Of Crystals and Roses

by MoonSaysHello

Chapter 3: Battle at the Crystal Castle

Princess Cadance quickly used her magic to destroy the crystals that bound her to the crystal floor of the castle and dodged a beam of dark magic King Sombra shoot at her. She ran to the other side of the room and tried to get rid of the rest of the crystals that were on her wings, but King Sombra wasn't in the mood to wait for her. He tried hitting her with his dark magic again. "I'm not in the mood to play tag with you," he mocked her as she jumped around trying to avoid his attacks.

"Well neither am I!" Cadance replied and cast a shield spell hoping that it will give her enough time to free her wings. King Sombra easily shattered it with one attack but it was enough, she unfurled her big pink and purple wings and flew up in the air dodging his next attack. 'I need to go somewhere I can fight him without worrying about accidentally hitting Shinning,' she thought as she did a back flip in order to avoid incoming attack and flew over King Sombra out of the throne room.

"Trying to run away are we?" King Sombra laughed and went after her. "Don't let the other one escape!" he yelled to his (Cadances') guards.

'Good he is following me,' Cadance looked over her shoulder noticing a beam of dark magic on time to evade it. 'What do I do? Without the Crystal Heart I don't stand a chance against him!' she made a few turns and hurried through the stadium pathway praying it didn't get blocked or destroyed by the black crystals. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, luckily for her the path wasn't damaged. 'It should be easier to fight him in the open,' she flew out and waited for her enemy to arrive.

Not too soon after she stooped the dark unicorn stepped into the stadium. She didn't want to give him a chance to attack first so she fired a few magic beams at him but he was too quick and dodged them all. "So you're planing on fighting me, huh? I thought you got scared and decided to run away," he grinned.

Cadance frowned at the insult. "Like I would leave my family and subjects just to save myself! I am no coward and I am definitely not a monster who only sees her subjects as slaves and nothing more!" she yelled preparing another spell.

King Sombra turned his head a bit to the side and raised a brow. "Was that supposed to make me feel guilty?" he asked and used his magic to create and throw sharp black crystals at Cadance. "You reap what you sow, princess, they got what they deserved!" he growled.

Cadance successfully avoided the first three but fourth one cut her wing making her lose focus on her spell and fall down. "Agh!" she tried to ignore the pain and flapped her wings managing to keep herself from hitting the ground. Cadance lowered herself gently on the ground and examined her wound. It was not serious but she won't be able to fly as fast as before and dodge his attacks, which means it's time for ground combat. "They didn't deserve any of this! Stop making excuses for your actions!"

"You must really be enjoying this little game you're playing, pretending to be a princess of the empire you know nothing about!"

"It's true that I wasn't born here and that what I know about the empire's history comes from the books I found here," Cadance admitted, "but I know the ponies who live here, I saw their kindness, their happiness, their pain, their struggles, I saw what injustice was done to them! And I won't let you put them through such agony ever again!" she folded her wings and took a battle stance.

"Do you really think you can win this battle?" Sombra asked her as he hurled more crystals at her successfully hitting her and sending her flying over the field.

"Doesn't matter..." Cadance tried to get up, "...what I think..." she stood up on her shaky legs and started casting her next spell. "I'm the princess of The Crystal Empire and it is my duty to protect it!" she screamed and cast her spell which caused light pink and purple crystals to form around King Sombra like a prison.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sombra easily corrupted the crystals and shattered his prison. "Ha! Like such weak magic could possibly stop me," he levitated numerous sharp pieces that scattered around him and fired them at the princess who cast a shield spell to protect herself. The shield shattered but Cadance already finished preparing her next spell. She screamed as she swung her horn downward sending explosion of purple fire at King Sombra. "WHAT!!" he tried to dodge it but he was too slow and was blown back into the crystalline wall. "Damn you!" he growled and got up.

"Not so smug anymore are we?" Cadance mocked him. She had to admit sending that spawn of darkness flying into the wall felt gooood and she was certainly looking forward to doing it again.

"Maybe I underestimated you..." Sombra grinned.

---

"Spike! Spike! Have you seen The Magical Cures and Poisons Volume 7 somewhere? I can't find it and I looked everywhere!" Twilight galloped down the stairs of her castle's library. She was so happy when she discovered just how big her new library was, after all it did solve her 'too many books, too little space' problem. But finding that one book you need in such huge place was no easy task, too bad the library didn't come with the search option. "Spike?" she called again. 'Where is he?' she wondered.

She was about to call him again when her number one assistant rushed into the room looking like he just ran a marathon. "Twi-hueh-Twili-huff-Twili-phew..." he panted before collapsing on the floor.

"Spike! What happened?!" Twilight asked confused and helped him stand up again. Spike decided it is better idea to just hand her the scroll Princess Celestia sent few minutes ago and let her read it herself, speaking was no option right now. Twilight unfolded the scroll and read it.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I don't have much time for explanations so I'll give you the details later. Now you must hurry to The Crystal Empire. King Sombra was not defeated like we thought and I'm afraid Cadance is in grave danger. I'm heading there myself. Hurry, there is no time to loose!

Signed,
Princess Celestia"

She stared at the scroll in shock hoping that this was just a nightmare and she'll wake up soon, but she knew that was not the case and no matter how much she wanted it to be the opposite this was really happening.

"I must get my friends!" she said and levitated Spike on her back before running out of the library, "I hope Cadance is alright!"

---

Back at the Crystal Empire the battle continued for hours and neither side was willing to give up. The stadium was destroyed, the whole place was full of craters and few places have been burned by magic. The north wall of the stadium was no more, the pathway was just a pile of rubble and the black crystals were now 'decorating' the field on which Princess Cadance and King Sombra were standing.

Cadance could barely strand, her body was covered in scratches and bruises, her left front leg hurt so much it was pure torture standing on it. Her feathers were messy and a few were broken, her mane was a tangled mess and the tip of her tail was burned. King Sombra was in no better shape than she was and his eyes were back to normal but he still looked like he could go at it for hours, probably because he was used to fighting like this, she, on the other hoof, wasn't sure she will be able to stand for another five minutes.

"Why are you doing this?!" she asked trying to catch her breath.

"Like you'd understand," King Sombra replied and wiped the blood from his mouth. His eyes turned green again as he began casting another dark spell. "You can't win this fight! Why don't you just give up already?" he asked.

"Never!" Cadance growled and cast another shield spell.

"You leave me no choice!" Sombra yelled and fired a thunder spell at her, the shield she cast was too weak to protect her from the spell and she was sent flying across the stadium. King Sombra coughed a bit and slowly walked over to her unmoving body. She was still alive but unconscious and he assumed that she will stay like that for a few hours minimum, then again she was too stubborn for that and he didn't want to fight her again if she woke up earlier than expected so he used his dark crystals to form a prison-like structure that should be able to keep her imprisoned even if she wakes up and has enough energy to try to escape.

He examined his injuries and used what was left of his magic to heal a few more serious wounds before turning away and walking in the direction of the castle...

Author's Note:

Twilight to the rescue! Sombra, you better get as far away as possible from the empire before she gets you.