• Published 12th Oct 2014
  • 3,852 Views, 518 Comments

DayBreak - MyHobby



After an attempt is made on Celestia's life, Twilight Sparkle must assemble a team to track down the assassin and bring her to justice. Danger awaits as they delve into the origins of both the attacker and alicorns.

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Monstrosity

Care Carrot stood at attention at the bottom of the staircase. She frowned at the books all around her, searching for a hint of Hurricane’s handiwork. The cutie mark flashed before her as if it was burned into her mind: A circle of clouds swirling around an empty hole. The mare’s cold, grey eyes glared into hers as the pegasus pushed her over the edge of the opera house’s balcony.

“Captain Carrot,” Time Turner said, “are you alright?”

Care winced. She shook her head to banish the vision. “Yes. I’m fine.”

Time’s brown eyes traced their way up to her forehead. “Because your horn is smoldering.”

Care crossed her eyes. Smoke drifted off the tip of her glowing, bright orange horn. She extinguished the spell, bringing the color back down to the same pink as her eyes before it vanished completely. “Sorry.”

“I’m all for being ready for trouble, but a fire spell in a library might be a little…” He tilted his head towards her. “Unwise? Ill-advised? Disastrous?”

“I get the message.” Care smirked. She rubbed tired eyes and pulled a loose bang away from her mouth. “I guess… I just have a lot on my mind.”

Time shrugged his overcoat higher up on his back. “I’m familiar with how emotions can effect spell-casting. Are you sure you’re up for the job?”

“My emotions are in check,” she said, her voice clipped. “I just don’t appreciate sneaking around under the princesses’ nose.”

Time Turner took a clockwork contraption from one of his many pockets: a tiny box with a windup key on the back and a clock face decorating the front. “I’ve learned over the years that sometimes we have to work around the rules for the good of everypony.”

Care’s braid flicked over her shoulder as she spun her head around. “Rules are there to give us boundaries. They’re there to show us right from wrong and make sure everypony is treated the same.”

“Rules, in general, are there to convict us.” Time Turner’s brow furrowed. “If you don’t have rules based around that equality, you won’t get it.”

“Fine. Our rules, then.” Care rolled her eyes. She glanced up the stairs and bit down on her lip. “Rules that we’re breaking. Rules that we’ll be caught breaking if they don’t hurry their butts.”

The device in his hooves ticked as he wound the key. “Welcome to the life I thought I’d left behind.”

Daring Do trotted up, stuffing a final book into her saddlebags. Blankety Blank followed close behind with his own bags full. “Got the merch,” Daring said. “Time to blow this dusty popsicle stand.”

“There’s an idea I can get behind,” Care muttered. She turned around to lead the way to the surface. “I’ve had enough of this secrecy and skulking to last a lifetime.”

They took the steps two at a time. They were in such a hurry that they nearly bowled over the ponies coming down the stairs. Care yelped and jumped back when her head bumped against something soft and elastic. Time caught her, preventing her from losing her balance and tumbling backward.

Scuttlebutt stood near the top of the stairs, rubbing his head. After a moment passed, he remembered to say “Ow.” Behind him, three burly earth ponies and two strong pegasi held their breath, their eyes wide at the sudden appearance of the other group.

Scuttlebutt wiped his mouth and smiled a cheese-eating smile. “And just who might you ponies be?”

Daring Do pushed her way past Turner. “Researchers on an assignment from the crown. Got a few books that might be helpful for stuff.”

“Really?” Scuttlebutt chuckled lightly, motioning his brutes forward. “Well, we’re security guards. We’ll have to see your clearance passes.”

Blank whispered in Care’s ear, “He’s lying.”

Care gritted her teeth. “No, you think? Gimme a sec to think of…”

The device in Time Turner’s hooves ticked faster as he held it behind his back. He cleared his throat and spoke to all. “When the bubble appears, run.”

“Bubble?” Scuttlebutt tilted his head. “What bubb—?”

The device clattered on the steps at Scuttlebutt’s hooves. His mane stood on end as he scurried back into his minions. “Grenade! Get ba—!”

A pop and a flash obscured the six of them. An orb of magic swallowed them, sparking and fizzing. By the time the orb had stopped expanding, Scuttlebutt and his crew were frozen, unmoving and unresponsive.

Time Turner pushed ahead and pressed against the wall. He slid around the edge of the bubble. “Don’t touch it! Just keep running!”

Blank and Care launched into action immediately. They circled around opposite sides of the spell, their limbs shaking from a sudden surge of adrenaline.

Daring Do stared at the magic bubble, her mouth agape. She laughed and slapped her forehead. “‘Time.’ Duh. Wait up, guys!”

***

Scuttlebutt stared at nothing, frozen in a pocket of time. As the hoofsteps of the others retreated in the distance, the spell weakened. Cracks appeared around the creepy little pony’s legs, head, and tail. The bubble shattered, freeing the prisoners. “—ck! It’s going to… going to…”

Scuttlebutt snarled and slapped the nearest pony on the back of the head. “After them, idiots! Don’t let them get away!”

His five brutes hurried down the hallway, heading towards the main library building. Scuttlebutt scurried down the stairs and into the sealed archives. He overturned piles of books, ripped tomes from shelves, and flipped through various spellbooks in his search to find the Grimoire Alicorn. Fangs bit deep into his lower lips.

“Where is it?” he growled. “Where did those ridiculous princesses put—”

He stopped in his tracks, his brown mane waving limp around his face. He patted an empty spot on the shelf, where the dust had been recently disturbed. He tasted two stark flavors. The fire of rage and a hint of a most despised creature.

“The book was here,” he hissed. He giggled to himself as his body stretched a few inches taller. “They’re using changelings. Those magnificent wretches have a changeling. That’s how they found it.”

He galloped to the surface, saliva dripping from an open mouth. “That was their first mistake!”

***

Celestia burst through the heavy wooden doors that separated the rest of the castle from the dark dungeon. She held her pike at the ready, Luna at her side with horn aglow. Periwinkle peered around the elder sister’s flared wings. He whimpered at the dank, dark surroundings.

Water dripped from the ceiling in a perpetual beat. Dark corridors led to darker cells, their walls coated with chains and dilapidated bodies. Not a single breath of life could be felt.

Celestia peered around a corner. Finding it clear, she motioned her sister forward. She and Luna repeated the action as they made their way deeper into the dungeon, following a hum of deep magic. Deep and destructive.

They came to a large chamber where the crystal and stone walls had been removed to accommodate devices both mechanical and magical. Lights flickered on control panels. Data streams were printed on rolls of paper. Pumps channeled fresh air into three tubes full of yellow liquid.

Golden threads floated in the tubes. They spiraled and intertwined, all running from a central point. If Luna stood at a certain angle and looked at them in a certain way, the delicate lines formed vague pony shapes. One was an earth pony, with the strings clustered in its hooves. One was a pegasus with thin, rudimentary wings. The last tube held a unicorn, whose horn was approximated with a double helix of the shining threads.

“Sister,” Luna whispered, “what is this?”

“It is Sombra’s laboratory.” Clover the Clever appeared from behind a tube. She ran her hoof over its surface. “It is his life’s work. His ultimate goal. His magnum opus.” Her glowing magenta eyes turned towards the three other ponies. “We must destroy it.”

A cough sounded from a nearby cell. Periwinkle dove off of Celestia’s back and rushed to press his face against the bars. “Mother? Mother!”

Celestia and Luna stood by his side. Within the cell, an old unicorn mare lay on a dirty cot. She lifted tired eyes to her visitors. She gave them a weak, yet bright, smile. “Thank the stars you are here.”

Celestia gripped the iron door in a sunlit spell and ripped it from the wall. She tossed it to the side and allowed Periwinkle to wrap his mother in a desperate embrace.

“Queen Platinum.” Luna reached a wingtip out and touched the unicorn’s shoulder. “Can you walk? We must get you out of here.”

“Not until my son is stopped. H-he’s gone mad.” Platinum tested her balance on three hooves and held the fourth close to her body. She gave them a pleading glance. “I-I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“Ponies make their own choices, my queen,” Clover said. She waved the alicorn sisters into the laboratory. “Today, we see the consequences of those choices mete out.”

Platinum leaned heavily on Periwinkle as they exited the cell. “Sombra has not left any of the other prisoners alive. He’s used them all in his mad scheme. You… you can see the results.”

Celestia’s head snapped to the tubes. “You mean those are—”

“Fairy strings.” Clover trotted to a podium in the center of the room. A book sat upon it, open to a particular page. “The means by which magic flows from a pony’s heart to where it is needed.”

She placed a hoof over the image of an alicorn’s body, signed with Sombra’s sigil. “Organs specific to a certain type of pony. Save for the legendary alicorn, who holds all three.”

Luna sighed internally. She steeled herself for the inevitable even as she blustered towards the pegasus fairy strings. “Then we shall destroy these mockeries of science and see to it Sombra never su—”

Crystal spikes erupted from the ground at their feet. Celestia and Luna took to the air. Clover teleported away, the book in her hooves. Periwinkle and Platinum huddled against the wall, razor points mere inches from their face.

A deep, low chuckle struck their hearts with a reverberating, icy knife. The clang of iron-shod hooves meeting cold stone struck up a steady, four beat repeat. Bright red eyes—the whites a corrupt, sickly green—glared from the gloom, surrounded by a miasma of purple magic. A crowned face followed soon after. Chain mail covered the stallion’s chest. Armor lined with a fur cape draped over his shoulders. The horn, once handsome and tapered, was sharpened to a cruel crescent.

Celestia shouted a war cry and hurtled her pike at his head. A few feet from reaching his head, cracks ran along its length. The pike shattered in midair, magic pulling it apart from the inside out. Glistening shards littered the ground at his feet.

“Now, now, Celestia,” King Sombra said, “I think we’re a little beyond material weapons, don’t you?”

Celestia’s hooves cracked the stone floor when she landed. Luna met the ground with equal force, her face a snarling storm of fury.

Celestia ground her teeth together. “I think we’re a little beyond words, Usurper King.”

“Sombra the Usurper King has a nice ring to it.” Sombra stroked his thin, trimmed beard. He drew himself up to his full, impressive height. “But it cannot hold a candle to Sombra the Alicorn King.”

“A false dream of a foolish stallion,” Luna snapped. “You cannot possible hope to gain through science and witchcraft what was freely given through magic.”

“Freely given.” Sombra barked with laughter. “Freely given, you say? Was it freely given to you? Is that how you attained alicornhood? Is that what you really think?

He shook his head as he paced before his machines. “Nothing worth having is easy to gain, sisters. Your powers, this kingdom, this life is won through force!”

He turned away from them to press a button. The tubes lit up, the bubbles of air churning the liquid to a fervor. Celestia lit her horn and took a step towards the mad unicorn.

The cell doors unlatched as one. Pony bodies—for all appearances mere lifeless corpses chained to the wall—stood up. They shambled out of their rooms and stalked towards Periwinkle and Platinum. The queen and the prince screamed and tripped over themselves in their hurry to reach the lab. They embraced each other and stared at the approaching wall of hunger.

Clover sparked into life between them. She raised a shield to keep their foes at bay. “Take heart! These are not true undead, but wights. They are easy enough to deal with.”

The wights stopped. One of them, a unicorn with a great deal of skull showing through its patchwork fur, grinned wide. Its body stretched and shifted. Its legs increased in diameter. Wings burst from its back. Its snout sharpened into a beak. The wight reared up as it took the form of an decayed griffon. It raked its claws across the shield, throwing its weight against Clover’s sheer willpower.

Luna turned to a tube, her horn glowing with icy magic. She aimed carefully at the center of the tube’s mass, intent to shatter it completely. She shut her eyes tight as a new memory flooded back to her mind.

Red lightning arced from Sombra’s horn. It caught Luna in the chest, wings, legs, anything it could reach. It bit through her armor and flung her against a sturdy tube, knocking the wind from her lungs. The pain increased as red magic poured into her body, burning her down to the blood vessels.

Celestia’s radiance sliced a gap in Sombra’s attack. She stepped in and met him blow for blow, holding his spells back. She took solid, meticulous steps forward, her jaw set and her eyes focused. Sombra reared back in surprise and cut off his magic. With one long leap, Celestia cleared the space between them and grasped his shoulders.

His rear hooves shifted to strengthen his stance. His muscles bulged as he pushed her back, one shaky step at a time. He bared his fangs in a predatory grin, while her jaw hung loose.

“You… you’re a unicorn!” Celestia strained and managed to push him back a step. “How did you—? I have the might of an earth pony!”

His horn sparked. Celestia grunted as fire tore at her wings. With her grip loosened, Sombra struck at her stomach. He wrapped his forelegs around her torso and lifted her. With the aid of his telekinesis, he flung her across the room.

“You think me stupid, Celestia dear? I’m deeply offended.” Sombra held a hoof to his chest. “I have been working towards this moment for years. Do you think I would not have attempted to improve myself through other means? Many times over? Earth pony magic was always the easiest to integrate into my subjects. No new anatomy required.”

Celestia sneered. “Thou art sick.”

“No, I am desperate and smart.” Sombra chuckled. “It’s quite the combination.”

Celestia launched herself at him. He vanished in a gout of fire and reappeared behind her. He struck with a bolt of red lightning, but she reflected it into the ceiling. She kicked out with her back legs, sending him head over tail across the room.

He crumpled into a heap at the foot of the unicorn tube, breathing deep and slow. He staggered to his hooves, unable to help favoring his left legs.

“You… can’t win, Celestia.” He laughed through his teeth. “This place is a time bomb, waiting to blow. Immortality awaits me!”

Celestia looked at the boiling tube. She narrowed her eyes and took a measured step back.

“You can’t imagine the knowledge and power that I wield.” Sombra’s eyes leaked dark power as his horn thundered with horrific magic. “You can’t withstand it! You can’t fathom it! With this magic, I shall truly be a god!

The crystal at the top and bottom of the cylinder crackled. It shifted off of its base. Celestia let out a deep sigh. “Typical. A god without a prayer.”

Sombra pursed his lips. He looked up just in time to see the unicorn tube toppling over. He had time for one stunted scream before it fell at last.

Luna, who stood on the far side, gave it one final, mighty push. It crashed down on Sombra, flattening him with the sickening crunch of his crystalline body shattering. His horn, a rare intact fragment, spiraled across the floor and came to a rest at Celestia’s hooves.

Celestia blew a breath through her lips. “Good teamwork.”

“Next time, you take the blast and I’ll distract him.” Luna leaped through the laboratory and charged for Clover’s shield. “Quick! We must assist the queen!”

***

“Play it casual, guys.” Daring Do moved at a fast walk through the library, doing her best to smile pleasantly. “Just another group of researchers doing researchy things. Do dee do.”

The hair on Care Carrot’s neck bristled. “Oh yeah. Let’s just wander away while some creepy little dude gets his grubby little hooves over the sealed archives. What could go wrong?”

“Priorities,” Time Turner said. “We can’t stop Hurricane if we’re arrested for espionage.”

“Dear Creator! It’s almost as if it was a bad idea to come here!” Care tried and failed to keep her voice low. “If I had it my way—”

“We would still be at the tower, waiting for Luna to wake up.” Daring Do wrinkled her nose and looked over her shoulder. “Break eggs, make omelets. Now shaddup.”

“In any case, we should hurry.” Time Turner adjusted a knob on his right gauntlet. “The spell should be wearing off soon.”

“G-guys?” Blankety Blank tapped Care on the shoulder. He pulled away when she shot a fiery glare in his direction. “They’re already here.”

They turned as one. They had reached the center of the large room, halfway to the exit. They faced five ponies, each far larger and stronger than any one of them. The earth pony in the lead scuffed his foot against the tile floor. “Stop those ponies! Don’t let ’em escape!”

Time Turner gulped. “Well, drat.”

The three earth ponies charged while the two pegasi took to the air. Daring Do dropped her saddlebags with a devious smirk. She glanced to the left to see two bookshelves standing just the right distance from each other. “They’ll overtake us before we can reach the door. I’ll take the flyer to the left!”

Care’s mouth opened wide as the adventurer raced for the shelves. “We can’t stand and fight!” She slapped her forehead and hollered. “Everypony! Evacuate the library now!”

Daring jumped and pressed her four hooves against the side of the shelf. She pushed herself off, spreading her wings to gain a little altitude. She twisted in midair to bring her hooves against the opposite shelf. She bounded up, one hop at a time, until she was high above the library floor.

With a final mighty push, she launched herself at the approaching pegasi. One dove out of the way, but the other continued toward her with an odd expression on his tilted head.

She brought her hooves down on his back, right between the wings. She brought her hind legs up to kick him in the throat. He grunted and spiraled out of control. She locked her wings and settled into an easy glide, looping down with a wild grin tearing across her face.

Miss Decimal the librarian leaned over the counter, gazing up at the ceiling. “Excuse me! No roughhousing is tolerated in—”

She screeched and ducked as the hulking stallion crashed behind the counter, throwing up papers and snapping book carts in half. One glance from her confirmed that he was most definitely not getting up for the next few months.

Care snorted and lowered her head to meet the lead brute’s charge. The stallion thundered on, smiling in anticipation of completely flattening the unicorn mare. Just before his hooves met her skull, she dropped to her back. She twisted underneath him and let his pass overhead. She kicked out with all four legs, hitting as many sensitive spots as she could. He lost his balance and fell on his shoulder.

He scrambled to his hooves, and she leaped to her feet, ready for a tussle.

Blank scampered off with both his and Daring’s saddlebags. He charged for the main entrance, his ears perked and his senses tuned. Panic was setting in for the library patrons. The dank flavor was nearly overwhelming, but Blankety pushed through it. He focused on the excitement his teammates were feeling, an invigorating mixture of spice and savory muscle memory.

Mixed with a dose of annoyance from Care.

The two other earth ponies aimed their charge at Blank’s back. They snorted steam from their flared nostrils. Their hooves trampled dropped books as their chest batted chairs and tables away.

They didn’t even notice Time Turner off to the side, pulling a lever on his metal gauntlet.

A small hook shot out, stretching a thin chain across the aisle. The grappling hook latched onto the far wall to create a neck-high barrier. He yanked it tight and planted his hooves.

Two jerks pulled on the chain. The first stallion was hit right in his neck and flipped onto his back, carried by his own momentum. The second saw his partner fall and attempted to leap over the chain. He landed on his stomach with a deep grunt.

The lone pegasus stallion hovered over Daring Do as she landed. He pulled in his wings and went into a dive, his hooves aimed for her head. She looked up with a yelp and twisted away. She swung a nearby chair at the falling pony, which his head met with a solid wack.

He staggered to his hooves. He looked at her with crossed eyes. She waved at him, unable to repress a smirk. “Hi. Have a seat.”

She broke the chair over his head. He remained standing, his jaw loose, his footing unsteady.

She crossed her forelegs. “Look, I know it wasn’t the best quip in my arsenal, but it was at least worthy of unconsciousness.”

He swung a hoof at her, stumbling forward a few steps. She moved easily out of the way. “Whatever. Maybe it’s time you checked out.”

She jumped up and gripped his ears. On her way back to the ground, she slammed his face into a table covered in research notes. He slumped to his haunches at last, drool pooling on his cheek.

Daring dusted herself off and ran towards Time, a devil-may-care smile never leaving her face.

Decimal hid beneath the desk, mere inches away from the first unconscious pegasus. She reached up and switched on the intercom. “L-Loose Leaf? G-get the police. There’re ponies fighting in the library. I think—I think they’re trying to kill each other.”

***

Luna froze three wights with one spell. Celestia followed up with three well-placed flashes of sunlight, turning them to piles of ice shards. The other wights held back, giving the alicorn sisters and their wards ample room.

Celestia rose to her full, impressive height. “Creatures of the dark, if you surrender now and you shall be treated fairly. If you continue to fight, you shall be utterly destroyed.”

“Consider wisely,” Luna added. “Even your people could live peacefully alongside ponies if a true attempt was made.”

The wights cowered within the cells and squished against the walls. Their elastic bodies warped together and slid between bars in their attempt to stay away from the triumphant alicorns.

“Mercy, Your Majesties,” one hissed. “We were coerced.”

“Do not call me Majesty. I am not royalty.” Celestia spread her wings to shield Clover, Platinum, and Periwinkle from view. “Who would have the means to coerce such frightful creatures?”

The one who had spoken shifted shape into that of a strong and very much alive unicorn. One with a gray coat and a flowing black mane. “There are things far more frightening than we.”

“Truer words have not been spoken!”

Celestia turned around at the sound of Sombra’s booming voice. Black smoke filled the laboratory, centered around the spot where the unicorn king had fallen. Lightning burst forth, taking the shape of two red eyes in the mist. They were framed by green static and purple trails of shattered crystal, glaring straight into the hearts of the ponies before them.

“You were far too late,” Sombra hissed. “Though alicorn I may not be, I still have the power to annihilate you!”

Before Celestia could react, a spear of dark crystal shattered the floor on its way to her heart. Luna leaped forward, her forelegs outstretched. She was too far away to either throw her sister away or to intercept the impact. Her horn charged, but the spell was not yet ready.

The spear pierced deep into Platinum’s chest.

The breath caught in Celestia’s throat as the little unicorn queen stood between her and death. She caught Platinum before she could fall to the floor.

Sombra roared. A whirlwind of crystal shards tore between the ponies, knocking them aside, as he carried himself through the hallways and out of the dungeon. The wights scurried after him, leaving their prey unchallenged.

Sombra’s escape had knocked the hood from Clover’s face. The magenta glow around her eyes faded, replaced by dull grey. She pulled her reddish braid aside and patted the floor around her, searching for a point of reference. “What happened? Where are they? My Queen? Platinum, can you hear me?”

“M-Mother?” Periwinkle hugged Platinum’s head close to his chest. “M-Mother? Cl-Clover! Do something! Do something!”

Platinum’s eyes fluttered open. A dazed expression overtook her face. She breathed lightly. Haltingly. “Celestia?”

Luna brought the hood back up over Clover’s head. The magic spell returned, granting the mage sight. She looked at the wound for a moment, before turning her head away. “I-I’m sorry.”

“No!” Periwinkle cradled his mother close. “No, no, no, no…”

“Celestia?” Platinum gasped. “Celestia?”

“I’m here, Queen Platinum.” Celestia’s lips trembled. “I’m here. What do you need?”

Luna watched from behind Clover’s shoulder. Her eyes dripped tears as the scene unfolded from the depths of her memory. She wanted to say something, anything, to reassure her sister. She wanted to reach out and wrap her wings around her shoulders. She wanted to tell her that it would be alright.

But she hadn’t. She hadn’t done any of those things that day.

“I’m here,” Celestia choked. “I’m here.”

Platinum closed her eyes and let out a harsh breath. She summoned her last bastion of strength. “Take care of my son. Please take care of Perry.”

The life left her.

Celestia lowered the unicorn gently to the ground. She stood tall, her muscles tense. Her chest rose and fell in swift, hot breaths. She turned to the direction Sombra had taken.

“Celestia,” Clover whispered, “what are you—?”

“Take Periwinkle to safety,” Celestia said. “I will deal with Sombra.”

Luna went to her side. “We will deal with Sombra.”

Clover went to stand beside the weeping colt. She placed her hooves on his shoulders and nodded.

Celestia and Luna vanished in a burst of starlight.

***

Blankety paused with his hoof on the door handle. He was mere feet from escape. He could leave the others to finish with the attackers and meet up later. Preferably with Twilight Velvet in attendance.

The chill running down his spine held him back. In addition to the panic pervading the room and the excitement gripping his allies, there was a new scent. A dark, sinister scent that he’d only experienced a few times in his life.

Decay.

An impact to his side knocked him off his hooves and threw the saddlebags from his back. He was assailed with striking hooves, which only stopped when he lashed out with a rear hoof and connected with something that bent far too much. He opened his eyes to see the creepy little pony from the staircase grinning down at him.

“Never thought I’d see a changeling in good company with ponies,” Scuttlebutt hissed. “It’s an aberration. What are you? On assignment from Chrysalis? Deep cover in the Royal Guard? Or worse?” He leaned close to Blank’s face. “Have you actually gone native?

Blank flipped himself back, bringing his rear hooves into Scuttlebutt’s face. He landed on all fours and shifted into a ready stance.

Scuttlebutts head lay at an unnatural angle, a deep hoofprint in his cheek. As Blank watched, the hoofprint filled out and his neck straightened. The cheese-eating grin returned in full force. “Very impressive.”

Blankety twirled, lashing out with three quick strikes that hit Scuttlebutt in the knee, chest, and nose. He stumbled back when he saw the knee bend backwards, the chest sink in, and the nose twist out of the way.

Scuttlebutt’s body righted itself. “Very, very impressive. You fight just like a pony. Where’s the ferocity? Where’s the emotional attack? Where are the flaming balls of fire from on high?”

Blank’s eyes flickered to the ponies engaged in combat only a few feet away.

Scuttlebutt nodded and placed a hoof on his lower lip. “I see. You can’t break cover just to deal with one measly little pony.” His grin stretched wider than his face as his jaw broke out of alignment. “How about a minotaur?

Blankety Blank fell to his rump. He scurried backwards as Scuttlebutt’s body grew larger. The creepy pony’s hooves split into clawed fingers. His chest stretched and tore, revealing a gaping rib cage and a beating heart. Horns burst from his head as his eyes sunk into a dark void. A massive, undead Minotaur Lord stood over Blank, spittle flying from its mouth.

“H-holy horseapples!” Blank yelped. “Y-you’re—a wight?

Scuttlebutt’s fist nearly crushed him. Green fire surrounded Blank’s body as his disguise melted away. The changeling climbed the walls with jagged, cloven hooves, the saddlebags tucked around its waist.

“Give me the book, and I’ll eat you quickly,” Scuttlebutt chuckled. His hind legs stretched as he followed the changeling up. “I’ll even send your husk back to your queen for proper disposal.”

The changeling gritted its teeth. It shoved away from the wall as its wings buzzed. It landed on the false minotaur’s shoulder and bit deep with hollowed fangs. Magic flowed from the wight to the changeling as one fed on the other.

Scuttlebutt howled and swatted the bug-like creature away. He slumped to his knees and growled through oversized teeth. “Devious. And a little annoying.”

The changeling cinched the straps of its bags tighter. It snarled. “S-stick around. I could do this all d-day.”

Scuttlebutt glanced out the door. “At least until the Guard arrives.”

The changeling’s face softened. It forced determination back into its eyes. “They won’t be here for me.”

“Of course not,” Scuttlebutt said. “You’ll be dead.”

***

Care circled around the pony, dealing one punch right after the other. Her opponent had no time to react before she attacked again. He could only use his hooves to shield his face and wait for the onslaught to end. Taking a chance, he lashed out with his hind legs. She ducked beneath them and wrapped her forelegs around them, throwing him off balance.

She jumped onto his back and boxed him on the sides of his head. He rolled to throw her off, but she kept her balance. She stood on his belly and socked him underneath his chin before jumping off.

Just as he was getting to his feet, Daring Do landed on his back, sending him crashing to the floor. She waved at Care as she passed. “Sorry, gotta go, Time needs me!”

Care shook her head and glowered at the pegasus. She wound up a punch, waited for the stallion to cover his face, and then kicked out with one rear leg. He wheezed, covering his stomach. She jerked forward with a quick head-butt. Her horn hit him square between his eyes. He crumpled to the floor, drops of blood spattering from his nose.

Care looked over the carnage and saw a huge, undead minotaur lumbering towards a specific changeling. A scream got strangled halfway out of her throat. Her hooves beat out a gallop as she rushed to hopefully end the mythical confrontation before word leaked to the rest of Equestria.

Time Turner lifted his chain to allow Care to run underneath it. He stared at the minotaur with wide eyes before returning to the task at hand. He flipped the lever on his gauntlet that allowed the chain to retract.

Nothing happened.

He furrowed his brow. He jiggled the switch, but there was no response from the device. He tried to pull the grappling hook from the wall, but it was stuck too deep. He swallowed a deep gulp.

One of the thugs regained his footing and grasped the chain. He tugged Time Turner closer, a wide grin splitting his face.

Daring Do leaped onto the brute’s back and wrapped her forelegs around his neck. The earth pony gasped and stumbled around, reaching up to throw her off. She laughed and squeezed tighter. “Ride ’em, Cowpony! Whoo!”

Time let his metal-coated hoof drop to the ground. “I think that mare is certifiably crazy.”

The other conscious earth pony loomed over Time Turner as he fiddled with his gauntlet. “Heavens, I thought I’d gotten all the bugs out of you. I think at least I tightened the tolerances enough. Or are they too tight? I could never figure out how large to make the hole in relation to the—Hold up.”

He lifted his left forehoof and pushed a button. The large stallion, his hooves poised to strike, halted in his tracks. The entire world slowed around Time Turner until he was the only moving object in the library. “Would you be a pal and wait a moment? I just have this doohickey to adjust and we can get with knocking each other’s brains out. Thank you.”

His eyes shot to Daring Do’s frozen face, her mouth a wide smile. The thug’s mouth was also wide, except in his case it was gasping for breath. Time shrugged and continued to work in the shadow of his attacker. “Such a strange mare indeed.”

At last, the grappling hook disengaged from the wall and returned to his gauntlet. He frowned at the large, brutish stallion. “Now then, can’t have you folding me in half, can we? No, we cannot.”

He sent two uppercuts into the stallion’s jaw, followed by five kicked to his midsection. He turned on his rear hooves and walked up to Daring Do’s opponent. He spun with a wide, sweeping kick and knocked the thug’s hooves out from beneath him. With one stallion reeling from a several blows in the space of less than a second, and the other on a collision course with the ground, Time deactivated his time stop.

Daring Do collapsed to the floor beside the stallion. She rolled away and flared her wings. “Whoa! Who taught him to walk?”

The other stallion let out a groan before crumbling into a pile of bruises.

Time Turner grasped her foreleg with the crook of his elbow. “Time waits for no mare, and that goes double for adventurers. Shall we slay a monster?”

Daring Do unbuttoned her shirt to what she considered the perfect height for both archeology and brawling. Her magenta eyes narrowed. “Huh, a wight. Haven’t fought one of those since my trip to Beefland.”

Time hurried her towards the beast, the odds and ends in his pockets clattering all the while. “Any advice on how to beat it?”

A shelf rattled as Scuttlebutt rammed his shoulder against it. Books fell in a jumble, nearly crushing Care in an avalanche.

Daring flapped a wing. “Got any ice handy?”

“Ah. No.”

She chewed her lip. “Then the best advice might actually be to run.”

***

Sheer cold trailed from Luna’s horn as she and her sister stalked down the hallway. Wights leaped out of every window, through every open door, and from behind every tapestry. A flick of her head was all it took to stall them in their tracks, secure in a block of ice. An explosion from Celestia’s horn finished them off, when it wasn’t scattering the monsters who had escaped Luna’s light.

The trail of scattered crystal shards led to the throne room. The doors were shut and barred by purple spikes. Wights awaited the sisters and met them with a surging attack. Celestia and Luna looked to each other. With a nod, they touched horns. A bubble of magic surrounded them, the sheer power blowing their vibrant manes against their bodies.

The wights skidded to a halt.

Compressed air blasted out in a sonic boom, knocking the wights heads over tails. The stained crystal windows shattered as one. The whirling storm outside, controlled by Hurricane and her troops, blew snow drifts into the Crystal Palace. Thunder crashed and the lightning illuminated the last doorway between them and Sombra.

Celestia forced it open with one mighty kick.

King Sombra stood in the center of the throne room, his crystalline body reformed. The room had reverted to its usual shining luster, warm light leaking from the blue throne. Tapestries on the wall depicted ponies from the lineage of the royal family, from Platinum, to her parents, and their parents, and so on.

Sombra stared at the image of his mother. His brow wrinkled ever so slightly. His mouth pulled downward at the corners. His glowing, hazy red eyes ran over the unicorn queen’s face. “I could have been a good king.”

“You’ll never get that chance!” Celestia seethed. “All you’ve built, all you’ve destroyed… it ends today.”

“No, actually,” Sombra said. “It doesn’t.”

A cage of jagged spikes surrounded Luna and Celestia, surrounding them on all sides with razor-sharp points. Sombra walked towards them at an easy pace. “When I was a boy, I grew up in the harsh, unforgiving environment of the Crystal Empire. Food from the earth ponies was a scarce commodity. Even the nobility starved to death on a regular basis.”

He met Celestia’s glare. “But we survived. We survived long enough to discover Equestria. A land of warm days and bountiful food. Fertile and plentiful. It was there we discovered the crystal heart and brought warmth to our kingdom. But still, Equestria was always the better land. Where the glorious sun fed the plants to their fill. Where animals frolicked in fields of beautiful flowers. Where a pony could make any life he desired to build.”

He turned away, his cape flowing around his legs. “I coveted that sun, I suppose.”

“So you sought to gain power for yourself?” Luna snarled. “To steal the sun for your own use? Away from the unicorns and earth ponies and pegasi?”

Then did He teach the unicorns to harness the power of the sun and of the moon, and thus there was day and there was night.” Sombra tilted his head back and raised an eyebrow. “The Book of Origins. Chapter one. From the Canon. I believe you’ve read it. It says that the sun belongs to the unicorns alone.”

He smiled. “Until you two came along. Has not Celestia raised the sun on her own on one occasion?”

“It was… a special circumstance.” Celestia looked away. “I… will never do it ag—”

“It was always suspected that the alicorns of legend could lift the sun alone.” Sombra spread his forelegs wide. “And you proved the theory correct! All I must do is ascend, and I shall be the supreme ruler of the world!”

Luna knocked a crystal stalagmite aside. “You will always have us to stand against you!”

Sombra backed away as the sisters smashed free of their cage. “Again, no I won’t. Haven’t you wondered why I bothered to create mines beneath the surface of the city, rather than where the strains would be most plentiful?”

The sisters stopped. They turned their heads slowly to the mad unicorn. “Sombra,” Celestia said, “what have you done?”

“We stand atop the largest time bomb in history.” Sombra sat on the throne and smiled. “Laced throughout the mines are devices with the ability to quicken, slow, or stop time. If ignited, their energy would combine into a blast that would fling the entire city into the far reaches of the future. Attempt to stop me, and I will activate them.” He propped his chin on his hooves. “I can wait, my little ponies. How long can you wait?”

Author's Note:

These chapters get longer every time I write them. I guess I'm done promising Starswirl will show up anytime soon. Expect him down the line, though.