An explosion ruptured through the air, exploding the entire top of the building off and sending the main six flying away from the building.

"Hang on, girls!" Twilight yelled through the blaring winds. She used her magic to grab everyone who was flung out and pull them close. At the same time, she used her energy to shoot downwards, slowly stopping their fall, which Rainbow eventually joined in, giving them a soft landing.

They had landed near the center of the city. At the entrance to the castle. And there sat an empty spot - presumably for the heart. The thought of the Crystal Heart made them wonder where it was, before they looked up and saw it come crashing down, landing besides them and embedding itself into the concrete floor instead of shattering.

Sombra, who had caused the explosion, slowly glided down with a smirk on his face. "Now we spar," he spoke calmly, gesturing to Dash to fight him.

With a growl, dark energy enveloped Rainbow's body as she shot forwards at speeds so high that if you blinked you would've missed it. Upon impact, Dash's right hoof contacted Sombra's cheek, making him flinch only slightly as Rainbow zoomed past him.

"Hmm... your speed will be a problem," he spoke to himself, still audible enough that Rainbow heard.

"Good! I'll kill you with my speed!" she yelled out in response, dashing forwards once again.

Sombra easily dodged to the side with a burst of magic, watching his daughter zoom past. As she flew, Sombra reached out and grabbed her foreleg making her eyes widen in surprise before she was body thrown to the floor, making a small crater. "You're going to need more than brute force to kill me," he said.

Groaning from the impact, she slowly got up and snarled in response. He's right... I'll have to find another angle on him. But what can I do? Before she could finish that thought, crystal burst from the floor beneath her and encaged her right rear leg almost like a beartrap, digging into her skin and drawing blood and causing her to cry out in pain. Quickly, she shadow-ized her leg and moved it free before flying up into the air again.

"You are an utter annoyance-" Sombra started to speak up before he was hit from the side.

The hit was made of purple energy, singeing his side in an instant, forcing him to turn into a shadow to repair his body. The hit in question came from Twilight Sparkle who was looking furious. "Stay away from her!" she yelled out, charging up another magic shot and shooting it directly at his forehead.

Sombra smirked as the magic missile traveled straight through, not even damaging him.

"Ah crud, what do we do?" Applejack asked.

"Uh... I don't know! We can't hit him with magic attacks or physical attacks! They'll go right through!" Twilight said, panicking internally.

"You forgot about me!" Rainbow cried out as she dashed forwards, turning into a shadow herself as she slammed into her father, having them both crash into a nearby wall. The impact created a mini explosion which sent dust into the air, clouding the area like a smoke bomb as pieces of loose rock started falling from the ceiling.

Rainbow looked into the eyes of her evil father figure and punched him in the face, over and over again until he retaliated with a blast, knocking her off with a large shockwave of dark magic.

"You imbecile! You cannot defeat me!" he said, resolidifying. He started charging up his horn.

He was about to fire the shot when rope wrapped around his body and pulled him down a little, throwing his aim off and making him miss his shot completely. "Who has the audacity-"

"Take that ya lousy tyrant!" Applejack called out as she hauled him down to the ground. "Now, Pinkie!" she said, muffled from the rope she was holding in her mouth.

"Okie, dokie!" Pinkie said, pulling out a party cannon out of literally thin air and aiming it at Sombra. "Smile!" she exclaimed before the cannon shot out nails at its target, nearly hitting him before he phased out of the physical realm, only to get knocked down to the floor by Rainbow Dash, who had come charging down, kneeing him in the jaw.

"Take that!" Rainbow said before she hopped back into the air, winding up another punch.

"Enough!" Sombra shouted, his voice echoing through the area and knocking everyone down to the floor. "I've had enough of you pests!" he said, eyes glowing as he threw them all together, excluding Dash, and encaged them with crystal, halting their movement all together.

"No! Let them go!" Rainbow yelled, tackling Sombra to the floor again, before being easily thrown off, rolling on the floor before coming to a halt.

"Rainbow!" Twilight called out, ramming against the cage. Her body was quickly encased in magic and thrown through the crystal cage, towards Sombra who held her hostage in the air.

"Ah, this one seems to care a lot about you, Shadow," Sombra grinned as he held her in a choking grip, making it hard for her to breath.

"Twilight!" Rainbow shouted until her body was also encased in magic, this time being pinned to the floor and having her hooves locked in place with more crystal. She found herself unable to shift forms as she was still encased in magic.

"Well, well, well. It looks like you two are pretty close. Too bad you'll have to watch your friend die before your very eyes," Sombra said as he stared into Rainbow's eyes with a smile. He began to close the grip between Twilight's throat, causing her to gasp and writhe in the air as the oxygen was sucked from her lungs. "Just a little more and her neck will snap," he laughed.

"Wait! Stop, please! I'll do anything!" Rainbow cried. "Don't kill her please!" she said, tears streaming down her cheek. The grip around her friend's neck continued to tighten. "Dad, please! Stop! Think of mom! What would she think?"

The grip around Twilight's neck softened a bit. "What did you just say?" he asked menacingly.

"Mom wouldn't approve of what you're doing, Dad! Stop this madness!" she repeated herself.

Sombra's eye twitched as he threw Twilight away and caged her in her own separate cell. Not before grabbing Rainbow and dragging her up close. "You know nothing of your mother!" he shouted directly in her face.

"I know she was a nice pony. The best mother in the world! She would always care for me, for you too! I remember the days where she would wake up early just to make us breakfast. Just to see a smile on our face. And she always had the best intentions in mind! I know she wouldn't want what is happening right now!"

He growled. "Do you know why I took over this kingdom, Shadow?" he asked. "It was to get rid of that pesky ruler. The oh-so-great Princess Amethyst. Did you know, dear daughter, that she was responsible for your mother's death?"

Rainbow's eyes widened. "W-what?"

"Let me tell you what that pesky old book that you found didn't."

Sombra opened his eyes, waking up from the deep sleep that had left him. His eyes wincing from the bright sunlight that came in through the window. He looked to his right and saw a beautiful sight. It was his wife, in all her beauty. Her fur a perfect shade of pearly white, with hair that matched the colors of the rainbow, much like her name, Spectrum Wave. And in between the two sat a tiny filly about the age of four with blue fur and her mother's mane, still fast asleep.

As he got up, Spectrum stirred and opened her eyes, smiling when she saw Sombra. "Mornin'," she said sleepily, her messy mane still covering her face, and yet she still managed to look so beautiful.

"Good morning, my dear," he spoke. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmhmm~" she muttered, looking down at the sleeping filly and curling up closer. "She's like a cute ball of fuzz," she said, smiling as she curled the filly's hair.

"More like an hyper ball of energy. I swear, I can't get her to stand still," Sombra said, drawing a laugh out of his wife.

"Yeah, well, she's our energetic ball," she said before she looked up back at Sombra. "Where are you going anyway?"

"Ah, just to pick up some items at the market for the week. Like you asked me to do yesterday."

"Did I?" She groaned. "C'mon. Stay in bed with me for just a few more minutes?" she asked, giving him the look of that of a puppy.

"Oh, alright," he said, snuggling back under the blanket with his wife. How could he resist that look?

When the time did come to go to the market, they said their goodbyes and he set out. The stroll was normal. It was a good thing - quite refreshing, actually. Most of his life he lived up in the big castle with all the other royales. It was such a pain. Everywhere you'd go you'd need to sign something or run from the paparazzi. He hated being a royale.

Then he thought back to his wife. He was glad he moved. There was a law that went around where a royale had to marry another royale, with no exceptions. And anyone who was caught meddling with any royales would be sent to be executed. At first he thought it was a rule that didn't apply to him. Until he met Spectrum Wave. She had caught his heart like a butterfly in a net. They had seen each other a few times around the castle.

It wasn't until Sombra made the first move when they actually went out- in secret of course. It eventually evolved into something more and they wanted to get married. So they moved out here, to a far away rural area in the city, where no one knew any royales, and they could get married in peace.

Of course this caused problems. It was basically like one of their nobles went completely missing out of the blue, nowhere to be found. It wasn't his problem, though. He'd been living out here with his wife and new daughter for over ten years and they hadn't found him yet. He had assumed that they would never find him, and he was happy with that. His new life was so much better than his old. Nothing to worry about but the simple things in life. Like getting a job, paying the bills, and watching his daughter. Life was simple.

As he peacefully walked down the dirt path, he looked ahead and saw something that made his heart drop. Ponies dressed in iron armor with hints of shining blue gem. Royale Guards? Here? Now? Since when? And why? These were all questions that raced through Sombra's mind as he saw them. Immediately before they spotted him, he sprinted back to his house, praying that the guards hadn't reached his wife yet.

When he got there, thankfully there were no guards in sight. He quickly jumped through the front door, surprising his wife and daughter.

"What the- What's going on?!" Spectrum asked, running towards Sombra.

Panting, Sombra answered. "They're here! The guards! Royale guards! From the castle! We need to leave right now!"

Immediately, Spectrum knew what to do. With a determined nod, she turned away and knelt besides Rainbow Dash.

"Mommy? What's going?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

"Bad ponies are coming, Rainbow, we need to leave," she said.

"Are we running from the guards? I thought the guards were good ponies!" she asked, confused as she watched her mother start to pack up her things.

"Yes, honey. If you see any, don't talk to them, okay?"

"Why?"

"Not right now, Rainbow, pack your things, we need to go-"

A knock sounded at the front door. "Open up! Royale Guards here under suspicion that you may be housing a royale! Open the door before we break it down!"

"Sombra! Hold the door shut!"

"Already on it!" He moved quickly and grabbed a chair, placing it in front of the door handle, which had started rattling from someone trying to open it.

"I hear you inside! Open this damn door!" a guard yelled, ramming the door, which managed to stay shut.

"Go to Tartarus, you fucks!" Sombra yelled through the door.

Rainbow had started crying. Spectrum grabbed Rainbow by the shoulders. "Rainbow. I need you to get upstairs. Right now. Do you understand me? Do not open the door for anyone and hide if anyone comes around, okay?" Through the tears, Rainbow nodded and dashed upstairs, quickly shutting it closed.

Just a few seconds after, the front door exploded, blasting wooden shards all over the place, a piece lodging itself in Sombra's side, to which he yelled out in pain.

"No!" Spectrum yelled out, jumping to him and shielding him against the guards intruding their once peaceful home. "Stay away from my husband!" she shouted, raising her wings in a battle stance.

One of the guards swung at her with a sword and she dodged it, knocking the blade out of the guard's hoof and pushing him away before she was tackled by another guard, punching her in the face and hitting her head onto the hard wood below, causing her to start bleeding on the floor. The guard who was shoved came along and kicked her in the face, sending blood splattering out of her mouth.

"Stop it! She's my wife!" Sombra shouted, getting up to help before he was pinned by a guard.

The guard scoffed, before looking at Sombra's wife laying on the floor. "Having an affair with a royale is a crime punishable by death! Kill her!" He turned back to Sombra. "As for you, you should know better than to interfere with your bloodline with such... impurity!"

"No... No!" Sombra shouted as he saw guards beat up his wife, having her cough up more blood as she was unable to fight back, having both her wings being pinned down along with her legs. "No...!" he cried, tears streaming down his face.

Then something swelled within him. Deep inside his anger began to bubble. They had destroyed his once peaceful life and killed his beloved. They. Will. Suffer. Dark energy started to surround him as he shook with rage. And with a shout, he knocked back all the guards off of him. He floated in the air as a shadow, instantly striking fear into his enemies as they immediately dropped their weapons.

Without remorse, he beat them all to a pulp. Blasting magic and swinging wide punches at the guards, leaving only a few who had run away from the scene. And as quickly as it came to him, it left. He fell down to his haunches and looked at his love. Her once beautiful white coat was stained a maroon red, mostly covering her face, but also staining bruises that lined her body as well.

He grabbed his wife into his hooves and held her close. "Come on! Wake up! Please!" He got no response. "No... It can't end like this! It can't!" He punched his right hoof into the floor, creating a dent. "Damn it!"

He looked at his now dead wife and back at the large hole his hoof had made and then back at himself. His body was glowing with power. And he knew what he had to do.

"So I killed them! I killed all of them. And I took over the kingdom to impose rule that is more righteous - better than anything that stupid princess could come up with!" Sombra shouted, his story now finally told. A slight tear was in his right eye, though it quickly vanished and was replaced with an angry look once more.

Rainbow wiped the tears from her eyes and looked back at Sombra. "Do you think this is how she would've wanted you to rule? Enslaving others for your own use? You've lost yourself, Dad! Mom wouldn't want any of this!"

"Silence!" he shouted. "You do not know her! You do not even deserve her!"

"Wh- What?!" Rainbow shouted. Rage started to boil beneath her skin. "So you come over here, you ruin my life, nearly kill my friends and then you have the audacity to say that I don't deserve my own mother?!" She laughed almost maniacally. Her veins started to flood with dark magic. Her body turned completely black. Her magical aura seemed to expand around her.

Her shadows began to cover the entire area, blinding anyone within.

"What?! Impossible!" Sombra yelled. "How do you have so much magic output?! It should not be possible!"

Her laughter died down. "You should've killed me when you had the chance," she said, eyes glowing, before she completely vanished out of sight.

For the first time in forever, Sombra felt a feeling in his gut. One that twisted and turned it in all sorts of directions. For the first time in a long, long time, he felt afraid. He stood there in place looking all around him. The only thing he could see was dark energy, swirling around him like the wind of a heavy storm, making him unable to see anything around him except for the floor.

"Where are you?! Show yourself!" he shouted, his voice wavering a little bit on the end.

"Ha ha ha..." Rainbow's voice echoed through the shadows. "Is somepony afraid?"

"I..." his voice trailed off, unable to come up with words to say.

Then, all of a sudden, something hit him across the face, knocking him to the floor. He quickly got up to see what had hit him, but only saw a hint of a dark figure disappear into the darkness. Charging his horn, he shot wildly in the direction the figure had gone. No signal was given that he even hit anything.

"Stop hiding in the darkness!" he shouted. Then he felt a tap on his right shoulder.

He quickly turned around and shot a large laser in that direction, only to find that no one was there. "What..?"

Then, he was tackled, his face landing into the concrete, scraping across the floor as he was turned around to face up at his attacker who was Rainbow Dash, staring at him with an unrecognizable look on her face. Her eyes lacked emotion. She had a wicked grin on her face as she lifted a hoof and brought it down on his face repeatedly. He tried to turn into his shadow form and escape before he was grabbed and pulled back by Rainbow.

"Now where do you think you're going?" she said with a laugh, pulling him closer so that she could get a better shot at his face.

Sombra lit up his horn and shot directly at her, hoping to disintegrate her. He poured all of his power into the shot, hoping to end the fight once and for all. When he opened his eyes again. She was completely unharmed, her hoof slightly sizzling from the beam, which she had used to block the attack. "Ow. That hurt a little," she said with no emotion.

She headbutted her skull into Sombra's and knocked him to the floor, continuing her barrage of attacks. Blood started to spray everywhere and Sombra could barely move. Right when Rainbow was about to make the finishing move, she looked at her work. He was bloodied all over. He could barely move. His eyes, when she made contact with them, were full of fear. Fear...

"No, no, no, this isn't right!" she shouted, throwing him away from her and backing up, looking at her own hooves. I've become just like him... "No, no, no, NO!" she cried into her hooves. "I'm just like him... I'm just a monster. Preying off of others and their fear..."

She cried to herself and the aura of blinding shadow retreated back to her body, leaving only a crying blue pegasus, alone in the middle of the room. Then, something sat down next to her and gave her a hug. "You're nothing like him, Dash," a familiar voice said.

She turned to look at who was sitting next to her. "T-Twilight? How did you-?"

"He kind of destroyed the cages in the process of firing off in random directions, hoping to hit you," she answered measly before returning her attention to Rainbow. "But that doesn't matter right now. Listen, Rainbow, you're nothing like your father. You're better than him. You recognized your mistakes and stopped yourself before you went too far. That's what matters," she said, hugging her tightly.

Rainbow sniffled. "O-okay..."

Applejack sat next to her also. "We're here for you, sugarcube," she said, joining in on the hug.

"So am I," Rarity said joining in also.

"Me too!" Pinkie said.

"And me, too," Fluttershy said.

Rainbow looked around at her friends and smiled. "You guys are the best."

"Ah, what a heartfelt moment indeed," Sombra said, flying in the air again in his shadow form. "Did you forget about me?" He shot away all of them with a sonic blast and grabbed Twilight.

"No!" Rainbow tried to rush up there as her body burned with energy once more before Sombra cut her off.

"Ah ah ah! You don't want me to take the life of your precious friend here, do we?" Sombra said.

"Dad! Put her down if you know what's good for you! We both know I can beat you," she growled.

"Oh, but you won't do anything, not while I have your friend here hostage," he said, smiling while doing so. "I can kill her faster than you can approach me. Don't even try anything. Surrender now and I will let her go."

Rainbow didn't know what to do. She was backed against a corner with no option ahead. She took a step backwards, bumping into something. She looked down and saw what it was. Her eyes widened. The Crystal Heart! She looked back up at Sombra, an idea in her mind. "O-okay, Dad, you win. I surrender," she said, kneeling down.

"Rainbow, what are you doing?!" Twilight asked, looking into Dash's eyes. Rainbow looked up at Twilight, then down at the heart. Then Twilight realized. "No. NO! Rainbow Dash! Don't do what I think you're going to do-!"

Without giving her time to finish her sentence, she reached down and grabbed the heart, dashing to the podium in the middle of the room. Sombra's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "No! You'll kill us both!" he dropped Twilight and flew towards Rainbow as fast as he could.

Time seemed to slow. Rainbow held the heart in her grip, right next to the podium, burning in her hooves. She looked at her father, flying towards her hopelessly and then back at Twilight. Her heart broke upon eye contact. She was there, leg reaching out to her, tears flowing down her eyes. Rainbow knew that if she did this, she would never see her ever again. If it saves her, then I'm okay with that. She thought to herself.

That was her final thought as she placed the heart on the podium. The room started to shake and the heart started to glow, spinning rapidly on top of the podium, sending out rays of light in all directions.

"NOOOOO!" Sombra yelled out.

An explosion of light flooded the entire city.

Author's Note

Don't know how well I did with this chapter, but I hope you all enjoyed it!

Feedback is always welcome!