Fallen Queendom

by Zeroraid

16

“Neither of us are near our full power.” Pale Arts mused as she stepped towards her barrier. “Still if we clash, I fear the empire will fall in the crossfire.” The mare stated, the moment she found herself stepping up to her barrier, and it seemed to ripple as she moved through it. “And considering we both desire to have it standing when the day is over, let us fight out here where nothing but snow and frost exist.” From the frozen soil two paths of ice - rather crystals - started to form beside her and every time she moved the crystals pulled themselves from the snow.” Pale Arts took a minute to crack her neck. “May the victor leave this frozen wasteland, and may the defeated be buried under the frost.” She stated, staring up at the shadow. “Let us begin.”

Sombra moved first, diving down as his shadow bore fangs. Pale Arts simply dodged, teleporting to the side as the shadow turned to face her and fired a ray of dark magic that was deflected elsewhere; one ray breaking into several as they bombarded the snow covered landscape. Pale Arts glanced at one of her crystals as she nodded her head while the dark magic continued to spread out around her. The moment Sombra’s ray fizzled out he lunged and Pale retaliated by thrusting one of her two crystals at him. The Shade dodged, avoiding the improvised weapon as he continued his charge. The former queen fired a bolt of magic as she Sombra circled around and pounced on her. A blast slammed it into the side as he hit the ground before half a dozen more rained down on him. Looking up he noticed the crystal that was floating in the air, getting hit by a bolt before it was angled back towards him as another volley.

He moved, trying to dodge a few dozen rays that were falling upon him. A pause between the volley acted as his opening to gather his magic and launch it at the mare standing across from him. All she did was stand her ground, her remaining crystal moving before her as she channeled her magic into it. When Sombra’s blast hit it the crystal blackened for a moment as the energy went into it and started being purified. Pale Arts just started focusing the energy into a ball and fired it back at the tyrant. Sombra’s shade fired his dark magic again as he caused the sphere to detonate.

---

Crystal Palace

They could have been at this for just a few minutes or a couple of hours now. Honestly, Gentle didn’t really care anymore. All he knew was that this was getting exhausting. It felt like every door they opened led to more crystal monsters they had to fight off.

Gentle reared back and smashed the last crystal spider with his bat. Panting, he turned to Sunset as she dismissed her magic, taking the time to blow upward at her horn and get rid of some of the smoke it was radiating.

“You ok?” She asked and he tried giving her a thumbs up, realized once again that he was missing fingers and just nodded his head. “Good.” She muttered as she dropped onto the ground and took a minute to breathe. “Ah~ this is exhausting…” She muttered as Gentle took a minute to settle down next to her. “I feel like I just got my magic back and I’m already pushing it to its limits.” She stated as she turned to Gentle. “What about you? You haven’t had magic for even a week, is it starting to bother you?” Gentle shook his head, taking a minute to tap his horn with his hoof to show that it was still it’s normal color and not smoking. “That’s really good to hear.” Sunset muttered as she leaned back. “It might help that your magic hasn’t randomly surged yet.” She noted looking at Gentle’s horn. “Still…” Gentle tilted his head as he looked at Sunset. “Sorry, just wondering about something.” She muttered and Gentle made a gesture for her to continue. “I’m just… trying to figure out what kind of pony you are.” Gentle tilted his head again. “I mean your horn’s different than mine, and your tail is…” Gentle looked at the appendage, causing it to shift from side to side as he made a noise. It was still weird having this thing, but he kinda got what she was getting at. His tail was not like hers, rather his tailbone was much longer than her’s. “What kind of pony did you turn into?”

Gentle shrugged, not really sure how to answer that before raising his tail and dropping it on the floor. They both fell silent as they just stayed on the floor, taking a break from their exploration of the castle and fighting crystal monsters. Gentle created a magic hand to scratch his back as his foot kicked, something Sunset found strangely adorable and couldn’t help smiling.

“You’re improving fast.” Gentle looked at her. “You could barely conjure up your magic a day ago, and here you are using it it scratch your back like it’s nothing.” She noted. “I wonder if you have an innate aptitude for magic.” She stated as Gentle rubbed his head.

“Don’t know.” He muttered. “But I do… learn fast when… I’m under pressure.” He admitted taking a moment to rub his scars. “Helps me survive.” Sunset didn’t say anything, just looking at the boy-turned-pony before looking away.

“I get that…” She muttered. The two fell silent as they continued to rest, Gentle taking the time to look at his bat as he made a face.

“Do you think…” He started up again. “We might have… leveled up by now?”

“Huh?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean ‘level up’?”

Gentle said something she couldn’t hear and pouted, realizing that he’d overworked his vocal cords again and started to sign with a hand made of magic.

“Sorry, I’m thinking video games.”

Gentle signed.

“If this were a video game, do you think we would have leveled up yet?”

He chuckled weakly.

“I mean we’ve been getting a lot of fighting experience since we got here.”

That got Sunset to snicker.

“Maybe.” She stated. “But what game would we be playing if that were the case?” Gentle gave her a grin.

“Castlevania?”

He replied and Sunset laughed.

“What; we’re exploring a giant castle and fighting monsters.”

“Yeah but where’s Dracula?” She retorted as Gentle smiled. “And who are you supposed to be if that were the case, a Belmont?”

“Well I am more melee orientated than you are… Belnades.”

He smiled as Sunset chuckled.

“Then does that make Pale Arts our Alucard?” Gentle just continued to smile as he shrugged.

“Maybe, but if that were the case she’d be related to the bad guy.”

“Well, that’s true.” Sunset sounded amused as she got to her feet and made a noise. “Anyway, you ready to get back to looking? We got a lot more ground to cover if we want to find this Crystal Heart thing.”

“Right… about that.”

Gentle paused.

“This might sound stupid, but why not backtrack to the throne room?”

Sunset just stared at the young stallion as she blinked in confusion.

“Why?”

“Well, again this might be a stupid thought but… this is the bad guys castle right?”

He asked.

“Well when it’s turned ‘dark’ it’s his castle, so wouldn’t he want it somewhere closeby to keep an eye on it?”

“What better place than near his throne…” Sunset caught on as she tried rubbing her eyes. “Why didn’t I think about that?” Sunset muttered as she got to her feet and nodded her head. “Let’s go, I think you’re onto something.”

---

Pale Arts found herself moving, dodging to the side as she avoided a wave of dark magic that had torn through the snow, leaving a trench behind that was quickly filled with black crystals. She made a noise as she did, glancing back to see Sombra circling around to chase after her. She jumped and started to fly, her shadow forming into two pitch black wings that helped her stay airborne.With a flap of her wings she went higher, dodging an assortment of magic rays as Sombra continued chasing after her. She launched both her crystals and fired at one, the blast bouncing between the two crystals as they performed a line that tore an uncounted number of holes into Sombra’s shadow-like form. His shadow just patched itself back together, the darkness reforming and spreading out as the former queen just started down at him. With a flap of her wings she started flying, dancing across the sky as Sombra fired a number of dark rays in her direction.

Out of nowhere he switched to a volley of dark crystals that flew like darts that the former queen continued to dodge before wrapping herself in her black wings, turning them into a sphere of black that started to fall from the sky. Sombra lunged, his darkness biting into the sphere as he slammed it into the ground before backing away to fire a blast at it that caused the snow to blacken as black crystals darted everywhere.

“Behind you.”

The shadow turned like lightning and found nopony there, and the moment he turned back around he found dozens of blacked crystals slamming into his shade. Pale Arts pulled herself from her dark shell as she looked at her work. Her eyes flashed for a moment as the rune she had engraved on the crystals burned and exploded into a flash of light.

Sombra retreated, hissing as his shadow started to mend itself and as his eyes glared at the mare.

T̵̤̜͓̟͚̒̿r̷̭̋i̶͕͖͓̟͐̑̔̚͠͝ͅͅc̴̨̦̭̲̈́͗ḱ̶̡͋͗s̵̟̞͖̪͖͓̑̓t̸̫͈̺͉̖̼́ḙ̴̜̪̩̫̎̉͂͠r̶̬̖̲̳̼̓͒̚.̸̛͈̟̈́͑.̶͎͕̯̺̼̌́.̷͔͇͇̦̑

“I don’t recall declaring the rules of our engagement.” Pale Arts stated as she stepped forward, the crystals she was stepping on started to glow as they were purified and started lifting themselves into the air. “And I see little need to do so now.” She launched the crystals at her counterpart, throwing them like javelins that Sombra started to mold himself around, as he retreated. He inhaled and his horn glowed. He roared and the crystal javelins vanished, burning out of reality as they were consumed by a giant wave of magic that tore through part of the landscape.

---

Elsewhere

“Hey… Shining?” Cadence muttered, her attention focused on the snow that was stiff falling outside her window.

“Yeah?”

“You ever get the feeling we’re missing out on something important?” Cadence asked as Shining Armor made a humored noise.

“All the time.” He admitted with a smile. “Why do you ask?”

---

Forcing herself to her feet, Pale Arts staggered for a moment as she pulls herself from the hole she’d been blasted into and shakes her head. Noticing something forming above her, she dodged to the side as a blast of dark magic impacted the area she once was, raising spikes of dark crystals in its wake while she rolled to her feet and counters with her own burst of magic. All she could make out is that she misses and something land before slamming into her with enough force it may very well have been a train. Grunting the mare disappeared into light as she appeared behind Sombra’s shade and fired another burst of her own magic as she knocked her opponent back.

Switching to defense, she created a crystal barrier to block another ray of twisted magic and she followed it with a beam of light that made a beeline for the black mass. Her opponent dodged, their shape changing to let the magic miss and rushed her. Passing over her, her barrier was bathed in darkness as she looked upward at it.

Her shield would hold.

Focusing her magic again her barrier started to glow as she expanded it, making it double and then triple in size as it became this mass of sharpened crystal blades that pointed in every direction imaginable.

The howl that followed wasn’t something an equus could make, and it was something that would probably be heard for the next several miles.

It was Sombra that made that noise, his shade having been impaled in more than a few dozen places, but it still moved. Like living smoke it moved, it swayed and snaked its way through what it could before retreating, and in doing so, it revealed just how disastrous the damage was.

And yet, what damage that had been inflicted wasn’t long lasting. The Shade stitched itself back together. Crawling away from the artificial fortress of crystal that had now stood in the frozen wasteland.

From one of these spires Pale Arts stood, walking out to stare down her adversary as they glared back at her. Sombra growled, his fangs being barred even in his shadow as he grew, while vapors of green started to rise off of him and melt with the black.

‘Emotion Magic.’ Pale Arts noted. The arcane skill she was now teaching her two students was being used by an enemy before her. ‘There must be some irony in this situation.’ She thought to herself as Sombra lunged. In turn she just pointed a hoof forward as a spike of crystal was pulled from her fortress and fired like it had been shot from a cannon. Sombra recoiled, the crystal hit him.

No, the crystal didn’t hit him, it went right through him. Digging into the snow not too far away as it radiated magic. That was what hit him, the arcane energy that Pale Arts had loaded into it.

He looked back at the mare, standing so high up on her crystal fortress as she made more spires grow from her stronghold.

She gave the unheard command, and her stronghold fired.

---

Crystal Palace

“Alright we’re here.” Sunset muttered as she and Gales stepped back into the throne room and closed the door behind them. “So, if your guess is right then, the Crystal Heart should be somewhere in here.” Gentle tried giving her a thumbs up, failed and just nodded his head.

“Still where do we start looking?”

“The throne is the only real thing in here.” Sunset muttered as she looked at the crystal throne and walked towards it. “But at the same time that just feels a bit obvious right. I mean, theres a bunch of hidden doors and rooms everywhere in this castle, so who’s to say that theres not one in here?” She took a moment to look around before turning to Gentle. “Easiest way to find out would be to blast the entire room.”

“Is that a smart thing to do?”

“Probably not.” Sunset admitted. “We’d need a lot of dark power to draw upon to turn the entire chamber.” The mare looked back towards the throne. “And having to let out that much dark power will probably not be good for us.”

“So we do a corner at a time?”

“No.” Sunset muttered. “This throne room is huge, there's no way that we’ll be able to do the entire place if we just go one corner at a time.” Sunset wasn’t wrong. “Only way to get through this is if I hit the entire room in one go.”

“You don’t have to.”

Gentle wrote.

“I’ll help, we’ll both do half the room and -”

“No way.” Sunset cut him off. “Youbarely have the fundamentals for your magic down, if you accidentally screw up or Goddess forbid, suffer a random surge, you could really hurt yourself.” She told him. “I have more experience with magic in general, so it’ll be safer if I do this.” Gentle gave her a look. “No buts, I got this.” Sunset told him. “You just hang bang and keep an eye on me, if I go a little crazy pull me out of it ok.” Gentle didn’t say anything, he didn’t sign anything either, he just stared at Sunset for a moment before frowning as he nodded his head.

“Be… careful.” He whispered as Sunset nodded, closing her eyes and started to focus.

“Alright.” She muttered. “Here we go in, three two… one…” That vile mana started to dance across her horn as vapors left her eyes. Without a word she fired her magic, not a ray but as a sort of growing dome, one that started at her feet and slowly made its way outward. The ground started to darken as Gentle stepped back, more out of reflex than anything.

“Sun…set?” Gentle muttered as he started noticing Sunset’s coat starting to pale.

‘Need…more…’ Sunset thought to herself. ‘I need to draw upon more power.’ She told herself. ‘But to find it I need to dig deeper…’ She thought as she started searching through her memories.

“Sunset?”

She remembered her life before Celestia took her in, and how she hated it.

Sunset.”

She remembered who she was and was disgusted by it.

“Sunset you need to stop.”

She remembered Flash breaking up with her and felt both the pain and the anger she felt from it.

“Sunset!”

She remembered…

“You have a lot to think about…”

---

Gentle wasn’t exactly sure what happened, one moment he was shaking Sunset and the next he was being blown back by something. Looking up he saw that Sunset had wrapped herself in a pillar of light that was actually burning the ceiling. From the outside he could see cracks of light starting to form on the mare’s skin as she started to float into the air.

“Sunset!”As soon as the pillar came though it disappeared, and Gentle found himself looking skyward at a curious pair of tattered wings unfurling to reveal someone new “Oh… this can’t be good.”

---

???

Wandering the old roads a trio composed of a Goddess unsealed, a mercenary, and her client, of of the three froze as they turned their head elsewhere. “Is something wrong?” Her client asked as they looked back and stared at the mercenary who was just staring off into the distance. The mare just shook her head.

“No…” The mare muttered. “It’s nothing for you to worry about.” Her client just looked at her before nodding their head.

“Very well.” The figure stated as he continued walking to catch up with his Goddess. Meanwhile the mare couldn’t help looking back elsewhere as she bit her lips.

“That feeling… Sunset?”