Sombra swayed his head in movement to the footsteps of the crystal titan, enjoying the almost rhythmic stepping of his weapon of victory. He was also grateful for anything to provide a distraction, since he was bored out of his skull waiting for the empire-turned-weapon to reach Canterlot. Yet, he knew that victory was certain. What he didn't know was if the ponies would resist or not when he arrived.
'Whether they do or not matters little. For when I get there, there will be bodies,' Sombra promised as he opened his eyes and gazed around at the brilliance of his command center, from which he could gaze out of the titan's eyes upon the land that was being crushed beneath its--and by extension his--feet. Yet, in the back of his mind, he slightly regretted how it would be easy to crush the Crusade and the rest of Equestria.
'It is too bad that I had to kill the Captain. But had I not, then my certain victory would not be so certain,' Sombra realized with a shrug of acceptance, knowing that, as always, he had made the right call. 'And unlike the other four fools who thought that they could overcome the Captain, I knew better. That is why I am the last one standing.'
"I do hope that they resist, though. I have been wishing to try out this crystal monster for a long time," he spoke to the empty room as he glanced down through the clear, crystal floors at a machine of his own design. It was like the one that he had loaned Tirek a while back, but far more powerful. 'And once I have the entire Crusade, I will suck them dry of their magic and fuel this perfect monster until I see fit to destroy it.'
His bragging to himself was interrupted when the secret door to the chamber opened, and the only gargoyle assistant that he hadn't destroyed slowly pushed it open. "Uh, boss? We're approaching Canterlot." Sombra peeked out the titan's eyes to see that indeed the city upon the mountain was coming into view, drawing forth the cruelest of smiles from the Dark King.
"Ah yes, we are," he repeated before glancing back at his assistant. "Gather all of the gargoyles and tell them to launch their attacks now. I want any defenses they have crushed before the titan arrives. After all, the crystal looks so beautiful and I'd hate anything to happen to it."
"But boss, if all of us are out there fighting...then who will be here to protect you?" Sombra cast the gargoyle a look that made him slam the door and run for his life, getting a sigh from the Dark King as he shook his head.
"Idiot. Believing that I actually need any protection from those fools in the city," Sombra growled while he gazed out the eyes, watching as the city got closer and closer. "The only one that could have possibly stopped me is dead. The rest of them are just collateral. Now then, time to finally claim my world."
/ \
//A\\
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The Crusaders watched from their positions while what seemed like darkness itself began to pour from the crystal titan. Yet, the ponies had been fighting the gargoyles long enough to know when one of their most hated enemies were coming for them, so with a cry for battle the ponies each began to take up their weapons.
Hundreds of ponies grabbed crossbows, magical cannons and whatever form of weaponry they could get their hooves on. Yet one common factor that bound everypony together was the enhancements that each of them wore upon their wings, horns or bodies, increasing their strength even further. A special unit manned the catapults that had been created to push the titan back, but as the monstrous being of crystal grew closer and closer they began to fear it wouldn't be enough.
"And so the guest of honor finally arrives," Scootaloo muttered under her breath while she stood before dozens of their best fliers, who were led by Lightning Dust. "Alright ponies, I shouldn't have to tell you what's going on, but for those of you that have been stuck under a rock for the last week, listen up. That crystal titan wants to destroy our home and all of us. We don't want that to happen. So go out there and make sure those gargoyles and the titan don't get here. Understood?" Every pony saluted her before spreading their metal-enhanced wings, firing up their rockets to maximum power before launching themselves into the sky.
"They won't hold out forever," Belle said as both she and Applebloom walked up beside Scootaloo, each of them wearing the same enhanced armor that nearly every one of the Crusaders wore. "And even if we manage to beat the gargoyles back, this battle won't be over until Sombra himself is stopped. Because as long as he's still going...then our home will never truly be safe."
"So what are ya planning?" Applebloom asked the mare, who gazed off straight towards the colossal titan's head where she could almost feel the evil seeping from it. "That thing has got to be the most heavily defended thing in Equestria. We can't just fly straight in and attack it. There are no openings, and ah guarantee that those eyes are protected by Sombra himself."
"And even if we could get to him...could we even beat him? "Scootaloo asked Belle, whose face hardened slightly at the next question to come. "He beat you, he beat the two of us, and the only person that he didn't beat is burned alive and being suspended in a tube of Faust knows what. If we actually manage to make it to him...do you believe that we could win?"
"Of course we can. Because when we fought him before, we were nothing more than scared foals that had no choice. But now," Belle stated while she slipped the shield from her back and rested it on her forearm, covering nearly a quarter of her body. "We are what he fears most...actually, we've always been what he's feared, we just didn't realize it. We're heroes. So of course we'll win."
"Wow, your speeches have gotten good as of late. That almost made me forget what we were fighting," Scootaloo said with a laugh as she wrapped her hooves around the both of her friends and pulled them close. "Alright then, if you think we can win, then I know we can win. What I don't know is how we're going to get in there without getting shot out of the sky."
"Well, my magic won't be any help. Sombra's proved before that he can counter my magic, and I guarantee that he has that place completely immune to teleportation spells," Sweetie Belle deduced with a shrug of her shoulders. "If we're going to get in there, it will have to be by force. And that isn't my department." Both Scootaloo and Belle looked back at Applebloom, who already had a smile on her face.
"All we need is one good shot with one of these catapults," she informed her friends while she motioned to the war machines that lined the entire city border, each armed with large chunks of crystal. "Celestia and Luna had a contingency plan in case Sombra ever attacked them with a crystal weapon. These rocks are designed to shatter any crystal they come into contact with. Guess they weren't prepared the day our nation fell. Ah, however, took the liberty of preparing every single one of these rocks they had. Just in case."
"Awesome. All we need to do now is wait for that crystal titan to come within range," Scootaloo said while they turned their gaze back to the titan...to find that it was suddenly much closer than it had been. "Oh that bastard, how did he sneak up on us?!"
"That thing can run?!" Sweetie Belle drowned out her friend's cry with one of her own when they spied the crystal titan running across the land towards them. She then grabbed a radio off of her suit and screamed into it. "Activate the city's defense shield now!" The moment the words left her lips a radiant barrier of solar and lunar magic descended around the city, casting its protective magic around all that were within. The titan let out a bellow while it charged head first into the barrier, rocking the whole city to its core with a single impact.
"Our shield won't be able to take too many more hits like that! Return fire!" Belle screamed down at the ponies manning the catapults, who all let out a war cry before firing all of their own crystals at once at the crystal titan. The leaders of the Crusaders watched with baited breath as the salvo of crystals hurtled towards the titan, who began to unleash beams of black magic from its eyes to incinerate the crystals when they got closer. Despite its best efforts, a few crystals made it through and struck the creature's body. The three mares let out a cry when they saw massive cracks form along the points of impact...before the crystals began to stich themselves back together.
"No way...he actually managed to create a self repairing crystal," Applebloom whispered in both awe and despair while the crystal titan repaired its own wounds in under twenty seconds. The revelation caused the three Crusaders to share the same look of concern. "Now what? Even if we crack that thing open, we'd have just under a minute to get inside."
"The timing would be incredibly tight," Scootaloo muttered as she began to plan out how quickly she would have to fly them there while also taking into account the chance that they might be driven off course by any of Sombra's hundreds of gargoyles. "In order to make this, we would need one of our ponies to fire a rock right into the crystal titan's side at least ten seconds before we got there. But that kind of shot would be impossible to make with its defense systems and-"
"I can make it." The three mares turned around to find the sister of Pinkie standing behind them, her expression as blank as ever but her eyes blazed with confidence. "Rocks and crystals are my specialty. If any pony can make that kind of shot, it's me." The three Crusaders hesitated for just a moment before they all nodded to her. Maud nodded back and raced to the nearest armed catapult, hurling the pony that was manning it out of the way before she took control.
"Alright you two...grab hold of my hooves and hang on for dear life," Scootaloo commanded her two friends as she activated her wings and floated just above them, waiting until they had grasped her hooves firmly before she began to rise into the sky. She then glanced at Maud, who nodded at her in reply. Scootaloo then took in one deep breath before activating the rockets on the back of her wings.
"And just in case we die in a horrible fireball before we get there, I want you two to know that I love you both," she said to them before rocketing the three forward in a flash of blinding speed. Her eyes were narrowed into slits as she burst through the shield around Canterlot and began to hurtle into the battle, whipping her body every which way to avoid the claws of the gargoyles or the assaults of magic that were being blasted by the titan.
'Alright Maud, we're almost there!' Scootaloo glanced back at the mare, praying that she would fire at the right moment. A gargoyle seemed to burst forth from the crystal titan and nearly tackled the mare out of the air, forcing Scootaloo to nearly rip her wings off as she dived out of the way.
"Radio's no good! Sombra must be jamming them!" Belle called our from below, telling the orange mare that it was all on Maud. She narrowed her eyes while the three raced up towards the crystal titan's left arm with all of her speed, glancing around to see dozens of gargoyles converging on them. They needed Maud to shoot and they needed her to do it--
A massive chunk of crystal hurtled by their heads, narrowing avoiding all of the gargoyles and somehow managing to slip under the dark magic that burst forth from the titan's eyes that tried to destroy it. The mares watched with dropped jaws when the crystal struck the titan dead in the arm, giving them the opening they needed.
'Come on! Make it!' Scootaloo roared within her mind as she burst towards the crack with all of her speed, watching as the crystal slowly began to mend the injury. She weaved to the side while the crystal chunk fell past them, her eyes widening when she realized that they weren't going to make it in time. And then she had an idea.
"Sweetie! Hurl the shield!" she ordered down to her friend, who gazed back up at her with uncertain eyes.
"But I've never done it before! How do you expect me to-?!"
"Just do it!" With a scream Sweetie threw the shield with all of her might, sending the vibranium disc flying past Scootaloo and towards the crack in the arm. She held her breath for a brief moment as the shield reached crack...and wedge itself right between the healing wound, preventing it from fully closing. Scootaloo then poured all of her might into her wings, but with horror she realized she wouldn't get there before the shield was expelled. That was until a pony that moved like lightning grabbed hold of the three and hurled them for all she was worth.
"Go get Sombra! We'll handle it here!" Dust called out to them before being tackled by numerous gargoyles. The three hurtled towards the crack, about to reach it before two gargoyles stood in their path. Scootaloo began to wonder whether or not she could fight them when two sniper shots tore the heads off the gargoyles.
"Nice shot!" Scootaloo called out before hurling the three of them through the crack, grabbing the shield as they entered into the creature. "And nice throw, by the way. Saved our lives."
"How did I do that?" Sweetie Belle whispered in disbelief while Scootaloo tossed the shield back to her, letting out a sigh of relief as the crack closed up behind them.
"Well, Steve always said that it involved a little bit of luck throwing his shield. And he also said that if the old gal likes you, then it sometimes flies a little better," Scootaloo recalled with a smirk, as she glanced down to find them standing on a small catwalk. "At the time I thought he was just being snarky, but maybe there's some truth to that. So Bloom, now where to we go?"
Upon receiving no response from Applebloom, the two mares looked over at their friend to find her staring around the room with eyes as wide as dinner plates. Bloom's eyes shot from the crystal gears and machinery that helped the colossal creature to move, to the support structure that was made solely from a red crystal that extended far up the titan's arm.
"This...is incredible," she whispered before the arm lurched and the three had to grab onto the catwalk to avoid being tossed into the fingers below. "This titan, this creature, isn't run on just magic alone. There's also a ton of machinery that I've never seen before! There is no way he could have finished construction on something like this in a short period of time. How long has he been building this thing?"
"If I had to guess, ever since he and his cronies took over the Empire," Scootaloo wagered as she took to the air again and grabbed hold of both of he friends. "And we need to keep moving. Because I don't want to think of what would happen to us if we're in here when this thing decides to strike the Canterlot shield again."
Scootaloo flew up the arm of the titan as fast as she could, constantly weaving out of the way of massive gears or machinery that would have chopped them to pieces if it hit. Yet after only a few minutes of flying, she finally burst free of all the pieces and parts to find a door awaiting them at the top. After sharing a glance of concern with her friends, she moved Applebloom close enough to the handle so that she could push it open.
"This...looks like the crystal spire that Steve and I fought through before..." Sweetie Belle recalled, recognizing where they were while she gazed around the hallways and crystal stairs. "And if I had to wager, Sombra's somewhere in here too. All we have to do now is find him."
"Shouldn't be too hard. Just look for the ego," Scootaloo snarked before the three took off down the hallways, opening every door that they ran past in hopes that they would find the tyrant within. Yet despite the minutes that passed by, none of the doors in the hallway or even on the floors above revealed the location of the Dark King to the mares. That was until, Applebloom came to a dead stop at a blank wall.
"That's not right," she said to her friends when they had caught up with her again. "Ah remember coming here when ah was a foal and there was definitely a door there...one that led to one of the prettiest rooms in the Empire. But then...stand back everypony." With one, exosuit-fueled kick, the mare crumbled the wall of crystal that stood before her, revealing that indeed there was a room behind it. The three raced inside to find themselves standing upon a clear, crystal floor that held a whole room filled with strange machinery bellow them. But none of the three cared about that. For standing across from them, near the eyes of the titan, stood the stallion that had taken so much from them.
"Sombra," all three whispered at once with enough venom in their voices to make a sinister smile spread across the face of the Dark King.
"Ah, the sisters of the Ambassadors. I was wondering whether or not you would die at my hoof or at the hands of the titan," Sombra smiled as his horn began to crackle with the magic of a being of the Darkness. "But I must say, that I am so glad that you made it the former."
"Trust me when I say, Sombra, that if we are to die today, we're making damn sure that you're coming with us," Scootaloo promised as she narrowed her eyes, yet all the Dark King did was shake his head at her and snicker.
"Please, those were the same words the princesses said to me. And Sweetie saw what happened to them. You will all die today. You cannot defeat me. Nopony left in all of this world can ever since I killed the Captain. Though I am glad to see that you have brought me his shield. I had been wondering where it had gotten to."
"We will prevail! For everypony that you've hurt...for all the friends and family that you stole from us...today you finally fall!" Sweetie roared up at Sombra, who cackled at her words.
"That is what all heroes say before they are slain. It's exactly what your sisters said ten years ago when all this began, but by all means, Crusaders," Sombra began as his eyes flooded with dark magic that turned them as black as his heart. The room began to shake as Sombra cast off his cape to reveal green magic running through his veins, lifting him into the air as power and lightning crackled around him.
The three mares each stood tall against him, with Scootaloo flapping her wings, Applebloom pawing the ground and Sweetie Belle shining her horn brightly as she slid the shield onto her forearm. And then with a scream to the heavens, the three charged at the cackling king of darkness.
"You are welcome to try."