Chapters Words From an Unknown Soldier
The Calm Before the Storm
We trained for many months for this upcoming battle. Everypony marched in formation towards the battlefield. The day the princesses announced that we were going to war, my friend and I jumped at the chance to join the militia. My friend Spellflash, and I were excited at the chance to fight for Equestria. All throughout training, we would joke about how we were going to be the ones who survived. How we were going to come back heroes from the front lines of this fight. But here, as we marched forward, there is no laughter. There is no cheer. The moment we laid eyes upon our enemy, we knew immediately what was about to happen. Him, I, and most the troops marching with us, were most likely going to die that day.
It had been several months since the grim crystal arrived at the palace. Since then, the princesses have prepared for war. Troops were trained under their newly appointed general, Applejack. She taught them everything she could, and tried her best to get them ready for this fight. None of these soldiers have ever fought a war before, and neither did she. She knew this, but accepted the offer regardless. Under her command, the troops marched forward towards the battlefield. A message had been intercepted by them over a week ago, explaining the movements the enemy would be taking. Their destination was a mountainous region that overlooked much of Equestria, the same area that holds Canterlot within the sky. They had to make a stand there otherwise their capital would be destroyed.
Applejack remained at the front of the forces sporting her cowboy hat and an apple shaped necklace. Behind her, over 10,000 soldiers marched in even formation behind her. Most of these ponies were volunteers who joined in hopes of defending their home from the enemy. Behind the soldiers, a pink mare with a crazy hair style and a balloon shaped necklace, was playing ten instruments at once in hopes of raising the spirits of the stallions ahead of her. But in truth, the music wasn't providing the troops with as much confidence as the object she was riding on. It was a weapon of the mares own creation that took months of construction to build. It was a cannon that was two stories tall and decorated with yellow flowers upon its pink wheels. The cannon itself was pointed upwards at a 45 degree angle. It took over a hundred stallions to pull this war machine across this rocky terrain. Everypony knew how much power this thing possessed, they only hope that they would be out of the way when it fired.
The troops were covered from head to hoof with a peculiar kind of armor. The armor was encrusted completely with gems pulled from the earth itself and so lavished that anypony could sell it to live in complete luxury the rest of their lives. It was surprisingly lightweight considering its design. It also came complete with a purple bow upon each of the helmets, although most were removed by the troops. Each soldiers was equipped with a long spear as a weapon as well as a short sword hanging off their backs.
Within the sky above them, there was a large white cloud that followed along with the troops. Atop this cloud, pegasi were finishing their preparations for the battle. Each donned armor and spears that were similar to the weapons their ancestors used over one millennia ago. At the front of the clouds, there were several pegasi standing in a ‘V’ formation, overlooking the area ahead. None of them were wearing the armor that their comrades had. Rather, they wore blue jumpsuits that would allow for faster flight. At the front of the pack was a mare with a mane that was almost like fire. She watched the troops bellow her march forward. She was nervous, but kept her composure in front of her men. At the back right of their formation, a mare with a rainbow mane and a lightning bolt shaped necklace was waiting in anticipation for the upcoming battle. Out of everypony that was marching into battle, she was the most confident of victory.
At the back, behind all clouds, troops, and cannons, were the three princesses. They were riding upon what appeared to be a giant, mobile stage of sorts. All three were sitting around a table that was covered with a map of the area. Each one wore their trademark tiaras and were equipped with armor much like their soldiers were. With them were a couple of guards, a white unicorn with a purple mane and a diamond shaped necklace, and a small baby dragon. The three were discussing how to go about the upcoming battle.
“You are sure the Crystal Empire will be unable to help us?” Twilight asked.
“Yes" Celestia responded. "I felt that it would be better for them to stay back and guard their kingdom. If Canterlot falls, then it will be the only place left for us to go.”
“Tell me sister, are the supplies we received from Saddle Arabia going to be enough?” Luna inquired.
“I can only hope. They were only willing to give so much. When I discussed this with them, they were afraid of being invaded as well, so they kept most of it for themselves.”
“To think, I put on a show and almost gave Fluttershy a heart attack for nothing.”
“We take what we can get, that’s all we can do.”
Twilight turns towards the other mare. “Rarity, how did the armor turn out?”
“Oh darling, there is nothing to worry about. The gems encrusted onto their suits are some of the hardest materials that can be obtained within this land. Although I will admit that it was a bit of a struggle to find and sow enough gems to support over ten thousand troops.”
“Thank you Rarity.” She faced the other two princesses again. “Alright, so we have our main force marching towards them from the front. Fluttershy is currently in the Everfree Forest with Zecora gathering the local wildlife for the upcoming attack. When she feels she is ready, she will flank the enemy from the west. Zecora will join us right before she does. Any word on Discord, Celestia?”
Celestia shook her head at the young alicorn. “Unfortunately, no. After I made my announcement, he disappeared. The only thing he said before he left was ‘I’m sure that you all can handle this. I’ll just relax back here for the time being. Perhaps I’ll even throw a party to celebrate your victory.’ And then he just vanished before me." Celestia brought hoof to her forehead. "There are times I wonder why I even bothered to set him free.”
“Sister, do we have any word on how the enemy is setting up their forces?” Luna asked.
“The only details I have received are about Sombra himself. Apparently he allied himself with another one of our enemies. Someone with an army that is even more massive than our own.”
Twilight’s eyes widen in terror. “You don’t mean…”
Celestia lowers her head “Yes Twilight, I do. It appears Sombra has allied himself with Queen Chrysalis, and her changeling army.”
Words From an Unknown Soldier
It was mid-day when we arrived at the battlefield. The enemy, they just stood there… waiting for us. It was as if they anticipated our arrival. Thousands upon thousands of changelings stood in formation before us. They easily outnumbered us three to one. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Behind all their forces was a monster. A great dragon like creature that looked as if it was made from crystals themselves. I turned my gaze to the war machine we have been dragging this entire way. Fear shot through me when I saw that their beast dwarfed it. Never in my life have I ever been so afraid. The only thing that was preventing me from fleeing right then and there was my friend. He had marched with me this great distance to fight this battle. I wasn’t sure if it was a sense of pride, or loyalty, or just plain stupidity, but I stayed in formation right next to Spellflash. That was when I heard the words that still haunt me to this day.
Upon a plateau overlooking the battlefield, a unicorn with a dark mane and a large changeling stood waiting for the opposing army. The unicorn smiled to himself as he watches the bugs below him scramble in to their formations. He then casts his gaze upon the changeling next to him.
“Tell me my queen, has everything been going according to plan?”
The changeling next to him grunted “Yes, their scouts have intercepted our message just as you predicted they would. Fortunately, the changeling was able to avoid capture.” She carried a look of anger upon her brow.
“Is there a problem your highness? I created the plan to cover every possible situation that can befall us. You should have no quarrels with it.”
“The ‘Problem’ I am having here, Sombra, is that you keep putting my subjects at risk. We all had to march our happy flanks up this mountain, and for what? To be in a prime location to get flanked!”
“Now, now, my dear queen. You know very well that my plan has considered that possibility. As long as you follow my every instruction, Canterlot will fall, and Equestria will be ours.”
Chrysalis looks upon Sombra with an uneasy feeling. “But if something goes wrong, all of my troops will die. Then guess what will happen? They will march their forces back to our homeland and wipe us out!” She drops her head in anger.
Sombra looks at Chrysalis with a caring look. “You must have faith in me, my queen. It was I after all that helped you after your defeat in Canterlot. And it was I who helped you find a land to feed your people. You can trust that we will succeed in this endeavor.”
Feeling more confident, Chrysalis returned her gaze to Sombra. “Alright, I trust you. But I still feel that we needed to do more. This doesn't seem like enough to take out Celestia’s army.”
Once again showing an evil grin upon his face, Sombra responded with, “That is why I decided to bring a little pet along for the journey.”
Puzzled, Chrysalis asked, “What pet? I fail to see any creature traveling with us.”
Sombra let out an evil cackle, “HA-HA! That’s because she hasn’t been traveling in plain sight; she’s been RIGHT HERE!”
Upon finishing his sentence, his horn lit up with power, and he stomped his forehoof into the ground. The moment his hoof hit the ground, an earthquake occurred and the battlefield below began to tear in half. The rip in the earth began to widen more and more with each passing second, as all the changelings in the immediate area started to fly away as fast as they could. Suddenly, a forearm that looked to be made of crystal reached out of the rift. Its hands contained claws that look sharp enough to cut a boulder by just resting on it. Suddenly another forearm reached out from the rift. Both rested upon the ground above them and slowly started to drag out the head and body of a beast. It spread its diamond encrusted wings as soon as they were free. As it pulled its hind legs and bladed tail out of the rift, the ground beneath it began to close. The great monster stood four stories tall and was made from head to toe out of crystal.
Chrysalis looked upon this monster in disbelief and horror. Sombra simply grinned. “This here is Jade, my Draco Crystallus. The last of her kind I am afraid, but still getting along well. Oh I suggest you tell your subjects to keep their distance from her. It will be over an hour before Celestia and her troops arrive, and Jade tends to get to get a bit hungry when she is bored.”
Words From an Unknown Soldier
No. It was too much for me. The battle had yet to start, but I was quaking in terror. Sombra, the stallion that we come to defeat was standing on a plateau before us. He shouted something at the top of his lungs. Due to my panic, I was never able to make out what he had shouted. It sounded like something along the lines of “JADE, REND.” I am unsure. But what I do know is this. That beast; that crystalized monster residing behind their troops sprang at us. In terror, all I could do was point my spear above me in a desperate attempt to save myself. As soon as he was right above us, I closed my eyes. The next few moments seemed to drag on for an eternity as I awaited my fate. This was a fool’s errand, and I was the fool who accepted it. Next thing I know, I hear a voice shout at the top of her lungs “FIRE” followed by a giant boom..
The troops finally arrived at the battlefield, a sense of horror shooting through each of their spines as they witnessed the army standing before them. Applejack ordered her troops to halt as soon as all of them made their way into the war zone. A hundred yard area of land was all that separated the two opposing armies. The three princesses looked on in terror of the forces laid out before them. They had anticipated the opposing army’s size, but never expected the creature residing behind them.
“Princess…what is that?” Twilight asked cautiously.
“It’s not possible. Those things should of gone extinct two millennia ago.” Celestia replied.
“Well sister, it appears that this one didn’t get the message.” Luna mused, trying to maintain her composure in front of the two other princesses.
“Princess, what is that?” Twilight repeated with a little more anger than what was necessary.
Celestia sighed. “A Draco Crystallus. Not much is known about them. They existed before mine and Luna’s time, and there is very little documentation left about them. One of the few legends that still exist about them, is that they are supposedly invincible.”
Luna smirks. “Then I guess it’s time to put that old legend to the test then.”
In the clouds above them, the pegasi also stood in shock. Even the mare with the rainbow mane was beginning to feel a twinge of fear as she recalled times where she was able to break rocks, but never crystal.
Suddenly the mare up front with the fiery mane spoke. “Rainbow Dash!” The mare in back stood at attention. “You’re going to stick with me and Soarin. This is going to be quite a fight, so don’t let me down, soldier.”
Rainbow Dash saluted her commander and shouted, “Yes, commander Spitfire, Sir!”
Everypony maintained their position, waiting. Neither side wanted to make the first attack. Every so often, a taunt would be thrown from the front lines of one side to the other in hopes of throwing off the enemy. Meanwhile on top of his plateau, Sombra just stood motionless with an evil grin upon his face, which he maintained ever since Celestia’s army arrived. Every time he witnessed a soldier’s shudder, he would feel a slight twinge of joy. He knew that he was more than ready for this fight, but he wondered how prepared Celestia was.
After about ten minutes or so of standing there, Sombra decided that he has had enough. “If Celestia does not wish to throw the first punch, then I will.” He looked upon his drake and shouted at the top of his lungs “JADE, REND!!!” The drake immediately responded to its master’s command as it opened its crystalized maw and let out a horrible shriek. It leaped over the army of changeling bellow it with its claws open, ready to tear apart the biggest thing it could see. It had locked its ruby eyes on to its target, the giant cannon the ponies brought with them.
The troops just stood there in fear, unsure of what to do. Everypony was so stricken by fear that they couldn’t move or even speak. But a certain pink mare wasn't silent out of fear, but out of patients. She simply waited a few moments for the drake to get in her line of sight, before she shouted “FIRE!!!”
Suddenly, a stallion pulled the rope behind the cannon and set it off. In a matter of moments, a giant cannon ball and some confetti shot straight out of the weapon, smacking the drake clean in its chest. The force was so powerful, that the drake shattered into hundreds of shards of varying size. All the shards were blown back behind the plateau that Chrysalis and Sombra were standing on.
Ponies and Changelings alike stood there dumbstruck at what they just witnessed. Suddenly, the pink mare began to jump and shout “WOOOOHOOO!! Now that's what I call Pinkie Pie style! Did you see that!? He was just jumping at us, and all of you were so completely scared! But I just waited for the perfect moment and just shouted ‘FIRE!’ and completely blew him out of the sky! It was so totally amazing! Now let’s get this bad boy reloaded! And this time, I wanna see more glitter!”
Once the realization of what happened hit everypony, they all started to cheer. That beast that appeared to be such a great threat was destroyed instantly before their very eyes. The three princesses let out a sigh of relief. “Princess, I thought you said that they were invincible.” Twilight spoke.
“Obviously the old legends are nothing more than that, legends.” Responded Luna.
Celestia sighed and said “While that threat is taken care of, we still have to deal with this army ahead of us. So we need to maintain our composure for our troops.” Twilight and Luna nodded in agreement. This battle was still far from over.
Meanwhile the changelings started to feel a great sense of fear upon seeing the power the Ponies' cannon had. Chrysalis looked on in horror of what she just witnessed, while Sombra on the other hand just continued to smile as he did when the battle began, never allowing his vision to drift from the battlefield. “How are you staying so calm!?" Chrysalis exclaimed. "Did you not see what I saw!?”
“Oh I saw it your highness." Sombra responded. "And that is the exact reason why I am staying so calm.”
“Perhaps you fail to see the seriousness of the situation! That beast you bolstered about was blown out of the sky by that weapon over there! If they fire that again, it will completely wipe out our entire army!”
“You need to take a step back and calm down my queen. For starters, your troops will be fine for a while because a weapon of that size is going to take quite a bit of time to reload. So essentially, they just wasted their shot. That is why I had Jade attack it.”
“Well... That may be true. But thanks to that decision, we just lost a very powerful component to this battle.”
Sombra turns his gaze upon Chrysalis. “Now why would you say that?” Chrysalis just looked at Sombra with a curious look, wondering what exactly he was getting at. Suddenly, she hears several muffled roars coming from where the drake’s pieces had landed. “There is something you need to know about crystals my queen. If a crystal breaks, it doesn’t disappear. IT JUST MAKES MORE”
Suddenly, hundreds of small Draco Crystallus of various sizes flew out over the plateau and straight towards Celestia’s army. The cheering that was happening not a moment before ceased. Everypony knew that at that moment, the battle had truly begun.
“Thanks to that weapon there, Jade is no longer the last of her species. I suppose I’ll have to name her children later.” Sombra said, still maintaining his evil grin.
Words From an Unknown Soldier
The moments dragged on for a while as I regained my senses. I opened my eyes and saw everypony cheering. I had no idea what just happened. From the way everypony was cheering, I almost thought we already won. My friend Spellflash put his foreleg across my shoulders, trying to get me riled up too. He just looked upon me with a smile I knew all to well. It was the same smile that he always maintained since the day we met. That reassuring smile always helped drive away my fears, and this was no exception. I relaxed and lowered my spear finally. I personally thought the battle was over right there.
That is until Spellflash looked away from me for a second and lost his grin. Without warning, he tackled me to the ground and made me drop my spear. Before I could shout at for doing that, I saw that beast again. It was much smaller this time, but that didn't lessen my fear of it. It had swooped down to where I was not a moment ago. If Spellflash hadn't of tackled me, I would of been dead right then. My friend got off of me and offered me a hoof up. I got up and retrieved my spear. I looked back at the army in front of us. They were exactly the same as before, but with one huge difference. There were hundreds of the crystallized monsters flying throughout the air, some holding the corpse of my fellow soldiers. I didn't even have time to so much as shiver before I heard our general order us to attack.
The drakes flew through the air with ease. Their crystallized bodies did not hinder their ability to fly at all. They swarmed the battlefield in a matter of moments, and headed straight for Celestia's army. several of them dive bombed the foot soldiers towards the front, scooping up the ones that failed to react in time. The drakes took a few bites out of their catch before throwing the rest away.
Applejack had seen enough. She turned to her troops and shouted "CHARGE!!" at the top of her lungs. The soldiers responded without question and all ran towards the changelings. With spears in position, they easily overtook the first line of changelings and proceeded to the second. With this, the changelings decided to fight back. All of them turned into various copies of the ponies in front of them. With this tactic, the changelings could get the upper hand on the ponies by confusing them. Unfortunately for them, the ponies received assistance from a zebra with knowledge about how to counter this. Each spear tip was laced with a potion that returned anything sliced with it back to its original state. With each successful slice, the changeling would change back to their original forms. This unfortunately did not help them with the Draco Crystallus flying about. The ends of the ponies spears easily broke when trying to pierce the drake’s bodies.
Up in the clouds, Spitfire decided that she has had enough. “Alright troops!” she exclaimed. “We need to keep those giant paperweights busy while our main force fights! Now everypony get into positon!” All the pegasi obeyed without question, gathering into their own V formation that resembled Spitfire’s, around the edge of the cloud. “Alright everypony! DIVE!!” she shouted. With these words, all the pegasi instantly leapt from the cloud and charged straight towards the battlefield and the flying swarm of drake. While the drake where fast, the pegasi were faster, easily out maneuvering crystallized monstrosities. But just like the foot soldiers below them, their spears did nothing to these beasts. All they could do was try and keep the drakes busy while the soldiers fought on the ground.
Back on the ground, the soldiers were trying their best against the legions of changelings before them. Even with the help of the potion on their spears, it became difficult at times to differentiate a friend from foe. General Applejack ordered her troops to change formations when necessary, in order to keep them from getting to confused while fighting the enemy.
Back at the cannon, Pinkie Pie was busy trying to reload it with the help of several unicorns. But because of the sheer size of the cannon balls, it was taking them quite a bit of time to get it into the cannon. On top of that, the chaos of battle going on in front of them made it difficult to concentrate on levitating the cannon ball.
Meanwhile, the princesses watched in horror of the battle taking place, as they pondered what their next move should be.
“Princess…” Twilight said. “What do we do now? That Draco Crystallus they brought with them is hindering our troops way too much.”
“We need to have faith in our soldiers Twilight.” Celestia responded. “If there is a will, there is a way. We will figure out how to destroy those creatures.”
“Aren’t your friends Zecora and Fluttershy going to be here shortly to help out?” Luna asked Twilight.
“They should. But at this point, I don’t see how a bunch of woodland creature will help us fight those drakes.” Twilight said with much concern on her brow.
“Now my princess, is not the time for fear” said a mysterious voice behind them. “For the help of the yellow one, will soon be here.” The three princesses turned at once to see a zebra with various gold jewelry standing behind them.
“It’s good to see you again Zecora.” Twilight said to the zebra. “I trust everything went well for you and Fluttershy in the Everfree Forest.”
“Yes child, everything went good. We received help, like we said we would.” Zecora responded.
Luna looked at Zecora with concern. “It’s good that you two did your job. But as Princess Sparkle said earlier, will a bunch of woodland creatures be enough to help us?”
Zecora gave Luna a small smirk. “They will help, I’m willing to wager. For we got aid, from forces quite major.”
Suddenly, a huge roar could be heard off the west side of the mountain, followed by a giant purple paw reaching onto the side of the battlefield. The paw was filled with bright stars and had extremely long claws. The paw began to pull the rest of the body up the side of the mountain, revealing it to be a green eyed bear that was equal in size to the original Draco Crystallus. Its canine teeth were so large, they stuck out below the lower jaw. Upon the bears forehead, resided a blue, eight-pointed star. On the end of the bear’s snout, a yellow pegasi with a butterfly necklace and a small bag was sitting and waiting for the bear to finish making its way to the top of the mountain.
Pony and changeling alike, stopped fighting for a moment to watch this monster enter the battlefield. Rainbow Dash, Sorin, and Spitfire flew up to the yellow pegasi. “Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked the yellow pegasi. “Is this an Ursa Minor?”
Fluttershy responded with “oh no, I didn’t want to see the little baby Ursa get hurt. So I brought it’s mother, the Ursa Major.”
“How did you manage to get this beast to help?” Sorin asked in disbelief.
“Oh I just showed her a little love and understanding, and she came around to helping us.” Fluttershy responded cheerfully.
“Well soldier, its good to see this thing here.” Spitfire said. “Now, do you think you can help out the rest of our troops fight off these flying dragon things?”
“Why of course.” Fluttershy said with a slight smirk on her face. “It would be an honor to fight alongside all of you against these horrible meanies.” With these words, she flew to the bears ear and whispered something the other could not hear. She then sat back down on the bear’s nose as the bear quickly started to swat at the mass of crystal drakes flying about the air. At that moment, Rainbow Dash, Sorin, and Spitfire flew back into their formation, leaving Fluttershy to control the bear.
On the end of the battle field, on top of his plateau, Sombra and Chrysalis witnessed the giant bear arrive. Neither of them so much as flinched at its appearance. Sombra simply smiled and said to Chrysalis “Right on time.”
“It appears that everything is going just as you predicted Sombra.” Chrysalis responded.
Sombra’s horn suddenly started to glow as he started to cast a spell. “Time to begin the next part of my plan.” he said.
Words From an Unknown Soldier
Spellflash ran forward without hesitation straight towards the changelings. I followed behind him with my spear at the ready. We quickly over took their first line before proceeding to the second. Suddenly, the changelings changed their forms before us. They turned into exact copies of our forces. There were a couple general Applejacks there, a Spellflash or two, and even... me. The one that turned into me was my first target. I would not allow him to copy me. With one swift thrust of my spear, he perished before me and returned to his former appearance. I continued this way for a while, taking out any pony or changeling in my way, doing my best not to accidentally attack one of my allies.
I know this sounds like the words of someone brave, but they are not. I was scared, more so than I ever have been before. I was afraid of being attacked by a changeling. I was scared of being attacked by one of those flying monsters. But more than anything, I was afraid of getting too far away from my friend. In reality, he was the only one giving me any confidence to fight. Suddenly, a giant roar was heard from outside the battlefield. Before I could witness what happened next, another monster dive bombed me. I was lucky enough to jump out of the way in time, but another soldier didn't share my fortune. The monster snatched him up and quickly flew off with him. When I got back to my feet, I saw a giant bear looming over the battlefield. At that moment, I discovered something new to fear. That bear. Suddenly it started to swat at the beasts roaming the skies. I was relieved to see it on our side. But then fear returned to me at once.
The Ursa Major attacked the drakes with much ferocity, trying to take them down. But the drakes where not only hard to hit, they were extremely durable. Whenever the bear did make contact, the drakes would brush it off like nothing had happened. This did not concern the princesses though, because it gave them time to plan their next move.
"Alright, the ursa won't keep then distracted forever, we need to think of a plan now." Twilight said.
Luna was the first to respond. "Perhaps we could put up a force field around the battlefield and just keep the Crystal beast away."
"That won't work." Celestia replied. "A force field of that size would be to weak to keep those creatures out."
"Princess, is there any history about how these creatures went extinct?" Twilight asked.
"There are several theories. One of which is that Discord destroyed them all out of boredom." Celestia responded.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Well we could sure use Discord's help right about now."
"Oh you wouldn't happen to be talking about me now would you?" a voice said above them. They all looked up to see a draconiquus lounging in a lawn chair and eating popcorn above them.
"Discord!?" Twilight shouted. "How long have you been up there!?"
"Oh calm down your highness, I only just showed up." Discord replied. "This is a rather rude welcome considering I just finished setting up your victory party. Now what has you so upset?"
Twilight suddenly obtained a very annoyed and angry look on her face. "What Has Me So Upset Is That We Are Fighting A War Here, And You Are Not Doing Anything To Help!!"
Discord simply smiled and rolled his eyes. "Um... Did you fail to hear me say I threw you guys a party?" These words only succeeded in making Twilight more angry. Celestia decided to step in on the conversation before Twilight completely lost it.
"Discord, please, your assistance would be much appreciated at this time. Your help will go a long way in ending this battle."
Discord just continued to lounge in his lawn chair and eat his popcorn. "Now now your highness, you needn't to worry. I do plan on giving you aid, but not until I feel it to be necessary. So for now, sit back, relax, and watch the chaos of battle unfold in front of you." With these words, Celestia knew that there would be no getting through to him. She turned around to further discuss strategies with the two other princesses.
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, the draco chrstallus were acting strange. They ceased with their random pattern of flying and all started to fly in a circle to one another. Suddenly, one dove and crashed into the ground, followed by another that crash into the first one. one by one, the drakes flew to the ground and crashed into one another in quick succession. Each crash caused dust to fly into the air and obstruct the view of everypony in the area. Then several more drakes started doing this again in a separate location not to far away. As the dust they started spraying up settled, two giant feet were reveled in place of the small drakes. It soon became apparent to everypony what the pieces were once again becoming whole.
It didn't take long for the draco crystallus to regain its original form. As the last of its skull fell back into place, it shook its head and glared at the ursa major. The bear responded with a great and angry roar before charging at the drake. All pegasi and foot soldiers quickly moved out of it's way as fast as they could. The bear and drake started wrestling with one another, while fluttershy tried to hold on as best she could.
While the two giants fought, Pinkie Pie was busy having the cannon pulled to the front of the battle. Her and the unicorns had managed to finally reload the war machine and were ready to fire it again. Once they got in front of most of their troops, she started to adjust the angle of the cannon in order to hit the drake again. Once she was sure she had it in her sights, she once again shouted "FIRE" at the top of her lungs.
But before the stallion at the back of the cannon could pull the rope, the drake reached over crimped the end of the cannon. Applejack saw this and quickly used her lasso to pull Pinkie away. The stallion pulls the rope and causes the entire front of the cannon to explode. The resulting blast killed many soldiers standing near the cannon, destroyed the upper half of the draco crystallus, forced the ursa off the mountain, and blew away any nearby pegasi. Among those blown away was Fluttershy who let out a soft scream as she flew.
The explosion quickly got the attention of the princesses. They were shocked and horrified at what happened. Discord on the other hand found the explosion rather humorous, especially seeing the overgrown bear fall off the mountain. But all joy left him when he witnessed a certain yellow mare helplessly flying through the sky.
Discord stood up from his floating lawn chair with a serious expression on his face and said. "Now my princesses, I feel my aid to be necessary." With these words, he vanished before their eyes and reappeared to catch Fluttershy mid flight. He caught her as delicately as he could and started to bring her back safety to the ground.
Back at the plateau, Sombra started laughing. "And with that explosion my queen, the final pawn enters the battle. But you can be sure that he won't last very long."
Chrysalis chuckled back at Sombra. "Indeed. I do believe he will find he is in for a rather unfortunate surprise." She then looks behind the plateau they were standing on to see two small green cocoons sitting at the bottom. "Isn't that right, Fluttershy?"
Words From an Unknown Soldier
I realized that Spellflash wasn't here. I looked in every direction possible to find him. Each second I searched just added to the panic I was experiencing. I couldn’t do this without him. I had to find him as quickly as I could. All of a sudden, the giant beast was back and started fighting the bear. But I didn’t care at that point, my only concern was finding my friend. I then spotted him about ten yards away, on the ground with one of his look alikes standing over him. The look alike had a spear in position ready to strike. I had no time to think, I just rushed over there. I was not about to see my friend die out there like that. I jabbed my spear through its torso. The look alike gasped from the pain of my spear. I breathed heavy while I watch this imposter stare at me with a look of disbelief. I was relieved, for I just saved my friend's life.
Then a horrible thought dawned on me. This fake wasn’t changing back. I attempted to push that idea out of my head, trying to reason that maybe the potion on my spear wore off. But that theory failed to hold water when the Spellflash on the ground flashed a bright green, and then flew away as a changeling.
Fluttershy was flying through the air at such a high rate, there was no way for her to slow down. She let out several small screams in hopes that somepony would save her. Suddenly, a large serpent-like creature appeared in her path of flight, catching her as softly as it could. The yellow mare looked up at her savior with much glee.
"Discord!" Fluttershy said in a happy tone, wrapping her hooves around his neck. "Oh I'm so glad you showed up."
Discord looked back at Fluttershy with a big grin on his face. "Oh my dear Fluttershy. You know very well that I would not let harm come your way." He started flying slowly towards a small enclosed area where he could safetly put her down.
"Oh, I know that discord, and that is why I brought along a present for you." Discord got excited, because he always did enjoy any gift he received from her. "Now just close your eyes and hold out your hand."
Discord did as he was told, immediately closing his eyes and extending his right hand. At this point Fluttershy reaches her mouth into her bag and pulls out a small blue dagger. The kindness that was originally in her eyes was quickly replaced with a frightening and violent gaze. She instantly stabbed the dagger into Discord's chest. Discord let out a wail of pain, as the dagger entered and left his body. Fluttershy continued to stab him over and over again in quick succession, getting the blade of the dagger more red with each strike.
The pain eventually caused Discord to suddenly start plummeting violently towards the ground, letting go of Fluttershy as he did so. Discord, confused and in great pain, crawled onto his back to see his wounds. He was confused, fore it had been over a thousand years since he had felt that kind of pain. He snapped his fingers in order to heal himself, only to have nothing happen. The lord of chaos became more confused and scared by this. No matter how many times he snapped his fingers, nothing would happen. No wounds being healed, no cotton candy clouds, no lawn chair, nothing.
Fluttershy landed softly in front of him, using the dagger in her left hoof to clean out gunk from her right one. She had a cheery little smile on her face as she looked at Discord and said "Whats wrong Discord? Did you not enjoy your gift?"
Discord, had his paw over his chest, trying to keep the blood in his body. He gritted his teeth and looked at Fluttershy in anger. "How?... And why?... Did you do this to me!?" Discord shouted.
Fluttershy looked at discord and simply said "How? Oh Discord. Can you honestly tell me that you have forgotten about this?" She held up the dagger she was holding, showing that all along the handle of the blue dagger, were a series of stars and spirals. At the end of the handle and at the base of the blade where large, yellow stars.
Discord looked at the blade in horror and disbelief. "No. It can't be. I HAD THAT CURSED BLADE SEALED AWAY OVER A MILLENNIA AGO." Discord shouted angrily. He remembered the power that dagger possessed, and how it was probably the one thing he feared more than the elements of harmony.
Fluttershy just chuckled. "Ah yes. Starswirl's blade. A small tool with enormous power. Tell me Discord, could you feel the magic being sliced from your body when I stabbed you with this?" At this point, several ponies armed with spears appeared and surrounded Discord.
Discord became more angry with each passing moment. "Why... WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!?"
Fluttershy started approaching Discord. "Oh, it's really quite simple Discord. Our queen gave us an order, and we followed it."
"WHY WOULD CELESTIA BETRAY ME AT A TIME LIKE THIS!!?" Discord shouted, more angry than ever.
Fluttershy was standing right in front of him. She put her hoof right under his chin so that she could look him in the eye. "Oh, you misunderstood me Discord. I didn't say our princess." With these words, her and all the ponies around them flashed a bright green and turned into changelings. "I said, our queen." Discord suddenly felt a great sense of fear. Not only for his own safety, but also the safety of Fluttershy. Because if this one was a fake, then where was the real one?
She then drops his head and started walking away. She turns to one of the changeling soldiers and said "Take care of him. I need to report back." The soldier saluted and started walking towards discord with it's spear at the ready. The Changeling pretending to be Fluttershy returned the dagger to her bag and started to fly away.
Meanwhile, Discord watched as the changeling started to close in on him. "You know there is something you need to know about me." He said to one of them.
"Oh yeah? And what is that?" it responded.
"This lion paw of mine, ISN'T JUST FOR SHOW!!"
Words From an Unknown Soldier
I couldn't believe what I just did. I killed my best friend. I was filled with more fear and sadness then I have ever felt before. I bowed my head to the ground, not wanting to look at the corpse of my friend. Suddenly, I heard a noise; a small cough from nearby. I looked up at Spellflash's face. His eyes were closed and his mouth was open. Very faintly, I heard the sounds of him drawing breath. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead! But his wound was bleeding pretty badly. He needed medical attention, and soon.
I looked around at the carnage surrounding us. Changelings and ponies were still fighting without even noticing us. Everypony was essentially fighting shoulder to shoulder, with no opening in sight. There was no way I could get Spellflash away from here with all the fighting going on. Then, all of a sudden, I heard the loud blast of our cannon again. I'm unsure of what happened, but this time I could feel the force of the blast. I turned around and saw that our war machine had exploded. How and why, I do not know, nor did I care. The blast had cleared a path, just big enough for us to make our escape. I rested Spellflash on my back and ran as fast as I could out of the front lines towards a clearing near the edge of the mountain.
Right when Discord vanished before the princesses, Twilight turned her gaze upon Celestia. "So, since Discord decided to step in, does that mean we pretty much won?" Twilight asked her mentor.
Celestia shook her head. "No. I think Discord is just going to save your friend and simply teleport away. While he does not wish harm upon her, he still wouldn't want to ruin the, as he put it, 'the chaos of battle.'"
"Then we still have the problem of getting rid of that drake. I can see it already starting to reform itself." Said Luna with a worried expression.
Twilight let out a sigh of frustration. "If only our magic would be strong enough to take it out. It would make this situation a lot less stressful."
Zecora was the first to respond to her statement, "I know exactly, what we must do." She said. She then reached her mouth into her bag and pulled out a vial of green liquid. She set it on the table in front of the princesses. "Your magic will increase, when you drink this brew."
Twilight levitated the bottle to eye level and examined its contents. "What is this?" Twilight questioned.
"'A Mages wish', which is made from a flower. Brewed to bestow, unlimited power." The zebra responded. The three princesses maintained a look of confusion on their faces, for none of them have even heard of such a potion. "It is a potion, of my own design. For which the main ingredient, took many years to find. Miss Sparkle, you have been chosen. To be the first, to try my potion."
While unsure at first, Twilight decided to drink the potion. She knew that Zecora has never steered her wrong in the past, so there should be nothing to fear here. She used her magic to uncork the bottle, then proceed to hover it towards her lips, the contents of which were only millimeters away from touching them. Suddenly, a loud scream could be heard in the distance. All three princesses immediately looked towards the direction of the scream, witnessing the draconnequss plummet to the ground.
"Was that... Discord?" Luna questioned. All three had a look of disbelief. None of them could comprehend how Discord could get hurt.
"The lord of chaos? Cannot be. Now will you drink your potion for me?" Zecora responded, pointing at the bottle still hovering in front of Twilight.
"We should send out a search party to find where he landed. He maybe in trouble." Said Twilight to Celestia, ignoring her stripped friend.
"He is fine, don't be ridiculous. Now drink, to gain some magic trick-ulous." Zecora commented with a little more anger in her voice than before.
Still ignoring her, Twilight called over a couple of guards. "Get a small search party together and start looking for Discord. Who knows what may happ-"
"DRINK THE POTION!!!" Zecora Exclaimed, instantly getting the attention of everypony present. She panted heavily as everypony watched in shock and confusion. Suddenly without warning, she was levitated of the ground and smashed back first into a nearby rock and remained pinned there with magic.
With her horn glowing, Twilight walked up to Zecora and said "Who are you?!" in an assertive tone.
"I'm Zecora, don't you see. It is, the one and only me." Zecora responded in a panicked tone.
Celestia immediately confronted Twilight. "Twilight! what are you doing?!"
"This is not Zecora your highness." Twilight responded.
Rarity walked up to the white alicorn. "She is right your highness. The real Zecora would never speak out of rhymes, even when angry."
"And thus, i repeat my question. Who are you?"
"You will get nothing out of me." Zecora said in a strange voice. "I may have failed to poison you, but thanks to your trust of the zebra and the pegasus, our victory is assured." With these words, the zebra melted before them into a green puddle.
Twilight looked at the puddle in disgust and anger. "No! I still need answers from you!"
Celestia put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "It's no use Twilight, the changeling has killed itself in order to prevent us from getting information from it."
"Wait, did it not say the zebra and the pegasus?" Luna inquired.
Twilight and Rarity both gained a look of concern, as they realize that there was a mare that entered the Everfree Forest with Zecora. "FLUTTERSHY!" They both shouted at the same time. Out of nowhere, they heard a loud roar. All of them turned around to see the draco chyrstallus regain its original form again. It started attacking the ground forces with gratuitous violence.
"Twilight! I know your friend is in danger, but we need to do something about this first." Said Celestia. "If that beast is not taken care of, then we will have no means of even finding your friends."
"I know that Princess, but we have no idea how to beat it. It just regenerates every time we break it. How do we destroy it without it coming back?" All the mares shared the same clueless look as they contemplated on what they must do. Suddenly, they noticed a small crunching noise coming from behind them. All of them cast their gaze upon the baby dragon as he was nervously eating gems from a bag.
He stopped eating for a moment to witness the same grin they were all giving him. "What?" He responded with his mouth still full
Meanwhile, back at their plateau, Sombra and Chrysalis were laughing triumphantly. "You hear that your highness?" Sombra questioned. "That scream is the sound of victory. My plan went flawlessly, right down to the last detail."
"Yes. And because of that, Canterlot will be ours." The changeling responded.
"Ours? Oh, thank you your highness. You just reminded me about a part of my plan that I forgot to mention." Sombra responded, his horn glowing.
Chrysalis turned her gaze towards Sombra. "Oh yeah? And what might tha-" A large crystal suddenly emerged from the ground and penetrated the queen's torso with ease, cutting off her sentence. She coughed up some blood and tried to support herself up, unable to free herself from the great shard. Several changelings nearby saw this and instantly sprang upon Sombra. Without him even moving, several more crystals shot out of the ground around him and easily killed them all. The shards sank their way back into the ground, leaving the dead changelings behind as they did so. "Why?" Chrysalis questioned in a low whisper "Why even involve us, if you were just going to betray us?" Her words were soft, and she would cough every other word when speaking.
Sombra, with his horn still glowing, simply looked at Chrysalis with his evil grin. "Well you see, your highness, while I would love to just walk up to the kingdom and take over, there were two problems standing in my way. Those problems were the elements of harmony, and that meddlesome draconequus. Thanks to you and your subjects, both problems are now gone."
Chrysalis still rested on the crystal spike, unable to free herself. "You cannot win now you monster! Not even a unicorn as powerful as you can defeat an entire army."
Sombra laughed at this accusation. "Now why would you say that, my queen?" He questioned her. "Ever stop and wonder why it is I'm so obsessed with crystals?" Chrysalis glared at Sombra without responding, so he continued. "You think I want them because they are pretty? Or because they are valuable? The answer, my queen, is no. The reason I love crystals so much, is because I draw my power from them. And the more crystals in the area, the more powerful I become."
"How is that suppose to help you?" She asked, still having difficulty breathing and speaking. "There are no crystals in Canter-" She cut herself off, remembering the events at the royal wedding, about where she imprisoned the princess and the unicorn. "The caves beneath Canterlot!" She said in disbelief. "So that's the reason you wanted to come here! You wanted the power that the crystals would bestow upon you!"
"Ah, quick as a whip, aren't you my queen? To bad you won't live long enough to see me rule this land. But I do suppose you deserve a reward for helping me succeed." Sombra brought a hoof to his chin, as he brainstormed how to thank her. "Oh I know! You did all of this for the sake of your people, isn't that right?" Chrysalis remained silent. "Then I promise that any changeling that survives my take over, will have the honor of being one of my slaves." He finished his sentence with an evil grin.
Chrysalis' eyes widened in terror before quickly changing to an expression of rage. "I swear Sombra, I will see to it myself if necessary, you will pay for this!" A shadow was suddenly cast above her. She looked up to see a massive crystal hovering overhead.
"Sorry my queen, but you may find that to be a pretty difficult task to do while dead." With these words, the massive crystal fell to the ground, crushing the changeling like a grape. A blue liquid started to seep out from beneath the crystal and then proceeded to trickle off the edge of the plateau. "Hmm, I did not know that changelings had blue blood. I always thought that it would be green." Sombra then jumps off the plateau and lands right behind the army of changelings.
Words From an Unknown Soldier
Arriving at the clearing, I set him down so that I could rest. I turned him over to examine the wound. The spot where I stabbed him was still bleeding heavily. He needed help immediately. I used the ribbon from my armor as a temporary bandage to stop the bleeding, and I used my own armor a makeshift stretcher to drag him. I immediately started dragging him towards our medical tent behind our troops, they would tend to them there. He was going to be just fine, I knew there was nothing to worry about.
I walked no more than five feet before a horrible thought dawned on me, one that I regret having. "He was going to be just fine... But what about me?" I froze in place, my mind processing what it just thought. I was uninjured, and therefore still able to fight. Once I bring him there, they would send me back to the front lines. I... I couldn't do this without him. We always said that we would be in this together, no matter what. My legs began to tremble and my heart raced. A nervous sweat ran down my face. My mind began to argue with itself. "He needs help now." "I can't do this without him." "He needs help now." "I can't do this without him." "HE NEEDS HELP NOW!!!"
Another thought suddenly shot through my mind. Perhaps I could solve both problems. If I could get him to a nearby town, I could get him the medical attention he needs. My first thought was Canterlot, it was close by and easy to get to. But I turned that down when I realized that him and I would probably get caught by the royal guard and imprisoned for going AWOL. No, I needed to find somewhere else, somewhere that was close but not heavily infested with guards. I gazed over the edge of the mountain and saw Ponyville in the distance. Perfect I thought. All I would have to do is get him there quickly, then he would get the medical help he needed and I wouldn't have to fight anymore. I lifted his body onto my back and started to make my way down the mountain. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that everything was going to be okay. Little did I know at the time, I would live to regret this decision more so than any other.
"Alright Spike, you ready?" Twilight shouted to the baby dragon.
He stood in front of the four mares before him with a look resembling that of a scared mouse. "Uh... No." He responded, his voice quivering a bit.
Twilight looked at Spike sternly. "Spike, you are the only one who can destroy that monster once and for all. The outcome of the battle rest upon your shoulders."
"But no pressure, right?" Spike questioned. "You sure this is going to work? You have never successfully used an age spell before."
"That is why I'm having Celestia and Luna here to help me." She said, pointing a hoof at the royal sisters next to her. "The three of us should easily be able to cast that spell together." This was still failing to give the young dragon any faith.
"I'm still not one hundred percent on board with this."
Rarity then began to make her way up to spike. She looked at him in the most caring way she could and said, "Please Spikey, for me. One day, I want to move my boutique to Canterlot. But I can't do that if it's destroyed." She ended her statement by giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
Spike immediately started to go limp from the kiss. He then snapped back to the reality around him and stood up straight as he could, then gave a salute to the purple alicorn. "Spike the Dragon ready and reporting for duty ma'am." He said in a prideful tone. The three princesses did not hesitate at this response. They immediately shot three different colored beams form their horns at the young dragon. Rapidly, his body began to grow in size. The claws on his hands extended and grew sharper by the second. His head and neck extended away from his body and started to grow sharp spines. His tail and legs grew to enormous lengths to support his new physique.
When the transformation was complete, the new older spike towered over the ponies, about a story shorter than the Draco Crystallus. He let out a deafening roar that caused the entire mountain to shake. Pony and Changeling alike stopped fighting for a moment to gaze at the purple dragon. Spike returned his gaze back at the soldiers before him, licking his lips at the sight of the gem encrusted armor. He quickly scooped up a handful of soldiers and brought them close to his jaws. Before he could consume his catch though, he heard a small voice exclaim "SPIKEY!!"
He looked down to see Rarity looking at him with a look of utter disbelief. "Ra.. Rar... Rarity?" He responded, his voice much deeper than it had been previously.
"Spikey, I will not standby and watch you eat your own friends." With these words, Spike's eyes widened in terror for what he was about to do. He quickly set the fist full of ponies back on the ground and watched them scatter out of fear. He then lowered his head so that he was at eye level with the white mare. "I knew you were still in there Spikey. Now, we need your help." Spike responded by nodding. Rarity quickly jumped on to his face and made her way to his shoulder. "Now you see that delicious looking monster over there?" She said, pointing across the battle field. Spike turned his gave to where she was pointing, his mouth salivating at the sight of the crystal beast. "Be a dear and take care of that for me." Spike did not need to be told twice. He let out another roar and immediately sprang over the ponies beneath him and straight towards the beast.
______________________________________________________________________________
Among the troops, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were fighting off hoards of Changeling soldiers, ignoring the clash of giants going on in the distance. Applejack was using her strong legs and speed to easily take down the enemy, while Pinkie was using her small party cannon to blast them away. The soldiers and them were making quick work of the enemy. Applejack quickly looked to Pinkie and said "This is goin much better than expected. If this keeps up, we will have em runnin for the hill in no time." Pinkie only responded with a nod and another explosion from her cannon.
Applejack was about ready to kill another Changeling before a large crystal spike thrust itself out of the ground and beat her to it. "What In Tarnation?!" She exclaimed, skidding to a halt at the base of the spike. Suddenly, a series of these spikes began jutting themselves out of the ground in a circle around Applejack and Pinkie, eviscerating any pony or changeling unfortunate enough to be standing over them. They shared the same worried look as they noticed that the crystals had completely fenced them in. The two then tried to bust down the crystal pillars, with Applejack bucking them as hard as she could and Pinkie firing her cannon at them. They failed to so much as scratch the them.
They suddenly heard a sound of faint laughter. They both turned their heads to the source of it, as it grew louder with each passing second. Suddenly, a red horn emerged from one of the crystals, followed closely behind by the rest of the dark unicorn. The stallion had an evil grin on his face as he stared at the two of them. "My, my, my." he started. "Why, you both were quite entertaining to watch. I almost didn't want to step in." The two earth ponies couldn't move. They kept their gazes on Sombra, wondering what exactly he was going to do. "But, all things must come to an end eventually." He then looked at one of the pillars with his horn glowing. Then, a couple of crystallized shackles emerge from the pillar and hovered next to him. "That is of course, unless you wish to submit to me." Pinkie and AJ stood their ground, refusing to give in to the corrupt king. "Oh you don't have to worry my pretties, I won't put you to mining duty like I will the other slaves. You two would be more along the lines of pets."
AJ decided to decline his offer by spitting in his face. Sombra responded by wiping the saliva off his brow and slightly rolling his eyes. "Well that's such a shame. You too would have been treated much more nicely than my other slaves." He then levitated another spike out of the ground and pointed it straight at the two mares. "Hopefully you will have more time to think about your mistake in the next life" He finished.
He was moments away from thrusting the spike through the mares, when all of a sudden, another explosion occurred that rocked the entire foundation of the mountain. Sombra stumbled to support himself, releasing the his magical hold on the crystal, causing it to fall to the ground. Pinkie did not waste this opportunity. She quickly grabbed AJ and pointed her cannon straight at the ground. "Pinkie?!" AJ started. "What are ya doin?!"
"I have no idea" Pinkie responded, in a cheery and oblivious tone. She fired the cannon at the ground and used the force to rocket them out of the crystals and into the air.
They flew though the air for a while before being caught by Twilight's magic. She rested them on the ground in front of her.
____________________________________________________________________________
Spike lunged at the drake with a ferocity never before seen in him. He tackled it and had it pinned to the ground. This only caused the crystallized beast to become more angry and push spike off in a fit of rage. Once both were on their feet, it tried to swipe spike with it's claws, only to get it caught in Spike's jaws. Spike immediately chomped down on the claw and swallowed his catch. The drake took a few steps back, examining the nub that used to be it's hand.
It then started to violently shake it's body. It's limbs, tail, and neck became shorter and much thicker than previously. Again it took a swipe at Spike with it's claw, only to be again caught within Spike's jaw. Only this time, no matter how hard Spike bit, he couldn't fracture the beast like before. It then used this opportunity to attack Spike with it's other claw. Spike let go of the hand soon enough as to dodge the strike. They continued to strike back and forth at each other with neither giving the other an inch. Rarity meanwhile was holding on for dear life and shouting words of encouragement from Spike's shoulder.
Just above them, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Soarin were circling. "Uhg. This isn't getting us anywhere." Rainbow dash exclaimed. "Even a dragon can't stop this thing."
"No, it can." Spitfire responded. "It's just going to need a little help."
"How are we going to help captain" Soarin said. "Our weapons are useless against it."
"Same way it was destroyed the first two times. A giant boom." Spitfire replied with pride.
Rainbow's and Soarin's eyes both widen at that moment, because they knew exactly what she was getting at. "You're not suggesting a Sonic Rainboom are you?" Rainbow dash asked. Spitfire only responded with a nod. "But that's crazy. Anypony that does a rainboom into that thing is going to be obliterated."
"Exactly. Which is why you and Soarin are going to stay behind while I do it." Spitfire responded.
"With all do respect captain, I'm not going to sit back and watch you kill yourself. I'll be the one who does it." Soarin exclaimed.
"No, I'll do it." Rainbow said. "After all, I'm the only one who has ever successfully pulled it off."
Spitfire looked at them with authoritative anger. "This is not a suggestion, it's an order! Now do as I say or I'll see to it that you both get a dishonorable discharge!"
Rainbow was shocked by the sudden outburst. Soarin on the other hand just smiled. "In that case captain." He said "Consider me discharged." with these words, he flew straight up into the sky as if a rocket were attached to his back.
He was quickly followed suit by Rainbow and Spitfire, who were gaining on him. All three were gaining more and more altitude by the second, none of the stopping to even take a breath. When the air started to thin to much, Soarin stopped to look down and take aim at the beast, only to be greeted by the two mares that were giving chase.
"SOARIN!!" Spitfire exclaimed, grabbing him by his shoulders as she did so. "As captain of the Wonderbolts, I order you to stand down."
"Sorry captain, but I believe I was just discharged." Soarin responded, not even fazed by her shouting as he looked at her with a serious expression.
"And soon your going to have a hoof up side your head if you continue to be stupid!" Spitfire shouted.
"Then I suggest you start swinging, because I'm not going to stand down!" Soarin shouted back.
Spitfire then took this opportunity to smack Soarin across his cheek. He still maintained his composure. "Why are you so insistent on this?" She questioned.
"Because this is not your day to die Spitfire."
"Who are you to decide that?!" She then smacked him again across the face. A bruise could be seen starting to form and blood started running from his nose. "Why won't you just act like a good soldier and let me do this?"
"Because!... Because... Because, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost you like this." He responded. She then let go of him and flew backwards a little to look at him. Tears could be seen forming in his eyes, but not from the blows she inflicted. She could tell that this sorrow was from something else. "Spitfire... Somepony as special as you does not deserve to die out here." He continued. "When I first saw you, with your hair blowing in the wind as you soared through the air, I knew that I wanted you to be mine." The tears started to flow more from his eyes. "But, I was too shy to express my feelings to you. So I joined the Wonderbolts in hopes of impressing you." Soarin let out a small chuckle as he realized how cheesy he just sounded.
Spitfire couldn't help but stare at him from this confession. "Soarin..." She started, her sentence trailing off as she searched for the best words to use.
"So I'm going to do this, so you won't have to." He said. "My only regret in life, waiting until now to tell you how I feel." Without another word, he wiped the blood and tears from his cheek and started to dive bomb at the monster. Again, Spitfire and Rainbow followed in hot pursuit. Spitfire quickly caught up to him and latched a clip from her suit onto his, making it impossible for them to separate. This didn't stop him from falling, but it made him lock eyes with her again. "What are yo-" He was interrupted by her smacking him across the face again.
"You idiot." she said, a tear forming in her eye. "You think your the only one who felt that way?" Soarin tried to open his mouth to speak, but instead just settled on a tearful smile. Rainbow then began to get really close and was about ready to clip her suit on as well. She was stopped by Spitfire grabbing her fore leg. "Sorry Rainbow Dash, but this is a dance for two." Spitfire looked at Soarin, who responded with a nod. Ignoring the mach cone forming just bellow their heads, they each grabbed one of Rainbow's legs and started to violently spin. "Besides, we are going to need someone to help train next years recruits." They both let go of her and sent her flying rapidly across the battlefield to where the three princesses were, a rainbow following her as she flew.
They continued to descend with more and more speed, the drake they targeted getting closer and closer. Soarin looked into Spitfire's eyes as he could feel them about ready to break the sound barrier. "Hey Spitfire. After all this is over, would you like to go get a pie with me?" He asked with a giant grin and watery eyes.
She smiled at him in return with tears flowing from her own eyes. "Yes. I would like that." She brought him in close for one final embrace before they met their ends. They were no more than a few inches above the drake's head when the sound barrier broke.
Words From an Unknown Soldier
Carrying him down the mountain was a fairly easy task. He was much lighter than his build would make you think. He was out cold from his injuries, only making mild groans of pains every once in a while. I had to move at a steady pace. If I moved too fast, his injuries may become worse. Yet, if I moved to slow, then I may not get him help in time. There was no time to rest for me. With each breath he took, I feared that it could be his last. I managed to get him to the base of the mountain and I could see Ponyville in the distance. "Not long now." I said. "You're going to be alright." He didn't respond, just continued to rest. I wasn't sure at that point if I was reassuring him or myself, as I continued to carry him across the flat surface to our destination. I knew we were going to make it, there was no stopping us... But, I suppose fate had other plans.
At that moment, from the top of the mountain, there was another explosion. This blast caused me to stop my march forward to see what had caused it. Then, I saw something beautiful. I saw the edge of a giant ring of light. The ring looked like it was made of blue fire that expanded across the sky. It was so intense. I was so enticed by the beauty of this ring, that I failed to hear the sound of somepony screaming. I snapped out of my daze soon enough to see a black form hurtling towards us. There was no time to react before it made impact. Spellflash, the changeling, and I all rolled across the ground for what felt like an eternity. I saw a flash of blue for a split second, then felt something slice across my left eye. We all skidded to a halt several yards away from where It hit us.
I got up, my eye and body screaming with pain. I brought a hoof up to my eye in a failed attempt to stop the agony. When I lowered my hoof, I could see with my good eye that it was covered with blood. Looking to my left, I saw the changeling. It appeared to have broken three of its legs and a wing, as it did not fly and was trying to drag itself away with one hoof. I decided to ignore it and gave a sigh of relief that I was a lot better off than it was. Then I remembered Spellflash. He was already knocking on Death's door as it was. I quickly turned to my right where my friend was... I wish I didn't witness the sight before me. I wish that it was all a just a nightmare, and that I would wake up soon. But this was all too true. Spellflash was lying on his back, with his eyes and mouth wide open. Sticking out of his chest, was the blue hilt of a dagger.
Fluttershy and Zecora were ambushed and captured in the Everfree Forest. The changelings that captured them assumed their forms and went on to fool the others. Fluttershy and Zecora had their possessions taken away and were placed in large, green cocoons to keep them restrained. Due to their position behind the plateau, they were unable to witness any of the events that had transpired during this fight. But they could hear it. They heard the sounds of giant monsters clashing, the explosions of war machines, and screams of agony from the fallen lord of chaos. Fluttershy also heard a large crunch sound, followed by a blue liquid dripping down from the plateau. Fluttershy was frightened beyond measure by the sounds she heard. Both her and Zecora tried several times to escape to no success. She started to feel that she may never escape here organic prison.
Suddenly, a large black horn pierced through the front of Flutterhshy's cocoon, stopping a few inches away from her stomach. It then proceeded to to move it's way up, slicing the cocoon open as it did so. Fluttershy slid out of her prison and a took a breath of fresh air. She then turned to see her savior and almost had a heart attack. She saw Queen Chrysalis standing before her. Well not so much standing actually. The queen was standing on her front hooves, but the entire lower half of her body was nothing more than a blue puddle. She looked as though she was in serious pain.
"T- Th- Thank you for saving me." Fluttershy said, almost to scared to speak. "But why?"
Her majesty started to rise out of the puddle more, the sounds of bones snapping back into place could be heard as she did so. "Because as it currently stands, I hate Sombra more than you right now." she responded, making grunts every once in a while from the pain. "Sombra has betrayed me and my people. He has been using us as no more than tools to get what he wanted. He tricked us, tried to crush me, and is now going on a rampage as we speak."
She was almost completely back to her original form now, only her back hooves and tail still residing in the puddle. "How did you survive? And where is my element?" Fluttershy asked, noticing that her pendent was missing.
"I changed my body to a liquid at the last second. It's a rather difficult trick to pull off and most changelings die attempting it. I am currently the only one capable of doing it successfully." Her body was now back to normal and she proceeded to to Zecora's cocoon. "As to where your element is, I couldn't tell you. Sombra had hidden it somewhere in order to prevent you from using it. With or without it, we need to stop that lunatic." She said as she sliced open Zecora's cocoon, the zebra sliding out soon after.
Zecora stood up. "We will work with you, if we must. But are you someone, we can trust?" she said, giving the queen a suspicious look.
"I am! Because as it currently stands, I'm the only one who knows what he has done and what he plans to do!" she snapped back. Zecora was a little taken back by this outburst. Chrysalis then proceeded to tell them about Sombra's plan for the take over of Canterlot. She explained everything to their kidnapping to how they defeated discord to how he gains his power. during this time, Fluttershy and Zecora gathered their belongings that were lying nearby. "Right now, you two are the only ones who can relay this information. It is taking all of my willpower to even stand right now." She finished.
Zecora and Fluttershy had accepted what she had to say, feeling that she was telling the truth. A few seconds later, the sound barrier broke and released a fiery blue ring over the battlefield. The blast caused Fluttershy and Zecora to fall onto their flanks, and Chrysalis to completely pass out. Once the shaking stopped, the two returned to their feet.
"Was that a sonic rainboom?" Fluttershy asked.
"I do believe, that can be assumed. But I doubt your friend, made that boom." Zecora responded.
Fluttershy knew she was right, because Rainbow Dash's rainboom had rainbow effect, much like her mane.
"I do not know, so do not ask. For now we should, get back to our task."
"We better hurry then. We need to warn them immediately." She started to run towards the battlefield before Zecora stopped her.
"I wanted to avoid conflict earlier, you see." She reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle filled with a purple liquid. "So that's why I have, this potion with me." Without saying another word, Zecora brought the yellow pegasis close to her and smashed the bottle on the ground. A purple gas rose from the liquid and quickly surrounded the two mares. When the smoke cleared, they were gone.
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As the changeling flew away from Discord, he couldn't of been more proud of himself. He alone took down the lord of chaos. How many creatures could claim to have done that? Sure the elements of harmony and the princesses, but that just meant he was one of only nine creatures to have done it. He was going to return a hero to his people. parades would be thrown in his honor, and he would get all the changeling babes. He decided to take his time getting back to Chrysalis, so that he could continue to feel giddy for himself before having to get serious before the queen.
He was about half way across the battlefield when he heard a loud roar. He turned around to see a giant purple dragon fighting their crystal beast. He halted to watch the two monsters clash. He wasn't worried about getting attacked, because most of the pegasi that had been fighting were knocked out of the air by the last explosion.
As the monsters fought, he was watching and swinging his hooves, as if he were shadow boxing. "Dodge! Uppercut! Uppercut! Dodge! Low sweep! Air Combo! Hadoken! Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start!" He was enjoying the brawl going on before him. Perhaps a little to much, because he failed to notice a rainbow arcing overhead and the two pegasi forming a mach cone right over the Draco Chrystallus. Not two seconds before the pegasi broke the sound barrier, the Changeling shouted "FINISH HIM!!"
The resulting blast from the two pegasi caused the entire mountain to shake. The changeling was both literally and metaphorically blown away from the blast. He rocketed over the side of the mountain with no control over his trajectory. As he flew, he saw something blue fly along next to him. He looked over to see Starswirl's Blade sailing through the air as well. He quickly tried to grab it in mid air, which is apparently much harder than one would think. After several attempts, he managed to catch it, only to slam directly into two earth pony stallions.
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The drake exploded from the blast and the impact made by the two pegasi. It's fragments scattered in every direction. Spike was knocked off balance a bit by the blast, stumbling to keep himself upright. Regaining his composure, him and Rarity noticed the pieces once again trying to reform themselves. Spike started grabbing the pieces out of the air and quickly shoving them into his jaws. There was much delight in his eyes each time he swallowed.
The pieces that spike didn't managed to grab completely reformed the beast to its former self, except for one change. It was only as tall as Spike's knee. This didn't stop it though. It once again started attacking, swiping furiously at Spikes shin. This only caused the dragon to give a small chuckle before picking up the drake by the neck and holding it in front of his face. He licked his lips then opened his jaws. He put the entire drake in his mouth, the drake struggling to escape as best it could. several crunches later as Spike chewed, and the drake was no more.
"Thats my Spikey Wikey." Rarity said lovingly from his shoulder. "Now lets get back to Twilight so we can get you back to normal." Spike nodded and turned to return to the princesses.
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The princesses saw a rainbow arc across the sky, heading straight towards them. Celestia quickly caught the source of the rainbow with her magic, and slowly set the dazed pegasus on the ground. Rainbow Dash quickly shook her head to regain her senses. She looked around where she was and quickly gained a look of panic. She turned to fly away back towards Spitfire and Soarin, before her tail was quickly caught by twilight to prevent her from leaving.
"Let me go!" she shouted at the alicorn.
"Wait, Rainbow. What happened?" Twilight responded.
"Let me go now! I have to get back before-" she was interrupted by the explosion from the rainboom. All the ponies present watched in amazement of the fiery blue ring sweeping across the sky. "I'm too late." Rainbow dash said in a low voice.
Twilight walked up to the cyan pegasus and asked. "Rainbow, please. Tell me what happened." Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak before she was interrupted by the sound of somepony shouting something.
They all turned around to see two earth ponies flying through the air towards them, Pinkie shouting "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the whole way. They were caught in mid air by twilight, who set them down slowly like Celestia had. Applejack looked freaked out beyond belief, while Pinkie was simply jumping up and down in place shouting "WOW WHAT A RUSH!!! CAN WE DO THAT AGAIN!!!?" This comment was met with a glare from Applejack.
Once everyone had calmed down, Twilight again asked "Okay, What happe-?" Before she could finish her sentence, Fluttershy and Zecora appeared out of no where with purple smoke rising from their bodies. The two gave a large smile before rushing over to their friends. They were stopped by several guards pointing spears at them. Fluttershy let out a small eep before skidding to a stop. Twilight looked at the guards in disgust. "Hey! Why are you pointing spears against my friends!?" she exclaimed.
The guard closest to her said "Because the last zebra was a changeling your highness. We are not going to take the chance that these two are also changelings." Twilight was taken back. She didn't want to believe it, but these two were the most likely to be changelings.
Before Twilight could say anything, Luna walked in front of the guards. "Stand down!" She exclaimed in a loud, but not Royal Canterlot Voice loud, tone. "I'll handle this." Her horn started to glow and her eyes went white, as she raised a hoof before herself. She slowly waved the hoof in front of Zecora and Fluttershy, causing the two mares to get drowsy. Before anyone knew it, the two collapsed to the ground while Luna continued to stand upright, her horn and eyes still glowing.
Twilight walked up to the princess of the night, wondering what she was doing. She turned to Celestia and asked "What is she doing?"
"She is walking through their dreams, to see if they really are themselves." Celestia responded. "She shouldn't take long."
Not long after Celestia finished her sentence, Luna, Fluttershy, and Zecora awoke from their trances. "They are both your real friends." Luna said with a smile. The two mares gave a yawn as they awoke, then looked upon the others.
Again Twilight asked "Now will somepony tell me whats goin-" She was once again interupted. This time by Rarity and Spike returning from their fight. Spike sat Rarity next to twilight before resting on his rump. He then proceeded to start picking bits of Draco Crystallus out of his teeth. Rarity ran up to everybody, glad that they were all here with her again. Pinkie reached out and brought everyone in for a big group hug, refusing to let go for several seconds.
Once free, Twilight took a second to make sure she could speak. Once sure she said. "Okay, one at a time. Rainbow, what happened?" Rainbow Dash then explained everything from Spitfire's idea to stop the drake to her and Soarin killing themselves to accomplish that plan. She had a depressed look on her face as she explained. This story made everypony present want to tear up, some of them doing so. Twilight felt that it would be better to not press her on the subject anymore.
She turned back to the others. "Next, Pinkie and Applejack. Why were you flying through the air?" They retold their story from the cannon exploding to Pinkie using her cannon to shoot their way out of there. Twilight wanted to ask how in Tartarus they survived Pinkie's plan, but decided not to try to apply logic to Pinkie. "So, if Sombra is attacking the Changeling, doesn't that mean he has turned against them?"
"We can confirm that" Fluttershy responded. She then went on to explain about their capture as well as the plans that Sombra had made.
"But how were they able to defeat Discord?" Celestia asked.
"Chrysalis said something about Starswirl's Blade I believe." Fluttershy responded. Both Celestia and Luna's eyes widened from this statement.
"Princess, what's Starswirl's Blade?" Twilight asked.
"It's dagger made by Starswirl the Bearded. It's blade is sharp enough to literally slice through magic. Although some believe that it's powers go beyond that. Before the blade was sealed away by discord, there were stories about how it would allow ponies super strength and the ability to communicate with the dead." Celestia responded.
"Although the latter has never been proven, it's ability to slice away magic has. It was the first thing we tried to use before the elements of harmony to stop discord." Luna finished for her sister.
"Did Chrysalis say how he got it or where it is now?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy shook her head. "Well at least we are all together again, we are much stronger this way."
"Unfortunately, they also took my element. I don't know what they did with it." Fluttershy said.
"It shouldn't matter now. Sombra has made a terrible mistake." Twilight said. "He now has two armies to fight instead of one, and nopony has the power to fight against those odds. All we have to do is-"
"Hello Princess" A dark voice interrupted behind her.
Annoyed that she has already been interrupted three times already, she quickly started to shouted "ALRIGHT, SAY WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY AND-" Her sentence cut itself off suddenly. A bunch of crystals of various sizes shot themselves out of the ground at the base of each pony present as well as spike. The crystals had shot at different angles and lengths around the ponies, preventing them from moving at all. Even Spike's massive size was not enough to keep the crystals at bay, as they restrained him as well. Twilight was barely able to turn her head enough to see the dark unicorn standing before them.
"Oh, I'm sorry your highness. Feel free to finish what you were saying. I promise not to interrupt. I believe it was something to do with me being to weak to fight two armies. Correct me if I'm wrong." The entire time he spoke, he maintained his evil grin. Twilight, Celestia, and Luna all simultaneously lit their horns with power. But before any of them could cast a spell, several smaller crystal branched out of the larger ones and completely encased their horns. The glow faded as quickly as it arrived. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now is that anyway to treat your new king?" He asked.
"You are not our king!" Twilight shouted. "Your just a corrupt monster bent on ruling over innocent ponies!"
"Oh Twilight, you're going to make me blush." he responded with a slight snicker. "You should probably listen to me, because I'm giving you all a chance to live." He then raised several crystallized jail cells out of the ground before him. "All you have to do, is submit to me." This was met with an uproar from every stallion and mare present, all of them calling him crazy and a monster. "SILENCE!!!" He shouted in anger, losing the smirk he had maintained for so long. Their voice quickly quieted from the outburst. "You all wish to fight and die? Then so be it. I have one final offer then." He then backed up away from the other ponies and towards the battle field. The crystals around Twilight suddenly pushed her forward towards Sombra, stopping about ten yards away from him. He then created a giant force field around him and Twilight, followed by the crystals surrounding everypony besides the princesses and Spike to retreat back into the ground. The ponies quickly dashed towards the barrier, Rainbow Dash being the first one to reach it. None of them were able to break through the dark-green, transparent dome. "If you can defeat me here, then your kingdom is saved. If not-" Two shards shot our of the ground in front of Celestia and Luna, stopping just inches before their necks. "then you will get the pleasure of watching them die."
Twilight stood dumbfounded. She didn't think she had it in her to do it alone. What hope did she have? This monster before her was able to make his away to where they were, capture all of them, and set up a barrier around them without so much as breaking a sweat. She wanted to run away more than anything. She started to back away when she heard cheering coming from behind. She turned around to see her friends trying to give her moral support. Even the princesses were pitching their support to the young alicorn. While none of them could actually help her fight, they could try to at least raise her spirits. She turned her head back to Sombra. "Alright Sombra, you're on." She said with pride.
Sombra once again grinned. "Ladies first" he responded. Twilight didn't need to be told twice, her horn glowed with power as she shot a purple laser at Sombra. Sombra didn't so much as flinch, as crystal pillars quickly rose out of the ground around him. The beam from Twilight's horn hit one of the pillars, then ricocheted to the pillar next to it. The beam continued in this fashion, bouncing around the dark unicorn before finally being sent back to Twilight. She just barely managed to avoid the collision of her own spell. "Lasers? Really?" Sombra teased. "Are you not the element of magic princess? Come on, show what you are really made of!"
Twilight then clashed her hooves together with a thunderous clap. When she pulled them apart to see electricity arcing between them. She released a bolt at Sombra, who only grinned in return. The bolt then suddenly arced away from him and straight towards the tips of the crystals around him. Twilight stood dumbfounded. "Haha. You should know something princess. These here are quarts crystals, and that means they conduct electricity." Sombra sneered. "But I must thank you charging them for me." His horn then glowed again and the lightning within the shards shot back at twilight. She quickly put up a shield around herself, managing to stop the blast. She gave a sigh of relief and lowered the shield. Sombra began to laugh. "This has all been a very nice light show your highness. But I suggest you start trying." Sombra jested.
Twilight gritted her teeth and brought power to her horn again. Three summon circle appeared before her and started to glow. A few seconds later, a column of light shot out of the circle and towards the sky, stopping at the edges of Sombra's barrier. The light faded to reveal three golems in their place, one made of rock, another made of ice, and the last made of fire. The three looked at Sombra and started to let out loud roars. But their roars were quickly silence by a barrage of crystals rapidly emerging from the ground and skewering all three. The rock golem fell to pieces, the ice one melted, and the fire suddenly went out on the last. Twilight watched in disbelief, then looked at Sombra.
The dark king had a look of angry annoyance on his face. "Oh please princess, that was the most pathetic attempt yet!" Sombra shouted, his horn once again glowing. "Perhaps I need to raise the stakes a bit!" Shards suddenly surrounded all the other ponies present once again, preventing them from moving. Individual shards rose out of the ground and towards their necks, stopping a few inches short, much like they did with the princesses. He then tilted his head upwards and conjured up an hourglass in mid air. "I'm giving you three minutes to beat me. For every minute after that, I kill one of them. Starting with that one." His hoof pointed at the orange earth pony at the far right. He was still a little peeved by her spitting in his face. The sand within the glass proceeded to flow downward.
Twilight was running out magic, hope, and now time. She didn't want to have to use this power, but she knew she didn't have much choice left. She began focused her magic towards anger and hatred, as her horn started to glow a dark purple and green. She focused on Sombra and let out another laser. One minute down, two to go.
Sombra smiled wide and raised a series of crystals out of the ground to form a wall in front of him. The blast made impact with the wall and caused it to fracture in several places. Suddenly, the whole wall smashed before him, revealing twilight levitating a giant mallet that she just conjured up. She raised to smash it again, Sombra raising more crystals as she did so. The mallet smashed down and split in half, landing on either side of Sombra. "Is that the best you got!?" Sombra taunted. Without Twilight uttering a single word, the two halves of the mallet suddenly started to quickly reform together in an attempt to smash Sombra between them. The king quickly sank into the ground, avoiding the smash. Two minutes down, one left.
Twilight lifted her hooves into the air and smashed them on the ground, causing the entire area to shake. Then a pillar of stone trusted out of the ground, carrying Sombra with it. She had him where she wanted. She took aim with her horn and once again shot a dark laser at him, knowing he couldn't save himself this time. The beam impacted Sombra and made him cry out in agony before falling to the ground. Twilight lowered the pillar to look upon the corpse of the former king. He laid there before her, no life left in his dark eyes. The dark glow of her eyes and horn faded as she released a sigh. As she did so, the last of the sand within the hourglass had came to a rest at the base.
"Time's up princess" A voiced hissed behind her. Before she could turn around, a series of shards shot out of the ground and surrounded her, preventing movement. Some branched out to encase her horn. Twilight looked upon the corpse of the king, only to see it suddenly shatter before her. It was a fake. A dark wisp moved in front of the princess and started to materialize into Sombra. He then turned the crystals around so that she may look upon her friends. Tears were streaming from her eyes, she was defeated. Because of her failure, all her friends would die and Equestria's citizens would become slaves. "Now for your friends to pay for your failure." he spoke, as the crystal at Applejack's neck began to shake.
A flash of blue appeared in the distance, going completely unnoticed by everypony present.
The crystal inched closer to her neck at a slow speed.
"You know whats most saddening about this?" Sombra whispered into Twilight's ear.
A blue blade flew closer to Sombra's shield, flying end over end through the air.
The crystal was now millimeters away from her neck. She closed her eyes in fear, waiting for the inevitable.
"You could of prevented all of this-"
The blade sliced through the barrier and continued to follow it's arc.
The crystal was now touching her neck, she held her breath waiting.
"If you had only submitted."
The next moment dragged on for an eternity, as Applejack's heart beat for the last time before her end. The others turned away, not wanting to look at their soon to be dead friend. Sombra's horn grew bright for a spit second before something stopped it. Starswirl's Blade sliced through Sombra's horn like a hot knife through butter. His horn detached from his face as he gave loud shriek of pain. The barrier around them immediately dissipated, and the crystals surrounding them crumbled to dust. Sombra fell to the ground in shock, unable to move from the pain.
Twilight walked up to him and glared. Sombra looked back at the mare in disbelief and asked, "How?... How did a king lose like this?"
Without lessening her glare, she looked at the fallen king and said, "What are kings, when regiment is gone, but perfect shadows in a sunshine day?" At that moment, the clouds overhead started to part suddenly, allowing sunshine to streak through. "Guards!" Twilight called out. Several guards ran up to their princess and saluted. "Take this monster to the royal dungeon, so he may await his trial." The guards gave another salute and started to drag Sombra away towards Canterlot.
The other mares and princesses ran up to give twilight a hug, all of them were relieved to have lived through that. No one said anything, they just enjoyed the hug. Finally after several seconds, Rainbow Dash spoke up. "That was amazing Twilight! You were keeping me on the edge of my seat the whole time!"
"Ah agree with Rainbow. Ah thought Ah was a goner for sure." Applejack chimed in.
Pinkie picked up the blade that finished Sombra. "How did you make this appear Twilight? I didn't even see you cast a spell." She asked.
"I didn't do that. I have no idea how it got here. Princess?" She looked at her mentor for answers. The white alicorn only shook her head, unable to answer that question. "I have another question too. Why does it say I FORGIVE YOU on it?"
I walked over to my fallen friend. He neither moved nor made a sound as I approached, just continued to stare at the sky. I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to think that this was some kind of horrible joke, that at any moment he would spring to life to scare me. But he just laid there, with no more life left within him.
Then I once again heard the grunting of the changeling behind me. Turning my head around again, I could see the shape shifting abomination still trying to crawl away. The sadness I was feeling was quickly displaced with Rage. The next few moments went by like a blur, as I drew the knife from my slain friend and started stabbing the changeling with it. I made sure I didn't kill him; I wanted him to suffer. The changeling cried out in pain as the blade was continually thrust into his body. "This is what you get you monster!" I shouted at him. Through the pain, he managed to lift his head up to see my friend's corpse on the ground. I then heard a soft laugh escape from his lips, and it only succeeded to make me more angry. I raised the blade above my head, intent to finish the wretch. He then spoke in a faint voice. "Tell me pony. Do you really believe I'm the one who killed him?" I froze in place with the dagger still still above my head, wondering what he was getting at. "Hehe, I have two questions for you. First, do you think killing me is going to bring him back?" I just glared at him, everything he said just continued to piss me off. "And two. Who was the one who really killed him? The changeling that accidentally fell on him?" He gestured with his good hoof to himself. He then pointed it at me. "Or the pony that drug him to far away from the help he would need?"
My muscles tensed at these words. Was he right? The changeling gave a quick cough then continued. "In either case, I'm not giving you the satisfaction of killing me. Besides, I have already done more than any other changeling wish they could." He then melted before me into a puddle, that then proceeded to be absorbed by the soil beneath us. I turned back around to my friend. He didn't move, not that I expected him to. I sat before him, just staring at his defeated face. I then closed his eyes so they could no longer stare at me. It was too much to handle, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I started to cry, with blood and tear escaping from my eyes. Iv'e been told my whole life, that there was a reason for everything. But what reason was there for this? Why must this brave soldier, this true soldier die; while his cowardly friend lived? No, I was no longer his friend. I knew that. Our entire lives, he would forgive me for any mistake I made. But I knew he wouldn't forgive this one. Who would? Who even could? The only thing I could do, was be thankful he was in paradise now... And I would soon be joining him.
I raised the dagger I was still holding in front of me, the blade pointing at my chest. I knew he wouldn't forgive me, but I hoped that I could at least say that I was sorry before I got cast down into the pits of Tartarus. I don't know why I did so, but I spoke those words out loud at that moment. "I'm sorry Spellflash."
Suddenly, the blade before me flashed a bright blue and my left eye began to burn with great intensity. The pain was so immense, I dropped the dagger on the ground and brought both my hooves up to my eye in an attempt stop the pain. After several moments of unending torture, the pain was suddenly gone. It no longer burned, and It felt as though it was never injured at all. I opened it and found I could see out of it again. But what was I seeing? Through my left eye only, I saw ponies and changeling marching shoulder to shoulder away from the mountain and up some kind of invisible staircase. I recognized several of the ponies present, they had fought with me on the battlefield. But it was impossible, for I saw those same ponies die. I turned my gaze to the spot where the changeling had melted. It's body suddenly seemed to faze out of the ground. It gave a quick shiver then proceeded to trot towards the crowd. I wasn't sure what I was seeing.
I turned my head back to my friend. His corpse was still laying before me, but he was also standing in front of me. I sat there with my mouth open, starring at the apparition. He stared back; not in anger, but with a smile. The same smile he always had on his face. The same one that chased my fears away since we were young. But why was he smiling? Did he not know what I had done? Again, I started bawling. What was I suppose to say? That I'm sorry for killing him? That he would of been better off without me? That I deserved no sympathy from him?
I guess he didn't need me to say it, because he started walking towards the blade on the ground. He then breathed on the cold metal and allowed his breath to condense on it. Before the fog could dissipate, he took his hoof to write something into it. When finished, he walked towards me, still smiling. He placed a hoof on my shoulder. I couldn't feel it, but I knew it was there. He kept it there for a few moments before lowering it. He turned and started galloping towards the crowd, so he too may ascend. As I watched him run, my vision in my eye began to fade. The world was going blurry, and soon it was gone. Through my good eye, everything was exactly the same as it was before. The marching ponies were gone, and the only thing near me was the dagger and my dead friend.
I picked up the dagger to see what he wrote. The condensation on the blade already faded, but his words seemed to have been etched into the metal. His words made me cry tears that I didn't even think I had left. Etched into the reflective surface, were only three words. 'I FORGIVE YOU' I wasn't sure how to react to this. Why did he forgive me? My selfishness was what killed him. I did not deserve forgiveness. I once again held the blade before my chest, intent on finishing the job. But every time I would try to thrust, I would open my eye and stop myself upon seeing those words. Amazing, I was to much of a coward to even right my own wrong. I'm not even sure why, but I became angry at myself. "My cowardliness is what caused all of this", is what I said to myself. I... I couldn't look at that blade anymore. With any strength I had left, I chucked it. I threw it back and over the mountain, back to the battle field. I don't know how it flew so far, but I didn't care. It was gone now. The last message from my friend was gone. Regrettably, I never saw it again. I decided to do one final act for him, in hopes this would in some minor way make up for all I have done. I picked up his body and put it on my back, and started to carry him back up the mountain.
Author's Note
Hey, let me say thank you to everyone who read this. I had fun writing it. Sorry if the fall of Sombra seemed kinda lame, but I felt it to be appropriate. I should be posting the epilogue soon, which will reveal what all the ponies did after the battle and what became of the Unknown Soldier. Again, Thank you.
-Carefreedude
Words From an Unknown Soldier
I was once again standing on the battlefield, but everything seemed different. The skies were no longer cloudy and the sun was once again able to shine through. The fighting has also seemed to have stopped. I witnessed both enemy and ally alike gathering the corpses of their fallen comrades and retreating to their respected ends of the war zone. With Spellflash still on my back, I followed my comrades back to our medical tent.
Once there, I laid him down and told somepony nearby that he fought bravely and had died honorably, I felt that it was all I could do for him. At least this way he would still be honored as the brave soldier he was. With a heavy heart, I turned to leave the tent before being stopped by the sounds of panic. All the nurses were rushing a soldier in critical condition to a nearby table. I'm no medical expert, but I could see that he was loosing a lot of blood fast. His eyes were half closed and he had difficulty breathing. A stallion stood by, shouting at him. "NO, YOUR NOT GONNA DIE!! THE BATTLE IS OVER, WE CAN GO HOME!! PLEASE!!" Several nurses had to restrain him. Such a horrid sight it was.
I once again was about ready to leave when my eye suddenly flared with pain again. It wasn't nearly as bad as before, but it still caused me to stop in my tracks and wince in pain. As the agony subsided, I once again saw the spirits floating around me. I noticed something else as well; a timer. There was a digital clock hovering above the dying pony's head. I watched as it ticked away from three to one. When the timer reached zero, it disappeared and the stallion ceased to breath completely. I would later discover that this timer would only appear when a pony was close to death. With a saddened look upon her face, a doctor approached the nearby stallion. "I'm sorry sir. But I'm afraid that your brother has passed on. His condition was beyond the point of help when he arrived." The stallion only responded by crying into his hooves.
I looked back at the soldier on the table, his ghost now emerging from the body. He hovered near his brother for a moment before beginning to fly out of the tent. He stopped when he noticed that I was staring at him. He hovered up to me then started gesturing with his hooves, first pointing to me, then his eyes, then his chest. I believe he was asking if I could see him. I responded with a nod and he suddenly grew a smile. He then flew to a nearby drawer used to keep medical equipment, pointing at it frantically. I opened it with a loud screech that caught the attention of everypony in the room. Ignoring the question about what it was I was doing, the spirit pointed to a large bone saw that had a highly reflective surface. I reached my mouth in and extracted it, then set it on the ground.
As soon as I did, several nurses grabbed me and were forcing me to leave. I could see the ghost fly down and breath on the saw, much as Spellflash did to the dagger. Quickly, I shouted at the nurses to stop and look as the spirit began to write his message. One nurse did so and stopped dead in her tracks as the words began to be etched into the metal from thin air. Everypony stopped what they were doing to see this, even the brother stopped crying at what he saw. When the ghost finished his message, he gave a quick thankful salute to me and then took off out of the tent. Everypony failed to notice him leave and just continued to stare at the saw. Finally, the doctor approached the tool and began to observe the message. She then turned to the soldier nearby and brought the tool to him. His eyes once again began to water as he read the final words of his brother.
I felt that now was the time for me to leave. But before doing so, I took a quick peak at the message on the saw. 'I will put in a good word for you on the other side' It ended with his brothers signature that was written too oddly to be read. I left the tent and started to trek down the mountain as the vision once again left my eye. Where I was going, I didn't know, but I knew that my place was no longer there.
The battle soon ended after the fall of Sombra. Chrysalis managed to regain her senses and called for a full retreat from the battle field. She would return three weeks later to meet with the princesses to discuss a more diplomatic solution between the changelings and the ponies.
Sombra was taken away to receive trial for his crimes against pony kind. In a unanimous decision, he was sentenced to be turned to stone until such time that they saw it fit to release him. His statue is one of the more frightening within Canterlot garden.
Discord, true to his word, did have a party set up back at the castle to celebrate their victory. Unfortunately, the lord of chaos was unable to attend. He was found out cold on top of a pile of changelings that tried to kill him. He had to rest for several days before his wounds healed and his powers returned to him.
The princesses immediately got to work on preparing burials for the fallen soldiers. As grand as their victory was, many lost their lives in order to achieve it. They picked a field near the base of the mountain that wasn't being used for farming to be used to house the cemetery and memorial. Since then, only ponies that had fought in the battle were allowed to be buried there.
The soldiers that survived the fight returned home heroes. Many cities threw parades and festivals for them, to celebrate their service to their kingdom.
The years went by and Twilight saw her friends die one by one. Each death hurt, but she knew that they were at least in a better place now. seventy-two years after the battle, Rainbow Dash, the last of her friends, passed on. Her, as well as the other princesses, her brother, and Rainbow Dash's friends and family were at the cemetery, crying as the pegasus was lowered into the ground. Twilight felt the pain more than ever, seeing the last of her friends now gone from her life.
After several words from the priest, everypony gave their blessing then proceeded to return home. The only ones who stayed longer were Twilight and Rainbow's family. Twilight gazed blankly in the distance at the rest of the cemetery. She saw the scores of tombstones for all the soldiers of the battle. She saw the statue of Soarin and Spitfire residing in the middle as tribute to their bravery. And she saw somepony sitting in front of a random tombstone. She didn't recognize this pony, which was odd because she took it upon herself to be familiar with everypony in the kingdom. She decided to approach him.
The pony was an old timer and was wearing a cloak over himself, which concealed all but his blue mouth and hooves. He sat with his head bowed before a standard tombstone, one that was no different from the hundreds surrounding it besides the name inscribed. Twilight approached from behind and began to read the words on the stone. Spellflash Darkheart . This was followed by the standard date of birth and death, as well as the standard quote at the bottom of the tombstone. Had fought bravely and had died honorably . The message was used for those who had no family to leave a quote for them. It was suggested to her by one of the doctors working at the battle.
The stallion either didn't notice or didn't care that Twilight walked up to him. He just continued to bow his head before the stone. After several minutes, Twilight spoke up.
"Did you know him?"
"Yeah..." He responded quietly
"Since he is buried here, I guess he had fought in the battle."
"He had..."
"And judging by the date of death, he died at the battle."
"He did..."
Twilight felt awkward around this stallion. She felt that he didn't really feel like talking to her. She was about ready to walk away when he suddenly let out a cry of pain. She looked to see him holding a hoof up to his face. He then lifted his head up and began to move it around at rapid speeds, as if he were witnessing something that the princess could not. Before she could ask what he was doing, he turned his head to her. "Your friend died recently didn't she?" Twilight responded with a nod. "How long ago did she die?"
"She passed away in her sleep three days ago."
The old stallion smiled a bit. "You have a very loyal friend to have her stick around this long after dying." He then reached into his cloak and pulled out a small silver mirror. Placing the mirror on the ground, he said "I was saving this for a friend... But I don't think he is going to show up." I didn't expect him to. No pony ever comes back after they crossed over. He thought to himself.
Twilight looked upon the mirror curiously, wondering if he was giving it to her or not. Suddenly, the glass began to fog and it seemed like an invisible hoof was pushing the condensation away to write something. Well not so much write, as much as a draw. Before the fog left the glass, a picture of Rainbow's cutie mark was drawn into it. It was followed by a message, Keep being the coolest princess ever . It finished with Rainbow Dash's signature.
As this was happening, the stallion had stood up from his spot. He placed an old, poorly maintained book on the ground and started to walk away. Twilight noticed this and immediately spoke to him. "What in Tartarus was that?" She questioned, motioning with a hoof towards the mirror still resting on the ground.
"A final message from your friend. Be thankful that she stuck around long enough to deliver it."
Twilight was confused because she had never even had heard of such magic, and being done by an earth pony no less. Twilight returned her gaze to the mirror, almost unable to believe that this actually happened. She then looked upon the old book that was left behind. "Sir, you forgot your book." She said to him from a distance.
Without turning around the old stallion responded "Keep it, I heard you like books." as he continued down the path away.
"Sir. I also never asked, who are you?."
The stallion stopped in his tracks and turned his head to the princess. With his head up and looking directly at her, she could see the detail of his face. She saw the wrinkles from age that made him look older than Granny Smith, bless her heart. She also noticed how he smiled at her. It was a kind smile, a trusting one, the kind of smile that would push away the fears within any pony. But most notably, she noticed the giant scar and the lifeless look within his left eye. She realized that this Stallion was half blind.
"Who am I?" He asked, pulling Twilight away from her thoughts for a moment. He let out a soft chuckle and a small tear escaped his good eye. "I'm afraid that I'm just a nobody. A nobody that looked in a mirror, and saw that he is almost out of time."
With these words, the stallion left, never to be seen again. Twilight opened the cover of the book and read the first few lines from it.
In memory of Spellflash Darkheart. A true stallion. A true soldier. A true friend.
Author's Note
Well, apparently when I said I would be posting the epilogue soon, I meant to say in three months. Sorry to those who patiently waited for the ending. Thank you all for reading this. I enjoyed writing it and the constructive criticism helped.
Words From an Unknown Soldier
The air was cold. The clouds were as dark as coal with no sunlight piercing through them. It’s as if the heavens themselves were aware of the event that would happen that day. Everypony knew that this day was going to happen for a while now. But still none of us were ready to face it. For that was the day that would decide the fate of all of us. That was day that would go down in history, for better or worse. That was the day that Equestria went to war.
Not a week after Twilight’s coronation, a messenger stumbled his way into the throne room, badly injured from his journey. Celestia and Luna looked upon the stallion in shock and horror. Without a word, the stallion reached into his satchel and pulled out something wrapped in a cloth and placed upon the ground in front of Celestia. He stood their for a few moments for her to relieve him. Celestia nodded to allow him to leave; then levitated the object in front of her and her sister.
as she uncovered the cloth from the object slowly, her and Luna’s eyes widen in disbelief of what they saw. They knew exactly what this gift meant, but they didn't want to believe it. Luna quietly mouths to herself “This cannot be...”
Celestia inhaled calmly and called upon a nearby guard. “Bring Princess Sparkle here immediately. Something must be discussed with her.” The guard saluted and then galloped away, leaving the two princesses alone. Luna looked upon her sister.
“If this happens, it may mean the deaths of many.” Luna said with a grimace, remembering the wars a thousand years before.
“But if it doesn’t happen, it may mean the deaths of everypony.”
Luna showed a slight smirk across her face. “Then I guess it’s time to see if all these preparations you have done were not in vain.”
Twilight entered the throne room to see why she was summoned. The two sisters looked upon her as she walks in. Without saying a word, they levitate the object towards twilight. Shock fills her the moment she lays her eyes upon it, for she knew as well exactly what this object was, and what it would mean for Equestria.
The object they received was a crystal, no bigger than a foreleg, as black as a moonless night. To any other pony, it would be nothing more than an ugly paperweight. But to the princesses, they knew what it actually meant. It was a message sent from an enemy they thought gone. They knew that he would return, but they never expected it to happen so quickly. All three princesses were unsure of how he came back, but one thing they did know was this. Equestria was going to war.
