Quest For Harmony

by destinedjagold

Chapter 148 - Faith

‘When everypony's hearts are united...’ Jay thought, gritting his teeth, as he still didn't get it. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Scootaloo's painful cries. “Scoo-Scootaloo!” Jay took a step forward, but stopped when he saw Spike and Rainbow Dash's groaning on the ground in front of him. “Sp-Spike?”

“Th-that was...painful...” Spike groaned, not noticing Jay was looking at him with concern.

Scootaloo gasped in pain when a powerful wave of magic struck her mind.

“S-stop it!” Jay shouted, and Sombra glared at him. “J-just stop!” He looked down, and stared at the heart. ‘Why does he want this heart?‘ He looked back at the dark equine. ‘Do-does he know that it's the key for us of stopping him? B-but, we don't know how to use it!’

Painful grunts echoed from the portal, making Jay's train of thoughts to stop as he looked at the scene on the other side. He gasped, and saw winged crystal ponies overpowering a few pegasi, and giving Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Shining Armor and Twilight a hard time.

He heard a grunt. He turned, and saw Bug was pinned down by a crystal pony. ‘D-darn it!’ He looked back at Sombra, who was now grinning at him. He gritted his teeth, and sighed in defeat. ‘This isn't fair! We were so close... So close...and...’ He sighed yet again, and stared at Sombra with a defeated frown. “Sombra...stop this... I beg of you!” He then extends the heart towards him. “I'll-I'll give you...” a thought hit him, and he put all hope on that thought alone, as he forced himself not to smile at that single thought. “...I'll give you the heart.”

What he just said made everypony gasp and turn to him.

“Jay, are you nuts!?” Rainbow gasped out, but was having trouble standing back up.

“Jay, what are you thinking!?” Spike asked, as he slowly stood back up.

Jay noted how small Spike was. He looked back at Sombra. “On one condition,” he glared at him. “You let my friends go of your magic!”

Sombra blinked, and grinned. Suddenly, Scootaloo fell on the ground, and a loud breaking noise echoed from the portal, around him, and faint crashing noises echoed from afar.

Jay blinked, and looked back at the city far away, and noticed a few tall spikes were crumbling down, as well as the tall spikes around the island.

“Ack!” Bug gasped, and pushed the unconscious scientist off of him. “Wh-what the hell!?”

‘Huh, didn't know he'd actually do it...’ Jay thought as he turned back to Sombra. ‘Then again, maybe he'll just do it over again when I hand him the heart.’ He then noticed that the battle inside the portal was no more, and a few pegasi ponies helped the others. Twilight and Shining however, were looking horrified at him.

He couldn't blame them. After all the trouble they've went through just to give him the heart, and here he was, easily giving the heart to Sombra. Sharp claws grabbed his lower leg.

“Jay,” Spike glared at him, “I'm really considering of burning you right about now.”

“Don't do this, Jay!” Twilight shouted. “You're giving him the only thing that could defeat him!”

Jay looked at Spike, and smiled bitterly, and then shifted his attention to Twilight.

Spike removed his grip on him and stepped back in disbelief. “N-no... Jay, you can't...!”

“Jay!” Rainbow hissed, trying to stand back up with shaking hooves. “When I get back on my hooves, I swear I'll break you!”

Jay closed his eyes, and sighed, before he smiled with hope and stared at Sombra. “Don't worry,” he then tossed the heart towards the startled dark equine. ‘I've got another stupid idea...’

All eyes were on the heart that sailed through the air. Black magical aura surrounded the heart, and finally hovered in front of Sombra.

“Twilight!” Jay shouted, “Shining Armor! Cast a protective spell on Sombra, quick!”

Twilight and Shining were shocked at his sudden command, but Sweetie Belle quickly surrounded Sombra with a powerful barrier, enough for her to trap the equine, but not for long. She grunted as she forced all of her magic on the spell.

Twilight then followed suit, mixing her magic with Sweetie Belle's, and then Shining joined.

Sombra growled and pounded at the barrier trapping him, but he found himself powerless. he then charged his horn with black magic and created a barrier of his own, expanding it and trying to push the other unicorns' barriers in the hopes of breaking it. The sudden powerful pain from his wound reminded him that he shouldn't exert himself. He clenched his teeth as he tried to ignore it and focus more on his magic.

The three unicorns grunted.

“We can't hold him for long!” Shining shouted, sweating furiously from the magical strain.

Jay looked around. “Everyone else!” He then pointed at the heart. “Believe in the heart! Believe in each other! Believe that things will be back to normal!”

After a few seconds of nothing, Jay lamely dropped his hand back.

“What!?” came Rainbow Dash's question, mixed with a hidden message of how stupid Jay suddenly turned into.

Jay sighed. “Look, the show said, and Cadence and Celestia said, that we can power the heart with the unity of our hearts!”

Everyone blinked at him.

“I don't know how, but,” he looked at Spike, “we...we should have faith!” Rainbow turned, and she and Scootaloo looked at each other with confused frowns. “We...we should trust each other!” Fluttershy and the rest of the pegasi ponies looked at each other. “We should believe in one another!” Apple Bloom brought a hoof at Sweetie Belle's shoulder, and the unicorn risked to open an eye, and smirked at her smiling friend. “We humans aren't capable of such things, but I know you ponies can! Your hearts are pure and you are open for change and acceptance, peace and harmony!”

The heart shined, making Sombra gasp.

A loud yet pained whine of ghostly-like horses echoed, both from the portal, and from the gloomy sky.

“By working together, we can accomplish many impossible things! Things great and...” he blinked, and tsk'ed. “Darn,” he whispered, “I lost my train of words...”

Spike chuckled. “And here I thought you're always great with words.”

Jay smiled, knelt down, and patted the dragon, while strangely feeling weird about his scales.

Spike was about to say something else to tease him, but he gasped instead. “J-Jay, you're shining!”

Jay blinked, while he ignored Spike's shining form. He gasped “What? I turned into Shining Armor!?”

“No! That's not what I—” the rest of Spike's words died from the loud melodic hum coming from the brightly shining crystal heart.

Everyone, except for Sombra and the unconscious scientists lying around, were shining, and somehow, couldn't move, even if they wanted to.

Sombra gritted his teeth, and after he noticed the three unicorns' barrier were gone, he removed his barrier and decided to run away. But his first step shot a powerful pain coursing to his brain, making him grit his teeth and him stumble on the ground right next to Xilfer.

“I...don't know what's going on,” Xilfer whispered, and despite the shine he was giving off, Sombra could swear he saw the human grinning devilishly at him, “...but I'm...quite sure...you're in for a lot of...magical pain...”

Suddenly, the crystal heart let out a powerful explosion of white waves all around. Sombra was struck, and he roared in pain. The wave pierced the gloomy sky, and the black clouds faded, giving way to the setting rays of the sun.

Another wave, and Sombra roared again, as white magical orbs circled around him. Sweating, he lit his horn, and casted a barrier around him, but the increasing number of white orbs broke it quite easily.

The heart exploded waves after waves of white harmonious light, reaching everything in great distances. Black mists faded, and those who were unconscious slowly recovered their senses, and felt the strange sensation of peace and serenity.

Soon, Sombra found himself glowing in white. He thrashed his limps weakly, as the harmonious magic slowly evaporated him. Finally, after one last wave, Sombra exploded quietly into white sparkling dusts.

The loud harmonic hum slowly died down, but the heart continued to glow, although not as intense as before. Everyone stopped glowing, and after they all opened their eyes, they gasped in horror.

“Eek!” Jay gasped, looking at his hands. “I'm... I'm...! I'm a crystal human!?”

The others looked worried as well, but after realizing that they weren't feeling anything except for the welcoming feeling of peace, they settled down and started laughing.

Unknown to them all that a mechanical fly built with a camera saw everything that happened.

Something landed in front of Spike. He and Jay looked at it. It was a small part of Sombra's red horn, and it was smoking slightly. Jay and Spike looked at each other, as they wondered what to do with it. After seconds of nothing, they shrugged it off and chuckled, and hugged each other.

They couldn't believe it: it was over.

Bug, feeling weird of being crystal, walked over to Xilfer and helped him up. Xilfer cautiously accepted the help, and was surprised to find that he was no longer wounded. He smiled as he looked at his brother and lots of other ponies, laughing and saying things. He shook his head with a smile.

“I gotta admit,” Bug said, “aside from turning into a shiny vampire from that movie, I'd say I had a lot of fun.” He then looked at Xilfer and grinned.

Xilfer said nothing, as he just enjoyed listening to the laughter of his brother's company.