The Return of Greg

by sbloom85

Fall of the King

The group teleports to the front entrance of Canterlot Castle. They are horrified upon seeing the castle transformed into something frightening and hideous.

"Oh no!" Cried Twilight. "Celestia!"

Before she could go anywhere, Greg grabs her. "Twilight, stop!" He pleads.

Twilight struggles to free herself, but when she can't, she uses a teleportation spell. Cadance thought ahead and teleports herself in front of Twilight and levitates her.

"Twilight! Please stop!" Cadance demands.

Twilight stops resisting and is set back on the ground. Her brother and sister in-law approach her as she starts sobbing.

"How could we have let this happen?" She asks through the tears.

Greg looks over at the castle, then to Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadance. The others have joined in trying to comfort her. "I'm going to scout ahead." He says. "I won't be gone too long."

Applejack trots over to him. "Yer not goin' alone." She says.

Rainbow Dash flies over to him. "Yeah. You're gonna need some backup."

Greg looks to the two ponies and nods. "Alright. Let's be careful."

Greg, AJ and Rainbow Dash enter the castle. Twilight was still a mess, but not like moments before. "I should have seen this coming." She chastises herself.

Cadance shakes her head. "I don't think you could have even if you had all the time in the world."

Rarity lets out an agreeing grunt. "Certainly, darling." She says. "Nopony can be prepared for everything."

"But I-!" She began, but her brother puts his hoof on her mouth.

"Twiley, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself." He says, removing his hoof. "We haven't lost yet."

"Your brother's right, Twilight." Spike agreed. "It doesn't look like Sombra's been here too long."

---

The rest of the group enters the castle and try to follow Greg, AJ and Rainbow Dash's trail. "I wonder where they went to?" Fluttershy asks.

Shining Armor shakes his head. "If I know him well enough, I'd guess they made their way to the throne room." Shining Armor and Twilight take point, galloping toward the throne room. "Are you sure you should be here, Twiley?" He asks.

Twilight nods. "Absolutely." She says, determined to give Sombra a piece of her mind.

---

They enter the throne room, but it was different than they remember. It was filled with dark magic; dark crystal spikes were protruding from the floor, walls and ceiling. Sitting on the throne was Sombra himself with Princesses Celestia and Luna in what looked like crystal cocoons on either side; Greg was floating in front of him while Applejack and Rainbow Dash were laying unconscious near the wall at the opposite end of the room and a corrupted Crystal Heart floating above him.

"Ah... you've brought the other Equestrian princesses." He observed with his villainous grin intact.

Greg is turned and sees the others. "Get them... outta here!" He orders.

"It's too late now!" Sombra laughs. "Behold!" He shouts, powering up the Crystal Heart. "The true power of the CRYSTAL HEART!!!"

The heart completely powers up and engulfs the room in a dark energy. Greg is thrown against the wall and lands face down. He looks to his sides, seeing downed ponies, Shining Armor, Fluttershy and Applejack to his left; Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to his right, then he looks forward to King Sombra who was wearing the traditional villain's grin on his face. Twilight and Cadance were floating beside him, terror would be an understatement to describe their facial expressions.

"There is no victory for you today, human." He says as smug as any villain in his position would. "I am now more powerful than the Alicorns can ever hope to be!"

Greg composes himself and struggles to get up. "You may be powerful, Sombra." He says. Sombra bares his fangs and begins charging at him. Even in his current state, Greg would still be able to strafe the charge, grab his horn and kick him in the barrel with enough force to knock him down. He may have cracked a couple of Sombra's ribs in the process. He moves closer to the fallen king, flipping him onto his back and closes with a mount. Sombra feels one of Greg's hands grasp his horn. He looks up and sees an expression of pure rage on Greg's face. "But you are still mortal." He says.

Sombra lets out a painful growl as Greg attempts to break off his horn. As he feels the first crack form on it, it gets louder... then...

*SNAP*

The pain Sombra felt was immense as a pillar of green flame engulf the two.

Applejack and the others come around and try to approach them, but couldn't advance to the pillar due to the intensity of the heat. "GREG!" She yells as loud as she could.

---

The pillar subsides. Both Greg and Sombra were slumped over. Shining Armor and Applejack gallop up to the two and immediately notice a change in them, Sombra no longer appeared as the menacing beast he was, his flowing smokey mane was now natural, his armor broken and laying in pieces around his body which reminded them of Luna after Nightmare Moon's defeat; Greg on the other hand now has longer hair which resembled a burning flame and generally appeared more menacing.

Sombra begins to stir and lets out a quiet groan. The first thing he sees are Shining Armor and Applejack. The two look back and see Twilight and Cadance bring Princesses Celestia and Luna into the room.

Shining Armor and Applejack move aside as Celestia approaches. Tears begin to form in Sombra's eyes. "Oh Celestia, what have I done?" He asks, looking to Greg's unconscious body. "I owe this creature my gratitude."

Celestia places a hoof on Sombra's shoulder. "You are free now, Sombra."

Sombra nods slowly and places a hoof on his now broken horn. "But at a terrible price." He says. "The demon now lies within him."

Celestia nods. "Now that we have it contained in a manageable body, we must figure out a way to destroy it."

"Yer not sayin' that we kill Greg, are ya, Your Majesty?" Applejack asks.

Celestia shakes her head. "Of course not, Applejack." She assures. "We just need to figure out how to get it to become a mortal, corporeal being so that we can kill it." She adds, looking to Twilight. "I remember Starswirl had a student who did research on the matter at hoof. Even though Starswirl insisted he left it well enough alone, knowing him, he probably kept going."

Twilight trots up to Greg and rests a hoof on his cheek. "Then we need to find his notes and find out what he learned."

"What will you have me do, Princess?" Sombra asks. "I enslaved the crystal ponies and tried to take over Equestria."

Celestia shakes her head. "No." She says. "You were possessed, Sombra. The crystal ponies might fear you now and will never forget what you've done, but in time, I'm sure they will accept you."

Princess Cadance and Shining Armor look at each other before returning their focus on Sombra. "So, I take it that this mess is over." Shining says, looking at the new Sombra. "What are we going to do with King Sombra?"

Sombra slowly stands up and bows before them. "Prince Sombra, now. I know there's nothing I can do to repent for what happened, but I wish to ask for a second chance."

Cadance and Shining Armor look at each other and she nods. "Then you will have it." She says.

Shining Armor looks to his wife in horror. "Are you sure about that?"

Celestia lets out a quiet chuckle. "If Fluttershy got Discord to change his ways, why not Sombra?"

Sombra turns and looks to Greg. "What about him? Where will he go?"

Twilight removes the SRG from his forearm and studies it. "He said that we could access his world with-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a portal opens up on the other side of Greg. Two humans step out of it.

"I'm afraid we can't have him return just yet." One says.

Celestia glares at the two. "Are you from his world?"

The other nods. "Yes, Your Majesty." He says. "I am Ryan Anderson, and this is Leonard Morse."

"You two are with the... 'Universal Security Organization'?" Twilight asks.

Leonard nods. "Yes." He confirms. "I wish we could take him with us, but in his current condition, it would be unwise to do so."

Ryan nods. "Even with the help of the Creators, I don't think we can get the job done." He agreed.

Celestia nods. "Then we'll take him to Tartarus." She suggests. "There's a priest there who could ensure that the demon within Greg doesn't get out of hoof."

Leonard nods. "Good luck. If you need help with him, use that to get a hold of us."

Applejack trots up to the two. "What are y'all gonna tell his folks?"

Ryan looks over to Leonard who shakes his head. "We'll have to come up with something."

Celestia glares at Leonard once again. "You're going to lie to them?"

Ryan shrugs. "Would you believe it if someone told you that your son was possessed by a demon and the only way to keep it at bay was to lock him up in the underworld?"

Celestia nods. "I see your point." She concedes. "What will you tell them?"

Ryan bobs his head. "We'll probably end up telling them that he died while protecting refugees."

Twilight nods. "I'm sure a white lie won't hurt."

Leonard shakes his head. "No... not this time."

Ryan raises an eyebrow. "What are you thinking this time, Leon?"

Leonard nods. "We'll bring his and Kate's parents here, then Celestia can explain everything in detail. I hate using the metaphor here, but hearing it straight from the horse's mouth would be beneficial."

"Then you'll tell 'em about Kate?" Applejack asks.

"We will." Leonard assures.

Celestia looks over to Greg and sighs. "I should be taking him to Tartarus now." She says, levitating his body onto her back. "Farewell Ryan and Leonard." She adds, lifting off. "May your battles be fortuitous."

Both Ryan and Leonard take a quick bow. Leonard opens a rift and the two walk through it. Celestia turns to everypony and nods. "We have no time to waste." She says. "We need to get him to Tartarus."

Comments

[RainbowCoolDash Pariah]

More please. it was very good

[sbloom85]

3670586
Thank you. I'll have another chapter published tonight.

[RainbowCoolDash Pariah]

Can't wait to see what happens next

[Screw]

I think your you've been trading your 'story aspect' for more 'action scenes'.

Please, don't make action factor 10 times stronger than the story aspect. When the story factor goes down, the 'closeness' to the character is severed, thus making the fiction less entertaining no matter how action pack your scene is.

We're here to read and have a good time. When the story doesn't have that clear story driven point, the readers would most likely have trouble getting more hooked. The reason for this: You've found, chased AND defeated Sombra in just two chapters. In my opinion, that is too fast. There is a way to balance the story driven factor closer to the your action sequence:

Choose what happens in the current scene your working on. Go a bit into details about what goes on in the scene like that is their thoughts. Get a bit more deeper and express their emotions about their thoughts (You can't have ponies act like the 'Royal Guards' all the time, it just takes their character out the window because they follow the plan without even expressing any kind of emotion, trust or doubts).

Almost every scene that you've played out, it seems that all the other ponies just became background ponies that doesn't seem right to be fitted as 'support characters'.

I know it's a bit troublesome, but if you spend an extra 5-10 minutes to picture the scene and write down what some of them felt and thought of, I'm sure this fiction will start to attract attention.