//------------------------------//
// Starfall 
// Story: Ever After 
// by Mixer 
//------------------------------//

	Applejack found herself hogtied by Flit, by the same rope she had used on him, “What in tarnation?”
Flit stood up, his horn glowing, “I guess you’re not as good with rope as you thought.”
Applejack struggled against the magically manipulated rope.
“Well now what?” Frost asked.
The door slammed open, and Chrysalis and Candy stepped into the bar.
“Trable!” Candy cried when she saw him pinned by Big Mac.
“Wait, you’re with her?!” Frost question Breeze.
“I’m not with anypony,” Chrysalis snorted, “I am doing this for myself.”
She turned to Big Mac, “Release him.”
Mac looked to his sister.
Applejack sighed, “Do it...”
The red stallion raised his hoof off of Treble and took a step back.
Candy rushed over to him and helped him up.
“And give the zebra to us,” Chrysalis commanded.
Mac set Char down on the ground next to him.
“Frost, you’re coming with us,” Breeze said.
“What?” Frost questioned.
“You’re the Element of Honesty, right?” Breeze asked.
“...Yeah,” Frost answered reluctantly.
“Then that only leaves magic...” Flit said.
“But that’s the only one we have no lead on,” Breeze said.
“Wait, you came here without all the Elements?” Frost questioned.
“We came with all we have. We were hoping that the last Element would reveal itself once we gathered the other five,” Breeze said.
“Well Ah suppose that’s how it worked fer us,” Applejack said.
“But that was completely different. You at least were friends before, and you had something to prove your elements. We’ve got nothing to go on. For flanks sake, we were just fighting!” Frost ranted.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t try,” Breeze said.
“Darkstar isn’t like Nightmare Moon. He. Will. Kill you,” Frost continued.
“What about the princesses? If we can’t stop him then he could kill them! Breeze snapped.
“He has a point,” Chrysalis said. “Darkstar may very well kill them, given the chance.”
“Well, if he sees me, I’m going to be a talking head in a few seconds, in case you didn’t notice this,” Frost said, pointing to the black collar around his neck.
“What?” Breeze asked.
“If Darkstar sees me helping you, then he’ll cause this thing to tighten, and probably take my head clean off,” Frost explained.
“Then we need to get it off of you,” Breeze said.
“I’ve tried, it won’t budge,” Frost said.
“Have you tried magic?” Flit asked.
“Do I look like a unicorn?” Frost asked sarcastically.
“Allow me,” Chrysalis said, her horn glowing its signature green hue.
After a few seconds, the collar broke, and dissolved into black wisps of smoke.
“That simple?” Frost said, stunned that the collar was so easily removed.
“If it weren’t for him being distracted, Darkstar would have sensed it before I removed it,” Chrysalis said plainly.
“I guess we should head for the palace...” Frost said reluctantly.
--
Sobra and Dark Flame had been locked in combat for quite a while. Dark Flame couldn’t break Sombra’s crystal fast enough, but neither could Sombra overpower Dark Flame.
“How is this even possible?” Sombra questioned as Dark Flame broke another crystal barrier.
“His... armor...” Solid Gear said weakly from under a small pile of debris.
Sombra hadn’t thought that armor alone could make a pony almost invincible, but it made sense; Dark Flame was completely covered in armor.
That was also the problem.
Sombra jumped out of the way as Dark Flame lunged at him.
Sombra would have to get creative if he wanted to beat Dark Flame.
--
Dhanthas was ripping apart shades and changelings trying to put Soulless in his sights.
Soulless, for his part, was able to keep himself from ending up like anything else that happened to get in front of Dhanthas.
“Stop running coward,” Dhanthas growled, slicing a shade in two.
“No thank you,” Soulless called back, teleporting away.
Dhanthas was in a rage, but he was still able to drive Soulless towards the palace; right where he wanted him.
Soulless continues to teleport away from the whirling scythe of the shade until he was standing underneath the Palace.
“I have you now,” Dhanthas growled, coming to a rest just beyond the palace’s shadow.
“I don’t see how,” Soulless snarked.
Dhanthas just smiled a triumphant smile and walked into the shadow of the palace, the wound on his chest healing almost immediately.
“Oh...” Soulless said.
“You can’t escape me now,” Dhanthas said, and appeared behind Soulless, the scythe at his neck.
“You took one wrong step pipsqueak,” Dhanthas gloated as he pulled on the scythe.
Dhanthas’ face was spattered with droplets of red.
Soulless’ body fell to the ground, but something was not right.
Dhanthas shook his head as his vision began to blur and turn red.
“You didn’t think I would die that easily did you,” the ethereal voice echoed around him.
Soulless’ body began to dissolve and a shadowy form appeared at the edge of the shadow, walking slowly towards Dhanthas.
“You can’t fool me pipsqueak, I know it’s you,” Dhanthas called.
The shadowy figure said nothing, but extended a hidden blade from its left forehoof.
Dhanthas rushed the shadow and swung his scythe at the figure, but his blade met nothing but air as it went right through the form like smoke.
The form stabbed its blade into Dhanthas, but it didn’t even phase the shade.
“You can’t kill me with silly tricks,” Dhanthas said, and kept swiping his scythe through the shadowy form.
“This strike is no trick,” Soulless said from behind Dhanthas, swinging a glowing green blade down at him.
Dhanthas moved out of the way, but the blade went through the base of his wing.
The wing didn’t sever, it didn’t even bleed. Instead, it went limp, and all feeling left it.
“What the hell?” Dhanthas questioned, putting distance between him and Soulless.
“That was my soul cutter... and next time, I won’t miss,” Soulless said, teleporting behind the shade.
Dhanthas used his own powers to teleport to the edge of the shadow and began to fall back into the crowd of shades and changelings.
“I’m coming for you...” Soulless’ voice rang in Dhanthas’ ears.
--
Elyl was huffing and covered with bleeding cuts. 
Enfield now had his own sets of cuts.
Spearhead was now quite bored of watching the two “duel”, and was leaning against a wall. 
“Can we hurry this up?” he called from the wall.
“Not yet,” Enfield said.
Spearhead groaned and pushed himself off from the wall.
His ears pricked up as he heard some scuffling from a nearby alley.
He grabbed a spear and went to investigate.
When he looked down the alley, he saw a cat digging through a garbage can.
He sighed and lowered his spear and was about to head back to watch Enfield finish up when another garbage can spontaneously flew open, showering him with foul smelling trash.
The garbage was soon followed by the lid of the can as it impacted on Spearhead’s forehead, knocking him back and causing him to fall over clutching the point of impact.
The commotion and Spearheads muffled groaning attracted the attention of a few of the shades who detached from the circle and went to investigate.
As they got to the mouth of the alley, a garbage can rolled out at considerable speed, knocking both of them down as it bowled them over.
“St-rike!” came the triumphant shout from inside the alley.
This time, more shades went to investigate. Those with the wings and the intelligence took to the air to avoid the same fate as they tried to identify from where the call came.
As they rose to the level of the second story, they were assaulted by flower pots.
“Get out of our city!” came an angry cry.
By this time Spearhead had recovered and was now standing and looking for the aggressors.
He saw a young cream colored stallion retreating down the alley.
He groaned inwardly.
Up until that point, the civilians of the Crystal Empire had been quiet, but it now appeared that they were trying to fight back.
He turned around to get Enfield, only to find a snowball hurtling at his face.
The initial impact stung a little, but Spearhead had taken much worse, so he wiped the snow from his face to see a rag tag group of clots brandishing more snowballs at him.
Spearhead may have only been a shade of his former self, summoned by an evil alicorn, but he still couldn’t fight colts.
Unfortunately for him, the other shades didn’t seem to have any qualms about hurting you ponies and began to chase them.
The startled colts ran down the street and into another alley.
The shades disappeared into the alley, followed by a loud clattering, and an upturned dumpster. 
Spearhead recognized guerrilla tactics when he saw them, but he also knew that it was hard to fight an enemy on their own turf, so he made a break for the remaining shades around Enfield and Elyl.
“Enfield!” Spearhead called.
The brown soldier turned from his fight, “What?”
“We have a problem,” Spearhead said, running up to Enfield. “I think the crystal ponies are revolting.”
“What? They really think they can fight against an army of shades?” Enfield questioned.
“We don’t exactly have an army with us right now, and in case you hadn’t noticed the loud crashes, they are doing a pretty good job.” Spearhead snorted.
Elyl took this time to catch his breath and try to make an escape plan. 
The shades blocking his way back towards the palace were still holding a strong formation, however, the other side was much looser thanks to the crystal ponies’ distraction.
If he could just get a good opening, he could get away.
“Fine, call more shades,” Enfield said.
There was a loud whistle from the road.
“Hey, we’ve had enough of you in our city!” shouted a stallion.
Spearhead and Enfield turned to see a group of crystal ponies gathered in the street.
They were holding brooms, pans, anything they could use as an improvised weapon.
Spearhead didn’t think that they could stand a chance against the shades, but then he thought about what he would do in their position.
A sudden thought struck him and he wheeled around to see that a much large group was about to attack from the other side of the road.
“Behind you!” he managed to cry before the crystal ponies descended on the unsuspecting shades.
Elyl was soon surrounded by scuffling hooves, loud shouts of anger, and swirling puffs of dust and dirt, just the distraction he was looking for.
He got up and made a break for it, trying to get clear of the fighting and somewhere where he could recover.
--

Cadence had run out of the palace thinking that Shining Armor was right behind her, but when she turned around, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Cadence!” the call came from somewhere behind Cadence.
She turned to see a pair of armored ponies run up to her.
“Who are you?” Cadence asked the two new ponies.
“Lightning Shaker and Dream Dasher,” Lightning said.
“Where’s Shining?” Cadence asked.
“Shining? We haven’t seen him the whole time,” Dasher said.
“Quick, we’ve got to get you out of here,” Lightning said.
“But Shining Armor,” Cadence protested.
“Cadence wait!” Shining voice called from somewhere inside.
“Shining!” Cadence called and turned back.
Shining Armor turned a corner and ran up to Cadence.
“How did you get out?” he asked hugging her.
“What do you mean? You were right behind me a moment ago,” Cadence said hugging him back.
Crystal looked down from the balcony as Shining and Cadence had their reunion. 
“Now for one final touch.”
--
Atop the tower of the palace Darkstar was facing the combined strength of Twilight, Luna, and Celestia.
They were firing countless blasts of purple, gold, and azure magic at him, but he was fending them off with his shadows, absorbing any bolts that he could not dodge.
The princesses weren’t the only ones on the offensive though; Darkstar would lash out with a tendril of shadow whenever he got the chance, keeping the princesses on the move.
It was a stalemate that filled the sky with a brilliant display of light and shadow.
But something had to give...
--

Dhanthas was now running, narrowly avoiding slashes from Soulless’ soul cutter.
“What’s wrong, afraid?” Soulless said as he tried to catch Dhanthas’ leg.
Dhanthas didn’t say anything but avoided the blade again.
Soulless teleported behind Dhanthas and was going to land a finishing blow, but the green blade faded mid swing.
“Oh come on!” he lamented as his now shortened hidden blade swept through the air.
Dhanthas got a wicked grin and lashed out with his good wing, catching Soulless in the face.
Soulless staggered backwards from the blow but recovered soon enough to avoid Dhanthas’ hoof.
The two were now facing each other, both worn out by their back and forth cat and mouse.
“This is it,” Dhanthas huffed, “One of us is going to die.”
“And it’s not going to be me,” Soulless retorted.
They were ready to go at it again, when a series of crystal spikes split the space between them, carrying with is a navy blue form.
Sombra came shooting out from the wreckage of the airship on a pillar of crystal and landed next to Soulless.
“How’s your fight going?” he asked.
“Nowhere. And yours?” Soulless asked.
“Same.”
“Trade?” 
“Gladly.”
Soulless teleported away after the tumbling Dark Flame while Sombra turned to face Dhanthas, who was hacking through the crystals with his scythe.
“Where’d he go?” Dhanthas questioned, looking around for Soulless.
“We traded,” Sombra said as the crystals closed back around Dhanthas.
Dhanthas struggled against the crystals, but couldn’t move.
“Why that-” he began, but was cut off as the crystal closed around his mouth.
“Well that was easy.”
--

Soulless killed another changeling and looked his new opponent over.
Dark Flame’s armor had barely a scratch on it, despite being assaulted by a tide of crystal spikes and slamming into a wall.
He broke through the wall and snorted as he say Soulless standing out in the open. 
He roared as he charged the black unicorn.
Soulless didn’t move, but held out his soul cutter as Dark Flame came upon him, causing the juggernaut to practically impale himself on the ethereal green blade.
Soulless ripped the blade across Dark Flame’s chest and the armored pony stood motionless for a few moments, causing Soulless to wonder if it worked.
The armor let out a creaking sound as Dark Flame slowly collapsed onto his side.
Sombra and Soulless met in between the two felled titans.
“That was easy,” they said simultaneously.
--
Breeze and the others were heading towards the palace when something flashed near the top of the tower.
“What was that?” Treble questioned.
“I don’t know,” Frost said.
“What’s that?” Breeze asked when he saw something plummeting towards them.
Something white, shrouded in shadows impacted on the street ahead of them, leaving a crater in the road that let off smokey shadows.
They rushed to the crater to see Celetisa laying in a curled position with a ruined wing.
“Celestia!” Breeze cried.
The wounded alicorn let out a low groan and open her eyes slightly.
“Breeze...” she said weakly.
“Does anypony know healing magic?” Candy asked worriedly. 
“You must... stop Darkstar...” Celestia said.
“But how? We only have five of the Elements,” Breeze said.
“Breeze... remember what’s the strongest magic of all,” Celestia said, almost a whisper.
She trembled with a fresh wave of pain and lowered her head.
“Go...” she said.
“But we can’t just leave you here,” Breeze protested.
“I will stay with her,” a voice said from a side street.
“Elyl!” Violet exclaimed, recognizing the white stallion.
“Go, I’ll stay with her and do what I can.” 
Breeze and the others reluctantly continued on to the palace.
--
On top of the Palace, Luna and Twilight landed to fight Darkstar in close quarters so that he couldn’t keep blasting at them from behind his shadows.
Both the remaining princesses were fighting like they were possessed after Celestia fell.
Luna tore the air with her crescent blade, coupling that with blasts of magic, while Twilight was firing a near endless volley of magic bolts at Darkstar, keeping him from having any chance to disengage from Luna.
Luna let out a wordless roar as she sent her blade slicing through the air towards Darkstar.
Darkstar prevented the blade from reaching him with a thick wall of shadow, but had to move to avoid being fried by Twilight’s magic assault.
“Enough!” Darkstar roared, sending out a black pulse, knocking Twilight down and staggering Luna.
“I’ve had enough of these games.” 
Darkstar fanned out his wings and several snaking tendrils of shadow shot out towards Twilight and Luna.
Luna sliced the thick black tendrils with her blade, but Twilight was not so quick, and was quickly constricted by the tentacles of shadow.
The tentacles tightened until Twilight let out a cry, coupled with a cracking sound as one of her ribs gave way.
Luna was going to attack when Darkstar held up a hoof.
“One more move and I’ll crush the life out of her.”
Luna stopped, and glared at her son.
Darkstart was about to make a move when he shot backwards, barely avoiding a blade of crystal descending where he had just been.
Luna didn’t hesitate and cut the tentacle constricting Twilight. The remainder of the tentacle dissolved, letting Twilight fall to the floor.
Sombra moved back next to Luna and faced Darkstar.
“Three Alicorns couldn’t stop me. What makes you think that only one and a unicorn can?” Darkstar questioned.
“You’re surrounded by crystal,” Sombra said, “You’re essentially standing inside one giant weapon.”
As if in response to his words, something landed behind Darkstar.
He turned around to see Crystal.
“It’s no longer two on one,” Darkstar sneered.
“You’re right,” Crystal said, blasting him in the back. “It’s three on one.” 
“Make that four,” Shining Armor said as he teleported to the tower top.
“Five,” Cadence added, flying up on the side opposite to Shining.
Darkstar scowled as he was surrounded.
“Foolish traitors.”
His horn glowed and Crystal and Shining Armor began to dissolve.
“Shining!” Cadence cried as her husband dissolved to nothing but a few wisps of shadow.
Tears began to form in her eyes, and Cadence let out a roar, unleashing a torrent of magical energy that caused everypony in the crystal empire to experience a sudden attack of vertigo.
The air grew heavy with the strength of her magic, and Darkstar experienced a fairly new sensation, utter despair.
Cadence flew at Darkstar, who couldn’t even move as she slammed into him, carrying him off the tower.
Darkstar was utterly stunned as he tumbled through the air.
He was almost unable to regain enough control to keep himself aloft.
Cadence came at him again and the two of them raced towards the ground.
When they hit the ground it sent up a cloud of dust, obscuring what happened.
Luna and Sombra went to the edge of the tower and looked down at the cloud.
--

Breeze and the others had almost reached the palace when something had hit the ground not too far ahead of them and send up a thick cloud of dirt and dust.
“What was that?!” Treble exclaimed the dust was just starting to settle.
As the cloud began to fade, they could see two shadowy figures, one standing, and the other on the ground.
When the dust cleared, Darkstar was standing over Cadence.
Darkstar was huffing, looking down at his cousin.
“I’m impressed... I didn’t think you had that kind of power...”
He looked up and saw Chrysalis and the others.
“What’s this?” he questioned, stepping over Cadence.
Chrysalis stood defensively in front of the others.
“Run you fools,” she ordered.
Darkstar continued to calmly advance on the changeling queen.
“Don’t bother,” Darkstar said.
Chrysalis fired a blast of magic at him, but he just deflected it.
“You don’t have the power to beat me Chrysalis,” Darkstar said, and batter her aside with magic.
The others had backed away, but couldn’t bring themselves to run.
Soulless teleported and slashed at Darkstar with his hidden blade.
“Run you idiots!” he yelled before teleporting away.
Darkstar growled at the interruption, but at that point, he knew that standing in front of him were the Elements of Harmony.
“So you have the Elements,” he said.
“Can’t y’all take a hint and run?” Applejack voice came from behind them, followed by Big Mac and Braeburn charging Darkstar.
Darkstar merely dissolved them, along with Applejack and Apple Bloom.
“Breeze, the Elements,” Flit said.
Luna and descended and stood between Darkstar and Breeze.
“You’ve lost mother,” Darkstar said. 
“Not yet we haven’t,” Luna said.
The whole while, Breeze’s mind was in turmoil.
They didn’t have all six elements, and if they didn’t use them now, then it would be all over.
“Breeze!” Flitt called, snapping him out of it.
In front of Breeze, Luna and Darkstar were locked in hoof to hoof combat.
Breeze looked back to the others.
Flit, Treble, Char, Violet, Frost, and Cotton Candy were in different states of fear, confusion, and determination.
Breeze took off his saddle bag and tossed the Elements of Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, and Generosity to their bearers and looked at the last Element, Magic.
Breeze looked into the gem, and remembered when he was a colt, back when here was fascinated with magic. 
Breeze got a crazy idea and put on the Element of Magic.
“Breeze?” Violet questioned.
“What are you doing?” Treble asked.
“You don’t have to be a unicorn to have magic,”Breeze said.
“What?” Char asked.
“Flit’s not even a pony, and he’s an Element bearer,” Breeze said. “And besides, there’s one kind of magic that anypony can do.”
“Friendship?” Frost asked.
Violet grabbed Frost and Char, “And even though we just met, we’re friends.”
“Maybe this is what destiny brought us together,” Treble hypothesized.
There was a cry as Darkstar overcame Luna.
“If we’re going to try, we’ve got to do it now,” Breeze said, turning to face Darkstar with the others.
“Uh, how are we supposed to use these?” Frost asked.
“Looks like you six need a little kick start,” the voice came from behind them. 
They turned around and saw Discord.
Fluttershy stepped out from behind the draconequis and went over to Char and touched her Element.
The Element of kindness started glowing and the gem began to reshape itself.
The others began to reshape themselves as well, and soon all the Elements had changed to suit their new bearers.
The Element of Magic changed from a crown into a headband.
“Wow,” Breeze said, feeling the changed Element.
He concentrated on the Element, and imagined it was a horn.
He was brought back to reality as he felt Flit rest his hoof on Breeze’s shoulder.
“We’ve got your back,” the changeling reassured.
Breeze smiled, “Let’s do this.”
He concentrated and the elements began to glow.
“What?!” Darkstar exclaimed, seeing the Elements activate.
The Elements connected to each other with thin ribbons of rainbow colored light.
The ribbons of light intensified as they met with the Element of Magic.
In what could only be called a sense of humor on fate’s part, the resulting blast resembled a sonic rainboom, washing over the Crystal Empire.
As the rainbow wave passed by, shades faded, buildings became repaired, and the climate returned to it’s sunny norm.