//------------------------------// // Together // Story: For Her Mistakes // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Sombra growled in pain as he was thrown across the coliseum and slammed into one of the glass windows that lined the arena, shaking his soaked mane as water began to pour in through the crack. He got back up quickly and fired multiple thunderbolt spells, but the kraken deflected the blows with its tentacles, all the while laughing at him. 'DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?' it screamed with a laugh that shook the chamber, slamming its limbs into the water to create a massive wave that Sombra blocked with a barrier. 'I AM A BEING THAT HAS EXISTED LONGER THAN TIME ITSELF! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE AGAINST ME!' Sombra's response was to shoot his lightning into the water and send the current right into the kraken, which let out a chuckle as the lightning hit him. 'IT IS USELESS, KING. THE ONLY REASON YOU MANAGED TO WOUND ME LAST TIME, WAS YOU HAD THE ENTIRE CRYSTAL EMPIRE ON YOUR SIDE--AND EVEN THEN YOU COULDN'T FINISH ME,' it bellowed with a laugh as Sombra struggled to deflect its constant barrage of attacks. 'WHY DO YOU REMAIN SILENT? IS IT BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR FATE WILL BE ONCE I AM DONE TOYING WITH YOU?' "No, it's because my mother told me to stop talking to animals that will end up as food," he replied with a smirk as he created a blade of magic with his horn and sliced off one of the tentacles, causing the creature to roar in fury. But just as he sliced it off, two more grew out of the stump. 'Thought only hydras were supposed to do that,' he thought before the two new tentacles slammed into him and wrapped themselves around him, crushing him to death without him being able to die. 'WHY PROLONG THE INEVITABLE, SOMBRA?' the kraken asked him as it brought Sombra closer to its face, chuckling in glee when it heard some of his ribs crack under the pressure of its grip. 'YOU KNOW THAT I AM A FORCE FAR BEYOND WHAT YOU CAN FIGHT. ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVE SOMETHING TO YOURSELF? OR ARE YOU JUST BUYING TIME FOR THOSE OTHER FOOLS TO ESCAPE?" "Nope. Trying...to see if you smell just as bad as I remember," he wheezed with a smirk, before crying out again as the monster continued to crush him. 'EVEN IF YOU GIVE THEM A HEAD START, I HAVE SPENT THE LAST THOUSAND YEARS RECOVERING FROM THE SPELL YOU WOUNDED ME WITH LAST TIME. AND IF YOU ARE WILLING TO SACRIFICE YOURSELF TO PROTECT THOSE FOOLS, IT WILL BE MY PLEASURE TO HUNT THEM DOWN AND DO TO THEM WHAT I AM GOING TO DO TO YOU.' "Not on your immortal life!" Sombra growled as he looked skyward. ""NING LI GTH!" The kraken roared as a lightning bolt came down from the ceiling and struck the tentacle, forcing it to release Sombra who fell into the water. He swam over to one of the floating planks and pulled himself up, panting heavily as he looked back at the kraken, which was now moving towards him with a growl. 'THERE IS NO ESCAPE. NOT FOR YOU OR THE REST OF EQUESTRIA. FOR ONCE I AM DONE WITH YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS, I WILL HAVE ALL OF EQUESTRIA BOW BEFORE MY POWER!' "Quit...taking...all my ideas," he panted with a smirk before another tentacle swatted him back into the water, where he had to fight back to the surface. He used a spell to place himself above the water, where the kraken put five of its tentacles together. In the center of the tentacles a black sphere of darkness appeared and Sombra growled as he prepared himself. 'DIE!' the kraken roared as it fired the sphere towards Sombra, who threw up a shield while yelling, 'FENCE DE!', placing a double shield around himself. The sphere smashed into the barrier and went through the first one with ease, before slamming into the second one, which only held out a few moments longer before the sphere struck Sombra, hurling his screaming body across the room and into the glass, shattering both it and his bones as he collapsed to the floor, water seeping in from the break. 'GIVE IN SOMBRA AND I WILL END YOU QUICKLY,' the kraken said with a snarl as its tentacles began to move towards Sombra, who with the last of his will was able to force himself back to his hooves, glaring at the kraken with undefeated eyes. "Sorry beasty, but you made me immortal," he coughed as he reached inside his bag, pulling out the crystals and placing them at his hooves. "And I promise to fight you to my immortal last breath, no matter how long it takes to defeat you. Bring it." The kraken roared in rage and sent its tendrils spiraling towards Sombra, who prepared to speak his final incantation. But just before he could speak it, a bolt of azure shot past him and pierced through the tentacles, striking the kraken in the eye. The creature roared and fell backwards while Sombra turned to see a familiar pony standing next to him. "Trixie?" he asked weakly before he fell over, but Trixie caught him before he hit the ground. She helped him back to his hooves as Armora and Bark ran in front of him and little Starshine took up the rear. "I thought I told you all to get out of here, that I would take care of it..." "You did, but then I remembered that it was you and you'd probably find a way to mess it up somehow," Trixie replied with a smile as she used some of her magic to heal what wounds she could, allowing him to stand. "That, and we couldn't let you face this on your own. As much as some of us hate to admit it, you're part of this crazy little family now." Sombra looked over the four of them, each of them nodding as he looked at them (even though Armora rolled her eye as he looked at her). Sombra stood lost for a moment before he smirked and stood up tall. "This thing is an immortal demon that seeks to place us all under its control, and you guys still want to fight it?" he asked them. Trixie's horn glowed with power in response just as Armora pulled her blade out with a smirk, with both Bark and Starshine nodding as well. "Well, I guess we're all crazy then. Let's do this." Just as he said this the kraken had recovered from Trixie's attack and slammed its tentacles into the water, sending a wall of water towards all of them again. This time Trixie jumped forward and sent a blast of ice into the water, freezing it all the way back to the kraken, who shrieked in rage as some of his tentacles froze over. "Sombra! You fought this thing before, how do we hurt it?" Bark asked as he reached inside of his pouches and pulled out a number of dog fangs that he threw with perfect accuracy into the kraken's eye, causing the beast to back up in pain. "The only thing that could hurt it is a spell that requires these crystals!" he yelled back as he shot an arrow of flame into one of the tentacles, setting it ablaze. The kraken quickly placed the tentacle in the water to extinguish it, but received another piercing spell to the face as it did so. "Give me time, I need to set up the proper spell in order to use these. Starshine, think you can manage a shield for me?" Starshine nodded and Sombra told him the word he needed to use, which, once he had spoken it, sent up a red shield that looked stronger than the one Sombra himself had used. 'Kid really does have talent,' he thought to himself as he began the spell. Armora and Trixie double-teamed the kraken, Trixie powered-up Armora's blade in the process to the point where she could slice through the tentacles with relative ease. The beast roared and grabbed Armora with one of its limbs, only to shriek in pain when Bark bit down on its limb. Armora tossed the blade to Bark and he cut her free, sending blood spraying as the kraken regrew its tentacles. "How are we supposed to hurt it if it can regrow its limbs?" Bark asked as Trixie fended of more of its attacks. "It's using magic to regrow its limbs," she yelled back. "My anti-magic barrier can hurt it, but that won't stop it! Any ideas, anypony?!" "Almost ready!" Sombra yelled, but at that moment the kraken let out a roar and began to glow with power. Armora's blade bounced off of its now glowing tentacles and Trixie's spells hardly wounded it. 'NONE OF YOU ARE A MATCH FOR ME!' it roared as it managed to grab Trixie, Armora and Bark, hoisting them into the air as it began to crush them all. 'YOU WILL ALL FALL TO ME! I AM THE--!' "Blit O Rate Er!" Starshine yelled with power, causing the kraken to scream as its tentacles were ripped apart, Trixie shielding herself and the others with her magic barely in time. Starshine let out a small cry of victory before he fell over, completely exhausted by the spell. 'YOU DARE TO ATTACK ME, FOAL?!' the kraken roared in rage as it swatted Trixie and the others away, sending all of its remaining tentacles towards the foal. 'I WILL DESTROY YOU!' Trixie teleported Armora and Bark back to the hallway entrance, before another tentacle attacked her. "I said...NOT ON YOUR LIFE!" Sombra roared as he threw himself in front of the attack with the crystals spiraling around him, powering up his shield spell far beyond what it had previously been. The kraken's tentacles disintegrated against the barrier, causing the kraken to roar in frustration and fury. 'ENOUGH OF THIS GAME!' it roared as it brought all of its tentacles together to form a massive sphere of darkness that was three times as big as the previous one. 'I WILL KILL YOU ALL!' Trixie teleported herself next to Sombra and threw up a barrier along side his, as the blast was fired at them. The attack slammed into the double barrier, pushing both of them back while they did their best to keep the shield up. Sombra saw that the shields were beginning to fail and he knew that he only had a second to react. And in that second, he threw the crystals around Trixie and placed himself in front of both her and Starshine. When the shield did give out, Sombra took the full blast himself. "Sombra," Trixie cried out as Sombra's smoldering body fell over, and she ran to his side, seeing that his mane and some of his fur had been burned off. "That hurt," he muttered weakly as he started to get up with Trixie's aid. "How are you still alive?" she asked as Armora and Bark limped over to her, while Armora lifted Starshine onto her back. "I'm immortal, remember?" he asked her with a smile before coughing roughly. "Oh, it still hurts though." 'THEN ALLOW ME TO RECTIFY THAT MISTAKE!' the kraken roared as a pair of its tentacle knocked Trixie and Bark aside and grabbed Sombra, dragging him towards its face as other tentacles wrapped around him with malice. 'WITHOUT YOUR...MY IMMORTALLITY, YOU WILL BE NOTHING BUT DUST! DIE!' Sombra roared in pain as it said this, light coming from the tentacles. Trixie and the others watched with horror as it flung Sombra into the wall, but to their amazement he stood back up, looking just as fine as he had a moment ago. "He's alive?" Trixie asked in amazement, before a voice spoke in her ear. 'The kraken is distracted. Now is the time to strike!' Trixie narrowed her eyes and slammed her front two hooves into the ground, aiming the six crystals towards the kraken as she roared. "BLIT O RATE ER!" sending a massive beam of magic into the kraken, who wailed in agony as its body began to vanish from the power of the spell. It tried to escape the magic by fleeing into the water behind it, but a wall of dark magic appeared, followed by Sombra's laughing. "Oh no, my friend, you've had this coming for a while," Sombra said with glee as the kraken screamed one last time before it collapsed into the water, the rest of its body vanishing into the waves as the spell finished. Trixie let out a sigh before she too fell over, but Bark caught her before she could hit the ground. "I honestly didn't think it would work," Sombra said as he walked over to them, looking at his perfectly fine body in confusion. "Any idea how this happened?" "I'd blame the one in silver," Trixie said with a sigh. The group simply stood there for a moment, drinking in their victory before the ground began to shake and the room began to fall apart. "What's happening?" "The kraken was the only thing holding all of Atlantis together," Sombra said as he threw up a shield around the group, stopping some of the rubble from hitting them. "Where's the way you guys came in? We need to get out of here!" "It's this way!" Bark yelled as he handed Trixie to Sombra and took off running up the passageway. Sombra levitated her onto his back before he followed Armora and Bark up the stairs, doing his best to avoid the debris as it fell. "I...can put up a shield if needed," Trixie offered weakly. "Why do you think you're on my back?" he replied with a smile as he jumped out of the way of another chunk of ceiling. As the group ran, Trixie noticed a number of sea ponies standing in place as the debris crushed them, no emotion or sign of thought on their faces as their home fell apart. "I told you, Atlantis died a thousand years ago. These ponies were simply puppets that the kraken used for his own enjoyment. They were dead when you got here." "It's just up ahead!" Bark yelled as he leapt to the door and slammed his claws into it, throwing it open with a grunt as he ran inside. But to the group's frustration, they found that a large number of stones had fallen onto the teleportation circle and had shattered it, leaving them trapped in the falling city. "Any ideas anypony?" Sombra asked them, before Trixie looked up. "Hey silver pony? Some help here?" The group stood in silence for a moment before a sigh could be heard in their heads. 'Oh alright, but just this once.' And then they all vanished from the city in a flash of silver. /T\ Trixie groaned and shook her head as she got up, getting really tired of waking up like this on a regular basis. Sombra and the others were already up, with Sombra offering Trixie his hoof to help her up. She looked around to see that they were standing in a field again with the wagon beside her, a field next to a forest that she strangely knew. But then to her surprise, she found the trident from the king's chamber laying next to her. "Yeah, it was here when we woke up," Sombra said as she got up "Hey Trixie, isn't this the forest that we found Star-Swirl's temple in?" Starshine asked once Trixie had walked over to them. "It is," Trixie confirmed before turning around to see the silver mare standing behind her. The mare nodded before vanishing in a flash of silver, but as she left the final piece of the puzzle clicked in Trixie's mind. "It was the silver mare who convinced you to come back, wasn't it?" she asked Sombra, who looked at her for a moment before nodding. "I thought so, but what is her goal in all of this? She can't just be doing this out of the goodness of her heart, there has to be an ulterior motive." "So why did you come back Sombra?" Bark asked as he walked up to Sombra and wrapped a paw around his shoulder. "Was it to save all of us or for a certain pony in particular?" "Shove off," Sombra growled as he slapped the paw away. "I came back because I knew what the kraken would do to you, and it was a fate that I couldn't let anypony else suffer through, even if I had to stop it. That's the story, so let's just get to that temple." From the looks they gave him, he knew that he wasn't fooling any of them, but Trixie came to his defense before the others could pressure him. "Leave him be, everypony. If he doesn't want to talk there is no point in forcing him," she said as she walked by him towards the wagon. "We should probably get moving." "You don't care for my reason?" he asked her. "You saved our lives from a gruesome fate, according to you. That's all I need to know," she replied as she inspected he wagon to make sure the mare hadn't damaged it in any way. Sombra let out a frustrated sigh before he sat down on the ground and motioned for everypony to join him. "It's probably best you know what kind of beast the kraken was," he began as the ponies gathered around him. "The kraken was used against me when I tried to slip into Atlantis to take a foal of theirs, since the foals were used for sacrifices to the kraken in return for his protection. I was captured, and instead of just killing me, the kraken made me immortal so that he could torture me for all eternity for trying to steal from him." "Then why don't you look like the sea ponies?" Starshine interrupted. "I thought that you were made immortal in spirit only?" "True, but the sea ponies were already dead and under his spell, only their souls were immortal, not their bodies," he explained. "Second, the princesses trapped me in ice for a thousand years, so my body didn't really age too much. I would thank them if I wasn't going to bring them down." "And as you were saying?" Trixie muttered, curious to hear the rest of the story. "Right. So after six months of...unspeakable tortures, I managed to break free and escape back to the Crystal Empire," he said with a frown as the memories came back to him. "The kraken followed me, however, and it took those crystals that I gave you to defeat him." "So what are those crystals?" Bark asked. "They were originally the source of power that protected the Crystal Empire, before I came into power and took them for my own gain," he said with what looked like a regretful face. "Hence the need for the Crystal Heart, especially after I was no longer welcome in the Changeling Empire to reclaim them." Armor buzzed and Sombra chuckled. "In hindsight, it was stupid to hide them next to the Changeling Empire, but I wasn't as bright back then...no, I still was." "So you used the crystals to kill the kraken?" Trixie asked, getting his thoughts back on track. "No, they were only able to drive the beast back," he said with a smile as he looked at her. "That's because I could only use half their power. Only a pony with a noble heart can use their full power, like you did. But once the kraken returned, it demanded more sacrifices for its battle, even though it had failed to get what it was sent after. So in return, the sea ponies tried to kill it in its weakened state." "And they failed," Trixie said with a sigh. "Yes. And the kraken then sunk the city of Atlantis into the ocean, which was the last time I ever heard of it," he said with a sigh. "But I assumed the creature was still alive and was probably using magic to keep them animated, since every once in a while an assassin would come after me. I'm surprised that Starshine didn't catch on." "How was I supposed to know?" he asked defiantly. "The kraken's magic can affect anypony with ties to magic, but with your busted horn the spell probably caused you discomfort." Starshine realized that Sombra was talking about the headaches he had been having. "Oh!" He exclaimed, causing Sombra to roll his eyes. "And that's the whole story, unless you want to hear about the kinds of torture that the kraken would have planned for you." "Only one thing doesn't add up," Trixie muttered in confusion. "How did Star-Swirl make peace with them if they were being controlled?" "Hell if I know, I was in ice for that period," Sombra said with a shrug. "The only reason that I know about Star-Swirl at all, was by reading his works. But I think that's enough about the past, it's time to head to the temple," he said as he stood up, Starshine running over to him once he had. "What?" "I knew you'd stick around," he said with a smile before running past Sombra. "You're one of us!" "The hell does that mean?" Sombra asked as the other headed into the wagon as well, where he was going to follow them, until Trixie stopped him. "I know there was a bit of the story that you left out," she said with a look of wonder. "There was a reason that you endured the six months of torture, and that wasn't because you were trapped. You are one of the better escape artists that I know. You don't have to tell me now or ever, but if you ever need a pony to listen, I will." "Thank you for the offer," Sombra said as he headed inside. "But that is a story I do not want to re-live." Trixie nodded in understanding and headed inside, starting up the wagon just as the sun began to rise just over the hill. "How long were we down there for?" /T\ "Talk." "Oh Batman, there is no need to be rude," Morgaine said with a smile as Batman's face grew angry, shaking her finger at him when he began to move. "A little pony is how I got my memories back, and it is also the one who told me the news that I'm certain you don't want to hear." "If you don't give me more concrete answers, I'll have the Martian pluck them from your brain," Batman threated, noticing that Morgaine wasn't fazed. "There is no need, because I also have a personal stake in the matter," she said gravely as she looked into his eyes with hers. "I have been told that there is a darkness in Equestria that will destroy the Dark Knight and the Azure Outcast unless the two of them work together. So according to this pony, as long as the two work together they will prevail..." "But destiny and prophecy is as trustworthy as Luthor," Batman finished as he began to realize what she was telling him. "So you believe that these demons will wipe out Equestria unless the two stop them? How do you know these words are even real?" "Because it is the same two demons that I tried to raise when I was there," she said with a stone face. "I read about them in the library in Stalliongrad and believed that they would be strong enough to destroy any who opposed me. But...you know the rest." "And I know what I need to do," Batman said as he rose from his chair, before looking at Morgaine with narrowed eyes. "You want something for telling me this, don't you?" "All I want...is to come with you," she said. Batman's look answered for her, but before he could speak, she did. "You have every right not to trust me, but I care for Trixie as if she were my own daughter. And if what the silver pony told me is true, then I have doomed her to a terrible life by me being there. I want to set it right. I want to be there for her." Batman's suspicion still didn't go away and Morgaine knew that she'd have to hit his heart. "And without me, Trixie may not survive. And then Scootaloo might die. Do you want to risk that?" Batman's eyes narrowed again, but this time he pulled out a key that he used to unlock her handcuffs before dragging her to her feet and out the door. "Don't ask J'onn," he said to the Martian Manhunter as he passed by him. "And you better pray that you're right about this Morgaine...or I will show you why I am the most feared in the League."