She simply watched from her perch at the castle – she had teleported in to take it down from the inside – as her master's army swarmed throughout Canterlot, destroying the city where she had been born and raised. The city that was home to her former teacher, that traitor Celestia. Twilight's now darkened eyes scanned the battle – if it could even be called that at this point – with a feeling of… which was it? Was she enjoying seeing her home being torn apart from its very foundations, or was she feeling… remorse? She couldn't tell. She had never felt this way before, both happy and filled with sudden self-loathing. It was… uncomfortable.
She suddenly heard the sound of several hooves approaching her in a rush. She turned to see a group of armored stallions, all of them members of the Royal Guard. "There's the traitor!" one of them called out to his comrades. "Let's take her down!"
Twilight merely frowned as the stallions charged at her. She charged her horn with dark magic and unleashed a huge shockwave that sent them all flying back, crashing into stone walls and concrete ground and blacking out completely. The purple unicorn then turned her attention back to the rest of Canterlot. She could just see King Sombra making his way into the city through the main gate to the south. He certainly loved being dramatic. She also took notice of Celestia fighting against Sombra's army, though she was completely surrounded. Twilight instantly knew that this was her greatest opportunity to confront her former teacher. She teleported herself out of the castle with a black flash.
-o-
The hordes of invaders were seemingly endless. No matter how many were defeated, more and more just kept taking their place. Celestia knew that this battle was practically lost already, but she couldn't surrender. She needed to find a way to stop Sombra's advance, and then she would need to find Twilight – what will happen when she did find her former pupil, she didn't know.
As the Princess of the Sun fought off a number of enemy soldiers, she heard a sound that made her stop dead in her tracks. A laugh that she recognized all too well. She turned around and saw none other than the dark king himself, King Sombra. He held a malevolent grin on his face, his fangs bared.
"Oh, hello, Celestia," he said in a mocking tone. "It's been so long since I last saw you. Tell me, how are you doing? Aside from the fact that your precious city is about to be assimilated into my empire, I mean."
Celestia shook her head, getting over her initial shock, and glared spitefully at the dark unicorn. "What have you done with my student, Sombra? What did you do to get Twilight to join you?"
Sombra chuckled darkly in response, earning a harsher glare from the sun princess. "I didn't really do much of anything. She joined me of her own free will. Just like another little mare whom I met over a thousand years ago."
Celestia visibly cringed at that statement. She hated the mere thought of that event. The day she had very nearly given into the dark power of her own fear. She narrowed her eyes at the king. "You never had control over me, Sombra, and you never will! I will stop you, even if I have to kill you!" Her horn began to glow with golden magic, and eyes burned with a fiery passion. Sombra just laughed at this.
"Do you honestly think that you can defeat me all by yourself?" he asked with a smug, almost victorious, expression. "You and your little sister could barely vanquish me with the power of the Elements of Harmony! And now that I have the most powerful of the Elements as my student, there is nothing in the world strong enough to stop me from achieving my goals! The world shall be mine!"
Out of nowhere, a rainbow blur slammed into Sombra's side, sending him flying into a nearby wall. "You'll have to get through me first!" Rainbow Dash growled as she hovered over Sombra's prone form. The dark-coated unicorn snarled at her, his twisted eyes glowing with hate. He unleashed a blindingly fast burst of dark magic at the young pegasus, who was knocked away into building, where she fell into a heap on the ground.
Sombra stood back upon his hooves and scowled with pure rage. "Foolish little brat! You think any of you have a chance at victory against me? You are nothing but worms next to my power! You aren't even worth my time." As if on cue, a flash of black energy appeared and was quickly replaced by none other than Twilight Sparkle, who was clothed in armor similar to Sombra's, but modeled to fit her smaller body. Sombra chuckled at her arrival. "Ah, your timing is impeccable, my student. Would you mind taking care of that pegasus for me, while I deal with Celestia?"
Twilight nodded wordlessly, and Sombra returned his focus to Celestia, whom he approached with a menacing grin. The Princess of the Sun just stared at her former student with wide eyes. Twilight's eyes matched Sombra's, and her horn had become curved, red, and much sharper in appearance. It was true then: Twilight had given into her fear, and was now fueled by misplaced anger. Celestia couldn't think of a worse possible outcome if she tried.
Ignoring Celestia's presence, Twilight cantered over to Rainbow Dash, who had just managed to pick herself up off the ground and face her friend – no, former friend – with wide eyes filled with both anger and shock. "Twilight…" she muttered as she attempted to put on a tough face. "You've got some nerve coming here, you backstabber!"
Twilight scowled at that. "You're the backstabbers! You and everypony that I had cared about! There was no way for me to pass Celestia's test, and you were all going to abandon me because of it!"
The light blue pegasus took a step back at Twilight's response, clearly caught off guard. "What are you talking about? There's no way you could've failed a test of any kind! And even if there was, we would never have abandoned you!"
"You're lying!" Twilight shouted as she shot at Rainbow with her dark magic. The pegasus yelped and shot off into the air to avoid the attack. Twilight continued to release beams of evil magic at the winged mare, barely missing her by a hair a dangerous number of times.
The whole time she flew, Rainbow's mind was racing with questions: what could possibly make Twilight go this far off the deep end? What had Sombra done to her? Was she secretly always like this, or was she being brainwashed? She needed to get some answers. She needed to knock some sense into the lavender unicorn before she ends up too far gone.
As Twilight fired off blast after blast, Sombra chuckled, much to Celestia's chagrin. "Isn't she just fascinating?" the king asked with a dark tone. "She has so much untapped power. Such a vast potential." He turned to Celestia with a mocking grin. "She's been wasting her talents under your oppressive teachings, Princess of the Sun."
The sun princess scowled at him. "She'll be wasting even more of her abilities under you, Sombra. Release her from whatever spell you have her under immediately!"
Sombra laughed again at Celestia's demand. "Haven't you been listening? She joined me with complete willingness! She wants to learn from me, and I will transform her into the perfect servant! Once I end your life and attain immortality, I will grant her the same gift, and she will forever be loyal only to me! Now surrender to me, and your death will be swift and painless!"
"I will never kneel to you, Sombra," Celestia said defiantly. "Not even the threat of death will keep me from fighting you!" To this, Sombra actually sighed.
He then looked up to Celestia once again, his wicked eyes glinting sadistically. "So be it, Celestia. I will make sure your grave says just how hopelessly defiant you were." He charged his horn and released a beam of dark magic at the sun princess, who quickly responded with her own magical attack. The two royal ponies met a deadlock, each pushing to overpower the other. There was just one major difference: Sombra wasn't using his full power.
Celestia pumped as much magic as she could muster into her horn, but she could already tell that it wasn't going to be enough. She could practically feel Sombra gradually gaining the upper hoof in the struggle – if it could even be called a struggle. Sombra's dark magic was edging closer and closer. She wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer. She simply didn't have the power to truly battle King Sombra by herself.
Suddenly, just as Sombra's magic was about to break through her own magic, a blast of blue struck the evil king, stumbling him and making him lose his focus. Princess Luna hurried over to her exhausted sister's side. "Celestia, are you all right?" the night princess asked worriedly.
Celestia sighed heavily, both in weariness and relief at her sibling's arrival. "I've been better, truth be told," she admitted as she stood shakily on her legs. "Your timing is impeccable, Luna. Had you arrived any later… we might not be talking right now… or worse."
"I would have come sooner," the navy blue alicorn began explaining, "but many of his soldiers were attacking civilians. I could not simply ignore that."
The white alicorn's eyes widened at that revelation. She turned to Sombra, a look of complete outrage in her eyes. "You would let your army harm innocent ponies!? Ponies who are not even trained to properly defend themselves!?"
Sombra, now standing again, simply eyed the princesses almost emotionlessly. "It's your own fault for letting them become weak. A true monarch would have all of his subjects become warriors who would fight for his will!"
"There is a difference between being a monarch and being a dictator, Sombra!" Celestia shouted out furiously. Her eyes flashed for an instant, too fast for most to notice, but Luna saw it. For a time shorter than a split-second, Celestia's eyes were just like Sombra's.
"Sister, calm yourself!" the younger princess pleaded with her sister, who only responded with a simple glance. "Sister, he's trying to corrupt you again! He wants you to be angry! You must calm down, or you will succumb!" The Princess of the Sun stared at her younger sister this time, her expression becoming gradually calmer, before she sighed in mere frustration.
"You're right," Celestia said gratefully. "Thank you, sister." She then faced Sombra once again, as did Luna, both of them looking ready for a full-on battle to the finish. "Let us end this once and for all, Sombra!"
To that, the dark stallion laughed. "Then come at me, the both of you. Let's see how long you last." Sombra's horn began glowing with evil magic once again, and both princesses charged their own magic into their horns as well.
All the while, within the Canterlot sculpture gardens, several cracks had formed on one statue in particular. 'Soon…' a voice echoed from the stone monument. Freedom was just moments away.