Knight was the first to strike. He ran at Sombra like he was preparing his whole life for it. Sombra easily tossed him aside and slashed his left foreleg with his scythe. Knight, strangely felt little pain as he slid to a stop. He looked at the wound and found that instead of blood, it was oozing a black smoke that made seemed to sap the pain from his body and sense from his mind. What had he done to him? The world temporarily turned a light shade of green before returning to full color. Sombra approached him and dragged his scythe blade along the ground making the most disturbing screech ever emanated by metal on rock.

"You believe yourself to be the strongest don't you? You fight until you cannot breathe and call that strength. Many call it insanity and foolhardy. You are more than that, you are a worthless little mole. A nuisance to your fellow soldier. You only get in their way. What makes you think you are a challenge to me?" Sombra said hoisting his scythe into the air.

Knight's heart pounded. He tried to move but found his hoofs stuck in the stone where he stood. He pulled as hard as he could but could not free himself. Sombra swung his scythe back first and slammed into Knight's neck. The force threw him out of the stone and buried him in the opposing wall. He looked to the sidelines and saw all of those he thought were his friends already dead. Now his heart stopped. All of those he held deer lay in pools of their own blood as Sombra started to make his way over to him.

"You are weak. You are afraid of death. I am going to beat you inches between your own mortality." Sombra said before slamming the butt of his scythe into Knight's stomach.

The hit knocked him out of the wall and he was then batted down the way again. This repeated over and over again until he was beaten and bloody. Sombra slashed his flesh over and over again. Knight wasn't sure where his armor went, but he was sure that the pain was faint but still there. He felt useless, feeble. That was it…

Hestaria was amazed at how fast Knight was taken down. Sombra slashed him on the leg and he was down. There was no way that was a normal scythe, or he had a spell that hit him before he even had a chance to do anything else. Silver looked to Thunder and he nodded to her. they raised their rifles and unloaded the remaining nine rounds in Sombra's direction. Silver missed half of her shots but Thunder hit all nine. Hestaria was next to go up at the now stunned Sombra.

Hestaria spread her wings in anger. No pony smacked around Whitey but her! She pushed off at full speed just after Silver and Thunder shot off all of their bullets and grabbed her lance that was thrown off to the side by Sombra. She held it in her hoofs and put a slash across his face. It healed almost instantly and he slashed at her with his scythe. Hestaria put the lance over her head and blocked it. Ephialtes ran up behind him. He grabbed Sombra's scythe and pulled it back. Hestaria spun around, dragging the blade of the lance through Sombra's face before digging it into his chest and pushing him back to the wall.

"Give up green eyes." Hestaria said as Ephialtes struggled to hold the scythe back. "It's over."

"Many have tried to defeat me when I'm lesser. But I am at my most powerful young Hestaria. My wife told me what she'd seen of you. And your friends."

Sombra's horn flashed and everything turned green for a moment. When it cleared, Sombra's scythe turned in Ephialtes' grip and embedded itself in between his eyes. Hestaria could feel a shock surge through her body as she ripped the lance from his chest and put it in Sombra's head, pinning in to the wall. He convulsed and kicked her to the ground. He scrapped Ephialtes' body off of his scythe via the wall and he landed on the ground in front of her.

She got up and hunched over his body as Sombra started to push his head up the shaft of the lance.

"Ephi… No…" She shuttered.

Her heart broke right there. She missed him already. He proposed to her… They were going to live a happy life in Canterlot, or even find a nice place in one of the towns around the mountain. A beautiful life faded in her eyes as the tears started to fall.

"Your pain… I feel your deep pain." Sombra mocked from over her. "It is quite a powerful feeling. Losing somepony you love. Allow me to alleviate your pain young one." he said bringing his scythe over his head. "Nopony should feel that kind of pain."

That tears it. Watching Hestaria just hit the floor unconscious with purple aura flowing out her eyes. Ephialtes flipped the blade around on the wall and slid it down into Sombra's head.

"Nobody hurts my wifu!" Ephialtes shouted in rage.

He ripped the scythe from Sombra's head as the aura on the weapon faded. He also grabbed Hestaria's lance the ripped it from his chest. The force of it threw Sombra to the ground. He hoisted the lance over his head and buried its tip through Sombra's chest and pinning him to the ground. Just before he could bring down the scythe, something grabbed him from behind and pulled him back. He dropped the scythe and was about to beat whoever pulled him off of Sombra until he saw it was that scared kid they picked up in White Tail, Thunder Clap.

"Slow down Ephi, I think he's done." Thunder said holding him back. "Nexus is starting to wake up. You're the one with the potions."

Ephi saw Silver run up to Sombra and stuff her barrel into Sombra's face. Silver unleashed a shot at point blank range as Ephi ran as fast as he could to Nexus and forced a healing potion down his throat. Nexus choked against it but it slowed his bleeding. The potion wasn't going to save him, but with a spell it'd buy him more time.

"Silver!" Thunder shouted in rage.

This was strange, one second she was blasting King Sombra in the face with one of Thunder's rifles and the next she was face to face with Chrysalis empty hoofed. She on the other hand wielded a red and black halberd. Silver wasn't afraid of her. Armed or not, she wasn't going to back down from a fight, especially if it meant she had to go through her to get to her hubby again.

"S-Silver…" a familiar stallion shuttered.

Silver looked past Chrysalis and saw a beaten dark brown earth pony with a matching mane. Tiber! This couldn't be happening, she saw him die.

"This is a trick. I watched you kill him." Silver said.

"And you shot me. By that logic, anything is possible. If you surrender now, I will spare your precious little boyfriend." she said dragging him forward by a magical collar.

"Please… Silver, do what she says."

Silver shuttered thinking of what Chrysalis would do to her, or what she'd be doing to him if she didn't give in. It was just like last year. But…

Thunder used his speed and size to keep a constant string of attacks just like Nexus taught him. With each punch and kick he moved faster with more and more strength behind each blow. He had no more ammo so the rifle was no more than a club. Sombra already tried taking his father but he wasn't letting him take Silver too. Each attack didn't faze him; it only made his maniacal grin grow wider. Then the moment he'd been dredging, he reached his maximum speed; that was when Sombra struck. He blocked one of Thunder's right hooks and swept the leg. Thunder spun around and landed face first into the ground.

A flash of green passed by his eyes as he spun around to block whatever was coming his way to find he was lying in a clock tower. The air around him and turned cold and dry with a chilling breeze blowing through the windows. The bell sat still in by its rope as Thunder got to his hoofs. He looked around and could hardly see outside the windows thanks to the bright sun light off of the snow. He moved to the window and leaned out into the cold winter air and let his eyes adjust. As his vision adjusted, he could see plumes of smoke rising from the streets and loud shots rang out from everywhere.

The sound suddenly came from underneath him and he could see rows of Guards being pushed back and shot down by changelings wielding his repeating rifles. Thunder couldn't speak at what he was seeing. They'd gotten their hoofs on his rifles and were taking Canterlot by force. This was scary. He backed away from the window and shook his head hoping this was all some kind of dream.

"How does it feel?" Sombra asked. "Your greatest creation, built to protect, being used to enslave."

"This-"

"Isn't real? Do you not feel the cold wind? This is as real as anything."

"No… I… I fought back."

"You gave up. Do you not remember?"

"I…" Thunder would have continued but memories started coming in. Thunder shot Nexus and Luna. He supplied hundreds of his weapons to Sombra and his forces and spearheaded this assault. This can't be right? What were the past few months if this was reality? They seemed so real…

"Thunder!" Ephialtes shouted in anger as he watched his comrade fall with a purple aura flowing from his eyes like the others. He felt a warm metal hoof grab his shoulder. His attention turned back to Nexus who'd stopped coughing up blood and the bleeding in his chest had slowed. There wasn't much else he could do for him now. "I'll be back Nex." He said taking off one of Nexus' blades and clamping it onto his right foreleg.

"Eph- no…" Nexus sputtered as Ephialtes moved out of his grip.

As he sprinted, he heard Nexus shout for him. Sombra smiled as his scythe reappeared in his magical grasp. Ephialtes drew Nexus' blade and leapt into the air with a mighty battle cry. Sombra's body turned pure black and he grew several feet. As Ephialtes came down on him, he passed through him and was caught in a swirling vortex of inky blackness. There was a flash of green as he was thrown from the vortex and into the side of the cave.

As his eyes opened, he was amazed by what was standing adjacent to him. A blood red changeling stood at the other side of the cave looking back at him. This changeling was different than others. Its legs weren't full of holes and its wings were much more under developed. And its eyes weren't the usual blue, they were bright purple. Ephialtes got to his hoof and backed up shuttering.

"D-Dad?" He asked.

His father had died when he was young. He was burned at the stake for being a changeling. The converted changelings were immortal but much easier to kill. They didn't come back after a few thousand years. His father started to make his way towards him with an angry glare on his face.

"What are you doing Ephialtes?" He asked. It sent a chill down his spine to hear his father's voice again. "You're weak. You're worthless. What makes you think you're worthy of your rank or even that armor you wear?"

"I've killed hundreds of changelings in the name of Equestria Dad." Ephialtes replied as he got closer. He wasn't afraid of his father, he never was. His father was a caring and loving man that despite his disposition was a good man none the less. This wasn't right.

"I'd hardly call that an achievement. Killing so many of your own kind? How is that worthy of praise?"

"It's to save Equestria. You told me-"

"What I said is irrelevant now. Everything you've done is for not. Equestria can't hold out much longer. So what if a few hoards are dead? They'll return in another thousand years, that's if Equestria doesn't destroy itself. It's all because of your Commander."

"Nexus took me in, he-"

"He's filled your head with nonsense." He interrupted again. "He's done nothing more than to hamper your true capabilities."

"What should I do then?"

"Kill him."

"What?"

"He's vulnerable, just waiting to die. If he dies, you can once again be free. That's what you've been meant to do is be free. If you don't kill him, he'll kill you."

"He…He wouldn't."

"Wouldn't he? He threw you over the edge of his ship, slammed you into a crate and locked up you to die. What more reason must you need to kill him my son?"

As much as Ephialtes hated to admit it, his father was right. Nexus had been dragging him down recently and was just as worthless to him as he must have been to Nexus. He missed surviving in Everfree. The thrill of it all. Nexus wouldn't let him go so easily, so the only real solution would be to kill him right? But-