the rising of the star

by zizolid1

chapter 3

Many years had passed since the alliance was formed. During these years Sombra and Celestia formed a very strong friendship they would often visit each other for both diplomatic and personal reasons. Luna too was involved with Sombra, while not as much as Celestia, Luna did discuss with Sombra a lot about magic and Sombra even provided Luna with tool resources that accelerated magic discovery.

One day while Celestia was helping resolve an argument caused by the talented merchant known as loaded hooves, came an urgent message by Clipperchip. “Dear princess this message can’t wait a single second! The crystal empire has declared war! Here is the note signed by the king himself he says you have ten day and that they’ve already claimed Stalionstead! We must take action!”

Celestia was shocked, almost as if she were paralyzed. But she tried to bring herself back “take your five best scouts and map their entire area of dominance with that info we will know what to do next.” said Celestia.

Celestia awaited till dusk, when the moon had to be risen, for sister. The two began talking “why? Why would he out of the blue declare war on us? Our relations have never been poor, in fact it was probably as close to ideal we could get.” Asked Luna

“maybe he played us he was never our friend to begin with.” Responded Celestia in a cold voice

“no that makes too little sense he funded our magical discoveries. Of how magic works, it wouldn’t benefit him at all as our enemies.” Luna she was slowly becoming more and more impatient as none of the pieces made sense.

The second day arrived and the sister impatiently awaited Clipperchip’s return. Instead came his son, Cloudcutter, the greatest of all the flyers. “Where is your father, Cloudcutter?” asked Celestia she feared the worst.

“that’s what I need to talk about.” said Cloudcutter “we arrived at the empire and saw that blue floor was now instead black same goes with Sombra his eyes were as green as the stem of the flowers and…” the sisters already knew what had happened “he had a thick and dense kind of smoke around him, my father lead half of the squad to the north and east sides while I covered the south and west ones. My entire squad was ambushed and all of them had lost their wings and died, my father had experienced the same fate but narrowly survived unlike his other friends and he had also his wing fully chopped I tried to save him. I landed us outside the conflict zone, and now awaits recovery.” Both Luna and Celestia were shocked to hear this.
“I deeply apologize for your loss” said Luna
“I want to fight against this empire!” begged Cloudcutter
“no” quickly said Celestia “you must go to your father, comfort him and help him, he would want to see you even if its last sight and would not want you to endure the same fate” continued Luna. Cloudcutter then left to help his father.

Celestia then walked off to the basement of her castle “where are you going, sister?” asked Luna.

“To take the elements of harmony out of their protective jail” responded Celestia with a tone of frustration.

“no sister, we must not use them out of emotion. We made a pact not use it for threats smaller than our capabilities.” Said Luna
“and what if he is more powerful than the two of us?” questioned Celestia .

“he surely isn’t as powerful as the two of us. His power source is the crystal heart and after long research it does not function over hate, but his own emotion can serve as a capable source of power. But I do doubt he can rely solely on it” explained Luna.
Celestia the let out a sign of trust. “We are taking the frontline then.”

The sisters then order the best of all three tribes came with her to fight, she gathered ten pegasi to give aerial denial, and ten earth ponies as raw strength, ten unicorns, two of them were specialized medical support the rest served as with the earth ponies.

The sisters arrived with their small army, ready to fight, for the city of Canterlot and ultimately all of equestria. At the empire they saw all the ponies wearing identical helmets that had a green light coming from the small opened visor. Then one of the pegasi quickly did a scan of the empire that you could see, when he returned he described it as enslavement camp.

As a last hope for a peaceful resolution Celestia wrote a treaty and with her magic threw it to Sombra, who stood on top of the wall of the empire. Sombra wrote back and Luna caught it and read it she ripped it there out of anger. “Sombra rejected.” Celestia knew from one look and voice that there was more to the letter and she could not share it.

The sisters then moved forward and began the attack. five unicorns were commanded to move forward and break the wall, the unicorns stood forth a charged their horns and first shot in a circular shape then all at once, including the sisters's vastly superior skills, aimed at the center of their previous shot, leading to the wall being in multiple pieces.

The sister then took lead and raised their wings and began to hover at high speed toward the empire, the pegasai stayed close and did not reach for the sun due to the archers defending the sun. The earth ponies followed on foot with the unicorns right behind them, who were both somewhat left in the dust form the speed of their winged peers. The two sisters entered head first in to the city, their plan was dig to the center to the shard, where Sombra had moved to, then the earth ponies, supported by the unicorns would spread from the inside.

The alicorn sisters reached the walls and prepared their magic, shooting powerful rays forcing the soldiers to move or be shot, regardless the crystal ponies still charged, the pegasai focused on the archers on the walls of the city, as aerial power would give an advantage so powerful it’d guarantee victory. Eventually came the earth pony who stared carving a path through the crowd followed by the explosive powers of the unicorns.

The war was suffering many losses, the sisters had lost half of their healers and main force. Ultimately the sisters realized that they could not suffer any more losses and told her forces to retreat, but the sisters stood where they stand and did not abandon their objective to stop Sombra.

Celestia looked and Luna “for all those who live in their homes, we will protect by offensive measures.” Said Celestia.

“well looks like we are back to our old ways, alone but tall standing. None of our warriors must die without their last vision being of their loved ones. We will take that bit for ourselves.” Responded Luna.

Both sisters jumped into the sky and made and attempt to fly to Sombra. As they flew past they saw nothing but darkness the arrows by the archers filled their vison, the sisters were not deterred by the sight, they knew about their natural abilities to take more damage, to fly faster than sound, to use their gifted talent of magic.

The sister gave an incredible attempt, they constantly kept using their deflection spell and teleportation one as well, moved fast to the point of creating multiple sonic booms, they withstood many steel arrows.

Celestia then landed through a window in the hall where Sombra stood. Celestia had five arrows on her, one on each wing and the area below it and one at her front left knee. “you are weary, my love. It would be futile for you to even stand, my archers were enough to damage you to disability. I’d advise you to let that knee heal.” Celestia stayed silent and slowly tried standing up “you were always so arrogant. My darling we don’t need to fight we can rule together. Imagine it, your parents’ always wanted you to rule over a wide and powerful kingdom.” Celestia stood up and said no words “the silent treatment… you clearly stand where you believe. Against your own parents’ dreams. In that case we will let time choose our fate.” Celestia stood prepared on her feet know what was to come, she had her ward spell at the ready.

Sombra jumped at Celestia with his horn first. The two clashed with horn to horn. Celestia with her wings launches a powerful wind that pushes Sombra to the ground and pushes herself away, she followed it up with a powerful ray of energy directed towards Sombra. Sombra combats it with a teleportation to help him close the gap. The two again end up in a clash but now Sombra shows his strength and pushes Celestia until she has her back towards the corner wall there she a risky gamble. She had tried a repulsion spell that she had very little knowledge of, she commits to it and casts it. The effect was colossal. She destroyed the wall behind her completely and pushed Sombra across the hall. Celestia was badly injured and could not move.

Then came Luna flying from the broken wall and immediately shot the celling’s support right above Sombra causing that part of the celling to collapse on him, she than came down to help her sister and started performing a spell she discovered herself, she brought out a small crystal that she drew energy form and started healing her. Then Sombra stood up from the ruble and shot the floor that Celestia performed her spell on causing it to fall apart. Luna was fast enough to move out of the collapsing floor but her sister fell through onto the crowd below. Luna knew from her spell that she would be fine.

She began fighting Sombra. Sombra came charging at her, Luna the teleported behind him and shot him into the wall but before he could even touch he turns in to a cloud of smoke and reappears in front her. Luna was caught off guard by that in response she creates an area-of-effect spell that cause all to burn around her. Sombra again turns into a smoke and appears right underneath her, hitting him with his horn and following through with a powerful shot that stunned Luna. Sombra then leaped on to Luna, pinning her and putting his hove on her wing and slowly reaching to Luna’s ear. All Luna saw was Sombra’s face with a parasitic black flame exiting from the back of his head. “Is thou worth?” said Sombra in a slow and calm voice.

Sombra then lets out the black flame that exited from his head and directs it towards Luna. It devourers Luna, she sees many visions each scarier than the one she sees before until she sees herself frozen but conscious for a millennia. Luna screamed in terrible agony from the flame’s tapeworm like presence that caused a massive headache, she screamed at the top of her lungs, it’s pushed all away.

During this time Celestia was trapped below from all direction but she proved to be a strong fighter and easily withstood the forces that came towards her. Eventually after a few minutes she finally found her way out of the ruble, as she did, she heard the almost unrecognizable scream of her suffering sister. Filled with the power of her emotions, Celestia rose with the speed of a thousand sounds and threw herself into Sombra, quickly followed by her repulsion spell directed entirely towards Sombra. She brought up her wings covering Luna. Sombra then shot the same magic towards Celestia, in response she used one of her wings to protect herself and the other protecting Luna. Celestia did not even flinch.

Luna slowly backed herself up, as she thought of a way to defeat Sombra. Then she looked up to the brown sky, she had an idea. Although it was still day Luna raised her moon to block the sun creating a temporary night. The sudden absence of light shortly stunned Sombra, but for long enough to allow Celestia to temporarily disable him, by shooting for the leg and forcing part of the ceiling to collapse on to him.

Then Luna looked at the stars and noticed one in a perfect position to intercept “sister we now have access to the stars! Their power projected from our combined talents will surly defeat Sombra.” Called Luna. The sisters then rose to the sky and put their horn together. “We only have a brief moment to perform our spell! The star will provide us with the power but we must perform our spell perfectly to defeat Sombra.” The sister began concentrating and preparing themselves to feel the power of a star. During this Sombra began recovering and reached to where the sisters stood. The next thing he saw was a powerful beam that obliterated him to beyond ash.

The sister struck a sigh of relief and turned back to first see the star that they took and second the crystal ponies free from Sombra’s cursed helmets that forced his bidding. Instead they saw a star still present and snow with a lack of population. “Where is the empire?!” said Celestia.

Luna saved and thought and responded with “Sombra, must have cast a spell that caused the empire and all in it to disappear with him, the crystal heart couldn’t have saved the empire because it was already inactive.”

“So both the empire and Sombra are gone” continued Celestia.

“Well that explains the empire but what of the star?” Said Luna

“I don’t think we used It.” said Celestia “our powers combined were enough to defeat Sombra.” “But that level of power can’t be acomplished by ponies!” said Luna in confusion

“we are alicorns, remember?” responded with Celestia with slight arrogance

“well looks as if we underestimate our own powers then.” said Luna.