After the memorial party, the Crystal Empire was filled with the sound of unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, and buffalos preparing for the upcoming battle. The Mane Six each took a part in helping: Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie helped keeping the moral up with cool speeches, kind word, and funny jokes. Rarity used her attention to details to help the surprised smiths forging armors for the buffalos and her friends.
Twilight, Azrael, Luna, Shining Armor, Floral Heart, and Cadence spoke about the strategy to use against the undead army. The angel of death explained how they should face the undead army: the best way to get rid of them would be hit them with enough force to break them into pieces, burning them into ashes, or managing to freeze their movements. Not easy to do in the heat of battle, but not impossible. While the armies would engage battle, the Elements of Harmony, Azrael, Luna, Floral Heart, and (If Sombra was going to respect his word) Discord would engage battle with Sombra and manage to break the Seal as soon as possible. With the Seal broken the zombie alicorns would lose their undead power and return to the grave, leaving only a depowered Sombra and the army of Chrysalis to worry about.
The only thing that caused some debate was when Shining asked Cadence to stay in the Crystal Empire… a request that she absolutely refused, saying that she wanted to partake in taking down Sombra and didn’t want her husband to fight alone. But Shining replied that she had to stay in the castle so that, in case of defeat, she would protect the citizens using the Crystal Heart. In the end she agreed, but not looking the slightest happy to let her beloved one go into battle. Azrael doubted that the Heart could have done something against the Seal/Glyph, but it was better than leaving the innocent without at least some protection. In fact they all knew that they couldn’t fail.
***
Unknown to them, the dark tyrant wasn’t in his gloomy palace, but where the Soul Eater was imprisoned. Sombra removed the spells, opening the passage and sporting an evil grin. “Let’s start this war with a bang, my friend,” he said, while the snake-like monster crawled out of his prison.
***
The day had arrived and the Army of the united force of Equestria moved to face Sombra’s forces of death, marching on the desert surrounded by mountains. The army was made of ponies of all species, buffalos, and creatures of the Everfree Forest. Moving at safe distance there was the golem-turtle of Floral Heart, so that she would not accidentally step on somepony. On the titanic creature Azrael was talking with the alicorn tree about what happened in the night of the memorial, of how he revealed to Princess Luna (and accidentally to the Mane Six) his secret.
“And?” she asked, curious to know what happened next.
“And, surprisingly enough, they are not furious at me for what my actions have caused and they have forgiven me. Apparently the revelation didn’t stop them to see me as a friend” he said, sounding all but happy about it.
“You say this as if it was a bad thing,” said Floral Heart. “You should be happy that you have finally made new friends, other than me.”
“It IS a bad thing. Because it would have been much better if they despised me; at least in this way they wouldn’t suffer.”
“You say this as if you-“ she went silent when she realized what the words of the angel of death meant.
“Azrael, please, tell me this is not—“ Once again she got interrupted, this time by Azrael, who suddenly shouted in pain. He felt like a huge bell was ringing in his ears.
***
“Something’s wrong, Luna?” asked Twilight Sparkle, noticing how distracted was the ruler of the night.
She marched along her friends and brother at the head of the army. “Azrael didn’t sleep in three days. I thought that after our talk he didn’t have any more secrets. Apparently I was wrong,” she explained, with a worried look.
“Maybe he’s afraid to have more nightmares” hinted Applejack.
“In that case he could have asked my help,” Luna said.
“Maybe he’s just nervous about the upcoming battle. He has a lot of responsibilities on his back,” said Rainbow.
“Mhm, maybe,” murmured Luna, all but convinced.
Twilight wasn’t either. There was something in all this story that didn’t fit. Azrael stated to be the only one capable to break the Seal of Death, but he didn’t really explained HOW he was going to do that.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a deafening ring of bells in her mind, warning her of something. She almost fell to the ground if it wasn’t for her friends and brother. That made the army stop, curious, scared, and hesitant.
“Twily! What’s happening!?” asked Shining Armor, worried sickly for her little sister.
“Is everything all right, Twilight?” asked Princess Luna.
“No,” answered the purple alicorn with anxiety in both her eyes and voice. “It’s not alright. Not at all, not in the slightest.”
“What is it?” asked Rainbow Dash.
She was about to answer when Azrael flew down from the golem-turtle, rushing to reach them.
“Have you felt it too, do you?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
“Yes,” answered the angel of death. “The Soul Eater is free again.” He glared to the East. “And is coming here at top speed.”
“Wait, the Soul Eater? You mean that creature responsible for Celestia’s death?!” asked Shining Armor, his fear clear in his voice. “How… what can we do?” he asked, trying to regain his composure. He was the captain of the guards, he had to show himself calm or else his fear would infect the rest of the army.
“We can use the Elements, but then we would not have enough power to face Sombra,” said Fluttershy.
“I will deal with that wretched creature” stated Floral Heart from the golem. “I have an old debt with that monster” she added, while the titan shaped size into a more humanoid figure. “Move our army, quickly, or else they will end up crushed.”
The group did exactly as said and moved their forces to a safe place as fast as they could, trying to ignore how the ground all around them was shaking by the arrival of the Soul Eater. Floral Heart golem stood still, offering herself as decoy, channeling all her forces and focusing her mind into the imminent fight.
Then, with thunderous noise and lifting an enormous quantity of smoke and pebbles, the Soul Eater arrived and leaped straight away, maw fully opened for a deadly bite… which met the stone fist of the golem. The monster wasn’t prepared to face such powerful foe, but it shacked off the surprised while both his hunger and anger fill him with strength and charged again. Floral Heart kept beating the Soul Eater with the brute power of the golem and for a while the army thought that she would have been strong enough to finish the monster. But, just like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, found out the Soul Eater was capable of thinking and soon it proved it once again. It used its long body and speed to get an advantage, blocking part of the golem and biting hard, turning the tables around into a more balanced battle. Then, with a swift movement of his tail, the Soul Eater managed to make Floral Heart golem fall to the ground, getting a position of advantage and trying to bite her head off.
“She’s in trouble! I’ve got to help her!” stated Azrael, making to fly off to help her in the fight.
“I’m coming with you,” Luna said, then, noticing his expression, added stubbornly, “No, this is not debatable.”
Incapable to reply with her tone or glare Azrael simply nodded and the two alicorns flew to the third one’s aid. The duo worked together trying the help the golem getting out of the situation and, with some flying maneuvers and some dozens of ray of magic they had managed to free Floral Heart. Azrael and Luna showed to have an unexpected chemistry with their attacks, giving the Soul Eater a hard time getting them. Sadly for them, with one of his strikes he had ripped off a big chunk of rocks and smoke from the body of the golem which risked to hit the ruler of the night, if it wasn’t for her good reflexes. But that distracted the angel of death, who hadn’t noticed the hulking body of the Soul Eater before him, which stroked him down with violence, throwing him violently on the ground. This enraged Princess Luna so much that she starting shooting thunders from her horn against the monster.
The Mane Six cringed at the scene. Especially Rainbow Dash who had already the misfortune to clash with the Soul Eater reckoned of how much painful it was to be only brushed by its terrible force, she didn’t wanted to think how much THAT would hurt.
“Do you think he’s…” asked Fluttershy, worried.
“Of course not!” said Applejack. “It takes more than that to stop him.”
“But maybe is enough to take him down temporarily,” commented Shining pointing to where Azrael fell down. It didn’t appear that the angel of death was going to get up soon enough.
“We have to do something! Luna and Floral Heart can’t deal alone with the Soul Eater. That thing just does not want to go down!” said Rainbow Dash.
“We’ll do. Girls, prepare to use the elements,” said Twilight Sparkle.
“But Twilight, if we use the power of Harmony against that creature we will be powerless against Sombra!” replied Rarity.
“I know, but even without Elements at least we have our own skills. It’s going to be much worse if we don’t stop the Soul Eater, now and forever!” Twilight said.
Her friends knew she was right. They’d never leave their friends to be killed and eaten by that monster.
Summoning their powers they teleported near the battlefield and hopped on Floral Heart Golem and used him to get the higher ground. They started to climb the colossus, using all their abilities and cooperation to dodge boulders and trees, trying not lose their grappling on the climbing. The hiking seemed to take forever but at the end the Mane 6 managed to reach the top and there Twilight used her teleportation spell to get even more higher. Once there the Elements of Harmony started to work the group didn’t just stand there but put all the energy they had at work, to make sure the Elements worked. The Soul Eater found himself surrounded by the rainbow, which surrounded his titanic mass, shrieking while trying to get out of it.
“Just… hang… on!” groaned Twilight Sparkle. The Mane Six were truly going all out… and it was all but easy. They felt like they were coming to a breaking point.
But in the end they had finally made it.
With a last roar the Soul Eater turned into stone.
They had won! But they didn’t have that much time to celebrate the victory.
Without warning, a red ray of destruction, coming from Sombra’s castle, struck Floral Heart’s golem….
*
Floral Heart had just taken a breath of relief, seeing the one responsible for the death of her mother being turned into cold stone. But she didn’t have the time to rejoice.
A red ray from Sombra’s castle lighted the sky in a crimson hue, causing the forces to stop in their tracks. It suddenly spiraled towards her, too fast for her to dodge, crashing into her and her golem. The energy of that ray coursed throughout her body, shooting through her pain that not even the Soul Eater could have generated.
She felt the mighty golem start to crumble like an house of cards, as if rocks and roots were her bones and flesh. She felt also that the creatures she had made—the ones from the Everfree—were suffering the same thing. Her sons’ screams of agony deafened her own cry of pain, blinding her mind from the intense sensation. She tried to make sure that the golem’s pieces wouldn’t fall over her friends and allies.
While she felt her long life vanishing from her body she watched over where the angel of death had fallen. She wished she had the time to tell him goodbye, to try cheer him up and convince him to let it go his tragic past. But she knew that she didn’t have to. There were already seven beings who had the power to help him get through.
She waved with her last forces to the Mane Six, Luna, and her allies, saluting them.
And then she fell.
*
The rest of the Mane 6 ran to cover, holding up a concerned Fluttershy who wanted help her new found friend, ignoring the danger of the collapsing titan. Once the dust and rocks settled they allowed her to run to Floral Heart, hoping for the best, praying to have the time save her.
But it wasn’t. Amongst the rocks there were the rest of a tree, without leaf and life.
Fluttershy broke down crying and her friends rushed to her trying to comfort the shy pegasi.
“I… didn’t even get the chance to tell her goodbye,” murmured the element of kindness, crying and sniffling.
It was indeed a terrible loss. Floral Heart had pull her life on danger to protect her forest and her friends without worrying about her own sake and even going against her own nature. And so, with a death which didn’t have any kind of honor, one of the most ancient alicorns of Equestria died.
***
Azrael looked around. After he had hit the ground he found himself in another and completely different place. He was surrounded by many tall trees of all the kinds, the grass was white and there was a calm silence surrounding the place. On the top of the trees he could see that the sky looked like the dawn was approaching. Or maybe it was the sunset? And why did he had the feeling to have already been in this place?
He flew above the vegetation to try to take a better look around. All he saw were a huge expanse of trees… and then he saw it. As beautiful as he remembered… wait, remember? He has never been in this place before! Or was he? With many doubts, he suddenly heard a voice.
“Bring here the Elements of Harmony, Azrael. It’s the only way to defeat Sombra.”
“Who are you? What is this place?” he asked, looking around and using his powers to understand where the voice came from, but failing to spot it.
“You shall know soon enough who I am. For the other question… are you sure you don’t know?”
Before he could ask for something else he felt the world slowly disappear into light.
***
“Azrael! Azrael!” called desperately a voice. When the angel of death opened his eyes found himself staring Luna. She had her eyes filled with tears. “We feared that he had just lost you!” she said, sighing in relief.
“What happened to the Soul Eater?” Azrael asked getting up.
“Stoned. We struck him down with the Elements of Harmony,” said Pinkie Pie. “Sadly, just after that Sombra took down Floral Heart. And with her all of the EverFree forest” she added pointing where the rest of the tree-alicorn golem.
Azrael stood there, shocked. Floral Heart had been the one…no had been the only one of the alicorns of the golden age who treated him with respect. She had been kind, humble and sweet. She hadn’t deserve such end. He added this to the large list of crimes Sombra committed in the last days and promised that he would pay for all of it!
“As if that wasn’t enough, I’m afraid that we have no power left” added Twilight.
“Just like I expected, but don’t worry. I have a solution to our problem” he said, trying to tame his anger.
“Really? What is it then?” asked Applejack.
“Not what. Where.”
“Where exactly?” asked Twilight.
“You usually call this place Afterlife… but its real name is the Dusk of Souls”.