Chapter 35
White magical flames whirled around the room as Twilight Sparkle hammered on Sombra’s impressive defenses. The stallion stood tall and proud within the maelstrom of flames, seemingly unphased by the roaring inferno. His horn glowed with dark red and black magical energy and he blocked every gout of fire or river of heat with an equally powerful shield,all the while filling up the cavern with incredibly powerful blasts of force and dark magic.
Twilight found herself surrounded not only by heat and flames, but also by blasts of insidious magic that would’ve killed, or done something worse to her near instantaneously. However, her current state the bolts of dark energy simply didn’t concern her. With contemptuous ease the mare either batted them aside or in some cases, simply dodged them, all the while keeping up the torrent of fire rushing from her horn.
In some distant part of her mind, Twilight knew that she couldn’t keep up the pace that she was running at. Her different personalities would eventually wear out all of her energy and then the vile stallion would have free reign to do as he wished.
An entirely different part of her mind told the previous one to shut the fuck up and focus on doing something productive for a change.
With an internal growl of rage Twilight unleashed an even hotter fire to rain down on Sombra but the infuriating stallion remained grinning as his shining horn deflected the fire away.
“Really now Twilight Sparkle, I was expecting more from you!” Sombra shouted mockingly at her. “You’re supposed to be Celestia’s secret weapon, the knight she uses to topple the forces of evil, but all that you’ve shown me so far is how much of a sniveling little whelp you are when it comes to magic! You’re nothing but a novice with an extremely large pool to draw from, and if my guess is right you’re almost at empty!”
The mare gritted her teeth, he was right. Even with her ocean of power to draw from the mare was beginning to run out dry. Twilight’s magic reached out and tore a trio of stalactites from the ceiling of the cave and sent them spirling at Sombra accompanied by a gout of flames. His counterstroke was simple and effective, three blasts of force sent the spears of rock right back at Twilight and he raised a shield to defend himself allowing the fire to simply wash off of him.
The mare barely managed to avoid the speeding rocks, one of which sped by her cheek close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off of them. That was when her senses found something else in the room, unbeknownst to Sombra, there was a large vein of iron ore running through the ceiling.
Without hesitation Twilight began to tear chunks of stone out of the ceiling and hurled them at Sombra who proceeded to return the favor. This time however, Twilight caught them in mid air and sent them flying right back at him. Literal tons of stone flew back and forth between them like a game of catch played by a pair of demented giants.
As the stones roared back and forth between them Twilight reached for more and more of them. Sombra, quite enjoying the little game, seeing it as the mare’s last desperate attempt to kill him through nothing but pure weight of stone. A confident smirk appeared on his face as he once more lazily sent the stone flying back at her.
A sudden beam of extremely fast molten iron slapped the sneer off of his face.
Meanwhile; Ethan had regained control of his limbs, and was currently cursing his way back to his feet as he pulled out three inch long shards of volcanic glass out of his body.
“Who builds a fucking throne out of fucking glass?” The man growled angrily and painfully under his breath as his bloody hands pulled yet another of the damn things from his side.
He looked up to see Twilight still engaging Sombra but after what had happened a few minutes ago he didn’t really think that there was much that he could do at the moment to help her. Every breath he took hurt like hell and he was pretty sure that he had a severe case of internal bleeding.
“But hey, what else is new?” he asked himself as he spit up a stream of blood.
The man took a step forward, wincing in pain as the miniscule shards of black volcanic glass stabbed deeper into the soles of his feet. Then, he smiled an extremely strained smile.
At times like these, there was only one thing to do.
Find his damn gear!
Celestia’s blade decapitated a trio of the zombies, further bloodying the already stained golden breastplate. Her multicolored mane flowed around her as she pivoted and slashed another of the zombies in half, however, she was getting noticeably slower. A thin strand of red blood was making its way down her muzzle from where a particularly lucky zombie had gotten through her defenses before she’d smote it with a blast of force that literally tore the legs out from underneath it.
As much as she hated to admit it Celestia, Ruler of the Sun, Princess of Equestria, Daughter of Faust Herself was... out of practice.
Luna on the other hoof, was having a grand old time.
The blue alicorn streaked through the enemy ranks, heads rolling with every pass as she mercilessly obliterated the rotting corpses. Every blade that turned her way seemed to encounter nothing but mist as she sent back satisfied smirks and return slashes that diced through them at almost the atomic level.
An enterprising zombie tried to distract her as his ‘friends’ slashed at her fetlocks. This seemed to work and the alicorn fell to the ground. The zombies took the initiative and pounced on her bleeding form, only to find themselves stabbing the snow as the illusion vanished. Seconds latter Luna’s silver sword struck out and the three were split in half.
A completely unharmed Luna flickered back into existence above another group of the enemy and rocketed to earth, throwing up a cloud of snow and broken bodies as she impacted with a blast of force. Much to her surprise the ground beneath her began to shake violently.
Out of all the thoughts that could’ve come to Luna at that moment, the one that won out happened to be. Wait... I haven’t gotten fat.
The mare leapt skyward once more just in time to avoid the ground beneath her collapsing with a roar, swallowing several dozen zombies as it did so.
Sensing what was happening Luna sped towards Celestia. “Tia, sound the retreat, this entire plane is unstable and being made even more so at every moment!” Luna shouted above the din of combat.
Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise and she leapt into the air. “Are you sure sister?”
“Positive. If we continue to fight there then our troops will surely die!” Luna replied hurriedly. Celestia nodded and turned to wing towards Shining Armor who was in the middle of deflecting a group of ten zombies all the while slashing away at them with a broadsword.
Celestia blasted all of them away with a lance of force and landed beside him. “Shining, sound the retreat, we haven’t got much time before this entire battlefield collapses in on itself!” she informed him rapidly.
“What? Are you sure?” Shining asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
A sudden shock wave shook the earth and a segment of the battlefield close to the two suddenly disappeared in a puff of snow. Shining’s eyes widened again, but he kept his cool.
“Crystal Army, there’s been a change of plans, we’re getting the hell out of here!” Shining ordered while using a spell to amplify his voice so that everyone on the field could hear it. Then he turned to Celestia. “What about Twily and Ethan? What about my son? They’re under this place right now!” the stallion asked her, quiet intensity in his voice.
The alicorn grimaced. “They’re still fighting Sombra I think... I believe it’s what is causing the ground beneath our hooves to fall,” she replied.
Shining snarled under his breath. “Damnit! Celestia, we need to get her, now!” he told her angrily.
Celestia simply shook her head, a heart wrenching expression on her face. “We can’t Shining.”
“What? What do you mean we can’t? You’re perfectly capable of doing it!” he shouted at her.
“Unfortunately no... I’m unable to help her in this regard,” Celestia said, looking away.
“My sister and my son are in danger of dying and you’re ‘unable’ to help them?” Shining growled. “Why?”
The mare lowered her head so that it was down to Shining’s level. “Shining Armor, I am unable to assist Twilight Sparkle in this matter other than in the capacity of clearing her exit and saving our army. I do not like it, nor do I expect you too, but there is no point in us arguing.” With that said she leapt skyward and pulled him along with her.
Stay safe my love... please, Celestia pled in her mind, hoping that the mare would somehow receive the message.
He was covered in blood. There were pieces of black glass embedded in his feet. And finally he was naked. Then, a piece of stone had had the gaul to hit him in the back of the head.
Ethan gritted his teeth together and continued forward through the cavern, step by step going back along the path that Sombra had painfully carried him through. His blood trail was actually fairly impressive and would ensure that Sombra would be able to easily find him if Twilight wasn’t able to hold out until he got back.
After several more minutes, all of which were spent in extreme agony thanks to the shaking of the ground, he arrived at a door that he’d noticed earlier. Without hesitation the man rammed his entire body into it, driving several of the pieces of obsidian even further into his side drawing even more blood, and thankfully the door buckled beneath his strength.
He quickly scanned the inside of the room, and to his delight found exactly what he was looking for, his armor, his sword, and Cassie’s pistol. With nary a thought about the pain, he slipped the armor and began to make his way back up the way he’d come, a small determined smile on his face.
The beam of molten iron caught Sombra by surprise and it managed to cut through the first four shields that he put up to stop it instantly. The world seemed to slow down to a crawl for the stallion as Twilight steered it towards him with a firm look on her face and an almost animalistic panic appeared in his eyes as the superheated metal glided towards him hissing with heat.
Sombra’s eyes narrowed in concentration and the metal stopped for a moment before continuing inexhaustibly forward towards him. He tried disrupting Twilight’s hold on it, but the mare was stronger then him and she kept her magic completely under her control. Then he tried blasting it, but the iron simply rippled and continued towards him. Desperate to survive he threw up several more force fields, but the iron sliced right through them.
As it closed with him Sombra remembered one last weapon in his arsenal.
“AUNT TWILIGHT NO!” he suddenly screamed in Star’s voice.
Twilight, who had been completely focused on guiding the beam suddenly blinked rapidly and shook her head as she realized how close she’d been to killing her nephew. The liquid metal fell to the cold floor in front of Sombra where it began to harden. That was all the opening Sombra needed, he propelled himself forward with a blast of magic, and slammed into Twilight, knocking her onto her back.
The mare’s head hit the ground with a loud thump and the fire died in her mane as her fur returned to its ordinary purple color. The stallion laughed as he stepped forward and put a hoof on her chest.
“Oh Twilight, that was good, you almost got me with that, almost,” he told her, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “But now it’s time for me to be rid of you,” the stallion growled, his horn beginning to glow. “I’m going to use the same spell on you that I was about to use on your monkey friend. And do you know what my first order to you is going to be?”
Twilight shook her head, both in answer and in an attempt to clear her head.
“I’m going to make you accept me as your one true love, and then together we’ll get rid of those troublesome alicorns and rule Equestria together. Quite fitting if I do say so myself,” he sneered, moving his face closer to Twilight’s until their horns were almost touching.
“No-never,” Twilight said as she tried to pull herself away from him. “I’ll never do that!”
“Oh I think you will, you won’t have a cho-”
There was a sudden swish, and Sombra let out an incredibly loud shriek and tumbled backwards as the front half of his horn suddenly hit the floor. Ethan stood panting and out of breath, blood running from his still bare feet. The sword grasped tightly in his hands and he let out a deep sigh of relief once he saw that Twilight was safe. Then he pivoted and and brought his sword down for Sombra’s leg, cleanly slashing through flesh and bone as if as it was butter.
He was about to finish off the stallion when Twilight’s weak aura surrounded his arm.
“Ethan, don’t,” Twilight gasped as she made it back to her hooves.
“What? Why not!?” Ethan asked, trying to fight his way out of grip.
“That’s Star’s body!” Twilight exclaimed before she released him and galloped over to the squirming stallion. “I need to pull Sombra’s soul out of his body!”
Ethan stared at her, and then a rather large rock fell from the ceiling and clipped him in the shoulder cracking the bone and causing him to fall to his knee with a loud shout of pain. “Hurry Twilight, the cave collapsing!” he told her desperately.
The mare nodded, and her horn began to glow dimly as she lowered it down to touch the struggling Star’s forehead and both of them stiffened. Ethan looked down at them and then reached into his armor's pocket and retrieved a stimpack which he jabbed into Star’s now bloody ended leg, hoping that Twilight worked fast.
Twilight gazed into Star’s soul, what should’ve been a bright and shining spark of brilliance was coated in a black tar like substance that oozed over the light, almost obscuring it completely. She heard a whimpering sound coming from it along with a dark laughter.
This was going to be... impossible to do harmlessly. Twilight barely knew what she was doing in terms of soul magic, she only knew basic theory. The mare steadied herself, and then unleashed a column of energy at the tar, slowly scraping it off. It wasn’t a clean process, and she felt small pieces of the light be torn off with it. With every scrape Twilight winced internally as she harmed her nephew even more.
After what seemed like hours she finally managed to tear all of the disgusting tar off of the light... although now the light was subdued and quiet. The black however was a floating ball of evil shadows.
You think this is over Sparkle? Sombra’s voice asked her. This has barely even BEGUN I WILL-
Sombra’s voice was suddenly silenced as Twilight let out a noiseless scream of rage and began to literally tear Sombra’s soul apart. With furious vengeance she tore up the remaining slivers, continuing to do so until there was absolutely nothing left of the stallion, she would’ve destroyed the very memories and name of him it were possible as well... but that would require far more time and power then she had available at the moment. Slowly... she drifted back to reality.
Twilight’s body suddenly jerked and both she and Star’s eyes opened to see that Ethan was doing his best to shield them from falling rocks with his body. A particularly large one smashed into his opposite shoulder and Twilight heard the bone snap.
“Lovely morning that we’re having here Twilight, NOW get us the FUCK out of here!” Ethan shouted, his voice mixed with pain. “The entrance has collapsed, we need to teleport!” Twilight nodded and her horn began to glow, surrounding the three of them in a bright light... but nothing happened.
“What? What is it now?!” Ethan asked tiredly.
“I-I don’t have enough magic in me to take all three of us...” Twilight said softly. Ethan’s face turned stony for a second before he nodded.
“Right then, you two, get out of here,” he instructed her strictly.
“Ethan I can’t just leave you here!” Twilight shouted back.
“Yes, yes you can,” Ethan replied firmly as Star began to cry, though if it was from the mental trauma, the physical pain, or the yelling was unclear.
“But... you’ll die!” she replied.
To her surprise Ethan just laughed, though it was bitter at best.
“Come on now Twilight, what was the first thing I ever really taught you?” he asked her tiredly.
“That... you’re hard to kill?” Twilight asked slowly as she began to gather what was left of her depleted magic supply.
“Damn right I am,” Ethan replied. “Now get the hell out of here Twilight!” he slapped her flank sharply and the mare jumped in surprise, releasing her magic and causing both she and Star to vanish. Ethan looked up at the crumbling ceiling and pulled out his extra whiskey canteen that Twilight hadn’t known about and took a long drag, waiting for the end to come.