//------------------------------// // Episode 2 - The End of Canterlot // Story: EQUESTRIA: Last Light // by Unknown Tale //------------------------------// Minutes turned to hours as the group recouped from the previous battle. While some were trying to get some sleep for the long night, Kiara remained up, worried about her own home. The only thing which helped her take her mind off her problem was the ability to look around Twilight's lab. She found it interesting the young scientist was able to house an entire lab below Canterlot itself and use it for an emergency situation like the one they found themselves in. Then came the unnerving question. If they were looking for help, why did they turn to me? As it is, I know nothing of Canterlot nor do I know anything about this crazy world of talking ponies. As she pondered the thought process of Luna, Derpy, and Twilight, an alarm started to go off, waking the other ponies. "AAAAAAAH! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! EVERYPONY PANIC!!" yelled Pinkie, waking up from her slumber. Daring Dash immediately grabbed her and started slapping the pink pony rapidly. "Calm down!" she said. "We're not under attack! It's probably just a fire alarm." Candy re-entered the lab via portal as Kiara returned from looking at the weapons with Twilight. "Correction, Daring," the dark blue colt said, "we are still under siege, but by someone else now. I never thought he'd be as dangerous as he is now, but Sombra has indeed returned, and he JUST captured Celestia as we speak. We must head back to the Throne Room." Everyone but Kiara groaned at the mention of his name. "Who's Sombra?" she asked. "We will have time for questions later, Kiara," the colt answered. "Get your Gunblade back on and follow me." He went back through the portal as the others followed. "But-" Kiara tried to protest. "NOW," he said slightly poking his head out in anger. Kiara sighed annoyed she couldn't get any of her questions answered and just followed the others. Luna followed in hopes of comforting the young princess. Even she knew her questions were indeed important, but a lack of time might not let her get any answers she wants. Re-entering the throne room, the gang could see Celestia battered and bruised on the ground as Sombra laughed evilly. Kiara could piece together slightly that these two had a history with each other as she watched on. Sombra grinned lifting a sword made of smoke and pointing it at Celestia. "Finally," he said, "I have you right where I want you. Canterlot will fall one way or another, but now, you shall reveal to me the whereabouts of your all powerful Chi-Blade." Celestia looked at Sombra intensely. "Like hell I'd ever give it to you...! If you want it so badly, you're gonna have to kill me!" "Never say "Kill Me," in front of a cold-hearted killer like myself, because believe me... I WILL." Sombra prepared to stab Celestia straight into her heart, only to be parried by General Luna. Sombra was not taken off his guard knowing Luna is much weaker than him, but Luna was still able to disarm him temporarily to heal Celestia. "My faithful misfits," Celestia said to the group, "can you try to keep Sombra delayed for as long as you can? We must not let him take the Chi-Blade." "I will find it even if I have to tear your group apart piece by piece!" Sombra argued. Kiara could feel her inner predator side kicking in as she unsheathed her weapon once more. "We'll see who makes the last strike," Kiara replied as the others readied themselves. "Kiara," Candy then said. Kiara looked over at the colt. "Sombra is absolutely dangerous even at your current level. Follow my lead and don't try to do your own thing. None of this 'open spot in the middle' deal, okay?" "Got it." Although Kiara got it, Daring Dash ran straight in. "Daring, wait!" Candy said. Daring did manage to get the opening hit, but to Sombra, the attack felt like a needle barely scratched his armor. He casually kicked his legs out and sent the rainbow pony into the wall into a pile of extra suits of armor. She quietly got back up and said, "I'm okay!" Candy facehoofed as the others began to fight. He and Derpy lead the charge while Trixie hung back and relaxed through most of the fight. Sombra was able to take Pinkie and Daring down a peg immediately, only to be slapped around by the others. Candy got in front of Sombra and moved his katana behind himself as a spell circle appeared behind him. "Muffins, now!" He and Derpy shot a Blizzard spell from both sides of the king and froze him temporarily. Meanwhile, Princess Celestia ran deeper and deeper through Canterlot. Every time she thought she found a perfect hiding spot, a Changeling or one of Sombra's Underlings would spot her and force her to run further. She hoped the misfits would just hang on a little more as she continued running. Things were not looking so good for the team as Sombra broke free angrier than before. Trixie tried to paralyze the king with her Thunder, but all it caused was a small static shock. She was hit back slightly as Sombra focused on her. Candy took the chance to deal another hit only for him to be hit back too. Kiara was a bit surprised Sombra was able to take everything like it was nothing, but that just increased her will to want to erase him from existence. Candy nodded. "Now. Do something crazy." Kiara felt the blade become lighter for a brief moment as she slashed Sombra. The king could feel his entire suit of armor become rattled by the hit. "What is this power? I never felt anything like it!" the king said in shock. "Well feel this!" Kiara responded, slashing six more times in rapid succession. Sombra had no chance to react as each blow stunned him. Suddenly the gunblade glowed a light blue as Kiara prepared one more blow, spinning the blade three times before slicing through Sombra like he was butter. An explosion of magic engulfed Sombra before he was taken to the ground. Still, it was weak enough for him to get back up as he turned angrily to Kiara. Kiara turned her head toward Sombra slowly at the same time he got back up. "You still want more, you bastard?" At the same time, Celestia finally found a good hiding spot for the Chi-Blade and started performing a spell hiding it within the castle walls. However, something in the shadows was casting a magic spell of their own to try and cancel it out. Celestia tried as hard as she could to make the spell work, but instead, the spell started to go amok outside of anyone's control, and the Chi-Blade wasn't able to handle any further magic pressure. It began to crack multiple times before shattering and being sent all across Equestria. Celestia panicked knowing what this meant, and she had to head back to the throne room and warn the others. The shadowy being grinned and vanished without a trace it was there. It was already too late, however. Before the six misfits and Luna could continue their battle with Sombra, the ground began to shake. Everyone, including the king, was surprised at what was going on. "What's happening!?" asked Candy. "Don't ask me," Sombra answered. "I'm just as perplexed as you, pony." Outside, the generators in Cloudsdale began to fail as it began to fall out of the sky. Derpy, Candy, and Daring Dash were forced to pull back and help the pegasi keep it from hitting the ground. Knowing the battle was lost for him with the Chi-Blade no longer together, and the others distracted by the chaos, Sombra fled and made a daring escape. Meanwhile, volcanoes started to erupt, oceans began drying up, air became thin in various places, eternal winters became more prevalent in the North, and forests began to darken more than they had before, leaving the creatures in a literal eternal night. Luna and Kiara helped Trixie and Pinkie get up after seeing the devastation of the land and started to help them out of the castle. It was only a matter of minutes before they were trapped and crushed by the weight giving way above. With everything fleeing Canterlot Castle, Kiara, Luna, and Celestia managed to evacuate Trixie, Pinkie, and Twilight out of the castle. Twilight wailed about her science equipment there about to get permanently destroyed, but everyone's lives were in danger at the moment, when all at once as they escaped the castle, it fell down all at once, leaving nothing but ruins and dust as the gang all took cover. Candy, Derpy, and Daring arrived a couple minutes after. "Princess Celestia!!" Derpy called out. "Kiara, where are you!?" Daring also called out. Kiara was the first to arrive, rising from the debris, coughing from the dust irritating her throat. "We're alive, somehow..." Celestia and Luna got up as well stretching their wings out as Twilight and Pinkie were badly damaged. Trixie walked over to Kiara and helped her up. "Some more than others, but even this destruction won't stop Trixie," the magician added. "Is Cloudsdale alright?" Luna asked Candy. "Temporarily," he said. "Our levitation magic can't keep the clouds up there any longer than 48 hours. It'll be a matter of time before Equestria is screwed." "I think it's completely screwed already as it is," Kiara replied. "Look at what happened to the castle." "What the hell happened?" Candy asked. "I was trying to hide the Chi-Blade," Celestia explained even though she didn't know the root cause herself. "I thought I found the best place to hide it, but... as I casted the spell it broke apart... It was my fault in the end." "It's only an accident, your majesty," Candy interjected. "Accidents do happen." "Well this accident sure has quite a few implications..." said Kiara walking over to Candy. "With Twilight's Lab wrecked, Daring and I can't get back to our homes. Simba, Nala, and Kovu are going to be so worried about me." Candy sighed. "I know. None of us can go back, not until this is all fixed. Even my own portal magic got cut off thanks to Equestria getting ass gouged. We need a way to stop this widespread havoc, and fast, otherwise it won't be the planet being the only one getting bamboozled." "Damn it, where CAN we go from here? Surely they'll find us anywhere we hide out at!" "Not everywhere, and for the love of god don't call me Shirley, Kiara." "I wasn't." Candy pointed down at Ponyville. "You see that little town that was left untouched?" "That's Ponyville," Derpy answered. "There is one place we can use in that town as a base, and it's the castle over at the edge of town. Rumor has it this place was gonna be used as someone's kingdom, but~" Luna sweated a bit knowing what Candy was talking about. "Hol' up," said Kiara. "Big, crystal castle, right on the edge of town, overlooking it all... Doesn't that sound like it's trying to beckon people toward it? I mean, look at it, it's even a giant middle finger coming out of the ground!" Candy took another look at it, not looking phased though concerned for Kiara's imagination. "That... bothers you?" "A little. It's just asking to be attacked, is all." "No one in their right mind would attack something like that with your logic, Kiara." Candy walked away toward Celestia and Twilight. "What...?" Kiara was legitimately confused, but tried to shake it off. Twilight came to, dazed still from all the destruction she and the group escaped from. "Are YOU alright though, Twilight?" Candy asked the purple pony. "I'm fine," she replied, "but all my research, my science, my everything is gone." "What about your other lab in Ponyville? We need to use it as our base for a while." "Guess we don't have much of a choice." She fell asleep on Candy as the others all agreed they should head to Ponyville and stop there for the night. Well, all except Kiara who was busy consulting the Kings of the Past on what to do, but even her grandfather stated the choice to head to Ponyville is right, and not to worry as the Pridelands will be fine even with her away for a while. Kiara joined the rest of the group and nodded, so they left for Ponyville immediately before someone else decided to attack them. Two to three hours by train was all the group needed to arrive in Ponyville. The locals weren't able to get much sleep from that night's events despite the town being mostly untouched. Arriving in town, Kiara decided to look around a bit before heading inside the castle, that way she can know who's who if she'll be staying for a while. Pinkie, Daring, and Derpy tagged along, while Candy and Trixie settled the princesses and their scientist down. The first place they visited was a candy shop owned by Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings. Although Pinkie was a worker at Sugarcube Corner, she mentioned she liked to visit them from time to time to see what the latest trending sweets are. When asked about her own sweets by the Lieutenant, Pinkie stated "They're Gourmet Candy." Next, they went to visit Applejack in Sweet Apple Acres. The apple family mentioned they weren't able to sleep due to all the tremors and even seeing clouds falling from the sky like it was the apocalypse. Although apples were their specialty, Applejack and Big Macintosh learned they were going to try and rebuild the Chi-Blade, so they introduced their side business in Weapon Smithing. If the group brought back various weapon parts to them, they would be able to make the team's weapons bigger and better than ever. Lastly, they arrived at the Carousel Boutique to meet with Rarity. Daring Dash stayed outside the shop while the others visited. Rarity mentioned it has been a long time since a lion ever visited Equestria, asking Kiara quite a few different questions about her story. Kiara mentioned to Rarity that she was engaged to another lion before she ended up in Equestria by force, and Rarity offered to make her a wedding gown free of charge, but any other accessories would cost extra. She also mentioned there was some rare materials she had ordered which never arrived before the world started to go kaput, and she asked the team to help retrieve some during their adventures. The gang met up with Candy, Luna, and Trixie in the map room of the castle after getting to know the locals and window shopping for a bit. Celestia joined them to give their primary goal. "My fellow friends," she said, "some intel from other lieutenants across Equestria have some intel on the possible Chi-Blade shard locations." "Where are they, Celestia?" inquired Derpy. "Their search indicates they're in the farthest corners of our country. The Dragon Lands, Cloudsdale, Yakyakistan, Klugetown, Seaquestria, and Everfree are our main targets." "We should probably go to Cloudsdale as soon as we can." "We can't," said Candy. "Half of us cannot really fly or teleport long distances. Pinkie may be a bat, but-" "I'm afraid of super high heights when flying on my own," Pinkie finished. "Then where can we go?" asked Kiara. "Are you saying we're practically grounded?" "We could take an airship over," Daring suggested. "I do have an airship we can use back at home." "Yes," Candy acknowledged, "but since the portal system is next to nothing right now, we can't bring it in." "I mean I could call my mom to-" "CAN'T, bring it in," Candy repeated with a sterner look. "Now, we may have an airship here, but it'll take all day tomorrow to get it ready to fly short distances. Since Everfree Forest is the closest for now, that's the place we have to head to first. I know all of you are probably tired though, and I can see by the looks on your faces, so I won't have you all overworked. Get some rest before the first sunrise. We begin our mission at 1100 hours." "What?" Kiara was a bit puzzled. "He means 11 AM," Trixie explained. "It's military time code, not exactly one thousand one hundred hours. We'd be dead by then." "Oh." "Now go," Candy instructed. "Get some rest." He yawned as he started walking away. "I need some sleep myself." "For an immortal you sure tire easily," Daring said before getting a pillow thrown at him by Candy. "Shut up and sleep." "Alright, alright..." The others found their rooms fairly easily and settled in for the night. As Kiara got into bed and wrapped the blankets over her body, all she could do was stare out the window at the stars and the moon. Things seemed bleak for her coming back home, and consequently Equestria being able to sustain itself with what she has seen so far on her first night. Her eyes eventually started to close giving into their heaviness before eventually shutting entirely. Only the sound of the wind outside and the warmth of the bed was able to help her relax, the images of Sombra and Chrysalis probably haunting her for a bit before drifting off into her own little world in her head. To Be Continued...