Everyone started coughing as smoke filled the whole place, but it was slowly melting away.
"Are you all okay?" asked Twilight.
"Yes, we are." said Rukia.
"Orihime." began Ichigo before running over to his friend and putting his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but Sunset…" began Orihime worried about her friend.
"Easy."
Turning her head to the side, she saw Sunset being lifted up by Sci-Twilight.
"I'm fine. Don't worry." said Sunset with a small smile, making her smile as she saw that her friend was safe.
Suddenly, an evil, sinister laugh flooded the room and everyone turned their gaze to the front to see the last remnants of the smoke screen fading away.
By the time the smoke dissipated completely, everyone was shocked and horrified when they saw a black-maned, armored, red-eyed unicorn laughing in an evil manner.
"Hahaha. Yes! I can feel it! My power is full again! Hahaha." said King Sombra.
"That… That's…?" asked Fluttershy.
"Yes. That is King Sombra." said Spike horrified to see his former enemy.
"I know this is terrible, but honestly, I was expecting something more intimidating." said Renji, catching the evil unicorn's attention.
"Oh, you want something intimidating? Allow me to indulge you." said King sombra before shooting out of his horn a magical beam.
Renji was so surprised by that that he couldn't react when the beam hit him, sending him flying into a wall.
"Renji!" exclaimed Rukia with concern.
"Thank you. You were an excellent test target." began King Sombra before turning his gaze to the young woman. "I thank you as well. Had it not been for you, I wouldn't have regained my power."
"You bastard!" exclaimed Ichigo before lunging towards him with his zanpakuto raised.
However, just as he was about to hit him, King Sombra raised a magic shield that blocked the attack that threw wind waves around him due to the force put up.
"Pathetic." began King Sombra before firing a magic beam, but Ichigo managed to put up Zangetsu as a shield, though he was pushed back with the others. "You all have nothing to do against my power."
"You think so yourself." said Rainbow Dash before running at full speed towards him.
"Rainbow Dash, no!" shouted Applejack trying to stop her, but it was too late.
Rainbow Dash advanced at full speed as she zigzagged back and forth to try to catch him by surprise, but King Sombra saw her intention and raised his front paws to slam them into the ground, sending a wave of magic through the ground that hit the sporty girl, sending her flying with the others.
It was then that Twilight concentrated her magic and shot a magic beam, but King Sombra shot one of his own that impacted against that of the transformed princess.
Both beams remained neutral for a few seconds before the one from the evil unicorn quickly overtook the other, heading straight for her.
"Shiten Koushun!" shouted Orihime standing in front of everyone and creating a shield composed of three triangles.
When the beam struck the shield, it stayed there until then, it flew back towards King Sombra, who was taken aback by that before shooting another magical beam that neutralized the other one with an explosion.
It was then that King Sombra's attention was focused on the transformed princess.
"Well, well, well. I didn't expect to see you again so soon, princess." said King Sombra.
"The feeling is mutual." said Twilight.
"As much as I would like to wipe you all out right now, I have more important matters to attend to, like taking back a kingdom." said King Sombra charging his horn with magic.
"Everyone take cover!" exclaimed Uryu.
The next instant, King Sombra released a magical blast.
From outside, an explosion could be seen happening inside the building which collapsed in the process, eventually turning into a pile of rubble.
Above the rubble was King Sombra, who was using his magic to levitate into the air.
"A part of me hopes that you have survived. That way, I can give you a more gruesome and fitting end for you." said King Sombra before disappearing as he walked away laughing evilly.
In the pile of rubble, nothing happened for a few seconds until then, a part of it began to shake and soon after, a golden shield emerged from the rubble.
Inside that shield, there were Orihime, who managed to create the shield in time, and everyone else.
Seeing that they were out, Orihime undid the shield.
"Are you all okay?" asked Orihime.
"Yes, thanks to you. If it hadn't been for that shield, we probably wouldn't be counting." said Sci-Twilight.
"Well, just most of us, since a couple of us are spirits." said Pinkie Pie.
"This is terrible. Now that King Sombra has regained all his power, he's stronger than ever." said Twilight.
"He didn't even have that level of power when we faced him the first time." said Spike.
"It's all my fault. If I hadn't let myself get captured by him, Orihime wouldn't have had to heal him." said Sunset with her head lowered in guilt.
It was then that she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Orihime looking down at her with a smile.
"You aren't to blame. I did it because you are someone important to me. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had let him hurt you if I hadn't done something." said Orihime.
In fact, it reminded her of when Ulquiorra cornered her and told her that if she didn't come with him voluntarily, her friends would die in their fights against the arrancar and she agreed to protect them all.
Sunset was touched by what Orihime said about her.
"Thank you. I would have done the same thing too if I were in your place." said Sunset with a smile.
"You're welcome." said Orihime with a smile.
"Besides, the only one to blame here is King Sombra for kidnapping our friend and forcing Orihime to use her powers on him." said Rainbow Dash.
"Or the author for writing all this." said Pinkie Pie.
Pss. Leave me out of it, huh?
"All right. Let's get back to the matter at hand." said Renji.
"Right. Now that that guy has regained his powers, what do you think he'll do now?" asked Ichigo.
"The last thing he said was that he had a kingdom to take back." said Fluttershy.
"He must be referring to the Crystal Empire. Surely he'll want to go back to Equestria to conquer it again." said Twilight.
"If he wants to go to Equestria, then there's only one place he'll go to get it." said Uryu.
"The statue portal." said Chad.
"In that case, we must protect the portal to prevent him from crossing it." said Applejack.
"Good. Let's not waste any more time. We have to get there before he does." said Rukia.
With nothing more to say, they all set off to stop the evil unicorn from carrying out his plans.
It wasn't long before King Sombra appeared at Canterlot High, specifically, in front of the statue that served as a portal to his homeland, Equestria.
"I just have to cross that portal and once I return, my power and wrath will fall upon all those who oppose me, especially those meddling ponies and that royal couple who rule MY empire." said King Sombra beginning to slowly advance towards the portal.
However, when he was halfway through, a magical beam shot in front of him, forcing him to stop.
"You're not taking another step!"
Looking ahead, he saw Twilight, Mane 7, the Spike, Ichigo and his friends positioning themselves in front of the portal.
"I see what happened earlier wasn't enough to kill you." said King Sombra.
"That's right. You're going to need a lot more to take us down, dear." said Rarity.
"We won't let you enter that portal. We'll stop you right here and now." said Ichigo.
"Hahaha. Really? You think you can beat me?" asked King Sombra.
"In case you haven't noticed, there are many more of us than you. You're at a disadvantage." said Rainbow Dash.
"Yes, you're right. In that case, I'll have to even the playing field." said King Sombra before charging his magic horn.
In the next instant, several beasts made of black energy emerged from the ground, becoming more than the number of allies.
"Thank you, Rainbow Dash." said Renji sarcastically, receiving a nervous smile from the sporty girl.
"Now, attack!" said King Sombra, causing his beasts to rush forward.
"Defend the portal!" said Twilight as they all launched into combat.
Fluttershy was moving to the side when she immediately stopped at the sight of a magical beast charging towards her and when she raised her paw, all she did was close her eyes and wait for the blow, but it never came, as she felt someone grabbing her and pulling her out of the way.
Opening her eyes, she discovered that it was Rukia who saved her.
"Are you okay?" asked Rukia.
"Y-Yes. Thank you" said Fluttershy.
"Don't give them to me yet." began Rukia turning her gaze to the front to see another magical beast joining the first one. "Let's finish them off first." said Rukia before unsheathing her zanpakuto. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!" shouted Rukia as she swung her sword which turned completely white, plus a long white colored ribbon came out of the end of the handle.
Fluttershy couldn't help but be amazed at the shape and beauty of the released zanpakuto.
Sensing that as a threat, the magical beasts rushed into battle, but Rukia answered that by jabbing the ground four times in a semicircle.
From the punctured areas, ice particles flow out as she adopts a battle stance.
The particles accumulated at the tip of the zanpakuto and then…
"Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!" shouted Rukia releasing a great and powerful avalanche of cold air.
The magical beasts couldn't react in time and were engulfed by the avalanche and by the time it vanished, it revealed the beasts encased in blocks of ice, completely frozen.
Soon after, the blocks cracked and broke into thousands of pieces, as did the magical beasts.
Fluttershy gaped at the vice-captain's power.
"Wow. That was awesome." said Fluttershy.
"Thank you." said Rukia with a smile.
A magical beast charged towards Pinkie Pie, who looked up at him with a smile.
"Lucky for you, I was able to tidy up my hair between the previous chapter and this one, so I have no problem finding… this." began Pinkie Pie pulling out a huge rocket and lighting a match. "As the mad hatter would say, happy unbirthday!" said Pinkie Pie lighting the wick.
That sent the rocket rocketing off and before the magical beast could dodge it, the rocket pushed it until it tilted and flew straight up, taking the beast with it.
It kept flying until at last, it exploded in a brilliant show of colors.
"Oh." said Pinkie Pie as she sat in a folding chair and ate popcorn.
A magical beast came toward her from the side and prepared to attack her with its paw when…
"Mmm. It's missing something… explosive." began Pinkie Pie before releasing some of her sparkly powder on the popcorn. "What do you think?" asked Pinkie Pie tossing him the bag of popcorn that exploded on impact, along with the magical beast. "Yeah, too much spice."
Rainbow Dash ran around the magical beast, forming a rainbow-colored barrier around it due to the speed at which she was going.
The magical beast swung its head from side to side to try to locate her, but then, Rainbow Dash quickly came out from the side and hit it before returning to the rainbow barrier.
Soon after, the same thing happened and then the same thing again.
Rainbow Dash continued that process for a while, hitting the magical beast from each side while maintaining her circular run-in order to break the magical beast's concentration.
By the time the magical beast was staggering, Rainbow Dash sped away to quickly turn around and charge back towards it.
The result was Rainbow Dash ramming it so hard that it sent it flying, vanishing in the process.
"Ouch. That thing was tougher than I imagined. It'll be hurting me for the rest of the day." said Rainbow Dash rubbing her head.
"Roar, Zabimaru!" shouted Renji running his hand across his unsheathed zanpakuto, causing it to change shape.
With a sweep of his arm, he made his sword stretch out like a whip.
Not only did it strike the beast, but it also caused a wound on its body that was enough to make it vanish.
It was then that he noticed two magical beasts charging at him from both sides.
With a swift movement, he wrapped his whip-sword around one of them to then, with a very strong tug, send it flying straight towards the other magical beast, knocking them both down in the process.
They were about to get up when Renji made the tip of his sword strike them in a vertical motion, vanishing both of them in the process.
Once he was done with them, he made his sword-whip retract.
"Ha. Compared to the hollows, these are nothing more than test dummies." said Renji with a smile and his zanpakuto over his shoulder.
A magical beast directed its paw towards Applejack, who caught the paw with her hands and held it in place thanks to her magically enhanced strength.
The magical beast tried to push down with the intention of crushing her, but Applejack stayed in place the whole time without putting much effort into it.
After a while longer, Applejack decided to end it and swung the magical beast over her shoulder and then slammed it into the ground with so much force that it vanished.
She then saw another magical beast run towards her, which Applejack also did.
They both charged towards each other until, then, they jumped towards each other, with the magical beast trying to paw at it, but Applejack used her skills to dodge the attack and when the time was right, she punched it in the head that sent it crashing into the ground with so much force that it generated a crater in the process before disappearing.
"Wow. I think I went a little overboard." said Applejack as she saw the crater she created.
Suddenly, she heard a roar behind her and turned around to see a magical beast running quickly towards her.
It was so close to her that all she could do was brace for impact, but then, Chad stepped in front of her and his right arm began to glow at the same time the magical beast raised a paw to attack.
When the claw impacted, Applejack was shocked to see that Chad's right arm had turned black with thick red lines and had a shield fused with red patterns drawn in such a way that it looked like a skull.
What was most surprising was that he had used that arm shield to easily block the swipe.
"Brazo Derecho del Gigante!" shouted Chad.
The magical beast was unfazed by this and raised its other paw to strike, but before it could go to do anything else, Chad drew back his left fist.
"Brazo Izquierdo del Diablo!" shouted Chad causing his left arm to turn white with a dark red line before punching the magical beast in the chest, causing it to be sent flying back a long distance and as it flew, it faded away until it disappeared completely.
"Wow. That's some strength you got there, buddy." said Applejack, receiving a nod from the fullbringer.
Rarity jumped back and forth as she threw diamond discs, but they only caused cuts on the magical beasts.
Just as a magical beast positioned itself in front of her to attack her, she managed to raise a diamond shield in time that defended her, but the magical beast kept attacking, which caused Rarity to start trembling due to the effort she put into resisting.
In the end, she was able to concentrate enough to create another diamond shield on the side and use it to push the magical beast away.
Before the magical beast went to attack again, Rarity threw the first diamond shield like a disc, but the magical beast jumped to dodge it.
However, Rarity took advantage of that to throw the second shield like a disk, managing to cut the magical beast in half before it vanished.
"Rarity!"
Turning her head to the side, she saw Uryu dodging the attacks of several magical beasts at such a high speed that it looked like he was teleporting.
"Would you mind rounding up these beasts for me?" asked Uryu appearing at the fashionista's side.
"Sure, dear." said Rarity before creating a barrier around the magical beasts, enclosing them like cows in a pen.
With that finished, Uryu took a great leap, standing in mid-air over the pen of magical beasts.
"My pride as a quincy would be damaged if I let myself be beaten by filthy beasts like you." began Uryu, receiving angry roars from the magical beasts. "If you have nothing else to say…" began Uryu before drawing a bow and getting into position to shoot. "It's over." said Uryu before releasing his hand, causing several energy arrows to be shot towards the magical beasts, finishing them off in the process.
Once he was done, he returned to the fashionista's side.
"Nice aim." said Rarity with a smile.
Uryu adjusted his glasses.
"One doesn't get to be quincy just by dressing like one." said Uryu.
A magical beast charged towards Orihime and Sunset, who were looking at it with seriousness rather than fear or concern.
Just as the magical beast caught up to them and was ready to attack…
"Santen Kesshun!" shouted Orihime creating a shield against which the magical beast impacted. "Now, Sunset!"
Hearing the signal, Sunset rounded the shield and approached the magical beast before leaning on her hands on the ground so as to give it a double kick to the jaw, causing it to lean backwards.
Sunset took advantage of that to punch it a couple of times in the chest before kicking it a couple of times that sent it tumbling backwards.
The beast got up again and leapt towards her to attack her with its paw, but then…
"Shiten Koushun!" shouted Orihime creating a shield in front of the transformed unicorn that received the attack of the magical beast, but then, from the center of the shield a light emerged from which, a beam came out and hit the magical beast, sending it backwards. "Koten Zanshun!" shouted Orihime causing one of her fairies to fly straight towards the magical beast and pierce it like a knife, finishing it off in the process.
"Well done, Orihime." said Sunset with a smile.
"Thank you. We make a good team." said Orihime with a smile.
Twilight and Sci-Twilight used a combination of their powers to fight the magical beasts.
Twilight shot magical beams that stunned one magical beast for a few seconds before Sci-Twilight crushed it with some nearby debris, finishing it off for good.
Then, Sci-Twilight used her powers to levitate another magical beast for Twilight to hit it directly with a powerful magic beam, undoing it in the process.
"Ha. Who knew I would one day fight alongside myself." said Twilight.
"Frankly, I never imagined this in my wildest dreams." said Sci-Twilight.
Two magical beasts tried to attack them from both sides, but then, Twilight and Sci-Twilight pointed their hands towards each other's side so that in that way, it resulted in Twilight shooting a magical beam at the magical beast trying to attack Sci-Twilight and Sci-Twilight using her powers to send the magical beast trying to attack Twilight flying.
Because of this, the two magical beasts were eliminated.
"That's our girls." said Spike and Dog-Spike before crashing their paws together.
Ichigo used his shinigami speed to move quickly among the magical beasts, avoiding their attacks in the process before finishing them off with heavy slashes from his zanpakuto.
It was then that he saw several magical beasts charging towards him swiftly.
Responding to that, Ichigo concentrated his power on Zangetsu as he got into position.
"Getsuga Tenshou!" shouted Ichigo swinging his weapon, thus launching a huge wave of energy that immediately wiped out all the magical beasts.
Needless to say, Mane 7 and Twilight saw that and gasped.
"Unbelievable. I've never seen so much power like that." said Twilight.
"That's our Ichigo." said Rukia with a smile.
"Good. Looks like we're done with all those things." said Rainbow Dash.
"All that's left is…" began Sci-Twilight.
"Me."
They all moved quickly to narrowly dodge a black magic beam.
Looking ahead, they saw King Sombra, who was pissed to see his forces being easily taken down.
"If you want something to go right, you have to do it yourself." said King Sombra.
"It's over, King Sombra. Surrender." said Twilight.
"Mmm. Let me think about it. Uh… NO!" exclaimed King Sombra before shooting a magic beam.
"Santen Kesshun!" shouted Orihime creating a shield that protected them all from the attack.
"Grrr. You're starting to annoy me." said King Sombra before using his magic to wrap Orihime in a black aura then tossing her aside.
"Orihime!" shouted Sunset running with all her might, making it to the impact zone, but that caused her to fall on top of her.
"Sunset, are you okay?" asked Orihime with concern.
"Argh. Yes, I am." said Sunset.
"You bastard. You'll pay for that." said Renji throwing Zabimaru, who stretched into a whip shape, but King Sombra shot a beam that destroyed the sword in parts.
"That's all you have?" asked King Sombra.
"Unfortunately for you… no." began Renji. "Higa Zekkou!" shouted Renji, using his reiryoku to lift the pieces of Zabimaru into the air to then send them straight towards the evil unicorn.
For a moment, they thought they did something, but were shocked when, as the smoke cleared, they saw that King Sombra had created a black dome that protected him from the attack.
"As I asked before, that's all you have?" asked King Sombra before shooting a magic beam, but Renji dodged to the side to avoid it.
That's when Applejack and Chad appeared in front of him with right and left fists respectively ready to strike, but King Sombra raised a shield in time.
However, the sheer combined force was enough to make him slide backwards.
"Meddling brats." said King Sombra before enveloping them in a black aura and sending them crashing into the wall.
"Let's see if you can handle this." said Uryu shooting thousands of energy arrows from his bow, but King Sombra responded to it with thousands of magic beams that neutralized the arrows before launching another round towards the quincy, who quickly moved to escape the impact zone.
Suddenly, Rukia lunged towards him with her sword ready to strike, but King Sombra created a sword from his horn and blocked the attack.
Both remained neutral until Rukia noticed how the evil unicorn's horn began to glow, so she was forced to quickly move out of the way to avoid a magic beam that could have damaged her quite badly.
"That's it. Now it's my turn." said Rainbow Dash before setting off running in circles around the evil unicorn.
Knowing that trick, King Sombra raised his forelegs and impacted them against the ground, sending a wave of black energy across the ground, but Rainbow Dash jumped in time to avoid it.
"Ha. That won't work on me again." said Rainbow Dash.
"No, but maybe this one will." said King Sombra before launching another wave of black magic across the ground that caught the jock girl by surprise and sent her flying.
"Eat this." said Pinkie Pie throwing explosive cupcakes, but King Sombra neutralized them with his magic beams when they were halfway down.
Tired of that, he used his magic to stop a cupcake in mid-air to then send it back toward Pinkie Pie, who suffered from the cupcake explosion and ended up with charred hair and face.
"I should have said no returns accepted." said Pinkie Pie.
Rarity created a diamond barrier around him to try to contain him.
"Pathetic." said King Sombra before unleashing a blast of magic that destroyed the diamonds like glass, much to the horror of the fashionista.
Sci-Twilight levitated several objects which she threw towards the evil unicorn, but he caught them with his magic before throwing them back towards her who covered herself with her arms waiting for the impact.
Fortunately, Twilight shot a magical beam that destroyed the objects, saving her counterpart.
"I've had enough of this." said King Sombra starting to run towards the portal.
However, when he was halfway there, Ichigo suddenly appeared in front of him with his sword held high, forcing him to stop and create a sword from his horn to block the attack.
"Don't forget about me, you bastard." said Ichigo applying all his strength, but King Sombra was proving to be strong enough to resist.
"I haven't. I simply didn't consider you of any importance." said King Sombra before releasing a wave of magic that pushed back the substitute shinigami.
"You will soon do the opposite. Getsuga Tenshou!" shouted Ichigo releasing a wave of blue energy, but King Sombra released his own wave of black magic, causing both waves to collide with each other and neutralize each other.
Ichigo then quickly appeared at the side of King Sombra, catching him by surprise, but gave him enough time to raise a shield that protected him from a sword strike, though he was knocked aside due to the force of the attack.
Ichigo did the same thing again from another side, but this time, King Sombra was more prepared and launched a magic beam that forced him to use Zangetsu as a shield to protect himself, though he was pushed back.
"Certainly, I can see that you are tougher than any of the others, but your power is still no match for mine." said King Sombra.
"We'll see about that." said Ichigo before quickly appearing in front of the evil unicorn and giving it a vertical slash.
Or so he thought he did, as King Sombra quickly teleported away before the sword touched him and reappeared again right in front of the portal, much to everyone's horror.
"If it's any consolation, once I'm done with Equestria, this world will be next!" said King Sombra before advancing towards the portal.
"No! Stop him!" shouted Twilight in horror and urgency.
But it was too late, for before anyone could do anything, King Sombra stepped through the portal.
"You won't escape!" exclaimed Ichigo running towards the portal and through it.
"Ichigo!" exclaimed Orihime with concern.
"He's really gone in without hesitation." commented Spike.
"We should go after them!" said Sunset.
"You stay here and protect the place!" said Twilight to the others.
"Understood." said Rukia.
Wasting no time, Twilight, Sunset and Spike went through the portal back to Equestria, hoping to get there before it was too late.