Chapter 11

Legend made Real

Fluttershy bit her lip as she approached the treeline. Her grip on her Neutrona Wand almost white knuckle. She thought she saw movement in the trees and was worried that it might be another ghost waiting in ambush.

What she found took her breath away.

It was the most beautiful little horse she had ever seen. In fact, it could pass for either a small horse or a large pony. The coat was almost glowing it was so well cared for. Lowering her Neutrona Wand, Fluttershy carefully approached the animal.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she said, knowing that her own magic would translate into something the horse would understand. The one odd thing that stuck in her mind though was not seeing any evidence that anyone on the island owned a horse.

"You have a kind soul," the horse replied as soon as Fluttershy's hand brushed up against its nose. "Unlike the spirits, I have nothing to fear from you."

"You… you know about the ghosts?" Fluttershy asked in surprise.

"Yes. And… I can help you find where they are coming from."

Fluttershy thought for a moment. It seemed strange, but she felt she could trust this little horse. As if to reassure the young animal lover, the horse nuzzled up against her arm and torso in a show of trust.

"Do you have a name?"

"Epona."

"I hope you can help us Epona. And after we're done, I'll help you find your owner. I'm sure they're worried about you."


After a few minutes, Pinkie Pie noticed that Fluttershy was missing and voiced that observation. It wasn't long before Fluttershy returned with a small horse. For some reason it looked like Slimer was both awestruck and on edge, but the pink haired girl seemed genuinely relaxed and calm. Starlight filled her in on what was discussed in her absence, and Fluttershy replied that Epona could guide them to the cave the ghosts were coming from. Figuring it was better than nothing, the girls agreed. Although it was clear that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were not taking any chances. At the first sign of a betrayal they fully intended to retaliate.

Epona guided them down winding paths towards the center of the island, Fluttershy translating for her as they went. Sunset, however, seemed oddly on edge in Epona's presence. But not in a bad way. For some reason she felt… a connection with Epona. After a moment she shook her head and tried to focus on the task at hand and brushed it off as a feeling of kinship or something due to her origins as an Equestrian Unicorn.

After what felt like forever, and the fact that it had gotten darker, the group arrived near a clearing and hunkered down among the trees. There, in the rock face, was a cave guarded by a pair of ghosts.

"This is as far as I can go," Epona said. "The rest… is up to you. Be safe young one."

Fluttershy smiled and gave Epona an affectionate rub before letting the horse go. Epona turned to leave, but stopped and looked directly at Sunset. The resident baconhair blinked in confusion.

"Uh… why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.

"Goddess continue to watch over you young mare, Bearer of Courage."

"Um… what was that?" Sunset asked as Epona left. "Did she say something to me?"

"I… honestly don't know what to make of what she said..." Fluttershy trailed off. "Something about a goddess watching over you and calling you a 'Bearer of Courage'."

Sunset instantly brought a hand to the pendant hanging around her neck under her jumpsuit. How did Epona know about the Element of Courage? After a moment she dropped her hand, took a deep breath, and drew her Neutrona Wand. They didn't have time to figure out what was going on. It was time to fight.


Epona watched as the Ghostbusters opened fire on the sentries outside the cave. With a smile, the equine form morphed into that of a beautiful redhead woman wearing a celtic dress. She knew the truth about Sunset Shimmer. Both of them. The one that lived here had celtic blood in her veins, the visitor… was from the same world Merlin called home.

"I am sorry I cannot help you young mare," Epona sighed. "But… my time has passed. I cannot intervene directly anymore. I can only guide. You must be the one to take action. I will watch over you while you live in our world Sunset Shimmer. Just as I have since you first arrived. I am glad you turned your life around. And I am sorry I could not help you more. This is your tale young mare."

Epona looked up into the sky before closing her eyes and smiling.

"Many more adventures await you in the future. And together with your friends… your knights… you can face any challenge."


Sombra basked in the glory of his coming victory. Gwenevere's descendant hung suspended over the Moon Pool, glaring daggers at the ghostly King. She not only had her ancestor's hair, she had her defiance.

In his mind...Typical Celt.

"Not long now..." Sombra said as his shadowy form started to coalesce into a more humanoid figure. "Soon… I will live again."

The only response was for Gwenevere's descendant to spit obscenities at him in her native Irish.

A dark hand reached out, and placed a finger under Sunset's chin.

"Such language is unbecoming of such beauty my dear," Sombra said as his form fully manifested, revealing a man with charcoal skin and dark eyes wearing armor the color of the darkest night. "It is a shame you must die to enable my return. I would have loved one such as you to be my Queen."

Sunset shifted her head away from Sombra and continued to will lasers to shoot from her eyes and vaporize this creeper.

"Keep yer bloody hands offa me," she growled before Sombra grabbed her by the neck, choking off any further verbal assault.

"I am a King you whelp," he growled. "I do as I please."

With that he let her go and started to stalk around the chamber.


Sunset Shimmer and the Ghostbusters took cover before poking their heads out and watching the exchange between Sombra and human Sunset. Starlight Glimmer was the most visibly affected as she bit her lip and tightened her grip on her staff.

"I-its him..." Starlight stuttered. "King Sombra. The Enemy that the Order had sworn to fight against should he return."

"Such terrible fashion sense!" Rarity gasped. "Absolutely no contrast!"

The rest of the Ghostbusters, including Slimer, just turned to look at the fashionista.

"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We're about to go into battle with basically Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda, and you're fixated on his clothes?!"

"Well… ah don't see why we can't jus' blast 'im like we did Nightmare Moon," Applejack said.

"Bad idea," Twilight countered. "I thought about it a few times and… we can't cross the streams here. For all intents and purposes, we're standing on top of the magical equivalent of a Nuclear Reactor. We're talking a wildcat cascade reaction that could rival Hiroshima. It could devastate the entire island!"

Sunset closed her eyes and thought about how they could defeat Sombra. If Twilight was right, and based on Sunset's knowledge of magic she very well could be, they had very few options. Her hand dropped for a moment and brushed up against something hanging from her Proton Pack. Opening her eyes, Sunset felt the object and remembered what she had brought with them. Gwenevere's Bow. The very weapon that killed Sombra the first time around. She could feel the magic radiating off the ancient weapon. In her hands it would just be an ordinary bow, but perhaps in the hands of Gwenevere's descendant…

"Ok… I got an idea," she said as she holstered her Neutrona Wand and pulled the Bow off her pack. "We use this."

"Sunset… we didn't bring any arrows," Starlight deadpanned. "And I seriously doubt a Bow is going to be of any use at all, even if it was Gwenevere's."

"Not in our hands," Sunset pointed out before poking her head out to again look at her human counterpart. "But just maybe… in her hands… we got a chance."

"Well… Kylie's research did say that Gwenevere was the one who shot Sombra," Pinkie Pie pointed out. "Maybe a descendant of Gwenever can supercharge the magic Bow and blast Sombra again!"

"Its plausible," Starlight said. "Family connection to the original owner of a magic artifact can have an impact on the artifact's performance. She may not even need any arrows if she is a descendant."

"One step at a time," Sunset said. "We need to free my counterpart before we can do anything else… where's Pinkie?"

The girls looked around, finally noticing the pink haired party girl was suddenly missing. It didn't take them long to spot her… sneaking up on one of Sombra's guards, tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth, and Ghost Trap in hand.

"Oh no..." Sunset groaned.

"There goes our surprise attack," Twilight added.

After a moment, the remaining girls scrambled to catch up before all hell broke loose and Pinkie was left alone surrounded by very angry ghosts.

Sombra looked up at the hole in the ceiling of the Chamber, and saw the Full Moon shining down onto the Moon Pool, and Sunset Shimmer. With an evil smile, Sombra turned towards the redhead and produced a dagger, its obsidian blade glinting in the moonlight.

"I'm afraid the time has come my dear," he said as he approached her. Sunset's eyes went wide and she started thrashing in the magic restraints in a vain attempt to escape. Just as Sombra was bringing the blade up to her neck, a voice somewhere behind him made him stop.

"Excuse me Mr. Ghost… can I take your picture?"

Turning in annoyance, Sombra spotted one of his guards… being sucked into a box held by a young girl with very curly, some could say bubbly, pink hair wearing a gray jumpsuit and some kind of pack on her back. Soon after, chaos erupted in the chamber as several other young women appeared, unleashing magic and strange streams of energy at anything ghostly in the area. Sombra recoiled when one came close to him, the source being… a young woman who looked EXACTLY like Gwenevere's descendant?! Another, who was dressed differently from the others, wielded Merlin's staff and relied entirely on magic.

"GUARDS! DEAL WITH THESE INTRUDERS!" Sombra ordered before floating up into the air and charging an energy orb in his hand.

Sunset dove as Sombra unleashed an attack. Quickly scrambling to the side to avoid a followup, Sunset unleashed a Shock Blast from her Proton Pack in an attempt to get some space. The general plan was to cause enough chaos to allow one of the girls to reach human Sunset and free her. So far… it wasn't working out so well. While Pinkie's fake Spirit Photography trick caught the guards by surprise, it was pretty much a stalemate with neither side actually gaining much ground. Rarity was using the Meson Collider to try and clear a path, only for the rapid fire bolts to start getting deflected by spectral shields. She soon had to conjure up a shield of her own as a counterattack was launched at the fashionista.

Twilight was caught in a deadly game of volleyball with Sombra himself, catching and redirecting his energy orbs right back at him. Rainbow Dash was trying to confuse guards with her speed, and Starlight was stuck on defense, throwing up a shield to protect herself from an onslaught of spectral lances. Fluttershy was hanging back and sniping with Boson Darts, and Applejack…

Applejack broke a piece of a large stalagmite off and hefted it.

"Hey ugly! Heads up!" the country girl called out before she threw it at Sombra in an attempt to give Twilight some space to maneuver. Sombra, having charged up another energy orb, reflexively dodged out of the way. The orb went wild and slammed into one of the restraints holding human Sunset in the air over the Moon Pool. The redhead cried out in fear as she found herself dangling from just one arm, and started to feel the magic restraints start to give under her weight.

Pinkie bounced around her opponent, frustrating the ghost with each near miss.

"Weeeeeee~" Pinkie exclaimed as she effortlessly dodged yet another attack before raising her Neutrona Wand and unleashing a Shock Blast, knocking the ghost back and giving her enough space to deploy her trap. Before she could switch on the Capture Stream, Sombra swooped in, grabbed her by the neck, and slammed her back into the wall.

"I have had enough of your insolence!" Sombra yelled as he held Pinkie against the wall. All activity stopped in the chamber. The Ghostbusters watched in shock and horror, unwilling to risk hitting Pinkie if they shot at Sombra. Pinkie, on the other hand, just let her Neutrona Wand go, letting it fall and dangle from her Proton Pack, and started trying to stick her hand into her pocket.

"You mortals are NOTHING compared to me!" Sombra exclaimed. "Once I am done with you… I will… wait… it… it cannot be!"

Sombra felt something familiar in the girl he held before him.

"Gawain..." he gasped. Taking a chance, he looked at the other girls around.

"Merlin..." he said as he locked eyes with Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer.

"Lancelot..." he said as he locked eyes with Rainbow Dash.

"Percival..." he said as he locked eyes with Rarity.

"Bors..." he said has he locked eyes with Applejack.

"Bedivere..." he said as he locked eyes with Fluttershy.

Again turning his attention to Pinkie Pie, he failed to notice that she had pulled her hand out of her pocket, and there were several glowing sprinkles in hand.

"Descendants of the Knights… It cannot bmmmph..."

Pinkie slapped her hand over Sombra's mouth, shoving the handful of sprinkles in before bracing herself as best she could. She had never purposefully used her exploding sprinkles offensively like this, let alone this close, but she had no other choice and decided to reenact a scene from 3 Ninjas. Shortly after she was sure he had them all in his mouth, she quickly knocked his head up and closed her eyes. Soon after, Sombra's entire ghostly form seemed to fluctuate and deform as the exploding sprinkles went off, releasing Pinkie and letting her fall to the floor. Applejack was right by her side and quickly pulled her away.

Sunset watched as all this happened, unsure what to believe, until her eyes locked onto the one thing that seemed totally out of place. One of the Ghostbusters, the closest one to her, looked exactly like her! Granted she typically had her hair in a ponytail rather than loose like her, but…

The last of the magic restraints gave out, and she fell into the Moon Pool screaming in fear.

Sunset Shimmer blinked as Sombra looked at her friends and listed off the names of the Knights of the Round Table. Having done a report on Arthurian Legend after the Nightmare Moon Incident, she recognized the names instantly. And then she remembered something they learned on this job.

It was said that only the descendants of King Arthur's Knights could truly defeat Sombra.

Her train of thought broke as she heard a scream. Turning in shock, Sunset Shimmer saw her human counterpart fall and splash into the Moon Pool. Gritting her teeth, Sunset pulled her Proton Pack off, ran for the Moon Pool, and dove in after her.

The water of the Moon Pool was crystal clear, and made Sunset tingle all over. It reminded her of when she got slimed by Slimer, and how she theorized that, because some believed Ectoplasm was concentrated Magic Power and she got all tingly back then, that somehow Sunset was surrounded by magic again, and strong magic at that. However she felt a warmth coming from her amulet around her neck. But there was something else too. The charm that the ferry captain had given her was glowing as well. Paying no attention to either, Sunset dove after her counterpart. It was clear from human Sunset's panicked expression that she didn't know how to swim. As soon as she was close enough, Sunset reached out and took her counterpart's hand, stabilizing her and coming down to be level with the human. She knew they were on the clock, as they couldn't hold their breath forever, but for a moment, both young women floated weightless in the water and just looked at each other, their hair drifting around their heads almost like a fiery halo.

Sunset pointed up, indicating they had to surface. Her counterpart nodded, still kinda freaked out. Taking hold of the Ghostbuster around the waist with one arm, she did her best to help her mirror image kick towards the surface.

Slimer hovered around the Moon Pool, looking nervous, as the battle started up again. He looked down just as a pair of redheads broke the surface and gasped for air. Floating down, Slimer reached over to help Sunset Shimmer, and pulled her out of the water. He blinked in confusion when he saw she wasn't wearing her Ghostbusters jumpsuit. The redhead looked up and recoiled in fear before a hand came down on her shoulder.

"Don't worry," Sunset Shimmer said to her counterpart. "He's harmless."

"Tha… that's a ghost!" the other Sunset exclaimed.

"Yea. He is. But he's friendly."

Sunset closed her eyes for a moment, giving her time to figure out what to say. With a nod she opened her eyes and looked for Gwenevere's Bow. She spotted it near her discarded Proton Pack… in the middle of a fight between Rainbow Dash and a ghost.

"Dash! The Bow!" Sunset called out. The chromatic haired girl spared a moment to look at her friend, then looked down enough to spot it. Looking back at Sunset, she nodded before using the Capture Stream to slam her opponent around and throwing him straight up into the ceiling. Unfortunately another Ghost charged at her and swept her off her feet, eliciting a string of profanities both English and Japanese from the athlete that was soon followed up by a veritable declaration of war as she unleashed hell. After a moment Rainbow Dash managed to maneuver closer to the bow and tried kicking it closer to Sunset. Sombra also took notice and started to charge up an energy orb. He recognized the weapon.

Gritting her teeth, Sunset dove for the Bow. As soon as her fingers closed around it, she felt a searing pain in her side as she suddenly found herself flying sideways into the cavern wall. Human Sunset ran over, concern showing on her face as she knelt down to check on her mirror image. There was a burn on Sunset's side, the jumpsuit smoldering a bit, but strangely there was no hole. It was then that human Sunset noticed something around her counterpart's neck and reached over to take a look. It was a simple shark tooth pendant, and it was glowing blue. Behind it was an amulet of some kind.

She soon found her mirror image lifting something and trying to put it in her hands. It was clear she was in pain, but she was pushing through it. Looking down, Sunset found… her ancestor's Bow.

"You're gonna need this," Sunset Shimmer managed to say as she levered herself up a bit, wincing in pain. "Call it a hunch, but… this will only work for you."

"What can I do?" human Sunset asked, her Irish accent a clear contrast between the two. Her mirror image looked up at her, and their eyes met.

"You can end this," was her reply. "I… I'll be fine. But I can't finish him. You can."

"How?"

Sunset just pushed the bow closer to her counterpart's chest. The message was clear. She had to use the Bow.

The Ghostbusters and Starlight gasped in shock as they watched Sunset get hit by the energy orb and go flying. For Starlight it was because up until now none of them actually got hurt. For the rest of the Ghostbusters, it was because their friend just went down. And in that moment, something in them all snapped. One of their own had been attacked directly. That was NOT going to go without a response. Six Neutrona Wands turned towards Sombra, and unleashed positively charged hell at the spectral monarch. Even Fluttershy, the normally timid girl, had a serious look on her face as she held down the trigger. Right now she looked like she could stare down a full grown dragon.

Human Sunset stood up, her gaze shifting between her ancestor's bow and her mirror image. After a moment she closed her eyes and held the Bow close. She was scared. But something inside her told her that she had to try.

"Tabhair dom an neart chun é seo a fheiceáil trí..." she said quietly to herself in Irish, asking for strength before opening her eyes and adjusting her grip on Gwenevere's Bow. As soon as her hand touched the bowstring, energy swirled around it and formed an arrow. This surprised her, but at the same time… it meant that she actually could fight.

Turning to face Sombra, who was still contending with six very pissed off Ghostbusters, she raised the Bow and took aim, drawing the bowstring back to her cheek.

Sombra tried desperately to fend off the Ghostbusters as six Proton Streams danced around his form. He underestimated the sheer ferocity that they were capable of. He hadn't anticipated taking one of them down would trigger such a response. In fact he figured quite the opposite. Seeing one of their own go down should have demoralized them. Broken them. Instead… it turned them into dragons. Even Sombra's own guards seemed to shy away from the onslaught as the Ghostbusters just tore into him. Just as he was about to try a spell to break free of the barrage, he cried out in pain as something slammed into the back of his knee. Turning enough to see what had hit him, Sombra visibly paled. Standing by the fallen Ghostbuster, was Gwenevere's descendant. He recognized the look in her eye. It was the look of a Celtic Warrior. It was the same look he had seen long ago in Gwenevere's eye. She drew back on the Bow and fired another arrow made of light, nailing him in the shoulder and causing him to cry out in pain.

Twilight saw what was going on and adjusted her grip.

"Switch to Capture Streams!" she called out. "Hold him!"

The remaining Ghostbusters let up just long enough to switch to manual Capture and fired again, this time their Streams wrapped around Sombra and held him in place. They could feel Sombra pulling in an attempt to break free. This was no longer a vengeful King. This was a scared animal surrounded by predators, and there was blood in the water.

She drew back on the Bow again, lining up on Sombra, and held it there.

"Your reign of terror ends now," human Sunset drawled. "I won't let ya threaten my home or my friends!"

For a moment she closed her eyes.

"Epona… guide my hand," she said quietly before opening her eyes and focusing. Adjusting her aim, she took a breath, held it… and released the arrow.

The magical arrow flew straight and true, right into Sombra's chest and piercing his spectral armor right where his heart would be if he were alive. Held in the Capture Streams of the Ghostbusters, Sombra had no chance of evading the attack and cried out as he was struck. Energy started to spiderweb across Sombra's body from where he had been struck by light arrows. His armor started to crack, and he writhed in agony. Soon his entire body was covered in glowing cracks before giving out one last cry and exploding. The energy unleashed swirled around the chamber like a hurricane, drawing all of Sombra's minions along with it and tearing them apart as well, before erupting up through the ceiling.

The resulting discharge could be seen all the way back to Westside High as energy poured into the sky, piercing a cloud, and…

Everything went silent.


Author's Note: Blame Google translate if the Irish is butchered. Supposed to say something along the lines of "Give me the strength to see this through".