Strings

by naturalbornderpy


Chapter 13: The Empire Part Three

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

THE EMPIRE PART THREE

 

13

 
“There are ponies inside!” Shining screamed, once it all abruptly clicked in his head. “This isn’t some spell, they’re real ponies!”
                
Each of his remaining guards viewed him with rising alarm.

One took a step forward. “You mean he brought a real army with him?”

Shining shook his head. “No.” He motioned toward the blackened pony with the single horrified eye poking through. “Does that look like a pony that wants to fight?”

His guards hurriedly glanced to their neighbor, before returning to him.

“Somehow Sombra’s encased the Empire ponies with his own magic and is using them against us. He’s forcing them to fight!”

“So what do we do?” one of them asked. “We can’t let them just attack us! They’ll kill us all without mercy!”

Shining put his head down to think. “I… We—” Then a voice from the door grabbed his attention.

“Help us.”

It was the enemy pony with the partially shattered helmet—only now the lower part had also given way, allowing his mouth room to move.

“Stop us. Kill us if you must.” He wheezed after every short sentence. The energetic movements of the rest of his coated limbs must have taken what little oxygen he had. “I’d rather die than have him take over again.”

It was only then that Shining noted the bits of sparkle by the corners of his mouth. Behind every bit of hardened glass was the body and soul of a Crystal pony… one that must have been old enough to remember the reign of Sombra clearly.

He pleaded again. “Please.”

For the first time that day Shining was at a loss for words.
 

14

 

When Celestia was certain Rainbow Dash was not about to make a sudden reappearance from the clouds, she and Discord took to the streets to try and help the guards still fighting. Using a spell she’d only remembered a short time ago, Celestia busily connected the limbs of the dark enemy to nearby buildings and the ground, holding them in place while they thrashed for their foes out of reach. Discord, meanwhile, levitated each enemy several meters from the earth, where they energetically fought against the air.
                
Celestia asked, “Can’t you do anything to make them stop thrashing like that?”
                
Discord snapped his fingers a few more times. “Nope. Not a thing. Whatever those things are, they’re here by some powerful magic. But I don’t think they’ll pose much of a problem from up there.”
                
Celestia turned to him. “Why did you change your eyes, Discord? I thought blue would be too normal for you?”
                
Discord appeared a tad surprised. “What? A creature of immortal status can’t change it up from time to time? I thought it brought out the color of my…” He quickly scanned his mismatched body before summoning a blue handbag. “Travel bag!”
                
“I—” Celestia begun, before something far greater in the sky caught her attention.
                
Near the center of the city, just to the right of the Empire tower, was a thin streak of blue that fell from the sky. And were those dots of red beside it?
                
She whimpered, “Oh Rainbow Dash. Not you too…”
                
She hovered off the ground a few feet, preparing to spring forward, before another flash of blue rushed her by, far faster than she could have hoped to travel. In mid-air she waited and watched, as that bit of blue advanced toward the center of the city.
 

15

 

The ground was getting close. It would be with her soon, she knew.
                
She was glad no one would be underneath her when she landed. That would have put an even larger damper on her day. The day that she died.
                
With just a few meters left in her fall she closed her eyes. She felt the impact and was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn’t as forceful as she thought it might have been. It must have been instantaneous.
                
She felt her hair move in the wind; a pair of forelegs wrapped tight around her body.
                
I must be in that second place, she thought distantly. Otherwise why would Soarin be here?
                
She had opened her eyes to find the serious face of Soarin as he flew through the air. His uniform was tattered with gashes and cuts, and one of his back legs had a black spike embedded deep within. The fast flowing air circling the pair found her damaged wing once more and she shuddered against the pain.
                
This isn’t supposed to hurt, she thought sleepily. That just wouldn’t be right.
                
“Soarin? Are you really here?” she whispered.
                
Finally he regarded her for the first time since scooping her up and a faint smile touched his worn face. “Yes. And everything’s going to be okay.”
                
Of course it was, she thought. How could it not?
                
Then she drifted into unconsciousness.
 

16

 

Celestia had had enough.
                
Too many of her subjects had already been torn apart or burned to a cinder for her to stand back and watch. Whether he be pony or ghost or dragon or nothing of the sort, she would face him and she would defeat him. In some odd way it seemed as though the most natural of endings. A final clash—lord against lord.
                
She lifted to the air with white glowing sword held to her side and flew upwards just quick enough to hear Discord call after her.
                
“Princess, wait!”
                
He said something afterwards that she didn’t catch but it was far too late to turn back. She had made herself a mission and before any fear could get the better of her, she knew she had to see it through.
                
“Sombra!” she bellowed, surprising herself with the fury behind her voice. “This ends now!”
                
She entered the thick of black clouds like a small boat encapsulated by fog. It had the oddest of effects. A moment ago the sounds of battle and pain played themselves clear to her ears. Now the only noise she heard was the sharp cracks of thunder and the movement of some mammoth titan hiding in the sky.
                
She said, “You will not hide from me!” before casting a clearing spell that expanded in a wide sphere, pushing against the clouds. At the far corner of her sphere, she caught a small detail of black scale. “I will find you!”
                
“Oh, I’m sure that you will, Celestia,” Sombra echoed, with a voice that seemed to fill the sky entire. “But the question becomes: Will that be by your choice? Or mine?”
                
Celestia dashed to the area she had seen the hint of black, using another clearing spell to help guide her along.
                
“What is it you fear, Celestia? I had always wanted to know. A simpleton could take a hurried look upon you and consider your title a fear of its own, but is there more to you than the image you present? What dark secrets lie inside that mind, I wonder? Dreams of lust, yes? Dreams of violence and harm that no sane Princess would ever act upon, yes? Perhaps the simple dream of letting it all go—of becoming normal, and living an un-extraordinary existence, yes?” The booming voice halted for a second. “I will not pierce into your mind, Celestia, as easy as it would prove. I already know what it is you fear, and I already know it is I that cause it.”
                
Celestia had been flying steadily in slow arcs, clearing a section of cloud before moving on to the next. “What are you—” she began, before seeing the sight in the sky.
                
The projected image of her sister had been laid across a tall cloud. She had been bloodied, beaten, and far too still to be anything but dead. Celestia shut her eyes from such a sight and slashed her way through another thick of sky.
                
“Her alicorn blood still warms my body, Celestia. It is a taste most refined. Have you ever tried feasting off the flesh of another? Before today I had never known meat to seem so sweet… or so tender. I do not even consider it a crime, as you might. Anyone below a King is nothing more than an animal in need of a master.”
                
“Shut up! I don’t believe you!” she cried. “Luna’s fine! She’s just fine and you didn’t do anything to her because you couldn’t have done anything to her!” She hastily wiped the tears from her eyes. “You are nothing more than a monster of lies and today, so help me, I will see you die once more!”
                
The endless dark and crimson clouds boomed steadily on. Then a voice far too close: “Such strong words… from such a small creature.”
                
Celestia had just enough time to move to the side of his gapping jaws. With a sharp snap they closed again, pulling a few feathers from her. As the rest of Sombra’s long and hard body passed over her, she readied her sword and slashed at what must have been his belly. Like the enemy ponies below, Celestia was not surprised to find bits of black glass drop from his scales. Drawing back her sword, she fixed her view on another area of the beast. One she hoped wasn’t as armored as the rest of him.
                
Raaaghhhhh!” the dragon roared in unexpected pain.
                
Celestia had slashed hard into the thin web-like membrane that connected his leathery wings. With a blinding white heat she had filled her blade and sliced cleanly through, holding the weapon still until she reached the very end of his flesh.
                
Feeling the smallest of victories, Celestia had no time to react when his hardened tail swung into her side, knocking the breath from her and sending her reeling away. She tried to stay focused and find her balance again, but her armor only seemed to limit any grace she once might have had while in flight.
                
Then something stopped her completely.
                
Something warm and hard had wrapped itself around her entire body. Only her head and the very end of her tail stuck out in the breeze. Sombra’s immense dragon talons gripped Celestia in their collective clutches. He bobbed and weaved his way through the air, as if going on some joyous stroll through the clouds. If it had been under any other circumstance, it might have even been peaceful in nature.
                
As soon as Celestia finally noted what it was that had claimed her, she struggled with everything left. A white light shot from her horn at the talons that gripped her, but only more shards of glass gave way.
                
The creature towering far above her said, “It has been an honor, Celestia. You have given me a deserving stage to mark my return. Travel well.”
                
Once he was finished, Sombra tightened his grip before twisting both talons in opposite directions. Celestia felt something warm and wet come bubbling from her throat but by then she was already falling.
                
As much as she wanted to fly away, her wings had been shattered far too badly for any such notion. As much as she wanted to use her horn to help heal her or protect her in some way, the stabbing pain in her chest and in every organ that had been crushed took too much effort from her. Instead she watched as the dark clouds parted and the Empire came floating up to her. She was heading for the roof of a hall near the base of the Empire tower. Either she would land on the hard crystal roof, or the skylight some meters away by its center. Perhaps she could have angled herself in that direction, if she’d had the energy.
                
So she shut her eyes and let come whatever may.
 

17

 

She heard the shattering of glass and darkness took over.
                
When she came to she could already hear someone coming… whether they be friend or foe she had no way of knowing.
 

18

 

“Princess, wait!” he had yelled, before muttering under his breath: “It’s not supposed to go like this.”
                
But that wasn’t true. Not entirely. The whole day had been up in the air, truly it had. And just what a day it had been for the draconequus. Death and destruction and misery and utter chaos around every corner. It was enough to give the creature a cavity in his single fang. But even through all this joy did he find it hard to look at her crumpled on the floor. Her blood splattered in an incoherent pattern along the carpets.
                
When Celestia had landed through the skylight at the Empire tower, Discord had thought she was already dead. But when he snapped himself inside and nimbly crept around a corner, he could see the faintest sign of her chest quivering up and down. Each time she exhaled he honestly wondered if that would prove to be her last. When he grew tired of watching he stepped towards her.
                
“Who… who’s there?” she gasped.
                
She was trying to put the smallest of force behind each word—had she thought it was Sombra again?
                
He came closer. “Hello Celestia.”
                
“Discord.” She honestly sounded relieved. She opened both heavy eyes—still beautiful, encapsulating, even after everything they’d seen. “Quick. Help me to the throne room. There should be some exit we can use… We need to regroup, pull our forces together…”
                
In her pain she was close to delirious. But she was correct. The area below the skylight she had been thrown through served as the hallway leading to the throne room. A rich, red carpet fed all the way to the stairs of the large golden chair—the Crystal Empire throne.
                
“No, wait,” she continued heavily, “snap us out of here. You can do that, right? Get us… get us somewhere where we can think of what to do next….”
                
Discord knelt down beside her. “I don’t think you’re in any condition to travel, Celestia. You look much worse for wear.”
                
He spoke in a much more serious tone than was accustom. Any laughter left in his voice had vanished some time ago.
                
Celestia blinked sluggishly. “I’ve seen you do it before, Discord. You can… you can snap us out of here…”
                
Discord slowly shook his head. “Not this time, I’m afraid.”
                
And then her eyes came alive in a way that truly alarmed him—clarity and awareness filled the space behind both giant eyes. Now they held a thin shine of tears.
                
“It was you,” she said, while slowly shaking her head. “It was you the whole time.” She paused to look away, unable to keep her eyes fixed on him. “The color of your eyes… the absence in battle… the way you pushed me away from any thoughts of danger… Luna and Twilight… It was you the whole time. Oh why Discord, why? How?”
                
Discord took to standing again. He was having trouble viewing the bloodied Princess from such a close view. “I think your need to know how it all came to be are coming to an end, Celestia. Only know that you brought this on yourself.”
                
He spoke in the gravest tones he had every muttered towards anyone. Both of his eyes watered and he unknowingly clenched both fists in an off-rhythmic pattern. “You tried to change me, Celestia. You tried to use me for your own ends—manipulate me. You are not a creator, Princess—you are a leader, and nothing more. You tried to change chaos itself, but chaos is not something that is supposed to stop and play nice. Chaos is ever moving, ever changing, and the moment it stops doing that is the moment it stops doing what it was meant to do.” He paused, wanting to somehow snap away the few tears that were falling loose from his eyes. “You tried to change the very nature of my being, Celestia. I loved you, and all you wanted to do was use me… and change me… all for your own gain.”
                
Celestia, cradled on the floor, could only shake her head at his speech. “No… no…” she whispered.
                
“What other option was there than this?” He held out both arms. “What other option was I left with? Turned back to stone? Broken into a million pieces so I could never come back?”
                
“We would… we would never…”
                
“You say that now. Now when we’ve come so far. But words are just words… and actions always trump words!”
                
Awkwardly Celestia tried to lift her head, possibly in an attempt to exemplify her message. “It’s not too late, Discord. We… we can forget this. We can go back to the way things were. We can still stop Sombra.”
                
Discord shook his head slowly—more of those damned tears streaking down his cheeks. (It WASN’T supposed to HAPPEN this way! IT WASN’T!) “Please do not make the image of you begging be the last thing I see of you, Tia. I want to remember you as more than that.”
                
A dimness in her eyes informed him that his message had finally found its place. For the first time since he’d stood by her side, her expression changed to one of numb understanding. She said with a complete lack of emotion, “They’ll know it was you. This is too big to be able to hide, even for you.”
                
He answered bluntly, “I’ll deal with it when the time comes, in whatever way is necessary. I think—”
                
But that was when the doors shot open from down the hall and a fine mist of black smoke came trailing in. On both sides of the chamber, what remained of the tower’s burning wall candles blew out one by one.
                
“It seems you have company.”
                
Celestia shook her head again, hardly even a movement at all. “You’re not a murderer, Discord. You’re chaos… but not a murderer.”
                
He regarded her with a faint smile. “I know. And that’s why I’m not touching you at all.” He raised both hands while slowly backing away.
                
A few feet from the overhead glow of the skylight, he turned to steadily pace into the throne room, where once inside he gently closed both doors. Alone in the large room, he first took his time finding a comfortable position on the hard metal seat, before deciding that simply floating above it might be his best option.
                
After he had closed the door, Celestia had called his name out two more times. Both times he rose from his seat, scarily close in an effort to go help. But it was too late for that. It was far too late for that, he knew.
                
The last words he heard from her were, “Sombra, you’ve—” before all other words were cut short. Discord was minutely glad to note it was a quick death that claimed her, and not something else of the sort.
                
Then he got into position to greet his guest.
 

19

 

He couldn’t believe it had all been so easy. It was like some dream come to life—some dream that would never end.
                
Bits of alicorn blood still leaked from the edges of his mouth, and its effects on his body were instantaneous and wonderful. With just a few drops Sombra had the energy of some well rested warrior. In just those few drops he felt close to shaking in his armor.
                
After he had cast Celestia back to the earth below he had continued his destructive reign as a dragon for a few minutes more. But something inside him made mention that the alicorn might still live—close to death, but not there yet. So regretfully stripping himself of his scaled version, he plummeted back to the ground in a thick of smoke—and in cape and crown—to search for his fallen Princess. It did not take him long to find her.
                
Now with the deed done, he surveyed the long hall he was in. Could he be of that good fortune? he wondered.
                
His throne room lay ahead. His destroyed enemy lay still and warm in his mouth. It was a moment he would need to record to memory for future use.
                
Pushing open the double doors, he steadily took in the semi-familiar surroundings, all the while making mental note of what had to be changed and why. But still, it was home. And it was beautiful. And it was—
                
Something wasn’t right. Someone wasn’t right.
                
Something was sitting on his throne.
                
“Hello Sombra!” the dragon on his throne greeted. “Busy day, isn’t it?”
                
Slowly he felt his original scowl turn to a grin; the action almost alien to his face. “You’ve caught me in a rather festive mood, dragon. So for this act of you violating my throne, I will not kill you outright. Instead I will let you live, to witness my siege across Equestria.”
                
The dragon made no intention of moving. “Sorry, Sombra. But I’m just so damn comfy up here. You should probably just find a new chair to call your own.”
                
One of Sombra’s eyes twitched. “Were you a jester in this life? Perhaps that is how I will make use of you in my kingdom. How does that sound, dragon? Royal court jester? You believe you can make me laugh? Hundreds have tried—very few have succeeded.”
                
“Did you only laugh when you killed them after?” the dragon inquired.
                
The question surprised a deep chuckle from him. “Very good, dragon. Already you are earning your keep. But the longer you sit in that chair, the harder I seem to find things laughable.”
                
The thin dragon leaned forward, his blue eyes opening abnormally wide. “Perhaps this will make you laugh.” He then waved a hand over his face, changing his features to the unicorn that had held him captive in that dark cave for all those years. When he changed back, Sombra could see those yellow and red eyes burning with a kind of toxic madness.
                
Sombra took a step back. “No… no. Not you. Not some jester… not some pieced together dragon full of party tricks.”
                
The dragon stood, grinning a little too wide. “Hey, you don’t see me making fun of your hair, do you?”
                
But by then Sombra had heard enough.
                
Not in the slightest did it matter who had done what they had—who exactly had locked him away for all those years. Now he had found them. Now he could make them pay as he saw fit. So what if it was some make-shift dragon all along? Had he not just given himself over to him? Already confessed to the nasty deed?
                
“You may think you are smart or gifted, dragon, but you are still in no league of mine.”
                
Stomping a foreleg on the ground, a black trail quickly edged toward the throne until it exploded in a series of blackened spikes. Sombra looked up to watch as the dragon would struggle against them but found no one on the throne at all.
                
A snap of fingers told him the dragon had reappeared behind him, but another, far more urgent feeling had suddenly made itself clear. As though a hole were cut in his chest, Sombra felt every new breath he took on the verge of strangling him.
                
“How…” and already he collapsed to the floor.
                
The dragon came around and in his hand he held the Crystal Heart he remembered dreaming of in the cave. It had been finely detailed to bare resemblance to a real heart, and like a real heart it was now coated in a thick puddle of red.
                
The dragon held it aloft. “You remember this?” he sneered. “Before you left the cave I gave you this. A heart. A real heart, made of Crystal. The same Crystal from this stupid Empire in that stupid locked room in the basement. In a way it brought you back to life. Perhaps in a way you haven’t felt like in millennia.” He regarded it grotesquely. “And now you’ve gotten your guts all over it.” He dropped it and it shattered like fine china against the marble.
                
“No…” was all Sombra could mutter.
                
The dragon began to circle the King. “You seem tasked to write history not with the use of quill and ink but instead with oil and fire. You have no class, Sombra.” He leaned in close. “I am the Lord of Chaos itself and even I know that chaos needs order. You’re the type that attacks with little plan of what will surly follow. You are the type that is predestined to lose.” He paused. “You were never meant to win this war, Sombra. You were only meant to assist in the creation of a new one. And now you’ve done just that… splendidly, I might add. But everything that begins eventually comes to an end. And now so do you.”
                
Sombra had stopped listening to the dragon moments ago. Now he only viewed his throne through heavy eyes—so close, so damn close. He reached a hoof towards it. “No… no…”
                
“No?” the dragon asked. “Is that all you can say?”
                
“You have not earned this…”
                
The dragon looked at him fiercely. “Oh but I have, my friend. I really have. Now be a good little pony and go back to playing dead.”
                
And so, glimpsing his throne for one final time, Sombra’s eyes drifted shut and his body burned away to nothing but black ash and bone. He had made it home, but it was not enough.
 

20

 

Shining Armor hurriedly pushed his way through the throng of ponies presently crowding the room. After the first few “Excuse me’s” stated, he gave up the task and just shoved along.
                
When his small band of guards had finally come to the realization that the enemy ponies were actually no true enemy, they had collectively decided not to attack back. The only problem was the enemy still had no problem in attacking them. With extra materials found in their little hole of a room, they had reinforced the door twice over and had then basically hoped for a miracle.
                
Twenty minutes later it came, when the incessant sounds of banging from outside ceased instantly.
                
Once the wood was removed they found the battered remains of dead and badly injured Crystal ponies strung all throughout the Empire. Any sign of their black armor had vanished into dust.
                
As curious as that might have been, what caught Shining’s attention immediately after was just why every living pony seemed to be flocking towards a single building. And only when he reached the edge of the crowd did he see why.
                
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I was too late.”
                
On the carpeted floors of the main hall, Discord loudly wept over the bloodied and lifeless body of Princess Celestia. Far behind him but in plain sight was all that remained of King Sombra—some bones and some dust.
                
The last thing Shining heard before Discord fell into another large heap of anguish was:
“I’ll always love you, Tia.”