"I must thank you for bringing me back, Discord," Sombra said, lifting his head back up and grinning at the Spirit of Disharmony, "You have no idea what its like to be trapped deep inside a weaker and more frail version of yourself, trying to fight your way back to the surface. Twice I tried to resurface and take over and twice I was stopped; once by a memory of Starswirl the Bearded and another time by the Royal Sister's themselves. They even went out of their way to avoid saying your name, rightfully fearing that it would allow me to finally regain what I had lost."
"So does that mean you'll let me go?" Discord asked, lifting the cup up to his mouth and taking another sip.
"Noooo," Sombra laughed, darkness surrounding his feet as the other guests backed away from him, "I may be somewhat - graceful - that you freed me from my weaker self, but you still attacked me on the day of my wedding, no matter how foolish it might have been for me to marry Celestia, and I will never forgive you for that."
"Oh for the love of Chaos," Discord moaned, nearly dropping his cup before correcting himself, "Will you please get over that already? Even after a thousand years of being sealed in solid ice your still no fun."
Before Discord could say anymore the darkness surrounding Sombra rushed forward, turning from its smoky form into a solid piece of crystal the struck Discord hard in the chest. Not only did it hit him hard enough to break through the clothes he was wearing, but it lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the wall behind where he had been standing. Several of the guests gasped while a few screamed in horror that someone just died in front of them, the guards drawing their weapons as they approached Sombra. Several arrows found their way into Sombra's shoulders, chest, and legs, but after a few seconds the darkness simply absorbed the arrows until they were all gone and he was unharmed.
"Now look what you did," Discord complained, pointing his left hand to his fallen cup, "I was planning on finishing that off before you rudely attacked me and pinned me to the wall. I don't suppose you could have, I don't know, waited for me to finish?"
"In the name of the Aldmeri Dominion stop right there!" one of the guards said, holding his bow level at Sombra's head as the others prepared a second barrage of arrows.
"You should stop while your ahead," Sombra laughed, the darkness swirling around him once more, "I offer you all a choice; either leave with your lives intact for me to enslave later or die in the crossfire. I will not suffer any interruptions with my fight with Discord."
One guard, not caring that Sombra wanted to fight Discord alone, rushed towards the nord, shouted something about him being a heretic, and drove his sword into his chest. Or rather, he tried to. The moment that he thrust his sword forward the darkness that surrounded Sombra flew towards him, turning into a spiked crystal pillar that he was impaled upon. Sombra tsked and let several more waves of darkness fly through the air, pieces of crystal pinning some of the unfortunate guards to the walls in pain while some of them were struck in the heart and died instantly.
Raika, grateful that a distraction had been created, followed her elf companion into the kitchens, determined to complete her mission while the guards were busy dealing with Sombra. She'd find a way to heal him after she got what she needed.
"These clothes won't do me any good in battle," Sombra commented, noticing the tears in the fabric from where he had already been hit, "Time to bring in some good old fashioned armor."
Discord watched Sombra hold his arms out as the darkness wrapped around them, twisting the delicate fabric into the cold steel armor that he almost always wore. His shoes became the infamous metal boots that he used to pin his enemies to the ground and terrorize them enough to corrupt them into what he desired. Attached to his belt was the same sword that he had carried long before his fall from grace, only twisted by his intense darkness. Moments later his lush red cape emerged from the darkness, wrapped around his neck and almost flowing to the ground. Before the darkness receded Discord noticed that Sombra's iron crown appeared on his head, completing the transformation from simple nord to the King of Darkness.
"Normally anypony else would be scared," Sombra commented, eying Discord carefully in case the Spirit did anything, "but not you Discord. We have fought before, so I know your planning something to really get us off on the right start."
True to his word lightning coursed through the air and collided with Sombra, crashing him into a wall before a second destroyed the area and threw him outside. Discord snapped the crystals off of himself and flew outside, his eyes scanning the ruined carriages as he looked for his enemy amongst the elven soldiers. For a moment he thought that Sombra had fled already, choosing to run instead of fighting him, but then he recalled a similar tactic he used against him in the Crystal Empire. He barrel rolled to the right, barely avoiding a giant spiked crystal pillar with Sombra standing on it, an evil grin sitting upon his face.
The darkness surged forward, dozens upon dozens of crystals hailing down upon Discord until he crashed on the ground outside the gate behind the carriages. The crystals that missed him sailed into the forest, hitting the ground and either not hurting any of the wildlife or pinning something to the ground and killing it. Discord, brushing most of the crystals off as if they were minor specks, charged back into the air and collided with Sombra, gripping onto his enemy and throwing him down towards the ground. Sombra hit the staircase hard, but the darkness enveloped him and soon he was standing tall once more, this time his weapon was at the ready.
Discord flew down at the ground and released the magic upon Sombra, willing the stones to uproot themselves and rise into the air before falling down on his enemy's head. Dust filled the air and Discord was forced to look for his enemy yet again, but this time he was careless and a second giant spiked crystal pillar slammed right into him, knocking the wind out of him. Before he had time to bring up a weapon, any weapon for that matter, Sombra appeared from the crystal and thrust his sword right into him, causing him to fall to the ground and crush the last carriage that was there.
"I must say," Discord moaned, pulling the sword from his gut and tossing it to the ground, "this isn't as fun as the last time we fought."
That was before a third spiked crystal grew out of the ground behind him and pierced his chest from behind, growing until he was no longer touching the ground at all. Sombra stepped out of the shadows behind him and picked up his sword, sheathing it as he admired his work after being locked away for so long. He knew all the guards had been dealt with for the moment, so there was nothing standing in his way from starting a new dark empire in this cold land.
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Celestia hated the waiting. She, Luna, Trixie, and Lydia had no choice but to wait for Raika to come out of the hole in the mountain with whatever information she could acquire. If Raika had already left the party to start her search then Sombra should have already left the party and be on his way down the road. Lydia, having nothing better to do then listen to the sounds of the wildlife, pulled out one of the few books that Raika had left behind and started in on it. Trixie and Luna got to discussing the finer points of magic, no doubt because Trixie wanted to learn more spells that would eventually aid them.
After about half an hour of waiting she felt something dark, something evil, fill the air and she immediately knew exactly what was responsible for the disturbance. The problem was that it was too soon for Sombra's darker memories to awaken...unless he had bumped into Discord and they had been forcefully awoken.
"Luna," Celestia said, making sure her armor was in place as she picked up her sword.
"I felt it too sister," Luna replied, gathering her equipment, "and if we wish to contain this darkness we must act immediately!"
"Where are you two going?" Trixie asked, watching the two Princesses spread their wings and take to the skies before disappearing into the distance, "I guess we'll wait till they return."
It didn't take the two of them very long to find the crystal pikes that told them that Sombra had been fighting someone, but Celestia's heart sank when they arrived and found the place littered with crystal fragments. Sitting among them was one spike that an unusual nord was resting on, one that Celestia suspected was Discord, but then she saw Him. Standing at the top of a flight of stairs, clad in the steel armor and lush red cape she had seen so many times before, was none other than the darker Sombra.
"So, the Princesses have returned," Discord coughed, finally pulling himself off the spike as the sister's passed right by him, "I had best get out of here before this gets ugly."
"So, you have finally come back to me," Sombra said, his voice causing Celestia to cringe, "How does it feel, Celestia, to see all your hard work shatter before you? How does it feel to see the stallion you tried to bring back sink further into the darkness? How does it feel to have to fight me one more time, knowing that you can never defeat me without losing the stallion you love?"
"Silence monster!" Luna shouted, dashing through the air and crashing her sword right into his chest, "Tia, if you want to save Sombra we need to deal with him now!"
Celestia, knowing that fighting the stallion of her heart was hard, pulled out her sword, moved in front of Sombra, and, with a heavy heart, stabbed him from the other side. Not even seconds later they were repelled, their swords forcefully ejected from Sombra's body as he faced the two of them. Before either of them could react pillars of dark crystals shot out of the ground, forcing them into the sky as Sombra followed them up there. Celestia allowed her magic to course through her sword's blade and cast it outward, allowing it to crash into Sombra and force him out of the air. Luna, seeing the attack, flipped around in midair and flew down to Sombra's falling body, piercing his chest yet again as he crashed against the ground.
Luna, knowing full well the amount of times it took them to wound Sombra before his healing ability stopped working for a while, backed away from him as he stood up, watching the wounds seal themselves up.
"So, your going for the same battle style you used when we last fought," Sombra commented, allowing the darkness to spread out and cover the ground around him, "I, on the other hoof, will not fall for the same tricks that lead to my defeat. This time I shall defeat the two of you before you can leave."
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Raika, now having to deal with the problem of the elf that had aided her and a nord who had been captured by the Thalmor, was still glad that the fighting had taken all the guards away from their posts. The problem with that was that the only exit that she was prepared to use was locked and she had no idea which guard, be they living or dead, had the key. The solution to her new problem was to retrace her steps and hopefully the three of them could pass through the party before the guards discovered them. That plan was dashed when she saw that there were several large crystal spires in front of the embassy, no doubt the work of the darkness that Sombra had carried within him.
As the three of them neared the battle Raika wasn't surprised to find that Luna and Celestia had come to fight off the darkness, nor was she surprised to watch Discord limp away with a hole in his chest. Then she saw a flash of sunlight collide with Sombra, knocking him from the air as Luna stabbed him in the chest and crashed against the ground. A second later Luna was standing near the gates, just as Sombra pulled himself up and the wounds he had sustained closed within mere seconds. From what Raika could see it seemed like both Luna and Celestia were using roughly half of their power, as there were still party-goer's hanging around to watch the fight.
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Luna flew up to where Celestia was floating and placed their horns together, focusing their magic together to deal a devastating attack to Sombra, regardless of how he choose to defend against it. He seemed to stare at them while the magic's of the Sun and the Moon pulsed around them, almost as if he was silently mocking them from the ground. Then the magic flared outward, rushing from where they were flying all the way to the ground, tearing open the stones at it collided with Sombra. Dust filled the air as they waited, both silently wondering if their spell had done any lasting damage on Sombra so they could end the fight even quicker.
Before either of them could move Sombra appeared between them, the darkness that wrapped around him surging outwards at them, hitting them hard in their chests. Luna staggered backwards, shrugging off the attack as she faced Sombra and parried the next attack so well that the crystal was split right in half. Celestia, on the other hand, was thrown downwards quite a bit, but she corrected herself and soon she was at Sombra's back, finding her weapon blocked by his own. It didn't seem to faze him that he was fighting the two of them at the same time, but he had done so in the past and had lost after a great deal of time.
"You do realize that your putting off the inevitable?" Luna asked, pressing her weapon harder in the hope of getting at him once more, "We beat you the first time Sombra, we can surely do so again."
"On the contrary," Sombra laughed, as if he found something amusing, "The both of you aren't even fighting me with your full power, unlike the last time we fought. Your too worried about the puny creatures that call this plane home to realize that without your full power you cannot hope to defeat me."
The darkness swirled around Luna and hardened until she was trapped in a crystal sphere, with a few holes so she could breath and witness the end of their fight. Celestia, on the other hand, found Sombra's spare hand around her neck and was violently tossed towards the ground, where she hit the ground hard on her back. She was in pain as she pulled herself up as best she could, but when she tried to fly she screamed in pain as she realized that the fall had broken her left with. Luna, hearing her sister's scream, shattered the prison and threw the shards at Sombra, who simply let them hit him in the chest.
For a moment Luna couldn't understand why he had simply stood there, but then she saw that Celestia's scream had jarred the kinder Sombra to the surface and the two personalities were warring with each other.
"I got you Celestia," Raika whispered, finally finding a great moment to pass through and helped the Equestrian onto her feet, "Let's get you out of here so we can check out that wing."
"Dragonborn!" the evil Sombra hissed, she could tell it was that personality by the voice alone, "You shall pay for this."
Lucky for Raika she noticed that Trixie had abandoned their plan at sitting by the opening in the mountain side, most likely when the sister's had left her and Lydia alone. The Equestrian on the caravan leapt off and helped her get Celestia on board, being mindful not to hurt her injured wing even more than it already was. Once the deed was done Lydia suddenly pushed her out of the way, causing her to fall to the ground and growl in anger, but when Raika looked up she found Sombra's blade sticking out of Lydia's chest.
"Don't make that face my Thane," Lydia coughed, smiling as the blade vanished and she fell into Raika's arms, "at least...I performed...my duties..."
Raika didn't have to look to know that Lydia had died in her arms, but that didn't stop her from at least closing her fallen Housecarl's eyes as she kept her tears from running wild. She turned around to be sure the fighting wasn't still going on and was surprised to find that Sombra was now missing, with Luna approaching the caravan.
"Where is he?" Raika angrily asked, knowing that if she fought Sombra, this evil Sombra, she would likely die in the process.
"They are gone." Luna replied, her eyes glancing over at her sister, "Raika, I don't wish to be rude at a time like this, but we must get a move on before someone delays us further. We can see to your Housecarl and my sister's wing later."
Raika sighed and they got on the back of the wagon, though she carefully wrapped Lydia's body up so they wouldn't have to gaze upon her as they traveled once again. She would be able to mourn later, but for now they had to get off the mountain before the Thalmor and their leader decided to stop them in their tracks. Though now she had to stop an evil dragon from destroying the world and somehow defeat Sombra's darkness at the same time. Her life just got much more difficult.