• Published 28th Feb 2014
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Tales of the Oppressed - Terran34



Follow the journey of a young cynical man as his world is turned upside down. Without anywhere to turn, can he learn to set aside his preconceptions and learn to accept friendship for what it truly is?

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98. Hail to the King

“Twilight? Twilight!” Rainbow cries out in shock as the scream echoes throughout the city. The two of us turn around and look up at the tower, hoping to see what was going on up there. However, there's no sign of Twilight, and eventually the scream peters out to nothing but silence. “Seth, we have to go! Twilight's in trouble!”

“Shit shit shit,” I curse, getting ready to take off. However, just as I'm summoning up my magic, a low rumbling fills the air. The very ground beneath me starts to shake violently, almost knocking me clear off of my feet as it grows in intensity. Something is happening, and judging from the feeling of cold dread sitting deep in the pit of my stomach, it's nothing good. “Let's go!”

Rainbow shoots up towards the tower, but then she yelps and flies back down, as if something physically knocked her away. As the question forms on my lips, gale force winds sweep through the streets, causing me to gasp at the sudden chill. I have to cover my face, because the wind is so strong that I'm having to struggle just to stay upright. “What the hay is going on!?” Rainbow yells over the wind.

“Hell if I fucking know!” I shout back. The earthquake suddenly gets much worse, and I physically have to hold on to the nearest object, which happens to be one of the lampposts. Taking off is out of the question right now, because if I do, I'll be blown straight out of the city by this fucking wind. Dammit, what's even happening? Is it the necromancer?

From the edges of the horizon, black clouds roll in faster than what should be physically possible. Their interiors are sparking with a lightning, causing booming thunderclaps to sound throughout the city. It isn't long before any trace of the starry sky that Rainbow and I had been looking at not too long ago is completely lost.

From the clouds, lightning bolts shoot forth and strike various locations all over the city. I would compare it to normal thunderstorm, except the lightning bolts are green, and are striking far too fast to be normal. Why are the lightning bolts green? That reminds me entirely too much of my magic...oh shit, it's the necromancer, isn't it? What kind of power does it have, that it can cause something like this!?

Suddenly, an immense, crushing magical power seems to fill the air. My eyes widen as I feel its magnitude. It's so great, it rises above Chrysalis's and my level, yet falls short of Celestia. However, something feels different about this magic, in comparison to the necromancer's that I felt back in the ruins. It seems...wilder, primal even, and purer than the necromancers. This must be something else...but who else has this kind of power?

Pillars of pure shadow erupt from the ground along the outer edges of the city, arcing overhead and collecting on the far end of the city. The resulting cloud of darkness that forms grows so massive that it soon towers over the buildings around it. Rainbow and I look at it in shock, which soon turns to horror. Two great eyes open from within the dark cloud, with crimson pupils and glowing green corneas. Streams of purple magic trail away from the corners of its eyes. I know the second that I see them that whatever that is, it's using my magic. That's how I look when I power up.

“Rainbow...it's coming!” I call out to the struggling pegasus, right as the shadowy cloud surges across the town, heading directly for us. Actually, no, from the way its eyes are focused directly on me...it's headed for me. Oh shit, it's headed for me!

As the cloud passes over the buildings, it seems to corrupt them, causing their bright colors to dim and sicken, and black crystals to sprout from the roofs and walls. I can hear the cries of utter despair and hopelessness rising from the crystal ponies that see it pass. They sound more distraught than anypony I've ever heard, as if the true source of their torment had come back to assert it hold over them again. The second that thought rolls through my head, my eyes widen with the terrifying realization of just what it is I'm dealing with.

The winds and the earthquake die down as the cloud nears us. The thunderclouds in the air remain, however, occasionally releasing a lightning bolt onto the city below. Silence falls across the clearing, and yet it feels more frightening and oppressing than the chaos of a few moments before.

At the far end of the street, the dark cloud comes to a halt, and it starts to shrink, the eyes disappearing. Tendrils of darkness start to converge upon a single point, until finally, the dark shape of a pony is revealed...his identity makes me freeze in place, a maelstrom of feelings shooting through my mind faster than I can analyze them.

“Y-You...how!?” I stammer in fright, taking a step back from the monster standing across the street from me.

King Sombra strides slowly and purposefully across the crystalline street, his dark eyes fixated on me and only on me. His eyes return from their green and purple appearance to their normal red eyed look, indicating his release of the magic he wields. He looks just as I remember him, clad in a metal breastplate with a red cape accented by white fur fluttering behind him as he walks. Metal plates cover his cannon bones and protect his hooves. Lastly, his crown is placed atop his head, holding back his wild shadowy mane.

Sombra doesn't answer my question, instead continuing to approach me. His expression is a stoic, emotionless one, his lips set in a slight frown. As he walks towards me, I notice that his body doesn't seem to be all there. His outline constantly shifts and blurs, as if his physical form is still incredibly weak. However, the closer he gets to me, the more stable his body seems to get.

“Seth, who is that? Is it the necromancer?” Rainbow demands, breaking the oppressive silence. She glares at the approaching Sombra, flexing her muscles. She yelps when I push her back and step in front of her. I can't let her fight him. At his level, he could crush her like a fly.

“It's worse,” I state, my voice unsteady. I don't know why, but even though his power is close to mine and therefore manageable, I'm practically overcome by fear. Maybe it's because this is the one who's single-handedly caused the end of my race and ruined my life from the beginning. Or maybe it's because of how it took this world's most powerful weapon to deal with him in the first place. Or maybe it's because this situation is a hell of a lot worse than any of us expected. “It's him. It's King Sombra.”

Rainbow gasps, taken aback. This is her first time actually seeing Sombra, so she didn't recognize him at first. However, after realizing who it is that she's looking at, she tries to force her way past me, but I don't let her. “Let me by, Seth! I'm gonna beat him within an inch of his life for what he's done to you!” Rainbow pleads.

“Fuck no! You stay the hell away from him! He'll kill you as if you were nothing more than a helpless mouse!” I shout back at her. Rainbow flinches at the vehemence in my voice, but she starts to form another protest. However, our argument is cut short as Sombra finally addresses me.

“Seth Rogers...” King Sombra emits in that frighteningly deep voice that I've heard only twice before. Shit, he remembers my name perfectly. I can't believe it. Sombra, the one I'd given up looking for months ago, is now standing before me. “It hath been a great many years since our last meeting. Hast thou enjoyed thy brief stay in Equestria?”

“You...you son of a bitch...you're the one who started everything...you took me away from my family, my friend...!” I can barely put words together due to the mixed emotions flowing through me. I'm gritting my teeth with sheer anger, even as my knees shake with fear. Adrenaline pumps through my body, filling me with an uncomfortable chill and the urge to fight or flee takes hold. “How are you here? You were sealed away!”

King Sombra's form wavers again, once again confusing me. Is he not all here? Is his body not fully stabilized? If there's a weakness that I can exploit, I'm going to kill him right here and now, and to hell with the consequences.

“Of course. T'was an entirely reasonable strategy, in order to deal with one whose power rests above thine own,” Sombra replies, dipping his head as he compliments Celestia and Luna's tactic. “Yet no seal is unbreakable. T'was only a matter of time.”

Sombra must have expected that he would have been sealed. He must have set up some kind of countermeasure. But none of that matters now. He's here now, and he intends to take back his kingdom. I don't know if I can take him, but if I can keep him talking until Celestia arrives, then we will destroy him once and for all.

“Tell me...why? Why the fuck was it necessary to kill us? Why did you kill my race!?” I shout at him furiously, taking a step forward. Sombra, instead of replying immediately, takes a closer look at me, and then he raises an eyebrow, actually looking slightly surprised.

“Thou dost seem to be less negative than initially observed,” Sombra notes with interest. That confirms what Vanta said before, that Sombra was looking for people like me that hated everything. If that's the case, then why doesn't he look more disappointed by the fact that I'm not as bad now as I was then? “Very well, I shalt answer thy question. It...”

“King Sombra!” a thunderous voice cracks through the air like a whip, and I can feel another power enter the area. Turning my head, I almost whoop with joy when I see Celestia and Luna flying down from the tower, both of them looking as serious as they had been when facing Chrysalis, if not more so.

Sombra, to my shock, shows no sign of any distress, nor does he even acknowledge their arrival, even when they land on either side of me. Instead, he continues speaking as if nothing was wrong. “It was noted within ancient history that mankind mysteriously vanished long before our conception. T'would be a shame to let such a species go to waste...thus I harvested them for my own purposes,” Sombra answers. As my breath catches in my throat and my anger rises, I clench my fists and try very hard not to lose my temper and attack him. Finally, Sombra addresses Celestia and Luna, who are glaring at him intensely, their magical levels starting to rise. “Ah, princesses. It seems ye still intend to keep mine own kingdom from me.”

“This is not your kingdom, Sombra,” Celestia snaps at him firmly. She spreads her wings, and tendrils of pure light filter up from around her hooves. Her mane flutters in the breeze caused by the welling up of her magical energy. I look at Sombra to see his reaction at being faced with the ultimate magical being in this world, but he does not seem fazed. Instead, he looks amused. “I will not let you toy with the lives of these ponies. Not while I still breathe.”

“Thou art weakened from being sealed. Even we can tell thou dost not possess the same power as thou didst in the past,” Luna accuses, midnight blue magical energy erupting from the ground. “Thou hast made a mistake, showing thyself before us.”

“Art thou going to use the Elements of Harmony on me again?” Sombra asks calmly. “Thou shalt find that impossible, as I hath targeted the Element of Magic.”

“Twilight...if you harmed her...there will be no place on this earth that will be safe for you, monster,” Celestia growls, and then her magic explodes from the ground around her, filling the clearing with light.

Sombra ignores her display of power, instead turning to me. “Now, Seth Rogers, I believe thou hast something that belongs to me,” he states enigmatically.

“What? Something of yours? What are you talking about?” I demand, completely confused. Sombra shakes his head, as if lamenting my inability to comprehend his meaning.

“Thou hast not figured it out for thyself? Perhaps mine earlier assessment of thee was wrong,” Sombra derides me with a frown. “Perhaps thy companion would have made a better choice. Her name was...Amaryllis, was it not?”

“You...don't you...” I stammer, hardly able to hold back the flood of magic contained within my body. Hearing him say Amaryllis's name in front of me...from the mouth of the one that caused her death...it makes me angrier than I can ever remember being. I at last lose my battle, and I unleash everything I have. “Don't you speak her name!”

I release as much magic as I can, causing darkness and green electricity to erupt outwards from my body, wreathing around me like a whirlwind. Sombra's mane blows back from the display of magic, though he doesn't flinch, watching me with interest.

The output of magic pouring from my core starts to slow down as I feel the mental barrier in my mind. Like before, I press against it, and a spike of pain shoots through my right eye. I open my mouth and release a yell, and then I break through the barrier, causing my magic to intensify even further, shattering the crystal street around my feet and forcing the princesses as well as Rainbow to back away from me.

My fingers elongate and taper to points, and my hair flows upwards into the air, flowing away from me as if through water. As the skin around my right eye starts to crumble and fall away, I feel a fresh rush of insanity coming upon me, threatening to take me over once more. However, all I can think of right now is how much I want to wipe King Sombra off the face of the planet. I don't resist when the insanity comes for me, and my mind shifts entirely.

“Seth, no!” Celestia cries out as she feels the sudden shift in my magical pressure. My magic suddenly triples, quadruples in size and power, filling me with so much strength it would make Chrysalis look like a child next to me. The skin on my face completely crumbles away to reveal a black mask with veins of pulsing emerald magic running through it. There's nothing left of my eyes apart from two slits in the mask, glowing pure green.

I let out a wordless scream that sounds almost animalistic, and then I charge right at Sombra before he can react. Gathering as much power as I can into my fist, I slam it right into his muzzle, holding nothing back.

From the point of impact, a beam of pure destructive shadow the size of a redwood tree shoots forth, completely engulfing Sombra and past him, tearing up the crystal streets in its path. So intense is the beam, it travels even further, plowing through the houses and streets beyond. Ever since Sombra appeared, the crystal ponies have been fleeing to safer areas of the city, and as such none of them were caught in the beam's path.

Rainbow, Celestia, and Luna watch with baited breath as the cloud of dust and debris raised by my attack starts to dissipate. Behind them, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy emerge from the tower, and are taken aback by the sight before them.

Suddenly, a chilling laugh sounds from within the dust cloud. I haven't moved my fist, and suddenly I realize that I can feel the vibrations of Sombra's laugh through my knuckles. As the dust clears, Sombra is revealed with my fist still planted against his face, though it hasn't moved him even a centimeter. My fanged mouth opens in complete shock, even as Sombra's laughter grows louder and more gleeful.

“How...? Even with all of this power...I...” I stammer, withdrawing my fist and taken a step away from the shadowy king.

“Magnificent! Truly magnificent. I withdraw mine earlier sentiments. Thou hast accepted the gift I gave thee, and evolved it further than I ever thought possible! I am thoroughly impressed, Seth Rogers!” Sombra exclaims, showing the first real expression since he arrived in the form of a wolfish grin. When he sees me standing there unable to act, his eyes narrow. “Thou appears to be confused. Surely thou did not expect to damage me with mine own magic?”

A collective gasp of surprise and confusion sounds from all of the different ponies around me, including Celestia and Luna. I look at Sombra, his words causing me to freeze and stare at him in horror. What does he mean, his magic? This is my magic! I'm in control, and I'm going to use it to tear him apart! Who gives a shit what he means!?

I approach him once more, reaching my fist back for another punch. However, before I can, Sombra knocks me right into the street with a single hit, hurting me as if my magical protection didn't exist. How can this be happening? I've never been stronger than I am right now, and he's hardly stronger than that insect Chrysalis!

“That's quite enough. Thou hast enjoyed the gift I hath given thee for long enough,” Sombra states with an iron hard tone, a frown forming on his face. His horn lights up with a dark aura, and suddenly I feel my body shifting. “T'is at last time that I retract that kindness. Come to me, essence of darkness!”

I don't feel anything at first, but then I start to rise into the air. I can vaguely hear Rainbow and some of the others calling my name, but I can hardly form the words to respond. Suddenly, magic starts to stream out of my body at an incredible rate, leaving me through my eyes, nose, and mouth in the form of ribbons of darkness. I start to scream in pain as the magic is forcefully extracted directly from my core and transmitted through the air to Sombra himself, whose form started to become more and more stable as he absorbed more and more magic from me.

My mind becomes clearer, the insanity leaving me as my body reverts to normal, as it no longer has any magic from which the insanity originates. At long last, the pain stops, and Sombra tosses me aside callously, my core completely lifeless and devoid of any kind of magic. In front of me, my rifle and scythe are lying on the street, back in their original forms, completely useless now. “What...what did you do....? Sombra! What...!?” I demand, but I'm forced to stop as I cough up blood. Dammit, I let the insanity in, didn't I? But...I can't feel any magic. What the hell...where did my magic go!? I'm helpless without my magic!

All eyes rest upon the pony in the middle of the street, his eyes closed. He lets out a long sigh, almost as if he is waking up from a long dreamless sleep.

King Sombra opens his eyes, and this time, the pressure in the air from his magic is completely gone. I've never not been able to feel somepony's pressure before. With Luna, Chrysalis, Cadance, and even Celestia, I've always been able to feel their magic, but now, Sombra's body isn't releasing a single mana particle, and I don't understand why. The only way he could be emitting no magic is if he had no magic to begin with...or if his magic was so impossibly high that it was way out of my comprehensions.

“Princess!” A unicorn guard calls, emerging from the outpost. Sombra turns his head ever so slightly, noticing the guard. The moment the unicorn guard spots the king, he hefts his lance with his magic and charges this direction. “Stand back, I'll deal with the necromancer!”

“Stay back! Don't come any closer!” Celestia shouts at the charging guard frantically. However, the guard continues to rush for Sombra. “RUN AWAY, YOU FOAL!”

Despite Celestia's best efforts, the soldier reaches Sombra and rams his lance right into the king's side...only for the reinforced metal to crumple in from the tip upon impact until the weapon is nothing more than a flat piece of metal. The guard gapes at his now useless weapon.

Sombra smirks and closes his eyes once more, reaching up with a hoof and batting the soldier aside. Just that one hit emits a shockwave that shoots through the air with the sound like a cannon shot. The guard is sent hurtling away from the king at the speed of a bullet, gouging into the crystal street and tumbling end over end until he slides to a halt at the base of the Crystal Tower, motionless.

“Thou shalt all bear witness to my power...” Sombra says softly. With a harsh whinny, the king rears up, and then slams both hooves onto the street, releasing his full power all at once. “I am King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire!”

The eruption of magical force from that action is so great, it could be compared to that of a bomb. A pillar of dark magic forms around the point of impact, shooting into the air and reaching up into the cloud barrier, evaporating them on contact.

I scream and fly backwards, unable to hold onto the ground with the sheer amount of power emanating from Sombra's body. Even Celestia and Luna are knocked off balance, tumbling backwards helplessly.

“I've got you!” Rainbow cries out, catching me from behind, even as she herself tries to keep from hurtling away. Even she loses that battle, the both of us tumbling across the street and into a building.

A mushroom cloud of debris forms around Sombra's eruption of power. Eventually, the beam dissipates, and Sombra is standing before us in his base form, in which darkness is licking up and down his body like an ethereal flame. His eyes are blazing with green and purple magic, and his horn is sparking with black electricity.

“Shit...we're all screwed...” I utter, my voice coming out as a whimper. I can't feel Sombra's power. That means he's above all of us, even Celestia. Even as I try to power up, nothing happens. I can't even feel my core anymore. It's as if everything about me that was magical has completely disappeared, leaving me an ordinary, helpless human. I wrap my arms around Rainbow, holding her close to me even though I know I can't protect her without my magic. Dammit...this wasn't how it was supposed to go...

Then, the princesses are there. Luna and Celestia stride towards Sombra, fully powered up and more serious than ever before. “Sombra, we will stop you. We are not the same as we were a thousand years ago,” Celestia declares, her form obscured by her immense magical power.

Sombra faces the both of them confidently, unafraid by their blatant show of force. “Not this time, princesses. Thy mistake mas meddling in affairs not thine own,” he growls, his anger at his previous incapacitation showing in full. “Thou shalt pay in blood for every year I spent in that glacier...thine own blood, and the blood of thy subjects.”

Sombra stamps the ground with a hoof, and suddenly the ground starts to shake again, only this time it feels different, as if something is moving just beneath the earth's surface. “Arise, children of darkness!” Sombra roars, and then the first skeletal claw erupts from the grass along the side of the street.

It happens all at once. Hundreds upon hundreds of undead starts to claw their way out of the ground all around us. There are not only undead ponies, but also other species that I can't recognize. To my horror, even Oppressed burst out of the dirt and clamber onto the streets, filling the air with their grotesque roars. Judging from the roars I hear in the air, they're popping up all over the city.

“It's an army...his army!” Rainbow gasps. I can feel her shaking in my grip, having never before seen as many undead as this all in one place before. “There's so many...how can we fight them all?”

“You won't. I want all of you to make for the escape ships. Luna and I will hold off Sombra long enough for you to escape,” Celestia orders us, her eyes passing over me as well. She then lowers her head and blasts an undead minotaur into oblivion with her magic.

“But what about you, princess? We can't just leave you here!” Rarity protests. She then yelps and dodges backward as an undead pony lashes out at her with its claws. She blasts it to pieces with a bolt of magic to its head. Then, an Oppressed charges her. She attempts to do the same, but the magic flows over its skin like water, leaving it unharmed. Applejack intervenes and sends the Oppressed flying away in a jumble of broken limbs with a powerful buck from her rear legs.

“This isn't up for discussion! Find Twilight, get on an airship, and get back to Equestria!” Celestia roars at us, sounding angrier and more worried than I've ever heard her. Rarity and the others pause, battling against their conflicting urges to protect the princesses and to follow their orders.

The sounds of battle fill the air as the Royal Unicorn Regiments in the city react to the presence of undead in the streets. Everything is degenerating into an all out conflict. Everything's gone to hell in such a short time, and it's all my goddamn fault. Maka's last words play in my head, their meaning at last clear to me.

“Sombra has already returned to the future, but his goal is clear. You MUST not let him find Subject Alpha...my uncle. If he does...then..."

Why didn't I listen? Everything makes sense now...such as where my magic came from in the first place. It wasn't like Sombra's, it was Sombra's, and now he has it all back. All that time I spent getting stronger, and all it did was benefit him. Goddammit!

When Sombra takes a step towards Rarity and the others, the princesses act, and a battle of epic proportions begins. “Not another step!” Luna roars, and she rears up in the air, flaring her midnight magic. I notice that she feels much stronger than she was at the royal wedding, putting her above Cadance and closer to Chrysalis's level. In the sky above her, several glowing points of white light form, connecting to one another with white lines until I recognize it a familiar constellation. “Have a taste of our new spell! Constellation Magic: Grand Scorpios!”

Luna brings down her hooves, and then streams of destructive magic shoot down from the constellation like a magic Gatling gun, raining down upon Sombra and kicking up clouds of dust. To finish it all off, Luna lowers her head and shoots a beam of magic right where Sombra is standing.

There's a sound like a gunshot, and the beam of magic is deflected off into the sky. The cloud of dust is blown away to reveal a mostly unharmed Sombra, his hoof raised in the air. His cape and armor looks burned from the destructive magic that he'd just taken head on, but his skin is practically unmarked.

Celestia and Luna both charge him at once, their magical auras surrounding them and making them look like comets streaking through the air. Sombra runs to meet then, his head lowered and his eyes narrowed. When they meet, a shockwave shoots through the air, causing the crystal beneath their feet to practically evaporate and form a deep crater.

With a grunt, Sombra turns in place and bucks Luna right through a building, the crystal shattering like glass before her. Then, he and Celestia exchange blows so powerful, each hit generates a shockwave that presses me back against the building I'm lying against, to the point where I can hardly move. I don't have any magic to resist it, so I'm as helpless as a fucking baby.

Celestia turns and bucks Sombra back several feet, and then her magic flares, stronger than I ever remember seeing from her. She plants her hooves on the ground, and lines of white flame erupt from the ground, forming a five pointed star with Sombra directly in the center. My eyes widen when I see that she's using one of her techniques for the first time since I've met her.

“Blazing Corona!” Celestia yells out, and then white flames shoot upwards from the star, completely obscuring Sombra's form with a blazing inferno.

It doesn't last long. Sombra clears away the flame with a burst of magic, revealing that the only damage he'd taken from that spell was just a few burns on his face and legs. His cape was now incinerated, and his armor was charred. “It seems ye were not lying,” Sombra comments, eyeing the crater around him with respect. “Thou hast indeed increased in strength greatly since our last encounter.”

Luna steps out of the building, ready to return to the fight. She stands by her sister, panting slightly. There's a large bruise on her chest where Sombra hit her, and bits of crystal and debris litter her coat.

“Hold a moment,” Sombra says to the sisters as they approach him to attack once more. They pause, surprised by his request for a ceasefire. “Before we continue, wouldst thou like me to return the Element of Magic to thee?”

“Give her back, Sombra. If you've hurt her...I will destroy you. I have been holding back, due to the amount of my subjects still remaining in the city,” Celestia warns the king angrily. Sombra gives a slight chuckle at that.

“What a coincidence. I am doing the same, so as not to damage my city overmuch,” he reveals, much to my horror and the princesses shock. He has enough power to fucking blow away one of Celestia's techniques, and he has more!? “Do not fear. I will relinquish her to thee. I hath no further need of her.”

Sombra turns his gaze to me next, causing me to flinch and recoil. If he attacks me, I'm fucked. It's like facing a god, with how little power I have now. “Seth Rogers...I wouldst give thee one last gift, from me to thee,” he states enigmatically. Then, he lifts his head and faces towards the Crystal Tower. “Hawke, attend to me.”

What? What is that name? It doesn't seem like the princesses know either, because they're searching the area too for any sign of this pony that Sombra is calling for. Nothing seems to be happening either, at least at first.

A soft wind starts to blow through the streets, which are now completely silent save for the sounds of battle in the distance. If I didn't know better, I'd say that I can actually see the wind. I recoil when I discover that I actually can. The wind contains traces of a strange black smoke that is flowing towards us rapidly. When I see traces of green electricity sparking through the smoke, I realize that I'm about to come face to face with the necromancer I saw in the ruins.

The smoke starts to slowly coalesce into a tall form next to Sombra, except it's much to tall to be a pony. What the hell species is this...my thoughts slowly trail off into total shock when the form starts to gain definition. At long last, Vanta's last words come back to me, at last making sense.

“You're not alone...”

The tall, muscled form of another human coalesces in the air next to Sombra. I get to my feet, staring in shock upon seeing another of my race in the flesh, completely alive for the first time in months, after I was certain that they were all dead. Something isn't right, however.

The man, once his form is fully stabilized, is holding a beaten and broken Twilight by the neck in one hand. She coughs weakly, showing that she's alive, but she's been hurt badly. Celestia gasps in horror to see her student in such a shape, and then she glares angrily at the both of them.

“You...human...how?” Is all I can say as I approach the man, taking in his features as I do so. The man looks to be a Russian male in his late twenties to early thirties. When he hears my voice, the man lifts his head and stares at me with sunken blue eyes. I start to feel that same feeling of hatred that I felt down in the ruins, which is soon cemented when the man's face twists into one of disturbed hate, his teeth bared.

“I'm here, my lord,” the man who I assume must be Hawke replies in an accented voice, confirming that he is indeed Russian. However, unlike most of his nationality, his hair is pure white and cut relatively short. Lastly, he is wearing a long black military coat, suited for one used to extremely cold temperatures.

Hawke glances once at the princesses, and then tosses Twilight at them callously. I notice with a start that Twilight is holding tightly onto a frightened Spike, who is still mostly unharmed. I realize that Twilight, when she realized she couldn't win, must have done everything she could to protect Spike. I look up at Hawke, anger breaking through my despair.

“Didst thou carry out my orders?” Sombra asks Hawke simply, hardly looking at him. Right now, Celestia is cradling her student, looking pained that she couldn't protect her.

“Of course. It's good to see you back,” Hawke responds tersely. With a gloved hand, he reaches into his pocket and retrieves two items. One of them is the crown holding the Element of Magic, while the other is a strange diamond shaped amulet with the design of an alicorn with spread wings. With a light toss, Hawke passes them to Sombra, who takes them out of the air with his magic. “Is it time to take the Crystal empire at last?”

“Indeed, my most faithful general,” Sombra answers, pinning the amulet to his chest plate. As for the Element of Magic, it becomes shrouded in his magic until it eventually disappears, spirited away to who knows where. “I understand it must have been hard, following mine orders. Thy patience shalt be rewarded.”

“My lord,” Hawke inserts. He slowly lifts his hand, pointing a gloved finger directly at me. “The extermination of the human race is not yet complete. May I kill him?”

My eyes widen in shock when I hear his words. Hawke knows about the extermination, and serves Sombra regardless? What kind of man is he?!

Sombra turns to look at me one last time. He only looks at me for a moment before he returns to regarding the princesses. “Do as thou pleases. I hath no further use for him,” he says. Hawke grunts in acknowledgment and approaches me, his eyes lighting up with the signature green and purple light. “Now then, princesses. Ye hast waited long enough. Shall we continue?”

Celestia sets down Twilight over with Rarity and the others. “Take care of her, you all. Take her, and flee. You must not turn back even if I fall here,” she orders them. Even as they all start to protest at once, Celestia cuts them off. “I will consider it high treason if you are still here within the next five minutes! Now go!”

All I can think about is the man approaching me, his fists glowing with darkness. Out of habit, I reach into my magical core, only to find nothing there. I take a step away from Hawke. I can't fight back...I don't have any magic!

We're all completely fucked.

Author's Note:

Now then, this chapter is a thing that happened. Now, the first thing I want to mention is probably all of you are probably confused by the appearance of this Hawke guy. You all probably expected the necromancer to be Amaryllis or Janna. However, let me assure you that his inclusion was not something I pulled out of my ass. I've been planning to include Hawke in this story since the beginning. I did not use Amaryllis, because her story has been told, and bringing her back would only ruin her memory, and even if she were somehow made to see the light, that would just throw a wrench into Seth and Rainbow's relationship, and I don't want to do that. As for Janna...that would just make a shitty villain. She was never negative enough to draw Sombra's attention. I have a lot in store for Hawke, so bear with me.

This brings me to my next point. I finally have plans to rewrite the first chapter or so of this fic, to make it more accessible to newcomers and...you know...generally less shitty. The first thing I intend to do is remove any mentions of a journal, because I ditched that forever ago. The second is, I plan to structure it to connect better to the plot line I have now, because in the beginning I had no fucking clue what I was doing.

This is a long author's note. Also, I hope you enjoyed the little insert song I chose, Hail to the King, by Avenged Sevenfold. I've never heard a song fit Sombra better, and as such it became the name and theme of this chapter. Anyway, thanks again to Triage for editing this, and I hope to see a lot of comments on this chapter, considering all the shit that just went down.

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