Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GCvVRHJj1rAeRkkSLXFTVbUnCFqcMqTDcM4YmR_O-5I/edit?usp=sharing

Two reapers, three fallen alicorns, a living unicorn, an undead unicorn and a three-legged earth pony. Those were all that stood between Despair and her target: the Crystal Heart. With a gesture, Applejack demanded of Caramel to stand back. She had been scared and nearly unable to do anything so far. But now, she would do everything she could to guard him, her friends and the entire rebellion.

The demoness still stood there, proudly presenting the severed horn of the former crystal king. How she managed to get it was beyond all of them. They never even contemplated that anything still remained of Sombra after he had been completely destroyed by the power of the Crystal Heart. But now, it seemed like the very object of his undoing would become his chance to reincarnate. It was easy to see him agreeing to cooperate with the demons, maybe even Blueblood.

The horn disappeared inside of Despair’s leg again and she lowered herself into a battle stance, followed by the rebellion leaders doing the same. It was clear to all that the next few minutes would decide the outcome of the Red Day. This horn needed to be destroyed, or at least kept away from the Crystal Heart long enough for it to fire again at any cost.

“351 years ago, Obsidian Shards was born,” Despair started speaking again, causing Fluttershy to raise her head instantly. “I have to hand it to you. You have come up with quite the elaborate defence plan. Twilight also certainly improved dramatically, being able to keep up these force fields all on her own. But do you honestly believe you stand a chance?”

“You already know the answer,” Shining Armor responded angrily.

“Not much for talking, hm?” Despair wondered, grinning even wider. “Then let’s get this over with.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the Alicorn Amulet started glowing in a menacing red. Her eyes turned completely red and began to glow in a similar fashion as Twilight’s were glowing in white. She charged straight towards the artefacts, immediately causing all of Twilight’s friends to react. A wall of spells came flying at her, which should be extremely difficult for her to stop, considering the tiny amount of space available in the area. But her reaction was supernaturally fast. She simply cast a counterspell to blast the magic aimed at her apart, not even a split second after they had finished casting. Fluttershy and Derpy jumped into the air at nearly the same time, though the blast of Despair’s spell knocked them back.

Not even a second passed after the fight began and Despair was already nothing more than one single leap away from the Crystal Heart while all others were knocked out of the way. All aside of Twilight, who was still floating in the air close to the artefacts. Her eyes opened once again. Before Despair could reach her goal, Twilight somehow conjured up enough strength to create a third force field around herself and the artefacts, letting the Guillotine of Hope crash right into it. This angered her visibly. Her expression became very serious and tense as her front legs opened up like macabre flowers of flesh, covered in teeth and wrapped themselves around the entire force field. Additional long, spiked, insect-like limbs grew out of her back and wrapped all the way around the force field, letting her whole body latch onto it. Twilight showed no expression as she still kept floating there with open eyes. However she managed to create even a third layer of protection, she must still be in a deep trance, not truly aware of what she was doing or what was happening around her.

All this just happened within moments, which the reapers needed to regain their balance. Now that these moments passed, they came straight at Despair again, their weapons ready to strike. But Twilight’s arch nemesis was prepared. Her head turned around to face them, ignoring any physical limitation. Her neck stretched in Derpy’s direction and her bottom jaw split in half, creating a large, terrifying maw full of javelin-like teeth. The gray mare could barely react fast enough to use her wings for a quick dodge. But as the head came past her, another claw extended out of the neck and grabbed her.

Luna cast a quick spell to teleport Derpy out of her clutches before she could get crushed. At the same time, Celestia cast a chain of pure light to tie the overextended neck to the ground. Though this didn’t seem to bother Despair even the slightest. Her body began to seemingly melt, letting her dark purple skin cover the ground. Skeletal claws began to emerge by the dozen from the created puddle, reaching out to the other members of the group.

With each passing second, Despair lost more and more of any recognizable shape while at the same time, she grew larger and larger. The Alicorn Amulet certainly put her abilities as a shape-shifter to a whole new level, as well as her magic. She knew that the rebellion leaders were well aware of this, so she let the amulet sink deep into her increasingly more abstract form, out of reach for any of them.

Like a web of slime and flesh, she grew countless strings that attached themselves to the nearby pillars, giving the group less and less safe space. Eyes glowing in an intense red were appearing everywhere on her shifting form, all while she kept on clenching down on the force field around Twilight.

Cadence decided she would not be pushed out of the balcony like that. Creating a magical shield in front of herself, she charged right into shapeless demoness, even repelling the spilled purple on the floor. Shining Armor immediately understood her intention and followed up, until they were both back in the center of the balcony. He created his own shield, completing hers and with their magic combined, they pushed the dark purple demoness to the ceiling and away from Twilight.

Again, it didn’t seem like this was bothering Despair. Her body seemed to fuse with the peak of the palace now, teeth growing out of the roof above them while the dark purple slime crawled down all of the pillars, turning them into a part of her.

Rarity immediately understood that they were now in something that could be called her mouth and she was just seconds away from letting the roof come down on them, impaling and crushing them all at once. In a split-second decision, she tore a still good piece of the floor away and used her unique magical talent to turn it into a beam of light, aiming it at the largest eye she could reach. The roof reacted by moving up a bit.

Applejack saw her chance to help. Despair couldn’t be allowed to grow any further below them, so she turned her back towards a nearby pillar that hadn’t been entirely consumed yet and gave it the strongest kick she could deliver. Needless to say, her two back legs were a lot stronger than her one front leg, causing her to knock herself over. But the blow did its job. The crystal broke and the upper part of the pillar became completely disconnected from the rest.

Derpy observed Applejack’s actions, then joined in right away. Bumping her hip into the pillar next to her, the magic rune on her flank reacted and caused it to shatter. Celestia, Luna and Rarity followed the example, helping to destroy the remaining pillars.

The roof had become completely detached from the rest of the palace. Cadence and Shining Armor still kept it aloft and now had the chance to just launch it away. But as it was flying, Despair detached herself from the chunk of crystal, grew four large wings and simply flew back to them. Another arsenal of spells followed in intention to keep her away. Though the Guillotine of Hope just grew another limb that came shooting down to the palace, just beneath the balcony and immediately began to grow again.

Malice had so far just been observing the battle. But it now seemed like he judged that Despair was struggling too much. His left arm reached back and he spread out his skeletal claws. His arm came thrusting forward, crushing against the force field with such force it caused another earthquake. Twilight definitely had become weaker, as it was passing through not much later. While the rest of his body forcefully dug its way past the shield, the arm that had entered summoned his red scythe. Somehow, Despair seemed to understand what was happening. She looked back swiftly to the demon commander, then took a dive downwards with her limb still attached to the palace.

The scythe came swinging sideways, crushing into the force field around the palace. This close to the source of the quake, all off Twilight’s friends became knocked over, giving Despair enough time to climb back up to them.

Eyes were jumping around. Despair was approaching, Malice was pushing himself onto the battlefield, the Crystal Heart was spinning rapidly. Just a few more moments. If they could manage to keep Despair away from the artefacts for just a little bit longer, they would be able to fire again. Now that Malice was fighting his way to get to them as well, it was becoming a close call. But if they managed to use the artefacts now, Malice would not be able to retreat in time to save himself. It would be his end and with him, the enemy would lose their commander. It would be over. They would win.

The three fallen alicorns used their magic to root the whole group to the floor, preventing them from being knocked over again. Fluttershy and Derpy came flying at Despair again. She spread herself into a large sheet covered in blades, aiming to wrap herself around them. The reapers, though, spread out left and right, flying past the demoness and grabbing a corner of her form, trying to pull her way. Another quake followed as Malice struck the secondary force field again, now having fully entered the empire and being attacked by dozens of rebels, reapers and dragons at once without any visible effect. Despair grew two heads out of her backside, each launching at one of the two reapers.

Twilight’s head moved again. She was staring straight at the Guillotine of Hope. The force field around her vanished and instead, she launched an arcane bolt at the demoness. Since she had spread herself into a thin sheet, the blast blew a hole through her.

Time seemed to go in slow-motion as all the rebellion leaders were staring at the hole. Twilight was aiming at this specific location for a reason. She used the short moment of distraction to tear the horn out of Despair’s body. It was flying through the air now, spinning rapidly.

Despair knew she had lost it, as all the eyes were now turning towards it. Within the fraction of a second, she compressed herself back into her normal form, opened the maw in her left front leg and reached for it.

But Fluttershy was closer. She reached for it. She grabbed it.

Despair’s expression became extremely tense as she glared at the yellow reaper mare. She reached out the other front leg, the maw opening, an arm extending out of it.

Fluttershy threw the horn over to Derpy. She caught it and instantly tossed it as far away as she could. Despair’s eyes followed the flying horn and so did her claw. One last time, Twilight gathered energy in her horn and unleashed it into a blast of arcane magic. The beam and the claw were racing each other.

The beam hit first.

Disbelief spread in Despair’s face. The horn vanished into nothingness before her very eyes.

Malice was about to strike the force field surrounding the palace again in attempt to get through, but he stopped mid-motion as he saw the horn being destroyed. Along with him, all demons suddenly stopped fighting and glanced up to the top of the palace. The rebels kept attacking them for a while more. But as they noticed it didn’t have any effect and the demons were still frozen in their stare, they eventually stopped, too.

Now having nothing to fight for anymore, Despair kept her head hanging as she climbed back up to the rebellion leaders. Fluttershy and Derpy instantly pinned her down, but the demoness didn’t resist. One more glance over to the Crystal Heart followed. It was almost ready again.

Twilight sensed that the demons stopped fighting. She was barely able to keep up the force fields anymore anyway, so she just collapsed on the ground now, her eyes turning back to normal and the purple aura vanishing. She was breathing heavily, but slowly. Her front hooves were very shaky as she pushed her upper half away from the floor.

“It is over, Despair,” Celestia declared.

The demoness did not respond. Her head was hanging lowly and her eyes closed. Two small hands slowly grew out of her back. Horns were instantly aimed at her, ready to stop any move she could possibly take. But then they noticed the hands were aiming for the back of Despair’s own neck, undoing the Alicorn Amulet.

The entire Crystal Empire was silent. Many of the rebels and their leaders had ringing ears from all that noise of the battle. The demons stood motionless, still staring. Not even Malice made a single move. Could it be? Had they given up?

The left hand on Despair let go of the amulet, letting the left side of this cursed necklace fall off from her neck. She instantly lost the power it gave her. The right hand was all that was left still holding the amulet. It gradually extended over to Twilight. Even Despair had given up now? She was willingly giving away the Alicorn Amulet?

Twilight was still unsure about this whole scenario as she turned her left front leg upside down, ready to receive the necklace. The hand left it hovering right above the purple mare’s hoof.

Despair rose her head again, a sinister grin growing on her face.

She suddenly threw the Alicorn Amulet high into the air. All horns instantly aimed at it, trying to catch it with their magic. But a dark aura formed around the necklace which the others couldn’t penetrate. It was Malice. His hand aimed straight at the amulet.

A small motion followed, letting the Alicorn Amulet launch back down. Twilight’s eyes turned white again. She managed to create one more arcane blast, but couldn’t focus enough anymore. She missed.

The Crystal Heart was glowing intensely. It was ready to be used. Twilight turned around, aiming her horn at it. But before she could cast anything, it was the Alicorn Amulet that hit it first.

The heart instantly stopped rotating. None of the rebellion leaders could act fast enough before the amulet seemed to melt into it. Just seconds later, it started changing its color. From a bright blue, it turned darker and darker, gaining cracks as it discolored, until it turned completely dark gray. The Elements of Harmony and the replica lost their connection, simply falling to the ground. It was now that they finally understood that, all along, the horn was just a distraction. It was meaningless. The real object they should have been concerned about was the Alicorn Amulet.

A dark aura started growing out of the Crystal Heart. While most were just shocked of what was going on right now and trying to figure out what to do, Shining Armor kept his wits together enough to pick up the Elements and the replica by magic, pulling them over to him. The black mist gathered up in front of the group, gradually taking shape. Then suddenly, a head emerged. King Sombra was back.

Spells were immediately cast at him, but he could easily block them off. Not much later, he had fully regained his physical form. Despair took the distraction to break free from the reapers, jumping next to the crystal king.

Where he was standing, the floor began to change. Rapidly, the entire palace discolored and turned into dark crystal. The corruption spread through the entire empire in a matter of seconds. Eventually, it even reached the crystal ponies. They were showing tense expressions and seemed to struggle. But moments later, they too discolored and gained cracks all over their bodies. Their eyes turned green and their pupils red. Then they gradually turned around and…

The battle had broken loose again. It were the crystal ponies now that started attacking the other rebels. The demons instantly joined them.

Twilight forced herself back up and tried her best to concentrate, but she had reached the end of her strength. All she managed to do was strain herself so much, she began to cough up blood.

With her unable to create any more force fields, the battle turned into a massacre. Screams filled the air as the rebels were torn to pieces. There was no point in fighting anymore. Fluttershy quickly picked up the nearly unconscious purple mare and all started running down the palace. Neither Despair nor King Sombra followed. They remained on top, watching the carnage with sinister grins.

---

Twilight’s mind kept fading in and out. Her vision was blurry and she only managed to make out shot scenes of what was going on. She saw herself being carried through the air, crystal ponies attacking them in the hallways, demons blocking the exit, reapers forming a path for them on the roads.

By the time she finally managed to get a hold of herself again, she found herself on a snowy hill, far away from the battle. She gradually pushed herself upright, noticing that Derpy and Fluttershy were just next to her.

“Easy, Twilight. You completely exhausted yourself,” Fluttershy spoke.

“My… medicine…” the purple mare spoke weakly.

“Don’t worry. We already gave it to you while you were out cold,” Derpy replied.

Twilight remained silent now. Her body felt like it was weighing several tons. She could barely even lift her head. Her sight was still blurry, but she could make out the rest of her friends sitting close to each other and looking into the distance. She already knew what they were looking at. She needed to see it herself in order to truly grasp what just happened.

She pushed herself back up slowly and began to walk over to the others. The Crystal Empire was far away. They were all well behind the enemy lines. She had no idea how they managed to get here, alive on top of that. Twilight saw as a dragon lifted into the air, but immediately was caught by a Devastator and ripped apart mid-air.

Twilight stood there, watching with a nearly blank expression. She was too exhausted to even cry right now. But another wasn’t. She now noticed that her friends were gathered around Celestia and Luna was holding her closely. The former demi-goddess of light was sobbing heavily.

“I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry…” she kept on whispering over and over again.

“Sister…” was all Luna could say. Even she didn’t know the right words to soothe Celestia right now.

The screams of pain were so loud, they still could be heard from this far away. The entirety of the empire had turned dark gray, covered with lakes of red. Occasionally, a black spot lifted into the air and flew away, most likely being a reaper cloak.

“It is over. We did our best, but it wasn’t good enough… The rebellion-” Shining Armor started.

“Is not at its end,” Twilight interrupted instantly.

At last, all her friends turned around to look at the purple mare. Their expressions gave away that they had already given up.

“Twilight… Just look at this,” her brother started again.

“We made it out alive, so I’m sure others made it as well. I know… every life that is lost right now is because I failed… I will have to take responsibility for that later. But what matters right now is that we are still alive. As long as this heart keeps on beating, I refuse to give up. It won’t end until they tear it out of my chest and I’d like to see them try. Even after all this, even after going all out on us, they couldn’t manage to kill me, or any of us for that matter. Yes, we need to start over again. Yes, we lost everything we had. But as long as the circle exists, the rebellion exists. We must, keep, going,” the purple mare declared, her voice burning with determination now more than ever.

The others exchanged glances for a moment. Especially Celestia was deeply stunned that, after all that happened, Twilight was still far from done. After all that happened, she still remained to be the strongest of them all and if she kept hanging on, then they should, too. Eventually, they all nodded in agreement.

“We…” Celestia started again, wiping her eyes. “We need to get going. It won’t be long before they spot us.”

Twilight was still shaking heavily, hardly able to stand upright. Fluttershy tried to help her walk, but she gently refused the offer. Now more than ever, she wanted to prove how strong she was. That, even though she had completely exhausted herself, she would keep on walking without any need for help. It was more symbolic than anything else, but it did leave an impression on the others. Her fire was still burning strong.

The whole group turned around and started walking, matching their speed to Twilight’s. Celestia needed the longest to get back up, her focus returning to the Crystal Empire. She couldn’t hold back sniffling a few more times, followed by more tears running down her cheeks. But at last, she as well had to get up and turn around.

Despite years of preparation, a large number of allies and overcoming impossible obstacles, the Red Day had brought about the fall of the Crystal Empire.