Zemrite walked back into the Crystal Empire after his little chat with Sombra. Apparently while he was gone, a carnival of some sort had started in his absence. He walks down the street and looks around, all kind of stands, good smelling food, and games. Was he gone for longer than he had thought? As he walks down the street though, he feels eyes on him. Those of the crystal ponies. They all looked worried and slightly afraid of him. Though he raised his hand and waved, offering a light smile. He walks up to the booth that Rarity appeared to be working at. She was making hats it seemed. She sees Zemrite and quickly motions him over. When he was in range, she pulls him down to her level and whispers to him.

“Twilight’s doing what?!”

He quickly takes off as fast as his legs could carrying him, his cloak flowing behind him from the initial take off. Once he finally catches up to her, he looks at her with slight worry.

“So...fill me in on what just happened?”

Twilight explains everything on the way to the castle, both of them running around inside searching for a relic known as the ‘Crystal heart’. He shakes his head and can’t help but laugh.

“Come on Twi, something called the ‘crystal heart’. Sounds like an important relic, not something that can just be carved from a common crystal stone. It’s treasure hunting 101.”

She scoffs at him, but he was right, especially with it being so important, she should have thought it through more.

“I know that, Zemrite, and thank you for coming along…”

He nodded in response.

“I am here to simply help when needed, Twi.”

They get to the throne room, he nearly runs passed it, but stops, Twilight backtracked as well. He walked towards the throne, as did Twilight. And at the same time, they both had the same idea. Though from different experiences. He walks up to the floor in front of the throne and kneels down, running his hand over the surface. He felt a dark energy channeling through it.

“Twi...you know, right?”

She nodded, a big smile on her face.

“Stand back, I learned a little spell that Celestia had taught me.”

He nods and does so. He arches a brow in slight surprise as he sees Twilight using some form of...dark magic? Though in the end it served it’s purpose in revealing a stairway that lead to...who knows where below. Twilight was about to head down by hoof, but then Zemrite scooped her up in his arms, startling her a bit and making her blush slightly. The way he was carrying her felt..nice. If only this wasn’t a time for panic.

“Hold tight Twi, it’s gonna be a quick drop.”

Wait what do you-”

She was cut off after he had leaped into the darkness, completely avoiding the stairs on the way down as they plummeted. Twilight let out a rather adorable scream as they fell further and further. Only to be swallowed up by a shadow that Zemrite had formed on the ground below, and then lifted out as if nothing had happened. The poor mare clung to Zemrite with her heart beating over a hundred miles an hour.

“D-don’t EVER do that again!”

She shouted. He laughed and sat her down, letting her get her composure before they looked to the door that had a crystal over the top of it. Twilight tried to hit it a few times with her magic. Though it seemed to avoid her every attempt, it actually...slid all over the wall! Zemrite’s gamer senses were tingling..something wasn’t right. Wait...gamer sense? Hmmm…

“I got it!”

She said after using the dark magic again. Though once she approached it, something was off. She fell to her knees and her eyes changed color. She was mumbling about something, and it worried Zemrite greatly. He kneeled beside her and shook her gently.

“Twi...Twi...snap out of it!”

She snaps back to reality. She looks back up to him with sadness in her eyes.

“Zemrite..I was back in Canterlot...the princess didn’t want me as her student anymore...and you were...you were..”

He hugs her, wrapping her in a warm and comforting embrace.

“Easy Twi…..I think what you are dealing with is a doorway that leads to your worse fears. There was something similar back in my world.”

She sniffles and holds him closely, squeezing his cloak in her hands tightly. He helps her up to her hooves and pets her gently, trying his best to comfort her quickly.

“Come on Twi...pull yourself together. We need to find this relic quickly. Know any other spell that might work on this door?”

She nods and casts a white beam of magic from her horn, it seemed to have worked, because when they walked through, there was a tower of stairs...a very large tower. He looked at Twilight and chuckled lightly.

“This time, it won’t be so scary...promise.”

Before she could protest, he scoops her up again and begins to use the shadows under the stairs to travel up them quickly. Eventually they reach the top of the tower. They both rise up from the shadow as it vanishes. There it was, just floating there ready for the taking. However, Zemrite was getting that burning feeling again. He saw Twilight wandering over to try and grab the floating relic. His eyes widen as he turns around quickly to stop her, but it was too late. An alarm had gone off. A surrounding wall of black crystal came up around her as the heart flew out of reach. Though Zemrite was quick to catch it and slide it into his bag of holding.

“Twi?! Are you alright?!”

“The heart! Where is the heart?!”

“I caught it Twi, don’t worry! Can you find a way to get out?!”

She tries teleportation, only to be forced back into the circular prison by its magic. She falls to her knees and hands.

“I was so eager to get it….”

She looks over at Zemrite who was backing away from the smaller black crystals that were slowly approaching him.

“Zemrite...you are the one that must take the heart to Cadence. It’s our only chance left…”

He knew he was intervening more than he should but she was right. Without any way for her to escape. He nodded and jumped on the railing of the tower, looking back at her.

“She will understand twi...don’t beat yourself up over this alright? All that matters is we get this done. I will end this personally.”

He took out his bow and one of his arrows, lining up the shot with a building not too far from the area and shot it, a line of magical rope appears at the end of it and creates a zip line down, he take ahold of the glowing handle and begins to ride down, eventually coming to the ground and performing a recovery roll to his feet to break the shock of the fall. He turned to see Sombra, the tall dark unicorn king smiling evilly at him. As he approached.

“I had a feeling i’d be seeing you again...looks like you failed to acquire the heart…”

He said with an evil chuckle. Though Zemrite chuckled back.

“As far as you know I don’t have it. But regardless if I do or don’t, I am here to kick your ass anyways.”

“Why bother even fighting? You are a being of darkness, just like I am. Why not join me? We can take over these crystal ponies together...and you can have all the riches and mares you want, I will even kill the prince and you can have the princess all to yourself.”

He walks up to Sombra with an arched brow, the deal seemingly to have caught his attention.

“Really? All the riches and mares I want? Me and you ruling this kingdom together? That actually sounds pretty sweet.”

Sombra grins wider and offers a hand out to him. All the ponies stared at Zemrite with gasps and surprise as he took Sombra’s hand. But then blinked and gasped again at what happens next.

“Excellent choi-GAH!”

He was cut off by Zemrite’s punch to his jaw, sending the stallion flying across the ground, tumbling back a few times..

“Yeah right. Like I would ever take such a lousy deal from you. I have plenty of mares who want my affections already. And I don’t need riches and money. Plus, if I wanted to take this kingdom over, I could do it by myself. Besides, Shining and cadence and all the others trust me, I will not break those bonds for something so trivial!”

Sombra growls and gets up quickly, a low growl coming from him, clearly he was very angered.

“You will die for that, welp!”

Sombra charges forth, making a blade of pure shadow appears in his grasp. He swings his blade up as he gets in front of Zemrite and swings down, only to have Zemrite's trusty dagger, 'Demon's Demise' stop the blow He chuckles lightly and glares at the unicorn.

“Did you forget..? I dwell in the shadows just as much as you do...if not more.”

The two disappear into the ground and begin their fight in the dimension of shadows. Their shadow figures soaring across the ground, colliding with one another as they fight. Their weapons clashing together over and over. Their shadows appeared everywhere, on the ground, on the walls of the castle, other buildings, the sounds of their battle screams and weapons echoing in an eerie, ethereal tone. All the ponies could do was watch the fight that held their fate in its hands.

Not only did blades connect, but Zemrite had skills that seemed to remain from his former life, martial arts. The man landed solid kicks to Sombra’s jaw whenever he could, even to his stomach as well. Eventually he was forced out of the shadow dimension they were fighting in, Zemrite close behind as he chased his target out. They both emerged with cuts and wounds that covered their bodies, but they still stood and fought.

“These ponies are nothing but servants that need to be chained and bound in their proper place! Why do you fight for them?!”

Sombra screamed angrily as they continued to fight.

“Because unlike you. I do this because i have friends I fight for! And they would be very upset if I didn’t do this!” Their weapons collide again in a deadlock, they both growl and grunt, staring one another in the eyes.

“Your magic illusions may have worked on Twilight, but my mind is resistant to such tricks…”

“It doesn’t matter. I will cut you down and sever your head from your body. And I will show all these ponies and your friends that you fought a futile battle. Then I will make the mares of yours my personal sex slaves…”

Zemrite chuckled darkly and glared at Sombra, a shadowy aura forming around him, and rising like a raging bonfire

“You will not be touching any of them, because I will be slitting your throat and absorbing your power as you die. See, as a real shadowmancer, I can absorb shadow magic from others and make it my own…”

Sombra felt that he wasn’t lying, and this made him a bit nervous.

“I told you...I have been one with the shadows for all my life. You?You are barely even able to manage staying in the shadow dimension…”

He kicks Sombra back and sheathed his dagger. He thrusts his hands into the ground and shouts.

“CHAINS OF SHADOW, BIND MY ENEMY!!!”

Suddenly large black chains explode from the ground and wrap around Sombra, pinning him to the ground on his knees. He tries his best to use the shadows that Zemrite conjured to his own advantage, but something was off.

“Why...can’t I break free?!”

“Because, these aren’t your shadows, Sombra, they are mine…”

He said before conjuring up a spell that’d aid him in his final blow. A pair of large clawed hands come up from where the chains were and grasp around the struggling stallion, they begin to squeeze as hard as possible, Zemrite in full control of them.

“What was it you said? You’d turn my friends into your personal sex slaves? You should have kept your fucking mouth shut. I was going to end your suffering quickly by cutting your throat, but now…”

The sound of Sombra’s armor breaking under pressure from the hands that squeezed his body was heard. He lets out a scream of pain as he struggles. The sound of bones starting to break are heard.

“Gah! I don’t know what kind of magic you are using to keep me here, but you will pay for this! I swear it!”

More sounds of snapping bones and armor breaking apart was heard, Sombra screams out in absolute pain as his life was being ended slowly and painfully. Eventually shards of broken armor started digging into his flesh, causing more pain. Zemrite grins wickedly and chuckles, saying one more thing before ending the unicorn’s life.

“I am the master of the shadows, not you.”

Suddenly he pulls his hands apart, a sick cracking and blood splattering sound it heard when Sombra is ripped cleanly in half and dragged down by the hands, leaving nothing behind except a puddle of blood. Once he finished up, he slowly and tiredly walks over to the place where the heart was supposed to be. The ponies watch him carefully, though a bit sick and disturbed by what they had seen, they gasp in surprise as they see him pull out the crystal heart from his cloak. He looks it over before tossing it into it’s place of rightful belonging. He looks to the ponies with an exhausted grin.

“Well, do your thing everyone, I am just gonna...lie down for a bit.”

He said before he collapses and passes out, slumber hitting him hard after he had used so much power outside of night time.

Author's Note

Sorry for taking too long, was hard to find the right song for this battle.

May the darkness grant you peace.