"Shoot," Grimliss jabbed at the air. "It killed the pink pony. This'll complicate future relationships."
Effervescence stepped next to her brother and sternly glared at the colossus who continued to pummel the cannon and the mare into dust through the purest form of rage she had ever seen.
She had a bored, almost depressed expression both to her face and tone of voice. "It's our turn to go, Grimliss."
Grimliss nodded and followed her as they both galloped to the beast pounding the crater ever deeper while the ponies could only watch in terror. Shining tried to gallop back up to it and stab its feet so as to reach its face and rip out its throat in sorrowful anger, but the creature swiped him off like a fly then tried to crush him. The stallion rolled out of the way, but not quick enough. Both legs on his left side were completely crushed into powder and his yell of utter pain caused Copper to, for lack of a better term, 'break'.
Stelimus noticed her predicament was linked to Shining Armor's status and galloped over to the stallion as fast as he could. He used the abilities he learned over time to fight through the remaining monsters that bothered attacking him. Sometimes, he would roll under them, and sometimes he would jab his spear in their hides to vault over them and slice them in half during the process. His heart was pounding like a hammer on an anvil, and he somehow felt cold. Fear sweat can freeze even the warmest of reindeer, it seemed.
And while Stelimus hurried over to try and pull Shining Armor out of the crossfire, Anglacite rushed in front of him, propelled himself through the air with a wave of snow and surrounded his body in a ball of ice, allowing him to slam into the colossus like a cannonball. The creature lost its balance and stumbled over, crushing a few of the deer and ponies that were under Effervescence's rule. The god-king of ice undid the sphere around him but at the worst time, as the colossus grabbed hold of him, crushed him as best as it could within its grip, then threw him directly downwards into the snow, propelling him towards the ground a few kilometers below. The ground had not seen anything but snow all these centuries, so certainly it found this new company as a welcome sight, but Anglacite did not.
Effervescence stood on her hindlegs and spread her forelegs wide open, letting a calm wave of pink and yellow pollen erupt from the flowers growing on her antlers and warping the surface of the snow, letting more vines and grass grow and snake towards the colossus. Grimliss took the opportunity to summon binding chains from a realm of spirits to tie the colossus down, but they didn't seem to hinder its movements much. It stomped around whilst trying to get rid of the nuisances until several vines along the ground formed together and grew to immense heights, becoming a multi-headed flytrap. Grimliss filled the plant with some spirit essence, empowering it with the power of undeath and turning its stems and leaves a deep violet while the veins and heads became bone-white.
While the colossus and the plant fought, they stomped and slithered around, and, unfortunately, Shining was in that area. The deer prince was forced to be more athletic than he really was and dodged around out of the way of everything he could, bits of snow blasting everywhere and large plates of the white powder lifting up and throwing the deer around. When he finally saw Copper's father, he was nearly crushed by one of the heads of the fly trap falling onto him. Normally, being fused with the power of undeath should have allowed it to continue biting the colossus for a time, but, instead, it seemed to wither from a spreading, black contagion then turn into dust.
"I've got you, Shining Armor," Stelimus reassured.
The stallion winced in pain. "What are you doing here? You'll get us both killed!"
"Not my problem. Plus, I'm not technically alive here, so I can do whatever I want. Your daughter needs you, especially after what happened, and so do I."
Stelimus conjured some spirit hands to help lift the stallion up and place him carefully on the deer's back.
"You? What do you need me for?"
"To reassure your daughter and help your people. After seeing what happened to Cadance..." Stelimus looked away to hide his sadness.
"...A fair enough reason."
"I'm going to keep you on my back with the help of frost essence, so you might be a little chilly for a while."
"That's okay. Just get me out of here while I yell out to my soldiers to retreat as well."
Effervescence wrapped herself up in wood grown from her strange powers to take on the appearance of a flying serpent. The leaves and moss grown on her 'wings' allowed her to fly high in the sky and slam into the colossus, chomping into its neck while it still tried to fend off the flytrap. The colossus howled, but it didn't go down. In fact, it seemed to let spread the same black substance through the plant and let it dissolve into nothing while Effervescence was corrupted by the same substance. She screamed in pain as it started tearing away at her and stripping the construct from around her, exposing her to even more of the substance.
Grimliss used his own body as a brief vessel for what looked like a giant creature whose ribs were torn outwards into curved claws with black fur of times past worn as a cape, and a beastial, draconic face. It clamped down onto the arms of the enemy and tightened until the ribs sliced through the surface of the colossus' skin. Effervescence fell down and landed on the snow, contorting in pain as the black snow rushed through her body. The vines and grass bolted towards her and wrapped around the doe, absorbing whatever vile substance was corrupting her and cleansing her of the pain.
She wobbled left to right when she tried to stand up and glared at the colossus as best she could. She was exhausted. She had already spent so much essence fighting the creature and so much effort to maintain what she already had, but she still had the energy to taunt.
"Not this time, abomination. I fought you enough times to know how to counter your corruption."
The colossus' body strained under the clamping of the strange spirit that Grimliss had summoned, but with a bit of 'flexing' the spirit's 'bones' snapped off and it faded, letting the deer throw several hooks into his enemy's body and try draining away what life force it had. By this time Anglacite somehow managed to climb out of the hole and turn the air around the monster into a balloon full of transparent, shredding shards of ice. If it could breath it would have certainly in practically an instant. Unfortunately, it did not breath, so only its body was cut up while it moved forward.
While the god-kings fought, Stelimus laid Shining carefully onto the ground next to Copper who glomphed him silently. Nary a bead of moisture leaked from her eyes. Unfortunately, the stallion still protested to her fears.
"Ow! Copper, let go! I'm bruised there."
Copper didn't listen and, instead, refused to let go. She remained hooked around her father and breathed slowly, any blinking being nonexistent. Shining's anger led to confusion, then worried intrigue, then a sympathized sadness. Stelimus figured that her actions came from the trauma she lived through so long ago. Living with a traumatizing memory is one thing. You can go back on it and learn how to identify and avoid the incident or even help those having gone through the same, but living through it again. Such things shouldn't occur.
"Shining, your troops are leaving and so are the deer and other ponies. We need to get out of here before we're caught in the crossfire. I can already see my...father," Stelimus spat out in disdain "amusing himself with his powers."
"You're right. Carry me out of here, please."
"But...what about mom," Copper spoke in a low hum.
"We'll come back for her later, Copper. We need to go!"
"I'm not leaving her alone! She's still alive!" The pony let go of her father and jumped to her hooves. "If neither of you are going to help me get her back, then I'll go myse--" Copper faceplanted into the snow.
Shining looked at her with wide eyes then slowly rotate his gaze towards Stelimus who was brushing off his antlers. He looked bored.
"I've had enough drama for the day. I'd rather not live through more. Let's get you two out of here."
The battle continued for several more hours. Anglacite's control over his immediate, tundra surroundings tore the lands apart. Grimliss was still summoning new spirits and Effervescence still contaminated the air with her pollen and plants. With some strange powers, the colossus was capable of crushing and cutting the god-kings up from a distance, and the longer it stayed in place the longer the tundra around it started turning lack and the snow falling from the sky adopted the same coloration.
When Anglacite created a golem of ice to wrestle with the colossus, said giant picked up the featureless centaur, lifted it up overhead, and slammed it into the ground, shattering it and throwing a wave of snow all around the tundra and even engulfing the survivors who were a few kilometers away. Grimliss found the opportune moment to create a disk of bone and ice and launch it at the creature. While it get through the side of its torso and push through a little more, it lodged into the colossus' body and dissolved after the monster clenched whatever it had that served as muscles. The cut had left a brief opening that Effervescence used as an opportunity to create instant sprouting plants that grew from the wound and through the body of the creature. The plant did significant damage, but the colossus preferred to dig through its own chest and pull the entire thing out of its own body rather than try and kill Effervescence. It was a very stubborn creature.
Everyone turned their heads when they finally saw the colossus below loudly, deafening them, then pause briefly and dissolve into nothing. The battle was finally over, but not without important losses to everyone. Grimliss' left side was completely shattered and had lost half his right foreleg and femur as well as parts of his face. Effervescence lost her antlers and large swaths of her fur were charred. Her antlers were also barren, she had a black eye, and her ligaments had been torn in all of her legs. She could still move somewhat by replacing them with some inner vines to serve the same purpose until she healed, but limped heavily. As for Anglacite, his left antler had been torn off and his left foreleg broken. He seemed to have also hurt his back and refused to move too much while limping away with his siblings.
The black snow had still fallen all around the tundra, but, with a bit of work, it would be easy to remove. However, the consequences of its actions would not be as easy to remove.