Return of the Ancient Mage

by Zoshe

Chapter 47: Evil's End

Rainbow Dash descended from her perch on the tower to find her friends holed up in an old shop. "Well look who finally showed up to the party," said Applejack as she threw yet another crystal pony off into the crowd.

"Yeah! Well I couldn't let you have all the fun, Applejack," said Rainbow Dash as she kicked a couple of other ponies that were climbing up their makeshift barricade. "So why are we being attack by crystal ponies?"

"Yeah," said Pinkie as she continued to pommel ponies left and right with confections. Each dessert having enough impact to leave them with a big smile and possibly a concussion.

"Look at their eyes," Twilight said as she conjured a shield and pushed all of them back. The momentarily bare ground was covered in furrows, hinting that that hadn't been the first time Twilight had to do that. "I think Sombra's controlling them somehow."

"Oh my. Do you think this is happening everywhere?" Said Fluttershy.

"I imagine so, darling," said Rarity. "The others are probably having as much trouble as we are."

"I'm sure Princess Celestia is having it easy," said Rainbow. "I mean, she's Princess Celestia for Celestia's sake."

"Maybe..." Said Twilight. "The biggest problem we've been having is we're trying not to hurt anypony, but they just keep coming."

In unison they all turned to face Pinkie Pie who was currently reloading her party cannon. "What?" She whined. "Confetti doesn't hit that hard."

"Well darling, the princess must be having it easy enough," said Rarity. "I mean, she can still move the sun despite everything that's happening."

Twilight stole a glance at the sky, the sun had just about finished setting, but wait... Something didn't seem quite right. She could still see the moon climbing up the other horizon like it normally did, but the sun actually seemed to be moving higher, not lower. It was moving in the wrong direction as it climbed into what should've been the night sky.

"What's going on?" Twilight braced herself as another wave of crystal ponies came rushing in. "What is Celestia doing?"

---

Celestia was having trouble keeping the crystal ponies at bay. Even after Luna had joined her and reported similar problems where she had been, they didn't seem to be making any ground in pushing the hordes of ponies back. That had been the biggest problem when Equestria had gone to war with the Crystal Empire a thousand years ago. The crystal ponies seem to be particularly resistant to all forms of magic and that still remained true.

"Sister," said Luna as she stayed aloft near Celestia, both royals doing their best to push back against the advancing hordes. "Is it just me or does this form of control seemed different than what Sombra employed before?"

Celestia peered down at the ponies. There was something different than before, but it had been so long that she couldn't quite put her hoof on it. "I don't know, Luna. I haven't really had much time to think about it."

"Before, Sombra had used a magical tool in the form of a helmet to control each individual," Luna pointed out. "We had only to damage it enough and the pony would be free. However, this time he doesn't appear to be using the same method."

Celestia eyes opened wide at the realization. "You think he's strong enough now to seize control all by himself?"

"It does seem that way," said Luna as she continued to look over the rebelling public. "And while I have your attention, are you ever going to finish setting the sun? It should've been night some time ago and we don't wish to alert the rest of the country that something is amiss."

"Hmmm?" Celestia turned to the west where the sun was still a good ways away from the horizon. "Sorry Luna, I could've sworn I already put it to bed." Her horn took on its signature golden glow as she reached for the distant blazing orb.

She stopped after a few moments of the sun moving in the wrong direction, screwed her eyes, and then tried again. After a third attempt, holding her breath this time, she released a huge gasp and started to look very worried. "I... I can't move the sun. Why can't I move the sun?"

"Sister?" Luna gave her older sister a worried look. "Surely thou knows that this is not the time to jest."

"I'm not joking," she said, growing increasingly more worried. "I can't even feel the sun right now. You try it."

"You picked a really bad time for your jokes, dear sister." Luna turned to the sun and reached for it, only to have a similar response barely a moment later. "That's not right," she said as she turned back to the moon and did the same thing. "It's not just the sun, sister. I can't feel the moon either. Not only that, but it's ascending way too fast."

"If Sombra's grown so powerful, that he can move the sun and the moon, we're in trouble." Celestia finished as she went back to trying to push the possessed ponies back, her efforts a little more desperate than before.

---

Clover was having an unusual time. He had expected the enthralled populace to rush him, instead the crowd had formed a circle around him, trapping him and the pony that he assumed contained the core of Sombra's consciousness. They had spent the last several minutes blocking and parrying each others attack. Clover did what he could to try and subdue his attacker, but whether it was his hesitation to hurt the host's body or just how weakened the exorcism had left him, but he was taking the worse end of the punishment.

Sombra seemed to want to take his time taking the alicorn apart. A smile played across his face every time he managed to land a successful hit. Clover found himself with numerous cuts and bruises, and the worse part of it all was that they weren't healing themselves.

He managed one of his few successful feints, using the momentum to send Sombra's host into a pile of crates. As soon as he saw the body disappear, he wheeled about to watch the rest of the crowd. Sure enough, like the other times he had been able to stop one of the ponies, mist began to gather around another pony's eyes as Sombra jumped into another body and resumed the fight with increased vigor.

Clover barely had a moment to catch his breath. It would be one thing if he was in his prime, actually this never would've had the chance to get this far if he had the body he had before he met Starswirl. In his current state though, it was taking everything he had just to keep up.

As the new combatant approached, something in the sky drew his attention. If he hadn't been so focused on trying to stay alive, he might have seen it sooner, but the sun and the moon were drawing ever closer to each other. Something didn't feel right... He reached out a small tendril of magic towards the celestial bodies, however he couldn't feel either Celestia's and Luna's presence within them like he normally would. Had Sombra stolen the spells from him and seized control of the heavens during this whole mess. Clover still knew the old spells that unicorns used for it, but for anyone but the princesses they required multiple ponies and a lot of setup.

Sombra noticed the lapse in attention, but instead of taking the advantage, he chose to follow Clover's line of sight and looked curiously up at the sky. "What could those royal brats be planning?" He asked aloud.

Sombra didn't know either? Clover's mind raced through what else could be happening, but nothing else presented itself. Lost as he was in his thoughts, he wasn't paying attention when a hoof connected with his jaw. The force of the blow was more than enough to lift him off the ground and send him sailing towards the nearby homes. Just as he was about to collide with one of the crystal buildings, it simply vanished. He slid to a stop on the now bare ground and felt shaken as he pushed himself back up. His vision must've been affected by the blow because his surroundings now appeared red.

He waited a moment for it to pass, but it did not. He looked around confused until he found the source of the red light. The heavenly bodies had finished eclipsing each other and a blood red light now washed over the land. The recent change has caused an eerie silence to fall over the whole city, even the cold north winds that had been blowing through the city found themselves stilled before the light that now filled the city.

Clover looked back to where the building been before it had disappeared, not even the foundations were left to mark its passing. It was as if it had never existed in the first place. A flicker in the corner of his eye made him snap his head and he just barely managed to catch it in time as another home met the same fate. Over and over this repeated, not even sparing the Crystal Palace, until all that was left was the many ponies that littered the landscape.

They didn't stay there long as one by one, each of the crystal ponies began to vanish as well while leaving barely a shadow behind. The shadows melted into an inky black river as they flowed past his hooves and collected themselves around Sombra. When Sombra's host had vanished as well, the shadows rushed in to fill the void. The void drank in the shadows like a thirst that could never be quenched and with every drink, the center grew deeper and darker.

Once enough darkness had collected, the surface of the dark pool began to ripple. The ripple turned into waves as the liquid became more and more agitated, until finally something broke through the surface. Clover instantly recognized it as one of the forelegs of Sombra's beastial form. How could he not? After all the time he spent keeping it captive within himself, learning what he could to keep it better contained, and then finally tearing it free and watching as it gained a corporeal form. However, this form was bigger... A lot bigger.

Inky black fur still covered its tree trunk sized foreleg while its razor sharp claws now resembled an array of swords. The following shoulder looked like a large boulder as it pulled the rest of the torso through after it, and its jaws... Its jaws were now larger than that of most dragons.

Clover began to back away as the last of its tail was pulled free of the sludge. The beast that Sombra became took a single step forward, the ground cracking and breaking under his massive weight. His jaw creaked open and his hot breath washed over the icy field, the snow melting slightly as the air washed over it. "I don't know what it is you're planning, but I'm done playing around."

Before Clover had a chance to respond, Sombra let out a world-shattering roar. The ground split and broke apart, snow blasted off the ground, and whatever plant life was still left was torn from the ground to join the torrent of snow and debris.

Clover was smart enough to know that he was in no shape to take on such a creature right now. He spread his wings and leapt into the sky, but what should've been flight, only ended up being a long jump. He couldn't be that much out of practice, could he? He ran his feathers through the air and that's when he noticed what was wrong. "There's no magic in the air..."

Sombra wasn't going to waste any more time. The monstrosity began lumbering after him, quickly covering the distance between them. Clover was left with only one option, he ran. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

The ground continued to fall away as the distance between them closed. The chunks of stone and crystal that were being kicked up ended up being larger and larger. The red light in the sky began to recede, making way for a darkness even darker than the abyss that Sombra surely must have crawled up from. The red in the sky did not simply disappear, it began to fill the eclipsing sun and moon until all that was left in the sky was an orb of the purest crimson. In the middle, a dark line split and expanded until it looked like the eye of some impossible huge giant looking down at them.

It finally clicked in Clover's head what was happening. She had told him what she could be capable of if allowed free reign, it sounded outrageous even at the craziest of times so he found himself thinking that she was just exaggerating. He continued to pound across the ground, the distance between him and the creature behind him ever closing. His lungs burned, but he still spared some effort to look up at the orb in the sky and say, "that's you, isn't it, Ret?"

He got his confirmation when the eye turned its focus on him. Its expression didn't change, it really couldn't, but was that satisfaction he felt emanating from it?

A massive shock ran through the ground, causing every creature, friend or foe, upon it to lose its balance. The void around the eye began to feel deeper and darker the more time passed. A quick glance at the landscape showed that the ground no longer existed much further beyond the land they stood upon. It wasn't that they were in the air, but instead they found themselves wrapped in nothingness while the void continued to consume the edge of the platform, giving them less and less ground left to stand on.

"Clover!" Shouted Twilight as he caught up to her. "What's happening?! What has Sombra done?!"

"This isn't Sombra!" Clover gasped out between breaths as he continued running. They quickly dodged out of the way as a blue beam of energy shot between them and hit Sombra square in the face. It sent him tumbling backwards and towards the growing edge. His back legs now dangling off the edge as he scrambled with his claws to find purchase on the crumbling ground. "This is Ret's doing! I'm sure of it! I don't know how she revived herself, but she did!"

"Me and Fluttershy just saw her in the castle!" Shouted Rainbow Dash as she ran alongside them. "She seemed fine to me. Now why can't I fly?!"

"It's not just you!" Clover shouted back. "I can't either. There's no magic in this air for pegasus magic to interact with."

"And what does that mean?!" Rainbow demanded.

"It means keep running, sugarcube!" Applejack shouted at the prismatic dummy.

They kept hauling tail in the direction of where the blast had come from, eventually finding where the other three princesses had gathered.

"You made it." Said Luna, sounding equally exhausted from her own efforts.

"What's happening, Clover?" Celestia sounded worried. "The sun and the moon have vanished. Did Sombra...?"

"What happened to Shining Armor?!" Cadence screeched, anxious tears running down her face. "He disappeared in a pink light right before everything started going mad!"

"Pink light? And he disappeared?" Clover raised an eye brow as he looked back to make sure Sombra still hadn't regained his footing. "Sounds like he got fairynapped. That explains so much right now."

"What does it explain?" Cadence started to calm down after getting something close to an answer.

"No time, he's probably fine though." He began looking around at the bare ground surrounding them, "come on, Ret. I'm impressed already but need something a little more."

Red letters began to appear in the ground at their hooves, making a couple of them jump back in surprise. "Fine, make me do everything, why don't ya." They read just before the words began to glow and shoot outward. They dug deep lines into the earth, forming shapes as they raced along the open ground.

"Is that?" Twilight asked in shock as she saw some of the lines trace her cutiemark into the ground.

"It is," confirmed a wide-eyed Clover. A large pentagram had been traced into the center of a spell circle. Detailed inscriptions found their home along the edges of the diagram and there were small circles at each point of the star that held the cutiemark of each of the five alicorns present. "Oh? Oh, that's good. I never would've thought about doing that before now."

"What is it?" Asked Celestia.

"A ritual of banishment," said Clover. "Using us as a focus. I didn't even think about the fact that we have five alicorns. Oh this has so much potential..."

The musing was cut off as an enraged roar sounded in the distance. Ten heads turned to see an Sombra barreling towards them, dense smoke pouring from its open eyes and mouth as it raced towards them.

"We need to get him in the circle," he said. "This should be over once we activate the spell."

"Won't he just avoid the spell?" Asked Rainbow. "Like, just run around it?"

"As angry as he is, I seriously doubt it," he said as he kept looking back and forth between the circle and the rampaging king in the distance. "My mark is on the opposite side of the circle and it's me he wants more than anything. He'll have to go straight through it to get to me. We just need to activate the spell before he reaches me."

"That's a terrible risk you're taking, Clover," Luna feeling apprehension as she rested a hoof on his shoulder. "What if you don't activate it in time?"

"Then I won't be around to complain," he said as he looked into her eyes. "Trust me. I can do this."

"Here he comes!" Shouted Applejack.

Clover tore himself away from Luna as all five alicorns found their circle to stand on. Just as he had predicted, Sombra payed no attention to anyone but him. He charged straight into the circle as they began activating the spell. Clover raced to finish empowering his side of the spell, but with as weakened as the day's exertions had left him, he knew he wasn't going to make it in time.

The shadow beast leapt for him, jaws open and claws extended as he began to savor his long awaited kill. This pony had eluded him for far too long, imprisoned and tormented him, but he would finally exact his revenge.

Several feet of dark black crystal picked that moment to sprout from the ground and pierce the beast's body. Sombra screamed in confused rage as he was brought to a sudden halt, mere inches from his intended target. He stretched forward with one of his claws, determined to not be denied his vengeance. The claw didn't make it any further before it met the same fate. As if to deter any further attempts, dozens of additional spikes sprouted up under the beast's body and found a home in the inky flesh, effectively stapling the creature in place.

A ghostly figure wrapped itself around the former tyrant king. A new set of eyes could just barely be made out in the gathering fog as a voice could be heard carrying over the wind. "You took my mother from me and brought pain and suffering to our kingdom. This is where it ends."

The spell finally took effect as light erupted from the ground and enveloped the skewered Sombra where he stood. The black crystal evaporated as the pure white light wrapped itself around him and began to pull him into the void that had appeared beneath him. The alicorns eyes all lit up as storms of magic were relentlessly torn out of each of them to feed the raging spell.

Once Sombra had been pulled halfway in the ground, Clover fell to one knee as the exhaustion slammed into him. He had done too much in too short a time and was too badly wounded for his trouble. He had nothing left he could give to support the spell.

The effects of his weakness were immediately noticeable once Sombra halted in his descent and slowly started to claw his way back up. "I'm sorry," said Clover, sweat pouring off his face. "I should've asked for help sooner, before it got this bad."

"Then maybe y'all can be a little more forward when you need help. Keepin secrets is good and all, but not when it gits others hurt," said Applejack as she stepped up next to the raging inferno that was the banishment spell.

"We all need help sometimes when times get tough," said Fluttershy, her soft voice barely carrying over the rush of magic.

"We're not the kind of ponies to turn our noses up at somepony in need," said Rarity, a bit hesitant, but still holding her ground.

"Just think about the super splendiferic party we get to throw once we're all safely home again," chirped Pinkie, not seeming bothered at all.

"If you ask for help, we'll always get your back. Even if times get tough and we don't always get it right, we can't let that stop us from trying," Rainbow said confidently. "Heh, I had to have someone remind me of that."

As each of them said their piece, each of the Elements of Harmony they wore began to glow. Their resolve held fast as their magic wrapped around them and carried them into the air above where the struggle was still happening. Each of the princesses looked away from their task for only a moment, confusion on their faces but none were more confused than Twilight. She had never seen any evidence that the rest of the elements could act without her Element of Magic.

Sombra doubled his efforts in a panic as he tried to climb out of the void with the end in sight. He only managed another foot before the light above him flared and multihued magic of harmony slammed down upon him. His body immediately began to break apart as each of the pieces turned to mist and were effortlessly sucked into the void. Within a few moments, there was little more than a skeleton still left of him as the last of his body crumbled into dust and the light washed over the area with one final wave before everything went dark.

The five ponies that floated above them were slightly uneasy as their hooves touched back down. Collective sighs of relief could be both heard and felt as they all looked at each other, the occasional nervous laugh finding its way through. The only one who still seemed to be holding his breath was Clover. One by one they noticed his stunned expression and followed his gaze to where he was staring.

In the place where all the magic had clashed together and given the dark king his last moment, now laid a young colt.

Comments

[UnamusedWaffle]

11079625
That’s one of them. Just like this entire plan in general, how they’re appearing and disappearing at will, like when they dissolve or something, other smaller things I’m forgetting that have just compounded into this sense of confusion I can’t seem to shake

[Luckyfanisaac]

"And what does that mean?!" Rainbow asked again.

[ponepony]

It finally clicked in Clover's head what was happening. She had told him what she could be capable of if allowed free reign, it sounded outrageous even at the craziest of times so he found himself thinking that she was just exaggerating. He continued to pound across the ground, the distance between him and the creature behind him ever closing. His lungs burned, but he still spared some effort to look up at the orb in the sky and say, "that's you, isn't it, Ret?"

For some reason all I'm thinking of is Ret singlehoof make a dyson sphere around the sun given her power.