//------------------------------// // The End // Story: The Revenge of the Sombranian Cult // by The Abyss //------------------------------// Twilight woke up on a cold, stone table. She squirmed and tried to sit up, but quickly realized that she was tied down, from head to tail. She barely had any wriggle room, and she couldn’t even budge an inch. Her heart started beating faster and faster as she remembered what had happened the past few days. Memories of Rainbow snuggling with her drifted into her mind. Rainbow! “Rainbow, you there?” she called out into the darkness. The chamber she was in had no light, leaving her completely in the dark. Suddenly, something stirred right next to her, startling her. “Ugh… What’s goin’ on?” came Rainbow’s slurred voice. “I… I don’t know,” Twilight said fearfully. “I… I think they might kill us…” “WHAT?” Rainbow started struggling, whipping her body every which way, but to no avail. Their bonds kept them secured together. “Rainbow, it’s useless, I already tried.” Twilight tried using her magic, but the ring on her horn prevented her from doing so. Her stomach ached terribly, and she was incredibly thirsty. “I… I just don’t know what to do…” Rainbow gave up, letting herself go limp. A tear slipped out of her eye and made its way down her cheek as she suddenly realized that they didn’t have much time left. It’s either now or never… “Twilight?” Rainbow felt adrenaline start to rush through her body. “I… I have something to tell you…” she choked out, grabbing Twilight’s hoof. Twilight turned to look at her friend, feeling Rainbow’s grip on her hoof tighten. “What… what is it?” She already sort of knew what Rainbow was going to say, but her heart sped up nonetheless. Is she gonna… “When you saved me a while ago, I… I realized something. Life is way too short to waste away, and… When I woke up on your table, I saw just how much you cared for me just from looking into your eyes. You know why I was flying to see you?” “Um, I…” “I was flying to tell you that I… that I…” Come on, Rainbow, you can do this! “That I love you...” She waited nervously as she waited for Twilight to respond, hopefully in a positive way. “I know, Rainbow,” Twilight said, giving her friend a gentle nuzzle. “Wait, how?” “Well, when you protected me from Mordronous in the forest, and he teased you about you loving me, your first answer was yes…” Twilight smiled, snuggling up against Rainbow. “Oh, yeah… that…” Rainbow giggled, but quickly shut up when she heard footsteps coming from behind them. “Oh ponyfeathers, I think somepony is coming!” she whispered. “Well, well, well… Ain’t you two a cute couple?” came a familiar farm-pony’s voice from just behind them. “Applejack?” Both Rainbow and Twilight exclaimed at the same time. “Yep! Now lemme get you two outta here…” She bit at the rope, quickly untying them. “Come on, ya’ll, there’s several squads of crystal pony guards right around the corner that’ll escort us out.” She waited for them to slide off the table. “But what about Spike?!” Twilight stopped, sitting on the table. “We can’t leave without him!” “Keep your voice down!” Applejack whispered. “And we’re not leaving without him; we already have him! He’s safe outside with Princess Cadence.” “Well, what the hay are we waiting for?” Rainbow whispered eagerly. She laid a wing over Twilight’s back and gently walked forward, following the sound of Applejack’s hoofsteps. They couldn’t see a thing, but after walking for about a minute, they saw a small flicker of light come from around a corner up ahead. They rounded the corner and came upon a contingent of guards. “This way, you three!” One of them whispered. Without another word, he led them through several tunnels, eventually emerging at the surface through a small crack, one just big enough for a pony to pass through. “Twilight!” Cadence called out from the left, rushing up to pull Twilight into a hug. “Oh, it’s so good to see you!” “You as well, Cadence,” Twilight said as she pulled away, blushing slightly as she remembered what Rainbow said to her only minutes ago. She looked back over her shoulder at Dash, feeling her heart flutter as they made eye contact. She turned back around to find Cadence with a playful smirk on her face. “What… why are you giving me that look?” “Oh, I think you know, Twilight,” Cadence said, walking around the unicorn. “I’d recognize that look anywhere.” Twilight blushed harder, silently admitting that Cadence was right. “You’re in love, aren’t you?” She pranced in place, impatiently waiting for Twilight to answer. Little did she know that Rainbow was listening to every single one of their words with rapt attention. “I, um… yes. Yes, I am,” Twilight said, looking back at Rainbow with a nervous smile. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Cadence asked, pushing Twilight towards Rainbow. “Don’t leave her standing there by herself!” “But… AJ’s there…” Twilight said. “You know what I meant, now get a move on! She’s waiting for you...” Twilight nervously walked back over to Rainbow, watching as Applejack walked away, giving them a little bit of privacy. “So…” she said, trailing off. “Yeah?” “Did you really mean what you said back there? About… about… loving me?” Twilight blushed as she looked into Rainbow’s eyes. “Hmm… Let me respond to that in the following way!” Rainbow quickly closed the small gap between them and planted her lips on Twilight’s. They made out for a few brief seconds before they were interrupted by Spike. “Guys!” Spike hopped off of Applejack’s back and ran forward, latching onto Twilight’s leg. “I thought I’d never see you again!” He pulled back, finally realizing that Twilight was just kissing Rainbow. “Um… hehe, anything I should know about?” He couldn’t help but let a smile slip on his face as he looked up into Twilight’s eyes. “Uhh… Hehe...” Twilight giggled nervously and looked at Rainbow, silently asking her to say it. Rainbow rolled her eyes and gave Twilight a playful nudge. “Fine, I’ll tell him.” She cleared her throat and looked down. “I’m gonna marry Twilight.” “What?!” Spike exclaimed. “But– but–” “Haha, you should see the look on your face, Spike!” Rainbow laughed for a few moments, quickly coming to the realization that nopony found her joke funny, least of all Spike. “Heh, I’m just playin’, little guy. Back in the tunnels, I… I told Twilight I–” Suddenly, a large explosion cut her off. Startled, she looked behind her and watched in awe as an entire section of land just collapsed in on itself. “What the…” she trailed off as she heard a large number of hoofsteps come from behind her. The three of them jumped out of the way just in time to let the crystal guards pour out of the opening. They were all covered in dirt, especially Shining Armor. “Jenkins!” Shining Armor yelled, coughing up a bit of dust. “What the buck do you not understand about the words ‘a small breaching charge’?” “Sorry, sir! I just really wanted to give those damned cultists something to remember us by!” somepony yelled back. “You know you just killed them all, right?” Shining growled, trotting up to the pony in question. “Yeah? So? Wasn’t that the reason for us to go down there in the first place?” Shining rolled his eyes in annoyance. Ugh, I wish I was back with an actual trained guard, and not with this bunch of slackers. He looked up and barked, “Alright, everyone! Establish a perimeter around the… for lack of a better term, the massive hole in the ground!” He looked at his wife and said, “We could use your help too, honey!” He and the rest of the guard galloped away, fully intent on finishing their job. “Coming!” Cadence yelled. She trotted up to Twilight and Rainbow, saying, “I’m sorry, but I have to cut this short. Are you two going to be alright?” Rainbow and Twilight looked into each other’s eyes. “Oh, I think we’ll be fine,” Twilight said, eliciting a small smile from Rainbow. She walked forward and pulled Cadence into a hug. Cadence returned the sign of affection and gave Twilight a gentle nuzzle just under her ear. Pulling back, she said, “We definitely need to catch up soon, but that’ll have to wait. Shining needs my help!” Flicking her mane out of her eyes, Cadence galloped away, leaving the four of them alone. “So… what now?” Spike asked, climbing up onto Twilight’s back. “Well, for starters, we get out of here!” Rainbow exclaimed, making Applejack chuckle in agreement. “Sounds good to me!” Twilight said, starting to make her way towards the train station. “I think I’ve had enough of the Crystal Empire for now, wouldn’t you all agree?” A chorus of ‘mhm’s’ and ‘oh yeah’s’ followed her question, and the four of them trotted away, leaving the past behind them and heading towards something new.