Ghost Of Equestria

It was finally happening, the liberation would be happening that very day. From what Spike could gather, it was around the end of December, almost the new year. He hoped that by the time spring arrived, he would have defeated King Sombra.

He was marching together with his mother, aunt, cousin, Shining Armor, the mane six, the Crystal Ponies, and his allies. Many creatures who heard The Ghost would liberate Manehattan sent their best warriors who could help them any way they could.

Spike had been thankful and would repay that kindness somehow. The way to Manehattan had been almost completely blocked by the Umbrums who must have heard about the rebels who would fight back to get their kingdom under Equestrian control again.

From what his mother told him; King Sombra happened to be in Manehttan and was most likely looking for slaves, she did not tell Spike how she knew but they both knew it did not matter, they had the information they needed, and that was all that mattered.

His aunt, on the other hand, kept giving glances of disapproving looks at Celestia which made Spike wonder what his mother had done to get the information or it if was a completely different matter altogether. But it did not really matter, they were either going to succeed in this, it would be a long day or a very short one.

The soldiers were wearing war banners of their kingdoms, representing the kingdoms that had been under King Sombra’s tyrannical rule that had treated its creatures as nothing more but mere filth. They were beaten, saw family members get killed right in front of their very eyes.

But now, they would take something that would make King Sombra extremely angry, something that would make the war turn tides but if that was good or bad would remain to be seen and that was something that still terrified them. One wrong move and the war could be lost.

But Spike would not allow that to happen, he would never allow King Sombra to regain anything that he lost, the only thing that King Sombra would regain would be execution, he could not live under any circumstances, he had even voiced this to his allies who all agreed with him.

They too, believed that King Sombra could not live. After everything he’s done to them, to Equestria, allowing him to live would be a disgrace for every creature that was once alive. They had not spoken about this to any other creature but Spike did see his mother strangely look at him...

He could not make out the expression but he noticed that her eyes held a kind of a disappointment that one would see in a ruler of a kingdom, and she was, but why was it directed at him? Had she heard what he told the others? Did she not agree with his line of thinking? She over any creature should understand, from what he could see, aunt Luna agreed with him.

In a dream; she had told him that she agreed with him to a hundred percent.

But if his aunt agreed with him, then why didn’t his mother? Was it because the way he was going about it was wrong in her eyes? She needed to understand that they were at war; he needed to be brutal if he wanted to get anything done at all, but she did not seem to either understand that or want to believe in whatever it was that Spike believed.

But there was only one problem with the liberation; his family would see him in action; the ones who believed in him like the cutie mark crusaders, Rumble, and Pipsqueak would be fully on his side as well as the ones he had saved on his journey into protecting Equestria.

But the only ones from his family that would support him would be his aunt, cousin, and possibly Shining Armor. And if they were him in action then they would see what he had to do for Equestria; there was no other way if there had been; then he would use it, but there isn’t.

His way was the only way that would liberate Equestria and beyond, his ancestor had trained him for over a year to make sure that he knew how to defeat the Umbrums. His training would not go away for anything.

*** *** ***

They were almost there. Their flags were pierced high up into the sky, the warriors making their way to the city that had fallen into King Sombra’s hooves that now ruled it with an iron fist. They would never abandon the creatures there, and even if that was the case; The Ghost would have come to get them.

They were a hundred feet away from the gates. The large wooden gates on the top had a watchtower with fifteen Umbrums watching. When they spotted Spike and his warriors, they immediately went for their horn and blew inside of it to warn the others that they had spotted something.

“This is it! Today we free the creatures in Manehattan, and retake the city!” Spike shouted and heard thunderous cheering from his fellow warriors. Then he heard their war cries.

“YAKYAKISTAN!”

“GRIFFINSTONE!”

”THE GHOST!”

And then ... they witnessed the wooden gates open for them but it released the Umbrums who were running towards them. Spike did not hold back; he ran towards the closes Umbrum who wielded two swords and then they clashed. Metal hitting metal filled the entirety of Spike’s surroundings, he heard the war cries from his comrades and he heard the Umbrums let out aggressive growls for their enemies, showing their displeasure with what was going on.

Spike blocked his Umbrums’ attack and they continued to try and stab one another and the Umbrum succeeded at one point, he cut inside of Spike’s stomach and Spike knew that the metal they were using came from dragon metal that was immensely hard to find unless if you are a dragon that knows where it is.

Spike used a healing technique that his ancestor had shown him and just like that; he was ready for battle once more. The Umbrum did not seem the least surprised and rushed at Spike once more before he was cut from the shoulder, losing his arm. But because of how much blood he was losing, he died instantly.

The other warriors were doing their best to fight against the Umbrums, but the soldiers of King Sombra were good. Too good. Their battle skills were amazing to the extent that they were able to cut down several of Spike’s allies but luckily, none of them had died so far but it was only in time ...

Spike was nearly stabbed from behind by an Umbrum who wielded a spear who was fighting with vigor. His face was contorted into one of anger. He tried multiple times to stab Spike but the purple scaled dragon just blocked the attacks and watched as the anger become absolute, making the Umbrum furious as to not being able to kill the one who had stolen several lands from them.

After all, King Sombra would reward him good for The Ghosts head ...

Spike surprised the Umbrum when he jumped into the air and landed a heavy blow onto the spear which made the Umbrum slightly dizzy from the impact, but he did not falter as quick as his brothers and sisters who were fighting for the sake of their king.

Spike ran up to the Umbrum and attacked with another heavy blow but the Umbrum expected it that time and tried to stab him with the spear but it was futile as Spike was anticipating such a move and cut the throat of the Umbrum when he landed on the ground.

The Umbrum stumbled back, the rotten dirt getting smeared with blood from the enemy that destroyed it in the first place. It was not redemption for the nature that had to endure such lack of care, but it was a start, the plants could potentially suck up all that blood from their enemy, giving the plants the last laugh.

Over to the element bearers, they were fighting off their own hoard of Umbrums who wielded weapons that they had all seen and read before but never seen in action. It terrified poor Fluttershy seeing the Umbrums fight with such violence that made even Rainbow Dash falter.

Rainbow Dash wanted to become a Wonderbolt and she had read about the dangers of the job, but she would have never anticipated this kind of danger, the amount of violence the Umbrums displayed just made Rainbow feel sick to her stomach.

She would have never in her life believed that any creatures could be so violent and hateful. But before her very eyes; she was witnessing some of her other friends fall to the Umbrums, she even saw two of them get killed by Umbrums who looked to have pony but it was hard to tell because of the armour they were wielding.

Her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt was slowly diminishing, wanting to live a long and prosperous life. But at the same time, there was a big chance that she in one way or another would dismiss what she saw and join the Wonderbolts anyway.

Applejack who was currently fighting over four different Umbrums was not faring much better. She was thinking about Big Mac, her younger sister, and Granny Smith. She remembered one day when she had returned home from the Crystal Palace, she had seen her Granny sit and look into the nothingness around her, when she had asked where Big Mac was, Granny had slowly turned her head towards her and ordered her to never say his name in her presence. When Applejack had demanded about what had happened, she got silence as an answer.

It was a strange thing to think about when you are fighting for the sake of the motherland you were born into but perhaps it was because she was close to dying? It was a depressing thought because she would then never receive her response about what Big Mac did that set her Granny of so.

But for some strange reason ... deep down it was as if she knew the answer but she never wanted to satisfy the thought.

She blocked an attack from an Umbrum and knocked him out unconscious.

What that thought would be, she would have to find out later because she did not want to think about what happened to Big Mac. But she never did see him around the empire, it was as if he ... vanished into thin air. She had tried asking around, but nopony or any other creature seemed to know where he was.

She could spot a liar from a mile away, but none of them lied. None of them ...

Over with Pinkie Pie, she was one of the few from the element bearers who completely agreed with Spike’s way of things. She had kept rambling about how Spike was the messiah of their world and when the Crystal Ponies had heard this; declared Spike the messiah of the Crystal Empire, with Pinkie Pie as the sort of “Nun” to watch over things.

She was killing Umbrums left and right but was concealing it with her party cannon confetti which was sprayed all over the battlefield. Her other friends didn’t seem to notice as they were too busy fighting off their Umbrums who were doing their best in trying to stay alive and injure the Umbrums but not kill.

The only one who seemed to be doing “unnecessary damage” was Rarity who was going a bit overboard with her spells, injuring the Umbrums more than what was called for. Not that Pinkie cared all that much but she knew that it was what the other of her friends might believe as they have never spoken anything good about Spike’s tactics which could mean that they are on princess Celestia’s side which was making her slightly agitated because it then meant that Spike almost did not have any creature to count on apart from her and his allies who followed him.

Did they not realize that they had to take drastic measures?

Pinkie Pie avoided an attempt at being stabbed by an Umbrum swords creature and managed to kill him by blowing a secret cannonball from her party cannon. The Umbrum died instantly but the cannonball flew through the air and killed a few other Umbrums who were close by.

Rarity was fighting for Manehattan, its liberation would be beneficial for all of Equestria, she knew that the big city would be the key point to winning against the dreaded King Sombra, the way that the evil King is handling things are evidence that he use the city the most for his torture and kidnapping.

She had one secret which she had yet to tell any of her other friends and that was that she believes Spike’s way is the only way they will be able to retain freedom from King Sombra, the killings of the Umbrums would only be beneficial for Equestria and she knew that the others knew that as well.

But they did not want to admit it. They did not want to admit that killing another creature is actually beneficial. But it could be because of the fear of being arrested by Equestrian law for killing another creature who could potentially be a fellow-creature that they know or maybe even are friends with.

It was that fear that made Rarity realize that princess Celestia was afraid of killing off her own subjects or even her fellow rulers’ subjects because she believed that they could be healed from the mind-control spell that King Sombra had over them. But, when the creatures can think for themselves and are explained to them what they did, they wouldn’t want to be alive, they would feel unworthy of being amongst the other creatures, especially, since they might be the cause as to why some children would not have any parents, siblings, family members, or even friends left.

It would be unbearable.

Rarity understood this with all her heart, if it would have been her, she would feel way too guilty, even though that the Umbrums wear armour to conceal their faces, it still wouldn’t make it right, they might have memories of when they were under King Sombra’s spell and might even witness if they killed their own family members, it would be horrifying.

The marshmallow coated mare dodged a swing from an Umbrum spear and aimed her horn at the Umbrum who was running towards her with his weapon ready to kill but Rarity who was anticipating this, dodged yet again making the Umbrum fall after his feet connected to a rock, making him fall to the ground but he quickly got up and jumped as a spell flew his way.

Rarity cursed as the spell failed to hit the Umbrum but the two fought on.

Fluttershy was terrified by what was surrounding her, the dead bodies of the Umbrums kept piling up and she could not help but feel sympathy for the Umbrums; they were mind-controlled which forced them to obey King Sombra’s every command and she knew how it must have felt, be manipulated by some creature in such drastic measures. She did not blame any of the Umbrums for what happened, in the end, no one in war can ever be innocent, yes, they are fighting for their freedom. But the creatures who were born from the Umbrums who did not have the spell on them to have loyalty to King Sombra? They will still have loyalty because of the propaganda or fear.

She had seen when the Umbrums were slaughtered by Spike’s sword, and looking over at the little dragon, she could see nothing but pure hate for the Umbrums, she knew that Spike knew that they were being mind-controlled so she knew that the hate was directed at King Sombra but she would have understood if he hated the Umbrums, they had done bad deeds but they were not in control so they could not be to blame entirely.

She had helped several creatures from her side of the battle, she had seen the injuries, they were deep wounds that would have been infected if it wasn’t for her quick aiding, but at the same time, she wondered if it was worth it, the fighting would only continue until King Sombra is dead.

King Sombra, the monster who had started it all. The one who made children cry for their families when they wouldn’t get up after getting killed. She may be afraid of a lot of things, but she would never be afraid of King Sombra.

Never.

Twilight Sparkle fired off spells that injured the Umbrums enough to open wounds on them but they were quickly killed by their soldiers who were fighting the enemy with force so strong, that twilight felt a little unnerved by the power the royal guards had.

She was still quite afraid of the Umbrums who seemed to know how to use the weapons but at the same time, she was disgusted by the knowledge that they were not fighting off King Sombra’s spell. It was as if they had given up, they had no right to! They are the Umbrum soldiers who fight for the vilest king that has ever walked Equestria and they are submitting to him like cowards!

Why were they not fighting against the spell? She understood that King Sombra was powerful but he could not be that powerful, then it would mean that he have more power than four alicorns put together and that was not possible, not the slightest.

No, King Sombra was not that strong. Twilight knew this. She fired off another spell at another Umbrum who tried to attack her with dual-swords but was blasted away. She shook her head in disgust, she would expect better from every creature, they could not be that weak. They simply couldn’t.

And yet, before her very eyes, that is what was happening, her blood became enraged as she felt the pulse shoot up like a flame that came into contact with oil, she felt so incredibly betrayed by every creature that they would not be able to fight against a little spell.

She looked towards Spike and she felt herself become afraid; she witnessed how Spike cut down several Umbrums with no signs of regret at all. His posture was the same as when they first saw each other after an entire year of not knowing what was going on and where he possibly could have gone, she now knew he had been training to become nothing more but a killer.

He was a monster, it was as simple as that, he wasn’t a murderer; a monster.

She could never have guessed that the dragon she helped raise with Celestia would become such a vile being, killing Umbrums who are under spells by a weak King. It just proved to her that Spike had not become any better since he became a fully-grown dragon.

She could see the hate Spike held for the Umbrums, it was practically radiating off from him like a heater. He was no better than King Sombra. But hope wasn’t lost, she would see if she would be able to steer Spike in a different direction. To see if he could become the kind and gentle dragon he once was.

She looked at her friends who were fighting for their lives to make sure that they have certainty that they can get to the city, get behind the walls and then liberate Manehattan from King Sombra’s hooves and hope that the vilest King of Equestria was still inside the walls so they could formerly execute him for his crimes against the entirety of Equestria.

Twilight looked to Rarity and saw that the mare was injuring the Umbrums too much, but Twilight understood; the poor mare was pressured because of all the Umbrums. Even Twilight herself had to admit that she was getting a little bit overwhelmed by all the Umbrums who were running towards them.

She continued to fire off different spells to make sure that their victory is an absolute success.

Spike blocked several attacks from the Umbrums and there were only a few left; his fellow warriors and allies had killed many of them, making the Umbrums almost fall back from the amount of force they have been putting on them.

But that did not mean that the Umbrums were giving up, Spike saw that the gates were closing and that could only mean that they are expecting to ambush them when they force the gates open. He would prepare himself, he did not intend on allowing any innocent warriors to die in this battle, or any other battle for that matter.

Spike killed Umbrum who almost managed to stab him in the chest but Spike had been quicker and he managed to also injure another one who had rushed towards him.

He then stabbed the Umbrum through the heart and he noticed how the others were rushing towards the gate to the city. He smiled wildly as this was the last stand for King Sombra in this city. He maybe even got to kill the evil King. He was tired of seeing his fellow-creatures get assaulted and abused in such, way.

The last of the Umbrums was killed off by his allies and they all made their way to the gates, their blades were drawn and ready, and their spirits were as high as ever.

If he would have looked back, he would have seen Twilight frown at him in anger and disappointment.