Regaining what little will they had left to fight, Sweetie rolled to the shield while Scootaloo launched herself towards Sombra. Yet the Dark King cackled as he brought up the side of his blade to block the mare before blasting her in the face with his magic. She screamed in pain as she tried to brush the magic out of her eye, only to be tackled in the side by Bloom. The two hit the ground just as the black blade of Sombra sliced the air where they had been standing a moment before.
"Come Crusaders, fight me one last time! That way I can actually write a page about you in my history book instead of leaving you as a hoofnote!" Sombra demanded while he caused the blade to vanish, slamming his hooves into the floor to create a wave of demonic darkness that swept across the entire floor before it came crashing down on them.
"Behind me!" Belle yelled just as she hurled herself in front of the three, who crouched down behind her as the darkness buried them beneath it. Yet even as the darkness began to fade Sombra prepared his next move, able to see the shield still defying him beneath the blackness. His spell cleared a moment later and revealed to him that indeed, the three were still alive.
"Well, if it was that easy the other fools would have been able to kill you long ago," Sombra remarked before he glanced down through the floor, spying something that made a large smile cross his face before he turned his eyes back towards the mares with evil intent. "Ah, it seems that the final piece of my plan is finally at one hundred percent. Care to guess what that may be? Go on, guess?"
When none of the three Crusaders guessed, Sombra let out a sigh. "You're no fun. Fine, I'll explain. Remember that machine that Tirek had? The one that could suck the magic out of nearly everypony in the land? Think along those lines, except on a global level." The shock and horror that flashed up in the three sets of eyes made Sombra cackle as he rubbed his hooves together.
"There it is. That's the reaction that I wanted. Do you see how futile this is now? My crystal titan tears your forces to shreds as we speak. My machine will soon suck all of the magic from every creature in the world, leaving them powerless to resist me. And the Captain is gone. This victory is already mine," Sombra boasted before smiling at the three once more. "All that's left is to see how much longer you will last against me before I finally kill you. So come on you three, try and beat me. But you can't."
"He's right," Applebloom whispered after a moment of silence, getting shocked stares from her friends. "We can't beat him like this."
"So what are you saying? That we just give up?!" Scootaloo roared at her friend, fighting through the pain that burned the side of her face. "We are the last hope for Equestria! If we fail here, then there won't be another chance! Sombra will have won!"
"He's already won!" Bloom screamed back at her, dropping to her knees as she did so. "Can't ya see that? We all attacked him with everything we had and he still kicked our sorry flanks! He's right. All that will happen now is seeing how long it takes for him to kill us."
"No...we can't..." Scootaloo argued, yet the fire within her eyes was dying as well as the realization started to crush down upon her.
"Boo. Don't give up. That's boring," Sombra added from the sidelines with a smirk.
"What can we do? What can we try that we haven't already?" Applebloom asked Scootaloo, gazing up at her while awaiting an answer. Scootaloo tried to think of an answer, yet nothing came to her as she scowled and glance away.
"We could try...fighting as a team." Both Bloom and Scootaloo glanced over at Belle, who was gazing at the floor with far away eyes. "Like how we used to work as a team when were little. Before...all of this."
"Haven't we been doing that?" Bloom asked with a shake of her head.
"No...at least, not like we used to. Ever since the death of my sister, I've been...cold, distant and angry with any who tried to get close to me," she admitted with pain. "And as I drove myself farther away...and as the two of you grew closer, the trio that we used to be broke apart. And it's been that way ever since we formed the Crusade."
Sweetie Belle then glanced up at her friends with both guilt and hope within her eyes. "I know that I'm responsible for the split, I know that I'm the one the drove us apart. But I ask you, beg you, to let us fight together once more. To be the trio that we used to be all those years ago."
Bloom and Scootaloo both looked at each other for a moment, before, much to the amazement of Sombra, they began to laugh. The sudden laughter made Belle glance from the both of them with confusion on her face, before she was hugged from both sides.
"Belle, we've always been that trio. Neither Bloom nor I ever stopped believing that," Scootaloo laughed.
"And we've always been yer friends, always there with ya, even if ya didn't see it," Applebloom finished for Scootaloo, leaving the tearing up Belle to hug her friends back. "So ya don't need to ask us to fight with ya. Because we always have been. Because we're your best friends."
"So come ,Crusaders. Lets take this villain down," Scootaloo began as the three let go of each other and turned to face Sombra, each with courage, resolve, but most importantly friendship, shining within their eyes once more. "As a trio."
Sombra didn't say anything for a moment, but then he threw his head back and began to laugh. His body shook with the force of his laughter and when he finally managed to stop, he had tears streaming from his eyes. "There it is. That is what I have been waiting for all this time. That heroic speech that gives you three the strength to get up to face me one last time. And it was pretty good too. I'll give it a seven. But it doesn't matter how heroic you feel or how tight your friendship is, because the outcome of this battle is still the same." Sombra then used his magic to conjure massive, crystal broadswords that floated along beside him.
"You will die."
"Maybe we will. But if we do die, we'll die together," Belle promised the Dark King. Both sides then let out battle cries before throwing themselves at the other. Scootaloo grabbed Sweetie Belle's hoof and hurled her into the air before both she and Applebloom charged Sombra from below, forcing the king to split his attention between the two.
He had no issue doing just that, since he sent Scootaloo and Applebloom flying backwards with a blast of magic at their hooves before swinging one of his blades up at Belle. She brought the shield up just in time to deflect the blow, yet the force of the impact still sent her flying across the room.
"Gotcha!" Scootaloo informed Sweetie as she flew up from behind and intercepted the mare, yet Sweetie could barely flash Scootaloo a look of gratitude before she had to raise the shield again to protect them from Sombra's second assault with magic. "Hey Sweetie Belle? Are you feeling like a fastball?"
Sweetie's smile answered for her and in the next instant Scootaloo spun around and hurled her friend towards Sombra. The Dark King snarled as the shield with the star in the center came hurtling towards him, forcing him to take refuge within the shadows to avoid the blow. Yet the moment that he surfaced from the shadows once more, he was instantly tackled by an orange blur that kicked him across the floor.
"You're up, Bloom!"
Sombra snarled as he rolled out of the way of a fist strike that shook the entire chamber. He conjured the orbs around him once more, yet this time three blasts of white magic knocked the orbs out of the air. The Dark King roared as he cast a barrier of black magic around him, before slamming his hooves into the floor to shatter the barrier. The three Crusaders were hurled back once again from the explosion, giving Sombra a chance to counter attack.
He shot a burst of his fastest magic towards Scootaloo, nailing her once more in her already injured eye. As she screamed in pain Sombra turned towards Applebloom and let lightning flow from his horn, frying both her and her machinery with all of his black power. He then turned with dark intentions towards Belle, eyes narrowing at the unicorn who faced him with the shield held before her.
"And now you're all alone," he whispered to her as he created a thin blade of black magic once more.
"As I already told you, I'm not alone. I have my friends. And the Captain," she reminded him as she tapped her hoof against the shield. Sombra howled with fury as he lunged at her, causing Sweetie to raise the shield...before he spun on a dime and went straight for Applebloom. He brought his sword back as he prepared to strike, smiling when he saw the realization dawn in the mare's eyes.
"DIE!" Sombra bellowed as he stabbed the sword forward, watching as a blur of orange threw itself over Applebloom...before his blade struck a shield with a white star. Both Applebloom and Scootaloo looked up to see Sweetie standing over them, pushing back against Sombra's blade with the shield.
"I lost the both of you once," she began as she smiled down at them. "I won't lose the two of you again." Scootaloo and Applebloom smiled up at her in reply...before a blade of darkness drove itself right through Sweetie Belle's stomach. The mare spat out a bit of blood as she slowly turned to face Sombra, who had a sneer on his face.
"Even an invincible shield can only protect so much," Sombra panted as he twisted his second blade, getting a weak cry of pain from Belle before he tore the blade from her and blasted the belle in the chest with a stream of magic. Sweetie Belle flew across the room and slammed into the door, sliding down to the floor as blood started to pour from her wound.
"NO!" her two friends cried before they were both hoisted into the air by Sombra's magic. They both struggle to free themselves as the Dark King took aim with both of his blades, aiming straight for their hearts.
'No...he's going...to kill them,' Belle realized as she tried to push herself up, yet her muscles failed her and she collapsed into her own blood. With tears beginning to fall from her eyes, all she could do was watch as Sombra prepared to kill the two that she cared about more than anything else in the world, powerless to-
'Stand up.'
The words cut through her pain like a ray of light in the darkest of days, reminding her of what she had been told long ago. She blinked the tears out of her eyes while gritting her teeth, forcing her limbs to move as she slowly pushed herself up. Her muscles screamed out in agony, the wound in her stomach hurt with far greater pain then any she could imagine, nearly bringing her down once more.
'Stand up.'
Sweetie forced the pain from the mind, only allowing herself to focus on the danger that her friends were in. She needed to help them, she needed to stop Sombra then and there. The pain was far too great for her to even try to focus on her magic, but with all of her might she gripped the vibranium disc that rested beside her and took aim.
'You always stand up!'
Sweetie screamed as she poured all of her might into her toss, hurling the shield across the room and straight for the Dark King. Yet once again Sombra caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and snapped his head to the side, watching as the disc sailed past.
"As I said girl, I can read the trajectory of that shield better than you," Sombra reminded her as he watched the shield bounce off of the ceiling and to the other side of the room. He then smiled at Sweetie while the mare struggled to remain standing before turning back to her friends. "So watch closely. Watch as I kill the only two ponies left that care about you, while you stand helpless to save-"
CLANG!
Sombra howled with surprise and pain as the vibranium shield cracked his horn, causing him to drop the two mares while he bellowed in pain and anguish. Through the pain in his eyes he managed to glare at the shield, which had bounced off the floor before returning to Sweetie Belle. She held out a weak hoof to catch the shield, but right before it could strike her an orange and yellow hoof caught it instead.
"Don't worry. We always got your back," Scootaloo said to her as she stood beside her friend, both she and Applebloom handing the shield back to her. Then all three of the Crusaders glared back at the Dark King, who was struggling to keep his magic under his control.
"That...is not possible!" he screamed with fury and confusion. "The shield did not have the velocity nor the angle to return and hit me! I read it perfectly! So how in the unholy hell did that stupid, inanimate...?!" And then Sombra's eyes widened as he gazed at the three, certain that he must have been seeing things because of the pain. For he did not just see the Crusaders when he gazed at the three. For what he saw was Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash standing behind them, glaring at him with the same looks that the Crusaders gave him now.
And standing behind all of them, was a man in a star spangled outfit. A man that did not wear a look of rage or hate, but instead had a smile on his face. A smile that told Sombra that he was about to lose.
"Maybe it's because of a weird bounce. Maybe it's because of a little luck. Or maybe," Sweetie Belle panted with a smile that mirrored the Captain's upon her face. "The old gal just doesn't like you."
"But whatever the reason, it's time that we finally put an end to you," Applebloom continued, getting a snarl from Sombra. "Because we've taken all of yer best attacks, all of your darkest magic, and yet you couldn't tear us apart."
"But now it's your turn, Sombra. Time for you to realize that in the face of a bond such as ours, your power means nothing," Scootaloo snarled at the Dark King, who scowled back at her. "And time for you to face what we can do together."
Sombra roared with fury as he used what magic he could muster to construct his massive claymore once more, lunging for the three of them with murder in his eyes. Yet even with the wound in her chest, even with the Dark King raging towards them, Sweetie still lifted the shield above her head. The Crusaders then glared down the Dark King, all of their eyes shining like the Captain's.
"Crusaders...FALL IN!"
Scootaloo rocketed forward and knocked Sombra's hooves out from under him, sending the Dark King tumbling to the floor. He roared with rage as he shot back up, only to receive two hooves to the face that were amplified a hundred fold by the 'mother bucker'. His face shattered under the blow and he was sent hurling across the room, where Scootaloo flew back around and drove her shoulder into his back.
"For all of Equestria!" Scootaloo cried as she grabbed hold of the king and spun him around, hurling him over to where Bloom was.
"For the princesses!" Applebloom continued as she slammed her hoof into his stomach, hurling the Dark King towards a mare who braced behind her shield.
"For our sisters!" she added as she drove the shield into Sombra's chest, stopping his momentum dead and dropping the king to the floor. He wheezed weakly while he fell to his back, rolling over and forcing himself back up as the three formed up once again.
"No...I am Sombra...the hero killer. I will not...not...DIE!" he roared as he covered his body in a black magic and lunged at the three.
"And for the hero who helped to show us the way. For Captain America." Applebloom then stepped forward and slammed both of her hooves onto the crystal floor, shattering the crystal and sending Sombra hurtling into the air. Scootaloo then grabbed both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle by the hooves, hurling the three of them into the sky over King Sombra.
"No...I have slain alicorns...champions...harmony itself," he spat as he channeled all of his remaining power into one last blast. "I will not allow...myself to die...at the hooves...of mere PRETENDERS!"
"Yes you will, Sombra, because today is the day that you finally face justice for what you have done! Your final..." Sweetie roared at him as all three of them placed their hooves against the ceiling, lining themselves up perfectly with Sombra. Applebloom then kicked off the ceiling with all of her strength, sending the three hurtling down towards Sombra. Scootaloo then activated her wings to increase their speed, causing colors to begin to form around the trio. And then as Sweetie covered them all in her magic, creating the illusion that they had become a shooting star, did the three cried out in one voice,
"JUSTICE!"
The star then slammed into Sombra with all of its might, shattering through his dark magic and hurtling the screaming king through the crystal floor beneath them. They continued their charge and drove Sombra into the magic stealing machine, forcing him through its crystal shielding and into the very core of the machine. He roared with agony as the machine began to tear him apart, overloading it with the sheer amount of damage that had been done to it.
The force of Sombra being driven into the machine caused it to crack and falter, sending out bursts of magic that could be felt around the land. Cracks formed in the Dark King's body as the power coursed through him, causing him to scream as he gazed at the three mares that had done this to him. But as the very life was sucked from him his vision changed and instead of the crystal machine, he saw a field of white around him. And instead of three mares, he now saw six Ambassadors that were circled around him in that void. And all of them wore the same look, a look that Sombra had never seen among the living...or the dead.
'Hello Sombra,' Rarity said to him with a smile, a smile that was mirrored by all of her friends. And for the first time in Sombra's death, he felt very afraid. 'And welcome to your hell.'
The machine let out a roar before a pillar of rainbow magic erupted from within it, ripping through the crystal that formed the structure of the monster and tearing it clean in two. The beast began to fall apart in front of all of the Crusaders that had been fighting it, who watched with wide eyes as the creature that had been so close to wiping them out started to fall apart.
And just like the titan itself, the gargoyles around the city began to plummet to the ground as well. Their eyes had all extinguished and they shattered into dust upon impact. The ponies that watched as Sombra's forces fell apart before them had no idea what to think, before a single thought spread among them.
They had won.
And as the city began to cry out in victory, celebrating the final victory over Sombra, and by extension, the Five Dark gods, none noticed as three mares came flying down into the gardens. Scootaloo did all she could to slow their descent, but her wings finally gave up on her and caused the three to tumble across the grass. There they lay on their backs as they tried to recover their senses, before one by one they sat up to gaze at what had happened.
"It's...over, isn't it?" Applebloom finally asked as they gazed down to see all that remained of the crystal titan laying in a pile at the bottom of the mountain.
"Yeah...I think...we actually won!" Scootaloo laughed before letting out a weak groan and collapsing against Applebloom. Applebloom sighed in exhaustion before she glanced over at Sweetie Belle, who was still bleeding heavily. "Hey Bloom? Am I still pretty?"
"We should really get ya checked out. That looks bad."
"In a moment," Sweetie Belle smiled at her friends before she glanced down at the shield, which was covered in ash. She wiped a bit of it away with her hoof, revealing the star underneath once more that reflected the mare's eyes--eyes that finally shone like those of a hero. "Let's just...savor this moment."
"We did it. The three of us actually beat Sombra," Scootaloo whispered with amazement, as if she herself couldn't believe it. "What we've fought for so long...our families and friends...we finally did it. And we did it like we should have...as a trio." Sweetie then weakly smiled at the shield, knowing that it had indeed taken all three of them to finally bring an end to Sombra's evil...plus a little help.
"And now we can finally say what I thought we'd never say," she began, her friends nodding in agreement as they moved in close together. And under the shining sun sat three friends, who were finally free of the shadow that had plagued them so. "Rarity. Applejack. Pinkie. Fluttershy. Twilight. Rainbow Dash. Celestia. Luna. Discord. Cadence. Shining Armor. All of our Crusader brethren that were lost in this battle. All of the lives that were lost to the Five...and even you Steve. You have all finally been..."
"Avenged."