//------------------------------// // 18 - The Final Battle // Story: Chasing Shadows // by Yukito //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer felt her body trembling as she witnessed the rainbow light of the Elements of Harmony unleash itself with full fury towards Sombra. She knew from personal experience what a terrifying force this was, and that’s why she felt that there was no way that Sombra could survive it. So then, why were the two Shining Armors and Trixie so worried? Why was Sombra still grinning as his inevitable doom came rushing towards him. “Get out of there!” one of the Shining Armors shouted. “Fools!” Sombra used his magic to pull out his stolen weapon. Sunset Shimmer watched with extreme caution, having completely forgotten about the weapon and curious as to what he intended to do with it. As the light from the Elements of Harmony reached him, everybody held their breath. The light hit the device… and concentrated on just that single point. “He’s absorbing the attack?” Sunset asked, amazed that such a thing was possible. Sombra grunted and raised his forehooves to hold the device steady, using magic to prevent himself from being blown away. “I-Incredible! Stronger than I imagined!” “This is bad,” one of the Shining Armors said. “If he absorbs that much magic, the girls won’t survive the counter-attack!” “What do you mean?!” Sunset asked, turning to the two identical stallions. “He’s going to return their attack?!” “It looks like he’s having trouble, though,” the other Shining Armor pointed out. “Maybe it’s too much for the device to hold? It was in the experimental phase, after all.” Sunset Shimmer turned back to Sombra, her brow furrowed and her teeth gritted together as she watched the struggle unfold in the air. She gasped as she noticed the light from the Elements fading, and soon enough, it disappeared completely. “They lost!” “Impossible!” Trixie shouted. “Captain, do something!” one of the Shining Armors said to the other. “He’s going to unleash that on them!” “On it!” Captain shouted as he charged towards where the six girl were slowly descending back towards the ground. “Shield, get those two far away from here! Take them to where the Princess is!” “Right!” Shield turned around and knelt down. “Get her on my back. It’s not safe for her here.” “Wait,” Sunset said. “What about-” A flash of light interrupted her. Captain had used his magic to form a shield around himself and the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony… mere moments before Sombra’s attack was launched. “TWILIE!” Shield shouted as he watched. The attack hit the shield, and drove into it for a few seconds, before exploding into a blinding flash of light. When she could see again, Sunset Shimmer found eight bodies laying on the grass. Six mares, one stallion, and one baby dragon. Floating above them in the air, completely in hysterics, was Sombra. “And now you see that no force in this world can match up to me!” he shouted as he took a deep breath. “First the Princess, and now the Elements of Harmony. Your world is so easy to topple, now that I have this.” He held up the device that he had used to counter the Elements with and smiled. Sunset Shimmer, on the other hoof, was livid. ‘The Elements of Harmony, the greatest magical artefact in Equestrian history, defeated by some human?!’ Ignoring Shield’s pleas for her to flee, she charged recklessly towards where the downed mares were. “No! I won’t accept this!” “Hm? Aah, if it isn’t the little pony who abandoned her Country. Now you’re willing to fight for it?” Sombra asked, looking down at Sunset Shimmer. “Don’t get the wrong idea!” she shouted as she stopped at the fallen Twilight Sparkle. She noticed that the fallen victims were merely drained, but not in critical condition. They were still conscious, although they were only capable of slight movements and groans by this point. “I could care less what happens to Equestria, but I won’t have you tarnishing the name of the strongest magical artefacts ever to exist in our world! “And the same goes to you!” she added, looking down at Twilight, who was looking back up at Sunset with a weak look on her face. “I knew it had to be a fluke when you defeated me last time. There’s no way that somepony like you, who can’t even use the Elements correctly, could have defeated me! ‘Uniting through friendship’? What a load of horseapples!” “It certainly didn’t do the trick this time,” Sombra said, watching with intrigue as Sunset Shimmer knelt down and lifted the tiara off of Twilight’s head. “Suppose one of your so-called ‘friends’ is away when an enemy attacks, huh? What then?” Sunset Shimmer stood back up and placed the tiara onto her own head. “I, on the other hoof, propose a different. Uniting with others is too impractical, and just completely worthless! Instead, the Elements should be used…” Sunset closed her eyes for a brief second, and when they opened again, they jet black with green irises. “… To unlock the power within one’s self!” Sombra chuckled as he watched the mare beneath him transform. Her orange coat changed into a fiery red, her teeth began to grow fangs, her ears became more pointed and jagged, and her mane and tail became even more flame-like in appearance. Perhaps most noticeable of all, though, were the two bat-like wings growing from the mare’s sides. “Sombra!” Sunset shouted, her voiced echoing as she took flight. “This is how the Elements are meant to be used! Maybe this time, you’ll learn to respect them a little more!” Sombra hummed with interest. “The six of them worked together but failed. What makes you think you alone can stand a better chance?” “Because I am not being hindered by others,” Sunset said as he horn sparked to life, a bright green flame surrounding it as she readied her spell. “A magical spell is only as strong as its weakest contributor. I have such hindrances, as you’ll now see!” The magic stored in Sunset Shimmer’s horn fired. Sombra immediately moved to block it with the stolen weapon, cackling madly as the attack was absorbed… “What?!” Sombra asked as he saw a spark from the device, followed by a crack. “What’s going on?!” “Is it working?” Trixie asked, watching the scene with awe and wonder from atop Shield’s back. Shield had since stopped fleeing the scene to also watch. “It seems the device is still temperamental. There’s only so much it can take before it starts to break down.” “That mare’s attack,” Trixie started, “It’s not quite as powerful as the combined attack from earlier, but it’s definitely more magically dense… It seems that weapon can’t take it.” “If she can keep it up, we might have a fighting chance!” Shield said, a smile returning to his face. “… No,” Trixie said after a moment, her head falling as she frowned. “Like I said, her attack isn’t quite as strong as the combined attack from before. Even if she can break that device, I don’t think she has the power to defeat King Sombra.” “How can you be sure?” Shield asked. “Because Trixie has done her research. King Sombra was a foe of such power, that not even the combined forces of the two Princesses could stop him. The best they could do was seal him away, and even that wasn’t indefinite. The Elements of Harmony are meant to be used in unison, as the name implies. One on its own can only do so much…” “T-This can’t be happening!” Sombra shouted as he watched more sparks emitting from his device. “T-This magic! It’s too much!” “And here’s some more!” Sunset shouted as she paused her attack briefly, only to fire a second, much larger attack towards the stallion. With one final spark, Sombra had to quickly throw his weapon aside before it could explode in his hooves. An intense light filled the air beneath the two Unicorns as the device shattered, but Sombra’s attention was on the attack still moving towards him. “Fool! There’s no way I’m stopping now! The Elements are already defeated. Once I take them, I’ll no longer need that device!” “That’s too bad,” Sunset said, “Because I’m going to beat you right now!” “Don’t push your luck!” Sombra shouted as his horn lit up. A black beam of light fired from his horn, colliding with Sunset’s in the air. “Fall!” Sunset grunted as she felt her own magic being pushed back by Sombra’s. “I… I can’t hold on…” No matter how much effort she put in, it was not enough. Within just a few seconds, the black light of Sombra’s magic filled Sunset Shimmer’s vision, and the next she knew, she was falling towards the ground. “I… lost…” Sombra descended slowly towards the ground, watching with an amused grin on his face as Sunset Shimmer’s transformation faded, her body changing back to what it once was. Sunset Shimmer tried as hard as she could to hold back her tears. She grinded her teeth together and shot a heated glare up at her tormentor, but it was all an act to make herself look intimidating. And it wasn’t fooling anypony. “You see now?” Sombra asked Sunset Shimmer as he reached out for the tiara sitting on her head with his hooves. “Friendship was powerless against me, as was your raw power. Nothing in this world or yours can defeat me.” “I’m not done yet,” Sunset said, though her tone expressed nothing more than utter defeat. “I can still win. I was Princess Celestia’s number one pupil. That alone shows that I am the strongest…” “You are nothing,” Sombra said as he removed the tiara from her head. “You are just a lone wolf that has strayed from its pack. Such a pathetic creature can never posses the power needed to overthrow the darkness.” “She’s our friend!” a voice shouted, causing Sombra to turn suddenly to see who it was. A blue hoof greeted his face, knocking him some distance away and forcing him to drop the crown onto the grass. “That’s what she is!” Sunset Shimmer looked up in bewilderment, and disbelief. The blue mare with the rainbow mane standing before her was none other than Rainbow Dash, but not the same Rainbow Dash that was lying beside Twilight Sparkle in the distance. It was her Rainbow Dash, from the other world. “She’s also a student at Canterlot High,” another voice said. Sunset turned to see the rest of the group approaching, Applejack leading them. It was her who spoke. “An’ when someone at Canterlot High gets picked on, we all look out fer ‘em. That’s how we roll.” “Um,” Fluttershy said, her face red as she spat a bag strap out of her mouth. “I brought you some first aid, but I… I can’t use it with these hooves, so…” “You guys…” Sunset’s expression of shock turned to one of annoyance. “Why are you all here?” “What, you think we’d let you keep all the fun to yourself?” Rainbow Dash asked. Pinkie Pie hopped up to Sunset Shimmer and helped her up, being surprisingly good at using her hooves despite being so new to them. “We all had a dream that you were in trouble, so we all decided to sneak into that place you were in and make sure you were okay! Then we met this nice lady who decided to help us out and she showed us the portal-thingy and we all came through here together to-” BANG! Everypony stopped and jumped as the sound of a gunshot rang through the air. They all turned to Sombra instinctively, assuming it was him who had fired… However, Sombra seemed just as shocked as they did, and his gun was lying on the ground, beside his hooves. “I suggest you all take cover.” The six mares turned the other way to see a tall black mare walking towards them, holes covering her body and her insect-like wings as she pointed her gun forward in one of her hooves. She stopped as took aim… only to fumble with the gun and drop it onto the ground. “Darn it! These hooves are such an inconvenience!” “Who’s that?” Sunset asked, not quite sure what exactly she was looking at. She had never seen such a creature before in any textbooks. “Oh, that’s Chryssy!” Pinkie Pie said with a smile. “She’s the nice lady who helped us get here.” “‘Chryssy’… Chrysalis?” Sunset asked. The tall mare nodded. “Damn it!” Sombra shouted, his horn lighting up as he sent a heated glare towards the group of mares. “You should have aimed more carefully, Chrysalis! You’ll regret not shooting my head when you had the chance!” “This is bad,” Chrysalis said. “Run!” “No way!” Sunset Shimmer said, using her magic to grab the Element of Harmony lying on the ground beside her and placing it onto her head once more. “I will not lose! This time, I’ll-” “You can’t defeat me! It is useless to try!” Sombra shouted as he fired his attack. “She can,” Applejack said as she placed a hoof onto Sunset’s Shoulder. “Because this time, we’re here.” Sunset look up at Applejack with a surprised look on her face. “That’s right,” Rarity said, walking up closer to Sunset Shimmer. “You called her a ‘lone wolf who had strayed from her pack’. Well, that’s not quite right, because where we come from, nobody is allowed to feel alone.” “We all look out for each other,” Rainbow Dash said. “And nobody has to fight alone!” “You hurt my friend, you meet your end!” Fluttershy shouted with a glare. The others were taken aback by this, not used to seeing such aggression from the usually timid girl. “Hey! This reminds me of when Twilight beat Sunset at the prom!” Pinkie Pie shouted, appearing behind Sunset Shimmer and pulling all of her friends into a big group hug. A bright light shone from the tiara onto of Sunset’s head, and a second later a bright-green barrier shielded the group from Sombra’s attack. “The next thing that happened was we all did some super-cool transformation thingy and then combined our powers to beat the bad guy!” “You guys,” Sunset said, gathering the group’s attention. She looked into each of their eyes individually, and then sighed. “… Just this once, since you came all this way.” “We’re ready!” Applejack said. “Let’s beat this sucker and go home!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “We’re with you, darling,” Rarity said, and Fluttershy nodded. “Woohoo! Super cool anthro transformation GO!” Pinkie Pie cheered. “DIE!” Sombra shouted as he put more power into his attack, driving it into the barrier. Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and focussed her magic. The bodies of the six mares began to light up, and Sunset felt an unfamiliar warmth rushing through her body. “This power,” she muttered to herself. “This is… the power that beat me…” “NO!” Sombra shouted as he witnessed the barrier pushing attack back. Sunset’s eyes opened, and a bright rainbow-coloured light exploded from the tiara on her head and made its way towards Sombra. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Sombra’s eyes fluttered open slowly. “Twilie, you’re awake!” Sombra looked to his right slowly to see one of the Shining Armors hugging Twilight Sparkle tightly. “Thank Celestia!” “B-Big brother?” Twilight asked as she struggled in his hold. “W-What’s going on?” She gasped suddenly. “Where’s King Sombra?!” “He’s here,” a voice beside Sombra asked, causing him to gasp and look up in horror at the white stallion standing before him, towering over him with a stern look on his face. “Finally awake, huh?” “S-Shining Armor!” Sombra attempted to summon his magic… but nothing happened. “King Sombra’s horn was destroyed,” a female voice behind him said. He recognised it vaguely as Princess Celestia’s. “And, although it is unlikely necessary, you horn has been fitted with a magical repressor.” “Your hooves have also been bound,” Shining Armor said as he knelt down to look into Sombra’s eyes. “Sombra, for charges of treason, theft, conspiracy, and resisting arrest, I am placing you under arrest.” “Add attempted murder to those charges,” Chrysalis said from behind Shining Armor. “We found a two of the scientists who had been working on the device locked inside the lab’s freezer room. If we were just a little late, they would have died from hypothermia.” “So does that mean we’re done here?” Sunset asked as she approached Shining Armor. “We can go back now?” Shining Armor nodded. “Yes. Let’s all go back immediately and…” “… What’s wrong?” Sunset asked. “… How do we get back?”