“Wait what?” Cadance asked, looking at the being in front of her.

He didn’t reply, but rather thrust his palm at her. Before the ponies had any idea as to what was going on, an elaborate kunai with a chain trailing behind it was flying straight at the pink Alicorn.

Shining Armor, on instinct, raised a barrier around them less than a second before the kunai impacted itself in Cadance’s chest. When the weapon struck the wall of magic, it embedded itself slightly, creating a spiderweb of cracks.

Suddenly, the fiery figure vanished in a small fire that faded not long after he had. The ponies looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be found. “Where could he be?” Cadence asked herself quietly.

Her question was answered when his fist hit the back of her head and sent her flying through the cracked barrier, shattering it and causing Shining Armor to pass out from the magical feedback.

The shadowy form of Sombra laughed as he flew up to the Crystal Heart. He saw the Princess of Love getting attacked by his new “ally” and knew his time was now.

Cadance looked past the fiery figure and saw Sombra move to take the Crystal Heart. She looked at her husband, unconscious on the ground behind her. Then she heard the heavy footfalls of the fiery figure. She looked up and saw him standing before her, his arms ablaze yet seemingly not being negatively affected by the flames.

“You encased me in crystal and left me like that for a millennium,” he said. “NOW I WILL EXACT MY VENGEANCE!”

Cadance realized where all this was going. Her horn glowed as the flames washed over her. In a flash she appeared behind him dusting herself off. “Look, I think you’re mistaken, I have no idea who this Crystal Empress is.” Cadance said. A fist was her response which she dodged by flying up. ‘Okay, looks like I’ll have to fight…I should have paid more attention to those combat training sessions,’ Cadance thought to herself.

Cadance gathered up magic and formed a sword in her hand. She landed and held the blade at the ready. Her form was sloppy, revealing her lack of training. Scorpion looked at her and barely managed to restrain his laughter. This would be too easy.

‘Here I thought she would be more prepared like all those years ago… strange.’ He set his suspicions aside he got into a fighting stance, and beckoned her to make the first move. Cadance gripped her sword and slashed at his chest. Scorpion easily dodged and quickly disarmed her. “Is this some kind of joke?” he asked as he swept her legs out from under her, causing her to fall to the ground. Once again, he set his arms ablaze and prepared to burn the one he perceived as his archenemy. He planted his boot on her chest and was about to do what he’d been waiting for since the day he was encased in crystal...

Unbeknownst to both him and Cadance, Twilight Sparkle had been watching them silently the whole time. She had meant to intervene, but right when she opened her mouth to do so her brother’s shield was shattered and the intense feedback almost caused her to black out and greatly weakened her. She had just regained enough energy to trust herself to call out.

“W-wait!” She yelled just loud enough for the fiery figure to hear. She was surprised when he paid attention and turned to face her.

“And why should I?” he asked impatiently.

“Because she’s not the Crystal Empress!” Twilight called in a shaky voice, still weak. “The Crystal Empress was killed by Sombra, just under a thousand years ago. The one you have at your mercy is Cadance, Princess of Love.”

Suddenly everything was making a lot more sense to Scorpion. The Crystal Empress, from what he could remember, had a certain aura about her, one of cold authority and hidden motherly instinct toward her subjects. This pony, Cadance as she was apparently called, was nothing like that. In addition to the fact that she apparently had no combat prowess to speak of while the Crystal Empress had clearly been much the opposite, her aura was teeming with love for all ponies, even those she didn’t know. Even a being such as Scorpion himself.

“And this Sombra, what is his goal?” Scorpion asked. He had a feeling, but he had to be sure…

“He seeks to take the Crystal Empire as his own,” Cadance answered. “He will do this by destroying the Crystal Heart. Either that or corrupting it with his magic. And by the looks of it, he’s almost done. We WERE meant to stop him, but then you intervened. Now the Empire is doomed.”

[Scorpion P.O.V.]

Finally I realized what was going on.

Sombra--the one who I’d thought was my saving grace--the one I had so idiotically trusted--had played me like a fiddle.

He had tried to trick me into almost killing an innocent mare.

I was FURIOUS.

“SOMBRA!” I called out. The writhing mass of shadow that was beginning to take the shape of a unicorn stallion looked at me, shocked. “I TRUSTED YOU! I WAS STUPID ENOUGH TO TRUST YOU, AND YOU LIED TO ME! NOW YOU WILL BURN!”

The arrogant prick only looked amused. He solidified and floated down and stood before me. His skin was a sickly gray, his wicked, curved horn blood-red. He conjured a sword made of black magic and pointed it at me as a challenge. He chuckled a bit, and smugly said, “Try me.”

“And I never had any intention of helping you. Besides, I defeated the Empress in combat, something I recall you failed to do,” he taunted as the shadows forming around him created another weapon--an axe--in his other hand. “What hope do you have against me?” Sombra asked as he disappeared and reappeared swinging his axe. I dodge at the last second, alarmed at how close it came to taking my head off.

“You’d be surprised,” I said as I fired my spear at his chest. It flew straight and true, and due to its weight and momentum, when Sombra tried to parry it, he failed, and the kunai buried itself in his chest up to the loop that attaches the blade to the chain. Instead of blood, black smoke oozed from his wound.

He growled, seeming to be more annoyed than hurt. “GET OVER HERE!” I yelled as I yanked back, bringing him close. When he was in front of me, taking a moment to recover, I gave him an uppercut to the jaw, the impact sending him flying.

The landing shocked him, and he took a moment to pick himself up. Every moment he wasn’t trying to hit me gave me an opening, and I capitalized on that. While he was getting up, I conjured flames below him and set him alight. He screamed in agony and fell back to the ground. Unfortunately, these weren’t my best flames--I was trying to save my power--so they went out quickly.

Sombra didn’t bother trying to stand up this time. He just vanished in a poof of black smoke, then reappeared standing up, a look of rage on his face.

The message was clear: he was done playing around.

Good. So was I.

Two dark tendrils shot out from his back and into the ground, causing dark crystals to spring up all around us, forming an impromptu arena. Another two shot out and went to me and two more followed them. The ground below my feet turned to crystal, preventing me from sidestepping.

Sombra was trying to seal me in and make it so that he could take his sweet time with me. However, he neglected one very important detail.

He began casually walking toward me, sword in one hand, axe in the other. He threw the sword at me as though it were a javelin, and just before it impaled me, I teleported behind him, leaving a small, fiery vortex where my body had been, and punched him in the back of his head. Hard.

His body flew into the crystals he’d tried to use to trap me, and was cut up quite badly by the sharp edges. Some of the points broke off and embedded themselves in his skin, causing more smoke to ooze from his body.

Again he disappeared in a poof of smoke and reappeared before me. He conjured his weapons and threw them both, the sword flying straight, the axe whirling end-over-end. Instead of teleporting, this time I drew my swords and simply blocked, causing the weapons to fall, disintegrating into black smoke just before hitting the ground. I was growing tired of this fight, so I simply lunged at Sombra and slashed him diagonally with both swords, drawing an ‘X’ across his chest.

Then, apropos of nothing, he started laughing a deranged, sick laugh. Looking very much worse for wear and about to fall over, a mad gleam in his eyes, Sombra teleported away in a poof of black smoke and didn’t reappear where we could see him.

“I must admit you do put up a good fight, but here’s the thing.” The shadows on the ground moved up, taking form. Soon I was surrounded by a dozen clones of Sombra, each armed with a sword. “I am not the run-of-the-mill pony opponent,” they all said at the same time in his voice

Author's Note

Things escalate!
Let me know if you find any errors!
Also make sure you give NewUnitedEmpire some love!