//------------------------------// // Fears Made Into Light // Story: The Emerald Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "How the hell do you stand sitting on this throne all the time tank flank?" Sombra asked as he rubbed his flank, ignoring all of the looks he was getting or the fact that all of the magic users were preparing to blow him away. "I've been sitting here for little less than an hour and already my rear hurts. Does my butt have to have its own gravitational pull to sit in this thing comfortably?" Celestia would have killed him on the spot if Luna had not held out her hoof to stop her sister. "What are you doing here Sombra?" Luna asked in disbelief as she looked at the dark stallion who was trying to find a comfortable spot on the throne. "Trying to figure out how to sit on this thing," he muttered back as he lay on his back, letting out a growl as he flopped to his side. "No, I mean...how are you alive?" she asked, still shocked over the fact that a pony they had killed twice was sitting on the throne in front of them. "We trapped you in ice and then Cadence destroyed you in the Crystal Empire, yet you're sitting on my sister’s throne in one piece. How?" "Because I'm a mad genius and you're both foolish princesses that can't make a damned comfy throne to save your lives," he growled as he hopped off the throne and to the floor. "Seriously, I've sat on ice more comfy." Luna was still stunned by the fact that Sombra was alive, but Celestia took over at this point and pointed her horn at Sombra's chest. "It matters not how he survived, all we need to know is that he's either going back to prison or we'll get Cadence to dispose of him again," Celestia said, before growling in anger as he floated over a pillow and put it on the throne. "You are facing three princesses and the Elements of Harmony and yet you're only concern is that throne? What is the matter with you?" "It's important for the future ruler of all of Equestria to have a comfy throne to sit on for all eternity," he muttered back at her before he snarled and blew the throne apart with a blast of yellow magic. "Yep, that was the only good thing that could come form that piece of garbage. So princesses, you know a good throne store or-?" He threw himself to the ground as Celestia fired a bolt of magic that blew out the window behind Sombra, who stood back up with a whistle as Celestia began to march towards him with her magic crackling. "I don't care what delude scheme you're up to, I will stop you," Celestia said with a growl, but yelled in surprise as yellow magic wrapped around her legs and quickly enveloped her. Luna and the other ponies screamed until they too were all crystalized in yellow energy, all except for Spike who glared at Sombra with rage. "Save your pitiful rambling for somepony who actually views you and your Elements as a threat," Sombra said in an annoyed tone as he walked by her crystal, shaking his head at her as he walked by before looking at the dragon with a smile. "I have no desire to fight you or your ponies again, but there is a foe that I will consider battling. The Emerald Dragon." "Wait a moment, Spike?" Rarity asked in disbelief as she looked at Spike, causing Sweetie next to her to sigh in frustration. Spike glared at Sombra before pulling out the green ring and placing it on his finger, letting the suit form on him in a burst of green energy. "IT IS SPIKE!" Rarity said before passing out, causing Sweetie to groan. "Alright Sombra, you want the dragon, you got the dragon," Spike said with a growl as he thrust his ring at Sombra, sending out a beam of green light towards Sombra. Sombra turned himself into darkness to avoid it, but Spike noticed that his darkness was tinted with yellow as it swung around behind him. Spike turned and erected a green shield to deflect the bolt of magic that Sombra fired at him. "You can't beat me Sombra, not as long as I have this ring. Give it up." "I may not be able to hurt you physically, but there are plenty of other ways to wound a hero!" Sombra cackled as he slipped back into the darkness. "Like the fact that you haven't told Twilight the truth behind the ring and who it originally chose." Spike's face went pale under the green mask as he heard these words, causing his shield to fail him for a moment and allowing Sombra to blast him with his magic. The green energy prevented Spike from being hurt by the spell, but the force of the impact still threw him to the ground. "I...I have no idea what you're talking about!" Spike yelled as he shot a claw around Sombra and hurled him into the roof, where he grunted and fell to the ground. He shook his head and got back up just in time to take a blast of green to his face, sending him into the castle wall. "Oh you're a liar through and through," Sombra said with an evil smile as he pulled himself out of the wall, firing more magic at Spike. "So then I guess you haven't told them about how all you want is to join in on their adventures with them, but all they do is leave you out and keep you in the library." "Shut up!" Spike yelled as he created a giant fist and drove it into Sombra, crushing him against the wall. Spike brought it back and crushed him with it again, but Sombra kept on laughing all the while and looked up at Spike with a smirk as he pulled the fist back another time. He slipped into the darkness again and dodged the hit, wrapping the darkness around Spike with a sinister grin. "Or maybe it's just how you're afraid of failing all of those ponies that you care about so much? That is why you are so desperate to hold onto that ring there, even if it is not yours. But you will fail them, I guarantee that." Spike roared as an explosion of green light came from him, knocking Sombra off of him and throwing him to the ground. "I don't know how you got ahold on my fears, but it doesn't matter to me," Spike said with an angry stare as he pointed his ring at the downed Sombra. "I will protect Twilight and I am worthy of this ring. Your words mean nothing." "A liar to the end, huh?" Sombra said with an evil smile as he looked right at Spike. "Then perhaps these words will mean something to you." Spike wondered what he meant before a giant yellow claw erupted from the ground and drove Spike into the ceiling before it tossed him to the ground. Spike shook his head as he got off the floor before his eyes went wide as he looked at Sombra, who was glowing with a yellow energy. But on is horn is what terrified Spike to his core. On his horn was a single yellow ring. "In blackest day, in brightest night, beware your fears made into light! Let's those who try to stop what's right, burn like his power, SINESTRO'S MIGHT!" Spike had nothing to say as a brick wall of yellow energy slammed into him, sending him crashing out of the back of the castle and sent him into the streets, where the ponies all looked around him with awe. "Look, it's the Emerald Dragon!" "He's so much shorter in pony, but he looks so cool!" "Maybe I can get his autograph!" Spike picked himself off the ground and looked up to see a giant, yellow snake come bursting out of the side of the castle, causing the ponies to scream as it came barreling down towards Spike. He threw up a shield to defend himself and the ponies, but the shield shattered from the impact of the snake and sent Spike tumbling down the street. He pulled himself out of the ground again as Sombra landed in front of him, smiling down at Spike. "Like it? While it's not my color, I must admit that I do enjoy accessorizing sometimes," he said with a smile before creating a pile driver over the dragon and dropping it onto Spike, who created a sphere to protect himself. The pile driver hit the top of the shield and sent Spike crashing into the next layer of Canterlot, but he came flying back up and drove his ring fist into Sombra's face, sending the dark horse skidding back. "I will stop you," Spike said as he fired bolts of green at Sombra, who created a spiked shield to defend himself and rushed Spike with the shield. Spike created a giant hand to stop the attack, but much to his shock his green construct began to crack from the strain. "It seems that your will is inferior to your fear," Sombra said with a smirk as he canceled his shield and made boulders of yellow rain down on Spike from above. Spike was crushed underneath one of the boulders and struggled to get it off of him as Sombra walked over to him, making a tsking sound as he looked down at the dragon. "How did you manage to defeat me back at the crystal empire? You're weak, pathetic and for lack of a better term, damn annoying. Why does the princess keep you around?" "Because she loves me!" Spike yelled as he tossed the boulder off, thinking to all of the cool inventions he had seen in the comics to use against Sombra. He conjured a spiked baseball bat and went to swing at Sombra, who jumped back to avoid the blow. Spike smiled as he did this and switched from the bat to a giant slingshot that he created behind Sombra, who flew back right into the sling. Spike fired the dark horse towards him while getting out the bat again, driving it right into Sombra's chest as the horse came at him. "And you're out of here!" Spike yelled with a smile as Sombra sailed away before he shot into the air after him. Sombra righted himself in the air and saw Spike flying towards him, smirking as he began to conjure something else. Spike noticed that Sombra wasn't moving so he took the opportunity to create a giant sword that he swung at Sombra. But right before he did, Sombra smirked and materialized... "Twilight!" Spike yelled as he skidded to a halt in the air, realizing only a second too late that she was a fake. But a second was all the dark king needed to create a giant crossbow that he fired into Spike's chest, sending the little green dragon across the skies and crashing though a few buildings. "Dammit. Why is he so strong?" Spike asked as he struggled back to his feet. "Gilda and the other me were strong as well, but why is he so darn powerful?" 'Because you are afraid,' the ring said. 'And his ring is powered by fear.' "Of course I'm afraid, this is king Sombra that I'm fighting AND he has one of the rings!" Spike yelled at the ring. "How am I not supposed to be-?" 'He is not what you are afraid of. But you have the will to overcome those fears,' the ring said. 'And I know, because I chose you.' Spike didn't have any time to think about what the ring was saying as a giant bulldozer came barreling into the house Spike was in, forcing him to fly out of the house as it was crushed by the yellow energy. "What's the matter Spike? Are you afraid?" Sombra asked him with a chuckle as he flew into the baby dragon, wrapping him in yellow chains before he began slamming Spike into the ground. Spike coughed hard as he felt the shield the surrounded him beginning to weaken with each impact and he knew that he had to act fast...or else. An idea popped into his head and he growled as he willed the thought to appear. Sombra had been too busy chuckling to notice what Spike was doing, so he was caught completely off guard when Spike broke free of the chains when a pair of giant, green dragon wings expanded from him. "I'm not afraid of you Sombra," Spike growled as he pointed his ring at Sombra. "And I WILL stop you." "Oh, you may not be afraid of me Spike, but there are things that you are afraid of," Sombra said with a chuckle as he sent crystalized spikes out of the ground towards Spike, who had to fly as best he could to keep from being impaled. Sombra added to the challenge by creating a swarm of yellow bats that swarmed Spike, causing him to lose focus and crash into one of the pillars, where he groaned as he fell to the ground. "But I know what you do fear. And I plan to make those fears into light. Don't fight it Spike, it's much faster this way." "I won't quit," Spike groaned as he struggled back up, standing on shaky legs as he pointed his ring at Sombra, who sighed as he shook his head. "I have friends to protect and now I finally have the power to do so! I am a Green-!" "What? A Green Lantern?" Sombra asked with a laugh as he deflected Spike's shot, wrapping the young dragon in serpents that erupted from the ground and held him in place. Spike tried to think of something to free him from the snakes, but Sombra smashed his hoof into Spike's face, nearly knocking the dragon out. "I have seen your fears Spike and I know the truth. The ring didn't choose you to be the lantern, it chose Twilight. A much better choice if you ask me but for reasons it went to you." "Because I can overcome my fear," Spike said weakly, causing Sombra to shake his head at the dragon again. "And yet you're afraid to tell Twilight the truth that she was supposed to be the Lantern. And in doing so, you took a weapon that runs on willpower away from one of the strongest willed mares in Equestria. All because you wanted to feel special," Sombra said with a mocking laugh as he punched Spike in the gut, doubling him over. "And now you're afraid that if you tell her, she will hate you forever. And you're right, she will. Because you're going to be the cause of their deaths. Because you held onto that ring, all of your friends are going to die now." "No," Spike muttered weakly, but another blow from Sombra caused his vision to become blurry, giving Sombra little resistance as he picked up the dragon and flew him back to the castle, an evil grin spreading on his face as he did so. Spike mustered what little strength he had left to try and escape, but the serpents held strong. 'You must overcome your fear Spike,' the ring said to him. 'You are the only Lantern that can stop Sombra here and now.' "I can't," Spike said weakly. "I'm not supposed to be a Green Lantern." Sombra threw Spike back through the hole that the two of them had made when he blasted Spike out of the castle and sent him sprawling across the floor, much to the horror of the ponies that were still trapped inside of the yellow crystals. "SPIKE!" Twilight yelled as she began to throw herself against the crystal, the other ponies staring to do the same. Sombra floated through the hole and landed next to Spike, who could barely get to his knees. Sombra then smirked right at Twilight before he put a hoof on Spike's head, forcing the dragon back down. "SOMBRA! If you hurt him I swear I will kill you!" "Twilight, what kind of monster do you think I am?" Sombra asked as he stepped away from Spike and lowered the crystals that had trapped Twilight, letting the princess run over to Spike's side. Tears filled her eyes as she pulled him into her hooves, seeing how bruised and beaten he looked. "As long as this remains fun for me, I won't kill him. But I will enjoy breaking him." "What the hell do you mean?" Twilight asked with a venom, the only thing stopping her from trying to rip Sombra apart was the Spike needed her. "Oh, didn't Spike tell you?" Sombra asked with a laugh. "See, those rings that he and I have aren't something that you can pick up and use. No, they have to choose their host." "I know that." "But did you know that they can choose somepony else if the first wielder choose not to accept them?" Sombra asked, a smile spreading on his face as he saw the confusion on Twilight's face. "No? That's odd; I thought for certain that you would know since it happened to you. You didn't know? You were the one who was supposed to be the Green Lantern Twilight, not Spike." He saw that she wasn't believing him, but he knew a simple way to probe that he was right. "Don't believe me? Then why don't you ask the ring." "Ring?" Twilight began hesitantly. "Was Spike supposed to be the Emerald Dragon?" '...No. You were supposed to be the Green Lantern of Equestria,' the ring replied. "So as you can see, Spike lied to you and kept the ring for himself, meaning that every death that he failed to prevent is on him," Sombra said wickedly. "Along with his failure to stop me. See, if Twilight had the ring there was a chance that I might be able to be beaten, but with Spike not able to overcome his fears." "That doesn't matter!" Twilight spat back. "He still chose to use the ring responsibly and he fought off all the other rings that tried to hurt us. He's-" "What? A hero?" Sombra said with a laugh. "A tiny dragon that can't even tell when a mare is way out of his league or get when his "friends" don't love him is a hero? No, he is a failure who is a slave to his fears. The fear that he isn't supposed to be a hero, the fear that you will hate him for lying to you and the fear that because of his weakness, you will all die. A fear," Sombra began as he pointed his ring at Twilight. "That is about to come true." "No!" Spike roared as green energy surrounded him again and he threw himself at Sombra, tackling the pony to the ground. Sombra retaliated with a scepter to the side of Spike's head and sent him sprawling again. "You don't learn," Sombra said as he lifted Spike up with his energy, creating three blades that he pointed at Spike's throat. "But I'm done having my fun and that ring is so damn annoying...so there's no longer a need to keep you around." The three blades were about to impale Spike, but a blast of magic to the side of Sombra's head broke his concentration and caused the blades to disappear. "That's right; you're all as stupid as you are annoying. Might as well get rid of you first," Sombra muttered as he looked at Twilight. He tossed Spike to the side as he created three yellow claws to chase Twilight, who shot at them with her magic only to realize that her spells didn't work on the constructs. 'You have to get up Spike,' the ring said to Spike as the dragon watched the battle, vaguely aware of what was going on. 'Become the Lantern that I know you are.' "I can't," he replied weakly. "I shouldn't even have this ring. I shouldn't have anything. All I do is screw things up." But despite the thoughts that were currently crushing his spirit, all of those vanished when one of the claws finally caught Twilight and brought her close to Sombra. "Well, that was a nice waste of time," Sombra said as the claws began to crush her, with Twilight crying out in pain as they did so. "But then again, you did demonstrate what will happen if anypony does try to mess with me. So I thank you for that." Twilight cried out once again as the claws tightened and Spike let out a roar as green energy consumed him, causing him to grow larger and larger until he became the Emerald Dragon. "And so you finally appear." "Sombra! This ends now!" The dragon roared as it swiped at Sombra with its claws, the dark king moving out of the way as the claws tore a hole in the floor. The Emerald Dragon followed up with a blast of emerald fire that Sombra had to create a shield to avoid from being burned, but left him open to another attack from the claws which sent him sprawling. "Alright then, let's put an end to you!" Sombra roared as he concentrated all of his power into a single beam that he fired at the dragon, who responded with another blast of fire, creating a massive shockwave of green and yellow in the center of the chamber. Both the Emerald Dragon and Sombra were putting their everything into this attack, but Sombra was the only one smiling during it. "Give it up, dragon! You cannot overcome your fears!" "I am not afraid!" The Emerald Dragon roared back. "Then why did you not tell Twilight about the ring's true ownership? Why do you constantly want to be with everypony even when they don't want you around?" Sombra asked as his beam of yellow began to slowly push the green fire back. "Why are you so afraid of failing everypony?" The Emerald Dragon hesitated for a second, only a second, but that second was all Sombra needed to fire off all of his power through the dragons attack and straight into the heart of the Emerald Dragon, where it broke through the construct and sent Spike flying off into the distance as the yellow energy consumed him. Twilight watched in horror as the yellow energy hit the Everfree forest in the distance, following it up with a massive explosion of yellow. "And that's the end of that," Sombra said with a maniacal laughter as Twilight fell to her knees. He prepared to fly after Spike, but then he saw Twilight's face and smiled. "Oh that look of yours is priceless. I got to see what the others look like." He released the others of the crystals and waited for them to attack, but all they did was look out the hole where Spike had been blasted, not one of them moving for the ten minutes. Sombra then shot out of the castle and flew to where the crater was in the forest, finding only greenish ash where the dragon had fallen. With a smirk he quickly flew back to the castle and landed in front of Twilight, looking right into her horrified eyes as he said, "The Emerald Dragon is dead. All hail King Sombra."