Being able to sense them, Matthias could afford to stand in the middle of them while he regarded them without the fear of being attacked unaware.
The Six Shadows composed of three pegasi, two earth ponies and one unicorn. Each one of them had the same eyes Sombra had which, added with the evil king’s presence he could feel coming from them, made Matthias guess that he gave some of his powers to them like he did as Lich King for some of his minions.
His further thoughts were interrupted by the large pegasus male that charged at him without warning, unarmed like the rest of them. He wasn’t just large, but muscular as well, had a white coat and orange mane. His cutie mark was similar to that of Snowflake’s, who he met briefly in Ponyville: two big weights. The paladin quickly moved out of the way as the pegasus’ hoof hit the crystal behind him, causing it to shatter into small pieces, much to Matthias’ shock.
He recovered quickly and, taking advantage of the fact that the Shadow wasn’t looking at him right now, brought his hoof that is surrounded by Light’s glow, down on the back of his first opponent’s head, intending to knock him out.
The pegasus dodged the attack without seeing it.
Matthias had no time to be surprised by it, as he sensed two other pegasi come at him from above. Asking the Light for aid, he caused the Light’s storm around him, pushing all three of his enemies away and inflicting some damage to them. The paladin then jumped between the crystal pillars as one of the earth ponies, a stallion with tan coat and brown mane attacked him, while the unicorn mare with coat violet and mane gold tried to go around him to flank him.
As Matthias tried to use the pillars to his advantage, he noticed that one of the pegasi - a mare whose coat was dark blue, her mane purple and seemed to be the youngest of the group - was already up and flew in his direction. The paladin was so surprised by how she almost instantly returned to battle that he almost missed seeing what the other pursuing earth pony did.
He phased through the crystal.
Only due to the fact that it was far from the only unusual thing he ever saw, did Matthias not continued to stare at the earth pony. Deciding that he would try to figure out how was it possible for that Shadow to use magic later, the paladin charged at him, but the blow intended for his jaw went right through him.
Just as Matthias intended.
He quickly took the advantage of Shadow’s body’s state to pass almost completely through him, which hid him from the sight of the of approaching pegasus mare that was right behind him. Matthias channeled the power of Light into his hooves and bucked, expecting to break several bones of the enemy, but instead, he hit air.
The flying foe somehow knew what he was going to do and pulled up in the last moment. The paladin had no time to react, because in front of him now stood the unicorn. Matthias was just about to point hoof at her and force her into a trance, but two pairs of strong forelegs grabbed him and pinned to the ground.
He cursed, and watched as the unicorn brought her head back. Expecting her to cast a spell, Matthias asked the Light to weaken its effects. Then to his shock and horror, she spit a green liquid at him, which he quickly realized was acid.
He didn’t want to see how deadly it was, but judging by the fact that the earth pony once again turned intangible when the wave of acid was two seconds away from them, it would most likely be not very pleasant.
Matthias apologized in his mind to Celestia for breaking the law of Equestria as he shifted his body, now not being held from his left side and twisted, so that the pegasus mare was between him and the acid.
She didn’t even scream as half of her body melted. Matthias jumped away from her and prepared for the next attack when he suddenly saw something that made his jaw drop.
The other pony’s body regenerated in a matter of seconds.
“So that’s why her cutie mark is a leaf...” he thought grimly. “It’s supposed to symbolize her regenerative abilities...”
He casted shield around himself and backed away, needing to think about this whole fight. The Six Shadows seemed content to let him leave from the black crystal which contained portion of Sombra’s will and did not follow him.
“What is going on here?” he wondered, breathing heavily from the ordeal. “They dodge strikes they can’t see, which should be impossible even if each of them had the similar sense to mine given the short distance, one is ridiculously strong, the other can heal her own injuries almost instantly, next one can phase through everything, and the other spits acid!”
Still protected by the Light, Matthias glanced at two remaining ponies, an earth pony stallion with light grey coat and black mane with a twisted clock for a cutie mark, and the pegasus mare with white coat, blue mane and two ponies’ reflection for a cutie mark. He hoped that he could win this fight before they had a chance to show what kind of tricks they had in store.
His mind returned to analysing the situation, concentrating on how they were able to see his hits without looking. If Matthias could figure this out, then maybe he would be able to do something about.
“Does it have something to do with their eyes?” he pondered as he glanced at the red and green eyes with purple flames coming from them, momentarily reminded of Illidan. “They all have the same eyes as Sombra, maybe...”
Matthias’ eyes went wide as the sick realization hit him.
“No wonder they don’t need to look at my attacks to see them.” he realized, disgusted. “And no wonder that each of them emits the same malice as Sombra.”
All six of them were dead.
The paladin became momentarily furious at the thought of using the dead as puppets by Sombra, feeling the memories of his previous life resurface within his mind. It was with great effort that he calmed himself, and began planning his next attack.
“First of all, I need to do something about this shared vision.” he decided, not considering them separated entities but extensions of Sombra’s will, as he felt his shield begin to fade. “He has too big advantage among those pillars, so...”
As his protection disappeared, a giant force of Light shaped like a hammer descended in the middle of the ‘forest’.
Like Matthias expected, the Shadows had been blown away, safe for the tan one - who he began to call Phaser in his mind - who simply again turned intangible and was ready to attack him, and the young pegasus - Blue Freak - who was also casted away, but quickly recovered and flew back. The pillars, on the other hoof, were destroyed, safe for the two with Sombra’s presence in them.
Matthias dodged the Blue Freak‘s initial attack, but later found himself pressed back as he pulled few punches and kicks at him, most of which he had to block, all while the Phaser tried to get behind him. When he did, the tan pony was fast to charge at him. The paladin swung his hoof at him, despite the fact that Phaser’s face was about few inches away from the tip of his foreleg.
However, that was not the case once Matthias summoned Holy Avenger.
The blade cut through Phaser’s material head instantly, causing the undead body to turn to ash. If this was a living pony, the paladin would never have done something like this, but since whomever it was dead for at least a thousand years...
He put the thought off for later as he turned around, with the sword in his hoof, and attempted to cut through Blue Freak as well. Ne managed to do so, but only partially. The Holy Avenger did cut off half of her wing and foreleg, as well as both hind legs. However, she didn’t turn to ash, and regenerated her lost limbs within the matter of seconds.
“I will need to cut her head off.” Matthias thought darkly, and gripped his sword tighter as the other four joined the fray...
Applejack facehoofed as Rainbow scared away crystal pony from the fake Crystal Heart, knowing that this would most likely cause them to be more suspicious. She grabbed her friend’s multi-colored tail and pulled her closer.
“Uh, Rainbow Dash?” she whispered. “We're supposed to be actin' like nothin's wrong.”
“Exactly.” the pegasus replied, care-free. Before Applejack got a chance on correcting her perception of the matter, Dash spotted two more approaching crystal ponies, and growled at them menacingly.
Deciding to change her tactic, Applejack put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.
“What Ah mean is, maybe ya should let me keep the Crystal Ponies away from the fake heart, while ya show off yar joustin' skills.”
The idea seemed to appeal to the cyan pegasus, who replied with her usual attitude:
“Huh, seeing my awesomeness does have a way of putting ponies into a pretty good mood.”
“Well, Ah’d hav’ta be Matt to know about that.” the farm pony commented in her mind, slightly amused.
“I’ll go see if Matt finished his thing.” Dash said for leaving as she flew off, much to Applejack relief, in the direction she saw earlier Matt run.
Matthias cursed as he jumped away from Tauren-pony (the huge pegasus), surprised that he could move so fast with so many muscles, even if he wasn’t so muscle-bound as Snowflake was. The strike that was intended for him hit the ground instead, creating many fissures.
The paladin pointed hoof at him and blasted it with Light’s fury, magnified even further thanks to Matthias fighting in for some time with the help of Holy Power, which showed by the blueish glow around his fronthooves. Tauren-pony staggered back, but as the paladin moved up for finishing blow, he was intercepted by Blue Freak. Who, despite having the Holy Avenger impaled into her chest, managed to move quite well and kick him in the wrist; which caused him to let go of the blade and jump back. The blade, having lost physical contact with him, disappeared within a few seconds; while Matthias dodged another attack of the Spitter this time, oddly, in the form of crystal shards flung at him with magic. Matthias pushed her, Blue Freak and Tauren-pony with wave of Light, and then concentrated on the last pegasus. She came at him from above, and when he prepared to cut her down with reappeared Holy Avenger, she changed course, and avoided his strike by flying left... as well as right. There were now two of her and Matt, not having time to think about it, instinctively chose the one closer. His blade went right through her and the illusion, for now Matthias know it to be that, disappeared. He jumped to dodge Double’s retaliation, but Phaser waited for him, and bucked him before he could react.
Matthias cursed again as he was about to rise from the ground, but Blue Freak swiftly landed hard right on his stomach. The paladin spit some blood, and readied himself to block the incoming hoof from reaching his face, and then suddenly, a rainbow colored smug hit his enemy and threw her away from him.
“Take that!” Rainbow shouted as she kicked the undead pegasus for good measure, and then landed next to Matthias and asked, worried: “Are you okay?”
The paladin tried to reply as he got up to his hooves, which wasn’t easy since that last hit really took an air out of him. However, he didn’t get a chance to recover properly as the Six Shadows attacked again, this time with the Spitter leading the assault with her acid spit. Only Light’s shield that Matthias summoned around them saved them.
“What the hay?!” Dash asked, shocked, as the acid swam down the barrier. “Who are those ponies?!”
“They are the Six Shadows of the King.” replied Matthias, feeling better thanks to the Light. “Sombra summoned them once I tried to purify those pillars back there. They were with him this whole time.”
“Huh?” Rainbow said in confused tone. “They hold up pretty well for a thousands then.”
The paladin shook his head as he continued to maintain their protection.
“They are dead.” he told her and, ignoring her now shocked expression, carried on: “They are nothing but corpses, controlled by Sombra in a manner like puppets. Thanks to that, ‘they’ share their eye vision, meaning it’s impossible to land a hit on them from blind spot; not to mention that each one of them posses some freaky abilities.”
Matthias glances at the light grey pony, the only one so far that didn’t reveal whatever his special power was. The paladin wondered briefly if it had something to do with the fact that whenever he came close to killing one of the Six, they seemed to know exactly what he was going to do and retaliated accordingly.
“You said that it’s impossible to hit them from blind side.” Dash voice pulled him away from those thoughts. “What if you only had to fight three of them?”
The earth pony was about to protest, but she pressed hoof against his lips.
“Look, I can deal with those three zombie pegasi, and then all you have to worry about is the other three.”
Matthias searched for an answer that would explain to her just how wrong this plan was, but he found none. He cursed under his breath. As much as he hated to put a friend of his in danger, it was almost impossible for him to win with the present odds; if their numbers were cut in half, however...
“... Fine.” he finally said, much to her enthusiasm, for which he chasten her. “This isn’t a game! Now listen: the big one is the most dangerous so far, he has an enormous strength - one hit from him would crush most of your bones, at best - and is also sturdy and surprisingly speedy for a pony his size; the dark blue one can regenerate all her wounds within seconds - so the only way to be done with her would be to cut her head off - and she’s also quite good in hoof-to-hoof combat; the last one can create an illusionary duplicate of herself, which can be a perfect diversion, it even managed to fool me.”
Matthias was observing closely Rainbow as he spoke. He notices that she became slightly nervous as he mentioned each of the undead ponies’ powers she would face, but remained confident.
“Ha, don’t worry, those slackers won’t even come close to hitting me!” she boasted, but the paladin knew her well enough to tell that she was serious, and wouldn’t make any mistakes.
“If they do manage to hit you - especially the big one - try to make sure that it won’t be anywhere near your head or neck.” warned Matthias.
“Why?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“So that way, I would be able to resurrect you if the worst happens.” replied Matthias.
Dash was about to snicker, but she caught his gaze and realized he wasn’t kidding.
“What about the other three?” asked Rainbow, most likely trying to avoid thinking about the possibility of dying.
“The unicorn can spit acid, as you saw, and the tan earth pony can turn intangible... makes everything phase right through him.” the paladin explained, noticing her puzzled expression. “As for the last one, I have no idea.”
Rainbow nodded, slightly absentmindedly, as she appeared to be less confident when confronted with reality. Acting on impulse, Matthias pulled her for a kiss. He tasted his friend’s mouth as she tasted his, while praying to Light that it wasn’t going to be the last time.
They pulled away after few moments, the pegasus confidence returned.
“May the Light grant you strength.” Matthias blessed her as he dropped the shield.
At the same moment, they charged: Matthias forward and Rainbow Dash upward. Sombra wasn’t sitting idle as they prepared plan; his puppets positioned themselves so that he could use their abilities and shared vision to the most of their advantages.
However, they did not expect Rainbow to be so fast.
She flew and hit hard where she knew it would hurt. Sombra’s attention through the corpses of Six Shadows shifted at her, despite the futility of that; six pair of eyes allowed him to see her, maybe, but she was still too fast for him.
So it was with little worry that Matthias stepped forward and charged at the unicorn, Holy Avenger in his hooves and the blue light once again emanating from them, and cut her down across the skull.
The wind carried the ashes that she became...
Rainbow cursed as he noticed with the corner of her eye that the unicorn, despite looking like the rest of them zombies at her, dodged at the last moment Matt’s sword, but the pegasus mare quickly concentrated on her own battle as she flew up, making the three pegasi chase her.
She still could hardly believe that they were all dead: they looked and moved like ponies she saw every day. The only thing odd that she could tell about them was their eyes, as creepy as Samba’s, and that they didn’t speak, occasional grunts of pain aside. However, Rainbow knew Matt had much more experience in such matters, so she didn’t argue, and instead tried to be of as much help she could.
Dash swiftly made a barrel and hit the huge pegasus who’s chasing her at the back, and then turned around and kicked the blue one in the jaw. Since they were dead anyway, she wasn’t going to pull any punches, and so the jaw of other mare snapped and dislocated... only to pop back in place.
“Oh, right, totally forgot about that.” Rainbow recalled as she dodged her retaliation.
Keeping in mind now what Matt said, she paid extra attention to the huge stallion. Fortunately, he wasn’t nearly as fast as her in the air or as mobile, so she could easily dodge him.
Unless she had a better idea.
Rainbow Dash waited until the last moment, pretending to be solely concerned with the blue one she was trading blows (she made a mental note to thank Matt for teaching her the trick with breaking bone in her opponent foreleg, even if it healed right after that). She had to admit, but the zombie was about good as her; she got hit rather painfully few times, but luckily, nothing serious happened to her other than that. The blue one suddenly attempted to grab her, but at that exact moment, Rainbow stopped flapping her wings and fell down... and her opponent was hit by the huge pegasus.
Rainbow watched in horror how his hoof went right through the other Shadow’s chest. Matt wasn’t kidding when he said that he had an enormous strength. Even now when she knew them all to be nothing but puppets of and evil king, she felt sorry for them, and angry at Sombra for using bodies of dead ponies to his own agenda.
She was snapped from her thoughts by incoming white pegasus. Now that the other two were stuck for few moments, Rainbow turned her attention to her... and her. There were two of them now, but, if what Matt said was true, then only one of them was real… But which one?
Dash got her answer as her hoof went through the first one, but she herself received well placed kick from the second. Cursing, she flew after that one, easily catching up to her; but when she was about to dive and hit her in the back, the white pegasus ‘splitted’ again, and tried to outmaneuver her by flying up from both her left and right.
This time, Rainbow twisted, and hit both of them at one. The one on her left blocked it, so Dash proceeded to present her with few of Matt’s moves, but then the blue one joined in. Not wanting to fight directly both of them at once, she decided to outfly them.
“Wait!” she suddenly snapped. “Where’s the big one?”
The ground, sanctified by Matthias with the power of Light, made the two Shadows stumble; even the earth pony that kept in the back away went further. The paladin was eager to eliminate that one first, before he had a chance to use his ability, but the other two kept intruding.
“Not anymore.” he thought grimly as he prepared to cut them down.
Something strange happened then. Matthias felt as if he was kicked several times, and the two ponies disappeared. As he glanced around the next split second, all three of them were some distance away.
“Did that Shadow do that?” Matthias wondered, healing the injury he somehow received. “Was that teleportation? But to hit me and rescue them at the same moment... that would make him faster than even Yellow Flash was!”
He began to wonder why then he hasn’t use this ability earlier, but then suddenly something heavy fell on him and pinned him to the ground. Occupied with this three, he stopped paying most of attention to the ones Rainbow was fighting, and now it came back to hit him, quite literally. Tauren-pony arched back, and Matthias expected him to bring hoof upon his head, but then... he bit him.
The paladin grunted in pain as the teeth of his enemy tore into his flesh, and he felt not only his blood leave his body, but something else too. And not just leave, but rather being stolen. Not sure what was happening, but knowing it couldn’t possibly be anything good, Matthias increased the Light’s power within himself to the point when it began to radiate from his body. The pegasus released him in a snarl, as his mouth, oozing with blood that wasn’t his, was burned by the Light. This time, Tauren-pony did bring his hoof down onto Matthias.
The paladin asked for protection, and so the hoof struck at the shield of Light, but Matthias cringed at the force he could feel behind the strike. He prepared to purge this undead filth off from him, but he was yet again saved by Rainbow who must have noticed that Tauren-pony came after him. She slammed into him and threw him away, right into one of the broken crystals.
Matthias watched if mixed satisfaction and pity as he was impaled on the crystal, glad that at least one of them was down and sorry that it had to come to this.
…The Tauren-pony, who was impaled by crystals before, had his strike bounced off from his Light’s protection. As if the moments that happened before were replaying.
The paladin’s eyes went wide, but apprehension of what just happened to dawned on him when Rainbow once again flew straight into his opponent. However this time, Tauren-pony was ready; for instead of being thrown away, he grabbed her and turned around, so that she was the one that would get impaled now.
With great effort Matthias asked Light to protect her as well and soon, another shield appeared around the cyan mare, which was the only thing that saved her life; as the sharp crystal smashed to pieces as it hit the Light’s barrier. The paladin then put the Tauren-pony in state of meditation, so that Dash would be free.
“Dash, regroup, now!” he ordered her as he backed away from the Shadows, his mind already working on strategy, as Rainbow dashed to his side.
“What’s up?” she asked, panting, her eyes darting to the undead ponies and the crystal that almost killed her couple seconds ago.
Noticing few bruises on her, Matthias healed her as he explained: “That last Shadow can loop us back through little segments of time.” he immediately rolled his eyes and elaborated: “He can reverse time to what happened few seconds ago, and make things go different. Now, you just killed the huge pegasus, but then he used his ability and this time Sombra-”
“Would have killed me.” she finished for him, a hint of fear in her voice. “Thanks. But... how do you know this? I don’t remember anything.”
“I think it’s because this time I had Light’s protection on me.” Matthias answered.
“This time?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I’m willing to bet that he used this ability at least few times, whenever I ‘killed’ one of them.” he replied bitterly. “That’s why they seemed to know what I was going to do.”
“What now?” Rainbow Dash asked in confusion.
That’s what Matthias also wondered. They would need to take out that Timeless One first, but no doubt Sombra have realized that the paladin knew now his ability, so he would take extra precaution now and protect him even more.
“And even if we did manage to break through to him, if it wouldn’t be a clean hit, he would be able to reverse time... On top of all, he also seems to be able to stop time for everypony but himself. What a problematic foe!” Matthias cursed in his mind. “How the hell...”
“Hey guys!”
They both jumped at the sound of Pinkie Pie’s voice, who somehow managed to stand behind them now, in a jester costume.
“How did you do that?” he asked her as he put Light’s protection on her as well.
“Did what?” wondered Pinkie.
The stallion looked annoyed at Rainbow, who was chuckling.
“Well, Pinkie Pie is being Pinkie Pie.” she explained. “What are you doing here, Pinkie?”
“Applejack told me you came near the border, so I got worried and wanted to check if you were alright! But you were had a party without inviting me!”
“Pinkie, this isn’t a party!” Dash shouted at her.
As the two mares argued, Matthias mind worked hard on idea that began to form in his head. It was an insane plan, but...
“Sorry, Pinkie, for not inviting you.” he quickly interrupted them, knowing it to be the only chance they got.
“Oh, that’s okay; I was busy with the Crystal Faire anyway.” Pinkie Pie replied happily, as Dash shoot him a confused glance, which he ignored for now.
“Would you mind doing that light grey pony a favor?”
They attacked once again, leaving Pinkie Pie behind. This time, however, they fought together, with Matthias channeling the power of Holy Light to aid both of them.
The Tauren-pony was hit by another blast, while the Phaser and Double tried to get passed them to attack Pinkie; but this time, Matthias unleashed a powerful blast of Light. Now the shared vision came back to bite them, as all six of them were blinded. Matthias and Rainbow Dash rushed towards the Timeless One, who was still hanging in the back, determined to end this-
They attacked once again, leaving Pinkie Pie... right next to the Timeless One?
“You should have said that you wanted to be fired from my Party Cannon, silly!” she exclaimed happily as she quickly pulled out from somewhere her signature weapon (Matthias suspected the Twisting Nether), and pushed the light grey pony into it.
For few split seconds, Matthias could have sworn that he ‘teleported’ half an inch here and there, but Pinkie’s hooves were relentless; he couldn’t get away, and she fired. The Timeless One was shot right at them with an outstanding speed, but on the way hit Tauren-pony, and now both of them flew towards them.
“Perfect!” Matthias commented, as his blade reappeared, and slashed both of them, starting with the earth pony, making them turn to ash in one clean strike.
“Huh?” Pinkie said, surprised. “Where did they go?”
Matthias had no time to bother explaining to her what just happened. He quickly asked the Light to protect her once again, and nodded to Rainbow.
Now their chances were much higher as they dove into them. Matthias cut the Blue Freak, however, due to her regenerative powers, stayed ‘alive’. Same couldn’t be said for Double who, after making the illusionary one disappear, Dash threw the real one right onto Holy Avenger. She then had to fly up as the Spitter attacked, but Matthias formed Light into a hammer that he threw right at her. She was sent flying, and finally landed some distance back, the spot marked by small lightning of arcing Light as she slowly became ash.
Suddenly, an unimaginable and unbearable pain shoots through him, one of which would crumble that of lesser men.
Blue Freak had kicked him right in the balls, the bane of mortal stallions.
Angrily, he summoned the power of Light to smite her, and could see that it had an effect. The Light burned her from within, but she somehow managed to dodge his sword and flew away so that she could recover completely.
“With the loss of four Shadows, Sombra must be able to concentrate better on the remaining two.” Matthias realized, surprise by how faster her reactions were now.
He summoned Light’s chains to stop her in her track for few moments, as he jumped to the Phaser, who Dash just punched into the ground. As he tried to get up, Matthias sanctified the area surrounding them. But this time, he concentrated to do it properly, resulting in Phaser burning (albeit slowly) to ashes.
Rainbow either didn’t want to see that, or just wanted to be done with all of this, as she flew over to where Matthias left Blue Freak. The paladin heard her surprised grunt moments later as he glanced back, and saw Rainbow being hurled to the ground, the last Shadow in pursuit. He quickly jumped to her aid, and now the hostile pegasus concentrated on him.
He slashed but she dodged, and hit him in the stomach. He attempted to purge her again like before, but before he finished the prayer, she kicked him in the balls again and then in the back of the head. The overwhelming pain returned, as it broke his concentration and almost made him pass out.
The Blue Freak attempted to hit him again, but Dash made her stop as the Blue Freak needed to worry about her now. The cyan mare intended to slam into her. But the Blue Freak simply caught her by hooves, turned around in a piruett, and with kick to the stomach sends her flying. It took only seconds, but it was enough for Matthias to recover. Once again, he attempted to cut her, but she blocked his foreleg before the blade came close. With a swift motion, she broke his foreleg.
Matthias cried in pain as he was punched away. He tried to get up, trying to balance his body so that his broken limb would hurt too much, as he prepared for the slowly approaching pony. He didn’t expect this Shadow to be this good in hoof-to-hoof combat once Sombra was solely concentrating on her. The paladin cursed as the Blue Freak was about to lunge at him... only to get his by a bunch of confetti and balloons that made her stumble off several paces.
“Hey!” Pinkie Pie shouted, angry. “Stop being a meanie pants to my friends, you... meanie!” she finished, and readied her Party Cannon for another shot.
Before Matthias got a chance to stop her, the undead pegasus shot at her and while Pinkie Pie wasn’t hurt, her weapon was smashed.
“M-my Party Cannon!” she said, in a state of disbelief, and stared with teary eyes at what was left of it.
She would have probably stayed like this for a long time, if it wasn’t for the hit to the face she received from the Blue Freak. It caused her fall several meters back, and their foe slowly trotted towards her. Fear and anger surged through Matthias as he staggered up to his hooves, not bothering to waste time with healing, knowing that time was short. He ran towards the two, praying to the Light-
The Blue Freak was sent flying.
Matthias watched, terrified, as Pinkie Pie rose. There was a small stream of blood coming from her nose, but that wasn’t what worried him. The pink pony’s mane was hanging flat, instead of being puffy like always, and she had this savage angry grim on her face, like the one that the paladin saw after she thought he didn’t keep his Pinkie Promise.
“My name, is Pinkamena Diane Pie!” she informed the raising from the ground Blue Freak in a deep, aggressive tone. “And I, hate, bad references!”
The paladin didn’t even bother to understand what was that supposed to mean, or what was happening. All he knew was that in the next second Pinkie Pie, the happiest pony he had ever met, massacred the undead pegasus. Of course, all the wounds Blue Freak received healed instantly, but that only made things worse for her. Matthias continued to stare at her unsuccessful tries to block any of the hits. Soon he was joined by Rainbow Dash, also shocked at the scene before her.
“Should we... stop her?” Dash asked, unsure, her eyes still on them.
“Can we stop her?” Matthias replied with a question of his own. “Remind me to never break Pinkie Promise.”
He quaked at the thought of what would have happened if he hadn’t thought fast back then.
“Your toast has been burned, and no amount of scraping will remove the black parts!” Pinkie Pie shouted as with the last punch, she slammed the Blue Freak into one of the two black pillars, which somehow withstood the impact.
Matthias quickly snapped and hurled his Holy Avenger at her, aiming for the neck. The blade swung to where he intended to strike, and the undead head rolled on the ground, while the rest of the body turned to ash.
The head stopped almost at his hooves. To his mild surprise, it blinked, and spoke:
“This... isn’t... over!”
Matthias frowned, hearing the familiar words said by King Sombra, and raised his hoof. The Light shined down on the head, leaving only ash.
“Ohh, my head...” he and Dash heard Pinkie murmur, and once they glanced at her, they were rejoiced to see their friend was back to normal (for her, of course). “What happened?”
“Long story,” Matthias quickly said, not wanting to explain what he didn’t even understood. And if Pinkie didn’t remember, it was fine with him.
Pain in a broken limb made him recall his injuries, as well as Rainbow’s and Pinkie’s. Opening his heart to the Light, he healed all of them, which took few seconds. After he made sure that all of them were fine, Matthias concentrated, checking Cadance’s spell power.
“It’s this weak!?” he realized with dread.
“I need to perform an exorcism on those pillars, to cleanse them out of Sombra’s presence.” he informed them as he trotted towards it. “You two can head back for the fair. Thank you for help, though, I’m truly grateful. I’m sorry about your Party Cannon, Pinkie...”
“Oh, that’s no big deal; I have spare ones back home.” Pinkie replied, as she bounced back in the direction of the empire.
“How long will it take?” Rainbow asked. “I wanted to get the jousting demonstration going, to distract crystal ponies.”
Matthias hesitated before he answered.
“It will take me some time.” he finally replied. “I’m sorry, but you will have to find somepony else.”
The look of disappointment on her face didn’t last long, but it was still hurtful.
“Pity.” she answered, smirking at him. “It would be nice to slam my pinnacle into you for a change.”
Matthias chuckled uncomfortably.
“Pardon me saying such, but I doubt this would ever happen.” he told her, putting an accent on ‘ever’ part. Dash sticks her tongue at him, amused. “Now, off you go, I’ll be quite busy.”
Rainbow Dash nodded and began to fly back. She glanced at him before she left, “It was nice to fight together like that.” she said, smiling, but it was soon dulled. “Even if we had to...”
“They were already dead.” Matthias told her, not wanting her to think too much about it. “The ponies whose souls once inhabited those bodies were long gone. If anything, we granted their corpses peace.”
The cyan mare brightened at that again, and headed towards the fair. He continued to follow her with his eyes.
“I’m sorry for lying...”
Matthias presses his hoof to one of the pillars, purifying them in a matter of seconds in a powerful beam of Light.
“... but only I can fight this opponent.”
The paladin marched towards the barrier. While Sombra could no longer weaken Cadance’s barrier, her spell’s power was severely lowered while Matthias was stalled by the Six Shadows of the King. As it was now, it would break in not so long enough, and the fallen unicorn king would attack the empire.
…Unless somepony would take care of him first.
“The empire strikes back.” Matthias said out-loud as he stepped into the arctic.
King Sombra was here, of course, in his usual form of huge smoke. He towered over him, thinking probably that this would intimidate him.
“You came...” Sombra rasped, then bursted to laughter. “You’ll die here!”
“You puppets have fallen.” the paladin replied coldly. “And now it’s your turn.”
“How can you win… against what you fear?” Sombra said in a intimating tone.
“I already pulled myself away from your nightmarish spell, in case you’ve forgotten.” Matthias reminded him, feeling tired of this barter of words. “You will not trap me again, and soon, the Light shall burn you away.”
King Sombra laughed even louder at that, and his horn glowed. Matthias braced himself, but he quickly realized that the spell wasn’t directed at him. Instead, it seemed to focus on the snow and ice, and the black crystals that appeared around the fallen unicorn. They broke, as their shards started to whirl in the air along with the snow and ice, and soon they began to form some shape. Sombra, still laughing maniacally, minimised himself and slipped into the still unfinished figure. But soon, it began to resemble something...
“No...” Matthias thought, taking a step back when he realized the shape that formed in front of him.
He knew this shape that stood before him on two legs. He knew the armor it bore. He knew the white hair that danced on the wind. He knew this face.
But, most of all, he knew the blade it hold…a certain cursed runeblade.
King Sombra didn’t put him through another nightmare. Instead, he became his nightmare.
“Frostmourne hungers!” Arthas the death knight said, the all too familiar cruel smile on his lips as he pointed the cursed runeblade at Matthias.