Sometimes you win...sometimes you loose...I have lived long enough to know that fact. But why do I keep foolishly denying it?

"CADANCE!" yelled Twilight as she desperately looked ran around the halls of the palace. There was only one room left she has not checked; the mirror.

Twilight quickly sprinted to the room. "Oh...I hope I am not too late!"

But the thing is...the longer you live...the more pain you have to deal with.

"HOLD THEM BACK! WE MUST NOT LET THEM THROUGH!" yelled Shining to his guards who were barricading the front door.

Celestia's guards were outside, they did their best to control the angry mob of possessed crystal ponies, but many of them were quickly overwhelmed and beaten from the sheer numbers. "IF THEY BREACH THROUGH! SOMBRA WINS! WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!" he yelled over the noise. He also knew that if they DID breach the door, he would be killed.

And I have dealt with so much pain in my life...I am kind of surprised I kept myself together for this...putting up an emotional wall between me and subjects...they got harder and harder to maintain and hold as the decades pass.

Twilight kicked down the door, to see what she had hoped to find. "LET CADANCE GO!" snarled the lavender alicorn to the cream one.

The cream alicorn had just gotten ready to step through the mirror with her captive. "I am afraid I cannot do that Miss Sparkle...she's far to valuable to the future for me to risk that." she dryly responded.

Twilight quickly got into fighting stance, her horn glowed. "Let her go!" she angrily snorted.

"Not to Sombra's queen I will not...are you seriously challenging me to a duel?" the alicorn asked with disbelief.

"If you don't give Cadance to me I will!"

"That would be very foolish of you Miss Sparkle...you're nothing but a filly compared to what I can do...you still have yet to master your full potential as an alicorn!"

"But at least I reached my potential as a unicorn...and I don't care how strong you are! You kidnapped someone dear to me and I will not let you do that!"

"Hmmm...very well then...but as forewarning, I won't hesitate to kill you if you loose." the cream alicorn growled.

"BRING IT!"

The mysterious alicorn fired first.

Sombra aimlessly ran around the halls, he looked for a place to lay low until the whole mess blew over. "All I have to do is hide out, let my possessed subjects kill everyone except Twilight and Mistress Superior off, capture Mistress and then have my queen happily execute her in cold blood. I love it when everything goes my way."

Suddenly, he was thrown to a wall by a beam of magic. "AUGH!" he exclaimed as he fell back to the floor. He slowly got up from the ground to see Celestia angrily towering over him. "If it isn't the mythical Daymare Sun...perfect..."

Celestia used her magic to levitate the shadow unicorn by the neck. "I am going to take great twisted pleasure is seeing you die! You deserve a slow and painful death!" she snarled as her magical grip around his neck tightened.

"You're...nothing but...a dumb bitch!" he gasped, defiant until the end. Celestia flung Sombra across the room in response, he hit the floor hard.

"Mess with me...and you WILL get burned! You will pay dearly for corrupting and manipulating my student!"

"I didn't manipulate her...I just made her realize that you have been feeding her nothing but horse manure since she first met you!"

Celestia levitated Sombra off the ground, she slowly began to squeeze his torso with her magic. "Why aren't you putting up a fight? Are you just going to be a smug little foalish bastard that you truly are? I know you can do better than this!"

Sombra just laughed through the pain of his ribs slowly getting crushed. "Because I even if I do die...I still manage to succeed in my primary goal!"

The white alicorn squeezed him harder. "Which is...?"

"My primary intention wasn't to kill you or take back the throne...my main objective was to HURT you...to see you this angry...to see you so consumed by hate." he gave a sinister smile. "I have finally got my revenge on you Celestia...check mate!"

Celestia gave a loud primal yell of anguish and angry as she flunged the stallion clear across the room, his body formed a large hole on the wall. "JUST SHUT UP DIE ALREADY!" fired another beam at him.

"They're breaking through! We can't hold them back!" yelled one of the guards.

Shining just took out his ceremonial sword and held it high in front of him. "Men...it was a pleasure serving with you guys." the rest of the guards knew what he was about to do; he was going to stand there and fight the oncoming mob.

Soon, the door slowly started to fall apart from the mass push of the ponies outside. The guards, with Shining, got into battle position in a single line. "Charge on my signal!" ordered the blue maned unicorn.

The door finally broke through and a large possessed crowd ran towards them. "CHARGE!"

"Come on...surely Sombra's queen can do better than THAT!" Mistress Superior electrocuted Twilight again.

"AHHH!" Twilight screamed in terrific pain from the painful surge of electricity coursing through her body.

"I warned you it was foolish to challenge me!" she lifted Twilight off the ground. "Now to make you regret ever challenging me." she suddenly snapped Twilight's left wing.

"AHHH! NO!" the pain was unbearable, she nearly passed out from the shock.

"Learned your lesson yet my QUEEN...or shall I proceed to snap the remaining five appendages you have?" she mocked.

"I can't let you win!" Twilight defiantly exclaimed.

"Suit yourself." she proceeded to break Twilight's left back leg.

"HELP ME PLEASE!" Twilight screamed.

Celestia happily stood over an extremely weakened Sombra. Despite the pain, he still had a smile on his face. Little did the alicorn knew, but Sombra actually let her kill him. He would still get what he wanted and Twilight will hate her even more if he did die the hooves of Celestia. He didn't actually mind dying for once.

"Check-mate Sombra." she stated before she charged her horn for one final killing blow of magic.

HELP ME!!! Twilight's desperate voice suddenly echoed in Celestia's mind. "Huh?" she quickly snapped out of her rage. "Twilight! No!" she quickly ran out of the room, sparing Sombra...for now. "I will NOT let her kill Twilight!"

"Twilight...no..." the shadow pony groaned. His creator was ruining the plan, he must stop her from interfering.

I always placed my student's safety and health as top priority. Maybe things would've turned out different if I just killed Sombra right then and there instead of saving Twilight.

At that point, the alicorn used her magic to repeatedly drop and pick up Twilight. "Please..." she exclaimed in pain, "...you win..." she was dropped on last time.

The alicorn walked up to Twilight and stepped on her now broken right front leg, she moaned in pain. "Now I can finally kill you for interrupting my plans and jeopardizing the future!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE SUPERIOR!" yelled a new voice. Superior turned to see Celestia in front of her. "You leave my most faithful student alone!"

"My...it has been too long Celestia." she smirked.

"Not long enough!" the princess growled.

"Why should I spare the life of your precious student? She betrayed and left you for a monster...just like your last student...and the one before that...and the one before that-"

"STOP IT!" she did not like to be reminded of the many times she failed her students.

"Oh come on Celestia, you know that I'm just doing this to protect Cadance's unborn child...although you wouldn't what it's like since you sacrificed your chances of ever starting a family when you took on your responsibilities."

"Celestia...what's going on..?" groaned Twilight. "Who is she...?"

"Tell her." smirked Superior. "Tell her what I am to you!" little did Celestia knew, but the alicorn secretly used her magic to break off a piece of sharp crystal.

"You mean nothing to me now...this ends now!" Celestia spat.

"About time." the other alicorn smirked.

They both charged each other. Twilight looked on in stunned silence.

Celestia was determined to defeat the pony who would hurt her student, the closest thing she ever had for a daughter in her entire life. "All for your happiness Twi...all for your happiness." she thought to herself. Just as she was about to strike her first blow, she suddenly felt a spike of pain on her side and something enter her. Celestia's eyes went wide. She stopped where she stood in front of her smiling opponent.

"NO!" screamed a shocked and weakened Twilight.

Celestia looked to her side, a piece of crystal stabbed through her side. Blue colored liquid dripped down to the floor...it was her own blood. How long has it been since she last bled? Possibly decades, maybe centuries, she didn't remember to had been to long. The alicorn turned to Superior. "You were always like a mother to me Superior...but I guess this is how it ends."

"Shame it did have to end this way Tia...but it was better than sitting back and do nothing while a king enslaved his subjects."

The princess fell to the ground, she grew weaker as her mane went from hot white to simple pink. A pool of blue blood formed around her. Is this how death feels like?

Twilight couldn't believe her eyes, "You...killed...Princess Celestia!" she was stunned to near silence as a tear formed in her eye.

"Well Tia...time to put you out of your misery." her horn glowed.

"NO!" growled a deep voice as a red beam shot out of nowhere and literally went straight through the cream alicorn. Twilight saw a hole on Superior's side, with a matching opening on the other side. She could see right through her.

Superior immediately fell over, dead. "Who...?" where her last words.

"No one lays a hoof on my queen!" growled Sombra as he hobbled in and towards Twilight.

"Sombra...you saved me?" Twilight couldn't believe what just happened.

"You're my queen Twilight...it is my duty to protect you." he smiled.

"I-I don't know what to say..."

"Then say nothing."

The dark pony immediately collapses on the ground in pain. Twilight could hear Sombra still breathing...he's not dead.

"Twilight..." groaned a weak voice.

In the main hall, Shining and his guards tried their best to fight off the angry mob, many of the guards beaten to the inch of their lives. Shining quickly found himself surrounded by a group of crystal ponies with ropes. They quickly overpower Shining and placed a noose around his neck.

"STRING UP THE PRETENDER!" they yelled. The crystal ponies strung up the rope and the noose immediately started choking the stallion as he got lifted off the ground.

Shining felt helpless as he tried his best to breath, but his vision quickly started to fade. "I love you Cadance and Twiley...sorry I failed you both" he said in his mind, mentally preparing himself for death.

But strangely...he was immediately dropped to the floor and the noose was loose around his neck again. The stallion was confused. He looked up to the mob only to see them confused, having no idea what happened and how they got here.

"Your highness...are you okay?" said a concerned crystal pony.

Shining had no idea what to say. He was confused.

In the dungeons of the crystal palace, the crystal that encased Trixie and Luna started to crack and fall apart. A large chunk fell off, exposing Trixie's right front hoof, it started to move on its own.

Twilight dragged herself over to a dying Princess Celestia. "Celestia?" she looked at her wound, blood pooled around her body, her pink mane and white coat where stained blue.

Celestia still smiled even through the pain. "My Twilight, my Twilight."

"Oh Celestia...please forgive me, it was all my fault if I hadn't-" the lavender alicorn begged for forgiveness.

"Never blame yourself my student...I guess I have seen too many of my loved ones and students follow the dark path that I just forgot that you had your own destiny and I was giving you the destiny I wanted." Celestia interrupted.

Twilight started to cry.

"Oh student, my student," she smiled, but growing weaker. "I just wanted you to be happy and live your life the way you want to live it. Please Twilight, I just want you to do what makes YOU happy...do that for me."

"Please! Don't die!" her student sobbed. One of the most important pony in her life, Princess Celestia, is dying. She didn't want to accept that.

"Don't cry for me my student...we all have to face death at some point...even me...and I am ready."

"But what about Equestria?"

"Equestria will still be around...and besides...you now have a new pony who would be willing to protect you." Celestia turned to see an unconscious Sombra, apparently he wasn't THAT much of a monster that she thought he was. Deep down, really deep down, there was something good. Celestia new things would work out just fine without herself. She can die knowing that her kingdom will be fine.

"Now go out there and be the pony you always wanted to be." Celestia smiled. "Follow your own destiny and no regrets...you made me so proud."

"I tried Celestia, I always try to make you proud." cried Twilight. "I promise I'll do all those things and become the best pony I can be."

Celestia just smiled and used the last of her strength to do one last thing. Twilight saw bright lights envelop her wings as they started to disappear. "Celestia?" she was stunned to see her wings vanish, she was a unicorn again.

"Now you can follow your destiny." the princess smiled. "My most faithful and dearest student." her face and body suddenly went limp.

"Celestia?" she cried, she knew that her mentor breathed her last. Twilight proceeded to sob on her mentors body, she still felt guilty about the whole thing.

"Twilight...?" groaned a new voice. The lavender unicorn turned around to see Sombra stirring awake, only this Sombra was different, the red horn was gone, his eyes were no longer green with purple and he was a lot less intimidating...

"Kage?!" Twilight quickly limped the him, is Sombra really gone?

"It's me Twi...the monster is dead." said the stallion as he brought Twilight into a tight hug.

"So glad to have the real you back Kage." Twilight cried on his shoulder. This day was the definition of bittersweet.

"What now?" Kage whispered.

"I have no idea." answered Twilight, as she could hear Cadance start to come around in the background.

Kage was just glad to be normal again, the monster was gone, its creator was gone, everything can return to normal. But he had no idea what the future holds for him...for the first time in a long time...he had no idea what was going to happen next...

...and it frightened him.

Author's Note

THE END.

All done, thank you for liking this story. My first attempt at an epic.
Thank you so much.

NOTE: All comments that reveal too much in terms of spoilers WILL be deleted, just as a warning.