Looking out the window, Twilight spots a giant purple storm hammering against the light-blue shield of the empire and easily pushing aside the white clouds of the Frozen North. She gasps as her pupils shrink, and she
“It’s here,” She says, whipping her head around. “It’s already here!” Flaring her wings, Twilight takes off towards the double doors of the throne room.
“Sunburst, take Flurry and get her someplace safe!” Orders Shining. Sunburst nods, and Flurry follows him out of the throne room via a hidden hatch behind the throne. Then Cadance and Shining take off after Twilight, catching up with her just as she exits the castle and screeches to a stop just outside the west side of the castle’s underside.
“Twily! Wait up!” Shining exclaims, sliding to a stop next to his younger sister. “What do you mean it’s already here? Do you mean it’s that storm you were talking about earlier?”
“Yes!” Twilight grimly nods, concentrating her mana into her eyes to zoom in on the storm. She sees lighting striking the snow and summon the towers from before. She also spots a few of her guards by the shield, each one ready to attack if anything got through. Stopping the flow of mana to her eyes, she turns to Shining. “I thought we had more time to prepare, but I guess that’s not an option anymore!”
“Twilight, is there anything we can help with?” Cadance asks as she lands beside her.
“Yeah,” She nods, grinning. “Cadance, you want to help with the frontal assault?”
“Gladly!” She grins, her eyes gleaming menacingly as her magic flares from her horn. Giggling, Twilight faces her brother.
“Shining, we’re going to need all the help we can get to stop this!” She says. “Round up those pegasi and unicorns you said you had, and then gather up the guards that came with me!”
“You got it, Twily!” Shining says, saluting. “I’ll get some unicorns to help as well,” He gives Cadance a quick peck on the lips before hugging Twilight. “Good luck out there you two! Kick some flank for me!”
“You got it!” Cadance says, flaring her wings. Twilight follows suit, and the two alicorns launch themselves into the air. As they fly, they bring along of few of Twilight’s guards, saving Shining some of the effort of corralling them. They make the trip to the edge of the empire in a few seconds, and what lies beyond the shield shocks them. Twilight couldn’t see it from the castle, but the snow had completely melted away due to the acid rain and was now eating away at the earth below. Thousands of Storm Creatures were pounding on the shield, and more were being summoned by the hundreds of towers, making the situation look much worse than before.
“That is a lot of bad guys,” Cadance says, stating the obvious as she lands. “Where the hay are they coming from? It’s like they’re never-ending!”
“It’s those towers behind them,” Twilight says, pointing to the towers of purple cubes. “They keep creating more and more of them until they shatter, but considering how many of them there are, we may have a problem dealing with them.”
“So we first need to take the towers out, right?” Cadance muses.
“Yes,” Twilight nods. “We also need to take out the Storm too, but once the towers are gone, it’ll be much easier to deal with the rest of them. I just hope the shield will hold.”
“It will,” Cadance smiles, and turns to the guards currently present, “Is everypony ready?”
They nod, taking to the air or pushing mana through their horns as they ready cloud-busting spells.
“Get ready to go through -” Cadance taps into the Crystal Heart, immensely increasing her power as her horn and Cutie Mark glow brightly. Twilight flares her wings, focusing magic into her legs and wings for a powerful launch, and her horn glows with arcane power as she readies herself to cast at a moment’s notice. Cadance then fires her pent-up magic through the shield, blowing away a good chunk of Storm Creatures and creating an opening in their ranks.
“- NOW!”
Twilight is the first to breach the shield, leaving her spot with explosive fury and creating a massive crater on launch. Soaring over the wall of Storm Creatures, she spots a large cluster of towers and fires a massive mana beam that easily disintegrates them, leaving behind a deep trench in the already scarred earth. The Thestrals and Pegasi take to the sky and quickly get to work kicking and destroying the clouds. The unicorns stay behind the shield, providing cover fire while staying out of danger. Cadance concentrates on the Storm Creatures pounding on the shield, pushing a vast amount of mana through her horn to blast away a huge chunk of them. Once she was satisfied with the results, she stops the flow of mana and flies over to join Twilight. Both princesses fire a series of highly concentrated mana bolts at the towers, piercing and shattering them.
“The calvary has arrived!” The voice draws everypony’s attention to behind the unicorns, and they see Shining galloping towards them with the rest of Twilight’s guards and the unicorns and pegasi he mentioned. The pegasi easily number over a hundred at best, and once they join Twilight’s guards in the skies, they chew away at the Storm even faster than before. The unicorns join the others, splitting into two groups. One group consisted of unicorns that knew a cloud-busting spell, and the other helped thin out the crowd of Storm Creatures. Shining, on the other hoof, leaped over the unicorns, pulling out the swords on his sides with his magic to carve through dozens of Storm Creatures like a red-hot knife through melted butter as he draws closer to Cadance and Twilight.
Up in the skies, the white clouds of the north were quickly taking over the purple clouds of the storm, thanks to the efforts of the pegasi, Thestrals, and unicorns carving away at them. A few unfortunate flyers were hit, but it’s not as powerful as the lightning back in San Pelimine, so all it did was char them purple and give them a bad mane-day. Back with the royal family, they fought like a well-oiled machine, switching between downing the Creatures and shattering towers. Despite Shining being a unicorn, he easily kept up with his powerhouses of strength which were his sister and wife thanks to his mastery of swordsmanship and heavily improved wellspring. Light blue and magenta magic flies everywhere as spell after spell was cast, towers and Storm Creatures falling like dominos. Soon, only seven towers remained, and a couple dozen Storm Creatures are left of the horde that once clawed at the shield.
“We’ve got them in the ropes, troops!” Shining yells out, slicing through another foe. “We’re almost done! Keep it up!”
But the storm still had a trick up its cloud layer, and the remaining towers begin to glow bright pink as lightning arcs between the towers, forming a ring. Twilight is out on edge by this, and she yells out to Cadance, currently in rapid-fire mode.
“Cadance!” Twilight shouts, flying up to her sister-in-law. “Something is going on with the remaining towers! I think we need to head back!”
“Okay, just give me a second to cool down,” Cadance winces as she points to her horn, which is red hot and smoking from overheating. How a horn can overheat due to the rapid use of magic, I don’t know. I think it might just be Cadance. Luckily it cools off pretty fast, so there’s no risk of damage unless she kept using it. “Alright, let’s go!”
They then notice that the remaining parts of the storm had converged over the ring of towers. The whole cloud lights up like a Hearths Warming tree as lightning wells up at the bottom before crashing down as a single giga-bolt. The bolt tears up the dead ground and creates a dome of pink electricity. The dome engulfs the towers and electricity arcs off the outside towards the Storm Creatures. The lightning strikes every last one, destroying them and turning them back into energy.
“It’s attacking them?” Twilight wonders, confused by what she was happening.
“It’s not attacking them…” Cadance says, narrowing her eyes. The pink lightning then starts to pull back towards the ring, drawing the extra power back with it as it reverts the Storm Creatures one by one.
“… it’s absorbing them!” She gasps and turns to her husband. “Shining! Tell everypony to fall back! Something’s happening with the Storm!”
He nods and turns the flyers. “Everypony, fall back!” He shouts, igniting his horn. “I’ll cover you, now go!”
The dome draws the last of the energy back, causing the towers to go dark and crack apart. The dome then rises into the air, taking the remnants of the towers with it. It then shrinks, bringing the shards closer and absorbing them into the plasma orb as it pulses. It pulses two more times before exploding violently.
Seeing that they weren’t going to make it back to the shield in time, Shining jumps in front of his sister and wife to cast his own. The alicorns join in as well, strengthening the spell so it didn’t shatter. Despite this, they still felt the strain on the shield, which translated back to their horns. They manage to hold out long enough for the shockwave to pass them before they’re forced to drop it.
"Urgh," Twilight mutters, rubbing the base of her horn. "That hurt. Shiny, Cadance, are you alright?”
"Kind of," Cadance winces. “I haven’t felt a backlash like that in years. Now I remember why I hated it.”
“I’ve had worse,” Shining groans, holding his head in his hooves. “But this one is contending for the top five.”
A clap of thunder draws their attention to the orb of plasma. The glowing sphere shrinks to reveal a figure that everypony knew and hated. Sombra. But unlike his previous returns, he was different. Hot pink crystals protrude at points of his body, two on his shoulders, one on each of his flanks, and one in his chest, lightning arcing between them. His eyes glow bright green, and a deep purple mist coming from the corners. His red horn is now colored in hues of pink and purple, as well as the coat he wears at all times.
“Sombra?!” Twilight exclaims, reeling back. “I thought my friends and I destroyed you years ago! How are you back?!”
The dark king glares at the young alicorn, his eyes glowing bright green. Lightning arcs sparking across his body, as he opens his mouth and roars in pure unadulterated rage at Twilight and Cadance, blasting them with gusts of wind.
“I’m not sure if that’s actually Sombra,” Shining frowns, and turns to the alicorns. “But on the off chance it is, I think I’ll leave this to you two.”
“I thought you were my knight in Shining Armor?” Cadance teases. “Aren’t you supposed to fight my battles for me?”
“Yeah, but I know when I’m out of my league,” He says, shrugging. “I’ll head back with the unicorns and provide cover fire. Oh, and one more thing-” His expression turns serious. “-kick his flank for me, will ya? I never got payback for turning my horn into a glorified ornament the first time we met.”
“Gladly,” Cadance giggles. Shining kisses her and quickly hugs Twilight before galloping inside the empire, leaving the two alicorns behind to defend it. The Princess of Love turns to the Princess of Friendship.“You ready?”
“I was born ready,” Twilight grins, her horn alight with magic. “Let’s make sure the false king doesn’t come back again.”
“Oh yeah,” Cadance chuckles, flaring her wings and magic. “Let’s get him, girl!”
On cue, Sombra lets out an earth-shattering roar and turns into a cloud of deep purple smoke, his head being the only thing visible. When he flies at them, Twilight and Cadance fire mana bolts at the cloud, but it just opens up to let them pass through harmlessly before closing up. Sombra then materializes and fires his attack, a beam of black magic infused with lightning. Twilight fires another bolt to counter it, and Cadance fires one at his face.
The attack whips Sombra’s head to the side, and he growls in pain as he flares at Cadance. Recovering quickly, he fires a massive beam of dark magic at her while the crystals on his left shoulder glow yellow. Twilight and Cadance combine their magic to reflect the attack at him, which hits his shoulder and shatters the crystals.
”RRRAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!”
Roaring in pain, Sombra fires a massive beam of dark magic and turns into clouds, slipping away from the duo.
“What just happened?” Cadance asks, taking a quick breather. “He just screamed and then disappeared.”
“I think we hit a weak spot,” Twilight deduces, standing behind Cadance as she keeps her guard up. “One of the crystal clusters on his body glowed yellow, and when we reflected his attack at him, that shattered it.”
“So we found a weak spot? That’s perfect! We just need to take the rest of them out and take him out for good!”
“Yes, but I think it only works when the crystals are glowing. Otherwise, I don’t think they can be damaged or shattered.”
“So we just wait for the chance to attack?” Cadance says, but she spots a problem with the plan. “Small problem, how will we distract him long enough to get it and shatter them?”
“We have them over there,” Twilight says, gesturing to Shining and the guards behind the shield. Shining couldn’t understand what they were saying, no thanks to how far apart they were, but he felt like they were going to need his and the guards’ help soon. “Now, we just need to wait for –“
Right as she says that Sombra rematerializes and charges at the princesses, his horn lowered to skewer one of them. They act fast and dodge, letting him collide with the shield. He howls in pain, the love that powered it tearing at his horn as he grips it. Twilight spots his right shoulder glowing and fires a quick burst of bolts, the last one destroying it. Roaring in pain again, Sombra whirls on the princesses, dark magic already charged up. He fires at Cadance, but it only tears at the ground where she was. She’d jumped clear moments before, and it gave Twilight the chance to come in and strike. This time, she channels pegasus magic through her wings and encases them in electricity before flicking them at Sombra. The lightning jumps from her feathers and strikes him head-on, and he roars in pain once again. Fed up with Twilight, Sombra readies his magic to tear into her, but he jolts to a stop when his limbs are encased in multiple magical auras.
Shining and the unicorns had encased Sombra in their magical grip, preventing him from moving and leaving him open for Twilight and Cadance to come on both sides. They slam their earth-infused hooves into the crystals on his flanks, shattering them and causing Sombra to spasm from the pain. He releases a shockwave that pushes them back, but it’s not powerful enough to do anything besides make them twitch slightly.
“We’re almost there!” Twilight shouts, eyeing the final crystal as she charges her magic for one final attack. “Just one more and then -!”
RRRAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!
Sombra unleashes a blood-curdling roar that would send even the most terrifying demons of Tartarus cowering, and a massive aura explodes from him as he enters his Storm Frenzy form, making him much faster and deadlier than before. The stubs of crystals around his body had moved to his sides, and protruding from them were wings made of pure plasma. Dark magic created the jagged skeleton of his wings, holding the plasma in place and stopping it from going all over the place. His horn was lengthened considerably, a low hum emanating from it. His eyes are completely blanked out, dark magic filling them and spilling out the sides.
“That can’t be good,” Twilight gulps, her ears flat against her head.
“We’ll have to take this carefully,” Cadance grimaces, “If we don’t, he might get the – huh?!”
Sombra is already gone, shocking them as they look around frantically.
“Where did he go?!” Cadance exclaims, desperately trying to find where Sombra went. Her answer isn’t what she expected as an electric hoof slams into her jaw and sends her flying into the shield, knocking the air out of her.
“Cadance!” Twilight shouts, shocked by the speed of the attack and scared that Cadence had gotten hurt. Whipping her head around, she searches for Sombra, her eyes darting back and forth for any trace of him.
“You may be fast, but I’ve seen faster…” She mutters. Focusing on her wellspring, she pulls from the crystal magic and spreads it across her body. Her coat turns crystalline as her defense skyrockets, and she then pushes earth magic through her hooves. She charges a mana bolt while coating it in pegasus magic to increase its speed. “I’ve been around speedsters for years, so my eyes have adjusted to accommodate for their insane speed. Now if I could only…” Twilight spots a blur of pink and black out of the corner of her eye. “…there!”
Twilight fires the bolt at a seemingly empty spot, but she planned for this. Right as it seems like she missed, Sombra appears in front of the bolt and is taken by surprise. The bolt knocks him down, and Twilight jumps over to him. She raises her hind leg and slams it into Sombra’s head, burying it further into the ground. Flipping back to her hooves, Twilight then uses this chance to rush over to her sister-in-law.
“Cadance, are you alright?!” She exclaims, hugging her and checking for any visible injuries.
Cadance coughs hard as she tries to draw air back into her lungs. “J-just got the air knocked out of me, that’s all.”
Twilight sighs in relief and helps her get back on her hooves. “Can you still go on?”
“I had the air knocked out of me, not a hole punched through me,” Cadance chuckles, taking a deep breath before shaking her head. “I can keep going.”
“Good,” Twilight smiles, and sees Sombra pulling his head out of the ground from the corner of her eye. “Now let’s get him! Together!”
Cadance nods, and charges in tandem with Twilight, each reeling a hoof back. Getting close enough, they slam their hooves into Sombra’s unsuspecting face with devastating force, their earth pony magic adding the extra oomph behind it to send him flying. Twilight flies ahead and intercepts his flight path with an aerial buck to his gut, rocketing him back to Cadance. She uppercuts him back into the air, dazing him in the process. Twilight and Cadance then fly up above him, and just as gravity starts to take him back down, they take a page from Sonic’s book and use a double one-legged Stomp. They bury their hind legs into Sombra’s torso, and the impact from the ground makes him spit up blood. The princesses jump back and ready their magic for an all-out attack to destroy Sombra for good.
Having had enough, Sombra gathers all of his power into his horn as he slowly gets up. His hatred for the two is enough for him to push past the pain in his gut and stand up. Gritting his teeth, he fires at the same time as Twilight and Cadance.
Their attacks collide halfway, struggling against each other for a few seconds, but Sombra’s rage gives him more power and he overpowers Twilight and Cadance. His attack hits with devastating force, detonating and sending them into the shield, leaving them recoiling from the impact. It also left them wide open, and Sombra saw this. Grinning evilly, he charges a huge ball of dark magic and plasma, aiming to destroy the princesses. But before he can fire the beam, a young voice shouts from above them.
“Leave my mommy and auntie alone!” A giant golden blast of highly concentrated magic consumes Sombra entirely, making him lose his concentration on the attack and causing it to detonate in his face. He screams in pain as his magic and the golden one wreak havoc on his body. Everypony looks up to see a very mad Flurry Heart hovering above them, her horn smoking from the attack.
“FLURRY?!” Cadance shouts, surprised to see her daughter outside out on the battlefield and not with Sunburst. “What are you doing here?!”
“Mommy! Auntie!” Flurry exclaims, diving down to her mother. She tackles Cadance, nuzzling her mother’s neck as she hugs it. “You’re okay!”
“Sweetie, what are you doing here?!” Cadance asks again, hugging her daughter tightly. “It’s too dangerous for you out here! Why aren’t you with Sunburst?!”
“I wanted to help you!” Flurry says, looking up with a proud grin on her face. “So I snuck away to help!”
“…we’re having a talk when this is over, sweetie,” Cadance deadpans, causing Flurry to laugh nervously.
“Well, you can’t deny that she did help,” Twilight giggles, petting her niece’s head. “And we do need all the help we can get!”
“That’s true, but…” She’s cut off by a roar of frustration from Sombra. He’d almost recovered from Flurry’s attack, but he was hurt. His wings are shaking, and his horn is dimmer than before.
“Whatever Flurry did, it looks like it really hurt him,” Twilight notes, eyeing Sombra’s quivering wings. “Maybe we’re using the wrong kind of magic.”
“What do you mean?” Cadance wonders. She knows that when Twilight gets thinking about something, she always finds an answer.
“Sombra’s using dark magic right?” Twilight asks but in a rhetorical way. “After Flurry just hit him with the purest form of light magic I’ve seen I’ve ever seen, he’s struggling to keep it together. Since he’s using the dark magic to keep that plasma from going all over the place, and we target that…”
“He’ll be too occupied keeping it under control to watch out for attacks!” Cadance finishes, quickly catching onto Twilight’s plan. “Twilight, you’re a genius! Flurry! Mom and auntie are going to need your help! Get ready to fire your biggest attack and stay with me until I say so, okay?”
“Okay!” Flurry squeals, latching onto the back of her mother’s neck. Flurry’s horn starts to glow, her magic growing as she charges. “Yay! I get to help!”
Sombra, now recovered, roars as he charges forward, and the alicorns let out battle cries. They split up, force Sombra to choose one or the other, so he goes for Twilight. Big mistake.
“Get him, Flurry!” Cadance shouts, and her daughter releases her magic. The golden beam cleanly slices through the radius of Sombra’s left wing, causing him to lose his balance and falter in the air. Twilight then charges at Sombra with a earth imbued hoof, and slams it into his jaw with a satisfying *CRACK*.
Sombra tumbles to a stop below, nursing his broken jaw as he glares at Twilight. He snaps it back into place and quickly reforms his left wing. Taking to the sky again, he launches himself at Cadance and Flurry, seeing as the filly was the biggest threat here. He never gets close enough to even touch her.
In his haste, he forgot about Twilight, and she had got right up to him to deliver a bone-crushing haymaker to his muzzle, shattering his nose and bloodying it. He heavily reels from the attack, and once Twilight moves to the side, that gives Flurry the chance to fire a barrage of her magic.
Each blast destroys a part of the dark magic that was holding his wings together, letting it fly off to who knows where. Having lost his ability to fly and unable to concentrate on regrowing them, Sombra starts to fire blasts of dark magic and lightning at a faster rate, hoping that one of them would land. Twilight and Cadance easily evade them, since they didn't have a target. Their gazes lock for a moment, and they nod. Each alicorn disappears in a flash of their magic, which put Sombra on high alert. He whips around to try and catch one off guard, but each turn of his head is rewarded with nothing.
The sound of an exit teleport reaches her ears, so he readies his dark magic before whipping around, expecting to find Twilight or Cadance. But he turns to see all of them with their magic swirling through their horns and into three orbs of magic for one massive final attack. Sombra’s eyes widen in horror, realizing he had fallen for their trap. But before he can even react, the threesome releases it all.
“Now!” Twilight shouts, and all three alicorns each fire their magic, which entwines together to create a supermassive beam of gold, purple, and sky-blue magic. The beam is so huge that Sombra has no way to dodge the attack, and he can only watch as he’s consumed by it. Screaming in pain, the crystals on his chest shattering to pieces, instantly vaporized by the concentrated magic. With the last vestiges of his power now gone, Sombra is utterly destroyed, with not a trace left of him whatsoever. The magic detonates, whipping the wind everywhere and sending a shockwave that pushes the clouds of the Frozen North back to reveal the clear blue sky behind it.
Once the wind settles, the princesses let out a sigh of relief, happy that Sombra has been defeated once again and is no longer a threat to the Crystal Empire. Cadance and Twilight flop down on the ground, exhaustion quickly catching up to them as the adrenaline stops pumping. Flurry Heart is still full of it and is doing loop-de-loops and other aerial tricks.
“Whew… that was one doozy of a fight…” Twilight sighs, rolling onto her stomach. “But, I can kinda see why Tio and the boys like doing it.”
“You’re hanging out with them way too much,” Cadance giggles, picking herself up. Twilight playfully sticks her tongue out a blew a small raspberry at her former sitter. “Let’s head back to the castle. I think a long rest is in order after all of this.”
“Definitely,” Twilight says, stretching her back like how a cat would before standing. A whoop from her niece guides her gaze to the sky, who is still flying around. “Although I can’t say the same for Flurry though.”
“She has way too much energy for her age,” Cadance giggles, then calls out to her daughter. “Flurry, let’s head back inside!”
“Okay, Mommy!” Flurry says, finishing her last loop before gliding down to land on her mother’s back. “That was fun! Can we do that again?!”
The two adults laugh, and Twilight speaks up. “Maybe someday, Flurry!” She boops her niece on the nose, and Flurry scrunches her face up and looks at the offended appendage. “Maybe someday.”
Later that night, the snowstorm raging across the tundra had slowed to a light breeze, and the stars peek through the holes in the clouds. Farther up north, the famous phenomenon known as Aurora Borealis stretches for hundreds of miles across the sky, bathing the snowy landscape in wavy greens, blues, and purples. Not a sound can be heard, creating a beautiful silence that could calm many.
Crunching snow shatters the peaceful silence as a cloaked figure trudges across the plains of pure white. The figures’ trail of footsteps and overturned snow is well out of place compared to the flat expanse, but it cares not for that.
The figure suddenly stops and crouches, reaching an arm into the snow and sifting around for a moment before grabbing onto something. Pulling their arm out of the powdered ice, they hold a wicked-looking, curved, blood-red horn in their hand. The figure smiles, pulling his cloak open to place the severed inside a pocket.
“You will be useful for what I have planned.”