Chapter Nine
The time has come; it's now or never.
Families flooded the central square, gathering where the Crystal Heart had once spun so graciously. Fillies and colts chased each other with laughter on their lips as their not-so-naïve parents watched on, apprehensive but eager to begin festivities. Stalls were opened and the inviting smells of gingerbread and cookies filled the air.
The plan was working. No one noticed the armor-bedecked stallions making their way up the castle steps.
The annual play of the founding of Equestria, a neighboring nation, was taking place in the square, put on by the school down the road from Despara's former cottage. Their voices, young and squeaky, filled the square with light.
Despara's shield was weakening. The laughter was chipping at her shield. My militia and I crept up the stairs that would take us to the throne room and out to the balcony. It was hard to believe I had walked up these steps so many times before with such glee to see Sunny, now only filled with hate and mourning for what would become of my sister in a matter of a few hours. The cheerful cotton-candy colored marble I had come to know was now as dim and grey as Ironshoe's mane.
My militia spread out down the halls, taking out the guards that were once under our command. We didn't kill them; only knocked them unconscious, tied them up, and shoved them into an empty guest suite. Steelsmith braced his shoulder against the wall outside of the Throne room, across from me. I pulled the guard of my helmet over my face and nodded to the other unicorn, the others pulling their helmet guards down.
The doors swung open with a flourish and we stormed in, hooves pounding on the marble. Sombra and Despara whipped around, the princess's wings spreading wide and their horns lighting up with the same, crackling black magic. Wisps of purple leaked from their eyes as they called upon their magic.
First to fall was Arrow. Young, innocent Arrow. A black crystal had shoved him away and out the door; I didn't dare look back to see what that crystal had done to him. I pushed forward, hopping left, right, right, up to avoid the black rocks striking up from the ground.
Despara yelled out and bashed heads with me. Her eyes locked with his and a flash of recognition shone in her eyes. Our horns locked together, magic flaring, black on wintry blue, corruption and purity. I was barely aware of the chaos around me as I battled with Despara, watching the anger flare in her eyes. All I saw in the corners of my eyes were blurs of grey and black. Static as dark as night crackled along Despara's horn and zapped its way into my skull, forcing my retreat. The pain was blinding, electrocuting my muscles and forcing me down to the floor. Despara cackled, advancing, her horn lighting up with the black magic that would sentence me to oblivion.
Sombra's yell of pain pulled her attention from me. Steelsmith and Ironshoe had him pinned up against the wall, their magic flaring to bind him. Leathershield stood with spear in hoof, staring down the King of Shadows. Despara let out a terrible shriek and barreled towards them, slapping away the offenders with her wings.
Everything was beginning to blur and quiet, but the chaos was only growing. I found myself on my hooves again, now standing on floors as black as a winter's night on the eve of a new moon. Despara and Sombra stood back to back, their black magic crackling on their horns, the floor beneath their feat as pitch dark as a black hole. Shadows were everywhere, rolling around the room like stormy clouds. Over the body of Leathershield the clouds roamed, crackling with that same black static.
Right for me.
I shook my head, clearing away the fog in my head. No. My horn lit with my magic, a familiar summer blue, the color of the eyes of his love Sunny before she was lost to the darkness. Lost to Sombra. Just like Despara. I will not lose the last of my militia.
Despara let out a great shriek, my magic ripping her away from Sombra and throwing her to the wall. Ironshoe and Steelsmith braced their shoulders against her wings and legs, rendering her immobile, as I turned and threw Sombra to the opposite wall, just inches from the grand window separating them from the balcony.
Sombra hissed, his fangs protruding from his mouth and purple wisps inking from his eyes. His horn had changed; it curved like a sickle and changed from black to red at the tip. He braced his metal-sheathed hooves against my broad chest and pushed, his dark magic bubbling up around us. It was just us. Me and him, one on one. One huge stallion against another. His teeth were bared, his eyes wild with hate and what I could only describe as Dark Magic. He shoved heavy against my shoulders, sending me sprawling across the black marbled floor.
I was back on my hooves in minutes and ploughing myself into his barrel; we shattered through the glass and onto the balcony, high above the festivities going on below. The sky was an orange-red hue with Sombra's anger. The music that had been playing died into silence as the ponies watched from below the battle that raged on.
"You alwaysss knew from the beginning, didn't you?" Sombra's voice was sinister, breathy, and full of mocking. He stood, his mane whipping in the wind, his eyes glaring with a sharpness that could only be deemed evil. "You tried to keep her away from me… But alassss…" He snickered and laughed, rearing his head back. "The more you tried, the more she came…"
"Why would you do this?!" I shouted at him. "Why enslave all of the Crystal Empire? Why would you kill the Queen?!"
"The Queen?" He sneered. "Very perceptive…"
Back in the Queen's early days of illness, it was so sudden and shocking, that I had belief that it couldn't be some illness. I kept my suspicions to myself as I researched for countless hours, scoring through old books and eventually found myself deep in the texts of the ancient Dark Magic books, the very same things that turned Sombra into what he was.
"You put that Curse on her!" I was confident. I knew it. "You killed the Queen! You murdered the Princess!" A knot swelled up in my throat. "You corrupted my sister! For that… you will PAY!" I lunged, sword raised and gleaming with my magic, raging with anger.
Sombra reared up and hopped from the balcony.
Crystals as black as night shot forth from the ground below and the Crystal Castle's surface, marring its smooth appearance. The ponies below scattered back to their homes, safe but not, their shrieks echoing into the sky. Sombra landed nimbly on the surface of one of the crystals, laughing as a scythe materialized from his magic. I leapt after him, my sword ablaze with magic.
Our blades clashed, sparks flying in all directions, the sound ringing through the air. Slashes and gashes were made on our bodies, armor dented and marred, blood sticking to our coats and manes and sending crimson rivers along the crevices of the steel plates covering our bodies. Our breath came short, our legs trembled, but still, neither of us gave in. I pushed, he shoved. A slip of the hoof and one of us obtained a new wound.
"Sombra!"
Despara was conscious, and the last two of my militia were not. She darted from their chambers and collided into my side. I yelled as my legs gave out, my body hit the crystal floor, and my hind legs went over the edge.
There was no footholds, no purchase I could possibly find. I was doomed for death. This was it. Dead, killed by my own flesh and blood and her destined-for-Tartarus lover. I held on desperately, dropping my blade to the abandoned festival below. My magic was running out, not even enough for a levitation spell to put me to safety. Sombra and Despara hovered above me, their eyes alight, sneers on their faces, their wild manes blowing in the whipping wind.
"Oh, Chess…" Despara brought her face close to mine, her horn nearly touching my ear. The same purple wisps escaped from the edges of her eyes and black magic bubbled in her aura. "Who would have thought this would ever happen… A shame it had to end like this, don't you think?"
"Don't call me that." I spat in her face. "Neither you nor that scum you call Sombra are fitted to rule this land." My glare was sharp, but my composure was weakening, my limbs trembling. I slipped a few centimeters towards my demise. "If anything you belong in Tartarus…!"
Despara laughed. "And who would you suggest rule, you? Or that mare that runs the mine on the edge of the Empire?" Ruby Stone. Oh no. "Oh, didn't think I knew, did you?" She smirked. "She put on a good, pompous show down there at that festival. It was amusing, but it truly did lack something." She put her hooves over top of mine. "She lacked the fear that I will make sure she will have when I am through with her. But for now…" She pushed a little. "Au revoir."