Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Daybreak: The King of Despair, Part II

“Tee-hee! He’s silly!” Pinkie answered. “Everyone knows dragons aren’t real!”

Dash didn’t have time to quip back about that before Twilight along with everyone else felt the ground shake a little. It shook a bit more a second later, and again soon after. The loudest sound yet, what seemed like a deep-throated growl, echoed over the palisade.

Twilight exhaled tiredly, closed her eyes for a moment, and then made one more symbol in the air. On executing, a powerful bolt of electricity erupted from it and into the swarm—chaining along them to wipe a hundred of them out of the sky at once. The others backed off temporarily to regroup, and Twilight used the moment to punch through one of the more shattered pieces of ice and stepped out.

“Everyone!” she called, getting their attention temporarily. “This isn’t working! We’re still playing into his hands! I need everyone to cover me as long as they can!”

“What are you doing?” Rarity called back.

Already, the mage planted her feet and was beginning to far more slowly draw a much bigger sigil. “I’m going to make this next one as big as I can! I think if I make it hard enough even he won’t be able to pull back together from it!”

Twilight hated having to shout that, but she had no choice to get everyone on board. Unfortunately, that also got Sombra’s attention. His red and green eyes instantly zeroed in on her—clearly making her the focus. The swarm almost immediately began to reform to double its power and go after her, while the stomping grew louder yet.

Dash, however, cried out over it. “You heard the lady! Let’s keep them busy! Pinkie, get dancing again already! Fluttershy, hurry up with Applejack and get singing!”

“Oh, goodness no!” Rarity shouted back, as Pinkie merely saluted and began to bring out her other Anima Viri again. “You can’t let Fluttershy revert back into that Role so quickly!”

“Well why the hell not?”

“You’d know if you had practiced with your own… Going from two to one and then back again too quickly could be disastrous!”

“What?!”

“Why do you think Twilight chastised you for losing the Archer?”

Dash would have protested more, but the ground began to shudder around them again. This time not from impact. She scowled. “Ugh! Just…get to work!”

Fortunately, it seemed Pinkie…possibly due to her “special” circumstances…had no such restriction on bringing her second Anima Viri back out. As the swarm began to dive bomb them, she reverted into the Dancer and began again. The effect worked well, and soon the flying creatures were dropping out of the sky once more. Yet even not accounting for the fact that the horde was still trying to mound itself up high enough to climb the wall, the rumblings continued until they erupted in soil explosions in three new areas.

Rarity and Dash alike both staggered back and guarded themselves for a moment, only to look back and see three new giant mole creatures emerge with maddened expressions. If that wasn’t enough, the fourth one was beginning to rise again—scraping for its head with its claws to try and break the ice around it.

Sighing, Dash nevertheless knuckled up and ran right up to the first to meet it. It greeted her with swiping its claws at her body, but she vaulted over them and quickly punched it dead center in between the beady eyes. Unfortunately, that seemed to only make it take a step back and double its anger. It quickly swung out with both claws at her next, which she leapt over and answered with a kick across its face. It was enough to split its monstrous lip, but, again, only seemed to make it madder.

As for Rarity, she quickly began to throw loose rocks at one of the remaining ones—the biggest her enhanced strength could manage. It did serve to anger it, and soon it was stomping after with teeth gnashing and claws up. As soon as it was in range it tried to swing down both to maul her and crush her, but she managed to sidestep and sliced out with her rapier. Her first slash only managed to cut the claws shallowly, but as it stomped forward and kept swiping, she backed up and drove the tip into the more fleshy parts. She drew blood…but not much else, unfortunately.

This left two to start moving unimpeded toward Twilight. Dash spotted them as she was being driven back by her first opponent; who was only getting more bloodied and angry rather than debilitated. She looked between the two for a moment, but finally groaned. As the mole creature before her dove to try and snap her with her incisors, she vaulted forward, leapt on its shoulders, and went over to launch herself into a flying knee in the back of the head of one of the others. It was hard enough to make it stagger, but as Dash went past it and landed on the other side she found all she had really done was made another mole creature mad at her. One was still free…

Yet something new happened a moment later that caused attention to shift yet again. The “dragon” arrived.

It was tall. That much was clear by the fact that in spite of the crystal palisade its head, neck, and even its shoulders easily towered over the edge of the defenses. It wasn’t a “true” dragon, obviously. Rather it looked like something that had been twisted, warped, and gorged in the right places to gradually make it into a dragon-like shape. Frills of skin and bone-like scales made weak flaps on its back like an attempt to make wings. Its neck was sinuous enough but also stretched and bulged to the point of its scaled exterior being split and bare at points. Its face was the most dragon-like at all, save for a heavy-set jaw. Cruel, scaled “lips”, rows of jagged, disjointed, and sharp teeth, a dual horned crest, and, of course, the eyes filled with the same madness and hate as Sombra himself.

A deep-throated snarl went out from its throat, loud enough to echo over the chaos around them. The ladies were so stunned by its appearance that they almost forgot the mole creatures momentarily. However, it didn’t take nearly as long to size up the situation. In mere moments, its head turned to Dash and picked her as its first target. Its jaws gave a quiver as drool dropped from them, before suddenly they shot open wide. A horrible stench of sulfur and bile washed over the area as it snapped for her like a striking snake.

Fortunately, between Dash’s own skill and the Role of the Disciple, she was fast enough to dodge out of the way. Even so, the dragon beast swung its jaws around until it found purchase—only this time on the body of the last mole creature. With a snap like an iron drawbridge, the jaws slammed shut—scattering blood and matter everywhere. The dragon’s head recoiled and, to the dread of the ladies, they saw the mole creature had easily been bitten in half. Only its bleeding lower torso was left behind, which immediately collapsed. The dragon itself, blood dripping from its jaws, leaned back up and, on seeing it had missed its target, rapidly began to swallow the mouthful of monster so it could try again.

Rarity was totally aghast. “Merciful heavens! That…that thing could eat us with one-”

Her distraction cost her. The other mole creatures were unphased by the death of their companion and the one she had been fighting seized the opportunity to lash out and strike her alongside the head. Fortunately, it used the broad side of its claw or it may have done some real damage, but even without that a bloody gash was cut across Rarity’s face before she was cast to the ground. Thanks to her double Role, she shook her head and began to look up again almost immediately after landing, but the mole creature was already diving on her and opening wide…

A bone-shattering hit slammed its jaw again as Applejack, torn up, dirty, bloody, and yet mostly healed charged in and slammed her hammer into its skull. Just as with Dash’s blows, the monster barely seemed stunned with the first hit in spite of the severity of the blow, but she wasn’t done there. With a bestial fury of her own she bashed away at its head again and again until its jaw was mangled and its cheek was sunken in. Only then, putting both hands together on the hilt, did she swing up and around and catch it under the jaw. The monster’s head snapped upward as it was knocked back and finally spread out on its back.

Even then, it hissed and gurgled as it tried to rise, but Applejack quickly grabbed Rarity by the arm and yanked her up before pulling her out of the way. A moment later, the dragon slammed its head down where both of them were—this time getting a mouthful of dirt instead. Growling angrily, it spat all of it out and leaned up again, turning its attention back to Dash. By now, she was engaging her own mole creature again, while the one that had been stunned was finally breaking its head fully free and beginning to close on her too.

Dash dodged another pair of claw swipes from the dominant one, but couldn’t get in close for a counterattack. It was keeping its claws in front of it to prevent that now. Instead, she tried to kick up a loose bit of metal weaponry from one of the downed maniacs and punted it at the monster’s head. It landed, leaving a gash, but did little else to stop it. Groaning, she tried to come at it from the side, only to see the other mole creature was already coming at her from that end. Quickly, she had to abort and backpedal to try and get clear of it…

A moment before she did, she noted the dragon snapping again, and she immediately pivoted again. She narrowly missed its jaws as she came back…but that only left her completely open to the first mole creature’s charge. It again swiped down, and this time all she could do was brace her arm against it to try and protect itself. She let out a cry as she got a gash across it for her effort, as well as the pain of a blow sending her staggering back.

She managed to recover just as both mole monsters went for her at once, making her quickly retreat as she kept an eye on the dragon’s head looming above her. “Hey Twilight! Is that spell ready yet?!”

“Sorry, but I need more time!” she shouted back, still painstakingly drawing a sigil that looked nowhere near complete.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called in alarm, seeing her injury. She nearly began to run toward her. “Hold on!”

“Forget it!” she shouted back as she ducked under another claw. “You want to do something? Turn back into the Minstrel and put these things to sleep or something!”

“I can take care of the dragon!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully offered.

“Don’t ya’ dare stop dancin’ again!” Applejack shouted back as she hefted her hammer. “The rest of ya’ worry ‘bout them mole critters! I’ll handle this overgrown lizard!”

With that, she barreled right at the twisted wyrm as it again looked down on Rainbow Dash with the intent of biting; especially now that she was pinned. This time, however, as it struck down—Applejack interjected herself between the two and quickly shoved her backward while leaping back herself. Again, the dragon beast’s jaws missed her entirely and plunged into the ground. Applejack left Dash to the mole creatures again, instead quickly snapping her arm around and smashing her hammer into the tip of the dragon beast’s nose.

A rather loud “clang” resulted, like a hammer on iron. And in spite of Applejack’s enhanced strength, she immediately winced and recoiled. It looked like she had just tried to smash down a wall of iron. She didn’t even leave the scales scratched. However, the dragon beast definitely felt it. Enough, if nothing else, to forget about Dash and turned its maddened eyes fully to Applejack instead. It let out a snarl, followed by another foul roar right in her face before lashing out at her in a furious snap. The Warrior barely had time to recover from her numbing jolt before she was dodging teeth trying to bite her in two.

Dash was already looking tired before having to deal with two mole creatures, and now it was starting to show. Unable to even fight back anymore, she kept leaping back further and further from them as they kept swiping and slashing at her. Finally, she reached a slip up. Stepping back, her heel caught on some of the uprooted ground and made her stumble. Before she could recover, two of the claws came down and smashed into her body. The tips, fortunately, didn’t hook into her, but it still felt like a tree was falling on her as one of the mole beasts flung her to the ground.

The impact was hard, but not enough to knock her senseless. She opened up her eyes again, but grunted as the first mole monster pushed into her to keep her still. She saw the second one was rapidly falling in behind it, apparently even madder at having its head frozen. As it snorted and snarled, it cracked its jaws open wide and raised its claw to crush her head.

Yet as it was nearing and Dash struggled to get free, she suddenly got an splurt of red, hot liquid splashed in her face. It was the end result of the tip of Rarity’s sword erupting from its chest. She glanced up, just in time to see a stressed, bleeding, and desperate Rarity still holding her blade where she plunged it with both hands and all of her strength into its back—miraculously hitting a spot between the bone.

She didn’t see much more than that, for the monster immediately bellowed and snapped back and around, viciously “backclawing” her away. Blood, however, continued to fountain from its chest. The wound was fatal and now it began to go into its violent death throes. Dash didn’t pause to watch it die, however…and she couldn’t. The first mole, having finally pinned its target, immediately leaned in with its mouth open wide to bite her head off.

Her skull was already enveloped by the time she raised her arms to keep its jaws open. But not only did that cause the monster’s teeth to instantly dig into her skin and draw blood, but even with her own power and one Anima Viri it took everything she had to keep it from clamping shut regardless. And now that she was pinned, it began to slowly overpower her…

Applejack, meanwhile, continued to engage the dragon—which wasn’t terribly easy. The thing was as fast as it was large, and she soon found herself dodging more than she was attacking. Even when she managed to hammer against its head, the blows did nothing other than drive her into more pain from the attempt to hit it. All the while the dragon’s own attacks grew fiercer and faster, pushing her harder and farther.

At last, it snapped down; prompting Applejack to leap back again. Yet right before its head could plunge into the dirt as it had before, it suddenly snapped taut. Applejack looked and saw that the dragon had been so intent on getting her that it hadn’t realized how far it had been overextending itself. Its neck couldn’t go any farther over the palisade.

The Warrior expected it to pull back and start circling the wall, but much to her surprise…and dread…it took a more “direct” approach. It simply reached up with a pair of massive claws, seized the crystals, and began to push itself in on them. They began to creak and groan before they started shifting.

“It’s tearin’ down the wall to get in!” Applejack shouted.

“If it does, we’ll be flooded even if we kill it!” Twilight shouted back.

“I can get it!” Pinkie chirped.

“No, keep dancing!”

With no other visible options, Applejack bit down and ran right back into the face of the dragon beast. It didn’t attack her that time, focusing on breaking in, and so she used the moment to plant her feet and beat away at the side of its head for all she was worth. Fully ignoring the pain, she smashed her hammer again—sending out showers of sparks and resounding noises like a bell gong.

Yet for all of her power and fury, she didn’t even leave a scratch on the beast. She only seemed to irritate it a bit more, and after a fourth swing it had enough. Suddenly, it snapped its head and neck at her—ramming its own massive maw into her like a wrecking ball.

The power was more shocking than any of the others expected. Not only was Applejack swept aside like so much chaff, but on hitting the crystal walls a rather loud cracking was heard. For a moment, they thought that the dragon actually had enough power to break the crystal—only to see Applejack slide off of it and reveal it was still perfectly intact. The cracking hadn’t come from the palisade…

An instant later, Applejack cried out in agony, as pain and trauma drove her enough to roll up. One hand was still clutching the hammer while reaching over for her limb, but the mere sight of it was grotesque to behold on seeing it bent and twisted the wrong way. It had to have been broken in multiple places, to say nothing of how many other bones may have been broken.

The dragon, having barely paused to do that, kept pushing in as the crystals started to give way. Already a gang of maniacs was beyond it clawing and scraping like mad bees. Fluttershy, on her part, was just now putting on the Role of the Minstrel when she gasped at seeing what happened to Applejack. She’d be forced to switch back to heal her now, but even if she had time the dragon would break through in seconds.

Dash glanced at all of this for a moment, before she scowled. “To hell with this…” She raised her hand with her Promethian Sigil.

“Rainbow Dash! Don’t!” Rarity shouted.

“Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Sky Clipper—Soarin!”

Her aura exploded, and in moments she was back in the Role of the Archer. Fortunately, the light and power was enough to cause the mole trying to decapitate her to pull back—so she immediately used the opportunity with her increased strength to seize its own incisors and yank back with a surge of strength. The creature soon bellowed and shot back as its teeth were ripped clean out of its head, and Dash used her aura to morph them into a fresh shortbow and arrow.

Not wasting a second, she quickly snapped back up to her feet, drew up her bow, knocked the arrow, took aim right at one of the great reptilian eyes of the scaly beast, and let it fly.

The shaft sank all the way inside, leaving nothing but a plume of blood and vitreous humor in its wake. The barrier was instantly forgotten as the monster reared back and roared in agony loud enough to make even Sombra’s own legions wince and recoil in pain. It shot back reflexively into the midst of its companions, trampling and rending dozens of them as it vanished.

Fluttershy and Rarity, however, were aghast as they stared at Dash. On her part, she spun around and gave them both a grin.

“What’d I tell ya’? Nothing…”

She paused, suddenly wavering a little. Her smile ebbed.

“Noth…nothing…”

She sniffled, and rubbed her nose reflexively with the back of her hand. She felt something wet on it, and looked down to see what it was. One half of her hand was completely smeared with blood.

She didn’t even have time to notice that trails of blood were already running out of both of her tear ducts and her ears before she groaned and collapsed to the ground.

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity shouted in horror. Immediately, she began to run toward her. She dismissed one of her Anima Viris to return to the Magician and practically knelt at her side. However, the Huntsman was continuing to bleed, and had gone fully still and pale.

Quickly, she held her hands out over her and began to use one of the healing spells that Twilight had taught her, but she didn’t get very far before Fluttershy, having reverted to the Role of the Healer, reached her and began to do the same. Rarity hesitated a moment on seeing her arrive and chanting, before she swallowed and began to rise up again.

“W-W-Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked.

“Someone has to tend to Applejack, and you’re better at healing than I am. I’m counting on you, Fluttershy.”

This made the older woman gulp. Trembling, she looked back to Dash and resumed her work. Unfortunately, she thought the same thing that Rarity thought—that neither of them were sure that conventional healing could repair this kind of injury. Nevertheless, Rarity managed to get to Applejack’s side and started her own work while Fluttershy continued—all the while as things continued to get worse. More and more of the horde was poking their heads above the edges of the palisade, and were stopped only by seeing Pinkie’s dancing.

But then, Twilight heard another word that sent a cold feeling into her stomach.

“…fiiiiiireeeeee!”

The moment Sombra spoke that, the ground shuddered again as the dragon beast once more began to loom above the palisade. One of its eyes was still gushing blood and matter, but it didn’t seem to care about that anymore. Its remaining eye was focused on the crystal ring. Far more importantly, Twilight saw a light within its horrible jaws. It glowed purple but it exuded foul, sulfurous vapors she could smell from there and sent up wisps of smoke from the gaps in the teeth.

The realization nearly broke her incantation. Fortunately, Pinkie called out for her. “Hey! I think that dragon Sombra made really can breathe fire!”

This got Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack to all look up in horror. “Twilight!” The Magician cried. “We need one of those defensive spells of yours!”

“I can’t! If I break this spell now and have to restart…we’ll be overwhelmed before I can do it again! Fluttershy has to do it!”

“M-M-Me?!” she practically shrieked. “I b-b-barely practiced it…!”

“You have to! The fire and heat will just go around Rarity’s crystals!”

Fluttershy’s answer was a panicked whimper, but there was no time for delays. Applejack, only slightly relieved from Rarity’s barely-started healing, managed to push herself up with the designer’s help and started limping over to Twilight to at least get them all together. Fortunately, Fluttershy and Dash, who was still quite unconscious and barely looking better…if at all…were already close by. That left Pinkie, who was continuing to dance but honestly seemed oblivious to the danger.

Once all were close together, the dragon beast was already looming over the top of the palisade ring again and starting to rear its head back. The gaps in its scales began to gleam with the dark flames growing inside of its body, gleaming brighter and moving up to its head as its cheeks swelled. Rarity, trying her best to help, quickly cast small ice spells around them to try and mitigate the incoming damage, while Fluttershy, trembling like a leaf and barely able to look up at the monstrous fiend reluctantly held her hands up and began to chant to generate the shield spell.

As Pinkie slipped underneath them, Fluttershy barely got out the last of the words before the dragon monster snapped its head forward and exhaled its flame.

It would have been bad enough if the fires had been purely natural—between the searing heat threatening to roast their lungs as well as their bodies and the shear force of the flaming blast. Yet this fire burned unnaturally hotter and billowed out to sweep the entirety of the palisade. The remains of its brethren were instantly turned into ash before being pulverized into smoke while the ground itself was practically fused from the horrendous foul heat. The last of the mole creatures had just recovered from its gruesome tooth extraction only to be practically dissolved alive by the fire.

Fluttershy, as a result, was practically sobbing as she chanted as loudly and furiously as she could. Even so, tongues of dark fire kept bursting through her shield—resulting in searing pain and even a bit of singeing of the ladies beneath. One actually lit Rarity’s hat on fire, prompting Applejack to quickly smack it out with her good hand. Another lashed Twilight’s outstretched arm, again nearly breaking her spell. The air was almost impossible to breathe even with Rarity continuously surrounding them with ice—which kept melting as fast as she put it together. Even the steam from the ice was rapidly heated to boiling, such that it felt like they were being burned regardless.

It wasn’t long before most of them were screaming out just to try and endure the pain, whether they were chanting or not. It nearly reached the breaking point when the flames mercifully subsided. Even then, in their wake, the ground was sizzling and, in some places, gleaming red. Rarity and Fluttershy, both totally exhausted, fell to the ground and gasped. Applejack herself fell back to one knee, struggling to breathe through the hot, ashy air. Twilight faltered, now barely able to keep making her sigil.

The dragon beast, however, had clearly only needed a “break”. It looked down on the wrath it had waged but stared only a moment on seeing its prey had survived before it began to inhale again. Once more, the gleam in its neck began and started to travel up to its jaws. Sombra’s shadow grinned even wider and more ravenously on seeing its victory nearly eminent. Even worse, the swarms of flying creatures and surrounding horde began their encroachment again on seeing Pinkie’s dance had stalled.

Twilight could only look desperately back, as no one was left in any shape to do anything. Once again, the dragon beast reared its head back as the flames began to billow from the gaps in its teeth.

Yet it never got the chance.

“Hey Twilight?”

Weakly, almost in a daze, the mage turned and saw Pinkie looking at her.

“I know you told me to keep dancing and all, but I think I better stop the dragon for you.”

The woman could only weakly utter a syllable before Pinkie turned around to face the monster and started to hop toward it. It didn’t seem to notice…or at least care…as it kept building fire, but Twilight watched as Pinkie pulled out her knife from when she was the Thief Role…only for it to elongate into a larger, ornamental shortsword. She grasped it in both hands and gave another surprise as she split in two, and began to nimbly move them around her hands like she was ready to juggle.

“I’ve got more dances up my sleeves than one!”

Applejack quirked her brow. “Say what…?”

Without another word, Pinkie broke out into a new dance. Rather than the alluring one from before, this one was more performance based—twirling, spinning, and dancing about clanging and spinning the blades in her hands. She only got a few steps into it, as the dragon was ready to breathe, before the ladies watched her leap into the air straight for the beast.

She moved so fast and with such power that they were astonished, even for two Anima Viris. Her body easily sailed out of the ring, over the palisade, and all the way to the monster as she kept spinning and dancing. Then, just as shockingly, she seemed to shoot back the way she came. She obviously had to have kicked off of the draconian nightmare, but it looked almost like she snapped back like she was a toy on a string.

As soon as she landed, Twilight noticed the dragon had stopped building its power and the gleam in its neck and mouth was dying down. Pinkie struck an elaborate pose with both swords as if dance was complete.

The mage had only a moment to note that both of her swords now had blood on them…before, like a tree having been felled in the forest, the dragon’s severed neck split and its head fell to the ground with a massive whump.

The ladies were still gaping in awe even when the ground thundered from the head and body of the dragon falling to the ground. Applejack was totally speechless, but Fluttershy was quivering all over again. “T-T-That’s monster…didn’t even wince when Applejack hit it…but Pinkie…”

“I…think we keep forgetting just where Pinkie came from, d-d-darling…” Rarity muttered.

Further discussion was cut off by a more roar-like sound from Sombra. A glance at his visage soon made it clear he had not taken that change in events very well. Once again, he was sending everything. The ground began to surge in multiple places as the sounds of vicious clamor and yells came from the newest holes. The maniacs began to finally reach the top of the wall and crawl over it to dump their bodies inside the palisade. The swarms of flying creatures gathered and began to come down while the area was rocked by tremors at what had to be more giant beasts incoming.

Applejack let out a swear. “Twilight, is that damn spell ready yet?!”

The mage answered by performing one last move, before her entire sigil glowed.

“…Yes! Everyone, get as flat to the ground as you can!”

They did as they were told, even Pinkie joining in, as Twilight executed the sigil. Immediately, the sky began to thunder—first giving a rumble and then emitted a few lightning bolts with it. The bloodthirsty horde continued to execute its command, but Sombra paused and looked skyward when another thunder peel went out even louder. The wind was picking up, and picking up fast. Ash and debris was caught up almost immediately, but within seconds the wind was blowing so hard that the aerial creatures began to struggle to stabilize themselves while those on the palisade were almost blown back again.

All of this prompted Sombra’s eyes to look skyward as the wind went from gusts to a gale to even stronger. The thunder roared even louder as the ladies themselves had to push their bodies harder to the ground to keep from being pulled up by it. A moment later, the lightning flashed again and, somewhere on the roaring winds growing louder all the time, Twilight heard an echo of what sounded like a gasp.

The lightning had illuminated the clouds, and they were now churning in a full-fledged thunderhead. Worse than that, they were circling and rapidly forming a funnel. Sombra glanced back down just as the debris got large and violent enough to start hurtling deadly shafts into his minions, before it started picking them up and tossing them around like toys. He realized too late Twilight had generated a tornado…and not a small one either. And it was coming down directly upon him.

Twilight managed to look up just long enough to see the funnel complete itself—meeting right on Sombra’s own twisted visage. The eyes genuinely looked panicked before black clouds swept them away like film swished about in dishwater. After that, she had to hold her own head down as the deafening roar of thunder and wind tore overhead. It was all she and the others could do to keep themselves flat as the twister raged below, digging huge rifts into Sombra’s army but, far more importantly, scattering every last bit of his shadow to the four winds. His anguish and rage continued to echo on the rumbling for several seconds, but even when it faded away the storm continued to linger.

It wasn’t until a full thirty seconds had passed that the tornado began to dissipate again, but it wasn’t for another ten seconds after that before the winds had died down enough for the ladies to look. Fluttershy was so nervous about everything that she buried herself in treating Rainbow Dash, but everyone else nervously looked up. The few maniacs that had managed to get into the palisade had frozen in place. They stood totally still and dully gazed forward. One could imagine that the others outside of it were the same.

They slowly rose, but the horde didn’t react. There had to be thousands left and yet none of them made a sound inside or outside the palisade. Most of all, however, as the tornado’s effects faded to nothing, it revealed just a normal cloudy sky. No sign of the eyes or the mouth. No noise but the breeze from the nearby ocean.

“Is…is it over?” Rarity asked.

“I…don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “All I know is that I saw that he had to use most of his personal power to hold his ‘face’ together so he could give commands. So…I used the biggest spell I could come up with that I knew would scatter him apart. As fast and far as I could.”

“Looks like it got ‘im,” Applejack commented. “They ain’t movin’ a muscle and no sign of him.”

“Maybe… But he had a lot of power stored up. I find it almost impossible to believe that even a spell like that could have-”

She was interrupted as one of the standing maniacs suddenly gave a violent spasm, instantly gaining everyone’s attention. For a moment, it looked like invisible forces were pulling up at him—or, more appropriately, pulling out from him. Then, like a puppet clipped of its strings, he fell to the ground in a limp heap. The green and red in his eyes faded. He didn’t even breathe anymore.

The maniac to his right did the same soon after. Then three of them did. Then the whole remainder did. They weren’t alone. While they couldn’t see them, they could hear spasming on the other side of the palisade. Happening with hundreds at once. Mixed with a few traces of…not-so-pleasant noises. Ones that sounded like ripping and tearing of bodies.

Rarity clasped a hand to her mouth. “Great Harmonium…I think they’re…dying…”

“So that’s gotta mean we won, right?” Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head nervously. “N-N-No… They would have just stayed still like the ones back in Canterlot. I…I think I can see bits of shadow coming out of each one, and…”

Fluttershy cut her off with a shriek, and Rarity soon added to it with a retch. The others were mortified at what they saw. A wisp of shadow suddenly streaked over the top of the palisade, reached down to one of the now-dead bodies, and proceeded to…in the tamest terms…open up part of the face and take out what looked like some of the bone inside. Another shadow soon reached into the ground where a monster had been burrowing out and reached into its leg, removing what looked like long sinews. A final piece of shadow simply seized a piece of sharp metal that had been part of a weapon of one of the attackers. All three recoiled immediately back over the palisade, but the fact they heard similar noises on the other side made it clear it was continuing in much greater quantity over there.

Fortunately Dash’s bleeding had finally stopped and she was beginning to moan a little, for Fluttershy was too horrified and scared to keep healing. The others were aghast.

“I…I think we got our answer ‘bout whether or not he’s gone…”

“What in merciful heavens is he doing?!”

“Hmm…” Pinkie puzzled for a moment. “Oh, I know! The whole reason Sombra came out here was to get a body, right? So…maybe he’s decided to make one himself?”

As innocently as Pinkie posed the question…which wasn’t surprising giving what they knew of her background…the only thing that struck the ladies more than grotesque revulsion at the idea was the thought of how accurate it sounded. Especially as they saw the streams of shadow over the wall start to condense, and got a feeling of coldness and death emanating from the other side all over again.

“I think we’ve convinced him that his army isn’t enough to kill us…” Twilight nervously muttered. “He’s drawing all of the power he’s gotten from all of them and putting it in one spot…”

“What…whatever for?”

Rarity got her answer soon after as the noise fully died down…only to be broken by a new sound.

“Giiiirls…”

Even Applejack went pale on hearing that horrible voice, if one could even call it a “voice”. It sounded like a mixture of no less than a dozen different people, beasts, monsters, and who knew what else grossly distorted. A moment later, the ground began to shake again. Not as intensely as before, but far more rapidly. Crackling went out soon afterward as the group saw black crystals emerging from underneath the palisade in front of them. They acted to shift the existing crystals, before with a terrific noise they burst from the ground and flung Rarity’s own crystals into oblivion and opened the way.

Twilight had to struggle not to scream at what was on the other side.

It was now Sombra “in the flesh”…but only in the most putrid and ghastly sense of the word. What stood before them was a horrible, sickening amalgamation of bits of flesh, sinew, bone, and who knew what else patched together to make a colossal, towering humanoid that stood easily three meters tall. It wasn’t even a symmetrical being or composed of the same species. It was a mixture of parts with “extras” added where necessary to accommodate its size and shape.

The only relief was that scraps of metal, and even some still-bleeding hides of monsters had been composed to give it the impression of armor and a cape—hiding some of its nightmarish physiology. Unfortunately, it also gave it a rather long, cruel, and twisted greatsword which it only hefted with one “hand” because its right hand was composed of at least three separate arms working in concert.

The worst was the head. The only armor there was a crude iron crown, allowing everyone to see its ghastly visage. It was bad enough that the horrible eyes were now asymmetrical as well as maddening. The mouth was shoved full of countless teeth from what seemed like every breed of man and monster he had in his assemble. All to give him an even more monstrous grin.

“IIII waaaant…myyyy cryyyystaaaal…”

Author's Note:

Now the real battle begins...

Comments

[SPANIARD KIWI]

11579517
Wow, this is going to be a leviathan of a story! 😮