Author's Note

Hi guys, sorry if a lot of you don't like this story, and in all honesty I do find writing this hard due to the aspect of having 10 characters to focus on, but I decided to make this chapter thinking 'why not' so here it is.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out but I will try to get another one out at some point, the only reason this one took so long was a combination of writers block, negative vibes, and stress from school. But I do hope to update quicker next time rather than taking many months I might try to do a weekly update thing instead, but until the next one I'll still be sending out those positive vibes

Sombra's return

Chapter 3

The group spent the night at the crystal empire so they could take the train in the morning, which would leave in another day. Each member got a simple room that had uncomfortably small beds, considering the fact they were made for the smaller ponies. Each room was identical, having one large bed (by pony standards), one dresser with a mirror, two windows, one bathroom, and one medium size closet. The bed was set in the back of the room with a window on either side and centered with the room, the dresser and mirror sat to the right of the bed against the wall as well as the closet door, to the left was the bathroom door which held a pony sized bathtub, toilet, and sink. In short, even the smallest of the humans were having trouble with most of the pony sized items.

At breakfast all the humans sat with each other and most of them (being the taller ones) were complaining about the small as hell beds. "Look, I get the beds were fucking small, but can you all shut the hell up and let me think for a moment, I'm not exactly short and slept on the floors with the small ass blankets to keep be warm," Nate angrily worked out as they waited for the princesses and other to show up. After sleeping on a crystal floor using blankets that left most of his legs uncovered, Nate had the patience of a featherweight pressure-plate, and was about ready to go off before the ponies finally arrived, causing both Nate and TJ to whisper little 'thank you's' to the air as everyone went silent.

"Hello everypony, did you sleep well last night?" Celestia asked, receiving grunts of irritation from most of the humans, making her very confused. "What is the matter? we had you set up in the guest rooms with the largest beds possible," she said as the rest of the ponies sat down at the table.

"Yeah, well, all of us are at least 5 inches taller than most of you, so large to you, is small sized to us," TJ explained, keeping his irritation at his lack of sleep down so he could be civil, "so for all I care those beds can go fuck themselves with the small ass rooms because we're all to tall for this shit," at least as civil as he could. All the ponies were taken aback by TJ's behavior, and were also surprised when Nate slapped him in the back of the head. Most of the humans looked at Nate in surprise, before TJ slammed his fist into Nate's stomach, sending him flying into the wall as he stood up. "Never Do That Again!" TJ yelled as Nate stood up with a hand on his gut.

"Then don't act like a dick head, we're stuck here for the long run and we don't need you antagonizing the locals, SO SIT THE FUCK DOWN NOW!" Nate said before roaring out the last part, Making everyone shocked by the burning anger in his voice. TJ started to walk over to Nate, his clenched figure showing his anger. Before TJ could do anything upon arriving at Nate's location, Nate's fist slammed into his face and sent his flying onto the table. Before anyone could react Nate was on top of TJ holding him down as everyone else was still to shocked to react, "I. Said. Sit. Down," Nate said in a hushed tone filled with rage as he held TJ down by his throat and arms.

"ENOUGH," Luna roared, finally out of her shock and enraged at the violence before here. Nate looked over and just grunted in reply as he got up and sat back down. "we were all hoping to make sure thee were safe to allow into the public, but all thou hast shown is violence betwixt one another, leading me to believe that thou are a danger to our subjects," Luna said glaring at the two humans who had started the violence between one another, both seeming to ignore he words and meet her glare head on.

All sat silent until a certain rainbow maned Pegasus decided to break the silence, "Can we eat all ready, I'm really hungry and am getting sick of waiting, so can we hurry this up?" Rainbow Dash asked impatiently as the three leader broke their staring and sighed.

"Yes Rainbow Dash, I agree, we should start eating," Cadence said as servants started bringing all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and flowers that the ponies eyed hungrily while the humans were all slightly depressed to see no signs of meat. "what's the matter? aren't you all going to eat?" Cadence asked when she saw the humans were all not yet eating. All except for Nate, Paddie, and Jennifer who were eating some fruits and veggies.

"I think they all just realized that this is an herbivore heavy country, so there isn't and meat for them to eat here," Paddie said as he ate a piece of watermelon. When Paddie mentioned eating meat all the ponies stopped eating and looked at the humans in some amount of horror.

"Y-y-you all eat p-p-poor little a-a-animals?" Fluttershy asked, looking like she was on the verge of crying.

Nate shot Paddie a glare who just ignored it. "*sigh* Yes we eat animals, but not sapient one, where we come from our species is the only sapient one and we need a balanced diet of both vegetation and meat to live healthily, to sum it up, we're omnivores not carnivores," Nate explained as the ponies slightly relaxed, key word, slightly. The ponies still watched the humans with slight fear at the idea of being eaten by the humans.

*2 hours from crystal empire*

In a temple long since forgotten in time, A great evil was returning to bring ruin to those who dared to oppose its rule, to destroy those who stopped him in his moment of glory when he was finally going to win and reclaim his crown to the crystal empire. After several long years Sombra had finally regained enough dark magic to kill the ponies who beat him the first time. This time though, Sombra was stronger, he took his chance when a strange influx of every form of magic appeared, he immediately went for it and absorbed as much magic as he could, making him more powerful than he had ever been before. He would make those ponies pay, they would all pay for stealing away his kingdom and his slaves.

*human group, after breakfast*

"Wesley, can you please put down your rubix cube for this meeting? it's serious," Larry asked as he looked over, seeing Wesley focusing on his rubix cube and not on the matter at hand. The group was having a discussion about their current money problem and how long they could last sleeping on pony furniture before one of them snaps due to sleep deprivation.

"fine, but just because I've seen the show before doesn't mean I know as much as them," Wesley said pointing the the three people at the front of the group explaining what they knew from the show and how they could use their skills and new abilities to make money for living arrangements.

"first thing first, we should probably figure out what kind of magic we have since that could help us find what jobs we should get," Patty said as those said to have magic came the front of the group. only five people were pointed out be cadence as being users of magic, those five being Nate, TJ, Jennifer, Wesley, and Paddie.

"So how do we use magic?" Wesley asked, not sure how to use his magic at all.

"I'll try first, and Nate, TJ, you should go last since you might have alicorn magic," Jennifer said as she stepped forward. Nate nodded as TJ seemed slightly mad, but calmed down instantly. Jennifer held her hands in front of her, and stayed that way for nearly 10 minutes before her hands glowed a sky blue and a similar colored beam shot forward and hit Nate's door, since they were in his room. Once the beam made contact the door started to freeze over upsetting Nate.

"What the hell! now my doors frozen," Nate exclaimed angrily, but took a quick deep breath to calm down before continuing, "but regardless, how'd you get your magic to work?" he asked, a little calmer.

"I just focused on what I thought was my magic and imagined shooting out my hands like a laser beam," Jennifer explained as she walked over to TJ and they kissed.

Nate sighed and muttered something about it always being his thing that are damaged instead of others before seeming to ponder something. "Wesley, you go next, I'd rather someone who's not likely to have abnormal or overly powerful magic to try next," Nate said as he pushed Wesley to the complete front of the room. As the humans tested their magic they all found what affinity they had with magic, when Wesley tested his magic his hands glowed a reddish color as he shot out a stream of fire that accidentally hit one of the others, but instead of hurting him like everyone thought would happen, the fire had healed a small cut on the persons arm. When TJ tested his magic his hand glowed a dark blue color and his magic was similar to Jennifer's, but much stronger, as instead of the door being frozen, half the room was frozen and made extremely cold. After Wesley used his fire to heat up the room Nate tested his magic with his hand glowing a dark yellow color and what was shot out was a bolt of lightning that tore the door of its hinges. "FUCK!" Nate yelled as the door came off of its hinges and hit the door on the other side of the hallway.

"Excuse me but what is going on here?" Asked one of three guards who all looked annoyed at the humans and the damage to the room they caused.

"We were testing our magic," Paddie said, not having gotten to test his magic yet so he was equally as annoyed.

"Well please wait until you are out of the empire before doing that, we don't want any more damages," A different guard said as the three began to walk away, most likely report to the princesses about what had just transpired. After what happened the humans decided to end their little meeting and meet back up later in the evening.

*three hours later, 2:00 PM*

The air was unnaturally calm as a mass of darkness came closer and closer to the crystal empire, the intent of the dark cloud was as easy to read as the words of a page, to cause harm to all, and especially those who stood in its way.

In the empire sat the group of 10 humans in a cozy little tavern as they ate a meal paid for with bits given to them courtesy of the princesses. As they ate they began to notice a sound similar to that of screaming and seamed seemed to be getting closer, and after a few moments the group realized that what they were hearing was indeed screaming. After the revelation the group rushed outside to be greeted by a giant dark cloud that was condensing into the form of a unicorn stallion that stood 5 foot 6 inches. His fur was ash gray and he had a black mane and tail, he wore silver armor with a red cape on his back and his horn was red in color and curved, but most notable was his glowing green eyes and red irises with a purple mist leaking from the eyes.

"SOMBRA HAS RETURNED!!! AHAHAHAHAH!!!" He yelled in a deep voice before laughing maniacally, his voice amplified to reach across the entire crystal empire. After laughing Sombra pulled a fist back that started to glow dark purple with dark magic before slamming the fist forward only to be stopped by a blue bubble appearing over the empire, that started to crack from pressure. Nate, Paddie, and Jennifer were surprised by this as they knew of the crystal heart and its magic that should be powerful enough to stop Sombra, but there he was, powerful enough to crack the shield. As the group watched the blue shield finally shattered with a sound akin to glass breaking, followed by the sounds of terrified ponied screaming in fear. As Sombra stepped forward there was a loud BOOM! as a bolt of lighting pierced the air, hitting Sombra in the chest with enough force to push him back 3 feet, followed by a blue beam that hit Sombra as well, encasing him in a block of ice, as well as freezing anything near him in a 4 foot radius.

Both Nate and TJ had reacted and used their magic to attack Sombra, and thanks to their new alicorn nature they only needed to use a slight amount of power. As the humans were about to celebrate cracks formed across the ice as Sombra broke free, barely even effected after the 2 attacks. "For fucks sake, can't villains ever just be defeated on the first attack," Paddie said before receiving a blast of dark magic to the chest that sent him flying into a crystal wall, leaving crack in it. After landing on the ground Paddie started to get back up with an angry expression, everyone was surprised to see Paddie get back up so quickly, but Sombra surprised to see him get up at all due to the amount of dark magic in his blast. As Paddie glared at Sombra everyone was shocked to see his irises go from green/brown eyes to glowing neon green with a sickly green mist leaving his eyes. "Lets take this fucker down," Paddie said, thoroughly pissed after Sombra's attack

Everyone nodded and stood shoulder to shoulder while looking at Sombra who seemed to become filled with rage towards the humans, "YOU DARE DEFY ME, FOR YOUR IDIOCY YOU SHALL PERISH WITHOUT MERCY!" Sombra screamed in rage, creating several construct out of black crystal that looked like him and commanding them to attack the humans. As the first construct got close James threw out a punch, hoping it would do something, and as his fist met the constructs face it shattered into tiny bits. As another got close Jacob C kicked it in the abdomen, causing the construct to break in half. Sombra, for the most part, just continued to make more and more constructs that the humans destroyed over and over again. As the others fought the constructs Nate, TJ, and Paddie advanced on Sombra to fight him personally, and as they advanced Nate would shoot lightning at any constructs that went at him as TJ froze others, but Paddie shot beams of dark magic at the construct causing them to turn green and start fighting the other constructs as they were taken over by Paddie.

As the three humans got closer Sombra focused and created over a hundred constructs and sent them at the other 7 humans to fight. Without hesitation TJ quickly moved in and threw a jab at Sombra's face, Sombra dogged it only to be punched in the stomach and sent back by Nate who had gotten to him, Paddie also joined by kicking Sombra in the leg, causing him to start falling only to be met half way by TJ's foot slamming into his face with enough force to send him back into the air. Sombra landed on the ground and reacted fast enough to roll out of the way of a lighting bolt that hit where he just was before dodging a punch to his face and a chuck of ice aimed for his abdomen. Sombra retaliated with with a blast of dark magic at all 3 of them that was dodged by all but Paddie who took the hit without damage and swung at Sombra, hitting him in the face hard enough to cause his nose to start bleeding as he fell backwards. As Sombra fell backwards Nate sent a blot of lighting at Sombra, hitting him in the face and sending him into the air to be hit by a body sized chunk of ice and sent back a few feet from the force. As Sombra got up all three of the humans stood together and shot out their magic at him in unison, forcing Sombra to go into his cloud for to dodge the blasts.

Sombra went back to his physical form in the air and fell into a punch, hitting Nate in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. Once Sombra landed he turned and kicked TJ in the gut sending him back before receiving a punch to the back of the head and a kick to his knee from Paddie. Sombra fell forward with a grunt as he was then kicked in the chest sending him back as Paddie and TJ kicked him back and forth between them with strong kicks. "ENOUGH!" Sombra yelled as he released a surge of energy that sent the Paddie and TJ sprawling across the ground, "You are all trying my patience, NOW DIE!" he screamed as he summoned a sword and rushed the two, only to be caught in a headlock from behind by Nate, whose hand and arms were surging with electricity causing Sombra to shout in pain as he dropped his sword.

"Any last words, Sombra?" Nate asked as TJ Paddie The fallen sword and stepped closer to them with murder in his eyes.

"I'll never truly die, you may strike me down for now but I will return stronger than before, and I will have my revenge," Sombra said, glaring at Paddie who was preparing to kill Sombra with his own blade. As Paddie swung with all his might Sombra could not move do to the electricity flowing from Nate, causing all his muscles to lock up from the voltage and cause enough pain to make it so he couldn't concentrate enough to use his magic to escape. As Paddie swung the sword Nate let go of Sombra and leaned back with half of a second to spare as the sword cut cleanly through Sombra's neck and sever his head from his body, causing Sombra to explode into a black mist that floated away from the crystal empire. After Sombra was defeated the last remaining constructs fell apart and all the humans fell to the ground exhausted after the battle they had just went through.

TJ, Nate, And Paddie were able to stay standing but were exhausted as well due to the exertion it took to defeat Sombra. As the three sat down there was a Popping sound as the princesses, element bearers, and spike were teleported with a squad of 100 or so guards. All the ponies looked around wide eyed at the shattered constructs and very tired humans that were on the ground. "Nice of you to show up your highness's," Nate said chuckling as everypony present looked at him, "I'm glad to say that Sombra has been taken care of, though it wasn't easy," He said, making everypony even more wide eyed at the news the they had taken out Sombra, only ten strong.

"How did thee and thine group manage to beat a monster the likes of Sombra with only 10 of thee?" Luna asked, confused as to how they could pull something like this off.

"By fighting dark magic with dark magic," Paddie said, his eyes finally returning to normal but still present enough for the princesses to notice it, "seems that I'm immune to dark magic and can use it as well," Paddie continued, yet again causing the ponies eyes to widen.

As the guards seemed to be getting ready to attack Paddie, Cadence decided to intervene, "Stand down, he helped stop Sombra and hasn't shown himself to be a threat, and you aren't going to be one, right?" She both said and asked as she looked at Paddie who shook his head no, "good," she said.

The guards then decided to make themselves useful by cleaning up the mess made by the earlier battle as they went around moving the black crystals into one pile to be dealt with later. The princesses walked up to the three who fought Sombra to talk to them.

"Is everypony in your group OK?" Princess Celestia asked as she got closer.

"Everyone Princess, and as far as I can tell yes, but we're all extremely tired," Nate said.

"Yeah, but that fight sure was fun," TJ chimed in with a grin while thinking about how cool it was to get to use his powers to fight bad guy.

"Well if you are all tired then lets get you all back to the castle so we can get you all checked for any injuries," Celestia said as she got a few guards to take all the humans to the infirmary to get checked up. After everyone was checked up they all went back to the castle to rest and prepare for the train ride to Equestria the next morning.

*two hours away from crystal empire, with Sombra*

"I will have my revenge," Sombra said to himself, planning out how to kill the creatures that had managed to stop his plans to take back the crystal empire. As he continued to think he started to laugh a dark, evil laugh that rang out across the temple he resided in.