Twilight and the others growled as Sombra chuckled at their feeble attempts to hurt him. He had popped up out of the ground in the center of the throne room of all places. He had then tossed up a magic sphere of darkness that had covered the throne room and began to work its way out. All of the guards in the area had responded to the threat, but they were unable to get past the barrier. And as the barrier expanded, the guards quickly found themselves being pushed out of the very castle they were supposed to protect. The citizens of Canterlot looked up from the streets and watched with horror as darkness began to encompass the castle, starting a panic in the streets. But at the moment, the ponies trapped with Sombra couldn't see out through the windows and were only able to see him.
'What are you doing here Sombra?" Luna snarled, taking another shot at him. He chuckled again as it passed through him.
"Luna, we haven't seen each other in nearly a thousand years and this is how you greet me?" he asked her while faking being hurt. "All those years on the moon must have done nothing to improve your attitude...but I can see that the years did take a toll on your body. You look old." Luna snarled again and unleashed another swarm of magic fire, but it still had no effect, passing through his dark body easily. He smiled again and vanished into the shadows, quickly appearing behind her.
"As to what I'm doing here, I thought you had already figured that out. I'm here to A. overthrow you and your sister. B. Destroy the Elements and end that threat once and for all and C. Take over all of Equestria. It's really not that hard to follow."
"If you think that we'll just hoof over Equestria to you, you've got another thing coming!" RD roared as she charged Sombra at full speed. He yawned as she passed through his body and slammed head first into the darkness that encompassed them.
"As energetic and stupid as always, Rainbow Dash," Sombra mocked as Rainbow Dash pulled herself back up. "But there is another side to you, another side to all of you," he said with a dark smile, turning towards all of them. "And I intend to see what that side is. And with my new magic and the help of something that I've been building, I can do that."
"Wait a minute...you horns back!" Spike cried out as he looked at Sombra’s head.
"Indeed, but it not as weak as my old one. This horn makes me even more powerful and allows me to cast the greatest of spells. For example, to cover this entire castle in darkness. Not on such a grand scale as one of the princesses, but enough to further my plans."
"You can't win Sombra. Even if we can't hit you now, you are no match for three princesses and the Elements of Harmony," Twilight informed him with a smug smile. But he began to laugh, causing her smile to turn into a frown.
"Oh believe me, I already know that, but fortunately I have a plan for that as well. But it will require a...friend of yours," he said with an evil smile. "But until that happens, I want to show you something that I think will surprise you."
"Oh boy, I love surprises!" Pinkie exclaimed, hopping up and down in place. "Show me show me show me!"
"Such enthusiasm must not go unrewarded," Sombra said with a chuckle. "Very well, I will show you...this." Sombra reached inside the bag on his back and pulled out a very odd looking mirror, with black glass instead of the regular glass. Pinkie looked at it for a minute with a confused look.
"How is that a good surprise? You really need to work on your surprises. Surprises should be shocking and totally do something that nopony is expecting!" Pinkie lectured.
"Oh, but that wasn't the surprise, this is!" Sombra swung the mirror around the room so each of the ponies had the chance to look into it. Once the y had, he then tossed it to the ground, shattering it. Pinkie made another comment on a bad surprise, but it died in her mouth as the fragments began to take a new shape, rising up from the ground. The fragments took on the form of ponies, but not just any ponies. They looked like counterparts to the Elements and the princesses.
"What's going on?" RD asked as she looked across the room to a pony that was grey in color and had a z cutie mark.
"They look like us," Rarity noted, looking with dread at a pony with an evil grin and a bit on her flank.
"Except...more evil," Twilight added, not liking the look of the pony that was a deep purple and had herself as her cutie mark.
"And ugly," Applejack added, snarling at her counterpart with angry, a black heart for a cutie mark.
"It doesn't look like me at all," Fluttershy squeaked as she tried to avoid the gaze of a very attractive yellow pony with alluring eyes.
"Well mines a perfect copy," Pinkie said with a grin as she stared into the rage filled eyes of her counterpart.
"Why do I have one?" Spike asked as the dragon across from him eyed him hungrily, licking his lips.
"Elements of Harmony...and Spike," Sombra said in an announcer’s voice. "Allow me to introduce you to your counterparts...the seven deadly sins! Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, Envy, Pride, Greed and Sloth!" The ponies looked at their opposites with unsure eyes, watching as they began to move closer. "It's going to be a real fight tonight. Can the Elements of Harmony defeat the greatest sins known to pony kind? I hope not."
"Do not worry girls, we will assist you!" Luna yelled out, but before she and Celestia could run over to them, fragments began to move in front of them, taking the forms of two ponies that they had never hoped to see again. One of them was midnight black with blue armor and a dark mane, who eyed Luna with an evil grin.
"Nightmare Moon," Luna said in a whisper. The on for Celestia was an alicorn with blazing mane and a burning sun on her flank, with cold emotionless eyes gazing at her
"No, I rejected you long ago," whispered Luna, stunned by the images. Sombra started to laugh uncontrollably at the sight of the stunned ponies, clearing his throat as he began to speak.
"Yes, these ponies must battle the parts of themselves that they either tried to hide or just didn't know about. And now without further delay...FIGHT!" On his command, the ponies threw themselves at each other. Twilight was taken down by Pride, while AJ and Envy wrestled in the ground. RD pounded away on Sloth, who didn't even budge. Pinkie was tossed around by Wrath and poor Spike ran as fast as he could from Gluttony. Rarity was having her mane ripped apart by Greed while Fluttershy tried to resist the eyes of Lust. Sombra chuckled again as he saw the two most powerful alicorns back away from their own opposites. With these ponies occupied, nopony would be able to stop him. Then he remembered another problem that he needed to go take care of. So he whisked himself into the shadows and headed for town.
{S}
Billy had been looking up magic in the Canterlot city library on the other end of Canterlot when he heard the commotion. He ran outside along with the rest of the ponies to watch in horror as a dark barrier consumed the castle with the Elements and princesses inside. He had barely glanced at the image before he had ducked away to find an alleyway where he could transform, but it took him a while with all the pony-folk in town. When he finally did find a quiet place, he looked to the sky with a grin.
"SHAZAM!"
One magic lightning bolt later, Captain Marvel took off from the alleyway and flew over to the dark barrier, passing a number of civilians as he did so. They looked up at him with dropped jaws and then they began to cheer. Marvel ignored them the best he could as he flew to the barrier. It was made completely of darkness and even though he hit it with all his might, he was unable to break it. He was considering a lightning bolt when Sombra appeared out of the side of the barrier, looking at him with a sigh.
"Oh, it's you. Look, I'm not ready for you at the moment, would you mind coming back a little later?" he asked, yelping as Marvel tossed a lightning bolt at his head. "I'll take that as a no. Fortunately for me, I know how to keep you busy. Here, catch." Sombra tossed him something and then quickly vanished back inside the barrier. Marvel caught what he had tossed and looked down at his hand, raising an eyebrow when he saw that it was a shard of glass.
"How the heck is this supposed to keep me-WHOA!" he yelled as the glass began to grow. He dropped it, but it floated up right in front of him as it continued to change. It turned humanoid, with arms and legs, growing a head as well. Then it began to take shape. Black armor began to from over its body, equally black hair growing on its head. And then to Marvel's horror, a golden lightning bolt formed on its chest to complete it.
"Black Adam," Marvel whispered as Black Adam raised his head to look at Marvel. "No, I beat you, you died! This has to be an illusion or-" Marvel was interrupted as Adam caught him with a left hook out of nowhere, launching the captain towards the streets below. He managed to right himself in time, but was unprepared for a knee to the gut that Adam caught him with, knocking to wind out of him. But he managed to recover in time to catch an overhead strike and retaliate with his own right. Adam's head snapped back as Marvel connected with his jaw and he was slammed into the dark barrier. He shook his head and resumed flying, Marvel and Adam circling each other carefully. Both eyes narrowed at the same time and they charged each other, their fists colliding with such strength that the entire city shook from their power. Marvel's battle with his opposite had begun.
{S}
Twilight growled as Pride countered every single one of her attacks perfectly and retaliated with such intensity that she had no time to think of a counter strategy. She took to the sky to give herself the high ground, but Pride had read her move and met her in the air, colliding with her and dragging her back down to the ground.
"This doesn't make sense! Why is my sin pride?" Twilight roared at Sombra, who had returned from messing with Marvel to watch the battles.
"My dear Twilight, if I were to tell you my minions would cease to be," Sombra said with a chuckle, watching as Pride caught her in the jaw. "Not that you can figure it out on your own. Oooo!" Sombra said with a wince as he watched Applejack get kicked in the head by Envy. She staggered and Envy jumped onto her back, driving hooves and elbows into her back. She shook herself and managed to toss Envy off her back, but Envy rolled when she hit the ground and tackled AJ again, knocking them both over. AJ got to her hooves first and bucked Envy for all she was worth. She connected in the gut and Envy went down hard. AJ did a whoop, believing she had won, but Envy got right back up, a dark smile on its face.
"Gosh darn it, this thing just won't stay down," she growled as the two slammed their fore hooves into each other and continued fighting. The others weren't fairing much better, with only Pinkie Pie being able to dance around her opponent and avoid getting hit.
"HOLD STILL, WILL YOU?!" Wrath roared as she slammed her hooves into the floor where Pinkie had just been standing. "ARE YOU AFRAID TO FACE THE TRUTH ABOUT YOURSELF?!"
"Of course not. I know that sometimes I can get really mad, especially if somepony breaks a Pinkie promise and that that rage will always be a part of me," Pinkie said happily, reappearing in front of Wrath. "Buuuuttttt...I know that it doesn't define me and that I'm still the happiest pony in all of Equestria. I prefer to be cheerful to being angry. So...you go bye-bye now." Wrath roared and tried to crush Pinkie with her hooves, but they passed right through her. Pinkie smiled and watched as Wrath began to vanish into thin air. "Hey everypony, in order to beat them we need to admit that they are a part of us! It's just that easy!"
"Right, admit that these things are a part of us. Nothing easier," Rarity grunted as she pushed Greed off of her. "Ahem...I admit that I can be a tiny bit greedy at times." Greed landed on her hooves and rushed Rarity who screamed and ducked underneath the attack. "Okay, I can be somewhat greedy." She screamed again as another attack came from Greed, who shot a bunch of rocks at her. "ALRIGHT! SOMETIMES I CAN BE VERY GREEDY! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!" Greed looked down in surprise at her hooves as she too began to vanish. Rarity let out a sigh of relief as her opponent vanished.
"So that's the plan, huh?" RD said with a smile, looking down at Sloth who she had in a headlock. "Fine, I admit that I'm often lazy and tend to goof off when I should be working. That I can be the laziest pony in all of Ponyville sometimes. Happy?" she asked Sloth, who seemed to think about it for a minute before vanishing with a shrug, being too lazy to fight. Following the others examples, Twilight and Fluttershy were the next two to get rid of their opposites, admitting that they were prideful sometimes and that she was lusted after. Even Spike managed to admit that he was a glutton. That just left Applejack.
"Come on Applejack, just admit that you're envious and it will all be over!" Twilight called out to her friend, who was still pinned by envy.
"Ah'm not envious, ah'm just annoyed," Applejack grunted as she lifted Envy over her head and tossed her to the ground.
"But your opposite is envy! You have to be envious about something!"
"No ah'm not!"
"Sheesh, why didn't she get pride?" Twilight grumbled as she levitated over to her friend. "Applejack, no matter what you're envious of, we won't think any less of you for it. Please, just say it."
"Fine. Ah...envious of mah friends." Envy went in for another blow, but vanished back into magic before she could connect. Twilight helped Applejack to her hooves and both of them were joined by the others, who turned to the two princesses who were still battling with themselves.
"We need to help them," Fluttershy said to the others, who nodded their heads in agreement. Sombra watched them run over to the princesses, checking on the monitor he had set up on his wrist. The device he had planted drew power from dark emotions, but was only at half power from the girls fighting with themselves. He hoped that Marvel would provide a better brawl. So as the Elements began to help the princesses, Sombra slipped outside to help stir the pot.
{S}
Ponies screamed in terror as Black Adam collided with the ground, sliding along it on his face. He rose to his knees and turned just in time to receive two boots to the face, knocking him along even further. Adam hit the ground and sun, gliding along the ground with his back to it as he fired bolt after bolt of electricity at his foe, who evaded each shot with skilled timing. Marvel caught up and slammed his fist into Adam's face, knocking his look alike into the ground. He watched as Adam struggled back to his feet, shaking his head.
"Just as I thought, you're not the real Black Adam, you're just a copy," Marvel said. Black Adam scowled and launched himself at Marvel, swinging wildly. Marvel caught both of his fists in his and jammed his knee into Adam's gut, bringing the being to his knees. "Black Adam would have beaten me up and down this city, whereas you can barely put up a fight against me. Also he would never stay this quiet for so long," Marvel said, lifting the fake over his head. "So say goodbye. SHAZAM!" The final confirmation for Adam being fake was that when the lightning bolt came down on the two of them, the fake was blasted into nothingness, a small piece of glass landing at Marvels feet. He brought his foot up and crushed the glass under foot, grinding it into powder. With his foe finally beaten, Marvel let out a sigh and looked around. The ponies that had been hiding as the two had fought all came out and rushed Captain Marvel, each of them shouting his or her respective thanks.
"Thank you for saving us oh divine one!"
"Yes, thank you for gracing us with your presence!"
"Please bless my child!"
Marvel slowly backed away from the crowd of ponies, not liking what they were asking him to do. He didn't like the way they were speaking to him or for a matter of fact just eyeing him. Their eyes told him that they saw him as a god, that they revered him. Marvel quickly took to the skies despite the ponies pleas to stay and headed back to the caste, needing to find a way inside. Much to his surprise, a hole opened up for him we he approached and he cautiously made his way inside. The shadows were like a maze and only one path was available to him. So Marvel flew along that path until he reached what looked to be the top of the castle. There, amongst the strongest sections of darkness, he found Sombra standing next to a black rod.
"Well, the great divine finally blesses me with his presences," Sombra said with a snicker, turning to face the hero. "I wonder... how does it feel to have all that power and know that you're doing the wrong things with it? Why bother protecting the ponies when you could rule them instead?"
"Because I'm not arrogant enough to think of myself as above them," Marvel responded, flying over to Sombra and wrapping his hand around his throat. But much to his surprise, Sombra vanished into darkness and reappeared behind Marvel.
"Oh, but you are better than them and you know it," Sombra whispered, trying to get inside Marvel's head. "If you were to use your power to rule, then ponies like me would be too afraid to try and do anything dastardly, we'd be so afraid of you." Marvel swung at Sombra, but the pony had vanished again, but his voice remained. "And yet you're afraid, afraid of unleashing your full might, afraid of crushing those who would dare to stand against you. Yet in reality, because you refuse to crush them, you're killing more ponies than they are."
"You're wrong!" Marvel yelled, looking around for him. "I don't need to kill to stop my foes. I am strong enough to protect them without killing!"
"Are you now? Then please explain to me what happened when you let Erebus go. Didn't he come back and destroy the village all over again and nearly kill your friends?" Sombra asked in a mocking tone, the shadows at Marvel's feet circling him. Sombra moved his shadow very deliberately close to Marvel's ear. "What about all those that Doomsday killed?" Marvel spun faster than Sombra could react and grabbed him by the throat before he could return to the shadows. Marvel's fist clenched in anger as Sombra struggled to smile.
"Ah...hit a...sore spot...did I?" he asked while Marvel lifted him off his face, rage flashing like lightning in his eyes. "Just...think about it...if you were...in control...Celestia and Luna...would have had to...have told you about...Doomsday earlier. And then...you could have saved all those poor ponies that he killed."
"Shut up," Marvel said in a very dangerous manner. Sombra looked at the monitor on his wrist, noticing that he had just a bit more to go.
"Let’s face it," Sombra said with a smile, managing to wriggle enough so that he could breath. "You're no better than me."
"What?" Marvel asked him in cold rage. "I've saved lives, whereas you tried to take over this land. How am I no better than you?"
"Simple," Sombra said with a chuckle. "I sent Erebus, Cyclops and the four horses to their deaths to try and beat the Elements. I let them die. And that's exactly what you did to all those who died because you refused to use your powers to find Doomsday. You let them die." Marvel finally snapped. He roared in rage and lifted Sombra over his head, tossing the pony into the top of the castle. The marble gave way and Sombra fell through three levels before he finally came to a stop in the throne room. Before the other ponies could react, Marvel descended into the room and head right for the beaten Sombra, who struggled to his hooves with a smile on his face. Nightmare Moon and The Solar Empress both came to Sombra's aid, but Marvel grabbed them both and shattered them against the ground, blasting them apart into pieces of glass. Sombra was once again lifted up by the throat as he took another look. One more push is all it would take.
"Marvel, what are you doing?" Twilight asked, but Sombra spoke first.
"If you let me live, I won't stop until I've hunted down and killed all you care about," he said with an evil smile, his eyes looking over to Spike and Twilight. "I think I'll start with your new family over there. It will be fun making them scream." Marvel's eyes narrowed, his fist tightened and his body began to crackle with power.
"No, you will never hurt them again," he said in a whisper, looking back at his friends and family. "You will never do anything again. This ends now."
"I don't believe you," Sombra said smugly, looking down at the now full monitor. He then looked up to Marvel and sneered at him. "Prove it." Marvels eyes widened, his rage broke and he lifted Sombra over his head and called out his magic word.
"SHAZAM!"
A massive bolt of lightning came down from the heavens, it golden fury heading for Sombra. But when the lightning bolt reached the roof, something changed. As it passed by the black rode, the bolt went from a golden color to a dark black color. The bolt continued to descend right into the body of the smiling Sombra. Both Marvel and Sombra were consumed in the strike, creating an explosion so powerful that the ponies needed to through up shields around themselves in order to stay safe. While the explosion on the outside was incredible, it paled to what was going on in the boy’s mind. He was consumed with images of death and destruction, his loved ones not just dying in front of him, but being killed by his hands. He was killing them. He screamed as loud as he could as his mind was forced back, leaving an opening. When the explosion finally ended, the ponies looked to find that Captain Marvel was lying down face first on the ground, with the body of Sombra nowhere to be found. Twilight cried out and ran over to him, trying to wake him up. She rolled him over; barely even noticing that his suit was now black and that the lightning bolt and cape were now a deep red.
"Billy! Wake up!" She cried, shaking him as hard as she could. All the ponies crowded around him, waiting to see if he was alright. After a minute, his eyes opened and he sat up. "Oh thank goodness you're alright," she said with a sigh of relief, wrapping her hooves around him. The others looked on with smiles; despite the fact that they had just been told that Billy was Marvel. All except for Applebloom, who stayed as far away from him as possible?
"That's not Billy," she said with fear, placing herself behind her sister. Twilight looked to her with a confused look, then back to Marvel. The moment she looked into his eyes, she realized that Applebloom was right. His eyes were green with red pupils, the eyes of only one other pony.
"Sombra!" Twilight screamed as she backed away from him. Sombra began laughing and rose to his new full height, flexing his fingers and looking down at his new body with a grin on his face.
"No, I am no longer Sombra," he said with a deep chuckle. "You can just call me god."