//------------------------------// // Judgement // Story: Pearple Juice With Bits // by Pearple Prose //------------------------------// Twilight, for the first time in her life, didn't know what to do. She was stuck, imprisoned from the outside world by a cage of black crystal. Blinded by her enthusiasm, the purple unicorn had made a reckless grab for the Crystal Heart at the top of the tower, and triggered a devious fail-safe, set by the Black Tyrant King Sombra himself. Her ever-faithful draconic assistant Spike was the only option now. It fell to him to return the Heart to its rightful place, and save the Crystal Empire from another 1000 years of brutal enslavement. Blasting the crystal with magic was futile, as Twilight had learned, and now she could only watch through a crack as Spike ran from the spreading corruption at the top of the tower. Her heart nearly stopped as he fell from the peak, and the Crystal Heart slipped from his grasp. Desperate, Twilight closed her eyes and projected her perception outwards. Her astral vision was blurred and indistinct due to her lack of experience using the technique, but she could clearly see her Spike falling through the air, screaming in terror. Tearing her metaphysical eyes away from the sight, she watched King Sombra riding a spire of rapidly growing black crystal, licking his lips as the Heart fell towards him. Twilight saw something else that day. Something so horrifying she replayed it constantly in her nightmares to this day. She watched her brother Shining Armour throw himself in front of a razor-sharp shard of black crystal that sought to impale his wife Cadence. She saw it impaled in his chest. Twilight screamed. A shriek of soul-crushing despair so deep time seemed to stand still. Twilight knew the crystal cage surrounding her was resistant to her magic. She didn't care. Reaching out with her senses, she grabbed and pooled the life-giving energies around her. A symphony of power sang in her mind, eventually reaching a crescendo as the corona of blinding light surrounding the purple unicorn expanded outwards. The extreme heat blistered and sizzled, blasting at the crystal walls, tearing and eroding as the crystal crackled with black lightning until- The air exploded. White light cascaded from the tower peak, blowing away the black crystal in a nova of energy that lit up the bloody crimson sky like a miniature Sun. Everyone, including Sombra, froze and turned to look at the explosion with a mixture of confusion, fear and awe. In an instant, a beam of celestial might blasted Sombra's spire, the searing heat reducing the structure to less than dust. Spike's screams stopped abruptly as he was caught in a golden aura, along with the Crystal Heart, and dropped gently back on the balcony with the despairing Princess Cadence, who he immediately went to assist. Looking up again, he saw another smaller explosion, this time heralding the arrival of a symbol of pure, righteous anger, hovering in the air above the falling empire. Twilight's rage only grew at the sight of the destruction King Sombra had wrought in his return; hundreds of crystal ponies were either fleeing in terror from the encroaching darkness, or frozen in fear, their minds unable to comprehend the dread of another millennium of enslavement. Catching movement in the corner of her glowing crimson eyes, she, almost lazily, threw herself through space as a bolt of white lightning, a sizzling crack accompanying the feat of mind-blowing magic, and deftly hurled a lance of molten plasma point-blank at the recovering King. Sombra caught a glimpse of a lustrous gold-white being before he howled in pure agony, the attack cooking his flesh as he was thrown into a nearby house. He snarled and dispersed into a toxic mass of black shadow, then darted towards a foal lagging behind its mother as they ran to the Palace. A shimmering wall of blazing light stopped him before he could even try. Turning, he caught another glimpse of his assailant in the millisecond before he was struck by dagger-like rays of sunlight, burning away his amorphous mass. Spike got his first proper look at the being that was thoroughly destroying Sombra, and he didn't know whether he was relieved or afraid; Twilight Sparkle, the cheerful Ponyville librarian and student to Princess Celestia, was nowhere to be seen. This glowing alabaster equine, crimson eyes burning with intent, was someone, someTHING else entirely. There was no hesitance in her attacks, only the will to destroy. She stalked towards the fallen king, standing in defiance before him and sneering with contempt. "Is this really it, Sombra? Is this shambling shell of a tyrant before me really the monster that enslaved a nation?" Sombra snarled, and shot a streamer of twisted black hate at his foe. Twilight snorted before meeting the attack with a needle-thin ray of heat that nulled the opposing magic, cut through Sombra's curved crimson horn and left a warped scar across his muzzle. "Is this the pony that killed my brother?" Sombra lay on the ground writhing in agony. Twilight pressed him down with a wall of force, then closed her eyes as she crafted a spell in her mind. Slowly, a glowing sigil formed around the two, etched into the earth. The spell gradually became brighter, while Twilight's form was once again wreathed in heavenly light. When the light became blinding, she opened her eyes to reveal two glowing white beams; a side-effect brought on by the cosmic energies she was wielding and manipulating. "A shadow. That's all you are, Sombra. A husk. A shell. You succumbed to your hatred, and it reduced you to nothing. It'll be a pleasure to wipe your remains from this world." Golden chains of solar steel erupted from the earth and wrapped around Sombra so tightly his armour buckled from the pressure, and they burned hot enough to warp the steel. Twilight turned her eyes up to gaze at the heavens. Casting her perceptions outwards, she felt for the Sun, which was obscured by dark clouds. Reverently, she drew upon a tiny fraction of its strength, and cast her spell. An immense pillar of sunfire burst from the sigil, melting stone into magma and earth into molten slag. The eruption of magic created a vast shockwave that destroyed nearby houses and knocked ponies off their feet. The pillar bridged the heavens and earth, visible for miles as a white tower. 5 equine forms ran out of the palace towards the explosion. Their muzzles were maelstroms of emotion: terror, anxiety, anger, panic. One emotion stood out from these however: conviction. Their friend needed them, and there wasn't a force on the face of the world that could keep them apart. When the column dissipated, one figure stood at the edge of a colossal crater. The friends faltered slightly when they took in the alabaster fur and the golden ethereal mane, but when she turned at the sound of her name, there was no mistaking it. It was Twilight. And she was in pain. Twilight Sparkle was hunched over, paralysed by the pure agony that stabbed at her. The power she had used to annihilate Sombra was running rampant, and it was beyond her control. She felt an immense pressure at the base of her horn as the energy built up, begging to be released. Hearing her name, she turned her head, with some difficulty, to see her friends. The shock on their faces turned into worry after seeing her grimace. Twilight fought with all her might, but it was no use. Her eyes glowed white once again and she screamed- And was wrapped up in great white wings, the energy siphoning out of her and into her mentor's ivory horn. The adrenaline flowing through her veins was quickly replaced by immense fatigue. When all the Light had been drained from her, Twilight looked up sleepily into the alabaster alicorn's stoic features. "Did I pass the test, Princess?" She mumbled. Princess Celestia's smile was hollow. "Y-yes, my faithful student. You passed with flying colours. Please, just rest now." Twilight Sparkle smiled weakly before collapsing into an all-encompassing group hug.