SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR (MOST) DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Realm EQ-G4
Canterlot Castle
Two trios of heroes walked together down the halls of the castle, toward the throne-room.
"Any idea why Master Yen-Sid's forecasting magic would guide us here?" Sora asked their allies for this op.
"Not really" Sonic replied as Tails & Knuckles trailed behind him, admiring the scenery. "Things look really peaceful around here."
The sextet were permitted into the throne-room, spotting Princess Celestia seated. The white alicorn smiled as she recognized the heroes.
"What brings you all here today?"
"Honestly, ma'am, we don't rightly know" Goofy replied. "Master Yen-Sid foresaw that we'd all be needed here for somethin'. But to me it looks like everything's a-ok around here."
Princess Celestia pondered, looking slightly concerned. "Perhaps it concerns a threat or problem that hasn't appeared yet, but will very soon…"
As if on cue, at that moment a Royal Guard Lieutenant burst into the throne-room. "Your Majesty!" he cried. "I bring urgent news from the far north! The Crystal Empire has returned!"
Celestia displayed an expression of shock, and then she was all-business. She quickly penned a note and sent it via dragon-flame to Spike, instructing Twilight to gather the other Element-bearers and teleport straight here.
"What's the Crystal Empire?" Knuckles asked. "And why is it something worrisome? Is it an enemy?"
"The Empire itself is not our enemy," Celestia replied, "but if it has returned, then so too has the threat that sought to conquer it…"
Within a couple minutes, Twilight teleported in herself, Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, & Pinkie Pie. Since awakening to the mantle of the new Alicorn of Magic, her already-massive mana reserves had grown even more, but more importantly her fine control over her magic was steadily improving.
"What's going on, Princess?" she asked. "And… Sora? And Sonic? You guys are here, too?"
"All of you, please, have a seat and pay close attention" Celestia commanded. "…Over 1,000 years ago, there was a prosperous and harmonious kingdom far to the north: the Crystal Empire. In the midst of the freezing snowfields, they were kept warm and safe, from the elements and from dark forces, by a powerful artifact called the Crystal Heart.
"But among the royal family was a unicorn stallion with an unquenchable lust for power and a natural skill at dark magic. Duke Sombra murdered the King & Queen and took over, becoming a tyrant king who enslaved the crystal ponies. Luna & I fought hard to stop him and free our ally from his control, but when we finally managed to destabilize his body, reducing him to a shadowy wraith and sealing him in the ice, his last act was to engulf the Crystal Empire and all its ponies in a massively powerful time spell, throwing them forward in time.
"The empire and the crystal ponies vanished without a trace… until now. They have re-emerged, over a millennium after they were cast forward in time. And unfortunately, their return means that the seal on Sombra has weakened enough that he is now free. Twilight, you and your friends must venture to the Crystal Empire as quickly as possible, find the Crystal Heart, and activate its power to push Sombra at back." She turned to the two 'foreigner' teams. "Would the six of you be willing to assist?"
"Of course" Sonic replied.
"Whatever Sombra might try to do," Sora added, "we won't let him win."
"Excellent. I will also be sending Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor to the Crystal Empire to help marshal its defense; they will arrive before the lot of you do, and do what they can to prepare for your arrival. Please ready what you feel you will need; we must make haste if we are to stop Sombra from reestablishing his iron-hoofed rule over the crystal ponies…"
-Scene Break-
The next day, the sizable group of heroes were being flown as close as they safely could be by a pair of DDF dropships. Inside, Sora was huddled near one of the heater vents.
"Aw, come on" Donald told him. "Is it really bothering you that much? I've been in colder places than this."
"You guys've got fur or feathers keeping you warm" the youth replied. "Besides, I was born & raised on a tropical island, remember? I'd never even seen snow up-close until we visited Mulan's world!"
"I got a feelin' things are gonna heat up, right quick" Applejack said.
"We can't get you guys any closer" the pilot radioed. "The shadowy clouds in the area look unnatural, and I'd rather not try flying my bird through them, plus this blizzard's making it a bit riskier. Pardon the pun, but you folks are gonna have to hoof it the rest of the way. Should only be a handful of klicks to… Contacts! Darklings attacking a scouting party!"
"Lighting them up!" the other dropship's pilot chimed in, his Pelican's chin-gun being turned against some of the shadowy creatures. "Ground teams, get set to come out swinging!"
The two dropships swung around and opened their troop bays, letting Team Sora, Team Sonic, and the Element-Bearers (plus Spike) jump out. A squad of Royal Guardsponies, led by Shining Armor, were slashing and blasting at a horde of red-eyed shadowy figures that almost looked to be made of solid smoke; physical attacks weren't doing much, but blasts of magic from Shining and the unicorn guardsmen seemed to have more of an effect.
Donald cast Thundaga, zapping four of the shadowy entities, stunning them for shots from Twilight and Shining to vanquish. Sonic rushed in and started striking with lightning-speed; his physical attacks weren't doing much real damage, but they were keeping some of the smoke-creatures too busy reforming to attack him or the others. Rainbow Dash used her Pegasus abilities and raw speed to drag some of the shadow-smoke beasts together and pin them in place, and Sora & Donald bombarded them with Fire spells to destroy them.
With so much extra support, the remaining smoke-shadow creatures were quickly either destroyed or driven to flee. The new arrivals and Shining's group came together, Twilight and her big brother embracing.
"I take it those were Sombra's underlings?" Knuckles asked.
"Familiars, more like" Shining replied. "Come on, we'll take you to the Crystal Empire. Cadence & I have been working in shifts, holding a barrier dome around the city to keep Sombra and his shadows out. But even with the workload being split, it's taxing…"
"Well now that we're here," Sora said, "maybe we can get rid of this guy before he causes any major damage."
Shining and the guardsponies led the three hero groups through the snow, soon cresting a hill. And as they got to the top of the hill…
"Whoooah~…" Sora stared in awestruck wonder.
In the heart of a vast snowy plain, an enormous translucent pink dome-barrier spell encompassed a city of crystalline houses and buildings centered around an enormous castle of white, silver, & blue, the city surrounded by rolling grassy hills.
"Uh-oh! Behind us!" Goofy suddenly cried out.
Everyone turned to see a roiling mass of black clouds surging toward them, and part of them at the front formed into a huge equine head with glowing red & green eyes and a large, jagged horn. With an echoing wicked laugh, the spectral form of King Sombra rushed at them. Immediately, Donald and Twilight fired magical blasts, but they did virtually nothing.
"Leg it!" Shining shouted. "Get to the barrier!"
The hero group took off running down the snowy hill, toward Cadence's barrier around the Crystal Empire. Sora and Rarity fired magic blasts back at the entity as they ran, hoping to slow it down. As they all neared the barrier, it briefly opened to let them through, and then snapped back into place behind them; Sombra roared in anger and pain as the very tip of his horn was severed by the closing barrier, a half-inch-long horn shard dropping to the grassy ground, hidden amongst crystalline rocks…
"The good news is," Shining said while panting for breath, "Sombra still hasn't regained his physical form and his full power. The bad news is, as time passes, he'll likely regain more of his strength and further stabilize himself. If he manages to pull himself back together fully, we're in real trouble."
"If he's this dangerous now," Tails said while looking back at the shadowy mass loitering just outside the barrier, "I don't wanna think about how bad he'll be at full strength."
After everyone caught their breath, Shining Armor led them all through the city, heading toward the palace. As they passed, they caught sight of equine figures peering cautiously out at them from windows and alleys.
"The crystal ponies," Shining explained, "the inhabitants of this land, are all still affected by Sombra's tyranny. Nopony smiles; their memories are fuzzy, and they're all confused, nervous… traumatized."
Sonic clenched a fist; anyone who would reduce people to such a sorry state had to be punished and kept from spreading any further misery.
Reaching the very tall castle, they were led through glimmering hallways manned by guardsponies and COG soldiers & personnel. Reaching the throne-room, they found Princess Cadence sitting in the fancy chair, her horn glowing with magic. Seeing the heroes, a smile formed on her weary face.
"I'll take it from here, honey" Shining told her. "It's my shift now."
Taking a seat beside her, he projected a massive blue barrier-dome over the city, just inside Cadence's. He expanded it slightly outward to match hers in size at the same time she finally dispelled her barrier, and she relaxed so much her legs almost fell out from under her.
"Kinda wish Turris wasn't busy" she said. "He could keep a barrier like this up for days without breaking a sweat." She looked up at the visitors, smiling. "Still, I'm so glad to see that we've got more help with this."
"What do we know so far?" Twilight asked.
"Not much, I'm afraid. We've asked the populace, but their memories are blocked – or repressed. We were about to have some of our people comb through the palace's library for clues when you all showed up."
"We're on it" Twilight and Tails said together.
-Scene Break-
After a little searching, they found a book in the library that told of some of the Crystal Empire's history and traditions. One of the important-looking topics was the Crystal Fair, a celebration meant to unite the hearts of the crystal ponies. Central to it was something called a "Crystal Heart", but the book had nothing on it…
"Shouldn't be too hard…" Twilight muttered. "There's plenty of crystals around here big enough to carve into a heart shape."
With Tails taking the book along for reference, the heroes got to work setting up a crystalline carnival in the center of town. With Dash & Goofy setting up jousting exhibitions, Sora and Sonic providing acrobatic shows, Pinkie providing the snacks (and the flugelhorn), and so on, the crystal ponies gradually regained their smiles, some of them transitioning from dulled hues to bright, shimmering colors as if made of lustrous crystal.
All in all, things seemed to be going quite well. But suddenly, Rainbow Dash rushed in looking panicked, dragging the hero teams over to where the public couldn't hear her.
"Guys, we've got a huge problem" she whispered. "The Crystal Heart isn't just some symbolic thing. It's a real, actual magical artifact, which we don't have. Apparently Sombra hid the Crystal Heart away somewhere – nopony knows where. And without it, we can't actually protect the Crystal Empire from him!"
Twilight went pale, glancing over at the sheet covering the lump of random, non-magical heart-shape-carved crystal atop the central pedestal.
"But… Why didn't the book say anything?" Tails asked.
"We have to find it before the crystal ponies find out about-"
Twilight's proclamation was cut short as a multitude of crystal ponies approached, cheerful and chatting with each other, having decided they wanted to see the sacred Crystal Heart that was the core of their city's light & love.
"Ohhh, damn…" Knuckles murmured.
"Uhhh… Hi there, folks!" Sora waved with a nervous grin. "Enjoying the fair? We've got even more cool stuff planned, so if you could just be patient for a bit while we get things ready…"
"We kinda wanted to see the Crystal Heart" one of the stallions said.
"Oh, but it's gotten some smudges on it" Rarity lied. "We, uh, really should clean and polish it before we go showing it off to the public!"
"Why don't you guys go try the funnel cake?" Sonic suggested. "We just need a little longer to make sure the Heart is presentable, like Rarity says!"
At this point, more of the crystal ponies were coming to see, some of them starting to murmur about the Crystal Heart.
"What now, Twilight?" Applejack muttered to the group's alicorn through clenched teeth.
"I'm thinking!" she whispered back.
Suddenly, a bitter wind began to blow through the area, laced with red energy. The heroes and crystal ponies braced themselves as the dark power in the wind made it feel hot and cold at the same time. After several seconds, the wind subsided… and gasps of shocked confusion rang out. The heroes turned to look, and saw that the sheet covering the fake crystal heart had been blown away.
"T… That's not the Crystal Heart!" one of the crystal ponies shouted. "What's going on!?"
"Wait…" another one stepped forward. "That book the fox is holding… I recognize it! It's a book about the Crystal Empire's history and traditions!"
He snatched the book out of Tails' hands, scrolling through it. After a few seconds, he gasped.
"The page that tells about the Crystal Heart is missing; it's been removed from the book! …Sombra! Sombra must've removed the page so that outsiders wouldn't know about the Crystal Heart, couldn't use it to stop him!"
"He planned that far ahead!?"
"What do we do!?"
"Sombra hid the Crystal Heart away, and made it so outsiders who wanted to help us would have no idea how!?"
"We're doomed! He's going to kill us all!"
As dread and panic started to spread amongst the crystal ponies, they faded to their previous dull colorations. Suddenly, there was a red glow accompanied by low, wicked chuckles.
"Ah, such beautiful panic…" a voice with a deep flanging reverb remarked.
Everyone turned to see a tall and slender Mobian, black with tufts of white fur, wearing a silver mask with a single eye-hole to reveal his glowing yellow eye.
"Infinite" Sonic growled as he & the other heroes got ready to fight. "You're here, too? …Are you helping Sombra?"
"Not really, no" the jackal replied. "He doesn't really need my help. I'm just observing… and waiting to relish in the terror and suffering he will cause."
"He won't" Sora pointed his Keyblade. "We'll stop him!"
As a few crystal ponies murmured at the sight of the legendary weapon of Light in the youth's hands, Infinite sighed.
"Such youthful optimism… Someone really ought to beat that out of you."
(BOSS MUSIC: Sonic Forces – "Battle with Infinite: First Bout")
Infinite pulled out his Phantom Ruby, and a pulse of red energy raced out. Everyone was blasted away from him with the exception of Sora and Sonic, thrown outside of a newly formed shimmering red barrier that trapped the two heroes in with him. As the two got ready for battle, Infinite floated in the air, surrounded by a glitchy red aura.
With a wave of his hand, Infinite conjured a wave of red & black energy bolts that curved through the air as they shot toward Sora & Sonic. Sora quickly cast Reflega to protect them both, the dark bolts crashing against it, and then returned fire with a concentrated Light-type Sagitta Magica arrow that blasted Infinite back a good meter or so. Snarling, Infinite prepared to fling something else at the boy, only to be forced to raise a shield that only partially withstood a homing attack from Sonic.
Infinite flew in low & fast at Sora, striking with a rapid barrage of darkness-charged punches & kicks that Sora used his Keyblade to block while backstepping and giving ground. With his last punch, though, Infinite activated his Phantom Ruby. Sora suddenly found himself in a red-scale world, surrounded by a ring of red & black spears all pointed toward him. As they all shot inward, he charged his Keyblade with Light and spun, using the Spin Attack that the Links had taught him. His defensive attack successfully deflected the incoming phantom spears, and the wave of Light freed him from the Phantom Ruby's lethal genjutsu.
Sonic rushed in, dodging a dark blast Infinite fired at him, getting in close and striking with a lightning-fast barrage of punches. After numerous attempts to defend himself, Infinite landed a kick that knocked the wind out of Sonic, then teleported back a few meters and fired a concussive blast that blew the hedgehog back. Sora cast Cura on his ally as he charged in, and Infinite formed a 'glitchy' dark-red spiked shield to block the youth's Keyblade strikes and try to stab/slash him whenever he got an opening. Sora landed a couple of hits, but Infinite then created a shockwave that blew him back.
Channeling the Phantom Ruby's power, Infinite conjured an intelligent 'phantom' of Chaos 0. The water-spirit formed its forearms into blades and charged at Sora, engaging the boy in a duel. Meanwhile, Infinite and Sonic went one-on-one, the two Mobians dashing about and crashing against each other while shrouded in red and blue auras. Again and again they clashed, exchanging blows of lightning speed and crushing force, neither of them able to overcome the other.
"Getting tired yet?" Sonic asked with a grin, panting a little.
"More like bored" Infinite replied, breathing a little hard.
There was a splash as Sora finally destroyed the Phantom-Chaos, running over to rejoin Sonic against Infinite.
"You think you can beat both of us at once?' he said.
(MUSIC END)
"Probably" the dark jackal replied. "But… It seems I won't have to. For you see, when your dear princess closed the barrier after letting you all inside, the barrier severed the very tip of Sombra's horn…"
He pointed over in the distance, to by the inner edge of the barrier… where numerous large, sharp, purple & black crystals could be seen sprouted up, pressing against the barrier from within while Sombra's ethereal form strained from outside. As the heroes watched in stunned horror, the dual-sided assault finally eroded the barrier, forming a massive hole in it. In the palace, Shining Armor quickly tried to repair the damage, but it was too late; the huge black cloud that was Sombra was inside.
As the crystal ponies began to scream and panic, the protective barrier being dispelled now that it was useless, Infinite teleported out, dispelling the field holding Sora & Sonic inside.
"Twilight!" Sora called. "Find the Crystal Heart! We'll hold Sombra off!"
"But I don't know where to look!" she shouted. "Wait… If he wanted to make sure no-one could use it, he'd put it in a place everyone would be too scared to look – his castle!"
"Twilight, take me with you" Spike said. "You might need backup!"
"Fine, hop on!"
As Twilight & Spike took off, heading for Sombra's old lair, the six 'travelers' – Sora, Sonic, Donald, Tails, Goofy, & Knuckles – started heading toward the massive dark storm-cloud form of Sombra. Soon they were beset by Shadow Slashers – tall and emaciated-looking creatures, jet-black with glowing red eyes, long sharp claws on their elongated arms and huge fangs in their glowing red mouths. Dark creatures created by Sombra over 1,000 years ago, scattered and leaderless for the past millennium but now reunited under their master.
With a screeching roar, the Shadow Slashers began to charge at the six heroes. Donald blasted a couple with Blizzaga, while Knuckles closed in and started hammering the dark creatures with stone-pulverizing blows. Two spinning attacks, a 'Goofy Tornado' and 'Tails Twister', bashed their way through the enemy lines, while Sonic chained homing-attacks amongst the Shadow Slashers and Sora wielded his legendary weapon of Light to great effect against the creatures of Darkness.
The six heroes steadily made their way through their opposition, rapidly culling the Shadow Slashers' numbers. Soon, they had broken through and were nearing the huge mass of malevolent black cloud. Then, as they approached, the cloud flew downward and began to compress and condense, taking a solid form. They stared, wary and ready, as Sombra stood before them – a tall unicorn stallion with dark grey fur and a wild black mane, clad in a red cape lined with white fur. His limbs and neck were covered in flexible silver armor, and a silver headband sat upon his brow. His horn was blood-red and curved slightly, and his red eyes had slit pupils, green sclera, and faint wisps of light-purple dark magic coming from them.
"Sombra, I presume…" Sora said, taking a defensive stance.
"My, my…" the warlock said with a smirk. "One of the legendary weapons, a Keyblade – nay, the Keyblade – brandished before me. But look at its wielder – a boy, not even out of adolescence yet, thinking you can stop me. …Then again, I feel that underestimating anyone chosen by that blade would be a very bad idea on my part. And I can see in your eyes that you have seen many battles, overcome many hardships. No, I will treat you with the seriousness you have earned…" his smirk turned into a fanged grin "by using my full might to crush every last bone in your body."
"Lots of people have tried" Sora replied. "You won't fare any better than they did."
"We're putting an end to your tyranny" Sonic punched his palm.
"Hmm… Like the boy, you have the air of an accomplished hero. You're a threat worth taking seriously, too." Sombra chuckled as a black aura enveloped him like a smoldering flame. "Yes, this promises to be a challenging – and entertaining – battle…"
(BOSS MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts III – [Vs. King of Toys])
A cold breeze picked up for a few seconds, before abruptly growing into a swirling gale of ice and Darkness. The sextet braced themselves, shielding their faces as the evil wind howled. When they could see again, they were surprised to see their surroundings engulfed in black crystals and dark-purple enchanted ice. Storm clouds swirled high overhead, and Sombra stood atop a pillar of dark ice, eyes and horn glowing with evil power. Sombra grinned as he conjured several large spears of black ice, and with a wave of his horn they all shot down at the heroes.
The six heroes scattered to dodge, with Sora and Knuckles smashing out of the air some of the ice-spears that came at them. Donald cast a Reflega barrier to shield himself, Tails, & Goofy, while Sonic chained homing-attacks up some of the spears to close in on Sombra. The "Blue Blur" landed a solid hit, knocking Sombra off his pedestal, and the dark unicorn snarled as he landed on his feet, eyes glowing green.
Sombra charged at Sora while conjuring a black & red serrated broadsword and a spike-lined tower shield, wielding both with his telekinesis. He struck with wide, powerful blows that almost knocked Sora back when he blocked them, and used his large shield to block the youth's return blows. Goofy and Tails rushed in from the sides, striking with shield and tails to try and push Sombra back. He pulsed his aura to shove them back, but Sora took the moment of opportunity to slip past the warlock's guard and land a handful of strikes with his Keyblade.
Forcing Sora back with another wave of strikes, Sombra then forced Sonic to abort an attack by swirling multiple razor-sharp crystal shards around himself as a lethal barrier. The dark unicorn then poured magic into his own shadow, which expanded rapidly and then extended up from the ground as multiple shadowy claws, trying to slash and stab at the heroes. Donald kept the ones coming for him back with Fira blasts, Sonic and Goofy bashed them back as best they could, Sora tried hacking them away but the new ones kept coming to replace those he vanquished, Tails was flying overhead, waiting for a chance to land safely…
'Wait, where's the sixth one?'
As soon as Sombra thought that, the ground beneath his hooves seized as Knuckles lunged up from underground, fists first, hitting Sombra in the gut with a rising double-punch and disrupting the shadow-claw spell. Sombra pulled a short-range teleport to dodge the echidna's follow-up blows, firing a focused wave of Darkness bolts at him, only for Sonic to dash in and yank his pal out of the way and to safety. Sombra then conjured what looked like several giant dark-ice snowflakes, about a foot or two across, with stabbing spikes and razor-sharp edges. He sent them flying, the deadly projectiles slicing through the air towards the heroes. Sora & Donald combined fire magics to create a swirling wave of flames that deflected and melted most of them, the duck mage then using Cura to heal the wound that Tails took from a near-miss. Then, Sora threw his Keyblade in a Strike Raid and used the 'Reverse Recall' trick to teleport himself to it, getting in close to the startled Sombra and landing several strong blows capped off with a charged blast of Light.
Snarling in barely-contained fury, Sombra's eyes glowed bright green as he called down two thick tendrils of the black clouds overhead, infusing more of his essence into them and using powerful transfiguration magic to change them into flowing masses of shadowy darkness with multiple huge jagged crystal spikes along their forms. The dark constructs surged forward, lunging at the heroes like enormous serpents. Sora & Donald bombarded the one going for their group with magic blasts as they & Goofy did their best to avoid its strikes, while Sonic, Tails, & Knuckles used their speed and agility to avoid the one coming after them, with Knuckles also punching at it.
Gathering his magic, Donald zapped one of the giant tendrils with Thundaza, stunning it; meanwhile, Tails threw out some of the "electro-grenades" he'd recently invented, briefly paralyzing the other mass of shadow & crystal. Sora and Sonic immediately started running and leaping up the things, closing in on Sombra. Sora fired a wave of Rangarok bolts, impacting the evil unicorn with explosive force, and Sonic followed in their wake with a homing attack, and then when he bounced back after doing that he came in with another, then another and another.
Swinging his conjured longsword at Sonic to force him back, Sombra wrapped his magic around his own torso and formed it into a pair of large jet-black wings of shadow. The evil pseudo-alicorn took flight, firing dark-magic blasts down at the heroes, with Sora and Donald firing Light-type magic blasts up at him in return. He added in some more ice spears and shadow claws, making it harder for them, but then a shield-throw from Goofy clonked Sombra upside the head, briefly stunning him. Team Sonic then made their next move, Tails grabbing onto Sonic's ankles while his in turn were held by Knuckles. The red echidna spun his friends around while he & Tails 'willed' their energy into Sonic, and then the little orange kitsune let his friend fly. Sonic shot forth while wreathed in blue energy, zipping through the air and bouncing off midair debris & projectiles to pummel Sombra from all directions at lightning speed. As the warlock was left reeling from the Sonic Overdrive, Sora was first launched high by Goofy and then given a floating rune as a platform from Donald to kick off of, shooting down at Sombra from an angle and nailing him with a Sonic Blade strike.
Groaning in pain, Sombra then grinned and chuckled.
"It will take more than that to vanquish me, boy" he said.
Suddenly, he snapped his attention toward the crystal palace. The heroes looked as well, and saw Spike scurrying along crystal spires and outcroppings, clutching a huge heart-shaped shimmering gem.
"No… No you don't, you little whelp!"
Sombra took off toward the little dragon, flying at full speed despite Sora and Donald firing magic blasts at him. Spike lost his footing and fell off the high spire, he and the Crystal Heart plummeting toward the earth. Sombra had a huge fanged grin as he closed in on them both, ready to skewer the juvenile dragon and reclaim the ancient artifact…
Suddenly, Cadence – launched by her husband – streaked in and snatched Spike and the Crystal Heart less than a second before Sombra could reach them. Sombra froze in shock, and then roared and tried to go after them, only for a double Thundaga from Sora and Donald to blindside him. Enraged, he began charging a massive amount of dark power, preparing to fire it as a huge, deadly beam of destructive energy…
Then, the streets below began to light up, forming an intricate snowflake-like grid centered on where the Crystal Heart floated in its mount in the center of the plaza beneath the raised palace. Panicking, Sombra immediately turned and fired his huge, thick beam of Darkness down at the crystal. The artifact fired first, releasing a rapidly-expanding wave of Light that shot outward, obliterating the dark crystals in its path. Sombra growled as he pushed his attack against the expanding Light, making the holy energies slow and falter. The warlock laughed evilly…
And then a thin snipe-shot of Light magic fired from Sora's Keyblade struck his horn, fracturing it. Sombra's attack suddenly sputtered and weakened, and was then extinguished by the resurging Light. He roared out in fury as the Light engulfed him, the divine power atomizing him and erasing him utterly. The light expanded outward to purge the dark crystals throughout the city, and then shot upward as a pillar of rainbow light that dispelled the evil clouds overhead, revealing clear crystal-blue sky.
-Scene Break-
Sora and company joined everyone else for the celebration, their bodies just as shimmering and crystalline-looking as the ponies'. It turned out that the Crystal Empire had long held a myth about the legendary "Crystal Princess", and Cadence fit the legends perfectly, so they were all clamoring for her to become the new Empress.
"We can't thank you all enough for your help" Shining armor told Team Sora and Team Sonic. "Without you guys, Sombra could've caused a lot more damage. Now we can set about rebuilding, and getting the Crystal Empire up and running."
"Happy to help" Sonic replied. "I wish we could've dealt with Infinite, too…"
"We'll get another chance at him" Knuckles assured his friend.
"We had better keep moving" Sora said. "We'd love to stay and be tourists for a bit, but the Organization isn't going to just sit around while we do."
Shining Armor nodded. "Understood. Duty calls, and all that. Good luck out there, Sora, Donald, Goofy… And if we find out anything about that ancient box everyone's looking for, we'll let you know."
Sora nodded in thanks, as he & his friends headed out. Soon, the Gummi Ship lifted off and flew away, the shimmering light of the Crystal Palace at their backs.
-CHAPTER END-
I might end up coming back and expanding on the last stage of the fight one day, if I can come up with a way/reason for Sora to be able to fly so he and Sombra can have a proper epic clash in the midst of the storm clouds. At the moment, though, Sora can only fly under his own power if he has Tinkerbell's pixie dust or is in his Final Form…
