All the King's Mares (Book 1/3)

by AdrianJNovelle

Chapter 7 - The Final Battle

Twilight had a dream where she made it to King Sombra, who hit her with one lightning bolt, and she surrendered. She was chained up and enslaved by her new master, who brutally beat her with a whip until blood could be seen oozing from her wounds. He laughed fiendishly.

Twilight, frightened by her nightmare, awoke in a fright to find the rest of her team not only unconscious, but out of the shield, for it had shrunken, and barely even housed her. It was shrinking by the minute.

"Oh, no! King Sombra!" she started running, not caring that her great speed would heat her up further than the harsh environment of Tartarus already is. Sweating from every pore in her body, Twilight pushed on without her friends, finally reaching her final destination.

A mountainous cliff greeted her, bordered with spikes and stalagmites. She noticed a cave on the side, and hurried up the steep ramp to the top, where, at the edge, nearly all of Tartarus could be seen.

"So you finally arrived," said a deep, dark, masculine voice. Twilight turned around to find King Sombra on a ledge above her. He looked quite larger than before. "Welcome to my kingdom," he continued. "One of my many kingdoms."

"Many?" asked Twilight.

King Sombra snickered. "I am no longer just a king: I am an emperor - the emperor of Equestria!" His horn glowed, a few bubbles sparking spontaneously in front of him: one with Ponyville, one with Canterlot, and one with the Crystal Palace within their orbits. "You recognize these locations? I hope you weren't planning on returning to any of them. Because, with virtually no defense, I have been able to put my ultimate plan into action. My minions have already arrived at Ponyville, Canterlot, and the Crystal Palace, and have already planted seismic bombs at their cores, which, when they explode, will consume each location, pulling it into my void of Darkness. There will be no Equestria for you to return to!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Twilight shot a bolt of magic from her horn, which instantly shot itself back to her. "Auh!" She toppled over on her backside.

King Emperor Sombra snickered with fiendish delight again. His eyes lit up a moment, Twilight's shield disappearing as a swarm of armored, black mares began to surround her entirely on the cliff. "You won't be needing that," he hissed. "I modified the atmosphere of this part of Tartarus to be impervious to the heat and magical gravity. In addition, I'm sure my puny minions will...take care of you."

The minions crept closer, hissing and growling. As they got closer, Twilight began to see inconspicuous details about them. There was something about them which looked so familiar it was unbearable. Then, it hit her: the ones immediately surrounding her were her friends: Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and all of the other ponies who failed to escape Emperor Sombra's mighty wrath. An especially sizable pony leaped out from behind the crowd. There was no mistaking the sheer size of it: Princess Celestia - the leader of the minion squad. As she neared, her determination to end Twilight's life grew all the more fisable.

Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated on her maigc. Her horn illuminated, and then started firing bolts of light left and right, knocking minion after minion to the ground, incapacitated. As some were knocked out, more and more piled on. The wave seemed endless.

"You will never escape my army of minions!" roared Emperor Sombra. "Everypony in Equestria is against you now! Even with the magic of Tartarus strengthening you - it will still not be enough to survive my army!" He laughed, raising his gigantic hoof in the air, slamming it against the earth when he finished. He turned around and vanished from sight into the shallow cave behind him.

Twilight spent several more moments annihilating the minions, barely scratching the surface of how many there were. But she had bought herself enough time to charge up a final blast which she successfully cast, sending the remaining wave away. All was calm. Then, more minions started emerging from all sides. Twilight blew the smoke from her horn and hurried through the cave and upwards to where she believed Emperor Sombra fled. She found him in the center of a humongous platform, with an underbelly which looked like a mountain; a mountain with a flat top, that is. She noticed the plasma storm in the distance, gradually approaching the scene.

"Hey, King Sombra!" she hollered, disrespecting his newfound title.

The enormous unicron turned around. "You managed to escape my army?" he asked rhetorically. "Hah-hah! Not for long. But it appears you seem too confident in yourself to let a simple Army of Darkness get to you. So perhaps a magic duel is in order." Twilight lowered her head and dug at the ground below her. "To the death!"

Twilight sharpened her grimace. "Bring. It. On."

Emperor Sombra stood erect, then lowered himself as he mimicked Twilight's battle cry. He then charged with all his might to the tiny unicorn, who did the same. They quickly crashed horns. Twilight and Emperor Sombra started a one-on-one sword-fight with their horns, Emperor Sombra clearly having the upper hand. They clashed and clashed, Emperor Sombra's strikes towards Twilight were so strong, they broke off bits and pieces of her horn, badly damaging her. He rose off his front hooves, and took a final blow to her horn, breaking half of it, and sending the weakened pony back almost to the edge of the platform, where only an army of minions followed by a long, painful fall to the floor of Tartarus awaited her. She breathed heavily, experiencing massive pain - like a migraine - in her head.

Emperor Sombra approached her. "Give up?" he asked rhetorically.

Twilight was injured, weakened, beaten, abused, and literally one step away from falling to her death, which was exactly Emperor Sombra's plan on how to finish her off. All she did was close her eyes, and started quietly reciting the ancient hymn to cast the spell.

"...In bright as day

In black as night

I summon the power

To give me light

In bright as day

In black as night

In our darkest hour

For I summon the power..."

"What?!" exclaimed Emperor Sombra. "What are you mumbling?"

"...In bright as day

In black as night

Give me the strength

For I summon the power

In bright as day

In black as night

I give up my life

For I summon the power..."

"Stop that immediately!" Emperor Sombra put his hoof on the vulnerable pony.

The storm was directly overhead now, lightning and plasma sparking from the ominous, black clouds above. It grew dark and cold as the bright and superheated terrain was overpowered by darkness. Annoyed with Twilight's poor sportsmareship, he finally shoved her off the platform, watching in delight as she fell helplessly to the ground.

"...In bright as day

In black as night

I summon the power

To give me light!"

A moment before Twilight hit the ground, she stopped dead in midair, her fragmented horn illuminating a bright white light.

"What? What's happening?" inquired Emperor Sombra.

Twilight was engulfed within a bubble of light which shone brighter than a thousand suns. It flew back up the mountain, and centered itself in the middle of the platform where the almighty battle of magic between Twilight and Emperor Sombra took place.

Confused, enraged, and still powerfully charged with an abundance of magic, Emperor Sombra started shooting the bubble with bolts of magic. All they did was reflect back to him; he evaded their return.

Giant sparkles - in appearance indentical to Twilight's cutie mark - started appearing spontaneously around the bubble, almost in a perfect orbit. The spell was working. But would it pull through?

Twilight felt it: she felt everything. In addition to the pain and turmoil she was going through, she felt...them. She could feel the desire to soar, the will of kindness, the urge to party randomly, the instinct of honesty, the eye for fabulosity...hundreds...thousands of thoughts, desires - all spiraling through her mind like a tornado. She could hear their voices, calling her name; she could feel their hopes and dreams tingling inside her like butterflies.

Just then the bubble exploded in a rage of light as a massive magic bolt shot out to the clouds above, engulfing the entire region of Tartarus - then the rest of Equestria - in a sky of white light. The light spread out to the black holes of the Darkness, shrinking them, and transporting them to Tartarus as the light continued to spread to all of the buildings of Equestria which were destroyed in the Disaster. The orbs of Darkness which gathered around the colossal ball of magical light, which continously grew in size. They then gathered around Emperor King Sombra, who screamed in agony as he was consumed by the very Darkness he brought onto the forsaken world.

The bubble which concealed Twilight then gave one final blow, destroying all the armor of King Sombra's numerous minions, restoring their memories, and then restoring the condition of Equestria as the clouds receded and Twilight was gently set down in the center of the platform.