Dust and debris fall onto the grassy lands, as the grainy clouds subside, Yuta stood among the wasteland unscathed, not even a speck of dirt had graced his shoulders. Looking around at the decimation, the once lush green hills and earth were now stained a dirty brown.
Right now that was the least of his worries, pulling out Rainbow from the depths of Rika, Yuta checked on her condition, he sighed a sigh of relief when he saw that the still ever-feisty mare hadn't suffered any major injuries other than the ones from the altercation with Usowamoto earlier on.
"What was that for!?" Rainbow screamed at the human. "I had... it..." The words were cut short in her throat when she had finally taken in the wasteland surroundings.
"A huge explosion went off in the distance," Yuta said pointing over the horizon.
Flapping her wings, Rainbow shot up into the skies and focused her sight over to the direction of the explosion, her expression quickly turned soured and horrified when she realised where the source came from.
"It came from Cloudsdale!!" Rainbow yelled below her.
Wasting no time, Yuta tossed his black blade to his side, cladding the weapon in cursed energy, it begin to float autonomously beside him. Hopping onto the weapon, the blade carried Yuta to Rainbow's side in the air with Rika behind him.
"We need to get back with Twilight and the rest!"
Prior to the fight between the four combatants, above the city of clouds, Twilight made her way through the air with great haste. Sweat still glistened on her fur from her own conflict moments ago. Peeling her eyes open, she tried to survey the areas close by for Yuta and his whereabouts while simultaneously killing any cursed spirits that she had happened to pass by.
Landing on a rooftop of a house, Twilight took a breather, but the mixed screams of masculine and feminine voices forced her to peer over the edge the check for the cause of the sound.
From what Twilight could see, it looks to be two pegasi ponies, a stallion and a mare, dressed in white coats, backpedaling from a lizard-shaped cursed spirit. Both looked to be bloodied and bruised, spreading her wings, she glided down towards the two. Her horn ignited in sparks of violet, as she casted the demon away with a wave of her head. A purple beam of magic vanquishing the curse from existence.
"P-princess?" The stallion inquired.
Twilight held up a hoof.
"No need to speak, my little ponies. Everything will be alright." Shining her horn, Twilight casted a light healing spell on the two, healing the broken wings and closing up some of their minor wounds. "It's a temporary healing spell, my students are on the edge of Cloudsdale over in that direction. Please make your way there as soon as possible, aid will be provided to you upon your arrival."
"B-but princess, this is urgent!" The mare cried. "King Sombra is back! He's running rampant in the Rainbow Factory!!"
Right as Twilight was about to open her mouth for a response, a strong sensation overtook her body. The sudden spike in the concentration of magic and cursed energy filled the air, and a heavy tremor shook the earth. Twilight deduced that it was an explosion judging by how unrefined the control of magic it was, and it was coming in the direction of the Rainbow Factory.
Linking the string of coincidence from recent news, she surmise that this should be the doing of King Sombra as the perpetrator who was behind it. But what the outcome was for she did not know, nor did she have the time to dwell on it.
"Get behind me!!" Twilight shouted to the two, as they raced to huddle behind the Alicorn.
Casting a spell, Twilight scanned the entirety of Cloudsdale for signs of life. Prioritising the lives of creatures first, then lowering lifeforms after. After confirming the locations of all civilians in the city, she casted two layers of shield spells back-to-back to all the citizens of Cloudsdale. Doing all of this in under a second, however, due to the amount of time given for her to sense, react, and cast the spell, she had to give up the accuracy of her spell in exchange for speed of casting.
This shouldn't be a problem though Twilight thought since, in the event of a crisis, creatures would seek others in an attempt to get help. Right now, ponies all over Cloudsdale should be in groups. Standing strong, Twilight braced herself, as a flash of light enveloped them.
The pressure was intense, and so was the heat. Veins grew larger around the sides of Twiligh's temples, and blood pooled from her eyes. As she focused all of her willpower and being on ensuring the spell she casted city-wide would not break formation, structure, or integrity.
"Watch out!!" Was all Sandbar could hear, it was so quick, there was no time to react...
There was no time to react.
A sudden jolt forced Sandbar and Windy Whistle forward, crashing into Yona and Smolder. The purple shields had erected among the four creatures, protecting all of them from the outside, all but one.
The wave of gray clouds shoved Bow Hothoof onto the shields, his eyes combusted into flames and his mouth breathed fire, his flesh almost instantly burning off his body. While his bones lasted just for a couple of seconds before being incinerated to dust.
Windy and Sandbar could only watch in horror, the former wife already shedding tears, crying and begging for her husband's name, nobody could hear it though, the deafening rumble from the outside muted any cries she might have given off, while the young stallion had a thousand-yard stare plastered on his face. He wasn't sure if he was facing reality, but a bitter coldness was spreading across his body starting from his hooves which reminded him so. It felt scary.
It felt empty.
A crack formed in the outermost barrier protecting them, before shattering into a million pieces, the heavy rumble and heat from the blast welcomed the four with unbiased intent even with the second layer of shielding protecting them from coming into direct contact with the wave, sweat beginning to run down their foreheads and dripping from their chins. The whole ordeal lasted for about 30 seconds before dying down and the shield was dispelled.
Slumping to the floor and sitting on his rump, Sandbar tilts his head up towards the open sky. Contemplating how the string of events led up to this moment. His eyelids went slack, his shoulder relaxed, and the corners of his mouth creased into a frown.
"W-why...?"
"Bow.. Bow... please..."
Sandbar turned to his side, facing the widow. Never had Sandbar ever seen somepony cry this hard before, granted, for a good reason. Though, that was to be expected, seeing as he thought all this mess came from him screwing up.
'I was too far from the rest, I was too careless as an Element.'
Sandbar wanted to say something, anything to comfort Windy, but nothing came out of his lips. The guilt of having the reason why her husband is dead and expressing words of sympathy did not sit right with him. All he could think to do right now was... sit in silence.
His vision begins to blur.
'H-huh?' he thought.
A warm, familiar liquid flowed down the sides of his cheek, Sandbar didn't bother to wipe it away. Rather, he just let his tears run free. A part of him didn't want to admit it, but it felt good letting these unearned fake tears leave his system. Almost feeling like it's a form of atonement for him.
Muffled shouting soon came from behind him, Sandbar didn't know what Smolder and Yona were so desperately yelling at him about. So he turned over to the two, his vision still slightly blurred from his unwiped tears. Only to see them pointing to something behind him.
Tired. He was feeling tired.
Perhaps it was the sports festival earlier that day that his senses were fatiguing. Perhaps it's the exposure to the bloodied bodies of ponies all across Cloudsdale that finally got to his head. Regardless, he hadn't bothered to crank his head to check the danger. Instead, turning to check on Windy again. It seems to him that his vision has finally gotten slightly better, enough to see the urgency on Windy's teary face yelling at him to move.
A shadow casts itself over the two, forcing Sandbar to finally turn his head around to see what the commotion was about.
20 hooves, Sandbar counted, coloured in sickly green. Its body was comparable to the vilest of centipedes, its wavy, hypnotising movements swayed his mind. Using the underbelly of its body, Sandbar followed it upward using it as a guide to see its face. Counting more hooves as he goes up the ladder.
Its face was a horrifying mess of two ponies meshed and contorted together, gruesome to say the least. Drooling of hunger, the curse looked upon the frightened earth pony, stupefied to move on his own. The antenna on its head warped inward to its mouth, gaping open a large oral cavity big enough to fit a pony whole.
'How could anything have survived that explosion?' That was what he thought.
It lunged downwards in a crazed manner determined to eat Sandbar, but a blue blur sent Sandbar flying away. Catching a glimpse at his saviour, Windy had shoved Sandbar out of biting range, her face seemed damn near-emotionless other than the slight opening of her mouth.
However, two mandibles were already there to greet her.
SNAP.
The curse quickly closed its jaws shut with a swift chomp. The only remains left over were the lower parts of her body left unscathed from the bite, bits of intestines flung out as it hit the floor with a thump, and the blood splattered onto the face of Sandbar.
His horrified look grew a million times worse and the colour almost looked to be drained from his body, shaking and shivering. Sandbar shuffled backwards in a hurry, in a vague attempt of getting out of there. The demon shallowed the pegasus mare with a gulp, before setting its sights on its original meal.
An orange slash temporarily diverted its attention away from the stallion, gazing up, the curse looked at Smolder with a predatorial gaze. The dragon breathed a large bloom of fire but was quickly slashed by the curse diving through her flames. Her guts spilled open, coughing up blood, and crashing head-first into Yona.
The centipede-pony curse hybrid turns its sights back on Sandbar, charging straight at his with open mouth. Right as the pony was about to enter its jaws, the sound of a pair of hands clapping could be heard.
In a flash, Yuta had swapped places with Sandbar. Using his left arm, he slapped the curse's jaw to his left. Swinging forth with his right imbued with the Ratio Technique, he aimed for the joint where to jaw connected with the top of its skull. Severing the two with just his fist, forcing the curse to spin around and retreat. Leaving its sides exposed to the Special-Grade Sorcerer.
Going back in with his left hand, he shoves it forward into the curse. Allowing the curse to do the job for him as his hand ran through the left side of its body with the Ratio Technique.
Yuta was about to give chase to it, but a shout from Yona forced him to stop.
"Mr. Yuta!! Smolder is in bad shape!!"
Snapping his head, he could see the poor dragon desperately clinging onto her belly through fits of bloodied coughs, her insides threatening to splutter onto her outsides. Dashing over, Yuta immediately administers Reversed Cursed Energy. Closing her wound, and healing her internal injuries. Allowing Smolder to fall unconscious.
Rika floats down while holding Sandbar and his black blade in her arms to Yuta's relief.
"Looks like I made it in time."
Looking back, Yuta thought that maybe Rainbow had pinned the curse down so he could finish it, but to his surprise, she didn't. Instead, she stood above a torn lower half of a pegasus with a cutie mark that she was all too familiar with. Rainbow's magenta eyes looked almost devoid of life as her wings stayed stiff. Her breath, shaky and uncertain kept her mouth agape for a few, long, seconds before it finally uttered the words Rainbow hoped to have never dared to associate her with.
"...mom?"