Sweetie Belle and the School of Shadows

by Blackdrag-rose

Duel

“She’s right outside the Bastion,” Midnight said, suddenly turning back to face the doors of the Core, “I should have seen this coming.”

“Seen what?” Shadence asked, the group following the stallion out of the Core.

“That when I brought you all here she would have figured out where the Bastion was located,” Midnight answered, “She’s the Shadow of Celestia and knows everything she knows. If I told Celestia where the Bastion was or brought her here than Darkstar would have known as well.”

The group stopped behind Midnight, who had stopped to watch the progress of the fading barrier. His magic, from what Celestia could see, was bubbling as the barrier broke piece of piece to the power of Darkstar. She realized that her own Shadow hadn’t gotten weaker, but had remained at the same level of unbelievable power she had been at last time. She didn’t even know if Midnight had enough magical energy to overcome the evil alicorn that was waiting for him.

“Take this portal and return to the school,” Midnight calmly said, trying to suppress his anger as a gateway opened next to him, “I will take care of this.”

“But Midnight…” Luna started, approaching the alicorn.

“I said go,” Midnight shouted, causing them all to flinch, “I don’t want you to get harmed by any stray spells that she might fire.”

Luna looked like she wanted to say something, anything at all, to the stallion, but found that she couldn’t. She looked back at the others and quickly found that they were in the same predicament that she was in. The Princess of the Night turned towards the stallion and gave him a quick hug for encouragement.

“We’ll see you when you return,” she said, backing away towards the gateway, “So feel free to let loose when you fight Darkstar.”

“I intend to do that,” Midnight said, turning back to watch the group leave before closing the gateway.

The next instant Midnight flew past the gates of the first and second rings and slammed right into the body of Darkstar, momentarily throwing her concentration off and tossing her backwards. The mare was quick to react and instantly threw black flames at Midnight, who barrel rolled out of the way before they touched him. He, in turn, summoned a bolt of lightning and threw it at her, though Darkstar managed to dodge it before it could even touch her.

“Impressive,” Darkstar said, sounding genuinely impressed, “it has been quite a long time since I have had the pleasure of fighting somepony of your unique caliber Prince Midnight. I must say that nopony has ever dodged my flames or come that close to hitting me in the few seconds we were fighting.”

“The last pony you fought was Thrack,” Midnight said quickly getting up before she attacked him, “and you snapped her neck before she could lift a clawed hoof against you. My caliber of magic is completely unique because I am the Prince of Magic, though I know you knew that since you found the Bastion with no problems.”

“Celestia should have thanked me for killing Thrack,” Darkstar spat, her anger already boiling, “I never cared for the creations of my sister, no matter how powerful or how useful they eventually turned out in the end. So the hybrid monster created an army of undead ponies to do her will while she’s stuck inside a foolish filly? I didn’t really care much for that, but they gave me information on the fact that a school had been built. Maybe I should erase that place once I have control of the Bastion.”

“You’ll destroy everything and everypony if you corrupt the Nexus,” Midnight shouted, “Only I can communicate with the Nexus and direct the flow of magic that comes from it. You would open a gateway to the abyss and bring all the known worlds into oblivion if you commanded my power.”

“I will obliterate you,” Darkstar screamed, the sky darkening in an instant, “and I will harness the vast amounts of magic that reside in the Nexus.”

“Try it,” Midnight replied, unleashing his magic.

The earth quaked and split around Darkstar, who immediately noticed and launched herself into the air to avoid the spikes. Before Midnight could throw a second spell he jumped to the side to avoid a pillar of darkness that erupted from below where he was standing. He leapt into the air and their horns connected, but the two were thrown backwards from the magical contact.

Darkstar seized her chance and summoned up an assortment of shadow weapons, each of them held in her magical grasp. She tossed her knives at him and was pleased to find that they shattered against a barrier that appeared to protect him. The pieces turned into darkness and floated around him as she wasted even more of the weapons on him. The more pieces she generated gave her a much bigger mist of darkness that floated around the Prince.

She smiled and converted the darkness to a mass of huge spikes that floated around the barrier, their points poised to strike. Midnight looked around and held his barrier up, his mind racing to find a way out of his predicament. Just as he figured it out and cast the spell Darkstar activated the spikes and punctured the barrier with ease. Darkstar quickly realized that he wasn’t there and back flipped into the air, dodging another lightning bolt.

Then pain ripped through her right wing as a third lightning bolt passed through her bone, knocking her right out of the air. She quickly caught herself and safely landed on the ground before jumping to the side as more spikes erupted out of the ground. Her flames broke out of the ground and launched themselves at Midnight, hitting his side before his barrier could spring up. He hit the ground and began to put them out as he stared at Darkstar, who was healing her own wound.

“I will say it again, I am impressed,” Darkstar commented, standing up straight, “though you may be a little redundant with your choice of spells. The same earth and lighting spells repeatedly will not get you anywhere fast.”

“They were enough to wound you,” Midnight replied, getting up and focusing on the mare, “though I can tell that this isn’t all of your power. I thought the powerful Princess Darkstar of the Shadow Realm was supposed to have much more power than this.”

“I am much more powerful than I currently am,” Darkstar said, flames lingering in her eyes as the magic began to bubble around her, “If you know all about me then you should know about my truest and most deadly power of all.”

A pillar of magic erupted all around Darkstar, rising into the air as she began to unleash her ultimate power. Midnight gathered his magic spells and his strength for when she emerged, he was seriously going to need it. The ground literally began to break all around where the pillar was, sinking into the ground with ease. Midnight thought himself prepared, but when the pillar vanished and the shaking ground stopped he started to sweat.

Standing there in the center of a charred crater, on her hind legs no less, was Darkstar, but at the same time it didn’t look like her. Her legs were now that of the wereponies, all clawed and ready to rend the life out of whomever Darkstar wished to use them against. Her pegasus wings were now dreadful looking vampony wings and she had small fangs in her mouth. She even had pitch black draconic colored eyes that seemed to stare into Midnight’s very soul. And in one of Darkstar’s clawed hooves rested a scythe that seemed to ooze darkness.

“This is the form of Thrack,” Midnight said, his barrier ready for any attack she sent at him, “A form you stole from her when you first ate her soul.”

“That is in the past now,” the evil mare replied, her voice void of all emotion, “Now I will use my full power and take what you have so I can conquer all the known worlds and then some. Do you really think that I came unprepared to face you without using my full power? You, the Prince of Magic, must have a trick or two hidden around to use if things get desperate.”

Before Midnight said anything he threw up his barrier in time to stop her from taking his life with the scythe, which cut through the barrier like it was made of paper. He backed up quickly and threw up a three layered barrier, hoping that the extra layers would keep her out longer. His hopes were dashed as she easily cut through them all as well and cut into the upper part of his front left leg.

Midnight leapt back and threw up a holding cube around Darkstar, a prison designed to stop her in her tracks and force her to succumb to sleep. It was a cheap move, but if it helped him take the mare down then he was willing to use it and more. Unfortunately for him it didn’t appear that the barrier was doing anything to Darkstar at all, which annoyed him.

“Allow me to show you the full extent of my power,” Darkstar said, lifting her empty clawed limb to the wall of the barrier.

A few seconds passed before anything actually happened, but when it did happen the barrier began to slowly break apart. When the barrier exploded Midnight threw himself into the air and barely missed the head of the scythe attack. He turned around and kicked Darkstar in the head, but even his protected hoof proved to be no match for her now. She grabbed him by the neck and tossed him at the closed doors of the Bastion, shattering them and opening the way into the place.

Darkstar took a step into the Bastion and immediately stopped as a wooden door erupted out of nowhere in front of her. She smiled and raised the scythe, but stopped as she noticed a diamond door appear to the right of her. On her left side now stood a door fashioned from darkness and behind her was a door crafted from fire. Below her was a fifth door crafted from the earth she walked on and above her was a final door make of obsidian.

“The Six Layer Prison,” Midnight said, groaning as he stood up, “With this I will destroy all your strength and make it so you cannot fight me anymore. Though you may have taken a step into the Bastion it will be as far as you will ever get to go.”

“You are seriously underestimating me Prince Midnight,” Darkstar said, laughing at his attempts to defeat her, “You cannot simply trap me and expect me to lose the will to fight you. You even saw what happened to the last barrier you put me in. What makes you think this one will last longer than that last one?”

“I honestly don’t,” Midnight said, “I expect it to disappear within the next minute, which just happens to be all the time I need.”

The area in front of Darkstar lit up as pure magic flooded the prison and exploded before she could even raise a limb to move. Midnight sighed and fully faced the prison, expecting it to stand now that he believed Darkstar to be defeated. It stood for a couple of seconds, but then it shattered and the evil mare rushed right out and grabbed him by the neck once more. Darkstar, Midnight soon realized, was only lightly wounded and still had so much more fight left in her. And, once again, he was tossed at the gate of the Bastion and passed through it, making an opening to the second ring and the Core.

“Not even you can stop me,” Darkstar said, appearing above Midnight’s body with her scythe ready to end him, “You should have just given me the Bastion when we first started fighting and I would have spared your life. Oh well, now you will fade from existence and be a forgotten memory.”

Darkstar swung the scythe and hit the ground where Midnight was supposed to be, but he wasn’t lying there anymore. She looked around and found nothing, no hints that a body had been lying anywhere near her location. She suspected that something was happening, but she either couldn’t see it or it wasn’t meant for her to be seen. Not that Midnight really mattered that much, seeing how close she was to the doors of the Core and the ultimate magic.

She took a step forward and lightning crashed near where she was standing, which seemed strange that it missed her. If Midnight was actually attacking her then he must have been weakened from all the injuries that he had taken while fighting Darkstar. Darkstar chuckled and took another step forward and another lightning bolt nearly missed her. The first time it was funny, but now it was getting lame.

“Come and fight me like a real stallion would Midnight,” Darkstar shouted at the black sky, “Don’t hide behind the clouds like a weakling that can’t face the truth that he doesn’t have the power to overcome his opponent.”

“It’s not him that was underestimating you,” said a voice as a dragon appeared in front of the Core, “but it was you who was underestimating him.”

“What are you talking about,” Darkstar commanded, swinging the scythe around to face the dragon, “I am more powerful than Luna, Nightmare Moon, and even Celestia. I am certainly more powerful than an alicorn who commands magic and doesn’t use all his power against me.”

“All his power you say?” the dragon asked, grinning, “Personally, I would focus on the clouds instead of a bystander to your fight.”

Darkstar turned around and the clouds split in half, momentarily blinding her before the light faded. Standing in the sky was Midnight, but while he didn’t look any different he seemed to be pulsing with pure magic. Darkstar grinned and tossed black flames into the sky, aimed directly at Midnight. A light breeze passed over her and something strange happened, Midnight instantly appeared behind her without using his horn.

“How…” Darkstar started before a hoof a thrown in her face and crushed her into a crystal building. She growled and pried herself off the wall before throwing herself at the stallion, bringing the scythe down on his head.

Midnight raised his hoof and blocked the scythe with a small barrier shield, which caused the blade to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. Before Darkstar could react Midnight’s unguarded hoof slammed into her stomach and crushed her into the ground. The ground seemed to shatter around her before Midnight released her.

“Three strikes and you’re out,” Midnight said, his horn now lighting up.

“You…you haven’t hit me three times yet,” Darkstar said, feeling a slight tug on her body, “that was only two hits.”

“I’m sorry, but you miss counted,” Midnight replied, “Once on the head while you were distracted, second to shatter your scythe, and third to crush you into the ground. And I didn’t say normal ordinary hits considering we are both magical alicorns.”

“Now what will you do with me?” Darkstar asked, coughing as she stared up at the stallion, “Banish me back to my realm and make it so I can never travel to other realms again? Bring me before Celestia so she can finish me off and make it so I can never return?”

“I will dissolve you into magic,” Midnight said, “but you will eventually return to the Shadow Realm and you beloved sister Nightmare Moon. However, when you do return you will not have the soul eating and ability gaining ability that you currently possess. That cursed ability, along with all your stolen powers, will be returned to the magic that they belong to.”

“I’LL KILL YOU,” Darkstar shouted, jumping into the air and realizing that her wings were no longer vampony wings.

“The magic has already been working its hand on you the moment I hit you the third time,” Midnight explained, watching the mare slowly disappear like she had done to the barriers, “Now you will pay for attacking the Bastion. This is good bye Princess Darkstar.”

“I will find you,” Darkstar promised, her body beginning to fade faster, “and when I do I will take your magic from you.”

“Good luck with that Darkstar,” Midnight said, turning around as Darkstar faded into nothingness.