The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

Inside the med ward sat a handful of cots, most occupied by ponies with various injuries, the walls painted a pleasing baby blue with matching tiles coating the floor. The variety of medical equipment in the med ward beeped and booped softly, mixing with the quiet buzz of the fluorescent lights to create an orchestra of background as Jet sat and gave the two the rundown of what had happened during his first outing in the field. As he spoke, a nurse in a white lab coat and small white cap adorned with a little red plus was stitching up his cuts from the fight he had endured during his outing. Both Rainbow and Sunblast sat in silence as he continued to recap the events preceding this moment. Every once in a while, he would stop to hold back a cringe of pain from the stitching needle entering and exiting his flesh, pulling it together as he was sewn up like a torn pair of jeans.

“Hold up, lemme get this straight. You performed a psionic blast spell? That’s a level three spell that I still struggle with to this day!” Sunblast said in utter disbelief as Jet wrapped up his tale.

“According to Friday, yeah. I don’t understand it, and I’m the one who did it.” Jet replied with a shrug, getting a light slap from the nurse as he moved around under her needle.

“We’re definitely running some tests on you when you’re done here.” Sunblast said, making a mental note as to which tests to run.

“So… You killed Spitfire…?” Rainbow asked, her tone flat.

“It’s not like I wanted to, Dashie. Whatever armor they’re being made to wear seems to kill them if they’re defeated.” Jet replied with a sad look in his eyes.

“You should’ve done something to stop it…” Rainbow retorted coldy.

“How was I supposed to know about it? I don’t exactly have a list of things Sombra has implemented into his army.” Jet said, surprised by her cold tone towards him.

“You know what that monster is capable of! You should’ve guessed he’d do something like that!” Rainbow said, her voice raising in tone.

“I’m not fucking psychic! Did you forget that I’ve been in a gods damned coma for nearly a decade?! I don’t exactly have a grasp on what he’s capable of! Last time I was conscious, this kinda shit didn’t exist! A lot of things have changed while I was out of commission!” Jet yelled back, pressing a finger against the nanobot housing unit attached to his chest. Rainbow didn’t say another word, she simply got up and walked out of the room, Jet tried to get up and go after her but the nurse pushed him back down onto the cot.

“Mister Stream, please sit still so I can finish these stitches. You’ve already made me have to restart three times now and I don’t have all day to keep at this.” The nurse said, getting slightly irritated with him.

“Don’t worry, Jet. She’ll be fine, she just needs some time to process this. Besides, where is she gonna go? We’re forty feet underground with only one exit.” Sunblast said, putting a hand on Jet’s uninjured shoulder reassuringly.

“Yeah… I guess you’re right…” He replied with a sigh.

The pair sat in silence as the nurse finished stitching Jet up, giving him a fresh shirt to wear. He slipped on the shirt and got up, Sunblast leading the way to the lab to begin the aforementioned tests. The bunker seemed to have an ere of eerie dead silence running throughout its entirety. Not a single pony was out in the rec rooms or the cafeteria, even though it was closing in on dinner time. The only sound Jet could hear were some distant grunts and groans as somebody trained in the gymnasium down the hallway behind them. There wasn’t even a single other pony inside the lab, which was extremely weird as Sunblast pointed out while they walked in. It was as if Jet’s actions had had an unforeseen consequence within the community of the bunker. Sunblast grabbed a few pieces of equipment from the main lab before leading Jet back down the stairs to his secret lab. Once inside, Sunblast set the various pieces of equipment on the desk across the room.

“Ok, Jet, I’ll need you to strip down. And for the love of Celestia, don’t make it weird…” Sunblast said, fiddling with the equipment as he turned it on and got it set up.

“Oh, sure, nothing weird about stripping in front of my best friend…” Jet replied, reluctantly stripping down to his boxers.

“Just think of it like a standard medical checkup. That’s how I’m viewing it.” Sunblast said, turning towards Jet with a small set of suction cup looking things in his hand that had wires running into one of the pieces of equipment.

“Fine, but if you ask me to turn my head and cough, I’m out.” Jet said through a light laugh.

“Not that kind of checkup, smartass. Now hold still, these are gonna be cold.” Sunblast replied, laughing as well. He stuck the suction cups to Jet’s arms, legs, and head. This got a hard shiver from Jet.

“So, what are these things for exactly?” Jet asked, looking at the suction cups with curiosity as Sunblast turned and flicked a switch on the device he was now hooked to. A screen popped up on top of the chalkboard, showing a display of Jet’s internals.

“This is going to check your innate magical potential levels. Everyone has innate magic inside them, unicorns and alicorns obviously being the highest in that category, but both earth ponies and pegasi have it as well. Now hush for a moment, it takes a minute to get a proper reading.” Sunblast said slowly as he stared at the screen intently. After a few moments, it showed a brightly glowing readout, eliciting a loud gasp from Sunblast.

“Uh… Everything ok over there?” Jet asked with concern over the gasp.

“I… I don’t believe what I’m seeing… How is this even possible…” Sunblast said, clearly not hearing Jet.

“Hello? Concerned pegasus over here.” Jet replied, a bit louder to get Sunblast’s attention.

“It’s… Well, take a look for yourself.” Sunblast said as he wheeled the screen over to where Jet could see it. The screen showed a strange sort of x-ray of Jet’s body, but instead of showing his bones or muscles, it seemed to show his nerves themselves. His nerves were slight with bright red ‘electricity’ ebbed and flowed very rapidly from one nerve ending to the other, beside the x-ray was a large flashing number.

“I don’t know what I’m looking at here, Sun. Wanna fill me in? In words I can understand, please.” Jet said as he stared at the foreign looking display before him.

“As I said, this machine scans and measures your innate magical potential, and this is showing that you have extremely high levels of magical energy flowing through your central nervous system. According to this readout, you have a magical potential of almost seventy-three percent and growing.” Sunblast explained, befuddled by the reading he had gotten from this test.

“Meaning…?” Jet asked, still confused.

“It means that you’re almost as powerful as Celestia herself. The standard potential levels are fifty to sixty percent in unicorns, around thirty percent in pegasi, ten to fifteen percent in earth ponies, and seventy to one hundred percent in alicorns. I just don’t understand how this is possible. By all rights, your body should burn up from the inside out with this much raw magical energy flowing through you.” Sunblast explained, recording the readings into a small pink notebook he had pulled from the desk drawer.

“So… How is that not happening then?” Jet asked, a little freaked out by his explanation.

“That’s what I’m still trying to understand here. I do have an idea, solely based on the coloring of the magic shown here. But, we’ll need to run a couple more tests before I can be sure.” Sunblast replied as he unhooked the tiny suction cups from Jet’s body.

“Alright then, not like I have anything else to do right now.” Jet replied, watching as Sunblast as he flipped on another machine and pulled out a small syringe.

“Just need a blood sample to start with, hold still.” Sunblast said, gently grabbing Jet’s arm and sticking the syringe into the vein in the crook of his elbow.

“Ow, easy. That’s my real arm.” Jet replied with a little jump as he felt the pinch of the needle penetrating his flesh.

“Oh, shut up you big baby. It’s just a tiny needle.” Sunblast retorted as he pulled the plunger of the syringe back, filling it with Jet’s blood.

Jet watched as Sunblast gave the syringe of crimson a once over before moving back to his desk and pulling out a moderately sized phial. He stuck the needle into it and emptied its contents into the phial. He placed the phial into the machine he had previously turned on. It was a small square silver device that had a carousel looking piece on top and a digital display just under it, as well as a printer of sorts on one side. Sunblast locked the phial into place and pressed a button on the front, beside the digital display. The carousel looking part started to spin and whirr quietly as Sunblast waited for it to finish up its routine test, he leaned against the desk and picked up his notebook again, pencil in hand to record whatever readings he was about to get from the machine.

After a few minutes, the machine stopped and beeped loudly. The little printer on the side made a few loud screeches as it pumped out a long sheet of paper. Sunblast tore the sheet free and looked it over, a look of shock crossing his face as he scribbled something in his notebook. Jet waited patiently for him to say something, only being met with silence again as Sunblast went on with his scribbling.

“So…?” Jet asked, snapping Sunblast out of his research thoughts.

“Just as I feared... I don’t know how to say this, but according to your blood test… You have very high amounts of dark magic flowing through your veins…” Sunblast replied, giving Jet a look of deep concern.

“How? I don’t understand…” Jet said confusedly.

“I have a theory about that, but I’m not sure if it’s even a viable one.” Sunblast said calmly.

“Let’s hear it. Can’t make any less sense than anything else going on these days.” Jet replied with a sigh and a roll of his eyes.

“Well… That blast of magical energy that you were hit with… It’s almost as if your body somehow absorbed the brunt of the impact.” Sunblast said, scratching his chin.

“But that blast came from Twilight and the elements of harmony. How would that be dark magic?” Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It did, yes. But, as you may recall, Sombra deflected it with a magical barrier of his own making. Something you should understand about magic spells that powerful, when they collide with another’s magic energy, the spell will become infused with the magical energy of whoever’s magic it comes into contact with. So, when Sombra deflected that blast from the elements, it became infused with his own dark magic. Which in turn was absorbed into your body. I don’t know how, but these readings haven't been wrong before.” Sunblast explained, coming over to examine the scars from the blast on Jet’s chest.

“So, what? I’m some kind of magic sponge then?” Jet asked, not really understanding how any of this was possible.

“That’s my theory, yes. There’s only one way to be sure. But, it’s a dangerous experiment to follow through with.” Sunblast continued on, giving one of the scar’s a prod with the eraser on his pencil.

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what’s the experiment?” Jet asked with an inflection of suspicion in voice.

“We would have to hit you with a spell and see what happens. But it’s incredibly risky, even the most basic combat spell is designed to inflict large amounts of damage to whoever its aimed at.” Sunblast said uneasily.

“I think I can handle that. But uh, can I at least get dressed first? It’s pretty cold down here.” Jet said with a light laugh.

“Oh, sure. We won’t be doing it here anyway. Too much sensitive equipment down here, we’ll head over to the gym for that.” Sunblast said, stuffing his notebook into his pocket and his pencil back behind his ear. Jet nodded and slipped back into his clothes, noting a sort of heavy object in one of the pockets. He pulled it out and remembered it was one of the parts Sunblast had requested.

“I almost forgot, but I found this while I was out. It was marked in my HUD as something you needed.” Jet said, handing the part to Sunblast, who grabbed it quickly and looked it over.

“No way! An intact control board from a brute’s power armor! I’ll install it into Project Hades later on.” Sunblast said excitedly, a wide grin running across his face as he set the part on his desk.

“How many parts did you need exactly?” Jet asked curiously as kneeled down, tying his boots back on.

“Counting this control board, six. But this was by far the hardest one to acquire. Those things are never left intact after a brute is downed. They take far too much damage before they're killed. How did you even manage to get this one?” Sunblast asked, a little surprised.

“It was surprisingly easy, actually. I just took out the portable power supply on its back and that killed it instantly. It seems like the amount of electricity those power supplies hold is enough to electrocute them to death if they’re destroyed.” Jet said, standing up and stretching a bit.

“Huh… Never even considered that as a factor. I’ll have to add that to our file on them. If you learn anything else about Sombra’s forces, do let me know. Every little bit of info gives us that much more of an edge against him.” Sunblast said with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“Of course, I want him dead as much as anybody else. Now, I believe we have an experiment to perform?” Jet said, moving to the stairway as a signal to Sunblast to stop getting stuck in his sciency thoughts.

Sunblast took the hint and followed him, sealing the door to his lab back behind him. They made their way back down the hallway as they were greeted by a cacophony of noise emanating from the cafeteria. They entered the cafeteria to find that it was packed with all of the residents of the bunker as they ate and talked in a rather loud fashion. Through the crowd Jet didn’t see Rainbow anywhere, which gave him cause for concern. Applejack gave them a wave from behind the serving station as they passed by, the pair waved back with smiles. Jet noticed a small stage was set up at one end of the cafeteria, it had a red felt backdrop and a microphone set up at its front side. They proceeded through the cafeteria and down the hall towards the gym, passing a few trainees that looked beaten down and tired as they headed into the cafeteria for dinner. As they passed by a white haired mare with a light blue coat, Jet could swear he felt a hand graze his ass. He turned to look, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

They entered the gymnasium where Rainbow was giving one of the training dummies a thorough beating with a training sword. Her blow landed against the dummy with loud smacks and whacks, sounding as though she was about to break the bamboo blade against the dummy’s thick wooden torso. Her rainbow hair was plastered to her forehead and her white shirt was soaked in sweat, a clear indicator that she had been at this for some time now. She didn’t even seem to notice the two walking in behind her as they made their way out onto the floor. Sunblast’s horn glowed as the blue wrestling mats were moved across the floor and out of the way, the shuffling sound they gave off finally catching Rainbow’s attention as she stopped abusing the training dummy and turned to face the two stallions.

“What the hell do you two want?” She asked with a clenched jaw, clearly still fuming.

“I’m sorry to disturb your training, Rainbow, but we need to borrow the gym for a little bit. Important science things are about to happen here.” Sunblast said with a calm smile.

“Fine, whatever. I could use another shower anyway.” Rainbow replied, tossing her bamboo blade onto the rack behind her and leaving without another word.

Jet started to head after her, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Sunblast lightly shaking his head at him. Jet just sighed and made his way to the middle of the gym floor.

“Let’s get on with this, I need to go kill something to let off some steam.” Jet said with a frown,

“Right… Just, uh, don’t move. This will need to be a direct hit to get accurate results. Now, I’m going to hit you with a mild paralysis spell. Let me know if anything goes numb.” Sunblast said, his horn glowing lightly as it charged up for the spell.

“Yeah, will do. Fire when ready.” Jet said, giving Sunblast a nod of approval.

The air in the gym seemed to grow colder as Sunblast’s horn glowed brighter and hummed lightly against the slightly echoey noise coming from the cafeteria. After only a few short moments, his horn glowed bright enough to light up the floor around him in a deep green color. He took aim and fired, a large blast of dark green energy shot forth from his horn. The blast hit Jet dead center in the chest, staying in place as a ball of swirling green and white light as it collided with the pegasus. Jet groaned loudly as the swirling ball slowly dissipated and formed into strings of white as it was quite literally inhaled into his body through every pore available to it. Falling to one knee, Jet panted lightly, his body feeling as if it were on fire as the energy surged within him. Sunblast ran over and tried to help his friend to his feet by grabbing his arm, but just as quickly pulled away as his hands were slightly scorched from the immense heat radiating from Jet’s body.

“H-Holy shit… It worked…” Jet said lightly, looking up at Sunblast, who stood over him with a look of utter shock plastered across his face.

“Jet… You’re hot…” Sunblast said, waving his still lightly burning hands in the air to get some relief.

“Uh… Thanks, but you know I’m spoken for.” Jet replied with a confused look at his friend.

“No, you idiot. You’re literally burning up. Look.” Sunblast said, pointing down to Jet’s hands and arms.

“W-What…” Jet said slowly as he looked down to see that his arms had streams of smoke coming off of them.

“We… We need to study this some more.” Sunblast said steadily as he backed up to where he was before.

“Sure… Why not. Anything to understand this better.” Jet said, getting to his feet once again.

“Excellent. But we’ll need a bigger spell with more power. Luckily, I know just the guy. Oh, Discord!” Sunblast called out, his voice echoing off the walls of the gym. At first nothing happened, but then a poof of pink smoke popped up beside Sunblast. The draconequus having teleported into the gym right beside Sunblast.

“You rang, Sunny Bun?” Discord asked with a toothy grin. Sunblast grabbed him by the goatee, bringing him eye to eye with Discord and cutting his grin off.

“Don’t ever call me that or I’ll rearrange your atoms so badly that not even your chaos magic will be able to put you back together. Got it?” Sunblast said, his repressed anger showing through his otherwise calm demeanor. Discord gulped and nodded as best as he could while being restrained by his facial hair.

“G-Got it… Won’t happen again…” Discord replied nervously.

“Good. Now, I need a favor. A big one.” Sunblast said, letting go of Discord and seamlessly returning back to his normal demeanor.

“What is it? And what’s with smokey over here?” Discord asked, pointing a taloned thumb at Jet.

“That’s what I need your help with. I need you to hit him with the most powerful spell you have in your arsenal. Don’t hold back.” Sunblast said with an inflection of seriousness that put Discord on edge.

“Uh… I don’t think that’s a good idea. My most powerful spell is one that turns ponies into literal piles of sentient goo.” Discord said, eyeing Jet and Sunbast suspiciously.

“Just shut up and do it, Discord.” Jet piped up, smoke still streaming from his body.

“Well, ok. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Discord replied with a shrug, snapping his fingers.

Without any sort of buildup, a massive ball of swirling multi-colored light appeared above Jet and began rapidly descending upon him. It hit him with an impact that shook the entire gymnasium, the light engulfing Jet entirely. As before, the torrent of magical energy was slowly absorbed into his body. Once the light had faded and the ball of energy was gone, Jet stood in the center of the impact zone, smoke poured from his body in huge streams. He seemed to be almost vibrating with the amount of magical energy coursing through his system. Jet slowly looked up at Discord and Sunblast, a look of horror in his eyes.

“G-Get… To… Cover…” Jet mustered out as he tried to hold back a surge of energy from within.

Discord couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed, nothing had ever been able to survive that spell, it was even his most used one before he had been reformed. Sunblast formed a protective magical barrier around the both of them just as Jet let go. A massive blast of energy exploded from within him, melting the bleachers and setting the wooden training dummies ablaze as it swept across the entirety of the gymnasium. Sunblast let the barrier down once he assumed it was safe to do so. Both he and Discord stood there in silent shock as they stared at the newly damaged gym. The bleachers were melted down onto the floor in piles of smoking molten plastic, the training dummies rendered into flaming stacks of heavily charred firewood, the gym floor itself was charred outward from where Jet stood. Even the lights hanging several feet above him hadn’t been spared as they too were heavily charred and dangled loosely from their fixtures, several of their bulbs blown.

“Ok, what in the name of Equestria just happened?” Discord asked through his shocked state.

“Well, after a few tests and experiments, it appears as though Jet is somehow able to absorb and redirect magical energy by. Something about what happened to him eight years ago seems to have unlocked some kind of previously inactive magic sponge ability within him.” Sunblast explained, scribbling in his notebook.

“Magic sponge ability, you say? Hm… I need to go check on something. Please don’t destroy my bunker any more while I’m away.” Discord said, snapping his fingers and returning the gym to its previous unmelted state before suddenly disappearing with another puff of pink smoke.

“Why do I feel like he knows something that I don’t? Anyway, how do you feel, Jet?” Sunblast asked, moving to stand beside his friend.

“Feels like I just got sunburned from the inside out… Other than that, I’m fine I guess.” Jet said shakily, stumbling a bit on his feet as he rubbed his head.

“That’s good to hear. This is incredible, Jet. If you can learn to control this new ability, you’ll have no trouble with Sombra in the slightest!” Sunblast exclaimed, helping to steady Jet on his feet.

“Let me guess, I’ll need to keep taking hits of energy to practice at it?” Jet asked rhetorically.

“Unfortunately, yes. Though I doubt the spells I can cast will be enough to help with that.” Sunblast replied with a nod.

“Well, there just happens to be an electrified barrier surrounding one of Sombra’s compounds.” Jet said with a grin.

“Hm, while that is true, we don't know the extent of your ability. It could just be limited to magical energy.” Sunblast replied, stroking his chin.

“We won’t know unless we try. Besides, either way, we need these places dealt with.” Jet said with a shrug.

“Valid point. Guess you’re off to Sombra’s supply depot then.” Sunblast replied, leading the way out of the gym and down the hall.

The cafeteria was still full, the smell of dinner already fading from the air as they walked through. The stage was now occupied by Pinkie Pie, who was doing some kind of comedy routine involving a rubber chicken. The various ponies that occupied the tables were laughing and having a great time as they watched the show. Jet gave Pinkie a small smile and a wave as he and Sunblast walked by the stage and headed towards the exit hatch. The pair stopped at the foot of the ladder, Sunblast turning to Jet with a nervous smile.

“Remember Jet, your compass and HUD will point the way if you get lost out there.” Sunblast reminded Jet as he mounted the ladder.

Jet gave him a nod as he ascended the ladder and pushed open the hatch, bringing his armor up, he stepped out into the wasteland once again. As he shoved the hatch closed behind him, the ground under his feet rumbled intensely, throwing Jet off balance and knocking him to a knee briefly. As he looked out onto the wasteland, the earth around it started to split open in large jagged cracks, throwing clouds of dust into the air as massive pillars of black crystal jutted up from the cracks and reached up towards the sky. He got back up and shook some dust from his hair.

“Jet? Everything ok up there? I just got a richter scale alert from one of the scientists down here.” Sunblast asked in Jet’s earpiece.

“Yeah, I think so. But it looks like Sombra is trying to expand his crystal garden to us.” Jet replied, flying up to on top of one of the pillars.

“That’s not good. From what I’ve been able to gather, he uses those pillars of crystal to act as some kind of seismic sensors.” Sunblast replied, an ere of warning in his voice.

“Noted. I’ll contact you when I get to the supply depot.” Jet said as he ended the call, looking around from his perch.

From his new vantage point, he had a really good view of the wasteland below. He could see all the way to the ruins of Canterlot from here. Scanning the horizon, he saw the supply depot not far in the distance. As he was about to head off for it, something caught his eye. Off in the distance in the still somehow growing Everfree Forest, he saw a cloaked figure carrying a torch and heading into the ruins of the old castle. Jet thought for a moment before deciding to head off after the figure, curiosity getting the better of him. He quickly made it to the castle he had seen the figure go into, it wasn’t much to look at, but it was a good spot to be if someone needed to stay hidden from Sombra’s forces. Inside the castle ruins was a dark blue sheet covering the entry way that had once been the throne room door. Beyond the sheet was a dimly burning fire, a beaten up stump turned on its end, and a bed made from torn up pieces of fabric stuffed inside a large pillowcase. Jet wondered where the figure had disappeared to as there seemed to be just this one entrance to the room. Just as he had this thought, he looked up at the relatively high ceiling to see the cloaked figure nestled in one of the shadowed corners like a spider. Before he could react, the figure let go of the ceiling and fell on top of him, knocking him to the ground with the figure on top of him. The figure held a worn old kitchen knife to his throat.

“I knew one of Sombra’s assassins would come for me. I’m ready this time, you bastard. Any final words?” The figure spoke in a very familiar female voice, she wore the very tattered remains of a sparkly star studded dress with a small crude looking sheath on her hip.

“Wait! P-Princess Luna?” Jet said, quickly lowering his faceplate, hoping this wasn’t one of Sombra’s tricks.

“Jet Stream? But… How?” The figure spoke slowly, pulling her hood back to reveal the princess of the night. She looked very much worse for wear as she got up and helped Jet to his feet, slipping the knife into the sheath on her hip.

“I should be asking you the same question, princess.” Jet said as he brushed himself off. Luna took a seat on the stump and heaved a deep sigh. Jet knelt on the ground across from her, the fire crackled softly against the silence of the Everfree.

“I have been hiding out here, waiting for the day that it comes time to pay for my cowardice.” Luna said quietly, seeming to struggle to get the words out.

“Cowardice? What are you talking about?” Jet asked, looking up at Luna with confusion written across his face.

“I suppose you should know the truth, Jet Stream…” Luna spoke softly, her voice wavering slightly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The castle halls were quiet and barren, save for the few guards left on duty. Luna still didn’t understand why her sister had given the majority of the guards the week off, but she had come to learn that it was best not to question her sister’s choices. The banners that bore their insignias waved lazily in the air of the throne room as the cold winter sunlight poured in from outside through the stained glass windows, casting a variety of colored shapes onto the white tiled floor. The length of red carpet that led from the doors up to the thrones themselves was bright and freshly cleaned.

Luna sat in her throne with her elbow resting one the armrest of her throne and her chin in her hand. She watched as Celestia paced back and forth at the foot of the steps that led up to thrones, she wore her golden plate armor and her blade Solaris was strapped to her back. She had seemed to be on edge all day, to Luna’s annoyance. Maybe if Celestia would just share what was bothering her, Luna could help alleviate some of her sister’s worry. Luan wondered what exactly had set her on edge this badly, but everytime she had asked, Celestia had given her the same dismissive answer.

“Sister, please… You’re wearing down the tiles with all your pacing.” Luna said, sitting up and leaning back into her dark blue upholstered throne.

Celestia said nothing as she kept pacing back and forth. Her metal boots clinking against the tiles and echoing in the vast empty room. Luna got up from her throne and walked over to her sister, her elegant star strewn dress dragging along the fuzzy red carpet as she walked. She stood in her sister’s path and put her hand on Celestia’s armored shoulders, the metal cold under her palms.

“Sister, you are worrying me. Please, talk to me.” Luna pleaded as she held her sister in place, effectively stopping her pacing. Celestia gave a soft, yet forced, smile down at her sister.

“Luna… If I could tell you, I would. But you know as well as I do that if I tell what my vision foretold, it will change the outcome of it. This is one vision that I wish not to change, even though it means dark things to come.” Celestia spoke with certainty in her voice.

“I am aware of how your visions work, sister. I just wish you would tell me what it is you saw. Perhaps we can find a better outcome together.” Luna replied, returning her sister's smile.

“I am sorry, dear sister, I truly am. But, this time there is no outcome I wish to change. Just know that things will be ok, you have my word.” Celestia said softly, trying to ease her younger sister’s worry.

It did little to ease her, but Luna smiled regardless, not wanting to add to her sister’s already existing burden. Luna embraced her sister in a hug, which Celestia returned with another forced smile. As the two sisters embraced one another, the air suddenly seemed to grow far colder. The two sisters' breaths now hung in the air in wisps of visible white steam. Celestia pulled away from the hug and drew Solaris from its sheath, turning to face the doors of the throne room with narrowed eyes just as an explosion rang out through the castle, shaking the floor under their feet.

“He’s here. Luna, you need to get out of here. Now.” Celestia said as she lowered her sword to point it at the throne room doors.

“Who’s here? SIster, what is going on?” Luna asked in a panic.

“There is no time to argue. Go, now!” Celestia replied, giving her sister a very intensely serious look.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on, sister!” Luna exclaimed, pulling Moonshadow from it’s magical pocket realm that was used to house it when not in use.

Before Celestia could say another word, a second explosion rocked the entire room, blowing the throne room doors off their hinges and covering the room in a sheet of dust and smoke. The force of the blast shattered the stained glass windows, sending shards of glass flying through the air and shredding the insignia bearing banners. The two sisters covered their faces as the shard flew every which way. As the smoke cleared, they saw a black armor clad figure walking into the room. Luna gasped at what, or rather who, she saw. Meanwhile Celestia didn’t seem at all surprised by this.

“S-Sister… Is that…” Luna stammered out, getting into a fighting position beside her sister, her scythe poised and ready.

“Sombra…” Celestia said coldly. He laughed loudly at the two as he approached.

“Ah, so you do remember me, princess. And here I was worried that you’d forgotten me over the past millennium. I should have known you could never forget the one pony you couldn’t defeat.” He said in a cocky tone as he stopped, mere feet from the two battle ready princesses.

“You are not welcome here, monster. Leave.” Celestia said, her tone as cold as the ice that Moonshadow controlled.

“No, I don’t think I will.” Sombra retorted just as coldly, drawing his own blade from its sheath. His sword was almost the polar opposite of Solaris.

It was a broadsword made from black steel with barbed edges, created as if to be a spit in the face to Celestia’s almost holy blade. Celestia looked on at the black blade with horror as it steamed with smoke like shadows. He grinned wickedly from under his helmet and gave another bone chilling laugh.

“Ah, admiring my handiwork? You should feel honored, I created this blade especially for you, princess. I call it The Solar Destroyer. A bit on the nose, I know, but it’s entirely fitting.” Sombra said, giving Celestia a hard chill that ran down the length of her spine.

“It does not matter what you call your twisted blade, Sombra. We have had one thousand years to prepare for you and we will be victorious this time.” Luna said, trying to sound resolute in her words.

“Luna, you need to run.” Celestia said, lowering her blade to point right at Sombra’s chest.

“No, I won’t leave you alone with this monster.” Luna replied with a determined expression. Sombra stepped forward, letting the tip of Solaris press right against where his heart would be under his armor.

“Go ahead, princess. I’ll give you a free shot to end this right here and now.” Sombra said, pressing against the blade and forming a small dent in his armor.

“I… I cannot… No matter how evil, I cannot bring myself to kill…” Celestia said, lowering Solaris to her side.

“S-Sister, pick up your blade! Now is no time to hesitate!” Luna exclaimed as she swung at Sombra with Moonshadow. The tyrant easily blocked her sloopy swing with his own blade, deflecting it from her hands and sending it flying across the room. It came to rest at the base of one of the shattered windows with a loud echoing clatter.

“Hm, I knew you wouldn’t have the heart for it. Which makes this almost sad, but I will still thoroughly enjoy it.” Sombra said with another evil laugh, giving a hard swing at the two princesses.

With a scream of pain from the two, their horns were severed and sent up into the air. The severed appendages flew upwards and landed on the steps of the thrones, rolling down and coming to rest at the base of the small staircase. Thin streams of blood seeped from their horns and down their heads, staining their foreheads and cheeks as it ran down their faces. Celestia gave a hard groan and planted Solaris into the ground in front of her with a soft thunk. She bit back the pain in her head and looked over at her sister with a grim expression.

“Luna, please… Run… For once in our lives, please listen to me and run…” Celestia said, her expression now pleading with her sister to listen.

“B-But…” Luna stammered out, the adrenaline pumping through her veins keeping her from falling to the floor in pain.

“Please…” Celestia pleaded with her sister again.

With a look from her to Sombra, she gave her sister a sad look and made for one of the now open shattered windows. She gave a look back to see Sombra making his way towards her, Celestia gave her a solemn nod. Without another word, Luna leapt through the window and took to the air, seeing Sombra standing at the window, his horn glowing a deep violent red and aimed right at her.

“Sombra! It is me, you want. Let my sister go in peace!” Celestia called from inside, causing the tyrant to turn and face her.

“Very well, I will spare her on one condition.” Sombra said slowly, his back now to Luna, which allowed her to look in through the window.

“Name it…” Celestia replied, voice wavering as she feared the tyrant's request.

“Kneel to your new ruler.” Sombra said coldly with an evil cackle.

As Luna watched in horror, Celestia knelt to him at the foot of the thrones they had once shared. Not able to bear watching her sister demean herself in front of this monster, she flew off into the sky. Not knowing where else to go, she headed for their old castle in the Everfree Forest. With no knowledge of events to come and no sister to spend her days with, she curled up on the dust riddled floor of their former throne room and wept softly into the silence of the Everfree. She wanted to fly back to help, but her sister’s words rang out in her head. ‘Run… For once in our lives, listen to me and run…’ Even though it had been her sister’s wishes, her heart felt heavy and very cold, she felt like a coward for not staying to help her fight. Maybe if she had, things would’ve turned out differently. Maybe had she not had such sloppy form when attacking, she could’ve actually hit that monster. Maybe… Luna’s thoughts of ‘maybes’ faded into silence as she cried herself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you see now why I have been awaiting justice for my actions?” Luna asked softly against the quiet of the room.

“Princess Luna… You’re not a coward for listening to your sister when she told you to run.” Jet said with a soft smile, getting up to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Jet Stream, your words are kind, but I have come to terms with my role in the downfall of our world.” Luna replied as she looked down into the crackling fire with a distant look in her eyes.

“Princess, do you really think your sister gave her life for yours just so you could mope around in this dusty old castle? Just think what she would say if she saw this. Luna, is this any way to act? You’re royalty for pete’s sake.” Jet said, putting on his best impersonation of Celestia like he used to do to break her from her grouchy state after being woken up early for royal meetings and such. This got a small giggle from Luna.

“Your impression of Celestia is still terrible, you know that, right? Regardless, you make a good point.” Luna said as she stood.

“Yeah, I know it is, but it still got a laugh out of you. Now, come on. I know a bunker full of ponies that would be overjoyed to see you.” Jet said with a smile.

As the two headed for the exit, a loud crash could be heard as something landed on the ground outside. Jet drew his blade and put up his faceplate as Luna drew her knife. The two each stood on one side of the door with their backs to the wall. They gave each other a look that was asking if the other was ready, with a mutual nod they headed outside to confront the source of the crash. Ready for whatever awaited them.