Attacks (Part Two)
"...Zero."
As the words left his mouth, he had expected Sombra to immediately resume his attack. He was surprised, however, when the air around the empire sat just as still as ever, the tense silence so deep that it pressed in on his eardrums, feeling unnatural. Several more tense seconds ticked by, and everypony's nerves got worse and worse, as each sat waiting for something to happen. After what felt like an eternity, a voice finally filled the courtyard, but it sounded different than the last time they had all heard it. It was quieter, and less menacing.
"Well, time's up," said Sombra's voice, matter-of-factly, "and you haven't surrendered to me."
Nopony in the castle or the courtyard made a sound.
"Why are you going to waste your lives on this futile attempt to fight me?" he asked, sounding slightly frustrated. "My forces are limited, and you already did a pretty good job at killing many of them. We all know that I'll need more, given time. So, I'm giving all of you, individually, one last chance."
More silence.
"Your Prince and Princess have already shown that they are not going to bow down to me, but I don't think you all feel that way. Some of you want to live, I'm sure of it. If you come to me now, you'll live."
Still more silence, though this one wasn't as deep as the rest, as several ponies shifted nervously. The shifting ones were actually considering Sombra's statement. One in particular, a grey unicorn stallion in the courtyard, was about to take a step forward, away from the palace, closer to the evil king. But as he was about to do so, a voice filled his head, the voice of the princess, as he recalled her speech from earlier.
"We came back after a thousand years! We have endured hardships most can't even imagine! And we won't let somepony like Sombra manipulate us anymore! We'll show him that we can't just be wiped off the map again! We'll remind him who we are! WE ARE THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!"
He took a couple of steps forward, then stopped. Instead of walking further away from the castle, his horn lit up, magically magnifying his voice for the whole kingdom to hear.
"My name is Commander Steelheart," he began, "and I'd like to say something."
"Go ahead," said Sombra's voice. "I'm sure I can spare a few seconds."
"We've suffered heavy losses, have had our streets ravaged, and have had some of our friends and family destroyed already," he began. Some ponies looked downcast. How this was supposed to improve their morale, they didn't know.
"Some of us have considered your offer," Steelheart continued, addressing Sombra. "I myself have considered it. But I think I speak for everypony here when I say this:
"Go to hell, where you belong."
Some of the soldiers looked up, surprised. Steelheart went on, now glaring at the empty patch of sky he was focusing on.
"I remember what it was like when you ruled over us. Nothing but work, all day, every day. Now, I might be scared of death, but I would rather die in agony while defending my kingdom than slink back to you again like a coward."
Even more ponies looked up, feeling empowered by his words.
"None of us are coming, Sombra. We will die before we submit to you again."
There was a short pause as Steelheart finished his speech. Then,
"Have it your way," Sombra said, spitefully. "If you would rather succumb to death than to me, so be it."
At that moment, the ground shook with a mightier tumult than ever before, as Sombra's forces began swarming back into the streets. All of the soldiers raised their weapons into defensive positions, as they abandoned their fear.
It was all or nothing now.
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Twilight finished climbing down the steps as the cavern descended into total darkness. The temperature down here was at least twenty degrees colder than it had been above ground. She lit her horn to observe her surroundings. Ventus, Spike, and all of the foals were standing in a big group about ten feet away. For some reason, Ventus had still not lit his horn, so the foals looked grateful as Twilight approached them. She looked at the male unicorn, whose eyes were unfocused, and was obviously zoned out.
"Why haven't you cast a light spell?" she asked.
"What?" Ventus asked, snapping back to reality as he looked around at Twilight.
"Your horn," she said, gesturing up at her own, which was ablaze, filling their surrounding with a soft glow. It took Ventus a moment to process what she was saying.
"Oh, yeah," he said, slightly embarrassed. His horn began to glow with a cyan light, but flickered. He struggled to cast the spell again, as his head began pounding and his horn began throbbing with pain.
"It... won't... go... through," he gasped out, giving up as he slumped to the ground. Twilight walked closer, to illuminate his face, and gasped at the sight of his horn. There were large, purple spots running up and down the length of it, as if somepony had been pummeling it with their hooves for hours. She recognized it almost immediately: Magic bruising.
"Do you normally use this much magic in a day?" she asked.
"Yeah," Ventus replied. "I do some form of bodyguarding every single day. I always have to hide."
She sighed. "Well, I don’t know why, but you, my friend, have a simple case of Magic Bruising."
Ventus groaned.
"I can fix it," Twilight continued, "but it'll take a few minutes to complete."
"We don't have a few minutes," Ventus pointed out. He stood up, brushing himself off. "I'll be fine for now. We need to get moving."
Twilight considered him for another moment before nodding, and moving back towards the foals, who were shaking both with fear and cold.
"Alright, everypony. Let's go," she said.
Spike had picked up a stick from the ground, and ignited it with his green flames, further helping to illuminate the large tunnel. It looked like a long, underground cave, with dirt floor and walls that were damp with moisture, and a ceiling that was ten or twelve feet above them. Spike led the way, as Twilight walked behind the group of foals, urging them to keep moving. Ventus walked several feet behind her, mostly hidden in the darkness since he was so far from the sources of light.
Magic Bruising, he cursed inside his head. It's been years since I've had Magic Bruising.
They walked in silence, apart from the sounds of their hooves hitting the ground. After a couple of minutes, however, the silence was broken quite suddenly.
A deep rumbling shook the whole tunnel, knocking down several of its occupants. The screams of fright from the foals pierced the air, as the deep rumbling went on and on. After a minute, it suddenly stopped.
Twilight stood up, dusting herself off, and surveying the scene. Thankfully, the tunnel hadn't caved in on itself. The foals and other adults were still on the ground. Several of them were coughing, due to the cloud of dust that had now filled the air. Being unable to discern individual faces due to the cloud of dust, Twilight trotted over to the figure nearest her, which turned out to be Ventus. He was still lying on the ground, teeth clenched from both the pains of both his horn and his fall.
"You alright?" Twilight asked, extending a hoof to help him up.
"Yeah," he replied, rising. "What do you think that was?"
"I think we ran out of time," Twilight said, sounding nervous at the prospect. "We'd better get moving."
But as she turned to look at the group of foals around her, she realized that it was going to be a lot harder than it sounded. Most of them were still on the ground, and almost all of them were panicking. There was crying everywhere she looked. Their fear had completely overcome them. Twilight looked around, nervously. She didn't know how to handle foals under ordinary circumstances, let alone when they were all scared out of their wits.
Well, she thought, I'd better try.
She began walking towards the large group, seeing Spike uselessly attempting to calm them all down.
"Everything's fine!" he called over the din they were making. "Come on! We need to go!" But none of them seemed to be listening to him. Twilight noticed one filly that wasn't making any noise. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, her front legs hugging her back ones to her as she stared at a fixed point in space. She was rocking slightly as she sat, tears glistening in her blue eyes. Twilight approached her, and then leaned down so that they were on the same level.
"What's your name?" Twilight asked her. She looked up at the lavender unicorn.
"...Evening Star," the orange filly said.
"Evening Star," Twilight said, lowering her volume even more so her voice was barely more than a whisper, "can I ask you something?"
She nodded.
"Are you scared?"
She looked slightly surprised, and didn't say anything.
"Don't worry, I can keep a secret," Twilight reassured her. Evening Star still waited a few moments before whispering her answer.
"...Yes."
"Can you keep my secret?" Twilight asked.
Once again, the filly nodded.
"...I am, too," Twilight said, in complete honesty. Evening Star looked surprised, as she looked into the lavender mare's face. Twilight was voicing her real concerns, concerns that she hadn't even confided to Cadence or Spike or Ventus, and she began shaking.
"In all honesty, we might not make it out of here alive. Sombra's army might kill us all. I might not ever see my friends again."
If this is supposed to make me feel better, Evening Star thought, It's not helping.
"That's why I need your help."
Evening Star looked confused, as she said "Me? What can I do?"
"You're handling your fear pretty well, but these foals are just as scared as we are," Twilight said, pointing around at all of the foals who were crying, "and I don't know how to calm them down. We need to get moving if we want to live, so I need you to help me get them moving."
Evening Star considered her for a moment, then unraveled her legs and stood. She began walking to different groups of foals, and talked to them for a short time. Twilight couldn't hear what Evening Star was telling them, but whatever it was, it seemed to be working. They didn't really look any calmer, but they were at least not screaming anymore. However, she did notice that most of the groups were looking over at her shortly before Evening Star ceased talking to them. After a minute, she had talked to all of the foals, and they were all looking at Twilight.
"All right, let's keep moving," Twilight said confidently.
Spike took the lead again with his torch, and the foals began shuffling along behind him. Evening Star trotted beside Twilight, with Ventus once again bringing up the rear, still seemingly able to see despite the complete darkness.
"What did you say to them?" Twilight asked the filly alongside her. Evening Star gave a small smile.
"I told them what you told me," she said, looking ahead at the group. "That you're just as scared as we are, but you're handling it fine. And that we can make it out of here alive if we do what you say."
"Did I say that?" Twilight asked, looking down in confusion at the little orange face below her. "I don't remember--"
"No, I added that last part," Evening Star admitted. "But it's true... isn't it?"
Twilight thought about the evil king above them, who had no doubt resumed his siege of the castle, and of his forces.
"I hope so... for everypony's sake..."
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As the rest of the front wall collapsed in on itself, Cadence expanded the size of the force field to cover the holes, but they all knew it wouldn't last long. All kinds of dark creatures were attempting to force their way into the palace, to clash with the few hundred guards that still remained. Shining Armor was still in the throne room, standing next to Cadence, who was now wearing golden armor fit to her proportions. They were both surrounded by commanders, who were there to relay their orders. Small tremors still shook the ground as Cadence's force field was hit by powerful spells and objects. Shining Armor's horn was lit up, and he was magically observing all areas of the palace.
"How're you doing?" He asked, turning to look at Cadence, who was putting all of her strength into maintaining the force field.
"I'll survive," she said, grimly. "I've maintained bigger force fields than this."
"There wasn't an entire army trying to force its way through that one," Shining Armor pointed out.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she replied, rather coolly, but Shining Armor was no longer paying attention. He had returned to magically observing the castle.
"The turret unicorns are doing alright," he said, "though if they're not careful, they'll run out of juice." Turning to one of the commanders, he continued "Go tell them to save the really powerful spells for later."
"Yes sir," the commander saluted, before hurrying off through the crowd of soldiers still in the room.
Shining Armor continued directing the battle in this fashion for several more minutes. Cadence, meanwhile, was finding it harder and harder to maintain the force field's full strength. Despite her best efforts, it began to slowly weaken. After another few moments, she let out a huge gasp.
"What?" Shining Armor said, slightly panicky, as he looked at her again. She had bent double, fighting to put all of the force she had left into the force field.
"Somepony's... trying to... force... their way... in," Cadence said, through clenched teeth, as she continued to force all of her strength into her spell. "Using... spell..."
All of Shining Armor's attention had turned to his wife. So, naturally, he didn't notice when the temperature in the throne room dropped several degrees, a typical sign of dark aura. He also didn't notice as one of the massive crystals above the throne began to glow black.
"I... can't... keep him out," Cadence said, as the external magical force broke through her resistance. As Shining Armor turned and finally noticed the crystal above the throne, it shot a beam of blue light straight at Princess Cadence. It struck her, and flung her through the air above all of the soldiers. At the exact same moment, the force field around the castle flickered, then died. The ground shook horribly as Sombra's army lept forward, all forcing their way into the palace. Cadence smashed against the wall, and slid to the floor below.
"Cadence!" Shining Armor cried, beginning to force his way towards her through the shocked soldiers. As he moved, a huge black cloud of smoke began pouring through the doors of the throne room, and swept over the heads of the soldiers towards the throne. It began to swirl around the throne, solidifying, as Shining Armor reached his wife. She had been knocked unconscious. He used magic to reawaken her.
"Are you alright?" he asked, with a fearful voice. She slowly nodded, then began to stand up.
"I'll be fine," she said, now standing up fully, though she winced as pain shot through her head. They both turned, and saw King Sombra begin to decimate the other soldiers in the room. Pressed in from both sides now, what remained of The Crystal Empire had no chance, and both of them knew it. Cadence looked at Shining Armor again, the stallion she had secretly loved for so long. He too looked at her, the mare he hadn't though he stood a chance with. Memories of old days flashed before their eyes. Cadence's filled with tears.
"This is it," she said, her voice quivering. "This is the end... isn't it?"
Shining Armor shook his head.
"It's not over yet," he said. "I plan to fight to the end."
She nodded. "Me, too."
Simultaneously, they galloped forward to re-join the soldiers. Two of their commanders were nearby. Shining Armor ran up to them.
"Get your troops and go help the outside forces!" He ordered them. "Leave King Sombra to us!"
"Yes, sir," they both replied at once.
Shining Armor's horn glowed, making him virtually weightless as he jumped onto Cadence's back. Her wings spread, and in one powerful motion, she took off into the air, her husband in tow. They flew over the heads of their soldiers, straight at Sombra. As Shining Armor prepared to fire a deadly spell at the king, Sombra turned back into smoke, flying up and out one of the already-shattered windows. Changing the spell, Shining Armor instead teleported the two of them into the air outside the palace, in time to see Sombra turning around to come back at them. Cadence flew sideways to avoid him, and descended towards the crystal-covered ground. When she was close enough, Shining Armor flipped off of her, landing squarely on his hooves again. Sombra too had descended - he appeared unable to cast any offensive spells while he was smoke. He solidified into his pony form again as Cadence landed next to Shining Armor.
It was a standoff now. Sombra’s eyes shifted between the two of them as they stared him down, all waiting for somepony to move first.
The tension was shattered as Shining Armor shot a bolt of light straight at Sombra’s chest. Ready for it, A small wall of dark crystals formed right in front of the king. The crystals reflected the bolt straight back where it came from. Shining Armor had to sidestep to avoid his own attack, as a large, sharp piece of crystal from the top of Sombra’s wall suddenly shot straight at Princess Cadence. It was moving so fast that she was barely able to move her torso out of the way. Time seemed to slow down as Cadence saw her own, terrified face reflecting back at her from the crystal. She watched as her expression changed. Her eyes narrowed, and she glared at herself.
No matter what happens, she thought to herself, I am not letting my fear control me.
Her horn lit up, and the ground beneath Sombra began to shake. He realized what was happening just in time to avoid being impaled. Instead, as his hooves made contact with the giant crystal as it rose from the ground, he used it to hurl himself upwards, bringing his wall of crystals with him. As he reached the peak of his ascent, the crystal wall shattered, the pieces flying down at the other two with the speed of bullets. Both had to conjure magical shields to avoid being torn apart. Sombra transformed into the cloud of smoke, and flew down towards them. But instead of focusing on one pony, he smashed into the ground in-between them, creating a huge shock wave. Both Cadence and Shining Armor were knocked off of their hooves.
Cadence slowly got to her hooves again, wincing at the pain of her injuries. As she looked up, she saw King Sombra flying straight at her.
“NO!” Cadence heard a voice cry.
She stood her ground, glaring at the approaching cloud. She knew she was done for, and she was going to die staring death in the face. She saw the crimson horn solidify, and knew what he was going to do.
Just before Sombra reached her, there was a flash of light, directly between them. Something appeared, blocking Cadence’s view of her approaching death. A split second later, her eyes made contact with the horn again as it easily stabbed straight through the chest of Shining Armor, emerging even more scarlet than it had been before.
“Shining Armor! NO!” Cadence shrieked. Sombra swung his head around, launching Shining Armor away through the air. Cadence’s horn glowed, and she appeared right next to him as he hit the ground. She didn’t care about fighting Sombra; her entire universe was dying at her hooves. She knelt down, and the couple’s eyes met for the final time.
Then, something vanished in the teal pair.
Shining Armor was gone.
Cadence’s senses stopped working properly. She couldn’t hear her own shrieks and sobs as she sat, tears pouring onto her late husband’s face. She didn’t even react when King Sombra approached. She would welcome death. She had nothing left to live for. Her empire had fallen, her subjects had been slaughtered, her husband was dead. She wanted it over.
But her wishes weren’t granted. Sombra placed a spell on her that paralyzed her entire body. If she could’ve fought tooth-and-nail to get back to Shining Armor, she would’ve. But she couldn’t even shed a tear now. She was left to experience all of her misery internally, with no way to release it, as Sombra levitated her limp body back over the Crystal-covered grounds to the palace.
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The group of foals and adults continued moving down the passageway, which was now getting narrower and rockier. Ventus could feel the magical bruising rapidly receding from his horn, but he knew his horn would be incredibly sore the next day. The shakes from the battle above were growing even worse now.
“How much further, do you think?” Ventus asked Twilight.
“It can’t be much further now, can it?” Twilight asked. “We’ve been walking a good twenty minutes now.”
“Yeah,” Ventus replied. “We should be getting close.”
They kept going, as the rumbling grew even worse. The tunnel felt as though it was about to collapse in on itself. Soon, it was shaking almost as badly as it had when the attack resumed.
“This can’t be natural!" One of the foals finally shrieked. Ventus, unbeknownst to the others, was scanning the long tunnel, his vision easily piercing straight through the darkness. Looking deep back the way they had come, he finally found the source of all the rumbling. His face turned chalk-white.
"Twilight," he said, trying his utmost not to yell in his horror, "we need to move. Like, now."
"Why?" Twilight asked, looking confused.
"Because," Ventus said, still in a falsely-calm voice, "There's about 400 different creatures moving right at us."
Twilight's eyes widened, and she lost it.
"Run!" she screamed. "Run as fast as you can!"
The foals didn't need telling twice. Now feasting on their withheld panic, everypony was galloping faster than a coalition of cheetah on a hunt. It didn't help; Sombra's army was still closing in on them.
"We've got to block them off!" Ventus yelled to Twilight across the deafening uproar.
"How?!" Twilight yelled back.
Ventus gestured up towards the rocky ceiling with his head. Twilight thought for a moment, quickly connecting the dots.
"Are you insane?!" She shrieked. "That'll bring down the whole tunnel! We'll all die!"
"No, we won't!" Ventus said, confidently. "Not if I hit it in exactly the right way!"
"And if you don't, we--" Twilight began, but stopped. Ventus had skidded to a halt, and she was looking back at him over her shoulder as she continued galloping.
I won't, Ventus thought at her, even though he knew she couldn't hear it. He charged a spell, turning back towards the incoming horde of monsters. He aimed for the ceiling ten yards away from him, and fired. Immediately, the tunnel shook worse than ever, as large chunks of rock fell from the spot he had struck. They quickly formed a nice, huge pile of boulders, which soon blocked the entire corridor.
Satisfied, Ventus turned back and ran on the same way the rest of the ponies had.
He emerged into daylight not even thirty seconds later. He hadn't seen it coming; the illusion spell on the outside had made it appear as if the tunnel kept going on the inside. On the outside, however, it appeared to be one of the white, smooth brick, outside walls of the train station. Ventus squinted in the blinding, unexpected sunlight, and found the rest of the group not far away. Twilight looked livid.
"I can't believe you tried that!" she scolded, stalking up to him. "You could've gotten yourself killed!"
"But I didn't," Ventus said. "I'm fine, and those monsters aren't getting through ten metric tons of rock anytime soon."
Twilight didn't appear consoled. "You scared me," she said. Ventus raised his eyebrows.
"Didn't realize you care so much," he said, with a smug little smile.
"Of course I do!" Twilight exclaimed. Then, her face reddened, and she looked at the ground to her right. "I -- I mean, who would -- drive the train if you were gone?" she fumbled, still looking to her right. "I don't know how, and I seriously doubt any of the foals do either."
"Uh huh," Ventus said, clearly skeptical as he nodded his head. "I'm sure that's what you--"
A/N: Hee Hee Hee, time for something I've never tried before. I know it's like the end of the chapter, but here's some OPTIONAL background music from the actual Dark Cloud game. Adds a creepy effect to the story. I'm probably gonna be putting more of these in here, depending on how this one works out.
He stopped, looking at something over Twilight's head, his mouth half-open.
"What?" Twilight asked. When Ventus didn't reply, she turned to see for herself.
The castle had been built so anypony could see the balcony from almost any part of the Empire. Therefore, they had a clear view of King Sombra on the palace balcony, with none other than an expressionless Princess Cadence.
"No..." Twilight said weakly, sinking to the ground.
Ventus turned white as he realized what was about to happen. He turned to Spike.
"Get the foals in the train," he said, hurriedly. "I don't want them seeing this."
“O--Okay,” Spike said, trying to keep the horror out of his voice and failing dismally at it. He began hurriedly shepherding the foals onto the VIP train. But the location of the foals became irrelevant, as Sombra magnified his voice to echo across the whole empire, reaching any who happened to have survived.
”Your battle has been fought, and lost. Your troops have been slaughtered. Your Prince is dead. You are all defenseless. You will now watch, as I destroy your last piece of hope, your guiding beacon, your final leader, your Princess, Mi Amore Cadenza.”
Twilight could only watch, as Sombra stripped off Cadence’s remaining pieces of armor, and held her up with magic on her hind legs. Still, her face appeared emotionless, as she was unable to move. Inside her head, she pleaded with Sombra to make it quick. She would be back with her husband soon.
Sombra backed up, and galloped hard straight at Cadence, his head bent down, his horn in front. It easily pierced her back, and went straight through, protruding out of her chest an inch or two.
“NO!” Twilight screamed hysterically, tears pouring down her face. “No!”
She sank to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. Ventus stood rooted to the spot, still staring wide-eyed at the palace balcony. A single tear welled up in his left eye, and it slid down his cheek, off his chin, creating a little splash as it hit the ground. Spike was trying his utmost not to cry as he consoled the terrorized foals, but even he had a wet face as tears streamed freely down it.
Gradually, Twilight’s sobs changed, turning into labored breaths, then into snarls. She slowly looked up at the castle again, her teeth clenched, glaring through her river of tears.
“SOMBRA!” she screamed. The very air seemed to vibrate in her anger, her sadness, her drive for vengeance. Ventus realized what she was about to do, and teleported beside her in a flash. Just as she took the first step back towards the castle, Ventus' hoof was on her shoulder, restraining her.
"Stop, Twilight!" He yelled, as he struggled to hold her there. "We need to retreat! We need reinforcements!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Twilight yelled, trying to throw him off with magic that he was easily countering. "HE KILLED MY BROTHER! HE KILLED CADENCE! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"
"There's nothing you can do for them!" Ventus cried, now fighting hard as her magic became even stronger. She ignored him, still fighting tooth and hoof to escape his grasp.
"I know you'll hate me for this," he said, charging a spell, "but it's for your own good."
He cast it. She, being unprepared, couldn't counter it fast enough. Her eyes closed, her aura died. Ventus levitated her over to the train, and set her down in a reclining seat.
"Watch her for me," Ventus said to Evening Star, who was sitting close by. The filly nodded. Satisfied, Ventus entered the driver's cabin, and started them back home.
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Really nice chapter! I can imagine Twilight's reaction when she wakes up.
I don't usually do this, but one thing I wanted to point out:
Small spelling mistake with empire. The same mistake in the previous chapter. Sorry if you don't like me pointing this out.
Merry Christmas to you as well!
Looking forward to the next chapter.
All I really noticed were the multiple exclamation and question marks. Other than that I didn't catch anything. I know I probably missed something though.
I love your use of the music from the actual Dark cloud game, I think a better song for this chapter wojld have been the battle music against the Dark genie in the corridor of time