A Series of Ponified Events

I woke up the next day to absolute chaos. The first thing I registered was pain. Whatever happened had tossed me against a wall like a ragdoll. I must have hit my spine, because I couldn’t move anything without pain shooting through me. I was aware I was bleeding from my back as well. I got up in a hurry despite the pain as my adrenaline started to overpower the pain. I heard explosions rocking the whole train. I used my new air walking spell to keep from losing my balance to the rocking train and left my room to check on the others. I found Rarity taking cover under her bed. I saw she had a cut just above her horn, probably from hitting something. Her mane was such a huge mess too, and it had a brush stuck in it, which I disregarded for now.

“Rarity!” I called. She looked out from her cover and saw me. Oh god, she was shaken badly. I saw the fear in her eyes. The look she was giving me made me feel guilty for not mentioning this whole ordeal being part of my story. It also made me remember I was too focused on learning new tricks to remember to mention that. She wasn’t fit to do anything in this condition, so I took action. I took her in a telekinetic grip and brought her with me. She was too shaken to do anything about it. Next I checked on Rainbow Dash. She wasn’t even in her room. I checked the room across from hers and found her comforting Fluttershy, who had a death grip on the leg of her bed. Luckily the two didn’t seem to be hurt in any way, other than a few bruises.

“Dash! We need to get everyone off this train or we’re going to go down with it!” I shouted over the explosions. They both looked at me in shock, like me telling them finally “woke them up” to the situation. Fluttershy let go of the bed.

“Get me off of this deathtrap!” Fluttershy shouted at abnormally high volume for her while clinging to Dash for dear life. Rainbow almost dropped out of the air, but she adjusted just in time to avoid that.

“Let’s get the others.” I said, making for the next room. Just as I make it to the next room, Celestia and Twilight each leave Apple Jack and Pinkie’s rooms with the respective ponies. Pinkie was shaken too. Her mane had no trace of its usual poofiness, and she looked around in confusion and fear. Apple Jack was better off, trying not to show signs of fear and looking to help everyone. I saw Celestia had the Elements of Harmony with her. All of them were injured though, with the exception of Celestia who I noticed had a few new scars that weren’t there last night. I suspect she put some healing magic to use. AJ didn’t look injured in the least, but then again, she’s an Earth Pony. She can take more than the rest of us could. Pinkie was fine too, other than probably being mentally shaken by this. Twilight didn’t look like she’d gotten any serious injuries, but she was definitely sore from something, judging by the way she walked.

“Celestia! We’ve gotta get off this train! I’ll make a platform and move us away from the train so we don’t hit the ground at high speed.” I said. I opened the doors of the train and made the platform as promised. Celestia nodded and started herding everyone onto my platform. I join them on the new platform and dismiss the one I’ve been using, while setting Rarity down on the new one. I move us all away from the train with the platform and slow us down so we can safely get back on the ground. I keep my guard up as I do, knowing somepony had to have started those explosions. I looked back at the train and saw something that would shake anyone else to the core.

The train was being covered in shadows. And those shadows were crushing each car of the train like a soda can full of vinegar and baking soda. One of those cars erupted with blood, showing there’d been somepony in there.

“No, not the civilians…” Celestia said in shock. I grit my teeth in blood-boiling rage as I spotted the one behind this death and destruction.

“King Sombra.” I growled. He was looking right at me with an evil smile from the roof of the engine car. He was enjoying this. There needs to be a new curse word for how I felt right about then. Seriously, my mind was just running a mile long string of curse words to throw at him, when there could just be one curse word to cover it all. Have I mentioned my fuse runs a bit short on the death and destruction of innocents? No? Well now you know.

“Daniel Strider. How nice of you to join us.” He returned. His smile only grew as I flipped him the bird as many times as my magic could duplicate the action in the space around me. I assume that meant he understood my gesture. As my rage grew, I heard a faint comment from Fluttershy about my mane smoking.

“Celestia, can you sustain this platform?” I asked her. I wanted to get a few hits in before I let Sombra go. Obviously, Twilight saw what I had planned.

“Summer, are you crazy?! You can’t just walk up to him and hit him!” she shouted.

“Summer, no! I don’t want to lose a friend to that monster!” Pinkie shouted at me. I looked at her and saw a waterfall of tears. My rage for Sombra got in the way of feeling bad about upsetting her and I just looked back at the demon king.

“I won’t just die. I can’t just let him get away with this either.” I said. “I’m tougher than that. And if that demon king gets away with taking all these lives, I won’t be able to live with myself until he dies.”

“Summer, I see there’s nothing I can do to dissuade you. However, if you wish to fight him, you must keep your emotions in check. I can see you’re becoming far too enraged by his actions.” Celestia said. I looked at her and saw she was no better off. She was angry too, but she was keeping her cool as best she could. I realized I was just letting loose, and I tried to calm down some.

“Thanks, Celestia. I’ll keep that in mind.” I said as I turned to face Sombra again. However, a hoof on my shoulder forces me to turn back. Dash was there, giving me a firm look.

“Hey, if you think I’m gonna leave a friend to face that guy alone, you must’ve hit your head a bit too hard. I’ve never left a friend hangin’ and I’ll get a ticket to Tartarus if I start now.” She said. I gave her a smile as my rage gave way to pride.

“Of course. Strength in numbers, am I right?” I replied. I turned back and looked at the others one last time, about to tell them to stay safe.

“I’ll come too.” Twilight said, stepping forth. I guess Dash’s act of loyalty inspired her. Celestia seemed surprised. I know I was.

“Me too.” Apple Jack said, taking a spot next to Twilight. Rarity seemed to be calming down now. Her eyes weren’t darting every which way now, and she was taking deep calming breaths.

“You can count me in.” Fluttershy said while glaring at Sombra and the bloody mess he caused. “You’re right, Summer. He doesn’t deserve to live after taking that many lives and enjoying it.” Yeesh. Fluttershy can be scary even without a monster in her. She does seem to be going with the golden rule though: Treat others the way you want to be treated. I don’t know if Sombra’s killed before, but he definitely was now.

“I’m going too.” Pinkie said. Her mane had poofed back up at least somewhat. “I can’t let you guys have all the fun, now can I?”

“I-I’ll come as well. That… monster ruined my perfectly well done mane, after I’d done it so well for the day, and I’m not about to let that slide.” Rarity said. Wait, what? She was up this early to work on her mane? Is that what she was freaking out about earlier too? When she joined the others, I smiled at them, although I still gave Rarity a confused look. I decided to drop the subject and focus on the more demonic problem.

“You’re not coming, Princess?” I asked Celestia. She shook her head.

“No. I will merely watch from a distance. After all, I am no longer under protection of the Elements of Harmony, so there’s no telling what might happen if I’m harmed by his magic.” She reasoned.

“I see what you mean. Wouldn’t want to accidentally get possessed in the middle of fighting him.” I agreed.

“Wait, Summer! You’re not protected by the elements either!” Pinkie pointed out. “Aren’t you in danger too?”

“Yeah, but there’s another thing to keep in mind. How can he possess me, or whatever, if he’s too slow?” I replied.

“Oh right! You’re a super-fast pony too!” Pinkie exclaimed. I nodded, seeing my point had made it across.

“Alright, I’ll use my air walking spell on you guys and we’ll all be set to go. Just focus on speed and you’ll keep up with me.” I said. I pointed my horn at them and used the spell I made yesterday afternoon to automate the platform tracks. As soon as everyone was ready, I turned to Sombra with a look that told him he was screwed now. He just laughed at me.

“Good luck to all of you.” Celestia said.

“Thanks.” I replied. “Alright, let’s kick some flank and take some names!” I shouted, dashing off on my path. I heard the others right behind me, and I saw Dash out of the corner of my eye, keeping pace with me on her wings.

“Fools! You dare defy a King? I’ll teach you to fear me!” Sombra roared at us. He started spreading his shadow across the ground. Black crystals shot out of the ground right in front of us. I used my platform ability to make walls on either side of me and quickly push me out of the way of the crystal in front of me. The rest followed my example. I “quickstepped” away from even more crystals, and so did the others.

“When I’m finished with you, you’re gonna wish you could die!” I shouted in rage. In response to that, Sombra snarled and created a crystal wall between us. I knew we needed more speed to bust through the wall, so I made the platforms dramatically increase in speed. I also helped Dash by using my air particle technique to redirect the wind to push Dash.  Pretty soon we were all busting through the sound barrier. The extra speed generated a sort of barrier around us, and we broke through the black crystal wall Sombra had made. After the wall was broken, I let go of the extra speed, and started to feel the building fatigue through my rage and adrenaline. I still kept pushing forwards though, regardless of fatigue. I’ve managed to stay up at most three nights in a row before, with only a one hour nap. I’m pretty sure I can outlast my growing fatigue.

Sombra growled at the failure of his wall, and I grabbed a few of the sharp and jagged crystals that fell from the broken wall. I held them like spears at my sides, two on each. I quickstepped past more of the crystals until I had a clear shot at him. Once I was ready, I shot one of the crystals at him, but it was like he absorbed the thing.

“Crap, that didn’t do anything!” I said. While I was distracted, a crystal shot up in front of me and I hit it, full force. It knocked me out of the air as it shattered and I ended up tumbling on the ground at high speed.

“Summer!” the Six shouted. Likely, none of them were watching where they were going after that, because I heard them hit crystals too. Eventually, I felt myself slow to a stop. I also felt extreme pain from the many crystal shards caught in my skin, digging deep wounds where they stuck out of me. Added to what I’ve been feeling since I woke up alongside the fatigue I built up on that run, I couldn’t take it anymore. I groaned one last time before the last of my strength left me and I blacked out. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was knocked out for several days after this.

The last thing I heard was Sombra’s horrid laughing. My last thought: I’ve failed.