Twilight screamed out a warning, but it was too late...the beam struck the boulder and Rainbow never saw it coming! She had been trying to protect Rainbow and destroy the large rock before it became a problem, but she never thought Rainbow would be so distracted she wouldn't notice it at all! The explosion itself surely paralyzed her, and Twilights fears only grew as she saw several more bits of debris fall into the dust cloud she had created. Rainbow exited the cloud within seconds, but she was not soaring high and laughing like she always would after some near disaster, no she was falling. Boulders surrounded her on all sides and her wing was clearly dislocated, and that's if she was lucky. Clearly though, she was in no position of luck, Daring Do was shouting below her and attempting to run to her in time, but the drones in pursuit caught her easily in her distracted state and pulled her to the ground. Twilight watched as they all sunk their poisoned fangs into her flesh, Daring Do struggled for several more seconds before finally going limp under the dog pile.

Unable to take anymore, Twilight attempted to take off towards her periled friends, she was quickly grabbed and slammed back to the ground by several dark tendrils sprouting from beneath the ground and was forced to only watch as the boulders, and Rainbow Dash, came crashing down over Daring Do. She turned and saw King Sombra slowly walking up behind her, her fury reignited and she whipped her body around for an offensive. She lunged towards the king with her horn flaring! A tendril quickly blocked her path and struck her across the face, knocking her back several paces. She flared out her wings, Sombra merely stared at her, unimpressed.

"Don't waste your strength tiny Princess, you're clearly no match for me in your sorry state..."

"Burn in Tartarus!" she screamed back at him

Tears winked at the sides of her eyes, they filled her with anger and hatred for the stallion before her. She was about to lunge out again when she heard several loud thumps behind her, and the sound of hooves approaching. She turned to see Aecious, Shining Star and Trixie galloping their way to her. Sombra barely seemed to care and made no attempt to stop them as they reached Twilight's side and helped her to her hooves.

"Aww isn't that sweet, the gang's all here...or what's left of it anyways" he chuckled mockingly, but then his eyes narrowed as he saw the Amulet blazed across Trixie's chest and the Crystal heart which she now held under her hoof.

"Well, that at least explains what happened to my army, I knew there was no way a pathetic band of disorderly foals such as yourselves could have beaten my horde without some kind of special power...Give it to me, and the Crystal Heart, and I promise to only kill this one" he motioned at Twilight

He reached out a hoof to take the Heart from Trixie, and was met with only a magical slap to the hoof, and a pulsing field of energy that knocked him back several meters. He glared at Trixie as he stumbled to gain balance

"Stupid whorse! How dare you strike me! I am a king! No pony strikes me and lives!"

He took two steps towards Trixie, her eyes lit up with red aura as she prepared for the fight. He advanced on the group with a quickened pace, his eyes so locked on Trixie he almost didn't see it coming...Within five meters of Trixie and the group, Aecious dove forward with remarkable speed and launched an uppercut straight for the King's jaw. He missed by centimeters as Sombra stumbled backwards, and attempted to regain balance.

"Keep on him! Don't give him a chance to focus any magic!"

Aecious seemed to have read the kings mind as he charged him again, right as Sombra's horn started to glow he made another swipe for the kings muzzle, effectively breaking his focus and forcing him to dodge back again. Trixie caught the idea quick and dashed forward to help as Aecious danced and jumped around Sombra, barely missing as he tried to strike the King, She tossed the Heart to Shining Star before proceeding after the two fighters. Shining Star started forward after them, then turned to Twilight

"You should go to Daybreak...while there is still a chance, Celestia knows he needs you right now more than ever.." He saw her eyes dart to Sombra and quickly added "Don't you worry, we got this, go!"

She nodded and instantly darted away from the battle. She thanked Cadence for this healing bubble Trixie had around her, without it, she wasn't sure she could even move at all.

She reached Daybreaks side and instantly bit back tears, the scythe was still stabbed into his back and their was a coat of red dominating his brown fur. She pulled out the scythe with her magic and tossed it to the side, then she lifted his face from the ground and set it sideways, so his face was no longer in the dirt. She struggled back tears and ran her hoof along his back. She lowered her muzzle to his fur and lightly rubbed her cheek along his back following her hoof. She tried to nuzzle his cheek but only succeeded in making herself tear up more.

"Oh Daybreak...I'm so so sorry...If I had only gotten here sooner...if I had only been here this whole time, none of this would have happened..."

Her hoof pasted over his wound and she gave a light yelp, something had shocked her. She looked down and her eyes widened at what she saw. There, inside his wound, there was still magical aura flowing...but it was not his normal color. It was the same color as the aura he had been covered in when she had first arrived, and although she had only caught a glimpse of it before it faded, she was positive this was the same kind. But why was it flowing around in his wound?

She leaned closer, and saw that the fibers of his skin were shooting small sparks at each other...as thought they were attempting to reconnect themselves. This almost made Twilight grin with hope, but she stopped when she noticed that many of the strands were not connecting. Like they were rejecting each other, Twilight had no idea what that meant.

"Oh Daybreak...what is happening to you?"

.....

Being dead wasn't so bad, it was like floating through the clouds. There's no cares and no worries, just the freedom of floating through the whiteness. He felt no need to look around at his surroundings, or even open his eyes at all, he was just there. Enjoyment of the peace and quiet, the freedom from all of life's worries and responsibilities.

"Ok that's enough of that!"

A firm hand struck the side of his face causing his eyes to shoot open in surprise. He shouldn't even be able to feel anything because...because...well he didn't know really. At first his answer would have been because he was dead, but considering his face still stung he would say that was the wrong answer.

After blinking his eyes several times he looked around at his environment and found...nothing. There was no environment to see, it was just as he had felt, white nothingness. Except for the figure standing over him...he looked up and saw Solar Eclipse looking down at him with an unamused look stuck to his face.

"What's with you" he regarded his other half with little concern for the current surrounding

"What's with me? That's what you say? How about what's with you, laying around like some dead animal waiting to fade away, is that how you're gonna repay me?"

Daybreak's eyebrows raised slightly "Repay you? What are you on about?"

Solar moved his free hand to the side, which had been covering his chest, and revealed a blade sized hole in it. The wound began to bleed the moment his hand was away, and he quickly replaced it back. Daybreak started upward but Solar motioned him back down.

"Don't bother, we are past helping at this point"

"I'm so confused...what happened? Where am I?...The last thing I remember is the fight and then we...."

He looked to Solar for some kind of reassurance, but found only his pained stare looking back at him

"There's no easy answer...I suppose I should go in order of your questions...What happened, well that's pretty simple...we died...or rather, I died while in control of your body.."

Daybreaks expression did not change to show any understanding which told Solar he was not helping ease his confusion

"It's rather hard to explain...I guess the simplest way to say it is, I died and you didn't."

"Why?"

"Because I was in control at the time, right now, back in reality, we are just lying on the ground with our body's magic trying to heal the wound. But it can't because it's trying to heal the wrong body."

He had clearly lost Daybreak again and tried to reword his explanation a different way. With a small wave of his hand a magical image shimmered to life in front of Daybreak showing two figures standing next to each other

"Ok imagine this, two beings in one body, that's us right?"

Solar swung his hands past one another and the two shadowy figures crushed against each other, leaving only one.

Daybreak nodded "Yeah"

"Ok now let's just say, two bodies inside one form, how's that?"

He swung his hands again and the single figure shimmered and became slightly larger in size and muscle growth, but basically looked the same. Then changed back to the previous form, this repeated until the process was happening so quickly the images began to look like they were jumping in and out of each other. Daybreaks eyes burst wide

"Now I get it!"

"You sure?"

"Yes" he shrieked with excitement in his voice "You and me don't just have separate powers or separate minds, we have our own bodies too, so damage to one isn't carried over to the other...but then...you lied to me that time..."

Solar knew he was referring to their last lengthy talk and shook his head

"I didn't lie, we aren't free of each other's damage, You're unconscious right now for a reason, if we were completely separate you would have just swapped right back when I died."

"Is there any other damage to me other than probably a headache from hitting the ground?"

"You'll probably feel slightly drained once you go back, I had to use more than just my own power during that fight...it seems we were wrong about Sombra, he was a much stronger foe than we thought, it looks like Alicorn magic is the only way to defeat him, he just shrugs off everything else with that shadow form of his..."

Daybreak got to his feet and looked around, then allowed his eyes to fall back on Solar's wound, covered by his hand. He suddenly felt a wave of sadness

"You said you died...does that really mean..."

"Yeah, sorry Daybreak, you gotta finish this without me..."

"Wait...but you're still here, your talking to me right now, it doesn't seem lie that wound bleeds unless you remove your hand we can just swap out again once we win and get you to a doctor...and where are we anyways?"

Solar smirked

"That won't work Daybreak, my body, my physical form is already dead and gone, only my psyche and some of my power is felt in you. You could say this wound not bleeding is just me suffering until I let myself die, I can't prolong it forever...as for where we are, well we are in our fathers domain...the Chaos Region. It's a pocket dimension filled with nothingness, father frequently spends his time here just creating random bit of chaos for amusement, it won't harm anypony and it's his realm anyways."

Despite his curiosity about the "Chaos Region" Daybreak still needed ore clarification on some other things first. Drawing his gaze away from the whiteness, he once again found Solar's eyes.

"How long do you have...you know...left?"

"Minutes...an hour maybe...I'm gonna hold on at least long enough to watch you beat this bastard...but then I'm gone"

Daybreak's gaze dropped, he would have shed tears, but they refused to form for some reason. Solar put his free hand on Daybreak's shoulder

"Don't weep for me, I was created to be evil remember? This is a fitting end."

"But you weren't evil! You were good at heart!"

"Only because I shared yours, you felt the merciless rage that filled us when I was in control, I kill without remorse, it's what I was created for."

"...I thought of you as my friend Solar Eclipse"

*silence*

"What? Do you not believe me?"

"No I do...that's the weird part"

Daybreak saw Solar smile, that was enough for him right then

"So how do we get out of here? You want me to materialize a zipper or something and let myself out or..."

"As amusing as that would be, no...all you have to do is will yourself back, think about it hard, and you'll wake up back in your body. But remember, you're fighting him with your own strength this time, not mine. You have to deliver the killing blow with Alicorn magic, or he'll just keep coming back."

"I know"

"Good, then go"

Daybreak shut his eyes and began to focus on waking up again

"Thank you Solar Eclipse"

Even though his eyes were closed, he still saw the white flash of light inside his mind, then he felt a rush and a familiar, yet painful, crash...He was back!

.....

Head trauma, check...unending ache in his chest where a hole previously was, check...the knowledge that he had bucked up once again, check. Yep he was alive.

Daybreak shot open his eyes, immediately he rolled over onto his back and sat up. He was momentarily blinded by the sunlight, but quickly shook away the stars in his eyes when he heard the scream of a familiar mare. Daybreak refocused his eyes on the scene directly ahead of him...Trixie was being held in the air by her neck, a thin black tendril wrapped around it and traveled back to the ground near King Sombra. Twilight stood a few feet away from Daybreak, her back to him and her eyes locked on Trixie. Aecious was on the opposite side of Sombra, a dagger clenched between his teeth as he struck a menacing stance and Shining Star hovered just out of range holding the Heart. None of them dared to move towards Sombra, in case he should decide to just snap Trixie's neck.

Nopony had yet noticed Daybreak sit up, or sensed any of his returning magic apparently, which not only gave him the element of surprise, but also offered him a chance at a quick end to the fight. However that opportunity was snatched away as he began to rise, for Trixie's eyes had flared up in blood red light, and from somewhere within her core, a shockwave of red aura exploded outwards destroying the tendrils holding her and knocking everypony else on their flanks or sides. Trixie's hooves barely touched the ground before she charged Sombra again! Although he had been knocked off balance, The King quickly righted himself and caught the charging mare before she could stop and dodge. He fired a black ball of energy at the charging mare, striking her full in the face, then grabbing hold of her with his own aura and slamming her against the side of the rock wall! Trixie hit the ground with a thud, the Alicorn Amulet clattered onto the ground from her neck...she was out cold, if not worse.

Daybreak was on his feet before any of the others, and felt the fire of hatred for the King reignite within his chest. He took a step forward but stopped in his tracks as he saw Twilight begin to drop as well. A transparent magical field was disintegrating from around her as she fell and Daybreak instantly understood how she had come out here in the first place.Trixie had placed a health field around her, which was now gone due to her lack of consciousness. He teleported over and caught Twilight in his arms, brushing a piece of her mane out of her eyes, he turned her cheek to look at her eyes. They were glassy at best and clearly fading from consciousness, but she was still there. She looked up into his emerald eyes with a soft smile of surprise

"I'm sorry...I thought you were dead...I...I had to come after you...I heard about all those things you did...just to save me...I love you"

She let out a soft, but clearly strained giggle, and went limp in his arms. Her head fell to the ground as her neck muscles quit, but Daybreak caught her and held her to his chest. Looking down he watched as the black aura on her belly sprang back to life as though free of its forced sleep, and immediately cover her entire body in a thin aura. It settled on her body and fizzled lightly against her fur, Sombra's curse had finally taken full hold on her. Daybreak felt for her pulse, his fingers found the veins on her neck and felt as the faint beats slowed until he could feel them no more.

"Twilight...No...Twilight don't you dare do this...Don't you dare die on me...Not after all this..."

"Daybreak"

"No no no no! Twilight wake up! Wake up you hear me?! Wake up!"

"Daybreak"

"You're stronger than this, you're the strongest mare I know, you can't be beaten by him...by this...Please Twilight wake up!"

"DAYBREAK!"

"What!?" He screamed looking around expecting to see somepony there, still completely unaware of the fight going on behind him. He looked around but found no one there.

"Daybreak it's me, Solar Eclipse, have you forgotten about me already...I'm still here ya know!"

"What do you want..."

"Daybreak there is no time for mourning right now, pick yourself up, she's gone...but there's still a way, but first you have to kill him...you hearing me Daybreak?! You have to kill Sombra or she has no chance, do it...Now!"

"Yeah...Yeah I hear you..."

He slowly rose to his feet, black flames snaked their way up his legs from the ground to his hands and surrounded his palms. His emerald eyes became that of a serpent and he snarled like a mad beast as he stared towards King Sombra, who was currently fighting with Aecious and Shining in the distance. A sinister grin found it's way onto his face as he looked towards the distant battle

"I hear you loud and clear"

.....

Aecious dove under the oncoming blade, he avoided losing his head by only a few inches and came up with a hoof punch to the kings face. Sombra phased into a shadow allowing Aecious to slip straight through him, as he began to solidify Aecious gave a powerful flap with his wings and propelled himself back at the king. He twisted himself in the air and slashed at the kings throat with the dagger held between his teeth. Sombra had begun to make a lunge for Aecious, but was forced to allow him to phase through him yet again. The knife passed through the kings shadowy throat leaving him unharmed, Aecious watched in near slow motion as the blade made its full pass through the king. The moment it was fully free, Sombra solidified and attempted to stab Aecious' chest with his horn whilst he was still off balance. At the last moment Aecious brought his rear right leg around and collided it with the back side of Sombra's head, knocking him away several feet and causing him to be briefly dazed.

Aecious landed and winced in pain, the soreness of striking his bare leg against the kings armored helm made standing uncomfortable and difficult. Sombra shook his head to clear away the stars in his eyes, growling in annoyance he charged up his horn causing several black crystal shards to rise from below the ground. The shards hovered menacingly in the air and began to fire themselves at Aecious with impressive speed. He dodged many of them in a single jump but felt several scrape against him as they passed by, and several more tearing through his cloak. He landed and tore the robe from his body, scowling in annoyance at his destroyed clothing. Sombra merely sneered and summoned up more shards from the earth, these ones larger than before.

"Oh buck" Was all Aecious uttered as they began to fire at him.

He turned and ran as the shards shot like spears seeking his flesh! He dove and dodged but it was only a matter of time before one met its mark. He dove and skidded flat on his chest barely avoiding one smashing right in between his spread legs, he shuddered at the thought of losing such a precious body part and began to scramble to his hooves. Three more large shards launched themselves at him before he could stand and would have succeeded in striking him if Sombra's focus had not been smashed away just then. Shining Star had swooped down from above and smashed the Crystal Heart down on top of the King's head, leaving a good sized dent in his helm and causing him to hit the dirt, clearly stunned and in pain.

Aecious got to his hooves with Shining's aid and took his chance to attack the stunned King. He quickly approached with the dagger still held between his teeth and made for a swipe at the Kings throat. Inches from his mark he was teleported away, just as Sombra himself lunged forward, a dark scythe sprouting from the ground and slashing where Aecious had just been milliseconds before. Aecious reappeared where Daybreak was standing, several meters from where the fight had been and yelped in surprise!

"Your welcome" was Daybreak's only greeting, but Aecious felt his chest explode with the warm fuzzies nonetheless.

Shining Star saw where they were and flew over to meet them, ignoring the pissed of King Sombra who was back on his hooves. He came to a stop and hovered just a few feet away, presenting the Crystal Heart in his outstretched hooves to Daybreak. He merely shook his head and pushed his arms away gently

"You've held onto it better than me so far, you keep it."

"We thought you were dead" He commented after giving a loyal nod to his command

"Yeah, I get that alot"

Shining raised and eyebrow, but Daybreak just shrugged.

"Isn't it great Aecious? With Daybreak's help we can get this jerk for sure!"

Aecious merely nodded, a light blush tinging his cheeks as he looked away from Daybreak. Shining noticed this and flew right in his face

"You ok? Your face is all flushed"

Aecious attempted to keep his stone look without reacting too much and removed the dagger from his teeth so he could speak "Y-yeah, must just be this weather, I might be catching something *cough *cough*" He faked a few coughs for emphasis and quickly looked away, replacing the blade in his mouth.

Daybreak, now fed up with waiting, strode past his companions and walked straight up to King Sombra. Aecious and Shining, noticing this, quickly followed behind him. Once he was right up in Sombra's face he glared into his eyes

"This time I'll make sure and put you down"

Sombra let out a small chuckle "I already killed you once, a second time shouldn't be that much harder"

"Release Twilight from your curse now, and I might only strip you of your magical powers.."

"Release her? She's as free as she could ever be now, free from everything, including life...just...like...YOU!"

Sombra's horn flared black and he vanished into smoke once again, Daybreak brought up his hands expecting an attack...but nothing seemed to happen and he thought perhaps the King had just been trying to intimidate him. Then out of nowhere the ground shook underneath him and black shards shot forth from the ground straight for his chest. Daybreak had no time to react and felt himself suddenly shoved to the side. He was pushed onto his face and was unable to see what happened behind his back, but the sound was enough to tell him before he looked.

He heard the swift sounds of flesh being pierced several times and the distinct grunt of a stallion. He turned to see just as Shining Star yelled

"Aecious!"

Daybreak saw it plain as day, Aecious was standing right where he had been moments before, several of Sombra's black crystals extending upward from the ground and piercing into his chest, some of the thinner ones even stabbing straight through and out his back. Shining stood frozen as Daybreak saw the look on Aecious' face, it was almost...happy...was he grinning?

"Why?" was all Daybreak could sputter

Aecious seemed to chuckle at his question "Why indeed.."

Bits of blood dripped down his lips and onto the crystals along with his dagger, Aecious' head slumped forward and went limp. He was being held up only by the crystals as all his limbs went limp and dangled at his sides. His eyes seemed to struggled with the ability to stay open as they scanned over Daybreak, apparently looking for something.

Sombra materialized a ways away and began an evil laugh "Well he wasn't my intended target at all...but at least that's one less piece of trash to liter my kingdom...It's a shame really, such a waste of good talent. I could have used a pony like that as my elite guard...now look at him...so normal in death"

"He was a better stallion than you could ever be" Shining Star spit at the King, struggling not to tear up.

"Oh really? Cause I could have sworn I heard you say how much you distrusted him, how much of a shady figure he was, how you were concerned he might just run off with my Crystal Heart...and you're telling me he was a good pony? Hmm perhaps your right...after all I do always seem to kill the good ones the quickest."

"Shut Up!" Shining Star propelled himself forward with his wings, but felt a sudden force grasp him by the tail and pull him abruptly back. He looked back and saw Daybreaks hand outstretched with magic surrounding it, and aura also covering his tail holding him in place.

"Don't do something stupid, you'll just die, then what will his sacrifice have meant?"

"But he-"

"Save it, I already know Shining...Don't you think I want to murder him right now too? I just watched the mare I've loved forever, die in my arms for the second time because of this asshole. But just rushing in will get you nowhere, besides you're no match for him anyways, and you don't need to throw your life away, you have a mare waiting for you...He's mine"

"But-"

"No buts! Or I'll restrain you myself. He's mine!"

"...Fine"

Daybreak could tell he really wanted to fight, which was a big change from the light hearted pegasus he knew before. He pitied him, pain does that to a pony, makes them made of harder stuff. Especially losing a friend you didn't even know you had, it was probably for all their differences that Shining felt a closeness to Aecious...or maybe he really didn't like him and was just that kind hearted. Either way, he had to be kept out of it, that much was certain.

A black void of aura sprang to life around Shining without any warning, and froze him still in the air. Daybreak whipped his head around and saw Sombra standing where he had been before, his horn bubbling with power. He sneered and motioned his head upwards, Daybreak saw what he planned to do and moved with a flash!

The king thrust his head upwards, and Shining Stars body flew with it, straight up into the sky! Then the king swung his head downwards and the pegasus followed. He rocketed towards the ground with increasing speed, his eyes widening at the rapidly approaching ground. Sombra began to chuckle loudly before Daybreak's fist appeared next to him and collided with the side of his head! Sombra was propelled back into some fallen debris, and took his time crawling out. This instantly caused the aura binding Shining Star to fade and vanish, but the stallion continued to hurtle towards the ground. He flapped his wings sporadically and attempted to right himself in the air, but only managed to causing his body to spin out of control as he plummeted downwards towards fate.

"Come on Shining, you're a Wonderbolt, you can save yourself..."

He continued his downwards dive towards the ground with no foreseeable happy ending. Daybreak face palmed himself and tried to think hard on how to save the falling pegasus without opening himself or them both for an easy attack. He could already see Sombra had regained his footing over by the rocks. He was sure the King was just waiting for Daybreak to step in so he could exploit an opening. Daybreak doubted what he was about try would work, but he had to hope there was a fire inside that pegasus somewhere that longed to burn brightly. Cause if he was wrong, they were both likely dead if he had to save him. Daybreak put his hands to his mouth while still keeping Sombra in his field of vision and yelled as loud as he could

"SHINING STAR! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY ABOUT TO LET YOURSELF DIE IN THIS KIND OF PATHETIC WAY? WHAT WOULD SPITFIRE SAY ABOUT A PEGASUS WHO FELL TO HIS DEATH?!"

Unbelievably Shining Star seemed to hear him, and his words seemed to have some effect! The Wonderbolt stopped flapping wildly and just let himself fall. once he stopped spinning wildly, he gave his wings one giant flap and righted himself! With some balance he managed to slow his decent enough so that when he did finally crash next to Daybreak, he didn't look too badly injured. With Sombra still in his peripheral vision, Daybreak helped Shining Star up from the dirt . Somehow the stallion had managed to hold onto the Crystal Heart throughout the entire thrust and drop, that told Daybreak that Shining should definitely keep hold of it, besides he would just hinder himself if he tried to fight and protect the Heart too.

Once Shining was safely hovering again, Daybreak turned his full attention back to King Sombra, who seemed so utterly bored with them now, that he had taken to reading a magazine of some kind and was sipping on a mystery beverage with a straw. Daybreak, thoroughly fed up with him now, approached until he was within arms length of the King. Sombra casually looked up from his magazine, and incinerated it in his lap.

"You took long enough, I was hoping you'd let that pegasus crash, then you'd have been six for six today on friends you couldn't save."

Sombra noted the twitch in Daybreak eye which signaled the coming attack. His guard was up before either of them moved, and so Daybreaks magical blast, which would have caused severe damage if it had hit, merely exploded into a smoky cloud which Sombra took to be an advantage for him. That is, until a fist came flying through the dust and barely missed his nose as he leaned back. The second attack came too quick and he was off balance. Daybreaks claws slashed upwards against his armor and along his face, he screeched in pain and quickly sent out a spherical wave of magic in desperation! Then warped backwards several meters away while he nursed is wounds.

Daybreak rolled out of the smoke and came to his feet once he saw the kings bleeding face. He admired his claws and saw that there was indeed blood from the king on his fingers and claws. Looking back at the wounded king, he got a clear view of where his claws had struck, and saw that he had managed to slash across the eye he had burned to a crisp the last time...how fitting. Hopefully it would stay damaged this time. Judging by the lack of change in the kings expression, Daybreak surmised that he either did not have enough energy to shadow himself and heal, or did not wish to waist the magical power needed to do so yet. Either way, Daybreak now held the advantage and he intended to keep it.

Unfortunately for him, that also meant he had probably just pissed off the most powerful evil unicorn to ever rule in Equestria...he was so great with ponies sometimes...Sombra's face had stopped bleeding and he now stared at Daybreak with a long scar across his face, much of it still red with blood, but apparently most of it had been magically singed to cauterize and keep from hindering him any. Despite that, Daybreak doubted the king would be seeing properly anytime soon, and even if Sombra could sense him through magic, he still got the satisfaction of the blow. Although Sombra's look was far from satisfying to Daybreak, it wasn't pain or agony, it was pure seething hatred. That did not bring Daybreak the kind of satisfaction he wanted, but it was nice to know the King now shared at least in his physical pain. At least now Daybreak could get the satisfaction of making the King fight all out before he killed him.

Deep in his own thoughts, Daybreaks eyes looked away from Sombra for the briefest of moments... and it almost cost him his life. The King vanished and reappeared in front of Daybreak so rapidly, his eyes hadn't even the time to turn back to face the King. Relying purely on instinct, Daybreak leaned his body and head straight back and felt the beam fly straight through where his head had just been. He launched his foot outwards and succeeded in pushing the king away, but only just out of point blank distance, for Sombra seemed to have been expecting the kick.

Daybreak dove backwards and landed on his hands then launched himself upwards from the handstand into the air. He ignited his palms and focused a beam towards Sombra, but before firing noticed a large shadow hovering over him. He cursed his rotten luck and teleported himself away, just as the house sized boulder was smashed down on him.

Sombra sneered as he watched Daybreak reappear on a higher point in the cliff side. He seized several more boulders from the rock faces in his magical grasp and began to hurl them at the young prince! Watching Daybreak warp from rock face to rock face as the former was smashed to pieces or exploded from the impact of giant boulders was hardly amusing to the King. But he didn't care about playing around anymore, he just wanted to kill this annoying false prince, and move on with his life. This guys insistence to not stay dead long after his due was seriously weighing on the kings nerves and he just wanted him to die at this point!

King Sombra was seriously throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him by this point. Daybreak warped away from another house-sized boulder only to feel the bladed end of a scythe inches from his nose seconds later. Ducking by reflex saved his head until red crystals began to burst from the ground and fire upwards at his sternum(chest area for those not anatomically versed). He summersaulted backwards several times, pushing against the ground with his hands after each flip to keep himself moving away. He back flipped over the edge of the cliff right above the king ad looked straight down at him, seeing his chance at last. Propelling himself with fiery aura from his hands, Daybreak launched himself directly down at Sombra's position. The King certainly panicked initially, as he began to rapidly (and inaccurately) fire dark beams fat him from his horn tip!

Daybreak easily whizzed past, and around, the beams as he headed for the King. In a last attempt to protect himself for whatever destruction may come from Daybreaks impact, Sombra erected a barrier around himself moments before Daybreak made contact. Daybreak had been hoping for this and thrust his fist outwards as he struck the barrier, surrounding it in waves of magic so his bones did not shatter upon impact! The moment he touched the force field, there was an explosion that was likely heard all the way back at the Crystal Empire! Daybreak and Sombra, and the whole rest of the rocky valley was engulfed in a huge dust cloud immediately, disabling anyway for anypony or changeling to see what occurring inside...everypony...but one.

Upon impact, Daybreaks magical barrier to protect his body cracked and shattered, but did its job well, for when he obliterated Sombra's barrier and was propelled away he still had the strength to dig his fingers into the dirt and fight against the forces of physics attempting to send him flying. He held his clawed fingers in place firmly until the magical forces pushing outwards from the shields destruction ceased. Normally anypony inside that shield would have been seriously injured, but Daybreak knew better and rushed the impact point eh moment he was back up.

Badly dazed and limbs aching from such an exertion and loss of power, Sombra was nearly unaware of the approach before it was too late! The attack came too quick and did not allow him time to summon any magic to defend himself, he was forced to attempt an evasion.

Daybreak's palm swiped through the dust with a whisp, cleaning cutting through the air and rock particles in his path, but not finding his target.

"Another foot forward" came Solar Eclipses voice within his head.

Without hesitation he swiped forward again, and found...nothing .

"What the hay dude?" he asked to the air

"One more time, quickly before he gets out of range"

Without missing a step he swung again, and although he still found nothing, this time he swiped close enough to see his target outlined in the dusty air...he continued his attacks without pause. Swiping and punching, he could see Sombra's outline barely dodging his attacks, he varied up his attacks and even threw in a quick roundhouse to catch him off guard. It almost worked, but the king ducked at the last moment. Daybreak would have brought his heel down on the kings skull, but he didn't fancy a sharp horn in his foot , so he regained his stance and continued to swipe, punch and kick away.

Although he felt himself graze armor a few times, none of his blows landed and it became frustrating to the point of intolerance. Sensing his frustration Solar chose to aid him

"Steady your emotions Daybreak, he's only avoiding you because he senses your attacks coming through his magic"

"But how can he be doing that, I'm attacking quick enough so he can't use magic"

Talking inside his own head, while also keeping Sombra within range and on the run was extremely difficult, but he nevertheless managed to find a rhythm between questions and attacks.

"The spell he's using isn't one he needs to consciously maintain, it more or less stays active by itself once cast, he could have cast it at any time. Possibly even before this whole battle began. As long as the caster has the stamina to maintain the spell, they need not even think about it."

One punch

Dodged

Two swipes

Ducked and avoided

Crescent kick

Rolled with and jumped away

Daybreak could just make out each way his attacks failed through the unending dust cloud and knew Solar had to be right. Without magical aid, Sombra could not have dodged all his attacks in the ways he did. Although they were last minute dodges, they were the perfect ways to avoid each blow and looked smooth, despite the jumpiness and haste which each was performed.

"Look Daybreak...I can help...I'll cast the same spell with my own power, you're both bordering on exhaustion, magically, and physically following right behind. Any minute now you're going to collapse, likely before he does. With all the magic output from switching bodies and nearly dying...we won' last much longer if we don't act fast, and you can't risk casting any more spells that aren't vital or you'll just drain yourself and drop quicker...

"Won't the amount of time it takes for you to tell me the info from the spell slow us down"

"You're forgetting we're not really talking, the brain perceives things at a much faster rate than you think. To you this conversation feels real because it's your mind, but in reality your full focus is on the fight and this talk is barely noticed by your brain...Still confused? Ok...think of it like this...the magic spell Sombra is currently using and we are about to copy speeds up the rate at which the electrical signals travel through your brain to reach your conscious mind and activate your muscles to react to outside influence...in short it speeds up you reaction time and reflexes tremendously...Well since I am part of your mind, if I cast the spell, it will relay through me much faster than Sombra because I'm basically made up of magic at this point...and then I'll relay it to you at the speed you would have received it if you cast it yourself...Get it now?"

"I guess so.."

"Look if it helps, just think of me predicting the future for you, and you doing what I say, alright?"

"Got it"

"Good, get ready, I'm about to cast the spell, after that, I'm just your guide"

Sweep Kick

Jump

Follow-up roundhouse

Duck

Two horizontal slashes to head then chest followed by third downward vertical

Ducked, jumped back to avoid, then dropped and tuck rolled away

In the middle of his next strike Daybreak suddenly felt a cool wetness flow through his head, like a cold steady stream. He suddenly felt things seem to speed up, then slow down, as if he was moving faster than before. He smirked, then loosed fist straight for where he knew Sombra's head should be

"Kick forward with your strong leg...now!"

His punch barely finished missing, Daybreak extended his right leg straight forward with force and instantly heard the familiar clang of armor being impacted, followed by the aching in his foot to reassure him he had struck. With the dust partially settling now, Daybreak could see Sombra much better now, but was still unable to see him clearly. Therefore he surmised what he could based on Sombra's current stance. He was hunching forward griping at his chest plate with his right hoof, panting in pain, and hopefully exhaustion.

"No time to rest, keep him distracted and focused on nothing but your next attack"

Daybreak obliged and swiftly moved for another attack

He thrust a right jab at Sombra's face

"Left handed uppercut, straight ahead"

He obliged and was met with happy results, that being the kings jaw. Sombra staggered back and attempted to ignite his horn, but Daybreak quickly reengaged him. Jabbing again at Sombra's face, the king was forced to jump back, and Daybreak instantly leapt after him with a roundhouse. Unable to get to avoid the attack off the ground, Sombra quickly arched his horn and fired a small beam at Daybreak. Quickly shifting to a defensive form of attack, Daybreak stopped his roundhouse halfway and planted his swinging foot into the ground, pushing back. Then leaned backwards, avoiding the beam, with a moment before he lost his balance, he ignited a fireball in his palm and tossed it at the king. Daybreaks vision was still blurred by the continuous dust cloud, but even as he fell he saw his fiery orb strike the king full in the muzzle and knock him to the ground some feet away, Daybreak followed a moment later.

He instantly rolled over and jumped to his feet to continue the attack, but Sombra did not rise.

"That last attack wasn't alicorn magic, he's not dead, finish him now before he can cast any magic!"

"I know!"

Daybreak charged forward and closed on the king within ten steps, Sombra twitched slightly on the ground, and Daybreak caught a quick glimpse of his horn bubbling

"Daybreak stop!"

"Oh shit! Too late!" He actually yelled aloud as he realized his mistake

The ground underneath him shifted

"Jump! Now!"

Daybreak launched himself into the air as the ground opened up underneath him, crystal shards extended upwards from the cracked ground and attempted to impale Daybreak, but were out of sufficient range, and merely served as a surface to propel himself off of towards Sombra. The king had risen and could feel him coming, Daybreak's axe kick barely missed the kings helm, but Sombra was already prepared for a counter attack before Daybreak could regain his balance.

"Daybreak look out!"

"Shit"

"Gotcha" Sombra snarled as the ground exploded in Daybreak's face, spraying his eyes with dirt and gravel.

Daybreak tripped backwards as he tried to wipe the gravel from his eyes, but caught himself with his hands before hitting the ground and immediately rolled to avoid the oncoming scythe which struck next to him. Quickly jumping to his feet Daybreak turned and fired a magical beam at Sombra's face...or at least attempted to. The magical aura built around his hand for a moment, then fizzled out

"Shit!"

"Fuck!" both panicked as his exhaustion finally caught him and his magic fizzled out. The butt end of a scythe staff struck the side of his face and knocked him back down to the ground on his belly.

"Daybreak! Move!"

His muscle wouldn't respond quick enough, his spell had faded away and he turned too quickly to avoid the blade as it drove for his chest. Sombra's eyes frilled with joy as he brought the blade down at Daybreak, then he suddenly felt a blinding pain pierce the back of his neck and he cried out in pain. The aura around the scythe fizzled away as it reached Daybreak, who looked to Sombra and saw, to his amazement, Aecious' dagger, sticking out of his neck. Daybreak didn't waist a moment wondering, he launched himself forward and grabbed up Sombra's scythe. With one swift motion he fueled the blade with as much Alicorn magic as he could, and swung it up and under, straight into King Sombra's underbelly! The kings eyes went wide as he stared into Daybreaks

"Regenerate from this you bastard!"

Daybreak planted his foot into Sombra's chest and kicked him backwards, pushing the blade deeper into his stomach. As Sombra struck the ground, Daybreak's arms ignited into golden fire and he thrust them outwards spread eagle! A wall of golden flames erupted on either side of King Sombra and circled around the king with rapid speed. Then Daybreak crushed his palms together and the wall of flames followed suite, smashing themselves against Sombra and forming into a sphere of golden and orange flames with him at it's center. Daybreak lifted his hands as though holding the sphere and sent it high into the sky, then with a swift motion, he swiped his hands apart, and the miniature sun sphere exploded into the heavens, sending magnificent light spiraling in all directions!

The only thing that remained of the king clattered to Daybreaks feet...Sombra's red horn. Daybreak picked it up in his palm and suddenly heard a dark voice erupt from within the horn

"ONE DAY YOU WLL JOIN ME IN TARTARUS DAYBREAK...THIS IS MY CURSE TO YOU! DON'T EVER FORGET TH-"

Daybreak incinerated the horn into ashes in his palm and watched as it became nothing more than dust in the wind. For a brief moment, he felt a small happiness...he had done it! He had beaten King Sombra...but at what cost?

He collapsed down to one knee, barely able to stay conscious he heard hoof steps running over to him, but he didn't care at the moment, he had to remain awake and get to Twilight...

"Whoa...easy there Daybreak...your body is about to pass out from exhaustion, if you wanna avoid that you need to absorb some chaos magic right now...just relax and remember what father taught..."

Daybreak shut his eyes and calmed his mind. He reached out with his mind and willed some natural magic to absorb into him. the magic flowed around his body in an invisible force and quickly entered him all at once. Just like every time he did this, he felt an overwhelming sense of power and felt inside a vacuum. For a moment it threatened to overflow and escape out of his body...then the feeling passed and he felt rejuvenated instantly.

That won't last you know...your magical stamina is back, but physically you're still on empty...you will pass out eventually so let's get moving before then"

Daybreak nodded to himself and stood up to see Shining Star a few steps away. The dust seemed to have been fully cleared from Daybreak's last attack. Shining regarded Daybreak with a smile, but looked sad when it was not returned.

"Cheer up bro, you beat him...you won"

Daybreak looked over at Aecious, still impaled on the crystal shards, then to the pile of rubble he sensed Daring Do and Rainbow Dash were buried under, to Trixie seemingly unconscious or worse against the rock face, and lastly...to Twilight...who still lay dead where he had left her...

"Yeah we won Shining...but at what price?"

Author's Notes:

Finally that chapter is done...you guys have no idea how long I spent trying to get it perfect...(and im sure it still sucks anyways) lol
but seriously though
last chapter coming up next, possibly last two depending on my lazy level
(oh and is anybody wondering what happened to Chrysalis? Or Discord still? Yeah don't worry I didn't forget about them)