If someone had kept a tally over how many times they’d stepped near death’s door, this was certainly one of them. Not knowing what else she could do, with only instinct and previous experience guiding her actions, Twilight shined her augmented keychain light at the rushing orthros. Correction; the Umbra-Touched orthros.

To a smidgeon of relief, the newborn monster reeled mid-charge, sliding precariously across the remaining distance between it and her. She felt Sunset pull her away from the oncoming mass of un-life and darkness, the newborn Umbra-Touched slamming viciously onto the altar.

“Radioactive light, right!” gasped Sunset, urging her and Fluttershy away as humanly possible from the rattled monster, the impact having seemingly done some damage to one of its heads and disorienting it. “Out the other way!” she called for, only for the three of them stopping in their tracks when a bolt of lightning struck the floor inches from Fluttershy’s foot.

“You will not escape, peons!” called Cinch up from the mezzanine. “I don’t know how you tamed something as vicious as an orthros, but you are no Scions. Whatever tricks you’re using, I see no Sigils on you!”

The Umbra-Touched orthros hopped up onto the altar and swiftly began to stalk after the three of them, a gout of blackness erupting from its impacted head, which seemed to twist and pop itself back into proper placement. Intriguing as to how something that by seemingly its very definition had no life, as far as Twilight understood what Neighsay told her, it had some form of healing factor much like Twiggy. Sunset took a chance at thrusting her rapier at the abomination, striking it somewhere in the chest it seemed, but the effects of the attack seemed negligible when it tried to snap back at her with darkness frothing jaws.

Shining the light at the thing again seemed to do much more, the creature reeling and wailing in some unnatural cacophony, the swathes of blackness seeming to try and peel off its body, like being pushed back by the illumination. Just like father and Shining Armor always told her; it certainly did pay to be prepared.

That’s when another bolt of light-bending blackness struck the orthros. While the effect seemed illegible at first under the constant glare of the extensively enhanced light, the monster became emboldened enough to lash out with a small gout of blackness that drained at the remaining warmth in the vicinity, forcing a retreat.

“As long as she’s got that wand, we’re just sitting ducks down here, and the pews will make maneuvering difficult!” Twilight remarked.

“And we’ve no way up there!” blurted Sunset going out of her way to maintain her position between the orthros and their group, despite the near uselessness of her plain rapier against the Umbra-Touched. Another thrust aimed at one of the orthros’ heads seemed to elicit little reaction beside another gout of dark smog that Sunset had to scurry away from. “There’s no way out!”

“Precisely, peons,” Cinch responded up above, wand and flask at hand. “You and your parlor trick magics and cheap steel. To think lowlifes such as yourselves thought to pass themselves off as Scions, yet you can’t even fight your sworn enemy. Your lies have brought thee low indeed.”

“Chaaaarge!”

From the direction of the pews came two figures charging into the nave. That’s when Twilight realized the door at the back had been opened, and Starlight Glimmer clung to the side of one of the pews: During the fight she must have managed to open the doors and get outside.

Still garbed in their guard guises came Lyra and Bon-Bon, bearded axe and spear at hand, the tip of which found itself driven into the side of the Umbra-Touched orthros, accompanied by the crackle and spark of the enchanted lightning imbued into it. This caused the orthros to bellow out in the unique chord of the pain of an unliving.

Lyra rushed up beside Sunset, axe grasped in a defensive posture with one hand near the head and the other close to the bottom of the shaft, “Are you alright?”

“Weren’t you two supposed to join up with the rest?” asked Sunset, sound not even the least ungrateful.

“We felt bad leaving you novices behind, so we decided to wait for you,” said Lyra, smirking at Sunset. “Seems we made the right decision.”

With that exchange the other half of the power couple joined the fray, her enchanted bearded axe proving phenomenally more effective from Sunset’s rapier, catching the orthros in one of its necks in the display of brutality.

“You three; get Lady Glimmer out of here! We’ll handle this beastie!” Bon-Bon cried out, jabbing her spear back and forth as quickly as she could, the repetitious barrage taking the strength out of the aberration’s hindlegs.

“Cinch is up there!” said Twilight, pointing an accusatory finger at the woman who in the home dimension could have well been the very bane of her existence. “She’s somehow channeling the Umbra into the orthros!”

Cinch from her safe vantage point above seemed furious; any harder and she may have smashed the vial in her clenching fingers. Without so much as saying a word, she slid the brightening wand against the side of the vial, the light-draining aura overtaking the instrument. Not daring to take a risk; Twilight let instinct drive her, reaching out with her telekinesis for the tools in Cinch’s hands.

The ploy almost worked, but Cinch was fast enough to seize back the items, leaning dangerously close over the ledge of the mezzanine. As she tried in vein to keep hold on the items under Twilight’s mental grip, the black vial shattered in her fingers, rivulets of blackness spattering to the floor, while her hand became coated in it. The realization might as well have drained the color from Cinch, as she started to tear away at the ink-like substance, only to smear it onto her other hand. And it began to spread down her arms.

“Oh no, no!” she cried out, flaying her arms as if trying to flick the substance off, all the while the light and color around her began to warp and fade. “G-get it off! Get it off me you fools!” she cried when in her panicked flaying she went tumbling over the ledge of the mezzanine.

In that blink of a moment Twilight could only watch in shock as Cinch fell down thirty feet from the mezzanine to the solid stone floor. The sound of impact was a dull snap, leaving her body laying there on her belly. Her terrified eyes looked as if they were staring straight at Twilight.

Twilight slapped her hands over her lips in horror. She just killed Abacus Cinch. She hadn’t meant to. She was only trying to get the wand and vial away from the wayward, self-styled priestess, the only logical course of action she could think of in but a blink. Much as she outwardly despised the woman, both in her home dimension and for certain here on Equis, but to go so far?

“I… I killed her…” she gasped into her hands. It took nary a blink when two pairs of arms were around her, one bringing her head to rest against a shoulder.

“No… No, you did not,” said Sunset, albeit her wavering voice did little to soothe the realization. “You saw; she did it to herself.”

“N-no…” Twilight sniffed. “No, if I hadn’t…”

The sudden rush of incomprehensible guilt made the battle raging just a few feet away feel muted. Twilight could only stand there, looking at the lifeless eyes of Cinch, still gripped in terror from the realization of impending death, staring right at her. Any inkling of reason in Twilight’s mind made her think she was accusing her through the gaze: She killed her. The light and color began to fade from Cinch, like the very essence of life was draining… No, it was draining…!

The blackness from the vial had encroached to cover Cinch’s arms, and the splatter from the floor had seemingly adhered to her legs, reaching out for footing as it spread over her like some virulent growth. Her body was being consumed by the… By the Umbra. The blue of her clothes, the color of her skin and hair, it warped away like it was being sucked away by the blackness. It wasn’t long until she was completely subsumed, the last to fade being her eyes… And the cold white that replaced them.

“Grab the wand and go!” yelled Lyra, her and Bonbon, almost terrifyingly dismissive of what just happened in the midst of hacking away at the persistent, but weakened Umbra-Touched orthros. “Get Starlight Glimmer to the square before-?!”

She was cut off when the black smear that was once Abacus Cinch, against all feasible laws of momentum and leverage, sent itself rocketing towards the battle. Lyra barely had time to tumble out of the way as it connected, quite literally, with the orthros, the conjoined mass sliding and slamming into the altar and shattering half of it, breaking further laws of physics. The mass of Umbra immediately began to shift and convulse, accented by unnatural sounds, like a hellish cacophony of screams, roars and whispers.

“Go-go-go!” Screamed Bon-Bon, rushing to help Lyra to her feet.

Everyone made a mad dash for the exit; Twilight having regained enough of her composure to lift Starlight and carry her along. They rushed through the double door, through a short passage towards the grand doors to the cathedral, a hatch on the left one having been left ajar. As they fled, the unworldly chorus from the mass of Umbra cried out, with ever increasing volume to where it was almost deafening in spite of the growing distance.

-

“Agh!” cried Pinkie, the pole of the polearm still jutting from her floof, as her leg seemed to seize up. “Ah! Calm down, knee! We’re kind of in a spot here, don’t ‘cha know?”

It was Rainbow who was first to catch the party girl hopping awkwardly on one foot. Thankfully, with their combined powers and the ever-decreasing number of combat-able guards, most of them impaired, incapacitated, smacked upside the head or tossed into the canal, they’d held their own amidst the chaos they’d sown.

“Pinkie? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“Oh, come on!” grunted Pinkie. “You really haven’t picked up on “pinchy knee” yet?! Honestly?”

“Wait… So something’s gonna happen…?”

That was when she, and by extension everyone else be they friend or foe, heard it. Some unworldly call reverberated throughout the city, that sent chills down one’s spine.

“What was that?!” asked Rainbow, dreading just what in this world of unending night could produce such a haunting call.

“It came from the cathedral methinks,” said Scootaloo, evidently sharing the sentiments of dread that’d felt blanketing the city.

“Our friends are down there!” called Applejack, who was ready to quit the field as she rushed past her latest opponent, when many of the remaining guards began to point their weapons in her direction. “For Pete’s sake! Ya’ll really think that ain’t a bigger deal now?!”

“W-we have our orders,” said a male kettle-hatted guard, albeit the waver in his voice was a clear sign of his uncertainty.

“Then nuts to your orders! What do ya reckon could make a sound like that?!”

As if in response, another, even louder cry permeated the air of Moonlink, sending another wave of unnatural cold, and with it, a wash of terror through the masses.

“It’s the Umbra!” cried someone amidst the citizens or guards.

“The Umbra’s in the city?!” a guard among the remaining ranks cried out.

“It seems that way,” said Scootaloo, sword grasped close to her chest, as if some unorthodox comfort item. Swallowing her fears, the young huntress held up her sword in address to all around; “If you all want to live, you can either join us in the fray, or you can flee! Or you can be fools and resume this pointless feud! The Hunters’ are sworn to seek out and destroy any aberration spawned by the dark, and we have that duty to uphold! Do you want to save our last bastion of safety, or are you going to let it all fall?!”

By her call, the remaining Umbra Hunters gathered around their leader, enchanted weapons at hand, likely as a show of deterrent for anyone foolish enough to resume the battle just taking place. Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie with the pole in her hair, took their place with the Hunters. After a moment of hesitation that felt longer than necessary, any guards still able to fight lowered their weapons, some of them stepping up in a silent show of new fealty. The one guard conflicted by his previous orders nodded to the Hunters, bringing his weapon arm to his chest, to which many more did the same.

“Alright. Anyone able and willing, on us!” Scootaloo trained her sword in the direction of the cathedral. “For Moonlink! For Equis!”

“For Equis!”

-

They hadn’t much time to flee, having barely made it to the bridge when the grand doors to the cathedral were smashed off their hinges. On a moment of self-reflection, Twilight had begun to re-evaluate her guilt over what befell Cinch, or whatever she was now, currently rolling and dragging itself out the cathedral after them.

What the Umbra had made of Cinch and the orthros: It seemed as if any encounter they’d come to have with its monsters would attempt to one-up one another over what unholy shape they’d take:

It looked barely human: Anything remaining of the former Abacus Cinch might as well have been the remnants of a human skeleton, albeit somehow grown multiple times normal scale to the point where the head was as tall as a person, so it had to crawl, or rather, drag its way out of the cathedral, what with the seeming lack of legs. The skeleton was mired in writhing and bubbling ink-like substance all over: Running down its back like some membranous cloak, strings of it stretching from its shoulders and clavicles to its neck and jawbones, a thick coating of it slathered atop the skull, with a pronounced curve to the left of its visage. Its ribs were similarly slathered, stretching like a sinuous web between each bone, while the arms were covered in blobs and smears of the substance. The entirety made it look like it was covered in some inky mockery of skin and tissue. As with any other Umbra-Touched, its eye sockets were alight with the cold white lifeless glow.

“That is not right!” screamed Spike, right before a tremor and a buffet of air sent everyone sprawling onto the cobblestones.

The monster raised its hand back up in preparation of another smash: One hit and any one of them would be crushed underneath the sheer force. Twilight shone her light at its skeletal visage, not sure it would harm something of its scale. Whether from pain or from being blinded, it let out an enraged wail, covering its lifeless eyes with its rearing arm before lashing out with a misplaced backhand. That’s when Twilight felt the ground give way underneath, and she felt herself falling.

“Twilight!” Sunset managed to snag her by the forearm, Twilight hanging on for dear life with both of hers, hearing the rubble crash and sink into the moat. This left the two of them hanging precariously over the edge of what remained of the bridge, Sunset trying to manage the strength to pull her up.

Twilight watched as Fluttershy came scrambling to help pull her up, with Lyra and Bonbon taking defensive positions beside them, and poor Spike stepping about in uncertainty and terror. Twilight dared not look back, fearful of whatever the Umbra-Touched Cinch might try: Surely it could simply reach out and-

Twilight screamed when she felt what may as well have been the touch of death wrap itself around her, barely able to register the panicking screams of her friends. She saw the world turn hazy as she was lifted up in the icy grasp of Cinch. As the Umbra began to drain her, she could make out the nightmarish skull visage glaring at her, like some lingering shred of her nemesis was still there, resenting her. To think the last thing she’d see before her end was the very face of death glaring at her when the haze began to thicken.

S-Sunset… Girls… With the final shreds of sensation remaining, she felt herself falling, unable to see, just barely able to hear, her body was so cold.

-

“Twilight!” Sunset cried out alongside Spike, having her grip wrenched away as the Umbra-Touched Cinch snatched Twilight in its bony, grasp. Her heart felt like stopping inside her chest hearing her pained scream as the Umbra bit into her body.

“No! Twilight! No!” Fluttershy called out herself, the girl on the verge of tears as the monster held Twilight before its visage, almost like in resentment.

“Dammit!” Sunset fretted, seeing no way to get at Cinch with the bridge having collapsed, leaving it out of reach out of any of them, with Twilight’s body going limp and lifeless. “No! Twilight!” She called out, reaching out towards her, when Bonbon held her back.

“Don’t! You’ll fall!”

“Let me go!” screamed Sunset, outright pounding her fist against Bonbon. “Let me go! She’s gonna die!”

Something small zipped overhead and embedded itself into Cinch’s skeletal hand holding Twilight, followed by the clap of thunder and spark of lightning. The monster bellowed with its haunting wail, releasing Twilight to seemingly nestle its hand, when a rainbow blur leapt over the moat underneath, grabbed Twilight and with the remaining momentum leapt back over. Stopping with a skid and falling to her knees, there was Rainbow Dash, who promptly fell forward with the added weight of Twilight in her arms.

Whatever else happened around her became only secondary as Sunset rushed over to the motionless Twilight. Resting her head against her lap, Spike hopping and nudging her prone form, while Sunset cradled her cheeks: They felt ice-cold to the touch, which only made Sunset fear the absolute worst. Rainbow pressed her fingers to Twilight’s neck, holding her breath as she felt for a pulse.

“Her heart’s beating, she’s alive,” said Rainbow with relief.

“Thank Celestia!” cried Sunset, on the verge of despair. “We need to get her someplace warm, and a shard! Does anyone have one?!”

“We left all of them at the Apple Hearth for safekeeping,” said Rainbow, he breathing equally uneven and shaky.

The rest of her friends came rushing to their side, all fretting over the unmoving Twilight. While her body still felt cold, her increasingly heaving chest and quivering lips were a further comforting sign that she was alive, but they couldn’t possibly know if there was any lasting damage.

Sunset felt an arm upon her shoulder, seeing it was Scootaloo, the culprit behind the arrow, “Get Twilight to Apple Hearth. We’ll handle the Umbra-Touched.”

“But we can’t just quit the field,” said Rainbow in protest, albeit she seemed uncertain as he eyes drifted back to the shivering Twilight.

“You’re much too important!” said Scootaloo in a commanding tone. “We can handle wherever this thing crawled out from, you just get Twilight to warmth and the shards will revive her.”

“It’s Cinch,” Sunset spat, casting a spiteful glare at the monster temporarily stranded on the cathedral court. “That thing is Cinch; she was doing something with the Umbra and now it’s afflicting her.”

“Well then,” said Scootaloo, drawing an arrow from her quiver and training her blackwood bow, “this just became personal.” She stated before loosing the arrow, followed by a thunderclap and the Cinch abomination’s unworldly wail.

“We should get Starlight somewhere safe too.”

“You found her?!” Scootaloo looked about, noticing the emaciated and filthy high priestess clinging to Neighsay for support. “Milady!”

“If I might ask,” said Starlight, holding up her still shackled hand, “is there anyone here who can undo these binds?”

“Just hold on a sec.” Applejack came up to her taking an appraising look at the iron shackles. Priming her geode, then slipping her fingers in between the gaps and with a grunt, the bolt was snapped and the first shackle fell from Starlight’s wrist, followed by the second and the irons rattled onto the cobblestones of the street, Starlight rubbing her callused wrist in relief.

“Thank you, Applejack,” she said with a praising smile. “But what Lady Scootaloo says is most wise: You should get Twilight to safety before anything else.”

“You should get out of here too, Lady Glimmer,” said Neighsay urgingly. “The Apple Hearth Inn is the safest as you can be right now.”

“No, Sir Neighsay,” said Starlight, trying to take a step, only to stumble before being caught by Applejack. Brandishing a wand, the one Cinch was using earlier: Near two feet long; made of wrought silver, with vine-like filigrees winding up its entire length, to a tip bearing a familiar tri-moon crest. “That accursed witch has gone too far, and I will not rest until justice is delivered unto her.”

“But ya’ll can barely stand up,” said Applejack in protest.

“Maybe,” huffed Starlight, “but you should know all too well I need not strength to fight. Neighsay; will you be my legs?”

“I swore an oath in service to the High Priestess of the Moon, then so shall it be,” said the grand archivist.

Starlight nodded in acknowledgement before turning to Sunset and the girls. “You get Twilight to safety and we’ll meet back once this madness is done with.”

Applejack sighed. “Fine, but we’re comin’ back fer ya as soon as Twilight’s safe. No backtalk.”

Starlight shook her head with a smile, “Not that I can, Scion.”

With the decision made; Applejack went and picked up Twilight in a bridal carry and started on a brisk pace away from the fighting, with the guards who’d joined int giving them free passage.

“I take it things went better on your end?” asked Fluttershy.

“We saved the people, and I killed a building!” chirped Pinkie Pie, disturbingly contradictory to the sounds of the Cinch abomination’s wails. “Only problem is I got this stuck to my floof,” she added, indicating the spear shaft jutting out of her hair.

The way to safety wasn’t very far, but with the way Twilight was shivering, it might as well have been, the sounds of battle nearby not helping the matters. Along the way they passed by the market square, with civilians and a few guards, some whom were immobile, Sunset dearly hoping they’d only been injured or incapacitated. With the seven of them, the supposed heroes of their age, all together and accounted for, it came as no surprise for the citizens of Moonlink to be amazed. Before the lot of them could crowd in praise, if not worship, Rainbow took the initiative to warn all of them about the Umbra-Touched being on the loose and to seek safety. This was fine to Sunset; right now all she cared about was getting Twilight to warmth and safety, having still not roused from whatever condition prolonged exposure to Cinch had done.

The welcoming sign of Apple Hearth did little to stem the cold dread in the air as the battle raged on at the cathedral, the haunting chorus of the Umbra reverberating far and deep even at such a distance. Pinkie knocked on the heavy oaken door in that particular pattern Scootaloo had demonstrated, but she seemed to get into it as the knocking was extending into an outright drumming solo until Sweetie Belle came to answer.

“You’re ba- What happened to Twilight?!”

“Long story dear, she needs warmth and a shard,” urged Rarity.

“Get her upstairs, we’ll get your shard,” Sweetie instructed with a point of her thumb.

“What in the world’s going on out there?” came Apple Bloom from the back, all as another wail let its way into the inn in answer, the sound almost making the two’s hair stand on end with the chills it brought with it.

“I’m not entirely sure,” said Pinkie, “but the best I can surmise is that Sunset, Fluttershy and Twilight found Starlight Glimmer, almost got out scot-free, ran into Cinch who might have been experimenting with the Umbra which caused her to grow into a monster birthed from the very recesses of insanity and nightmare!” She paused, “Of course that’s just a guess…”

Applejack carried Twilight upstairs, taking the first door she came to on her left, slightly ajar. Whether it was someone’s room probably wouldn’t mind for the moment as Twilight was laid down on the bed in the corner, Rarity covering her shivering form with a thick blanket. Sunset knelt by her side, feeling Twilight’s cheek; it was still cold, the heat drained from her body. Spike, ever loyal to his owner, clambered over onto the bed continuing to paw at Twilight’s prone form, unable to not cry when nothing could rouse her. The little dog laid beside her, head pressed firmly to her cheek.

The sounds of footsteps portended the arrival of Sweetie Belle, in her hands a small flask containing a single celestial shard: The one they originally found on arrival in Equis. The mere presence of it dispelled the clawing cold, opposed to that which Cinch’s had brought down on Moonlink. Despite its power illuminating through the glass, Sunset had the uncontainable urge to pop the cork and take the shard in her hand and holding it to Twilight.

Despite the cozy safety of the inn for the time being, the sounds of Cinch’s corrupted form continued to make their way inside, the celestial light being the one thing keeping the cold from clawing at them further.

“What do we do now?” asked Applejack, her unease evident the way her hand was cradling the head of her axe slung to her belt.

“We can’t just leave the Hunters out there to fight that thing on their own,” said Rainbow, her arms hugged around herself. “But we can’t leave Twilight like this either. I mean, what if…”

“Don’t say it…” spat Sunset, not taking her eyes off their comatose friend, her free hand idly stroking the top of her head. “Listen, you guys; you go help the Hunters. I’ll stay with Twilight. I’m not any good in a fight like this with just a piece of metal.”

“I don’t think I’ll be any more help either,” muttered Fluttershy, who’d seated herself atop a chest. “I can stay and watch over her if you prefer.”

“No, Fluttershy, it’s just the fact,” said Sunset. “Unless someone can whip up one of those lightning enchantments onto my sword, might as well be hitting it with a stick.”

“Hmm,” Pinkie brought a contemplating finger to her chin. “If only we had something to stick one of those shards onto a weapon…”

“Well, in any case, Sunset has a point,” said Rainbow, swallowing her apprehensions. “We won’t leave our friends out there, nor our friend here. You three watch over Twilight, we’ll help handle Cinch.”

Rarity looked to her sister’s counterpart, “Sweetie Belle, dear, can you fetch us the remaining shards? We’re all going to need them.”

“Oh! And Maud’s rock suit!” exclaimed Pinkie.

“Well, Ah guess we better mosey if Ah’m gonna be carryin’ a load,” said Applejack, giving his confirmation. “But first…” The group huddled around Sunset into a life-affirming group hug. “We’ll get through this, sugarcubes. Ya’ll see.”

With those final words of encouragement, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were off. Although Pinkie was snagged against the door frame with the pole still protruding from her hair and fell over, having to pick herself up. How it hadn’t smacked anyone along the way would forever remain a mystery.

With only Sunset and Fluttershy staying behind to watch over Twilight, the light of Celestia marking this little room as their small consecrated ground of safety.

Sunset ran a hand through Twilight’s hair, already able to feel the warmth of life underneath her finger tips, and the shivering had stopped. But the fear of Twilight having been in Cinch’s Umbral grasp for even seconds too long continued to gnaw at her. Sunset uttered a prayer under her breath to Celestia, both the one from Equis, and her mentor.

Author's Note

New chapter in only two days after the last. Wow, I really am back in the zone.

Trivia: Umbra-Touched Cinch's design is in reference to Highlord Wolnir of Dark Souls 3, as well as some traits borrowed from Gravelord Nito of Dark Souls 1, as well as Mass of Souls and Pus of Man from DS and DS3 respectively.