(3rd POV)

The room fell into a chaos that would make Discord proud; with frantic leaders rushing to get out of harms way and guards rushing in to their charges aid, the room became a blur of movement and noise. Most of the leaders managed to get out of the room when soldiers that served Sombra began launching themselves into the room through the broken windows. There were ten or twelve of them.

Emerald was able to quickly guess that they were a group specialized for this task, as after landing inside the room, they immediately ran to cut off the leaders and guards that remained. He was having none of that. He quickly reared up on his hind legs and spread his large wings before sending a powerful gust of wind toward the oncoming assailants and sent them flying into the wall that held the windows they entered from. He landed on all fours and turned his head to the side to address the group of guards and their leaders.

"Go, now!" Emerald commanded before turning back to the soldiers who; for the most part; had recovered. "I'll hold them off!" The soldiers at the end of the room drew swords and daggers of various sizes fit for themselves and took fighting stances. Emerald's eyes narrowed and he also took a fighting stance before raising his right hoof into the air at head level to the front left side of himself, before swinging his foreleg to the right at a slight downward angle; a large emerald, blade-like Crystal erupting off his foreknee.

The soldiers were taken aback by this action and their composure faltered for a moment. Emerald grinned at their fear, "hopefully you all are better than the last group I faced." They growled at this taunt and his grin grew. All was still in the room as the guards had all managed to escort their leaders out of the room and toward a safe place. Without warning, all but one of the dark soldiers rushed Emerald with war cries and readied blades.

The first soldier that reached emerald was a unicorn with an azure colored magic that held two swords the size of the ponies entire leg. The unicorn swung the two swords in an 'X' fashion toward Emerald, and he stepped far to the right with his left hoof before using it to make a full clockwise rotation; effectively knocking the swords to the side and beheading the pony when Emerald brought his blade hoof around.

The next pony was also a unicorn and also followed quickly behind the fallen soldier. They were carrying a huge broadsword in their silver colored magic. They swung the broadsword in a slow vertical slice ment to cut Emerald in half, yet he jumped to the side at the last minute and vertically impaled the pony in the throat before lifting them to the right, then tossing them into an earth pony coming from slightly left of himself.

He inhaled before releasing a torrent of blue flames at the pony he had knocked over; incinerating them so that not even ash remained. His right ear twitched and he barely had time to dodge as eight daggers flew right where his head and neck had been. He turned to see an earth pony twirl two daggers in their forehooves before throwing them both at Emerald. He weaved around the blades flying through the air before sending pure wind magic into his blade and releasing it by swinging it at the pony. A large arc of wind with the width of a blade was fired from the crystals swing and eviscerated all in its path.

The pony was unable to get out of the way well enough and ended up losing most of their back right leg to the unforgiving wind. Flapping his wings once, Emerald catapulted himself over to the downed soldier before curb-stomping the ponies head; his stomp backed up by strong earth magic. He nearly flattened the soldiers helmet with the stomp and used the force of it to flip over another earth pony sprinting at him from in front of him and used his curved wing talons to stab the oncoming pony in the eyes and slam the back of the soldiers head into the ground.

A group of five unicorns wielding different weapons in their respectively colored magic surrounded Emerald and attempted to cut him down swiftly, only for Emerald to stand on his hind hooves and sprout another crystal blade on his left forehoof. He then spun two full counter-clockwise rotations; the first one cut their eyes to blind them, while the other rotation slit their throats. The five fell to the floor with a thud and their weapons a clatter.

Emerald turned to face the remaining soldier and was surprised to find a pegasai that, while adorning the Umbrums' armor, also had red highlights where there should not have been. 'I assume he's an officer.' Emerald thought while retracting the crystal blade-hooves. Celestia entered the room with two of her vanguard and was not really surprised to see Emerald nigh unscathed and most of the enemies dead. She saw Emerald and the Umbran officer watching each other.

Emerald nodded to the officer and the officer nodded back. Then... They were both gone. She put up a shield spell around herself and the two guards just before harsh winds whipped the once calm air, stone shrapnel disconnected and flew from the floor from the points of the two fighters push-off steps, and sparks flew all around the room from points of the two warriors clashes took place.

After ten second that felt like forever to Celestia; who was struggling to maintain her shield amidst the destruction; the two fighters appeared back where they had stood before their display of speed, breathing heavily and physically worn out. Unable to speak due to the exhaustion, the Umbran officer pointed wearily to himself before pointing at one of the broken windows. Emerald nodded. The Umbran soldier limped over to the window before jumping out of it, and flying away.

Celestia looked at Emerald with a confused expression on her face.

"No-Nobody was- going to win that." Emerald managed to make out between breaths. "Creator almighty I'm out of shape." He stood up straight and stretched. He looked at Celestia; legs shaking and an attempted smile on his face; and asked, "do you think you could get me to a room?" Celestia slowly nodded her head. Emerald nodded once before his eyes closed and he crumpled to the ground unconscious; yet, right before unconsciousness took hold, Emerald swore he saw a purple-black wisp disappear from reality...

Author's Note

Done in minor collaboration with Shadows Of The Light