The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

Meanwhile, back in the dank dusty chamber of the sparring pit in the guards barracks, Jet and Fluttershy were catching each other up to speed with everything they knew about the events of the past eight years. After each one had told their respective tales, they both sat back on the creaky wooden bleachers. The room was deathly silent for what seemed like ages, before finally being broken by Jet.

“So, you don’t remember anything else other than fleeing from Canterlot to check on your animals?” He asked.

“I’m afraid not… One minute I was showing Angel and Beary into a cave for safety, then there was a loud boom and the next thing I know, I’m waking up here sitting next to you…” She replied, keeping her head down.

“Hmm… Well, whatever happened, I’m sure Sombra is responsible. Don’t worry though, he’ll pay soon enough and I’m sure we can find a way to fix you.” He said with a light smile.

“Even if not, it’s ok… I just hope that Angel and Beary are ok…” She replied, looking up and giving Jet a wavering smile.

“They’ll turn up, especially now that we’ve gotten you back to your senses.” He said, trying to brighten her mood a bit.

“She has animal friends?! I bet they’re adorable!” Bright Heart chimed in loudly, giving Jet a jolt as he had almost forgotten about her.

“They were and I really do hope they turn up safely.” Jet said with a slight frown.

“I just love cute cuddly animals!” Bright shouted and giggled.

“Hey, cool it with the screaming will you please? My ears can only take so much.” Jet said with a light chuckle.

“Oopsie, sorry.” Bright replied with a sheepish grin.

“Um, Jet… Who are you talking to?” Fluttershy asked, worriedly.

“Oh, uh… It’s the spirit that’s attached to Cadence’s Royal Arm.” Jet explained as he held out the gauntlets for Fluttershy to see.

“S-S-Spirit? L-Like a ghost…?” Fluttershy whimpered and slid further down the bleachers away from him.

“Kind of? I think? It’s the representation of Cadence’s true inner self. Apparently each of the princess’s Royal Arms has a similar spirit attached to them. But, don’t worry, they’re harmless… At least physically anyway…” Jet explained, giving Bright a look.

“What do you mean harmless physically? Oh Celestia… Is it gonna possess me?!” Fluttershy asked, freaking out a little.

“Calm down, she won’t possess you. They can’t even do that. You can’t do that, can you?” Jet said, looking down at Bright.

“Don’t know, never tried.” Bright replied with a shrug.

“They can’t do that, you’re in the clear Flutters.” Jet reassured the frightened pegasus.

“W-Well… If you say it’s ok…” Fluttershy said quietly, scooting back to where she was originally.

“Uh… Not that I’m trying to look or anything, but we should probably address the elephant in the room… Or rather elephants…” Jet said with a small chuckle, motioning down to her chest.

She looked down, just now noticing that she was wearing rags. She ‘eeped’ loudly and blushed a deep crimson, moving her arms to cover both her chest and lap.

“I-I-I might as well be naked!” She cried out in embarrassment.

“I got you covered, hold on.” Jet said as he stood.

His armor receded into its containment unit and he quickly stripped off his shirt, revealing his scarred and lightly toned chest and stomach. Fluttershy gave a small gasp and covered her mouth in shock as she saw all the various scars he had. She was so shocked that she had briefly forgotten about her modesty and even failed to notice he had moved to hand her his shirt. It was only after he called her name that she came back to her senses, shaking her head slightly.

“W-What? I’m sorry…” She asked timidly and looked up.

“My shirt, take it. It should be big enough to cover you. Rainbow used to wear my shirts as nightgowns. You’re a little taller than her, and a bit more endowed, but it should work all the same.” He said, his metal hand holding out the shirt.

She stood and took it, shuddering lightly as her fingers met the cold metal of his. After unfurling it, she slipped it over her head, it still smelled of washing soap and was surprisingly soft material. Sure enough, it did fit like a nightgown on her, draping down to about her mid thighs, though it was a bit tight in the chest. She had never realized just how much bigger than her he was until now that they were standing directly face to face. To look him in the eye, she had to slightly crane her neck upwards.

“Fit alright?” Jet asked, snapping her from her thoughts.

“Yes, it fits fine. Thank you, Jet.” She said with a smile.

“You’re welcome. Now, I gotta wrap up something here, then we’ll see about getting you to safety with the others.” Jet said, his armor sliding back on as he stepped back out onto the floor of the sparring pit.

“Oh, that would be lovely. I’m sure that Twilight will be able to fix me.” Fluttershy said, a tone of hope entering her voice.

“I, um… I hate to be the bearer of bad news… Again, but, we don’t know where or even if Twilight is alive…” Jet said, stopping in his tracks and turning back to her.

“Oh…” Fluttershy said quietly, sitting back down and going silent.

“Sorry…” Jet replied.

A heavy silence filled the room as Fluttershy sat on the bleachers saying nothing. Jet took this as a sign to leave her to process this whole thing a bit more. He turned back around and headed towards the center of the pit once again. Once there, he knelt and started brushing some dirt away from the center. The dirt began to give way to a tarnished chunk of steel covering something on the floor. He banged on it with his fist and was met with an obvious hollow echo from the other side.

“Definitely hiding something…” Jet said to himself.

He reared back with his fist and in one swift motion, drove it through the steel covering. With a grunt and several loud screeching sounds, he began to peel back the steel sheet. Once it had been peeled back far enough, he peered under it. Inside was a roughly dug out cavern with walls that sloped downward into it. The main floor of the cavern was housing another of the arcing pylons he had encountered before. This one was much larger in scale and took up nearly the entirety of the cavern below, leaving just enough room around the edges for someone to walk. With another loud screech of metal tearing, he ripped a hole big enough for him to slip inside and slide down the edge of the cavern wall. He skidded to a halt just in front of the pylon, looking up at it and tapping his chin in thought for a moment.

“Just like before, only bigger, right?” He asked himself, a bit worried that it might not work.

Hesitantly he put out his hands, having second thoughts about this as he moved ever closer. He took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. With a swift movement, as to not give himself time to chicken out, he clamped his fists around the cold steel bars that made up the pylon. Immediately he was greeted with a very intense tingly sensation all throughout his body. The pylon arced off the cavern walls and ceiling as if it were sentient and angry at the pony that was stealing the one thing keeping it alive. Despite every fiber of his being telling him to let go, Jet held firm onto the pylon as its electrical charge slowly drained into him. A burning sensation began to radiate up his arms and up into his chest. His heart started to pound as if he was running a race with Dash and it became increasingly hard to breathe.

The burning sensation quickly gave way to sheer pain as the amount of electricity surging into his body was making his muscles ache and spasm. As the pylon continued to drain into him, his thoughts became hazy as his vision slowly started to blur. It was at this moment that he realized what was happening, he was dying. This sheer amount of electrical energy was too much for his body to handle. He could feel his legs wobble and shake under him as they struggled to support his weight under the current conditions. His eyelids began to feel like they lead and he could feel himself losing consciousness slowly. Without any further warning, his legs gave out under him and he fell to one knee. This was it, his number was up and he knew it. As he stood there on the verge of meeting the reaper of souls, and ready to let it happen, a slideshow of memories crossed his mind. They were all memories of the times that he had spent with Rainbow Dash, laughing, smiling, and just enjoying each other's presence. They were so happy then, before all of this. Now, he would never see her smiling face again…

No… He refused to accept this fate. If he was going to die, it would be honorably in combat, not in some dark cavern where nobody would even find his body. He gritted his teeth and forced himself back to his feet. His grip on the pylon tightened as his wings unfurled behind him, the electricity arced between them, traveling from base to tip. With a scream of rage and defiance, he continued to drain the pylon entirely. Small bits of saliva flew from his mouth and spattered against the steel bars of the pylon. The arcing of the pylon slowly died down to a soft sparking and eventually fizzled out altogether. Once it had stopped making any form of electrical sound, Jet finally let his grip loose. He almost immediately fell to his knees, panting and sweating harder than if he had just run a mile in the midst of Summer time. After a few moments of recovery, he forced himself to his feet slowly. Once he was steady on his feet again, he began to climb back out of the cavern and into the sparring pit once more. He emerged from the jagged metal hole in the floor to see Fluttershy standing not too far away with a look of concern on her face.

“A-Are you ok, Jet?” She asked softly, moving to put a hand on his shoulder, only to be met with a harsh electric shock.

“Fine… Just… A lot of energy… All at once…” Jet managed to say through his panting.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“Long story short… I’m a living sponge for energy… Magical or otherwise apparently…” He replied with a shrug, still not having an answer for why it happens.

“How strange…” She replied in a tone of mild confusion.

“Yeah, tell me about it. Now, let’s get out of here, all this dust is killing my sinuses.” He said with a chuckle, making his way towards the gap in the rubble he had come in through.

“Right behind you, Jet.” She replied, moving to follow him out.

As they made their way back through the decimated barracks, Jet noticed that Fluttershy kept staring at his hair for some reason. Once they were in a more open area, he stopped briefly and turned to face her.

“Ok, what’s up? Do I have a spider in my hair or something?” Jet asked, trying to look up at his own head but to avail.

“Goodness no, I was just trying to figure out if I liked your new hair color or not.” She replied, tapping her chin and still staring at his hair.

“New hair color? What are you talking about?” Jet asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Fluttershy looked around for a moment before picking a shield up from the floor and dusting it off enough to see herself in. She then held the newly shined surface up to Jet. He looked closely at his slightly dusty reflection and his eyes widened. The normally red stripe in his hair was now a bright pink, almost the same shade as Fluttershy’s.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY HAIR?!” Jet screamed at the top of his lungs, making Fluttershy wince a little.

“Y-You mean, you didn’t dye it like that?” She asked sheepishly, setting the shield back on the floor.

“No, I most certainly did not! How would I even dye my hair during an apocalyptic event?!” He yelled at no one in particular.

“Then what happened?” She asked, worried now.

“I don’t know!” He replied, still yelling.

“I might have an idea.” Bright Heart said from behind them.

“I’m open to all theories and potential remedies here!” Jet yelled again.

“You said you were some kind of energy sponge, right? Well, the gauntlets are very rich with Cadence’s magical energy, for obvious reasons. Maybe this is your body’s reaction to that residual energy?” Bright suggested with a shrug.

“I… Suppose that makes sense… One way to find out for sure…” Jet said before slamming his fists together and returning Love Spell to its pocket dimension.

“It worked!” Fluttershy exclaimed quietly, picking the shield back up and holding it up for Jet to see.

Sure enough, the pink stripe had returned to its original red color.

“Oh, thank the Gods…” Jet said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why were you so worked up over that?” Fluttershy asked, genuinely curious.

“Are you kidding? If I walked back into base with a pink stripe in my hair, Sunblast would kick my ass for trying to steal his look.” Jet said in a pretty serious tone.

“Hm, that does make a little sense.” Fluttershy admitted with a giggle.

“Now that that catastrophe is avoided, let’s get moving.” Jet said, starting to walk again.

Fluttershy joined him and the pair quickly made their way back out of the barracks and onto the main street of Canterlot. As they walked down the ruined road, Fluttershy gasped loudly at the utter destruction that had befallen the once beautiful land. Her heart wrenched at the thought of all the furry critters and other wildlife that had lost their lives in the midst of all this chaos. Tears welled in her eyes, but they quickly turned from tears of sadness to tears of anger and hatred towards the monster responsible. In her anger, she unintentionally let out a low growl that sent chills up her own spine.

“I know how you feel… I’ve been there myself…” Jet said, snapping Fluttershy back from her hate filled thoughts.

“It’s all so much to take in… I knew it would be bad, but this is…” She began, choking back a sob.

“Yeah, but once this is all over, we can rebuild and make a new home for everybody.” He said with a reassuring smile.

“I guess you’re right, you and Twilight almost always are.” She replied with an uneasy smile.

“Don’t worry your batty little head about it, this’ll be over before you know it.” He said, chuckling and gently elbowing her.

“I’ve heard of going batty, but I think I took it to a new level.” She replied, giggling a little and wiping her face.

“That’s the tru… Wait, do you hear… Music?” Jet asked, cutting himself off mid sentence as his ears perked up.

Flutterhy’s ears perked up as well. Both of them looked around cautiously, unsure what to make of the music coming from seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at once. The thumping beat of the music slowly grew louder and louder, to the point that it seemed to be coming from right on top of them. Fluttershy doubled over in pain, holding her ears tightly.

“Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!” She screamed in utter pain.

The intensity of the music was too much for her newly elevated bat-like hearing and her head felt as though it would explode from the sheer pain that was coursing through it. Jet tried to focus his own hearing and locate the source of the music as quickly as possible. He shut his eyes and gradually shut out the sound of the blaring music, focusing only on any other sound there was around them. He didn’t hear anything at first, just a few whistles from the wind through the ruins of town. Then, he heard it, it was faint but it was distinct. It was the sound of rubble on the ground being shifted as somebody moved through it. The spot was just to the right inside a slightly intact house. Without a second thought, Jet jumped into action, running towards the sound with his blade now drawn.

He jumped into the air and crashed through the roof of the house. His sword plunged into the ground, just narrowly missing an armor-clad soldier. Jet quickly dislodged his sword and took a step back, staring down this new foe. They were dressed like the other assassins, black armor, and this time a very light blue trim around the panel lining. This one’s armor was a bit bulky in design with heavy and almost clamp looking boots, but he could tell whoever it was was female by the body shape. The helmet on this one was different as well, having some sort of LCD screen as the face plate. The screen currently showed an exclamation mark, a clear sign that they had been caught off guard by his attack. Something clicked in Jet’s memory about an assassin of this description.

“You’re one of the Soundwave duo, aren’t you?” Jet asked, brandishing his blade, buying time while he scanned the area for the source of the music.

The screen on the helmet suddenly displayed a thumbs up, the assassin still made no attempt to move from in front of his blade.

“Wait… Then that means…” Jet started to say, looking to the side just in time to get kicked square in the face through the window beside him.

He was knocked out of the doorway on the other side, but he caught himself by digging his fingers into the loose dirt and skidding to a halt in a spider-like stance on all fours. After jumping to his feet, the pair of assassins both stepped outside and took stance next to each other. He rubbed his jaw and looked them both over. The one that had nearly broken his jaw was wearing a similar sleek armor style to Deathstorm, clearly meant for agility more than anything and also clearly female as well. Her armor was trimmed in a bright purple that matched the brightness of the other one. Before he could move, she threw a pair of glowing daggers that she had materialized from her armor into his ankles, pinning him in place. He winced in pain and tried to pull the daggers free but was met with searing pain in his hands.

“Good luck taking those out, they are genetically coded to my armor. If you try, you’ll only burn your hands to ash in the process.” The purple one taunted, her voice sounded hollow and robotic, but her tone sounded familiar.

“F-Fuck you. You’re only prolonging your death, bitch.” Jet retorted with a glare.

“My dear, I think we should make this fast. Lord Sombra is fed up with this pathetic excuse for a rebellion. Do your thing, and do try not to make as much of a mess as last time.” She replied with a snicker.

The blue one nodded and held out her arms, the metal plates shifted and slid around until they formed large barrels at the ends of her wrists. Her large boots shifted around as well, two large spikes coming from either side of her ankles and burrowing deep into the ground. The air suddenly grew eerily quiet and still, then was just as suddenly interrupted by the whining hiss of a weapon being charged. Jet looked up to see that the large barrels on her wrists were beginning to glow a similar blue to her armor and quickly becoming brighter. The screen on her helmet displayed a winking face as the cannons became entirely enveloped by the glowing blue auras they were generating. Without any further warning, the cannons went off.

Thinking quickly, Jet summoned Love Spell and managed to get the shield of them up just as the blast hit him. It sheened off the shield and around him. His ears rang with the blaring sound that he was being assaulted with. He was holding his ground, but the force of the soundwave was slowly pushing him backwards, his boots were digging into the loose soil under his feet. With a groan, he did his best to hold back the forceful barrage of sound, but he could see the shield was starting to crack under the pressure. Just as he was sure he was done for again, a sudden high pitched wail cried out over the music. The sound was so sudden and so loud that it made the two assassins recoil and cover their ears. A dark shape shot out into the air above them. Jet looked up to see that Fluttershy had taken to the sky, her eyes once again red in color.

“I said… MAKE IT STOP!!!” She screeched and dive bombed the assassins.

She managed to knock the blue one off balance enough to disrupt her attack. As soon as those cannons were off of Jet, he dropped his shield and with a cry of pain pulled the daggers free from his ankles, pocketing one just in case he lost his sword again. Fluttershy seemed intent on focusing her attacks on the blue one, dive bombing and clawing at the black armor while the assassin fired shots of sound into the air in an attempt to hit her. While Fluttershy was keeping the blue one distracted for now, Jet ran over and tackled the purple one through the wall of the house they had previously been in. The rubble and dust flew everywhere as the assassin was knocked to the ground. She didn’t stay on the ground long though, as she quickly recovered and sprang to her feet, materializing another set of daggers to use.

No words were exchanged this time around as the assassin was fast to make the first move. She swiped at Jet with a flurry of slices, which he dodged by ducking and backstepping until his back was literally against the wall on the opposite side of the house from where they had crashed through. He ducked once more in time to narrowly miss getting stabbed by her dagger, instead she got it stuck in the brickwork of the wall. Jet used this opportunity to slide under and behind her. She slashed at him angrily as she tried to remove her stuck dagger. He kicked the back of her leg and made her fall to her knee, but she still held onto the dagger in the wall. Without a second of hesitation, he kicked arm at the elbow with as much force as he could muster. The assassin cried out in pain loudly, Jet could feel the crunch of her elbow snapping against the toe of his boot. Her arm fell limply off the dagger and to her side. She stood, panting and clearly angered even more now. With her good arm, she continued to hack and slash at Jet.

In the midst of all this, Fluttershy was still attacking the blue one from the air, making slow but steady progress against the armored cannons with her claws. With each swipe, a decent sized claw mark was left in the armor. The screen on the assassin's helmet now displayed an angry face as she kept trying and failing to hit the irate pegasus-bat. In her moment of rage, Fluttershy landed briefly in front of the house that Jet and the other assassin were fighting inside of. The assassin fired right at her but missed as Fluttershy jumped back into the air, the blast instead blasted the already ruined house to bits. The source of the music seemed to have been in the area of the house too as it stopped at that moment. There was a mixed yell of surprise from both Jet and the other assassin from inside the house. It crumbled into a hail of bricks and dust, obscuring the assassin’s vision as she was caught up in the dust cloud. Her screen displayed a question mark as she looked around for the pegasus-bat. The dust cloud was the perfect smoke screen for Fluttershy to use her newfound speed to tear the armor of the assassin apart piece by piece. The assassin could do nothing but look around in confusion. By the time the dust had settled, only her boots, chestplate, and helmet remained intact. The helmet still displayed the same question mark as she finally laid eyes on her target. She made an attempt to fire her cannon, but realized that her arm was bare and defenseless. Fluttershy stood just across from the assassin in a pseudo Mexican stand-off scene. With the music finally gone, Fluttershy’s head began to clear and the violent rage she had been flung into ceased. She reeled on her feet and stumbled slightly, with a barely audible sound of confusion, she fell to her knees. The assassin began trying to free herself from her now locked in place boots.

Behind them, the rubble left from the house began to shift and bulge upwards as Jet emerged from it. His hair and wings were coated in a thick layer of white drywall dust from the house. He stood upright and brushed himself off quickly before taking a look around. The other assassin was nowhere in sight, which meant that she had either fled or was preparing another sneak attack. He figured it was the latter of the two and turned his attention to the air and remaining rooftops around him. Just as he was turning, he saw her. She was already in the air, having jumped from somewhere in his blindspot, and was aiming another kick at him. With a movement speed to rival that of the legendary Flash Magnus, he stepped backward and grabbed her by the ankle. He then spun and flung her into the side of one of the larger buildings still standing, the runes on his vambraces glowing brightly. She was flung into and through the wall, the large building crumbling on top of her and sending a gust of wind across the area.

“And stay down this time.” Jet grumbled to himself.

He turned back around just in time to see the other assassin finally pulling free from her massive boots. From somewhere on the back of her armor, she pulled a long thin needle-like thing and gripped it tightly in her hand as she moved towards Fluttershy. She hadn’t noticed Jet, which he used as a major advantage. Before the assassin could get even halfway to Fluttershy, he sprung into action. He grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed her face first into ground in a face crusher move, hard enough to indent the ground fairly deeply. Her limbs went limp and everything went completely silent for a few moments. The silence was just as suddenly broken by a sharp ‘crack’ sound. Under Jet’s hand, the helmet started to split and spark as the LCD screen broke first. The crack became more visible as it made its way across the helmet and began to split apart. As the crack widened, the helmet itself was splitting apart like an egg, right down the middle. The helmet fell off to either side of the assassin’s head, clattering to the ground with a few sparks from the shattered screen. Once the helmet was free, a spikey tangled mess of two-toned blue hair unfurled from beneath.

Jet rolled her over to see if his assumption about her identity was true, and it was. The one he had just knocked unconscious was none other than Sunblast’s DJ friend, Vinyl Scratch. Thinking quickly, he slapped his palm against the bicep of his metal arm. The little panel opened up and he grabbed one of the antidote syringes. Without any hesitation, he jabbed the needle into her exposed neck, right at the jugular to make sure it distributed throughout her body fast enough. Once the antidote had been ejected into her veins, Jet quickly pulled the needle free and tossed it to the ground nearby. Once he made sure she was still breathing, he stood back up and threw Vinyl over his shoulder before making his way over to Fluttershy. She was holding her head with one hand and was breathing heavily. She stared at the ground in a sort of daze, staggering on her feet a bit as Jet tried to help her up. Her head slowly lifted, her gaze moved from the ground and up to Jet. He had her other arm around the back of his neck and had somebody slung over his shoulder. They were moving forward, well he was moving forward, she was sort of being dragged as her legs seemed to have lost feeling temporarily.

“Ugh, my head… What happened?” Fluttershy groaned out in a semi-hoarse voice.

“Assassins attacked, then you went feral somehow, but we’re fine now.” Jet explained in a huff as he dragged them both back over to where Vinyl was laying.

They stopped after a decent while and Jet sat Fluttershy on the ground before laying Vinyl back down. He sat between the two and retracted his armor, turning his attention to the still slowly bleeding wounds through his ankles. He looked them over and tore his pant legs enough to get a clearer view of the wounds. They were deep and clearly went all the way through to the other side of his ankle. Fluttershy looked at them as well, then turned attention to their surroundings. There wasn’t much as he had stopped in the midst of what used to be the Canterlot town garden near the town center. It mostly consisted of dead and dried out plant life, but somehow in the midst of it there were some plants still growing. She unsteadily stood up, her legs wobbling slightly. After a moment to steady herself, she wandered into the remains of the garden. Jet was just about to get up and head after her when she returned with a few plants and flowers in one hand and a couple small rocks in the other. She knelt in front of him and began to crush up some of the plants with the rocks as a makeshift mortar and pestle.

“What are you…” Jet began to ask.

“Helping you in return for you helping me. I have most of what I need here, but we’ll still need a bandage.” She said, seeming strangely calm about this.

“This should work, but can I ask what exactly you’re making there?” He asked as he ripped his pant legs the rest of the way off and handed them to her.

“Thank you, and I am making a homemade pain killer slash cauterizer. That way you won’t bleed out.” She explained casually as she continued to crush up the plants into a paste of sorts.

“I see… I only have further questions. Where did you learn this and what is it made of…?” Jet asked yet again, genuinely curious.

“Jet, you don’t live with and take care of as many wild animals as I do… Did, without picking up some home remedies. As for what’s in it… It’s a blend of ginger, aloe, rocksalt, and hot pepper. Legs out please.” She replied, beginning to scoop the paste up into her hands.

“You found all that out in this dead garden?” Jet asked, stretching his legs out for her.

“Well, rocksalt is fairly easy to find this close to the castle and ginger grows underground so it was protected from the harsh environment above. And I was just as surprised as you to find peppers surviving out here. Hold still, this is going to burn, probably a lot.” She said, suddenly slapping the paste onto the wounds on one ankle and rubbing it in as gently as she could.

Jet winced a bit and clenched his jaw as his ankle was struck with an intense burning sensation. It lasted only a short while, but it felt like she had lit his leg on fire. He braced for the burning again when she moved to the other ankle, it came and went just as suddenly as the other one had. Once the burning sensation was gone from both of his ankles, they began to feel cooler and the tension around them even relaxed a bit. He breathed a sigh of relief as the pain itself began to subside.

“Wow, thank you so much Fluttershy. That feels sooooo much better.” Jet said with a relieved smile.

“You’re welcome. Um, what do we do with her…?” She asked, pointing to Vinyl who was still unconscious and snoring now.

“Hm, I think it might be best if you and her go back to the safehouse. You can’t control your new abilities yet and Vinyl won’t be much help when she wakes up with no recollection of where she is or what happened.” Jet replied, tapping his chin lightly.

“That’s fair, but how will we get there?” Fluttershy asked, a bit confused.

“Don’t worry, I got that covered. Use this mask, it’ll act as a GPS to get you there.” He said, holding out his hand as the faceplate he had given Luna before materialized from the nanobots of his armor.

“Oh, ok then. But… What will you do?” She asked, taking the mask and slipping it over her face.

“I have a date at the castle with a tyrant.” Jet replied, standing.

“Be careful… You know what he’s capable of…” Fluttershy warned, picking up Vinyl by slinging her arm around her shoulders.

“Yeah…” Jet said solemnly, looking down at his arm as it glistened in the pale light seeping through the thick clouds.

He clenched his metal fist and turned to see Fluttershy already off heading towards the safehouse. He turned and headed off towards the castle, pushing his way through the dead plant life and back onto Main Street. From here, he could see the road extending towards the shopping district and the castle gates. The castle itself loomed in the distance, outlined by the pale light as if beckoning him to venture closer. With a deep breath, he pushed the memories of his past experience aside and made his way down the road. As he walked by the deserted and desolated shops, he was flooded with various memories of shopping with Dash. He shook his head to keep from getting distracted as he neared the castle gates for the first time in such a long time. The gates were still the way he last remembered, blown open and no longer protecting anything. Taking a nervous step forward, he set foot inside the castle walls. The courtyard was littered with dust and old dried out bones from the bodies that had once been laying around.

Steeling his nerves, he stepped around the bones and headed up the castle steps. Everything inside the castle was coated in a thick layer of dust. The hallways were dark, Jet decided to move his armor bots around to form goggles so that he could use his night vision to see. The halls were littered with destroyed and ransacked suits or armor, paintings that were torn beyond recognition, and various shards of marble and ceramic that had once been pottery. Besides the destroyed decor, the halls were surprisingly mostly intact. Even through the mess, he still knew his way to the throne room like the back of his hand. He weaved his way through the maze-like hallways and to the throne room.

He stopped just outside the doors and drew his sword. With as much caution as possible, he slowly pushed the door open and looked inside. It wasn’t a whole lot brighter inside the throne room than it was in the hallways, but it was bright enough that he no longer needed his night vision. He crept inside cautiously, pointing his blade as he checked all angles for any sign of Sombra, but saw nothing in the shadows. On the other side of the room, behind the now warped and twisted throne, he could make out a faint glow. Still watching all his sides, he made his way towards the throne and the glow. His boots crunched softly on the remains of the stained glass windows that were scattered across the floor. A very soft breeze flowed in through the window and gently shifted the few tattered remnants of the banners that had adorned the ceiling. Jet noticed that the only things still intact were the pillars and sconces that were attached to them, but no fires burned on the candles stuck inside them. About halfway across the room, he stopped in his tracks and looked around intently. Something about the air in the room changed, a chill ran up his spin. He gripped his sword tightly and steadied his nerves against the uneasy feeling in the room.

“I know you’re here, show yourself!” Jet yelled into the seemingly empty room.

“Why would I do that? The thrill is in the hunt, afterall.” Sombra’s voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“What’s wrong? Afraid I’ll kick your ass?” Jet taunted the tyrant king in an attempt to draw him out.

“You couldn’t handle me eight years ago! What makes you think you will fare any better now?!” Sombra yelled out with an echoing laugh.

“Guess we’ll never know since you’re too chicken to show yourself.” Jet continued to taunt while minding his surroundings.

“Then I shall show you just how insignificant you are!” Sombra yelled out.

Jet rolled to one side and just narrowly avoided being split in half by the blade of a scythe being swiped at him somewhere to his side. Sombra had appeared out of thin air and began attacking immediately, though not with the sword that Jet remembered him having. Instead, he was attacking with a strange looking scythe. It had a handle that curved in a sort of ‘S’ shape and looked like it was made from someone’s spine, at the top of the handle where the blade protruded from was what looked like a pony skull with the blade sticking out of its gaping jaw. The blade itself was very long and thin, curving outward about half as long as the handle and seemed to be glowing with a greenish tint. There looked to be some kind of symbol or emblem on the bottom of it, but Jet couldn’t make it out from this angle. The scythe had a familiar aura about it, but Jet couldn’t place it. Sombra however looked no different, he was still dressed head to toe in his signature black armor with spiked knee and elbow joints. His curved red and black horn extended from his head, where his pitch black hair flowed and draped over his piercing red eyes. He grinned menacingly at Jet, his pointed white fangs glinting in the pale light that was let in through the broken windows.

“Here I am, boy. Show me what you got.” Sombra said with an evil chuckle.

Jet gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter before moving forward and striking. Unfortunately, Sombra was quicker than him and easily avoided the various slashes that Jet attempted. That didn’t keep Jet from continuing to try, slashing with a relentless flurry of varying attacks from various angles, but still to no avail. Slowly but assuredly, Jet’s already beaten and bruised body was beginning to tire. Sweat formed on his brow and his breathing was starting to grow ragged. After a little while longer, he backed off a few feet to get a bit of recovery time.

“Tired already, boy? You are just as pathetic as your mother.” Sombra said with an echoing cackle.

“Shut your mouth! You didn’t even know my mother!” Jet yelled in reply, a bit confused as his mother had passed years prior to Sombra’s return.

“Oh, on the contrary. It is you who didn’t know your mother.” He replied with an evil sneer.

“What the hell are you even talking about?” Jet asked, angry and confused by the tyrant’s words.

“You will see, in time. But until then… No spoilers.” Sombra responded, giving Jet an unsettling wink.

Jet could swear he saw some kind of weird discoloration in Sombra’s eye during the wink, but he didn’t have the time to dwell on it as Sombra was quick to launch an attack while Jet was distracted by his words. Sombra swung his scythe downward toward Jet, leaving little time to react. With a back step, Jet narrowly avoided being split down the middle, but his arm wasn’t so lucky. Two of the fingers, the ring finger and pinky finger, were sliced clean off of his false arm. The stumps of the fingers sparked and fizzled slightly from the damage. Jet reeled back even further from the pain that he felt due to the arm being connected to his nerves. Sombra laughed and twirled the scythe between his hands like a baton twirler in a marching band. He slowly moved closer to Jet, the scythe twirling in one hand seemingly of its own volition. While Sombra was busy being cocky and taking his time showing off, Jet used the opportunity to sneak a hand to his pocket where the assassin’s dagger from earlier was still sitting in wait. He pulled it out slowly and kept his hand at his side, waiting for the perfect moment. Sombra stopped just in front of Jet, glaring down at him with a wide villainous grin as he stopped twirling the scythe.

“You really thought you were ready to take me on? The way she talked, I was convinced you’d put up a bigger fight. Oh well, time for you to die.” He said, raising the scythe high above his head.

“Not today, you piece of shit!” Jet yelled as he sliced upward with the dagger.

He caught Sombra in across the eye, which made him reel backwards in pain, holding his eyes. Jet used this opportunity to make a move with his sword as well, slicing Sombra across the midsection. This extra attack made Sombra reel back even farther. His groans of pain strangely quickly devolved into feral sounding hisses. As Jet watched, Sombra lowered his hand from his face. Jet’s breath caught in his throat as he saw that there was bright green blood seeping from the wound across his eye and the one from his abdomen. He snarled deeply before there was a flash of green light. The candles around the room lit up with green flames and Sombra was gone. Before Jet’s eyes, Sombra changed and shifted into something else. Where Sombra once stood an insect-like creature with a warped crown atop her head now stood. Her holey, dark green hair draped down across her wounded eye and her crooked broken looking horn glowed green. Her remaining bright green iris focused on Jet like a hungry predator spotting its prey after a long hunt.

“C-Chrysalis…” Jet said absent-mindedly in shock.

“That’s QUEEN Chrysalis to you, boy! You will pay dearly for damaging my royal peron! Let’s see how you do without a soul!” She screamed and twirled the scythe around so that the blade was pointed down.

She ran at Jet with the bottom of the scythe aimed at him, it was only now that he could see the symbol on it. It was some kind of skull surrounded by a single flame. He didn’t recognize the symbol, but it seemed to be occultish in nature. He shut his eyes and braced for impact. She slammed it into his chest and he was immediately hit with a feeling like he had gotten the wind knocked out of him, but he hadn’t fallen over. He opened his eyes and let out an inaudible gasp at what he saw. He was looking down at his own body, which was slumped forward at the waist with his arms dangling down. He looked like a puppet that had had its strings cut. His hands patted his body to find that his hands passed right through his chest, he realized he was currently in some kind of spiritual form. Chrysalis was still standing in front of his physical body with a wicked grin on her face.

“Confused? Wondering what’s happening? It’s simple, wonderful things can happen when somebody is able to bend a Royal Arm to their will. They gain new, some might say unholy, abilities. I knocked your soul from your body so that now you’re just a defenseless lump of flesh.” She said to his physical body, seemingly unable to see him in his current state.

He tried to yell out in response, but nothing came out when he opened his mouth. Even though he was separated from his actual body, his heart was pounding. He tried to re-enter his body, but there seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing him from entering. Panic was beginning to set in as he watched Chrysalis raise her scythe once more. The only thing he could do was watch as she swung at his body. To at least spare himself the pain of watching his own execution, Jet looked away. An echoing clang of metal against metal caught his ear. He looked back to see that his body had raised its hand, with Love Spell in tow. Except, it wasn’t quite Love Spell, what had previously been flattened fingertips were now more triangular and looked filed to a point. The color was off as well, the dark pink had darkened even further into a brick red color, the golden accents were now a more rust-like color, and the knuckle studs had extended into sharp spikes. The violent looking gauntlet was tightly gripping the blade of the scythe, but only that one arm was raised, the rest of the body was still slumped forward. Chrysalis let out an almost fearful sounding gasp and visibly tried to pull back, but couldn’t get away from the grip of the gauntlet. As both Jet and Chrysalis watched, Jet’s body began to move. With several twitchy motions, his body stood upright. Its head jerked upward very quickly. Jet saw the eyes and let out another inaudible gasp, they were solid black, save for a pair of dark red irises.

“W-What is the meaning of this?” Chrysalis asked, finally managing to pull her scythe free and back up several feet.

Nothing was said, but those irises locked onto Chrysalis with murderous intent. She took another stumbling step backward. Jet’s body moved incredibly fast, closing the distance between him and Chrysalis in the blink of an eye. He attacked her with an almost endless volley of hits with the spiked gauntlets. She managed to block a lot of them, but in the long run, she was getting pummeled. Jet could only watch as his body acted of its own freewill and pummeled Chrysalis with an almost feral volley of punches. Just when it seemed like the volley would never end, Jet’s body jumped back and let Chrysalis fall to the floor onto one knee. She was heavily bruised and bleeding from several places across her body. Slowly she struggled to her feet and pointed the blade of the scythe at Jet once more.

“Y-You think you’ve b-beaten me…? I w-will not d-die here… I will l-leave your bones f-for the crows…” She muttered out through her own blood.

Jet’s body suddenly moved and vanished from her sight.

“You… Don’t have… The heart…” She heard a voice whisper in her ear, it sounded like Jet’s but much deeper and more hollow.

Before she could react, there was a loud sickeningly wet thud. Chrysalis’s remaining eye went wide and she froze in place, the scythe falling from her hand. She looked down to see one of his gauntlets sticking out of her chest from behind. It was holding a writhing green mass of flesh. Chrysalis realized in horror that it was her own heart. She was face to face with the organ that kept her blood pumping, kept her alive. In one swift motion, Jet pulled his hand free from her chest. She immediately fell forward, but she managed to roll herself over to look at Jet. He stood over her with an expressionless face, those red irises peering deep into her slowly darkening green ones. She tried to reach out for her heart in an attempt to get it back in before it was too late, her changeling body would be able to reconnect it. Jet looked at the heart then back at her before chucking it across the room, not very far but far enough that he knew Chrysalis would never reach it in time. She made a vain attempt to crawl towards it anyway. Her dying pulse pounded in her ears as her remaining organs tried to stay functional, but she could feel herself fading fast. She crawled as fast as she could, the sight of her still beating heart the only thing she was focused on. Her arm was outstretched as far as it would go, the tips of her clawed fingers just barely grazing the flesh of the heart before going limp and the heart ceasing its pointless beating. Just as Chrysalis’s last breath faded from the world, there was a sound of running footsteps coming towards the throne room from outside in the hallway. Both Jet and his body turned to see the source of the noise as Luna ran into the room, a short sword and her dagger drawn and at the ready.

“Jet Stream, I have come to lend assist…” She stopped in her tracks and midsnetence when she laid eyes on the scene before her.

Her hands went to her mouth in horror, but she was not looking at Chrysalis’s lifeless body. She was staring at Jet’s body, or rather the monster it had become with his soul separated from it. It stared her down as well, moving to grab the scythe and take a step towards Luna. Jet panicked and looked around for any way he could prevent what was about to happen, but there was nothing and his body was already picking up speed moving towards Luna. His mind raced and he did the only thing he could think of, even though it had been fruitless before.

“ENOUGH!!!” He shouted at the top of his voice, actual words coming out this time.

His body fell to its knees, gripping the sides of its head tightly in pain. There was a sudden flash of light and when Jet opened his eyes again, he was on his knees looking up at a frightened Luna. His head felt like it had been the victim of a drummer mistaking him for a drum set.

“Oh… W-What the actual fuck was that…” Jet asked, staggering to his feet.

‘We… We will talk more of this later… For now, it might be best if we get out of here…” Luna replied, still keeping a decent distance away from Jet.

“Not yet… There behind the throne…” Jet pointed to the faint glow coming from behind it.

Luna saw it too as Jet made his towards it, before joining him, Luna picked up the scythe that was lying discarded on the floor. Without any distractions, it didn’t take any time at all to make it. Once there, they saw that behind the throne sat a very large, glowing, oval shaped mirror with intricate carved runes around the outer edges.

“We need to get this out of his hands at least. Come on, help me carry this…” Jet said, moving to grab one end.

“Hmm, I have a better idea. Hold on tight.” Luna replied, putting her hand on one side of the mirror.

“What are you…” Jet started, but Luna’s artificial horn lit up bright blue and another very bright flash of light filled his vision.

The two, and the mirror, were gone. Leaving the now empty throne room to sit in the silence and stench of death that it had been unfortunate enough to bear witness to so many times.