• Published 21st Nov 2020
  • 2,361 Views, 54 Comments

Kung-Fu Equestria 2 - Lady Umbra



After fufilling her dream of being a Kung-Fu Master, Twilight must now defend everything she worked for when a villain from her unknown past resurfaces to claim what is rightfully his with the aid of a weapon that can stop Kung-Fu itself

  • ...
0
 54
 2,361

Infiltration

Urtica slowly opened her eyes with a groan. The last thing she remembered was her mother's voice.

'You were always a disappointment.'

Then... Urtica looked around and gasped. She was in a cell! She had been re-caught!

"No..." Urtica whimpered, trying to rise despite her body throbbing in protest. "No-no-no, not here... not again..."

"Hey-hey, relax," a voice said.

Urtica whirled on the voice... and blinked in confusion as she beheld Twilight Sparkle. The Celestial Warrior. Had she been caught too. Or...

"You're still hurt," Twilight said, a healing spell glowing in her hands. "Don't agitate the wounds."

Urtica still looked around like a cornered animal. "Where am I?" she hissed in fear.

"Jasper Jam Jail," the unicorn explained gently. "Rainbow and the others went to stop Sombra and your mother."

"Tai?"

"He went with them," Twilight answered, resting her glowing hand on Urtica's body.

However, even as a soothing pulse tried to relax her body, Urtica's heart still hammered at the thought of Tai being anywhere near her mother or siblings.

"H-He can't go against her," she insisted, trying to rise, only for her body to mutiny on her. She nearly collapsed, but Twilight managed to catch her.

"There's nothing we can do," Twilight insisted.

Despite her insistence, Urtica could read the Celestial Warrior's emotions. And she could tell she didn't believe a word.

Twilight wanted to be out there. She had to be out there.

'Oh, if you only knew how our interests align, Celestial Warrior,' Urtica thought with pity. "Listen," she rasped out loud. "I can sense your emotions. I know that's not true. There's plenty we can do... and plenty they can do to us."

Twilight tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"The longer I stay," Urtica claimed. "The sooner I'll reconnect to mother's hive mind. Then I'll never be able to get away."

"But... I was told..." Twilight tried to protest, but Urtica grabbed her wrists.

"And if my mother gets ahold of Tai and her friends, she'll use them to create more changelings." She shuddered. "And then feed what's left to the hatchlings and drones."

Twilight shuddered in horror, but determination still flashed through her emotions.

"I-It won't happen," she insisted, even as Sombra flashed through her thoughts.

'Sombra!' Urtica thought with glee. 'That's her weak spot!'

"Except they're allied with Sombra," Urtica said out loud. "But Sombra won't be expecting us. If we can take him out while they distract him..."

Twilight's eyes shifted. Her emotions throbbed like a beating heart. Though Urtica felt bad about manipulating the unicorn, she couldn't help but shiver in glee as Twilight nodded.

"Alright," Twilight declared, convinced. "Let's go."


Sombra watched with pride as his cannons were hefted onto ship after ship.

"You were wrong, Soothsayer," Sombra declared. "We sail to victory tonight." He glanced sideways at the zebra behind him, who had glared at him with disappointment for the past half hour. "Your little pony is clearly a fool."

"You know how to make tools," Zecora chastised. "Yet that doesn't mean you aren't a fool." She stepped back as he put the tip of his sword into an open flame, heating the blade to a red hot point. "Despite where you may roam, you still destroyed your ancestrial home"

"A trivial sacrifice," Sombra dismissed, jabbing the red hot blade into the map of Equestria, and setting the paper alight. "When all of Equestria is my reward!"

"Then will you be satisfied?" Zecora growled, forgoing her rhymes. "Will the subjugation of the whole world finally make you feel better?"

Briefly, Sombra hesitated, doubt pumping in his heart. But he forced it back down, twisting his face into a grin.

"It's a start," he replied, keeping his back to the zebra. "I might also convert the basement into a dungeon."

Zecora was silent at first, before she joined him at the balcony.

"The cup you choose to fill holds no bottom," she said sadly. "It is time to stop this madness, Sombra."

"And why in Equestria would I do that?" the dark unicorn chuckled.

"So that your parents can finally rest in peace." Her answer was simple, and yet it made him clench the balcony hard enough to nearly break it. When he spoke, his voice was wracked with anger and bitterness.

"My parents...hated me," Sombra growled, glaring at the zebra. "Do you understand?" He turned back to his cannons, almost speaking more to himself than her. "They wronged me! And... I... will make it right."

"They loved you," Zecora said, clutching his arm. "They loved you so much that having to send you away killed them."

Briefly, horror and mourning flashed across Sombra's face. He shut his eyes, and though his voice remained resolved, it cracked with bitterness.

"The dead exist in the past" Sombra replied, opening his eyes and regarding his ships. "And I must attend to the future."

Zecora had nothing to say in protest. Sombra sighed, before turning to the nearby yak.

"Set the Soothsayer free," Sombra ordered his minion. "She is of no use to me."

Zecora hummed in disappointment, before turning her back on him.

"Farewell, Sombra," she said. "I wish you happiness."

Sombra huffed. "Happiness must be taken," he replied. "And I will take mine."

Zecora shook her head, before the yak tried to grab her by the shoulder. Narrowing her eyes, she smacked the yak's arm with her staff, before peacefully leaving the king to his delusions of conquest.


As Zecora left the factory behind, five figures snuck towards the building. Two changelings watching Zecora leave glanced up as they felt something brush by them, but found nothing.

Grouping in the shadows near the doorway, Tai Lung, Rainbow Dash and the other masters surveyed the factory, watching as a squad of changelings raced inside, lugging a massive cannon.

"If all those weapons leave this building, then all of Equestria will fall," Rainbow muttered.

"Then we bring the whole thing down," Tai Lung growled.

"How?" Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie merely rose up with a wide grin, two fireworks clutched in her hands and pointing towards a clutch of barrels. Tai Lung and Rainbow Dash shared a grin.

"That'll work," Rainbow Dash whispered.

Pinkie shivered with glee, an excited squeak escaping her before Rarity covered her mouth.

"Try to curb your enthusiasm, darling," she asked, as the group snuck towards the barrels.

As the masters started putting their plan into action, they were unaware of two more figures; one holding the other as she flew over the building.

"So how do we get in without getting caught?" Twilight whispered, curled into a ball as she hung from Urtica's wrists.

"Like this," Urtica said, closing her eyes and concentrating. An emerald flame covered her, but then spread to Twilight as well.

Twilight bit back a yelp as the flames traveled down her body. Urtica landed on a wooden bridge leading into the factory, and by the time she touched down, the flames had receded. And Twilight found herself and Urtica changed into exact copies of Chrysalis' drones.

"How'd you...?" Twilight whispered, pausing when she noticed her voice had a cicada chirping effect.

"Changeling magic deals with a lot of illusion and disguising," Urtica explained. "So changing your looks and voice is simple. All drones have the same vocal pattern."

"You don't," Twilight pointed out.

"Well, I'm Royal," the princess replied with a shrug, before sniffing the air. Her eyes narrowed. "Hide."

Twilight dove behind a bundle of crates, Urtica following after her. Seconds later, two changelings landed on the bridge.

"I'm telling you," one of the two hissed. "I saw something land here."

The second changeling sniffed the air, clicking.

"Huh, yeah," he admitted. "We don't have any books here. Why does it stink of ink and parchment?"

They crept over to the crates, only for Twilight and Urtica to spring out and catch them by the mouths. Twilight's horn flared, the magic aura covered their eyes, and in seconds, the two changelings collapsed, softly snoring before another green glow encompassed their heads.

"Wait," Twilight whispered. "Won't their hive mind alert the others?"

"Nope," Urtica said happily, her horn fading as she pulled them behind the crates. "I used my magic to cut them off. As far as Mother knows, they just went to sleep." She started pulling at their armor. "Now help me with these."

Nodding, Twilight helped her remove their armor, taking it for themselves.

Twilight hesitated at the changeling's pants. "Um... why are we taking their clothes and armor?" Twilight asked nervously.

"We need to mask our scent," Urtica said, already having donned the armor of one of the changelings. "Didn't you hear them? You reek of ink and parchment." She quickly raised her hands. "And I mean that in a constructive way."

Twilight stared down at her body. "They can smell that?" she asked in disbelief, before quickly donning her own armor. "I haven't even been around a book all day..." she muttered in disbelief.

"A Changelings sense of smell is second to none" Urtica replied, binding and gagging the sleeping changelings.

Twilight chuckled. "I think Pinkie would have something to say about that," she noted. "I opened a piece of candy in Ponyville once, and the next thing I know, Pinkie's behind me with a dust trail leading all the way back to the Palace."

Urtica chuckled at the memory. "Well, to be fair, Pinkie Pie is in a league all her own," Urtica replied.

Unable to argue with that, Twilight shrugged and the two made their way inside. Numerous changelings scurried about, the flames crafting the cannons casting an ominous red light over everything.

"Move you bugs!" Sombra's voice boomed. "Faster! Faster!"

Twilight spotted his shadow a moment later. She moved towards it... only to notice Urtica moving another direction.

"Urtica!" Twilight whispered, before noticing Chrysalis' shadow in Urtica's direction. "What are you doing?"

Urtica glanced back at Twilight and drew a curved dagger.

"When fighting a serpent," she said grimly. "Cut off the head and the body falls with it." She glared at Chrysalis' shadow. "I take down Chrysalis, you take down Sombra. And without either of them, the changelings will have no idea what to do."

Before Twilight could find a counter-argument, the changeling princess was gone. Vanished after Chrysalis. Sighing, but with her own job to do, Twilight turned back to Sombra's shadow.

"You're going down, Sombra," Twilight promised quietly. "And then I'm going to find out what you know."

Sneaking through the ramparts, hopping from shadow to shadow, Twilight drew closer to the stallion from her past. Slowly, but surely, his shadow revealed his actual body, watching the changelings with impatience in his eyes.

Briefly, she saw his symbol etched into the shoulder pad of his armor. Her vision momentarily blinked, reminding her of the past, but she shook it off and forced herself forward.

Moving to the upper levels, Twilight snuck onto a bridge that would lead her straight to him, her hand charging up with a magic spell. However, as she neared him, he suddenly chuckled.

"Greetings, Twilight," Sombra said, before turning to her. Rising from the bannister, Twilight saw his sword already unsheathed.

Pointed at her.

Growling, Twilight let her disguise fall. No use when he already knew who she was.

"What happened on the night my parents left me?" Twilight demanded.

Sombra pouted. "What?" he asked. "No 'what happened that night?' No chance to be cryptic?"

Twilight's eyes narrowed, and her spell glowed brighter. "What did you do to them?"

Sombra put a hand to his heart with a cruel laugh. "What did I do?" he asked mockingly. "I watched as your parents abandoned you."

Twilight's eyes narrowed, yet doubt nicked at her heart. He tsked in mock sympathy.

"Yes," he noted with amusement. "Such a terrible fate. I believe it went something like THIS!"

Suddenly, he swung his sword into a chain, and a vat of molten metal swung at Twilight with a groan of metal and chains.


Elsewhere, Urtica stood right above her mother. A CRASH drew their gazes, and Urtica paled as she saw Twilight clinging to a vat of molten metal as it swung dangerously over the open. Yet, as Twilight yelped and struggled, Sombra's laugh echoed, causing Chrysalis to roll her eyes.

"Let the King handle that," she told her children. "Focus on getting these cannons loaded as soon as possible." She pat one drone with a small smile. "The sooner we finish, the sooner we can feed."

Urtica's grip tightened on her dagger. All she had to do was drop down. Let gravity carry her knife into the Queen's neck.

Into... her mother's neck.

Urtica clenched her eyes shut, but she couldn't chase away the image of Chrysalis smiling. Not a cruel or cunning smile, but a genuine smile of motherly love. A smile she used to show her once. Before...

"Yes," range a voice in Urtica's head, causing her to freeze in horror. "We had some good times, didn't we, Daughter?"

Fear drove Urtica forward. She dove out of her hiding spot, making a wild stab for the Queen. But Chrysalis was faster, and as one clawed hand caught Urtica by the wrist, the other locked around her throat. Flames burst around them both, as Urtica's disguise was torn away from her.

"Until you betrayed us," Chrysalis growled.

Urtica hissed. "You betrayed me," Urtica snarled, trying to kick out of her mother's grip. "You were trying to make me into a monster!"

"And yet, you've returned," Chrysalis mused. Her horn glowed, and her next words weren't spoken, yet rang in Urtica's head. "Welcome back to the Hive, Daughter."

Urtica's struggling went slack. Her eyes widened in horror.

"No..." she whimpered. "Let me go!"

"I can't do that, my daughter," Chrysalis replied, pinning her to the wall, and coating her arm with resin. "The Hive always needs a Queen." She stepped back, Urtica pinned by green resin, allowing her to see brief desperation in Chrysalis' eyes. "Sombra's madness could lead to my death. I need to know that my successor will keep the Hive going."

"Then leave him!" Urtica begged.

"And ensure my death?" Chrysalis demanded. "And the death of the Hive?"

She nearly slapped Urtica across the face for speaking such heresy, but forced herself to remain calm. Then, an idea made her eyes glitter cruelly. She leaned closer to Urtica as she struggled against the resin.

"I know your feelings for the leopard," she noted, grinning as Urtica froze. "No doubt he's coming to try and stop us."

"He'll beat you," Urtica growled. "Nothing can stop him!"

"The Celestial Warrior did," Chrysalis noted. "And even then, she was blinded by compassion and sympathy." She grinned. "What chance does he have against those who are not burdened by such weaknesses?"

"Compassion and sympathy are not weaknesses," Urtica argued.

"Why take that chance?" Chrysalis asked. "Do as I say - rejoin your family - and he will be spared. And he will be yours."

Urtica looked down. "He's already mine," she whimpered before she could stop herself, wincing as she realized what she said.

Chrysalis' eyes softened. She lifted her daughter's chin.

"And he'll always be yours," she promised. "All you have to do... is what I say." She shrugged. "Or... he can die with the rest of them. It's your choice."

Urtica shut her eyes. If changelings could cry, tears would have soaked her cheeks.


As Urtica struggled with her mother, the changeling drones continued their work, some of them glancing up at the mother-daughter spat with shaking heads of disappointment.

"Mother's too soft on her," one changeling noted.

"Well, Mother's still the Queen," another changeling replied. "What she says goes. And she said that we need to get these cannons loaded."

The first changeling sighed and moved to obey... when the front door suddenly burst open.

A cart filled with barrels of fireworks and black powder barreled into the warehouse. With a collective chill, the changelings saw Master Pinkie Pie smash a lantern onto the cart, setting it aflame.

"Happy birthday!" Pinkie cheered as she leaped from the cart, sending the smoldering black powder onto the larger barrels.

"AUGH!" the changelings yelped, trying to put out the flames. "This is not a happy birthday!"

"Too bad!" Rarity declared, as Pinkie landed beside the rest of the Furious Five. "The gift is given; it cannot be returned!"

Chuckling, the masters left the changelings to struggle - and fail - to put out the rapidly growing flames. But just before the first fireworks could go off... they heard a familiar scream.

Rainbow spun around. "Twilight?" she stammered.

Sure enough, Twilight was being hacked at by Sombra, with only the metal vat for cover, while Tai Lung spotted Urtica pinned to the wall by her mother.

"Urtica!" Tai screamed.

All eyes turned to the smolder, flaming powder.

"YAAAAH!" Pinkie shrieked, racing onto the flames. "Return-it-return-it-return-it!"

"Yes, thank you, yes!" the changelings stammered, gladly accepting the help as the masters doused the flames.

"Almost makes me want to spare you," one of the changelings noted.

"Seriously?!" another changeling snapped.

"What? I said almost!" the first changeling protested, only to be silenced when Rainbow Dash got the first kick in

Chrysalis' gaze was drawn to the group, and she smiled ominously at her pinned daughter.

"Well," she noted. "Time to see who's right about weakness." She walked away from Urtica, as she struggled hopelessly against the green resin.

"No..." Urtica begged. "Mother please... stop!"

However, even if the queen heard her, she wasn't given the chance to reply. Seeing the queen approach, Tai Lung launched off the heads of one of the changelings, and charged the queen like a rampaging bull.

"GIVE HER BACK!" he bellowed, his claws and fangs glittering in the red light. Queen Chrysalis merely formed a combat stance.

"Come and get her," she dared, before the leopard and the changeling engaged in combat.


Above on the upper floors, Twilight dodged another strike from Sombra and managed to teleport from the vat to the scaffolding in front of Sombra.

"Tell me, Twilight," Sombra mused, "Are you willing to die to find out the truth?"

"I'll take the truth and my life, thank you very much," Twilight replied, her hands glowing with magic as she engaged the King in battle. Though his sword flashed with a dangerous light, it clanged harmlessly off Twilight's magic enhanced hands.

Twilight tried to follow up with a kick, but Sombra cast a spell of his own. His free hand - magically enhanced as well - caught her foot, and he threw her from the scaffolding.

Below them, a conveyer belt carried multiple metal objects towards an even bigger vat of molten metal. Twilight tried to pull herself up from the tangle of metal pots she had landed on, only for a spell of dark magic to knock her to her back. Sombra followed along on the scaffolding above her, keeping her pinned with spell after spell that she was barely able to deflect with the metal objects around her. As Twilight drew closer and closer to a molten death, Sombra's grin grew wider and more vile.

"No..." Twilight whispered, flaring her horn for a teleportation spell. Sombra sent her to her back once more with another spell. "No!"

"It's pointless to resist, Twilight," King Sombra declared. "You will die, and my reign will be ensured!"

Seething in fear-induced frustration, Twilight gave up on her spells and just tried to run for it. Sombra maliciously tripped her up with another spell. And as her face planted into a metal pot, and her hand fell onto a tuning fork, the conveyor belt finally carried her over the edge with a scream of fear.

A scream of fear that was cut short - not by her falling into the vat - but by her stabbing the tuning fork into the belt, enhancing it with a magnet spell. Casting an extra barrier spell around herself, Twilight rode the underside of the belt, watching nervously as Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy fought along the scaffolding.

"Hang on, Twilight!" Rainbow yelled, flaring her wings and flying towards her.

"'Hang on?'" Sombra mocked with a laugh. "You failed, Master Rainbow Dash!"

"That's what you think," Rainbow snarled, flaring her wings and preparing to sonic rainboom the smirk off his face. However, she was blocked by a swarm of changelings.

One of whom was promptly hit with a cake.

Rainbow turned as Pinkie reloaded her party cannon, and Rarity and Fluttershy formed combat stances next to her.

"We got these insects, Rainbow," Rarity assured her.

"Keep him occupied," Fluttershy agreed.

Rainbow nodded, and shot at Sombra, leaving him blissfully unaware as Twilight rode to the other side of the belt, and began to approach Sombra from the back.

Thankfully, Sombra's attention was on Rainbow Dash, who tried to plant her fist in his face... only for a yak to barrel into her and knock her onto the scaffolding below.

Rainbow rolled with the fall, blinking in shock. Then she saw the green glow surrounding the yak. A small female changeling carefully lowered the yak to the ground, tittering with a mad glint in her eyes.

"Let's play," she rasped, as the yak let out a feral bellow and engaged the cyan mare in combat.

"It's pointless, Kung-Fu Master," Sombra declared as Rainbow Dash struggled against the changeling-yak duo. "The Warrior of Night and Day is dead!" He looked up in awe at that thought.

"The Warrior of Night and Day is dead..." he whispered again with a mad laugh. "You were truly wrong, Zecora! I killed her! I made you wrong!"

"You sure about that?" Twilight whispered, before firing a spell at Sombra's back.

Unfortunately, one of the changelings spoke up.

"King Sombra!" he yelled before Rarity could silence him.

Turning, Sombra barely managed to deflect Twilight's spell with his sword. His eyes widened for the briefest second. Fury burned in his eyes. But as Twilight fired another spell, Sombra kept himself composed.

He fired three more crystal spells, but Twilight deflected them with a barrier shrouding her body. Twilight fired back, but he used a large crystal to propel himself to the upper level. Twilight shot after him with a teleportation spell, even as Rainbow Dash tried to follow after her.

"Twilight, no! Get away from him!" she screamed, only for the smaller changeling to catch her wings, and pull her into a devastating blow from the yak.

"Crush, Roar, crush!" the changeling encouraged as the yak raised his fist over Rainbow Dash's downed body. Seconds before he could smash her into paste, however, a burst of confetti threw him from the scaffolding.

"Roar!" the changeling wailed, diving after him with a snarl.

With the duo gone for now, Pinkie raced to Rainbow Dash's side. But as she helped the cyan master up, both of them saw they were too late.

Twilight had Sombra at spell point. The King's back was to an series of wooden beams around an ominous tarp, and the hand holding his sword had been pinned by the tuning fork.

"No more running, Sombra," Twilight growled.

"So it would seem," Sombra said freeing his sword hand.

"Twilight!" Rainbow screamed, but more changelings blocked her path. And if Twilight heard her friend, she didn't let on.

"Now," Twilight growled, approaching the dark king. "Answers."

"You want to know that badly?" Sombra mocked, rubbing his wrist. "You think knowing will heal you, hm? Fill some crater in your soul."

Twilight merely narrowed her eyes, her spell charging dangerously in her hand. Sombra rolled his eyes.

"Well, here's your answer," Sombra replied, putting spite and venom into every word. "Your parents didn't love you!"

Twilight grit her teeth, but her ears flattened, and doubt entered her eyes.

"They never did," Sombra said smugly. "I watched them abandon you to save themselves."

Twilight blinked, tears starting to form in her eyes. Was this... truly the truth? After all the time she had spent searching... was the truth that she was an unwanted child? That her parents... hated her?

Sombra laughed at the despair filling her heart.

"Oh, but here," he offered, leaping onto the tarp, throwing it away with a flash of his horn. "Let me heal you!"

Twilight blinked the tears from her eyes. Under the tarp was a larger and no doubt more powerful cannon. And Sombra smiled cruelly as he lit the fuse.

"TWILIGHT!" Rainbow screamed, bashing her way through the wall of changelings.

Twilight herself seemed struck dumb as the cannonball barreled towards her in a flash of light. Her horn lit up, calling forward every protection and barrier spell she could think of. But just as her body began to glow with a lavender light... the cannonball hit.

Light blinded Rainbow Dash, flinging her into the dark abyss Roar and his changeling had disappeared down. The walls of the factory behind Twilight exploded. And a ashen bundle of fur and burned flesh careened through the air, before striking the river with a brutal WHOOM!


Thunder boomed.

Master Luna's eyes shot open. She rose, staring out from her meditation cavern.

"Twilight?" she whispered. Her sister's staff nearly fell from her hands, but she doubled her grip on it. "Applejack..." she stammered, racing towards the Celestial Palace. "Applejack!"

But part of her feared she was too late.

'No,' she thought defiantly. 'I refuse to believe it.'

'Twilight... Tai...' She blinked hard, refusing to let tears of grief spill. 'You will not die tonight! I refuse to let it happen!'

And yet... part of her couldn't help but think, 'But what if I'm too late?'


Elsewhere, on a bridge that led across a river, a familiar zebra sat cross-legged, calmly sipping tea as if waiting for something.

Eventually, that something made it's appearance; an ash covered, but thankfully still intact unicorn, floating face up down the stream. As the unicorn's body tried to pass under the bridge, Zecora stopped her with her cane.

"Fear not Warrior of Twilight," Zecora declared, pulling Twilight from the river. "You shall fufill your destiny of day and night."